Carrot Double Duty

I am all for multi tasking and I still can't resist a recipe that does double duty. This time of year especially, when friends and family have time off from work and I can see the people I love again. Since for the most part, I work evenings and weekends, my schedule often doesn't coincide with my friends' schedule and I relish in these opportunities to spend time with everyone while they have time off from work. This is when the cooking ahead and making double batches of recipes comes in handy. More time I can save on cooking, more time I can play. The catch is that since I cook for a living, everyone wants to come over for dinner. Fine with me, being the hostess floats my boat, I just have to be creative in time management so that I can still spend quality time conversing and not standing over the stove the entire time. I make a double batch of the glazed carrot recipe, serve the glazed carrots for dinner, and make soup the next day. And by make soup, I mean take the remaining carrots and puree them. Dinner, done.

This soup is simple and delicious, with the added bonus of being very good for you. Kids have been known to ask for it, boyfriends will scarf it down and ask for seconds and it is an excellent starter course for a nice dinner. Because it won’t fill you up, it pairs beautifully with a coursed meal, yet it’s also a fantastic light lunch when paired with a tasty salad. Smashing the ginger as opposed to grating it releases just enough flavor to enhance the soup without overpowering the carrot’s essence.

For Glazed Carrots

3 lbs peeled carrots, cut into large chunks
2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 tsp granulated sugar
¼ cup chicken stock
1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and smashed with back of knife
Kosher salt



For Soup
3-4 cups chicken stock

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add sugar, carrots, stock and ginger, place lid on pot and cook for about 10 minutes over medium low heat. Carrots should be almost fork tender, but still have a little resistance to them. Take lid off pot and cook over medium heat until reduced to a glaze, approximately 5 minutes longer. Season to taste. This is a delicious side dish on its own, especially with chicken or pork. To make into a soup, add 2 cups of the stock and puree with an immersion blender or in a standing blender, adding stock as needed to thin. Strain through a fine mesh sieve if desired, although it’s more rustic left unstrained. Pour back into pot if necessary and season to taste with kosher salt. Serve hot. Makes 4 large servings.

Ambivalence and Stew

The day after christmas brings us all sorts of emotions. There is sadness because the present giving, and more importantly the present receiving, is over. There is joy from all the post holiday endorphins still coursing through everyone. There is courage, from those of us who dare to brave the post holiday crowds at the nearest mall, in the hunt for holiday bargains. There is relief for many because they are going or coming home and perhaps they no longer have to deal with relatives that, um, test their patience. The emotion I experience most on december 26th is ambivalence. I am still with my mom and sister, enjoying our rare time together and not looking forward to heading back home and missing the days of relaxing by the fire and wallowing in the array of wonderful gifts I have been given. I rarely have the desire to go holiday bargain hunting, as my mom has usually gone overboard with the presents and I have no need to add any new possessions to my already strained suitcase. I simply Am, and that is a wonderful way to be. I have new toe socks on my feet, family that I love around me, no need to change out of my pajamas and plenty of delicious food to experiment with in the kitchen.

Which brings me to the relevance of this blog, the day after christmas culinary creations. Since our christmas feast usually consists of a large roast of either pork or beef provenance, it is inevitable that there will be leftovers for many days. Since no one wants to eat the same thing over and over, I like to save some of said cow or pork product to make into stew the following day. Stew is easy, it requires ingredients that are most often already in the vegetable drawer and cupboard and it is incredibly comforting, especially when the mercury level is in the 20's, which it has been here in Portland recently. For us California ladies, that is practically death weather and clutching a steaming bowl of stew while testing Just how close I can stand to the fireplace is my idea of a perfect post-christmas, emotion-free day.


Chile con Carne

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 lb of boneless pork shoulder, or boneless beef, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 inch chunks
Kosher salt
4 slices of thick cut bacon, diced
1 sweet or yellow onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, halved, seeded and finely chopped
3 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs cumin
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups water or chicken stock
1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup sour cream

This dish is even better the second day, so feel free to make a double batch and reheat the extra in saucepan over medium heat.

Pat meat dry and sprinkle with ½ salt. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add meat and cook on each side until well browned, in two batches if pan gets crowded. Remove from pan and set aside. Reduce heat to medium and add bacon, stirring often, until crisp and brown. Add onions and pepper and cook 5 minutes, until softened. Add chili powder and cumin, stirring to evenly distribute and cook 1 minute. Return meat to pan with any accumulate juices, add tomatoes with their juice and water or stock. Bring to a simmer, partially cover and cook 2 to 2 ½ hours, until meat is fork tender. If liquid level gets low, add another ½ cup of water or stock. Add kidney beans and cook 10 minutes. Season to taste, ladle into bowls and top with a generous spoonful of sour cream. Serves 2-4 main portions.

A Trip South of the Border

When I originally sat down at the computer to type my recipe for tortilla soup, it was quite chilly in the Los Angeles area, a term that I realize is somewhat vague, especially for my friends living in Chicago and Boston. Chilly to me is 50 degrees, and the mercury actually dropped to below 40 a few nights ago. Over that blessed few days where it actually felt like December, I went soup crazy. My kitchen was a little nest of warmth from which it was hard to pry myself away from. Quart containers were filled with a veritable smorgasbord of tasty winter treats and the freezer is now too full to put the ice trays back in. I couldn’t help myself. Days off and cold temperatures are too tempting, and I get a little Monica with the cooking.
In honoring the month of soups, I knew that tortilla soup would have to be one of the recipes, considering my love of all things south of the border. The right blend of rich dried chilies and fresh tomatoes cooked together and topped with whatever is around the kitchen is a wonderful way to end a day, in my humble opinion. The best thing about a soup like this is that it is totally adjustable. Very little of the outcome requires precise measuring, and if you like things a little spicier, more potent chilies are easily substituted.

Roasted Chili and Tomato Tortilla soup

2 dried pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 dried California chiles, stemmed and seeded
4 large ripe tomatoes, halved
1 large onion, sliced into 8 wedges
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp chopped fresh cilantro, plus sprigs for garnishing
6 cups of chicken stock.
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
4 corn tortillas, cut into ¼ inch strips
Cooking spray
Kosher salt as needed
For garnishes: 1 large avocado, cut into ½ inch chunks; sour cream

Preheat broiler to high. Place a large sheet of foil on a rimmed baking sheet. Place tomatoes, cut side down on foil, along with onions and garlic. Broil for approximately 10 minutes, until tomatoes start to blacken on top, checking to prevent burning. For last 30 seconds, place chiles on baking sheet. Remove from oven and add to food processor, along with accumulated juices. Remove foil from pan and sprinkle tortilla strips evenly on pan. Spray with cooking spray to coat and broil for 5 minutes, until they start to brown and crisp. Remove from oven and set aside.



Add cilantro to chili/tomato mix and process until well combine, pulsing often to break up chiles. This should take a minute or two. Season with ½ tsp of salt. Add puree to large saucepan and cook over medium heat until reduced by half, around 10-15minutes. Pour in stock, oregano and sugar and cook over medium low heat for 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding another ½ tsp if needed. Ladle into bowls and garnish with tortilla strips, avocado, sour cream and cilantro sprigs as desired. Serves 4.

Avocado Anomaly

I have to admit; I love products with defects. Odd shaped tomatoes, mine. Gnarly potatoes, sold. If something has gone awry in a product I use on a regular basis, I must have it, use it, and talk about it. So when I halved an avocado the other day for my salad and discovered that it had two pits, I was ecstatic. This avocado was meant for greatness, not just another bowl of rabbit food for a basic lunch. I had been curious about making an avocado based soup for a while and figured since it was soup month for the blog, what could possibly be a better time for experimentation?

After some interesting concoctions, I discovered the most delicious result came from letting the avocado stand on its own without too many additional flavor profiles. I original made it using guacamole as my jumping off point, creating a puree of cooked tomatoes, red onion and cilantro and pureeing in the avocado. The result was unattractive to look at and it was strange to be eating guacamole with a spoon and no tortilla chips. Since I wanted a creamy soup full of avocado flavor, I used only what was necessary to enhance that and to create a thick and luxurious soup.
Note: As they love to do, the avocado base in this soup will discolor if left standing for a while. Best to serve promptly.



Avocado Soup

1 large ripe avocado
2 Tbs fresh lime juice
½ cup crème fraiche or sour cream
2 cups chicken stock
Kosher salt
2 tbs fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

Halve and pit the avocado and coarsely chop in a food processor. Add the lime juice, a pinch of salt and 3 Tbs of the crème fraiche and puree until smooth. Heat the stock in a large saucepan until almost simmering and stir in the remaining crème fraiche. Add the avocado puree to the stock and heat gently for five minute, being careful not to bring to a boil. Ladle into bowls, season to taste and sprinkle with cilantro. Serves two for a hearty lunch, but easily doubled.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Fall has always been my favorite season. Even living in Los Angeles for the past 8 years, where “fall” is 75 and sunny, hasn’t sullies my memories of autumn. I grew up in the boonies and the leaves on our 20 acres of property would become a kaleidoscope of colors which I could stare at for hours on end. Riding my horse on our endless trails during fall season will always be in my top ten list of favorite things. Fall was harvest time for us and even though our garden of irises would be just ending, and the tomatoes would be finishing as well, all my favorite vegetables would be coming into season. Butternut squash is at the top of that list and it seems only appropriate that I kick off soup month with my absolute favorite go to recipe for butternut squash soup.

When I first started experimenting with this soup, I tried numerous variations of flavors and methods which to cook the squash. I found simmering it in the pan with the onions and apples didn’t bring out the deep flavor of the squash and it became overpowered by the apple flavor. Roasting any kind of vegetable at high heat is, in my opinion, is the most effective way to bring out the most flavor in vegetables. The high heat causes caramelization and brings out the sweetness of the product. I also tried a few different spices in the soup, cumin, curry powder and I once added roasted garlic as well. While these additions were not bad at all, I found the simpler I kept it, the more flavorful it was, concentrating all the taste buds on the power of the squash. Simplicity always wins, it seems.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into large chunks
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
¼ cup dry white wine
1-2 cups of chicken stock
¼ cup of heavy cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place squash on rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 1 tbs olive oil and ½ tsp salt. Toss to evenly coat. Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes, until squash is fork tender and browned on bottom side. Set aside.
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, set over medium heat, add remaining tbs olive oil, onion and apple. Stir occasionally, until onions just start to brown. Add wine and stir, using a wooden spoon to scrape the bits from the bottom of the pan. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until apples are softened, about 15 minutes. Add 1 cup of stock and squash to pan and cook 1 minute longer. Using either an immersion blender if you have it, or a regular blender, puree soup, adding stock as needed to achieve desired consistency. Return to pot, season to taste and stir in cream, reserving a Tbs to drizzle over the top. Serves 4.