Mushroom Risotto with Shrimp, Chicken Meatball Bowls, Ribeye & Mushroom Sauce, Battered Red Snapper, Strawberry Scones & More!
We’ve had lots of amazing meals lately with all these lovely local ingredients. If there was a through line, it was lots of mushroom dishes as Family Fungi and Screaming Oaks are both cranking out the gourmet mushrooms.
These mushrooms offer an array of nutritional benefits in their vitamin, mineral and antioxidant makeup. One thing that is somewhat new to me is their beta glucans, which are linked to gut health, blood sugar regulation, immune support and even anti-cancer properties. Plus, they’re delicious!
Three Grain Mushroom Risotto with Shrimp & Asparagus
I was going for a simple mushroom risotto with arborio rice and then planned to add asparagus that my dad brought down from my parents’ garden, along with pan seared shrimp for more protein.
After already bringing a whole slew of mushrooms home, defrosting bone broth and shrimp, I realized I had less than a cup of arborio rice left, whoops!
So I decided to make it as I had planned and then add some black rice and farro, too. I knew these would take longer to cook and be a little less naturally creamy than the arborio rice, but went for it anyway. I did get a little impatient with the longer black rice and farro cook time, but ultimately this dish came out delicious. And bonus that were was more fiber and nutrients from the mix of two other whole grains.
I started by sautéing onions and garlic in one pan and doing the dry sear method with a bunch of mushrooms in a cast iron pan. Then I combined them, seasoned with Smokey Shiitake & Black Garlic Seasoning and mushroom thyme seasoning, added the three grains and deglazed with white white.
Then I started added bone broth and stirring. Eventually I added all the remaining broth, plus some additional water and let it finish cooking with a lid on.
I seared the shrimp separately and added the fresh asparagus to the risotto at the end, along with a little heavy cream and parmesan. It was a really delicious one bowl meal!
Chicken Meatball Rice Bowls with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Cucumbers, Kimchi & Spicy Mayo
I’m so happy ground chicken is back! And for our first meal with it in nearly a year, we went with a favorite: meatball rice bowls with Japanese BBQ sauce and spicy mayo.
For the meatballs, I used a bunch of homemade Bellegarde breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic and onion powders and Bachan’s Japanese BBQ sauce, along with some hot sauce. I like to start them on the stove top in cast iron pans and then transfer to the oven to finish cooking so that I don’t have to mess them up by trying to turn them when they’re still soft.
It was kind of a fushion flavored meal, served with roasted sweet potatoes with sesame oil and more Japanese BBQ sauce, plus scallions and sesame seeds, Jasmine rice, quick marinated cucumbers and Gingerbooch’s Indonesian Curry Kimchi. It made for great meal prep leftovers for the rest of the week, too.
Sheet Pan Sausages, Veggies & Almond Cashew Sauce
I had already planned to do a quick sheet pan pork sausage meal with roasted turnips and kale and steamed carrots one Monday, when our farm staffer Cade brought back some new chicken sausages from A&A Acres! (Cade processes chickens at A&A on Mondays and Tuesdays and works at our farm Monday and Tuesday afternoons and the rest of the week!).
So it was fun to give the green onion chicken sausage a try alongside our bratwurst and breakfast links.
For the veggies, I seasoned and cooked the turnips and kale together until the turnips were tender and the kale was crispy. Carrots we prefer steamed though, with plenty of butter and herbs like chives or dill, or both!
And I made another batch of my almond and cashew sauce with nutritional yeast and lemon juice. It’s really good as a dipping sauce (even though the sausages don’t need any extra flavor!) and drizzling on veggies or using as salad dressing.
Ribeye with Truffle Mushroom Cream Sauce, Herbs & Potatoes
Rarely do we take out ribeyes for ourselves, but I was testing a recent batch — gotta take one for the team sometimes, right?
I did another round of sautéed mixed mushrooms (lion’s mane, pearl and gold oyster and pioppino) and finished with truffle oil and heavy cream, knowing we’d use most of them as a pizza topping the next day!
For the ribeyes I salted and let rest at room temperature and then seared in a cast iron pan with leftover bacon fat as the oil. Added in rosemary and thyme once I flipped them, along with a little butter to spoon over the top as it cooked.
We had the steak and mushrooms with roasted potatoes and a big salad and it was delightful!
Carbonara Pasta with Spinach, Mushrooms & Tuna
As much as I love breakfast tacos and deviled eggs, carbonara pasta may be my favorite use of eggs!
This was a quick lunch and meal prep for the second half of the week. For the carbonara, I used five egg yolks (for roughly 8 ounces of pasta) and a bunch of freshly grated parmesan cheese and tossed with the hot pasta.
Meanwhile I cooked yet more mushrooms (pearl oyster and shimofuri this time!) and added spinach at the end with a little hot pasta water to quickly sauté/steam. Then I tossed it all together with a can of tuna for extra protein and topped with truffle chili crisp and more parmesan. Absolute comfort food with plenty of nutrients, too!
Pizza Party with the Whole Crew!
We had the Laughing Buddha crew up to the farm for a team meeting last Monday and it happened to coincide with a rare Monday that our farm staffer Cade wasn’t processing chickens at A&A Acres. So he got to join, too!
Grant has been perfecting his Ooni pizza oven techniques, so this was arguably our best round of pizza yet!
We used four dough balls from Bellegarde and one left of one of Grant’s batches made with more whole wheat flour and less stretching and folding to get really good gluten development. It’s the one closest to the frame with brie and basil on it and you can see the difference in the bubbles and rise of the dough!
The topping combinations were delicious with:
Andouille, Olive Salad & Fresh Mozzerella
Sliced Chicken Meatball, Japanese BBQ Sauce, Zucchini & Scallions
Creamy Truffle Mushroom with Goat Cheese & Scallions
Italian Sausage with Fresh Mozzarella & Basil
Fig Jam with Brie, Goat Cheese & Basil
Battered Red Snapper Salad
A quick Wednesday night meal that was really satisfying and delicious.
I love the batter and roast method for Pinch of Yum’s Air Fryer Tofu — the wet batter has nutritional yeast, cornstarch, oil, soy sauce and seasonings, so I wanted to try it on fish.
The concept is great, but needs so tweaking — the bottom didn’t crisp like the top it. Perhaps if I flipped it and broiled both sides it might work better. Even like this first trial, it was still super delicious, though, so we went with it.
For the salad, I had some bread cheese to use up, so crisped cubes of it up in a cast iron pan, and the rest of the salad waslettuce and radicchio, sweet corn chow chow, fermented radish salsa and crispy chickpeas and jalapeño pieces, plus my almond cashew sauce as the dressing.
Strawberry & Cream Scones
I had some goat milk to use up from one of our does and a craving for scones!
In addition to butter, I used Southern Maids goat yogurt and put some strawberry jam right into the dough, too. At the end I also folded in diced frozen strawberries from earlier in the season.
Once shaped and cut, I brushed on more creamy goat milk and some coarse sugar. They came out so delicious, especially topped with more strawberry jam and/or pecan butter!