Sausage and Corn Chowder

Well we had a number of leftover items in the fridge that needed using, and as I was driving home an idea popped into my head on how to use them all up:  sausage and corn chowder.

Ingredients:

Leftover or just unused items:  4 ears of corn, one yellow bell pepper, 1/2 pound of Kielbasa sausage, several small already-cooked potatoes, 3 celery stalks, one large onion that had a part cut off and was sitting in the fridge in a plastic baggie.

So besides all of those items, I added 5 cloves of garlic, a few raw potatoes (these are small creamers), and a handful of baby carrots.  Also some seasonings (see below).

Method:

Chopped sausage and vegetables into small, similar size pieces; stripped the kernels from the corn.

Cut up the cooked potatoes, threw them in the blender with 1-1/2 cups water, blended until they were very smooth.

Sautéed the onions, garlic and sausage in some olive oil until the onions were on the verge of being translucent.  Added the rest of the vegetables, along with enough water to cover, and some seasonings:  salt (carefully, since the sausage is already salty), pepper, cumin, some hot pepper flakes, and a few green herbs.  You could use curry or any other seasoning that you like with a chowder.

Let it all simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30-40 minutes.  Added the potato puree, and about 1 cup of half-and-half.  It wasn't quite thick enough and we wanted to eat soon, so I added 1-1/2 Tbsp. of corn starch, stirred into a little cold water before adding it to the soup.

Served it with lightly toasted and buttered french bread for dipping.  Mmmmm!

Seriously, you should try this if you love a hearty soup this time of year.

Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Fall Soup

Went to the Farmer's Market on Tuesday and found a few fall vegetables.  Decided to make soup.

Sorry, no pictures this time.  So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Medium White Onion
1 Bunch Carrots
1 Bunch Golden Beets
1 Medium Delicata Squash
5 Cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper To Taste
1/2 Tsp Each:  Parsley, Sage, Cumin, Turmeric, Hot Pepper Flakes
Juice of 1/2 Lime
3/4 Cup Cheese, Grated (Cheddar, or other cheese or mix of cheeses)
Water or chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

Clean, peel and chop vegetables into 3/4" cubes
(You may not need to peel the carrots and beets, just clean & remove stray root threads)
Sauté onions and garlic until nearly translucent
(You may want to add the garlic a little later than the onion as garlic cooks faster)
Add the chopped vegetables and enough water or stock to completely cover them
Bring all to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer temperature
Add seasonings
Allow to simmer until all vegetables are soft
Adjust seasonings to taste
Run it through a blender so you have a nice puree
Add grated cheese, stir to melt
Add juice of 1/2 lime (if lime is not juicy, use the whole lime)

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, and a sprinkle of finely chopped carrot greens as a garnish.  I used yogurt, and had a few slices of buttered baguette on the side to dip into the soup.  It was really quite delicious!

Enjoy!

Strawberries 'n Cheese, Yum!

Sometimes the simple things really are the best.

The other evening I wanted a bite to eat, but not a whole meal -- just a snack.

We had just bought some things at Whole Foods, including some beautiful ripe organic strawberries, some English cheddar with hot peppers and some goat cheese with dill.

I thought they might be good together so, so I cut up a few of the strawberries, and then cut the cheeses into bite-sized chunks about the same size as the strawberry pieces.

Hoo boy!  That was one of the best snacks ever!  You could do it with any berries and any cheeses -- as we all know, fruit and cheese is a classic combo.  This particular combination really worked.

Enjoy!

Salty Chocolate Cacao Nib Refrigerator Cookies

Made these for Christmas, they were a big hit!  Happy New Year to all, may it be the best one yet!

Ingredients

1 c flour
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tbsp roasted cacao nibs
1 tsp sea salt
12 Tbsp (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 Tbsp sugar for rolling

Method

If you have raw cacao nibs, roast them first by placing on a cookie sheet in a single layer and place in a 200F oven for 15 minutes
Allow them to cool
If they are too coarse you may break them up with a rolling pin

Bring the butter to room temperature, it will take an hour or so, or you can use the microwave on a low power setting for 30 sec or so -- but be careful not to melt it
Beat the sugar into the butter until the mixture is light and fluffy
Add the vanilla and mix in thoroughly

Sift together the cocoa powder and flour and mix thoroughly into the butter and sugar mixture.  It will be a somewhat stiff dough

Add the sea salt to the cacao nibs and pour the mixture into the dough, again stirring thoroughly making sure both the cacao nibs and the salt are spread evenly throughout the dough

Divide the dough into two equal parts.  Roll each part into a log about 2" in diameter and flat at each end.  Roll the logs in sugar and also coat the ends with sugar, then wrap each in saran wrap and place them in the refrigerator to cool for 2 hours

Bring out of the refrigerator and slice each log into 1/4" slices

Bake in a 325F oven for 15 minutes

Let them cool on the cookie sheet for at least 2 minutes before trying to remove them -- they break very easily when hot

Remove from cookie sheet to a rack to cool completely

I've been considering ways to play with this recipe.  One, you could grind the cacao nibs down further, say the texture of coffee grounds -- might be an interesting textural experiment.  Two, you could add cinnamon, say a tablespoon or so, to get an Aztec chocolate flavor.  Three, you could use coarse salt instead of regular sea salt -- in fact it would be fun to try a few different salts to see what effect they would have.  Four, you could get raw or coarse sugar to roll the cookies in, or even add some coarse salt to that coating mixture.  Five, you could use a specialty cocoa powder, like a dark chocolate one that I saw at the grocery store.

Well here's how they look when finished:

Enjoy!

 

Today's Simple Tip:

Sourbread toast topped with butter and honey, eaten along with a hot cup of your favorite tea.  Mmm!

Soufflé!

Cheese, onion and tomato soufflé, right out of the oven!

I hadn't been to the store for a few days, our food supplies were getting low, and dinner time was fast approaching.  So I scouted around the kitchen a bit to see what we had on hand.

Eggs, check.
Cheese, check.
Part of an onion, a few tomatoes, check.

Hmmm... Hey, what about a soufflé?  I made one once, like 30 years ago, so I ought to be able to pull it off.

I went online and found a cheese soufflé recipe from the redoubtable Alton Brown at:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cheese-souffle-recipe/index.html

Well, I just had to try it; but I also had to make some alterations, not least because I was trying to use up that onion and those tomatoes!

Not only that, but Alton Brown's recipe calls for 4 egg yolks and 5 egg whites.  What the heck?

I don't know about you, but I just get mad when I see recipes like that.  What, exactly, is one expected to do with one extra egg yolk?  Are we just expected to say "oh, well" and throw it out?  Not cool.

So without further ado, here is my modified recipe:

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing the souffle
2 tablespoons cereal crumbs (we had no grated Parmesan on hand)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (we were out of dry mustard)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/3 cups milk, hot
5 egg yolks
1 cup grated cheese (Cheddar / Colby mix was what we had on hand)

1/2 onion, diced small

4 tomatoes, diced small
5 egg whites
Scant 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Method:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Greased soufflé dish and dusted with cereal crumbs.  Placed it in the freezer as suggested in the Alton Brown recipe, while mixing the rest of the stuff.  I don't know what this does for it, but I will say it didn't stick at all, so maybe making it cold enhances the butter-and-crumbs treatment?

Diced  the onions and tomatoes.  Sautéed the onions with some olive oil and salt until they were clear and set them aside.

Melted the butter in a pan and stirred in the flour and dry seasonings.  Meanwhile, placed a glass measuring cup with the milk into the microwave and heated it for 2 minutes until it was piping hot.  Then poured it in all at once into the roux and whisked over heat until smooth and thick.  Turned the heat off.

Added mustard into the egg yolks, whisking until smooth; then dribbled that mixture into the milk and flour mixture while whisking.

Stirred in the cheese, onions and tomatoes.

Added the cream of tartar into the egg whites and whipped with a handheld electric beater until very stiff.

Folded the rest of the mixture into the egg whites, pouring slowly and being careful to fold but not lose volume (no vigorous stirring, please!).  Note:  instructions in Alton Brown's recipe called for folding the whites into the other mixture, but I had the whites in a nice big bowl and the other mixture already half filled the saucepan they were in, so I just tried it the other way and it worked fine.

Removed the soufflé dish from the freezer and poured the mixture into it.  It was about 1/2 inch from the top of the dish, so that was perfect.

Popped it into the oven and checked after 35 minutes.

Soufflé with kale

It rose perfectly!  And it was mighty tasty, too!  We had steamed kale drizzled with a mixture of 1 part melted butter to 2 parts balsamic vinegar.

It was a very nice meal, very healthy and made from just a few things we already had on hand.  I would recommend using Parmesan for dusting the soufflé, if you have it; or very fine cracker crumbs if not.  The cereal crumbs were a bit coarse.  But that did not detract from the overall goodness!

Well, until next time,

Enjoy!

Pot Roast!

View of the beach through the palm trees

Whew, just back from a lovely vacation in Laguna Beach, CA.  I needed that!

Well, back to the topic at hand!  This week we have a nice recipe for Pot Roast.

Ingredients:

2-3 lb. marbled London Broil
2 med. onions (I used yellow onions)
3 lg. potatoes (I used russets)
4 med. carrots
5 cloves garlic
1 qt. beef or vegetable stock
Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, green herbs to taste
Olive oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 325F.

Start by patting the meat dry with a paper towel.  Rub it with the kosher salt, pepper and green herbs.  I used about 1 Tbsp of salt, 2 tsp of pepper (coarsely ground), and 2 Tbsp of a blend of Italian herbs including thyme and oregano.  I also added some sage to the mix.

Now peel and chop the onions and garlic.  Wash, trim and chop the potatoes and carrots.

Next, add 2-3 Tbsp. olive oil to the bottom of a Dutch oven and heat it on high until the oil is thin, then swish the oil around to coat the whole bottom of the pot.  Do be careful not to burn the oil.  Now add the rubbed meat to the pot and turn the heat down to a steady medium or medium-high.

Let the meat sear on one side for 3-4 minutes until it is nicely browned, then turn the meat over and do the same for the other side.

Now add the chopped garlic and the stock.  Add water so the pot is nearly full and the meat is covered.

Place the covered pot into the preheated oven and come back in about 2 hours.  Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and let it cook for another hour or so, until the vegetables are done.

Pot roasts can take tougher cuts of meat, but they need a long cooking time in order for the meat to tenderize and the flavors to develop.

This turned out very tasty!

We made a quick spinach salad with washed baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, avocado chunks and chopped red bell peppers.  It also was delicious and set off the pot roast nicely.

Well, until next time,

Enjoy!

Smoothies!

Strawberry-pomegranate smoothie/slushie

This weekend we made two different, and very delicious, smoothies.

Strawberry-Pomegranate Smoothie

Ingredients:
12 strawberries
3/4 cup pomegranate juice
20 ice cubes

Method:

Place ice cutes in a blender.  Trim strawberries, removing leaves and any green tips, and place them in the blender.  Pour the pomegranate juice over the ice and strawberries, cover, and blend until the strawberries are pureed and the ice is evenly mashed into very small pieces.

Pour and enjoy!

Tip:  The quantities can be varied, just use enough ice to give it a slushie texture and enough strawberries and pomegranate juice to give it plenty of flavor.

Banana-Strawbery Smoothie

Strawberry-banana smoothie

Ingredients:

4 small bananas
5  strawberries
3/4 cup almond milk
1-1/2 Tbsp. wheat germ
1/2 Tbsp. wheat bran
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 Tbsp. yogurt
1 Tbsp. agave nectar

Method:

Peel and trim bananas, break into pieces and place in blender.  Trim leaves and any green spots from strawberries and place in blender.  Place the remaining ingredients in the blender, cover, and blend until smooth.

Pour and enjoy!

Tip:  You can use regular milk, soy milk, etc. in place of almond milk; substitute 1 tsp. vanilla for the cinnamon; and any flavor of yogurt or unflavored, as you wish -- I used peach flavored Greek style yogurt in this one.  You may omit the agave nectar for a slightly less sweet flavor.

The strawberry-pomegranate smoothie might more accurately be called a slushie.  Both the strawberries and the pomegranate juice came from our local farmer's market.  With only 3 ingredients and no sweetener, it is extremely easy to make, and very healthy and refreshing.  It makes enough for 2 large servings.

The banana-strawberry smoothie is a variant of the banana smoothies that I often make for breakfast.  Usually I make a single serving, and use 1 regular size banana and no strawberries.  But this weekend we had the small, sweet bananas obtained from our local Asian market, and strawberries from the farmer's market, so it seemed like a good idea to branch out.  This made 2 servings and we had it for lunch.

Well, until next time,

Enjoy!


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The Farmer's Market

Main aisle of the Farmer's Market at Richmar Plaza

Well Sunday we went to the local Farmer's Market.  Las Vegas has several active Farmer's Markets; this one is at the Richmar Plaza every Saturday and Sunday, in the Silverado Ranch area.

Farmer's Markets are  a great way to get  wonderful fresh vegetables and fruits, not to mention other goodies, and to support the people who offer organic and artisan foods and other handmade goods..

Our first stop was the Murray Family Farms booth.  Their farm is just outside of Bakersfield, CA, and their booth had a great array of citrus fruits, including blood oranges and different grapefruit varieties:

Grapefruits

Blood Oranges

We also availed ourselves of some fresh pomegranate juice and lovely asparagus:

Pomegranate juice booth

Asparagus etc

I did not get the balsamic vinegar today because we still have some, but I will say that the 12-year aged balsamic from Bistro Blends of Napa Valley is some of the best I've had.

The last items we got today were strawberries -- don't those look good! -- and the handcrafted sausages:

Strawberries!

Handcrafted sausages

We chose the jalapeno and cheese sausages and had them for dinner, fried up with some portobella mushrooms and onions.  It was a very simple and satisfying meal.

We also got some flavored popcorn (non-GMO), an avocado, and a bag of fresh sugar snap peas.

There were food booths too, and the sound of live music wafted over the whole area:

Live music at the Farmer's Market

 All in all it was a very enjoyable outing, and it always feels good to support the small businesses who work so hard to supply us with the very best foods, whether fresh fruits and vegetables or prepared items.

Until next time,

Enjoy!

Easter Dinner

 

So we had a small pork roast in the freezer and I decided this would be a good time to make use of it.  In fact, the whole meal was made up of things we had on hand.  No special trips to the store for once, hooray!

Here's what was on the menu:

• Pork roast with dry rub, apple & onion, and gravy 
• Red potatoes au gratin
• Steamed artichokes with lemon butter dip
• Blood oranges and red seedless grapes in lime & honey syrup

It was very nice and we had leftovers too.  The next day we sliced the pork and made sandwiches with some of the apple and onion to add moisture.  It worked really well.

I prepared and cooked the potatoes first since they needed to cook for 1-1/2 hours, then put the roast in for 1 hour.  Then prepared the artichokes to steam for 30 minutes, and somewhere in there we got the blood oranges and grapes chilling in the lime and honey syrup so they'd be nice and cold when it was time for dessert.

Ingredients:

Potatoes Au Gratin:

• 4 red potatoes
• 2/3 c. sourdough bread crumbs
• 3/4 c. half & half
• 3/4 c. grated cheese
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tsp. green herbs
• 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

Pork Roast:

• 2 lb. pork roast
• 1 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. green herbs
• 2 tsp. rubbed sage
• 1 apple
• 1 yellow onion

Gravy:

• 2 c. chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• Salt, pepper & green herbs to taste   

Artichokes:

• 2 large artichokes
• 4 cups water
• 2 lemons
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 4 Tbsp. butter and juice of 1 lemon for dipping sauce

Blood Orange and Red Grapes in Syrup:

• 4 blood oranges
• 2 large bunches red seedless grapes
• 4 cups water
• Juice of 2 limes
• 3/4 c. honey

Method:

Potatoes:

Wash potatoes and slice thinly (1/8" or so), placing slices in water with a little lemon juice to prevent browning.  When they are all sliced, drain and pat dry.  Grease a 9"x9" baking pan and sprinkle some of the breadcrumbs around the bottom and sides.  Add green herbs, salt & pepper, and nutmeg to the half & half.  Now make 4 layers, first potatoes, then some bread crumbs, and some grated cheese, and some of the half & half.  Finish the top layer with bread crumbs for texture.  Cover and place in 350F oven.  Remove cover after 1 hour and bake for another 30 minutes.

Potatoes ready to cover and bake

Pork Roast:

Make sure the roast is completely thawed.  Unwrap and pat dry.  Mix the kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, sage and green herbs together to make a rub (you can use whatever herbs you like; I used a Soup and Stock herb blend from a local farmer's market).  Rub it all over the roast and place the roast in a small roasting pan that has been oiled with 1 Tbsp. olive oil.  Now chop the apple and onion into small pieces and place them around the roast.  Cover the roast and place in 350F oven.  It will take 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes.  You may uncover the roast for the last 20-30 minutes.

 

Rubbed pork roast with apple and onion, ready to cover and pop in the oven

Gravy:

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add flour and whisk until thoroughly blended.  Allow to head on medium until it just starts to brown but not burn.  This is the roux.  Meanwhile heat the chicken stock to scalding (almost boiling).  Leaving the roux on the heat, pour the chicken stock in all at once while whisking.  Add the seasonings and allow it to thicken over the heat, then turn off the heat but leave the saucepan on the stove to keep it warm.

Steamed Artichokes:

Prepare artichokes by trimming the stem very close to the bottom.  Cut off the top 1/2 inch of the artichokes and rub with 1/2 lemon to prevent browning (you can use one of the half lemons you will place in the steaming liquid).  Cut the tops off the outer leaves so there are no sharp points to deal with when eating.  Place salt, water (or you can use chicken broth) and lemons (cut in half) into a large pot.  Bring it to a boil and turn on low, then place the trimmed artichokes into the pot and cover and steam for 30 minutes.

Trimmed artichokes ready to steam

Blood Oranges and Red Grapes in Lime and Honey Syrup:

Peel the blood oranges, section them and remove all of the white part.  Remove grapes from stems.  In the meantime, place the water, lime juice and honey in a saucepan and heat until it comes to a boil.  Place the orange sections and grapes into a large heatproof container and pour the hot syrup over them.  Allow them to cool in the syrup, then cover and place in the refrigerator to chill.  Serve in individual ramekins.

Well that's it.  Until next time,

Enjoy!

Vegetable Beet Soup

Yes, you read it right, "Vegetable Beet Soup" not "Borscht". I can't call it borscht because there is more of other vegetables in it than beets. But it's still a lovely beet-red color and has a lot of beet flavor. Also I used fresh cilantro rather than the traditional fresh dill because (a) that's what I had on hand and (b) I don't really like dill for some reason, except in dill pickles.

This turned out really tasty!

Ingredients:

6 beets
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery
2 onions
1 small cabbage
1/2 bunch cilantro
3 qts. vegetable and/or beef broth (*)
salt and freshly ground pepper
sour cream

(*) If you or one of your guests is vegetarian, just use vegetable broth

Method:

Cut the tops off the beets and the long straggly root part, and give them a rinse. Put them in 3 qts. of salted water and boil until tender. Bring the beets out of the pot and set them aside to cool, retaining the water.

Chop the onion, celery, carrots, and cabbage and boil them in the beet water for 20 minutes or so.

In the meantime, when the beets are cool enough, peel them and cut them into about 1" cubes.

After the other vegetables have boiled in the beet water for 20 minutes, drain the beet water. Now add the beets to the vegetables along with the 3 qts. of broth, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 2 hours or so. At this point you can add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Trim the cilantro leaves and add them to the soup for the last 10 minutes.

Turn the heat off and let the soup cool for 30-45 minutes. Next, puree the soup in a blender until smooth.

Place the blended soup back into the pot, adjust the seasoning, and heat for serving.

To serve, fill a bowl with the soup, add a large dollop of sour cream and garnish with cilantro if desired.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Mousse!

So I had an unopened pint of whipping cream left over from the holidays, sitting there in the refrigerator, looking at me accusingly, "What? You're just going to let me sit here and go sour?"

I had to take action.

Then I remembered that I had a can of organic pumpkin puree in the pantry. So the idea of a pumpkin mousse sprang to mind.

Oddly, an Internet search did not turn up any simple pumpkin mousse recipes. There were a lot of elaborate concoctions, such as "Pumpkin Mousse Trifle", where the pumpkin mousse mixture included marshmallow creme, and it was layered with ginger cookies and custard -- well it may be good but it just looked like a little more trouble than what I wanted to do.

Well at least it looked like you really can fold together canned pumpkin puree and whipped cream to get a mousse. So I made up a recipe on the spot, and it turned out really, really good. Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 c heavy cream

Method:

Mix all ingredients except for the whipping cream. I used an egg beater to get it all nice and smooth.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff (don't overwhip or it will start to become butter).

Fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture.

Spoon the mixture evenly into 8 bowls or ramekins. It will be about 1/2 - 3/4 cup in each bowl (varies depending on how much volume there is in the whipped cream).

Cover the bowls and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 4 hours before serving.

Mmm, good! The spices really bring out the pumpkin flavor, and there is enough sugar but it is definitely not over-sweetened.

Enjoy!