Stinkerpants

Eating Organic

December 19, 2008 in Urban Hippies • Cooking

Image from here

Last week, Y sent me an email and asked if I would be interested in subscribing to a weekly box of organic and locally grown produce.  I had a few questions, but overall, I was like, “heck yeah!  Let’s do it!”

I might have been slightly over-confident.

We received our first box today.  I have to say, it looks delectable.  In fact, I can tell you that it is delectable, as I have already eaten three satsuma oranges.  The contents, however, are a little scary to a novice cook like me.  Here’s what we’ve got:

• 3 lbs Yukon Potatoes
• 2 lbs Satsuma Mandarin Oranges
• 2 lbs Red Jonagold Apples
• 2 lb Kabocha Squash
• 4 very large leeks
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 1 bunch of  green chard
• 1 Treviso Radicchio
• .5 lbs button mushrooms
• .5 lbs mixed baby lettuce

When I first looked in the box, I started freaking out.  First off, that’s a LOT of food.  And WTF am I going to make with radishes?!  Then I googled “Kabocha Squash” and started to freak out even more.  No recipes for a freakin’ Kabocha Squash.  Hell, I couldn’t even figure out what a kabocha squash is.  After a half-hour of googling and entering ingredients into allrecipes.com, however, I started to feel a little better.  My friend Lisa sent me a recipe she found for the Squash (which, as it turns out, is more like a pumpkin…?  I could go on about why they don’t just call it a pumpkin, but I’ll refrain), and I found a recipe for radish soup.  Three of the recipes I’ll be making this week are soups.  I’ll also be making a lasagna with chard.

I’m not really worried about eating the oranges or the apples–I’m sure we can handle that.  So that leaves me with: 2 very large leeks, .5 lbs buttom mushrooms, .5 lbs mixed baby lettuce and 1 treviso radicchio.  That sounds like something I might be able to handle…
But could someone please tell me what the hell a “Treviso Radicchio” is?!

Carrot Soup!

December 17, 2008 in Cooking

Photo from here

I have always hated cooking. A few months ago, though, I finally broke down and agreed to at least try it.  Last night I finally admitted to Y (in front of witnesses, no less!) that I actually kinda like cooking.  Scandal!

This whole cooking business has definitely had a hardcore learning curve, though.  The other night, for example, I accidentally added the milk too soon while making carrot soup, and then put too much of it in the blender.  Needless to say, I ended up with soup all over the place.  Even still, the soup was delicious!  Thus, I am going to share the recipe with you.

This is from the Moosewood Cookbook.  Apparently they changed the recipe–this is the one from their original cookbook (I found it here).  I adore Moosewood.  As a vegetarian, I have a hard time finding recipes that aren’t tofu pretending to be chicken or beef.  I prefer recipes that just happen to be vegetarian.  Moosewood does a great job of that.  Highly recommended.

Moosewood’s Carrot Soup

2 pounds peeled or scrubbed, chopped carrots
4 cups stock or water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 medium potato, chopped (optional, for heartier soup)
3-4 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1-2 small cloves crushed garlic
1/3 cup chopped cashews or almonds

Choose one:
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk plus a little honey
1/2 pint heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Seasoning choices:
-2 pinches of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon dried mint, dash of cinnamon
-1 teaspoon each of thyme, marjoram and basil
-1 teaspoon grated ginger

Place carrots, liquid and salt (and potato if you are using it) into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp.

Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. You can sprinkle in a little salt to help draw the moisture out of the onions. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the seasoning combo of your choice.

Puree everything together in a blender until smooth (I deviate from her recipe at this stage. I dump the sauteed onions, garlic and nuts into the pot with the cooked carrots and use an immersion blender to puree. It saves dishes and energy).

Whisk in one of the dairy products. As I mentioned in the beginning, I often leave this step out until I’m just about to eat a bowl of soup. I’ll stir in a little milk, a spoonful of yogurt or some cottage cheese just before serving (and just after reheating, if I’m using the microwave).

Garnish with toasted nuts, some toasted bread crumbs or eat just as it is.

I chose to use vegetable stock, the potato, the milk, and the nutmeg-mint-cinammon seasoning.  DELISH.

Now, as a service to other cooking novices, I will publicly admit the idiotic things I didn’t realize before attempting this recipe:

• When it says “chopped,” it doesn’t mean, “put this in the cuisinart.”  It means chopped, as in big chunks.  This might help.  Sort of.
• When it says,”place carrots, liquid and salt…”, it does not mean every bit of liquid in the recipe.  It only means the water or the vegetable stock.  Now how am I supposed to know that?!  Apparently you shouldn’t bring milk to a boil, or gross things happen to it.
• Even though the blender has a little line for measuring things very close to the top, you shouldn’t fill it that full.  If you do, you will end up with things flying everywhere.

It might be helpful to have a hand blender.  I didn’t really understand the appeal of these things before, but now I kind of want one.  Does anyone else have one?