I've been pretty routine in my eating this summer. Sticking to a few standards has made grocery shopping really easy but it hasn't made for a lot of variety. (Ask CH: "Uh, I can offer you a salad with, uh, shrimp and tomato and avocado, or, uh, a sandwich with cheese and tomato and avocado. Oh! Or berries and yogurt!")
So I decided to commemorate the honorary end of summer with making a meal that not only required creative shopping, but also required cooking two foods I've never cooked before. And, uh, it was totally worth it.
I started with this recipe for Corn, Bacon and Clam Stew. Out of the usual necessity, I replaced the bacon with turkey bacon. And since I failed to check whether I had bourbon, I had to find a replacement for the bourbon, too. (I know: I was also shocked. I didn't even think to check, but, after digging through every cabinet in my kitchen, I remembered that the last time I was in the wine store I thought, 'Oh, I need bourbon,' and then managed to forget to buy any. I plan on remedying this as soon as the blue laws will let me.) For half of the recipe, I substituted some old Pumpkin Ale and, for half, I substituted Vermouth. I think the Vermouth was actually more successful, although both were fine.
I've never cooked turkey bacon or clams before and I was surprised at how easy the clams were to cook. (Turkey bacon is another story. It took forever and made a huge mess.) The other big surprise was how much the basil added to the stew. Honestly, I tend to think that basil is superfluous in most recipes and I expected to think the same of this. (Read those ingredients and tell me that you think the basil sounds like it fits.) But it really added brightness to the stew so I was completely won over.
Of course, being me, I doubled the recipe since it looked like it would be a pain to make. So I've got plenty of leftovers to see how well this reheats. Depending on how much I enjoy it through the week, I may try to make it again before all the summer corn is gone. I think it's plausible that it could be made without the turkey bacon, or at least with a lot less, and I feel pretty confident that I could substitute shrimp or white fish for the clams. If I actually end up doing so, I'll let you know how it goes.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
first and last cooking of the summer
Monday, December 7, 2009
You're So Damn Hot
A few months ago CH and I went to our new favorite southside restaurant and ordered a spit-fire-hot garlic soup. The soup was so spicy that they served it with a beer to help you cope. And, the chef even came over to warn us not to drink all the beer because we’d need it for the soup (we were sitting at “the kitchen table”). After the initial shock, the soup was delicious. It made your mouth burn, but the heat said “give me more” and not “kill me now.”
And then, at the beginning of soup season, CH decided to make this garlic soup. It was good, but it’s nothing like the fiery version we’d had. So, the next time we were at the restaurant, we asked about what they did with the soup. We wanted to know if the peppers were roasted, seeded, etc. The chef explained how to do it. And then he gave us these:
...along with a warning to handle them with care.
Having never received ingredients from a restaurant before, we decided to give it a whirl. If I do say so myself, I think we did a decent job of replicating the soup. In terms of special equipment, this soup may not need goggles, but rubber gloves would probably come in handy.
As for the recipe – We followed Smitten Kitchen’s recipe except we got rid of the thyme. We roasted two habaneros at the same time as the garlic, but in a different container. Once they were roasted, we took out the seeds and took off the stems. We thought about taking off the skin, but it was too much work, so we just put them in the pot with everything else and blended them all together with CH’s handy immersion blender.
Monday, November 23, 2009
It's True: Jack-o-Lanterns Are Not For Eating
Remember when I commented that, apparently you're not supposed to eat the flesh of regular, Halloween type pumpkins? Well, I should have listened to that advice. I had in my freezer the roasted flesh of a pumpkin my parents grew in their garden, so I decided the time had come to make it into soup.
I followed this recipe, but to be honest, I thought it was boring and flavorless. So, I added curry powder, tumeric, cumin, and pepper at random and in bits until I got something that was edible. The end product was okay, but given all the amazing soups there are in the world, I would not repeat this endeavor, especially when delicious pumpkin-like soup is not difficult to produce.
In other news, the Thanksgiving preparations have begun. Many blog entries to follow. And, CH and I have a tale from our new favorite restaurant. Stay tuned!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
French Onion Soup
It's taken awhile to get here, but it's finally autumn in Chicago (no doubt soon to be followed by months of blistering winter). Anyway, everyone knows autumn is soup season, so I have a couple of soup posts to share. This is probably my favorite soup, and though it calls for beef broth, I know I made it with vegetable broth when EW was my roommate. And, if you have a food processor, this soup is actually really easy to make.
This is my mom's recipe, which she says she got at Famous Barr when she and my dad were first married. Still delicious even 40 years later. And, to be fair, someone else deserves credit for this post since she has made this soup much more recently than I have, and in the process she came up with a must try technique for all of us. Keep reading ;)
Ingredients:
- 5 pounds thinly sliced onions
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3 quarts beef broth
- 1 cup win (Sherry)
- Crusty French Bread
- Gruyere
Instructions:
1. Slice onion thinly in a food processor.
So, right here at step 1 is where our friend's secret technique comes in handy. Chopping onions makes you cry. It even made my cat cry when I was chopping onions recently. That is, unless you do this:
If you don't have any use for swim goggles but appropriately think this idea is genius (as you should), consider these.
2. Melt Butter in a large stock pot and add onions.
3. Sweat the onion over a low heat for a 1 ½ hours.
4. Add all the other ingredients except the beef stock to the onions.
5. Cook for about 10 minutes over low heat stirring to keep from burning. This is to keep the flour from lumping.
6. Add beef stock. Cook for 2 hours over low heat.
Serving Instructions:
1. Set oven to broil.
2. Place a generous slice of Gruyere cheese in the bottom of an oven safe bowl.
3. Add soup.
4. Place a piece of French bread on top of the soup. Cover with thinly sliced Gruyere.
5. Place in the oven until the cheese is melted.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Turkey Chili
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, spices/seasonings, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cook 1 minute more. Add the turkey, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, and cook until the meat loses its raw color, about 3 minutes. Add the beer and simmer until reduced by about half, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the beans; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 10 minutes.
It doesn't look like much compared to KZ's masterpieces on here, but I made this for potluck #2 of 3 in a span of four days. Normally (and for the other 2) i opt for something from Trader Joes out of the box, but i decided to go for this turkey chili, mainly because i was intrigued by the recipe calling for some Mexican lager-style beer. I didn't have more than a little taste, but it was well received by the folks eating. Recipe is courtesy of the food network.
Here's how i made it:
Friday, January 16, 2009
This is not the NYE entry you are looking for
Black and White CookiesI'm sure Aaron first introduced me to the wonder of the Black and White cookie. They're slightly lemony, cakey taste is very satisfying, and the decision making of how to eat the cookie (all black first? half and half?) is a good indicator of overall mood. However, here on the other side of the county, finding a cookie that resembles the real thing is a difficulty. Mostly, you end up with a sugar cookie with black and white icing--totally not the point.
So, when I saw this recipe on smitten kitchen, I was pretty excited, and after finishing finals last semester I went straight to the cookie baking. As the picture reveals, I divided these cookies into groups and brought them to various people or events. The details are a little fuzzy.
One cool detail that Ms. SK shares is that these cookies originated in bakeries who had extra bits of cake batter leftover at the end of the day. Bakers would add a little extra flour, and bake up a set of black and whites. I will admit that I forgot the icing-rule of these cookies, which is to ice the flat (bottom) of the cookies. Whoops. I guess I'll just have to make them again some time...
More recently, I've been trying recipes from the Breakfast, Lunch, Tea book that KZ gifted me. At A&C's we had potato soup with cheese scones one night--super delicious!
After I got home, I decided I wanted to try the Lemon and Chickpea Soup.
I tend to be amused when one cookbook has many recipes that follow a really similar pattern, and the two soups I've made from this book fit that design. Both start with a simmer of onions and celery and carrot, and then the body of the soup is added. I really enjoyed this Chickpea soup though--I'm hoping it's just as good on reheat, but there is something about the combination of red pepper spices (I didn't have the dried red chili called for in the recipe, so I used some dried chili flakes and chili powder) with chickpea and lemon that I love. Ok, maybe it's not a surprise I liked this recipe. Chickpeas+lemon+spice is kind of my favorite food ever.
Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Current CookiesWhile I was waiting for the soup to complete its simmer, I found a recipe for a quick cookie that would use up some ingredients I had lying around. I call it the Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Current Cookie. Wheee.
There isn't actually any yogurt in the recipe, but I after finding this container, I couldn't resist taking a picture. These cookies turned out pretty deliciously. The dough is a little dry and crumbly, but shaped up into cookie form when I pressed them into balls without getting my hands ridiculously sticky. The sugar almost caramelizes during baking, and there is tons and tons of texture. I usually don't like raisins in cookies, but I think the currents are small enough that they add a nice flavor without causing me the problems that raisins in cookies do.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Cooking = Procrastination
So remember the Ciabatta recipe? I finally attempted it, and conclusion=delicious. Here we see a hunk with some chili I threw together (black beans, a variety of sweet peppers, some cilantro and parsely, butternut squash, and lots o' spices.)
Of course, as this picture illustrates, bread and chili should really be started early in the day, to avoid eating your delicious meal at midnight. (The clock is a little fast...)
Also, just for fun, pretty pretty California tomatoes! The time to really enjoy these lovelies is leaving, sadly, but I have enjoyed the season.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sweet Corn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas
Ingredients:
6 cups frozen sweet corn, defrosted
3 scallions, each one trimmed and halved
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/4 cup semolina
6 cups hot vegetable stock made from concentrate or bouillon cubes
15 cups lightly salted tortilla chips
2 cups grated cheese
2 long red chiles, deseeded and finely chopped, optional
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Drain the corn and put into a food processor with the scallions, garlic, and semolina. Blitz to a speckled primrose mush; unless you have a big food processor you may have to do this in two batches.
3. Tip this mixture into a large saucepan; add the hot vegetable stock, and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let the chowder simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, spread the tortilla chips out on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkle over the cheese. Warm in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes or until cheese melts over the chips.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and put a small mound of cheese-molten chips into the middle of each bowl. Sprinkle over some of the red chile, if you feel like it, and serve immediately to very grateful people.
Our modifications:
We couldn't find red chiles, so we bought serranos and also roasted some red bell peppers. We pureed the red peppers and added them to the processed corn. KZ wrangled the serranos, and we added them chopped to the mix. I think the serranos added a nice kick!
Using the tortilla chips was actually important with the addition of popcorn to the top of the soup, as we figured the tortilla chips would offer a nice buffer to keep the popcorn from turning to mush so quickly. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity to use the delicious red and green tortilla chips.
The popcorn topping the soup is "Party Popcorn" which will be my next blog entry.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Pumpkin Chili
Fall is a really lovely time, and part of the joy of the season is how there is pumpkin everywhere! Why not use the pumpkin in a savory, stew-like chili and celebrate the coolness of the season with a warmth in your stomach! ;)
Anyways, Linda emailed me this recipe that she threw together and it sounded amazing, so, here it is. Try it for yourselves!
Ingredients:
can of pumpkin
can of black beans drained
can of kidney beans mostly drained
half can of stewed tomatoes
one chopped fresh tomato
one red bell pepper
half large onion
couple random chunks of yams, butternut squash, and parsnip (medly from trader joe's)-roasted
cinnamon
honey
nutmeg
cumin
red pepper
brown sugar
ginger
salt
pepper
Directions:
saute onions and red pepper until tender. roast yams, squash, parsnips until tender. chop up into smaller pieces. put everything in a big pot and let simmer for at least 2 hours. when everything is getting soft, mash everything a little with a potato masher to get a better texture.
eat until full.
Final Elizabeth note: As Linda mentioned in the email, she tends to throw things together and season to taste. I was a little afraid of making it too sweet, so while I added nutmug and brown sugar (and would have included some honey, if I were in possession of any) I added those in smaller quantities than the cumin and cayenne.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Matzo Ball Soup
This post feels sort of like cheating because it's really just making something from a box. But, I know at least one reader of this blog is pretty fond of the soup and I just had some for dinner last night, so I figured I'd post some instructions.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
These instructions come from the box, mostly.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Summer Squash and Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Last night my parents took me to Le Bernardin for dinner, so today my cooking spree made me feel a bit like an amateur. But, a dinner party and a house concert are on the horizon so cook I must. For the dinner party: Summer Squash and roasted red pepper soup (mostly squash little pepper), Elizabeth's potato pizza, and a Cosi classic salad. Thankfully, the weather in New York is no longer summer, so my soup won't be too out of place.
Before I give you the recipe for the soup, check out this cute feature of summer squash: when you cut them in half the inside is shaped like a heart. Isn't that sweet. Okay, now the recipe.
Soup Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/4 cups chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 2 1/2-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch pieces
5 1/2 cups (or more) vegetable broth
3 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
Red Pepper Puree Ingredients
1 cup coarsely chopped drained roasted red peppers from jar (I roasted them myself)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Preparation
1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until tender, about 12 minutes. Add garlic; stir 1 minute. Add squash and 5 1/2 cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until squash is soft, about 40 minutes. Cool slightly.
2. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return puree to pot. Add 1 teaspoon thyme and orange peel. Thin soup with more broth if desired. Simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Cover and chill. Rewarm before serving, thinning with more broth if desired.)
3. Preparation of Puree: Puree all ingredients in processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before using.)
4. Ladle soup into bowls. (Optional addition: add in a lop of heavy cream before you swirl in the pepper - gives the soup a nice creamy flavor.) Swirl 1 tablespoon Roasted Red Pepper Puree into soup in each bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons thyme and serve.