SoupAddict.com

Garden Planning

SoupAddict — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:55:47 +0000

This is a big weekend coming up at Casa SoupAddict: I’ll be sowing the seeds for all of the indoor-started vegetable plants for my 2012 gardens. I’m beginning a bit earlier than usual, because I’m betting, based on our super-mild winter, that spring will be equally mild and seedlings-in-the-ground-friendly as early as mid-April. (The last frost date here is May 15th, the first safe planting date for frost-sensitive plants.)

However, regardless of the weather, my plan all along was to get a month’s headstart on things. I made a few mistakes last year that, coupled with extremely unusual summer weather — although for the last 4 years, unusual weather has been the norm, unfortunately — meant I didn’t have regular yields of ripe tomatoes until the last half of August. Which was absolute torture for this tomato-lovin’ girl. (Thank goodness for farmers’ markets jumping on the heirloom tomato bandwagon [muah! to heirloom growin' farmers!])

One mistake I made was ordering 75% of the tomatoes I would need as transplants rather than growing them all from seed, as I’ve done for years and years. The nursery experienced severe storm damage and lost part of their seed crop, which both delayed my shipment and required substitutions with varieties I had no interest in.

Then, once the plants did arrive, we had a stretch of bad weather ourselves, and it took nearly two weeks to get the plants in the ground, further delaying their spring kickstart. A chilly, damp June didn’t help matters, as tomatoes and peppers like bursts of moderate heat followed by cool, dry nights to flower.

So, while my early planting plans might find me wearily wrangling cloches in a dark, muddy garden every night in the month of April, I’m bound and determined to have tomatoes in July this year.

[Shakes fists] July!

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Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

SoupAddict — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:27:37 +0000

I woke up Sunday morning and decided I just wasn’t feeling the day’s planned dinner menu. Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, and the idea was to kick off the Mardi Gras season with a big batch of gumbo (and post about it today).

Two things put the kibosh on that plan: I was out of filé powder, with no nearby source for it (and gumbo really needs that little hit of sassafras to be New Awlins authentic). So, that was a bummer (#firstworldproblems).

And, the kiboshier thing of the two: a big heavy stew just didn’t sound good. The sun was shining, my daffodils have now joined my crocus in poking their greenery out of the soil. My garden seed orders are either in hand or in transit.

So even though it was only February 19th, I realized I had already started mentally transitioning out of winter food. What I was really craving was a big pot of chicken soup. Something curried and brothy and packed with vegetables.

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DIY Amaretto & Amaretto Sour

SoupAddict — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:08:17 +0000

Yesterday, I left you hanging on the promise of homemade amaretto in the wake of DIY sour mix. And here we are again, so soon. Hi, Everyone! It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right? Let’s get started!

In my excitement over the success of the sour mix, I was dying to know what other cocktail favorites could be DIY’ed. True spirits were out — I don’t have the set up for distilling (ha ha — moonshine a la SoupAddict). Liqueurs, I guessed, might have a better shot.

I eyeballed my bottle of Disaronno, which was the alcohol companion in my sour mix taste testing. Hmmmm. I hit the interwebs.

I’ll sum up the adventure by saying this: I had no idea that there are no almonds in almond liqueur.

Did you all know that? Because I. so. did not. The search for homemade amaretto was definitely an edumacation.

The first “recipe” I came across was a knock-down, drag-out home experiment by someone looking to duplicate exactly the formula for the pricey Disaronno. I was amazed/impressed/bedazzled at the amount of the effort he was putting into the concoction, including hunting down apricot pits off-season, plus some other substance I can’t remember, but which was hotly discussed among the commenters as being highly toxic.

I wasn’t about to take on apricot pits and poisonous substances as a kitchen project, but I was intrigued enough to do some further research.

Apricot pits? In Disaronno? Really?

My first stop: Disaronno’s own web site. And sure enough, despite it’s reputation as a top-shelf almond liqueur, Disaronno doesn’t actually contain almonds.

It does contain almond aroma.

Whatever that is.

But no almonds.

Eh?

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DIY Sweet & Sour Mix

SoupAddict — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:30:44 +0000

It all started innocently enough at the grocery store. Although my Kroger carries a moderate selection of wine and spirits, I rarely shop for those items there.

Still, I was very confused one day when, in the hunt for sweet & sour mix, I couldn’t find any (and ditto for the department’s one employee, natch — the blonde with the short hair — the weekend “wine steward,” the one who rolls her eyes when I ask where the Boone’s Farm is. She’s conveniently no where to be found and the main customer service desk has two double lines snaking around the lobby).

Exasperation set in. Who carries 22 kinds of de Kuyper liqueurs but no sweet & sour mix?

Turns out, sweet & sour mix is sold alllll the way at the other end of this ginormous store, with the club sodas and seltzers, but it was unbeknownst to a very irritated me on that day. (And I wouldn’t learn it until weeks later, when a search for grenadine finally uncovered the stash of sweet & sour mixes.)

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Egg Curry

SoupAddict — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:02:39 +0000

I love-love-love Indian cuisine, and one of the few regrets of my foodie life is that I didn’t discover it until I was well into adulthood. The flavors, the spices, the colors. It’s food I crave, and often.

For a long time, I was too intimidated to try my hand at preparing anything but the most basic dishes — as I suspect many folks are, the first time one eyeballs the often huge list of ingredients, with strange sounding (to Western ears) names. Asafetida, methi seeds (fenugreek), kala jeera (black cumin) — exotic and wonderful, but not exactly staples in the spice aisle at Kroger. The interwebs takes care of sourcing, of course, and I now have a small collection of my favorite Indian spices that get regular work-outs.

I don’t post Indian recipes very often here, because, honestly, despite possession of authentic spices, I know my recipes are not authentic. Although I’m starting to get a feel for what is Northern Indian cuisine versus Southern, I think I’m still rooted in fusion-land with a heavy American influence. I’ll twist the ingredient list in favor of what I have on hand, or what flavors I prefer. I’ll take preparation short-cuts. But, I promise, it’s all in the spirit of great dishes with incredible Southeast Asian flavors.

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Blood Orange & Meyer Lemon Marmalade with Amaretto

SoupAddict — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:25:01 +0000

Ya know, I have to say, seasonal eating rocks. It’s impossible to get into a food rut when you’re swapping out fruits and vegetables every couple of months. (And if you reach the point where you can’t. look. another squash. in the face. there’s the interwebs, serving up boundless recipe inspiration until the new kids arrive.)

But it’s only been the last few years that I’ve totally changed my mind about January and February. Usually unbearably dreary months for this summer girl, I’ve embraced them with my whole heart, as they usher in citrus season. Bright yellows, greens and oranges: the perfect antidote to brown food overload.

In addition to getting all greedy-grabby with the blood oranges, clementines, cara caras, honeybells and meyer lemons, I’m actually organized enough this year to do some preserving. Salted meyer lemons (of course). Grand Marnier sugared oranges (fabulous in summer cocktails). Zest from anything zestable, frozen (limes are super cheap these days, a quarter apiece).

And marmalade.

I woke up one morning recently and decided I really wanted to … needed to, had to … make marmalade. Blood oranges and Meyer lemons were already in the fridge. And a batch of homemade amaretto (more on that another day, yessirree, more on that) was patiently awaiting its turn in the spotlight.

Fifteen minutes into removing the peels, my kitchen smelled like sunshine, and I had a skip-hop in my step that usually doesn’t appear until late April.

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Post tags: amaretto, marmalade, nutella, tartine

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Smashed Sweet Potatoes with Curried Onion Jam

SoupAddict — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:31 +0000

I’m a sweet potato weirdo.

Oh my guhness, I do not like sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar and maple syrup.

I know!

But please don’t send your burly cousins to work me over until I admit that I love-love-love your Nana’s Secret Sweet Dreams Tater and Honey Pillows recipe. Because I’m a super chicken, and I’ll sing it to the stars, the wonders of sweet potatoes drowned in gloppy, sweet toppings, before the first fist ever flies.

But in my heart, I’ll always want my sweet potatoes served just the same as their savory co-horts, the russets and Yukons and Baby Reds: with lots and lots of spicy, herby, salty flavors.

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Post tags: caramelized onions, curry, sweet potatoes

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Hungarian Winter Stew

SoupAddict — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:11:11 +0000

Although the winter has been unbelievably, wonderfully mild in my little dot on the midwestern U.S. map, my comfort food cravings remain rooted in warming spices — Indian cuisine, Mexican, Moroccan, Hungarian. Curry spice blends, dried peppers toasted and freshly ground, sriracha, harissa, harrisa and more harissa. And paprika.

I’ve been in paprika heaven. This quirky little grocery store about a mile from my house carries the most amazing selection of international victuals. I’m positively spoiled.

And I nearly plotzed when, casually eyeing the sea salts one day, I spotted bright red tin cans of imported Hungarian paprika (both sweet and hot), neglected on the bottom shelf. Authentic versions, impossible to find except online.

I raced home that day and didn’t even remove my coat before ripping off the seals, shaking some from both cans onto a plate and breathing deeply. Yes. That’s the stuff. Deep, rusty red. Rich and peppery, catches in the back of your throat. A lingering scent of chilies picked fresh from the garden. Perfect.

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Gorgonzola Dolce & Apple Quiche

SoupAddict — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:00:05 +0000

I admit it. I have a hard time leaving well enough alone. I look at a recipe, and the first thing I want to do is change it, add my own twist. A psychiatrist might say I have control issues (“It’s my way or the highway, man!”), or trust issues (“Why would you add the milk in that step? It’ll be clumpy. Clumpy!“).

But I think it’s simply just this: I like to play with my food. And I know what flavors I enjoy together.

So when I read through the recipe for today’s French Fridays with Dorie assignment, Gorgonzola & Apple Quiche, my brain immediately started shouting: Caramelized onions, baby! Caramelized onions.

It was a good choice. The soft bite of the Gorgonzola, the tang of the apple and the rich savory-sweetness of the onions made a good combination. Even the quiche nose-wrinklers in my posse liked this quiche.

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15-Minute Thai Chicken with Rice Noodles

SoupAddict — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:23:41 +0000

By all accounts, dinner time at Casa SoupAddict should be a sigh of relief, getting behind the stove after a day of not being behind the stove and doing lots of thing that have nothing to do with cooking or gardening. Or napping. (Yes, SoupAddict loves the nap.)

But during the week, I can’t say that’s always true (about dinner, not the nap — it’s oh-so-very true that I love da nap).

I have just the teeny tiniest bit of suspicion that maybe ya’ll can relate: It’s 6:30, it’s been a long day, and miles to go, and all that stuff. Dinner is just another hurdle to clear.

On those days, I have an arsenal of go-to dishes that can be made in under 30 minutes, tastes comfort-food great, and won’t break the health bank (or the wealth bank, for that matter). This is one of those recipes.

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Post tags: gluten free, rice noodles, rice sticks, thai chicken

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