Pressure Cooker Vegan Mushroom Risotto

Since I'm lactose-intolerant, I've been trying to reduce the amount of dairy in my diet. After reading a few articles about nutritional yeast, I decided to take the plunge and buy a bag from the grocery store. It lends a savory, umami flavor, so I thought mushroom risotto would be a good place to try it.

The result was a savory, yummy risotto, which was a perfect weeknight dinner on a cold winter's night.

Mushroom Risotto

4 TB olive oil

1 small shallot, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

10 oz package mushrooms, sliced (I used Baby Bella)

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

3 to 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 1/2 TB Nutritional Yeast (Or 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, if you want to do a vegetarian version)

1 TB truffle oil

Sea Salt (to taste)

In a 4 qt or larger pressure cooker, heat the olive oil over high heat.

Saute the onion and garlic until soft.
Add the mushroom slices, saute.
Add the rice, and mix until the oil coats each grain.
Add wine and mix until the alcohol cooks off.

Add three cups of the vegetable broth.

Lock lid in place and bring to high pressure.

Cook at high pressure for 4 minutes.

Release pressure, remove lid.

Stir in nutritional yeast, truffle oil, and salt.

Cook over medium-low heat for another 3-4 minutes, until the rice is firm, but cooked. If the risotto gets too dry, add more broth.

Yum!

Sautéed Kale with Garlic & Onions

Tonight, Sean made his delicious pasta carbonara with the rest of the batch of homemade fettuccine. We were craving greens, so I made sautéed kale to go with!

Sautéed Kale

1 bunch kale leaves, coarsely chopped

1 red onion, halved and cut into 1/8" thick slices

2 cloves garlic, slivered  

2 TB olive oil
Salt & freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a 3 qt sauté pan over medium heat.

Add garlic and onion slices. Stir and cook until they have softened somewhat and the onion has separated.

Add salt and pepper.

Add chopped kale. Using tongs (or two wooden spoons) flip and stir the kale and onions, making sure to coat all the kale in the oil.

Reduce heat and cover the pan.

Cook for a few minutes more, stirring occasionally, until the kale has softened but is still a nice bright green color.

This recipe also works well with Swiss chard, spinach, beet greens, etc.

Whole Wheat Fettuccine & Marinara

So, I was reading The New York Times the other day, and came across this easy-sounding recipe for marinara sauce. Since the recipe only contains a few ingredients and takes 15 minutes to cook, I simply had to try it!

The result was a bright and tomato-y sauce. It was super tasty, and despite it containing seven (!) cloves of garlic,  the flavors were very well-balanced. The recipe was also a lot of fun to do, thanks to the step of hand-crushing the whole tomatoes. I was able to find D.O.P. certified San Marzano tomatoes at my local grocery store. I imagine getting the right tomatoes makes a very big difference in the finished product.

I paired my sauce with homemade fettuccine, made with my trusty pink KitchenAid stand mixer. Here's the pasta recipe, adapted from the KitchenAid instruction book that came with my pasta roller set.

2 Cups whole wheat all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Cups semolina flour
4-5 eggs (depending on size), beaten
2 TB water
1 TB olive oil
1/2 Tsp. Salt
Extra semolina flour for dusting.

Mix all ingredients in mixer, speed 2, with flat beater for 30 seconds, 'til combined.

Switch to dough hook and knead at speed 2 for 2 minutes.

Knead dough by hand for 1-2 minutes more.

Cut dough into 8 pieces, and form each into a flattened ball.

Cover, or wrap in plastic, and let dough rest for 20 minutes.

Roll out pasta dough and cut to desired shape. (I rolled to thickness 4 and used the fettuccine cutter)

Boil in salted water for 3-5 minutes, drain, and serve.

Williams-Sonoma has a great video on how to use the rollers to make fettuccine:

New Home, New Name, New Posts!

Greetings, readers!

I've decided to re-launch my blog with the name Larissa Makes Stuff, because frankly, my interests do go well beyond the creation of edible things.

I haven't posted to this little blog in over two years. Much has changed. My husband and I sold our teeny tiny place in Brooklyn, and bought a spacious apartment in upper, upper, upper Manhattan. Yes, we moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan to save money and get more space. Go figure.

It's positively thrilling to have a kitchen with full-size appliances and plenty of room for two adults and a cat. (Though Miss Pixie is still very good at taking up half the sofa.)

Here are some photos of the new apartment, all painted and furnished.

Sunken Living/Dining Room

Sunken Living/Dining Room

Midcentury Credenza as TV Stand

Living/Dining Room

Foyer, Vertical Bike Stand

Foyer,  Kilim, Cat

Pull-out Sofa in Office

Office with Corner Window, overlooking the Hudson

Hall of Closets

Master Bedroom

View from Roof Deck

Apple-Pear sauce!

Our farm share has been inundating us with apples & pears over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, with the wedding and all, several bags of fruit ended up going bad before we got a chance to do anything with them. This afternoon, we decided to change that trend and make and can some applesauce. Since we had mostly apples and only a few pears, and most of the recipes I had for pear sauce had the same needs as apple sauce, we decided to mix the fruit together.

I like to leave the skins on when I make applesauce. It adds fiber, and you puree the fruit regardless, so why not?

Apple-Pear Sauce
6 lb Apples & Pears, cored & coarsely chopped
3 TB Lemon Juice
Water
1 Stick Cinnamon
Sugar, if desired.

Combine ingredients in a big stockpot. Cook on medium heat, stirring & mashing occasionally for about 20 minutes or until fruit is soft and saucy.

Remove and discard cinnamon stick. Put hot applesauce in a food processor or use an immersion blender to puree the apples to a nice, even consistency.

Return to stockpot and cook a little longer.


Can or freeze according to the Ball Blue Book recommendations.

New Addition to our staff of Domestic Robots!

I HATE cleaning floors. Because of this, I have bought into just about every floor cleaning gimmick out there (up to and including microfiber dust mop slippers). Several years ago, I got an iRobot Scooba, which has been great for mopping, but since there's water involved, it tends to get done far less often than I would hope. It also will only do one room at a time, as I have somewhat tall trim pieces on the floor of my doorways.

So, thanks to several Macy's gift cards and a 20% off coupon, Sean and I bought the Neato Robotics XV-11 vacuum off our wedding registry. Its design is slightly more sinister looking than the Roomba, but it boasts a beater brush, impressive amount of suction, the ability to climb over floor trim pieces, and an eye (Robot Positioning System).

After charging it overnight, we gave it a test run this morning. The first thing I noticed was how it saw obstacles coming its way and smartly avoided them. It did get caught on a few power cords behind the sofa that I had missed in my attempt to clear the floor for the robot, and I had stupidly forgotten to put down the black perimeter marker around the cat's bowls, so there was a minor emergency when the neato knocked over Pixie's water bowl. Luckily, I witnessed it happen and rushed over with towels and dried the neato (and the floor).

I was very impressed at its ability to clean a room, and then proceed on to the next room. I was less impressed with it insisting on getting stuck under my dresser multiple times, and it insisting that it needed its path cleared when it was in the middle of our bedroom floor. However, I told it to go to bed, and it wheeled its way back into the living room and to its charger without incident.

Watching this robot find its charging base is pure joy. It just backs right up into it and there you go.

I was amazed and somewhat horrified at the amount of cat hair in its bin after the cleaning cycle. I've scheduled it to vacuum just about every other morning, so hopefully the amounts of cat hair will decrease as the apartment becomes cleaner.

Neato's first scheduled cleaning is tomorrow morning. I'm curious to see how that works out.

Arugula Pear Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

My good friend Adam of the Coozer Files served this unbelievably delicious salad the other night. It was so yummy, I demanded he give me the recipe to share here.

Pear & Arugula Salad (from the kitchen of Adam Coozer)

Vinaigrette:
1 tbsp champagne vinegar (apple cider vinegar should also work)
1 tbsp honey (I use clover honey)
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper

Combine the above together, then slowly mix in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Mix well.

Salad:

Arugula
2 bartlett pears, halved, cored, then thinly sliced
Shavings of ricotta salata (salted & dried ricotta). Other cheeses could work too for a slightly different taste - goat cheese, bleu cheese, etc.

Toss everything together and make sure the vinaigrette coats everything! Don't worry if there doesn't seem to be that much vinaigrette - a little goes a long way!