Cherry Soup

I’ve made strawberry rhubarb pie twice so far this summer. The first time I was mostly just intrigued by the idea. I’d had rhubarb chutney before, and rhubarb jam. I like it. Just never got so far as to stick it between layers of crust before. A good friend was having his birthday and as I do, I offered to make him the dessert of his like. He said, “pie.” So pie it was.

First, I looked for a recipe in my cook books. Nothing.

Then I looked on the internet. Not much. Not much at all. Lots of cobblers, lots of fools, not much pie.

Ultimately, I bastardized two different recipes. One from epicurious.com and the other from the America’s Test Kitchen. Since I changed them both up, I’m calling this one my very own.

And as I always do with pie, I bought the crust in a box and unfolded it.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

3 cups chopped rhubarb
16 oz sliced strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cornstarch (I used tapioca cornstarch)
1 tsp cinnamon
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp (ish) of orange zest
2 tbsps butter, very cold and cut into tiny cubes

Preheat oven to 400F.
Mix it all up.
Put in pie shell.
Put another shell on top. Either cut crust into strips and do lattice work (preferable, I think) or put another crust on top and cut slits to let air out. If you go this route, be very sure that you attach the shell around the sides VERY well. If not, you could have a filling escape. I had a filling escape.

Put an egg wash on the top crust and toss a little sugar uptop.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350F. Bake 40 more minutes.

Let cool.

Eat. With ice cream.

I had no intention of taking this long of a break. I’ve been sick pretty much the entire semester. All of 2008. I am still stuffy and sound a bit horse, but I am feeling a ton better today. I am going to cook tonight in celebration of this new found health. And I aim to do something a wee bit healthy.

I’m making Green Chile Chicken Stew. I’ve had a bag of New Mexico green chile in the freezer for about six months now. It’s about time I pulled ‘em out. And they’ll clear up my stuffy nose, too.

My friend Sarah used to make this a la turkey ever year after Thanksgiving. In fact, I bet she still does. But she’s who I learned it from. And she swears she never uses a recipe. I believe her. But because I do…
Sarah’s Green Chile Chicken Stew

64 oz chicken broth
1 lb chicken thighs (You can really use any kind of chicken you want, this is what I had. Next time, though, I’ll use half as much. I prefer to be veggie heavy instead of meat-heavy.)
1 cup diced onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 large russet potato cut into cubes
1 can corn (or you could be cool and slice it off of a fresh cob)
3 large garlic cloves (do what you want to these, too, depending on how you like your garlic)
1/2 cup green chilis*
salt and pepper to taste
Pour broth in a stock pot. Turn on stove to medium-high. Once it begins to simmer, pour in all vegetables, garlic, chiles, and S&P. Ladle out a cup or two of broth into a medium size skillet and turn burner to medium. Cut chicken to bit size pieces, then cook in skillet. When cooked add to stock pot. Turn stock pot up to high and bring to a boil. Cover. Turn down to low and let cook. As long as you want. Or at least until the potatoes are done.

I think this makes about six servings. If you care, that’s 6 Weight Watchers Points per serving. If I would have only used a half pound it would have been 4 pts. No chicken would be 3pts.

I forgot to take a picture. I was too hungry to remember. But I’m having it again tomorrow night–with cornbread even. I’ll take pictures then.

*This is where it becomes very personal. Green chilis come mild, medium or hot from the cans. But even the hot isn’t that hot. My New Mexico bag claims to be “hot”, and that lead me to believe–because of it’s origins–that it would be HOT, and I only used a half a cup. And it was warm. But not HOT. I think I’ll add a bit more as I heat it up, and the next time I make this, I’ll use an entire cup.

So far, 2008 has not been my best health year. I’ve been sick for about half of it, anyway. Thus, not just a whole lot of cooking.

This, though, is an example of easy comfort-food cooking. (And reading Vanilla Garlic (that you can see on my laptop there) is always a comfort, too, I think. Sometimes a rather hilarious comfort.)

We’re going to call this dish Jackie’s Easy Sate Chicken Over Rice.

What I did:

I cooked two chicken breasts in a slow cooker on low for four hours. When done, I shredded the hell out of it, which was really easy it was so tender. And don’t go thinking you need to add any liquid to the pot during cooking. You don’t.
Then I caramelized some onions (sliced, not diced) in a pan. Maybe a half cup or so. Added them to the chicken.

Next, I opened up a jar of peanut sate sauce from Trader Joe’s. I tasted it and thought I might like it a bit sweeter. So I put a good half a cup in the pot and then added a tablespoon of regular peanut butter. Stirred it all together. Then poured half of it over the sushi rice I cooked in the rice cooker. I garnished with a bit of dried herbs.
All done. All good. Best when eaten with chopsticks. Big Red wasn’t necessarily the best accompaniment, but hey, I was sick. I wanted that undefined strawberry-meets-bubblegum soda flavor.

I’m mostly better now, and should be cooking up something good in no time!

Hungarian Cherry Soup

2 bags frozen cherries  (I used sweet, but any variety would work)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch salt
3 tsp flour
1 pint cream
2 slices lemon, from center of fruit

Thaw the bags of cherries.

Once thawed drain the liquid from the bags into a large saucepan on medium-high heat.  Add sugar, water, vanilla, cloves and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil.

While you wait for the boil pour the cherries into a bowl (I needed a medium-large bowl to do this), add flour and mix.  Once the sauce is boiling turn it down to a simmer.  Add cherries and lemon slices.  Stir well.  Return the heat to medium-high and stir constantly until it returns to a boil.  Slowly add in cream.  Let cook at a low boil for five minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool for one hour.  Remove lemon slices.  Put in refrigerator and cool for several hours or over night.

I used whip cream from a can for garnish.  In the summer, would look lovely with some mint leaves, too.

The friends I shared it with were all fairly skeptical of this, I think. But it was loved by all. Almost everyone wanted a second bowl.

Menu:

Medium-rare Ribeye a la Alton Brown
Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Creamed Pearl Onions

The green bean casserole was from the recipe on the back of the fried onion container.  The only things I do at all different from the norm is that I always use French cut green beans, and I use way more onions than it calls for.  Instead of one small container, I use about 2/3 of a large one.  I’ve known people to put water chestnuts in it, and I like that, too.  But I didn’t do it this time.

The mashed potatoes are something I’ve made for years now.  Peel and boil about six potatoes (I did two extremely large ones this time) and then drain.  While they’re still really hot put a block of cream cheese and about a third of a stick of butter in.  Let them get soft and then start to mash.  Slowly add milk or cream until you get a little softer than your desired consistency.  As they cool the cheese helps them firm up a bit more than usual.

I had never made creamed pearl onions before, but it was so very easy.  Buy a bag of frozen pearl onions and let them thaw.  Drain off the liquid and heat up a bit of butter in the bottom of a pan.  Pour in the onions and let them sizzle and brown for about seven minutes.  Once they are golden brown, reduce the heat and slowly pour in a half cup of cream.  Let cook a few more minutes.  Done.  Delicious.  You could add salt, I suppose, but I didn’t need to.

Now for the ribeye.  I went right to the Food Network site for this, because I knew Alton would tell me how to do this the right way sans a grill.

Bring the steak to room temperature.  Smooth on a bit of olive oil on each side then season with salt and pepper.

Put your favorite cast iron in the oven and heat it up to 500F.  When the oven gets to temperature turn a stove burner on to high.  Once it is hot, hot, hot pull the cast iron out of the oven (it’s HOT!) and onto the burner.  Put the steak in and cook 30 seconds on each side. 

There will be loud sizzling.  There will be smoke.  Open a window or a door. 

Next, put the iron skillet back into the oven and cook the steak for 2 minutes on each side for medium rare.

It was perfect.

I’m on my own for Christmas this year.  Don’t feel too bad for me, I’m actually enjoying it.  It’s the least stressful holiday I’ve ever experienced.  Since I was 12 anyway.

I was going to order pizza in honor of Christmas Eve.  That’s what we did when I was growing up.  Either pizza or my mom would make a lasagna.  While at the grocery store this week, though, I came across a large turkey breast in the ‘reduced for quick sale’ area.  Normally about $15, I got it for $3.50.  So, I planned Christmas Eve dinner around that.

And I did that very simply.  I followed the directions on the package and roasted it in the oven at 350F for an hour.  Very moist!  And it was pre-seasoned, so I didn’t even have to worry about breaking out the poultry seasoning.

I made some very special potatoes this year.  Jaques Pepin’s Potatoes Fondantes. 

I didn’t follow any recipe exactly for this, because I needed to like fifth recipe and didn’t want to have to worry about too much math.  So, what I did was…

7 small Yukon Gold potatoes
1 can of chicken broth
3 pats of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a non-stick pan.  Pour in can of broth.  Cover.  Boil for about 20 minutes.  Take off the heat and mash on each potato until the jacket pops open.  I used the bottom of a spice jar, but you could use a measuring cup or an oil bottle, too.  Return to heat, add salt and pepper and butter.  Continue cooking for a few minutes–until the bottom of the potatoes have browned.  Then flip them and cook another five minutes or so.  All done.  And oh-my-dear-glorious-God are they good.  I added an extra pat of butter once it was on my plate.

I also steamed some asparagus and then topped it with my favorite seasoning from the Savory spice shop in Denver.  Grand Garlic Salt it’s called.  And you don’t need anything but that for amazing asparagus.  I also have some shallot salt from the same place.  I might try that with the leftovers.

You will also see on the plate a few slices of cheese.  It’s sheep’s milk cheese from England.  That’s all I know about it really.  That, and the flavor makes me want to hug myself.  How can you beat that?

I haven’t had dessert yet.  But I can tell you about it anyway.  It’s all courtesy of the fancy grocery store.

I got a small loaf of pumpkin bread and a small tub of apricot-pecan-sweet-cheese-dip-stuff.

Tomorrow is Christmas breafkast, Christmas dinner and assorted Christmas snacks for one.  More about it all then. 

I’ve been using my slow cooker more often lately.  I finally decided to crack open one of my crockpot cookbooks, and the first recipe listed was for Santa Fe Sweet Potato Soup.

It’s a very easy soup to make, but tastes very deep and almost complicated.  The hardest part of the preparation was getting all the spice bits out of the coffee bean grinder.

It has a beautiful flavor and a very gentle kick to it courtesy of the chilli powder.  It’s fabulous for this time of year.  It’s what sweet potato pie would be if you could dish it in a bowl and put sour cream and pumpkin seeds in it.   

This recipe is from Lynn Alley’s The Gourmet Slow Cooker Volume II.

Santa Fe Sweet Potato Soup
Serves 4

1 tbsp pumpkin seed oil or other vegetable oil (I used olive oil.)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into cubes (Next time I’m going to use three.)
4 cloves garlic, whole
6 to 8 cups of chicken stock or water (I used 6 cups stock, and wish I had either used only 4-5 or used an extra potato.)
1 teaspoon dried oregeno
1 tbsp chili powder
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
10 allspice berries
Salt
2 jalapeno chilies, stemmed, seeded and julienned, for garnish
1/4 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), chopped for garnish
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream, for garnish

Place a large saute pan over medium heat and add the oil.  Add the onion and saute for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned.  Add the sweet potatoes and continue cooking for 10 minutes, until they begin to brown.

Transfer the contents of the pan into the slow cooker and add the stock.  Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, until the sweet potatoes are quite tender when pierced with a fork.  (I cooked on high for about 4 hours, but my slow cooker sucks on the low setting.)  Coarsely grind the oregano, chili powder, cinnamon, cloves and allspice in a coffee mill or using a mortar and pestle and add to the soup.  (I used a coffee bean grinder and it worked well.  But I think you could easily use a tsp or two each of these things pre-ground.)  Continue cooking for 1 hour.  Using a handheld blender, gently puree the soup smooth.  Season to taste with salt.

Ladle into bowls and serve hot, topped witha  few slices of jalapeno, a sprinkling of toasted peepitos, and a dollof of creme fraiche.

Suggested Beverage:  A spicy white wine is in order here, something along the lines of a Cortese, Dry Creek Vinyard’s Chenin Blanc, or a Gewurtzraminer.

*Please excuse the lack of special characters for accents, etc.  I can’t for the life of me get it figured out.

Some people were talking on a message board I frequent about their love of cooking Salsa Chicken in their crockpots.

I have never made salsa chicken.  Neither have I used the slow cooker I got after I tried to make corn beef in my old crockpot with the crack in the side.  (Oops.)

Today is brisk and fall like.  And Halloween.  And I felt it was time for some spice. 

I am not following anyone’s recipe, as they really didn’t have any.  I’m just putting in a crockpot things that sound like they’d be delicious together.

Salsa Chicken a la Jackie

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 jar of your best local salsa
1 can of the corn of your choosing.  I used a white and yellow mix.
1 small can of green chiles
2 tsp chilli powder.  I used the stuff I got in Chimayo.
2 tsp oregeno

That’s all that’s in there now.  About an hour and a half before dinner time, I’ll put in some halved small red potoates.

If I were feeling decadent, and I might be, I’d put in 8oz of velveeta. 

I’ve debated serving it in tortillas from the local tortilla factory.  But instead, I think I am going to err on the side of health and make some brown rice.

Check back later, and we’ll see how it all turned out.

—

It’s later now.  Much later.

I am full to the brim.

And I managed to do 3 things I had never done before.

Never made Salsa Chicken.
Never used my new crockpot.

Never made tortilla soup.

Because that’s what happened.  I accidentally made tortilla soup.  Without tortillas even.

When I opened the lid to chuck in the potatoes, there was way more liquid than I was expecting.  I thought for a bit about how to thicken up the sauce.  Cheese came back to mind.  And I decided to take a spoonful of the juicey broth and see if that would work.  The juicy broth was amazingly good!  No cheese needed.

So, instead, I added a can of chicken broth. 

I didn’t put the potatoes in soon enough, though, and by the time I was starving they were not done.  I just pulled them out and stuck them in tupperware.  I’ll roast them with rosemary tomorrow night.

I did make corn bread from a packet.  Didn’t turn out so good for regular eating, but dunked in soup it was divine.

Of course, I got my camera out, set it on the counter and then forgot all about it.  I’ll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow when I reheat it for lunch or dinner.

What I will do differently next time:

Get the chicken broth in there from the get go so it gets seasoned better.
No need for potatoes at all.
Use more chilli powder and not so mild green chillis.
Have some manchengo or some pepper jack to grate on top.
A little cilantro and a lot of garlic never hurt a pot of tortilla soup.
Make cornbread from scratch.

It didn’t miss the tortillas.

My stove died.  The oven, too.  This happened Friday night as I was making Stuffed Zucchini and Broccoli Puree.

Luckily the stuffed zucchini made it just fine.  It was about five degrees under the required 165F, but I decided I would not die.  Only the potato part of the puree was done, though, and so I finished it in the microwave.  It does not taste fantastic and I blame the microwave.  I believe their purpose is in reheating and thawing, not in cooking.  But it’s not at all terrible.

But the man vs. machine fiasco I went through caused me to forget to take pictures.  It was delicious, though, and reminded me so much of my mom’s stuffed cabbages from when I was a wee girl.  So I promise I will make it again, and probably the puree too so I can see if it tastes better made properly.

I did, however, make a very nice dish last week. 

Easy Oven-Baked Pumpkin Polenta.  Click on the picture above and it will take you to the flickr site.  Choose the large size and you should be able to see the recipe just fine.

The first thing you should do is grate your parmesan.

I got some of the good stuff, Parmigiano-Reggiano, at the grocery store for a steal.  It’s just the butt ends of some rinds but it is more than plenty for my needs.

Then you mix up the stone-ground cornmeal (be sure it is stone-ground and that it is not instant) in a large baking dish with like four cups of water.  Bake that for 40 minutes.

Then you pull the baking dish out and stir in your pumpkin, cream (or sour cream), half the parmesean, half the Gruyere, nutmeg, honey and maybe a few other things.  Cook for 10 more minutes.  Pull it out, add the rest of the cheese on top (and next time I will drizzle more honey atop at this point) and then broil for another five minutes or so.  Then, it’s done.

(Oh look.  You can see the dearly departed in the background.  Sniff.)

And lastly, you dish some up on a plate alongside the chicken apple sausage you cooked on the pizza stone on the next rack down from the polenta for the last twenty minutes or so.

And it is delicious.  Even reheated several days later (with extra honey!)

I moved.

In moving, I aquired a new kitchen.

Kitchens take time to get to know.

But last night I felt fall come in, and knew it had arrived in two ways.

First, there’s suddenly lots of bugs clammoring to get inside my house.

Second, I wanted to make Cream of Butternut Squash Soup.  That and a desire for hot tea are two ways I know when the season has changed.

This is one of my favorite soups to make.  Maybe my third favorite to eat.  (Cream of Tomato and Corn Chowder probably come first.  Oh, but then there’s Crawfish Bisque…)

Anyhow.  The most important thing you have to do is go buy a butternut squash.  While you’re at it, you might as well get two or three.  You’ll want to make this again.

So get yourself said squash and a really good vegtable peeler.  I always peel around the sides first and then peel around the stem and the root-end.  Next, stick it in the microwave for four or five minutes.  This will make chopping it so much easier.

While it microwaves, melt two tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a big pot or dutch oven.  Then dice one medium onion and put in hot butter.  Let it sweat for about five minutes. 

Next, peel and chop a good sized baking potato.  The microwave will be dinging by now and you can pull the squash out and cut it up.

Now, I do something that some people might think is wasteful.  I start at the stem and slice about 1″ rounds until I get near the center.  At that point I cut a slice off of each side, so that when I’m done I have a square shaped chunk that has all the seeds and yuck inside.  You really don’t lose a lot of meat this way, and it keeps things far less messy than it could be.

Now, throw all your diced squash and potatoe in the pot.

That was easy, right?  Even easier, open up a quart of chicken stock and pour it in.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.

Cover, turn heat down to low and let boil for 30-40 minutes. 

At this point, I get out my immersion blender and go to town on the medium setting.  If you aren’t lucky enough to have one of these gadgets (I love mine), then you can put this through the blender or food processor in two batches.

Once it’s to the texture you like, pour in half a cup of cream.  Or, as I did tonight, a half a cup of fat-free half and half.

I top it with flaked salt and parmesan cheese or a big dollop of (low-fat) sour cream.

I actually haven’t made this in a year or two.  The last time I made it I used two pears instead of a potato which gave it a sweeter flavor.  I think you could use apples, too.

Of course, you could roast the squash instead of boiling it, but I prefer the flavor this way.

Next time, I am going to use a sweet potato and maybe add some nutmeg and cinnamon.  If I weren’t watching the calories (and points), I’d top it with marscapone cheese, too.