Well, this worked!

One of my favorite breakfasts or brunches to make on a lazy weekend day is crepes.

I like them because the batter is very easy to make and once you get the hang of them, I actually think they are easier to make than pancakes!

Plus you can fill them with all kinds of delicious stuff.

The problem I’ve encountered with crepes is that it’s hard to feed a crowd with them. You can only make one at a time and people usually want 2-3 for a meal so if you’re feeding four people, that’s 10-12 crepes!

Then one day the idea of a crepe pie smacked me over the head and I had to try it immediately.

It worked better than I ever thought it would.

Savory Crepe Pie

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Basic Crepe Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter (plus some for the pan)

Filling:
8 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
1/2 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
6-8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
Salt and pepper
Butter, for the pie pan

Helpful Equipment:
Large nonstick skillet or crepe pan

Directions:

1) Make your crepe batter by mixing the dry ingredients together in a bowl and the wet ingredients (except butter) in a separate bowl. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Whisk in melted butter. Batter should be pretty runny. Let batter sit while you prep the filling.

2) Slice mushrooms, dice peppers, onions, and garlic. Add mushrooms to a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and saute over medium-high heat until the mushrooms release their liquid and soften, about 5-6 minutes.

3) Add other filling ingredients (except cheese) to the skillet and cook for another 4-5 minutes until peppers soften. Season filling with salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of dried thyme. Set filling aside.

4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

5) Using a large nonstick skillet, or crepe pan, add a small amount of butter over medium-high heat. Pour in about 1/2 cup of crepe batter and swirl it around the pan so it flattens out. Cook for 30-45 seconds on the first side until it firms up, then carefully flip the crepe and cook for another 15-20 seconds. Repeat until you have 4 large crepes. The batter will make 5-6 crepes so you can mess up one without worry.

6) Butter a pie pan and lay a crepe in the bottom of the pan. Add half of the mushroom filling and 1/3 of the grated cheese.

7) Top with a second crepe and 1/3 of the cheese.

8) Top with a third crepe. So the middle layer is just cheese basically.

9) Add rest of filling and cheese to top of the pie and top with the fourth crepe. Kind of crimp the edges of the crepe around the edges of the pie so it is mostly sealed.

10) Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

11) Let cool briefly and then slice and serve!

The Filling

Over the years, I’ve put together dozens of different crepe fillings. Sweet, savory, fruity, cheesy… you name it, you can probably stuff it in a crepe.

So I don’t want you to get the impression that this filling is the only filling that you can use for this recipe. This is just the one I used and it worked really well.

Good winter veggies.

Rinse and slice up the mushrooms and dice up your veggies. It’s okay to keep them in pretty big chunks. You don’t want the veggies to disappear in the dish.

Great flavors.

Then just add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large skillet and toss in the mushrooms. Cook them over medium high heat until they start to soften and release their water. Then you can add in all the other veggies and continue to cook until they are soft.

Total cooking time for this will probably be in the 10 minute range. There’s actually a lot of wiggle room in how much you cook the veggies. It is important to saute them though so you can cook off some of the water in the veggies. Otherwise the filling would be very watery in your final dish.

When the veggies are cooked, season the filling with salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried thyme.

Very important.

The Crepes

This is my basic crepe batter recipe. It’s never failed me really. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken right?

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl (minus the melted butter). Then stir the wet into the dry and finally stir in the butter.

Ideally, let this batter sit for a few minutes before making the crepes.

I like to make the batter, then make the filling, and by the time the filling is done the batter is rested and ready to go.

Pretty easy batter.

Like I said, I find cooking crepes easier than pancakes honestly. That said, you might mess up one or two. Don’t worry about it if you do. Since these are going in a layered dish, they don’t have to be perfect.

When you’re ready to cook a crepe, just add a small amount of butter to a large nonstick pan or a crepe pan and then pour in about 1/3-1/2 cup of crepe batter. Swirl it around in the pan so it flows out and forms an even, very thin crepe.

Cook the crepe for about 45 seconds on the first side and then give it a flip. Flipping is always the part that people mess up but just do your best. Like I said, they don’t have to be perfect.

Takes maybe a minute!

You need four crepes to make this dish so just go ahead and make four and stack them up on a plate or something.

Making the Pie

You can use almost any kind of pie dish that you have. Is it important to have something round though so the crepes fit snuggly in there.

To make sure the crepes don’t stick to your pan, butter the thing really well.

Butter is important.

Then lay in one crepe and make sure to push it down so it’s snug against all the walls of the pie pan. Then add about 1/2 of your mushroom filling and 1/3 of your grated cheese.

Bottom layer.

Then toss on the second crepe. For the middle layer, I just did an all cheese layer. So add another 1/3 of the cheese to this layer.

Speaking of cheese, be sure to use a good flavorful cheese for this. You don’t want to use a lot of cheese, but make sure to use good stuff! I used a nice sharp white cheddar.

Just cheese on this layer!

Add on the third crepe and then the rest of your filling stuff.

It should all stack up very nicely.

More of the same.

Put the top crepe on and kind of press the edges down around the sides of the pie pan. Again, don’t freak out if it isn’t perfect.

Stick this whole thing in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

The great part about baking this is that the top and bottom crepes actually get a bit crispy which is nice and then the center is just this awesome savory party.

So good!

I was worried that this would just fall apart when I sliced it, but if you let it cool for just a minute or two when you pull it out of the oven, it actually slices really nicely.

You can even make out all the layers.

One of my favorite brunches.

If this is all your serving, assume about 1/4 of the pie per person. If you’re serving this with some other stuff then you could cut it into sixths and be fine.

The good news is that you can make these in advance and then just toss them in the oven if you’re having people over.

This is the right way to do crepes for a group!

Wow good.

I was pretty scared when vegetable tart won the poll last week. The last time I tried a free-form tart on Macheesmo, it didn’t go well.

I had high hopes for this attempt though. For starters, I was using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. That’s normally a really good start to a successful meal.

Second, and maybe more important, I didn’t get cocky. I read the recipe like 10 times (Cook’s Illustrated isn’t known for being succinct). I promised myself that I wouldn’t change the recipe at all.

I then immediately changed the recipe. Luckily, not in any devastating way.

Mushroom and Leek Galette

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 45 minutes + dough resting time

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 1/4 cups (6.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2.75 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
7 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Filling:
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms
3/4 pound crimini mushrooms
2 large leeks, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3-4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper
1 large egg, for egg wash

Helpful Equipment:
Pastry Brush
Dough Scraper

Directions:

1) To start dough, mix together flours with sugar and salt. Cut in cold, cubed butter using your fingers or pulse in a food processor until the butter is in pea-sized pieces.

2) Stir in water and vinegar and mix until the dough is saggy. It's okay if it doesn't come together completely at this point. Don't overmix it.

3) Scoop dough out onto plastic wrap. Form dough into a rough rectangle (again, it will still be crumbly). Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

4) Remove dough and roll into a long rectangle, about 8x14 on a well-floured surface. Fold the left 1/3 of the dough into the center, then fold the right 1/3 over it. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll it out again, and repeat the fold. Do this one more time. If your dough sticks to the counter, use a dough scraper to scrape it up and use more flour. Then fold the dough (which should be much easier to work with now) into a square and wrap it in plastic wrap again. Refrigerate for another hour.

5) For filling, wash mushrooms and add to a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes until soft. Drain mushrooms in a colander. When cool, slice thinly.

6) Slice leeks thinly using just the white and light green sections. Add sliced leeks to a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook over medium heat until the leeks are soft, about 4 minutes. Add fresh thyme and sliced mushrooms and continue to cook for another minute or two until the mixture is fairly dry.

7) Remove filling from heat and let cool. Then season with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir in sour cream and mustard.

8) When ready to make galette, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from fridge 10-15 minutes before making the galette. Roll the dough out into a large 14 inch diameter circle. Use a knife to cut off any edges. Try to make it as round as you can, but it's okay to eyeball it.

9) Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the center of the dough with olive oil.

10) Add half of the filling to the center of the dough, leaving about 2 inches around the edge. Add 1/2 of the gorgonzola cheese. Top with the rest of the filling and then the rest of the cheese. Drizzle with olive oil.

11) Fold one end of the circle in toward the center, then work around the galette, making folds every few inches.

12) Brush galette with egg wash and transfer to oven. When galette is in oven, turn heat down to 375 and bake for 35-40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

13) Let cool briefly and serve immediately!

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Feb. 2012.

Making the Dough

Tart doughs are tricky. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve struggled with them. Frankly, if you haven’t struggled with them you are either a baking prodigy or a liar.

The trick to this dough is not to overwork it in the beginning and let it rest twice in the fridge. Also, the recipe calls for laminating the dough a bit which means folding it over itself a few times so you develop layers of dough which results in super-flakey crust.

I was worried about this step because it’s the step that proves to be my downfall for things like croissants. But this is a beginner’s laminated dough. I didn’t have any issues with it at all. You won’t either.

Start the dough by mixing together your dry ingredients in a large bowl and then mix in the cubed butter with your fingers. You could use a food processor for this, but I like using my hands. Just get the butter into pea-sized pieces and then add your liquid (top right).

Once your liquid is added, stir it together, but don’t over-work it. There’s no need to bring the dough completely together at this point. The word CI used to describe the dough is “saggy”. I prefer the term “crumbly” (bottom left).

Scoop this crumbly dough out onto some plastic wrap, wrap it very tightly and refrigerate it for about an hour.

Saggy dough is good.

Lamination Domination

I was almost positive that I was going to botch this step, but it was pretty easy actually. Once your dough has rested for an hour in the fridge the flour will be better hydrated and it’ll be closer to one full piece when you unwrap it.

Roll it out on a well-floured board to form a long rectangle. It should be about 8×14 if you want to get specific, but I just eyeballed it (top left). Then fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough up to the center (top right). Then fold the top 1/3 down (bottom left). This basically creates three layers of dough.

Rotate the dough 90 degrees and do the whole rolling and folding process again. For those that aren’t math inclined, the second time you do this, you’ll have 9 layers of dough (3×3). The third and last time you do this, you’ll have 27 layers of dough.

This makes the final dough very flakey and awesome and is worth the 10 minutes or so it takes to do it. Your final dough will be really easy to work with. Before you roll it out though, wrap it in plastic again and stick in the fridge for another hour so it firms up (bottom right).

Like pastry, but actually doable.

Ok. The dough is the hardest part of this guy by a long shot. The filling is straightforward.

Leeky Shrooms

I’m not a huge fan of microwaves, but Cook’s Illustrated suggested using one to soften up the mushrooms for this recipe. I’m not really sure why. You could just slice them and saute them normally, but I figured I would try the microwave thing.

The shrooms!

I just rinsed off my shrooms and added them to a microwave safe bowl. Then covered them with plastic wrap and zapped them for about 4-5 minutes on high.

Seemed to work okay. Notice that I didn’t slice them yet.

Microwave at work.

Drain the mushrooms in a colander. They will release a lot of liquid in the microwave which is the goal. Then slice them thinly.

For the leeks, slice the white and light green parts thinly and add them to a skillet or medium pot with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook the leeks over medium heat until they are soft (about 4-5 minutes), then toss in your sliced mushrooms and fresh thyme.

Pretty colors.

Cook this for another few minutes just to combine the flavors. Then kill the heat and let the filling cool slightly.

You’ll need a few other items to finish off the filling. The original recipe called for créme fraîche, but I just used sour cream. Seemed like a fine substitution.

Flavor town.

Mix in the sour cream and mustard into your filling and maybe hit it with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Filling is done!

Really tasty.

Making the Galette

Once you’re ready to actually make this bad boy, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your dough out of the fridge a few minutes before you want to roll it out. Then roll it into a large circle. Ideally, it would be about a 14 inch circle, but you can just eyeball it. I do recommend taking a knife and actually cutting a round shape out of the dough if you have any ends that are sticking out because it will make the folding easier.

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush the center with some olive oil. Then pile on half of your filling!

NOTE: I made another change to the recipe at this point. Cook’s Illustrated said to cut tiny holes in the BOTTOM of your galette crust before adding the filling. Five holes to be exact. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine why you would want to do that and it wasn’t explained at any point in the recipe so I just didn’t do it. No harm done.

Really easy dough to work with.

Crumble on half of your cheese, then the rest of the filling, then the final bit of cheese.

Now it’s time to fold it! Start at one end and just fold the dough to the center.

The first fold.

Rotate the dough and every few inches, just fold the dough toward the center.

Easy enough right?

Get it?

Eventually, you’ll have this wonderful little galette. Once you get it folded all the way around, brush the edges of the dough with egg wash (just an egg scrambled with 1 tablespoon water).

This guy is finally ready for the oven!

Don't forget egg wash.

Oven your galette is in the oven, turn the heat down to 375. Then let it bake for 35-40 minutes.

This guy turned out fantastic.

Nailed it.

The filling for this guy is good, but the crust is amazing. It’s really flakey and flavorful since it has some whole wheat flour in it.

It’s a bit of work, no doubt, but the results are worth it in my opinion.

A more red soup you will not find.

Betsy and I are very into the show Dexter right now. It’s such an original and interesting show.

The problem is that we don’t have cable and so we are always a few seasons behind because we have to rely on Netflix for our Dexter fix.

Anyway, while I was making this soup, which is probably the most red thing I’ve ever made, I thought to myself, “This is what Dexter Morgan must feel like after a kill.”

My cutting board looked like a crime scene.

That’s the price you pay for cooking with beets I guess. It’s a price that I’m definitely willing to pay because they make for a really delicious and healthy soup.

Roasted Beet Soup

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3 large beets, roasted and cubed
1/2 head garlic, roasted
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large leek, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 quart vegetable stock
1 bay leaf (opt.)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Stick blender or normal blender

Directions:

1) Slice off root tip and stem tip of three large beets and roast them in a 400 degree oven until they are tender, about an hour.

2) Slice the top off of half a head of garlic, exposing the cloves. Wrap in foil, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

3) Once beets are roasted, let them cool and then peel and cube them.

4) In a large pot, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and the sliced leek. Let cook until soft over medium heat, just a few minutes.

5) Add cubed beets and roasted garlic along with thyme and bay leaf. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

6) Discard bay leaf and blend with a blender.

7) Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve with lots of crusty bread.

Adapted from a Whole Living recipe.

Big Beets

This is not a complicated soup. The flavors are pretty straightforward and the star of the show is definitely the beets. Since there isn’t a lot of other stuff in the soup, the beet flavor is intense.

This is a good thing.

Beets, when they are roasted, have a slightly sweet flavor that rocks when paired with the few other ingredients in this soup.

I’ve made a more complicated beet soup before (cold borscht) and while both soups are great, I loved the simplicity of this one. One big change between that soup and this version is roasting the beets. While it does add about an hour onto your prep time, it’s totally worth it. The beet flavors get a lot more intense after roasting.

You don’t have to do anything fancy to the beets before roasting them. Just chop off the stems and the root tips so they sit flat on a sheet pan. No need to wash them or anything since you’ll need to peel them later anyway.

These were some big beets.

Roast them at 400 degrees until they are tender, probably about an hour. This, of course, depends on how big your beets are. Mine were huge and so I only needed three of them. These were about the size of my fist!

If you use smaller beets, you’ll obviously need to use more of them.

My Favorite Smell

I made a soup a few weeks ago that was all about roasted garlic. While this soup is focused on the beets, it also has roasted garlic in it. Not quite as much, but just enough to give it some nice flavor.

I’m pretty sure that roasted garlic is one of my favorite smells in the whole world. Nothing like it.

I used a half of a head of garlic and just sliced off the tip of if and then drizzled it with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Wrap it in foil and roast this sucker for 30 minutes. When my beets were about half done, I just tossed it in with them for the last 30 minutes.

Standard.

Beet Red

Once your beets are done roasting, let them cool for a few minutes and then get down to business.

You’ll quickly understand where the phrase “beet red” comes from. This stuff will stain anything it touches.

The peel on a beet is pretty thick. I’ve never been able to find a veggie peeler that can do a good job, so I always just use a paring knife to peel these guys.

Dexter loves these.

Once the beets are peeled, just cube them up and you’re ready to go! The hardest part of this recipe is dealing with the beets. It’s smooth sailing from here.

There will be evidence of this dish.

The roasted garlic is a lot easier to deal with than the beets. Once it’s done roasting, let it cool as well and then you can literally just pop the cloves out of their skins.

Definitely a top ten smell for me.

Finishing the Soup

This soup is really easy to throw together once you have the ingredients roasted. Just add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large pot and then throw in some sliced leeks.

I guess you could use onions instead of leeks for this, but I worry that the onions would really overpower the beet flavor. Leeks are a bit more mild so they work better in my opinion.

Just cook them over medium heat until they soften, probably 6-8 minutes.

Onions, but better.

Then add in the beets, garlic, herbs, and stock and bring the whole thing to a simmer.

Let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes and then puree it with a stick blender. You can definitely use a normal blender as well. If you’re using a bay leaf, take it out before blending the soup.

To be honest, if you don’t have a blender, you could just dice up your beets into smaller cubes and serve this soup without blending it. It would have a nice rustic feel to it.

Action shot!

After it’s blended up, add in the fresh lemon juice and taste the soup for salt and pepper. It’ll probably need a good pinch of both, but might be okay on salt depending on the kind of stock you use. Some can be pretty salty.

Sabotage

This soup was actually supposed to be part of a healthy cleanse thing that Betsy and I are half-trying to do. We’re failing pretty badly at it honestly.

We sabotaged this meal by making a huge loaf of delicious garlic bread to serve with the soup. I just sliced up a whole wheat loaf of bread and drizzled on some butter that I melted together with a crushed clove of garlic.

Then I baked it in foil for about 15 minutes while I finished the soup.

Sabotage!

The soup was totally delicious, but I would’ve had a hard time making a meal out of it without the bread.

Great winter meal.

Nothing to fancy about this meal, but it’s a really great winter dish. The flavors are warming and healthy.

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to lose weight, eat better, or cook more, this soup should be on your meal plan soon!

There's squash in there!

One of my favorite breakfasts or brunch dishes regardless of how many beers I’ve had the night before is some sort of hash.

I’m a starch fiend. What can I say?

While I’m normally happy enough with just a potato kind of hash, sometimes I like to change it up based on the season. If I posted every hash version I made, this site would be dedicated to nothing but hash brown recipes which, for the record, is not a bad idea at all.

Sometimes though I land on a version that’s just too tasty not to post.

That is this and this is that.

Winter Squash Hash

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups winter squash, grated
2 cups russet potatoes, grated
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 large eggs, over easy
1 teaspoon butter, for eggs
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, garnish

Directions:

1) Use a large chef's knife to peel the winter squash. I find it easiest to cut off the top and bottom and then carefully slice down the side of the squash. Once it's peeled, quarter the squash and scoop out the seeds. Then grate the squash.

2) Peel and grate potato as well and mix potato with squash. It should be about even parts potato and squash.

3) Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Add hash in an even layer. Cook for 5 minutes and flip.

4) Cook for an additional 5 minutes on the second side. If at any point the hash looks very dry, add another drizzle of olive oil.

5) Cook hash browns until they are browned nicely, then turn the heat down to low and keep them warm until the eggs are done.

6) For eggs, melt butter in a small nonstick pan or on a griddle over medium heat. Crack eggs and cook for about 2 minutes until the whites are mostly firm. Flip the eggs and cook for just 15-20 seconds on side two.

7) Serve hash with two eggs on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some fresh thyme.

The Squash Options

Normally, this time of year there will be a large bin of random gourds and squashes in most grocery stores across the country. While these squash all have slightly different tastes and colors, I don’t feel too bad about lumping them all together and calling them “winter squash.”

This includes things like butternut squash, acorn squash, or pumpkin all of which you could use for this recipe.

The particular gourd I picked out on this day resembled a small pumpkin but it wasn’t a pumpkin.

While it wasn’t labelled, I’m pretty sure the squash I picked out on this day was an ambercup squash. (Check out the winter squash wikipedia page for more info.)

Some potato doesn't hurt.

I decided to do a half and half mix of squash and potato just to keep some of the classic hash texture.

Prepping the Squash

Most winter squash that you’ll find will be very hard to peel. This is unfortunate, but worth the work.

What you can’t do is peel them with a veggie peeler. Their skin is just too thick for that to work.

What I do instead is use a large chef’s knife to chop of the top and bottom of the squash so it will sit flat and then carve off the skin from top to bottom with my knife.

Not easy to peel...

You’ll lose some squash in this process, but it’s the easiest way that I know to peel a squash like this.

Once you get it peeled, cut it into quarters. Your squash will most likely have some sort of seed and guts situation going on which you can scoop out with a spoon.

These are easy to scoop out.

Then just grate up each quarter of squash with a box grater!

It’ll look like cheddar cheese, but it’s much much healthier for you.

Get it?

Mix the grated squash with some grated potato and you’re ready to cook!

I recommend a mix of about half potato and half squash. Honestly, I kind of just eyeballed it.

Looks like cheese.

Cooking the Hash

You can cook this awesome mix either in a large skillet or on a griddle. I used a large nonstick skillet that I have. It works great for stuff like this.

Just add a good drizzle of olive oil to your pan over medium-high heat and then add your hash in a nice even layer in the pan.

Easy enough.

Let this cook for 4-5 minutes on the first side and then give it a flip.

If you’re feeling confident, you can try to flip it all at once or you can chop it up into servings with a spatula and flip them individually.

I was able to pull off the full-pan flip on this day.

Good and crispy!

If you’re hash browns are ever looking really dry, drizzle on a bit more oil.

When the hash browns are browned on both sides, turn your heat down to low to keep them warm while you work on…

The Egg

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of a good fried egg. For a dish like this I consider the over-easy egg to be an essential component.

I like to fry my eggs in butter. You just need about a teaspoon in a good pan. Melt the butter over medium heat and once it’s melted, crack in the eggs!

Eggs cooking!

Let these cook for about 2 minutes on the first side until the whites are almost completely set, then flip and cook for just 10-15 seconds on the second side.

If you want your yolks set completely, just keep cooking them into submission I guess.

Serving the Hash

Serve the hash browns with one or two fried eggs on top. Give the whole thing a good sprinkle of salt and pepper and a pinch of fresh thyme leaves.

The thyme is a small detail but it actually works well with winter squashes so give it a shot.

As you can see, these were crispy and delicious!

Chomp!

This is pretty much the perfect breakfast in my opinion.

If you wanted to amp it up, you could serve it with some bacon on the side also. Betsy and I went the fruit route on this day though.

This would be a great quick breakfast for family members during the upcoming holiday weekend. It’s pretty easy to make, has some great winter flavors, and people are always impressed by homemade hash browns.

Always.

Addictive things.

Sweet potatoes and I don’t always get along in the kitchen. This mainly stems from a four day period of my life trying to perfect the art of the baked sweet potato fry. Turns out, it’s pretty much impossible to bake sweet potatoes and get them crispy and delicious. If anyone can send me a recipe that absolutely works consistently, I’ll buy you lunch.

Seriously.

Luckily though, when it doesn’t involve baked fries, sweet potatoes play very nice in the kitchen. They are great baked (whole). They are better double baked. And it’s a given that most people will have some sitting around over the next few weeks.

Instead of making some sort of sweet potato casserole, I decided to go the crispy route when sweet potatoes won the poll last week. More specifically, the crispy, salty, addictive route.

Sweet Potato Chips

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1-2 quarts oil, for frying

Spice mixture:
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
2 Teaspoons paprika
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme

Helpful Equipment:
Deep Fry Thermometer
Mandoline slicer

Directions:

1) Peel the sweet potatoes and chop off the ends so your first slices are chip-sized.

2) Slice chips thinly using a mandoline.

3) Fry chips in batches in 350 degree oil. Be careful not to add to many chips at once or your oil might overflow. Fry until they are lightly browned and not bubbling, about 3-4 minutes.

4) Remove chips and let drain on a paper towel. After they drain for about 30 seconds, season the chips with a good pinch of the spice mixture.

Addictive Seasoning

These chips are delicious on their own, but this spice seasoning takes them to another level. I mean, this stuff is out-of-control addictive.

You could also use a bowl...

It’s a simple mix of salt, brown sugar, paprika, and fresh thyme, but it’s like a drug. I was seriously licking my fingers while making it.

I want to put it on everything: chips, fries, popcorn… my toothbrush. Whatever.

Such a great spice mix.

Making the Chips

Screw baking sweet potato fries. If you want perfectly crispy sweet potato snacks, just slice them really thinly and fry them. DUH!

Before you do that though, make sure you peel your sweet potatoes and I like to cut off the ends also so each slice is a full-sized chip.

The war zone.

Unless you’re a knife master, you’re going to want some help with slicing these guys. It’s just really important to get them very thin and very evenly sliced. It’s almost impossible to do with a knife unless you’re Morimoto. And if you are Morimoto then “What’s up Morimoto?! Thanks for reading! Bring me some sushi!”

For us mere mortals though, you’ll want a mandoline slicer to make this job easy and quick.

This tool is very easy to use. Just make sure you use the safety guard please. I’ve seen people slice off 1/8 inch pieces of their finger. Not pretty.

They give you the safety guard for a reason.

Safety first!

Slicing up two sweet potatoes on one of these guys takes less than a minute.

And you’re slices will be perfectly uniform. It’s excellent.

Pretty impossible with a knife.

Frying the Chips

This part isn’t rocket science. Pour about two quarts of oil in your sturdy frying pot and get it heated to 350 degrees. As always, I highly recommend using a deep fry thermometer to monitor your temperature.

Once your oil is hot, carefully add in a handful of chips. Try to separate the chips as you drop them in so they don’t all stick together. Be sure to work in batches when you do this and start with a small batch. As the chips cook, they might foam some which could overflow your pot. Also, you want to try to keep your temperature as close to 350 degrees as possible. Small batches help with all of this.

I did my two sweet potatoes in about 5 batches of frying. If you have a large pot, you could do it in less.

Gotta love a good fry session.

Each batch will only need to fry for 2-3 minutes because the chips are so thin. You’ll know they are done when they stop bubbling aggressively. That means most of the water is out of the chips.

They will also turn a deep golden brown color. Then just scoop out the chips with a slotted spoon and let them drain briefly on a paper towel.

Season quickly!

Be sure to season these chips pretty heavily while they are still hot. That’ll help the seasoning stick to the chips. Once they are seasoned you can toss them in a bowl and move on to the next batch.

These chips are crispy, salty, sweet, and some of the best chips I’ve ever had.

Eating a bowl of these isn't a problem.

Betsy and I completely housed a whole bowl of these with no problem.

When she tried her first chip she looked at me and said, “What the hell did you do to these? They’re amazing.”

Of course, the secret is the seasoning. It’s pretty serious.

My childhood in a bowl.

There has been some sort of mild plague going around our town for the last few weeks and Betsy’s office has been hit pretty hard with it. It was only a matter of time before one of us woke up sniffling and aching.

I was lucky enough to avoid the sickness this time around but it sure did smack Bets right upside the head.

So I did what I do best when dealing with a sickness: Make soup.

This time around I happened to find these tiny little star-shaped pastas in the grocery store that sent me flying back to my childhood when my mom would always make me chicken and stars soup when I was sick.

So this is my homemade take on chicken and stars soup. It’s soothing and healing and will get you back on your feet again for sure.

Chicken and Stars Soup

Yield: Serves 8-10.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Stock:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, quartered
2 celery ribs, quartered
1 head garlic, halved
2 Tablespoons olive oil
6-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Handful of fresh parsley
20ish black peppercorns
10-12 cups water

Finished Soup:
Stock from above, strained
Shredded chicken from above, remove fat
1/2 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 glove garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
6-8 ounces star pasta
Salt and pepper
Crackers and/or crusty bread

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven
Strainer

Directions:

1) Chop chicken into pieces and add the carcass pieces and wings to a large sturdy pot over high heat with a drizzle of oil. Let the chicken pieces brown well over high heat for about 8 minutes. Turn the chicken every few minutes to make it browns evenly.

2) Add your other stock ingredients (including other chicken parts) except the water to the heavy pot and let them all sautee for a few minutes. Try to scrape up any stuck-on bits.

3) Add the water to your pot and make sure you have enough water to barely cover the ingredients. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat down to medium. Simmer the stock on medium, partially covered, for about 60-75 minutes.

4) Remove all the chicken pieces from the stock and let them cool briefly.

5) Strain the warm stock into a large bowl. If there's a lot of fat on the surface of the stock, try to spoon off some of it. It's okay though to have a small layer of fat on the stock for this recipe.

6) Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove skin from chicken and shred it into bite-sized pieces.

7) In your same large pot, add a new drizzle of olive oil over medium-high heat. Then add all your diced veggies. Sautee for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add fresh thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper.

8) Add stock back to pot and bring to a simmer.

9) Once soup is simmering, stir in stars pasta and cook until al dente, about 9-10 minutes.

10) Finally stir in shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper.

11) Serve soup with crackers or crusty bread.

Making The Stock

I do occasionally take shortcuts and use store-bought stock for some dishes, but there’s absolutely no question that the best way to make a good soup is to make a good stock. It does add at least 90 minutes onto your preparation time (unless you have some frozen), but there’s just no debating that it takes homemade soup to another level.

I like to use a whole chicken when I make chicken soup so there’s a mix of white and dark meat. I like to chop up the chicken before cooking the stock which just makes it a bit easier to work with and gives you an opportunity to brown some of the meat.

Use any pieces you want.

If you’re intimidated by cutting up your own chicken, this video is one of the best I’ve seen at showing the process. It’s really not that hard and after you do two or three, you’ll get really fast at it.

Besides chicken and water, there’s a pretty standard list of vegetables that you’ll need to make a good stock. I wrote down a recipe, but it should be a guide. The good news about making stock is it’s a pretty flexible thing. Feel free to use more or less of the veggies depending on what you have and also don’t worry about chopping them up.

I just kind of quarter all of my vegetables.

Nothing fancy here.

To make the stock (and soup), I like to use a big heavy dutch oven. Add a drizzle of oil to the pan over high heat and then add just your chicken carcass and wings to the pot. That’s probably all that will be able to fit in a nice layer in the pan. If you can fit more chicken pieces, feel free to add them.

Let those chicken pieces cook for about 4-5 minutes per side until they are nice and browned. Some bits might get stuck to the pan and that’s just fine. The browned bits will give the stock a really deep flavor.

After your chicken has browned for a few minutes, you can add all your other veggies, herbs, and seasonings.

The start of something great.

Let these guys cook for a few minutes and try to scrape up any bits stuck to the pan.

Then add any other chicken pieces to the pot and cover the whole thing with water. You want to cover everything by about an inch or so. This will probably work out to 10-12 cups of water.

Bring this all to a simmer and let it simmer and turn your heat down to medium. Let the stock simmer, partially covered, for about 75 minutes. Check on it every 20-30 minutes and if there’s a lot of foam on the surface, just scoop it off with a spoon.

The Soup Pieces

One reason why it really makes sense to make your own stock if you’re making homemade chicken soup is because you have to cook the chicken anyway. Making the stock accomplishes that for you!

Once your stock is cooked, just pull out your chicken pieces, let them cool for 5-10 minutes, and then shred them up. Try to remove as much fat and stuff as possible and just shred the chicken into bite-sized bits.

Get it?

For that delicious stock that’s been simmering, I recommend straining it with a strainer to remove any tiny bits of vegetable or whatever.

If there’s a lot of oil on your stock, try to spoon off some of it. A little bit definitely won’t hurt the soup at all.

This was my strained and finished stock that I used for my soup.

Liquid gold.

For the actual soup, take your time dicing up some veggies so they are roughly the same size. You don’t need a ton of vegetables to make a good soup at this point.

Half an onion, a few ribs of celery, a carrot or two, and a clove of garlic should do the trick.

Chopped nicely...

And, of course, you’ll need some stars. You could obviously use noodles or whatever, but I just think these are fun.

Love stars!

Making the Soup

I didn’t even bother washing out my pot from making the stock. I just added a new drizzle of olive oil, set the pot over medium-high heat, and added all my veggies to it.

Just a few minutes...

Cook the veggies for a few minutes until they start to soften and then add the thyme and all the stock. Bring that all to a simmer and then add your stars.

A Note on Over-starring. I actually added the full 16 ounces of stars to my soup because they looked so tiny! Like any pasta though, they swell! I think my version ended up a bit star-heavy! Six to eight ounces of the star pasta should be enough.

The stars will need to cook for about 9-10 minutes and then you can stir in your shredded chicken and season the soup with salt and pepper.

Done deal. Really not too much work.

Serving the soup

I really like soup like this with crackers, but I know that super-crusty bread is also a hit. Any way you scoop it, this is just a good bowl of soup.

So good.

Betsy ate this for a few meals (I did too just to ward off the germs) and she was feeling much better after about 24 hours!

I take full credit for her recovery.

I guess like a farm house would make?

Let me preface what I’m about to write with the fact that I’m an enormous Cook’s Illustrated fan. I love their magazine and cookbooks and all their recipes are almost always surefire.

That said, when “Farmhouse Veggie Soup” won the poll last week, I was expecting to read a recipe involving slow-simmering stocks and farm-raised veggies.

After all, I have a hard time calling a recipe “Farmhouse” unless it’s actually cooked in a farmhouse. Or at a minimum it should use all fresh ingredients.

When I think of a farmhouse veggie soup, I imagine an old grandmother slowly stirring a pot of stock that’s been simmering for hours. She carefully stirs in hand-picked veggies from outside her back door while her lazy dogs lounge around the kitchen.

What doesn’t come to mind is a test cook in a cooking laboratory mixing soy sauce and powdered porcini mushrooms to get the same deep flavors that the grandmother gets.

It’s not to say that the later version isn’t completely delicious (it is), but calling it “Farmhouse” makes me feel icky.

So I’m renaming it Cheater’s Veggie Soup. Because that’s really what it is.

Cheater's Vegetable Soup

Yield: Serves 6-8.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon dried porcini mushroom powder
8 Sprigs fresh parsley + 3 Tablespoons chopped
4 Sprigs fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Large leeks, 1/2 inch slices
2 Carrots, peeled and diced
2 Ribs celery, diced
1/2 Cup white wine
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
6 Cups water
4 Cups vegetable stock
1/2 Cup pearl barley
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 turnip, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 green cabbage, diced
1 Cup frozen peas
1 Teaspoon lemon juice

Serve with:
Crusty Bread
Lemon Thyme butter (1 stick butter mashed with 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, zest from 1/2 lemon, and a pinch of salt)

Helpful Equipment:
Dutch Oven

Spice Grinder

Directions:

1) In a spice grinder, grind a handful of dried mushrooms for 25-30 seconds until they are powdered. Measure out a Tablespoon of the powder.

2) Use kitchen twine to tie together parsley and thyme sprigs with bay leaf.

3) Melt butter in a large, sturdy pot (dutch oven works well) over medium heat. Add leeks, carrots, celery, white wine and soy sauce, plus a big pinch of salt. Cook until liquid is evaporated and veggies are soft, about 10 minutes.

4) Add water, broth, barley, mushroom powder, herb bundle, and garlic. Increase heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes, partially covered.

5) Add potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

6) Remove soup from heat and stir in peas and chopped parsley. Remove herb bundle. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with crusty bread and lemon-thyme butter.

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated Recipe

Some Whacky Ingredients

This recipe is kind of wild, but with good reason. Most cooks know that the way to make the best homemade soup is to start with a really good homemade stock. Without this, you’re already playing catch-up.

But this recipe ingeniously compensates for the lack of a homemade stock with a few ingredients that have a delicious, savory flavor: dried mushrooms and soy sauce. Just a small amount of both of these gives the soup a really deep flavor so you can actually use store-bought stock and still end up with a fantastic soup.

The first ingredient, porcini mushroom powder, is a bit weird. Luckily, it’s actually really easy to make. Just stick a few dried mushrooms in your spice grinder and pulse them for about 30 seconds. BAM. Mushroom powder.

Mushroom powder is strong!

Soy sauce and white wine also give the soup some great flavors.

Normally, when you make a good stock, you let some herbs simmer in the stock, but for this soup, we’ll just throw the herb bundle straight into the soup when we add the store-bought stock.

Herb bundles are smart.

Starting the Soup

Most of the actual vegetables in this soup are pretty straightforward. One thing I was really happy to see was the substitution of leeks for onions. Onions can quickly overpower a soup so the leeks are a great change. They have that same flavor profile, but aren’t quite as strong.

The key part to remember about chopping leeks is to make sure you cut them in half horizontally and run them under water to clean the dirt out between the layers of leeks. Then you can just dice them up.

Don't be intimidated!

Also dice up some celery and carrots and you’re ready to get started on the soup.

Starting the soup...

Using a heavy pot, like a dutch oven, melt some butter over medium-high heat and then toss in your leeks, carrots, and celery. Also add in the white wine, soy sauce, and a big pinch of salt.

Cook this until the liquids all evaporate and the veggies are starting to soften.

Then go ahead and stir in the water, mushroom powder, herb bundle, stock, garlic, and barley.

Stock and water!

The barley is especially important. As it plumps up, it really thickens the soup nicely.

Action shot!

Bring this to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20-25 minutes so the barley can start to cook.

The Starchy Stuff

While that’s simmering away, you can prepare the starchy stuff in the soup: potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Ok. Cabbage isn’t exactly a starch, but you add it with the starchy stuff so it gets lumped in for purposes of this soup.

The starch business.

Once your soup has simmered for 20 minutes or so, then you can stir in those veggies.

Love these flavors.

Continue to simmer the soup until the veggies are all tender and the barley is cooked. This will probably be another 20 minutes or so.

Finishing the Soup

To finish off this soup, once all the veggies are soft, kill the heat and stir in some frozen peas and fresh parsley. Now would also be a good time to taste the soup for seasoning. It might need another pinch of salt and pepper.

Some green stuff.

Serve this up immediately with some really crusty bread.

Crusty bread is key.

It’s a perfect soup for the fall and you can actually make it on a week day thanks to some of the shortcuts in the recipe.

I’m not sure that I would exactly call it “Farmhouse”, but I would call it a keeper!

This will completely warm your soul.

I’ve been cooking breakfast at the local homeless shelter for a few months now and I’m becoming an expert of the S.O.S breakfast. The shelter almost always has plenty of bread and lots of random things that I can cook in a light gravy and serve over toast.

It’s pretty much always a hit because it’s really filling, warming, and just a great way to start the day.

It doesn’t always have to be meat-based though. A few days ago I made a bit of a classier version of the dish for myself with a variety of mushrooms and spices and topped with fried eggs. It was probably my favorite breakfast dish I’ve made since my chicken and waffles brunch.

Mushrooms on Toast

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

8-10 ounces various mushrooms (I like a mix of crimini and shiitake)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic (one for the toast)
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
1/4 Cup heavy cream
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper
4 slices toast
4 large eggs, fried over easy or poached

Directions:

1) Gently rinse mushrooms or brush off dirt. Slice them thick.

2) Add olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook without turning for a few minutes to get a nice sear on the mushrooms. Then stir and continue to cook for another few minutes until they are just turning soft.

3) Add garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes to mushrooms and continue to cook until spices are fragrant, another minute probably.

4) Turn heat down to low and add cream. Also season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir together for another minute until cream thickens into a nice light sauce.

5) Toast bread and rub with a clove of garlic.

6) Remove mushrooms from pan and crack in eggs. Fry eggs (over-easy is recommended).

7) Spoon mushrooms over toast and serve with an egg on top. Garnish with red pepper flakes and thyme.

The Shrooms

There’s an eternal debate about whether or not you should wash mushrooms. I’ve heard the argument that it rinses off flavor or that the mushrooms absorb water. I don’t really buy either of those lines though. So I do lightly wash my mushrooms just to get off any visible dirt.

It’s hard to get mushrooms perfectly clean, but it makes me feel better to rinse them off for some reason. Call me crazy.

Various mushrooms...

For this dish it’s very important to not slice your mushrooms to thin. You want big meaty pieces of mushrooms on the toast.

So cut each mushroom into 3 or 4 slices and call it good.

Thick slices work better.

Besides the mushrooms, you really just need a few ingredients to make this dish excellent. You need a bit of cream to thicken up the sauce for the mushrooms. The fresh thyme pairs perfectly with mushrooms and the red pepper flakes, while optional, I think sort of make the dish by giving it a bit of heat.

I don’t think I need to explain why you should put garlic in this. You should put garlic in pretty much everything.

Good flavors!

Cooking the Shrooms

When it comes time to cook the mushrooms, you want to cook them hot and quick to get a nice sear on them. So add a good glug of olive oil to a large skillet (I like a nonstick skillet for this). Once the oil is hot, add your mushrooms in a single layer on the pan. Let them cook for a few minutes before turning them so they get a really nice brown color to them.

Up close on the shroom!

Once your mushrooms have softened a bit and browned around the edges (about 6-8 minutes probably), add the minced garlic, fresh thyme, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Continue to cook it for another minute until the spices and garlic are really fragrant.

If at any point, the pan is really dry, add a bit more olive oil.

Once the spices are hot and fragrant, turn the heat down to low on the pan and add your cream!

Action shot!

Stir this all together for another minute or two and your mushrooms are done. The cream should mix with the olive oil and make a really light sauce that’ll coat all the mushrooms.

It’s delicious stuff really.

This would be a good time to hit it with some salt and pepper also.

All finished!

The Toast

Obviously the mushrooms are important to this dish, but the toast is equally important. Having some flavorless piece of wimpy bread under these mushrooms is not an option. Get a nice sourdough or wheat bread and toast it well.

Then rub each piece of bread with a fresh garlic clove to give it plenty of flavor. You could butter the bread if you want, but it’s not really necessary.

Don't forget the garlic massage.

Then just pile your mushrooms high and deep on the toast!

Smells so good...

The Eggs

This dish was made for an over-easy egg on top. There’s just no two ways about it. You can use the same nonstick pan that you cooked your mushrooms in to cook a few eggs quickly. There should be plenty of oil still in the pan. Just crank up the heat to high and crack in a few eggs. Cook them for a few minutes until the whites are almost cooked through, then flip them carefully and cook them for another 10 seconds.

Throw them on top of the mushrooms (1 egg per piece of toast) and garnish the whole thing with some more thyme and red pepper flake.

The runny yolk is key!

This dish is a perfect example of how good simple things can be. There’s nothing really fancy about this dish. It’s just all about execution. Make sure to not overcook your eggs. Try to get a good sear on your mushrooms and turn down the heat when you add the cream so it doesn’t scald.

Simple things. But if you nail them, you’ll be a very happy eater.

Administrative Note: I’m taking Labor Day off from posting. You shouldn’t be reading the Internet anyway on Monday! Get outside and grill something! Check back on Tuesday though for a new Homemade Trial.

Well look at that!

Ok people. It’s time to get serious for peach week. We’re done with making baked peaches and peach salads. It’s time to kick it up a notch.

Or twelve.

This recipe features a trifecta of flavors that go really well with peaches: pork, maple syrup, and bourbon. All of them are slam-smashed into one thing, rolled up, and grilled.

This might shock you, but it was really tasty.

Peach Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 3-pound pork tenderloin or 2 1.5 lb tenderloins
1 ripe peach, diced
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons bourbon
2 Tablespoons chicken stock
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
2 Cups breadcrumbs (approx.)
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Meat Tenderizer
Kitchen Twine
Meat Thermometer

Directions:

1) If you're making your own bread crumbs, toast bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes until very dry. Then crumble.

2) Stir other filling ingredients together and set aside until needed.

3) Slice tenderloin down the center (but not all the way through), then use a sharp knife to carve it open until it lays flat. Once it's mostly flat, cover it with plastic wrap and pound it out to an even thickness.

4) Add filling to tenderloin in a small layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave about 1/2 inch of room around the outside of the tenderloin.

5) Roll the tenderloin up and secure it with kitchen twine.

6) Grill the tenderloin over medium-high heat until it registers 135-140 degrees in the center. This should be around 16 minutes total. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature occasionally.

7) Cover the tenderloin with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes.

8) Slice up the tenderloin into 1/2 inch coins and serve!

The Filling

When it comes to stuffing something like a pork tenderloin, you don’t have a lot of room, so you want to make sure to maximize the flavors in the small amount of stuffing that you’ll be using.

So I grabbed some of the most flavorful stuff I could think of.

Goood flavors here...

Besides those flavors, you need a good absorbant base for the stuffing. You could use store-bought breadcrumbs but I like to make my own so they have some texture to them and aren’t all the same size.

Just roast 5-6 slices of your favorite bread in a 300 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Then let the bread cool down and should be able to pretty much crumble it with your hands.

Use any bread you want!

Stir all the filling ingredients together in a large bowl and you’re all set!

I wish mine would’ve been a tiny bit dryer (I adjusted the recipe from what I used). Since the pork tenderloins cook relatively quickly, the stuffing won’t have time to really absorb or lose much moisture. So what you put in is pretty much the texture that you’re going to get.

I wish mine would’ve been just a tad bit dryer.

A bit too mushy...

The Tenderloin

This looks like an intimidating dish, but it’s 100% doable. The key part is to not rush cutting open the tenderloin and having a nice sharp knife. To start, slice the tenderloin down the center, being careful not to cut all the way through it.

Then carefully run your knife along the bottom of one side of the tenderloin. You kind of want to unroll it if that makes sense. Here’s one of my sides after being “unrolled.”

A steady hand helps...

Do that to the other side as well again being careful not to cut through the tenderloin. Then put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the tenderloin and lightly pound it out with a mallet. This just makes sure that it’s a nice even thickness. There’s no need to bash the thing to pieces. Light strokes will get the job done.

No need to bash it in.

Now it’s time to fill it! Depending on the size of your tenderloin, you’ll need different amounts of filling, but basically you want a nice even layer all over the whole tenderloin. Try to make sure that it’s not too thick in any one part and leave about a 1/2 inch around the outside of the tenderloin. Sprinkle it with a pinch of salt and pepper also before rolling it up.

Basically, just make it look like this:

Not too thick...

Then, starting with the end closest to you, just roll it up! Try to make it as tight as possible without ripping the outside layer of tenderloin.

My first one had a small rip in it which will happen sometimes because, well, it’s not everyday I stuff a tenderloin.

One tiny rip there...

No worries though if yours has a small rip. It should still cook up just fine.

Tying the Tenderloins

Unfortunately, these tenderloins will NOT keep their shape on their own (although they will after they are cooked). So you’re going to need to tie them with some kitchen twine to get them to stay in the right shape. It’s always a good idea to tie stuff like this just to make sure everything stays in place.

Just cut off a big piece of twine and wrap it around each tenderloin a few times, criss-crossing it as you go. No need to do anything fancy with it. We’re going for function over fashion here.

A very important step...

Grilling the Tenderloins

You could definitely roast these guys, but I prefer the hot heat of the grill. Just heat your grill up to medium-high heat and then toss on your tenderloins. Tenderloins cook pretty quickly, but this will take a bit longer than your average tenderloin due to the stuffing.

Mine took right around 16 minutes to get to the right internal temperature (135-140 degrees). In reality though, for something like this the only way to really know if your tenderloin is done is to use a meat thermometer, which I highly recommend.

Smells good already.

When the tenderloin comes off the grill, wrap them up with foil and let them rest for about 10 minutes. They’ll continue to cook in the foil and the temperature will rise another few degrees.

Done deal!

Once the tenderloin is rested, you can cut off the twine and slice it up! I like to shoot for about 1/2 inch coins of the tenderloin.

Assuming you don’t overcook the tenderloin, there’s no sauce needed for these guys. They are really moist and flavorful.

Really tasty!

There’s a few tricky parts about this recipe (wrapping the tenderloin, not overcooking it, etc), but if I can do it anybody can do it.

Just remember to give yourself plenty of time so you aren’t rushed and maybe have a swig or two of that bourbon to calm the old nerves.

Then you can cook up a storm!

Really awesome actually!

When I was growing some mushrooms last week I spent some time thinking about what I was going to actually make with my mushrooms. While I ultimately settled on a galette, I also had my eye on a very strange recipe that I’d never heard of before: Mushroom custard.

The idea just seemed weird to me. But after I got to thinking about it, mushrooms usually work well in cream-based things. I love them in omelets and cream of mushroom soup is one of my favorite things in the world.

So while I passed on the recipe originally, I kept thinking: Man. I really want to bake some mushrooms in a custard.

And so I did. And it was good.

Baked Mushroom Custards

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

8 ounces assorted mushrooms (I used a mix of cremini and shiitake)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons shallot, diced fine
2 Cups cream, half and half, milk, or a mix
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Ramekins

Directions:

1) Gently rinse mushrooms and slice them. Also dice your shallot.

2) Add butter to a large skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add shallot. Cook until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they are soft and they lose some of their moisture.

3) Pour in dairy. I used all cream. Also toss in a few thyme sprigs. Add back to heat and continue to cook until dairy is steaming. Stir for a few more minutes, then remove from heat and let cool slightly.

4) In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, cayenne, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

5) Slowly whisk in cream mixture into egg mixture (don't pour egg mixture into cream mixture). Pour slowly and whisk whisk whisk.

6) Once combined, pour custard mixture into ramekins.

7) Add ramekins to a large baking dish and pour boiling water around the ramekins. The water should come half-way up the dishes.

8) Bake at 300 degrees until custard is lightly set. This will probably be between 30-45 minutes. It'll take longer if you baked it in a large dish or if you are using milk instead of cream.

9) Serve warm with crusty bread!

Prepping the ‘Shrooms

As far as I can tell, you can use almost any mushroom for this recipe. I’m not sure I’d use the white button mushrooms though just because they tend to not have a really full earthy flavor. So I went with a mix of cremini and shiitake mushrooms which definitely did the trick.

Lots of earthy flavors.

Gently rinse off all your mushrooms to remove dirt and then slice them up. You can keep the slices pretty thick.

A rough slice.

Add your butter to a large skillet over medium heat and then add the shallot.

Once the shallot is getting soft (maybe 2 minutes) add the mushrooms and continue to cook until they they lose their water and start to soften. This should take about 5 minutes.

Try not to overcook these.

Next, add your liquid to the mushrooms. I used 2 Cups of cream for mine because that’s how I roll. If you want a slightly lighter custard, feel free to use half and half or even milk. You could also do a mix. Whatever you are using though, pour it in now along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

All cream baby!

Stir this over the heat until the cream starts to steam. Keep stirring for a few more minutes and then remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly.

The Custard

This is a really easy custard to throw together. Once your cream/mushroom stuff is done and cooling, just whisk together your eggs and yolks with some cayenne and a pinch of salt and pepper.

The cayenne is really important in my opinion. It gives a really nice, subtle heat to the dish.

Cayenne is key!

Once your eggs are whisked, slowly pour your cream mixture into the egg mixture – whisking constantly. Pour slowly at first and whisk whisk whisk so the eggs don’t curdle.

Once the custard mixture comes together, you have two options. You could pour it into one large casserole dish and bake it like that or you can pour it into 4 smaller ramekins for individual servings.

I went the individual route.

You could do one big thing also.

Whether you go big or small on the baking dish, you need to bake these guys in a water bath. So add them to a larger dish and then, right before you put it in the oven, pour boiling water around the dishes. The water should go about half-way up the dishes.

Steamy!

Bake this whole thing at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. Note that this time can vary pretty substantially. If you are using a larger baking dish, you’ll need to bake it for longer (40 minutes probably). If you are using milk or half and half instead of cream, you’ll also need to bake it longer. So if you’re using a large dish and all milk, you might need to bake it for 45-50 minutes to get the custard to set.

When it’s done, it should be slightly jiggly. These guys are perfect (I realize you can’t see the jiggling.)

After a quick bake.

In my opinion these are best served warm or at room temperature. Apparently there are people that like them cold, but that just seems weird to me.

I also recommend serving them with a big slice of crusty bread.

Crusty bread is key.

This turned out to be a really delicious and unique dish. I wasn’t sure that I would like it, but it tasted a lot like cream of mushroom soup which is just fine by me!

If you’re a mushroom fan or just up for something different, give this a shot!