Mushroom Marsala

Whenever I’ve had Chicken Marsala out at restaurants, it’s usually not that good. It’s always too creamy. They never use enough mushrooms and that is my favorite part of the dish! I decided to make the dish myself minus the chicken, so basically a Mushroom Marsala. I served mine over spaghetti but I think it would be really good over mashed potatoes too. Try the recipe and let me know what you think! If you want to make it vegan, skip the butter, use coconut milk instead of cream, and substitute the chicken broth with vegetable broth.

Mushroom Marsala (serves 2-3)

 Ingredients

·       1 lb of cremini mushrooms, thickly sliced

·       3 cloves of garlic, minced

·       ½ sweet yellow onion diced

·       ⅓ cup of heavy cream (½ cup if you prefer it on the creamier side)

·       1 cup Marsala wine 

·       1¼ cup chicken broth

·       1 tsp salt

·       pepper to taste

·       1 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary

·       1 - 1½ tbsp flour

·       1 tbsp butter

·       1 tbsp olive oil

Directions: Heat olive oil. Sauté onions until brown. Add butter and then mushrooms and ½ tsp salt. Add garlic and rosemary. Let mushrooms cook for a few minutes. Add ½ cup Marsala wine and 1 cup chicken broth. Add 1 tbsp flour. Stir. Let sauce reduce. Pour in another ½ cup of Marsala wine and ¼ cup of chicken broth. Let sauce continue to reduce. It might seem too liquidy, but once you add pasta or let it cool, it will thicken. Then add ⅓ cup of heavy cream. Sprinkle in remaining ½ tsp salt. Cook for a few minutes longer. Taste the sauce. Adjust w additional salt if necessary. Toss in pasta. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Alternatively, you can eat with rice or serve over mashed potatoes.

Portabella Mushroom "Al Pastor" Tacos

I love tacos and living in Los Angeles has allowed me to taste a variety of amazing tacos—from taco trucks, to obscure taco stands, to night markets. My favorite would have to be Al Pastor tacos, mainly because it usually comes with fresh pineapple slices and I just love pineapple on everything (including pizza!). But I don’t always want to eat meat. As I’m writing this post, I’m realizing I actually haven’t had tacos OUT in a long time!!! I need to get my booty to a taco truck ASAP! I created a vegetarian Al Pastor recipe so that I would have a healthier option when making tacos at home. Plus, I love learning different ways of making traditional recipes to cater to different diets.

To make Al Pastor tacos, you need Achiote powder. This required me to run all over town for hours searching for the spice! You really have to go to a Mexican grocery store or Food-4-Less. Sometimes it’s available at western markets but that can be hit or miss. And for me it was all miss after miss. I think I went to three western markets on my side of town before I gave up and went further out to Food-4-Less. Even though it was a journey trying to find this ONE spice, the outcome of my recipe made the trek totally worth it! I impressed myself with this dish! LOL. Don’t worry—all the other ingredients are easy to find. Give my vegetarian taco recipe a shot! It’s really good, I promise!

PORTABELLA MUSHROOM Al PASTOR TACOS WITH PINEAPPLE (makes about 12 small street tacos)

Ingredients:

Marinade:

• 1 lb Portabella Mushrooms

• 2 tsp achiote powder

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp garlic powder`

• ½ tsp chili powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp sugar

• ¼ cup orange juice

• ¼ cup pineapple juice

• 1 lime, juiced   

• 1 tbsp olive oil

Additional Ingredients:

• small street style white corn tortillas

• 1 cup of fresh pineapple slices

• 1 mixed cup of chopped cilantro and diced sweet yellow onion

• 2 limes, sliced for serving

• salsa

Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (optional):

• 4 tomatillos

• 1 jalapeno

• 1 ripe avocado

• ¼ sweet yellow onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp chili powder (for medium spice)

• ½ lime, juiced

• 1 cup of cilantro

Directions:

Clean portabella mushrooms and pat dry. Slice them with medium thickness. In a large bowl, mix the mushrooms with the marinade  ingredients. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil and  saute mushrooms until cooked through. Set aside. Char pineapple slices in another skillet or keep raw. Warm  tortilla in a separate skillet. Assemble taco with tortilla, add cooked mushrooms, sprinkle cilantro & onions, top with pineapple and serve with fresh lime wedges and salsa. I served mine with homemade Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa.

For the Creamy Avocado & Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, roast the whole tomatillos and jalapeno for about 25 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees. Let cool. Then blend in a food processor with the other ingredients.

Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce

When it comes to pasta, I love tomato sauce and l love my pasta smothered in it. I often make bolognese but it’s definitely very time consuming and can take up to 3 hours to make including prep time. I also like to make a shrimp or clam tomato sauce with my pasta because it’s lighter and doesn’t take as long to cook. But sometimes I don’t have seafood readily available on hand. A great option for a simple pasta sauce is arrabbiata sauce, which is basically a spicy marinara. It’s perfect for those nights when you don’t have a lot of time because it doesn’t require many ingredients. You probably already have everything you need in your pantry. It’s easy to make and so delicious! And you can freeze your leftovers!

Pasta with Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce (Serves 5-6)

Ingredients:

• Linguine-fini or any pasta of your choice

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 sweet yellow onion, diced

• 6 cloves garlic, 4 diced and 2 smashed

• 2 (28 oz) cans of whole tomatoes

• 16 basil leaves, torn

• 1 tsp oregano

• ½ - 1½ tsp red chili pepper flakes, more or less, depending on your spice level (½ tsp=a little spicy, 1 tsp=spicy, 1.5 tsp=very spicy)

• 5 sprigs of thyme

• 2-2½ tsp salt

• ¼ tsp sugar

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 1 cup of water

• burrata or parmesan cheese upon serving (optional)

Directions:

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a 3 quart pot over medium heat. Brown onions. Throw in the garlic and lightly toast.  Pour in canned tomatoes. Add salt, pepper, sugar, red chili pepper flakes, oregano, thyme, and fresh basil. If your tomatoes are whole, you can break it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.

Simmer for 30 minutes on medium-low. Sauce will thicken and stick to the bottom of the pot. Stir sporadically breaking up the tomatoes and scraping the bottom.

Add 1 cup of water and stir thoroughly. Cook for another 30 minutes-1 hour on medium-low heat. Continue to stir sauce and break up the tomatoes with your wooden spoon.

Lastly, drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil over your finished sauce and stir.

Toss your pasta in the sauce. Serve with fresh basil and a scoop of burrata cheese or grated parmesan. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper. I prefer burrata because it helps calm down the spice. Its soft, rich and cool texture is also a nice contrast to the hot and spicy dish. If you choose burrata, drizzle a little bit of EVOO on top. Skip the cheese all together and make this dish vegan. Substitute pasta for zucchini noodles (or use gluten-free pasta) and make this dish gluten free. Or do both, and make this dish vegan AND gluten-free!

When I cook for just me, I like to toss an individual portion of linguine-fini in an individual portion of the sauce in a separate pan, over the stove top. I also prefer my pasta al dente so I undercook my pasta slightly knowing that it will cook a little bit more when I mix it in with the sauce in the pan. Then I freeze the rest of the sauce in small portions to have later, either with pasta or to make shakshouka with for breakfast. But if you are planning on making this dish for a few guests, you can transfer all of your pasta directly into the pot of sauce and toss all together to eat immediately. Another option is to use some of the arrabbiata sauce as the base of another sauce. Just recently, I took out a small portion of the sauce from the freezer and cooked it with wine and butter and added pasta and it was delicious!

Creamy Wild Mushrooms & Asparagus Spaghetti

I know you’re not supposed to be going to the grocery store often or even at all during this pandemic, but I can’t help it. It’s my one simple pleasure during the lockdown and I need it for my mental health. I don’t like grocery delivery apps and I just find it challenging to buy groceries for 2 weeks. How do you know what you want to eat for 2 weeks? Plus, fresh produce doesn’t last that long and you can’t find everything at one store. I know that I’m fortunate to have the luxury of having food to eat (and getting to choose what I want to eat) and the health (and money) to buy my own groceries and for that, I am truly grateful. I take precaution when going to the grocery store. I get my walk in and I wear gloves and a mask.

I’ve been cooking almost every single meal and I had been getting kind of tired of it. This past weekend, I indulged and ordered delivery TWICE. Indonesian noodles with fried morning glory and Lebanese shrimp with rice and tabbouleh, in case you’re wondering. It was so nice to take a break from cooking and washing dishes. As you all may know, I have a tiny kitchen and I don’t have a dishwasher or a microwave. And somehow, I create so many dirty dishes throughout the course of the day at home. How does this happen?!

I decided to try a new dish this week. Normally, I’m a tomato sauce type of pasta girl. I often make a bolognese sauce or a light tomato sauce with shrimp or clams (ohhh, I need to to post that recipe). But I don’t ever make a creamy sauce. It’s just not my thing. I don’t usually order creamy pastas at restaurants. Anyway, I love mushrooms and wanted to do something with a mixture of mushrooms but also with a little green so I came up with this Creamy Wild Mushrooms & Asparagus Spaghetti recipe. I used four different types of mushrooms—maitake, cremini, shiitake, and oyster—but you don’t have to use that many. I did use butter but I skipped the cream and opted for coconut milk. You could probably skip the butter and the parmesan, and make this vegetarian dish entirely vegan if you want. And if you really want meat, I think this dish would taste great with chicken or even better, pancetta or bacon bits. Adding this new recipe to my rotation and sharing it with you below!

CREAMY WILD MUSHROOMS & ASPARAGUS (Makes about 3 servings)

Ingredients:

• spaghetti

• 12 oz of mixed sliced mushrooms (maitake, cremini, shiitake, oyster)

• 8-10 asparagus spears, thinly and diagonally sliced

• 1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced

• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

• EVOO

• 2 tbsp butter (optional)

• 1/2 lemon

• 1/2 cup of white wine

• 1/2 cup of coconut milk

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1/4 cup of Parmesan, plus more for serving (optional)

• parsley, chopped for garnishing

• 1/4 cup of pasta water

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and slightly undercook the spaghetti and then set aside. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan w olive oil. Sauté onions until lightly brown. Throw in sliced garlic and lightly toast. Pour in mixed mushrooms and let them cook down for a minute. Sprinkle w salt and pepper. Add butter and stir. Let it melt into the mushrooms. Pour in white wine and let it simmer for a bit. Throw in asparagus. Stir in coconut milk and let it cook for a couple minutes. Lower heat. Using tongs, transfer cooked spaghetti into the frying pan. Add pasta water and mix pasta thoroughly into the sauce. Add parmesan and lemon juice . Top w more salt and pepper and toss again. The sauce may seem a little liquidy at first but it will thicken as it cools down. If you want it thicker, you can add more parmesan and maybe a little more coconut milk. If your sauce is too thick, add more pasta water. And that’s it! Upon serving, sprinkle w chopped parsley, a little EVOO, more parmesan, more salt + pepper, or more lemon juice—whichever flavor you fancy most!

Batches of Bolognese

The world has changed so much over the last couple of weeks with the coronavirus pandemic, mandated quarantines, and social distancing. Restaurants and bars are closed, public parks and trails are off limits, nonessential businesses have shutdown, employees are either out of work or instructed to work from home, schools are closed, and grocery stores are low on stock or sold out of basic items. It feels like life has drastically changed overnight. While all of this has definitely been challenging in so many ways, it has forced me to take a moment to be still, slow down, self-reflect, learn something new, check off things from my to-do list, and connect with people virtually. It has also given me time to appreciate the simple pleasures in life like taking walks outside to enjoy nature and fresh air or cooking my favorite meals at home.

One of my favorite things to make is spaghetti bolognese because I love pasta! Plus, you can make batches of it and freeze it to eat later when you’re feeling too lazy to cook or when you’re craving a midnight snack. This weekend, I was finally able to find all of the ingredients I needed to make my old Dairy-Free Bolognese recipe. What made my evening even better is that I got to open a new bottle of wine that I ordered from Vivino, an online marketplace and community for wine lovers like myself. You can search by wine type, grape, region, food pairings, and price ranges. You can read detailed reviews and descriptions, look at ratings, and then have your favorite wines delivered directly to your door. Vivino sponsored my lovely evening cooking at home by providing me with a nice wine to pair with my meal. Now my belly and my freezer are both full. And my heart is happy!

Summer Recipes

Love being back home in my own kitchen after almost a 2 month hiatus. Now I can get back to my cookbook and also get back to trying some new recipes. Prior to leaving for the east coast, I was on a jackfruit kick. I made Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos and Taco Bowl. I had been wanting to do something else with it that would require BBQ sauce because who doesn’t love BBQ sauce? After researching some ideas, I was inspired by The Veg Life blog to create a Hawaiian Jackfruit & Pineapple Kabob.

This was exactly the type of jackfruit recipe that I was looking for because it includes one of my favorite things to eat: pineapples! It’s so simple to make. Just cut up red and green bell peppers, red onions, and pineapples into thick slices. Marinate the jackfruit chunks (unripe from a can) in your favorite bbq sauce. Then stack them all up on a skewer and grill. I don’t have a grill, so I sauteed everything on a frying pan and then placed them all on a skewer afterwards for presentation. I cooked my jackfruit separately so that I could give them a nice char. I also made fire-roasted tomato rice to serve with it and smothered additional bbq sauce over my cooked skewers. I highly suggest the fire-roasted tomato rice. I used canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes and cooked the rice in that with chicken broth (you can use water if you want to keep the entire recipe vegan). I also sauteed fried garlic and onions separately to mix into the cooked rice and topped it with chopped cilantro.

While I was in NYC this summer, I also made Tomato & Roasted Corn salad and Yucca Pizza Crust. The Tomato & Roasted Corn salad is a pretty basic recipe but it’s delicious and so refreshing. Mix tomatoes, roasted corn, red onions, and shredded basil, sprinkle salt and pepper, and then top with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. I love both tomatoes and corn so I can easily devour this salad. The Yucca Pizza Crust I have made before and have included the recipe in a previous post. This time I made a BBQ Cauliflower Yucca Crust Pizza (pictured above in the back), which is a great alternative to BBQ Chicken Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza (pictured above in the front) with pineapple and mushrooms. I got carried away and added too much cheese though so the pizza slices were harder to pick up. It’s just sometimes challenging to hold back on the cheese, ya know? Mmmm…

An old favorite recipe of mine, which I think can be made all year round, is tomato confit. You can find my recipe in a previous post. It’s really easy to make and you can do so much with it. I personally like to mix it with pasta (noodle-y pasta is my preference) or smother it over my fried eggs in the morning for breakfast. But you can also serve it on a crostini as an appetizer, use it in a sandwich or on toast as a spread, and drizzle over grilled meats or fish. The aroma after you take the tomato confit out of the oven is amazing. Try it!

Which summer recipes would you recommend? I could always use some more ideas!

Porcini Mushroom Bolognese

I love mushrooms. All mushrooms. Mushrooms just taste great in everything. And it’s the perfect substitute for meat. One of my favorite specialty mushrooms is porcini. I love its meaty texture and earthy flavor. I thought it would be fun (and delicious) to create a vegetarian and vegan version of my bolognese sauce with porcini mushrooms.

To create my dish, I used a variety of Alessi Food products, including their extra virgin olive oil, dried porcini mushrooms, linguine, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sea salt, and black peppercorn. Alessi products are fresh, high-quality, and authentically Italian. They are family owned and operated for the last 72 years! You can find their products at most local grocers or you can buy them online with free shipping on all orders over $20. If you love Italian food and cooking, definitely check out Alessi Foods and use code BELLY for a 15% discount. They offer a variety of amazing products. One thing I particularly like about their organic pasta is that it is made with bronze dies, which means it is coarser than most pastas and allows sauce to stick to it more.

My sauce is not only vegetarian but it’s also vegan. I used coconut milk as a dairy substitute to make the sauce creamy. However, I like to top my pasta with a little parmesan but you don’t have to. Happy cooking and eating!

Porcini Mushroom Bolognese (serves 6)

Dry Ingredients:

1 package (1 lb) of Alessi organic linguine or spaghetti pasta

3 packages (1.5 oz) of Alessi porcini mushrooms

Liquid Ingredients:

1 can (28 oz) of Alessi crushed Italian tomatoes

1-1½ cup tomato sauce

½ cup of dry red or white wine

½ cup of coconut milk

½ cup of porcini mushroom water

½-¾ cup of pasta water

Fresh Vegetables:

½ lb mixed mushrooms (cremini and shiitake), coarsely chopped

1 whole eggplant, roasted, peeled and mashed (optional)

1 whole sweet yellow onion, diced

1 cup of carrots, diced

1 cup of celery, diced

½ cup of fresh parsley, chopped

Herbs, Spices, & Seasoning:

2 tbsp Alessi extra virgin olive oil

2-2½ tsp Alessi coarse ground sea salt

1 tsp Alessi ground black peppercorn

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp oregano

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

6 cloves of garlic, 3 thinly sliced and 3 crushed

½ tsp red chili flakes (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Wash eggplant and trim ends.  Cut thick round slices and lay flat on a baking sheet.  Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the eggplant and season with salt and pepper.  Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, flipping the eggplant slices over half way through.  When the eggplant has finished baking, allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.  Peel the skin off the round slices and discard. Mash up the eggplant with a knife and set aside.

Soak dried porcini mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes.  Rinse and drain.  Keep ½ cup of the porcini mushroom water to use in the sauce.

Clean, trim, peel, and dice carrots, celery and onions.  Wash and coarsely chop the mixed mushrooms.  Thinly slice 3 of the garlic cloves and crush the other cloves.

Heat 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium high heat in a large braising pan.  Sautee the onions until they turn a light golden brown.  Then add garlic, celery, and carrots to the pan.  Add 2 tbsp water.  Cook for a few minutes until they have softened. 

Add porcini and mixed mushrooms.  Sprinkle 2 tsp sea salt and 1 tsp ground black pepper.  Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms have shrunken.  Pour in roasted eggplant.  Add 1 tsp sugar.  Mix thoroughly and allow to cook for a couple of minutes.

Add ½ cup of dry red or white wine.  Lower heat to medium.  Stir the vegetables, scraping any bits stuck to the pan.  Cook for a few minutes. 

Pour in crushed tomatoes and 1 cup tomato sauce (you can add more if you prefer your bolognese saucier).  Sprinkle in remaining ½ tsp sea salt, ½ tsp red chili flakes, and 1 tsp oregano.  Throw in 6 sprigs of fresh thyme.  Add ½ cup of the porcini mushroom water.  Mix the vegetarian bolognese.

Lower heat to medium low.  Partially cover the pan with a lid and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta until it’s al dente.  Save ½ cup of the pasta water.  Drain pasta and set aside.

After the bolognese has been simmering for 30 minutes, pour in ½ cup of coconut milk.  Add ½-¾ cup of the pasta water or more, depending on how much your sauce has thickened or your preference.  Mix thoroughly.  Allow to simmer for another 30 minutes partially covered.

Remove the thyme sprigs from the sauce.  Serve sauce over pasta.  Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over your dish.  Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.  Top with shaved parmesan.

Jackfruit "Carnitas" Tacos with Pineapple

I love learning new vegetarian recipes. Lately, I feel like I’ve been eating too much meat. I miss how my body felt when I used to be a vegetarian. But it’s so hard to go back to that lifestyle, especially right now as I’m working on the Cambodian cookbook.

After recently having jackfruit kabobs at Elf, a vegetarian Mediterranean restaurant in Silverlake, I felt inspired to try making something savory with it myself. When I think of jackfruit, I think of the sweet fleshy, orange fruit that I’ve had during my travels through Southeast Asia. However, green jackfruit (young) from the can tastes nothing like it. It’s sort of bland but does have a nice meaty texture. This is actually a good thing for me because I’ve discovered that I’m allergic to the ripe, orange version of the fruit. If you haven’t tasted fresh, ripe jackfruit, you need to try it! It’s so good!

While there are so many options for jackfruit recipes that I want to try, I started with carnitas tacos. Because who doesn’t love tacos?! I adapted my pork carnitas recipe to this one. I think the pineapple slices really make the taco. But I’m biased because I love pineapple on everything!

I want to try making bbq jackfruit “pulled pork” or jackfruit “chicken” teriyaki next time. If you have any other suggestions, let me know! I’d love to hear your ideas!

Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos (makes about 8-10 small tacos)

Ingredients:

·      1 can of green jackfruit

·      1 package of small corn tortilla

·      ½ sweet yellow onion, diced

·      1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (optional – too spicy for me!)

·      ½ cup of tangerine or orange juice

·      2 tsp oregano

·      1 tsp cumin

·      1 tsp paprika

·      1 tsp salt

·      ½ tsp pepper

·      1 tsp honey

·      1 tbsp lime juice

·      1 tbsp olive oil

Toppings:

·      ¼ sweet yellow onion, finely diced

·      ¼ cup of cilantro, finely diced

·      1 cup of pineapple, sliced

·      ½ cup of radishes, thinly sliced

·      salsa (I made my own, see previous blog post)

·      1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

In a large bowl, break apart the jackfruit and remove any seeds.  Add tangerine juice (or orange juice), oregano, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, honey, and lime juice.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with olive oil.  Saute the onions.  Once it starts to turn a golden brown color, add jalapeno slices if you like spice.  Otherwise, pour in the jackfruit mixture and braise for about 8-10 minutes.  You may need to lower the heat to medium. Stir occasionally. If the mixture gets too dry, you can add a little more tangerine/orange juice.

Serve over corn tortilla with fresh salsa.  Top with fresh onions, cilantro, radishes, pineapple slices, and lime wedges.