Chicken Chowder with Butternut Squash

So, we were talking about soup, right?  About how I would eat soup every day?  Soup is awesome.  It's fast, it's easy, and the possibilities are endless.  Asparagus soup, lentil soup, onion soup, broccoli cauliflower soup, butternut squash soup, Italian wedding soup, tomato soup.  We haven't even begun to scratch the surface.  If you can think of a food, you can turn it into a soup.  (There may be limitations to this rule.  However, seven-year-old Caleb would certainly tell you that ice cream soup is a thing and is the most delicious way to eat ice cream.)

If there were a king of soups, it would be chowder.  I don't quite know what the responsibilities of this soup monarch would be, but they would probably involve preventing squabbles between the bisques and the consummes.  Soup equality, and all that.  I personally refuse to recognize chilled soups as a legitimate sect of the kingdom, but what the Soup King does is his business.  

Chowder is the soup equivalent of a casserole, or, as we liked to say in my house growing up, leftover night.  You have some potatoes that are starting to sprout?  In the pot!  Leeks, onions, beans, rice, leftover meat?  In they go.  Whatever bits and pieces that are a few hours away from hitting the compost bin are simmered in broth, half of it pureed, and dairy products added (I figured you couldn't go wrong with throwing milk, cream, and cheese in).
 

The result is a comforting meal in a bowl.  You get your veggies, protein, and carbs all in one.  And it's even better the next day.  Plus, you can make it all in one pot.  Which makes your dishwasher (the machine and human kinds) happier, too.

Chicken Chowder with Butternut Squash
Serves 6

Cubing butternut squash seems intimidating at first, but it's really not.  First, slice the top off, and then cut the squash in half lengthwise.  You can scoop out the seeds at this point.  Then a normal peeler will take that skin right off.  Chop it up, and you're good to go.  Of course, you can by the packaged kind that comes in nice little cubes already.  I won't tell.

2 leeks, sliced thinly
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can Cannellini beans, drained
chicken broth
1/2 c brown rice (or other grain)
2 c cubed potatoes
3 carrots, chopped
1 c cubed butternut squash (see note)
2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped
1/4 c cream
1/4 c whole milk
1/2 c shredded Swiss cheese
salt and pepper

Saute the leeks in olive oil in a large pot until soft (about three minutes).  Add garlic and saute for a minute longer, and then add the beans and brown rice.  Cover with chicken broth, and let cook for 20 minutes.  Add the potatoes, carrots, and squash, and cover with chicken broth again.  Cook for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

Pour half the mixture into a blender, and blend for a few seconds.  Pour back into the pot with the rest of the potato mixture.  And the chicken, cream, milk, and cheese.  Stir for a few minutes, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Moo Shu Shrimp

If you ask any member of this household (except maybe the cat), they would tell you that the menu around here mainly consists of Mexican, Indian, pasta, and soup.  Lots of soup.  What can I say?  It's a one-pot, healthy, delicious meal.

But at least once a year, I make Chinese.  You might think Christmas is about church and presents and trees.  But you would be wrong.  Christmas is all about Chinese food.  It's an ancient Jewish tradition.

This year, I went all out.  Chicken Chow Mein, pineapple fried rice, Kung Pao chicken, and, what turned out to be my favorite, Moo Shu shrimp.  It's obviously not the best option for Jewish Christmas, but I eat bacon at an astounding rate, so a little shrimp never stopped me.

Yesterday happened to be the third day of Chinese New Year, so it seemed an appropriate time to bust out this dish again.  Given that there are fifteen days in the holiday, you have plenty of time to try it out.  It's a fabulous work night dinner, as it takes about 30 minutes to whip together, and you can use tortillas as the pancakes.  The secret is in the sauce.  Hoisin sauce.  Believe it or not, it's mostly sweet potato.  It tastes sweet, almost like plum sauce, and it's absolutely perfect with shrimp.  You can buy it at most grocery stores in the Asian section.

So ring in the Year of the Dragon with a night of shrimp.  The dragon motto is "I reign."  This dish does.

Moo Shu Shrimp
Serves 3

6 small flour tortillas
vegetable oil
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper
1 T ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c sliced mushrooms
2 c shredded cabbage
scallions
hoisin sauce

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Wrap the tortillas in foil, and put them in the oven to heat.

Heat a wok or skillet until very hot.  Coat the bottom with vegetable oil.  Add shrimp and stir fry until cooked through, about two minutes.  Set shrimp aside.  Add more oil to the pan if needed, and and the egg.  Season with salt and pepper, and scramble egg until it is just set, about two minutes.  Set aside with the shrimp.

Add more oil to the pan.  Stir fry ginger, garlic, and mushrooms together for four minutes.  Add the cabbage and cook until it has wilted, about another four minutes.  Add the shrimp and egg back into the vegetables, and stir coat with hoisin sauce (about 1 T).  Serve with tortillas and more hoison sauce.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup

It has been one of those weeks.  You know the ones.  When you seem to get bad news every day.  When painful things happen to those you love.  When you swear the clock gets exponentially slower as it approaches 5:30, convinced it will never actually get there.  When an entire city shuts down, and it just happens to be the city from which your wife is trying to depart.

Yes, it has been one of those weeks.  And, although I'm trying not to dwell on it, that has meant that the aforementioned better eating has gotten sidetracked by, well, eating pita chips out of the bag for dinner or subsisting on leftover pizza for every meal until it's gone.  Can't waste good pizza.

It doesn't help that it is raining.  Rain makes me want to curl up with a book, forget about the week, and drink hot chocolate for dinner.  But, as wonderful as hot chocolate is, sometimes we need to eat real food.  That's where this soup comes in.  It's real.  It has good things like broccoli and cauliflower.  It is super fast to throw together.  It is warm and comforting and revitalizing.  It's like green hot chocolate.  If that concept wasn't so gross.

It starts with roasting the broccoli and cauliflower, which is my absolute favorite way to prepare pretty much any vegetable.  Carrots?  Roast them.  Beets?  Roast them.  And it doesn't have to stop at root vegetables.  Roast any squash, asparagus, green beans, or tomatoes you have.  It brings out a rich flavor, an earthiness that our food is supposed to have.

From there, it's pretty much the same as any soup.  Throw the veggies in some stock, puree.  Curl up next to a cat, watch a marathon of Buffy episodes, and enjoy.  Don't feel guilty for skipping the gym today.  You made yourself some soup.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup
Serves 4

1 small head broccoli
1 small head cauliflower
salt and pepper
1/4 c olive oil
2 t dried thyme
1 t cardamom
2 c chicken stock (or use veggie to make it vegetarian)
1 c fat-free plain yogurt
cream

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Chop the broccoli and cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and place in a bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Give a few good cranks of salt and pepper, and add the thyme and cardamom.  Toss it all together until the vegetables are coated well.  Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes.  Put the roasted vegetables in a blender, add the stock, and blend until smooth.  Add more stock as needed for desired consistency (I like my soup thick, but you can add up to another 2 cups of stock).  Pour soup into a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Stir in the yogurt.  Season to taste.  Ladle into bowls, and serve with cream on top.

Crunchy Lentil Salad

We're three weeks into January at this point.  If you're anything like me, you started going to the gym everyday and drinking fruit smoothies for breakfast every morning for about two of those.  It's not that I'm against cheese or cream or butter (did you see yesterday's brownies?).  It's just that the beginning of the year brings out my hopes for myself.  Some people call these resolutions.  I think that suggests I will be resolute.  I'm flexible.  Soon, my lunch hour will be sunny and warm (hard to believe right now), and sitting on the lawn will be more appealing than heading to the gym.  And some day (today), leftover pizza will stare up at me in the morning, and it will look way better than that smoothie.

But we all try to better ourselves, one step at a time.  I'm working towards a new career, even if it just means one community college course for now.  I'm putting up shelves in the bathroom, weeding the front yard, doing yoga.  And I'm eating lentil salad.

 

As a household that doesn't consume much meat, we eat a whole lot of legumes.  I love lentils - they are chock full of protein and iron, and they have about every health benefit you could possibly think up.  They're good for your heart, lower your cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar levels.  And unlike other legumes, they take about 20 minutes to cook up.  They also come in all kinds of colors!  Seriously, lentils have every reason to brag.

 

Lentil salad is an excellent way to do the bragging for them.  Go ahead and give them center stage, and watch them shine.  I can make a big batch of this on the weekend, and there is lunch for the week.  Throw it next to some salmon and sweet potatoes, and there's dinner.  Didn't I just make your (non) resolution easier?

 

Crunchy Lentil Salad
Feeds 4-5 as a side or 2-3 as a main dish

Here's the thing.  I don't want you to feel boxed in by this recipe.  It cries out for adaptation.  Have some extra veggies lying around?  Throw them in!  It's wonderful with grated carrot, and I'm pretty sure I'll be adding cherry tomatoes as soon as they're in season.  Winter squash, summer squash, peppers, spinach, and just about anything else that grows on a vine/in the ground would be delicious.  And don't forget the cheese.  Feta is the obvious choice, but what about some cheddar or goat cheese?  Fabulous additions, both.

1 lb lentils, any kind (cooked in 2 quarts water until al dente, or buy them precooked)
1/4 c white wine
juice of one lemon
1 t Dijon mustard
pinch sugar
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
3-4 stalks celery, finely chopped
3-4 green onions, finely chopped
1 t thyme
salt and pepper

Combine white wine, lemon juice, mustard, sugar, and olive oil in a jar, and shake until mixed.  Alternatively, you can just whip up the dressing in a bowl.  Put lentils, celery, chives, and thyme in a bowl, and pour the dressing on top.  Mix until lentils are completely coated.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Crumble some feta on top if desired.

Brown Sugar Brownies

I didn't create this blog to tell you about brownies.  Everyone already has a brownie recipe, that one they can whip up on short notice for the church potluck or the school bake sale.

Well, maybe not.  I, for one, have never settled on a brownie recipe.  I'll make ones with cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate.  I'll make ones with cinnamon and chili pepper.  It goes without saying I'll make ones with peanut butter.  Last week, I made some with black beans (they were pretty good).

But this is probably the best go-to brownie recipe there is.  It takes literally ten minutes to from deciding you want brownies to throwing them in the oven.  They are perfect for the classic brownie lover, but the addition of brown sugar makes them just a little bit different.  They are solidly on the fudgy side of the cakey-fudgy continuum (which is how a brownie should be).  And it doesn't hurt that my mother-in-law likes them.

So I will begin this blog with a brownie recipe.  I suppose it makes sense.  While people may be super impressed by perfectly caramelized lemon creme brulee, most just want a great brownie with a big glass of milk.  In that way, brownies are like the omelettes of the baking world.  A perfect omelette is said to be the test of a great chef - not sweet buter poached lobster tail.  Master the basics before attempting the complex.  I'll take that to mean I should whip up another tray of brownies and pour myself some cold milk.

Brown Sugar Brownies
Makes 16

The one note I would make is that you should use high quality chocolate for all your baking endeavors.  I grew up using Baker's Chocolate, too.  I get it.  It's cheap, and it generally has fine results.  But trust me when I say find yourself an excellent chocolate, and try that instead.  You'll never go back.

1/2 lb butter
4 oz chopped dark chocolate (choose between 72% and 85% cocoa)
4 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1 c packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3/4 c flour
1 c nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8x8 (or larger) baking dish.  Melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave.  Remove from the heat, and stir in the chocolate until it is melted.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar and brown sugar until thick.  Add the vanilla and the chocolate mixture until it is incorporated.  Stir in the flour and nuts if using.  Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on baking dish size.  Check for doneness after 25 minutes - there's nothing worse than an overcooked brownie.  They're done when a knife comes out clean.  Let cool for an hour before cutting into squares.