Soup's On! - Roasted Cauliflower & Smoked Gouda Soup

Look everyone! A new feature!!! I know I've been gone for a bit, but what better gift upon my return than to introduce a new feature? I have to preface this post with a bit of background. 

I've never made soup. Let me rephrase, I've never made soup that didn't start out by opening the can and finished with the words "Add water". I was raised on Campbell's! It's all I knew. Many years ago someone (I have no idea who) gave me an entire cookbook full of nothing but soup recipes. That book has sat on the shelf with the rest of my cookbooks for well over 20 years.

Now that I'm single again (long story, short Post-It Note!), I thought this would be a great time to attempt to dabble in the liquid food arts (Liquid food arts that didn't involve cocktails, I mean).

Being that I am following a Low-Carb lifestyle at the moment, this has meant that I need to stay away from noodle soups and anything that might incorporate dumplings of any size, shape or texture. I did some online research and found some amazing soups that I am going to try and then share with you here. Yes, the cookbook is still on the shelf. I just find that the internet has a lot more lurking out there than any book could provide me. That, and you can't Google search a book!

My first foray into the hot and bubbling liquid food arts is a Roasted Cauliflower & Smoked Gouda Soup. Granted, the recipe called for aged white cheddar cheese, but I am a huge fan of smoked gouda so I went with that. Other than that change I followed the recipe to the letter (Something, I don't usually do). I didn't want to screw this up by attempting "Flair!". You will find the recipe at the end of the post, but first, lets talk about the process and see some pictures.

Roasted Cauliflower goodness!

I have never been a huge fan of Cauliflower. I mean, any vegetable you have to cover in cheese to tolerate, can't be all that great. Roasted tho, it is amazing! For this recipe, you toss it in oil...salt and pepper it and let it roast for 30 minutes in the oven. What you get are toasted nuggets of goodness that I just wanted to eat off the pan.

You could stop right here...but you don't!

You add the roasted Cauliflower to onions, garlic, Thyme and chicken stock. That combination gets cooked for 30 more minutes until the Cauliflower is soft and then you grab your Immersion Blender and go to town! 

I had bought an Immersion Blender years ago, and it has languished in the "Special Utensil Drawer" forever. I never had a chance to use it...until now! Once you blend up the soup you then add the cheese and cook it without boiling it any longer until all the cheese is melted. What you wind up with is this...

And yes, you then add some bacon to it!

What I wound up with was an incredibly creamy and delicious soup. Till all is said and done, you don't even really taste the Cauliflower. It lends a delightful bulk to the dish which makes it quite filling.

Roasted Cauliflower & Smoked Gouda Soup

         

         Ingredients

               1        small head cauliflower- cut into florets

               2        tablespoons oil, additional oil for saute

               1        medium onion diced

               2        cloves garlic chopped

               1        teaspoon thyme chopped

               3        cups chicken stock

               11/2   cups smoked gouda cheese grated

               1        cup milk, cream or half & half

                         salt & pepper to taste

         Instructions

1.  Toss the cauliflower florets in the oil along with salt and pepper and arrange them in a single layer on a large baking sheet.

2.  Roast the cauliflower in a preheated 400 degree oven until golden brown. Approx 30 minutes.

3.  Heat oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender. Approx 5-7 minutes.

4.  Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minute.

5.  Add the broth, deglaze the pan, add the cauliflower, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 30 minutes.

6.  Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it is of an even consistency. Reduce stove heat to insure the mixture no longer boils.

7.  Slowly add and stir in the cheese.

8.  Add the milk/cream/half & half, stirring constantly and ensuring that the soup doesn't boil or burn.

9.  Season with salt & pepper to taste. Serve, adding crispy bacon or addition cheese as garnish (or both even!) 

I hope everyone enjoys this recipe. Let me know if you try it out and what the results were in the comments section.

Cookography: Fried Green Tomatoes

I am a somewhat "genteel" southern woman at heart. I love my southern cooking. Be it a good spicy gumbo or boo fries. I really enjoy the huge comfort content of dishes served in the southern states.

This past weekend I took a stab at fried green tomatoes. One of my coworkers had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and was lamenting how many of them were green, he doubted that he could get them ripened before they rot.

Me to the rescue! I told him I would take the green ones. I'm sure he thought I was crazy...but then, people often do. So, I brought them home, sliced them up and let the magic happen.

The assembly line!

So yes, a few of the tomatoes managed to ripen a bit before I got to them, but I decided to slice them up too. I prepared my buttermilk and egg bath (one egg and buttermilk to cover) and combined a "Shake & Bake" package with a healthy helping of Parmesan Cheese as my crispy goodness.

Then, I grabbed my extra large skillet and placed about a quarter of an inch of oil in it. Use whatever oil you like...I went with Canolla. Once it was hot, I took each tomato and dipped it in the liquid, and then heavily coated it in the crumb mixture. Into the hot oil they went...SIZZLE!!!

Crispy tomato goodness!

I fried them for 2 minutes on each side. You don't want the tomato to become too soft and mushy. The trick is to get them brown and keep the tomato a little firm. So, vary your cooking time with that goal in mind.

In the south, they also serve these with a spicy remoulade (aka...dipping sauce). To replicate this, I took a couple of tablespoons of mayo and added a healthy few shakes of Tabasco sauce to it and mixed it up.

Fried Green Tomato HEAVEN! These make a great side dish to any meal. I coupled them with a roast pork I had slow-cooked in the crock pot all day long. The combination of the fall-apart-in-your-mouth pork and the crispy tomatoes was fantastic!

Cookography: Brie, Cranberry & Pecan Tarts

We interrupt this Holiday Season to talk about the last one...Thanksgiving. Yeah, I 'm behind on posts, sue me! Anyway, I am always tasked with bringing a light appetizer to Thanksgiving dinner. It's my lot in life. Also, it's easily transportable. Last year I took the Pumpkin Garlic Bites. They were a huge hit and just the right savory combination of flavors.

This year, I was looking for a baked tart of some kind. I found something along the lines of what I was considering on the web, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so, as I tend to do...I modified it. Here are Brie, Canberry & Pecan Tarts.

Warm, yummy, sweet and savory

They're incredibly simple to put together and since everyone complains that I never provide recipes, here is a stab at one. Remember, I hardly every use them, so take this with a grain of salt.

          Brie, Cranberry & Pecan Tarts

                    8 T   Chopped Pecans
                    8 T   Chopped Craisins
                    4 T   Honey
                    8 oz  Wheel of Brie
                    30     Filo Tart Shells

         Mix together the pecans, craisins and honey in a small bowl. Add a little extra honey if it's too dry. Here is what that will look like. Everything nicely coated, but there shouldn't be extra honey pooling anywhere.

Yeah, I could just eat this by the spoonful.

Leave it to sit at room temperature while you cut the skin off the brie and cube it into roughly half inch by quarter inch cubes. (Note: I found it easiest to cut the wheel into the half inch cubes first and then simply cut each of those cubes in half and then cut the skin off).

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and place the tart shells on a non-stick baking sheet. Place a cube of brie in each tart shell and cover with the pecan/craisin mixture. Use all of the pecan craisin mixture. They may look over-filled, but as the brie melts it all fills in nicely. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them. I found in order to get things nicely combined I wound up baking them a little longer.

Let them cool a bit before tasting. I got anxious and burned the heck out of my mouth. That honey is hot!!! Even at room temperature they still tasted great. My Mom also just took these to a Christmas Party and they were a huge hit.

One last Thanksgiving thought...I ate too much!

My view of the table.

Presto Pesto!

I have a terrible weakness, ok fine...I have many. But, one of my most crippling is the search for really great Pesto. I try Pesto dishes whenever I can at restaurants, hoping that they've gotten it right. Some have and some haven't. So, the easiest way for me to satisfy my hunger for the Perfect Pesto is to make my own.

This weekend I harvested our Basil plant and proceeded to turn it into amazing Pesto...like MAGIC! Now, let me first say that I don't use a recipe for this. A good Pesto "recipe" is all about feel and consistency. Some people prefer a wetter Pesto, some a dryer. I fall into the latter. I will walk you through my process.

Fresh from the garden...Thanks Hubby!

Granted, I should have harvested this Basil two weeks ago in it's prime, but my schedule just didn't allow for it. Still, it worked just fine. One should always start with very fresh green Basil when making Pesto. That being said, I have whipped up some passable Pesto in the past (wow alliteration!) using some high quality dried basil, but I certainly don't recommend that...except in the case of Zombie Apocalypse. 

Now, lets talk nuts. I use Pine Nuts, but there are folks that say that Walnuts work just fine...I don't agree with them, but they are entitled to their opinion. For me, Pine Nuts impart an unusual flavor your just can't get from the namby pamby Walnut. Save your Walnuts for cookies people!

Toasting is touchy!

When toasting Pine Nuts, you have to be paying attention. Pine Nuts go from browned to black in like 3 seconds! These took about 10 minutes on low heat and I was constantly flipping them around in the pan. I used just slightly over a 1/3rd of a cup pretty much because that is how many were in the bag.

Garlic! It's one of the main ingredients of Pesto and I like a lot of it!

Heaven in a hard to peel container.

I used 4 cloves of garlic for my Pesto. I was going to go for 6 cloves, but I got tired of peeling it. OK, so once you have assembled everything, you throw it all into your food processor.

About to be pulverized!

Here it is. My Basil, the Garlic, the Pine Nuts, Parmesan Cheese, and a dash of salt and pepper. Heck, I could eat is as a salad just like this. I pulse this about a dozen times in the food processor just to get everything chopped up and saying, "Hi" to everyone. Then, with the food processor on high, I begin to very slowly drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the mix. 

You want to keep an eye on this step. Too much EVOO and you wind up with really runny Pesto, which...if you like it that way, go for it. I prefer a dryer Pesto so I add just enough to incorporate the ingredients.

Once processed it looks pretty much like this.

Heaven in a Food Processor!

This was still a little lumpy for my tastes, so I processed it for a bit longer on high giving the blade time to cut it down even further. Here is my final result.

Just looking for some fresh pasta to mate with!

So, even after all of my careful oil pouring this turned out a little runnier than I prefer it. No problem, I just added some extra Parm to it. The cheese absorbed the oil perfectly.

Now comes the hard part. What to pair it with? Pasta? Chicken? Pork? Spread it on a piece of bread and be done? Eat it by the spoonful right out of the food processor??? That is the great thing about Pesto, you can do ANYTHING with it. I have opted this evening to coat a chicken breast in it and bake it. Nummy!

What so you like to do with Pesto? Sound off in the comments.

Eggy Bake

I am currently embarking on the Low Carb Lifestyle. Quite simply...I've gotten FAT! I am not going as far as to head back onto The Atkin's Diet. I found that rather extreme. Basically, I cut out processed sugar, refined flour, and other nasty carbs. To that end I am now making my Eggy Bake to have for Breakfast every day.

Breakfast combined!

The Eggy Bake is very versatile. You can throw whatever you want into the eggs, whatever floats your boat or is hanging around the fridge. Here is the base recipe...

Eggy Bake

          1 Dozen Eggs (You can substitute those cartoned egg product if you like)
          1/4 Cup Cream (I use Half & Half)
          Salt & Pepper to taste

At this point I pick my additives. In the one pictured above I chose:

          1lb Bacon (Fried crisp)
          6oz Italian Sausage (Crumbled)
          1can Diced Tomatos
          1can Sliced Mushrooms
          1handfull Fresh Spinach (sliced)
          Parmesan Cheese
          Sharp Cheddar Cheese

So what you do is line your baking pan with parchment paper. It makes it really easy to remove and then slice. Then you layer your additives into the pan. I started with the meats and then added the other items. I then sprinkled on about half of the cheese. You then mix up your egg mixture and whip the heck out of it. If you have a mixer, do it in that. The more air you can whip into the mixture the lighter and taller your bake will be. My arm still hurts from whisking mine. I did find a hint online that said you can add a quarter teaspoon of baking powder to the eggs to get them to puff up fluffier. I tried it and mine did fluff up big, but in the freezer they sunk again.

You then pour the egg mixture over the layered additives, top with the rest of the cheese and pop it in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. I under cooked mine by about 5 minutes only because I knew I would be freezing them and them nuking them in the microwave. Here is what it looks like coming out of the oven.

Pam that pan under the parchment...I am still trying to soak mine!

Once cool, I lifted it out of the pan by the parchment paper and cut it into 8 equal squares. I placed them in Zip-Loc bags and placed them in the freezer for later use during the week. It microwaves well. I go for about 2 minutes once it has thawed. Otherwise it gets as hard as a brick.

One note I do have. I used bacon in mine which I had fried very crisp. Unfortunately, once baked and nuked the bacon winds up kind of limp.

So give it a try! Let me know in the comments what you added.

By The Seat of My Pantry - Meatloaf

Here's another feature I hope to make a regular one. A well stocked pantry is a must for every kitchen. I'll talk more about my pantry itself in a future post.  I often like to challenge myself when it comes to cooking by flinging open my pantry doors (yes, I fling...it's all very dramatic), grabbing 3 or 4 items almost at random and then seeing what I can whip up with them. I call it Off-The-Cuff Cooking ™. I am not a recipe guy. Even when I'm using a recipe that I found somewhere I rarely ever haul out the measuring cups and spoons. The exception to that is baking...it requires a level of precision that my slap-dash cooking style would ruin very quickly.

Last night while I was at the grocery store ground beef was on sale. Knowing that my stock of pre-browned beef was getting low, I grabbed one of those huge 3 pounders and made my way home. I decided to brown half of the beef for future use and the other half I decided to make into meatloaf.

Meatloaf mechanics are pretty basic. You need meat, spices, something gooey to stick it all together and something to add as a filler. Luckily I had eggs in the fridge (almost out of date, but still good). That gave me my goo. Spices also were not a problem, always a lot of those on hand. I had to go to the pantry for the filler. Flinging open the doors I found I had no bread crumbs, no saltines, no stuffing mix. I started to panic a little. You have to put something in meatloaf of a fiber-ish nature or it comes out rock hard like a giant loaf hamburger. There was cereal, but I didn't think Crunch Berries were the way to go. Triscuits? A little too fiber-ish. My eyes came to rest on the box of Wheat Thins Ranch Flavor. Hmm, filler and spices all in one? I grabbed my trusty rolling pin and pulverized the crackers right in the bag till I had a nice fine crumb.

Into the bowl with everything, and then comes my favorite part of meatloaf, getting in there with your hands and mushing (no technical terms in Off-The-Cuff Cooking™) it all together. It reminds of making mud pies when I was a kid. Some people will tell you not to mush your meatloaf too much when mixing. I find the more you mush the better you incorporate your ingredients and the more even your meatloaf turns out. I mush my meatloaf within an inch of it's life!

Another great debate then begins. Should I throw it in a loaf pan or mound it on a flat baking pan? I can go either way on this one. Mounding provides more crusting, if you like that sort of thing. I went with a loaf pan on this occasion, thereby allowing the meat to cook longer in it's own juices making a moister loaf. I also thought the Wheat Thins might need a little more juice to "sog up" than say saltine or bread crumbs might. The "sogging" of the fiber element is very important in meatloaf. If your fiber element doesn't "sog" then you wind up with grainy meatloaf...ick.

Into the oven it went. OMG, I forgot a sauce! Out of the oven it came. Back to the Pantry I went. Saucing a meatloaf is another opportunity to add flavor. You can go the gravy route, the tomato sauce route, ketchup is often a favorite. Once I even used a sour cream sauce that created a Stroganoff Meatloaf...yummmm! I opted for the ketchup, into which I mixed a healthy amount of garlic powder. I then spread that mixture thickly on top of the loaf.

And back into the oven the meatloaf went. Now lets talk about baking. My general meatloaf rule is 350 degrees and a half hour for every pound of meat you've used. That is my rule for the loaf pan. It gets trickier when you mound the beef on a flat baking pan. Depending on the height of your mound you may need to increase or decrease your baking time. Meatloaf really isn't meant to be served rare. or even medium well. A meatloaf should be done, as in cooked through. I use the convection setting on my oven in order to insure that the top cooks evenly and the bottom doesn't burn. I checked on the loaf about 25 minutes into it cooking and noticed that the sauce wasn't cooking up, so I switched the oven over to broil for a couple of minutes to get the sauce bubbling.

Once done, I removed it from the loaf pan and allowed it to rest while I microwaved some veggies. It's important to let it rest for a few minutes. You'll get less breakage when slicing a rested meatloaf than if you try to slice it hot out of the oven. Here is my rested meatloaf.

I love how the sauce caramelized on the top. Also note the consistency in the "grain". That comes from all the mushing. So here is the final plated dinner. I opted for green beans as my veggie. The Hubby loved it and Molly wanted some too. She really is my true gauge. If she doesn't want a bite then we probably shouldn't be eating it either. And yes, I like a lot of real butter on my green beans...don't judge.

Today, I will be making a sandwich with the leftovers. That really is the best part about meatloaf...the leftovers!