Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Chili Glazed Shrimp
October 25, 2008
This is for Kyndell because I like her.
1 head cauliflower
olive oil
3 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
32oz chicken stock
1 onion
2 – 3 T cream
2 t balsamic or wine vinegar
1 t garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
shrimps
chili sauce
1 T brown sugar
Preheat oven to 450°f. Cut cauliflower in 1″ slices. Put in a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cook for 45 minutes or until browned.
Put potato in a large soup pan and cover with water. Add in some salt, pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low boil and boil until tender. Add in cauliflower and simmer for another 5 – 10 minutes. Use a stick blender or transfer to a blender to puree to a find consitancy. Reduce heat to warm.
In a saute pan, heat oil until shimmery. Add in shrimp and cook until it’s firm and pink on all sides. Turn off heat. Squirt on chili sauce and sprinkle on brown sugar. Toss until ingredients are combined and coated.
Serve soup in a large shallow bowl topped with the shrimp or cheese and croutons.
Wildpepper Salsa 3 ways
September 7, 2008
Harvest time around here means that it’s the perfect time to make up some Wildpepper salsa. We use it in a bunch of different ways – and since it is so perfect for harvest time I figure I may as well share with you. (Aren’t you glad you’re you? If you were anyone else, I totally wouldn’t do it!)
I’ll warn you straight off, I don’t really remember what was in the original recipe. Which is to say – that this salsa has become such a staple in our house that I can’t be sure where it started (nor can I seem to find it on my computer – but I’m sure you could find it online.) I do know it was a recipe posted by Jim Campbell of Mild to Wild Pepper and Herb company. If you’ve never tried his bbq or hot sauces I highly recommend them. They’re really good and he seems like a really good guy.
Salsa
6 tomatillos
4 roma tomatoes
4 jalepeno peppers
3 aniheim peppers
2 yellow onions, quartered
2 ears corn
juice from 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
salt to taste
Put all ingredients except lime, cilantro and salt on the smoker or grill. Grill over medium heat until veggies are tender, pulling them off the heat as they’re done. Deseeded remove stems and outer skins of all veggies. Put all veggies except corn in the blender. Blend until they’re the consistency you want. Cut kernals off corn. Put in a large container. Add in the blended veggies. Add in lime, cilantro and salt.
Confetti Nachos
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Makin’ Other People’s Stuff
May 28, 2008
Several weeks ago, Marv made the observation that we never had a wedding cake. I really couldn’t believe that he didn’t remember the cake that he made, considering I clearly remember looking up to see the top layers slowly gaining speed as they slid off their base. Doing the whole wedding reception ourselves had seemed like a good idea. (We tend to do things like this.) For some reason, we also wanted to have it where we lived, in an illegal loft space in ghetto central, with bullet holes through the windows, prostitutes on the street and whatnot. We even briefly considered having a bbq out on the roof but there was no telling who or what would be wandering through the alley so we decided to have Sunday brunch inside. (Prostitutes, pushers and pimps generally sleep in on Sundays. Preachers have somewhere else to be. The street would be relatively hassle free for our people.)
Yep, this sign was in the alley. It is my all time favorite handmade sign. (This one is a close second.)
Regardless of our highly questionable logic, we did have the skills to pull this off. Marv had recently retired (at age 27) from being a chef. At his last cooking job he worked 80 – 100 hour weeks for almost a year at a bakery/cafe and had proven that he could cook brunch in his sleep – with a crazy woman screaming at him if need be. But not this crazy woman. I was running around getting everything else but food done. Oh, and it was 105°f out. I was having problems just wearing clothes, therefore generating more heat by screaming was absolutely out of the question.
Marv was a rock. Not only did he crank out a half dozen different kinds of muffins, several salads and sandwiches (on bread he baked, of course) but he also took on making a flourless almond cake he was going to make for a wedding while at the bakery. The wedding got called off, so he never made it and when we decided to do the reception ourselves, he said he wanted to make the cake that got away. My response was, “Dude, you’re doing the baking, make what you want.” Little did I know that chocolate ganache + 105°f = very slidey cake.
Snow Day Stew with Lamb and Lentils
December 6, 2007
We have no kitchen counters. In fact, our refrigerator, and cabinets are in the middle of the room – so we don’t even have any floor. And it’s a big ol’ snowy mess going on outside. However, we do have some nice local lamb stew meat, some lentils and some homemade bacon. (I’ve been told that everything is better with bacon.) Looks like it’s time to make some one pot, one cutting board stew. Yeah, that’ll work.
Lamb & Lentil Stew
The Merciless Chili of Quetzlzacatenango
October 5, 2007
Yes, that is a Simpsons reference.
I get that posting a chili recipe on the Internet and saying it’s really good can get you into deep trouble with folks that have notions about what chili is or is not but that’s what I’m going to do. This recipe is kindly on loan from Mister Jason. It is the best homemade red chili with a nice little mole tweak I’ve ever had and it pretty much knocked out an entire department at a monolithic insurance company. ‘Nuff said. Just try it.
The Merciless Chili of Quetzlzacatenango
It’s coming to getcha!
Ingredient Group 1
canola oil
2.5 lb (40 oz) beef chuck or sirloin tri-tip, ¼” – ½” cubes
¼ lb (4 oz) Pancetta, finely chopped
1 cup white onion, finely chopped
6 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup beer (lager or brown ale)
Ingredient Group 2
2 whole canned green chiles, finely chopped (Ortega or similar)
2 Poblano chiles , skinned, seeded, and finely chopped
2 Serrano chiles, finely chopped
1 ½ cups black beans (optional)
1 cup beef consommé or stock
1 cup* Mexican-style tomato sauce (El Pato or similar)
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
Ingredient Group 3
1 ½ Tbsp. Ground cumin
10 Tbsp. New Mexico Chili powder (no salt, peppers & spice only)
1 Tsp. coarse black pepper
Salt to taste
Ingredient Group 4
1 tsp. Arbol chili powder
1 Tbsp. Jalapeno powder
1 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1 lime, squeezed
6-8** oz. extra bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli is good here, 70% Cocoa)
1 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 cup scallions, chopped
Instructions:
Brown beef in canola oil over high heat. Add pancetta, onion, garlic. Once most of the pancetta’s fat has rendered, lower heat to medium simmer.
Add chicken stock and beer.
Simmer 1 hour.***
Add ingredient group 2.
Continue simmer for another hour.
Add ingredient group 3.
Continue simmer for 45 minutes.
Add all of ingredient group 4 except cilantro and scallions.
Simmer 15 minutes.****
Stir in cilantro and scallions and serve.
Yea! It’s really good chili!
* I double this to get more tomato flavor.
** Too rich for me, I knocked it down to 2-4 oz.
*** I cover the pot pretty compulsively.
**** I don’t seem to get as much moisture out of the meat as Mr. Jason does, so I add in more beer at this point.
Tasso.
September 22, 2007
Marv says to me, “I think I’m going to make some tasso next.” I say, “Okay. What’s that?” Cajun ham, very dense and flavorful, kinda like prochuitto but it’s cajun so it’s crusted spices on the outside. Hm. Sounds okay to me.
It’s better than okay. It’s super easy to make, incredibly flavorful and versatile. I’ve been using it as a less fatty bacon, in salads, pasta, on sandwiches in soup. You don’t need very much to add flavor and interest in foods. Marv took 3lbs to work and watched it disappear. (He doesn’t really work with enough people for that to be reasonable.)
Tasso is made from pork shoulder butt. It’s brined for a week or so and then rubbed with a spice mixture that has cayanne and garlic in it and then smoked for a relatively short amount of time – 3 to 5 hours or so. But, I suspect there are as many ways to make this as there are people making it.
Tasso, the Recipe
10+ lbs pork butt roast
Brine
1 3/4 c Tender Quick
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T black pepper
1 T ancho pepper
2 T onion powder
2 T garlic powder
1 gallon water
Rub
2 T ground mace
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
1 T black pepper
1 T paprika
1 T chipotle powder
1 T dried sage
1 T dried thyme
2 T honey
Bone your pork butt if it’s not already boned. (Crikey, that’s a bad sentence.) Slice butt into large chunks 3″ x 3″ x however long the meat is. Combine all the brine ingredients and mix well. Put pork into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and pour the brine over it. Let it rest in your refrigerator for 5 days to a week.
Remove from refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry. Mix together rub ingredients and rub thoroughly. Hot smoke – 225°f – 250°f until internal temperature is 160°f – 165°f.
It will keep in your refrigerator for 1 – 2 weeks or you can freeze it for much longer.
Tasso Green Bean Salad
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Celebratin’ Eat Local Month.
September 14, 2007
Oooh, can you feel the hypocrisy reverberate through you when you read that. Cuz I did. While the better half of my brain is telling me to let it go. Just let it go. I don’t have to say anything. I’m clearly incapable of doing that. And while I’m going to proclaim right here and now that one of the greatest joys I’ve had in the past however many months of working on this blog is that it has made me really take an interest in the people who are producing my ingredients locally, I’m afraid that I also have to say that one of my other favorite things is – dare I even say it – trying different foods from around the world. (I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry!) (No, I’m really not. Good food is good food. I even like durian, and they sure ain’t local.)
(But this is all local! And very, very yum.)
When I go to a new country or even a new state, I can’t wait to check out the local markets or grocery stores. I love wandering up and down the aisles seeing what the people eat. Oh, seeing what the people eat! Sometimes those things are a little scary other times they’re pretty awesome. (And do not even get me started on the loveliness of produce in Texas. It is so beautiful.) In Minneapolis, I love, love, love going to Latin, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean and international markets. I feel like it enriches my life so much to learn about other cultures through their food. If you know what people eat, then you know what they value and invariably they value sitting down and sharing a meal with the people they love. Really, isn’t that all where we live?
So, while I have to admit that the eat local movement sounds vaguely racist to me, (I just keep thinking about the large number of immigrants that live by me and how they would be cut off from the foods of their culture) – there is a large part of it that is completely pragmatic and that I totally support. The product tastes better. Produce and many meats don’t age well and cutting down on the amount of time spent in transport is always good for the end result. Anyone who has eaten a tomato fresh from the vine can tell you that. Also I really like that I’ve gotten to know several producers in Minnesota. I love what they have to say about producing their products and absolutely I support their efforts.
Therefore, I am celebrating by making foods that highlight Minnesota products. For them that don’t know; damn near everything is grown in Minnesota. I’ve made soup to go with a couple of Minnesota made beers that are near and dear to my heart. The soup is a corn chowder with wild rice, wild mushrooms, Marv made bacon and a single red pepper (sorry red pepper producers.) Read the rest of this entry »
Carrot Soup for Jodie Rose
September 5, 2007
In the backlog that is my life, this one has been the blinking turn signal on a car driving in front of me for the past 100 miles. Two months ago, I figured I’d post this recipe because Jodie asked me about it. I thought well, that’s an easy one – slow cook, dump in a blender – photograph and *poof* post done. Clearly – this didn’t happen.
Until now! Brace yourselves people – carrot soup is here. Or rather, in my fridge. It’s tasty, healthy and freaky low cal. Almost gets me a little pissed off at it – but there it is. It’s perfect. (Grumble. Grumble. I know, I know – let’s kick it’s ass!)
Carrot Soup with Caramelized Onion and Ginger
Yummy fresh summer soup.
August 5, 2007
I’ve been dying to play with making some fresh fruit soups this summer. It seems like summer comes and we eat the same fruit either raw, in a salad or in desserts and I wanted to play. I wanted something different. I wanted to have fun making up something I’ve never had before. That’s just what I did.
Watermelon Soup
6c watermelon chunks
1/4 c vanilla soy milk
1/4 c Naked Mango Tango
1 T honey
zest from 1/2 lemon
pinch salt
Put 4 c of the watermelon in blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Adjust spices if needed. Add in the rest of the watermelon and puree until it’s chopped up in smallish chunks.
Feed me! 
