Soupe Poireaux Pommes de Terre

Since Hurricane Irene decided to wreck the East Coast, we stayed in all day Saturday to hide from the rain and strong winds. Luckily, we were spared the severe wreckage that some other states received. An earthquake and hurricane in one week is just too much weather drama for my temperate-inclined nature.

While hiding out at home in the dreary weather, I remembered that we had some leeks and potatoes sitting around waiting to be next week's trash. Jacque Pepin made this recipe on his "Fast Food My Way" show on PBS, which is where the inspiration came from. The specific recipe came from here.

Soupe Poireaux Pommes de Terre
Potato and Leek Soup

Ingredients
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 leeks, sliced in quarters length-wise to clean and then chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of sour cream (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 strips of bacon (optional)
5-7 mushrooms (optional)

Directions
1. (Optional) Slice your bacon into 1 inch pieces and cook over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon and reserve on side. When cooled, crush to crumbles. Leave the bacon fat in the pan – this will give your soup a deeper level of flavor.

2. Saute leeks and garlic in the rendered bacon fat, if you used bacon, or some olive oil until soft. (Optional: Reserve some leeks for garnish).

3. Add potatoes to the sauteed leeks and pour in the chicken or vegetable stock.

4. Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are falling apart. If preferred, reserve some pieces of potato if you want some texture and return to soup after blending.

5. Optional: Add your two tablespoons of sour cream if you prefer a thicker, creamier soup (you can choose to blend first, see what the soup looks like and then add the sour cream and blend again). Add some salt, if necessary, and pepper.

6. Using an emulsion blender or traditional blender, puree the soup. Add in mushrooms and simmer until mushrooms are cooked.

7. Serve in bowls and top with some crumbled bacon and sauteed leeks. We added some thin parmesan shavings (just because).

This will now be added to my arsenal of warming winter soups. Super creamy (with no cream or sour cream added) and flavored with crisp bacon garnish that rounds out the indulgent and comforting flavors of this soup.

Hope your Monday is focused and productive!

Soba Noodles in Japanese Broth

Have you ever looked at the NYTimes Recipes for Health pages and thought, "I should probably eat something like that for dinner." I had one of those moments a few months ago and had the foresight to jot down this recipe before I lost it in my long list of things I want to make. This is likely going to be the simplest dinner that I will make this week. It was so simple I even had time to make Momofuku Shrimp Spring Rolls, which were also a hit.

Soba Noodles in Broth with Sweet Potato, Cabbage, and Oyster Mushrooms
Serves four as a main dish, six as a starter.

Ingredients
6 cups kombu dashi, chicken stock or vegetable stock 
6 ounces Japanese soba noodles, cooked and tossed with 1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes (about 3/4 pound), peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick (cut in half lengthwise first if fat)
2 cups shredded cabbage
10-12 oyster mushrooms, rinsed
2 tablespoons minced chives
Salt to taste

Directions
1. Bring the stock to a simmer. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt if desired. Add the sweet potatoes and cabbage, and simmer 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

2. If the noodles have been refrigerated, warm them by placing them in a strainer and dipping the strainer into the simmering broth. Then distribute the noodles among four to six soup bowls. Add the spinach to the stock. Cover, and turn off the heat. Leave for three minutes. Ladle the soup into the bowls, taking care to distribute the vegetables evenly. Sprinkle the chives over each serving, and serve.

For something that is healthy, it was quite delicious and easy to make. I will definitely be making this one again during the cold winter months when only a bowl of hot soup can warm you up. 

Have a great Monday everyone! 

Tom Yum Goong

There is a restaurant in Dallas, TX called Royal Thai. I wish I could transplant this restaurant to NC because they have the best Tom Yum Goong that I've ever tasted. This is a spicy, sour soup that can have chicken, shrimp, and often mushrooms. My favorite way to eat this soup is to turn it into a noodle soup by ordering steamed rice noodles on the side.

We recently made a shrimp dish, which left us a generous portion of shrimp heads and tails. The Husband suggested making a shrimp broth, which I learned just means boiling something (i.e., meat, vegetable) in water whereas a stock is where you may add onions, garlic, bay leaves, and other herbs.

So, I let the shrimp parts boil for approximately 45 minutes in water and then strained the broth to make my Tom Yum Goong. I had to improvise this recipe a bit because I didn't have the exact amount of shrimp and I cannot find kaffir lime leaves here. I also bought an additional pound of shrimp aside from the leftover heads that I used to make the shrimp broth.

Tom Yum Goong

Ingredients

500 g (1 lb) medium-sized raw prawns

1 tbsp oil

2 quarts of water * I substituted this with the shrimp broth

2 tbsp red curry paste

2 tbsp tamarind concentrate

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chopped red chilies, optional

4 kaffir lime leaves, shredded ** or a lot more lime juice if you can't find it

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp lime juice **

2 tsp soft brown sugar

1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves * couldn't find this either so skipped

Rice noodles, optional to make noodle soup
Your choice of mushrooms

Directions

1. Remove shrimp shell and heads. Devein shrimp and set aside.

2. Heat oil in wok or pan. Add the shrimp shells and heads and cook over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes until shells and heads are a deep orange. Then turn heat to high.

3. Gradually add 1 cup of shrimp broth/water and the curry paste to the wok. Boil for 5 minutes, until reduced slightly. Add the remaining water and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain and reserve the soup. Discard shrimp heads and shells. Return the soup to the wok. 

4. Add the tamarind concentrate, turmeric, chilies, and lime leaves and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Add the peeled, deveined shrimp and cook until they are pink, but not overdone.

5. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Add cooked rice noodles if desired. Sprinkle with coriander  (or cilantro) leaves just before serving. 

I've tried making this soup once before based on a Tyler Florence recipe, which used galanga and lemongrass. However, that recipe was not nearly as flavorful as this one. I think this is related to the red curry paste and some of the other seasonings. This is probably as close as I'll ever get to Royal Thai, but at least I can have a quick fix before our next trip back to DFW!

Have a restful weekend and some good eats!

Seafood Cioppino Stew

I am a huge fan of seafood stews and soups. Every time we go to any restaurant I always gravitate towards any type of steamy, hot, and ocean-y goodness.  With a few extra hours before The Husband got home, I decided to try this recipe.

As a note, I didn't have fresh shellfish or shrimp so I just used some fresh cod and then canned cherrystone clams and crab meat. Next time, I will definitely plan accordingly and buy some fresh seafood! As you probably see, the swiss chard made another appearance and it was a perfect stew vegetable.  Throw it in right before you finish cooking the stew to preserve its great flavor and texture.

Don't forget to serve with your favorite toasted crusty bread!

Winter Melon and Pork Rib Soup with Oyster Mushrooms

Taiwan is still on my mind and until I can find a way to create a photo montage of all the delicious food we had I guess Taiwanese-themed recipes will suffice.

This recipe is one that I kind of improvised based on ones that I read online, which seemed much too complicated for such a simplistic soup.

Ingredients:
1 lb of pork ribs cut - against the bones and then cut into segments
1 large piece of winter melon - deseeded, removed of skin, and cubed
5-6 slices of ginger
Salt and hondashi to taste

Directions:
1. Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil and place ribs inside.

2. Allow to boil again and place ginger and winter melon in the soup.

3. When the water boils again, turn down heat and simmer until meat and winter melon are of desired tenderness. At full boil (I was short on time), it took less than 1 hour to get the desired texture.

4. Once meat and winter melon are of correct texture, add oyster mushrooms and cook until tender. Season with salt and hondashi.

5. Since pork ribs tend to have a significant amount of fat, I would recommend allowing the soup to cool or even refrigerate overnight and remove top later of fat from soup.

And you are done with a simple perfect winter soup recipe!