Roasted Iranian Squash Soup

Christopher Robin knew that ‘soup is a comforting sort of thing to have,’ especially this time of year. In addition, it’s a one-pot meal and unless you get really fancy, it can be one of the most economical yet nourishing things you put on the table or in the lunchbox thermos. Prep is usually quick. Fling things into a pot of stock, put a lid on, bring it to a boil, turn it down to simmer and go do something else productive, like helping with homework or having a drink.

You’ve got stock in the freezer right? Oh, no? Well, there’s always ready-made stock or bullion cubes, which you can now get in fish and ham as well as chicken and beef flavors.

Soup, a word derived from the Latin suppa, meaning broth, offers infinite variety. Sweet and sour Sichuan, duck, snapper, oxtail, fish bisque, chili, split pea, curried lentil, Vietnamese beef noodle, Mexican tortilla soup with avocado, Louisiana gumbo. Italian wedding soup, Scotch broth, West Indian peanut, French onion. You can turn virtually any single, dominant pureed vegetable – broccoli with parmesan, tomato with garlic and white wine – into soup. And of course, the Eastern Shore’s signature soup is oyster stew.  (I’ve also got recipes for muskrat and squirrel soups if you’re interested.).

Roasted squash soup

Mulligatawny, whose name translates to ‘pepper water,’ is actually a substantial meal. This Anglo-Indian hybrid boasts almost as many recipes as people in both cultures, but it generally involves chicken or lamb broth and meat (leftover from a roast) vegetables, rice and curry. Apples give it a slightly tart sweetness. Add coconut milk or warm cream before serving.

Having soup in the frig is a great lunch option, too. Once a week take some to work in a microwaveable container instead of snacking on salt-and-sugar-laden carbs. One of my lunch favorites is quick but elegant: Cauliflower with mushrooms and blue cheese. Dump two cups of fresh cauliflower into six cups of beef broth. Add a large chopped shallot, about six mushrooms, some thyme, dash of nutmeg, and simmer. When vegetables are cooked, puree with an immersible blender.  At the end, stir in a big dollop of whole yogurt and about 1/3 cup of broken up Stilton or other hard blue cheese. (Brie’s good too).

Soup — and rest and laughter, which often go hand in hand with soup — helps recharge batteries. The aroma of simmering soup is encouraging, a visceral signal that despite economical downturns, setbacks, and downright failures, we can go on.

Roasted Squash Soup

1  2-3 lb. Iranian squash or other winter squash

1 qt. chicken or vegetable stock

1 large onion

1/2 sweet pepper

1/2 large poblano

1/2 apple or pear

2-3 celery tops

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp worcestershire

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cider or other sweet vinegar

1 tsp grated orange rind

dash Pickapeppa sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Split squash, scrape out seeds and roast, skin side up on a greased baking sheet, the pieces at at 350F until fork tender, about 40 minutes. When cool enough, scrape pulp from skin and put into a large pot with all the other ingredients. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until all ingredients are soft. Puree with a hand blender or cool to room temp and puree in a food processor or blender. Serve warm with a little fresh cilantro.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Mulligatawny-Soup-I/Detail.aspx

Pie Pumpkin and other winter squash

In what seems like another lifetime, I was cook/deckhand on an old coastal tugboat on which my then-young husband was captain. We hauled barges up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Occasionally, we would make a trip that was far enough offshore that US Coast Guard regs would compel us to take on some extra crew.  That’s how we met Dave Lupton. He was one of three extra hands we had to hire (or more accurately, the tug’s owner hired) when we had a tow out to the US naval base in Bermuda. That experience, including the tug engine that caught fire, which compelled us to return to the island followed by the bus engine that caught fire while we were ashore, all of which is another story entirely.).

Anyhoo, decades later, my now-older, no wiser, but definitely more experienced husband, Gary, is senior master of another tug and barge unit (the largest currently operating in the world according to the company’s info) that hauls petroleum. Dave Lupton is his AB (Able-Bodied) tankerman.  Dave, a good-natured Virginian, who also loves good food, has talked recipes with me off and on for years.  When I met them at Wilmington Marine terminal during their fall tour aboard, he asked  if I had ever tasted pumpkin butter.

Put all ingredients into heavy pot, stir and simmer

“Nope.”

“You gotta try it!” he drawled.  “My mother-in-law makes it, and it’s awwsum.”

“Get me her recipe and I’ll make some,” I promised. “I’ve got a batch of pie pumpkins and winter squash on the porch.”

So he did and I did. He’s right: it’s awwsum! Bright, not too sweet, flavorful, it’s good by the spoonful, but would be terrific on multigrain toast, muffins, in yogurt, and on top of coeur de la creme (link to a recipe below). The next trick is to get a jar of the just-made pumpkin butter to Dave when he gets off the boat and heads home sometime this week. Meanwhile, Here’s the recipe his mother-in-law uses.

SPICED PUMPKIN BUTTER

Prep time 15 minutes

Cook time 25 minutes

Cool 30 minutes

Ingredients

3 ½ cups pumpkin puree or 2 15-oz can pumpkin

1 ¼ cups pure maple syrup

½ cup apple juice

2 tblsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

In a 5-quart heavy pot, combine all ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 25 minutes or until thickened, stirring often, If mixture splatters, reduce heat more.

Ladle hot pumpkin into sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/2inch headspace. Seal and label and let cool. Store in refrigerator. Or ladle into freezer containers and freeze.

Pumpkin butter ladled into sterilized jars and sealed

 If using fresh pie pumpkin instead of canned:

Preheat oven to 375F. Scrub two 2 1;2-3 pound pie pumpkins (or in this case, one long-neck pie pumpkin/butternut-type squash). Cut pumpkins into 50inch square pieces – or into chunks. Remove seeds and fibrous strings. Arrange pieces on a shallow baking pan. Roast, covered, skin side up, for about 1 -1 ½ hours or until tender. When cool enough, scoop pump from rind. Place pulp, in batches if necessary, in a blender or food processer, and process until smooth. Place in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl to drain for about an hour so pulp is thick.

Coeur de la creme recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/coeur-a-la-creme-with-raspberry-and-grand-marnier-sauce-recipe/index.html

Arugula, roasted beets and feta

Don’t get me wrong: I love rich, once-a-year holiday foods. But for balance in both taste and texture – to say nothing of waistline — I crave salads. We’re not talkin’ lettuce and tomato at this time of year though. We’re talkin’ winter vegetables — shredded, roasted, sautéed, and raw.

There are plenty of options.  For example, you can tweak classic summer slaw with new combinations: shredded cabbage (red or white or both), beets, and broccoli stems; or turnip, carrot, and daikon radish; or rutabaga, jicama, and spaghetti squash. Add chopped apple, pineapple, or sliced clementines for a little tart sweetness, or pickled hot peppers for heat, season with abandon, and dress with a mustard vinaigrette. Classic Waldorf salad is another retro staple that cries out for new variations: Turnip, celery and apple tossed with yogurt-and-fig-vinegar dressing with poppy seed; radish, sprouts, and pear with white-wine-and-orange-juice vinaigrette with coriander. Add nuts, cheese, and dried cherries, blueberries or raisins to any of the above and you’ve got lunch. Try raw Broccoli Salad with scallion, toasted walnuts and dried cranberries dressed with a creamy mix of half plain yogurt/half mayo thinned with a little red wine vinegar, or Warm Red Cabbage Salad. Sautee some chopped red cabbage in olive oil for about five minutes, splash in some cider or balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Add some crushed garlic and sauté another three minutes.  Turn into a salad bowl, and add a chopped apple, fresh parsley, toasted pine nuts, and crumbled goat cheese or gorgonzola. Drizzle with extra vinegar and oil.

Roasted vegetable salads are terrific this time of year too; the oven’s warmth is welcome, and what’s cookin’ makes the house smell great.  You can roast beets, turnips, carrots, parsnip, winter squash, rutabaga, sweet potatoes, eggplant, (which is great dressed and served room temp with sautéed mushrooms, scallions, and shaved parmesan) and more.

One of our favorites is French lentil salad with roasted veggies on arugula.  Peel and chop some winter squash  or some carrots and parsnips. Toss with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, a bare dusting of sugar, and whatever seasonings strike your fancy — smoked paprika and chili powder are nice. Slow roast on a pan at 325F for 20-30 minutes until just tender and brown-edged. Meanwhile, cook lentils in broth until barely tender. Drain. While still warm, season them with salt and pepper, some chopped garlic and a splash each of red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Arrange all on a plate with fresh arugula and a little crumbled goat cheese, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil just before serving.  Unlike summer salads, most winter salads stay good in the frig for days so you can make a bunch on Sunday and eat ‘em all week.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cran-Broccoli-Salad/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Fall-and-Winter-Salads/Detail.aspx

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshows/2008/11/winter_salads_slideshow#slide=5

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/six-hearty-winter-salads

Inorganic vs Organic

It’s probably not news for anyone who’s been paying ANY attention at all over the past 20 or so years, but according to Prevention magazine’s website, there are seven foods that should never cross your lips. The list is a piece of affirmation for organic living. Link to the article below.

http://www.prevention.com/7foodsthatshouldnever/index.shtml?cm_mmc=Content_Ads-_-Outbrain-_-Prevention-_-7foodsthatshouldnever/index.shtml

Despite their down side, cookies are an integral part of the season for us: they make the house smell like the holidays, and baking cookies is something I’ve done with my kids since they were tiny, which adds a nostalgia factor that’s even harder to resist than the cookies themselves.

Like most bakers this time of year, there are several recipes without which it would not feel like all-you-can-eat month (the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, after which you switch to clear soups and salads). Thumbprint cookies, a chewy-crumbly brown sugar shortbread rolled in crushed walnuts with a dollop of jam in the middle where you’ve pressed your thumb before baking. Chocolate toffee bars, which are dead easy if you throw the ingredients for the short bread into the food processor. Pecan balls, brown sugar stars with orange peel that are really good with the lethal eggnog I make, lemon bars and sugar cookies. Even though I love chocolate, which has prompted several friends to thrust chocolate cookie recipes on me over the years, baking chocolate into a cookie always dilutes the main ingredient to a level where I think: What’s the point? I had never found a true chocolate cookie that I really liked. Until now.

Hunting around on the internet a couple of days ago, I stumbled on ‘Michele’s Chili Chocolate Cookies’ complete with video instructions by her husband, Chef John from Foodwishes. I was intrigued. I’ve had chocolate chili truffles with a lovely hint of passilla chili, and truffles with ground smoked chili and loved them both. So the name for these cookies piqued my interest. But it was the ingredients that really seduced me. In addition to bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate, the recipe calls for cinnamon, dried currants plumped in Kahlua, black pepper (fresh-ground of course) and cayenne. Who wouldn’t want to know how these things actually tasted?

The first time I made a batch, I was just pulling them out of the oven when Phil stopped by to drop off a tool he had borrowed from Gary, and was happy to taste-test with me.  While we’re a small sampling of the local population, as far as Phil and I are concerned, these babies are winners.  It would be a rare palate that could name all the ingredients since none stands out identifiably in the end result, but the combination gives the cookie real chocolate bite. In short: a chocolate cookie worthy of the name. I’m making this year’s batch with a little espresso powder, which, like the coffee-flavored Kahlua, heightens the chocolate-y-ness of the chocolate and goes well with chili. (All those south of the border people really know how to use their local ingredients).

See what you think.  Here are the ingredients. Video instructions available through the link below.

Chili Chocolate Cookies

½ cup dried currants

2 tblsp Kahlua

2 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 oz unsweetened chocolate

3 tblsp unsalted butter

½ cup flour

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 room temp eggs

¾ cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

 http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-Chili-Chocolate-Cookies-213125289

Cooling the custard to keep from cracking the container

Many of the ‘traditional’ foods we eat around Christmas are English. Yet for generations, English ‘cookery’ has enjoyed a well-earned reputation for ghastliness. Bangers (bready sausages), toad in the hole (bready sausages in bready egg custard), nettle pudding, and spotted dick (now I ask you!).

One of the exceptions to this ghastly Victorian gastronomy is trifle, a spectacular way to use up leftover sponge cake — something the English seem to have stashed in every pantry and cabinet for emergencies.  The sorta-stale cake is layered with raspberry jam or jelly, sherry, fruit, custard and whipped cream — the real stuff, not the stuff that splurts out of a can. Made in a cut glass bowl so you can see the layers, it’s also — as Martha Stewart would say – pretty.  In serving, you’ve got to be sure to dive down to the bottom for each bowlful in order to get it all.

Layered English Trifle

English Christmas Trifle

1 homemade sponge cake, broken into pieces

1 small packet of raspberry Jello dissolved in 1 cup boiling water with 1 cup sherry

1 15. oz. tin of apricots or 1 10 oz. packet of dried (but soft) apricots, chopped

2 cups custard sauce  made with Bird’s Custard Powder

1 cup whipping cream

Break sponge cake into pieces into bottom of a bowl. Dissolve raspberry Jello and allow to cool before pouring it into a crystal bowl. (Too hot and it will crack or shatter the bowl).  Once cooled to bathwater temp, pour into cake, drenching all of it. Arrange apricots on top of drenched cake. Make custard according to package directions. Allow to cool, whisking occasionally to prevent lumps, to bathwater temperature (for the same reason as above). When cool enough, cover the cake and apricots with custard. Whip cream and cover the custard with it. Chill completely before serving.

Raspberry Jello with sherry and chopped apricots, and Bird's Custard Powder

This recipe isn’t mine; it was emailed to me by a friend and didn’t include attribution for the author.  But while the creator won’t get credit, it will strike a lot of people as a good recipe to follow this time of year.

Parmieux Adventures cake

Christmas Cake Recipe

2 cups flour

1 stick butter

1 cup of water

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup of brown sugar

Lemon juice

4 large eggs

Nuts

2 bottles of wine

2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it’s best to make sure the wine is still OK. Try another cup… Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the wine and wipe counter with the cat.Take a taxi to supermarket and buy cake.

Bingle Jells

The cake photo, which is not an incarnation of the recipe above, is from the blog, parmieux adventures:

http://parmieuxadventures.blogspot.com/2008/06/great-cake-disastertrainwreckwhat-was-i.html

http://blog.timesunion.com/vinoteca/bread-and-wine/4924/

My friend Kevin and I just finished hosting our fourth “off-hours” dinner party this past Monday. Kevin is one of the chefs at the restaurant, barVino, that I own with my father and brother – as well as being someone I’ve known since we were both teenagers. It’s strange and lovely to not only suddenly be adults with someone who has been a part of your life since adolescence, but to also run a business with them.

Read more:

http://vinogirl79.tumblr.com/post/13908633745/good-for-what-ales-you

http://blog.timesunion.com/vinoteca/bread-and-wine/4924/#comments

Chestertown Middle School Gardeners

Sabine Harvey, Master Gardener coordinator and gardener extraordinaire, submitted the Chestertown Middle School Grow It Eat It garden she spearheaded with the kids this year to Mother Earth News’s Fabulous Food Garden contest. The garden, among about 100 (if memory serves)  submitted to the contest, was grown behind the school, and provided not only some terrific meals for the budding veggie gardeners, but fresh vegetables for the Kent County Food Pantry. While it didn’t actually win, it can darned close and impressed the judges so much they created a second prize: they’ve become runner-up and the garden is garnering $100. Well done Sabine and all the young gardeners!

Read more:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/grow-it/fabulous-food-garden-contest-winners-zb0z1112zrog.aspx

http://www.chestertownspy.com/sabine-harvey-master-gardener/