Category: Sides

Catalan Mushrooms with Garlic & Parsley

Servings: 6
Source: Fine Cooking, September 2001
Serve these as a starter or perhaps as an accompaniment to the baked chicken. Leftovers are great on pizza or added to pasta sauce.

Ingredients
1 lb medium-size white mushrooms, stems trimmed to ½ inch, and quartered
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh garlic
1 to 2 tsp coarse salt or sea salt

Directions
Put the mushrooms in a large bowl of cold water to soak for 1 0 min. Rinse them well and then drain.

Heat a large sauté pan with a tight-fitting lid over medium heat. Add the drained mushrooms to the dry pan, cover immediately, and cook until all the moisture from the mushrooms is leached out, about 20 min. You’ll know this has happened when you lift the lid for a peek and see the once-dry pan filled with liquid.

Remove the lid, raise the heat to medium high, and boil until the liquid evaporates and the mushrooms begin to sizzle in the dry pan but haven’t browned; they’ll have shrunk considerably and should be firm when poked with a fork. Lower the heat to medium and stir in 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, the parsley, and the garlic. Sauté, stirring frequently until the garlic softens, another 3 to 4 min. Transfer the mushrooms to a serving bowl, stir in the remaining 3 Tbsp olive oil, and season with salt to taste (I like to salt them liberally). Serve while hot.

Buttermilk Corn Bread

Servings: 12+
Preheat: 400°
Source: Bon Appétit November 1997
Use to prepare Corn Bread and Chestnut Stuffing, or enjoy this on its own.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sugar
2 lg eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, oil, sugar and eggs in large bowl to blend. Add dry ingredients, stirring just until blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; store at room temperature.)

Baked Corn Casserole (John Cope’s)

Servings: 8
Preheat: 375°
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients
1 7.5 oz pkg John Cope’s Toasted Dried Sweet Corn
5 cup milk
3 1/2 Tbsp melted butter, plus additional for the baking dish
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 Tbsp sugar
4 eggs, beaten until well blended.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Using a blender or food processor, chop the dried corn until finely ground.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground corn, milk, butter, salt, sugar and eggs. Mix well.

3. Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Pour in the corn mixture. Bake until set and golden brown on top, about 1 hour. Serve hot.

Anasazi Beans with Juniper

Servings: 4
Anasazi beans are pretty, mottled purple and white beans. They are an ancient and eaten by the Anasazi Indians in the past and now being cultivated in Colorado. They can be found in natural foods stores If you can’t find them, pinto beans are good cooked the same way.

This bean dish is truly simple and very satisfying. Often when I’m riding on the desert, my horse sidles into the shade of a juniper tree and lets me grab a small handful of the blue berries as we pass. There are always a few in my jacket pocket, handy when I want to cook these beans. One of my favorite meals is this dish with Wild Green Salad (page 44) and Piñion Bread (page 32). It is utterly basic and satisfying in the way that complicated food often isn’t.

Ingredients
2 cup dried Anasazi or pinto beans
10 coriander seeds
8 juniper berries
I sm onion
1 Tbsp sunflower seed or light olive oil
1 tsp ground red chili (optional)
1 tsp dried Mexican or Greek oregano
2 ½ qrt water
salt

Directions
Sort through the beans, rinse them well, cover them with cold water, and set them aside for 6 hours or overnight.

Bruise the seeds and berries in a mortar and chop the onion into small squares Warm the oil in a wide-bottomed soup pot; add the onions, coriander seeds, juniper berries, chili, and oregano. Cook together over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the beans and add them to the pot along with the fresh water. Bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Add salt to taste and continue cooking until the beans are as tender as you like them-probably another 30 minutes or so. When done, check the seasoning. Serve the beans in a bowl with the broth

Suggestion:There are lots of tasty additions you can use-cilantro, mint, scallions, spoonfuls of thick Mexican cream, cheese, and so forth-but try the b-zans plain first. They should have a wonderful clean, uncluttered taste that can be quite refreshing.