Verging on Blue Soup

I was having a blue soup experience. If you've read or seen Bridget Jones' Diary, you know how she tried to make her friends dinner and ended up serving blue soup. The meal I was making was verging on blue soup.

Okay, that's an exaggeration. But a lot of things were going wrong.

It started when I broke a yolk while separating some eggs, and my whites were tainted. Then when I made a fresh bowl of whites and whipped them, they splattered all over the counter. My chocolate roulade, a rolled log cake, broke when I rolled it up (probably because I lost too many whites in the afore mentioned splatter). My focaccia didn't rise (possibly due to expired yeast). I burned some dried apricots that I was making for a puree to fill the broken cake, and I still can't get the burned bits off the non-stick pan. My new focaccia, made with freshly purchased yeast expiring in 2011, rose and baked up nicely except for the sun-dried tomatoes on top - which burned.

To top it all off, my faucet sprung a leak and drenched the cabinet space under the sink.

So while I'm boiling the rest of the dried apricots for take two of the puree, while swirling it into fresh whipped cream that I whipped in a big enough bowl to avoid splatter, while stuffing the cream and apricot filling into the broken cake hoping it would stick together in some semblance of layers, while picking blackened tomatoes off an otherwise golden focaccia and mopping water up from under the sink, I started thinking that maybe this whole cooking thing had gotten the best of me.

But then I found the cups. Years ago I had acquired a free set of tea cups and since I like to drink my tea from fat mugs I never had any use for them - until now.


I made a cold avocado soup, creamy from avocados, spicy from jalapeno pepper and Tabasco sauce, tangy from lemon juice and yogurt, hearty from navy beans, and frothy and light from pureeing, which whipped air into it. Each serving was more than a sip, less than a cup, a perfect starter to soothe any anxiety that the rest of the meal was less than perfect.

And the soup was green, not blue, and meant to be that way.

Avocado Soup (edited from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 3/4 cups chopped avocado (about 2)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rinsed and drained canned navy beans
• 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
• 1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped

Combine broth and next 9 ingredients (through jalapeño) in a blender; puree until smooth, scraping sides. Ladle 1 1/4 cups avocado mixture into each of 4 bowls, or 8 little cups.

Decadent

When you haven't had bacon in a long time, the taste of it can transform you. It can transform a healthy, calorie counter into an indulgent eater. An apathetic diner into a passionate foodie. From someone who thinks about important things like world peace and helping the homeless to a person who thinks only about bacon. And you wonder why you haven't been eating it all this time.

There's a few other foods with this kind of power. Puff pastry. Chocolate truffles. Hollandaise sauce. Fresh whipped cream. Foods that are decadent, that taste good and make you feel kind of special when you eat them. You feel like you won the spelling bee and got picked first in gym class, all warm and glowy and deserving of good things.

So tonight I made bacon after a long hiatus. It was part of a recipe from a Bobby Flay cookbook that I rediscovered on my bookshelf and have been cooking from all week, and let me tell you, Bobby Flay is rocking my world.

I didn't mean to be this decadent, to swirl cream into buttery grits, grate some cheese and mix it in, to saute shrimp in bacon fat and slide them all grease slicked onto a pool of those grits, and finally to sprinkle some crispy bacon on top. I just followed the recipe, honest, and when I was done but before I took a bite, I thought, this must be pretty bad for me. And then I was done thinking for a while as I inhaled one bite after another.


It was decadent, but oh so enjoyable. Make it. Make it now. And don't let thoughts of Afghanistan or the economy get in the way of your bacon daydreams.

Shrimp and Grits with Double Smoked Bacon ( from Bobby Flay Cooks American)

Cheese grits ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups milk
3 cups water
salt and pepper
1 cup grits
1 1/2 cups finely grated cheddar cheese*

Shrimp ingredients:
8 ounces double-smoked bacon*, cut into 1/2-inch dice
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt and pepper
1/4 cup coarsely chopped scallions*

*I used regular, center cut bacon, white cheddar and left off the scallions.

Melt the butter and oil together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring until soft. Increase the heat to high, add the milk, water, and 1 tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Slowly add the grits and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth and thick, 15-20 minutes. Add the cheese and stir until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Quick cooking grits may take less time.)

Meanwhile, make the shrimp. Heat a large pan over high heat until smoking. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until golden brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Remove all but 3 tablespoons of fat and return the pan to the stove over high heat. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and toss in the pan until pink and lightly browned, 1 1/2-2 minutes per side.

To serve, pour a serving of cheese grits into a soup plate. Top each plate with five shrimp. Garnish with bacon and chopped scallions.

Ice Cream Summer Eating List

It's that time of year again in Chicago. The music is starting, summer is coming down the aisle and spring has never been such a delightful bridesmaid to her entrance. In fact, spring is currently putting to shame anyone who speaks pityingly of always the bridesmaid. The abundance of blossoms, the sunny days, even the showers that caught me in the last few steps to my car, have been a sweet transition to summer days, and I've abandoned the heavy coat, the boots, the winter stews and the root vegetables.

And I've started thinking about ice cream again.

That's not to say I ever stopped thinking about ice cream. The ice cream maker works in any season. A smooth, creamy pumpkin ice cream or a dark, rich chocolate ice cream have their place in the winter months. But summer is the season for ice cream, and so you have to ask yourself, what will be your flavor this year?

Pick a flavor. Make it the flavor you're going to pursue this year, at street festivals and ice cream shops, and finally in your own kitchen. Taste it everywhere, for all it's nuances and differences and make yourself an expert on it. Take a strawberry ice cream. Do you like it pink like Pepto Bismol, or mostly vanilla with streaks of strawberry? Do you like chunks of fruit or a smooth puree? Do you like it swirled with pieces of cake, to mimic strawberry shortcake, or cubes of cheesecake? This is your ice cream summer eating list.

Personally, I'm going with salted caramel ice cream. I tried making a version of this last year, with little success. But now I've got a Cooking Light recipe that will serve as the basis for any future tastings.

It's sweet and it's salty and tastes exactly like a melting caramel candy on your tongue. I limited myself to the sea salt in the recipe and didn't add any more on top. It was perfectly balanced for my taste. It's not the most common flavor, but I'll be on the lookout for it to fulfill my summer eating obligations.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream (Cooking Light)
(Yields 10 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon flake salt (optional)
  

Place milk in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Heat to 180° or until tiny bubbles form around edge of pan (do not boil). Place egg yolks in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Gradually add half of hot milk to yolks, stirring constantly. Return yolk mixture to pan.

Combine sugar, cream, and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil, stirring until sugar melts. Cook 3 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat; stir in sea salt. Gradually add caramel mixture to yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Return pan to low heat; cook until a thermometer registers 160°. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl until completely cooled, stirring occasionally. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to freezer container and freeze for at least one hour. Scoop about 1/2 cup ice cream into each of 10 dishes; sprinkle evenly with flake salt if desired.

Surprise and delight me

I like meat. I like beef stew and goat curry and tandoori chicken and pork carnitas tacos. I like melt-in-your-mouth marrow and lamb shanks and kefta kabobs and turkey sausage. I like crispy chicken skin and crispy bacon and ballpark franks and cajun shrimp and kielbasa. I like grilled trout and raw tuna and salmon and gravy covered turkey and salami sandwiches. I could go on for days talking about all the different kinds of meat and fish I like. But the thing about meat is that it's easy to cook and make it taste good because, well, it tastes good!

So I don't spend a lot of time here writing about it and talking about, and if I ever mention something meaty I don't have a lot to say other than that it was good and you should make it. But then, you should make everything I tell you about.

It's vegetarian food that inspires me in the kitchen, that, when made well, can surprise and delight me. Main courses made with tofu or mushrooms or beans can be bland, but they can also be fantastic.
I'll write another time about spicy tofu or tofu in peanut sauce or mushrooms tarts, but today I'm going to praise my favorite bean, the garbanzo.


Last week I made these little chickpea (garbanzo bean) patties, mostly out of curiosity. They're still raw in this picture. I like chickpeas and have experimented with black bean patties and sampled other vegetarian burger alternatives. I feared these patties would be dry and tasteless. What I didn't expect was that they would be spicy and tender and I wouldn't be able to stop eating them. (My recipe excludes the rice that was in the original recipe, simply because it takes longer to cook the rice than to make and bake the patties. Thus the patties are not as firm as they could be.) When I drizzled tahini sauce over them, I scarfed down three patties without stopping to look for the meat.

Chickpea Patties with Tahini Sauce (modified from The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen by Rebecca Katz)
Makes 6 patties, 3 servings of 2 patties each

Ingredients for Tahini Sauce:
2 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with ½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
1/3 cup olive oil

In a blender blend together the tahini, lemon juice, garlic paste, and cayenne. With the motor running add the oil in a stream, blending until the sauce is emulsified. Season with salt.

Ingredients for patties:
One 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup loosely packed minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the chickpeas, salt, turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, olive oil and lemon juice in a food processor and process until smooth and well combined, scraping the sides occasionally. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and fold in the bell pepper and parsley.

Moisten your hands to keep the mixture from sticking, then shape the mixture into 1/4-inch-thick patties about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place them on the prepared pan and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the patties start to get dry and crisp on the outside. They will firm up as they cool.

Serve patties with salad of mixed greens. Drizzle tahini sauce over patties and salad.

Sharing

I've been eating lots of good food lately and I haven't been sharing. I know that's not very nice of me, but I'm sorry. Some of it just seems so simple, like scrambled eggs with Tabasco sauce wrapped in a tortilla and topped with guacamole. Just a little breakfast burrito makes me happy. Some days it's been some of my old favorites that I've told you about before, like fennel mushroom salad or Thai hot and sour soup. And some days it's been recipes without real recipes, like cajun spice sprinkled over shrimp, fried and tossed on a pillow of cheesy grits.
Plus, I was eating a gallon of homemade strawberry ice cream for weeks. That's what happens when I don't share.

But I'm going to stop that right now and share a very nice shrimp curry recipe with you, because my friend Huzefa shared it with me. It's a good recipe for lots of reasons. It's fast. It tastes good, like you spent a lot of time on it, but as I just mentioned, it's fast! And it can't go wrong. There are recipes you make once and they're great, but not so great the second or third time. Maybe you did something wrong, but you can't track down what that might be. So you have to let it go, and just remember it as a great meal you once had. But this recipe isn't like that. I've made it several times and it has never failed me. The spices, tomato paste and coconut milk are in perfect proportion (although it's quite spicy, and some may want to tone it down) so the flavor doesn't focus on any one element. I think the sauce is good enough that if you don't like shrimp, you could substitute fish or make it vegetarian with potatoes or cauliflower.
But I'll quit talking now and just show you a picture. And the recipe of course.


Indian Shrimp Curry (from Madhur Jaffrey)
4 servings

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 fresh, hot green chile, finely chopped (or 1/2 a chile if you prefer less spice)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
7 ounces coconut milk, well stirred (1/2 a can)
***Shrimp Ingredients***
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
10 dried curry leaves (I use bay leaves)
1 1/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

To make the sauce: Put the tomato paste in a bowl. Add the salt, sugar, cumin, cayenne, cilantro, green chile, lemon juice, dried curry leaves (bay leaves) and 1 Tbsp water. Mix well, slowly adding coconut milk until completely blended. Set aside.

To complete: Put the oil in a wok or frying pan over med-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop -- a few seconds -- add the garlic. Stir and fry till garlic turns medium brown, add shrimp. Stir until shrimp are opaque most of the way through. Add the sauce, turn heat to medium and heat till the sauce begins to simmer. Add the garam masala. Turn off heat and cover for ten minutes to allow flavors to develop before serving.

Happy Pi Day!

Today I celebrated pi day. So did all the other math geeks in the world. It is 3/14, officially known as Pi Day. And if you're a math geek foodie then you also celebrated Pie Day.



I forgot about Pi/e Day last year. But this year I was ready. I debated for days about what type of pie to make for Pi/e Day. My favorite pie is always pumpkin pie. But it seemed out of season. My favorite fruit pie is peach, but as I noted last year at this time, peaches are not in season either. Apple is always a good choice, I thought about banana cream, discarded any thoughts of cherry or blueberry. Finally I settled on pear. It doesn't hurt that pear is also a homonym of another numerical term, pair.

But what kind of pear pie to make? A quick online search revealed that there were two main types of pear pies - a regular fruit pie and a creamy or custard pie. And there were two main types of toppings - a crumble topping or a pie crust topping. I figured a custard would mask the pear flavor so I decided to stick with a regular fruit pie. And who doesn't love a good crumble?




Look at that, most of the pie is already gone before I had a chance to take a picture! Pi/e Day puts people in a good mood, so don't forget to celebrate it.

Pear Crumb Pie

Thin sliced Bartlett pears (the super hard green ones), brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and lemon juice mingle to make a tangy filling. The butter, brown sugar, and flour makes an easy crumble. I am not tied to this crust, so use a favorite crust recipe if you have one. I served this with fresh whipped cream (1 cup cream, 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla).

Ingredients

CRUST:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 tablespoons cold water

FILLING:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 6 cups thinly sliced peeled pears (about 5 pears)
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

TOPPING:

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cold butter

In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly. Sprinkle with water; toss until mixture is moist enough to shape into a ball. On a floured surface, roll out pastry to fit a 9-in. pie pan. Flute edges. Combine filling ingredients; spoon into the crust. Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 minutes. For topping, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling. Bake 20 minutes longer. Cover edges with foil during the last 20 minutes to prevent overbrowning if necessary.

Thai Salad Dressing

I don't have a picture for you today. I just have a recipe, a very simple recipe, for an easy and yummy salad dressing . It's so good, you'll drink it up if there's any left in the bowl after you finish swirling your last lettuce leaf around in the dregs.

Maybe all you have is lettuce in the fridge, because it's Thursday night and you're in a hurry to watch Grey's Anatomy and running out of food. Maybe you throw a can of soup into a pot, but it's all too unsatisfying and unhealthy and you pull that slightly wilted head of romaine out of the fridge and motivate yourself to wash it and tear it up. Then it goes into a salad spinner or patted down with a towel and finally you are staring at a pile of green in a big bowl. And that's even more pathetic than the canned soup.

Maybe you have a bottle of fish sauce in the fridge because you made a Thai curry two months ago, and a lime because you were going to make guacamole before the avocado turned mushy and brown, except it turned mushy and brown the day after you bought it. So you mix up some fish sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, sugar, and whisk in some vegetable oil. Toss that limp, clean lettuce with your dressing to wake it up a little, and what do you know, there are some ruddy looking radishes rolling around in the crisper, so you add some thin slices of radish on top for color and bite. A little salt and pepper and your meal just became something special. And it's nice to have something special during a mundane Thursday night meal.

Thai Salad Dressing (Joy of Cooking, for the Thai Beef Salad, but it's good on any light salad)
Yields 1 cup dressing

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
red pepper flakes to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.