Mushroom French Dip with Horseradish Mayo

Do restaurants still have French dip sandwiches on the menu? I remember back in high school or college eating them when dining out, but don’t recall seeing them on menus after that. Maybe I just didn’t notice once I became a vegetarian.

When I saw a mushroom version online recently, warm food memories of the traditional sandwich came flooding back. The chewy roll, the tender beef, and oh, the au jus! Honestly I don’t remember cheese and caramelized onions on the sandwich, but what I ate probably wasn’t authentic, and I’m sure it would have been loads better with those two additions.

Since my go-to beef replacement over the last almost 30 years has been mushrooms in some form, this moved to the top of my “must make” list. Truly a multi-dimensional meal, the bite of horseradish in the garlicky mayo; the rich, meaty mushrooms; the soft, sweet caramelized onions; creamy Provolone; and the complex au jus come together on toasty French bread for a sensory overload of deliciousness. When Pete deemed this one of the best things I’ve ever made, well, I felt a duty to share. You’re welcome!

• Servings: 4
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Adapted from this Pinch of Yum recipe

Horseradish Mayo:

½ cup of your favorite mayonnaise (if you’re mayo averse, I highly suggest Vegenaise Better than Mayo brand—no eggs, no dairy)

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

2 cloves garlic, finely grated

Pinch of salt

Seasoned mushrooms:

6 large portabella mushroom caps or more if they’re smaller (about 18 ounces total), wiped clean, gills scraped off, and sliced about 1/3 inch thick

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons Montreal steak seasoning (store-bought or homemade; I made a scaled down version of this recipe) or just use salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Caramelized onions and au jus:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced

¼ cup dry sherry

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Annie’s and Whole Foods 365 are both vegetarian)

1 tablespoon reduced sodium tamari or soy sauce

2 cups vegetarian “beef” broth (I used 2 teaspoons Better than Bouillon No Beef Base with 2 cups hot water)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

To complete the sandwiches:

4 demi baguettes or one long baguette cut into four sections

Butter or buttery spread, optional

Provolone cheese slices

To make horseradish mayo, whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To prepare the mushrooms, warm the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and sprinkle with steak seasoning. Cook, tossing mushrooms occasionally, until they release their liquid, it has cooked off, and mushrooms are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside.

To caramelize the onions and make the au jus, melt the butter in a heavy skillet, preferably cast-iron, over medium heat. Add onions and cook, tossing occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until they are golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Add the sherry to the onions and cook until the sherry has evaporated. Add the Worcestershire, tamari, and the broth. Increase heat to medium and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 5-10 minutes until slightly reduced. Taste, and add salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Place a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and dump the mixture into the strainer, separating the onions from the au jus. Set both aside.

Halve the baguettes horizontally and spread with butter (optional). Place on a sheet pan. Divide mushrooms among bottom bread sections and cover with Provolone slices (cut to fit if slices are wide). Transfer pan to the oven and toast the open sandwiches for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Remove from oven and top the mushroom/cheese side of sandwiches with caramelized onions. Liberally spread top sandwich portions with the horseradish mayo and put sandwich tops on bottoms. Serve each sandwich with a small bowl of au jus for dipping. Make sure to have plenty of napkins and enjoy! Makes 4 sandwiches (no judging if the two of you eat all four portions; that might have happened here).

Mujaddara (Lentils and Brown Rice with Caramelized Onions)

A few weeks back I had a recipe fail making stuck-pot rice and lentils for the first time. Part of the instructions said the “rice should smell toasty but not burned and you might need to check on it once or twice if you’re making it for the first time.” Well my rice never really smelled toasty, and at the end, when the recipe said to turn the whole pan of rice and lentils out onto a platter, the bottom, which becomes the top, was completely charred. Plus, the lentils were undercooked.

I was crushed! This delicious-smelling meal I was so looking forward to was ruined. I pulled off the charred layer and salvaged what wasn’t burned. It tasted okay, but obviously not how it was supposed to, and the experience had me craving a good lentil and rice meal.

Then a few days ago I came across a recipe for Mujaddara, a Middle Eastern dish of lentils and rice with caramelized onions. It was a similar dish to my huge failure, but without the hard-to-get-right “stuck-pot” part. I had found my redemption recipe!

Once I found the first Mujaddara version, I looked for more and combined aspects of a couple of them. These instructions will work with regular green or brown lentils, but not red, puy (French green), or black beluga lentils. Make sure to use brown basmati rice; white won’t work here because cooking times are different.

The cumin, allspice, and bay leaves give this dish warmth and the somewhat crispy caramelized onions lend a really pleasant textural component and a subtle sweetness. A little cool creaminess from the yogurt and a nice kick from the harissa and you’ve got yourself the lentil and rice dish of your (okay, my) dreams. But you will love it too. Enjoy!

• Servings: 4-6
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Adapted from Milkstreet and Cookie & Kate

4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 ¾ teaspoons fine sea salt, divided

Freshly ground black pepper

5 cups water

1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice, rinsed and drained

1 cup brown or green lentils, picked over for debris or pebbles, then rinsed and drained

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 large onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced

½ cup sliced scallions, light green and green parts only, divided

Plain Greek yogurt (whole or 2%), for serving (omit to keep this vegan)

Harissa or sriracha, for serving

Combine the garlic, bay leaves, cumin, allspice, 1 ½ teaspoons of the salt, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper in a large stockpot or Dutch oven. Add 5 cups of water and stir. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

When water comes to a boil, stir in the brown rice, lower heat to medium, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Make sure to keep water at a strong simmer. Stir in the lentils and return to a simmer. Cover, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice and lentils are done, 20-25 minutes.

While rice and lentils are cooking, warm olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onions and cook, stirring only occasionally at the start then more frequently once browning begins at the edges of the pan, until the onions are deeply caramelized and crisped, 20-25 minutes; adjust the heat down if the onions brown too quickly.

Using a slotted spoon or fish spatula, transfer the onions to a paper towel–lined plate and spread evenly. Sprinkle with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and set aside; the onions will crisp as they cool.

When the lentils and rice are tender, remove the pot from the heat. Uncover and lay a tea towel across the top of the pan, then replace the lid and let stand for 10 minutes (this will absorb the steam).

Remove the stockpot lid, discard the bay leaves, and smash the garlic cloves against the side of the pan with a fork. Add about three quarters of the scallions and parsley, reserving the rest for garnish. Gently stir and fluff the rice with a fork. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.

Transfer the rice/lentil mixture to a large serving platter or bowl. Top with the caramelized onions and the remaining scallions and parsley. Serve hot or at room temperature. Top with yogurt and harissa. Makes 4-6 servings.

Tomato Corn Skillet Pie with Cheddar Biscuit Crust

With the bonanza of tomatoes our garden is producing, I’ve been searching for recipes beyond sauces, jams, and chutneys, looking for a main dish where the tomatoes could be the star of the show.

101 Cookbooks, one of my go-to sources, had my mouth watering with this Tomato Tart Tatin recipe. I imagined it with the addition of fresh sweet corn and easily topped with packaged puff pastry from my freezer. The harissa and lemon zest options intrigued me, as well, and I went to bed Sunday night excited to make this after work on Monday.

Fast forward to Monday, 5:00 PM, apron on and ready to get cooking, and I pull the box of puff pastry out of the freezer. Damn! It’s not puff pastry! It’s phyllo dough. Shoot—that’s just not going to work. I didn’t feel like driving to the store either. My sails were totally deflated!

I thought about making a homemade pie crust, but that’s more butter than I wanted in my dinner (yes, I know the puff pastry probably had just as much, but I wouldn’t have seen it all by itself sitting in front of me). Then I remembered in the notes of Heidi’s recipe, she mentioned this would be good with a biscuit crust. Bingo! How about a cheddar biscuit crust!?! Yes, please!

I haven’t made enough biscuits to be able to pull a batch together without a recipe, but after a quick Google search, I had a plan to adapt the biscuit crust from this Epicurious recipe. Subbing half the all-purpose with whole wheat pastry flour would make it a little healthier, and I decided to reduce the butter a bit too. Skim milk with a little apple cider vinegar would replace the buttermilk I didn’t have, and all was once again right in my culinary world.

Considering all my starts and stops, this came together quickly and we were eating before evening starvation mode set in. Enjoy!

• Servings: 6-8
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Adapted from these 101 Cookbooks and Epicurious recipes

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Kernels cut from one ear fresh sweet corn

1 1/2 pounds (24 oz. small tomatoes)—I used larger cherry tomatoes from our garden)

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

2 tablespoons harissa (or 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar)

1 tablespoon flour

Zest of ½ a lemon

Cheddar Biscuit Crust (recipe follows)

Garnish with chopped fresh herbs (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (205 C).

Heat the olive oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions and a couple pinches of salt, stirring regularly, until the onions are deeply golden and caramelized, 10-15 minutes. Stir in corn during the last minute or two of cooking. Remove from heat.

While the onions are cooking, cut any larger cherry tomatoes in half. You can leave the extra small cherry tomatoes whole. Add to the caramelized onions and corn, along with the ½ teaspoon sea salt and harissa. Stir in the flour and sprinkle mixture with lemon zest.

Plop spoonsful of biscuit dough over the tomato mixture, until it’s evenly covered and you’ve used all the dough. Bake until the crust is deeply golden and the tomatoes are bubbling a bit at the sides, 25 – 30 minutes. Serves 6-8.

Cheddar Biscuit Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan

5 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 1/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk (I used skim milk mixed with a tablespoon cider vinegar; let stand 5 minutes after mixing)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Add cheeses and toss to coat. Blend in butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir just until a dough forms.