Stuffed Mushrooms

The best kept secret since no-knead bread would be the fact that it is A-ok to wash mushrooms. Forget about brushing or wiping with damp paper towel to clean the mushrooms. Not only does it take longer but look closely and you will find dirt in the crevices. So take your simple button mushrooms give it a wash under cold water and let's get to stuffing them.

Stuffed mushrooms- the recipe is from epicurious.com. I tweaked just a wee bit.

18-20 mushrooms
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped shallots/ onions
3 garlic cloves
7-8 oz shrimp
2/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup Pecorino Romano
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup chopped basil
 pinch of pepper flakes

The hubby brought home fresh button mushrooms the other day and I had this 'urge' or dare I say 'need' to stuff them.

Being fresh the stems popped right out. I saved about half the stems to add to the stuffing mixture. If yours does not come right out run a knife along the edge of the stems to get it to come out.

Grate yourself some fresh Pecorino Romano or Permigiano Reggiano. Believe you me, fresh cheese does make a world of difference.

Gather minced shallots, garlic and fresh basil leaves. I picked mine from the herb garden in my patio which is growing beautifully. p.s. expect fresh basil in many more of my summer recipes.

Saute shallots, garlic for a minute or so in olive oil and add the chopped up stems from half the mushrooms.

Cool the mixture and add the rest of the ingredients. Stuff the mushroom really well and quite high and bake on a well oiled baking sheet for 35 minutes at 350 F.Serve warm with julienned basil on top.

Thai Green Curry

This is going to be another one of my pictorial endeavors. This is time it's Thai green curry. Will be posting the amounts soon. For now, gawk and enjoy.;)

How much you use is up to you. Can use more veggies if you want. Just make sure to gather all the ingredients together as the process goes pretty fast.

I have used lime leaves, red bell pepper, snow peas, baby corn, bamboo shoots and chinese long eggplants. Add carrots if you like.

Heat oil in a wok.

Add green curry paste and lime leaves. You want to fry these for about a minute so that the flavor of the lime leaves and the curry paste can come out and make beautiful chemistry in your wok.

Now add coconut cream. When you open an unshaken can of coconut milk the cream rises to the top. You just want to take the cream off gently and stir fry it for a few minutes. Don't get rid of the watery coconut milk though. That we shall use later.

I added the cream a little at a time.

Now add in your thinly sliced boneless chicken breast meat.

Keep stirring.

Now add baby corn and bamboo shoots.

Closely followed by eggplants.

And bell pepper. Use any color you like.

Give a quick stir to mix everything together.

Now add the coconut milk. Told you, we'd add it later.

Quick stir again.

Now add fish sauce.

Cover it up to let everything cook.

And snow peas. The snow peas cook really fast. So the trick is to add it when you are nearing the end. Afterwards add handfuls of Thai basil leaves. 

And serve the green curry in a vessel of your choice. 

Thai Flavored Whole Fish

I absolutely LOVE cooking whole fish. Although I mostly make fish curries, sometimes it feels good to have something a little different. The fish here is deep fried and then cooked using Thai ingredients that provides for an amazingly light yet flavorful sauce.     


I've used croaker for this recipe but feel free to use any white fish of your choice like tilapia or snapper. 


Recipe


Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min


Juice of 1 lime

Rice flour (Use corn starch or regular flour if you don't have rice flour on hand)
salt
1 cup oil for deep frying


Sauce:
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Sriracha (thai chili sauce)
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (dark soy sauce is a sweeter, thicker version of regular soy sauce) (optional)
2 green chillies (don't slit the chillies if like your food less spicy )
1/4 cup water 
1/2 cup basil leaves 


Clean the fish really well and pat dry with a paper towel. Put 2-3 deep gashes into each of the sides of the fish at an angle. Make sure the gashes are at least an inch apart from each other or the fish will break when frying. Now rub the juice of one lime and salt (according to taste) on the fish and leave it to marinate for 10 minutes. Don't forget to rub some juice on the insides as well. 

 After marinating, sprinkle enough rice flour to gently coat the fish, shake off excess flour and deep fry till the fish is cooked completely. A perfectly fried fish will have crispy skin and the slashes will open up.

One great tip about frying fish- never flip the fish too early otherwise it will stick to the pan and break. Give each side 3-5 minutes before flipping over gently. 

Dry the fish on paper towel after you've fried it and heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan large enough to hold the fish. Put all the other ingredients except for the basil and cook for 2/3 minutes. Add a small amount of water (about 1/4 cup) if the sauce starts to stick to the pot. Stir constantly while the sauce is cooking and taste test to see if it needs more salt. Now, add the fish and cook uncovered for 5 minutes on each side. 

The fish will soak up all the lovely flavors of the sauce within a few minutes and a few minutes before taking it off the heat add Thai basil. Regular basil works fine too but the subtle aroma of Thai basil enhances the flavor so much more that it's worth getting some. 

This fish is best served warm with enough rice to mop up all that delicious sauce.

As always.. ENJOY!! :)