End of the Brussels Sprouts

Even though spring is just now appearing, sources I trust (okay fine, they have a commercial interest) tell me that the Brussels sprouts season is almost over. Winter vegetable. These babies were delish, though.

I didn't eat them growing up. so I suppose my mother doesn't like them. Weirdly, with no evidence, I decided I didn't like them either. Earlier last year I worked up the willingness to try them for the first time. What a mistake I've been making!

The only way I have prepared them is sauteed with garlic, and topped with salt, cracked black pepper, and Parmesan or Romano. The first time I made them, I cut an X into the base of the sprouts before cooking and then boiled briefly, and it was good but too much work. Now I just cut them in half and saute raw. Unfortunately, I don't remember the original source for the X-cut recommendation.

Tonight I used butter and olive oil to saute and Romano to top. Here they are in the pan.



And ready to eat.



Verdict: A+
Credits: I can't remember where I found my advice, but good advice is easy to find on the web.
Leftovers? Never. Too great to not finish.

Notes: 101 cookbooks has a great recipe that is almost exactly what I do. It just isn't my source, because I tried them a couple times before this recipe was posted.

Crapshoot Chowder

A recipe for a Real Simple soup popped up while I was shopping -- since I had some luck with the RS recipes, I checked it out. Scallop chowder sounds delicious, but scallops were $16/lb and they wanted 1.5 lbs in their recipe. Not happening.

I ordered a half pound of large sea scallops (about 6 or 7) and a pound of the "fish cubes for stew." The mix of fish is whatever is the scrap of the day -- usually salmon, tuna, and swordfish, according to the description. A bit of a crapshoot.

What came was about 3/4 salmon and a little tuna. Which is fine.

Making the soup:

Bacon? Check.
Scallops? Check.
Onions? Check.
Potatoes? Check
Fish cubes? Check.

Here's the orignal recipe. While I was frying the bacon, I checked for salmon chowder recipes, since there was so much salmon in my fish cubes. This Epicurious recipe for Salmon Chowder seemed promising too.

I fried six slices of bacon and removed the bacon. Then cooked the scallops in the bacon fat, a couple of minutes a side, and removed them. Then the 4 red potatoes (more like a pound than half a pound) and three really small (organic small) onions sliced long-ways. I should have done just the onions and then deglazed with wine. After the onions were soft, then I deglazed with wine -- working around the potatoes.

Then a pint of chicken stock. After some simmering, a half cup of cream. Salt and pepper. I wasn't trying to double the recipe, but the stock wasn't enough for all the potatoes and the upcoming fish, so I added a cup and half of milk. Also some fresh thyme.

Bring to a simmer for a while, then add the fish. A little later, add the corn and return the scallops to the pot. More salt and pepper.

Let everything get hot. The salmon chowder recipe had lemon juice, which sounded good, so I squeezed a lemon into the pot.



Garnish with parsley and crumbled bacon.



Yum. Everything contributes a flavor. The salmon is great. Tuna very good. Scallops are so buttery and sweet, it seems impossible. Plus, bacon fat, potatoes, cream.

Very thin broth, but will probably thicken with the starch from the potatoes and corn. Thin is good, a little wet slurp with each different kind of bite. The scallops are so rich I wouldn't want it to be much heavier.

Verdict: A-
Credits: Scallop and Corn Chowder, Real Simple Magazine
Salmon Chowder recipe at Epicurious.com
Leftovers? Oh yes.

Notes: If FreshDirect challenges you for a zip code, use 10023. I am sure they deliver everywhere in that code. In mine, you'd be further challenged because I live in such a remote neighborhood (puh-leeze).

Asparagus, Chickpea, Quinoa Salad

101 Cookbooks is a good source of recipes for me lately. Anticipating spring, I got some asparagus (Mexican) and made this quick dish.



It really does come together fast (maybe not 10 minutes). I substituted 2 C. quinoa cooked with 4 C. water for the brown rice in the original dish. It was probably too much -- 1 to 1 1/2 C. would be better.

Verdict: A-
Credits: 101 Cookbooks
Leftovers? Yes, and very good cold. May need a touch more dressing the next day since quinoa and chickpeas are absorbent.

Notes: The tahini dressing is good for other salads too. In this case, make it thin -- the quinoa will suck it up.

Colcannon

To use yesterday's cabbage, I wanted to make this Irish treat. I based my recipe on Eating Well's version. Since I am not doing milk right now (and never have it in the house anyway), I needed a substitute to make it a little creamy. I added a little extra butter to saute the cabbage and then used wine, broth, olive oil and vinegar. Delish!


1 half head of cabbage shredded
1 lb red pototoes

2 T. butter

2 T. broth
1/4 C. white wine
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T olive oil

salt and white pepper


Start the potatoes boiling. In a frying pan, soften the cabbage with the butter and a scoop of the potato water.

When the potatoes can be stuck easily with a fork, drain and mash. Add the olive oil and broth. Salt and pepper. Stir in the cabbage, add the wine and taste. If the tang of vinegar would be good, then add that.

Low cal, high fiber.



Verdict: B+ a tasty treat and better than plain potatoes.
Credits: Eating Well
Leftovers? Yes, potato pancakes tomorrow!

Notes: Vegan, if you skip the butter.

Pozole (or posole)

I was wishing for the food and the weather of Mexico during this horrible snowstorm and thought of this soup. This is an experimental version with tempeh, not pork.

4 dried chile guanjillo
4 cloves garlic
1 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. cumin
1 C. hot water

1 package tempeh cut in 1/2 cubes
1/4 C. soy sauce
1 T chili garlic sauce
2 limes

1 medium onion
1 qt. vegetable broth
2 whole cloves


1 can hominy
1 can black beans

olive oil
salt and pepper

Optional:
3 cups shredded cabbage
cilantro
avocado, white onion, scallions, cheese, fried tortilla strips (I didn't do any of these)

Marinate the tempeh in the soy sauce, chili sauce and juice of 1 lime.


Remove the stems from the dried chilies and cover with hot water and soak. When the chilies are soft, blend with garlic clove and oregano. I added the cumin, but recommend against it.

In the soup pot, fry the marinating tempeh in a little olive oil until browned a little and heated through. Set the tempeh aside.

Cut the onion in half and take the outer onion of one of the halves before chopping. Chop the rest of the onion. Put the whole cloves through the onion rib.

Soften the chopped onion in a little more olive oil. Add the chili puree and the vegetable broth. Drain the hominy and black beans and add to the soup. Add the cloved onion. Bring to a low boil and simmer for 20 or 30 minutes, occasionally skimming the foam off. Salt and pepper to taste (probably a fair amount of pepper). Add the tempeh and simmer for another 20 minutes. Stir in the juice of a lime before serving.


For the first bowl I put the raw cabbage in the bowl and ladled the soup over it. Later for leftovers, I just added the cabbage in the pot. Either way is good. Garnish with the cilantro. At Pancho's, they serve with many of the garnishes on the side.

Verdict: Yummy, B+.

Credits: Vegan Represent Forums

Leftovers? Yes and the flavor develops overnight.

Notes: Next time, I will not use the cumin, and will probably find hotter chilies. Or just use two or three and add some fresh serrano or jalepeno.

Spicy Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup

When I added sweet potatoes to my online cart at Fresh Direct, the site recommended the Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup recipe. When I prepared it, I hated the color of the broth and was considering dumping it out until I though of blending it. Now I love it!!



Verdict: A
Credits: Real Simple magazine [via Fresh Direct]
Leftovers? Yes, though you might need to thin with a little water.

Notes: Instead of the one inch dice, I just slice the sweet potato into pretty thick pieces and then after five or ten minutes to heat them (because I baked them a day or two before usually) use the hand blender to blend the whole thing. There's sesame oil in the picture but I usually don't bother.

Bloody Bowties

Fresh Direct recommended this recipe when I was shopping for beets, so I tried it. The recipe title is Shockingly Pink Pasta so I thought it would be a bright fuschia pink. It is when you first stir in a little beet sauce to a lot of light colored pasta, but by the time it is all added, it looks like blood. Now we're talking shocking!

Roast 3 medium to large beets in the oven, wrapped in foil with a little olive oil for an hour. At the same time, wrap a whole head of garlic in foil with a little olive oil and roast.

When the beets have cooled, take out of the foil and peel the skins off. They should just slip off by hand. Sometimes I have to use the paring knife. Slice into chunks. These can be stored, refrigerated for a few days and added to salads.



Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the head into the beets. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive and puree. I use my hand blender in this tupperware container. Salt and generous pepper.

Make a box of farfalle. Add the beet puree to the drained pasta. Serve with parmesan cheese.


Verdict: A
Credits: Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon [via Fresh Direct]
Leftovers? Yes, very good.

Notes: It was so good that I bought the book, Passionate Vegetarian I have also made it with raw, not roasted, garlic and it is way hot with garlic. If you are roasting the beets anyway, roast the garlic.