Seafood Chowder

This morning we set out to the local Fisherman's Days down at the harbour.  What could be a better dose of Maritime Fun than the promise of a boat parade, a shell shucking contest, fiddle music, local displays and of course a bouncy castle for the kids?  Until we got there and it started raining shortly before the opening ceremonies.  We all huddled under the tents.  Feeling brave my family ventured out to look at the boats and what was still open of the displays.  My husband and I thought we would warm up a bit with a bowl of chowder from one of local vendors, except that it wasn't yet ready.  We went back, it still wasn't ready.  After the third time going back and starting to realize that the drizzle was not going to let up and that the wind was only getting stronger, we set ourselves back for home.  But now we both really wanted a bowl of chowder.
I remembered my dear friend Luan serving us the best seafood chowder at her husband's birthday a couple of years back and tried my best to find it.  This recipe jumped out at me in my search and by looking at the ingredients I thought it would be very good.  It was, it was very good indeed.
This recipe is an award winning recipe from PEI's Chef Jeff McCourt.  It took first prize in the PEI International Chowder Championship in 2003.  It is a little time consuming to make, but very much worth the effort.

1 cup (250 mL) butter
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
2 cups grated peeled potatoes
1/4 cup (50 mL) vermouth (I didn't have any vermouth, and substituted white wine instead)
2 cups (500 mL) milk
2 cups (500 mL) heavy cream
2 cups (500 mL) shellfish (choice of lobster, oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, and/or crab) *I adapted this with what I had on hand, cooking up a little salmon, haddock and shrimp - I also added a can of sweet baby clams
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) diced potato, steamed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat, add onions and sauté until translucent. Stir in garlic and continue to sauté until onions are golden brown. Add grated potato, vermouth, milk and cream. Cook over medium heat, stirring often to prevent scorching, until potato is cooked, about 20 minutes.

In a blender, purée chowder base in batches, then return to chowder pot and season with salt and pepper.

Cook whatever shellfish you want to add to the chowder, retaining all liquid from the cooking process. Shuck and set seafood aside. Add cooking liquid to the chowder base. Add diced, cooked potato for texture. Add seafood, and check for seasoning one last time. Finish with chopped chives.  Makes 8 to 10 servings.

*I paired this with some homemade dinner rolls - delicious!

While making the chowder, I happened to chat with my friend Luan on the phone.  When I told her I was making chowder and was remembering how much I loved hers, she started to tell me her recipe.  It turns out this is the recipe she uses!  Too funny :)

 

How To Make A Stock

Making a stock is one of those things that is so super easy that you will have yourself wondering why you didn't do it before.  So many soup recipes call for a stock, usually chicken, beef or turkey.  Now you can go and buy a pre-made stock at the store; or, you can use what you have on hand.  I make my stocks ahead of time and freeze them, ready to use when I need them.

I usually buy a rotisserie chicken every couple of weeks and once the meat has been used up, I save the bones and skin for this.  We also keep a small container of our onion tops and skins as well as garlic skins and bits of sweet peppers not used thoughout the week.  This really makes making a stock easy.

You take your chicken bones and vegetable bits and put them into a large cooking pot.  Put just enough water in to cover everything.  Put a lid on and bring it all to a boil.  Once boiling well, reduce the heat to minimum and let simmer for about an hour.  Let cool.  Once cooled, drain the stock into a large container, ready to freeze. 

I do the same thing with my turkey bones, just using a larger stock pot for the process and often get enough stock for 3 or more containers of stock. 

You can make a vegetable stock as well by putting in large chunks of veggies - onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and tomatoes work well for this.

There you go, super easy and a great way to use up everything you have on hand.

Curry Squash Soup

I'm terrible at getting bowls of soup to look good in pictures. It just doesn't happen for me. So just the drawing today, but trust me, this soup is good! I make this soup at random in the sense that I just make it, I don't really take the time to measure out stuff, so the measurements are by what I think they are as opposed to really measuring it out. I love this soup for fall when squash is out at the markets. I only just realised that I've never blogged this recipe before. It is one of my staples. This time I made it, I used a buttercup squash (which is in season right now) - I've also used butternut with this recipe.

1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp or so curry powder (you can use less depending on your curry preference)
1 squash cut into chunks - (about 6 cups?)
4 cups chicken stock (enough to cover squash)
1 tsp or so chicken bouillon a dash of salt

Over med-low heat, melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the ginger and onion and saute until they are softened. Add the curry powder in. Add in the squash and the chicken stock. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the squash. Raise the heat up to med-high to boiling. Lower heat again to simmer to allow the squash to cook and soften. Use an immersion blender to puree everything together. Taste and add bouillon and salt for flavor. Mix in. This makes a lot of soup. It's good to freeze to save for future meals or in individual packets for lunches.

Vegetarian Chili

Sorry no picture, I forgot! But this recipe is well worth remembering. I found it on food.com. It is very delicious and filling. This was also the tale of making sure you plug in the crock pot - I was sure I did and was kicking to find out it wasn't plugged in - only to find out my husband had unplugged it to plug in the kettle, forgetting to plug the crock pot back in. That happened not once, but twice with this chili! All was good though as I adjusted from cooking on low to cooking on high. It all worked out!

1 (11 ounce) can condensed black bean soup (or canned black beans in juice) - I used the canned black beans
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 (16 ounce) can vegetarian baked beans (in Canada beans in tomato sauce)
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chopped tomato puree (I used a hand blend to puree a 28 ounce can of tomatoes)
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I don't buy canned corn so I used the equivalent in frozen corn - 2 cups)
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can diced chilies
1 -2 jalapeno peppers, chopped (depending on how much heat you want)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon cilantro (optional)


In a saucepan, saute the onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and celery for about 5 minutes. In a slow cooker, combine black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, baked beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, bell pepper, zucchini, jalapeno, chilies, and celery.
Season with garlic, chili powder, cumin, parsley, oregano, basil (and cilantro if using). Cook for about 6 hours on low.

The Best Chili!

For the first few years of our marriage, I'd make chili and my husband would eat it, but not enjoy it. The problem is that he really, really loves chili, but I couldn't seem to find a recipe that he liked. So I stopped making chili altogether. That was it. If I wanted chili, I'd get a bowl from Tim Horton's or Wendy's. Now that the fall weather is here, I was craving chili again. I thought I would scour my favorite blogs and recipe sites until I found the perfect recipe and make it. My friends, I have found that recipe. This was the perfect chili. And yes, my husband enjoyed it too. This is my keeper. I found it on food.com (formerly Recipezaar.com) and it is delicious. The only differences that I did with this recipe was use our homemade tomato sauce instead of canned, increased the onion to half an onion, and added a finely chopped green pepper to the mix. Other than that I made it according to her directions. So enjoy, the perfect chili.

Seasoning Mix

* 4 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together seasoning mix.
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

* 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
* 1 tablespoon minced onion (I used half and onion instead, I also added a chopped green pepper)
* 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans


-In a skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink.
-Drain.
-Add onion and 3 tsp of seasoning mix.
-In Crock-Pot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, one can of beans (drain and rinse the beans) and two more teaspoons of seasoning mix.
-Place the other can of beans (drain and rinse the beans first) in a blender and process until smooth.
-Add beans and meat to the crock pot.
-Stir together.
-Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Chiang Mai Curry Noodles

This is without a doubt the most beautiful cookbook I've ever read. The authors have spent years traveling throughout Southeast Asia.  As they traveled they learned how to cook like the locals.  This book is part cookbook, part travel/photo essay, and it's gorgeous.  They follow the Mekong River, noticing how the cooking of the regions are similar, yet different as the river flows - sort of like we group Mediterranean cooking together.  There are similarities, yet each region has its own take on its dishes.  I happened upon this book via a new friend.  The first time we had lunch with their family, she has make a chicken noodle dish from us from this book.  The second time, she made an Indian dal dish from another of their books, Mangoes and Curry Leaves.  The cooking was so delicious and so what my husband and I enjoy that we ordered both books from Amazon. 
I decided that the first dish I cooked would be this soup from Northern Thailand.  It was quite simple to put together and very tasty.  It was even better the next day as the flavors really had a chance to melt together.

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp salt, plus a pinch
1 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
3 cups coconut milk, with 1/2 cup of the thickest milk set aside
1/2 pound boneless flavorful beef (sirloin tip or trimmed stewing beef), cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup water
3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
peanut oil for deep frying noodles (optional)
1 pound Chinese egg noodles (bamee)

Toppings and Condiments: Fried noodle nests
1/2 cup coursely chopped shallots
1/2 cup minced scallions
1/2 cup pickled cabbage (Thai style)
1 lime, cut into wedges

Finely mince the garlic, place in a small bowl with the tumeric, a pinch of salt and curry paste and mix well together.
Place a large heavy pot or wok over high heat.  Add the 1 tbsp oil and when it is hot, toss in the curry mixture.  Stir fry 30 seconds, then add the reserved 1/2 cup coconut milk and lower the heat to medium high.  Add the meat and sugar, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until the meat has changed color all over.  Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups coconut milk, the water, fish sauce and the remaining 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook at a strong simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice.  (this soup can be prepared up to an hour ahead and then reheated just before serving).
Meanwhile make the crispy noodles (optional, but I heartily recommend them).  Place a plate lined with several layers of paper towels by your stove.  Place a large wok or heavy pot over high heat and add about a cup peanut oil, or 1/2 inch oil.  When the oil is hot, drop in a strand of uncooked noodle to test the temp.  It should sizzle slightly as it falls to the bottom and immediately puff and rise to the surface: adjust the heat if necessary.  Toss a handful (about 1 cup) of noodles into the oil and watch as they puff up.  Use a spatula or long tongs to turn them over and expose all of them to the hot oil.. They will crisp up very quickly (less than 1 minute).  Lift the crisped noodles out of the oil and place on paper towel lined plate.  Give the oil a moment to come back to temperature, and then repeat with a second handful of noodles.  (the noodles can be made ahead of time and left standing at room temperature for several hours).
To serve: bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil over high heat.  Drop in the remaining noodles (or all noodles, if you didn't make the crispy noodles), bring back to a boil and cook until tender but not mushy (about 6 minutes) - drain well.
Divide the drained noodles among 4 large bowls.  Ladle over the broth and meat.  Top with crispy noodles and a pinch each of the shallots and scallions (I just used shallots).  Serve with the remaining condiments set out in small bowls so guest can garnish their soup as they wish.  Provide each guest with chopsticks and a large spoon.

Baked Potato Soup for Souper Sunday

I was doing a fridge clean out on Thursday, making mental notes of what we had and what we needed when I saw that we had a bunch of potatoes that really needed to be cooked up. Hmmm. What could I do with them? Potato soup was the first thing I thought of and then I remembered hearing about baked potato soup sometime in the past (but I couldn't remember where or when). No problem, I just made it up. To which my husband exclaimed, you are getting really good at this. Thanks honey.

6 potatoes scrubbed
2 tbsp butter/margarine
1 onion chopped
1 tsp each dill, thyme, parsley
4 cups veg soup stock (I think chicken stock would be fine too, I just had veg on hand)
grated pepper to taste
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup light sour cream

Heat oven to 350*. Poke the potatoes several times with a fork and bake for an hour.
When the potatoes are baked, take them out of the oven to cool a little and start the rest of the soup. Melt margarine over low-medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened. Add the herbs and blend in. (*pre-heat the veg stock) Add the veg stock and bring heat up to med-high. Grate in the pepper. Cut open the potatoes and scoop the potato out of the skins into the soup. Let everything heat up to a nice boil. Remove from heat. Use a hand blender to blend the soup together (or transfer to a blender in batches to blend, then return to the soup pot). Grate the cheese into the soup and mix to help it melt. Stir in the sour cream.
Serve as is or grate a little more cheese on top.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Happy Mothers Day! And happy Souper Sunday! This picture really does this soup no justice. It's actually quite a flavourful, delicious soup. When my husband came in, he had wondered if it was Mulligatawny, so if you like that, I think you'll like this. This recipe is adapted from 'Eat, Shrink and Be Merry' by Janet and Greta Podleski. (called Melancauli Baby in the book) Their cookbooks are my favorite and most used. I wish I got the Food Network so that I could watch their show, my mom says it's very good. But, we don't subscribe to cable or satellite (I know, we're one of the few families using rabbit ears these days), we really don't watch a lot of TV. If we could pick just 3 or 4 special channels that we like and still get the 3 we get with the rabbit ears we'd be just fine. Well we're still just fine anyway. But now I've completely got off track.
About the soup...it is a nice light way of making a rich soup. I think you could add some meat to it (maybe some chopped chicken or turkey) to round it out, but it still stands great as a vegatarian meal. I didn't have leeks on hand so I used 2 small onions instead. I also crushed 3 cloves of garlic in, rather than mincing 2 tsp. I'm really no good for measuring things like garlic and other vegatables, I just give it my best estimated guess. So the cauliflower and sweet potato I didn't measure out either, I just chopped up one cauliflower head and a large sweet potato and added them in. Should be about right though.

1 tbsp butter or olive oil (I used margarine with olive oil in it)
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (about 2 large)
2 tsp minced garlic
4 cups small cauliflower florets
1 1/2 cups peeled, cubed sweet potato
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used veg.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cooked brown and wild rice blend (I used Uncle Ben's rice and herb blend, which was a white and wild rice blend mix)
1 cup evaporated 2% milk (I had fat-free on hand, so that went in instead)
1/2 cup packed shredded light Swiss cheese

Heat butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic. Cook until the leeks begin to soften. Stir in the sweet potato, cauliflower, curry and cumin. Mix everything well together and let cook for 1 minute. Add broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender. (I actually got busy doing something else, so my simmered for over half an hour). Transfer half the soup to a blender and puree until smooth. (I've had poor success with blending 1/2 soup before, so what I now do is transfer to a mixing bowl and use my hand blender to puree). Return pureed soup to the soup pot with the remaining soup and mix well. Stir in cooked rice, milk, and Swiss cheese. Heat soup for 1 more minute and serve hot.

This soup is good the first day and even better the next. It will be my lunch soup for the next week.

A Feast of Food and a Funny Carrot

It's been a whirlwind couple of days of cooking. I've really been enjoying my downtime lately and having the oppourtunity to puruse through other blogs. The food that I'm seeing on other foodies' blogsites makes my mouth water. So I decided that in this round of cooking I would try out some of their recipes.
First up was Donna's French Onion Soup

If you haven't discovered Donna's blog yet, take a look. It's well worth it. She writes with humour, a dose of eye-candy and some really delicious recipes. This soup does take some time to make (a lot of simmering and bringing out the flavours of the onions), but it is really worth it. Start cooking about 4 hours before you want to eat (you don't have to stick in the kitchen for the entire time, so don't worry about that.) The result is absolutely tasty. Because I don't make French Onion Soup often, I don't own soup bowls that can go into the oven. I improvised and did the final cheese and bread stage in a large casserole dish. This recipe does make a lot of soup broth, so I only finished up half of it and froze the other half to enjoy another time. Thank you Donna for this treasure!


While I was simmering Donna's soup, I started on Katy's Flemish Carrot Soup. This is the soup I plan to take for lunches at work this week. I did a little taste test and loved it. The taste of it gave me in interesting idea. It's very chowder-like and I wondered how it would taste if I added some seafood to it. I think it would be a delicious twist. I had a lot of fun looking through Katy's blog and have found another recipe that I'm going to try in the next week or so to use up some more carrots that need to be cooked, so thank you Katy!


While I had both soups simmering, I started in on the cookies. Melissa's Cinnamon Cookies have been calling my name since she first posted them a few weeks back. I'm very impressed with Melissa's blog. If you haven't yet discovered it, she is a high school student who cooks the most marvelous things (and has lovely photography too). I first started cooking in high school too, but nothing like what I'm seeing on her site. These cookies were really sweet and soft, just like a cookie should be. Here's a couple pictures of my cookie monsters devouring them.
Elijah

Jeremy

Back up a day and we come to my husband's birthday cake 2009 edition. He told me that he wanted a black forest cake this year. So I started looking through your sites to find one. I had a feeling I would find a good recipe on the site I did. I wasn't mistaken. I found it at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. When I first discovered this blog, I knew I had found a keeper. I grew up in the western part of Canada where there are a lot of Mennonite families. The food that my friends had in their houses was always delicious. I looked forward to the church bake sales where the Mennonite ladies had their wares out. Mmmm, just lovely, wonderful homestyle food. The blogsite for Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a team effort. Annelise's Black Forest Cake is a family favorite of hers. We served it to 12 last night and they all agreed that it was delicious. She makes hers with strawberries (you should see her pictures), but I opted for the traditional cherry approach. I wish I had had more time to make it prettier, but the taste made up for it!


And finally, the funny carrot. Obviously for Katy's soup recipe I had to use a lot of carrots. When I reached in the bag, this is what I found:

Have you ever seen a carrot like this before? Double roots! Too funny, I had to take a picture. Happy Eating!
*An addendum: Thank you girlichef for introducing me to Kahakai Kitchen and Souper Sundays. I don't how much I'll be able to partake, but I usually do make a soup at least once a month or more in the winter time. Looks like a fun thing to take part in!

Beef & Barley Soup

What to make on the first snowy day of the winter? Homemade soup with homemade rolls. Very yummy!

1 lb stewing beef - cut into small pieces
8 cups water
3 tbsp beef boullion powder
2 carrots - cut into small pieces
2 small onions, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
3 stewed tomatoes (from can) - squeeze into small pieces (crush) into soup using your hand
2/3 cup dry barley
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp dried thyme
3 whole cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Spray a large soup pot with a non-stick cooking spray. Cook cut up beef in soup pot until there is no pink left (medium heat). Add water and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Add vegetables and remaining ingredients. Stir. Let soup return to a boil before turning stove down to minimum heat. Allow soup to simmer for at least 3 hours before serving.