Meatless Monday - Vegetarian Stroganoff on a Bed of Kashi

Resolution #1 - I intend to eat, drink, and be merry with the people I love ! ! !

I posted that statement on my personal Facebook page on New Years Day as a broadside against the flurry of diet-related posts, advertisements in sidebars, MSN articles on my homepage, and blather on the TV and radio. Now, I know I may alienate some folk out there, but I just have to say that if we would all just be a bit more moderate about what we put in our mouths, we'd all be a bit better off. Oh, and yes! You do have to move your butt on occasion and break a sweat doing SOMETHING during the day - at the gym, around the house, out in the yard, moving around the city, wherever and doing whatever!

There. That's said. Now, if only the blather would stop and move on to other interesting things... like good news, happy people, advocacy that's working in the world ... all the good stuff! I will move on to good food.
Meatless Monday is upon us and I wanted to share this dish that SB and I shared with friends at a dinner party we had on NYE. Everyone really liked this dish and it satisfied a couple different dietary needs. Ian is an OL vegetarian and Harold is a ciliac (and a silly one, at that!) ... so, I made us Vegetarian Stroganoff  and served it on a bed of kashi. The nuttiness of the buckwheat, which is entirely gluten-free, was a perfect (!!) platform for the creaminess of the mushroom/onion/garlic-based Vegetarian Stroganoff. If I were to put the beef back into this recipe, the kashi would still be an excellent accompaniment!

Since this is Meatless Monday, SB and I had the leftovers for lunch with a side bowl of that tomato bisque I made the other evening - tasty and perfect!

Resolution #2 - I am going to be more frugal and less wasteful ! ! !

So far, so good! Here's that recipe! A word about ingredients and the sauté - I used crimini, oyster, shitake, and white button mushrooms. Don't crowd the mushrooms or you won't get them to brown nicely. I also used those pretty little white boiling onions, shallots, and plenty of black pepper in the sauce. The kashi was a coarse grind and not the fine ... and DO toss the kashi with an egg and cook it before adding the vegetable broth. No shortcuts when it comes to the grain or you will have gloppy kashi. I'm just sayin' ...

There is a pound and half of mushrooms in this recipe.

Make your own mix of whatever looks best at market.

Don't crowd them when doing the sauté, as they don't brown unless

they have plenty of room to sizzle.

Vegetarian Stroganoff with Kashi - printer friendly

Vegetarian Stroganoff with Kashi

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. butter
1 lb. white button mushrooms, quartered
10 oz. package of mixed mushrooms (Crimini, shitake, oysters or other earthy mix), cut to bite-sized pieces
6 garlic cloves, minced
6 small white boiling onions, chopped plus 1 large shallot, minced
2 tbsp. cornstarch
½ c. dry white wine
1 c. vegetable stock
½ tsp. dried basil
1¼ c. sour cream or crème fraiche
large pinch of nutmeg
juice of ¼ lemon
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
chopped parsley and chives for garnish

Making the Dish:

1. Melt 1 tbsp. of butter in a non-stick fry pan and sauté the mushrooms in batches, sprinkling a bit of the minced garlic into each batch sautéed. Turn the batches of browned mushrooms into a bowl nearby and add one more tablespoon of butter to the pan with each new batch. Try to reserve about 1 ½ tbsp of the butter for the onion sauté.

2. When the mushrooms have been browned and set aside, sauté the onion in the same pan until it is glistening. Add the flour and cook for about a minute , stirring to make an onion roux.

3. Pour the white wine and half the vegetable stock into the pan and stir to make a smooth sauce. As it thickens, gradually add the rest of the vegetable stock and continue stirring until it has thickened nicely.

4. Turn in the mushrooms and their juices, the basil, salt and black pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Stir well and lower the heat to a low simmer – use a deflection pad under the pan so the sauce doesn’t boil.

5. Prepare the kashi – and serve the warm Stroganoff over the bed of kashi garnished with chopped parsley and chives.

Kashi

Ingredients:

1 ½ c. kashi – (medium coarse grind)
3 c. vegetable stock
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
3 tbsp. butter
2 eggs

Making the Dish:

1. Heat the vegetable stock, butter, and spices to boiling.

2. Toss the kashi and eggs together in a small bowl until the kashi is completely coated with egg.

3. Turn the kashi into a hot non-stick frying pan and toss it over high heat until the egg has dried on the kashi kernels and the kernels have separated.

4. Reduce the heat under the kashi to low and carefully add the boiling stock mix. Stir to distribute the kashi evenly, cover the pan closely and simmer for about 8 minutes until the stock is absorbed.

5. Turn the kashi onto a platter to receive the Stroganoff.

DO eat, drink, and be merry with the folks in YOUR world ! Happy New Year!