Soup Day!

I think it’s time to admit that winter is here.   What does winter mean to me??  Soup of course!

 I hadn’t planned ahead for this one – in fact, as I was leaving work the last thing I wanted to do was cook.  But as soon as I got home, to a chilly house, I decided that I’d throw something together.

I rummaged through the fridge, freezer and cupboards and found lots of goodies.  There was 1/2 a leek, 2/3 of an onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery rib, 1 russet potato and 1 red potato, 1/2 head of cauliflower and some frozen green and wax beans.  Kosher salt, black pepper.  I had some vegetable broth. There was about an ounce of cream, 3-4 ounces of half and half and a little milk in a carton.  I sauteed and simmered and tasted and it was just a little flat.  I decided in needed some thickening so I made a flour/milk slurry, whisked it in and simmered until it had thickened.  We’re almost there.  Just … needs.. something.  A couple of ounces of Swiss cheese was grated and added, plus some frozen parsley and basil.

 It was stupendous.  I love getting something great out of nothing much.  Good dinner with leftovers for tomorrow.

Winter Woes

A while back I decided to keep my posting food related – books, cooking, food and cooking products, whatever.  But today is… .well… crappy.  I feel terrible (I think I may have a touch of food poisoning) and the weather is beyond terrible.  So blah.  That’s it for today.

Click here to see CBC’s live pictures of of Winnipeg (updated every 5 minutes).

And here’s another live webcam – this time of the legislature building.

Breakfast of Champions. Thanks for the extra hour.

I completely forgot that the clocks turned back this morning.  That’s not true – I knew that today was the day, but for some reason thought it happened tonight, not this morning. As a result I was up and at ‘em earlier than I planned this morning.  I decided to take advantage of the extra hour and make a real, honest-to-goodness breakfast.  A typical for me is some fruit and or some nuts and or some cornthins with some peanut butter on them.  Occasionally eaten in the car on the way to work.

Not really knowing what was in the fridge I opened it up and rummaged.  There were some sad sad little potatoes and some leeks and mushrooms leftover from a lasagna I made earlier in the week.  There was also 1/2 a butternut squash a cauliflower I had planned on roasting about a week ago.  The potatoes got scrubbed and cubed.  Tossed with a little oil and season salt (the only thing I like season salt on) – and into the oven to roast.  Then I was slicing and dicing.  All of the vegetables got tossed into a hot pan with a mix of canola oil and butter.  They sweated and they sizzled and they even browned a little.  I tossed in some garlic and kosher salt and black pepper and got everything wilted down.

In a bowl I whisked together 6 eggs, about a 1/4 cup of cream, more salt pepper, fresh parsley and basil and some Parmesan cheese.  Poured it all into the pan and sprinkled some shredded Swiss on top.  Lowered the heat a little and used a fork to work some of the cooking eggs and vegetables and cheese around the pan.  After a few minutes under the broiler it went until everything started to brown a little.  It smelled fabulous. Almost done. 

This breakfast needed some toast.  There was a loaf of kimmel (caraway) bread lying around – toasted with some butter.  A little citrus garnish and I was good to go.

You know how sometimes, no matter what meal of the day, breakfast food can be the one thing that hits the spot?  There’s just something good about breakfast.  I have to do this more often.

missing from picture – ketchup!  for the potatoes, that is.

Chicken Cholent … or is it?

This weekend was another cholent experiment.  A couple of weeks ago I tried a chicken cholent.  It had small white beans in it and after doing a little research, I included some rice and chicken stuffed peppers.  As I stated in another post, the experiment was a disaster.   Chicken is  a tough thing to use in cholent – it doesn’t get more tender as it cooks like beef does.  Instead it can get really dried out.

I hated the stuffed peppers.  Not surprisingly, the peppers did not hold up well after 18 hours of cooking.  But, I liked the filling.   I read that there are versions of Sephardic Hamin that include stuffed vegetables – eggplant, peppers, zucchini, etc.  As I was thinking about what I could do, my Ashkenazie genes kept creeping in.  All I could think about was stuffing cabbage leaves.  I have to admit, a couple of weeks ago I was craving cabbage rolls, not one of my normal cravings.  So it made sense to go forward.  The thing is, the idea of beans or barley alongside the cabbage rolls didn’t seem like a good move to me.

I hemmed and hawed all week while I was planning the Shabbat experiment.  I asked many people ‘does cholent have to have beans?  How about barley?  I heard a couple of emphatic nays, but mostly it was yays.  For the most part, people agree that cholent can be anything, as long as it’s slow cooked from sun-down on Friday night and enjoyed for a midday meal on Saturday.  So I ploughed on.

The first thing one must do is get a large head of cabbage (regular, green cabbage), cut the core out and freeze the sucker.  Overnight, or until it’s frozen through.  Must think ahead on this one – because it’ll take at least a day in the fridge to thaw (though of course, less time on the counter).  Next, I had to get the filling ready. That would be 1 lb. of ground chicken dark meat (you could use ground beef instead), 1 cup of long grain white rice (rinsed), 2 small onion (chopped), kosher salt and black pepper.  The picture also shows garlic, but I thought better of it and didn’t include it.  Mix it all together.

I then went about rolling the filling (not too tightly) in the larger cabbage leaves.  (I had a picture of the rolling process that has mysteriously disappeared!).  I was planning on placing a single layer on the bottom of my (sprayed) large dutch-oven,  but there was enough filling for a few more, so they just went on top.  Then I arranged 6 skinless chicken thighs so that they fit around those extra rolls.

I thought it could do with a few more vegetables so I added some carrots (big chunks) and button mushrooms (whole or cut in half). For liquid, I mixed together a small can of diced tomatoes and 3 cups of tomato juice.  Added some water, salt, black pepper and fresh garlic.  Missing from the bowl, but added was about 4 cups of water. The liquid should just cover everything – if it doesn’t cover everything, add a little more water.

There was enough liquid in the pot to the left, but things started to float a little, so it may look like I was a little short.  Pot was covered with a tight-fitting lid (use foil if you don’t have a lid) and placed in the oven at 225.  It’s a great idea to check the pot at about, oh, ten or twelve hours.  If there’s no sign of any liquid, add some.  The last thing you want is for all the liquid to disappear when you still have hours and hours of cooking to go.

Finally, 18 hours after it went in, the ‘cabbage roll cholent’ was done.  This turned out to be my favorite batch so far. The chicken thighs didn’t dry out like they did in the last batch (don’t get me wrong, they were still well done, but not as dry as other attempts.  And the cabbage rolls turned out really well.  The cabbage was of course, very soft – but I like it like that.  All in all, a good experiment.

Next up (in a couple of weeks) lamb cholent.  I’m thinking Middle-Eastern; dried fruits and lots of spices, chickpeas and some sort of grain (any suggestions?)

Cholent issues.

I mentioned in a comment on the last cholent post that I had experimented last weekend with a chicken cholent.  It was dreadful.  So I’ve been thinking about it over the last few days and I have some ideas.  But my ideas have brought up some questions for me.  What exactly makes a cholent?

I think every cholent that has ever been served to me contained potatoes, meat (beef), beans and barley.  So in my mine, that’s what made a cholent.  On the other hand, I’ve been asking many cholent-makers what makes a cholent.  The one answer I’ve heard over and over again is that you can put anything you want in a cholent.  Anything?

Let me phrase this in a different way.  Is there a difference between a cholent and any other recipe that cooked for a long time on low heat?  Or can I call anything that I tuck into the oven at 225 overnight a cholent?

The chicken cholent I’ll try again in the next couple of weeks will have no barley, no beans and no potatoes.  I’ll keep the details to myself for now, because I want to try it before posting and because I don’t yet know exactly what will go in it.  

I’m just wondering if anybody has any interesting cholent ideas.  Any thoughts about what cholent really is?

How Manly is Bourdain?

It’s rare that my local paper prints any ‘entertainment’ news that I want to read.  But a picture of George Clooney caught my attention this morning while I was glancing through the paper while eating breakfast.

What does George Clooney have to do with Bourdain you ask?  Well, both have been included on askmen.com’s list of the top 49 men.  The thing that was interesting to me is that my local paper had a picture of George but quoted Tony.  I know for those of us who know of Bourdain, and dare I say it, are fans – it’s surprising  how many people don’t know who he is.  Yet, of the 49 men on the list, he’s the one quoted.

Of course, it could be because Bourdain’s response was what makes us all love him.

“While strangely uncomfortable with the term ‘man’s man’ I am honored to be included,“ said Anthony Bourdain. “I shall be sure to spend the week shooting things, barbecuing, drinking manly drinks to excess and high-fiving loudly while watching organized athletics. Woo Hoo! I love you, man!”

Congrats Bourdain.  You’re so manly.

Ah…where did the comments go?

So the new blog design lasted about an hour.  For some reason I couldn’t read comments… so we’re back to where we were before.  (the new blueberries remain)