Mushroom & Onion Turnovers

I've always liked the flakiness of turnovers and it seems to be the right time to make it now. The difficult part is to find time to do it because the pastry dough takes quite a bit of time. One Monday during summer break, it was my day staying home with the girls. Perfect! I got all day to make the turnovers. Since it's for a dinner idea, I wanted to make a savory kind. Mushroom and onion turnover sounds delish.

The pastry dough I made the first time was a no yeast recipe I found online with my own adjustments.

2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour for dough
1&1/2 stick of unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup of cold water
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Dissolve salt and sugar in cold water, set aside. Put the flour in a wide bowl, mix the butter cubes well with the flour. The mixture should be lumpy with pea size butter pieces. Add the water in, mix it with fork to form a cohesive dough ball. Cover the dough and chill it at least for 3 hours in the fridge.

After the dough cooled down, get the dough out on a flat surface dusted with flour, knead it a few times, then roll it with rolling pin dusted with flour. Fold dough in thirds like a business letter along the long side, then fold it in half. Roll the dough envelope thin, dust with flour and fold it in three again along the short side, then fold it in half.

Roll the dough again, now it's ready to be made into the puff pastry you want. But if you aren't going to use it right away, you could fold it again and put it in a freezer bag until needed.

The second time I made the dough, I used another recipe that requires less refrigeration time (30 minutes instead of 3 hours), from King Arthur Flour's web site, http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/fast-and-easy-puff-pastry-recipe. I used 1/2 cup more flour with 1&1/2 sticks of butter. I also substitute the sour cream with plain yogurt because that's what I had on hand. Because I had more flour, I used 3/4 cup of the yogurt.

Pastry filling:
1&1/2 package of sliced baby bella mushrooms, diced
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp Olive oil
2&1/2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp rice wine
1/4 tsp dry basil

In a large skillet, heat the oil up, add onion, stir occasionally, until transparent. Add mushrooms, cook and stir occasionally. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover and let it simmer to let all the flavors absorbed into the mushrooms and onions, about 8 to 10 minutes. Be sure not to leave too much liquid in the mixture. Set aside or scoop out of the skillet to let cool. It will make folding and transferring the pastry easier when the filling is cooled down. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

I could never roll out the dough in symmetrical shapes, so I ended up making the puff pastries in different shapes. Once the dough is rolled out thin, cut out whatever shapes you like, put the fillings in one half of the pastry close to the center fold, fold it in half, then seal all 3 sides well. Cut a few slits on top. I made 11 of them in total. Put them in the oven about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. The following pictures are before and after they were baked.

Before going into the oven

Nicely browned when done.

You can scramble in a couple of eggs or put some garbanzo beans in the mushrooms and onions for extra protein. You can also add shredded cheese in the mushrooms and onions right before you are ready to put it in the pastry. Making more than you can eat for one meal will definitely make the whole production more worthwhile and they keep well as leftovers.

They came out very yummy! The pastry is buttery and the filling is very savory. A big hit at the family dinner!

Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole

It's been a while since I last posted any tasty meal, so here is one we had tonight - brown rice and broccoli casserole.  It took sometime due to the baking process, but otherwise it's a fairly simple dish to make.

As usual, remembered to take a picture when the dish was half way gone.

1&1/2 cup of cooked quick cooking brown rice *
4 dried Shitake mushrooms, diced
1 cup cooked broccoli, chopped *
2 stalks of celery, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
Canola oil
1 14oz can cream of mushroom soup *
2/3 cup water
2 jumbo Smart Dog veggie links, diced*
1&1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

* I used the Success Boil-in-Bag brown rice.  According to the package, one bag is supposed to yield 2 cups of cooked rice, but my estimate is probably 1&1/2 cup or so.  It just didn't look like there were 2 cups of it.  For the broccoli, I used the steam in a bag frozen kind.  It saves some time and makes the whole process just a bit easier.  For the soup, I used Amy's organic semi-condensed cream of mushroom soup.  Well, as for the veggie links, since I'm a fan of substituting ingredients, you get the idea, swap them out with other vegetarian or non-vegetarian protein as you wish.  You may want to cook the raw meat before baking, otherwise you should prolong the cooking time in the oven.

Soak the dried Shitake mushrooms with boiling water in a small sauce pan with lid.  That way the tops of the mushrooms also get moistened and soften, since mushrooms tend to float on the water for their light weight.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 F, cook the rice according to the package direction (I used the same baking dish to make the rice so I have one less dish to wash.), chop up the celery and onion.  Heat some canola oil up in a small skillet, saute the onion and celery until they are softened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Take the mushrooms out of the water.  Gently squeeze the water out of the mushrooms but BE CAREFUL!  The water in the mushroom is very HOT, so squeeze them gently under running tap water to avoid burning yourself.  Chop the stems off the mushrooms and dice up the caps.  Add the mushrooms into the onion and celery mixture, let them cook for a couple minutes, then turn the heat off.

Drain the water off the rice bag and pour it into a 2 quart baking dish.  Add in the broccoli, the onion mixture and the mushroom soup.  Use the empty can to get about 2/3 cup of water and pour into the dish.  Add the chopped veggie links.  If they are frozen, thaw them out for easier chopping.  Mix everything well.

Shred the cheese on top of the dish and spread them around evenly.  You can mix some cheese in with everything else; I didn't want too much cheese flavor myself, although my hubby probably disagrees on this one.

Cover the dish and stick it in the oven for about 25 minutes.  Then take the cover off to bake an additional 5 or 10 minutes.  Dinner is served.  The mushroom soup really renders the savoriness to the dish, the Shitake mushrooms add unique flavor, and the celery adds a little crunchiness to a rather soft dish.  Everyone enjoyed the meal, so I declare it's a success!  Bon appétit, everybody.

Baked Vegetarian Sausage with Cannellini Beans

I went to a demonstration & dinner class at Williams-Sonoma the other night.  The chef made a casserole dish with Italian sausage and cannellini beans.  It was quite tasty.  It gave me an idea for my own vegetarian version of it since the rest of my family are active vegetarians.  Here is how it goes.

Olive oil

Good thing I made skillet full of it, almost forgot taking a picture.

4 Morningstar breakfast original flavor sausage patties
2 veggie smart dogs
1/2 cup meatless crumbles
1 medium onion, diced or thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps fresh thyme, chopped
1&1/2 tbsps William-Sonoma mushroom demi glace *
2 cans cannellini beans, mostly drained *
1 3/4 cups water
1/4 cup tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup bread crumbs *
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

* The original uses the beans with the liquid, but I thought it wasn't necessary to have that much sodium in my food and it turned out very good.  But I did add the water in the cans to get some flavor.

* I use Panko Japanese style seasoned bread crumbs.

* When you put the demi glace in, need to stir and break it down to mix in with the rest of the ingredients because it's very congealed together.

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large, ovenproof pot or deep skillet, warm 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sausage patties and smart dogs to brown them a bit, about 2 minutes on each side.  Transfer to plate.  Roughly chop the patties and smart dogs.  Add a bit more oil and the onions, saute until softened.  Add the garlic, carrot and thyme, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Put the demi glace and 3/4 cup water in and bring to a simmer.  Add the crumbles, drained beans and tomato paste with 1 cup of water in the bean cans (1/2 cup in each can to get some flavor without all of the sodium content). Cook until the liquid begins to thicken, about 3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper. Add the chopped sausage patties and smart dogs in.

In a small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, Parmesan and a little olive oil.  Sprinkle the mixture over the top and bake until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.

The result was phenomenal.  In other words, yummilicious!  It's substantial and flavorful, a dish the whole family can enjoy.  That prompted me to take a picture for the blog, so I won't forget to make it in the future.  We had it with some chips.  I imagine it will also go well with toasted bread of some sort.