Cold Weather Delish
7:39 PMOccasionally, I share with you recipes I attempt. And while I'm no Julia Child, my passion for cooking has to be somewhere in the vicinity of hers. I just am not able to up and enroll in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Or devote my life to cooking. But I would if I could!
It's fresh on my mind because this evening, my sister-in-law Melissa and I went to see Julie & Julia, the movie about Julia Child and a girl who decides to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. I had read this book about a year ago and was fascinated! Prior to that, I had read the book, My Life in France, about Julia Child's experiences cooking and living with her husband, Paul Child, in Paris. And of course, about the writing of the famous cookbook.
Imagine watching a movie about French food on an empty stomach. Yes, folks, I was that dumb. So, starving and inspired, I strolled into my kitchen this evening with a hankering to cook!I had already done the hardest part on Monday: planning my weekly menu and shopping for it. And since Monday was a chilly day, and I always want soup when it's cold outside, every item on this week's menu is a soup-ish dish. My poor, tolerant husband. :) I should also mention that I happened to pull out my Passionate Vegetarian cookbook when I was working on my menu, so everything I planned to make comes out of there. It's an enormous, slightly daunting cookbook that has delivered every time. I sometimes don't add the tofu, but sometimes I do!
Anyway, my first task this evening was the mandatory cold weather drink:
Hot Mulled Punch...aka Wassail.
To make a big pot of this that serves about 30 (or me for a few days), it takes the following:
6 cups of strong hot tea
3 cups of pineapple juice (buy the big can and pour the leftovers into ice trays and freeze if you don't want to just drink the rest of the juice!)
3 pints of cranberry juice cocktail
1.5 cups of sugar
3 whole cinnamon sticks
15 whole cloves
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan, heat to simmering. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cloves and cinnamon sticks (or leave in and just avoid putting them in cups). Serve!
6 cups of strong hot tea
3 cups of pineapple juice (buy the big can and pour the leftovers into ice trays and freeze if you don't want to just drink the rest of the juice!)
3 pints of cranberry juice cocktail
1.5 cups of sugar
3 whole cinnamon sticks
15 whole cloves
Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan, heat to simmering. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cloves and cinnamon sticks (or leave in and just avoid putting them in cups). Serve!
And for dinner, we had West Indian Rundown. (According to a sidenote in the cookbook, a rundown is a dish that's been reduced by slow cooking). Fortunately, slow did not mean hours.
Ingredients:
2 tsp canola oil
1 onion, cut vertically into crescents
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 bunch scallions, roots trimmed, white & 2 inches of green chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (confession: didn't have, didn't use)
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 can (14 oz) reduced fat unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock (confession: used chicken broth)
4-6 oz traditional style dark seitan, rinsed and diced into 1/2 in. cubes (optional, and I didn't use this time)
3 carrots, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch rounds
1 large potato, scrubbed, but sliced into 1/4 inch rounds with skin still on
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1.5 inch cubes
5 allspice berries (didn't have, so I used ground allspice to taste)
2 large sprigs of thyme
1 to 2 fresh green or red chiles, chopped
1/2 juicy, red ripe tomato, diced
cooked rice
Instructions:
1) heat the oil in a nonstick soup pot (I just used a dutch oven) over medium heat.
2) add the onion and saute until it softens (about 3 minutes) then add the garlic and curry powder, sauteing for another minute
3) add coconut milk and broth. Raise the heat and bring to a boil (I chopped veggies while this was going on). Then lower to a simmer. Drop in tofu, carrots, potato, squash, allspice and thyme. Half cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until veggies are soft. Stirring occasionally. You may need to add stock to keep it at a stewlike consistency (I didn't).
4) Add chopped chile and tomato and simmer another 10 minutes.
If you used allspice berries, remove them or avoid biting them. Serve hot over rice.
Ingredients:
2 tsp canola oil
1 onion, cut vertically into crescents
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 bunch scallions, roots trimmed, white & 2 inches of green chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (confession: didn't have, didn't use)
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 can (14 oz) reduced fat unsweetened coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock (confession: used chicken broth)
4-6 oz traditional style dark seitan, rinsed and diced into 1/2 in. cubes (optional, and I didn't use this time)
3 carrots, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch rounds
1 large potato, scrubbed, but sliced into 1/4 inch rounds with skin still on
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1.5 inch cubes
5 allspice berries (didn't have, so I used ground allspice to taste)
2 large sprigs of thyme
1 to 2 fresh green or red chiles, chopped
1/2 juicy, red ripe tomato, diced
cooked rice
Instructions:
1) heat the oil in a nonstick soup pot (I just used a dutch oven) over medium heat.
2) add the onion and saute until it softens (about 3 minutes) then add the garlic and curry powder, sauteing for another minute
3) add coconut milk and broth. Raise the heat and bring to a boil (I chopped veggies while this was going on). Then lower to a simmer. Drop in tofu, carrots, potato, squash, allspice and thyme. Half cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until veggies are soft. Stirring occasionally. You may need to add stock to keep it at a stewlike consistency (I didn't).
4) Add chopped chile and tomato and simmer another 10 minutes.
If you used allspice berries, remove them or avoid biting them. Serve hot over rice.
It's like a curry with the rice, so not "technically" a soup. But let me tell you - this HIT THE SPOT!
And I apologize for the lack of pictures. It occurred to me too late to take pictures. But this is a yummy dish and my omissions or substitutions did not seem to hurt anything!
Bundle up and eat warm food!
And I apologize for the lack of pictures. It occurred to me too late to take pictures. But this is a yummy dish and my omissions or substitutions did not seem to hurt anything!
Bundle up and eat warm food!
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