Oh My Cod

Posted on November 16, 2015 by melsmosaic

Another new recipe, of course. What would I do if cooking magazines went out of publication? I love posole and normally it’s made with chicken. But in a recent edition of Bon Appetit (can you see what I get often?) there was a recipe for Green Posole with Cod and Cilantro (Duh on the last ingredient!!! How can you live without that stuff?).

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 serrano chiles, thinly sliced, divided (skipped these, see below)
8 medium tomatillos (about 1¼ pounds), husks removed, rinsed (Lazy on these because I use green salsa. I usually just get the ‘normal’ stuff from Trader Joe’s. Well they just came out with some super spicy green stuff — Hatch Valley. So I used one jar of the normal and one jar of the spicy, which replaced the chiles, and oh I am glad I only used one jar!)
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 cup cilantro leaves with tender stems, plus more for serving
1 pound cod fillet (frozen chunked from Trader Joe’s)
1 15-ounce can white hominy, rinsed (used a bigger can, because that’s what I had — 25 oz)
1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
3 small radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced (skipped them because it was garnish)
Lime wedges (for serving) (ditto as above)

Preparation:

-Heat oil in a large pot over medium. Cook shallots, garlic, and half of chiles (this is the part I skipped, chile-wise because of the salsa), stirring occasionally, until soft and fragrant, 6–8 minutes.
-Meanwhile, purée tomatillos in a blender until smooth.  (didn’t have to do this because of the ease of green salsa)

-Add half of tomatillo purée to pot and cook, stirring often, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup cilantro to remaining purée in blender and blend until smooth; set aside.  (I just chopped the cilantro very well and added it a step down).

-Add cod, hominy, clam juice, and 1 cup water to pot. Bring to a simmer and gently cook over medium-low until cod is opaque throughout and beginning to flake, 8–10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in reserved raw tomatillo-cilantro purée, breaking cod into large chunks; season with salt and pepper.   (If you used the cubed stuff from Trader Joe’s or elsewhere, you don’t have the break down the cod, already done — simplicity in the kitchen!).

-Divide stew among bowls and top with radishes, cilantro, and remaining chile. Serve with lime wedges.

This stuff was good! Pretty thick/heavy, too. A bit spicy for me, but my friends inhaled it and loved the spice. Love getting variations on posole. Definitely recommend giving this a try.

Leftovers = Soup

Posted on September 12, 2015 by melsmosaic

I had to buy celery for some reason, which I honestly can’t remember. So I had a bunch left. I did not want to have it go to waste. I also did not need to consume more hummus than celery if I used it for dipping into that, because I’m really good at eating more hummus than the size of the object that I’m dipping into the said chickpea stuff.

So, I googled celery soup. I forgot many of them have dairy, so after that I remembered that using the term ‘vegan’ in searches is great for lactards (love using that term myself since I am the lactose intolerant one). Came up with several and finally found one to use via another blog. Pretty basic recipe.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped roughly
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon thyme (optional)
1 head of celery, cleaned & chopped roughly
1 white potato or 1 cup cauliflower, chopped — here I used a bag of mixed frozen veggies because they were out of frozen cauliflower
1 litre of vegetable stock — I used chicken broth because it’s what I had on hand, and I just searched vegan for no dairy
pepper

Preparation

Heat the oil in a non stick pot and add the onion and garlic. Cook until softened.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes.
Puree the soup using a blender. Hand held works fine. — used the immersion blender, that also eliminates step 4
Return to the pan, check seasoning and serve.

I tasted it when it was done and it was fine. I only made it the other day so the celery didn’t go to waste. It had to cool for a while before I could put it in containers to freeze. I finally got around to doing it the next day after it had been in the fridge for 24+ hours. WOW! Great celery flavor. Can’t wait to eat it when fall is truly here.

Riverside Hotpot

Posted on April 15, 2015 by melsmosaic

Checked out a new and new type of restaurant recently. It was Riverside Hotpot.

Some history of hot pot —

“The Chinese hot pot has a history of more than 1,000 years. Hot pot seems to have originated in Mongolia where the main ingredient was meat, usually beef, mutton or horse. It then spread to southern China during the Tang Dynasty and was further established during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. In time, regional variations developed with different ingredients such as seafood. By the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644 to 1912), the hot pot became popular throughout most of China. Today in many modern homes, particularly in the big cities, the traditional coal-heated steamboat or hot pot has been replaced by electric, propane, butane gas, or induction cooker versions.
Because hot pot styles change so much from region to region, many different ingredients are used.”

In short, you get tons of food, especially since it’s all you can eat! First you pick the base broth you want:

Then choose all the veggies and meats to throw in there. OMG! Way too much to pick from!

They bring the broth out first so it can heat up. Then they start bringing the other stuff out and you throw it in there when you’re ready and at what pace you like.

You go and go until you are maxed out. It’s just amazing. They also have a spice bar, with sauces and topping, that you can choose things from, including soy sauce, sesame seeds, green onions, etc. So much fun. What’s also great is you can make it full of veggies, full of seafood, full of meat — it totally caters to what YOU want. I can’t wait to go back!

Cauliflower and Cashew Soup

Posted on March 18, 2015 by melsmosaic

Am still on a roll to make new recipes, must expand versus stay in a rut. Saw another one that caught my eye in the most recent issue of Bon Appetit (March 2015) — Cauliflower-Cashew Soup with Crispy Buckwheat. In addition to it sounding good, I had to figure out what the heck buckwheat groats are. So, of course this was another reason to go to the great bulk section of Whole Foods. It is almost problematic that I live 1/2 mile from one of the aforementioned grocery stores. I miss living the close to a Trader Joe’s except when I need such things are buckwheat groats.

So, the fun begins.

½ cup olive oil, divided
4 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves — I went easy and used dry stuff
Kosher salt
½ cup dry white wine
1 large head of cauliflower, cored, cut into small florets, stem chopped, divided
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp. cashews — go Trader Joe’s!
6 cups (or more) vegetable stock, preferably homemade — TJ’s is the best place for (just) the broth!
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons buckwheat groats — go Whole Foods bulk! In the picture they are those things to the right of the cashews
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon paprika

Heat ¼ cup oil in a large heavy pot over medium. Add shallots, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme; season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are translucent, 6–8 minutes. *Quick note — thyme is green.

Add wine, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half, about 4 minutes. Set ¾ cup cauliflower aside; add the rest to pot along with cayenne and ¾ cup cashews; season with salt.

Cover pot, reduce heat to low, and cook, shaking pot occasionally, until cauliflower is fork-tender and vegetables have released all their water, 20–25 minutes (check occasionally to make sure vegetables are not browning; reduce heat if they are).

Add stock and season with salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, until cauliflower is falling apart, 20–25 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

*In addition to thyme being green, as I was pouring the veggie broth into the pot (they do use stock), I was thinking about the picture they have in the magazine (follow the link to the recipe) and how it’s bright white. I have brown-ish broth. How is this going to brighten up?

Meanwhile, finely chop reserved ¾ cup cauliflower and remaining 2 Tbsp. cashews. Heat remaining ¼ cup oil in a small skillet over medium. Add cauliflower, cashews, and buckwheat; season with salt. Cook, stirring often, until cauliflower and cashews are golden brown and buckwheat is browned and crisp, 5–8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and paprika. Let cool slightly.

Working in batches if needed, purée soup in a blender until very smooth — can we say immersion blender??? Return to pot and reheat over medium-low, stirring and adding more stock to thin if needed (soup should be the consistency of heavy cream). Taste and season soup again if needed.

Serve soup topped with toasted cauliflower-buckwheat mixture.

(Do Ahead: Soup can be made 2 days ahead (or 1 month if frozen). Let cool; transfer to airtight containers and chill.)

End result, very tasty, orange-ish (not white) soup — totally check out their link for comparison. Was nice and thick, just like they called for. Very unique flavor and definitely worth making!

Posole

Posted on January 6, 2015 by melsmosaic

It’s winter, which means it’s soup time. Was debating what to make the other night and came across a recipe I love that I hadn’t put together for awhile — Posole (from Cooking Light). The true meaning of the word/name is hominy, so that is obviously a must in the ingredients. There are many ways to make it/variations on the recipe. The key is that it has to be made during the the cold weather season.

Ingredients

1 pound tomatillos (I normally use green salsa but the store was out this time so actually had to use what the recipe called for)
6 cups Brown Chicken Stock (not sure what brown vs. ‘normal’ is, and I just use broth)
2 cups chopped onion
3 pounds chicken breast halves, skinned
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and quartered (I usually just use Tabasco and/or chili powder)
1 (30-ounce) can white hominy, drained
1 teaspoon salt

—>below are all garnishes
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup reduced-fat sour cream
8 lime wedges

Preparation

Remove/discard husks and stems from the tomatillos. Cook whole tomatillos in boiling water for 10 minutes or until tender; drain.

Place tomatillos in a blender; process until smooth; set aside.

Place stock and the next five (5) ingredients (stock through hominy) in a large stockpot; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from bones (I have always used boneless — and skinless); shred. Stir in pureed tomatillos and salt; cook for five(5) minutes or until heated.

Stir in chicken, and serve with cilantro, sour cream, and lime wedges, if desired.

Delicious! I served it with some guacamole, salsa and chips. I also have plenty to eat for several days or freeze to keep on hand.

Fennel and Carrot Soup

Posted on December 7, 2014 by melsmosaic

Was in the soup mood last night and remember tearing a new recipe out of the recent issue of Bon Appetit. Was the perfect time to make it — Fennel and Carrot Soup. I love fennel and enjoy carrots when they are cooked (or covered in hummus). For some reason I just cannot acquire a taste for them when they are just plain and simple, perfectly orange and raw. We all have our things.

Anyway, when I saw the recipe I knew I’d have to make a couple changes/eliminations, which is common in my world since I’m the lactard, but it would be simple.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided (I used some olive oil here because of my dairy issue)
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced (I used one+)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
1 small Yukon Gold potato, peeled, halved (I used a Russet)
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (Trader Joe’s boxes are perfect for this)
¼ cup coarsely chopped roasted chestnuts from a jar (I skipped these because I couldn’t find them anywhere)
¼ cup crème fraîche (skipped this step)
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (ditto on the above)

Directions:

Heat 4 Tbsp. butter (or some oil) in a large heavy pot over medium. Add fennel, onion, carrots, potato, thyme, and bay leaf; season with salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally and reducing heat if needed, until vegetables are soft but not browned and have released their moisture, 45–60 minutes (this will give them deep flavor). ***Right here I was staring at these delicious looking veggies and questioned sanity — WHY was there no garlic in here?!?! I quickly added some.

Add broth, bring to a boil, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer until potato is falling apart, 8–10 minutes. Let cool slightly. Remove herbs.

Working in batches, purée in a blender until smooth. (Blender??? Immersion blender!!) Strain into a clean pot; season with salt and pepper.

(Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. butter in a small saucepan over medium. Add chestnuts and cook, stirring often, until butter is browned and chestnuts are toasted, about 4 minutes.

Mix crème fraîche and maple syrup in a small bowl. Serve soup topped with maple crème fraîche and chestnuts.

Do Ahead: Soup can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.)

I can’t speak for the last few steps but I’m sure they add quite a bit. But even without them, this soup is AMAZING! Flavor, flavor, flavor! Easy to make, great on its own or with some seafood or meat. I enjoyed it with some chicken. I would highly recommend it. Can likely be frozen, as well.

No-Recipe Stew

Posted on October 23, 2014 by melsmosaic

Last Sunday I finally had the time to break in my new kitchen (just moved). So wanted to make something fun. And, the night before I opened a bottle of red wine that did not merit being finished. I don’t really want to waste wine therefore determined I would just cook with it. It had been a windy, sort of cold day around DC, so determined I wanted to make a stew-like meal. I did some research online and didn’t find anything that truly struck my fancy so got creative and put together my own thing.

Ingredients (all quantities are some/non specific):

-chicken (sliced or cut into pieces)
-cannellini beans
-stewed/canned tomatoes
-mushrooms
-kale
-red wine
-onion (used a red one)
-garlic
-thyme (had some fresh stuff on hand)
-water
-S&P

I sauteed the garlic and onion for a few minutes then added the chicken and sauteed that until it was cooked. After that I added the balance of the ingredients and cooked it over low heat for about an hour — I was in no hurry.

It was a very tasty stew, lots of flavor. I served it with a quality-of-a-name Zin, Zinzilla. It was a nice wine!

Explore in the kitchen! Never hurts to have fun and try something new.

New Gazpacho

Posted on August 25, 2014 by melsmosaic

Was looking for something new to make last weekend and had been eyeing this gazpacho recipe for awhile so finally got around to giving it a try. It was Fresh Pea and Garlic Gazpacho from Cooking Light. Pretty simple, as with most gazpacho.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups shelled fresh English peas*
2 1/4 cups ice water
1 1/2 cups chopped peeled English cucumber
1 cup (1/2-inch) French bread cubes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar**what would we do without the ability to research info at our fingertips (see * info below) — I didn’t want to get a bottle of this stuff and found several substitutes, and the one I knew I had was white vinegar (I almost used rice vinegar, though it was rice wine vinegar that was recommended)
2 garlic cloves — MORE!
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
—–
Fresh pea shoots
1 tablespoon small fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Prep:

1) Cook English peas in boiling water 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water until cool. Set aside 1/2 cup peas. *I did some research on English peas while in the store(oh, smart phones, how we love you). Long story short, I deduced that they are the same as frozen green peas. Efficiency! You can eliminate this whole step.

2) Combine remaining peas, ice water, cucumber, French bread cubes, 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, and garlic cloves in a blender; process until smooth. Stir in salt and pepper.

3) Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 6 bowls. Garnish with reserved peas, fresh pea shoots, mint leaves, and 1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil.
I opted out of the garnishing for a few reasons — there was no mint at the store, I didn’t use the fresh peas, hence has no shoots and finally, I was eating alone so who did I have to impress with decor? I just put my own good stuff in the gazpacho — tomatoes, olives, manchego and grilled chicken. Very nice, refreshing soup. It did seem to be missing something and I still can’t place it. Might be lemon or a bit more salt. But, still a nice twist from the normal gazpacho.

Portuguese Green Soup

Posted on January 26, 2014 by melsmosaic

January, cold, soup weather. It was the perfect day to make something nice and hot for dinner, especially since I hadn’t made a one-pot wonder for awhile. I flipped through several cookbooks looking for a recipe I hadn’t made yet (because I wanted to try something new) and came across a Portuguese Green Soup in my Bon Appetit book. Basic ingredients, could make some changes to use what I had, and sounded delicious.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch collard greens, center stems cut away, leaves thinly sliced — or sort of chopped/cut into pieces
1 pound fully cooked spicy sausage (such as linguiça, andouille, or hot links), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds — I used venison roast that I had and cubed it
5 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, diced — why peel them? There is great stuff in the skin!
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is soft and golden , about 5 minutes. Note: my apartment smelled SO good.

Add collard greens and saute until wilted, about 4 minutes.

Add sausage (or venison in my case) and saute 5 minutes.

Add broth and potatoes. Simmer soup uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (without sausage) to processor. Blend until smooth; return to pot of soup and bring to simmer. Mix in crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black pepper.

This is where immersion blenders are heaven!!! Now, it was hard to totally avoid the meat here but it made it kind of cool in the end. I made it not super smooth but not super chunky.

It was a very nice soup. As mentioned, the meat was sort of ‘smoothed’ out from the immersion blender. I had to add more salt — don’t know if it’s because sausage can often have more salt (and the recipe doesn’t call for any to begin with, they mention to add it at the end). I added some garlic salt to give it some more kick. But, I like this recipe. It says 4 dinner servings. Definitely! I have plenty of soup to go around.

Koper Pennie Wortel Slaai (Copper Penny Carrot Salad)

Posted on January 19, 2014 by melsmosaic

Last week I had my monthly supper club and the theme was Food From a Place You Want to Visit/Love to Visit. South Africa is on my (near future) itinerary so I did some searching for a dish from there. I finally decided on Koper Pennie Wortel Slaai (Copper Penny Carrot Salad). It’s fresh veggies and quite the ‘dressing’.

Ingredients:

Salad

1 kg Carrots
3 Onions (I used white)
3 Green Chillies or if you prefer Green Pepper (I did that — nice green bell peppers)

Sauce/Dressing (note — I did some major amount adjustments to these)

250ml water
1 packet of tomato cream soup (I used a can of tomato soup because of lactose intolerance, so eliminated the aforementioned water)
200 ml Vinegar – used about 2 tbsp white vinegar
250 ml Sugar — used about 2-3 tsp
125 ml Oil — used about 1/4 cup olive oil
10 ml Worcester Sauce — used about 1 tsp
7 ml Mustard — used about 1 tsp

To make:

Cut carrots and onions into rings. Boil carrots 15 minutes with a little salt. During the last 6 minutes, add the onions.

Dice green peppers or chillies. Add carrots, onions and chillies or green peppers in a low bowl. (Remember not to use stainless steel bowl, as it will cause a reaction due to acidity).

For the sauce/dressing, combine all ingredients and bring to boil for about 5 minutes.

Pour hot sauce over the vegetables. Refrigerate for at least one day. Enjoy!

For the balance of the meal, some food came from Italy with a Tuscan Bean soup, the Southwest with some great spicy beans, Northern Africa with some Moroccan Chicken. Delicious all around!