Potato Leek Soup

Have you ever had grand plans for the menu (maybe they are not too grand) and then you realize you just did not leave yourself enough time to accomplish the task?  If you don't want to admit it, that'st fine, I understand.  I am admitting it right now, to you.

Just the other day I planned to make Velvety Mushroom Soup from the Winter 2008 issue of Cook's Illustrated.  As I read through the directions, I realized that that the 1 hour window I had before I had to leave for work just was not enough time! (stay tuned for the mushroom soup)

As I quickly plotted an easy leek soup I stumbled on the Rustic Potato-Leek Soup on page 26!  Originally I wanted to use the leeks in the mushroom soup instead of shallots.  Oh well, work with what ya got.  At that moment I was working with a hungry belly and lack of time...2 soups sounds better than one!

I quickly got to work de-sanding the leeks.  The only drawback to these yummy alliums.

I did not have the 4-5lb of leeks called for, but since I got a handy-dandy kitchen scale for Christmas I was able to adjust accordingly.

Mmmm buttttter.  Do you like butter? I love the stuff.  I hear that when I was really little, there would often be little fingerprints/scoops out of the butter in the fridge.  Just this morning I stumbled on this cookbook called Fat.  Check it out, there is LOTS of info in there that puts a new perspective on the way we eat.  Now I won't feel slightly guilty every time I savor the lovely nutty flavor of butter.  It's even better homemade.  Try it sometime.

I mention butter not just because I love it so, but because this soup has plenty.  It lends wonderful flavor.  Don't skimp on the butter with this soup.  It makes very good friends with the leeks and potatoes.

There is an addition suggestion following the directions.  Kielbasa.  I made an impulse purchase that you can tease me about, because even I think it's a little funny.  Tofu Kielbasa was on sale.  I bought a package.  It's kinda nice to have something that is not meat.  You just can't think if tofu as meat and you will be fine.  It would have been much better if I had seared the Tofu Kielbasa before plopping it in the soup, but it still added some fun extra flavor.

My hubby helped me pull it together, and I even got to work on time...with dinner!

I seem to remember a tasty creamy potato-leek soup as a child, but this version does not call for any cream or milk.  I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be good.  It does come from a pretty reliable source.  It did turn out very tasty! but I thought just as an experiment I would add a splash of cream to the left overs.  It was pretty good.  It did not make it a cream soup, that is a whole other pot of soup!  But it did add another dimension of flavor and helped keep leftovers interesting.

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The following recipe is paraphrased from the Winter 2008 issue of Cooks Illustrated.

Potato-Leek Soup
If you have large desirable white and light green sections, use 4lbs of leeks; if they're short on these parts, go with 5lb.

4-5 pounds leeks
6 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour
5 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth (I used bullion)
1 bay leaf
1 3/4 pounds Red Bliss potatoes peeled and diced (I used Yukon Gold)
salt and pepper to taste
8 ounces tofu Kielbasa (my addition, I suggest searing before adding)

*Cut off roots and tough dark green portion of leeks, leaving white and about 3 inches of the light green.  Clean Leeks well to remove sand.  Slice in half down the length, then chop.
*Heat butter in a large heavy skillet or pot until foaming; stir in leeks, increase heat to medium and cover.  Cook, stirring occasionally, don't brown them, until leeks are tender but not mushy, 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle in flour and stir about 2 minutes.
*Turn heat up to high; whisking constantly, slowly add chicken broth.  Add bay leaf and potatoes, cover and bring to a boil.  Turn Heat down to medium-low and simmer 5-7 minutes.  Potatoes will be about tender.
*Add Kielbasa and turn off heat.  Let stand about 10 minutes to allow potatoes to finish cooking.  Toss the bay leaf before serving.

Linked up with 33 Shades of Green: Tasty Tuesday

Juice

Remember when your parent's wouldn't let you leave the table until you ate all your veggies?  Not to one-up you or anything, but I had to drink my veggies once in a while.  The thing you don't know is that I actually LOVED carrot juice!  I thought it was the most amazing, sweet, unfortunately staining drink I could want.

My mom got a Champion juicer when I was young.  Boy, was it versatile! It could turn fruits and veggies into juice, garbanzo (years later I found out these are also chickpeas) beans into hummus, and peanuts into peanut butter.

One of my cousins and brother remember an evening of juice sampling, though our moms don't seem to share the memory in quite the same way.  My brother and I thought we were going to play with our cousin.  As it turned out, we were also destined to be juice guinea pigs.  I do not remember specific combinations, but I am pretty sure about a third of the produce department was involved.  There were some that we could barely force down, but there were some that we kinda liked, just a little bit!


Time travel a few years into the future:


When I was in college, I decided to get a better grip on conscious eating.  I was pretty good, but who can't do better?  I decided that I needed a Champion juicer, just like my mom.  Part of this decision came after frying the motor on a blender trying to make hummus one day.  Ooops.  Guess garbanzo beans don't have quite enough liquid for a blender.

beets and cranberries

There are all kinds of theories about how the benefits of fruits and veggies are absorbed.  There are the raw foodist's that think that too many nutrients are lost in cooking, so they will not eat anything that has been cooked.  I am not making this up.  Then on the other end of the spectrum, there are people who pretty much only eat canned produce.  They just don't like the taste or texture of fresh produce.  This is harder for me to believe, but I have met a few in my life.

Top: carrot, lemon, ginger juice
Bottom: carrot, lemon, ginger pulp

When it comes to juicing, I was always a bit suspicious about the fiber end of things.  When juicing, you are basically separating the liquid from the solids.  Aren't the solids holding the fiber? what a waste right?  The more I thought about it, it's not.  There are tons of nutrients in the juice still, and I am not substituting juice for all my fruit and vegetable consumption.  I now think of it more like a tasty supplement.  It's like real Vitamin Water!  Besides, the solids don't have to be trashed.  The carrot pulp you see in the picture above will be added to some bread, now doesn't carrot bread sound yummy?

A few months ago, I watched a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  Got your attention?  This show really got mine.  I am not going to go into a movie review here, but this is the skinny: Joe Cross documents his life-changing experiment to get healthy.  I will say this is something I think people need to watch, and don't just think that it is a snooze fest because it is labeled a documentary :~)  Joe keeps things entertaining.
This show encouraged me to get the juicer out more often, and get braver about the things I juice.

So, Cheers to my mom and aunt for making me, my brother and cousin juice guinea pigs for an evening and making me drink my veggies from time to time.  Does't that carrot juice look beautiful!?
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Some of my favorite combos:


Carrot, beet
Carrot, Granny Smith apple, celery, ginger
Celery, Granny Smith apple, ginger
Carrot, ginger


Super vitamin-C cocktail
In a blender:
1/2 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2-1 cup orange juice
ginger powder to taste (a sprinkle)
Blend for about 1-2 minutes, serves 1


Cheers!

Sweet Bet

Husband's: be careful about what your wife bets you on.  She might win.  If you are sneaky like my husband, however, you might win either way!

My husband lost a bet and found this in front of him as proof...hmm, not sure I actually won this one!

A bit after dinner he said "gee, desert would be nice."
My reply was "well, we do have brownie mix in the cabinet..."
My husband: "yeah, but it won't be ready in 20 minutes."
My mistak...er, um, reply: "ya wanna bet?!"

I Even raised the stakes mid way by suggesting frosting! what was I thinking!?!

I made brownie deal-ies in the Babycake cupcake maker (seen above) and realized brownie cookies would be faster and easier.

I added a bit of extra flour per the directions on the box, but it did not actually make any improvement...unless you are a cake-y brownie fan.

I actually had a container of chocolate frosting in the cabinet also, so to make it "gourmet" or just a little more exciting, I added a few drops of orange extract (thank you Emily).

The result:

Pretty yummy with or with out frosting!

Wives: this is a perfectly acceptable bet to make with your husband.  You also win either way, are you really going to argue with chocolate ;~)

Cabbage and the New Year

It is a new year.  Don't worry, I won't get all philosophical and sentimental, well, maybe a tiny bit sentimental.  I like traditions and honoring the past.  It frustrates me how commercial the holidays have become.  It seems like much of the history and tradition have been lost in time.  New Year's Eve has an interesting history.  You can read a brief explanation here.  I actually went on an internet search to find out about traditional New Year's day food and found that corned beef and cabbage is more of a St. Patrick's day meal.

In one of my families, corned beef and cabbage (with carrots and potatoes) was the New Year's day meal.  In my other (vegetarian) family, black eyed peas and cabbage (and sometimes cornbread) was our New Year's day meal.  Black eyed peas are a Southern tradition to symbolize a hand full of coins, or financial prosperity.

I did not plan ahead this time, oops.  So I asked my husband to bring home a small cabbage to go with last night's dinner.  Growing up, I was told that we ate the cabbage to promote good fortune and financial prosperity in the new year, I guess because it is green.  Who couldn't use some of that right now?

I sliced half of it and sauteed it up in butter with salt and pepper, and 4 coriander seeds.

I got the seeds specifically so I could enjoy the mortar and pastel.  It is a great kitchen tool.  Unimproved for centuries!

Mashed potatoes are just tasty.  I don't need gravy, and neither does my husband, so mashed potatoes are a pretty easy addition to dinner.  I wonder why I don't make them more often?  Maybe I should start.  

I changed things up a bit this time.  I boiled the potatoes in beef bullion.  

I like Yukon Golds because they have a smoother texture and an almost buttery flavor.  My normal mashed potatoes include crushed garlic, salt and pepper, milk, and sometimes chives or green onion if I have any (but that is rare).  This time, I just boiled in bullion, drained most of the liquid off, added butter, salt, pepper and only a splash of milk.  In the end, these mashed potatoes were loaded with flavor and had a nice gold color...not from butter.  

I threw some baby spinach on the plate and topped it with raspberry dressing and walnuts for a rounded meal.  

Ok, fine, there was no meat to be seen.  You can tease me about not making a main dish, but honestly Americans actually eat way more meat than our bodies are really capable of processing efficiently.  Besides, the walnuts on the salad have plenty of protein.  What you see on this plate is approximately 1/3 of a man's daily protein recamendation and nearly 1/2 for women.  Hard to believe isn't it?  Nuts are good for ya.  (find out more here or at www.choosemyplate.gov)

I hope you had a restful New Year's day and ate something really yummy.  If not, that's ok, just make sure you do on your next day off!

Happy New Year!