Multicultural Stuffed Portabello

If you're low-carbing it, and find yourself in the grips of a pizza desperation, this is a more than adequate alternative. It's pretty damn good no matter what you're dietary status is. You'll need:

1. portabello mushroom caps- I recommend the biggest you can find
2. 8 oz Italian sausage- I use turkey for calorie/fat sake, and I really can't tell the difference
3. 1 small onion, chopped
4. 3 cloves garlic, crushed*
5. 1 poblano pepper, chopped*****
6. mozarella cheese - here's where the extra calories are probably worth it. If you can't bring yourself to get the real stuff, at least avoid the super skim milk version.
7. 1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped*
8. cooking spray/olive oil
9. salt and pepper

*****A word about poblano peppers: I'm a huge fan of the seasonings in Italian sausage, but poblano peppers have this incredible smokiness that I cannot get enough of. I do my best to weasle poblanos into every recipe I can, and this is no exception. It is, however, a somewhat tricky ingredient. First of all, I HIGHLY recommend using gloves if you're going to be slicing them open. Trust me. I've cooked some up, showered, dinner partied, then attempted to take out my contacts, only to end the evening in writhing agony, all Polyphemus-like. Second, there's a lot of variation in the strength of flavor in these guys. Sweetness, heat, flavor are never the same in poblanos, and I am not aware of a method to deduce this without tasting them. I say 1 poblano for this recipe, which is usually correct, but I recommend taking a taste test to see just how much you want to add.

On with the recipe.
Preheat the oven to 400, and start prepping the mushrooms. Cut the stems so they're equal in height to the walls of the mushroom, then with a spoon, carefully shell out the gills. Put all this byproduct in a medium-sized bowl- you'll use this for all the stuffing. Spray a glass pan with cooking spray, or brush it with olive oil, and put the mushroom top side down on the pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip them to stem side down and bake for another 5 minutes.

While this is happening, work on the stuffing. Brown the Italian sausage in a frying pan, breaking it up with your spatula. Once that's done, scoop it out of the pan and onto a papertowl to absorb some of the grease. I use the grease left in the pan to fry up the onion, garlic, and poblanos, but feel free to drain it off if it seems like too much (especially if you're using non-turkey sausage). Fry the veggies until they're tender and the poblano tastes more sweet than hot. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Now put all the veggies, the cooked meat, and parsley into your bowl previously designated as the stuffing container. Add about 1/4 c mozzarella cheese. Mix everything up, then stuff it into your cooked mushrooms. Fit as much as you can, packing down if necessary. You'll probably have a lot leftover, but this stuffing makes a KILLER omelette the next morning. Top each mushroom with a thick coat of cheese, I'll say about 1/4 cup each. Put everything back in the oven for another 5 minutes, then flip it over to broil. Broil your meal for a few minutes until you see that golden-brown color. I like mine pretty crispy...

Exam Week Staples: Mushroom Chicken Soup

It may not look like much, but this soup has gotten me through some long, dark, unbelievably boring days, when my culinary repertoire is limited by time and attention span, with the possible exception of my caffeine source. I find myself making it nearly every exam for several reasons: 1. I can make a huge batch at once, 2. It's reasonably healthy and hearty (when compared to some of my other test week staples, namely coffee and string cheese), and 3. I almost always have the ingredients I need stashed away. Here's what you'll need:

1. a container of mushrooms, sliced
2. 1 medium onion, chopped
3. a few cloves of garlic, chopped*
4. 1 1/2 cups chicken stock - I just reconstitute mine from the bouillion cubes so I don't have to worry about keeping cans of stock... uh... in stock. Yup. Obvious pun resisted! Congratulate me!
5. 1/2 cup cooking sherry
6. a TB or so of olive oil
7. 1 cup chopped up, cooked chicken -either leftovers, or I buy bags of pre-cooked chicken that you can keep in the freezer. They're always really tender.
8. 1 cup broken up cauliflower, steamed - again, frozen is the way to go. Just pop it in the microwave and you don't have to worry about cooking it.
9. a couple shakes of dried basil*
10. 1 bay leaf*
11. 1/4 cup cream*
12. salt and pepper, naturally

*I've always had a habit of skipping ingredients in recipes when I was either too cheap or too lazy to purchase them. Sometimes this works out fine, and sometimes it ruins the whole thing, so from now on, I'll always * ingredients that are not absolutely necessary.

Now that all this is in list format, and I'm not just haphazardly tossing stuff in a pot, this seems like a lot of stuff, but it's all stuff that I always seem to have in my kitchen.

If you're going the bouillion route, go ahead and reconstitute a cube according to the instructions so you'll have it ready. Next, fry up the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a little olive oil on medium-high heat until everything's tender. Put these cooked veggies into a blender along with the chicken stock (the cubes usually make more liquid than you actually need) and sherry. You may have to do this in batches. Go ahead and play with the amounts of liquid you add, depending on how thick you want your soup to be. Use your nose to guide how much sherry you should add- it's probably a better guide than my crappy estimate. And don't worry about adding too much- you'll have a chance to cook off that alcohol taste a bit later on. Now pulverize this mixture until it's absolutely creamy. This might take a few minutes. Add the cream, basil, and salt and pepper, then pour the mixture into a saucepan along with the bay leaf and set it on medium heat, stirring occasionally. If you're using frozen cauliflower and chicken, go ahead and thaw it in the microwave, then put it in the pot with the rest of the soup. Take your time here to play with the flavors until you've got it how you want it. If you taste too much sherry, just let it cook off. That's the best part about soup- you've got tons of flexibility with the subtle flavors, so you can make it just right. This will make about 4 filling bowls, and it reheats perfectly.