(Cooking) Sunday Soup

Since I learned veggie stock, I have been making soup all winter long.  This is a combined effort from both Verly and JT.  Verly with the on-the-soup-cooking-learning, plus some secret steps.  Then JT, with the whole stock-confidence I needed.  As well as the concept of "depth of flavor." 

I have made 4 to 5 attempts, but today's seemed worthwhile because it tasted good, and the Sister liked it too.  

Marti's Sunday Soup:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 large onion, chopped

shallot

can of anchovies, or anchovy paste

minced garlic

1/2 cup of white wine

random/extras: soy beans, sweet potato (or butternut squash)

1 can of cannellini beans

1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme

1 Tbsp chopped rosemary

2 garlic cloves, minced

red pepper flakes

5 cups (or more) vegetable stock and/or vegetable broth

2 bay leaves

1 cup of brown/wild rice (cooked separately)

bunch of bok choy,

salt, to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion, shallots ,thyme, and

garlic.  Sauté 5 minutes. Add chopped anchovies.  Sauté another 5 minutes.  Add white wine.

2.  While that is sautéing, sauté separately:  sweet potato, soy beans, add cannelli beans.  Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. 

3. Add bean/vegetable mixture, 5 cups of stock, bay leaves, and all remaining spices to soup pot. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour.

4. While soup is cooking, cook rice, separately per instructions

5. Add rice into soup

6. Saute bok choy/greens with minced garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes for just a few minutes.  Add into soup.  Let simmer for 5 minutes +  

7. Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

 I welcome ANY comments and input if you have ideas to add to this recipe....non-meat.  Though today's was a really good outcome, I still consider it a "work in progress."  So comment, away if you have any thoughts, or try anything creative. 

(Cooking) My casserole dilemma

It's been a long, rough winter and most Sundays I find I need to prepare foods to eat during the week at work.  Thanks to Verly, I have stepped into the soup arena, and am working on perfecting a white bean soup.  I also have needed a freezable pasta casserole, so I searched and searched for a recipe.  I couldn't find anything suitable, and so I went for my own JT-inspired-Marti Creation:

Pasta Casserole a la the Winter of 2011:
any type of pasta (have used penne and borsetti)
onion
garlic cloves
greens (have used bok choy and arugula)
chopped up artichoke hearts (from a can)
salt, pepper
red pepper flakes
oregano, thyme
shredded parmesan cheese
panko

Cook pasta, as per the instructions-being sure to cook al dente
Saute onions with garlic, in olive oil
Add in artichokes, and all spices
Add in greens at last moments

After pasta is cooked and drained, add 1/2 jar of pasta sauce (I used Bertolli 4-cheese Rosa), mix up well. Combine sautéed mixture.

Pour into casserole dish, sprinkle with parm cheese and panko.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy and/or freeze.

Guest Post by Jaimee - Cooking with JT

A few weeks ago JT came over to help me make my weekly dinner.  You see, I'm tasked with cooking dinner at my house once a week and I like to try a new recipe every time.  I sent JT a few recipes I wanted to try.  I don't think he read past Tandoori Style Chicken Burgers before telling me that we were making them.


If JT ever gets around to sending me his guest post for my blog I'll link the recipe ;-).


Here are a few of the things I learned during our Tandoori adventure:


1.  Be careful when you tell JT you want to sub ingredients.


2.  If it says chicken thighs, use chicken thighs.  They are nice and juicy and they aren't any worse than breasts health-wise.


3.  Mise en place:  it means "everything in place."  It means to read the recipe before I'm about to do the cooking, before I'm about to perform that step.  Do all the prep work in advance.  Get your ingredients washed, chopped, measured, placed in individual bowls, etc.  Get them ready to go.  Get your equipment out and prepared.  Preheat your oven.  To me it means not stressing about getting my stuff together as I'm in the middle of cooking.  It makes for a much more enjoyable cooking experience.


4.  Knife skills.  So I'm not so great with a knife.  Knives scare me a little bit ever since I severed a tendon and nerve when I was 16  (I did it with a glass not a knife, but knives are sharp and can sever stuff too!).  I don't like butchers knives.  I really don't like watching JT use a butcher knife.  I don't actually cut myself very often, but I'm pretty slow and inconsistent.  JT watched me get some ingredients cut up for this recipe and I'm pretty sure he laughed at me.  Then he schooled me.
The main points are holding the knife and curling your fingers so you don't chop one off.  To hold the knife, wrap your pinkie, ring finger and middle finger around the handle and grip the blade with your index finger and thumb.  To avoid chopping your fingers off, you should curl the fingers of your non-dominant hand and place them fingertips down on your food.  Hold the blade against your knuckles as you slice, never lifting the cutting edge of the blade above your knuckles.  I may have written that totally wrong.  Correct me in comments if I did, JT!


I leave you with a picture of Tandoori Style Chicken Burgers for your salivating pleasure.

So i don't get in trouble...Etouffee

Marti (and my) good friend Will asked me to send him my Etouffee recipe. So here it is. I will personally be giving Marti a lesson on this soon, so there will be an accompanying photo shoot soon.

• 1/2 cup butter (or lard if no marti)
• 1/2 flour
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 cups fish or shrimp stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 pounds crawfish tails, with the fat
• 1 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• Cooked white rice, for serving
• note: i usually use cajun seasoning instead of the red pepper, so if you have that, cool
• also, i use frozen crawfish. defrost, and add later if not using fresh, since they are already cooked, you just want to heat them through.
• this is sort of a take off of emeril and new orleans school of cooking

Directions

In a large, heavy saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter and whisk in flour to combine well. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until roux is a peanut butter color.

Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and cook until vegetables are soft, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add stock, salt, red pepper, and bring to a boil.

Skim surface, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add crawfish tails and fat, green onions, and parsley and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve over hot long grain rice.

JT/Marti Iron Chefx12

JT accepted my challenge for a cooking adventure.....I bring the random ingredients, he creates something.  Here are my ingredients.....with some input from Will/Nathan:

Fresh Squid
Fresh Shrimp
Seitan
Russian Fingerling Potatoes
Swiss Chard
Gruyere Cheese
Sweet Onion
Tomatillo
Lemon
Lime
Ginger
Garlic

The rules are:
He must use every ingredient at least one time, any way he wants (he seemed slightly flummoxed by a few ingredients......we are lookin at you seitan!)
He can add in any ingredients he wants
He decides to use his own Black Garlic (to substitute out regular garlic), cuz that's how he roles. I approve said act.
And it's important to note that he is cooking 3 items that he's never cooked before (tomatillo, chard, seitan).

WILDCARD:  Fun last minute guests show up with FLOUNDER!  Ylan ends up as sous chef!

Here's how he throws down:

Appetizer:
Salt n Pepper Fried Calamari
From required ingredients:  squid, lemon
Add-ins:  hot peppers, heavy/corse salt, flour, corn starch

FYI-the Calamari is deeeeeelicious and I mean DEEEEEELICCCIOUS, wish you all could have had some.

Next we have black garlic, truffle potatoes.....holy yum!
From required ingredients:  russian fingerling potatoes, onion gruyere cheese, garlic (black), tad of lemon juice
Add-ins:  truffle salt, olive oil

Flounder:
So our wildcards added in flounder which added a wonderful dynamic to the challenge.
Add-ins:  So this had flounder, plus wine, butter, left over seasoning from calamari
From required ingredient:  tomatillo

Finally, the major challenge!  Seitan is up!  Don't hate on it people, JT knows how to make it YUM!
Required ingredients: seitan, shrimp, chard, onion, garlic, ginger, lemon, lime
Add-ins: olive oil

As you may figured out, I am the big winner of this Iron Chef Challenge!!  He did an amazing job, and our last minute guests contributed to an absolutely delicious night of food.  We all left the table inspired to try to cook something, and all amazed by his amazing ability to come up with this meal from a totally random set of ingredients.

Oh yeah, CAPS WIN!

Viola: