Curried Carrot Soup

 

Lots of flavor in this soup.  Red lentils thicken it – they pop when they cook and provide texture.  Sounds weird, I know, but it’s good – really.

These proportions make a big pot of soup.  But won’t you be happy at lunchtime tomorrow?

Curried Carrot Soup, adapted from Naturally Ella

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1/2 of an onion
• chives or green onions
• 8 carrots
• 1 c. red lentils
• 3 t. curry powder
• 2 t. fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 t. chile powder
• salt
• 6 c. veggie or chicken broth
• 1 c. coconut milk

Instructions:

First, my idiosyncracies – I loathe grating fresh ginger so I buy grated ginger in a jar.  I get it at Whole Foods because some brands have sugar added.  Next, I made this with chicken broth because I buy it in bulk at Costco so it’s always on hand.  Finally, I admit that I added the whole can of coconut milk.  That definitely exceeds what the recipe called for, but it was good.  So if you’re wondering what you’re going to do with half a can of coconut milk and your hand slips and the whole can “accidentally” ends up in the soup, oh well.  A little creamier soup never hurt anyone.

1) Peel and slice carrots.  Chop onion.

2) Heat a little olive oil in a stock pan and add carrots and onions.  Cook for a few minutes until the vegetables soften.

3) Add the chives or green onions, lentils, curry powder, ginger, chile powder, and a little salt and stir for a minute or so.

4) Add broth, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for about 15 minutes.

5) Puree with an immersion blender (or in the blender).

6) Add coconut milk and salt to taste.

Sausage and Cheese One-Pot Pasta

 Pasta with spicy sausage and creamy cheese.  Made in one pot.  Hello dinner.

Sausage and Cheese One-Pot Pasta, adapted from Kevin and Amanda

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 lb sausage of your choice (uncooked or cooked, see note below)
• 1 small onion
• a few cloves garlic
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (w/diced chiles if you’d like)
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 8 oz. pasta (see my note below)
• salt and pepper
• 1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or use Pepper Jack if you want it spicier)
• 2 green onions

Instructions:

First, a note on proportions.  The proportions above are from the original recipe.  However, the Good Enough Gourmet does not use 8 oz. of pasta, leaving half a box or bag sitting in the pantry forgotten about for the rest of eternity.  Instead, I bought a 12 oz. bag of tricolor pasta at Trader Joe’s and increased the liquid (3 c. of broth or broth/water combination).  The rest of the proportions stayed the same.

1) Preheat your oven to broil.

2) If you’re using pre-cooked sausage, slice it into rounds and brown it.  If you’re using raw sausage, the easiest thing to do is to remove it from the casing and brown the meat.

3) Chop your onion and garlic and add them to the pan.  Cook until soft.

4) Add broth, tomatoes, cream, pasta, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.

5) Remove from heat and stir in half the cheese.  Sprinkle the other half on top of the pasta.  Put in oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

6) Top with chopped green onions.

 

 

 

Salmon Bisque

I felt like a superhero when I make this dish.  I had worked a long day and got home late.  I would have gone to our “too late to cook” standby – quesadillas – except we just did that the night before.  So I resigned myself to a late dinner and started cooking.  Surprisingly, this didn’t take that long, and was really good, especially for the minimal level of effort and time it took.  Who says women can’t do it all?  Ha ha ha, right.

I feel a little guilty sharing this recipe because it has a lot of cream and butter.  Normally, I have no problem with butter and cream.  I like real food, and would rather have cream than some artificial ingredient.  But this dish has a lot of cream.  Be forewarned.  But then again, it has salmon, which I’m sure more than counteracts the cream healthwise!

Salmon Bisque, adapted from the Los Angeles Times

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c. butter
• 1-2 leeks (1 large, or 2 small)
• 8 oz. mushrooms
• 1 T. minced garlic
• 2 3/4 c. (22 oz.) clam juice (My clam juice came in 8 oz. bottles, so I used 2 bottles and used water for the remaining 6 oz.)
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 c. chopped parsley
• 1 T. chopped dill
• salt and pepper
• about 1 lb. (or a little more) salmon
• 2 T. flour
• 2 c. heavy cream (told you)

Instructions:

1) Wash your leeks.  Leeks are extremely dirty.  Or do what I did and buy pre-washed packaged leeks at Trader Joe’s.  To wash leeks, cut off the green part, then slice the leek lengthwise and run the leek under water, separating the layers to get all the dirt out.

2) Slice leeks, mushrooms, and press garlic.  Melt butter in a large pot, add vegetables and saute until soft.

3) While vegetables are cooking, chop your herbs and set aside.  I advise you to do this now, because you’re going to flip your cutting board to cut the salmon on the other side, to avoid cross-contamination.  You’ll want the herbs already chopped.  (I speak from experience, having flipped my board and cut my salmon, only to realize that I hadn’t chopped my herbs and had to wash the board so I wouldn’t contaminate anything.)

4) Flip your cutting board and cube your salmon into 1/2 inch cubes.

5) When the vegetables are soft, add clam juice, tomatoes, parsley, dill, salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer and add the salmon.  Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the salmon is fully cooked. (I told you this was fast.)

6) While the soup is cooking, whisk the flour into the cream.  When the salmon is cooked, add the cream/flour and simmer about 5 minutes until thickened.

That’s it!

 

Vegetable Paella

 As promised, here’s my favorite recipe from my Ottolenghi experimentation.  In fact, this may be my favorite dish of all time at the moment.  Vegetarian paella??  Traditionally, paella includes sausage, chicken, and seafood.  Vegetarian and paella seem mutually exclusive.  Except it works.  This paella is so delicious, and pretty easy.

Vegetable Paella, adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 2 red and/or yellow bell peppers
• 1 fennel bulb (the original recipe calls for 1/2 fennel bulb, but what is the Good Enough Gourmet going to do with the other half of a fennel bulb? I put the whole bulb in.)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 t. smoked paprika
• 1/2 t. turmeric
• 1/4 t. cayenne pepper
• 1 c. short grain rice (I used Arborio)
• 6 1/2 T. sherry (hey, I didn’t make these proportions up)
• 1 t. saffron (a must – see my note below)
• salt
• 2 c. vegetable or chicken stock
• frozen peas (1-2 handfuls)
• about 15 grape tomatoes, cut in half, OR 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
• about 5 canned or jarred artichoke hearts
• 15 kalamata olives (really, counting is not necessary; I’m just the messenger)
• 2 T. parsley

Instructions:

Before I get into the instructions, a word about saffron.  I have not had good luck with saffron.  Recipes tend to say that a pinch is all that’s needed.  When I use a pinch or two, I can never taste it.  I’ve tried crumbling it, letting it steep in hot water, but I still can’t really taste it.  This recipe calls for 1 t. saffron, which is a lot more than a pinch.  Do it.  Don’t skimp on the saffron.  Saffron is what makes paella delicious.  Buy a small jar of saffron at Trader Joe’s for about 5 bucks.  You’ll end up using most of the jar just for this recipe, but think of how much money you’re saving on the meat and the seafood you’re not buying,

1) Mise en place.  Prep your ingredients so this dish can go quickly.  Chop your onion, press your garlic, cut your peppers into strips and cut the strips in half, slice your fennel into strips.  Measure your spices and put them in a prep bowl.  Measure out your sherry.

2) In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onion softens, then add the peppers and fennel.  Cook for about 5 minutes, until all the vegetables soften.

3) Add the bay leaves, paprika, turmeric, and cayenne.  Add the rice and stir.  Add the sherry and saffron and boil for a minute.

4) The original recipe calls for boiling the stock in a separate pan before adding it.  The Good Enough Gourmet was suspicious of this, since it seems like a possibly unnecessary step and adds a pan (no longer a one-pot meal!).  I tried it both ways – adding boiling stock and adding cold stock.  Unfortunately, I think the rice cooked better when I used the boiling stock, although it did work when I added the cold stock.  (I would probably increase the cooking time a little.)  Whatever method you choose, add the stock now, and 1/3 t. salt.

5) Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 20 minutes.  Do not cover the pan, do not stir the rice.

6) While the rice is cooking, cut your artichokes into pieces, slice your olives in half, and if using grape tomatoes, cut them in half.  I used grape tomatoes one time and canned tomatoes (undrained) another time — both are delicious.  The canned tomatoes make the paella a little saucier. (The picture above and below are with the grape tomatoes.)

7) After 20 minutes, add the artichokes, olives, tomatoes, and frozen peas (no need to defrost) to the pan.  Scatter them over the rice and stir a little but not too much.  Remove pan from heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.  (I actually leave the pan on the burner, but turn the burner off, so the pan stays warm.)

8) Chop the parsley, and after 10 minutes add the parsley and stir everything together.  Enjoy.

For good measure, below is a picture of the paella my brother-in-law made for us just after returning from Spain.  This is proper paella, made with meat and fish, in a real paella pan.

 

 

Chorizo, Asparagus, and Croutons

This dish sounds weird, but it’s delicious and super easy.  Use spicy sausage like chorizo to get maximum flavor.  You’ve got your protein, veggie, and carb in one dish.  What more could you want?

Birthday Dinner — Jambalaya and Cake

My husband sometimes says that he married me because of my “special lasagna” and my jambalaya.  Unfortunately for him, I pulled a bait-and-switch and never made them again after we got married.  Well, almost never.  So I thought it would be a nice surprise to make him jambalaya for his birthday.  Our daughter made the cake, a sweet ending for a sweet birthday meal.

Sausage with Mustardy Potatoes

I am insanely crazy about this recipe.  It’s easy, tasty, and everyone in my family loves it.  It’s sausage and potatoes – what could be bad?  I’ve made it into a one-pot dish.

Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Spices

It’s not a dal, it’s not a traditional lentil soup.  It’s something in between.

Moroccan Merguez Ragout

Don’t be intimidated by some of the ingredients in this dish — I’ll give you alternatives.

Sausage, Bean, and Kale Stew

A super-easy, flavorful one pot dish.