Crabby Corn Soup

I picked up my copy of Soups and Sandwiches: Wholesome Ideas for Quick Lunches at the recent library sale, and piled it onto the other cookbooks. Hungry for something to cook, I grabbed the book as I headed to the laundromat to wash the bed linens.

Once the comforters and sheets were slurshing around in the commercial washer I perused the cookbook and found the Crab and Corn Soup on page 31. It looked easy and simple, so I added it to my "Make This Soon" list.

(I have no idea what "slursh" means, but I like the way it sounds. I also do not keep a "Make This Soon List" although  perhaps I should add a list like that to my Remember The Milk account.)

I noticed a few odd things about the cookbook. First, it was hard to understand how the soups were organized. Sure, there is a table of contents, but when you're looking through the book, there's no chapter titles to indicate that you've moved from vegetable & exotic soups to creamy soups. Same thing's true of the sandwiches.

The index is also seriously lacking. It merely lists the titles of the various recipes, not the actual ingredients - which would be more helpful to any reader searching for a recipe to prepare quickly.

Likewise, I found the sandwich area not...lunchable. These seem more like canapes, finger food, little nibbles for parties, rather than something to sustain me through a busy work day. And with a subtitle like "Wholesome Ideas for Quick Lunches," I was surprised to find so many recipes with multiple steps; for example, the Salmon Pinwheels I made involved a rolling pin, rolling bread, and a two hour waiting period. Finally the recipe ingredients are sometimes vague: what "mixed herbs" do the authors mean? I have no idea.

And with two authors who are "home economists" -an outdated term if there ever has been one- I was wary. I shouldn't have been.

The Crab and Corn Soup was easy, tasty, and I imagine wholesome as well. It was definitely a quick soup to prepare, and a nice twist on your typical egg drop soup. I substituted shrimp for the crab with no problem. I was stymied with the "small piece of gingerroot" because what do the authors mean by small? I guessed.

One small chunk of gingerroot.

Ingredients: egg, cornstarch, scallions, shrimp

Finished Soup

Despite the general oddness of the book, I enjoyed this soup. I could have added more gingerroot. I also like that each recipe has a photograph that clearly illustrates what the finished product should look like. As a bonus, many soups have a suggested accompaniment recipe. For example, the Cream of Cauliflower Soup on page 27 also offers a recipe to make Cheese Snippets to flat in the soup, while the Cream of Carrot Soup on the same page has Herb Croutons (with one teaspoon of "dry herbs" as the flavoring.)

Crab and Corn Soup

3 3/4 cup chicken stock
1 small piece gingerroot, peeled
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 15oz can creamed corn
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
4 oz crab (or shrimp) chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 scallions, minced

In a large saucepan, combine stock and gingerroot. Simmer 15 minutes. Remove gingerroot and stir in soy sauce, sherry, and creamed corn. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, blend cornstarch and water. Stir in stock mixture. Stir in crab (or shrimp) and heat until mixture thickens.

Bring mixture to a slow simmer and slowly pour in beaten eggs in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Do not allow soup to boil. Garnish soup with sliced green onions. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Halibuloo, Green Beans, Baked Apples

So as you probably know (or at least you've heard,) there's an "app" for everything.

An app is a small application to install on your iPhone that helps you organize your life. There is an app to  helps you (and your pet birds) destroy mean pigs - or perhaps save your virtual home from zombie invasion? I confess to enjoying both - and the Osho Zen Tarot Deck, too.

But don't even get me started trying to count the number and variety of apps out there to help you in the kitchen. I tried the Cooking Light app recently.

I used to subscribe to Cooking Light years ago, when one would actually subscribe to a magazine. With the internet, that doesn't happen much anymore. I can Google for just about anything, and most recipes from magazines are available online either before or shortly after publication. Still, I always liked most recipes I tried from Cooking Light, so I figured it was worth testing.

Despite being challenging to navigate on an iPod touch, browsing on an iPad would be no trouble as with a simple swish of a finger you see one glorious mouth-watering photo after another. I was entranced by the Halibut with tomato relish. I selected Brown-Butter Green Beans and Baked Apples with Chai Syrup as accompaniments.

Screenshot of Halibut with Tomato Relish

There was no halibut in my local grocery store, so I substituted fresh cod. While at the grocery store, I figured I would receive a tomato or two in this week's CSA package, so didn't buy any. But after I got home, I decided to make the fish immediately so improvised with avacado, shallot, lemon, pepper, garlic, cumin, olive oil, and a little sesame oil.

I reviewed the recipes, decided to not have the iPod on the counter while prepping and quickly wrote vague directions for all recipes. I taped them to the overhead cupboard, and winged the rest of the meal.

Hand-written vague directions

With the app, it's nearly impossible to know what needs to be prepped unless you've got all of the recipes in front of you.

With an archaic piece of paper, though, I could easily see that I needed to have the apples in the oven first, then prep the green beans, followed by the avocado mix for the fish. Only after those were prepped and the apple was in the oven did I begin to cook the fish and beans.

And while there is a menu feature, the app doesn't give suggestions for preparing a meal in a timely and efficient manner. And that is one huge strike against the app as time and efficiency are crucial for the modern cook. I stuck to my piece of paper and carried on.

The water came to boil, I dropped the green beans in, and the fish went into the pan to saute. A short while later the green beans were drained, shocked in cold water, and combined with browned butter, lemon, lemon zest, and salt and pepper. The fish finished shortly, flaking apart perfectly in the pan, and onto the plate they both went. About that time the apples were coming out of the oven, and I was ready to eat.

Browned-Butter Green Beans with Lemon

Cod with Sesame-Avocado Relish

Baked Apples with Chai Syrup

These recipes didn't disappoint; they were fast and easy to prepare, and quite tasty. But frankly, I didn't use the app while cooking.

With all of the potential liquids to invade the delicate interworkings, I just didn't want to chance an iPod disaster in the kitchen. And besides, have you tried to read and follow a detailed recipe from an iPod? It's a tiny screen. No way. Maybe on an iPad with a stand...and waterproofing.

There was, however, one app I did use while cooking - and I use it often when preparing multiple dishes. Kitchen Pad Timer kept track of cooking times for all items; in fact, it can manage up to four items on the stove top and four items in the oven. I wonder if the Cooking Light app will improve with a second use? We'll see soon.

Neither A Meatloaf Song, Nor Meat Loaf Himself

This week I'm exploring recipes from Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families - Even Yours!Kitchen Life: Real Food For Real Families -- Even Yours! by Art Smith. The Roasted Asparagus and Roasted Beets with Walnuts really impressed me, so I looked forward to trying other recipes.

The Salmon on Cabbage and Dill on page 208 is a keeper for me.  It went from fridge to table in about 30 minutes and was really easy to prepare - so easy, in fact, that I didn't take pictures of the preparation or cooking. You simply saute a small package of coleslaw mix and 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped dill in a little butter until wilted. Season with salt and pepper, and remove to a platter and cover. Add chicken broth to the same pan, boil, add salmon and more dill; cover and cook 7-8 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through then transfer to the platter with the cabbage. Whisk some sour cream and cornstarch into the remaining broth and heat until thickened; pour over the salmon and cabbage and serve. I particularly liked the fresh dill that really shined in this recipe.

Salmon on Cabbage and Dill

Another night I tried out the Quick Vegetable Chili Tostada on page 244 and was truly disappointed. It almost worked...until the sour cream was added to the sauteed vegetables. And I did have my hopes up that the freshly squeezed lime juice would rescue the whole endeavor, but alas, my wishing was in vain. The tostada part was not crunchy (undercooked?) and the chili part was missing (not enough spices or heat? Me? Never!) Regardless, this recipe didn't work for me and I sure won't be making it again.

Quick Vegetable Chili Tostada

I have a thing for bar cookies so the Butterscotch Blondies on page 301 piqued my curiousity. I was particularly wondering how the butterscotch bits sprinkled on top, melted, and spread over the bar would taste. I mixed the ingredients up in no time on a very hot Saturday morning and threw them into the oven.

The buzzer sounded, I removed the Blondies from the oven and sprinkled the butterscotch bits around. Then I walked away for, maybe 15 minutes? Anyone who's ever melted chocolate knows that is far too long. The chips refused to spread and were completely beyond their ability to spread. Not a problem for me. I got some vanilla ice cream, a little dab or ten of Smucker's Butterscotch sauce, and dug in for a delicious Butterscotch Blondie Sundae!

There you have it, three recipes with three different results. Two out of three ain't bad, so I believe I may dip into this cookbook again sometime. I'm sure Meat Loaf would agree.

Shrimp, Asparagus, and Thunderstorms

I've been in a cooking slump. It's been a good number of days since I had the urge to get into the kitchen and whip up something delicious. And I was really tired of take out food. I mean, how many Subway sandwiches can you eat before you're bored to tears?

I'd recently eaten at a local restaurant and talked to the front of the house manager about the cookbooks on display; she shared her love of collecting cookbooks, and invited me to come back to talk with the chef one of these days. He has a sizable collection that he uses for inspiration when creating dishes. Before I left the restaurant, the house manager gave me a copy of Food Editors Favorites: Treasured Recipes.

This is a cookbook that's been around since 1983, and was published for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) with the permission of the Newspaper Food Editors and Writers Association (now known as the Association of Food Journalists (AFJ.) Like always, I read through the cookbook and made a list of what sounded good. Then I dilly-dallied around, went shopping, and was ready to make food. And what night did I pick to get started? The night of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings.

We'd had a couple of days of 80+ weather, which doesn't make me feel like heading into a kitchen to heat things up. It does make me want to walk to the local Dairy Queen, but I suppose I can't live on just soft serve ice cream...can I?

I decided to make two recipes that required overnight marinading: Chinese Asparagus and Broiled Shrimp with Rosemary.As I started working on the shrimp dish, I could hear thunder in the distance. I kept Weather Underground up on my computer screen to watch the progress of the storm.

First, I took the shrimp out to defrost and placed it into my blue colander.

Both recipes suggest marinading overnight, so all I really needed to do was prep and wait. The skies grew darker and the air seemed calm. A pregant calm, as if something's coming. Soon.

I pulled the asparagus out of the fridge, took pictures. I remembered seeing asaparagus growing at my sister's house over the weekend, the stalks shooting up from the ground. The asapargus had been transplanted from an aunt's house years ago, and now produces a good crop each year.

I peeled asparagus. The rains came, heavy at first, then insistent. The radar changed from green to red to pink. The storm blew threw, dropped the temperature 15 degrees, brought in cooling winds. I chopped asparagus,  checked on the shrimp, ate dinner. I blanched the asparagus in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drained thoroughly.

I made the marinade for the shrimp - olive oil, lemon, lemon peel, garlic, rosemary, cayenne, parsley.

I made the marinade for the asparagus: soy sauce, sugar, cider vinegar, sesame oil. I tasted the marinade and decided to fuss with it by adding tupelo honey and pepper. I figured fresh cracked pepper would be a nice counter element to the saltiness of the soy sauce. The recipe actually called for additional salt on top of the soy sauce! I added the asparagus and squished it around with the marinade to combine.

Both shrimp and asparagus went into the fridge for an overnight staycation. The next day after work, I ate some watermelon (which I'll tell you about later,) and put the finishing touches on the two salads. But honestly, the asparagus needed no further touches.

I'd never had an asparagus dish quite like this. It was slightly salty, somewhat sweet. And despite absorbing the flavors of the marinade, the asparagus remained tender-crisp. It was a good change from your basic asparagus with lemon-butter sauce.

I separated the shrimp from the marinade and broiled the shrimp...a little too long. I love the flavor of rosemary, and it's a heady compliment to shrimp and lemon.

I piled both the shrimp and asparagus onto my plate, along with some store-bought traditional potato salad, and had a tasty summertime dinner. 

The next day, I had the same combination for lunch at work. I still had potato salad and asparagus remaining, so I munched on both of those until they were completely gone. I'd say that's a success!

I'm In A Casserole State of Mind

It must be the late spring we're having in the Midwest. It's the middle of May, and we've only seen a few days above 70; personally, I've only had one day where I didn't have to wear an extra shirt or sweater to take the chill away. With the lingering chill, I've been in the mood for comfort food.

Browsing through Cook and Tell, the best candidate seemed to be the Scalloped Salmon. I picked up the ingredients with the rest of the groceries, came home, unpacked, and put them away. Not too long later, I looked at my recipes for the week and examined the ingredients closer.

And I should have stopped when one recipe failed that day. You remember what I said about my delightful time with liquid sherbet? One can of canned red salmon was about to go down a similar road.

I've had experience with canned salmon before, and I didn't like it because frankly, the bones remaining in the fish freak me out. Like a banana in recognizeable banana form, or like that stringy stuff on oranges or green beans. Those things don't freak you out? I go out of my way to avoid them.

I pitched the whole can after realizing the extent of the boneage. I definitely felt guilty on a starving-children-of-Africa (or Michigan) and there-goes-money-down-the-drain way, but couldn't bear to think about picking the minute bones out of the canned salmon. And eating the bones as I've heard others do? Ewwwwwwwww.

The next day I went to the store and picked up about a pound of salmon. I brought it home, cooked it up in the pan just like I learned from Tupelo Honey Cafe. It was sublime.

I ate it with some leftover Corn and Blueberry Salad, also from Cook & Tell. Do check out the recipe (and others) from the nicely portioned preview at Google Books. It's beautiful, tasty, and really easy to make. I added a few Craisins.

I mixed leftover, cooked and boneless salmon, celery, cheddar cheese, onion, and prepared stuffing mix together.

Then I added beaten eggs, milk, Dijon mustard, and chicken stock, and poured it over the solids. I stirred to combine and poured the whole thing into a prepared 2 quart pan. The recipe recommends a 9" pie pan, which I don't have, so a 2 quart pan worked really well for me.

The whole thing went into the oven for 45 minutes. While I waited, I prepared the Curried Cole Slaw with Peanuts and Bacon (also available in the Google Books preview) and the Tupelo Honey Glazed Carrots from a few weeks ago. The casserole came out of the oven and I topped it with some chopped tomato.

 In then end, I enjoyed this casserole but it didn't blow me away. It reminded me of dense Thanksgiving stuffing with salmon. It does not resemble scalloped potatoes in any way whatsoever, so I'm not sure what the whole "scalloped" thing was supposed to be about; perhaps baking this in a pie plate would have made that more apparent. It wasn't particularly cheesy either, despite having 2 cups of shredded cheddar. We had a warm surge shortly after I cooked this, so I didn't finish it completely. But if it was winter? And maybe not so bready? Yeah, that would work nicely. With leftover salmon, not canned salmon - of course.

Sesame, Salmon, and Salsa

This week I'm exploring the newly released Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook. The cafe is located in Asheville, North Carolina and is a local legend; the book is flavored with pictures of the city. There are pictures of farmers, people, landmarks - a great blend of the now and then.

That's also what you'll find when exploring the recipes. The book starts with a dynamite larder chapter for various and sundry staples you'll use to prepare recipes. For example, the Peachy Grilled Chicken Salad with Pecan Vinaigrette is composed of larder items Peach Fennel Salsa and Pecan Vinaigrette with an an addition of anotehr item that very well could be a larder member: Tupelo Honey Chicken Marinade. There are also pictures of many of the recipes.

I started with the Bronzed Wild Sockeye Salmon with Roasted Corn Salsa and added in the Benne-Coated Asparagus for kicks. I was hoping to find recipes that made my mouth "sing" like Chef Brian Sonoskus suggests on page twenty one:

"Just remember, it's all about the fun of experimenting an discovering the personal combinations of tastes and tones that make your mouth sing." 

The Roasted Corn Salsa came together easily. I used frozen corn and combined it with olive oil. This went into the oven until golden and somewhat carmelized. I set this aside to cool and chopped up the red pepper and red onion. When the corn was cooled, all ingredients were combined and the result was beautiful!

Roasted Corn Salsa

The asparagus required a bit more work, but not so much that I was the least bit intimated. Here's Miss Jasmine K. Kitty ignoring the lovely asparagus.

I chopped the asparagus and then blanched in salted, boiling water. once drained, the asparagus went into a pan along with sesame oil. If you haven't tried sesame oil in a recipe, you must, as it adds unique flavor and depth. I've used it to dress up such lame items as Ramen Noodles with passing success.  Once coated with sesame oil, I added in the benne (sesame) seeds, and some salt and pepper.

The last item to prepare was the salmon, which went along so quickly it was almost like not cooking. First I mixed up some creole spice (sugar, salt, paprika, cayenne;) the recipe for the spice recommends two additional kinds of pepper but if you've been reading long enough - you know I didn't add much heat.

Creole Spice Mix

The creole spice was patted delicately onto the salmon, and the salmon was placed in a heated saute pan along with some canola oil. The cookbook recommends about three minutes per side and I have to say that was just right for my piece of salmon.

These three dishes made for one exquisite dinner. The salmon was absolutely perfect and tasted almost like butter - it was that smooth. The roasted corn salsa and benne-coated asparagus topped off my first excurion through the recipes of Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook. I'm ready to sing along!

Afternoon Snack/Late Night Munchie - Seafood Nachos

Cookbook: The Stocked Kitchen ™ by Sarah Kallio and Stacey Krastins
Recipe: Seafood Nachos, page 180

One of the things that most frustrates me about cooking for one person is the amount of stuff I have sitting in the fridge that I’ll never use again. The authors of The Stocked Kitchen call these remainders “crusty little soldiers,” and have created a system to eliminate the army of half-used containers from your life.