Cold Weather: Two Hot Soups

public domain image

public domain image

Two soups: Italian Minestrone and Japanese Nikujaga. Minestrone:A wonderful, stick to your ribs soup is minestrone. My version is vegetarian but you can add cooked chunks of chicken to it or use beef or chicken broth. It is so rich and the beans add such good protein, I don’t think it is needed. this is just one version of minestrone. Italy has different culinary regions and the same dish may be different from region to region. This version goes together quickly and is so good served with a rustic, crusty bread.

The Japanese beef stew, while similar to many versions here in the US and elsewhere, is still, a little different. It is thinner than most stews and the snow peas and ginger add a wonderful difference. I like this served in a deep bowl over rice.

Either soup will warm your tummy, make your family smile, and make you glad to be inside where it is cozy instead of outside where it is cold and yucky.

NIKUJAGA
2 lbs beef stew meat (brown in a bit of oil before adding to crock pot)
1 cup water
3 tbs. Japanese sake
3 tbs. mirin
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb baby carrots (whole)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large white onion, diced
10 snow peas halved (can substitute equivalent of shredded cabbage or bok choy)
quarter sized piece of ginger, grated
cooked sticky rice
garnish with some chopped parsley and/or slivered scallion

Directions:
1 Put all into crock pot and cook on low 10-12 hours or on high 4-6 hours.
2. Add snow peas last two hours of cooking time
2 Stir before serving. Serve over sticky rice. Use chopsticks to stir or stir carefully to not break apart

Minestrone
1 16 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinse
1 16 oz can navy, great northern, chick peas, or cannellini beans drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 stalk celery diced
2 potatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1small can diced tomatoes and juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 quarts vegetable broth
bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, sprig of thyme, 1 tbs chopped basil)
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup macaroni or any small pasta 1
Grated parmesan cheese, to serve
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbs. sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and add the onion, carrots, potatoes, celery and garlic; reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes until tender. Add the tomato paste and broth, stirring thoroughly. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the bouquet garni salt, pepper, and sugar, and cabbage and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Add beans and return to heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.Remove bouquet garni. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese to serve. NOTE: cooked chicken can be added and heated through.

 

Winter’s Coming: Easy Potato Soup

I was looking through my photo gallery and came across all the pictures of snow from last winter. The chill in the air this morning and leaves changing color and falling from the trees reminded me: Winter’s Coming. Not only the credo of the Stark family in Game of Thrones, it is a simple matter of changing seasons. Life moves on and we adjust.

Cold days and nights + warm soups = comfort. I have for you an easy potato. It is not vegan but it is vegetarian. Of course, you can add some crisp bits of bacon and cheese to it but you don’t have to. A grating of fresh horseradish to the soup adds extra snap. I like this option. Whole milk is used. Using 2% or less results in a less creamy soup but that is an option for you. A heart smart margarine option can also be used in lieu of butter. this is a recipe for two or one huge appetite.

A picture of the snow from last year and picture of little Kanzen when she was six adds to the message: Winter’s coming.

Recipe
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup water
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups whole milk (2% or less will result in thinner, less creamy soup)cc
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika and minced fresh parsley and minced green onion
Place the potatoes and water in a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover and cook until tender; drain and set aside. Coarsely mash with potato masher. How chunky the soup is, is determined by you.

In the same pan, saute onion and celery in butter/margarine until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat; add the potatoes, salt, and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with parsley, minced green onion, and paprika.

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Udon Noodle Soup うどん

Udon (oo-dahn) are thick Japanese noodles made from wheat flour and salted water, kneaded and cut into strips. Often in cold weather, udon are eaten in a simple broth of dashi, soy, and sake and/or mirin. In the summer, they are eaten cold with a dressing or in salads. Udon can be purchased, depending on your area, fresh, frozen, or dried. Homemade is the best of course and after that, fresh then frozen noodles. Dried noodles are fine too. They are thick and have a soft, chewy texture. In the summer, I’ll toss the cooled, cooked noodles with a soy and ginger dressing and put over a salad of crisp greens, celery, matchstick carrots, and slivered scallions. Chunks of cooked chicken or drained white tuna adds a good, lean protein to the mix. Good, but not necessary. I have also used cubed marinated tofu with delicious results.

As an ingredient in a soup, they are filling and homey. Chunks of cooked chicken, beef, whatever added with some al dente veggies cooked in the broth are tasty, warming, and comforting. A bowl is a good one dish meal. Regional differences abound as to ingredients, broth, etc. In the western region of Japan, broths are usually dark brown; in the east, lighter broths are preferred. Regional differences are also found in the noodles themselves.

Find what suits you best by using more soy, beef, chicken, dashi, miso for the broth. I have previously posted a good basic miso soup that would make an excellent broth for udon. I actually prefer it.  It is a warm and slurpy soup.  You may want to wear a napkin around your neck!

If any of you express an interest, I will do a post on making your own udon. Cheap and easy!!!! So – get cracking on this soup. Add or subtract ingredients: chopped cooked meats, poultry, seafood, eggs; scallions, boy choy, slivered snow peas, carrots…Become the udon king (or queen) and have it your own way! Dependent on how you divide this up, makes two to three servings.

どうぞめしあがれ douzo meshiagare, y’all!

Ingredients
2 packages frozen Udon (use frozen or thawed) or
equivalent of dried (package will give equivalents)
4 cups Dashi , chicken, miso, vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp Mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
2 Tbsp Sake
1 chicken breast (cut into bite size pieces)
4 green onions (thinly and diagonally cut)
1/4 slivered celery, napa cabbage, or spinach
a bit of grated ginger
good sprinkle of red pepper powder (optional)

Instructions
Cut green onions or other veggies thinly and diagonally. Set aside some greener parts for garnish. Heat broth to a boil. Add salt, soy sauce, Mirin, Sake to Dashi, then chicken. Skim fat and other particles from the surface of the soup if there are any. Simmer veggies al dente. Add Udon to the soup and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Put in most of green onions including white parts, immediately turn off heat. Divide noodles and soup into bowls and sprinkle on the rest of the green onions and red pepper powder if you like.

Miso Soup – 味噌汁 – Japanese Soul Food

 Miso soup is truly Japanese soul food.  it is eaten any time of day, any season of the year.  It can be delicate and simple or, hearty, as you choose.  To it can be added meats, vegetables, seafood, tofu. It is up to you.

I make a vegetable version which I have listed below. You can use dashi in place of the water.  Dashi is easy to make.  Four cups of water and two handfuls (four small packs) of dried bonita flakes. Add the bonita to the boiling water and simmer for about three minutes. Strain. Some people add some shredded kombu (dried seaweed). The taste will be different with either just water or with dashi.

There are different kinds of miso paste. I prefer the white (shiromiso) to the red (akamiso) or mixed (awase). You can also purchase miso granules or even, dashi granules. Be aware that sometimes, these “instant” varieties can be high in sodium and/or contain MSG.  Ingredients can usually be purchased at any Asian food store or even, in regular groceries.

Ingredients added to miso soup tend to be seasonal. Usually, you have heavier ingredients that sink, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, tofu, meat and an ingredient that floats – sliced scallions, mushrooms, seaweed, slivered kale, etc. My favorite is with potatoes and onions but I also like the version below with tofu and scallions.

Simmer your veggies or meat in the dashi/broth and remove from the heat. I use a tea strainer to incorporate the miso into the broth. I immerse the strainer and add the miso to the strainer. Using a wooden spoon, I mix the miso around until it is all dissolved into the broth. I briefly reheat and add the floating ingredient. Tofu is delicate and does not need to be simmered, just heated through. Do not boil or overheat the miso. It will change the flavor and also, some of the benefits of the miso will be destroyed.

Miso Soup
4 cups water
1/3 cup miso
2 green onions (scallions) chopped
1 tbs. shredded nor or wakame seaweed
1/2 block silken tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
dash soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil (optional)
bit of finely grated fresh ginger (optional)

Preparation:  Bring water to a slow simmer and add seaweed. Allow to simmer at least 5-6 minutes. The longer you simmer the seaweed, the less of a salty fishy flavor it will have.  (I omit as I do not care for the fishy taste.)  Reduce heat to very low and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until miso is well dissolved. Makes 4 servings.

Variation:  Peel and chop two potatoes and 1 small onion. Add to water and simmer until tender. Add the miso and scallion.

Miso Soup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Snow Day Cooking – Recipes

It snowed last night – great gouts of clustered snow flakes rapidly covering the ground and everything else it       would stick to.  A wet snow, in some areas it will be gone by late afternoon and in some protected areas, sometime tomorrow.  The snow covers our lawn in a smooth sheet until it gets to the woods and then it decorates the leaves, bare tree branches, and sides of downed trees.  The line of azaleas in front of our house and the ones that separate the woods from our lawn, blossom with huge clusters of pure white snow.

Still…today is one of those days I am going to pretend the roads are impassable and we are snowed in.  That means – a whole day of cooking!  This morning started off with my husband begging for sausage, eggs, and silver dollar pancakes.  Usually our breakfast is what we grab in passing – yogurt or oatmeal for me and Danish for him.  The pancakes are from a standard recipe of flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, eggs, and milk – standard, fluffy and satisfying.  I’ve been making these since I was five and had to stand on a chair by the stove to reach the pan.  The sausage is homemade – lean bits of pork left over from the killing and butchering and then ground with a bit of suet and spiced with salt, black pepper, some sugar, red pepper flakes, and lots of sage – in the south, in farm co-op stores, you can buy bags of sausage seasoning for batches from 2 – 100 pounds.  Beats bought sausage all to pieces and you know what is in it.

My husband’s uncle has a massive farm – every year they kill hogs and butcher and sell the meat or give away.  His sausage is made from trimmed pieces of tenderloin and hams and seasoned with co-op seasoning – hot or mild.   This same sausage will be used later in the day when I make sausage and cheese balls – some for munching on now and the rest to be pulled out of the freezer and cooked for the rest of the football season and on to March Madness basketball (Go Duke!).

Snow day cooking can be done on a cold rainy day or just a day you want to hide from everything and everyone and be in your own kitchen world.  On the counter great northern beans are soaking.  I am going to make a big pot of white bean (navy or great northern) and ham (leftover from Christmas and portioned out and put in the freezer) with cornbread.  This will be for dinner tonight.  I am also going to make quickles – quick pickles with a bread and butter taste to go with the beans to add a bit of sparkles.  I am in the process of writing a most learned and riveting two part article about quickles…snow day came up though and took precedence.    Sliced cucumbers and onions are on the kitchen table in a colander over a dish with a smaller saucer on top with a large heavy can of tomatoes on top to help press out excess liquid.  Bread and butter style quickles are also on the menu for tonight.

Sticks of unsalted butter are on also  the counter softening.  On the  for dessert are Mexican wedding cookies.  The pecans in them came from Georgia.  Every Thanksgiving, I go to Charlotte Courthouse where Mr. Claxton comes up from his home in Thomasville, GA and brings a huge truck loaded with this season shelled or unshelled pecans.  I buy both – enough to take me through to next Thanksgiving.  For about two miles on either direction of him along 360, you’ll see hand-lettered signs:  Pecans Ahead!  The Pecan Man  – 1 mi. Awa!!!  Your Close!!!  (big arrow) Right there – PECANS!!!!   I’ve done this for a long time but I always eagerly look for the first sign. The excitement builds.   Only in the South, folks.

Recipes are below.   As usual, I do not take pictures of ingredients and step-by-steps as most folks seem to do on their cooking blogs.  I’ve said it before:  you all are grownups and know how to cook.  A chopped carrot is a chopped carrot, a pound of great northern beans are great northern beans, confectioners sugar is……you all get my drift.  Enjoy my day with me!  I’ll glady share recipes but you can’t have my happy shoes.  Y’all stay for or come by for supper.  The cornbread is in the oven and the golden crust is liberally smeared with butter.  Sweet tea, the table wine of the South, will be your beverage to complement our meal.  Plenty of napkins are on hand to catch the powdered sugar from the cookies.

 

 WHITE BEAN AND HAM SOUP 

• 1 lb of white beans -navy or Great Northern, picked over and washed
• 2 quarts of water HOT water – soak beans in this for about three hours and drain
• Ham chunks, ham bone, ham hocks
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup of diced onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2/3 cup chopped carrots
• Salt and pepper

Fill a pot or bowl large enough to hold the beans with water, soak and drain. some folks soak the beans in cold water for 8 hours.  others bring the beans in water to a boil and soak the beans for about 2 hours. Your choice.

Meanwhile, put the ham hocks, ham chunks, or ham bone and cover with 2 quarts of water.  For frugality, I am using leftover frozen Christmas ham and the hambone.  I am not using a huge amount of ham, maybe about a 3/4 pound.  I will simmer the ham bone and add the bay and sautéed veggies, bring to a simmer and simmer for about an hour.  When I add the beans, I will add the ham chunks, bits, shreds…whatever. Cook for another couple of hours or so, until the beans are tender.  Cook longer to thicken.  Check and stir mixture in pot to ensure no sticking.   Add more water if necessary.

Serve with hot cornbread and butter or other bread of your choice.  When serving, put  a good sprinkle of chopped onion, parsley, Crystal or Franks hot sauce on top – any or all is good.  Let the individual season their beans or not.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

FOR VEGETARIAN/VEGAN VERSION:  omit ham (duh).  Saute veggies along with several cloves of garlic.  You may want to add more veggies to the sauté mixture to flavor and hearten up the taste and texture.  I use regular vegetable oil to sauté veggies but you can use fancy olive oils if you choose.

ANTI-FART (haha) TIP:  When cooking dried beans, take a nice stringy large rib of celery and cut in half.  Add to the cooking beans at the beginning.  At the end of cooking, remove the two pieces of celery.  The cellulose in the celery absorb the sulfur dioxide from the cooking liquid and help cut down/prevent stomach gas.  Be careful to remove the fart-absorbing celery ribs from the soup.

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES (or SNOWBALL COOKIES)

1 cup  (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 1/2 cup  powdered sugar, divided

2 tsp.  vanilla

2 cups  flour – all purpose

1 cup  finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Beat butter, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add flour and pecans, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.  Shape into 1 inch balls (I use a 1 inch cookie scoop).   Place, 1-1/2 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets.  I use cooking parchment.

Bake 14 to 16 min. or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned.  Roll warm cookies in about 1 cup of powdered sugar until evenly coated; place on wire racks to cool.  The sugar will coat the cookies and give a happy white coating guaranteed to “snow” on your black sweater and stick to your fingers.   Cool completely.  Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.  They really don’t last long because they are such a good, short cookie – not too sweet but rich and yummy with cold milk, hot tea or coffee. makes about 28 balls of yumminess.

QUICK BREAD AND BUTTER STYLE PICKLES

1    pound pickling cucumbers , sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch  rounds OR equivalent in standard or English cucumber. Peel, cut cukes in            half  and scoop out seeds if necessary

1     medium onion, halved and sliced thin

1   tablespoon kosher or non-iodized salt

1    cup cider vinegar

1/2  cup sugar

1/2   teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1/4    teaspoon celery seeds

1/4    teaspoon corriander seeds

1/8    teaspoon ground tumeric

Toss cucumbers, onion, and salt in colander set over bowl.  Let stand 1 hour.  hour.  Discard any liquid collected in the bowl. Rinse and press out excess water and put in large non-reactive bowl.  Bring vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, corriander seeds and turmeric to boil in large saucepan.  Pour over cucumbers and onion onion, and press to submerge in liquid.  Let cool.  Put into smaller glass container or quart jar and allow to chill at least two hours before serving.   Pickles can be refrigerated in a clean jar or covered container for 2 weeks.

                     

Easy Corn Soup – Hakone, Japan

I like Japanese recipes.  I LOVE easy Japanese recipes.  A young engineering intern from Hakone, sent me this recipe as a “thank you” for helping him.  His mentor, a most venerable engineer here temporarily in the US from Japan, told him not only would it be polite, but friendly as well and that I eventually would ask him anyway! 

Hikaru said it was an amazingly easy dish, very comforting and frugal as well.  “We all of us, love corn soup!  It can be purchased from dispensers along side of coffee and soft drinks at internet cafes.  When I want taste of my home, I make this.  You can make in 15 minutes or less.  A recipe makes enough for me or, for four normal people.” 

1 can of corn (15.25 oz)

1/2 yellow onion (sliced)

1 1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp butter

1 sprig of parsley – chopped

1 scallion

2 cubes of vegetable boullion 

Partially melt butter in a saucepan, then saute onion for 5 minutes until soft.  Add corn and stir for a minute or so.  Add milk and heat on medium-low until hot but not boiling.  Crumble vegetable bullion cubes into the soup and stir.  Remove from heat and transfer to blender.  Blend until smooth.  Return to saucepan, heat, then garnish with parsley thinly sliced scallion.

 

Eat Your Heart Out – Local Produce and Mammies’ Veggie Stew

Surrounding Richmond is beautiful farm and horse country.  The city is home to eclectic and experienced foodies.  Restaurants run the gamut from homey diners serving fried donuts topped with ice cream to pure Southern meat and three joints to elegant establishments presenting the most recent and stylish food fad.  Locavores are the power brokers when it comes to supply and demand.

The farmland has given birth to organic farms, old home farms, specialty farms, dairies, and free range poultry and meat producers.  Herbs, flowers, fruits, vegetables, salad stuffs, heirloom vegetables.  And there are as many different types of farmers markets and produce stands. 

My favorite produce stand is in the middle of Hanover farm country.  From April 1 until the day before Thanksgiving, you can buy the freshest, best variety, and cheapest local produce.  There are also things such as handcrafted (what a stylish word!) jams, jellies, pickles, cheese, butter, salt and sugar, smoked hams, baked goods.

Even as late as this past weekend, the stand was overflowing with vegetables and other products.  Mountain apples are starting to make their appearance as well.  And while the produce isn’t as cheap as it was in mid-July (super sweet corn 6 ears $1, green beans 99 cents a pound, tomatoes 2 pounds for $1, etc.), it is still cheap enough to make people in other areas green (smile) with envy.  A 25 pound box of tomatoes is $8 for example.  Because of this bounty, I have been able to can 32 quarts of tomatoes and 32 quarts of green beans, freeze 16 quarts of corn (double cut and scraped of all its milky goodness), 12 quarts of assorted field peas, and 16 quarts of butter beans – not limas – butterbeans.  Butterbeans have a silkier texture and sweeter taste when cooked.

With all this bounty, I just have to cook up a huge batch of Mammies’ Veggie Stew.  You can call it soup, thick soup, or stew.  Just as long as it is full of veggies, it doesn’t matter.  I don’t use meat in mine but you can if you want to.  The recipe comes from my great-grandmother.  I fix enough to freeze 30 quart bags and several one-half gallon bags.  One a cold rainy night or day, the smell wafting from your stove will make you smile.  Add a chunk of hot cornbread or homemade roll slathered with butter, open a jar of homemade pickles or pickled beets, and you have a bit of heaven on earth.  Some of the ingredients may seem a bit odd, but Mammie worked this out years ago.  She never let me down.  Trust me.

I double this recipe and cook it three times.  It comes in handy for unexpected company or comfort for sickness or, in some cases, to take a couple of weeks after a bereavement as a good excuse to say hello and just been thinking about you.

Mammie’s Veggie Stew

2# stew beef (optional – see notes)

3 qts. Water

1 cup chopped  onion

4 c. potatoes chopped

1 tsp. pepper

5 tsp. salt (or to taste)

2 qt. corn (double cut and scraped)

2 qt. butterbeans

3 qt. tomatoes

½ c. ketchup

¼ – 1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. hot sauce or to taste

Few good shakes of Worcestershire sauce

¾ stick butter

You can use plain water or vegetable broth.  Cook butterbeans until al dente.  Add the other ingredients.  If using whole tomatoes, break apart with hands as you add to the broth and butterbeans.   Simmer until veggies are tender.  Stir occasionally to keep from sticking and burning. You can cook down until thicker or have it thinner.  Your choice.  If you use meat, cook it first until tender and when cool, shred and add to broth.  If you use frozen veggies, use baby limas and try to find frozen sweet white corn.

Sweet Southern Peaches

Assorted Peppers and Fall Squash

Fresh Shelled Butterbeans and Assorted Peas: Dixie Lee, White Acre, Pink Eye Purple Hull, Brown Crowder, Black Eye