Sausage, Bean & Kale Soup

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Lots of stains on this page, and notes scribbled in above and below the recipe, so you know it’s one of our favorite soups!  I probably make this soup more often than any other.

1 1/2 cup dried calico beans (a mix you buy), soaked in 6 cups water
or 2 cans black beans, and one can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained.

3/4 cup chopped turkey or real ham – (can skip if  you don’t have it – just add more sausage)
8 oz. sausage, halved and cut into 1/2″ pieces
4 slices turkey or real bacon, chopped into 3/4″ pieces
1 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cup chopped leeks
4-5 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp fresh, snipped rosemary or 2 tsp dried
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leave
3 cups kale, rough chopped

Rinse beans and soak over night or simmer them for four hours. (If using canned beans, just rinse and drain them.)

Melt butter in a large pot. Add meats and cook 10 minutes, them remove. Add veggies and cook 10 minutes. Add meat back in, add beans, spices and chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for an hour. Just before serving, add the kale and cook 2 minutes more. Check salt and pepper.

My notes say: Delish to have on a winter night with hot baguettes, Good to have with Mummy and Pappa. Most tellingly: If using canned beans, only use kidney and black beans. (I think there was an unfortunate incident with garbanzo beans.)

Maya’s Strawberry-Banana Yogurt Smoothi

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Maya wrote this recipe down on February 16th, 2009 when she was just 10 years old.  It was President’s Day, so maybe she was home from school.  She and Samir used to make smoothies very often, and I’d often later find a mysterious colorful liquid in a glass in the refrigerator.  Somehow it’s hard to make just one glass of smoothie!

1 banana
6 ice cubes
3 big frozen strawberries
2 giant spoonfuls of strawberry yogurt
dash milk

Add banana and strawberry and yogurt. Mix. If thick add milk and ice.

(Note from Mom – I think she cut up the bananas, and used a buzzwand to blend. I am pretty sure you add the ice no matter what and only thin it with milk. The underlines are in her original recipe.)

Louisa’s Puerto Rican Chicken & Rice Stew

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My friend Louisa introduced us to this amazing stew at their Winter Solstice Party, and it was love at first bite.

Louisa and her husband Bill have a wonderful tradition:  they host a Winter Solstice Party that’s a potluck dinner, with food that represents the sun: round, hot, yellow or somehow sun-related.  (One year our friend Josh brought home-made sushi, which worked since it was food from the land of the rising sun!)  It’s always fun to think of a dish that reminds us of the sun and to see what everyone else brings.

They ask everyone to come around sunset and to bring a candle for a candle exchange.  Their house is only lit with candles and the light of the fire in the fireplace, and it’s cozy and warm. It’s a really wonderful tradition and a chance to catch up with friends and to reflect that even on the longest night, the sun will rise again.

Anyway, I asked Louisa for her recipe, which she was kind enough to share.  It makes a lot and is one of our family’s favorites.

2 tsp garlic, crushed
2 tsp fresh oregano, or 1 tsp dried
1 tsp each cumin, salt, black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast sections, cut into bite size pieces
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
4 oz. turkey ham or bacon, or real ham or bacon, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups rice, washed (I use basmati)
6 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1/4 cup green olives, halved
1 Tbsp capers

Mix garlic and spices, and rub into chicken. Heat half the olive oil in a big dutch oven, and brown chicken (about 10 minutes.) Remove from pan.

Add more olive oil, and saute onion and green pepper for 5 minutes. Add ham and tomatoes and cook 5 more minutes. Add chicken back in and simmer 20 minutes.

Add rice and stir, then add stock and stir to combine. Bring stock just to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for about 17 minutes. Add cheese, peas, olives and capers, and cook 5 more minutes.

It’s meant to be soupy, so you’ll need to serve it in bowls. So good. Thanks, Louisa!

Paprika Chicken, Sausage & Rice

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2 Tbsp olive oil
3 slices turkey or real bacon, chopped up
2 cups onion, diced
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 green pepper, diced
1 pkg kielbasa sausage, halved and sliced into 1/2″ slices
1/8 tsp saffron
Black pepper
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless cut into bite sizes  (Can use half thighs, too.)
1 Tbsp hot paprika
salt to taste
2 cups uncooked rice
5 cups chicken broth

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan. Add bacon, and saute until cooked. Then add onions, pepper and sausage, and cook several minutes until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from pan, and place in a large, oven-proof casserole. Add black pepper and saffron and stir gently.

Sprinkle chicken with paprika and a little salt. Add to pan, and cook, until chicken pieces are browned. Add to casserole.

Add rice and chicken stock to casserole and stir gently to combine everything. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until the rice is done. My notes don’t say if you needed to cover the casserole, but the ratio of broth to rice is pretty high, so you probably don’t need to.

Makes a nice, large batch.

Orange-Apricot Buttermilk “Pudding”

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We bought fat-free half and half by accident, and had some buttermilk left over and I wondered if there might be a recipe for a buttermilk pudding where I could use both up.  I found one online from Garrett McCord, and tried it as an experiment.

I made the recipe pretty much the same as his, but at the very end, I threw in a large spoonful of Orange-Apricot Marmalade from Sarabeth.  Then it was off to the fridge.

Success!  A light, creamy gelatin-based pudding that’s slightly sweet but with tangy notes of orange, apricot and buttermilk.

2 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 Tbsp water
1 cup half n half (fat-free works if you’ve accidentally bought some!)
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp orange-apricot marmalade (or apricot jam and orange marmalade)

Mix the gelatin and water in a bowl. Let set. It will thicken but that’s okay.

In a saucepan, heat half n half and sugar, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is starting to bubble just a bit. Remove from heat, and pour about a 1/2 cup into the gelatin mixture. Stir well, then add back to pan.

Add buttermilk, vanilla and marmalade. Stir well and pour into a glass dish. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight, until the gelatin is nice and firm. There may be bits of orange zest or apricot in it, but we didn’t mind them at all.

This makes a very nice, light dessert that would even be good for company. You could dress it up by garnishing it with fresh fruit like raspberries, or diced mangoes, and a drizzle of honey.  Would be really good for a summer dinner party in the backyard.

In hindsight, I wish I’d poured the pudding into smaller bowls, which would have been prettier. Also, Garrett uses heavy cream instead of half n half.

Spinach on Toast with Fried Egg

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Ever have one of those weary days when you get home and just need a really quick, really easy supper?  

I thought of this on my drive home last night and 10 minutes after I walked in the front door, Kumy and I were sitting down to eat. Kumy told me that when he was a child, spinach on toast was one of his favorite meals but they had it with hard-boiled egg slices. This may become a regular meal – it was so good!

4 slices good bread, toasted
butter
garlic powder

olive oil
garlic powder
two really big handfuls of fresh spinach
black pepper
parmesan cheese

eggs
salt & pepper

Toast the bread, lightly butter it and sprinkle very lightly with garlic powder.

While bread is toasting, heat olive oil in a large frying pan, sprinkle in a little garlic powder and add spinach. Cook until spinach is just wilted. Add a few grinds of black pepper and a handful of parmesan cheese. Set aside.

In another frying pan, heat olive oil, and make sunny side up eggs. (Yolks should be runny.) Season with a little salt and pepper.

Put toasts on a plate, top with spinach and fried egg. Delish!

Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)

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This is a vegetable that’s always available in Asian Markets and one of our favorites. It has a milder flavor than broccoli, and is much leafier. You could substitute spinach I think. Or you could use Broccoli rabe. Whatever you use – it’s a super quick side dish and so good. I served it tonight with Thai Fish and rice and it was a perfect plate. It does use sesame oil which is available in Asian Markets and adds a wonderful flavor.

1 bunch gai lan, washed
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp soy sauce (check label for gluten)
1 Tbsp rice vinegar (or cider vinegar)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed.

Start a large pot of well-salted water to boil.

Add all other ingredients to a large frying pan. Stir well and heat on medium/low heat, stirring constantly. Cook until the sauce is starting to get quite sticky and a little thick, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Lay Gai Lan on a cutting board, and cut it in 2″ strips, starting at the bottom of the stem. As soon as you have stem pieces cut, toss them in the boiling salted water. Continue cutting leave into 2 inch strips and add the leaves to the boiling water. Boil for just a couple of minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, or tongs, remove the Gai Lan from the boiling water, shaking as much water out as you can. (Some will remain.) Add to sauce and stir to distribute the sauce all over the Gai Lan. Serve immediately.

If you are making it with spinach, there is no need to boil the spinach, just add it to the pan as soon as the sauce begins to thicken. The moisture in the spinach will thin down the sauce and make it just perfect.

Here is a photograph of Gai-Lan:

Gai-Lan-Chinese-Broccoli

Thai Baked Fish (in Nam Prik Sauce)

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Just made this tonight from Matt Danzer and Ann Redding’s recipe in the Wall Street Journal. Wow. So easy, and unbelievably good. Served with Gai Lan, a really delicious veggie. I varied a bit from the original recipe, but the Swai looked good at the Asian Market.

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 whole lime, zested then juiced
1 more lime quartered
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce (find this in the Asian section – adds an unmistakable flavor.)
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 green chillies – very small and thin ones, sliced thinly
3 lbs. swai fillets (recipe calls for 2 lbs. cod or seabass in the WSJ)
6 Tbsp Cilantro leaves
Cooked white rice

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix garlic, brown sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, olive oil, half of the zest, and the chillies, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Put fish fillets skin down (if they have skin) in a shallow baking dish. Spoon the sauce over it. Cover with foil, or flip another pan over it. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the fish is just cooked.

Serve over rice with the pan sauce. Garnish with cilantro, fresh lime and zest.

Asian Cabbage Slaw

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Simple and delicious – great for a picnic.  Great side with grilled chicken.

2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp oil
2 tsp sugar
pinch salt

Mix in a large bowl

3-4 cups cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 cup grated carrots
1 cup cilantro, chopped
4 scallions, cut into 2″ pieces, and slivered into “matchsticks”
1/2 jalapeno, split, deseeded and minced

Dump all veggies into the bowl and toss well.

Samir & Taylor’s Spinach & Artichoke Mac ‘n Cheese with Pesto Chicken and Bacon

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Samir and Taylor made this last night and it was incredibly delicious – truly a new high in Mac ‘n Cheese. They made the whole thing in a cast iron skillet, which I love, too. Thanks, you guys!

2 Tbsp Butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of milk
two big handfuls of spinach leaves
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 cups pasta (they used shells)
2 cups of mozzarella
1 cup of cheddar
1 cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 package of turkey bacon or real bacon (optional)
1 1/2 lbs chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup pesto

Marinate chicken chunks with pesto,and put in an ovenproof dish, covered with aluminum foil. In a baking pan, lay bacon slices. Bake both at 375 for an hour or so. Stir chicken half way through and recover with foil. Remove crispy bacon from oven, drain and break it up. Remove chicken and save liquid from baking pan.

Melt butter in a cast iron skillet. Saute garlic until it’s lightly browned. Reduce heat and add spinach and artichoke hearts. Saute until spinach is wilted.

Add milk, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, add pasta and cook for 10 minutes,(al dente) stirring occasionally to make sure the pasta is thoroughly covered.

Once the noodles are cooked, add cheddar cheese. Stir in and then slowly add the mozzarella stirring gently. Add a little liquid from chicken if the sauce gets too thick. (You want a creamier sauce.) Add bacon. Check seasonings.

Top with Parmesan and bake at 450 for 10 minutes or so, then broil it for a few minutes until the top is lovely browned and crispy. Add the chicken chunks and broil for one more minute.

Note: Could leave out the chicken and bacon for a vegetarian version. Just add the pesto with the milk.