So here are the two recipes for today's post. The first one, Slice of Mushroom Heaven is always a hit with those on low-carb diets, those who love mushrooms, heck, just about everyone. Dana mentions that she prefers it cold and while I too like it cold, it's just a good hot :) The second recipe, Mid-South Carolina Mustard Sauce is just what it sounds like...a mustard and vinegar based barbecue sauce like you'd encounter in Carolina style BBQ. We served it last night over crockpot pulled pork, which I'll explain in my notes since it's not really a recipe, just something I do :)
The Recipes:
Slice of Mushroom Heaven
Rich enough to give Dean Ornish fits, and oh-so-good. Thanks to my friend Kay for the name!
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 lb mushrooms, sliced
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp salt or Vege-Sal
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 3 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (a little more than 1/2 lb)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat, and begin frying the mushrooms, onion and garlic. When the mushrooms are limp, turn the heat up a bit and boil off the liquid. Stir in the white wine, and cook until that's boiled away, too.
- Stir in the lemon juice and turn off the heat. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl, and stir in the half-and-half, eggs, salt, pepper and 2 cups of the cheese.
- Spray an 8x8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray, and spread the mixture from step 3 evenly over the bottom. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top, and bake for 50 minutes, or until the cheese on top is golden.
Mid-South Carolina Mustard Sauce
Makes 2 1/2 cups
Another classic sauce for pulled pork that works well with most any cut of grilled pork.
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 6 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 5 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp hot red pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper
My results:
For the first recipe, Slice of Mushroom Heaven, this was a repeat performer in our house. I first tried this recipe several years ago when hubby and I, along with most of the family, were on the Atkins diet. It was a hit then and every bit as popular today. It is sort of a cross between a quiche and a mushroom casserole, and oh-so-good. Here were my ingredients:
The one change I made this time was to substitute water and dehydrated sherry wine powder in place of the white wine as we are trying to keep alcohol out of our cooking right now. But the sherry powder was a good substitute and worked well. And here's a shot of the mushrooms simmering away:
And just before entering the oven, after topping with the reserved cheese:
As I mentioned, this dish is good cold or hot, but cuts better when it's cold, so you might consider making it ahead, cooling it, slicing it and then reheating it slightly for serving if you wish if you want nice slices. Otherwise, letting it cool in the pan just a bit does help it to solidify a bit for slicing at the table. Here's the final picture of this dish before we devoured it!
This was OH SO YUMMY! Will definitely do this one again and again...
The second recipe was actually the one planned for today's blog, but as I said, it was so easy I decided to share two instead of one. That, however, should not dissuade you from trying this recipe, because it was every bit as good as the first recipe, but for a totally different dish.
First, let me explain about the Crockpot pulled pork. I started doing pulled pork this way some years back because: a) it's easier and b) it takes less hand-on time and c) we love the results! Basically, you take a boneless boston butt (sometimes called pork shoulder) or pork that is used for carnitas (which is not a solid mass but just as yummy), dump it in a large Crockpot with some salt, pepper and about 1/2 cup of water and then turn it on low to cook for 18-24 hours. Yes, that's right, 18-24 hours. So I usually put it on before bed the night before I plan to serve it and it's ready the next night for supper. Now, normally, about 1 hr before I serve this I remove the lid from the Crockpot, shred up the meat and add 1 bottle of our favorite BBQ sauce (usually KC Masterpiece). It will look like a lot of liquid is in the pot, but then I put the lid back on the pot and let it cook for at least one more hour and by that time all the liquid has been absorbed by the shredded pork. You can then serve this as is on buns, as a baked potato topping, as a pizza topping, whatever your heart desires. It is delicious!
However, because we were testing out this mustard-based sauce recipe, this time, about 1 hr before I served the pork, I shredded it up, added about 1 cup more water mixed with 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce and 1 tbsp liquid Hickory smoke and then recovered it and let it cook. This added the "BBQ" flavor that would have been missing from the sauce and made a very good but "unsauced" meat. So that's where the meat came from. But onto the sauce...
Here are my ingredients:
This is, of course, a VERY easy recipe to do. Just blend everything together and put it in the fridge. I emptied one squeeze bottle of Dijon so I decided to use it for the container to hold the finished product. It's "shake-able" and makes a good squeeze bottle for it. I also suggest making it in advance so the flavors have a chance to meld. Here's the finished product:
Now, straight up, this sauce is very vinegar-y, but mixed with the pulled pork it mellowed considerably and actually took a good bit to fully taste it. It is a thin sauce, unlike traditional thick red BBQ sauces, so be careful when pouring or you'll overdo it. We all really liked this sauce on the meat and would definitely make it again.
Let me know if you decide to give either of these recipes a try and be sure to check back tomorrow for more recipe fun!
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