Inauguration Day

I was hoping to make it down to the inauguration today, but alas, the fact that it was only 20 degrees, the subways were jammed, and I'm both pregnant and fighting a cold seemed to be too many strikes against me. Given the weather and the crowding, it seems like staying home was probably a good choice. We were happily surprised, however, to plug in the TV and find that we actually get basic cable--so were able to watch the inauguration with no problems. We thought the whole thing was really very inspiring, particularly the new president's speech.

In celebration, we made something special for dinner--Mushroom Bourguignon from Smitten Kitchen. Can I just say YUM?! It's an adaptation of Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon, which is fine with me, since I like mushrooms about 100 times more than beef anyway.

It was delicious. It looks like something that would take hours to make, but start to finish, including homemade egg noodles, it took the two of us just under an hour from start to table. I questioned the need to add the roux at the end for thickening, but I ended up using it and it was absolutely perfect--just enough to take the sauce from broth to gravy. It had a rich, complex flavor, plenty of meaty portabello chunks, and were perfectly complemented by the tender homemade noodles. We accompanied it with a green salad (a nightly feature these days, and one which I'm enjoying in spite of myself) and followed it up by making an angel food cake: we realized that a double batch of Betty Crocker's egg noodles calls for the same amount of egg yolks as her Angel Food Cake does egg whites, a happy coincidence if there ever was one! (The alternative? Apparently either baggies or an Angel Food Cake Jar.)

Here are the recipes:

Mushroom Bourguignon (from Smitten Kitchen)

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 pounds portobello mushrooms, in 1/4-inch slices (save the stems for another use) (you can use cremini instead, as well)
1/2 carrot, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup full-bodied red wine
2 cups beef or vegetable broth (beef broth is traditional but vegetable to make it vegetarian; it works with either)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thawed if frozen)
Egg noodles, for serving
Sour cream and chopped chives or parsley, for garnish (optional)

Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy sauce pan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid — about three or four minutes. Remove them from pan.

Lower the flame to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the carrots, onions, thyme, a few good pinches of salt and a several grinds of black pepper into the pan and cook for 10, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute.

Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up and reduce it by half. Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and once the liquid has boiled, reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender. Add the pearl onions and simmer for five minutes more.

Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency. Season to taste.

To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of egg noodles, dollop with sour cream (optional) and sprinkle with chives or parsley.

Betty Crocker's Angel Food Cake Deluxe

1 cup cake flour
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 cups egg whites (about 12)
1-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract (we skipped this because we didn't have any)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour and powdered sugar. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large mixer bowl on medium speed until foamy. Beat in granulated sugar on high speed, 2 tbsp at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Add salt, vanilla and almond extract with the last addition of sugar. Do not underbeat.

Sprinkle flour-sugar mixture 1/4 cup at a time, over meringue, folding in just until flour-sugar mixture disappears. Push batter into ungreased tube pan, 10x4 inches. Cut gently through batter with metal spatula.

Bake until cracks feely dry and top springs back when touched lightly, 30-35 minutes. Invert pan on funnel; let hang until cake is cold. Remove from pan.

They also have a very intriguing alternate recipe for a brown sugar angel food cake, which I've never heard of and which we'd like to try one of these times.