The Real Thing

Split Pea Soup (Betty Crocker Cookbook)

Habitant Pea Soup was a staple of my childhood, so I was pretty excited to produce the real thing, from scratch, in a an area rife with French Canadiana.

2 1/4 cups dried split peas (1 lb), sorted and rinsed 8 cups water 1/4 tsp pepper 1 lg onion 2 medium stalks celery, finely chopped 1 ham bone, 2 lbs ham shanks or 2 lbs smoked pork hocks 3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4” slices

1. Heat all ingredients except carrots to boiling in 4-quart Dutch oven, stirring occasionally; reduce heat Cover and simmer 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes.

By the way, smoked pork hocks look really gross. Really.

2. Remove ham bone; let stand until cool enough to handle. Remove ham from bone. Remove excess fat from ham; cut ham into 1/2” pieces.

Also, smoked pork hocks have a buttload of fat around them. Smoky, salty (delicious and hard not to stick back in the soup) fat.

3. Stir ham and carrots into soup. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes or until carrots are tender and soup is desired consistency.

In the end, it looked an awful lot like my post-Sunday School lunch from days gone by, but it was a little thicker and pastier than I recall. Maybe that means I’d done my French Canadian neighbours proud.

Just to be safe, I didn’t let them taste test.

The Small Slow Cooker Strikes Again!

Easy Cassoulet Soup (Better Homes and Gardens Slow Cooker Favorites Made Easy)

I think you’ve heard me complain about my slow cooker before. Just imagine cutting some of the ingredients in this recipe down to one quarter the called-for amount.

1 cup chopped carrots 1 cup chopped onion 3/4 cup chopped red or green sweet pepper 2 15-oz cans white kidney beans or great northern beans, rinsed and drained 8 oz skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1” pieces 8 oz cooked smoked turkey sausage, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2” slices 1 bay leaf 1 tbsp snipped fresh parsley 1 tsp dried thyme, crushed 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 14-oz can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth 1/2 cup dry white wine

And though it’s a pain to cut up only one quarter of a red pepper, I did it anyway!

1. In a 3 1/2 to 5-quart slow cooker place carrots, onion, and sweet pepper. Add drained beans, chicken, sausage, and bay leaf to cooker. Sprinkle with parsley, thyme, cayenne pepper, and garlic. Combine undrained tomatoes, broth and wine. Pour over all.

I absolutely did not use turkey sausage, though. Heaven forfend such things darken the door of a northern grocery store.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 7 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Remove and discard bay leaf.

And yes, I guarantee that this resulted in another case of the flatulent femme-culinaire.

Saturday Noon

Project: Mushroom Bisque with Tarragon (The New Lighthearted Cookbook)

Though I wasn’t in school, Saturday mornings had a kind of routine to them. My brother and I would wake up early, pour a bowl of cereal and watch cartoons until our mother called us away for something else. We were rarely allowed to watch straight up to lunch time, but on the rare occasions that we were it was always a pleasure to be dragged away by a warm bowl of soup. Generally, we preferred canned soup to our mother’s homemade stuff (our taste buds were significantly less refined. My mother makes lovely soup). But this twist on one of my personal favourites gives the best of both worlds.

8 oz mushrooms 1 tbsp soft non-hydrogenated margarine 1/4 cup minced onion 2 tbsp all-purpose flour 1 cup hot chicken stock 1 1/2 cups 2% milk 1 tsp dried tarragon 1/3 cup fresh parsley salt and freshly ground pepper 1 tbsp dry sherry (optional)

Thinly slice 4 mushroom caps and set aside; coarsely chop remaining mushrooms (if sing food processor, use on-off turns)

I don’t really remember what that rocking blade is called, but it’s pretty badass, and pretty effective at chopping up large quantities of whatever you want.

In a saucepan, melt margarine over medium-high heat; add onion and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add chopped mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes or until golden and no liquid remains, stirring often. CRAP! I didn’t reserve the large slices of mushroom! Whatever will I do?!?

Sprinkle with flour and stir until mixed. Whisk in ho chicken stock and bring to boil, whisking constantly.

Reduce heat to low and add milk, tarragon, parsley, and reserved sliced mushrooms (SHIT!); cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in sherry (if using).

Verdict: Pretty delicious. Though if you’re expecting the flavour of your favourite canned soup, you’ll be disappointed as this one won’t be anywhere near the right amount of salt. That being said, even if you added a sprinkle or two to your bowl, you’d probably be getting exponentially less salt than the can gives you.

This is Soup?

Technorati Tags: Food,Soup,Noodles,Peanut Butter,Tofu

Dish: Vegetable Lo Mein (Reader’s Digest Ultimate Soup Cookbook)

I decided it was finally time to crack open the Betty Crocker Stainless Steel Skillet (say that 3 times fast) that my boyfriend gave me LAST CHRISTMAS (I am a failure), and figured an Asian dish was the best thing to try in it (since it is the only thing I own even approximating a wok). And the dish was vegetarian. How can I go wrong?

4 oz Asian egg noodles or thin egg noodles 1 tbsp peanut butter or vegetable oil 3 scallions, finely chopped, with tops sliced and reserved 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tsp minced fresh ginger or 1/4 tsp ground ginger 2 celery stalks, sliced thin 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thin 1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced thin 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water 2 cups broccoli florets 1 tbsp cornstarch 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce 1 tbsp dry sherry 1 tsp Asian sesame or peanut oil 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 lb firm tofu, cut into 3/4” cubes

Yeah, yeah. Some of you are scared of the tofu. Don’t be. It tastes like ginger and soy sauce. In this case.

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt, and then drain and set aside.

2. In a heavy 12” skillet over medium-high heat, heat peanut oil. Add scallions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add celery, carrots, and mushrooms and stir-fry 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Add broccoli, cover and simmer 2 minutes.

So, yeah, scallions, garlic and ginger:

Then celery, carrots and mushrooms:

Then add the broccoli and cover, which is great, if you’ve got a cover. If you don’t, do your best to make a layered, shingled tinfoil roof to protect your broccoli from drying out. It should be nice and bright green. That way you know it’s still got the healthy goodness of broccoli, which is the true reason to eat broccoli (and not my secret true reason: awesome cheese sauce vehicle).

3. In a small bowl, combine remaining chicken broth with cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil and sugar. Add to skillet and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until thick, about 4 minutes. Add noodles and tofu, cover, and simmer 2 minutes or until tofu is heated through. Transfer to a bowl, toss gently and sprinkle with sliced scallion tops.

The unfortunate thing about the sauce is that it turns just about everything in the pan an unfortunate blech colour. Also, I found that in this case, despite the blech colour, I was wanting a little bit more sauce. Because this is what I got:

And damn it, I wanted soup.

:(

Flatulence, Ho!

Dish #1: Eight-Bean Soup (Reader's Digest Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
Dish #2: Warm Chorizo and Spinach Salad (The Cook's Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking)
Dish #3: Rhubarb Stewed with Apple and Strawberries (The New Lighthearted Cookbook)

I love beans. Beans, lentils, pulses - they are my friends. They make something more of any soup, chili, salad...you name it. So I was really excited to try this eight-bean soup from my soup cookbook. Before:
1/2 cup great Northern beans
1/2 cup dry kidney beans
1/ cup dry navy beans
1/2 cup dry lima beans
1/2 cup dry butter beans
1/2 cup dry split green or yellow peas
1/2 cup dry pinto beans
1/2 cup dry lentils
1 hambone
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 can tomatoes, undrained, quartered
1 can tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, choped
4 carrots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dried chives
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1. In a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring beans and 5 cups water to boil. Cook 2 minutes, then remove frmo heat and let stand, covered, 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, in an 8-quart soup pot voer medium-high heat, bring hambone and cups water to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.
3. Drain beans and add to stock. Add bouillon, tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, celery, carrots, chives, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, mustard, and cayenne. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender. Remove hambone and bay leaves; add more water if desired.

So, you're going to desire to add more water. Once again I neglected to read that essential part. Because if you don't, you're going to have something that looks like this:


Complete with charred bits that burned to the bottom of the pot. Blech. Also, now I have several different variety of dried beans. Because those are everyday use items. Me <- Genius.

I didn't feel this was enough vegetable for the evening, so I made the warm chorizo & spinach salad side dish to go with it.

8 oz baby spinach leaves
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 oz chorio sausage, very thinly sliced
2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1. Discard any tough stalks from the spinach. Pour theo il into a large skillet and add thes ausage. Cook gently for 3 minutes until the sausage slices start to shrivel slightly and color.
2. Add the spinach leaves and remove the skillet from the heat. Toss the spinach in the warm oil until it just starts to wilt. Add the sherry vinegar and a little seasoning. Toss the ingredients briefly, then serve immediately, while still warm.



Despite the fact that this recipe boasts ONLY FOUR ingredients, I was unable to find half of them in my local grocery store. I substituted hot genoa salami for chorizo, and though at any other point in time the grocery store has bazillions of BRANDS of baby spinach, I had to take home a box of baby arugula instead. Just as well, I like it better anyway. That being said, the green to red ratio in this picture does not reflect the vegetable content promised me in the original recipe book's picture. Hrmm.

Rounding out the evening was a fruit-based dessert, which always makes me feel virtuous and good (and slightly unsatisfied). Before:
1 orange
1 lb fresh or frozen rhubarb
1 large apple
1 cup water
1/4 cup (approx.) granulated sugar
2 cups fresh strawberries, halved
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogur
2 tbsp packed brown sugar

Grate rind and squeeze juice from orange. Cut rhubarb into 1" lengths. Peel, core and thinly slice apple.

In a saucepan, combine orange rind and juice, rhubarb, apple, water, and sugar; cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until fruit is tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in strawberries. Add more sugar to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top each serving with a spoonful of yogurt and sprinkle with brown sugar.



You might notice that it doesn't actually contain any rhubarb. Yup. My grocery store strikes again. I decided to substitute mango for a variety of reasons. 1. It seemed to be the only thing there. 2. I love it and my boyfriend hates it and he wasn't going to be around to eat it. 3. Mango & strawberry. It's a delicious smoothie in the making. It's pretty good, although I suspect a little mushier than the intended rhubarb version.

This was a steamy night in my kitchen. Not only was I cooking for myself, but I also made a batch of brownies and a loaf of bread. The bread was an interesting recipe; full of dried prunes and bran. I refer to it as poop bread. Eating the bread and the bean soup concurrently has been interesting. And, unsurprisingly, pretty solitary.