Plantain, Corn and Kale Soup

My love for plantains is still going strong. My cold? Receding, but the perfect excuse to make soup.

Here's how I made this soup:

Cook 1 onion ( a whole onion!) and 2 cloves garlic (roughly chopped) 'til translucent in some butter in a soup pot. When nice and tender add: 2 sliced plantains (greenish yellow ones), 2 peeled/chopped roma tomatoes, 1 c corn kernals. Cook about 5 ish minutes. Add threeish cups of stock, a spoonful of tarragon (chopped/dried), a chopped/seeded green pepper (or crushed red pepper flakes like me), and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer about ten minutes (til plantains are tender), and add about 2 cups chopped kale. Let Kale cook through ( a few minutes) and serve with crusty bread.

It makes a yummy stewey bowl of happy goodness.

Homemade Cough Suppressant

Put into a mug:

Juice from 1 lemon, a generous slug of honey, a generous slug of whiskey, and top up with hot water.

Seriously.

Worst case, after a few of these you won't care about the coughing as much anymore.

Hot Stuff

The only tolerable things when you have a good old-fashioned cold are:

1. Hot Tea
2. Hot Soup
3. Toast
4. Sympathy

Tofu Enchiladas

Seriously! So good!

Here’s how:

First, gather your ingredients. You’ll need some corn tortillas, a can of enchilada sauce (I’m lazy, you could easily make your own, or substitute your favorite salsa… I was just craving that true tex-mex flavor), 1 block silken tofu, some corn/onions/mushrooms sautéed gently, and vegemite (yes, vegemite… fine or nutritional yeast flakes).

First, prepare the filling by blending/mashing the silken tofu with a spoonful (or two) of vegemite. If you want a thinner filling, add water…if not leave it thick. Carefully fold in the veggies. At this point you could jazz up the filling with any sort of seasoning, but I was going for the bland cheese enchilada flavor.

Next, heat the sauce you are using ‘til warm in a skillet. One at a time, heat a tortillas until soft in the microwave, then dip in sauce, put in baking dish, add filling, roll, and make sure the enchilada ends up seam side down. Continue this process until your baking dish is full (I made 8 generous enchiladas in an 8 x 8 baking dish). Top with warm sauce and bake.

You can also top with some finely diced calabacita or other winter squash, before adding the sauce.

Super yum!

D's Super Yummy Sauce (for fish)

Last night D cooked our tea. He had a piece of cod and I had a piece of steelhead trout. He invented the yummiest sauce to serve on the fish (which he cooked very simply by seasoning and flouring and then cooking in a warm non stick pan).

He chopped up capers and dill pickle, and tarragon and folded this into some fat-free yogurt. He seasoned this with a bit of salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes. He slowly heated it (if it boils it will split, so don't let it boil) and added a bit of water. He ended up thickening it with a bit of cornstrach paste.

It was super yummy on the fish and also on the green beans.

Aren't you jealous?

Craving Green

Sometimes I get an absolutely fidget-in-your-seat-you-need-it-so-bad craving for greens. I spend all day dreaming of spinach, bok choy, gai lan, cabbage, kale or COLLARDS.

If you have never availed yourself of eating collards, then yours is a sorry life indeed!

Just yesterday I had that ungodly need for green in my life, so I made a big portion of collards and served with some steamed jasmine rice. Heaven!

Take one huge bunch of collards and wash well. (Doncha know the best way to wash greens/herbs/leafy things is to fill a clean sink with cold water, put your leafy greens in and swirl. The sand should sink to the bottom.) Drain and pat greens dry. Chop roughly (be sure to get rid of the tough stem altogether).

Heat olive oil in a generously sized pan and sweat one crushed/chopped olive clove. When oil is hot, turn heat off. Toss in greens and toss around until wilted but not overcooked with some kosher/sea salt. For some added flair (and if you have them sitting around from greenbean casserole making) toss in a handful of french's fried onions.

Serve immediately.

Make popeye jokes at will.

Bourgeoisie Chips

Let's face it...french fries are the ultimate suburban white food. Oh, but aren't they soooooo super yummy?

Last night the D and I decided to make home-made fries (erm, chips if you must) for dinner (oh and a token piece of fish.) We went whole hog! No short cuts on this adventure!

Here's how you make super yum homefries (better than any you've ever had, and this is no exaggeration).

1. Gather a few good-sized, scrubbed russets.

2. Fire up the deep fryer with some good peanut oil (oh gosh, you have to have one even if you only use it for chip making) to 320. (We made a concession with the peanut oil, but lard would be even better.)

3. Use your brand new mandolin to make gorgeous raw chips out of your russets. If you don't have a mandolin, cajole someone else into taking on the responsibility of making the chips as uniform as possible.

4. In small batches, fry the chips for 2-3 minutes at 320. You are going for undercooked, pale and floppy. (You will do a second fry in a few minutes).

5. Drain par-cooked chips.

6. Repeat until you have a nice pile of soft, floppy undercooked chips.

7. Raise temp in your fryer to 375.

8. Using small batches again, refry chips for 3-4 mintues until golden and perfect. Drain and salt liberally.

9. Get someone else to make token fish (ie. dredge fillets in seasoned flour and lightly pan fry).

10. Eat chips and rave about how delicious and wonderful and nutty and decadent they are. Argue about whether using sauce/mayo/aioli/whatever actually enhances or detracts from their perfection.

mmmmm!

No shame Fruitcake Adventures

I have no shame in admitting I like, even LOVE fruitcake. Oh yes I do. If you don't then you obviously have never had good fruitcake. I love variations on fruitcake too! Like Sticky Date Pudding, or Date Loaf. I do NOT love any fruitbreadesque variation that includes peel (candied or not). That's the key for me...NO peel.

So I decided to make a fruitcake this year. In advance of chrissy...so it can get good and moist and full of alcoholic goodness. Also my grandmother loves fruitcake, but can't eat nuts...so I thought I'd make one nut free for her. (Yes, I know, I like old people food...I'm not ashamed.)

Last night the fruitcake adventure began with me making this recipe:
Free Range Fruit Cake.

Now then, the plan was to make this cake and let it sit a few weeks, whilst liberally dousing with spirits of some sort. I made a few adjustments (ie. NO peel, no nuts, and port instead of brandy). The thing is, this cake has not made it through the few weeks. No sir! The D took one look at the macerated fruit cooking in the butter and sugar and decided it should be a "test run" cake. He even took it out of the oven early and dug out a warm not yet set up piece straight out of the pan.

The verdict? Good, but not as to-die-for good as we hoped. I think maybe if it had sat and gotten doused for a while it would have sealed the deal...but D complained that the batter wasn't dark and dense enough. So, I'm on the search for a good (and probably when it comes down to it - Aussie style) dark dense fruitcake recipe. Maanwhile, we'll "suffer" through this cake (um, by suffering I mean we will eat with absolute impunity).

I'll let you know when I concoct the perfect cake!

Addendum (12/10/03):

The fruitcake has improved tons just overnight. It has gotten denser and richer and more like we expected. So see? They don't tell you to start a fruitcake weeks in advance without reason. I'll keep you posted!

Lazy Girl's Cuban-esque Sunday Dinner

1. Set to cooking a pan of parboiled rice (yes parboiled, trust me, if you are going to have rice with beans, it should be parboiled rice...zatarain's if possible).

2. Slice up that perfectly sweetly ripened plantained and pan fry till caramelly and good. Set on plate and set aside (somewhere safe from dive bombing dogs.)

3. Saute chopped onions until translucent, add some goya adobo seasoning, and a big spoonful of ajo de mojo (you do have a huge jar of this in your fridge already don't you? You should.) When this is cooked nicely, and you are about to starve to death right there in front of the stove, add a can of goya black beans (undrained) and add about half cup of water and a couple slugs of vingegar (rice or cider). You want brothy beans don't you? When it's all heated and yummy smelling.....it's ready!

Get a nice dinner plate (just because you are lazy in your cooking doesn't mean you can't have the luxury of nice dinner ware), mound some perfectly cooked rice in the center (if you've timed this perfectly the rice will be just done when the beans are), add some beans, accessorize prettily with some plantains and serve with mojo de ajo on the side.

Do not feel guilty about seconds, but keep in mind how great the leftovers will be for lunch tomorrow.

Last Night's Dinner: Creamy Roasted Garlic Sauce and Macaroni

This was such a success that even D (with his reluctance to convert to a more vegetarian lifestyle) said “Next time you make that, let me know…I want to eat it!”

Right.

The end product tastes a bit like a mild and sweet roasted garlicky cheese sauce. No kidding.

Here’s how you make it:

First, you need to roast a head of garlic in advance. To do this, take a whole head of garlic and peel off it’s outer skin. Leave the skins on the cloves themselves. Chop the top bit off the head of garlic, exposing the tops of all cloves. Place this on a doubled square of foil and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Close up the foil in a nice foil packet and put into a medium oven (about 350) for an hour or so, until the cloves are nice and soft. Resist spreading cloves directly on toasted bread.

In a blender deposit one block of drained tofu (I used low fat silken tofu), the roasted garlic (squeeze the soft garlic cloves from their skins), a couple spoonfuls of vegemite (do not skip this, do not be scared of vegemite, if you must substitute use marmite or a couple spoons of nutritional yeast flakes), and a couple slugs of mil/soy milk/water. Give it a couple pulses. Make sure that it’s all mixing together. Add liquid to your desired consistency. I also seasoned it a bit with pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning if need be (more vegemite? Or a dash of salt?).

I tossed this sauce with a box of barilla fiori pasta (mmmm, barilla), some steamed fordhook lima beans and sliced mushrooms (steamed as well).

Delish!

This sauce tasted soooooooo much like a macaroni and cheese sauce, with sweet/nutty garlic undertones. It was total comfort food.

Previously Cooked (for Val specifically)

Southern Cornbread Dressing
Val wanted me to post "my" recipe for cornbread dressing. Actually it isn't mine, it came from my step-father's arkansas family. It's good southern stuff. And, it cooks up more like a cornbread pudding than stuffing. (Ahem, it's only stuffing it is cooked in the bird, otherwise it is dressing.)

Ok. This is one of those throw it together type recipes so adjust and experiment as needed (like most of my recipes).

Right. First you'll need some cornbread. "Some" being dependant on how much dressing you want in the end. My family usually makes up a huge turkey roaster full and probably takes about 12 cups of crumbled cornbread. So, really it is dependant on how much you want in the end. Anyways, cornbread. Right. Let is sit out a couple days so it dries out a bit then crumble it roughly. (Val, if you can't get cornbread mix or cornmeal, do like I did in perth and get the finest ground polenta you can find and whiz in the processor until a bit finer...or leave it coarse for extra texture).

Oil/Butter/Grease the receptacle you want the dressing to cook in. Saute some onion and celery until both are translucent. (Again, quantity depends on your tastes etc.) Add onion/celery to crumbled cornbread and toss to mix (you don't want to pulverize the cornbread so be gentle).

Pour this mixture into your prepared baking dish. You will then add the following ingredients: slightly beaten egg, whole milk/cream, stock, salt/pepper and your choice of poultry seasonings. For a huge roaster sized pan it usually takes about 4-5 eggs, a couple cups of cream/milk, and about 10 cups of stock. You could also throw in some melted butter if that isn't heart disease enough for you. I add the eggs first, and usually go light on the eggs. I'm not so concerned with it setting up, as I like soft cornbread pudding mush. Then add the milk/cream (cream is sweeter, but I prefer milk honestly, or skip it altogether as a concession to health). You want to stir gently to distribute this stuff evenly. Oh! Also, add seasonings sooner than later so they get distributed in the mixing. Finally add stock (if you are roasting a turkey, make stock from the neck and bits). Add it one cup at a time till you get a custardy type consistency in the mix. Not too dry, not too wet....like I said, this is one of those things you need to experiment with. You want it to have that consistency that you know will set up in baking.

Right, finally, bake in a medium oven for an hour or so (or more depending on the size of your pan) until the whole thing has set up and is pulling away slightly from the sides.

Ta-da!

It freezes very well and is the ultimate comfort food. It's like mashed potato...but almost better. It tastes GREAT with warm gravy and cranberry jam/jelly/chutney whatever. In a sandwich (because what could be better than carbs sandwiched between carbs?)

I have also made this in a "skinny" vegetarian version using veggie stock and egg substitute. Still good, but not as decadent as the original.

Easy Mushrooms in Escabeche

Another one for Val, if Sam still loves tinned mushies like I do. This one is a nod to my mexican heritage (sorta). Escabeche bascially means 'pickled.' I love veggies in escabeche. I especially love mushrooms in escabeche.

Here's the cheats way of doing it. First, slice some carrots on the bias, an onion into thin strips, and a couple jalapenos on the bias (depending on what heat level you want, remember if you want less heat to remove the ribs and seeds). Prepare a solution of one part vinegar to 2 parts water (I like mine super vinegary so I usually am mean with the water) in a non reactive pan. Add a tablespoon or so of sugar. Add "some" (you know how I am with the "some"...just use your taste as a guide) oregano and thyme. Bring to a simmer and add veggies. Cook veggies til tender. Remove from heat and add a couple tins of whole (drained) mushrooms. Let it cool and put in a container in the fridge. Try not to eat all the mushrooms in one mad eat-a-thon.

Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread Casserole

This is what I made for dinner last night. I served it with some wilted collard greens and a light cucumber salad.

Here's how I made it:

First, I roughly chopped about 8 oz of homemade seitan and half an onion. I sauteed these until onion was translucent and seitan was browned. I then added one packet of chili-mix (one of those envelopes you can buy in any suburban grocer, the cheaper the better), a can of drained navy beans, and 16 oz of tomato sauce. I made sure this was all heated through nicely and removed it from the heat.

Meanwhile, I set the oven to 400 and lightly oiled a round casserole (I think 2 qt?). I threw a can of corn (some liquid drained) into the food processor and pulsed until creamy. I added the creamed corn and one egg (egg substitute) to a 6 oz packet of cornbread mix.

I layered half the cornbread batter into the casserole, topped it with the chili, and finished off with the second half of the cornbread batter.

This was toasty and brown in about 25 minutes. I removed it from the oven and let it rest while I quickly wilted some rough chopped collard greens and peeled and chopped a cucumber. I tossed the cucumber with a bit of lime juice, some adobo seasonings, and some pepper.

This was a fab dinner! Not only do I have leftovers for tonight, but all in all a super cheap and super healthy meal.

My food philosophy:

If it is good, eat it.

If it is good for you? Eat it with gusto.

Right oh, here we go. I thought it only fair to blog my food adventures instead of boring my friends with the recounting and endless discussion about what's been cooking at my house.

I don't claim to be a fabulous cook, but I do assert that I'm adventurous. My way of cooking is usually to read lots and lots and lots of recipe books, food books, and talk to lots of people about food to get some inspiration. I rarely cook to a recipe, but will often use a recipe as inspiration using whtever we have on hand to make a meal. Every once in a while I will buy ingredients for a specific dish in mind, but usually end up fudging the end product a bit to suit either our budget or our particular mood.

I'm currently trying to become vegetarian, and eat healthier... but will often slip up and eat something totally indulgent.

So, what's this about then?

I like to think about, talk about, read about, experiment with and eat food. I plan to record successes (and failures) here.