the three weeks in between
and one pot meals
The black hole of time between two major holidays is the bane of a creative cook. Between one pound of potatoes and another, there is almost no room for a light weekday dinner, at least in the Midwest.
Finding a balance between a fulfilling meal with trying to avoid the overindulgence in which the season calls for, combing techniques and ingredients of deep winter cooking with the seasonings of July (lemon and dill).
When it comes to embracing the ease on “in between” cooking, I had to finally overcome my fear of the “gimmick-fication” of modern cooking, one pan this and sheet pan that. I have published one recipe, here, in which it’s technique occurs on one sheet pan. This one is a one pan, fulfilling the duality of gimmickry. Baby steps!
Midwest winter cooking or my Midwest winter cooking is so heavily inspired by the comforting attraction of eastern European cooking. Eating creamed mushrooms and pierogis at the polish halls and the very first time I had pelmeni dumplings; on a glorious trip to Madison, Wisconsin. Gently poached dumplings the size of a pin, filled with mushrooms and dill then tossed with lemon juice and served alongside a scoop of sour cream, an actual life changing food moment.
Because this recipe is pretty sparce in its ingredients (and time) the mushroom quality matters. This is not the time for running the mill button mushrooms. You need character. Mushrooms with the ability to provide an array of textures when heavily fried in olive oil. Mushrooms are unique in which each tell a very specific story of how they were grown, harvested and stored - a true mycelium.
One pot crispy mushrooms and egg noodles
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 lb. of mixed mushrooms - chantrelles, blue oysters, maitake
12 oz of wide egg noodles
1 large red onion
½ cup of chopped dill
Juice of one lemon
¼ cup of olive oil plus more when needed
4 tbsp of unsalted butter
Instructions
Using your hands, tear the mushrooms into evenly sized pieces and slice the red onion into ¼ inch slices then set aside in a bowl.
In a large, heavy bottom pot, preheat olive oil over high heat until the oil begins to ripple. Add half of the mushrooms and onions into an even layer and season lightly with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-high heat and cook them without stirring until they become deeply golden, 8-12 minutes. Once they have browned and fried in the fat, remove them from the pan then add in more olive oil (2 tbsp) if needed and repeat with the other half.
Once all the mushrooms and onions have fried, add 6 cups of water to the pot and heavily season with salt, as you would with pasta, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling add all the egg noodles and stir very quickly, then fully cook the egg noodles, 8-10 minutes.
Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the noodles. Return the noodles to the pot off the heat and stir in two tablespoons of butter. Add in the reserved cooking liquid then the rest of the butter.
Add the dill and lemon juice to taste.
Serve with more dill, lemon juice and a little sour cream.
cannot wait to make this to power me through the in between