White Bean Soup

I made this soup the other night and it came out very nicely. I made it up as I went along, but based it on a leek and potato soup recipe....only I used beans instead of potatoes.

Ingredients:

3 cans of white beans (obviously using dried would work too, but that requires more planning)
3 large leeks, white and light green parts only
3 T butter
1/8 cup white wine
1 small white onion, chopped
8 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes, chopped
3 carrots, chopped small
1-2 bay leaves
dash thyme
dash white pepper
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup milk
paprika to garnish

Directions:
Cut leeks and garlic into small pieces and put in large pot with the butter. Cook until the leeks are tender - it will smell really good. Add onion, tomato, carrot, wine, bay leaf. Cook for a few minutes, then add vegetable broth. Heat until simmering, then add beans, thyme, white pepper, black pepper and salt. Let simmer until carrots are tender. Pour soup into a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot and add milk. Heat again, then serve. Garnish with Hungarian paprika - the soup is a nice orange/pink color when it's all done.

Kyle liked this soup enough to have two helpings! So it must be good.

Poblano Eggplant Tart with Corn and Three Cheeses

I bought some beautiful poblanos and eggplants yesterday, and thought they'd make a delicious tart. In my fridge, I had chevre, a bit of ricotta, and some parmesan. I used frozen corn for some nice sweetness, and the yellow heirloom on my counter just begged to be in the mix. Voila!

Yeasted Tart Dough (recipe in previous entry)

3 Japanese eggplants
3 poblano peppers
3/4 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 medium heirloon tomato

3 tablespoons chevre
2-3 tablespoons ricotta
1 big handful of grated parmesan

Prepare the tart dough.

Roast the eggplants and peppers (whole) until soft. Put in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to steam them out of their skins. When cool enough to handle, peel skins and discard. Discard pepper seeds (don't run the peppers under water to rinse, they will lose a lot of flavor). Chop eggplant and peppers into small pieces.

Lay the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Spread the ricotta in a thin layer on the dough. Add peppers, eggplant, and corn.

Spoon on the chevre in small dollops. Cover with the parmesan. Thinly slice the tomato and lay the slices on top of the tart.

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or so.

Yeasted tart Dough

This comes from the Greens Restaurant cookbook.

makes 1 9-inch tart

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 large egg, room temp
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons creme fraiche or unsalted butter, softened

Directions

1. In a bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in the water then move it to a warm place while you gather the other ingredients.
2. If the egg is cold warm it in a bowl of hot water.
3. Combine the 1 cup of the flour, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
4. Break the egg into the middle of the well; add the softened butter; and pour in the yeast mixture which should be foamy with bubbles.
5. Mix with a wooden spoon to form a soft smooth dough. Dust it with flour and gather into a ball. Set it in a clean bowl and cover with cling film or a kitchen cloth.
6. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in bulk (about 45 minutes to an hour).
7. Flatten the dough place it in the centre of a 10 inch tart ring and using either your knuckles or the heel of your hand press it out to the edge of the ring. Add only enough flour to keep it from sticking. If the dough shrinks back while you are shaping it cover it with a towel and leave it to relax for 20 minutes before you finish pressing it out.
8. It should be thin on the bottom and thicker at the sides, about 1/4 inch above the rim of the pan.
9. It can be filled immediately or refrigerated until needed. Once the tart is filled, bake in the middle of a 375 degree oven.

Vegetarian Gumbo

I modeled this gumbo after one that is made every tuesday at Food Front Co-op here in Portland.

Cooked brown rice for serving

2-3 tablespoons of roux (recipe below)
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 cups vegetable broth
1 whole medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped

1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen okra, sliced
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes with their liquid
1 dried chipotle chili (or less, depending on your spice tolerance), rehydrated, drained, and
chopped
a few shakes of tabasco sauce
1-1/2 tsp gumbo filé powder (ground sassafras leaves)
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 links Field Roast Mexican Chipotle "sausage"
1 package seitan, sliced

Make the roux: Melt 4 tbsp butter in a saucepan. When fully melted, gradually incorporate 4 tbsp flour. Stir until thick and golden, adding flour as you see fit.

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cook 5-7 minutes until soft.

Add tomatoes, okra, seitan, "sausage," thyme, filé powder, tabasco, and vegetable broth. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes.

When the chipotle chili is fully rehydrated, chopped into little pieces and add. Take out the seeds for less heat. 1 chili + tabasco gave my gumbo a very strong kick.

Serve over brown rice. Serves 7-9

homemade sun-dried tomatoes

courtesy of ms. Lauren Baker who showed me how to make these the other night.
suuuuper easy and so good.

ingredients:
beautiful tomatoes - heirloom preferably, since they are prettier and taste good. long slices.
salt = joy of my life. lots (within reason)
olive oil. some
oven.

place tomatoes on a baking stone or tray. drizzle and sprinkle respectively, a healthy amount of olive oil and salt.
roast them for about 1.5 hours at 300F. They caramelize and get chewy and a bit syrupy. they are amazing.

put on salads. with pasta. on pizzas.

Pumpkin, Fennel and Mozzarella Calzones

I made calzones for the first time last night, and they turned out very well. I followed a basic crust recipe that I found online, and it worked pretty well. I'd definitely be interested in hearing about other calzone dough ideas though, since I think there was room for improvement. The filling I made up myself.

Makes 4 calzones

Dough:

1 package yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (might be good with 1.5 tsp or 2 tsp)
1 T olive oil

Put yeast in bowl w/ water, sugar and salt - let sit for 15 minutes. Add flour, and mix with hand. The dough should seem almost too dry at first. Kneed for 10 minutes, until the dough becomes elastic and flour is completely incorporated. Put olive oil in a bowl and roll the dough in it so it becomes covered in oil. Let rise for 1 hour in a warm place, until doubled in size. Divide into 4 pieces, and let rise another 15 minutes.


Filling - this can be altered depending on what you have in the house:

1 medium onion
1 cup kabocha squash (or pumpkin), peeled and sliced very thin (I used a grater).
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 small fennel bulb
dash of wine
dash of balsamic vinegar
dash of salt
dash of pepper
dash of marjoram
dash of basil
dash of sage
olive oil
grated mozzarella cheese

In a saucepan, cook onions, garlic and fennel in olive oil. Once onions start getting soft, add the thinly sliced squash. Cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes. Add wine, vinegar, salt, pepper, marjoram, basil, sage. Cook until the squash is tender. Set aside.

Optional: Sautee some Italian sausage (we used fully cooked chicken sausage) in a pan, and have that ready to add to the calzones as well.

TO FILL:

Take a ball of dough and roll it out with a rolling pin into a circle. Scoop in some of the squash mixture, and a generous amount of mozzarella cheese onto one half of the circle. Add sausage (if desired). Fold the dough over, and pinch the folds together. Make sure that they are completely sealed. Set calzone onto a greased baking sheet, brush with a mixture of egg and water, and cut two slits in the dough to allow release of air.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the calzones are brown on the bottom and lightly browned on the top. Serve with marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

I think my friend might have taken pictures, so I will ask her and try to get them posted here. They were delicious :)

Refrigerator Pickles!

While Sandor Ellix Katz may snub his nose at these non-fermenting pickled cucumbers... I got the recipe from my CSA farm and they turned out to be delicious and super easy to make! and in only a couple of days.

Brine Solution:
1 quart vinegar (distilled or cider)
1 quart water
garlic cloves, peeled
3/4c sugar
1/2c salt
fresh dill or dill seed ( I suggest using some dill flowers if you can get them)

wash the cucumbers and place in a large container (must hold about 3 quarts of water) with the dill and garlic. make the brine solution by heating the water and dissolving the salt and sugar. Fill the container with the brine solution and add the vinegar. Put in the refrigerator for a 4 days.

enjoy!
xoxo
kareni