Mushrooms, beans

More by coincidence than anything else, our dinners this week have been vegetarian. I was attracted to the Creamy Porcini Soup in Domenica Marchetti's The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy because it gave me a chance to use some of the chicken stock I made last weekend when I cleaned out my collection of frozen chicken parts.

I used Marchetti's recipe for the stock as well, though it is the same as most -- simmering the chicken with carrots, onions, celery, parsley, thyme, garlic, black peppercorns (she also calls for fennel stalks but I didn't have that), then straining.

The soup recipe calls for 1 oz. of dried porcini and a bunch of fresh mushrooms in lieu of the fresh porcini available in Italy. Unfortunately, WF has gotten so spotty in its stocking, they had no porcini, so I got dried chanterelles and ended up making creamy chanterelle soup. The recipe uses 1 lb. of cremini and white button mushrooms to make a soup base, and then another pound of mixed portobello and shitake mushrooms to saute and add separately.

The first batch is cooked in oil, butter, onion and garlic until their liquid has evaporated and they are tender. Then you add the soaked and drained dried mushrooms and 3/4 c. white wine and boil that away. Let the cooked mushrooms cool, then purree with some of the strained soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms. Sprinkle the purree with 3 Tbl. of flour and then gradually stir in 5 c. of chicken or meat broth. Saute the sliced portobello and shitake caps separately, stir into the soup, whisk in 1/2 c. heavy cream and 2 Tbl. of cognac and serve the soup with chopped parsley.

After Andrea pointed out that a mushroom soup, even if rich and hearty, is still just a soup, I scrambled to find something to accompany and found a recipe for skillet cornbread on a website called "The Pioneer Woman." It was super-easy, delicious and doubtless a keeper. Mix dry ingredients -- 1 c. cornmeal, 1/2 c. flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 Tbl. baking powder -- in a bowl. Mix liquid ingredients -- 1 c. buttermilk (she helpfully reminds you that if you don't have buttermilk just add a splash of white vinegar to milk), 1/2 c. milk, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp. baking soda -- and combine with dry ingredients. Stir in 1/4 c. melted shortening, then pour batter into cast iron skillet with 2 Tbl. shortening. Cook for 1 min. on top of stove, then put into preheated 450 degree oven for 20 to 25 min. until golden on top and crispy at the edges. Worked perfectly.

The bean dish from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors was also based on shopping at the farmer's market, because it calls for redbor kale and Sheridan School had a great selection of kale. I used the Rancho Gordo Rio Zape beans (a type of red bean) I had in the cupboard, soaked for several hours and then cooked for 1-1/2 hrs. with a diced onion, 2 bay leaves and 1/2 tsp. thyme leaves. The kale was stripped from the stems and cut into pieces, boiled in salted water for 5 to 7 min. and drained. Then 1/2 c. chopped onion held back from that whole onion used in the beans is sauteed in olive oil with 1/2 c. chopped cilantro until the onions are soft, and then the beans and kale are added and cooked together for 10 min. or so to blend the flavors. Serve with more chopped cilantro, crumbled feta cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. We had leftover cornbread with this dish for another great meal!

Both of these cookbooks are organized by season, so it's particularly easy to locate the recipes that match well with what's available at the farmer's market.