Roasted Mushroom Tartine
I picked out a few different mushrooms for this: hedgehogs, black trumpet, enoki and cremini. The really cheerful and friendly woman who checked me out bravely tried, and failed, to guess the name of each one. Quartered the creminis and tore the hedgehogs and trumpets in pieces, then tossed them together with some olive oil, salt, pepper, white wine, diced onion and garlic, and sprigs of thyme in a casserole dish. Covered them with foil and baked them for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Then I added the enoki, stirring the mushrooms, and cooked them for another 10 minutes. (This was based on a recipe from A New Way to Cook.)
Now I don't know if this was breaking Clotilde's rules for a tartine (I made this recipe for Is My Blog Burning?), but I brushed a thick slice of firm Italian white bread with some garlic oil, then toasted it under the broiler. Spread on a layer of fresh whole-milk ricotta, then piled on the mushrooms and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
wow, this must have tasted fantastic! I looove mushrooms... and I can just imagine the different tastes and textures of the 4 mushrooms intermingling. and with ricotta too. yum!
Adding a couple more-expensive types of mushrooms to cheaper cremini kept the price of the whole thing down, and I did feel like it was a more complex flavor.
I too find that it is very easy to use/abuse the stand mixer. It sort of gives you permission to do so. It seems to take longer to clean it and its components than it does to actually use it. I try to be mindful of that when I use my Kitchen aid mixer and not over-mix. You really must stand over it and be careful.
This is so unrelated to the topic- but Kim, have you ever tried "grilled" lettuce? I saw it done on the Food Network and ever since I'm so curious. She grilled romaine lettuce whole and then split it in half lengthwise and added a vinegrette dressing. It sounds so interesting- I intend to try it this summer!
I never use my stand mixer when I'm making quick breads (not even when I'm making a huge batch of, say, banana bread). It's too easy to make a tough quick bread in a stand mixer. Over mixing causes tunneling in the bread which is why it's tough and often dense. Although, I've never had an overmixed muffin/bread turn out dry--maybe you forgot to add the fat or maybe the recipe is flawed and there is not enough fat for the recipe? or not enough liquid?
You know, Nicole, that we're grill-deprived out here. But I have sauteed endive and I have a head of radiccio in the fridge that I want to sautee, too. I think I saw that on the Food Network. Was it Giada, or maybe Rachael Ray? Sounds good to me. I always find romaine too tough for a salad (unless it's hearts in a Ceasar), so I bet it'd be good kind of wilty and grilled.
I like the stand mixer for creaming the butter, but I think I'll mix the flour in by hand in the future. I don't think the muffins were actually dry; Todd just didn't know how to describe the weird rubbery texture. The way you describe it, Roxanne, is exactly what it was like. So bizarre. But I guess the stand mixer makes great yeast breads. Have you done that?