Fall Vegetable Bisque

Some people were asking about a recipe for a bisque that was served at our church's potluck meal this Sunday. This is very similar to another bisque that I posted here, except this time i used sweet potatoes instead of butternut squash. So I've decided to call this "Fall Vegetable Bisque", because you can easily use sweet potatoes, yams, butternut squash, acorn squash, or even pumpkin, whatever has grown well that year, in your area.

This recipe is going to be fore 25 to 30 people. If you'd like a smaller recipe, use the butternut squash bisque recipe, or just divide this one.

I used:
10 medium to large sweet potatoes
4 large onions (yellow, red, white, whatever)
4 red bell peppers (red are the best flavor for this, but yellow or orange work, not green)
1 head of garlic
1 gallon of vegetable broth (i used water and vegetable BTB)
4 cans of coconut milk
cooking oil
salt
pepper
cumin
chili powder
Sriracha
apple cider vinegar

Start off by heating the vegetable broth in a large pot. That takes a while to get up to boiling.

Then I took out all of my sweet potatoes, washed and peeled them (though you don't have to peel them, i suppose. Do what your heart tells you). Then I cut them into 1 inch cubes (doesn't need to be pretty, just get them into smaller pieces).

As soon as the broth is up to temperature, I put in the sweet potatoes. Meanwhile, chop up the onions and garlic and peppers. I like to caramelize the onions before adding them to the soup, and also brown the garlic, but that doesn't have to happen. If you do fry the onions first, i like to add some sriracha to the oil while they're cooking. I don't really know what this does for the soup, but it makes the kitchen smell really good. If you don't want to do that, just put a little sriracha in the soup at any other point.

To cook the onions and garlic in the same oil, at the same time, put the onions in first. Wait until they just start to brown along the edges, and then add the garlic. They'll both be ready at about the same time.

Once your onions and garlic are ready, throw that into your broth with the sweet potatoes. Also add in your red peppers now. That will all want to cook together for 10 - 15 minutes (you'll notice the sweet potatoes starting to fall apart as you stir it, this is a good sign that it's ready to be blended). While you're waiting for everything, add your salt and pepper, and spices. I like to put in chili powder, cumin, sriracha and apple cider vinegar. But feel free to experiment with what you like. Perhaps some red curry paste; or maybe go the Italian route with some basil and oregano (what the heck, throw in some more garlic too); or for a little Cajun flair, add some chili powder, cayenne pepper, a jalapeno and a healthy amount of thyme.

Once everything is soft enough, take it off the heat, and get out your blender. It takes a while if you only have a regular blender (like i do), if you've got one of those fancy hand blenders, or wand blenders, that must be nice. However you do it, get it to a nice smooth consistency.

After it's blended, i mix in the coconut milk, you can use other types of cream if you want. I love coconut milk. But use whatever you feel like.

That's it. Perhaps serve it with a nice grilled cheese sandwich (or if you want to be fancier, i served it with a grilled tomato basil and mozzarella sandwich).

Soft Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

This make a super fancy meal, and has very little work involved.

I started about three hours before hand, with a couple quart jars of tomatoes we canned last year. Put those in a large sauce pan and started it boiling down. I mixed in some basil and oregano, some minced garlic, and some salt in pepper.

Two and a half hours later (and some occasional stirring), there was magically a pot of tomato sauce sitting on my stove.

Meanwhile we washed and cut up some lettuce and strawberries for a nice summer salad.

About ten minutes before supper time, drop in your eggs (we did one dozen, for seven people). They don't cook as fast as if you're poaching them in regular water, so after about ten minutes the yolks are still tasty. If you like you're eggs overcooked, go ahead and wait fifteen minutes and the yolks will be all solid.

That's basically all there is too it. We served it over garlic toast we made out of some tomato ciabatta we had lying around, and plated it with the strawberry salad.

fancy fancy.

We came across some hotdog buns, here at the house, so that sort of inspired me to try a little variation on these veggie fritters i've been making. Pictured above, i made some broccoli/yellow bell pepper dogs.

To do so, beat one egg, and a few tablespoons of flour. Steam broccoli for about five minutes, then cut into small chunks. Saute some yellow bell peppers in butter or olive oil, and again, chop into fairly small chunks. Then mix it all together.

I fried these in butter, in long hotdog shaped strips. To round them out, flip it before it's quite browned (you can come back and brown that side later). The side facing up will be flat, as it spread out against the pan. So using a spatula bend the sides down into a rounder shape.

Since we're in chicago, i had to do this dog up all fancy with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, pickled jalepenos, mayo and mustard.

And since it's strawberry season, instead of chips or fries, i threw a pile of strawberries up in there.

strawberry banana rum smoothies

A couple bananas, strawberries, yogurt, ice, a few shots of rum, and a blender. Add in a crazy straw and it's officially summer. even if it's only 60 degrees outside.

Strawberry Rhubarb

Made my first jam of this growing season. We got both in our CSA (community supported agriculture) box last wednesday, and it looked like more strawberries than we would eat.

So, we canned 'em. Haven't gone out to buy pectin for this year yet, so i just made preserves.

To do so:

I mixed about five cups of chopped up strawberries, and four stalks worth of chopped up rhubarb with about 4 or 5 cups of sugar. I let that sit for a few minutes till it started getting nice and juicy, and then put it over heat. After about ten minutes of boiling this sugary strawberry rhubarb mixture the smell begins to loft through the air, penetrating the entire house. Your housemates or perhaps neighbors will start wandering in, wondering what sweet confectioneries are being confected.

I think i boiled it for about 45 minutes. Then to can it, i just used a trick my mom showed me long ago, i ladled the hot jam into jars, put the lid and ring on them and then turned them upside down (so the hot jam is against the lid and helps seal it). No pressure cooker or water bath necessary (there's so much sugar in this stuff, it's pretty well preserved, hence the name, preserves).

This amount made what you see next to this text, a little over four and a half pints.

broccoli burger

The other day we had some broccoli on the verge of going limp, so i was trying to think of something good to do with it. Well, somehow i got in my head that a broccoli burger might be a good idea.

So here it is, crazy, and not really burger-like, but actually tasty. It's really sort of like a korean vegetable pancake, just, you know, on a bun. Here's the break-down:

I steamed my broccoli for eight minutes-ish. then cut it into tiny little bits. This broccoli i mixed with one egg and enough flour to make the egg not runny, but battery (batter-like, that is, not a duracell). I added some salt and pepper to the batter too.

Then i just heated up some oil in my frying pan and put in a couple burgers worth of broccoli stuff. Then end product was tasty, and very filling. Lots of nutrition from the broccoli, and some protein from the egg. I made a spicy mayo (mayo, sour cream, chili powder, sriracha, salt) to put on my toasted bun, and through some dark green leaf on there (i don't really know what it was, not spinach, maybe some sort of lettuce). I wish we had tomatoes.

You know what the problem with the world is? Tomatoes and lettuce don't come at the same time. I've got all these greens right now, but by the time the tomatoes are ripe, it'll be too hot for my greens to grow. Someday i'll find a magical variety of tomatoes that will grow when it's colder.

potato soup

This is just a basic creamy potato soup i put together.

Cut up your potatoes into small chunks, and cut up your carrots and celery into even smaller chunks. Then boil those in some veggie broth until tender. I usually like to add in some extra flavors here, maybe some basil or oregano. Thyme, sage, whatever is sounding good.

Meanwhile brown some onions and garlic in butter or olive oil.

Mix the onions and garlic in with your the boiling soup, add seasonings and some milk/soy milk. If you want it thicker, mix some flour or cornstarch in a quarter cup of hot water, then mix that into the boiling soup, it'll thicken on up. While you're at it, throw in some more seasonings, for good measure, no one likes bland potatoes.

I topped mine with some shredded cheddar cheese and a little parsley, just to make it look fancy schmancy.

chocolate pocket pies

I got the idea for these from an alton brown show, and thought i'd try it out.

Basically, it's a slightly sweet biscuit dough, rolled out then in little 10" diameter circles. Then i put a a bit of chocolate filling (see below) on one side, folded it in half to form the pocket, and that's basically it. I crimped the sides with a fork, and poked a few slots for steam to get out in the top, then baked. Oh, i suppose i also sprinkled some sugar over it.

The filling could be any pie type filling. I creamed some butter with sugar and cocoa powder.

Pretty easy, and fun. Eat 'em hot.

Broccoli and Bean Curd in Ginger Garlic Sauce

I love calling tofu bean curd,  it makes everyone cringe.  That's what the Chinese word tofu (or doufu, in Chinese pinyin) literally translates into:  "Bean Curd".  Sounds appetizing, eh?

The inspiration for this dish came from northern china, where Russian, Mongolian and Chinese cultures all intermingle a little bit.  

I started by wok-frying some tofu,  i actually just took the bricks, and cut them into three slices, for easy cooking.  I brushed them with soy sauce, sriracha and some salt and spices, on each side, and let them cook in some oil till they got a little crispy.  Then I cut them into the size strip which you see in the picture.  

For the broccoli i just cut it into the little florets and steamed it.  

I also sauteed some onions and red peppers.  The bright red of the peppers really helped make the dish look good, I think.  

For the sauce i melted butter, and some sesame oil, and mixed that with a little veggie broth.  I added minced ginger and minced garlic, and let that sit on the stove for a while.   Then right before time to serve, i got my pan good and hot, and tossed everything in there together.  

Since I'm claiming this is a northern china dish, i should have made steamed buns or something like that to go with it,  but i got lazy, and just made some rice.   Regardless, it was a nice comfort dish.  

Butternut Squash Soup

For sunday dinner (lunch), I opted for a smooth, creamy butternut squash soup, with fresh baked garlic cheddar biscuits.

And Anali, (one of my housemates) made this little garlic friend from a garlic which had sprouted in our cupboard.

For the butternut squash soup, i actually started way too late to make it properly, so i was scrambling to get things done. Here's how i made butternut squash soup and garlic cheddar biscuits in just a little over an hour.

I started by preparing three butternut squash (squashes? squashi?). Cut them in half longways, and remove the seeds. Then i microwaved them (one squash at a time) for about seven minutes each. This got the squash mostly cooked, and made it pretty easy to remove the skins. I cut them into about 1" cubes, and put them in a large pot with boiling veggie broth, to finish them cooking.

While the butternut boiled, I chopped up a large yellow onion, and cooked it in some olive oil until it began to caramelize. By this time the kitchen was filled with the sweet, rich scents of the butternut squash, and that wonderful smell of caramelizing onions. And like clockwork, all of the sudden people begin to show up in the kitchen.

With both of those items cooking on the stove, I started on a basic biscuit recipe. After turning the oven on to about 435 degrees to warm up, I mixed the shortening with the dry ingredients. Here i added two cloves of minced garlic, as well as some oregano and some basil. I mixed in some milk and mixed it all up.

Back to the soup, I added the onions into the pot, and seasoned everything with salt, thyme, and a little chili powder. Then I began to mix everything together, using a potato masher to break up the chunks of squash.

Here's where it came in handy to have extra people loitering in the kitchen. Anali had found a clove of garlic which i had set aside because it had sprouted, and made him into the fun little guy you see up in the top corner there. When she finished, i put her to work blending the soup. Just poured it into a blender, about two or three cups at a time, to get it to a nice smooth consistency.

This freed me up to finish up the biscuits. I took some shredded cheddar and just sort of kneaded it into the biscuit dough, then separated the dough into biscuit sized portions, placed it on a baking sheet fairly close together, and tossed it in the hot oven.

Now Anali had finished with the blending of the soup, so I poured it all back into my pot on the stove, and added the final few touches. To make the soup creamier, i added one can of coconut milk (regular milk, or cream would have been fine, but I just can't get enough coconut milk).

Follow that up with some red wine vinegar and just a touch of sriracha to take a little of the sweet edge off of it. Then salt and pepper to taste. I even had some time to relax as the biscuits finished up, before 12:30 rolled around and we all sat down to lunch.

It's a nice warming soup for cold snowy chicago days. And a good use of seasonal vegetables.

Vegetable soup

Well, this soup started out as just an attempt to use up a ton of vegetables, and ended up being one of my favorite soups i've made in a while.

I started with about 8 cups of veggie broth, and added to that maybe 4 or 5 teaspoons of oregano, and 3 or 4 teaspoons of thyme. Then i chopped up a few stocks of celery, and a few carrots into small soup sized pieces, and added those to the boiling broth.
I let that simmer for a while, while i worked on other things, and came back about an hour before dinner, and added a couple cups of (already boiled) black beans and kidney beans. Then i chunked up some sweet potatoes and put that in, and added some frozen corn.

Then i realized that it was missing some key tasty ingredients. So i chopped up some onions and sweated them in a pan with some olive oil. meanwhile i minced up a couple cloves of garlic, added that to the soup, and added the onions. I also chopped up a green bell pepper and put that in too.

After maybe a half hour of cooking it all together, I seasoned it with some salt and pepper, and called that a soup. The thyme and oregano gave all the veggies a sort of theme to rally around, and i liked it quite a lot. I served it with sweet potato black bean quesadillas. I had originally thought i would turn the soup into something southwestern-ish, with corn and beans and whatever, but that never happened. The pairing worked fine anyhow, though.

Lo Mein with Peanut Sauce

For lunch yesterday, I was craving some Pad Thai, but i didn't really have any ingredients to do it justice, so i decided to go for lo mein instead.

This used whole wheat noodles (because that's what was in the pantry), which i boiled for about 8 minutes. While that boiled, i cut up a couple yellow onions and orange bell peppers into thin strips, and caramelized them in a skillet with sesame oil. Then I cut up a couple cloves of garlic, and put that in with the onions and peppers.

When the noodles were done, i drained them and let them cool a bit. Then I fried a couple of eggs in the pan with the peppers and onions, and then tossed the noodles on top of that, stirring it up and letting the noodles soak up all that flavor.

For the sauce, I used about a cup of broth, and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter. Let that simmer together, and added spices and fun flavorings. I used soy sauce, some worcestershire sauce (because i didn't have any tamarind), and sriracha, and maybe some ginger. Whisked it all together and let it reduce just a bit, (while i was cooking the other stuff).

Then i just poured the sauce over the noodles and dished it up. I sprinkled some chopped cilantro and chopped peanuts over the top, and it wasn't too bad.

Would've been good with tofu, but i was running short on time, and forgot about adding in the tofu. Next time, though.