Dana's Kitchen

Link Library Categories: Cooking

  • Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Beef

  • Wild Rice with Mushrooms, Cranberries, and Chestnuts

    Wild Rice with Mushrooms, Cranberries, and Chestnuts Recipe
    Marcus Nilsson
    Active Time
    1 HR 10 MIN
    Total Time
    1 HR 30 MIN
    Yield
    Serves : 6 to 8
    By Alecia Moore and Robbie Grantham-Wise

    November 2019

    With just enough cranberries in each bite to balance out the earthiness in the rice blend and mushrooms, this rice salad can be served warm or at room temperature.

    Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 cups uncooked wild rice blend (such as Lundberg) (about 9 ounces)
    • 2 3/4 cups chicken broth, divided
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
    • 2 leeks, trimmed, halved lengthwise, and finely chopped
    • 2 carrots, finely chopped
    • 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
    • 2 shallots, finely chopped
    • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
    • 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage
    • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
    • 1 pound fresh wild mushrooms, cut into large pieces
    • 1 cup unsweetened dried cranberries
    • 1 cup roasted and peeled whole chestnuts (such as Gefen), or toasted pecans, chopped
    • 1 tablespoon white truffle oil, optional
    • Fresh sage leaves, for garnish

    How to Make It

    Step 1

    Stir together rice, 2 1/2 cups chicken broth, bay leaves, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until liquid is absorbed, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat, and let stand, covered, until rice is tender, about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and set aside.

    Step 2

    While rice cooks, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium. Add leeks, carrots, celery, shallots, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Add chopped sage and thyme leaves, and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms and remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms are tender and lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer mushroom mixture to a large bowl; fold in wild rice, cranberries, chestnuts, remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth, remaining 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, and, if using, truffle oil until well mixed. Transfer to a serving dish, and top with sage leaves.

    Make Ahead

    This rice salad can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature and garnish with sage just before serving.

  • Vegetarian Wild Mushroom Sourdough Dressing

    Vegetarian Wild Mushroom Sourdough Dressing Recipe
    Victor Protasio
    Active Time
    1 HR 15 MIN
    Total Time
    2 HR 10 MIN
    Yield
    Serves : 10
    By Kelsey Youngman

    November 2019

    Tangy, crusty sourdough creates a dressing with contrast: chewy center pieces that have soaked up the stock and crispy, toasted edges. To ensure a balanced stuffing, keep stirring the mixture until stock and eggs have absorbed into the bread completely and none is pooled at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

    Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 pounds rustic sourdough bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
    • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (5 ounces), divided, plus more for greasing dish
    • 2 cups chopped celery
    • 2 cups chopped yellow onion
    • 1 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
    • 2 pounds mixed fresh wild mushrooms (such as chanterelle, oyster, trumpet, and hen-of-the-woods), cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, tough stems removed and discarded
    • 1 tablespoon dry sherry
    • 1/4 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
    • 1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt
    • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 3 cups homemade or store-bought vegetable stock (such as Brodo Seaweed Mushroom Broth)
    • 2 large eggs

    How to Make It

    Step 1    

    Spread bread pieces in a single layer on 3 rimmed baking sheets, and let stand, uncovered, at room temperature 8 hours or overnight to dry out.

    Step 2    

    Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a deep 13- to 14-inch skillet over medium until sizzling. Add celery and onion; cook, stirring often, until just softened, 10 to 13 minutes. Add thyme and rosemary; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer celery mixture to a large bowl.

    Step 3    

    Wipe skillet clean, and add 1/4 cup butter. Heat over medium until sizzling. Stir in mushrooms. Increase heat to high; cook, undisturbed, until bottoms of mushrooms are browned, about 3 minutes. Stir mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are browned all over, about 20 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, and let stand 30 seconds. Add sherry to skillet, stirring and scraping up any browned bits from bottom of skillet. Return skillet to heat over medium; add parsley, salt, pepper, and remaining 1/4 cup butter; stir until butter is melted. Add mushroom mixture to celery mixture; add dried bread, and toss to combine.

    Step 4    

    Whisk together stock and eggs until thoroughly blended. Stirring constantly, slowly pour stock mixture into bread mixture. Continue stirring until most of stock is absorbed. Grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with butter; spoon bread mixture into baking dish, and cover tightly with aluminum foil.

    Step
    Step 5    

    Bake in preheated oven until warmed through, about 30 minutes. Uncover and cook until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

    Make Ahead

    Dressing may be prepared through Step 4 up to 1 day ahead; cover and chill until ready to bake.

  • The Lazy Cook’s Way to Great Black Beans

    That said, even lazy bean-cooks need some rules. I have two.

    1. Go for dried beans

    There’s a time and a place for canned beans, such as this amazing black bean soup that’s thinned out with chicken broth and enriched by partially puréeing the beans. But if you want a simple pot of whole beans in a rich, starchy gravy, the slow release of starch from dried beans is the best way to get there. Don’t worry—as long as you soak your beans ahead of time and cook them thoroughly, they won’t turn out tough.

    2. Don’t forget the aromatics

    Aromatics in a pot of black beans.

    Beans need a balance of aromatics to enhance and contrast their earthy flavor. For most cooks, that means starting with a simple mix of garlic and onion. I use these in abundance but also take a page from Cuban cuisine with the addition of an orange. Yes, a whole one: sliced in half, juice squeezed into the pot, and then I throw in the hulls, too. The orange simmers along with the beans, garlic, and onion, bringing a slightly floral, slightly citrusy sweetness to the broth. That peel adds a subtle bitterness that emphasizes the beans’ earthy flavor.

    One note: make sure to use a sweet juicing orange instead of a sour or bitter variety. Too much acidity can keep your beans from softening properly.

    How to Cook Dried Black Beans

    Close up of aromatics in pot of black beans.

    Update 9/11/14: In an earlier version of this post I mentioned soaking black beans to speed up their cooking time. But Kenji’s since shown that not soaking your beans beforehand actually improves their color, texture, and flavor, while only modestly increasing the cooking time (while saving you eight to 12 hours of soaking). So in true lazy cook fashion, rinse your beans, put them in a large pot with your garlic, onion, and orange, and cover them with several inches of water.

    Close up of cooked black beans.

    But wait? Shouldn’t you sauté your garlic and onion first for better flavor distribution first? Nope! I tested both options: sautéing garlic and onion in a little olive oil before adding beans and cooking, and cooking the beans with raw whole onion, garlic, and orange all at once. Tasters were evenly split on the two pots, with a slight preference for the beans that didn’t use pre-cooked aromatics.

    The way I see it, when you’re making pot beans, you’re making beans. The beans should be front and center. Sautéing the garlic and onion sweetened their flavors to the point where they walked all over the beans, and the oil in the pot brought the orange’s citrus sweetness to the fore when it should be a background player. At the end of the day, it’s a slight difference, but leaving your aromatics whole and raw means less prep time and marginally beanier beans.

    Overhead close up of black beans.

    Resist the urge to stop cooking them and let them simmer until they turn completely creamy. You want proper pot beans? Give them time.

    Once your beans are simmering, they don’t need much attention at all. Keep the heat low and the water level above their heads so they cook evenly. Stir them every now and then. But for the most part, dried beans cook themselves. At some point, the beans will seem “done,” but still somewhat al dente. Resist the urge to stop cooking them and let them simmer until they turn completely creamy. You want proper pot beans? Give them time. Just how long is hard to say, and depends on the age of your beans and some other factors. But I don’t start cooking dried beans without at least an hour to kill, and usually more like two or three.

    (Hey, I said this would be the laziest way. Not the fastest.)

    Once the beans are completely creamy, increase the heat a little to reduce the cooking liquid into a thick gravy, keeping in mind it’ll thicken more as the beans cool. Remove your onion and orange and add salt to taste now that the gravy is properly reduced. You’ll notice in these photos that some of the beans have blown out, a common sign of beans that haven’t been salted in a pre-cook soak. And you know what? That’s fine by me—they still taste great, and that extra starch thickens the sauce nicely.

    Now that you have your beans, it’s time to ask yourself the only hard question of the day: what do I serve them with?

    The answer: everything.