coriander

Fat and Happy Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup

23 Dec 2011
squash soup

Would you like something rich and creamy? How about Roasted Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup? Sounds good, huh?

I like creamy soups. In fact I love creamy soups. Except sometimes I seem to like them even better when there's no cream in them. Does that make any sense?

Sure sometimes a touch of cream will elevate a recipe. That's because fat binds flavors together. It creates a sum that is greater than its parts. So I have no problem with cream. But there are other fats that do the job just as well as cream. Like butter. I have no problem with butter. In fact wasn't it Julia Child who mockingly said: "If you are afraid of cream, just use butter."? Or was it the other way around? Oh well. No matter. My point is– I am not one of those people who is afraid of fat, in any form. So if fat is called for in a recipe, and I believe it will make it better, I scream bring it on. No fear here.

In fact I am far more afraid of chemically altered processed foods that are deemed "fat free" than I am of any of the fats that God gave us. Because whenever I see "fat free" printed in big bold chemical ink on my food I have to wonder what they replaced the fat with, and how the hell they got it out. Oh, and particularly– where in God's name did they put it? But that's a digression.

I wanted to talk about "health food" my way. It's not a new concept but it has certainly fallen out of fashion.

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Roasted Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup

Acorn Squash Soup
By jgreghenry Published December 22, 2011
Prep time: 90
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 1 (1 1/2 lb) acorn squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
  • 1 pn each, salt & white pepper, or as needed
  • 5 T unsalted butter
  • 2 leeks, cleaned, halved lengthwise and roughly chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
  • 1 carrot, roughly chopped
  • 2 clv garlic, peeled & smashed
  • 1 t sugar
  • 0.5 lb turnips, pelled & roughly chopped
  • 6 c chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 pn ground coriander
  • 3 T brandy
  • 0.25 c celery leaves, as garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Season the squash with salt and white pepper. Place 1/2 tablespoon butter into each cavity and place the squash halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until tender and caramelized, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the tray.

Melt the remaining butter in a medium soup pot set over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots and garlic. Sprinkle the mixture with sugar. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes, until softened. Add the turnips, stock, bay leaf and coriander then bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, season with salt and white pepper. Cover and cook another 20 minutes, until the turnips are very tender. Remove the bay leaf.

Scoop the flesh from the cooled squash halves straight into the soup pot. Using an immersion blender puree the mixture until very smooth, or use a standard blender working in batches if necessary. Return the soup to the soup pot (if using a standard blender) and add brandy. Bring the soup to a simmer and adjust the seasoning. Garnish withe celery leaves. Serve warm in individual bowls

For a Yule That's Cool! Seared Salmon with Pepita Salsa

20 Dec 2011
seared salmon with pepita salsa

Ahh, it's time for that most traditional Christmas dish of all. It's practically synonymous with sugarplums. Seared Salmon with Cilantro-Pepita Pesto !

What? Pumpkin seeds aren't typically yule in your mind? Even when paired with salmon?

Well read on. I think you'll agree Seared Salmon with Cilantro-Pepita Pesto  is bound to become a modern Christmas classic.

You see, I've been travelling. Traveling where it's cold. Traveling to a food-centric city– so everywhere I turned fantastic food was being offered to me. I ate at least 4 meals a day (plus drinks and snacks) every day for the past 7 days. With friends and family all around, it was eat, drink and be merry (Christmas) all the time. I've arrived home fat (and happy).

So when I started thinking about the Christmas food I wanted to enjoy more quietly here at home, I turned to one of my tried and true recipes. because I knew it had to be light. But light isn't necesarily the challenge. I also wanted to serve food with a cool yule spirit. But how do you make something as light as simply seared salmon seem festive enough for the holidays? Well, I chose color. Seared Salmon with Cilantro-Pepita Pesto is "red and green". It doesn't get much more holiday than that. I chose to serve mine as fillets drizzled with some of this delicious sauce. Still, I couldn't help thinking what an amazing taco this recipe would make. So I guess we'll be seeing this dish again come the New Year nestled into a steaming hot tortilla, heaped with some spicy cabbage slaw. Now that really is a new cool yule tradition. GREG

 

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Seared Salmon with Cilantro-Pepito Pesto

salmon with pepito pesto
By jgreghenry Published November 14, 2011
Prep time: 20
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 3 t vegetable oil, divided
  • 0.5 c pepito seeds, raw, plus more as garnish
  • 0.5 c cilantro
  • 1 t coriander seeds
  • 1 pn cumin seeds
  • 1 clv garlic, peeled & minced
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 1 pn each kosher salt, freshly cracked black pepper
  • 4 (six-ounce) salmon fillets with skin
  • 1 lime, cut into 8 wedges

Directions

Heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and sauté until the sizzle and pop, about 2 minutes. Transfer seeds to a paper towel lined plate to cool. Wipe the skillet clean with a papper towel and reserve skillet.

Pulse the pumpkin seeds, cilantro, coriander seeds, cumin, and garlic in a food processor until a course, grainy texture is acheived. With machine running, gradually add the lime juice, and 1/4 cup oil. If necessary add a tablespoon or two of water to achieve a thick puréed texture. Season with salt, pepper.

Wash and completely dry the salmon fillets.

Heat the remaining teaspoon of vegetable oil in the large reserved cast iron or non-stick skillet set over medium heat. When the oil is very hot; add the salmon, skin side down. Cook it until the skin is very crisp, dark brown and releases easily from the pan. This should take 3 to 4 minutes. Do not be tempted to check or move the fish around in the pan during this time. You will only succeed in making it stick to the pan or worse ruin your beautifully crisp skin.

Once the skin has crisped flip the fish, and cook it an additional 1 to 2 minutes more, until the flesh is nearly (but not quite) opaque in the center. Do not let it cook all the way through. The fish will continue to cook after it leaves the pan. Your goal is a succulent flesh graduating from a medium rare center outwards to a crispy crackly skin.

Place the seared fillets on plates, skin side down. Spoon pesto over. Garnish with remaining raw pepito seeds. Serve with lime wedges.

Source: Adapted from Bon Apetit

Market Matters- Sup Picked a Pound of Pickled Peppers

21 Aug 2011
colorful peppers

This is the time of year when the Hollywood Farmers Market is literally pumped up with colorful produce. It seems all the brightest vegetal hues make themselves prominent in August. Purple plums, crimson heirloom tomatoes, and golden squash embellish the stalls with all the flair of a Hello Kitty Lunch Box!

But there is another vegetable hitting it's peak with the heat of summer. One that can pack its own heat and yet wears all these colors, and more. I am talking about peppers. Peppers in all sizes and all colors. Hot peppers, sweet peppers, or plain ole pretty peppers. They are really an inspiration to cooks like me who find creative kicks through colorful cues.

In fact one look at these peppers and Peter Piper popped in my pate! Hey it would happen to you too. Nursery Ryhmes carry potent cultural baggage.

Which got me thinking. Did you know  the phrase "Sippity Sup" started out as the title of a Nursery Rhyme?

Sippity sup, sippity sup,
Bread and milk from a china cup.
Bread and milk from a bright silver spoon
Made of a piece of the bright silver moon.
Sippity sup, sippity sup,
Sippity, sippity sup.

I feel kinda bad that I sorta usurped that poor old Nursery Rhyme. I mean it was a lesser-known Nursery Rhyme to be sure. I don't think it held much favor with Mother Goose. So it wasn't really that hard to beat the Google pants off it.

Still, there was a time when you could Google "Sippity Sup" and you'd find references to that less than popular children's poem of the same name. Then "along comes a spider" in the form of a food blogger. And guess what? Now that poor little Nursery Rhyme does not even come up on the first page when you Google that phrase. That's my fault– but it wasn't intentional. I never even knew what HTML was before I started this blog. Let alone understand how to optimize it!

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