Food, cooking, eating, and me

I’ve always had a fondness for canned cream of mushroom soup that bordered on a perversion. Even though I only occasionally purchased it, just having it in the house was such a temptation that I often ended up eating it undiluted, thick and yummy.

Of course I haven’t been eating much cream of mushroom soup since I went gluten-free, which is more than two years ago, and certainly no canned Campbell’s as in my diet’s previous incarnation. People have been posting about wanting cream of mushroom soups to eat and concentrate to put in casseroles, such as that famed green bean casserole with the Funyons instead of the crunchy fried onion bits (I can’t comment on that, as I haven’t tried it). I also read that Progresso makes a gluten-free cream of mushroom soup, but I haven’t looked for it. It must have something to do with that icon of Americana, the red and white soup can.

Then last week I had an idea. I had been making sausage gravy with water instead of the milk I can no longer consume. Though you can get the right texture and a brown gravy-like appearance, the flavor is nonexistent. This time I blended some blanched almonds with water - about 2 ounces of almonds to 1 cup of water - until smooth, added it to the pan drippings, and slowly cooked until it had simmered for a while. It was much better than not bad. The almond particles made the texture, if anything, a bit floury, which when you’ve gone without flour for this long, is not unattractive. Almonds don’t have those starch particles that explode and cook smooth like wheat flour does. Also, it was very rich, much more than I would have predicted from the calories in the almonds that went into it.

I found that leftovers were as good as fresh, and I added a spoonful of this to several things I ate last week - pasta, frozen spinach, polenta, eggs mollet… The recipe made a sauce that was too thick, so I need to tinker with the exact proportions of almonds to liquid before I decide to make any sauce recommendations.

Now for the big deal: cream of mushroom soup. I figured it might be a little thin to use 1 ounce of almonds per cup of liquid, but I had to start somewhere, so I made the commitment to that proportion. I put the almonds in the blender jar with a tablespoon of sherry and added water to just below the level of the almonds. I whirled, scraping down chunks off the cannister walls and adding liquid a little bit at a time until it was perfectly smooth and about as thick as a pancake batter. I diced 8 ounces of portobello mushrooms and sauteed them in a tablespoon of butter (substitute olive oil if you can’t tolerate butter). Then I just added the thick almond milk to the pot with the mushrooms in it and heated it, stirring, until it had simmered for a few minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste. Yum. To make this into a condensed-style cream of mushroom soup, just use about half the water.

Nowadays you most often see the term “hash browns” used for those prefried/refried chopped potato patties that you get at the drive-thru of your favorite fast food emporium. Less often you will find slower food restaurants that still make the old-fashioned shredded-style hashbrowns, either on the grill or fried in a pan. Those are rare around these parts. I live outside of the land of Waffle House - not that I think Waffle House does a particularly good job with them, at least not with any great consistency. Just as I described in the previous breakfast potato posting on home fries - hash browns also often tend to be soggy and unseasoned, but since they start with raw potatoes, sometimes they are even not quite cooked through.

It is really not hard to make them well, but there’s a trick or two to it. So get out your shredder. That’s what we’re making today.

Just kidding, Folks. But if you’re going to be making these, you’ll need a good coarse shredder. The food processer blade will puree the heck out of those potatoes, not a pretty sight. Actually I prefer the coarse shredding disk that came with my now-ancient Cuisinart food processor. You can however use whatever coarse shredder you have available to you.

I start with about a pound of potatoes, which will serve two generously or four as a side. Scrub them well. I like to leave the skins if they are tender, but I peel the potatoes if the skins are tough-looking. I then put them in a bowl with a teaspoon of salt, toss them well, and let it sit for about half an hour to draw off excess liquid. At the end of this time they are limp and starting to brown a bit. I put them in a sieve, run fresh water over them, which removes the brown color, and press them really well to get rid of that extra liquid, even wringing with my hands.

Now they go back in the bowl. I add a tablespoon of potato starch - which I purchase in an Asian store - and some white pepper, and toss it all well to mix it.

Now the fastest way to cook these is in individual pans you have going on the stove at the same time. If you’ve got a regular stove, you’re making four individual portions from the recipe, and you’re making a fancy, complicated breakfast, this will be monopolizing your stove for a while, so you should probably plan to cook these first and when done, pop them into the oven to stay warm while you finish up whatever else you are cooking.

You’ve got some choices, too. I personally think the crispy thin parts are the best, which means cooking in two 12″ non-stick frying pans or four 10″ ones at the same time. But you could also cook the entire recipe in the 12″ pan and cut it into wedges to serve. Decisions, decisions, decisions…

I grease the pan I am going to use or pour a tablespoon of butter, fat, or olive oil in it and drop in the potato mixture, tossing it with a fork to distribute it evenly, then pressing down. I then set the heat to medium and cook until the underside is golden brown, adding more oil if it is all absorbed and the pan gets dry. When it is golden brown, it is manageably firm, so I slip it onto a plate or a pan lid without an inner lip, invert the pan over the plate, and flip the two together so that it can brown on the other side. A little more oil will be necessary for this side to brown properly.

Now I fold it and plate it up to serve with eggs and maybe meat. A warm plate is best.

You can fry up some bacon or ham, peppers and onions to top it for a Waffle House-like treat. Also, melted cheese is yummy if you can handle it. We used to love having these smothered in bacon, onions, red peppers, and three cheeses back when I was speedskating and able to handle both casein and calorie overload.