Portobello steak, charred broccolini, mustard tarragon sauce
Mustard and me, a new infatuation
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. ‘ Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
This week’s newsletter is for paid subscribers, but here is 20% off all annual subscriptions! Offer ends 24 December 2024 so perfect for gifting!
I realize that everyone is talking up Christmas feasts right now. There are countless tips on how to make the meal unfussy or easy, infinite suggestions on how to better roast potatoes, but here, at Vegetable HQ, I’m here to say: Christmas is just one day, we still gotta eat all the other days. I think you’ll find something good to eat in this newsletter.
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I relish a new cooking infatuation and lately it’s been the unassuming condiment we all pass by several times a day as we swing open the fridge door: mustard.
Perhaps it’s unusual that a salad maker wouldn’t feel greater regard for mustard. It is, of course, fundamental to many euro-centric dressings. But for me, I’ve mostly turned to citrus or vinegar for that essential hit of tartness and acidity. I’ve been missing out. Mustard and me, a new infatuation
It may surprise people to know that many of the recipes for this newsletter are conceived impulsively in the produce section of my local market. I meander, allowing myself to be inspired by the bounty around me. This week, I was enamoured by portobello mushrooms. I usually reach for shiitake or oysters, but that day, there was something about the bulbous umbrella caps that spoke to me. I reached for a bunch of tarragon, then a bunch a broccolini caught my eye.
In this week’s recipe, I have found my mustard mojo. It is inspired by a dish I tried at a new-ish, local-ish cafe called Cafe Mado. Their dish was a lions mane ‘schnitzel’ served with a mustard sauce and some greens. Their mustard sauce was rich and surprising, decidedly mustardy. The lesson I learnt from this dish: let mustard be mustard.
My dressing is unequivocally mustardy too: acidic, pungent, sharp, a tad bitter, subtly sweet, with tons of umami too. It is this savouriness in mustard that I did not appreciate before. It teases the palette and lingers.
I’ve prepared the giant portobello caps as ‘steaks’. Generally, I try and steer away from meaty terms to describe vegetables but here it feels like the most apt description. The mushrooms are dusted in cornflour (cornstarch), a coating that locks in moisture (and flavour), delivering a mushroom that is caramelized yet still juicy. Make sure you press and weigh the portobello down during cooking to get a nicely flattened ‘steak’ - I layered another skillet over the top. Something like this grill press would work well.
This mushroom dish is a little more…shall I say…dainty than my usual recipes. It’s an elegant offering, a light meal that could be served as a starter. It can, of course, be easily transformed into a more substantial salad by adding brown rice, quinoa, farro or pearl barley. The mustardy sauce that reinforces how much I LOVE developing new salad dressings, so much so that one day, I might want to write a whole book of them. For now, enjoy this mustard magic.
The New York Times Cooking’s The Most Popular Recipes of 2024 is out and there are a number of my recipes. To celebrate, below are gift links to all of them.
But first, a few quickies:
The Christmas playlist I’ve been enjoying this week
My freezer is full of cookie dough and the one I’ve enjoyed making most is this Neapolitan shortbread by my friend Sarah Kieffer.
NPR’s list of the best songs of 2024 is out and it’s a good one
Christmas is a bittersweet time for George Michael fans like myself. He wrote one of the most iconic Christmas songs of all time but devastatingly passed on Christmas Day 2016. The BBC Last Christmas Unwrapped documentary aired this week and starts streaming on Netflix in USA today.
I received news this week that Tenderheart is Longlisted for the UK based 2024 André Simon Book Awards this week. Fingers crossed we make the shortlist.
And now, let’s eat.
Monday: Dumpling and smashed cucumber salad with peanut sauce
Tuesday: Miso leeks with white beans
Wednesday: Crispy Gnocchi With Spinach and Feta
Thursday: Lemony pearl barley soup
Friday: This Spanakorizo With Jammy Eggs one wasn’t in the ‘best’ list but it’s one of the best to me. It’s a family fave
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
Portobello steak, charred broccolini, mustard tarragon sauce
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
Resting the portobello after cooking is essential. It allows the juices to settle and the mushroom to reabsorb them, giving you a juicy mushroom that is not soggy. This mirrors the technique of allowing meat to rest.
This is perfect as a light meal or a little bit fancy starter. Turn it into a more substantial salad by adding a grain, rice, lentils etc.