Amerikansk Kyllinggryte med Salsa

Finally, the Suppa Club is back! This time my favorite Norwegian blogger (she is really from Minnesota, but see her blog for the story), Siri picked Chicken Salsa Chili as our selection. If you want to see her beautiful post you can check it out here. This is a recipe that will definitely be added to our regular round of quick-easy weeknight meals. I pretty much went straight by the recipe on this one, with the exception of the corn, I used frozen. Where does one find two ears of fresh corn in Fairbanks in February? One other small change, I could not find any oregano in the spice cabinet. I swear there was some in there. I used epazote instead which was a fine substitute. I know, how can one have epazote in their spice cabinet and not oregano? That is just how I am...

White Bean Chicken Chili

from All Recipes

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound diced, cooked chicken meat
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 (18.75 ounce) can tomatillos, drained and
chopped
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (15 ounce) can white beans
2 ears fresh corn
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 lime, sliced
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oil, and cook onion and garlic until soft.
2. Stir in broth, tomatillos, tomatoes, chilies, and spices. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add corn, chicken, and beans; simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve with these toppings for people to choose from: limes, cilantro, cheese, avocado, sour cream, and tortilla chips.

Suppa Club #3- Pork Roast with Three Mushroom Ragout

I know you have heard it before, but I am really bad about reading recipes. Here's my latest story...
Our most recent Suppa Club I voted for this recipe. I don't really like pork, but David loves it. I do really like mushrooms. I figured the worst case scenario I could just eat the mushrooms since there were going to be a lot of them. I figured choosing this recipe would motivate me to make a pork recipe. The day I was going to buy the ingredients I finally read through the entire recipe to discover I needed to cook this roast in a crock pot. Did I mention that I don't own a Crock Pot? At this point I was standing in the grocery store. I could not bring myself to buy a crock pot on the spot, so I put the pork roast down and decided to think about it for a few days. Then I read Molly's post about her Crock Pot not having a timer and how her pork all fell apart and decided if I was going to buy a Crock Pot that I better get one with a timer. A few days later Fred Meyer had a sale on Crock Pots and so I bought myself a brand new Crock Pot with a timer.
I never realized how expensive a blog can be! First you find yourself sending jelly to Norway, then you have to buy a Crock Pot, anther site wants me to make $135 worth of soup (don't worry David, we will not be eating $135 soup). The trouble is that it is so much fun! I am finding so many resources for recipes and ingredients.
This months recipe chosen by Ingrid was a Pork Roast with Three Mushroom Ragout from Cooking Light. The only minor changes I made were that I added a few Chanterelle mushrooms because there were only four Shiitake mushrooms left at the grocery store. I also used tomato sauce instead of crushed tomatoes because David can not eat whole tomatoes. Also eliminated the Sun-Dried ones as well.

Yield
5 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork, 1 cup sauce, and 1 cup noodles)
Ingredients
1 (3 1/2-ounce) package shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes, divided
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 (8-ounce) packages button mushrooms, cut in half
1 (8-ounce) package cremini mushrooms, cut in half
1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
1/2 ounce sun-dried tomatoes, packed without oil, quartered (about 6)
1 3/4 pounds boned pork loin roast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
5 cups cooked medium egg noodles (about 4 cups uncooked pasta)
Preparation
Discard shiitake mushroom stems; cut caps into quarters.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes, and thyme in an electric slow cooker; stir well with a whisk. Add all mushrooms, onion, and sun-dried tomatoes.
Trim fat from pork. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper; place on top of mushroom mixture. Pour 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes over pork. Cover with lid; cook on high heat for 1 hour. Reduce heat setting to low; cook 7 hours. Remove pork from slow cooker; cut into slices. Serve over noodles.

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.

Suppa Club #1- Cheese and Potato Soup

I have joined an online supper club that Molly from Batter Splattered started. The premise was that we would all have one meal "together" each week. In the end we agreed that it would be difficult to all have our meal on the same night. This week Molly and a few others are making their soup on Friday. David and I will be at Bad Girls of the North friday night followed by the beer tasting at the Carlson Center. We will be eating brats and potato salad according to the flyer. So, in the end the supper club decided that we would all cook the same recipe sometime during the week. Each week a different person will host the supper by choosing the recipe. We are free (and encouraged) to make any changes as we see fit. To start things off Molly chose a potato soup...

Cheese and Potato Soup
Bon Appetit December 1995

Serves 4.

2 tablespoons vegetables oil
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 10- to 12-ounce russet potato, peeled, diced
1 cup packed shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup chopped ham
Hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
Chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, carrot, onion and thyme and sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over and stir 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in broth, then milk. Add potato and bring soup to boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup until potato is tender, about 20 minutes. Add cheese 1/3 cup at a time, stirring until melted and smooth after each addition. Mix in ham. Season soup to taste with hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

The results: This soup is a very simple easily adaptable recipe(check out the Bon Appetite site for even more variations). I think I was a little overambitious considering it was the first recipe for the supper club. First off, I am not a big fan of ham, so I knew right away that I would substitute bacon. Then, I doubled the recipe. I used all local veggies from our farmer’s market. The addition of red and blue potatoes would give the soup a nice color. Fresh thyme from my herb garden was substituted for the dried thyme. Medium white cheddar cheese was used instead of the sharp cheddar so the color of the veggies would stand out more. Also, I had a lot of leeks so I used them instead of the onion. When cooking the potatoes I put a few in a pot on the side with half of the chicken broth, when cooked I pureed them with an immersion blender and then added this to the soup. In the end, the combination of leeks, bacon, and the white cheddar made the soup somewhat bitter. It didn’t help that I burned the bacon slightly. The pureed potatoes made the soup a weird consistency, almost as though the milk had curdled (it didn’t). The soup was still good, I am eating it for lunch today. Next time, I won’t make quite so many changes!