Flageolet and Polenta Soup with Blue Cheese

Adapted from Sara's Soup Book

 

Serves 6-8

 

Ingredients:

2 cups flageolet beans, soaked overnight (or 2 x 450 g tins drained)

4 quarts ham or vegetable stock

3 bay leaves

A short length of ham bone (optional) - I didn't have one handy so I skipped this

2-3 cups diced ham (book recommended Serrano)

4 tablespoons pork lard or 4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons fine ground polenta

salt and ground black pepper

1/2 lb crumbled blue cheese, to garnish

 

Directions:

1.  Drain the flageolet beans and put them in a medium saucepan with the stock.  Bring to a boil and skim off any gray foam that rises.

 

2.  Add the bay leaf and the ham bone, if using.  Add the diced ham and lard or butter.

 

3.  Bubble up the stock again, reduce the heat, and cover.  Leave to bubble gently for 1 hour or until the beans are perfectly soft (the time it takes depends on the age of the beans).  Add boiling water as necessary to maintain the volume.

 

4.  Mix the polenta with a little cold water and stir into the soup.  Bring back to a boil and bubble for 20 minutes more, or until the polenta has thickened the broth.  Taste and season with salt and pepper. 

 

5.  Ladle into deep soup bowls and garnish each portion with crumbled blue cheese.

Easy Spanish Ham and Noodle Soup

Adapted from the book I got from Sara for Christmas

So the title of this soup in the book is technically "Spanish 15 Minute Soup" - but it took more like 30 minutes for me so I'm going to modify the title.  I think the soup boils for close to a total of 15 minutes so I'm not really sure how you could get everything done in 15 minutes.  But overall the soup is very easy to make!

Anyways - here's the recipe.  Enjoy!

 Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
2 quarts chicken, beef, or ham stock
3 cups diced ham (book recommend Serrano)
7 oz vermicelli or angel hair pasta
2-6 hard boiled eggs - diced
1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint


Directions:

1.  Boil several hard boiled eggs.  (I did one per serving so 6 total).  I had to look up directions online for how to boil hard boiled eggs and they turned out fine.  Basically bring eggs to a boil in a pot of water (with a little vinegar and a little salt), let sit for 12 minutes, then put them in ice water to cool. 

2.  Bring the chicken, beef, or ham stock to a boil in a saucepan with the diced ham.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

3.  Add the vermicelli or angel-hair pasta.  Stir and return to a boil.  Simmer 3-4 minutes or until the pasta is soft.

4.  Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley, and mint.

 

 

 

5.  Ladle into soup bowls and add diced eggs as garnish.

 

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

Ok so not exactly a soup - but really kind of a soup.  It's made similar to soup so I'm going to add it to the blog for your enjoyment :)

Adapted from a recipe on hauteapplepie.com

Beef Brisket Ingredients:
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 3-4 lb. beef brisket
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 12 oz bottle of red or dark beer (I used Snow Cap)
4 stalks celery, cut into large pieces
2/3 C. brown sugar
1 can tomato paste
1/2 C. apple cider vinegar
1/4 C. brown mustard - although I would recommend maybe a little less.  Mine was a bit too mustard-y for me.
1/3 C. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. paprika
dash of coarse ground black pepper


Directions:

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet.  Brown brisket on all sides, about 8-10 minutes.  Add garlic half-way through.

 

Transfer meat to slow cooker.

 

Pour beer in to skillet, scraping up brown bits.  Simmer for one minute.  Add to slow cooker.  Nestle celery around beef.

 

 

In a medium bowl, add remaining ingredients and whisky.  Pour over beef.

 

Cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Remove from slow cooker and allow to sit about 10 minutes before cutting.  (Mine didn't fit completely in the liquid so I rotated it a few times but it seemed to work out just fine.) 

 

Enjoy!  (See!  Doesn't the gravy look kind of like soup!)

 

I served mine over mashed potatoes.

 

T focused on the meat!

 

And then we enjoyed some Brandy Three Apple Pie!

Bourbon Ginger Peach Pie

Following my boozy-pie theme, I decided to make a non-seasonal peach pie with bourbon and ginger (recipe adapted from Serious Eats).  Luckily, local Remingler Farms sells frozen peach slices during the winter.

I used a frozen pie crust, so either make one first and stick it in the freezer to cool or pull the pre made frozen crust out of the freezer to start thawing out.

FILLING:
In a very large bowl, mix together the following:
- 1/3 cup bourbon
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
- 2 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Once that looks all nice and mixed up, toss in the peaches.  I used about 2 pounds of peach slices and tossed them in the bourbon/spice mixture until they were very thoroughly coated.  I read an article about the 10 best bourbons, this Jim Beam one was on the list which surprised me so I had to give it a try.  It was pretty good, and definitely a great value!

Put the peaches into the crust.  I used a spatula and just fit in as many peaches as I could, then poured about half of the juices over the peaches.

TOPPING:

Put the following ingredients into a food processor:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Pulse until thoroughly mixed.  Add 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter that has been cut into smaller pieces and pulse a few more times until the mixture looks chunky.  Last, add 1 1/4 cup rolled quick oats to the mixture and pulse a couple of times to mix that in.  Pour on top of the pie.

Bake pie for about 45 minutes until the crust and the crumb topping are golden brown.  Cool thoroughly.

 

 

I didn't let the frozen peaches thaw out before baking so the crust was kind of soggy but still tasted great out of a bowl!!

Pork Chile Verde- Crock Pot Style

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs boneless pork shoulder
1 15 oz can navy beans
12 oz fresh tomatillos
1 medium onion
4 oz green chile peppers
3 cloves garlic
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 oz chicken broth
1 cup chopped spinach
2 limes
sour cream
cilantro

PREP:
- Cut meat into 3 inch pieces (or smaller, if you want).  Trim away the fat.  Brown the meat in hot vegetable oil; drain.
- Peel, since, and chop tomatillos into large chunks.  Tomatillos are best when firm and the skin just starts to crack; they shouldn't be bruised or withered.  Finely mince garlic and green chile peppers.  Chop up the onion.  I can't chop onions without crying, so I usually just wear a scuba mask.

- Drain and rinse beans.

DO IT:
- Put pork in the crock pot followed by everything else listed in "prep" section.  Add cumin and salt, followed by chicken broth

- Cover and cook on low heat for seven hours.
- Just before serving, stir in spinach and juice from one lime.
- In a separate bowl: mix sour cream, chopped cilantro, and juice from another lime.  Serve on the side as a topper.

Chicken Sausage and Tortellini (And Kale!)

 

--Adapted from Hub Pages --

 

Ingredients:

2 T. oil (coconut, olive, etc)

12 oz. chicken sausage, sliced (I used red pepper seasoned sausage but spinach & garlic or sun-dried tomato flavors could be good too.)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 c. chicken broth

2 t. Italian seasoning

9 oz. cheese tortellini

28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped

1 bunch Swiss chard, roughly chopped

parmesan cheese for topping

Optional:  1 medium onion, chopped 

  

Instructions:

1.  In a heavy pot, heat oil.  (I used coconut oil because I read that the sauté-ing temp of this is just right!)
1.  Add garlic and chicken sausage. Cook until sausage is cooked.  (Cook onion at this time as well if using it.)

3.  Add chicken broth and Italian seasoning.

3.  Bring contents to a boil and then add tortellini
4.  Boil until tortellini is cooked
5.  Lower heat and stir in crushed tomatoes and simmer 10-15 minutes
6.  Add greens and cook until it is wilted

7.  Do a photo montage with the kale.

 

Crockpot Beef Stew

-- Adapted from several recipes --

Who doesn't love coming home to dinner already done in the crock pot?  This is a pretty easy recipe although does require a little prep work.  I prepped the night before but you could also wake up early and prep in the morning.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 slices bacon (browned and crumbled)

2 lbs lean stew beef, in cubes

3 cloves garlic minced

2 cans of crushed tomatoes, undrained (~28 oz)

2 cans of stewed tomatoes, undrained (~28 oz)

1 can no-salt added white beans, rinsed and drained (~15 oz)

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 large Russet potatoes, peeled and sliced

3 stalks celery, sliced

2 bay leaves

3 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce

1 cup Red Wine

2 cups beef broth

 

 

Directions:

Place meat in a large plastic bag.  Combine 1/2 cup flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; pour into bag with meat and shake to coat.

 

Cook bacon until crispy.  Add stew meat and cook until evenly browned on the outside.  Remove and place into crockpot.

 

Chop all your veggies and gather all your spices (makes things easy in the morning to just wake up and dump everything in the crock pot!)

 

Add remaining ingredients into crockpot and cook on low for 8-9 hours or high for 4 hours.