Sprouted Kitchen Mushroom Rice Burgers

These burgers are delicious!  They are a lot of work but even good the next day.  We had them with sautéed shallot slices and crumbled blue cheese.  Oh, so yummy!  Add Spouted Kitchen Sweet Potato Fries dipped in Catsup - Home Made and you'll be in heaven. The burger and fries recipes are from The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook. Invest in this book - it is well worth it.

Mushroom and Brown Rice Veggie Burgers (from Sprouted Kitchen by Sara and Hugh Forte)

 Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in a large sauté pan.  Add 5 cups stemmed and finely chopped cremini mushrooms, 5 cloves of chopped garlic and a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and sauté until the mushrooms are softened and the excess water has cooked off, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

Combine 1/4 cup ground flaxseed, 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, 1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained well, 3 Medjool dates, (make sure they are pitted!), 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 2 1/2 tablespoons tahini, 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce, 1/2 tsp. of sea salt and some pepper in a food processor.  Combine well and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Add the cooled mushrooms with juices from the pan to the bowl along with 2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice (cooked in some vegetable broth for extra flavor).  Stir to combine and if too juicy add 1 to 2 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats, if needed*.   If you refrigerate the mixture, the patties may stay together better but it isn't necessary.

Arrange a rack in the upper third of your oven and preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Form the mixture into 6 patties, each about 1 inch thick. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the patties on the baking sheet with space in between. Bake them in the oven until toasted on top, 14 to 18 minutes.

Yummy Spring Breakfast

Breakfast this past weekend was hash browns with poached eggs, turkey bacon, and mixed berries drizzled with lemon honey.  A bit of homemade catsup on the side made it a delicious meal.

Spiralize four medium white potatoes and precook them in the microwave in a Ziploc bag (a little olive oil, salt and pepper mixed in) for three minutes. Place a bit of butter in a skillet and cook the potatoes slowly with some roasting seasoning for vegetables, stirring often. Cover with a cake pan the same size as the skillet and turn the heat down low.

Preheat your oven's broiler.  A few minutes before serving, turn up the heat under the skillet on the stove and drop eggs spaced around the skillet over the potatoes.  When the whites are nearly cooked, place the skillet under a broiler until the whites are done.

We get our turkey bacon from Stoltzfus' Poultry at the Pennsylvania Dutch Farmer's Market in Princeton, New Jersey.  It's so good we buy a few pounds every month to eat on the weekends. We simply heat it up in a skillet before serving.

I bought a jar of lemon honey at T.J. Maxx and was aghast at the cash register when I realized it was $14.99! I'm glad I splurged, though.  It is delicious and from Italy. Served over berries (a little goes a long way) it was really yummy.

The pièce de résistance, however, was homemade catsup made by my friend, Irene Gotovich. It's vegan and oh-so-much-better than the name brands.

Homemade Catsup

Mix 2/3 c. water with
4 tsp maple balsamic vinegar
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 pinches ground cloves
2 pinches allspice
1 T maple syrup

Mix the spiced water with two 6 oz cans of tomato paste.

Simmer and use just like you would use any catsup.

Sweet Potato Fries

Baked Sweet Potato Fries (again, from the Sprouted Kitchen)

3 lbs sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 rosemary powder (or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh)
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

Wash and cut potatoes into wedges. Preheat oven to 425*F
Combine the potatoes and all other ingredients in a bowl or bag and shake the potatoes until all look evenly coated.  Place on a baking rack on a cookie sheet and place the wedges in a single layer. Bake for 30-35 minutes until tender in the center.

Pignoli Biscotti

This week I "bought Gerry" another biscotti cookbook, this one Biscotti by Lou Siebert Pappas.  Last night I made the Pignoli Biscotti on page 18.  I was looking for something less dense than the ones I had made before. These were and we think they will be nice and crisp and light next weekend.

Toast 2/3 cup pine nuts in a 350 degree oven (non-convection) for 6-8 minutes and let them cool.

Blend 2 cups plus 2 T of flour with 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt.

Cream 1/2 cup softened, unsalted butter with 3/4 cup sugar and then beat in 2 eggs, one at a time.  Add 2 T. lemon juice and 2 T. lemon zest.

Blend in the dry ingredients until well-blended.  I try not to overblend, though.  I'm not entirely sure if they will be tougher or lighter.  (Note to self: Ask Beth who is reading up on the science of cooking in Michael Ruhlman's books, Ruhlman's Twenty and Ratio).

OK.  So line the biscotti pan with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes.  Check after twenty. The biscotti should look golden and dry - not white and wet.

Remove from oven and turn over on rack.  Cool at least 5 minutes.  Cut into 1/2 inch slices (at a 45 degree angle if you prefer).

Jameson's Irish Whiskey Cake

We're going to a belated St. Paddy's Day party tonight and I am in charge a dessert. Of course, Irish whiskey was on my mind.  I decided against a Bailey's Irish Cream recipe but loved the thoughts of a boozy cake.

This is one I found, strangely enough, on the PETA website.  Of course, it called for animal-free products but I modified it.

Preheat oven to 350 (convection 325).  Grease my favorite Bundt pan with baking spray.

Blend together 2-1/2 cups flour, 1 T baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 T baking cocoa, and 1 tsp. salt.

Combine 1/2 cup Jameson's whiskey and 1/2 cup very strong black coffee (espresso).

Cream 3/4 cup of softened unsalted butter.  Add in 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup dark brown sugar.  Cream until light and fluffy.  Add three eggs, one at a time.

Alternate the dry and wet with the butter/sugar/egg mixture until they are beaten and blended well.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes until a pick comes out clean from center of cake. Cool.

Simmer 1/4 cup butter with 1/4 cup whiskey, whisking in 1 cup sugar.  If you simmer this for a few minutes it should be thickened when it is cooled.  Take off the heat and add 1 tsp. coffee extract if desired.   Drizzle the cooled cake (insert toothpick over the cake top and bottom many times).

Chicken Salad Croissants

Gerry made the best homecoming lunch - chicken salad in croissants.

3 inches celery stalk, sliced paper-thin
16 red, seedless grapes cut in quarters
chopped iceberg lettuce (or other greens, chopped fine), 1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios, and some mayonnaise.

Add this to some grilled or baked chicken breasts. Gerry sprinkled some ground sumac from Savory Spice in Princeton, NJ and pepper on the chicken before baking.

Delicious!

*Ground sumac information from the Savory website:

Sumac comes from the fruit of a bush indigenous to the Middle East. The bush is actually a member of the cashew family and the fruit is used widely in Turkey and other Arabic countries. Sumac is a main ingredient in the Middle Eastern spice blend Za'atar.

Before the Romans learned of lemons, they used sumac for its sour and pleasantly astringent taste.  They called it Syrian sumac.

Savory.com

 

Sumac berries are picked, dried and ground into a coarse powder before being used in the cooking process. This powder is used to flavor salad dressings, meats, rice dishes and kebobs. Sumac can also be mixed with other vegetables such as onions and used as a condiment.

Anise Almond Biscotti

We tried another recipe from The Best 50 Biscotti Recipes - this one Anise Almond. We didn't have anise seed in Marion and we'll definitely add them to the next try.  Overall, the biscotti were crunchy and tasty but I'd like to find more recipes and refine them a bit.  I guess I'd like them to be a bit more 'airy' and less dense.

Beat 1 cup sugar, 1 cup coarsely chopped, toasted almonds, 1/2 cup butter (melted), 2 T. crushed anise seeds, 1 T water, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tbs. anise extract until combined.  Beat in three eggs, one at a time.  Add these dry ingredients that are already blended together: 2-3/4 c. flour and 1/2 T. baking powder.

The recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for three hours and dividing into halves and shaping into logs. We just put the dough in the biscotti pan (lined with parchment) and baked for about 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven until firm and lightly browned.

Turn pan out and cool on a rack for five minutes.  Cut the biscotti into 1/2 slices and place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 more minutes, turning halfway if possible.  Cool.