Month: October 2009

Day 6 – Roots in a Spin

… or “how I learned not to over-stuff the food processor” and other interesting tidbits.
Used a little over half of the vegetables that I cooked last night.  The first round of puree activity in the food processor took for ever … because I over-filled it.  Oh … and I didn’t include enough liquid.  Next batch, fewer pieces of the roots, more of the stock. Better. 
Thought I had thyme in the spice rack and found it was tarragon … so, a change of pseudo plan — I picked the spices to use based on how each smelled after having a bite of parsnip.  I grabbed jalapeno peppers, apple cider vinegar, toasted sesame oil, olive oil, plain yogurt, cumin, sage, white pepper, lemon juice, and molasses. (not all in the mix – just on the counter to see what made sense as I went along)
Process, process, process while adding the broth a ladle at a time.  I added a jalapeño chopped very fine to the roots in the processor.  Sometimes during the processing, I also added a little dash of one or both of the oils and a squeeze of lemon. WOW I had no idea how sweet parsnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes would be – the turnips were not enough to cut that down.  I’ll need to work on this. So, armed with a very sweet base – I was looking for savory.  Didn’t want to use too much salt so I started with the apple cider vinegar and a little salt.  I then added a little cumin, nutmeg and sage.  A large dollop of molasses and a fewdollops of yogurt.  Into a large pot and onto the stove top to bring up to temperature.  Not looking for a boil here – just hot.
Plated the soup with fresh cut parsley and chopped walnuts in the center and sprinkle of cayenne pepper lightly across the top.  While waiting for the soup to heat, I toasted a pita lightly. Once the soup was in the bowl, I spread the pita with goat cheese and then sliced it into small strips and ate those with the soup.
Results are mixed.  My initial impression beyond the fact that the soup was a bit too sweet – it lacked fat.  Channeling the great chefs and their use of butter. So maybe next time just carrots and parsnips or just sweet potatoes.  I’ll search for savory – maybe if I could have garlic that would round out the flavor but that is out.  Maybe if the soup is served as a side with a grilled meat … ??? Stay tuned.
Dharamsala will not long remain on John’s itinerary — he is considering his first venture off plan. Yeah for the adventure!  I am 1/7th of the way though this blog experiment.  Hope it gets easier. 

Day 5 – Root Veggies

Received a bit of feedback from a friend and reader, asking about the root vegetables mentioned in the earlier post.  After all, it is fall, its been raining in a lot of places – isn’t it time for a good root vegetable soup.  BUSTED 🙂 and I totally agree. I’ve just been stymied about how exactly to cook those roots.  Should I roast them first? That would certainly give them a wonderful sweet taste and a bit of different texture.  But that means cutting raw and sometimes ornery hard veggies. On the other hand, am I just procrastinating with the pressure cooker because I don’t really know how it works or how long it takes with differing foods?  Hot roasting oven or the pressure cooker plunge?  My choice …

Pressure Cooker – experiment #3! 
Root Vegetables prepped for soup … going for a puree soup in the long run so if I over cook them its ok.


2 sweet potatoes, 2 parsnips, 4 carrots, 2 turnips and an onion; the chicken stock that wasn’t spilled; and the rack in the cooker.  Left the skins on after scrubbing well – we’ll see tomorrow if that was a mistake.  Cut the larger ones into smaller portions so all are about the same size, and then cooked them for 12 minutes once the pressure cooker reached internal pressure.  I plan to mush them up tomorrow.  I will certainly need spices, there is not a lick of salt in any of it yet.  A little research and I promise a soup story!

BTW: the carrots taste really good – for those in the know, almost as good as when they are cooked in a clay pot with a chicken.  That recipe will be posted later.  Pretty done with chicken for this week. Thinking I will make the soup tomorrow and then move on to pork.  Day 5 better than Day 4 – at least nothing spilled this time.

John is in Dharamsala.  Over 12 hours time difference.  Love the internet and facebook for keeping in written touch.  Wish I was on this trek with him. Miss his voice in the house.

Day 5 – Curried Chicken Lunch

Lunch Time!  Probably my favorite meal time …
Tool of Choice:  Kitchen Aid Food Processor
Ingredients:  Left over chicken pieces, celery, apple, raisins, slivered almonds, parsley, plain yogurt and mayo. Spiced with a little salt and curry powder.
So it is early lunch and I am hungry. Thinking about curry on the way home. I love my chicken salad chunky with lots of crunch and interesting bites.  I wanted some brightness to the mayo mixture so I added the yogurt for a little tang and hoped the apples would add the sweet crunch.
Easy enough – filled the food processor 1/4 full (after all it is just me) with the following:
o    chicken hunks from the left-over Rotisserie Chicken;
o    chopped celery — small pieces
o    Half a large apple in hunks
o    Palm sized amount of raisins and almond slivers
o    Tablespoon of both yogurt and mayo
o    Salt and curry powder with a dash of extra cumin
Pulse until the desired consistency.
I put the Curried Chicken Salad on top of some left-over slaw (debated about spinach leaves but wanted that bite of cabbage to go with the curry) into 1/2 pita bread. Sliced the remaining apple on the side.  YUM.  Realized that as a Southern girl – not enough mayo by itself.  But I am holding back and trying to save a calorie.
Eating at the dining room table – looking out the south facing window at the leaves of the vine under the portal – swear they are glowing gold. Lunch is over – have to clean up and get back to work.

Day 4 – Melt Down?

Alright, I saw “Julie and Julia” and believe the time between initiating the cooking project and the first Julie melt down had to have been more than 4 days.  Guess I am missing the competitive drive that drove Julia to mince all those onions.

Today started well – boiled eggs: one for breakfast and 3 for use later.  Downhill from there.  Waited too long for lunch and decided a sandwich from a restaurant was the best use of time. Energy frazzled by 4:30 pm.  Home with a highly anticipated new kitchen trash can to find that the liner will not come out. Tell me I do not have to return this! Nibbled on some chicken hoping the protein boost would change my attitude as well as ability to cope with the obstinate liner. Reached for the vegetables pre-cut for snacks and managed to knock over the chicken broth that I had placed in the ‘fridge to separate the fat.  All over the inside of the refrigerator – fat and all.  I resorted to a bowl of cereal with raisins and rice milk.  I give up.

It should not be this difficult to be able to have the energy and motivation to fix a good meal after a taxing day at work.

Day 3 – Evening Musing

Well, again, I have worked on chores until 8 pm and find that I just am not willing to “make” a meal.  Good news for me, I had cooked chicken on Day 1. Bad news is that there is not enough to last past tomorrow.  I guess I just should have stepped away from the internet, dug down deep and finished cleaning out the freezer to have room for extras, that was the excuse this afternoon for not making soup – no room to store it yet.

Not an exciting culinary entry this evening: left over Pressured Chicken and green beans. Nice glass of red wine to round it out. Dessert was a few almonds and two pieces of dark chocolate.  Off now to finish the last of those chores.

No word yet from John today.  Believe he traveled to Dharamsala from Dehli.  I know he will be happy to stay in one place for a while. On this end it is just getting ready for a 4-day work week.

Day 3 – Columbus Day & Day Off

Why can’t I have a schedule like this every day?  It is 10am and I just finished breakfast … very civilized.
Brunchy Eggs:  Lovely having fresh “fixin’s” in the refrigerator.
Ingredients:  Today I started with 2 eggs, some chives, a large chopped button mushroom, some red bell pepper chopped in to small pieces, some yellow hot pepper (much less than the red and much more finely chopped), a small handful of yellow grape tomatoes left from my garden, an even smaller handfull of grated cheese, a large handful of spinach leaves, a slice of 4:9 Bread, pear preserves, and a little butter for the pan and bread.  What a great way to start the morning!
Prep is very simple:
a.       Chop the things that need to be chopped or hunked
b.      start the heat under the pan, add the butter, wait until the butter sizzles …
c.       add the peppers, mushroom, tomato and stir around a little – you are waiting for all to sweat and for the mushrooms to darken.  I added a little salt at this point to help draw out the fluids
d.      While waiting for that, whisk up the eggs with the chives
e.      Add the spinach to the mushrooms and stir to mix when the leaves start to wilt
f.        When the leaves look like another part of the mushroom mixture it is time to add the eggs.  At this point I also sprinkle the cheese on top now and cover the pan with a lid
g.       Turn down the heat to the low setting and refill your coffee.  Check on the eggs every once in a while – when they are almost done being shiny on the top, you can turn the heat all the way off
h.      Pop the toast in the toaster and find a plate for the eggs
i.         Butter and jam the toast and plop the eggs on the plate.  Voila! “Brunchy Eggs”
So John is somewhere between Delhi and Dharamsala – received an email; we are working on Skype.  The food on the plane was not nearly as good as my food this weekend. Then again, I’m not cooking vegetarian (except this morning’s repast would pass). ❤

Day 2 – Part Two

Lunch — You can take the girl out of the south … pimento cheese in a 1/2 pita with spinach leaves and a beer.  Nothing fancy – realized how hungry I was after shopping at the grocery again!
Dinner — Well, I seem to have forgotten about that tonight.  Instead I am making Rotisserie Chicken Carcass Stock. Just like it sounds – toss the chicken carcass and bits into the pressure cooker and fill no further than half-way with water.  The garlic allergy makes purchasing stock impossible.  I usually put the bones into a huge stock pot and boil all day.  Can’t wait to see what the pressure cooker can do in minutes.  Aw Crap!  Look at that – the rack is sitting on the pressure cooker instructions instead of being seated under said carcass.  Hope this doesn’t mean I really have to clean the cooker when this is over!
Beautiful – no mess.  I now have 10 cups of broth. Maybe I’ll get to those vegies tomorrow.  I’m thinking that next time I will through in some of the end bits of celery etc that I usually save for vegetable stock – and salt. But then I would have something similar to all the cans I put back thinking “I just want chicken and water”.  Can’t please me I guess.
Tomorrow – Root Vegetables, I promise.

Day 2 – Part One

B-B-B-Bacon, Eggs and Root Vegetables Day!

The Plan:
Hormel  fully cooked bacon – why am I so late learning about you?? OK having a vegetarian boyfriend is a large part of that, but really. Really? Wow.  How easy is it to turn ho-hum eggs into something special!  Today’s culinary feats are to include this wonderful product.
  1.  Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms and, of course, just a bit of bacon – If I can refrain from eating it as I mix up the eggs.  Well, maybe I will have to wrap it in a crescent roll with a little fruit spread. Oops that is another piece in my mouth between sentences. I am thinking to leave the cheese in the icebox this morning.  Though, when eating bacon, it is hard to see the need for a trade off – I am already in over the suggested daily amounts of salt …
  2. Dinner: pressure cooked root vegetables – the goal is to ultimately make soup or a stew-like meal with them.  Still deciding.  Have parsnips, beets, carrots and maybe a turnip.  Thinking that an onion will round them out.  Adding chile after the cooking is over.

The Execution:

Breakfast  — Played around with this blog so much – the eggs never materialized (thinking about a quiche or frittata still … but I do have other things to do today).  So what I did make was my version of Pigs in a Blanket:

  1. The Stuff: 1/2 a can of crescent rolls (4), 2 slices of the above mentioned bacon, blueberry conserve.
  2. The Process:
    1. Pre-heat oven to 350 and plop the Exopat into the cookie sheet
    2. Unfold the dough and leave the two triangles linked so that there are 2 rectangles
    3. Spread the conserve lightly on one of the triangles on each, then place the bacon strip on top
    4. Role the dough over the bacon/conserve starting with the bacon side
    5. Place on mat and pop in oven for 12 mins.
    6. Drink a cup of coffee while I wait (and work on the blog some more)
    7. Once golden brown – remove from the oven and spread a bit more conserve on the top of each
  1. The result:  yum! Nice with the 2nd cup of coffee and the Sunday cross-word puzzle

Next Up?  Root Vegetables in the Pressure Cooker.

Day 1 – "Pressured Chicken"

Also known as .. Pressure Cooker Use 1st Try  

This little Fagor Splendid 10-qt  pressure cooker thingie is a little daunting. Probably because I was raised by the generation that was rightfully scared of exploding cookers.  Any way — last evening’s treat was amazingly simple.

So here is the process: 

  1. Marinate 2 chicken breasts in a baggie with soy sauce, ginger, honey.
  2. Leave in the icebox for hours
  3. Return and fret about how to actually cook them.  “Should I use the oven or the new cooker?”
  4. Decide on the pressure cooker:
    1. Insert the rack
    2. Add a bit more than 1/2 cup water
    3. Place chicken on rack
    4. Pour remaining marinade (ok I know that is not an approved use of marinade but come on) over chicken in the pot
    5. Close pot and place on high
    6. Watch for steam then reduce temp
    7. Cook for 8 minutes once temp is reduced

So – really yummy and perfectly cooked — Except … the pressure indicator never popped up.  I’m thinking that here at elevation it may take longer to get the pressure, even though the steam was coming out as the instructions indicated – or I didn’t have the lid on correctly.


Only regret — I did not cook more chicken so I wouldn’t have to cook it later this week.