Sweet Potato and Red Curry Soup with Rice and Kale

I might as well just call this blog Whisk, Stir, and Blend: A Blog About Making Food from Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week. I'm not ashamed - she's been keeping me well fed for the last few weeks. Here's a hearty soup with some Thai flavours for the cold, winter days: Sweet Potato and Red Curry Soup with Rice and Kale (p. 34).

Get your big soup pot ready. Heat some olive oil, and sauté 1 diced onion for about 5 minutes. Add three minced garlic cloves and 1 Tbsp mined fresh ginger, cook for about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup basmati rice, 6 cups vegetable broth (I used salt-free chicken stock because the store was sold out of veggie stock! Seriously!) and salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil.

While it's coming up to a boil, get the veggies ready: clean and stem one bunch of kale (the recipe calls for purple kale - I don't think I've ever seen it so regular it is) and peel and dice two medium sweet potatoes into 1/2" chunks. Once the stock is boiling, turn it down to a simmer and stir in 2 Tbsp red curry paste (add more if you like it spicy). Throw in the kale and sweet potato. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.

Add 1 can coconut milk (YUM), 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice and 1 Tbsp agave nectar (use honey if you don't have any). Serve with lots of cilantro and sriracha and enjoy! It's a lovely recipe when you're in the mood for a warming bowl of soup. It doesn't have a protein so you could add one if you want a more complete meal (like tofu, beans, chicken or whatever) but it doesn't really need it - it has a lot of different textures going on. It's creamy and flavourful and not too spicy. A nice way to use red curry paste other than making straight-up curry.

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

Broccoli isn't my favourite vegetable. I tend to eat it in Indian or Thai dishes, where it's covered in sauce and mixed with other vegetables, oven-roasted until crispy or I make it into soup. I liked this Broccoli-Cheddar Soup recipe from Food Network magazine because of the addition of sweet potato - which would make the soup look even cheesier than it is. Always a good thing as I, as usual, would cut most of the cheese out of the recipe. It's a new year - time to be healthy.

In a large pot, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add 1 diced onion, cook 5 min to soften. The original recipe called for celery as well - also not a favourite of mine but feel free to add it in. Chop 1 lb each white potatoes and sweet potatoes, which for me was about three small white potatoes and one large sweet potato. Throw them in the pot with 2 cups water, 2 cups stock (I used vegetable), 2 cups milk (I used regular 2%, if you're feeling fancy use half-and-half), 1 bay leaf and some salt and pepper.

Simmer the soup on medium-low for about 10 minutes to cook the potatoes. Meanwhile, cook the broccoli separately in the microwave. This may seem strange - why not just throw the broccoli into the pot with the potatoes? - but this way the broccoli doesn't get pureed. If you really don't like broccoli and would rather eat it pureed and hidden in the rest of the soup, I would still cook it separately because I'm assuming there wouldn't be enough room in the pot to cook them with the potatoes. Cook 2 cups florets covered, with a little bit of water, for 3-4 minutes in the microwave.

Use a blender or immersion blender (much easier) to puree the soup. It will be thick and a lovely orange colour. Put burner on low, throw in the broccoli, and add 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. I also added some baby kale I had in the fridge for extra greens. Once the cheese has melted it's done! I served it with homemade croutons (whole wheat bread fried in margarine YUM) and a little feta on top. I liked how the broccoli was still whole - it was like eating them covered in a thick, cheesy sauce. You can thin the soup with water but I enjoyed it as is. It would still be good with less cheese, or even without the cheese, if you're looking for something a little healthier. A good recipe to play around with.

Beef Stew

This may be only the second time beef has made an appearance on this blog! But with the cold weather comes the need for comfort food - or I was just really low in iron that day. Whatever the reason, we passed by the stewing beef in the grocery store and immediately decided to make a stew for supper - it was a Sunday afternoon, after all. While we usually do a lot of cooking with beer, this time we followed the classic recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Don't mess with the classics.

One big change at the get-go: we only bought 1 lb of stewing beef, half of what was called for in the recipe. So it wasn't going to be as beefy as usual. First we seasoned the beef (already cubed) with thyme, salt and pepper, then dredged it in flour. Shaking off the excess flour, we browned all sides of the pieces in our Dutch oven in some veg oil. We even did it in two batches so as not to crowd the pan - patience is key. After removing the beef and adding more oil in the pan, it was time for the first batch of veggies: 2 diced carrots, 1 diced celery stalk, 1 diced onion and 3 diced garlic cloves.

Cook the veggies for about 5 minutes, then throw in a couple bay leaves and some thyme. We added 1 cup red wine and 1 cup chicken stock and threw the beef back in. We left it simmering, covered, for about 1.5 hrs - to get the house smelling good, of course! Once the beef is tender, it's time to throw in the chunky vegetables: we had 2 carrots, 5 turnips and 4 small white potatoes. Cover and cook again about 45 minutes - we added extra wine to have enough liquid to cook all of our veggies.

And that's it! It takes time, but it's a fun activity to do if you've got a free afternoon - especially when you're drinking the wine you're cooking with. It's classic and homey and perfect for wintery days.

Baked Eggs with Potato, Bacon & Tomato

I have a large collection of dinner recipes featuring eggs in tomato sauce. Hey, sometimes you have a dozen eggs in your fridge and you don't want frittata! I had tried Shakshuka already, so next up was a simple Baked Eggs with Potato, Bacon and Tomato recipe from the Sobeys flyer. Don't discount grocery store recipes, people, sometimes they are worth saving!

I had bought some soy pepperoni for a homemade pizza and had quite a few left, so first I sliced them and fried them up with olive oil. Good idea - they turned nice and crispy. Meanwhile, I microwaved four small white potatoes for about 2 minutes, then cut them into quarters. Another good idea - I didn't have to wait around for them to cook fully in the pan, which would have taken much longer. Throw the potatoes in the pan with some smoked paprika and let them get a little fried and crunchy, about 5 minutes.

Remove potatoes and pepperoni onto a plate, and put some more oil in the pan. Cook 1 diced onion for about 5 minutes, then stir in 1 can diced tomatoes, a couple of sliced peppers and a pinch of chili flakes. Simmer 15 minutes, or until most of the tomato liquid has evaporated. I also added some fresh rosemary since I had some in the fridge. I threw the potatoes and pepperoni back in, and then poured it all into a greased 9x13" pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Now the fun part - make some wells and break 8 eggs on top. Bake @375 22-25 minutes.

The smell of rosemary wafted out of the oven - yum! I filled a bowl with the potato, tomato and egg mixture and topped with diced avocado. Unlike the shakshuka, it wasn't liquidy, so I didn't need to eat it with bread - it was a full meal in a bowl. Everything came together in a bowl of warm, homey goodness. Perfect for catching up with TV shows while lounging on the couch.

Clam Chowder

With the colder weather comes soup-making season. To start it off this year, I decided to go all out and make something pretty decadent - clam chowder. I had never bought canned clams before, and was excited to make something rich, flavourful and different. It was early in the Thanksgiving weekend so turkey-mania hadn't started yet. I decided to go with Michael Smith's Maritime Clam Chowder because, hey, the guy's from PEI - he must know his stuff!

I got out my Dutch oven and started with the bacon - four slices, chopped in with scissors, with a splash of water. Cook until crispy, then get rid of most of the fat. Add in one onion, chopped, and two celery stalks, chopped, with another splash of water to get the brown bits loose from the bottom of the pan. Nothing like bacon to make the kitchen smell good! I skipped the splash of white wine (didn't have any) and added 1 cup milk and 1 cup half-and-half - heavy cream would've been so rich. I also added in about 1 cup of the liquid from the clam cans, as this was written in other recipes I saw online.

With the liquid went in the other ingredients - two 5-oz cans of clams, 1 large baking potato, unpeeled and coarsely grated (to thicken the chowder, baking potatoes are best), 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp dried thyme. I think I may have added extra, because the thyme became the most powerful flavour - it smelled like Thanksgiving stuffing! Not a bad thing. Cook on low for twenty minutes, to cook the potatoes - but keep an eye on it, as I found it was still burning a little on the bottom, even though the element was on low.

Add 1 can of evaporated milk, and keep cooking for another few minutes. Garnish with salt, pepper, and parsley (if you have it) and voila - a rich, steaming bowl of clam chowder! Way better than opening a can. It tasted like cream and thyme, mostly, with soft grated potatoes and chewy clams. Very simple, with few ingredients - I highly suggest if you see canned clams on sale, grab them and keep them for a Maritime-themed night. Even better, do as they do in San Francisco and get some sourdough bread bowls - YUM

Pretzels

There's nothing more decadent that creating an Oktoberfest feast - it's just large amounts of deliciously rich foods plus large amounts of German beer! We didn't do all the cooking ourselves, but I did make two of the side dishes: German-style potato salad and pretzels. The pretzel recipe is courtesy of my middle-school era Family Studies course and its teacher, Mrs. Miller-Nesbitt. I knew it would come in handy again! It's pretty similar to this Stefano Faita recipe if you'd like something more official.

Step 1: check to make sure yeast isn't expired (oops). Step 1a: Buy new yeast! Step 2: Pour 3/4 cup lukewarm water into a large bowl bowl and mix in 1.5 tsp sugar. Sprinkle 1.5 tsp yeast on top, and let stand until bubbly, 5-10 minutes. Add 1.5 c flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until blended and it forms a ball. Cover your counter with flour and dump the dough out - now you're ready to get out the day's stresses by kneading for about 5 minutes. If it's sticky, add up to 1/2 cup more flour.

Now the fun part! Divide the dough into four pieces, and roll each into long 'snakes' of dough - 1/2" thick and 15" long. This took a bit of work because the dough kept shrinking back whenever we rolled it out... but it ultimately stayed. Then we got to form our four pretzels. Brush each with an egg wash (1 egg and 1 Tbsp water in a small bowl) and sprinkle with coarse salt. We used sea salt on two and smoked Maldon salt on the other two. Bake for about 10 minutes @425 and cool on a wire rack.

The rest of our feast included sausages, saurkraut, and potato salad made with red onions with lots of oil and vinegar, inspired by this recipe. We had the pretzels with mustard and they were fabulous! Warm, bready... not as large and brown as ones you'd find in a Munich beer garden but just right for our feast. Proste!

Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of those side dishes that I liked as a kid - though my parents rarely bought the grocery store deli counter or pre-packaged stuff. I just knew it was my pick over coleslaw (bleh). I don't know why I didn't think earlier to make it myself - perhaps the idea of potatoes and mayonnaise was too rich for every day cooking? Well, when I saw this recipe for Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles from Bon Appetit last summer I figured, what was I waiting for? It's summer and I want the pickles, the egg, everything!

First - potatoes. We don't really eat potatoes on a regular basis in this household - I think we both grew up with bland boiled potatoes as a side to chicken or steak or whatever. But now we do - the magic of summer picnic fare. I buy white mini potatoes and quarter them (they cook faster), then boil them until they're done. This time I used about 16.



Bon Appetit suggests you mix them with red onion and parsley, which sounds pretty good. This time I cut diced some red pepper - it's healthy and adds colour. I also diced two pickles and added them right in as well, because pickles are delicious. And don't forget two diced hard-boiled eggs. The magazine suggest only using the yolks - I don't want to be wasteful so I use the whites too.


The dressing, however, is the best part: 1/4 cup mayo, 1/8 cup pickle juice (right from the jar! So salty and sour!), 1 Tbsp Dijon for flavour, 1/2 tsp sugar, pepper and lots of paprika - any mix of sweet, hot and smoked, I have all three. But beware - I was a little too liberal this time and the salad took on a pinkish hue. Don't bother adding more salt - the pickles are salty enough.

And there you have it, the perfect side dish for (veggie) burgers! Be warned - this stuff is addictive. You won't be able to stop making it.