Sweet Potato Black Bean Chilli

I bought ingredients for our much-loved sweet potato and black bean enchiladas, but I just wasn't feeling it.  So I searched the internet a bit and came across this recipe for Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili.  That sounded much more like it, though I did make some changes to the recipe.  Perfect for a cold November evening. The smoky flavor from the chipotle in adobo ads just the right amount of flavor and heat, and a dollop of sour cream cools the palate enough for my kids to be happy eating it.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

1 onion
1/2 sweet pepper
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth

1/2 of one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1/2 lb dry beans prepared/cooked (about three cups or 2 cans)
1 lb sweet potato
1 tsp salt

In a soup pot heat 2 tablespoons fat or oil.  Add onion and sweet pepper, saute until onions are translucent.  Add garlic and cumin, cook and stir until fragrant.  Add remaining ingredients, simmer until potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cheese. 

Autumn Apple Butternut Soup

It's amazingly satisfying to cook with my own produce and the other fruits of my labors.
I made a favorite recipe of ours recently: Butternut Apple Soup. I was excited to see so much of my own efforts go into the soup. Two decent-sized butternut squash. (We let them sit on the shelf for a while to fully ripen since their vines died before they were ripe.) Frozen applesauce I made this summer from my freezer. Honey from our backyard beehive harvest . I'd love to can my own chicken broth but haven't done that yet.
Butternut Apple Soup Recipe
3 cups chicken broth
1 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cubed to 1 inch pieces
1 Lg apple peeled and cubed
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 T honey
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream

In a large pot bring the broth and squash to a simmer. Add the apples, applesauce, honey, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to med-low, simmer for 15 minutes. At this point you can begin to mash the squash against the side of the pot with a spoon. Add cream, cook for another 10-15 stirring/mashing occasionally until you reach your desired consistency. You can just puree it with a stick blender too. Salt to you own taste.

Cardamom Sweet Potato Puree

While visiting my parents I was reminded of my dad's love of cardamom.  (It reminds him of Finland--but that's a story for another day.)  So when I received a sample of the new Knorr Homestlye Stock, with a challenge to use it in a recipe of my own creation, I immediately wondered how I could also use my dad's favorite Cardamom.  This is the recipe I came up with.  My family and I have enjoyed it twice now--I hope you'll give it a try.

Cardamom Pureed Sweet Potatoes
Cook Time: 20 min  ---  Total Time: 35 min
Serves: 8 half cup servings

Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes (1.5 lbs total)
2 cups apple juice
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Fresh ground pepper

Peel Sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler, and cut into a half to one inch pieces.

In a three-quart pot bring apple juice and chicken broth to a boil. Add sweet potatoes, cardamom and cinnamon.  Cover and simmer at a low boil for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Puree the sweet potatoes with a stick blender, or in batches in a food processor. 

Serve with a grind of fresh cracked pepper on top.

Variation: For a more rustic texture, omit 1/2 cup apple juice and mash with a potato masher instead of pureeing.

Red Beet Risotto (And Mushroom Variation)

Jeremy goes to school for 12 straight hours on Mondays, so that meant we definitely did not have some amazing Valentine's Day planned.  In fact a student asked Jeremy what his plans were and he told her he was in class until 7:30.  So she asked what his plans were for after that.  Jeremy said, "I dunno--maybe watch a movie?"

I told Jeremy that I'm sure he completely crushed that poor girl's dreams about life after marriage!  Because after you get married you're supposed to have romantic special Valentine's Days forever--right?!

Well since we had zero plans for actually doing anything special I thought the least I could to was make a celebratory dinner.

I saw some ideas online for using beets to make "pink" rice salads for Valentine's Day.  I loved the idea but wanted to be sure it would actually be enjoyable to eat not just look at so I really didn't want to experiment with a new recipe.   I thought about just making rice balls, but since Owen wasn't a huge fan of the beets last time I served them (just steamed with butter and salt) I thought I would need to flavor them a little more.  Then I realized the perfect recipe to use.
 

   Risotto.  My family loves risotto.  It's very basic, but the broth and cheese make it very flavorful--I knew it would be perfect to add beets to.  All I did to make it red was add the raw beets to simmer in the broth and they bled their color into the broth which I was using to cook the rice.  Thus we ended up with striking red rice.  And cute little heart-shaped beets as well. 

And it was as big a hit as I hoped for.  Owen ate the beets up (of course he did have to remind me before trying them that he didn't like beets last time), Jeremy got a special dinner, though it wasn't the candle-lit sit down dinner of anyone's dreams, and I was satisfied with a job well done--it's always nice when things turn out like you hope. 

For the sake of interest, beets aren't the only thing you can cut into hearts either.  I also put heart-shaped carrots in Owen's lunch Monday.

Red Heart Risotto

1 medium beet-washed and peeled
3 tablespoons butter-separated
1/2 cup onion-diced
1 cup rice (traditionally Arborio)
1/2 cup white wine (or substitute with more broth)
4 cups chicken broth
2oz fresh Parmesan cheese--grated (matchbook sized piece ungrated about 1/4 cup grated)

Put 2 tbsp butter in a large saute pan.  Add diced onions and cook until softened.  Meanwhile put broth in a pot over medium low heat an bring to a simmer.  Cut beets and add to simmering broth.

I cut the beet into 1/4 inch round slices.  Then cut each round like a pizza into 6 wedges.  Then shaped each wedge into a heart.  I tossed all the hearts and all the little trimmings into the broth.

When onions are softened, add the rice and stir for 1 minute to absorb any extra butter.  Add the wine and stir until rice has absorbed all the liquid.  Keeping the broth at a low simmer, adding it to the rice 1/2 cup at a time, waiting each time to add more until the liquid is mostly absorbed, stirring often.  The whole process should take about 30 minutes.  With the last 1/2 cup of broth transfer the beets into the rice pan as well.  When all the liquid is mostly absorbed turn off the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the cheese.  Add salt if needed and pepper.  Serve hot!

This is a good recipe without the beets as well, often I use mushrooms instead.  Put two tablespoons of butter in a different saute pan and 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms.  I cook those down and add them when I add the cheese.  Delicious and creamy and we'll eat it for our main dish.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

My friend asked about Food Inc. the other day.

"So does it say you should be, like, vegetarian?"

I answered, "No." (Since I'm a self appointed spokesperson.) Food Inc. explores the industrialized food system in America, and if I was to name a food lifestyle it was promoting it is simply "eat real food." You can eat meat, if it comes from healthy animals eating the food that nature intended for them. I would call meat a real food, along with fruits and vegetables and flours milled from grains--that sort of thing.

I like to be able to recognize my food--what it is, and what's in it.

This last week as Jeremy and I were discussing grocery shopping, we felt like we needed some "easy food," based on Jeremy's current inability to help out around the house.There was the temptation of the idea of buying some ready-made processed foods.

Until I remembered that real food can be just as easy.

An onion in a pot with butter then flour.  A quart of stock.  Broccoli and some shredded carrots.  4oz cheddar and 1/2 cup of cream.

Hardly needs a recipe.

I love to look at my ingredients and see how simple they are and know that something truly delicious is coming.  That's why, although I believe I'm a good cook (through equal parts practice and courage), I've never felt comfortable with the label "gourmet" that some people sometimes give me.  Most of the time I love the basic simple ingredients. 

What else could I want?

Edited* More specific instruction if you want to make Cheddar broccoli soup.   Start by sauteing the onions in 2 TBS butter until soft.   Add 2 Tbls flour until the butter soaks it all up.   Then add chicken stock a little bit at a time while stirring to get all that flour and butter mixed through it.   Add the broccoli to the broth and simmer until soft.  Add the carrots toward the end of the broccoli cooking.  Then slowly add the cheese to melt it and add the cream and stir to combine.

Coconut Shrimp with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Coconut Shrimp with Peanut Dipping Sauce
Recipe: Alton Brown, Food Network

Ingredients

24 large (15 to 20 count) shrimp, peeled, deviened, and butterflied (We actually used a 1 lb 40-50 count bag)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 egg whites
2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, or 2 1/2 cups shredded fresh coconut
Canola or peanut oil, for frying

Directions

Pat the shrimp dry with a paper towel. In a small bowl combine cornstarch, salt, pepper, and cayenne. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy. In another bowl, place the coconut. Coat the shrimp with the cornstarch and shake off any excess. Dip into the egg white and then press into the coconut to get full coverage. Try to keep 1 hand dry, this will keep things a little cleaner.

In a large pan, heat the oil to 350 degrees F and gently submerge the shrimp, 6 at a time. Fry for about 3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove them to a rack to drain.

They were delicious! Owen Loved them. Jonas picked off all the coconut and ate it, and then ate the shrimp separately. I don't know what that's all about.

We served them with the peanut dipping sauce and brown rice.

Peanut Sauce:
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 ounces unsweetened coconut milk
1 ounce lime juice
1 ounce soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce or 2 to 3 anchovies, ground
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

In a food processor, puree the chicken stock, coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, chopped garlic, and ginger. Add the peanut butter and pulse to combine. Fold in the cilantro and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Bring sauce to room temperature and serve with coconut shrimp.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms and Asparagus

One of my favorite things about this time of year is delicious fall food! After getting married and feeling more responsible for making healthful nutritious food than I had during singledom, I decided I needed to pay more attention to seasonal produce. Now the point is, nowadays you can get most produce year-round, but it make sense to me that produce would be at it's peak of flavor, and perhaps nutrition, at the time of year that it naturally grows as opposed to when it's growth is forced out of season. Whether or not that is true, here is what definitely is true: Produce is cheapest when it is in season. So I began to explore, and butternut squash jumped out at me!

There's something about butternut squash that makes me want to eat it. Maybe it's the nice shape and pink color of it's skin. Maybe it's the bright orange color of it's flesh. The flavor of butternut is mild, yet sweeter than pumpkin, and it is creamier than pumpkin--not so stringy. The following is a recipe I found that first fall. We loved it and have returned to it every fall since.

Pasta with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Asparagus

3 C sliced shiitake or chanterelle mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T snipped fresh rosemary
1 T olive oil
1/3 C dry white wine
1/3 C broth
1/3 C heavy cream
¼ t. salt
8 ounces bow tie pasta
1 pound butternut squash, cut into ½- inch pieces (about 2 C.)
8 ounces asparagus, cut in 2-inch pieces (about 1 ½ C.)
1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet cook and stir mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary in olive oil over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in wine, broth, cream and salt. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, about 4 minutes, or until sauce is the consistency of light cream and is reduced to 1 ½ C.

Meanwhile, in a large pot cook pasta according to package directions, adding the squash during the last 7 minutes of cooking, and adding the asparagus during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain, and return to warm pot. Add sauce and Parmesan cheese; toss to coat. Serves: 8

*You can see in my picture--we were a little low on "bow ties," so I mixed in some "spirals." If you want to substitute the white wine you may use broth. Look at how good this dish is to look at! Great color. By the way, this was also the first recipe that really helped me start enjoying mushrooms, another yummy fall treat.

Mexican Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
4 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Can (15 oz) diced tomatoes (or 2-4 whole tomatoes diced)

½ Cup Rice, uncooked
1 Can (1 2/3 Cups) Black Beans
1 Cup Corn
1 Cup Chicken
2 T. Salsa
1 T. Fresh Cilantro or Parsley
¼ t. Cumin
¼ t. Salt/Pepper

Directions:
Bring broth, tomatoes, and rice to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook, uncovered for 10 more minutes.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and warm tortillas.

Notes: This soup was alt least 3X better than I expected it to be the first time I tried it--it really is good. I'll be freezing portions of this for my freezer-meal swapping group this month. I think it's a great candidate for freezing.