Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

My absolute favorite thing to eat when I am home alone is roasted garlic mashed potatoes. When David is away my dinners almost always consist of one item that most people would consider a side.  No meat, no bread, that's it. For someone who loves to cook, I have to admit I don't have much appetite when it comes to eating alone.
What happens when I crave my favorite alone meal and I'm not alone? Most of the time it involves adding a salad and maybe pork chops. A couple of weeks ago I found this recipe for  Potato Soup and I thought why not roast the garlic instead? It isn't quite as easy as simple mashed potatoes, but not quite as involved as a full meal. With our temperatures still dipping into the 20 below range a good potato soup really hits the spot.
A lot of people make roasting garlic more complicated than it needs to be. All I do is wrap a whole head of garlic in foil and toss it in a 350 degree oven until your whole house smells like garlic, about an hour.

Banana Lemongrass Soup

One of my favorite parts of eating out is trying to figure out how to make the recipes at home. Not in that weird kind of secret restaurant recipes kind of way where you make Taco Bell Bean Burritos, because I don't really get that at all. Mine is more like I am only going to get to eat at this restaurant once this year, so I better figure this out if I ever want to eat it again. I admit it is a lot easier now that every recipe you can imagine is posted on the internet.
As soon as I saw Banana Lemongrass Soup on the menu at Ginger in Anchorage I knew it was one I was going  to want to make myself. You don't often see banana in savory dishes, and lemongrass is one of those ingredients I can't readily get my hands on, so I always appreciate it when I have access.
Both at Ginger and in this recipe I loved the depth of flavor in this soup. At Ginger they serve it with little bits of crab and eggplant to give it some texture. I just made mine a simple puree. If I wasgoing to have it as  a meal type soup, I might finely dice a little tofu and add it in. I rarely make soups that require straining and I was hoping I would have to strain this one, but the lemongrass just made the texture too stringy. If you have more experience with lemongrass than I do I would love to hear your suggestions for getting it a little more smooth.

My 10 Favorites of 2010

Thank you all for visiting my site in 2010. Here are some of my favorites from this past year, the items that have been made many times and will find their way to our table again in 2011. Happy New Year!

Lemon Pull Apart Loaf 

 Chicken and Broccoli Braid

 Risotto Style Pasta

 Wild Blueberry Cupcakes

 Fresh Tomato Salad

 Rustic Rhubarb and Rose Petal Tarts

 Maple Walnut Scones

 Carrot Ginger Dressing

 Italian Wedding Soup

Green Apple and Shallot Raita

Apple Parsnip Soup

Keeping a blog makes me realize how quickly things change around here. I can barely keep up. We do have snow on the ground now (not bare like these photos), but still just barely enough for skiing. Here's to hoping the temperatures stay warm enough for snow and maybe all we will need is a warm bowl of soup to keep us warm for the next six (or eight) months of winter.
I am thankful for a mild November. Dermot should have asked us if we were planning a new wood stove before he predicted the severe winter this year. It's like you can pretty much guarantee it will rain if you forget your rain jacket and a grizzly bear will walk right across your path if you forget your camera. So Fairbanksans, you can thank us for buying a new wood stove and filling up our wood shed. A very mild November indeed.
If you need a little something to keep you warm, but aren't quite ready to start up the wood stove, this soup might just do the trick. I love the flavor the parsnips added to this soup. A great weekend lunch.

Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

Wow, is it Friday again already? I didn't realize when I posted Sesame Noodles on Wednesday what a noodley week it was going to be here. This is the third recipe from the new online cooking club called "French Fridays with Dorie". The group is cooking their way through Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. I joined the group to challenge myself to cook and bake things that I wouldn't normally choose. Last week was a huge success when I expanded my horizons to include a dish very similar to quiche.
This week was something that I didn't really feel stretched my culinary horizons and although it made for a filling meal, it wasn't something I would make again. Despite the fact that the recipe included coconut milk, garlic, ginger, cilantro, and red pepper, and lime juice...somehow this one just came up flat. The thing I have liked most about this cookbook so far is that all the recipes I have tried have really let the ingredients shine. In the gougeres I felt the cheese really made a difference, and the same with the mustard in the tart. This week I think my ingredients fell flat and just didn't produce the flavor I would have hoped for in this soup. There is a side note in the cookbook that recommends adding curry to the soup. Looking back I would have gone with that option, but I am not curious enough to make this one again.

Gougeres

 

One thing I have realized about myself through this blog is that I am not a fan of repetition. I always want to be doing, trying, cooking, or visiting something new. Originally this blog started as a place where I could document all the recipes I was making. So many times I would make something and it would be really good and then of course I would forget where I got the recipe from or just forget about it completely. The idea was that I would post them here and then be able to have them again, any time I wanted. The truth of the matter is that I still don't do that. Some people find comfort in have the same dish every Friday. After years of working in a field (outdoor education) where most of my food was prepared for me, I can tell you I will never eat Pizza on Thursday again. I yearned for my own kitchen during those years. Although some of the places I worked had great food, I still had a hard time with the monotony of a weekly schedule. The only routine we have is Pizza once a week, but it is never on the same day.

One of the ways I have avoided cooking monotony is to join a variety of online cooking clubs. Unfortunately for one reason or another...too much baking, time commitment, or difficulty finding ingredients they have all fallen by the wayside. I have enjoyed being part of these online communities, but many never seemed like a good fit. When I heard they were starting a new Dorie Greenspan cooking club called French Fridays with Dorie I thought it sounded like fun. I had already ordered the book, and because it has a variety of side items, main dishes, and desserts it will ensure a more diverse experience. They also don't require you post every week to stay in "the club".
This is the first recipe from the group. Gougeres are the first recipe in the book and I suppose as good a place as any to start. They remind me of a very rich popover. They are light and airy, yet still quite cheesy. These strike me as the kind of thing where the quality of the cheese would make a huge difference. I think they would be great with a Martini or cocktail, or even beer of your choice. I see them more as an appetizer, but I did have them with a light soup. I also followed the directions for freezing them and part of me feels like they are actually better that way. They seemed to puff up just a little more. The next time I will make them smaller, teaspoon sized. That way we can pull them out for a before dinner snack.
After October I will not be sharing the recipes as they would prefer not to have every recipe from the book posted online, therefore encouraging people to buy the book. To encourage people to participate they are posting the first months worth of recipes.So I too will share them here with you.

Italian Wedding Soup

You may have notice a few changes around here. First of all, I got a new camera. I dropped the old one on a rock and smashed the screen rendering me unable to see what I was photographing and whether or not it was in focus. Yes, there is a new fall header. The change I have the most anxiety about is ads on my blog. The anxiety comes for many reasons, mainly because I don't really know what this means. Right now it is just a step in what I see as an ever growing body of work. This is definitely the most time consuming "art project" I have ever worked on. I spent a lot of time deciding (nearly a year) on what type of ad network is best for me. Too many required I sign a contract for several years and then I had no control over what they placed or where they placed it. Then one night David pointed out another blog that had the same ad network I was considering and there was an ad for Chicken McNuggets. Then to top it all off someone told me they average about $6.00 a month on that network. I can tell you that is not worth it. Whew, that was a close call. So, I finally found a place that not only lets me choose the companies that place ads, but also lets me choose the ads themselves and where they are placed on the blog. I have decided that I will only display ads for those companies whose products I have actually purchased and am not only happy with, but would purchase again. I'm still not sure the money I will make will be worth having ads cluttering up my blog. I am going to give it a try for a month and see how it goes. Enough about that...
I have had this soup saved in my bookmarks for years. Literally. I absolutely love Italian Wedding soup, but I refused to make it until I could find acini di pepi. I looked everywhere in Fairbanks and found all small pasta, but I had always had it with acini di pepi and I was determined the first time I made it that it would have it. When I went back to Michigan this summer I made a list before I left of things to food items to ship back to Fairbanks. The thing is that I had forgotten that grocery shopping there is just as limited or worse than it is here in Fairbanks. Honestly, I feel a lot better about my choices here. How could I have forgotten this? Luckily, on my list of about 10 items including Mango Powder (yeah right) the only one I was able to find was acini di pepi. The second stroke of luck is that I had a good amount of time to spend in Minneapolis and was able to shop at both Whole Foods and Trader Joes.

Flapjacks

 

I'm not really sure where I originally heard about Flapjacks. The first time I tried making them was about a year ago when I found a recipe in an absolutely beautiful book about the domestic arts. The book made them look so good and the description. I promptly ordered some Golden Syrup from an import company and went to work on my first batch. It turns out that when the book was converted from the metric system to our unit of measure here in the U.S. some things just didn't translate. My first batch of flapjacks were oat and butter soup! Thinking I must have done something wrong I actually made a second batch and tried cooking them longer, blackened oat and butter soup! The jar of Golden Syrup was not very big and I paid way more money than I should have I was worried I would run out of syrup before I actually made a good batch. I wrote to the company and they fessed up that the conversions were bad. They sent me two copies of the second (corrected) printing as a replacement. The problem was that the second printing was not any better. Two more batches produced nothing more than sticky oats. The remaining 1/4 cup of Golden Syrup has been sitting in my cupboard since. I figured Flapjacks were not meant to be for me until....

This month Molly Wizenberg shared a recipe for Flapjacks in her Column called Cooking Life in Bon Appetit magazine. Since Molly has not failed me yet (she led me to the perfect scone), I had to trust her and use the last of my Golden Syrup to make this final batch. They turned out perfectly, unfortunately I am out of Golden Syrup!!

Flapjacks
adapted from Molly Wizenberg's Cooking Life

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup (it should be pretty easy to find if you live in the lower 48, Amazon now sells it as well)
2 1/3 cups quick-cooking oats (I used the thick farmhouse type and they turned out fine)
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Combine butter, sugar, and golden syrup. ingredients in heavy medium saucepan. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until sugar melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Add oats and salt and mix until evenly coated. Transfer mixture to  pan and spread evenly.
Bake, rotating pan halfway through until top is golden and edges are dark, but not burned. Total baking time for me was 30 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 5 minutes. Cut into 4 squares; cut each into 4 triangles (mixture will still be soft). Cool completely in pan before serving. It is very important to leave them in the pan until they are completely cool, otherwise they will not hold together.

Darkness...

How do we do it you ask? All that darkness? I love this video as it emphasizes just how short our days are in the winter. Honestly, that video hardly feels like it is time lapsed. Aren’t our days really only two minutes long?
Really, what does a person do when they have two weeks off during the darkest time of year? First of all we sleep a lot. We up our Netflix subscription from one at a time to three at a time. Has anyone seen anything good lately? We have been picking a lot of stinkers. I have been enjoying Top Chef. Of course this has made me far more critical of all our meals. My new favorite saying at dinner is, “the meat is overcooked”. Never in my life have I cared if the meat was overcooked!
All this Top Chef and darkness has inspired a lot of time in the kitchen. I just can’t bear to take those horrible flash photos. I keep thinking I should invest in some lights for photography. It would make for much more inspiring posts.
I did make two major discoveries over the holidays. It all started with Nigella Lawson on NPR, followed by cooking her Chocolate Chip Chili. While I was searching for the Chili recipe, I found her granola bar recipe. At this point forces beyond my control steered my car into the Barnes and Noble parking lot and forced me to buy Nigella Christmas. After Christmas Morning Muffins, Bourbon Glazed Ribs, Corn Pudding, …you get the idea. I am hooked on Nigella. I too want to be a domestic goddess, is there anything this woman can’t do? The fact that she can get me to do it without burning down the house is a miracle. We often refer to the smoke detector as the dinner bell!
The second thing that got me out of bed in the dark morning hours was a love story I started reading. You think I am kidding, but no I am serious, I spent hours of my time reading Ree Drummond’s love story. Now, if that is not a guilty pleasure, I’m not sure what is. Luckily, in trying to figure out if I was on Chapter XXXVIII or XXVII, I also stumbled upon some pretty yummy looking recipes. I ended up making Pioneer Woman’s Rosemary Dinner Rolls twice and finally was inspired to make French Onion Soup. I have had a block of Gruyere in my fridge for about a month waiting to find the right French Onion Soup recipe.
With the leftover Gruyere I was also inspired to make this lovely gratin for dinner the other night.
After this wordy post, I’m sure you are all hoping I run out and get myself some photo lights. More pictures, please…
I’ll think about it!!

Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

Over the years I have waited tables at more restaurants than I would care to admit. My last experience, I am happy to report was nearly three years ago. I was between jobs and it was the end of the season at Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park. They needed someone to work with for a couple of months, housing was included. Perfect. The only problem was I was in the middle of a terrible relationship and the other person worked there as a server as well...

The kitchen was a totally professional operation. Jamie, the head chef really cared about the meals he was sending out from the kitchen. He was pretty tough on the wait staff, but I worked hard and actually wanted to a good job. We weren't buddies, but we didn't have any issues either. Jamie NEVER let anything leave his kitchen for free. Unlike other restaurants where the employees always had their fingers in the dessert, and free cups of soup were the norm. We got our free staff meal, but everything else we paid for.

One night while previously mentioned ex-boyfriend and I were working together on a fairly busy shift, he decided he was going to walk out. This had become a nightly occurrence. He always thought that he was being screwed over by the management. It didn't matter what section this guy got, he always thought it was the worst one, he was always most miserable on the nights when he perceived my section to be better than his. On this night when he said he was leaving, as always I ignored him until later when our hostess asked where he was. Huh? He's gone, really? He actually left? A few minutes later, Jamie came to me and asked if I was ok? Then he asked me to come into his office. Then I thought, "Is he going to fire me too"? Jamie informed me that they would like to fire this guy, but they didn't want me to quit. I almost laughed out loud.

To say the least, it was one of my best nights at the restaurant. Not only did I feel a huge weight had been lifted, but I also had the best night financially because I ended up taking a bunch of extra tables as we were then one server short!

At the end of the night Jamie brought me a dish of Blackberry Lavender ice cream. It was one of my favorite desserts at the restaurant. Making this Blueberry Lavender ice cream reminded me of that night and Jamie who inspired my own Alaska version of lavender ice cream. I made mine with local honey, lavender, and wild blueberries.

Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

Inspired by Jamison Brandt, David Lebovitz, and Lindsey Shere

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup fresh lavender flowers

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

3/4 cup blueberry puree (recipe follows)

Warm honey and lavender flowers in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once warm and runny remove from heat and let steep for at least one hour.

Heat the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula. Remove from heat and stir in the honey and lavender mixture.

Fill a large bowl half way with ice and about one cup of water and place (do not immerse) a medium size bowl on top. Pour the cream into the medium bowl and set a fine mesh strainer on top. Pour the milk and honey mixture through the strainer and into the cream. Stir until cool over the ice bath. Chill the mixture overnight in the refrigerator. The next day freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. After five minutes or when the mixture has just started to freeze up slowly add the blueberry puree. Finish mixing and eat right away or store in freezer for up to three days.

To Make Blueberry Puree:

Place 2 cups of blueberries and 1/2 cup of sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until blueberries begin to release their juices and then mash with a potato masher or mix with an immersion blender. Place in refrigerator overnight.

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

I recently picked up the book "What we eat, when we eat alone", by Deborah Madison. Before that I read "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant". I have spent most of my life essentially, living alone. I was an only child in a single parent home. I was also painfully shy through most of my childhood, something anyone who knows me now will tell you I have gotten over! My adulthood has had a few stints with roommates and significant others, but when given a choice I must admit that I always choose to be alone. I am good at it, for the most part I enjoy quiet, solitary activities such as knitting, reading, painting, surfing the internet, etc... 

For the last year and a half I have found myself with very little alone time, an adjustment that is not always easy. The one thing I find I miss the most is the freedom to eat whatever I want. I miss the broccoli for dinner nights, although David has never complained about anything I have put on the table (well there was this, and that horrible bean thing) I think a broccoli dinner might add some grumbling to our dinner table. So, on those night when David has a late night meeting or goes out of town for a few days I always find myself running meal plans through my head. Although David thinks the dog and I spend our evenings eating bon bons, and cheese wrapped in bacon, I actually find myself looking for the more simple options. I find when I know I will be alone for a few day, a nice pot of rich, hearty soup really hits the spot. I make enough to eat it every day and save myself some work and clean-up. Then I have a little more time for reading, "What we eat, when we eat alone".

Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup
adapted from Sunset Magazine

Ingredients:
3/4 cup wild rice

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbsp salt
4 oz. bacon, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
8 oz. button mushrooms, thinly slices

1 leek, halved, rinsed, and white and light green parts thinly sliced
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp minced flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Put wild rice, and broth in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat to maintain a steady simmer, and cook until rice is tender, about 45 minutes. 

In a large pot, cook bacon over medium-high heat until well done, but not black. Add button mushrooms and leek, Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms give off their liquid, about 10 minutes.

Sprinkle vegetables and bacon with flour and cook, stirring constantly, until flour starts to stick to the bottom of the pot (scrape it up as much as possible while stirring). Add wine, cooked rice and broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to maintain a steady simmer and cook 15 minutes.

Stir in cream and cook until hot, about 1 minute. Divide soup among 8 bowls and serve hot, with a sprinkle of parsley and black pepper on each serving.

Chocolate Guiness Cake

I hate to start this post on a defensive note but, I CAN BAKE A CAKE!! Ok, that feels better! The reason I am feeling so defensive is because for the third year in a row I screwed up David's Birthday cake. 

Ok, the first year hardly counts as a screw up because I never even made the cake. Year one, we were still living in separate countries. Well, that is not nearly as dramatic as it sounds. In order to get to David's apartment I would ride my bike two miles to the bus stop in Port Townsend and put the bike on a bus, then ride the bus for about 1 1/2 hours to Port Angeles, Washington. From Port Angeles I would get on the ferry for an hour and ride to Victoria, B.C. where I would get back on my bike and take another short ride up to David's apartment. I did this nearly every other weekend for nine months before we moved to Alaska. So, back to the cake... That year I promised David a home baked cake for his birthday. I left work early so I could get to Victoria early to surprise him for his birthday. When I arrived at his place I first searched the cupboards for a mixer. No mixer. No big deal, I can mix it by hand. Ok, how about a cake pan. No cake pan. No big deal, I'll just run downtown to one of those cooking shops and buy one along with the pizza stone I was buying for a birthday gift. David loves pizza, so I thought homemade pizza would be the perfect gift, it was and still is three years later. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving! Oh yeah, the cake...so after shelling out $60 for a pizza stone I was hoping to find a cheap cake pan and maybe a rubber spatula. After walking past three dozen bakeries and searching out three cooking stores where I could not find a cake pan for less than $40 I decided to stop in one of the bakeries to price out a cake.  The first cake I looked at was $12, sold. Why purchase $60 on baking equipment and groceries and spend my afternoon baking when I can buy a perfectly good cake for $12 and spend the rest of my afternoon sipping coffee at Bean Around the World? 

This brings me to birthday #2. New location...Fairbanks, Alaska. David has not let me forget that I still owe him a homemade birthday cake. He chooses Lava Cakes for his birthday cake. I think I am off the hook as Lava Cakes are super easy to make. Oh no, I get running late and the Lava Cakes have not hardened up in the fridge by the time we are finished with dinner. David says, "just put them in the oven, they will be fine". Well, they were not fine, lava cakes became Lava Soup. So, now I am two cakes in the hole. Finally, in September I discover a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake that turns out beautifully and it becomes Make up a Birthday Cake #1. 

Finally, this year (are you still awake out there?) I get the recipe from David's Mom for THE birthday cake. This is the cake his mom made every year for his birthday. I made sure to get the recipe when we went back east last summer. The recipe was obviously well loved and parts of the directions had worn away. Do you see where this is going? I was determined to make this a good one. I read the directions carefully, creamed the sugar and shortening, added the melted chocolate, I'm getting ready to add the mix to the baking pans and I do one last scan of the ingredients list and What? Two cups of milk? When was that supposed to go in there? Maybe the milk is for drinking. Is it really supposed to go in the mix? So I dump it in and ugh, this does not look right. The mix is really watery. I put it in the oven anyway and it puffs up like a souffle. Of course David comes home and says, "this doesn't look anything like Mom's". I figured as much! 

So, as to not be two cakes in the hole I decided to make this Chocolate Guiness Cake as make up cake #2. We opted for ice cream rather than the ganache in the original recipe. May I recommend Bailey's Irish Cream Ice Cream? 

Chocolate Stout Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
which was adapted from Bon Appetit, September 2002, recipe originally from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, MA

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process) ( I used King Arthur's Black Cocoa)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream*
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules ( I used 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder)

Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cake out onto rack for drizzling ganache.**

Ganache:
For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.

Quick Black Bean Soup

This soup made a great weeknight meal with cornbread. I liked the flavor with the lime juice, but it needed to be a little thicker. Possibly adding more beans would have helped. I just saw another recipe for a very similar soup in Fine Cooking that had four cans of beans and sweet potatoes. I might try that one next time.

Quick Black Bean Soup
from Everyday Food
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed, drained, and divided
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Cooking spray
1/4 cup (2 ounces) finely chopped reduced-fat ham (such as Hormel)

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan. Add 1 1/2 cans beans; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Place bean mixture in a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Return soup to pan. Add remaining 1/2 can of beans to pan; cook 2 minutes. Stir in juice; set aside.
2. Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add ham to pan; cook 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon ham.

Squash Soup with Vanilla Creme Fraiche- Recipes to Rival November Challenge

I just joined Recipes to Rival, yet another online cooking club. This is only three I swear! Unless someone comes up with a site where they bake everything from the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking Cookbook I am stopping here. By the way.... does anybody know of one?  

In any case when I first saw that the recipe was for Squash Soup I was a little disappointed. I make squash soup all the time, how hard can this be? Could it really be any different from the 10 other Squash Soups I made this fall. Then I went to the grocery store and started adding up the price for all the ingredients: shallots, leeks, acorn squash, butternut squash, when I reach $135 I was re-thinking the whole thing. Then I realized that this recipe serves 24! Yikes! Well, to start I could cut the recipe in half...

Over the last few weeks I have slowly tweeked my CSA shipment to include the majority of the ingredients for this soup.

One of the requirements for the challenge was that we make our own stock. I have probably only made my own stock one other time. I always feel bad throwing all those cooked veggies away. This time I made my own stock, but I blended all but the mushrooms in with the rest of the soup. 

I must say that I found this recipe a little difficult in the way that it was written. Many things were not very clear, many things were assumed. I suppose if I had watched top chef it might have helped. 
In the end I am glade I cut the recipe in half. As it was I could barely fit it in the largest pot I own. In the future I think I could recreate this recipe and have the same flavor with about half the effort. I did d strain the soup for the photo, but that got old really quick and we ended up eating the majority of it unstrained and I honestly think it was better that way. Was it worth it?Absolutely, this soup had a really great multi layered flavor. Plus, with such a huge portion I will have lunch all week!

Squash Soup with Vanilla Creme Fraiche

from Top Chef

Mirepoix:
3 sliced leek bottoms (rinsed)
4 carrots (peeled and sliced)
10 shallots (peeled and sliced)
1 clove garlic
1/2 lb butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup miso stir
Salt and pepper

Squash:
5 acorn
5 butternut
Oil for rubbing
Salt and pepper

Vegetable Stock:
4 quarts water
2 white onions
4 carrots, peeled
2 leeks
6-8 button mushrooms
Bouquet garnish (parsley, bay leaves, peppercorns)

Vanilla Creme Fraiche:
Creme fraiche
2 vanilla beans

Additional Ingredients:
Salt to taste
Cayenne to taste


Spike & Andrew's recipe:

Mirepoix:
Sweat all of the vegetables with butter. Sweat down and deglaze with honey. Stir and add miso. Season with salt and pepper.

Squash:
Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and reserve one butternut head for garnish. Rub squash with oil and season with salt and pepper. Place one piece of sage under every piece of squash. Place squash face down on a sheet tray and roast at 350 degrees until done. Scoop flesh out and pass through a ricer.

Vegetable Stock:
In a pot, boil all ingredients together with the exception of the bouquet garnishes.

Vanilla Creme Fraiche:
Whip creme fraiche and scrape vanilla beans and fold in.

Soup:
Combine squash and vegetable stock to desired consistency. Add mirepoix and cook. Blend with a vita prep and strain through a chinois. Season with salt and cayenne.

To Plate:
Add 6 ounces of soup in bowl and spoon in creme fraiche. Garnish with bouquet garnishes.

Dutch Potato Soup

I promise I will get back to the kitchen and cooking regularly soon. Last week was a busy week (poor David had to eat frozen pizza), so here is a soup I made a while back but never posted. It was really good, but we made it with Chipotle Biscuits and they stole the show...

Cafe Flora is quickly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks. I have not made anything from this cookbook that I have not loved. This soup is no exception.

Dutch Potato Soup

from Cafe Flora Cookbook

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

Salt

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, unpeeled and sliced

4 cups vegetable stock

1 teaspoon caraway seeds toasted and ground

3/4 cup beer, lager or pilsner

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cups smoked Gouda cheese

Freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and saute until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes, stirring several times. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add the potatoes and stock. Bring the pot to a boil, cover,  and cook the potatoes until tender, about 10 minutes. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Add the ground caraway seeds and beer. Bring to a boil then stir in the cream. Return the soup to a simmer and stir in the cheese, a half cup at a time until it's melted. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, to melt the cheese. DO NOT BOIL, or you will curdle the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve at once. 

Peanut, Yam, and Chipotle Soup

I find myself making a lot more soup this time of year. Here is another flavorful one from the Cafe Flora Cookbook. 

Peanut, Yam and Chipotle Soup

adapted from Cafe Flora

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion

salt

1 tablespoon minced, peeled fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground

1 large yam (about 1 pound, peeled and cubed)

4 cups vegetable stock

3 tablespoons natural peanut butter

1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder

peanuts, toasted and chopped

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and saute until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes, stirring several times. Add the ginger, garlic, and coriander seed, and cook for 1 minute.

Add the stock and the yam and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the head to low and cook, covered, until the yam is very tender, about 10 minutes.

Puree about 2 cups of the soup in a blender and return to pot, or use an immersion blender careful to leave a few larger pieces of yam. 

Stir in the peanut butter, and chipotle powder. Bring the pot to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt to taste. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, and serve. 

Barley Risotto with Golden Beets and Greens

I had been looking forward to making this golden beet and barley recipe for a long time. We are really enjoying our golden beets, so it just seemed like just disappeared before I could make it. Unfortunately, we were really hungry and after one hour and 10 minutes the barley still had not cooked down and soaked up all the water. So, we had soup! I did try and strain out as much water as possible. The original recipe was a little salty for us as well. I would cut the salt to half a teaspoon next time.

Barley Risotto with Golden Beets & Greens
from Allison's Lunch

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 cup pearl barley, rinsed
2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
3 medium golden beets, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice
1 to 2 bunches chard, beet greens, or kale
black pepper

1. In a large, heavy pot over high heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon of salt and sauté until the onion is starting to brown lightly—5 minutes or so. Add the barley, ginger, and rosemary and sauté, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the beets (unless they are already roasted—see note, above) and 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.
2. Cover the pot and simmer the barley over low heat, stirring fairly often (but you don’t need to be stirring it obsessively). You’ll need to add more water periodically to keep the barley from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook until the barley is tender and the beets are completely cooked. This will take something like 40 minutes, but just keep tasting to see how it’s coming along. The barley releases starches as it cooks, so at the end, you’ll have a beautiful creamy porridge-like risotto.
3. While the barley cooks, prepare the greens. Remove their stems and chop the leaves into ½-inch slices. If you’re using kale (I recommend it!), you’ll need to blanch it, first. Boil it in a pot of salted water until tender (5-8 minutes—just keep tasting it).
4. When the barley is tender and creamy, add the greens to the pot, and if they were raw when you added them, cook, uncovered, stirring often, until the greens are tender (3 to 5 minutes). If the beets were already roasted, add them now. Taste for salt. Make sure to add enough to really bring the flavors up. Season with pepper to taste.
5. If you have time to cover it and let it rest for a 30 minutes to an hour before serving, do so. Reheat just before serving.

Just Like Grandma's Used To Make...

We all know the saying the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, apparently the way to David's heart was through nearly burning his apartment down (this story will be saved for a future gumbo post)! When we first started dating I attempted to woo him through my cooking. Of course, I did this making things that I had never cooked before. My first attempt at Chicken and Dumplings was good, but the dumplings completely fell apart. I was humiliated, even though David went back for seconds. David informed me that I shouldn't point out my cooking errors and that I should just say something like "this is an old family recipe, just like my grandma used to make". 

No, my grandmother never made this soup. I was referring to Grandma's in Duluth, Minnesota. Every time I go to Grandma's I always get a bowl of their Chicken and Wild Rice soup. I can't get enough of the stuff. I have come close to re-creating it at home in the past, but this recipe with a few adaptations from Eating Well magazine is the closest it has every been to the real thing. This one really is just like Grandma's used to make (and probably still does).

Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

adapted from Eating Well
Makes 4 servings, about 1 3/4 cups each
Ingredients
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 cup wild rice

2 large chicken (or turkey) breasts, should equal 3 cups shredded

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 fresh sage leaves

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups sliced mushrooms (about 4 ounces)

¾ cup chopped celery

¾ cup chopped carrots

¼ cup chopped shallots

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

½ cup reduced-fat sour cream 

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

In a large soup pot or dutch oven (4 quart) over medium heat add chicken broth, wild rice, chicken, thyme, and sage. Let simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove chicken from the pot, shred, and return to pot.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, celery, carrots and shallots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. . Add 1 cup broth from soup pot and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add mixture to the soup pot. Stir in sour cream and parsley and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more.

Roasted Acorn Squash and Garnet Yam Soup

This soup was pretty easy to make although roasting the yams and squash took 45 minutes . I added a very small amount 1/8 teaspoon or less of nutmeg. Would be a great weekend lunch treat.

Roasted Acorn Squash and Garnet Yam Soup
from Infraredherring
Serves 4 as an appetizer; 2 as a main dish

1 medium acorn squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into large cubes
2 medium garnet yams, peeled and cut into large cubes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 oz. slab bacon (or 2 slices bacon), finely diced
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2 cups chicken stock
sour cream, to garnish

1. Toss the squash and yams with the salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roast at 450ºF for 45 minutes, or until tender.

2. While the vegetables are roasting, cook the bacon in a small skillet over medium-low heat until fat is rendered and bacon is crispy. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the bacon out and set aside. Turn up the heat to medium high, and add the apples. Toss to coat with the bacon fat, and cook, stirring frequently, until apples are browned.

3. Using an immersion blender (or in a regular blender), blend the roasted vegetables, half the crispy bacon, and chicken stock together until you have a smooth purée. Check the seasoning, and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve hot, garnished with the caramelized apple, the remaining crisped bacon, and a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!

Suppa Club #2- Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot

You may have remembered from my potato soup post, that I have joined an online supper club sponsored by Molly over at Batter Splattered. This is our second meal "together". Corinne from Moonlit Knit was our host this month. We officially have a name now, the Suppa Club.  I am really late in posting my Suppa Club selection. This is a recipe that I never would have chosen on my own. One, it really didn't sound all that good in the beginning and two, there were some serious ingredient challenges. It seems to now be a pattern that the person whose turn it is to make the recipe selection selects two recipes and then we all vote on the final selection. I could see early on that the vote was leaning towards the Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot. I decided to get a jump on finding my ingredients and order some Caraway Seeds from Penzey's. Then I searched online for a sausage company that would ship Knackwurst or Kielbasa.  I kept holding out hope that I would find some sausage at Fred Meyer as I knew it was going to be a while for the sausage. Finally, this past Wednesday one lonely package of Knackwurst with my name on it showed up in the Fred Meyer meat section. It was from the Alaska Sausage Company. Whew! Now, all I needed was those green beans in my CSA on Thursday and I would be all set. The CSA arrives and guess what is missing? Yes, the green beans are missing from my CSA box. Last night after work I make one last attempt to find them at Fred Meyer, no fresh green beans. Do I leave them out or buy frozen? Ok, so I settled on frozen organic green beans. From here the Hot Pot was a breeze. I really didn't make any changes to the recipe. It was easy to throw together on a Friday night after work, even after a little walk with David and the dog. My only last challenge was getting a photo without David's fingers in it trying to steal the sausages...
This was a really easy, and really tasty meal. Cheers to Corinne and the Suppa Club.  Check out the rest of the Suppa Club Bavarian Sausage Hot Pots: Corinne (our host), Ingrid, Kirstin, Siri,and Molly.

Ingrid will be the host for our next meal. We are presently voting, but it looks like we are leaning towards the Pork Roast with Three Mushroom Ragout.

Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot
Epicurious | © 1993
By Jean Anderson and Hedy Würz
HarperCollins Publishers
Makes 6 servings.

1 pound cabbage, cored and sliced 1/2-inch thick
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
6 ounces green beans, tipped and snapped into 1-inch lengths
1 pound Maine or Eastern potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups shelled fresh green peas or frozen green peas (do
not thaw)
3 cups rich beef broth (preferably homemade)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon dried leaf marjoram, crumbled
3/4 pound knockwurst or kielbasa, sliced 1/4-inch-thick
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Place the cabbage, carrots, beans, potatoes, the fresh peas, if using, the broth, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a large heavy kettle (pot). Set over moderate heat and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the broth bubbles gently, cover, and cook without stirring for 20 minutes. Add the caraway seeds, marjoram, knockwurst, and frozen peas, if using, and toss lightly to mix. Re-cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add the parsley, toss lightly, and serve in soup plates with crusty chunks of bread.