Missing

I have been MIA in the last couple of weeks.  First, I was too sick to really cook, and I think a blog about canned soup isn't really anything anyone wants to read.  Then, something was wrong with my login info.  I have finally gotten that all straightened out.  My cooking and blogging will resume soon!  Thanks for reading, everyone.l

Thai Soup

I recently came home from a trip to Savory with a few things I've never bought before... kaffir lime leaves being one of them. I know that kaffir lime leaves are used often in Asian cooking, especially Thai food. I don't eat Thai as much as I do Chinese or Indian, but I do occassionally enjoy their coconut milk sauces and Tom Yum soups.

Tom Yum are Thai hot and sour soups made with a variety of styles, such as Tom Yum Goong (shrimp), Tom Yum Gai (chicken), or Tom Yum Nam Khon (with milk added). There are many ways to make this soup, as I have discovered. The most common ingredients are broth, fish sauce, lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and galangal (or ginger).

I decided to make a vegetarian version of this soup. I've made all kinds of soups before, but I have never made Thai soup, nor any Thai cuisine, for that matter. But, I gave it a shot. I used Better Than Boullion mushroom base to make a broth, and also added some coconut powder (made into a milk) for a little extra flavor. I used the kaffir lime leaves, dehydrated lime peel, and lemon juice (I didn't realize until I was cooking that we were out of lime juice!) for that nice tart flavor. I also added ginger, lemongrass, cilantro, chiles, and other seasonings. The only veggies I had in the house were onions and red bell peppers; in they went.

The soup was tart and spicy, and not too bad for the first go. I definitely will make sure to use lime juice instead of lemon next time. It was not the best, but ok considering I've never used some of those ingredients before. When my husband got home, he said he loved the soup - I am more critical of myself, however. I know it could have been better.

I count the Thai soup adventure as a mediocre success. It was good, but it will be better next time.

Happy Eating!

Savory Spice Shop

One of my favorite shops that I have discovered since moving to the Denver area is undoubtedly Savory Spice Shop.  They are, in a word, amazing.  If you don't mind, I'm going to gush about them for a bit.

I discovered how great it is to buy bulk spices while living in Kalamazoo and shopping for bulk spices at my favorite health-food store there.  Buying spices in bulk is almost always cheaper, in fact much cheaper, than buying them at grocery store prices.  Even premium bulk spices are often less expensive, and as a bonus, you can buy as little as you need, instead of wasting money on a whole jar that you might not use.  So, being addicted to buying spices in bulk as I was, as soon as I got to Colorado, I began searching for a place to buy them.  I came across Savory's website, went to their store to check it out, and fell helplessly in love.

Savory is utterly the best spice shop I have ever been in.  They have four locations in the Denver area; the one we frequent is in beautiful downtown Littleton.  There, the quaint little store houses hundreds of Savory's spices, herbs, seasoning blends, and many other products.  I have gone there so many times, and yet each time I go, I somehow find something new that I have never seen before, and that I absolutely must have.

One thing that makes Savory so great (and there are many such things) is the fact that they grind their spices fresh weekly, and they mix their blends themselves, by hand, in their store.  Most spices are harvested two or three times a year at most, and then spice companies will grind and bottle them in one huge batch.  So, when you buy a bottled spice from the grocery store in June, and then the same spice again in November, they may be the same 'age,' despite being bought months apart.  As soon as a spice is ground, it begins to slowly lose its fresh flavor.  At Savory, they are constantly grinding and blending their spices every week, so when you buy them, you know they are as fresh and good as they can be.  Their blends, as I said, are made by hand, in large bowls right there in the shop's kitchen.  No mass-producing, mass-bottling here. 

Savory's selection is another great thing about them.  They have almost everything you could think to want, and hundreds more you never knew existed.  And, if you don't know what something is or how to use it, they have some of the friendliest, most helpful staff I've ever encountered.  The owner has been in the shop on numerous occassions that we have been there, and her passion for cooking, and her store, is evident.  She has often gone out of her way to help us, and always expresses her appreciation for her customers.  Last Christmas, she personally put together special gift boxes, including the free goodies they always put in their gift boxes, for my whole family.  I cannot say enough nice things about the owners of the store.

A few weeks ago, a neighbor told Dan and me about a place called Penzey's that just opened up, not too far from Savory, in Littleton.  She said it was great and recommended we check it out.  Today, we did that, and I think I will have to tell my neighbor what she is missing out on.  Despite being mass-bottled like grocery store brands, Penzey's spices are often more expensive than the higher-quality, small-batch spices like those from Savory and other small spice shops.  Everything we go to Savory for - the service, the selection, the great prices, the quality, the ability to buy in any amount... none of those things exist at Penzey's.  I guess that's why, the entire time we were in their store, we were the only ones there (not counting the one clerk, who barely said a word to us).  Then, we went a block down the street to Savory.  The store was filled, and the staff was busy helping the customers that streamed in and out.  As we walked in the door, we got a huge happy greeting, and a lovely whiff of the best spices in the world.  I don't think Penzey's is going to last very long.

Now, I have nothing against grocery-store brands, but if I can get the exact amount that I need of a higher quality, less expensive spice... well, you can see where I am going here.  For those of you that live in the Denver area, I recommend checking Savory Spice Shop out.  I bet you love it too.  For everyone else, you may be surprised at how close you live to a place to buy inexpensive bulk spices. 

Also, check out Savory Spice Shop episodes of "Road Tasted With The Neelys" and "Down Home With The Neelys" on Food Network.  (Yup, they are famous now!) 

Happy Cooking...

Edit:  In addition to being a guest on episodes of Road Tasted With The Neelys, Down Home With The Neelys, and Paula Dean's Best Dishes, Savory Spice Shop owner Janet Johnston had 6 episodes of her own Food Network show called Spice & Easy which aired in the spring of 2010.  Cool!

Peanut Sauce

A few weeks ago, my husband and I bought a huge bag of plain, in-shell peanuts to have around to give our hamsters (they love munching through the shells) and for us to snack on. There are so many, and I decided to hunt around for interesting recipes to use them. I found many recipes for Thai- and Chinese-style peanut sauces. It sounded so simple, so I decided to give it a whirl.


Many peanut sauce recipes call for peanut butter. Instead, I shelled a bowlful of the peanuts and ground them to a powder in my food processor. Thai-style recipes for this sauce seemed to call for fish sauce and often lime juice, with a base of cocunut milk. The Chinese-style recipes usually called for fewer ingredients, and more soy sauce. There were many variations, though. True to my nature, I didn't follow an exact recipe, but took some ideas from a few recipes and created my own.

I sauteed some chopped green onion in a little vegetable oil, then added some flour and water to act as the liquid base. The pulverized peanuts blended in easily. I added a few spoonfuls of soy sauce, a healthy dose of garlic powder, and about a tablespoon of tikka masala paste for some heat and flavor. I also added about a tablespoon of honey.

The sauce came out thick and creamy. I tossed it with vermicelli, and ate it with veggie chicken strips (Morningstar Farms Chik'n Strips, one of my favorite veggie meats). The peanuty flavor of the sauce wasn't overpowering, and acted as a nice base for the tikka masala. I could have stood a bit more heat, so next time i'll add some spicy chiles.

This peanut sauce was one of the quickest meals I have ever made. Shelling the peanuts was the most time-consuming part of the process; making the actual sauce took very little effort, and also, very few ingredients. As a bonus, it is a very inexpensive meal to make, and yet, I believe, could hold it's own in a formal dinner. I will definitely be making this again.

Orange-Strawberry Marmalade

This morning I ate the last navel orange we had in the kitchen. It was delicious! There was a big pile of orange peel left over from peeling the orange, and as I looked at the pile of peel, I thought, why not make something out of it?

What does one make with orange peel? Marmalade, of course! I have never made marmalade before, but it seemed simple enough. I decided I would add some crushed strawberries to balance the bitterness of the orange peel. After browsing a few recipes for various types of marmalade, I guesstimated my own recipe, and cooked it up.

I used:
2/3 cup fresh, finely grated orange peel
1 - 1/2 cup water
2/3 cup crushed strawberries
1/2 cup sugar

I simmered the orange peel in the water for about 20 minutes to soften up the peel. Much of the water boiled away, which is what I wanted. I added the strawberries and the sugar to the pot and simmered for a few minutes longer. Usually, when making jelly or marmalade, at this point pectin would be added. I didn't have any pectin handy, except what was naturally in the fruit. I did add just a touch of corn starch to help thicken the sauce a bit. In the end, I didn't have a true jelly-like marmalade, but more of a very thick sauce.

My saucy marmalade came out wonderfully! I was quite pleasantly surprised. The taste of the orange peel is delicious and not overly strong, and the sweetness of the strawberries balances it nicely. I decided to make some simple thumbprint cookies and filled them with the marmalade, and that worked out quite well. I also tried spreading some of the marmalade on a warm crepe, and it was yummy.

I'm quite happy with my homemade marmalade experiment. I'm never throwing away my orange peels again!

Strawberry Sauce

It's getting towards the end of summer, and summer fruits abound. You can get all kinds of berries cheap at your local farmer's market or grocery store. Berries are my favorite kind of fruit. I think that fresh berries and homemade whipped cream is the best dessert.

This morning I decided to make some cinnamon french toast. We had a batch of strawberries in the fridge, so I chopped some up, tossed them in a pot with a little sugar and water, and enjoyed fresh, warm strawberry sauce with our french toast. It was delicious! We had some leftover, so I think i'll have it with the crepes I had leftover from making my dosai the other day.

There are so many simple and great ways to have berries!

Potato Dosai and Chutney

I love Indian food. For one thing, well-made Indian food, with it's vibrant spices and unique types of food, is absolutely delicious. Also, though, Indian cuisine offers endless vegetarian options. At one of my favorite Indian restaurants in Kalamazoo, I sometimes used to order their Masala Dosai. Dosai is an Indian crepe made out of lentils (instead of egg and flour, like a French crepe). Masala Dosai are these crepes filled with a spiced potato filling.

Several years ago, I decided to play around in the kitchen one day, and made my own version of potato dosai with french crepes and my own potato filling. It was yummy, and I've been making it ever since. I've never looked up a recipe to make lentil dosai, and I always make the potato filling by winging it instead of writing down my amounts or anything, so it's different every time. My own version of potato dosai isn't authentic Indian, but it is tasty. I love to serve it with spicy fruit chutney. There are plenty of great chutneys at your local grocery store. Once in a while, though, it's fun to make a homemade chutney. You can find hundreds of recipes for Indian-style spicy chutneys, like apple or mango. I usually just wing it.

Like I said, I don't go by a specific recipe (except for the measurements for the crepes, which has to be exact), but I will give a general description of what I do for those who want to know.

Crepes:

1 c flour, 1 tsp. salt, mixed together well in bowl. Make a hole in the center, into which pour 1.25 c milk and 2 well-beaten eggs. Slowly mix the flour into the liquid, so that there are no lumps of flour at all. Then cover and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before using it to make the crepes.

After heating a pan so it's nice and hot, spray it with a little cooking spray, spoon in a ladel of the batter, and tilt the pan so the batter makes a nice, thin crepe. Cook it 'til it's golden brown, flip, cook on the other side until it's done, and remove it from the pan. Spray the pan with a little more cooking spray, make another crepe, repeat, etc. Save the crepes on a plate or pan without folding them. You can spray the plate with a little cooking spray to make sure the crepes don't stick, but if they are cooked enough, they shouldn't stick too much.

Potato Filling:

It is common in Indian food to include cooked green peas with the potatoes. Sauteed onions are another common ingredient. Sometimes, I use carrots, cooked and slightly mashed up, instead of peas.

Boil however many potatoes you think you need, and mash them with a masher so that there are still some chunks. Add whatever other veggies you are using. Add some water and/or milk, so that the potatoes are very sticky, and also toss in your seasoning, and salt. Using a pre-mixed curry powder can be really good. Turmeric, cumin, cardamom, garlic or roasted garlic, paprika, any sort of chile peppers you like - all those are good options for seasoning the potatoes. I like to make them just lightly spicy, but do whatever you like.

Fill the Dosai:

It's easy to make the potato filling and the crepes in advance, and then throw them together when it's time to eat. I just lay a crepe out flat, with the prettier golden-brown side facing outwards, and spread the potato mixture over the whole crepe with a big spoon. I make the filling about 1/2 inch thick. Then cover it with another crepe, golden-brown side out. Bake them in the oven on a baking sheet until they are heated through, and the edges of the crepe are a little crispy. You can cut them in halves or quarters, and serve them with chutney or whatever other Indian condiment you like. Some seasoned, stir-fried veggies on the side are very good.

Apple Chutney:

This is one way I have made spicy apple chutney. This makes for a very small amount, for 2-4 people. Amounts are approximate, as I have never actually measured, so apply your own tastes to the "recipe":

1 large apple, peeled and chopped small, 1tbsp freshly grated orange peel, 1.5 tbsp sugar, .25 c water, 1 tbsp finely chopped onion, a little butter/margarine, fresh garlic or ground garlic, 1 tsp tomato powder or a spoonful of tomato paste, cardamom, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and cumin.

Sautee the onions (and fresh garlic) in a little bit of butter until they are soft. Add everything else, stir it up really well, and simmer it all together, covered, until it's the consistency you like. I like to cook it until the apples are very soft, and then mash them up just a little, so that it is still very chunky. You can make it as mild or spicy as you wish. I use mostly cardamom, a little bit less than that of cinnamon, and only a touch of cumin and cayenne.

That's my "recipe" for Potato Dosai and Chutney. Enjoy!

Fondue

I think cheese, as is, is a reason for living. My mom's recipe for cheese fondue is one of my favorite ways to have cheese... so you can imagine how I must feel about the stuff.

There are many different recipes for fondue out there, but even though I keep telling myself I'm going to try some of those someday, when it comes time for fondue, I really only want the same exact stuff that I already know I love. I've always made it the same exact way my mom always has, and it is so simple, and so very good.

My mom's recipe calls for just a few simple ingredients: A little white wine (cheaper wine is actually better), a little garlic powder, one part (natural) swiss cheese, and two parts brick cheese (or muenster). Heat the wine and garlic, slowly stir in cubes of the cheeses, toast some cubes of french bread, and you're done.

The only difficult thing about fondue is that, in general, to serve it properly, you have to have a decent fondue pot, for it to stay heated as it's served. But, if you don't have anyone to impress, you can just serve it from your stove in the kitchen. That's what I do if I just want to make a very small batch for myself. A few pieces of bread, stir up the fondue... best snack ever.

Rutabaga Revisited

I took the advice of my sister and my stomach, and decided to turn my leftover roasted root veggies into soup. I love making soup, mostly because I love eating soup, and it can be so easy to throw some veggies and broth into a blender and make something yummy.

With the leftover parsnips, rutabaga, and carrots, I also tossed in one regular ol' potato. I added some green onions, water, and a whole lot of butter, blended it all, then stirred in milk mixed with flour. For seasoning, I tossed in some crushed red pepper, parsley, salt, pepper, and some kala jeera (also known as black cumin).

I have a seasoning blend called Black Canyon chili powder which I get from my favorite spice store, Savory Spice Shop. Along with the usual chili powder spices - ancho, garlic, and whatnot - it has cinnamon and cocoa powder. It is smokey and hot, but also sweet. I love the Black Canyon chili powder, but haven't found many uses for it in my usual repertoire of dishes. I thought it would go well in my root veggie soup, and it did! I threw a ton of it in there with the other seasonings.

The soup was delicious, warm, hearty, and spicy. My husband loved it too, and commented that it would be perfect on a cold day instead of chili. I concur.

Tapenade

I have had olive tapenade numerous times, but have never made my own. I've had both the freshly-made tapenade and the jarred, supermarket kind. There are a few supermarket brands that aren't bad, but fresh is always far better.

When I decided to make my own tapenade, I looked up recipes on this here interwebs, and found several varieties. The most basic calls for olives, capers, and lemon juice, while one (silly Emeril Lagasse) requires 13 ingredients, including Dijon mustard and Cognac. I think simpler is better. While on the interwebs (amazing thing, that interwebs), I learned that "tapenade" comes from the word tapeno from the Provence region of France, meaning capers.

I used 1 cup of fresh Calamata olives, about 2 tbsp of capers, a tbsp of lemon juice, a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I pulverized the whole thing in my teeny-tiny food processor (which is really very cute, but only good for small things like this) until chopped into bits but not a mush. I could have chopped it more, but I wanted a coarser texture.

I had bought some English muffin bread, so I cut circles out of that (glass top-down on the bread, cut around the edges) and toasted them so that they were nice and crisp. The tapenade was delicious and had a very heavy and pungent flavor from the Calamata olives. I think I would like to try to make a slightly milder tapenade and see what that is like, but it is hard to find fresh olives besides Calamata or green Manzanilla. I want to try to find Aleppo, Gaeta, Atalanta, or Nicoise olives and see what they are like in a tapenade, but I haven't been able to find them around here. I will have to keep looking!

Homemade tapenade counts as a success, and also, is extremely cheap, quick, and easy to make.

Rutabaga and Parsnips and Carrots, Oh My!

Until recently, I don't think I have ever had a rutabaga or a parsnip. I am sure I could scarcely even describe one. If I had ever had one, it would have been in disguise, snuck into a vegetable soup or something. I am sure I wouldn't have known.

Parsnips and rutabaga are both root vegetables, like carrots and turnips. In fact, rutabaga are thought to possibly be the result of a cross of a turnip and a wild cabbage. Rutabaga have a reputation for being a poor man's vegetable and something to be avoided. I found that stamp to be wholly unwarranted. Rutabaga appear somewhat like turnips, but larger, and with different coloring. Parsnips look very carrot-like. They are larger than carrots, however, and have a lovely creamy color.

I peeled my first-ever parsnips and rutabaga just as I would a carrot or a potato, and chopped them into medium-sized pieces, perhaps 2 inches square. I tossed them onto a baking sheet with some chopped carrots, and they made a lovely mix of colors, with the pale cream of the parsnips, the beige of the rutabaga, and the orange of the carrots. I drizzled olive oil over the whole thing, and sprinkled fresh rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper over the top. Into the oven at 400 degrees.

I found out very quickly that the cookie sheet didn't work. The cooking vegetables produced a bit of juice, which dripped off the cookie sheet and caused a burning smell and even a tiny amount of smoke. I switched the vegetables over to a glass lasagna dish, and that seemed to work much better. I left the veggies in for a little over an hour, and then it was time to sample my first rutabaga and parsnips.

Everything was delicious, but I unfortunately cooked them a touch too long. I'll know better next time. The rutabaga had a taste that was somewhat reminiscent of sweet potatoes, though nuttier. The parsnips definitely tasted like what they are, a cousin of the carrot, but sweeter. All in all it was a tasty new experience. The variety of colors of the three root veggies paled a bit with the cooking, especially the rutabaga, which became lighter in color. It's my understanding that you can set the colors of the veggies by dunking them in hot and then cold water, and that may be something that works for the rutabaga. Even with the diluted colors, however, it was still a very nice, colorful presentation. Something new for a simple and earthy side dish.

I have read that rutabaga are good when they are mashed, like potatoes. I will try that someday. In the meantime, I am calling my roasted-root-vegetable adventure a success.

Talking About Food

I have decided to start a little blog for myself. I have discovered a few new foods recently, and it made me realize that I have been in a rut. A food rut. It happens to all of us, I assume, that after a while, we just end up cooking the same things in the same ways over and over again. Even 'new' foods get thrown into our repertoire in a very familiar way. Same spices, same cooking methods, same ol' same ol'.

I want to stop that cycle. I decided tonite that I am going to purposefully go out and find new foods, and new ways of cooking them. Spices, veggies, wines, cheeses, whatever. And, I thought, why not blog about them? It will be a nice record of what I am doing, what I like, what I don't, what is a failure, and what is a success.

My favorite food, by a landslide, is cheese. I can't even say what specific cheese, or even what type of cheese, or even what type of milk I prefer in my cheese. I love almost all cheese I have ever come across. Since moving to the Denver area, a cheese shop called The Truffle has quickly and easily become my favorite place to shop. Also, I received a wonderful little book about cheese and wine from my sister for Christmas. Despite a life-long love of cheese, these sorts of things have opened my eyes to a bounty of new cheeses. There will be much about cheese in this blog.

I'm not a chef, but I do love to cook, and I really love to eat. Much of what I say may sound amateurish or even stupid. I don't know all the correct terminology, and something that is new to me may be old hat to many cooks. This is not meant to be anything but a casual journal of my experiences with food. I expect to broaden my food horizons, and hopefully learn some things along the way. Enjoy, and Bon Apetit!