Cauliflower Soup

The cleanse included four days of blended meals/shakes. So, I made a couple of soups with the vegetables I had on hand. This cauliflower soup was one of them, and it was so simple and pretty hearty. I followed the very simple Paul Bertolli's Cauliflower Soup recipe here.

So simple, yet so delicious!

Cold, Wet Friday Soup: Oxtail

While the rest of the country is enjoying record setting temperatures, sunshine and an early Spring, it's super "cold" and wet in Northern California. (I put cold in quotes because I grew up on the East coast and it gets cold there. I've acclimated to the weather here, so I'm kind of a wimp and really dislike being cold.)

So, it's been a long week with the time shift, things have been a little off. It rained really hard on Friday and I thought it would be nice for J to come home to a nice warm comfort soup for dinner. I braised the oxtails for hours (pretty much all day) with the vegetables and it really turned out great. I tried to replicate my mom's oxtail soup and it was pretty darn close :) I served it with a small bowl of rice and fish sauce with chili peppers for dipping.

Ingredients:
Oxtail
Veggies: carrots, potato, celery
Garlic cloves
Onion
Herbs: I used what I had, some thyme but you can use pho seasoning if you have it, star anise, peppercorns, etc.

The most critical step is to rinse and then parboil the oxtail. Parboiling is basically boiling the meat in rapid water for 10-15 to remove the impurities. Rinse and then you can start the soup. I simmer the oxtail for about 2 hours with the herbs and then add the veggies in for the rest of the day.

The end result is some really tender  fall-off-the-bone meat. The broth is very light, so we usually eat this with a small bowl of rice and a side of fish sauce with crushed chili peppers.

Pumpkin Soup with Pumkin Seed-Mint Pesto

It's fall and the weather has turned. It's cold -- actually, let me take that back. I grew up on the East Coast, so it actually doesn't get as cold here in California. But, it's chilly. I've acclimated to the weather here, so I won't be able to stand the frigid temperatures when I go home for the holidays.

Anyway, enough about the weather. Let's get to the soup I made earlier this week. You would think now that I work at home, I would have more time to cook -- not the case. I actually haven't been cooking as much as I used to, but I'd like to change that. Over the weekend, I had time to read my magazines (I had a lot to go through).

On the cover of October's Sunset Magazine was a lovely photo of pumpkin soup and I decided I wanted to make this pumpkin soup. Because I love to cook stuff I've never cooked before. And I did! And you know what? It was pretty darn good. I wanted to serve it in a small pumpkin bowl just like the picture, but...let's just say I didn't read the instructions thoroughly enough and it didn't happen. You can find the recipe here.

• SOUP INGREDIENTS
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 4 1/2 cups peeled, 1-in. chunks pumpkin or other orange-fleshed squash (from a 2 1/2-lb. squash)
• 4 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 
  
• PESTO INGREDIENTS
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1/3 cup fresh mint leaves, plus slivered leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup salted roasted pumpkin seeds

Here are all my ingredients for the soup:

• 1. Sauté onion and ginger in oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat until golden, 5 minutes.  Add garlic and coriander and cook until softened.

2. Add pumpkin, broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer, covered, until pumpkin tender.

3. Puree in batches.

PESTO (so good!)

It's really simple. Just pound the mint leave, salt, garlic and 1 tablespoon of oil together. Then add the remaining oil and pumpkin seeds and pound again. Until you get something like this:

That's it! Pour your soup into the pumpkin bowl that you made correctly, or just a regular old white soup bowl like I did. Either way, it will be delicious. And dollops of pesto and slivers of sliced mint leaves and enjoy!

Aztec Chicken Soup

This is some really healthy and tasty soup. Great for the cold weather we've been going through in NorCal. Everything from scratch! I got this recipe from DailyCandy, which they got from SF's Tacolicious:

Ingredients

For soup
2 yellow onions, peeled and chopped
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
½ tbsp. whole black peppercorns
1 whole chicken, cut into quarters
2 dried pasilla chiles
8 Roma tomatoes
2 tbsp. kosher salt
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

For garnish
Fried corn tortilla strips
Avocado, diced
Cotija cheese, crumbled
Onion, chopped
Cilantro, chopped
Lime, cut into wedges

1. In a large stockpot, place half of the onions, 2 garlic cloves, the carrots, bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and chicken. Fill with enough cold water to cover the chicken by two inches. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a gentle simmer.

2. Skim off any foam that forms at the top. Once the chicken is fully cooked (about 45 minutes), remove it from the liquid and set aside to cool. Into another pot, strain the stock through a fine strainer and set aside. Discard the vegetables and aromatics. (The first two steps can be skipped by using 4 cans of store-bought stock and a cooked roast chicken, meat removed from the bones.)

3. Preheat the oven to broil and place the whole tomatoes, remaining chopped onion, and remaining whole garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Place on the top rack of the oven and broil until the tomatoes are slightly charred and the onions and garlic are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

4. Put the dried pasilla chiles on a cookie sheet and place them under the broiler until they are slightly toasted (be careful not to let them burn). Remove them from the oven and soak them in warm water 5-10 minutes.

5. Once they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins from the tomatoes. Remove the chiles from the soaking water. Place the peeled tomatoes in a blender along with the roasted onion, garlic, and chiles. Puree until smooth.

6. In a thick-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Slowly add the tomato-chile puree and “fry” it in the oil until it thickens and darkens, 5-7 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add 4 quarts of the chicken stock (reserved cooking liquid) to the puree. Let it simmer 10-15 minutes.

7. In the meantime, remove all the meat from the chicken; discard skin and bones. Shred the chicken meat and add to the soup along with the salt. Simmer an additional 10-15 minutes and serve.

8. Garnish with tortilla strips, avocado, cheese, onion, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Chicken Soup

Duty called. My boyfriend was sick. I made him chicken soup. But, this was the only pic I took because I was also making a Tomato Basil Pasta and cupcakes for a baby welcoming party (next post). It was a busy morning in the kitchen on Sunday. Basically, chop the veggies and simmer in broth. Brown the chicken and simmer with veggies. Good for the soul. I also make what I call my witch's brew to help ease his sore throat. It seems to be working...

Beef Pho

Looks just like what you'd get at your favorite pho restaurant, eh?



I was feeling very ambitious and decided to make Pho for the first time. I had nothing better to do, so I decided to take a stab at it.

Broth:
One large yellow onion
Piece of ginger
Salt
Rock Sugar
All kinds of herbs & spices (see pic below)
4-6 pounds of beef shank with bone

Bowl:
Pho Noodles (get the fresh ones in the refrigerator section at the asian market)
Red Onions (thinly sliced)
Scallions (green only, cut into thin rings)
Cilantro
1/2 pound raw steak (sliced VERY thin - the butcher can do this for you, or my mom freezes it a bit and slices it partly frozen)
Pho meatballs (can be bought at the store, I got these from my mom)

Garnish:
Bean sprouts
Basil
Lime wedges
Chile peppers (thinly sliced)

Broth:
1. Char the onion and ginger. If you have a grill or gas stove, use the open flame. I used my oven. After about 15 minutes in the oven, they will soften and become fragrant.

I cut my onion in half cuz it was a pretty big one. Turn them over about halfway through:





2. Parboil beef shank with bones: Boil a pot of water and place the beef shank in the boiling water to remove impurities. Let it boil vigorously for 3 minutes.



After 3 minutes you can see all the nastiness:


Dump bones and water and rinse the beef shank and bones in warm water. If you only have one large pot, wash it and bring a fresh pot of water to a boil (I used another pot).



3. Make broth: Bring fresh pot of water to a boil. While waiting for water to boil, tie herbs into a cheesecloth. Once water is boiling, add charred onion and ginger, herbs, meat, season with salt and add sugar cubes. Use ladle to skim any residue. Simmer for 2 hours.

These are the packets my mom said would be easiest for me to use, it has all the herbs and spices needed for pho broth:






Note: I cut up the ginger into 4 pieces. You might want to tie the onion in cheesecloth because the layers will unravel in the broth as it cooks through.


Once the meat is cooked to your liking (tender), remove the meat and put it into a bowl of cool water for 10-15 minutes so that the meat doesn't dry out.



Drain and separate the meat from the bone.

Meat falling off bone (yum)




Taste the broth and season as necessary. Strain broth through a strainer and into another pot.





Continue to simmer broth for 1.5-2 hours. Adding water and seasoning as needed.

Take a picture of your pet waiting (I had to):


When your broth is near ready, bring a small pot of water to boil, chop up the scallions and cilantro, thinly slice the red onion, cut the lime into wedges, and wash the bean sprouts and basil.



Meatballs (optional):





Arrange garnishes (bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, chile pepper) on a separate plate


Assemble the bowl:
1. Place noodles into the strainer and then into the boiling water for 10 seconds.









2. Put noodles into bowl, add raw meat, meatballs, cooked meat, red onion, scallions, and cilantro into bowl.





3. Pour hot broth into bowl. The broth will cook the raw slices of meat.



Slurp away!


Note: I suppose you can get tripe and tendon and all that other stuff. I don't like that stuff, so I stick to just meat.

Remember, the proper way to eat pho is to have a small side dish of hoisin sauce and sriracha and dip the meats into the mixture.