Cooking On Sundays

I was inspired by this entry at bread-and-honey, and I had a surplus of broccoli to use, which I though would go great in it.  But of course, I can’t really follow directions, so if you go read that post and then compare my recipe, you’ll find that they don’t match up very well.

But I made a good effort!  In fact, I acquired tarragon and fennel explicitly for this soup.

The fennel came out so strong that it quickly became fennel soup.  However, it was not overpowering, and in fact was very tasty.

Anyway, the ingredient list looks something like this:

• Half a yellow onion
• One large leek
• Half a bulb of garlic
• About six small zucchinis
• Two broccoli crowns (they were cheaper than the rest of the broccoli)
• A box of Trader Joe’s “Creamy Corn and Roasted Pepper Soup”.  It has been sitting in my closet for about half a month, and I was looking to add creaminess, and maybe that would do it.
• Dried fennel, tarragon, arbol peppers, salt, and black pepper, all ground together
• Olive oil and butter
• A small amount of corn starch

I carefully followed the directions of sauteing the onion, leek, and garlic in the pot before making the soup.  Of course, I use so many ingredients, that this filled the pot up about two inches!  Giving them a little time to cook (almost ten minutes, which Alicia thought would be too long), I added the zucchini, which filled the pot to about half!  Well, those zuchinni are never going to saute like that, but I like my veggies crunchy, so that’s fine by me.  I added some water and took some of the zucchinis (and some of the broccoli stems too) to the blender, and pureed enough to make the broth green.

At this point I realized I forgot to acquire cream.  I debated using milk, when I found the box of soup in the closet.  I know it is the highest form of cheating, but I really don’t care, and dumped the entire contents of the box in the pot.  I’m not sure if the box of soup has cream in it, but it is a perfect smooth creamy consistency which went far in the soup.

I also found I had no flour, according to the recipe.  I put a little corn starch in it–I wanted the thickening effect, but I really don’t like corn starch, it has a flavor that makes me think of hot and sour soups.  I basically put in so little it did nothing, and gave up looking for thickeners.

I realized at this point there isn’t much in there that really needs to cook, so I waited for it to warm and put all the spices in a grinder and hit the grindy button.  Here the fennel really came out–the tarragon I could have left out, but the fennel gave it a really nice smell.

This was a really tasty soup.  However, there was an interesting effect between when it was hot, and how it was the next day–fresh from the pot, it was almost too spicy, and seemed to need salt, which I alleviated by putting lots of saltine crackers in it.  The next day, the salt ratio seemed perfect, but I added tabasco to get the heat back.  I’m not sure what caused this effect.

I found a recipe in the New York Times, and thought I’d try it out.  I normally keep an eye out for recipes, but unless I don’t know what I’m doing (which happens more frequently than I care to admit), I usually don’t follow it that closely.  Usually I’ll find a recipe, and I’ll say “what a great idea!  Except I have … instead of …, and I like this better than that”, but in this case, I actually acquired ingredients.  I doubled the recipe, and when I veered, it was because I forgot, not because I was trying to change things.

• Two huge broccolis
• A pound of chick peas (garbanzo beans), soaked overnight (I think I was supposed to use a cup–not the same!)
• A bunch of italian parsley
• Half a large red onion
• Dash of salt

And for the dressing

• The juice of one meyer lemon
• Two spoons of spicy “Chinese” mustard (horseradish based)
• Four spoons of champagne vinegar
• Small garlic clove, minced and mashed
• Eight spoons of olive oil

I soaked the chick peas overnight, and in the morning I realized how many there were…  so I set some aside and stuck them in the freezer with the theory I will use them elsewhere.  I cooked the garbanzos in water with a dash of salt until they were done, and then I chopped up the brocolli, peeling the stems and chopping them up too, and and let them cook.  As per the directions in the NYTimes, I chopped the onion, put it in a bowl, submerged the onion with water, and let sit for five minutes.  I’ve never done that and can only guess the purpose is to remove some of the onion sharpness, but I can’t say I  noticed the difference.  I drained everything, put it in a large bowl, chopped and added the parsely, and stirred it all together!  I forgot to add the dill, which I have some and wanted to use it up, oh well.

For the dressing, I didn’t have mustard, and so my neighbor said she had some, but when she brought it she was almost crying.  “It tastes horrible!  I tried it on a sandwich and it was dreadful!  It’s not normal mustard at all!”  I looked at the label and said “Perfect!”  Dijon is nice, but so is horseradish.  I mixed up the dressing, and kept making more because I was trying to get the proportions right–it went like this:  “too much lemon–add a little olive oil–too much oil–add a little vinegar–not enough mustard–add another spoonful–hm, we are close….”  She was surprised to find that it added a good flavor without making it taste dreadful, and this dish came out incredibly well, in my humble opinion (and I was glad for leftovers!).

I did another curry, because I had no imagination.

• Half a cabbage–the hugest cabbage I found
• A portobella mushroom
• Half a bag of string beans
• Some scallions
• Some of the frozen shrimps from last week
• Two pasilla peppers (poblano)
• One habenero pepper
• One serrano
• One yellow onion
• A can of coconut milk
• A half a brick of “Golden Curry”–a curry “bar”
• And this was served on spaghetti, rather than rice

This is a straight up curry recipe–olive oil, stir fry the onion, peppers, cook cook cook, add half the cabbage and decide the other half won’t fit in the pan, and cook cook cook, I swear the cabbage will get smaller, c’mon now I need room in this pan for other things, cook cook, add coconut milk and curry, cook cook cook, finally the cabbage is small enough to not fill me with fear of overflowing the pan everytime I stir, and add mushrooms and string beans.  At the very end I add a bunch of scallions.

This was very tasty, though the not-so-spicy people thought it was too spicy, but I thought it was just right, but I think it would have been much better on rice than pasta.