dairy free – Page 24

autumn harvest soup

Published on October 17, 2013October 16, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach20 Comments

maybe you know this about me,
you probably don’t,
but i like simple recipes
recipes that come together quickly
that uses up regular pantry items
random things that can be thrown in
haphazardly
and most likely not make much sense
except that they’re organic
about to die or rot
and were purchased on a whim
you may have also noticed that
i have the same general technique
when making a pot of soup
doing up a stir fry
it has a lot to do with time constraints
energy levels
and most importantly,
for me,
the routine of chopping/dicing/mashing/cooking
that allows me to either ignore things
or watch netflix on the ipad that
is perched on the precious counter space
it’s a wonder i haven’t chopped
a finger off
or burned the house down

this soup came together because
we had a butternut squash lounging
purchased some 2+ weeks prior
there were also those sad looking potatoes
that needed to be used up
and of course, the last few scraggly
carrots from the 5lb bag i like
to buy a few times a month
the weather is cool enough now that
soup is not a crazy option
i threw in miso for a nice umami kick
i did not add any salt
it all just ended up being perfectly
seasoned
plus, simplicity as its best

Autumn Harvest Soup

mirepoix:
1 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TBL olive oil
1/4 cup honey
2 generous tsp miso

veggies:
2 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed and dice
half a good sized butternut squash, cubed

soup base:
2 homemade bouillon cubes
3 cups water
(alternatively, 3-4 cups of low-sodium stock, veggie or chicken)

in a pot, sweat the mirepoix veggies in olive oil, starting with the onions until translucent. add in the carrots and then the garlic. the timing is flexible, you can either go for a pale coloring or a deeper caramelized flavor, it’s to your preference, anywhere from 5-15 minutes. deglaze the pot with honey. i guessed on the amount, it’s basically how ever much came out of the bottle. you don’t want it sweet but you still do want some flavor. mix with veggies until shiny and coated, then add in the miso. again, this is based on taste preference. i used a mild flavored miso. miso can be salty so at your discretion season accordingly.

throw in the bouillon cubes and water (or stock). again, depending on how salty the stock or bouillon cubes are, adjust liquid and seasoning accordingly.

bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer.

at this point, add in the potatoes and squash cubes. allow to simmer gently until all veggies are tender.

either using a handheld blender or vitamix, puree the soup to preferred consistency. i don’t like it too smooth, it comes out as baby food to me, so i leave in some chunks for texture. adjust season and add more liquid (water or stock) if you want a thinner soup.

garnish with roasted squash seeds for added crunch and texture.

other soups to enjoy:
angry asian creations – butternut squash braised in coconut milk
angry asian creations – curried lentil soup
angry asian creations – cambodian chicken & rice soup
my recipes – thai butternut soup
wandering chopsticks – canh tan o (vietnamese chrysanthemum greens soup)
olives for dinner – easy & fragrant coconut soup

carrot bread

Published on October 14, 2013October 16, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach13 Comments

i don’t like carrots
it’s a long story
i don’t mind it when it’s accompanied
with some hearty meat
in a stew
or if it’s seasoned with strong
flavors
but on it’s own,
no thanks

dw is quick to point out that
every few weeks i buy a 5lb
bag of the stuff
it’s just that it’s perfect flavoring
for stocks
for soups
for stir frys
and as much as i hate to admit it:
baking

and so for last week’s breakfast
i made this carrot bread
it’s a repeat,
one that i’m willing to make again
due to the huge bags of the stuff
i keep purchasing
plus, when it’s with sugar
and cinnamon
and baked into bread form
it’s actually palatable
to me

carrot bread
adapted from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

1.5 cups plus 1.5 Tbl AP flour
1/2 tbl baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
1/2 cup veggie oil
3/4 cup scant sugar
2 cups finely grated carrots
1/8 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 350F 20 minutes before baking.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, oil and sugar until blended. Add the flour mixture and continue stirring/beating just until incorporated. add the carrots and continue mixing.

Scrape the batter into a bread pan (9X5″ loaf pan, sprayed with nonstick oil or greased). Bake for about an hour, or until the top is golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. (mine went for about 55 minutes) Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then run a small spatula between the sides of the pan and unmold it onto an oiled wire rack. Wrap the loaf well in plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight to distribute the moisture. If you can’t wait till the next day, it’s fine, just be sure to allow the bread to cool completely before cutting.

other breakfast treats:
morestomach – blueberry breakfast cookies
morestomach – s’mores donuts
angry asian creations – english muffins
dinners for winners – orange cardamom yogurt cake
olives for dinner – perfect hash browns

how to make bouillon cubes

Published on October 10, 2013October 10, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach18 Comments

how does one celebrate the
End of Summer?
how does one encapsulate the very essence
of pre-dawn july light
or
capture the juicy moment
of the first berries picked
in the unfurling, but delicious heat of august?
personally, i don’t know
it’s an impossible
exercise to bottle it all up,
like sand slipping from a loose hand

and so, like the ant
in the fable i set to task
the job of making tomato paste
and the most concentrated soup stock
for the coming cooler months
for meals that call for hearty stews
and soups
beyond just the benefits of gelatin
and how incredibly inexpensive it is,
this particular exercise
isn’t futile,
instead it’s one that
perfectly secures for the
times during darkness
when grace is elusive
and you’re clutching for something comforting
these bouillon cubes could save your life
or at the very least,
nourish your spirit,
coddle your soul

homemade bouillon cubes
as inspired by the musician, who cooks

like most things that i do, i don’t have exact measurements. and so, my notes:

this past summer we participated in a poultry csa. whether we roasted, grilled, stewed, whatever the chicken we kept the bones and skin. what ended up going into the pot was about 2 months worth of bones and whatever wasn’t consumed: neck bones etc. i also freeze carrot ends and celery fronds, they went in, along with a few new scrubbed carrots, with skin on.

veggie scraps are optional. i just didn’t want to waste the scraps, and i needed to clear up the freezer space.

i also threw in a handful of peppercorns, a very generous sprinkle of salt, and 2 bay leaves.

fill up the pot with cold water. bring to a brisk boil, lower temp and forget about the thing for about 10 hours, or until the stock has reduced significantly, at your discretion. it really came down to what time of night it was, how much energy i had to strain it etc.

fish out the bones and vegs. discard. strain liquid through cheesecloth (we used a dw’s old, but very clean cotton tshirt) in fine mesh sieve into a smaller pot. at this point, you can continue to reduce the liquid down some more. i did. in the original recipe post i read the liquid was reduced down to about 1 1/2 cups. that would’ve been nice but i was getting dang tired of the thing.

when it reached, i would say about, 10 cups of stock left in the pot, i brought it to fast boil. i added in about 3oz of agaragar to the pot, stirring to ensure it’s all thoroughly incorporated into the liquid. (it’s important that the liquid is hot in order to activate the agaragar. trust me) in lieu of agaragar, flavorless gelatin can be used, 1:1 ratio. i also want to add, next time around i’d probably add in 4oz instead. while the end result still firmed up just fine, 4oz would’ve made for easier handling.

pour liquid into a big casserole dish, in our case, the biggest one we had. allow to cool to room temp and then fridge it. due to the natural collagen imparted from the chicken bones in the stock, along with the agaragar, the liquid will gel-ify. when it’s thoroughly cold cut into cubes, lay out on wax or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and freeze. when fully frozen, put into freezer bags. keep in freezer and use as needed.

i’d say about 1 cube for 1/2 – 1 cup of water, it’s at your discretion. it’s your kitchen. i realize that this isn’t much of a recipe, it’s more of a guideline of what i did, the amount of time and energy i had and the results may vary from kitchen to kitchen. but the moral of the story is: homemade stock is good, having it on hand is great, but if you have just a normal sized freezer, the real estate space is limited and reducing it down into cubes into ONE gallon sized freezer bag instead of 5 16oz containers is a win in my book.

other buoillon cube makers:
nourished kitchen – homemade bouillon: portable soup
just cook it – stock cube
101 cookbooks – homemade vegetable bouillon paste
al’s kitchen – homemade vegetable cubes

oatmeal creme pie cookies

Published on October 4, 2013October 31, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach19 Comments

{i’m interrupting the wedding related posts to talk about these cookies.}

i have the annoying ability of remembering
the most random things
the other day, while driving somewhere,
i recounted a childhood story to dw
(for the record, i do this often
as a result, at the wedding, he would
point at someone & say, “is that the one
who taught you …”)

anyway, the story goes:
i was at a fair with my cousin
we were playing musical chairs with
the other rugrats at the fair
in the first round
i sat in the chair the exact same time
as another girl
she nudged me and since i wasn’t the
most competitive person i conceded to her
as a result, i received an earful
about standing my ground
staking my claim
being a Victor
(seriously, The Hunger Games has nothing on my family)

i listened intently,
i was an intensely good listener back then,
and during the next round
i played for keeps
when i ended up in a chair
with someone else
before that kid could nudge me
i shoved her on the ground
~~and made her eat dirt~~
and won that game
like a Gladiator

i’m fairly certain i received
another earful about
good sportsmanship
but i don’t remember that part
i just recall feeling kinda
like Loser Winner
it wasn’t fun
it didn’t feel good
i’m certain i never played Musical Chairs again

these cookies are like
that childhood story
minus the dirt
and shitty taste in your mouth
instead, it was remembered
at the most random time,
thanks to this image
and dw’s massive enthusiasm

through an email exchange with
carey, who shared with me her
thought process
i came up with a plan
i have a favorite oatmeal cookie recipe already
and while i am not the biggest fan
of frosting/icing/filling
i think i can make do with something
in between these sweet things

and so, the week prior to
the wedding
when the heat was still lingering
and i had a business trip looming
and an abode to clean
and a wedding dress to fit into
i turned on the oven
and got to cranking

surviving all that:
that tasted good
but these oatmeal creme pie cookies?
man
this is what true victory tastes like

Oatmeal Creme Pie Cookies
cookie recipe adapted from food loves writing’s gma
marshmallow/meringue filling recipe – i’m sure some french person came up with it

**note: i doubled the cookie recipe and came up with about 24 cookies, making for 12 sandwiches. the filling amount was just enough for all the cookies.

cookies:
2 sticks of margarine, room temp (i use earth balance non-hydrogenated vegan butter sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 TBLS water
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups spelt flower
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup raisins

pre-heat the oven to 325F

in a bowl, mix the sugars with the margarine. add in the eggs, one by one. mix. add in the vanilla. next add in the dry ingredients, incorporating everything, but don’t overmix. last, fold in the chocolate chops and raisins.

using an ice cream scooper, place the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (i did not do this, and as a result, spent some extra time 5 minutes after taking the cookies out of the oven make sure the cookies didn’t cool onto the sheets) press down a smidge, to help them be roughly the same size. these will spread but not too much.

bake for 12-15 minutes.
allow to cool completely before making sandwiches.
store in fridge.

eating them at room temp is fine, but when eaten right out of the fridge, the cold crispness really adds a lovely texture to whole thing.

marshmallow/meringue filling recipe
2 egg whites
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

in a clean metal bowl add in the the egg whites. over a pot of simmering water, whisk, with a hand mixer, the egg whites until soft peaks form. add in the sugar and vanilla. whisk some more until it’s firmer/stiffer.

wipe the bottom of the bowl and stash in fridge until ready to use.

PS. don’t look at the nutrition facts. for real.

other oatmeal related baked goods:
morestomach – chocolate wonderfuls
movita beaucoup – oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
reclaiming provincial – pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
tutti dolci – oatmeal toffee cookies

chicken masala

Published on September 12, 2013September 11, 2013 by Lan | MoreStomach10 Comments

it’s not yet autumn
but i suppose it’s unofficially fall,
what with school already started,
the daily commute with the added 10 minutes
due to kids ambling with textbook laden backpacks
and yellow school buses dotting the neighborhoods
the ac has been turned off at night
as the temperatures dip into the delicious 60s,
our windows flung open to cool the abode
only to be shut the moment i open my eyes from slumber
as i haul ass to shower in the morning,
shivering and silently lamenting the passing of summer
already the trees are shedding their leaves
the morning is darker still when i rise

these are dw’s months
autumn is his favorite season
you can tell a lot about a person
by what their favorite season is
i like the summer months
hot and heady and sweaty and messy
golden days with humidity to exhaust even the staunchest
and healthiest of beasts
(i’ll leave it to you to figure out what kind of person
i am with that description!)
but man, when september hits,
leading into october
the air has a crunch of apples
and cinnamon breezes,
cool to the skin but warming to the core
fall makes me feel drowsy
but frantic all the same
i am holding out for an indian summer
desperate for july & august
whilst trying to bask in what the coming days could bring

and what is coming in these days
are stews and soups
and hearty one pot dishes
that require ingredients thrown into a pot
set on low
and simmered all the long day

if you can’t tell
i’ve been on an indian kick lately
(truth be told, i’d make afghani food if i could
find a reputable cookbook or blogger,
that cuisine is so underrated)

for this dish,
amrita says you must have this recipe in your life
i completely and wholeheartedly agree
i started the process saturday night
cooked it on sunday
and as i’m typing this, wednesday,
i have one portion left for lunch

chicken masala
adapted from the subjectivist

*note: we (i mean, dw) chopped an entire bird. we get our poultry from a local farm every two weeks and i will tell you, this past summer with this csa has been an exercise in coming up with interesting chicken recipes. i wanted to make use of every part of the chicken, with bones. i can’t imagine not having bone-in. i’m just saying.
**note: i completely and utterly forgot to add chili. i know. so there was no heat but it was still incredibly good. also, i like my chicken to fall off the bone tender so i cooked it on low for longer than amrita’s version.

1 whole, organic grass fed chicken, about 3-4lbs, chopped with bone in

for the marinade:
1 black cardamom pod
half cinnamon stick
1 tsp nutmeg (i don’t have whole pieces of the stuff)
2 tsp of fennel seeds
3-4 cloves
3 TBL of white vinegar
1 tsp of ground turmeric

2 large tomatoes
2 TBL vegetable oil
2 large cloves of garlic
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1/4 cup of coconut creamer (i use So Delicious)
Salt

in a frying pan, dry toast the black cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, fennel seeds, and cloves. don’t get crazy and burn it. add mixture to a spice grinder, again don’t get crazy, you’re not going for a powder, just a slighlty coarse-fine mix is good (i know, it’s confusing, go for in btwn the two textures.) add to big bowl with vinegar and turmeric. then add in the chicken pieces, you want to coat the pieces well. cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge overnight.

next day: take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before starting the whole cooking thing. you want the chill to be off the meat/bones prior to adding it to the hot pan.

on the stove bring a pot of water to boiling. criss cross cut the butt ends of the two tomatoes, add to the water and cook for about 5 minutes. you want the tomatoes to be just submerged in the water. remove the tomatoes and put into blender/vitamix. reserve 1/2 cup of the water, discarding the rest. blitz the tomatoes, skin included, into a puree.

meanwhile, in the same pot, add a bit of oil and saute the garlic and onion slices. season with salt & pepper, and cook until nice & brown. remove from heat and grab the mixture of onions & garlic to add to the blender/vitamix. blitz with the tomato puree.

using the same pot, that will have residual oil (add more if you need) brown the chicken pieces. you may have to do it in batches. don’t crowd the pot. when done, lower the heat, throw all the browned chicken pieces back into the pot, add the tomato/onion/garlic puree, along with the reserved 1/2 cup of water. simmer on low heat. add in the coconut creamer, mix, ignore for anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour. season to taste. per the original recipe, this is a slightly dryer dish. i will admit to missing the gravy.

serve with naan.
it’s great the day of, but even better the ensuing days.