Going through the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, I came across a recipe I knew I had to try: the wild mushroom tart. However, as I needed to take the dairy out of the recipe to serve it as a side with our meat meal, this tart actually became a new recipe entirely!
Much of the binding in the filling comes from milk and cheese, so I decided to use silken tofu and miso as a replacement. The former replaces the creaminess and the latter replaces the cheesiness. Yes, you read that right - miso can imitate a cheesy flavor. It's a trick I learned from the meatball recipe on the blog Supper for Two.
Another big change I made to this recipe is the cooking time, as the tofu takes much longer to set than cheese. While cooking, I was getting nervous about leaving in the tart for nearly double the original cooking time, but it turned out perfectly.
In the end, this tart came out so delicious, meaty from the mushrooms and savory from the miso. We had absolutely no leftovers, which is always the best sign of all.
Reading through the latest issue of Cooks Illustrated, a recipe called "Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup" caught my eye. It looks hearty, healthy, and perfect for winter. However, I knew I'd have to do quite a bit of tweaking to make it kosher because it uses chicken stock and heavy cream.
I decided to use the chicken stock because it seemed that the meaty flavor would be too good to pass up with the wild rice and mushrooms. I also further highlighted this aspect by incorporating many vegetables that boosted the umami flavor, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes.
Instead of the cream, I used vanilla almond milk because I liked the idea of having a sweet nuttiness in the soup. I also added a lot more vegetables because I love a very chunky soup and they add nice color and flavor. I also made a bunch of other tweaks, changes, and adjustments just based on my own preferences and what I had on-hand.
So in fact, I would bet this soup tastes quite different than the original, but it was delicious all the same. There are some great tricks in here from the original recipe, including the use of baking soda to speed up the cooking time of the rice and cornstarch to thicken the soup.
This soup is unctuous and has a sweet and earthy flavor with an almost velvety texture. It has a nice blend of creamy thickness and chunky heartiness. It's perfect on a chilly or rainy day.
