Chanterelle Mushroom Stuffing

The Chanterelle Mushroom is considered to be a prized mushroom on any menu. It has a unique fruity, peppery, mild flavor and a low water content. It also is somewhat eye catching with it’s funnel shape and yellow almost orange color. The Chanterelle Mushrooms can be very expensive and most people do buy them dried. My local AJ’s Fine Foods Supermarket sells Chanterelles at $50.00 a pound most times of the year. I usually come across Chanterelles at $30.00 a pound from Whole Foods Supermarket. This time of year for only a few weeks my local Costco sells Chanterelles at only $10.00 a pound so I purchased some. The Chanterelles don’t stay fresh for too many days so they get washed (yes I do wash mushrooms…I try not to eat dirt) and cooked within two days. The Chanterelles in this recipe are precooked and were started with non-stick canola spray. Water was released and discarded and then the mushrooms were finished in a small amount of butter.

Ingredients for about Twelve Servings

4 oz unsalted butter – room temperature

1/2 cup celery – chopped – small

1/2 cup sweet onion – chopped small

1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 garlic cloves – grounded

14 oz dried bread – I used mostly ciabatta and some all natural white crusty rolls – Cut into irregular cubes – (I let them sit in off oven for about a week to get stale)

1 cup chanterelles – cleaned, sliced and cooked

2 XL eggs – beaten

3 Tablespoons heavy cream

8 sprigs fresh thyme – remove leaves from stem

1 sprig fresh sage – just the leaves – chopped

1 small sprig fresh rosemary – just the leaves – chopped

2 cups mushroom stock

1 cup water (or another cup of stock if you think you need more flavor)

non – stick spray – canola or vegetable

Directions

Set your oven for 350 degrees F and spray your pan with non – stick spray.

In a small/medium sized fry pan on medium high heat add butter, celery, onions, salt and pepper. Loosely cover the pan with foil after about five minutes turn down the heat to just under medium and add the mushrooms garlic and cook a few minutes more. The celery and onions should be soft and take off heat and set to the side.

In a large bowl mix up remaining ingredients expect for the bread cubes. Now add the fry pan ingredients and mix well.

Add the bread cubes and mix. Let mixture sit for about 15 minutes. Mix and pour mixture into the pan.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put in you 350 degree F preheated oven for one hour. After one hour remove the foil and pop the pan back in the over for 15 minutes to get a slight crust.

Chanterelle Bread Stuffing

Chanterelle Mushroom Bread Stuffing

It’s light, a little buttery, a little crusty and a little custardy with good flavors. I think just about everyone will enjoy this one.

The Forking Truth

Thanksgiving Style Individual Turkey Meatloaf

It can be Thanksgiving any day when you prepare these Thanksgiving Seasoned Individual meatloaves. This turkey meatloaf taste just like really good stuffing. It will remind anyone of Thanksgiving. It’s easy to prepare and is perfectly seasoned and comes out moist if you don’t change the forking recipe. It’s almost likeThanksgiving in a few forkfuls.

Ingredients to make 19 individual small meatloaves

2 lbs. ground lean turkey

1 carrot shredded

9 oz. sour dough bread – cut up in very small cubes

2 XL eggs – beaten

1 12.3 oz. package silken firm tofu (the kind that’s 3 oz. for 50 calories) – blended

1 celery rib – chopped fine

2 garlic cloves – mashed fine

1/2 sweet large white onion – grated

1 Tablespoon Turkey base (instead of salt- I used organic Better Than Bullion brand)

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 fresh sprig rosemary

1 Tablespoon fresh sage – chopped fine

1 sprig fresh thyme – chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/4 cup water

nonstick cooking spray

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika to finish

Directions set your oven to 350 degrees.

in a large bowl mix all your ingredients except for the paprika.

Spray your baking sheet(s) with nonstick cooking spray. Use a serving spoon with a Tablespoon to dish out your loaves because the mixture is very soft and the serving spoon size will make the loaves the right size.

In my oven they took 20 minutes to cook though. The loaves do come out pale. Sprinkle lightly with sweet paprika and fine fresh chopped parsley. Serve with turkey gravy if desired.

Thanksgiving Style Individual Turkey Meatloaf

They are delicious would also make a super forking great meat stuffing. They come out very moist and flavorful!

This is great and that’s The Forking Truth

Cranberry Sauce with Hibiscus

Last year I made cranberry sauce with a little hibiscus syrup and added to it and it was well received by a very discriminating crowd. So I made a very similar cranberry sauce but with whole hibiscus flowers and juice of one lime and a small of amount of spices to balance things out. This sauce is not very sweet but is flavored nicely and is still traditional tasting because you don’t mess with Thanksgiving too much.  I think hibiscus goes very well with cranberry. It adds something so slight but the flavor is more full.

Ingredients that makes around 7 cups about 25 servings (leftovers can be frozen)

2 pounds cranberries (washed)

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 lime (fresh squeezed) you only need the juice

1 cup dried whole hibiscus flowers

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

pinch nora pepper (it’s a fine chopped medium heat fruity pepper similar to Aleppo but from Spain) I would substitute Aleppo pepper because it’s likely you won’t find nora pepper. I just nora pepper was more perfect with these ingredients.

Directions

In your sauce pan on medium/high heat add everything except the cranberries and bring to boil. Then add the cranberries. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer and let it go stirring occasionally for around a half hour or until the berries have all broken up.

Cranberry Sauce with Hibiscus

This is Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth