winter chickpea soup

hi all,

we're a few days into the lenten season, so it's back to exclusively veggie recipes until easter. here's one i came up with on a walk today and decided to fix up for supper. i'm really happy with the way it turned out - it's very tangy, and the sour cream really helps to temper the spice. it's also very, very easy to make.

winter chickpea soup

ingredients:

2 cans chickpeas (or 4 cups cooked, if you make your own)

1 can veggie stock (or 2 cups)

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp white pepper

1 small habanero pepper

juice of 1 1/2 limes

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 handful small tomatoes (cherry or grape)

2 handfuls uncooked spinach leaves (no need to chop or de-stem)

sour cream to garnish

to make:

coarsely chop the onion

mince the garlic

de-seed and mince the habanero (careful!)

heat a small soup pot and add the olive oil

sautee onion, garlic and habanero on medium-low heat until tender

drain & rinse the chickpeas in a colander

add to the onions and stir

add the veggie stock and bring everything to a boil

add the salt, white pepper and lime juice

cover and reduce heat, simmer for 5 minutes

slice the tomatoes lengthwise and add them to the pot

cover and simmer for 5 more minutes

add the spinach leaves - let them steam on top of the mix for about 3 minutes

stir in the spinach leaves and leave on low heat until you're ready to serve

garnish with sour cream and serve with a bit of broth

tips:

this should be thick like a stew. make sure to taste the chickpeas to make sure they're tender enough before you serve.

serves two adults as a main course. this will almost certainly make fantastic leftovers.

soup for folks with little time to cook

i have some kind of cold or allergy, apparently. when i went to the store to pick up some antihistamine, i thought i'd pick up a can of soup, too - you know, just for good measure. all of the soups looked pretty dismal and i didn't want to sacrifice my sodium intake for the next few days, so i decided to whip one up on my own. it was met with rave roommate reviews and only took about 20 minutes to have on the table.

ingredients:

2 cans of stock (chicken or veggie, your choice)

1 can chickpeas, rinsed well (2 cups, if you make from scratch)

2 cans black beans, rinsed well (or 4 cups)

2 cups frozen corn

1 habanero pepper, de-stemmed, de-seeded and minced (be careful!)

1 tsp white pepper

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic

juice of one lime

sour cream to garnish, optional

salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp)

equipment:

for best results, you'll need an immersion blender

to make:

bring stock, chickpeas, onions, garlic and white pepper to a boil

add habanero

blend with an immersion blender

add black beans, corn, lime juice

salt to taste

serve with sour cream

stir to reincorporate ingredients (particularly the pureed chickpeas) before serving and periodically throughout the meal.

enjoy. there are no tricks to this one. but do be careful with that habanero.

new year's revolution

well, i haven't posted for over two months, but that doesn't mean i haven't been cooking. i've been cooking up a storm, but more importantly, i've been restructuring my daily routine and learning how to subvert the big food industry.

perhaps you're thinking, "wow - that really came out of left field!" from my perspective, though, it's been more of a gradual progression; i couldn't have done this without the increasing familiarity with researching, buying, cooking and serving food that i've gained over the last year. in fact, this undertaking was the subject of my new year's resolution last year.

as i come up on one year of creative and highly rewarding cooking, i'm ready to officially up the ante for 2010. i've already dropped milk from my diet and am trying to reduce my intake of other dairy. i've also mostly dropped meat. but this fall i made a huge leap: i began baking my own bread and making my own butter. i keep butter on hand just in case, but now i just buy heavy whipping cream and shake it until i have butter and buttermilk. i haven't bought bread from the store for several months now and my roommate and i have gotten into a great baking rotation which includes our standby white bread, as well as challah, beer bread, soda bread and biscuits. life is good in our apartment.

today, i made another step forward - incorporating dry beans into my cooking routine. (you know how i love my beans.) i have a pot of black beans on the stove and am excited to eat them, freeze them, make chili out of them, feed them to my friends, and have none left so that i can make some more. it's just so great.

so, i'm in the final throes of the academic quarter right now, but as soon as i'm off for break, i'll post some of the great recipes from this fall: sweet potato salad, apple & goat cheese potato salad, beer bread, challah, turkey soup, black beans, roasted beets, etc.

as always, i'll post my adventures in cooking -and i'll continue to cook fun things and write about them in a way that assures that anyone can successfully make the dish- but i will also begin to chronicle my 2010 new year's 'revolution': subverting big agra and gradually moving towards a corn-free diet.

happy eating!

-a.

buttermilk biscuits

one more reason why god loves the south more than the rest of the world.

this recipe is taken from southern plate, a fantastic website with tons of recipes and tutorials: http://www.southernplate.com/2009/05/buttermilk-biscuits-tutorial.html

i make these biscuits on a regular basis and don't usually have a lot of trouble getting other people to help me eat them. (like i need help!)

if you're fairly comfortable with your biscuit-making skills, this recapitulation of the recipe should work just fine for you. if you're a novice, i'd recommend reading through the thorough tutorial on the southern plate site.

ingredients:

1 stick butter
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

to make:

blend the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

cut the stick of butter into 1/4in slices and toss with the flour. use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour. this will take a while, but don't stop until the pieces of butter are about pea-sized.

stick the bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes.

preheat your oven to 450 degrees and let it heat while you're waiting.

after 15 minutes, pull the bowl out of the fridge and stir in the milk. the dough will be wet and sticky, but shouldn't be runny.

turn the dough onto a well floured surface. flour your hands and knead the dough three or four times. don't overwork the dough and don't let it get too warm. press it out (gently!) until it's about 1/2in thick. cut the biscuits with your favorite cutter - i use a heart. you can also use a glass to get a good circle.

place the biscuits on a greased and floured (or a non-stick) pan and bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

you're welcome to brush them with butter when they come out of the oven, but there's plenty of butter in them already.

these biscuits are a dream to make and are fantastic with any meal. enjoy!

chips n' salsa chicken strips

chips n' salsa chicken was my million dollar idea of the day.

ingredients:

6 chicken strips or thinly sliced boneless breasts
3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 lime

this recipe provides modest portions for two adults. adjust accordingly.

to make:

marinate the chicken strips with the salsa and lime juice in the refrigerator for two to three hours.

in the mean time, crush tortilla chips in a ziploc bag (try to get them pretty well crushed) and dump them into a soup bowl. spread them around the bottom of the bowl.

heat a non-stick frying pan with a little bit of olive oil.

shake the excess salsa from the chicken tenders and roll them in the crushed chips (they don't all stick, but do the best you can). cook the tenders over medium high heat, flipping as infrequently as possible.

serve up immediately. sauteed chard makes a great side!

modifications: feel free to add some black pepper to the tortilla chip crumbs, or even some panko.

the long summer

i'm finally home after a long summer of traveling. it was wonderful, but aside from my variation on a cheesesteak that i whipped up for an overseas labor day celebration in berlin, i took a backseat and watched a lot of cooking and baking happen. now that i'm home, however, it's back to the burners. here are two new recipes, chips n' salsa chicken strips and buttermilk biscuits, to get the academic year started off right.

enjoy!

sweet wheat biscuits

i got this recipe from an old friend who used it to make bread for some of our religious services. you can make it a loaf, but i like to make dense, yet delicious, biscuits.

the biggest perk of this recipe is that you can have delicious biscuits on the table in 20 mins flat (including prep time).

however, this recipe has a caveat. because it's generally used to make bread for service, please sing a song, meditate on something peaceful, or think about your loved ones while you're making it.

ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp double acting baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup veg oil
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water

to make:
preheat oven to 400
mix all dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl
whisk dry ingredients to mix salt and baking powder evenly
add all wet ingredients to a separate mixing bowl
don't bother trying to mix the wet ingredients - just let them be in the bowl together
gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring the whole time
the dough will be stiff and not very sticky
turn the dough out onto a floured surface
knead 2 or 3 times, just to make sure the dough all sticks to itself
flatten the dough with your hands, it should be a little over an inch thick
use a cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits
place biscuits on an oiled and floured pan (i use a pizza pan)

bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes
the biscuits will not rise much and will not turn golden brown - don't worry, they're done inside when you stick a knife in and it comes out clean.

this recipe should make about 7 biscuts. if you decide to make a loaf, score the top or impress the cookie cutter into the loaf. allow the loaf to cook about 14 mins.

enjoy!