A bowl of something good

After a long break in posting, I’m finally back with a fabulous new recipe. In the past few months, I’ve become enchanted by the travels of chef/writer Anthony Bourdain on his Travel Channel show No Reservations. Frequently on his journeys across the globe, Bourdain finds himself enjoying a hearty bowl of soup, often prepared by a roadside vendor in a developing nation. Bourdain often muses about how some of the best foods on the planet are served in bowls by unassuming folks who have honed the craft of cooking over years of working with what they had readily available. I strongly agree with Bourdain about the unexpected goodness that can often be found in a bowl of soup, which is one of my favorite type of dish to just assemble on a whim.

My recent love of Thai food prompted me to try to make one of my favorite Thai finds, tom yum soup. One of the key ingredients in this tangy soup is lemongrass, which is not readily available in my area, so I had never tried to make it at home. I was happy to discover recently that in the herb section at Kroger, they have lemongrass paste in a tube that I quickly realized meant I could try my hand at tom yum soup.

Another recent find also helped make my cooking task easier. When looking at the Mexican food section at Wal-Mart, I noticed a box of cilantro cubes. I love cilantro, but I hate chopping it up, so I was thrilled to see that someone had cleverly dried chopped cilantro and formed it into little cubes!

After finding a recipe online that I could use as a base for my bowl of something good, I began creating my own version of the soup. One of the things that appealed to me most about this soup and many of the soups that I’ve seen Bourdain sample in Asian countries is the addition of a variety of tangy condiments to individual bowls of soup. My husband always laughs at my inclusion of a “fixin’s bar” when I cook, but I have to admit that I love preparing little bowls of toppings for my dishes whether it’s soup or chili dogs. I have decided that my love of fixin’s is a direct result of the Tupperware salad server my mom used when I was a kid. Today’s fixin’s bar consisted of chopped green onions, chopped tomatoes and chili-garlic sauce. It was delicious!

4-6 c. chicken stock

2 T. lemongrass paste

2 T. fish sauce

2 T. soy sauce

3-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or 3 T. minced garlic

1/2 can coconut milk

1 cilantro cube or 3 T. chopped fresh cilantro

1 can straw mushrooms, drained

1 T. Asian chili-garlic sauce

2 T. lime juice

1 c. chopped cooked chicken, if desired

Chopped tomatoes and green onions

Additional chili-garlic sauce

Add stock and lemongrass to a large pot and turn heat to medium-high. Boil for 5 minutes, or until fragrant. Add cilantro, soy sauce, garlic, lime juice and mushrooms to broth. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add chicken, coconut milk, fish sauce and chili sauce. More coconut milk can be added if you wish your soup to be more creamy and/or less spicy. Top individual bowls with onions, tomatoes and chili sauce, if desired.

International night – Ireland

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve updated this site, but I wanted to get caught back up with posting our international night recipes. When we started doing international night, I began with it on a Thursday night. That worked out pretty good for us until the week of Oct. 22. That Thursday night I had parent teacher conferences until 6:30 p.m., leaving no time to prepare an international meal after I got home. However, I came up with the solution to the problem by preparing Irish stew in the crock pot and serving it up to my bunch when I got home.

When I started researching Irish stew, I found that it’s one of those meals that everybody prepares to their own taste, but there are some common ingredients such as beef (or lamb), potatoes, carrots and onions. Stew is one of those great peasant meals that has become a comfort food staple for many people all over the world. I love a good stew, and the fact that Irish stew is traditionally served over another great comfort food, mashed potatoes, made it even more appealing to me.

I recipes that used just stew beef, beef mince (ground beef) and a combination of the two. I ended up going with one that had stew beef and meatballs made from ground beef. It was good, but I didn’t really get the point of going to the trouble of making meatballs, so I probably wouldn’t do that again.

A lot of recipes had Guinness beer added in, but after researching I discovered that traditionally Irish stew did not contain beer, so I left it out.

Here is the recipe for Irish stew that I used, but feel free to come up with your own version.

1 lb. beef stew meat

1 lb. ground beef

4 carrots, chopped

4 medium potatoes, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 T. dried thyme

1/2 T. dried parsley

1 bay leaf

1 qt. beef stock

3 c. water

salt and pepper to taste

mashed potatoes

Brown stew beef and form ground beef into meatballs and brown. Combine all ingredients except mashed potatoes in a crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 8 hours until vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve over mashed potatoes.

International Night – Hungary

After a couple of less than stellar results, we were back on track with our most recent international recipes. Still examining the cuisine of European countries, I decided to go with Hungary. The most obvious choice of a Hungarian dish was, of course, goulash or gulyas, as it is known in its native land.

Growing up, I recall goulash being a popular dish, though I don’t think my mother ever prepared it. The goulash I remember from the 70’s, however, was very different from the traditional Hungarian recipes I found online. I remember a dish with ground beef in a tomato sauce with macaroni noodles being passed off as goulash, but traditional goulash is more like a beef stew.

One of the things that makes gulyas unique is the fact that it is seasoned with Hungarian sweet paprika, which is apparently quite different than the paprika we find on our grocery store shelves. If I had planned my meal better, I would have had time to order some real Hungarian paprika, but I had to settle for the standard American version. The end result was still very good, though.

We also had another Hungarian staple, langos. Langos is a deep fried potato-based flat bread that is a popular street food in Hungary. Although sometimes it is topped with a variety of items like sour cream, cheese and onions, langos is most often simply rubbed with a garlic clove and salted. The langos was a big hit as well, and the garlic and salt gave it an awesome flavor.

Here are the recipes for Hungarian gulyas and langos:

Gulyas

1 lb. lean boneless stewing beef

2 T. olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

2 tsp.Hungarian sweet paprika

dash of cayenne pepper

3 c. beef stock or broth

2 c. water

1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

salt and pepper to taste

1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

2 bell peppers, cut into chunks

2 T. flour

2 T. water

Cut beef into 1-inch cubes. Place oil in Dutch oven and add beef. Brown on all sides. Add onions and garlic to pan and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add paprika, cayenne, stock, the 2 cups water, caraway, salt and pepper. Stir well. Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cook, covered, 45 minutes.

Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. Stir well; return to boil. Cover; cook 30 minutes or until vegetables are done.

Combine flour and the 2 tablespoons water; stir to form smooth paste. Add slowly to soup, stirring well. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

Langos

1 pkg. dry yeast

1 1/2 c. lukewarm water

3 medium potatoes, peeled and boiled

1/2 tsp. salt

6 1/2 c. flour

kosher salt

2 to 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half

Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water. Mash the potatoes with a ricer or fork. Add the salt. Mix the potatoes with the flour, adding the yeast mixture and enough additional water to make the dough easy to knead. Knead on a floured surface until no longer sticky. Place dough in oiled bowl, turn over so that the oiled side is up, cover it and let it rise until doubled.

Punch down and divide the dough into 10 or 12 portions. Flatten each piece out with your hands or a rolling pin. Fry the dough, a few pieces at a time, until golden brown, turning as necessary. Remove from oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and rub with a cut clove of garlic.

International Night – Spain

Continuing with our European theme, our International Night this week was centered on the rich cuisine of Spain. When I first started researching Spanish cuisine, I had fully intended to prepare paella as our main dish. Paella is one of those things that I’ve never had, but I see pictures of it in cookbooks and magazines quite often. It always looks very appealing, thanks in large part to the colorful nature of the dish.

I found some recipes for it and discovered that traditional paella usually has both mussels and clams in addition to other forms of seafood. Nobody in our house it very fond of mussels or clams, and they can’t really be purchased in our local stores. I would have had to make a trip to Jonesboro to get them from Kroger, and I decided that it just wasn’t going to happen this week. Even though I found some recipes using just shrimp and chicken, I decided when we started our International Nights that I would prepare the meals with the traditional recipe that is most often used in their respective countries. So I ditched the idea of preparing paella and looked for another typical Spanish meal.

I soon came across a recipe for fabada asturiana, and I was immediately drawn to it. The thing that most attracted me to the dish was the inclusion of chorizo in this rich soup. My family and I have grown to enjoy chorizo at the local Mexican restaurants, so I knew that any recipe featuring chorizo was bound to be good. The recipe called for dried fava beans, but those weren’t available here, so I used large lima beans instead. I also couldn’t find morcilla, a Spanish blood sausage, and there really wasn’t anything that compared to substitute for it. It was good, but, to be honest, I felt it was a little bland. I think it would have been better with a little more spice.

After hearing so much about tapas recently, I also thought briefly about making a variety of the popular Spanish bar foods to go along with our fabada. My husband went to a tapas restaurant at Indianapolis recently, and he raved about it. However, I soon realized that preparing a variety of tapas was going to be too much work for me to whip up after getting home from school, so I decided just to make one of Spain’s most popular tapas, tortilla de patatas. It is essentially a potato omelet, and it was very good and easy to prepare.

Here are the recipes for our Spanish fare:

Fabada asturiana

2 pounds dried fava beans or large lima beans

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of saffron threads (I left this out because it’s so expensive)

1 tablespoon paprika

10 cloves of garlic, minced

1 smoked ham hock

1 pound slab bacon, chopped

1 pound chorizo, sliced

1 pound morcilla (I couldn’t find this)

1 onion, chopped

Soak the beans overnight then drain and rinse. Place in a large pot, add water to cover by 2 inches, and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam, lower the heat to a simmer, and add the olive oil, saffron, paprika, garlic, ham hock, and bacon. Simmer for 1 hour, adding more water as necessary to keep the beans covered.

Add the chorizo, morcilla, and onion and simmer for another 2 hours, or until the beans are very soft; add water as necessary to keep the beans and meats covered. Remove the ham hock and pull off the meat. Tear into bite size pieces and return to the pot. Serve with crusty bread.

Tortilla de Patatas

1 cup olive oil

4 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

salt to taste

1 large onion, chopped

6 large eggs

Heat the oil in a 9-inch skillet, add potato pieces and onion. Cook slowly over medium flame, being careful not to brown potatoes. Turn occasionally until potatoes are tender and still loose.

Beat eggs in a large bowl with a fork and add desired amount of salt. Drain potatoes. Add potatoes to beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat 2 T. oil in a large skillet. Add potato-egg mixture, spreading quickly. Lower the heat to medium-high. Shake pan to prevent sticking. When potatoes start to brown, put a plate on top skillet and flip to cook other side, adding another T. of oil. Brown on the other side and serve.

Skinny chicken soup – a last minute supper

The rotisserie chicken that was used in this soup gave it a great flavor. I bought the traditional flavor because I thought it would work best for a variety of dishes. I’ll be on the lookout for rotisserie chicken sales again!

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I am the kind of cook that often just throws things together in a pot and hope it turns into something edible for my family. Most times it works out into a good meal for us, but other times we just begrudgingly eat it because that’s all there is to eat that night. Of course, with the “misses” I never worry about preparing it again, but an even bigger issue arises with the “hits.”

My husband frequently complains that when I make one of my creations that he likes, he never gets it again because I never remember what I put into things that I just make out of the contents of the pantry and freezer. I decided when I started this blog that it would, if nothing else, force me to actually write down the recipes I create on the spur of the moment.

Today I decided it would be a good night for a filling bowl of soup. Since I’m doing Weight Watchers, I also wanted it to be something that wouldn’t burn through my points too rapidly. I remembered that I still had a bag of chicken in my freezer that came from the rotisserie chicken sale I stumbled on at Wal-Mart last week. I decided that would be the basis for a hearty soup, so I started looking around to see what else I had. I discovered that I had a plethora of soup staples in my cabinets, so I went to work. As my toddler napped, I began watching a movie and making our dinner. By the time the movie ended, there was a simmering pot of soup on the stove, and my husband was walking in the door commenting on the appetizing aromas that filled the house.

Everybody gave tonight’s soup a thumbs up, so I decided to include it in the blog so I can share it with others and possibly make it again for my family. I counted each one cup serving as four Weight Watchers points. I think that’s pretty accurate, but I could be off a little.

2 c. chopped cooked chicken
1 32 oz. carton chicken broth
5 c. water
1 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 c. carrots, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
3 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 c. frozen corn kernels
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. dry pasta

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until vegetables are almost done. Add pasta and cook until desired doneness.