Parmesan Dutch Baby with Creamy Mushrooms

Lately I’ve been working my way through a cookbook I’ve had for several years, Smitten Kitchen Every Day. The Vegetarian Mains section has won my heart (and appetite). Every recipe I’ve made has been delicious and weeknight doable. Yay!

The book even includes a recipe that makes two (and only two) large oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies. You can satisfy your big cookie craving without having to fight not to keep eating cookie after cookie, which is what usually happens when I bake.

Last summer Dutch baby pancake recipes seemed to be everywhere, and I finally tried a breakfast version. Wow! The special treat that pancakes bring, but without the hands-on stove-top flipping they require. Plus, they were so darned cool looking with their rumpled one pan presentation. 

A Dutch baby isn’t going to feed a crowd but is plenty for two with a tossed salad or four as a side dish with a main course. This recipe is a nuanced, hearty concoction that won’t leave you feeling weighed down. I sub homemade cashew cream for the called-for heavy cream; use whichever you prefer—I’m not sure you’d be able to tell the difference. Enjoy!

• Servings: 2-4
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Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen Every Day by Deb Perelman

Creamy Mushrooms:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium shallot, minced

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned and chopped small

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon dry white wine or dry vermouth (I used vermouth)

3 tablespoons heavy cream or cashew cream (cashew cream recipe can be found as part of this recipe)

Dutch Baby:
4 large eggs, room temperature

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup milk, room temperature (I’ve made this with both skim and whole milk and really couldn’t tell the difference)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or parsley, for garnish

Place a 10- or 12-inch cast iron pan (or other similar sized ovenproof skillet) in your oven and preheat it to 425 degrees F.

To make the creamy mushrooms, heat a large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat and add the butter and olive oil. Once the butter is melted, add the shallot, and cook until soft, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until mushrooms have released their liquid and it has cooked off.

Add the wine, reduce the heat to medium-low, scrape up any brown bits and cook off the wine, which will take a minute or two. Stir in the cream, and as soon as it simmers, which will be almost immediately, remove from heat. You’ll be briefly heating this up again so it’s warm when you top the Dutch baby with it.

To make the Dutch baby, in a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, salt, and pepper until well combined. Add the flour and whisk until mostly smooth, then whisk in the milk. It’s okay if there are lumps.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven (use thick hot pads!) and add the three tablespoons of cubed butter. Swirl it around in the pan until it melts. Pour the batter into the pan and, carefully, return the pan to the oven. Cook for 15 minutes when the pancake should be brown in places and rumpled. Sprinkle with Parmesan and return it to the oven for a minute or two to melt the cheese. During the last few minutes of the Dutch baby cooking, heat the mushrooms over medium-low heat so they are warm.

Remove the pancake from oven and spoon the creamy mushrooms over it. Garnish with chives or parsley and cut into wedges. Serves 2 as a main dish with a tossed salad or 4 as a side dish with a main course.

Strawberry Dutch Baby

It just doesn’t seem appropriate now to write about light-hearted things like recipes and food with the recent murder-by-cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the ensuing riots (not to be lumped in with the peaceful protests), which have now spread across the country. I want to share recipes, but it seems so frivolous and unimportant at this time. However, we all need to eat, so here goes…

I’ve heard of Dutch babies before but had never had or made one. Lately it seemed recipes were everywhere I looked, and I took that as a sign I should join the party.

Apparently Dutch babies aren’t actually Dutch. They are a German pancake that earned the moniker Dutch when someone confused the word Deutsch with Dutch. So, there you have it.

Regardless of the name or origin, they are easy, versatile, and delicious. I’ve made sweet versions with both apples and strawberries and I plan to make a savory one soon (just omit the sugar in the batter and add a few grinds of black pepper) with some veggies and a sprinkling of grated cheese when done. And unlike regular pancakes, you can relax while it’s baking with no need to stand over the stove flipping flapjacks. Enjoy!

• Servings: 2-4
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Adapted from New York Times Cooking

One Dutch baby serves two generously and four for a lighter meal. You’ll get more of the signature puffing and rumpling if your milk and eggs are at room temperature to start.

3 eggs, room temperature

½ cup milk, room temperature (I used skim)

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional if using strawberries, but a must with apples)

Pinch of nutmeg

Pinch of salt

3 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes

About 3/4 cup of sliced strawberries or apples

Pure maple syrup, for serving

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. and place a 10-inch cast iron pan in the oven.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until very well combined (could also do this in a blender, but I didn’t want to have a blender to clean).

When oven reaches 425, carefully remove pan from oven and add butter. Once it’s melted, scatter strawberry slices on bottom of pan. Pour batter into pan and carefully return to the oven. Cook for about 18 minutes, until pancake is puffed and golden (do not open the oven door—try to determine if it’s done through the window). Turn oven off and leave pancake in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cut into wedges. Serve with pure maple syrup or whatever toppings you’d like. Makes 2 generous or 4 smaller servings.

 

Colcannon, with a Twist

It’s getting to be that time of year when one starts thinking of what Irish dish to make for St. Patrick’s Day. A couple years ago I made these Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Frosting. You have my guarantee if you bring a batch of these babies to work on St. Patrick’s Day (or any day, really), your co-workers will gobble them up in no time and beg you to bring them again. They are amazingly good, and no one would ever guess they’re vegan.

Several years ago, in the early days of my blog (before I had a decent camera), this Shepherd’s Pie with Irish Soda Bread was our hearty St. Paddy’s Day meal, and made for some delicious leftovers.

This year I got an early start with another savory concoction and gave it a little twist to make it a full meal. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish mainly consisting of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale (or both), along with lots of butter!

I dialed the butter back quite a bit to make this version a little less artery-clogging and used some low-fat buttermilk to give it more buttery flavor without the butter. My intention was to use both kale and cabbage, but at the grocery store I saw the most beautiful bunch of rainbow chard, which I decided to use in place of the kale. I grabbed a head of pre-wrapped organic cabbage and went home to get cooking.

Well it turned out my head of cabbage was actually a head of organic lettuce. Grrr! Opting not to go back to the store and make an exchange, I decided to make my colcannon with just the rainbow chard—no cabbage this time.

Now for the twist that makes it a full meal: I threw the Colcannon into a casserole dish and made four indentations, each just the right size to cradle an egg. About 15 minutes in the oven and dinner was ready. Firm whites and runny yolks atop this buttery potato-chard creation—such a splendid meal that, at least in our house, will not be relegated to just St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy!

• Servings: 4
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2 ½ lbs. russet potatoes, washed, but not peeled

1 tablespoon sea salt

1 bunch rainbow chard or kale, hard stems removed, cut into thin ribbons

3 or 4 green onions, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 eggs

Cut potatoes into quarters and place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Sprinkle the tablespoon of salt into the water. Cover pan and bring water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook potatoes 15-20 minutes, until tender.

Drain potatoes and let them sit in the pan on the still hot, but turned-off burner, allowing them to dry a bit.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 3-quart casserole with cooking spray or lightly oil or butter it.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. When butter is melted, add chard or kale and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add green onions and cook another minute or so. Add the milks and cook until milk is hot, but not boiling.

Pour milk mixture over potatoes, and, using a potato masher, mash until potatoes and milk mixture are thoroughly combined. Add salt & pepper, to taste. Dump it all into the casserole dish and make four impressions evenly spaced. Crack an egg into each impression. Bake about 15 minutes, until whites are set, but yolks still runny. Makes 4 full meal servings.

Oven Fried Green and Red Ripe Tomato and Egg Breakfast Stacks with Hot Cherry Pepper Aioli

They say impatience is a character flaw and I’m the first to admit I’m occasionally (frequently?) impatient (hey, I’m working on it!). But impatience isn’t truly a flaw when it leads to a really great meal, right? Such was the case with Sunday’s breakfast.

Impatience with our tomatoes was my motivation. We have a ton of tomatoes in our garden, but aside from a couple cherry varieties, they are all still stubbornly green. Every day I inspect the garden in the morning and again in the evening looking for the slightest blush on the bumper crop of beautiful orbs. And day after day, I see nothing but varying shades of obstinate green.

Green Tomatoes

To avoid prolonging enjoyment of our bounty, I envisioned a baked version of fried green tomatoes similar to the eggplant in my Baked Eggplant Parmesan. I mixed up a spicy aioli for a topping, and since this was to be breakfast, I knew eggs would play into the finished product.

Aren’t they pretty?

Evolving in my mind as I went about the preparation, ripe red tomatoes picked up that morning at the farmers market were just begging to join the party, and I obliged. The resulting stack of “fried” green tomato, aioli, ripe tomato, over-easy egg, repeat, then topped with one more green tomato and another dab of aioli made for a breakfast that was downright stunning.

The stacked combo tasted so amazing, it was one of those recipes that immediately went into the “recipes so good they must be served in my restaurant” folder (yes, a restaurant that exists only in my mind).

The “fried” green tomatoes are delicious on their own with a little aioli and make a great snack if you have leftovers after breakfast, which we did. Arriving home sunburnt and hungry that night after an outdoor concert on a gorgeous summer Sunday, they hit the spot—satisfying and delicious like junk food, yet healthy. What more could you ask? Enjoy!

Oven Fried Green Tomato and Red Ripe Tomato and Egg Breakfast Stacks with Hot Cherry Pepper Aioli

• Servings: 4-6
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3 large green tomatoes (or 4 smaller ones)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup flour

2 large eggs, plus more for cooking to your preference for the stacks (2 per stack)

3 tablespoons buttermilk

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

A pinch of cayenne pepper

½ cup mayonnaise (I use vegan Earth Balance Mindful Mayo)

2 hot cherry peppers, sliced (I use Trader Joe’s Hot & Sweet Cherry Peppers)

1 clove garlic minced

One large ripe (red) tomato, sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a metal cooling rack on a large baking pan. Core green tomatoes and cut them into thick slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place flour in a large zip-lock bag. Mix eggs and buttermilk in a shallow bowl. Place panko in another shallow bowl and stir in the cayenne and a little salt & pepper.

Put a few slices of tomato in the plastic bag and seal. Shake (Shake ‘n Bake style) to dredge the tomatoes. One at a time, dip tomato slices in egg until coated and then in panko mixture to coat—make sure to get both sides and edges. Place on the rack in baking pan. Repeat with remaining tomato slices.

Spray tops of coated tomatoes with olive oil cooking spray and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on rack for a few minutes.

While tomatoes are baking, prepare aioli by placing mayo, cherry peppers, and garlic in a mini food processor or blender and pulsed until combined. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

While the fried tomatoes are briefly cooling, cook two eggs for each stack, to your preference. I think over-easy with yummy runny yolks are the best, but however you prefer your eggs works.

To assemble stacks, place one fried tomato on a plate and spoon a small dollop of aioli on top. Top with a ripe red tomato slice, one egg, and repeat those layers. Finish with one more fried tomato and another dollop of aioli. Take a photo cuz it’s going to look awesome, then sit down with a hot cup of good coffee and dig in. There should be enough fried tomatoes for four stacks. Hearty appetites can handle a whole stack, but lighter eaters might want to split a stack.

Pete likes his eggs over-hard–no runny yolks for him!

Shakshuka

The farmers’ markets near our house don’t open for another week, but I’ve had a yen for local produce shopping since early May, so on Memorial Day weekend, Pete and I headed to the lovely downtown St. Paul Farmers’ Market. It’s the most charming larger market I’ve ever been to and it’s always bustling.

I knew there would be lots of flowers and bedding plants, however, there ended up being more fresh produce than I expected. Pretty radishes, vibrant lettuces and spinach, spring onions, asparagus, green garlic, straight-from-the-farm eggs and even some potatoes (that must have been greenhouse grown)—we filled our totes to over-flowing.

Once home, I wanted to get at least some of our cache into breakfast. An omelet or frittata seemed too predictable, so I looked to the “Morning” section of my new cookbook, sure inspiration would be found. Sunday Suppers: Recipes & Gatherings by Karen Mordechai is delightful and teeming with fresh recipes and ideas for creative twists on basic dishes. It’s broken down into sections—morning, noon, afternoon and evening, offering full menus for various themes, many of which adapt well to picnics and meals on the road.

Like so many of my cookbooks in recent years, this was purchased at the Lake Superior Trading Post in Grand Marais. They have an ever-changing selection of unique cookbooks tucked away in a corner of the rustic second floor. I read it from cover-to-cover on our drive home from the cabin last month, and remembered there were a couple breakfast recipes that intrigued me.

Shakshuka—it’s a Middle Eastern breakfast dish that’s much more fun to say than “poached eggs in tomato sauce.” I had never heard of it, but if a recipe makes my mouth water just reading it, I must make it! I had most of the ingredients on hand and suitable substitutes for those I didn’t. Plus it was fun to see the look on Pete’s face when I said we’re having shakshuka. After a brief stunned silence, he said “Gesundheit!”

This was so good I made it two weekends in a row. Make sure to have some good quality bread (sour dough rye is wonderful!) or fresh pitas to dip in those runny egg yolks and saucy stew. I guarantee, if you make this once, you will make it again! Next time, I’m making it for company. Enjoy!

• Servings: 4
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Adapted from Sunday Suppers: Recipes & Gatherings by Karen Mordechai

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 green bell pepper or other bell pepper, chopped into 1” pieces

1 bay leaf

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ to 1 jalapeño pepper, minced (include the seeds for extra heat)

A couple handfuls fresh spinach, chopped

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

10 oz cherry tomatoes, quartered (or 10 oz. full sized ripe tomatoes, diced)

One 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 eggs

Additional salt and pepper, to taste

Chopped fennel fronds, green onion, parsley or cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Bread or fresh pitas, for dipping

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pepper, bay leaf, onion, garlic, and jalapeño and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onion has softened. Stir in the chopped spinach and cook a couple minutes more until spinach is wilted. Add the salt, pepper, paprika, fennel, cumin, and coriander. Cook for a minutes, stirring constantly, to release the fragrance (breath in, it will smell amazing!)

Add the fresh and canned tomatoes and the tomato paste, reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Remove bay leaf.

With the back of a spoon, make four indentations in the sauce. Crack an egg into each indentation. Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until the eggs are done to your liking, 10-15 minutes. Scoop eggs and sauce into bowls and garnish with fennel fronds, etc., if desired. Serve with good quality bread (toasted or not) or fresh pitas.