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| The Granddaughters - one is out cold. |
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| Two Families. |
On December 22nd we had a soup cook-off. We had six entries. They were:
Mariam: Chicken pot pies
Mike: Chicken and ghnocci soup
Amanada: Tom Kha Gai (Thai chicken coconut soup)
Joshua: Deconstructed Philly cheese stake sandwich soup
Lizzy: Cake soup (vanilla) with candy toppings
Paul: French cream of garlic soup
Amanda won. Her name was engraved in a large soup pot that she can keep until next year when we will have another cook-off.
Recipes:
Tom Kha Gai Recipe (Thai Coconut Chicken Soup)
Ingredients to gather beforehand!
1) Fish sauce (nam pla)
2) Coconut milk
3) Kaffir lime leaf
4) Galangal
5) Lemongrass
6) Palm sugar
7) Nam prik phao (roasted chili paste)/ I use Yellow curry paste
9) Cilantro (coriander)
10) Lime
Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless and skinless chicken (breast or thighs, cut into thin strips) Or meat from one rotisserie chicken
8 oz mushrooms of your choice
2 cans coconut milk (more milk and less broth if you want it creamier)
4 cups chicken broth
3-4 Tbs of diced frozen lemongrass (use equivalent fresh if availible)
6 kaffir lime leaves (lightly bruised to release the flavor)
2 inches of sliced/chopped galangal
2 -3 cloves of garlic smashed (not minced or chopped just smash a little with knife)
2-4 TBS Palm sugar (depending on desired sweetness) can sub. Brown sugar if needed
1 TBS of Yellow Curry Paste or to taste. Use Red Curry for more heat, but less amount!
2 tablespoon fish sauce, still good without it if you don't have this, better with the smelly stuff.
2 1/2 tablespoon lime juice (or to taste)
chopped cilantro
Method:
Add coconut milk, broth, lemongrass, galangal, curry, kaffir lime leaves, palm sugar, and garlic into a pot and bring it to boil. Stew for 15-30 min. Strain soup and discard chucks. Pour creamy infused broth back in pot. Add mushrooms chicken and boil it on medium heat for a few minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Add chopped cilantro before serving. Have extra sliced lime on hand.
Roasted Garlic Soup
Serves 4
- Garlic (3 - 4 heads)
- 26 - 30 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
- 18 - 20 cloves peeled
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
- 2 1/4 cups sliced onions
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- 3 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
- 3/4 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
- 4 lemon wedges
To Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 26 garlic cloves in small glass baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes. Cool. Squeeze garlic between fingertips to release cloves. Transfer cloves to small bowl.
Note: Check after about 35 minutes. You want the garlic to start to change color and become a light tan. You do not want it to become dry, black spots. A dark pan will cook the garlic faster. Over cooked garlic can become bitter.
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and thyme and cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add roasted garlic and 18 raw garlic cloves and cook 3 minutes. Add chicken stock; cover and simmer until garlic is very tender, about 20 minutes. Working in batches, purée soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to saucepan; add cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
Note: I was able to get the entire batch into a blender.
Serve with grated cheese over the top. Give each person a wedge of lemon to squeeze into the soup.
Note: The lemon really adds a lot to the final soup.
Note: This is not a soup that many will want to have as a main course. It is rich and very good. A small bowl as the first course would be great.
Deconstructed Philly Cheese-Stake Soup
Notes:
For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe.
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
Soup
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
- 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (Make sure you get Yellow)
- Table salt
- 2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
- 1/2 cup dry sherry
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (They recommend Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth )
- 2 cups beef broth (They recommend Pacific Beef Broth)
- 2 pounds of thinly sliced beef - like that used in cheese stakes
- provolone cheese - one slice for each bowl
- grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 green bell peppers (diced)
- French bread - 1 slice toasted for each bowl
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine
- 1 bay leaf
- Ground black pepper
Cheese Croutons
- 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)
Directions:
For the soup:
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
- Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
- Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
- Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs. Then season with salt and pepper.
- While soup cooks, butter slices of bread. Place slices of french bread under the broiler until browned on each side. Put a little grated Parmesan on bread for the second side.
- Put soup into oven proof bowls.
- In a skillet saute the green bell pepper. Remove bell pepper and fry the meat.
- Add meat and bell pepper to the soup bowls. Place bread on top, then top the bread with the provolone cheese. Put under broiler to melt cheese and lightly brown.
- Serve. You can add cheese whiz, hot chillies at the table.
Cake Soup
This is a sweet desert. It was created without a recipe and you will have to wing it a bit.
Intredients
1 cake mix (Lizzy used a yellow cake mix)
6 - 8 cups milk
Mix four cups of milk with the cake mix in a large pot. Put over medium to medium-low heat. Bring to a boil. It will thicken. Add more milk until it reaches a consistency that is thinner than pudding. It may take 2 more cups or possibly more. Lizzy thinks it took about seven (7) cups. When it is cooked for about 15 minutes to get the raw flour taste out, it is ready.
Lizzy provided toppings:
Broken oreo cookies
toffy pieces
M&M's
gummy bears
chocolate syrup in a squeeze bottle to add if desired.
Other recipes coming
We then went Caroling. The video below does not have the children and all those who went caroling. We sang the two songs at each house. The comment at the end of the video was not part of the original production. You can see the video on youtube at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frusYpy7OuI
Mariam - mandolin
Amanda - fiddle
Lizzy - banjo and guitar
Paul - guitar
New-Years
We had a Spanish dinner on New Years Day
Home made French Bread (similar to what is common in Spain),
Tortilla Espanola
olives
queso manchago
paella
I have included a recipe for the tortilla (with pictures). There are also pictures of other dishes.
Tortilla Espanola
1 10 inch oven proof skillet
2 pounds red potatoes cut into thick french fries (1/2 - 3/4 inch on sides). It took 1 1/2 pound peeled potatoes to fill the skillet.
6 eggs (scrambled)
1/2 teaspoonful salt
2 -3 cloves garlic (sliced or minced)
1 small onion (1/2 - 3/4 cup diced)
olive oil
Pre-Heat oven to 325
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| Ingredients for Tortilla Espanola |
Put 1-1/2 tablespoonful oil in a skillet (can be cold). Add one clove sliced garlic. Heat pan until the garlic starts to be golden brown. Remove garlic from the oil before it burns. The garlic is to flavor the oil. Discard garlic or if you prefer, add to a little plate with olive oil and use to dip the bread in.
Add potatoes to the hot oil (I had to do this in two batches. I put the first batch in the oven when making the second batch.) Let the potatoes brown. Turn when needed. When they are browned, I put a lid on the pan and allow the cook until nearly cooked through. Repeat with second batch (likely will need additional oil). When you are going to put the lid on the second batch, add the onion. Stir occasionally to ensure the onions are cooked. You can saute the onions separately if you wish. 
Scramble the six eggs in a large bowl. Add the potatoes and onions. Add salt. Put a little more oil in the skillet and add the egg mixture.
Leave on med-low heat for about 4 - 5 minutes. Just long enough that it starts to brown on the bottom. If you can smell cooked egg, it is long enough. Put the skillet in the oven. Cook until it is firm.
At time the egg will stick a little. I use a thin spatula to go around the edges of the skillet and under the egg to free it up. Put a plate on top of the skillet and invert. You can eat the tortilla hot or at room temperature. Tortilla Espanola is a typical tapa - some say it is the first. I like to eat it with french bread and alioli (garlic mayonase). Recipe to follow.
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| Tortilla Espanola |
Alioli
1 egg yoke
Juice from 1/2 small lemon
2 - 3 cloves of garlic crushed into a paste or put through a garlic press.
1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/2 cup canola oil + 1/4 cup olive oil
Put the yoke in a small but deep bowl. You will be using a mixer to make the mayo. You can use a whisk, but it will take a lot of effort. If you use a big bowel the beaters will not be in contact with the yoke. Add the salt and garlic. Start to mix. Using a tablespoon, slowly add oil. Very slowly at first. Keep mixing and adding slowly until it starts to form the emulsion. Then you can start adding the oil a little faster. When it looks like mayo, add the lemon juice and mix. If it is too stiff, add a little more oil. Check and add salt if needed.
Note: If you use only olive oil it is too strong. Canola oil does not add flavor. The smaller amount of olive oil adds the needed flavor.
Making French Bread
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| Dough after initial rise |
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| Dough weighed out and formed for pre-shaping |
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| Shaped into baguettes |
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| The baguettes have risen and have been scored ready for baking |
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| Baguettes on peel ready to load in the oven |
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| Baugettes in the oven. Note the two cast iron skillets. Water will be added to steam the bread. |
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| Out of the oven. |
Making Paella
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| The sofrito, shrimp and seafood mix (squid, octopus, and ???) |
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| Making shrimp stock with shrimp shells |
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| Paella with seafood mix - octopus. Shrimp not yet added. |
Making Bacon
We tried our hand at making our own bacon. We purchased a pork side. This one came without the skin. A mixture of salt, curing salts, and maple syrup was applied to the pork side and it was left to cure for 1 week. Then the curing mixture was rinsed off and the cured pork was allowed to dry for 1 day. Once dry, the side was smoked for 3 hours. We used a combination of cherry and apple wood. This was by convenience. We had trimmed our apple tree and we are making new kitchen cabinets out of cherry.
After smoking for 3 hours we finished the bacon in a 180 degree F. oven until the internal temperature reached 150 degrees. We did not do this on the smoker because it would have taken forever, The temperature outside was in the single digits and getting the smoker above 150 degrees was difficult.
The bacon reminds me of the bacon my Grandmother served. I remember going with her to a butcher shop and she purchased a chunk of bacon. She took it home and in the morning sliced off strips of bacon. When it fried it did not curl a lot and was very crispy. She cooked the bacon on a wood burning stove. Since she passed away when I was five, I do not have many memories.
The bacon is different from store bought. Very good. It is smokey with a hint of maple.
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