Almost Stroganoff . . .

One of our followers, Mary Ann, visited “the Tasteful Olive” in Overland Park, Kansas and sent us the most wonderful lavender balsamic vinegar and herbs de Provence olive oil. We thoroughly enjoyed them with slices of country French baguette and some herbed olives on Sue’s porch - possibly our last al fresco dining  for the season. However, if this temperate weather continues, we will happily sit on the porch, eat hors d’oeuvres and drink wine. 

Portabellas, stroganoff with goat cheese – we have been looking forward to this meal for at least two months. We generally don’t think that far ahead about a meal, but knew this was a “fall” dish and have anxiously anticipated preparing this recipe. 

Time-wise this could be a week night meal or a company dinner. The addition of a salad with a simple vinaigrette provides a good balance to the pasta. We constructed our vinaigrette with lemon zest, lemon juice, Dijon, herbs de Provence and Frantoia EVOO from Italy via the Bella Italia store here in Reno.

Mushroom Stroganoff with Goat Cheese

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2012

Prep Time:  10 min
Inactive Prep Time:  --
Cook Time:  30 min
Level:  Easy
Serves:  6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
12 ounces extra-wide egg noodles
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 portabella mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bunch green onions, sliced and white bottoms and green tops separated
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
14 ounces beef broth
8 ounces sour cream
4 ounces fresh goat cheese
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground, plus more for garnish

Directions
Add the noodles to 4 quarts of cold water in a 6-quart pot, cover and place over high heat. Cook to al dente, 18 to 22 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Melt the butter in a 12-inch straight-sided saute pan set over medium-high heat. Increase the heat to high, add the mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Saute until they darken in color, soften and give off their liquid, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the white bottoms of the green onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir to combine. Cook until the flour disappears and the fond on the bottom of the pan turns dark brown, about 1 minute. Deglaze with the beef broth. Bring to a simmer and decrease the heat to medium-low. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, and then add the sour cream, goat cheese and black pepper. Stir to combine, and then partially cover and bring to a simmer to warm through, 2 to 4 minutes.

Drain the noodles, add to the pan and stir to combine. Garnish with the green onion tops and additional black pepper. Serve immediately.

Weight Watchers: 6 servings, 11 points -  8 servings 8 points 

We chose a cabernet to compliment the richness of the stroganoff and were pleased with the pairing.

 

It has been awhile since we had an elusive ingredient, and then came star anise. Not only was it hard to find, but also pricey. After tasting this dessert, we consider it an essential ingredient, and you will too. We are determined to find further uses for this “golden spice”. 

Baked Maple Pears

Recipe: Prevention magazine, November 2012
Serves: 4

Ingredients
4 firm-ripe pears
1/3  cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp. coarse sugar
4 quarter slices of fresh ginger
1 star anise

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Trim the bottoms of the pears. Standup-right in baking dish just large enough to hold them. Drizzles with maple syrup. Sprinkle sides of pears with coarse sugar. Add slices of fresh ginger and star anise to syrup.

Tent pears with foil and bake until tender, 50 minutes. Discard star anise. Drizzle pears with syrup.

Weight Watchers: 5 points

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

This recipe immediately captured our attention, because it was a spinoff on a childhood memory, and we anticipated the creamy richness we remembered. While it tasted good, we wanted more depth of flavor and more sauce.

The goat cheese was completely lost; so either more was needed, or perhaps adding a bit of bleu cheese would boost the flavor. We also think that adding garlic while sautéing the mushrooms would enrich the overall flavor. Don’t’ get us wrong – it was good, and we both ate two servings – we just kept talking about what we would do differently.  Also, don’t start the noodles until you are half way done with the mushrooms. The mushrooms will hold, and the noodles won’t! We added extra salt and pepper at the table.

We fell in love with the baked pears. We used both Comice and Anjou pears, which were equally suited to this recipe. The ginger and anise combined with the maple syrup make this dessert! Our only change would be to dice the ginger before adding it to the sauce; so you can have a bite of ginger with each bite of pear.  This dessert is best served warm. We licked our plates. It is that good.

If you are doing a dinner party, we think a Prosecco or champagne would be really great with the pears. 

Enjoy!