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labellementeuseMan, I've been so boring lately, sorry y'all, and there's really no variety here either: this is a 'what I made for dinner' post because I keep making stuff and being pleased with it & then six months later forgetting what I put in it.
So the other night on food TV a guy said 'Imma make leek and potato soup' and then... he made leek and kumara soup. Like, I know people other places call it sweet potato, but seriously, not the same thing. However, it did kick me with a craving for a leeky soup and the idea of leeks with non-potato vegetables was pretty cool, so this is what I made for dinner tonight. These numbers are all approximations and next time I might up the kumara and mayyyybe down the garlic, which it pains me to say, but. Anyway, it was pretty tasty. Play around.
Leek and Vegetable Soup
Adapted from some random restauranteur on the Food channel last night.
~25, 30 g butter (I am not actually sure about this, I think I cut about half of one of the lines on a block of butter, but it could have been more like 50g)
2-3 leeks
3 cloves garlic, crushed with the back of a knife and finely chopped
1 large kumara, I used purple because they were on special, but I think an orange/red one would give it a nicer colour
~6 potatoes
3 carrots
6 cups chicken stock NB: make this vegetable stock and this soup is vegetarian, make it vegetable stock and use a tablespoon of oil instead of butter and it's friggin' vegan, yo.
Pepper to taste, I highly recommend several solid turns of the grinder, and in fact I would possibly up that to a solid 1/2 teaspoon
Fresh ginger and milk or cream - these are optional.
1. Prepare all your vegetables, a step so obvious I wouldn't mention it except there's one thing: you have three options at the end of this process, i.e. when you have soup. Either A You can put it through the blender in stages and get a smooth, pureed soup (I did this because I really like it best like that), in which case, you should slice your leeks lengthwise in quarters and then those into thirds (julienning, apparently) and don't bother peeling your potatoes or evenly chopping the veges (you really should peel the kumara though); or B You can take a potato masher to your soup-pot, in which case your vegetables can be uneven but you should really dice the leeks; or C you can just leave it as-is in which case IMO the nicest way to do it is to cut all your veges into small, regular pieces (yeah, this is the real reason I prefer to use a blender.) So think about it, think, think about it.
2. Melt butter in your soup or stock pot. Saute the leeks for awhile and then throw in the garlic and saute them together for awhile until they're, you know, shiny and soft and cooked. Don't let the garlic brown if you can avoid it (my stove has one setting: REALLY HOT, so I couldn't avoid it.)
3. Throw in the vegetables and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until the vegetables are cooked, or, you know, a little past that - I could probably have finished in 40 minutes but I let it go 60 because I had to go down to the shop to get ginger.
4. Per step #1, either puree the soup in stages, mash it a little, or dish it out into bowls.
5. Grate in some fresh ginger root (nom nom nommmmmm) and add some milk or cream, or I did sour cream tonight, but then I think sour cream tastes good in absolutely everything. For all I know you could even try cream cheese but I think that would taste a little weird. Eat.
6. Freeze the leftovers. If you think you'll eat the whole pot in one night, you can add the dairy and the ginger directly to the pot, otherwise do it bowl to bowl so that it freezes well. Randomly, recently on Epicurious I read a food blogger saying sincerely 'I just found out that eggs aren't dairy, so people who are lactose-intolerant can eat them!' Are you fucking kidding me, world? This woman was a food blogger and she wasn't a 12 year old prodigy food blogger either, she was ordinary food blogger demographics (25-45 middle-class parent).
Crusty Herby Bread
Adapted from this epicurious recipe for people much more lazy (i.e. me) with smaller food processors (my flatmate. I don't even own a food processor.)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
1/3 C warm water
1 T honey
4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
A bunch of mixed herbs, I used the kind that come in a packet, if you use fresh I recommend rosemary, oregano, probably parsley, basil, IDK. Use whatever you like. One commenter on the epi page uses rosemary and lavender!
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 lightly beaten egg, HOWEVER, it will not USE all this egg so if you don't have something else to do with it use olive oil or something.
1. Mix the yeast with the 1/3 C of warm water and the honey. Set aside til it gets fluffy/fuzzy/whatever the adjective is that they use. If it doesn't look like it's getting active on you, dude, probably time to buy some new yeast. Are you keeping it in the fridge or are you like my mother and keep forgetting? Tsk, tsk.
2. In a food processor - or in a mixing bowl, I'm sure would work just as well - blend the flour, vinegar, salt, and mixed herbs together. Sorry I can't give a better approximation of how many mixed herbs I chucked in - it was probably around a tablespoon? Just throw it in until your flour looks appropriately speckled.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the other 1 1/3 C warm water to the flour mix and pulse until combined. The epi recipe said keep pulsing until the dough comes together in a ball and pulls away from the side. However, my flatmate's food processor is pretty ancient and couldn't quite get there, so I yanked it out and kneaded a bit on the bench - it was pretty incredible how little kneading I had to do, so BEWARE, do not over-process this! Your bread is kneaded when it seems stretchy and pliable and cohesive. I always did the spring-back test (jam a finger into your dough, pull it out, does it bounce back? it's done) but I totally saw an instruction on the web for the EXACT OPPOSITE so don't take my word for it.
4. Rise, covered (i.e. with gladwrap, not a teatowel) in a warm, non-drafty space, for an hour, hour and a half, either in your processor or in a lightly oiled bowl, until it is doubled. There really is an easy test for this: flour two fingers and jam them into the soft fluffy dough. If it DOESN'T spring back, it's risen.
5. Turn your dough out onto the bench and divide in two. Pat the two halves out into a rectangle and then fold the shorter lengths under to create something loafy. Stretch/roll it out until you have something a little bit longer - I did two things that would fit side by side onto my baking tray, which is what I recommend you do too. Duh.
6. Pop your loaves on a baking tray lined with baking paper, which I know is not as good for the environment as greasing it, but fuck it, I really hate cleaning baking trays. Either brush these with oil now or leave them if you're going to do an egg wash. Rise uncovered for 30min, during which time preheat your oven and start your soup boiling if you're making the soup above. Brush with a beaten egg if desired and then slit the top, sideways with a knife, in several places.
7. Bake at 200 C (400 F) for - umm, I'm actually not sure. This was probably around 20 minutes but I wasn't paying a lot of attention so start checking at 15. Bread is usually done if it sounds hollow when you tap at the bottom.
8. Serve hot with soup! Awesome.
So the other night on food TV a guy said 'Imma make leek and potato soup' and then... he made leek and kumara soup. Like, I know people other places call it sweet potato, but seriously, not the same thing. However, it did kick me with a craving for a leeky soup and the idea of leeks with non-potato vegetables was pretty cool, so this is what I made for dinner tonight. These numbers are all approximations and next time I might up the kumara and mayyyybe down the garlic, which it pains me to say, but. Anyway, it was pretty tasty. Play around.
Leek and Vegetable Soup
Adapted from some random restauranteur on the Food channel last night.
~25, 30 g butter (I am not actually sure about this, I think I cut about half of one of the lines on a block of butter, but it could have been more like 50g)
2-3 leeks
3 cloves garlic, crushed with the back of a knife and finely chopped
1 large kumara, I used purple because they were on special, but I think an orange/red one would give it a nicer colour
~6 potatoes
3 carrots
6 cups chicken stock NB: make this vegetable stock and this soup is vegetarian, make it vegetable stock and use a tablespoon of oil instead of butter and it's friggin' vegan, yo.
Pepper to taste, I highly recommend several solid turns of the grinder, and in fact I would possibly up that to a solid 1/2 teaspoon
Fresh ginger and milk or cream - these are optional.
1. Prepare all your vegetables, a step so obvious I wouldn't mention it except there's one thing: you have three options at the end of this process, i.e. when you have soup. Either A You can put it through the blender in stages and get a smooth, pureed soup (I did this because I really like it best like that), in which case, you should slice your leeks lengthwise in quarters and then those into thirds (julienning, apparently) and don't bother peeling your potatoes or evenly chopping the veges (you really should peel the kumara though); or B You can take a potato masher to your soup-pot, in which case your vegetables can be uneven but you should really dice the leeks; or C you can just leave it as-is in which case IMO the nicest way to do it is to cut all your veges into small, regular pieces (yeah, this is the real reason I prefer to use a blender.) So think about it, think, think about it.
2. Melt butter in your soup or stock pot. Saute the leeks for awhile and then throw in the garlic and saute them together for awhile until they're, you know, shiny and soft and cooked. Don't let the garlic brown if you can avoid it (my stove has one setting: REALLY HOT, so I couldn't avoid it.)
3. Throw in the vegetables and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer until the vegetables are cooked, or, you know, a little past that - I could probably have finished in 40 minutes but I let it go 60 because I had to go down to the shop to get ginger.
4. Per step #1, either puree the soup in stages, mash it a little, or dish it out into bowls.
5. Grate in some fresh ginger root (nom nom nommmmmm) and add some milk or cream, or I did sour cream tonight, but then I think sour cream tastes good in absolutely everything. For all I know you could even try cream cheese but I think that would taste a little weird. Eat.
6. Freeze the leftovers. If you think you'll eat the whole pot in one night, you can add the dairy and the ginger directly to the pot, otherwise do it bowl to bowl so that it freezes well. Randomly, recently on Epicurious I read a food blogger saying sincerely 'I just found out that eggs aren't dairy, so people who are lactose-intolerant can eat them!' Are you fucking kidding me, world? This woman was a food blogger and she wasn't a 12 year old prodigy food blogger either, she was ordinary food blogger demographics (25-45 middle-class parent).
Crusty Herby Bread
Adapted from this epicurious recipe for people much more lazy (i.e. me) with smaller food processors (my flatmate. I don't even own a food processor.)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
1/3 C warm water
1 T honey
4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white vinegar
A bunch of mixed herbs, I used the kind that come in a packet, if you use fresh I recommend rosemary, oregano, probably parsley, basil, IDK. Use whatever you like. One commenter on the epi page uses rosemary and lavender!
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 lightly beaten egg, HOWEVER, it will not USE all this egg so if you don't have something else to do with it use olive oil or something.
1. Mix the yeast with the 1/3 C of warm water and the honey. Set aside til it gets fluffy/fuzzy/whatever the adjective is that they use. If it doesn't look like it's getting active on you, dude, probably time to buy some new yeast. Are you keeping it in the fridge or are you like my mother and keep forgetting? Tsk, tsk.
2. In a food processor - or in a mixing bowl, I'm sure would work just as well - blend the flour, vinegar, salt, and mixed herbs together. Sorry I can't give a better approximation of how many mixed herbs I chucked in - it was probably around a tablespoon? Just throw it in until your flour looks appropriately speckled.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the other 1 1/3 C warm water to the flour mix and pulse until combined. The epi recipe said keep pulsing until the dough comes together in a ball and pulls away from the side. However, my flatmate's food processor is pretty ancient and couldn't quite get there, so I yanked it out and kneaded a bit on the bench - it was pretty incredible how little kneading I had to do, so BEWARE, do not over-process this! Your bread is kneaded when it seems stretchy and pliable and cohesive. I always did the spring-back test (jam a finger into your dough, pull it out, does it bounce back? it's done) but I totally saw an instruction on the web for the EXACT OPPOSITE so don't take my word for it.
4. Rise, covered (i.e. with gladwrap, not a teatowel) in a warm, non-drafty space, for an hour, hour and a half, either in your processor or in a lightly oiled bowl, until it is doubled. There really is an easy test for this: flour two fingers and jam them into the soft fluffy dough. If it DOESN'T spring back, it's risen.
5. Turn your dough out onto the bench and divide in two. Pat the two halves out into a rectangle and then fold the shorter lengths under to create something loafy. Stretch/roll it out until you have something a little bit longer - I did two things that would fit side by side onto my baking tray, which is what I recommend you do too. Duh.
6a. In the highly unlikely event that you own a pan - or actually two pans - for making baguettes in (according to epicurious a 17-in long pan? IDEK how long that is, inches are weird), oil those pans, place the bread in seam up and roll it over, coating it in oil, so it ends up seam down, and rise for 30 minutes. Otherwise go to 6.
6. Pop your loaves on a baking tray lined with baking paper, which I know is not as good for the environment as greasing it, but fuck it, I really hate cleaning baking trays. Either brush these with oil now or leave them if you're going to do an egg wash. Rise uncovered for 30min, during which time preheat your oven and start your soup boiling if you're making the soup above. Brush with a beaten egg if desired and then slit the top, sideways with a knife, in several places.
7. Bake at 200 C (400 F) for - umm, I'm actually not sure. This was probably around 20 minutes but I wasn't paying a lot of attention so start checking at 15. Bread is usually done if it sounds hollow when you tap at the bottom.
8. Serve hot with soup! Awesome.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 09:03 am (UTC)These both sound delicious! I always use a (damp) teatowel to cover bread, though. What does gladwrap make it do?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 09:15 am (UTC)I just googled to see if more people thought eggs were dairy and there's a comment by a woman who goes, 'I would never criticise someone who thought eggs were dairy, because to some people tomatoes are fruits and to others they are vegetables.' AUGH NO. NOT EQUIVALENT.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 12:49 pm (UTC)Dude. Yes.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 09:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 08:44 pm (UTC)