Tom Kha Soup

This is my all time favorite soup, and it just got more amazing. I usually make it with cauliflower, mushrooms and tomatoes. This time I used three kinds of mushrooms: oyster, enoki and beech mushrooms. I also added a little baby bok choy and japanese noodles that I had on hand. I used to have a kaffir lime tree in my house just for the purpose of making this soup. However, after years of suffering in West Virginia, I gave it to my mom to take home to Texas. Now I just use kaffir leaf powder that I bought online and sprinkle it on top. That's the green powder you seen on the final product picture.

Here is the general recipe that I use for my tom kha soup.

Tom Kha Soup (AKA the best soup in the world!)

(serves 4)

1/2 cup coconut milk
3 cups vegetable stock
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger root, sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves
4 small chilies, crushed or chopped
1 tsp sugar (optional)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 cup cauliflower (or any vegetables you like, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and tomatoes are nice in this soup
2 tbsp lemon juice
cilantro

Heat the vegetable stock with lemongrass, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, soy sauce, chilies, sugar, and stock. Simmer with the lid on for ten minutes then strain the debris from the broth by placing a strainer in a bowl. Return soup base to pot. Add vegetables. Simmer vegetables until al dente. Add the coconut milk and heat up (do not boil rapidly or it may break the coconut milk into particles). Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Garnish with cilantro (and kaffir leaf powder if you are using it).

*If you don’t have access to kaffir lime leaves you can use other citrus leaves like lemon or lime zest. If you are using zest make sure not to get any of the white pith and do not add it until two minutes before you are going to strain the soup. The zest will make your soup too bitter if you cook it for too long.

Fakin' Bacon

Those of you who know me on Facebook might already know this, but I have never had a BLT. This is mostly because I never cared for the "B." This proves Anthony Bourdain wrong ("Everyone likes bacon. Even vegetarians like bacon.") Pig meat always gave me a headache, so avoided it, which could be difficult with an Appalachian mommy. However, in the last six months I have been experimenting with making a vegetarian version of the classic BLT. Something about crisp lettuce, juicy ripe tomato and good bread just seemed so refreshing to me. I have tried disgusting commercially available faux bacon strips. I have made tempeh bacon. I even cut eggplant into thin strips and then battered and fried it. That was probably the closest until a magical idea popped into my head: smoked cheese. It has the fat. It has the smoke. My original idea was to pan fry the cheese into one of those little crisps that you sometimes get on salads, usually made out of Parmesan. However, I decided to just cut it into strips to mimic the look of bacon. Also in reality it did not melt down but still got crispy and chewy. As Eric put it "The closest thing to bacon that I've ever had." 

F. L. T (Facon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich)

serves 2

1 block smoked cheese (I used Gruyere)

1 large tomato, sliced

2 romaine lettuce leaves (because iceberg is for chumps)

4 slices sourdough (or your favorite white bread)

mayonnaise, to taste

salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a pan with parchment paper. Slice the cheese or grate and place in mounds. Cook until crisp and brown, approximately 20 minutes for the hard Gruyere). In the mean time you can slice you tomato and toast your bread. I like mine only lightly toasted for this sandwich. When the cheese is finished you can assemble your sandwich by slathering mayonnaise (or vegan mayo. I am fine with just low fat mayo). Then salt and pepper the mayo. Stack your tomato, cheese and lettuce.  

That puppy wants some facon!

Next time I may try slicing firm tofu and marinating in liquid smoke then deep frying. I may even add an avocado. Overall, I would say big success in the world of fake bacon.

Beer Battered Green Bean Fries

I like green bean fries, so here goes!

Beer Battered Green Bean Fries with Avocado Ranch Sauce

Serves 4 (probably)

1 lb fresh green beans

whole wheat flour

1/2 bottle of cold beer

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Oil for frying 

Salt to taste

Sauce:

1 Avocado

1/4 cup ranch dressing

1 pickled jalapeno (if desired)

1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

Beer+Flour=Magic!

Bring a pot of water to boil and preheat oil in a pan over medium. In the meantime, puree the avocado, ranch, jalapeno, and lemon juice in food processor or with immersion blender. Place it in the refrigerator. When the water is boiling, blanch the green beans for a few minutes making sure they are still crisp. Drain and rinse with cold water. Place them on a paper towel and pat dry. 

Then set up a batter station. Place a handful of four in a shallow wide bowl. Then put approximately 3/4-1 cup of flour in a large mixing bowl and blend the baking powder. stir in enough beer for the mixture to be a really thin batter, fairly soupy. Toss green beans in the flour in batches and then coat in beer batter. Remove them individually but quickly from the batter and place in hot oil. Cook til golden brown, approximately 2 minutes. Salt while they are still hot. Serve with dipping sauce. 

Deviled Eggs for Easter

Does anyone else find it weird that it is traditional to make something called "deviled eggs" for Easter? Oh well. After dyeing Easter eggs, that is exactly what I did. This post will be more pictures than words. 

Easter Devils Two Ways

makes 24

1 dozen eggs

mayonnaise (I prefer light)

Dijon mustard, about 2 tablespoons

4 green onions, chopped greens and whites

1 tablespoon dill pickle relish

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon curry powder (or to taste)

salt to taste

Hard boil the eggs by placing in a pan of cold water, bring to a boil, turn off heat and cover. Let sit for 9 minutes. Drain the water and fill the pan with cool water and a few ice cubes. Peel eggs and cut in half. Gently scoop out the yolks. Add about 1/3-1/2 as much mayo as yolks in volume. Add all of the other ingredients, except curry powder. I mash mine with an avocado masher but you can use a fork. I filled half of my eggs with this basic mixture and garnished the top with paprika and dried dill. I added curry to the other half of the egg mixture and garnished with some leftover green onion. 

Fake Tuna Sandwich

Ok so we all know about fake meat products. They are all some weird smashed soy stuff with food coloring (or in the case of Quorn: mycoprotein translates into fungal sludge).  I know, I eat the stuff and I genuinely like it. However, I like this better: real food. This is how I made fake tuna sandwiches out of real food.

Combine equal proportions of cooked chickpeas* and artichoke hearts (canned or frozen but probably don't want do use marinated as it will change the taste and texture). Pulse in a food processor until the consistency is like tuna from a can. Then add other stuff you like: mayo, green onions, white onion, pickle relish, lemon juice, salt and pepper for me. You could do it like a chicken salad too and add grapes and walnuts. Get creative. Then I just spread it on some nice sourdough bread with crisp romaine leaves and ripe tomato.  It hit the spot. It has protein like tuna and a lot of fiber. I served it with an Israeli couscous asparagus salad on the side.

*I always buy dry beans and soak them overnight. After I boil in salted water, drain and rinse them, I let them cool to room temperature. Then I put them in a large freezer bag and lay flat in the freezer. This gives me a lot of beans on hand to use and they are a lot better than those from a can.

**For this recipe you could also use white beans.

Indian Pizza

I had this great idea for making Indian inspired pizza. I thought about it for a week and knew it would be a lot of work. I did it over the course of two days. I make the homemade paneer and marinated the Quorn chicken tandori on the first day. On day two I made the chutney and pizza dough. I also make lemon pickle swiss chard but found that the pizza was better without it. For the dough I used Fleishman's pizza yeast which does not require doubling time. I just followed the recipe exactly as written on the package. I could have made naan bread to be more Indian but I was looking for a short cut time-wise. I suppose I could have bought naan.

Indian Tandoori Chik'n Pizza

serves 4 (or 2 hungry bears)

Dough made according the package instruction or you can use my dough recipe here.

I always precook my dough. Usually I do this on the grill but I did it in a pan this time. I brushed it lightly with olive oil and cooked both sides on medium heat until bubbles formed.

For the paneer:

1/4 gallon milk

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice (lime juice or vinegar would work as well)

cheese cloth

Place the milk in a heavy bottom sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then add lemon juice. The milk will form curds and whey. When your whey is greenish and thin it's time to strain. Tie your cheese cloth around the ball of curds and hang above the sink for 30 minutes to an hour. (As you can see I could not find my cheesecloth, so I found a shirt with open weave like a cheese cloth and made it work. It's kind of funny.) Then I pressed mine into a plastic container and put it in the refrigerator overnight. This helped to make it more firm. When it was time to use I cut it into cubes.

Making it work!

For the chutney:

1 bunch cilantro

2 hot peppers, serrano or jalapeno

1 handful shelled pistachios (I guess this is about 1/4 cup)

2 tablespoons lemon juice or to taste

salt to taste

Blend it!

For the tandoori chik'n:

1/2 bag Quorn chicken pieces

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Tandoori spice and paprica (enough to get the red color you desire for me this was about 1/4-1/3 cup)

Just mix this together and pop it into the refrigerator to marinated for however long you have. Mine marinated for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When it was time to assemble  I smeared the chutney onto the dough, placed the paneer and marinated "chicken" on my pizza. I let it cook for about 25 minutes if memory serves me correctly.

In retrospect the chutney lost it's acidity in cooking so I would probably change the recipe by cooking the dough and chicken in the oven on their own, then assembling all of the ingredients. Paneer doesn't really melt anyway so it doesn't need to be cooked in the oven. The other option would be to make the tandoori marinade as your sauce instead of marinating your chicken with it. I think I might try to make a saag paneer pizza or a madras mixed vegetable curry pizza.... mmmm.

How to make enchiladas

I have been making enchiladas for a few year but have only been making them well for about a year. It took a lot of toying with because they often just turned out so squishy. Being from Texas this simply would not work. 

Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas Verdes

serves 4

12 ounces mushrooms (I used shitake because that is what I have)

12 ounces fresh or frozen spinach

8 ounces light cream cheese (I used Laughing Cow light)

10 tortillas

1 jar tomatillo sauce (or make your own)

oil for frying

shredded cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in pan for tortillas. Cook down sliced mushrooms in oil. Then wilt the spinach or defrost if using frozen. Mix spinach and mushrooms with cream cheese. Place a tortilla in oil and cook on each side for about 5-10 seconds, until slightly puffed and soft fried. Then place tortilla in pan and spoon filling into it to fill it about 1/3 way. Roll, preferably using tongs. Do this with each tortilla. Then cover with tamatillo sauce and top with cheese. Put in oven for 25 minutes. Ta-da!

This is just the basic way to make enchiladas and can be used to make any number of combinations. I served mine with avocado and tomato salad.