Carrot Ginger Soup

A few days a week I am on my own for dinner. Usually I am lazy and I make a grilled cheese or reheat leftovers. Occasionally I get motivated to be creative and make myself a nice meal. When Ryan isn't around for a meal I like to make something that he wouldn't be crazy for, or something vegetarian. Ryan and I have lived together for about 3 years now and I learned real quick that a meal without some sort of meat or seafood is not really a meal. (Or it at least means a late night snack for a hungry husband) Before I lived with Ryan I would go a week or two without meat and not think anything about it. Sometimes, it's nice to a take a break from being a carnivore.

On this particular night I didn't have much in the fridge but I knew I had some homemade chicken stock, carrots, and a bit of fresh ginger that I need to use up before it starting growing things in the fridge. A few weeks ago Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet, had "The Great Soup Battle of 2010". In this epic battle was an intriguing recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup. I've never had carrot soup before but the more I thought about it the more my mouth started to water. And, I had the major ingredients. So I started looking on some of my favorite recipe web sites (Epicurious and My Recipes) for additional inspiration. Although the recipe form AG's Soup Battle sounded tempting, the winning recipe was from Bon Appetit from 1997 that I found on Epicurious.

I sauteed onions, garlic, and ginger in butter until soft and then added the carrots and tomatoes and lemon zest. Look at how pretty!I let that cook for a few minutes then I added the chicken broth. Once the broth had come to a boil, I reduced the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. (The recipe said 20 minutes or until the carrots were soft). I used my favorite kitchen tool, my hand blender, to blend the soup. I'm not a huge fan of smooth and watery soup so I only blended mine until there were a few chunks of carrot and tomato for texture. But that's just me. When you make your ginger carrot soup, you can do what you want. :)So the soup was blended, but it still tasted a little bland to me. So, I added a little cilantro, cumin, and a bit of Siracha (Thai hot sauce) for heat. When the carrots cook they get very sweet, so I added the heat for balance.

While the last of the spices were simmering away to perfection, I tore up some wheat bread and put them under the broiler and made little "poor man" croutons to serve on top of the soup. I also added some crumbled blue cheese and chopped scallions for texture and color. Not bad for a lonely Wednesday night?

So if you are cooking for one or just tired for the same old grilled cheese or PBJ for dinner, try this soup or any recipe that inspires you. You might end up with some tasty results.

Braised Cabbage- cold weather comfort food

I read a lot of food blogs daily. I always seem to stumble upon more great food sites that give me ideas and tons of recipes to try. Amateur Gourmet (written by Adam Roberts) is one of my favorites and I've tried many of the recipes from the blog (like this, this one here, and oh yea..this one too).

A few weeks ago I read a post where the Amateur Gourmet made braised cabbage. It sounded so good and so cozy and comfort food-y that I had to try it. And it was so good that I made it again and tweaked it a bit to make it more "Foodie In Training" and less "Amateur Gourmet".

I also wanted to attempt the recipe because at Mulvins (the local farm stand in Sandusky), they have beautiful cabbages about the size of a small child. I swear, they are seriously about twice the size of your run-of-the-mill grocery store cabbage. Anytime I can try a new recipe AND buy locally..it's all systems go for this gal!

So, did I mention that this recipe is also super easy? It takes a bit of time in the oven, but other than that it's some chopping of vegetables and that's about it. Adam from Amateur Gourmet got this recipe from Molly Steven's "All About Braising" cookbook so my first attempt I followed his adaptation of the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 325

Oil a 9 x 13 baking dish (I just drizzled a bit olive oil into the baking dish)

Cut green cabbage (about 2 lbs.)* into 8 wedges

Lay wedges in dish

scatter one thickly sliced yellow onion over the top along with a carrot (I used 2 smaller carrots) cut into 1/4 inch rounds

drizzle 1/4 olive oil over the top and 1/4 cup chicken stock or water

season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

cover tightly with foil and in the oven it goes for 1 hour.

after an hour, remove cover and flip wedges and recover for another hour

Once cabbage is tender, remove foil and boost heat up to 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until top is browned and crispy.

Season lightly with salt and it's ready to serve!!

*Erin used about a 4 lb. cabbage..seriously it was huge

My first time making it I decided to add two cloves of garlic (I'm beginning to think I can't make a dish with adding a little bit of garlic..it make EVERYTHING good). I unpeeled it, but left the garlic whole more for flavor than texture or bite.

My second time making the braised cabbage it was a windy, blustery day- just perfect for a warm and comforting meal. THIS time I decided to turn up the volume and add some different ingredients. I had some fennel in the fridge, so I coarsely chopped the bulb and scattered that on top of the cabbage. I also didn't have any yellow onion so I coarsely chopped half a medium red onion and scattered that on top as well. The addition of the fennel was key, the flavor was great and it worked really well with the cabbage. And the red onion also was really nice because it turned a bit sweet and was a nice compliment to the spice from the red pepper flakes.

The dish has been a hit both times so I recommend you try it. It's great when it's bitterly cold out with a bowl of hot soup, but I think it would be good in any weather. Happy braising!

Jam Session: It's all about timing

One of my favorite food blogs is Amateur Gourmet. You may have seen the link on our blog and I definitely recommend checking it out. Adam Roberts is the blogger and he documents his cooking adventures and most recently his new gig on the Food Network.  He had a great post a few weeks ago about making jam and he made it seem so easy.  Easy enough for me to want to attempt it! 

So when I was at Findlay Market in Cincinnati a few weekends ago and there were beautiful cherries at the market for very cheap - like 2 lbs. for $5 cheap - I had to buy them and instantly thought of using them to make jam.  So the next day my friend Mo came over and helped me make cherry jam.  To make this quicker and easier I decided to buy a cherry pitter.  What a great idea!  Who knew for like $11 you could have such a fun kitchen tool!   The pitter stabs into the cherry pit and shoots it out the bottom...and also creates a kind of gory splash of cherry juice that resembles a blood bath.  So Mo was in charge of pitting the cherry's while I sterilized the jars.  I decided to do what Adam did when he made jam and I cleaned the jars with soap and water and then put them in a large pot filled with water and brought the water to a boil to sterilize. 

When Mo was done pitting all of the cherries I roughly chopped them and put them in a large pot and cooked them on medium to high heat with the zest of one lemon and the juice of one lemon.  This is one of the instances in jam making when it's all about timing.  We cooked the cherries until they released their juices and became sloshy.   The smell was amazing!  An intensely sweet cherry aroma filled my tiny kitchen and we were getting excited.  Once the cherries are sloshy, it's time to measure how much cherry slosh we had because that is how you know how much sugar you need.  

I'm not much of a mathematician but this is pretty easy. If I can figure it out..you can. You measure the cherry slosh and you multiply that by 3/4.  We had about 2 1/2 cups of cherry slosh and after we dumped the slosh back in to the pot (sounds appetizing right..sorry for my choice of words) we added about 1 1/2 cups of sugar.  We cooked the cherry slosh and sugar over medium heat and this part is where timing is crucial.  As the cherries and sugar cook it will begin to bubble up and foam and you have to stir often so it doesn't burn on the bottom.  

I was nervous about overcooking it so we tested the jam way to early, but I'm glad we did because you can always put jam back on the heat to cook if it needs more time, but you can't save burnt, overcooked jam. To test, it's really simple. At the beginning of the jam-making process put a small plate in to the freezer and when you are ready to test, put a drizzle of jam on to the cold plate.  Wait for it to set and then push the circle of jam and if it wrinkles when you push it, it is ready.  If it's slippery and gooey still, put it back on the heat and keep stirring. 

Since we cooked it on medium heat, we cooked the jam for about 15-20 minutes before it was ready.  Once the jam was ready we ladled it in to the jars and let them cool to room temperature before putting them in the fridge.  

The jam turned out really tasty!! Next time I am going to chop the cherries a little smaller but other than that the flavors are great.  I've gotten some raised eyebrows and giggles when I told friends and family I made jam.  My sister had the best comment though..she called while I was making the jam and when I told her what I was doing she said "God Erin what else you are doing, churning butter?"  haha..we are so different it's funny. :)   Making jam was so easy I definitely want to make it again and with other fruits.   It's definitely better than my Smucker's jam I've bought before and they also make great gifts!

FN Dish

A few posts ago, I wrote a book review for the Amateur Gourmet and how much I enjoyed the book.  The author, Adam Roberts, who has  a great food blog with the same name, has been very busy because he now has a web show called FN Dish.  The premise is for Adam to go behind the scenes of the Food Network to talk about food news, events  and he even gets to interview the famous Food Network chefs...basically any Food Network fan's dream.   

He just got back from the South Beach Food Festival and I've watched a few of the videos from the weekend. He got interview Mario Batali and a very pregnant Giada de Laurentiis and he got to attend a panel about childhood obesity and interviewed Alice Waters and Rachael Ray afterwards.  The think the web show is great and Adam does a great job asking good questions and tries not to look too starstruck.  Adam's story is pretty cool because he found his love for cooking while he was unhappy at law school.  He started his blog a few years ago and has turned it in to quite a career!  Pretty inspiring. 

I definitely recommend checking out the FN Dish and Amateur Gourmet.

Book Review: The Amateur Gourmet

I'm back!! I realize it's been a while since I've actually written a post, but I've definitely been busy in the kitchen helping create the tasty dishes Ryan has blogged about.  

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was couch bound for a weekend and I was able to get some good reading done.  I sat down and read this book in one day, it was a really great, quick read.  The title of this book The Amateur Gourmet (How to Shop, Chop and Table-Hop Like a Pro) might look a little familiar because it's one of the cooking links on the blog.  

Ryan got me this book for my birthday and I finally got around to reading it.  He picked it out because the author, Adam Roberts, developed his love for cooking while he was miserable in law school.  He started his blog a few years ago and journals his experiences in cooking and dining.  The book is a really easy and funny read. With each chapter, Roberts writes about what he thinks are important lessons and helpful tips to becoming comfortable in the kitchen.  Each chapter is laugh-out-loud funny and about a different aspect of cooking, from learning how to master the farmers market, a lesson about knives, and the book ends with him cooking a lavish, 6-course meal for his family.   There are also some really great recipes!  I definitely recommend this book for anyone, but especially the amateur gourmet or foodie in training, because it calms a lot of anxiety that comes with being a newbie in the kitchen. 

I also recommend checking out his blog, it is definitely one of my favorites!

Happy cooking. :)