Wed, 13 Aug 2008

Lentil Soup

Once again, the beauty and simplicity of soup is overwhelming. I threw this together earlier this week, and it gets better with age.

Chop up an onion (I had a Vadalia on hand, so that is what I used). Drizzle a little olive oil in a 5 quart soup pot, sweat the onions for a bit, until they start to become translucent and soft. Chop up some carrots into medalions, throw in the pot. Add some salt and pepper, let the carrots cook until they start to grow soft, stirring occasionally. Give a pound of lentils a brief rince, throw in the pot, add a quart of veggie stock and enough water to cover things. Stir and taste, add salt and pepper as necessary. Cover and cook on medium heat until the lentils are soft but not mushy.

I like soups a bit creamy, so I took the stick blender to this --- not so much as to make it a smooth puree, just enough to thicken it but still leave some texture.

Seems particularly good with sourdough rolls.

Posted at: 12:55 | category: /food | Link

Mon, 26 Nov 2007

Mushroom Stew

I finally had gone long enough in life without owning a crockpot, so off to the store I went last night, picking up a six quart unit (when I cook, I cook large, and freeze up a weeks worth of lunches). This was inspired by reading a recipe for mushroom stew.

I made the recipe pretty much as noted, although I didn't have any portobella mushrooms, and I was kinda free handed with the amount of ingredients. For my size crock pot, I'd probably up the amount of the sauce by half — I added a bit of water to it, which cooked off, but the stew was slightly too thick. More sauce would fix that, I believe. I also used the hand blender to blend the sauce stuff until the little tapioca balls were mostly broken up — you probably don't need to do that, I'd guess.

It turned out very tasty. The best part, however, is if you follow the instructions and put a thick layer (I mean thick) of onions on the bottom of the crock pot, and do not disturb them at all. I only poked a bit at the ingredients when I added the liquids, just to make sure everything got in. When I got up this morning (I was late in getting everything together, so I just let it stew while I slept, and man, was that great to wake up too) I turned it off, let it cool while getting ready for work, scooped some out of the top for lunch and put the rest in the fridge. It wasn't until tonight, when I put the rest in containers and put some over some leftover couscous for dinner, that I discovered the hidden treasure.

That thick layer of onions basically turned into a camelized layer of pure TASTY. Seriously, so good. So, I highly recommend this recipe, crock pots in general, and I'm also sitting here trying to come up with a good French onion soup recipe that can use this carmelized onion process to good effect.

Posted at: 23:29 | category: /food | Link

Tue, 04 Apr 2006

Goulash of the Gods

I come from a midwestern background where goulash is macaroni, ground beef, tomato juice and paprika. It's good, but this stuff is better.

Start with this recipe. I put much more paprika, cut the oregano and basil down a bit, made it one potato, one onion and one green pepper. Also, I cut up eight ounces of mushrooms, and added a large handful of what are called "soyatene", basically large chunks of defatted soy protein which unfortunately looks a lot like dog food, pre- soaked in some vegetable broth. I also added about 1/4 cup of butter, leaving out the oil. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, let sit for about 40 minutes. When I put the noodles on to boil, I turned the heat up on the goulash to high and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Drain noodles, put a little butter on them, dish the goulash out. Tasty.

Also, boo to vegweb.com for changing their layout and breaking all of their recipe links.

Posted at: 12:44 | category: /food | Link

Wed, 18 Jan 2006

Italian Stuffed Grape Leaves

Yeah, I know "Stuffed Grape Leaves" and "Italian" are hardly thought of as complimentary ideas, but I need to go grocery shopping and this is what popped in my head when I got hungry for stuffed peppers, couscous and stuffed grape leaves.

In a pot, put in some vegetable broth (I just used broth from the giant pot of vegetable soup I made earler this week) and a bit of butter. Throw in some capers, chopped green olives, chopped roasted red peppers, a bit of dill, parsley, a dash of cumin. Bring to a boil. Add couscous and a pile of seasoned bread crumbs. Stir, reduce heat to low, cook until couscous is almost done. Cool.

De-stem some grape leaves (this makes a lot). Take a large pot, drizzle sirarcha chili sauce on the bottom (don't as me why, I just did). Wrap couscous in grape leaves in the manner of stuffed grape leaves, stack in pot. Cover with a bit of tomato sauce. Cook on medium heat for about an hour.

Verdict: fairly tasty. Next time I'll add some finely chopped mushrooms.

Posted at: 21:31 | category: /food | Link

Wed, 28 Dec 2005

Vodka Gravy

This can lead to nothing but good.

Posted at: 17:59 | category: /food | Link

Thu, 21 Jul 2005

Seitan with Textured Vegetable Protein

Well, this didn't work all that well. I was trying to use the seitan as the binding on something that had a slightly different texture than seitan, mealier. I decided to add a bit of textured vegetable protein.

I used roughly the following recipe:

Mix all the wet ingredients in a large bowl. Mix all the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly, mixing the entire time.

The problems started when I tried to knead the dough. It was as if it was rejecting the TVP, bits of it just kept coming out and not sticking at all. At the end of five minutes, a good chunk of the TVP was on the cutting board. I let it sit about twenty minutes, and then put it in this boiling:

Right after putting it in, reduce to simmering and cook for 45 minutes. They seemed to turn out okay, not quiet the texture I was going for. I think next time I will try corn meal instead of TVP.

Inspired by this recipe.

Posted at: 22:49 | category: /food | Link

Fri, 15 Jul 2005

Baba Ganoush, part I

This evening I finally got around to making baba ganoush from scratch, using the second method listed here. It wasn't bad, but the taste was a bit less than what I was expecting, and I added way too much garlic (yes, such a thing is possible), and sadly was out of onion. I'll have to try it again sometime, with less garlic, with onion, and probably with a bit more corriander and cumin.

Posted at: 00:25 | category: /food | Link