Worries Go Down Better With Soup - Harvest Cream Soup

A friend stopped by for a coffee, stayed a while, and fortunately we had some harvest cream soup to fill up our bellies with steaming hot vitamins before we had to send him back out in the cold. This soup is amazing, great presentation and creative blend of flavors!

HARVEST CREAM SOUP

1 onion

1 stalk celery

1 leek

2 cloves garlic

1 large bulb celery root

4 cups milk

1 tsp (càc) olive oil

1 fresh lemon

salt

pepper

------------------------------------------

CHESTNUT PURÉE

2 shallots

2 cloves garlic

1 sprig thyme

12 chestnuts

salt

pepper

2 cups water

------------------------------------------

GARNISH

1 slice of celery root

1/2 carrot

1/2 turnip

2 chestnuts

Dice the vegetables. Crush the garlic. Sweat the first four ingredients with a bit of olive oil at a low temperature so that they get soft but not brown. Add celery root and sweat for 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add milk and then add water to cover, and simmer for 45 to 50 minutes.

Puree the mixture in a blender with 1 teaspoon olive oil and the juice from the lemon. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.

To prepare the chestnut puree, peel and chop the chestnuts. Crush the garlic. Saute shallots, garlic, thyme and chestnuts over medium heat for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add water and simmer until tender. Puree the mixture in a blender, adding water to adjust consistency.

For the vegetable garnish, dice the veggies, and cook them slowly in olive oil until they're tender.

Serve even portions of cream soup into 8 bowls, swirl a spoonful of chestnut puree into each bowl. Garnish and serve.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow - Winter Stew

When the weather outside is frightful and the chill in the air urges me to walk more briskly from place to place in hopes of returning home to a piping hot bowl of home-sweet-home.

My recipe must serve 6 people, but with two of us at the house you can be sure that the house will smell like this stew for nearly a week at a time. I just leave the pot on the stove in front the window that has a very strong draft. When I'm not using the kitchen the temperature drops rapidly, comparable to refrigeration. Then all I have to do when I come home is fire up the stove and presto, the house smells lovely and warmth fills our stomachs. Now, if only I had a fireplace...

This is going to be my new favorite repeat recipe. It's heart healthy, but it keeps it's secret well. It's packed full of savory chunks of goodness, and whole grains. It's low in sugar and salt. You can add just as much spice as you like.

Winter Stew

2 tsp (càc) olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 leek
1/2 tsp (càc) ground coriander
1/2 tsp (càc) cumin seeds
1/4 tsp (càc) ground red pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

3 2/3 cups vegetable stock

3/4 tsp (càc) salt

1 tbsp (càs) harissa (North African hot sauce) or 1 1/2 tsp (càc) tomato paste if you don't like spicy

1/2 butternut squash
3 carrots
1 large potato
2 large turnips
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/3 cups uncooked couscous grains
1 fresh lemon

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Clean and chop the onion and leek; sauté 5 minutes. Click here for an easy way to clean leeks. Add coriander, cumin, red pepper and garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Prepare your vegetables in large 3/4 inch cubes. Add the vegetable stock and the chunky vegetables and chic peas; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.

When you are ready to serve the stew, stir in the parsley and couscous. Let the couscous fluff for 5 minutes before serving in bowls with lemon wedges.

Nutritional information per serving (serving size: 3/4 cup squash mixture, 1/2 cup couscous, and 1 lemon wedge): calories: 264; fat: 2.3 grams (saturated 0.3 grams, monounsaturated 1 gram, polyunsaturated 0.6 gram); protein: 8.3 grams; carbohydrate: 54.5 grams; fiber: 7.5 grams; cholesterol: 0 milligrams; iron: 2.4 milligrams; sodium: 425 milligrams; calcium: 92 milligrams.

A Delish Classic in Any Country - Hachis Parmentier

According to Wikipedia :

"In haute cuisine, hachis Parmentier is a dish made with mashed, baked potato, combined with diced meat and sauce lyonnaise and served in the potato shells. In general use, a simpler version is the French equivalent of cottage or shepherd's pie.
The dish is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and inventor who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the promotion of the potato as an edible crop. The word "hachis" means a dish in which the ingredients are chopped or minced, from the same root as the English word "hatchet"."

My Mom is going to see this and be like, "What? I've been cooking French food all this time?" Shepherd's Pie was always a classic around our house. It was even a standard in the public school cafeteria. It is woven into our culture. I guess that means we're French ;)

The sauce that distinguishes this dish is called a Lyonnaise Sauce and was invented by Duke Philippe De Mornay, Governor of Saumur, France, sometime in the late 1500s. He was a leader of the Hugenots. Apparently Mornay also invented many other sauces ; Mornay Sauce, Sauce Chasseur, Sauce Porto and that ever favorite French cheese sauce the Bechamel sauce!

So today I'm going to share with you my variation on Shepherd's Pie or Hachis Parmentier. First it is absolutely imperative that you make your own mashed potatoes. Please, humor me and do not purée them into liquid. So for this recipe I am officially forbidding the use of all electric mixers, blenders, and food processors. Only elbow grease will obtain the perfect texture, so all you'll need is a fork or potato masher. Lumps are essential in creating the right combination of flavors. Large lumps. Big chunky bits of potato all smooshed together with some savory sumpin' sumpin' seasonings. mmmm...

About those potatoes... Different potatoes have different flavors, and textures, and juiciness. So I'm recommending good old fashioned brown skin potatoes. Whatever potatoes your region has in knarly shapes with thick skins and clumps of dirt hanging onto them. Apparently, they're a dying breed. The farmers are planting fewer brown skinned potatoes because the stores are ordering more white skinned potatoes because the consumers don't want to get dirt in their SUVs! So let's get our priorities straight. Stop making decisions based on which potato leaves less dirt in your car and start making decisions based on what tastes good. (Let's face it you could stuff those potatoes into a paper shopping bag and save yourself the vacuuming if you really wanted to - you are using paper right?) In this case I used potatoes from my friend's garden so they were quite tasty.

Hachis Parmentier

4 russet potatoes
2 turnips
---
1 lb (.5K) ground beef
1 small onion
5 tb (càs) butter
5 tb (càs) flour
1 1/4 C (30cl) cold milk
salt & pepper
1/2 c (12cl) dry white wine, cold
---
1 baby zucchini
---
4 tb (càs) milk
2 portions of laughing cow cheese
salt & pepper

Let's begin...
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C)

Put your pot of water on to boil. While the water comes to temperature peel and quarter the potatoes and turnips. Drop them in the hot water, add a dash of salt, and let them boil until they're tender.

Meanwhile, sauté your beef in a large skillet. Don't let it get too crispy. You'll cook it again when you put the dish in the oven later, so the goal here is that the beef turns that white-grey color that's no longer pink, but not quite yet brown. Remove the meat and use the meat drippings to cook the onion, butter, flour and milk. Simmer until the sauce thickens. Salt & pepper to taste. Add the cold wine, heat until warm. Add the meat, toss until evenly covered. Distribute into a deep baking dish.

Choose a young tender zucchini (5in /12cm) Slice very thin leaving the skin on. Layer the zucchini slices over the beef.

Strain the potatoes and turnips. Mash by hand leaving large chunks of potatoes. Add creamy cheese and several tablespoons of milk so that they don't get dry. If you can't find laughing cow cheese you are welcome to replace it with philly cream cheese, or you can substitue both the milk and cheese with 1/4 C (6cl) sour cream (so either sour cream or the cheese + milk combination). Layer the potatoes over the zucchini.

Put the Hachis Parmentier in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden on top.

Aude to Africa - Couscous Kabyle

Africa, africa, there are so many things I love about Africa. When it comes to cuisine, I either love it or hate it. There are very few dishes I've tried that I can roll in my mouth and say, that's so, so. Nope. It's either absolutely to die for, or please don't ask me to eat that again. So when I was asked to prepare an exotic 100% African meal I knew just what I was going to make, and it wasn't going to be fufu.

I had a friend come over to cook with me and she brought a big giant pot and a big giant bowl, because we would be cooking for a crowd. She also brought a traditional Couscous grain that she brought back with her from Algeria. It tasted better than any Couscous grain I've ever bought in the stores!

We steamed the Couscous the traditionnel way. It took all day! Steam, fluff, steam, fluff, steam. Then we had to roll each handful between our hands and let the grains fall individually into the bowl and the stuff still wanted to stick together when we were trying to serve it.

The stew was perfectly seasoned, due entirely to the fact that my friend was helping me. I know this because I've made the dish several times since and the first time it was bland and didn't have flavor. I've realized that some things you just can't follow the recipe on, or my spices aren't as strong as theirs because I had to add four times what the original recipe calls for! The second time I tried to make it, it tasted like tomato soup, so I've adjusted that over time as well.

The night in question there would be too many guests in my house, and no plausible way to sit 30 of us around my dinning room table, so we pushed all of the dinning room furniture into the living room and we laid out african print blankets and picnic-ed indoors the African way.

We lounged and talked and heard stories about Africa late into the night. It was an absolute culinary masterpiece and a truly joyous occasion to be shared by all.

One traditional recipe fed everybody with plenty to spare, but the recipe I'll share with you is designed for four people. Four big hungry people. I figure that's more practical and if you do decide to feed the whole village you can always multiply.

Couscous Kabyle

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp (4 càs) oil
2 cups (1/2 k) couscous
2 thighs and drumsticks
2 onions thin wedges
2 tomatoes
2 potatoes quartered
2 turnips quartered
2 carrots cut like carrot sticks
1 pinch of black pepper
1 tbsp (càs) ras-el-hanout
4 spicy dried red peppers
1 sm zucchini
1 1/2 cup (425g) rehydrated chick-peas
(If you're using dried chick peas let them rehydrate in a bowl of water over night)

PREPARATION

Prepare the couscous according to the package directions. If you're using dried rolled couscous you'll have to rince it in cold water then strain it and allow it to puff 30 min.

Cut the thighs at the joint. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. At medium-high heat, brown the chicken with the skins bones and all in the oil until crispy and golden. Add one chopped onion. Brown. Then add 4 cups water.

Run the tomatoes through a vegetable mill. Add the other onion, the tomatoes, potatoes, turnips, and carrots. And let it stew for two hours.

A half hour before serving crush the red peppers with a mortar and pestle and add the spices, zucchini, and chick-peas to the stew. Allow the flavors to marinate 30 min. and serve over the couscous.