National Soup Month

Apparently, January is National Soup Month. I guess I'm not the first person to think that January and soup go together like beans and rice. It's also National Tea Month, National Book Month, and Prune Breakfast Month. I think I can do without Prune Breakfast Month.

Here's my latest soup: Green Coriander and Ginger Broth with tofu. It was good, but not great. It's got lots of coriander (cilantro), celery, shiitake mushrooms, and green onions. I sprinkled this bowl-full with sesame oil, and I had another bowl-full with some Tabasco. I think hot chili oil would probably be a good compromise. Either way, I don't think I'll be making this soup again. Maybe it would taste better with fresher ingredients, but I think I just like stronger flavors.

Soup's On

I received seven new cookbooks in the month of December. Seven! I think people have figured out that I like to cook. Or maybe I just gave enough hints. Of course, this didn't stop me from ordering one more. I can't wait for it to arrive on January 8. What?

It was hard deciding what to make first from all these lovely books. Especially since December was a gluttonous month that included two birthday cakes, candy making, and two batches of cookies. I'm on sugar overload, and it's been so long since I've had my fair share of vegetables that things are kinda awkward. "Um, Broccoli, I've been meaning to call. But I've just been so busy. Dessert really needed me this month. But I promise we'll make plans to get together soon."

I can't lie to Broccoli, so I think January is going to be a month of soups. I can get all that lovely warm, I've-been-cooking-this-all-day feeling, and at the same time try out lots of new recipes from my new library. All the cookbooks have soup recipes. Um, except that cupcake cookbook. I may have to hide that one in the freezer.

This is all a long way of saying, look at my pretty soup:

It's Yellow Pea and Coconut Milk Soup with spinach, rice, and spiced yogurt. Except I left out the yogurt. And I used millet instead of rice. But I got the general gist of the soup. It's from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. An entire book of soups! I think I'd make this again, but with some changes. For all that this had an entire 15 ounce can of coconut milk, it doesn't taste much like coconut. Next time I'll stick with a smaller can of lite coconut milk. And the recipe directions have you using three different pots and pans. I'm dishes phobic, so next time I'll combine a few steps so I can leave out a pan.

Oh, Sugar Sugar: A Photo Essay

I spent a week in December making edible presents for my family. At left, candied grapefruit peel. I made this (and candied orange peel) by boiling pieces of citrus peel in water a few times to get rid of any bitterness and to soften the peel. Then I boiled it in a sugar solution, and tada, candy!


I did the same thing with pieces of ginger. Except, the ginger needs a lot more sugar to get that crystallizing action going.



And here's the grapefruit peel dipped in chocolate along with some pieces of dried apricot. I must admit that I did not dry my own apricots. A girl only has so much time!

Some of the crystallized ginger took a bath in the chocolate too, but at that point I was too exhausted to take any more photos.

Spicy yogurt tempeh

This is an Indian-style dish, but I can't share the recipe. I'm helping an Internet friend test some recipes for a future cookbook/zine. But this is a cooking style that's pretty common in Indian food. I basically marinated the tempeh in a special soy yogurt sauce for a few hours and then pan fried it. Unfortunately, the pan frying set off my fire alarm. This was a learning experience. I learned that I can't pan fry on medium-high and that I may not know my neighbors' names, but they'll come running down the street if they think my house is on fire. These are good things to know.

After the fire alarm died down, I finished cooking the tempeh over medium heat. The ten minute wait didn't seem to hurt it much. I used the leftover marinade to cook up some mixed bell peppers, and I served it with leftover quinoa.

Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Lemon, and Poppyseeds

First of all, thanks E's parents for sending me the camera! Second, Mark Bittman has a new vegetarian cookbook. This can't be good for my obsession. Expect lots of new recipes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Here's one to start out. The recipe says that it's "Quinoa Salad with Spinach, Lemon, and Poppyseeds." Already you can see one problem. This is a spinach salad with quinoa, not the other way around. But it was still good. What you can't see in the photo is that there are lemon segments in the salad. Or at least small pieces of lemon. It turns out that peeling a lemon is really hard to do. So I ended up cutting off the peel. The whole time I was doing it, I kept imagining me slicing my hand open and all the lemon juice stinging to high hell. But I actually didn't cut myself. Next time I make this, it will probably be "Spinach Salad with Quinoa, Satsuma, and Poppyseed." Satsuma's are really easy to peel, and I can probably just steal them from a neighbor's tree.

Loquats and More on Polenta

A few months ago, I spotted little yellow fruit growing on the tree in my yard. Since I'm not from Louisiana I had assumed that all trees with big, shiny green leaves were magnolias. Whoops. My landlord told me that it was a Japanese plum tree and that the fruit was edible. But what was I going to do with all that fruit? Some of it disappeared all on its own. The birds got a lot of it. And the neighborhood kids got a big chunk, too. I would come home from a walk to the library and see kids piling fruit into their doubled up shirts. When they saw me, they started running. I tried yelling, "Please! Steal my fruit!" but for some reason, that didn't work. One Saturday morning, the Jehovah's Witnesses showed up, and I convinced them to take some fruit. I even brought some to a party, but they weren't a great hit. There are between one and five seeds in each small fruit so it's a lot of work to eat. After all this, I was still left with a lot of Japanese plums. So I did what I always do when I have a dilemma. I turned to Google.

I found out that my Japanese plums were actually loquats. And loquats aren't the same as kumquats. I wonder if there's other "quat" fruit out there? I could only find one recipe for loquats on all of the Internet. And so I made it. My mom says this is the best thing I've ever cooked. But she's a ginger addict. If I added ginger to saw dust, she might say the same thing.

Loquat Chutney
10 lbs loquats (about a gallon)
3 1/2 c brown sugar
2 c white vinegar
2 T grated citrus peel (I used the peel from my loquats. I wasn't entirely sure if it was edible, but I haven't died yet)
2 T minced ginger (I didn't bother to peel it)

Remove the skins and seeds from the loquats. This will take a very long time, about 3 CDs of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Throw everything together in a pot and boil until it thickens. The original recipe said to boil for 45 mins. I think I boiled longer because it never seemed to thicken. But after it cooled, it got really thick. Whoops. Instead of 10 cups of chutney, I ended up with 3-4 cups of jam. It still tastes great spread on a toasted English muffin or a crumpet.

In polenta news, I keep making that recipe over and over again. It's a great thing to make when there's nothing in the cupboard. I haven't tried to broil it yet because I keep eating it all when it's soft. Here's the recipe I use. It's from the Bittman book I keep complimenting. Really, you should buy it.

Polenta
3 1/2-5 c water (more for soft polenta, less for thick)
1 cup cornmeal (I get mine at the farmers' market. I'm sure there are all kinds of snobby standards about what sort of cornmeal to use. I say ignore 'em.)
salt and pepper

As you can see, there aren't a lot of ingredients. Bring the water to boil over medium heat. Slowly whisk in the corn meal a little bit at a time. Once all the cornmeal is incorporated, turn the heat to low. Whisk every once in a while to keep lumps from forming. After about five minutes, switch to a wooden spoon. Stir almost constantly until the polenta is done which can be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes depending on how thick you want it. Season to taste.

I usually use less water and cook for less time because I'm impatient. I like to add a little butter or olive oil along with my seasonings at the end, too.

Someday, I'll have to try cooling and slicing the polenta. If any of y'all ever get around to doing that, let me know how it goes.

BLT and Creamy Pearl Onions

Edit: This is a guest post by my friend E

First off, did you know that you can buy frozen pearl onions? It's greatness! No pealing, no nothing. So, get a package of those. Boil them on the stove as you would any frozen vegetable, drain and keep warm. Then, in another pan, melt a tbsp of butter and add an equal amount of flour. Blend with a whisk and then add in half and half or milk. Keep it cooking until it's thick, add a little pepper and put in the onions.

While the onions are still boiling, throw some bacon in a skillet and cook it. If you don't know how to do this, I'm sad for you. Also, while you were at the grocery store getting the pearl onions, you should have picked up some fun bread. I can't remember the type that's in the picture, but at the moment, I love ciabatta. Also make sure you've got mayo and some kind of green lettuce-y thing. Oh, and I skip the tomatoes.

Put the sandwich together and throw the onions on the side and you're good to go! By the way, you'll have terrible onion breath, but it's worth it.