Cream of Mushroom Soup

From Dish Gwen:

Recently two events came together in my life, leading me to make mushroom soup. The first was that I got a new blender, after six months of having a busted old useless one taking up valuable shelf space in my kitchen. The second was that I started growing oyster mushrooms. I’ve been making this soup for years but I don’t make it often. Now that I’ve made it for my 20 month old son and he loved it, I have a feeling it will become part of our regular household menu. Plus it takes less than a half hour to make so it’s kind of a perfect dish.

Ingredients:
– ½ lb oyster mushrooms, chopped (you can also use shiitakes, buttons, portabellos, whatever!)
– ½ cup chopped white onion
– 3 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1 tablespoon olive oil
– ½ teaspoon salt
– ¼ teaspoon white pepper
– 2 cups whole milk
– fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

In a deep sauce pan, simmer the olive oil, garlic and onion on medium/high heat until they begin to brown, then throw in the mushrooms. Toss everything together with the salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add about ½ cup of water to loosen any brown bits or caramelized coating from the bottom of the pan, and turn off the heat. Carefully pour all of the contents into your blender, cover, and blend until you get a smooth puree (takes about 1 minute). Pour the puree back into the pot on medium/low heat, and add the milk, stirring so everything combines into a smooth, creamy mixture. Add additional salt as desired, and once it’s steamy hot serve in bowls with crusty bread. Serves 4, and this soup freezes well so got ahead and stash some away for later in a tupperware!

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Tilefish with White Wine and Shallots

From Dish Gwen:

My husband and I recently signed up for a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) program, meaning every week we get to pick up a little package of fresh-caught seafood. So far we’ve gotten Long Island Oysters and clams, fresh Atlantic cod, a whole fish (which we grilled) and some really nice filets of striped bass. This week we received a golden tilefish filet, and although it was my first time cooking tilefish it was instantly clear to me where it gets its name (check out that coloration!).


Aside from being beautiful, tilefish is delicious. It’s a flaky white fish with fatty skin that reminds me of cod or halibut. Ours was caught the day we ate it off of Montauk, in Long Island. Here’s how I cooked it:

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
– 1-2 lb tilefish filet (skin-on, scales-off)
– 2 tablespoons honey
– 2-3 large shallots, sliced into rings
– 2 tablespoons butter
– 2 cups white wine
– salt
– white pepper
– olive oil

Directions
Simmer some butter in a small sauce pan on medium heat and add your sliced shallots. While they’re browning, heat up a larger skillet on high and grease it lightly with olive oil. When it is good and hot, place your filets skin-side-down on the skillet and let them cook for a few minutes (you want that fatty skin to get nice and crispy so don’t move or flip the filets – leave them alone!). Toss the shallots so they brown all over and then add the white wine and butter, as well as a pinch of salt, and stir on low heat.

Once the flesh of the fish is white nearly all the way through, take a spatula and scrape the filets off the pan and flip them over.


Turn off the heat, and quickly drizzle a spoonful of honey on the crispy brown skin of the filets, then spread the honey evenly across the surface of each filet. Sprinkle the fish with a pinch of salt and white pepper, then serve the filets over a bed of rice, pasta, polenta or another grain of your choice. Spoon the shallots and wine/butter sauce over the fish and enjoy!

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Eggplant Pasta with Mint

From Dish Gwen:

I’ve never been much of an eggplant fan. The texture is mushy, the flavor isn’t really there, and my sister claims it makes her mouth itch. But last summer I happened to eat dinner at an excellent Italian place (Emilio’s on Houston) and had one of the best pasta dishes ever, and it just happened to have lots of eggplant in it. And it’s pretty simple to make!

Ingredients
– 1 lb eggplant, cubed or sliced into small rounds (no more than 1.5” across)
– ½ cup fresh mint, chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, diced
– salt
– olive oil
– thin spaghetti, cooked al dente

Directions

Slice up your eggplant and toss it in a bowl with lots of salt (enough salt to coat each piece of eggplant completely). The salt serves two functions: 1. It makes the eggplant salty and delicious; and 2. It draws the water out of the fruit, which improves its texture. Let the salty eggplant sit for about 15 minutes, then dab it off in a towel to remove the excess water and salt.


On medium/high, heat a sauce pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and then toss in the garlic and eggplant. The eggplant should sizzle and once it’s golden brown on all sides, toss in the spaghetti and mint. Turn off the heat and toss everything together gently, then serve! A delicious, easy summer dish!

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