Vintage, but Still Kicking!

I just found a folded, spindled and torn version of a recipe for Mulligatawny soup.  The recipe is xeroxed (not copied or scanned) from February 1980 Bon Appetit magazine.

I used to make this recipe regularly, and I do remember that it was well-loved by everyone. However, it has long been forgotten in my life.

A few days ago, I decided to adapt the recipe to make it healthier and simpler to cook. Afterall, who has time these day to start soup with a whole chicken?  I wanted to create a Tuesday night version of Mulligatawny that was quick, easy and still tasty.  And I did. It's here.   

Thinking about Mullilgatawny got me wondering about what happens to these wonderful recipes as the years pass by. I decided to search the internet for this recipe.  When I went to search the current Bon Appetit site I found a newer, simpler version for Mulligatawny, very similar to my adaptation, in fact.   But then, low and behold, on pinterest I found a photo two years old of my original recipe:

It even had some of the introductory copy from the original article in Bon Appetit!

Anyway, here is the recipe, in case you like to cook classic and want the longer version.  It's more effort, but definitely more complexly flavored, too, and worth it if you love to cook.  

Bon Appetit's 1980 Mulligatawny Soup

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 t cumin seed, ground

6 whole cloves, finely crushed

1 T curry powder (or to taste)

1/4 t ginger, ground

cayenne pepper

1/4 c unsalted butter

1 4-4 1/2 lb roasting chickens, cut into serving pieces

chicken giblets, coarsely chopped

3 stalks celery, with leaves, thinly sliced

2 large onions, chopped

2 carrots diced

1 leek thinly sliced (white part only)

11 cups chicken stock, deffated (preferably homemade, 2 quarts plus 3 cups)

salt and pepper, freshly ground

2/3 c long grain rice

2 medium apples, peeled, cored and diced (tart)

1 cup plain yogurt

2 T fresh lemon juice (or to taste)

2/3 c whipping cream, warmed

chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

lightly toasted sliced almonds, to garnish

1. Combine garlic and spices.  Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until lightly browned on all sides.  Add giblets and saute until cooked through.  Transfer chicken and giblets to stockpot. Drain all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet. Add celery, onion, carrot, leek and spice mixture and blend well.  Add a small ladle of stock and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender.  Add to chicken.  Stir in remaining stock and season with salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes.  Remove chicken with slotted spoon and set aside. Add rice to soup and continue cooking 15 minutes.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, cut meat into bite-size pieces, discarding skin and bones.  Return chicken to soup and blend in apples and yogurt. Simmer 10 minutes.  Degrease soup if necessary.  Stir in lemon juice, then blend in cream.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Pour into heated tureen and sprinkle with parsley and almonds.

Is it a Soup or a Stew?

Hearty soups and stews are on the menu this time of year.  It always seems that when the first of the cold weather shows, our bodies crave the warmth of thick, warming and brothy dishes.

So put on a sweater and slurp up some soup.  This minestrone will keep you toasty. This is no soup for light-weights.  Big chunks of meat, mushrooms and pasta make this almost a stew.

(By the way, I found the grass-fed Chuck at my local Safeway supermarket.  Kudos to Safeway for stocking more and more grass-fed meats, chicken and eggs.  And kudos to all of you out there who vote with your wallets, making it possible for stores like Safeway to stock their meat departments with high-quality health-promoting product.)

Minestrone with Grass-Fed Chuck Roast

This soup is a meal all on its own.  Serve it alone, or add a green salad on the side if you wish.

The grass-fed chuck I used was tender and delicious.  Be sure not to overcook the meat and do not let the soup come to a boil once the meat has been added.

1 1/2 lb grass fed Chuck cut into bit-sized pieces and gristle cut away (I found the grass-fed chuck at my local Safeway)
3 T olive oil
1 onion chopped medium-fine
2 c celery chopped medium-fine
1 large carrot chopped medium-fine
1 clove of garlic minced
1/3 c red wine
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
32 oz organic beef broth
1 15 oz can cannellini beans drained and rinsed thoroughly
6 oz mushrooms sliced
5-6 oz quinoa pasta rotelle shaped
2 c water
Generous fresh ground Himalayan pink sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 t oregano dried
1/2 t basil dried
Fresh basil leaves
Optional:  Parmesan Cheese

Add the olive oil to a large soup pot and raise heat to medium-high.  When oil is heated, add half the meat to the pot and brown and sear stirring for several minutes.  Remove meat to a bowl while there is still some pink showing through.  Do not overcook.  Brown and sear the remaining meat.  Remove and let sit.

Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic to the pan and cook until vegetables are turning soft.  Add the 1/3 cup wine.  Add the tomatoes and beef broth and bring to a boil.  Lower heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes with lid on.

Remove lid and add in the cannellini, mushrooms, spices and quinoa pasta.  If the liquid seems to have cooked down and there is not enough broth, add the 2 cups of water.  Cook about 8 minutes.  Add the beef.  Serve with chopped basil on top.

This soup is perfectly delicious without any cheese, so don't feel like you're missing anything if you are avoiding dairy.  If you're not, go ahead and sprinkle fresh grated Parmesan cheese into each bowl.  

Gettin' Your Greens On--Project 333 Day 2

So day 1 was easy and we're starting to see that it's not so difficult to add greens to every meal.  What's on the menu for day 2?

Day Two Breakfast--Omelette with Spinach

This couldn't be easier, just add a splash of water to a small omelette pan and add in several generous handfuls of spinach.  Saute until tender.  Dress the spinach with olive oil, salt and pepper and move to a serving plate.  Then melt a little butter in your pan and swish it all around, add in two eggs stirred up with a tablespoon of water and some sea salt and pepper and you have your omelette.  For a little fun, here's Julia Child with her omelette tutorial.

Omelette with sauteed greens.  Oh, if only I could nail the Julia child wrist flip!

Super Green Smoothie fans:  By the way, we're showing you the omelette for a little variety, but if you like the Super Green Smoothie, go ahead and have it every day. Keep it up for a few weeks and you'll be amazed at how much energy you have and how clear your head gets.  

Day Two Lunch  --Super Green Salad with Tuna Tarragon

Tuna is an excellent ingredient for anti-inflammation because it's high in omega-3 oil. Just mix up our tuna tarragon and serve it on a bed of super greens of your choice. You can drizzle a bit of vinaigrette over the greens if you wish.  (Combine 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or lemon juice.  Season with salt, pepper, dry mustard, dry dill and chopped shallots.)  If you use flax oil for some or all of the oil in your dressing, you'll be upping the inflammation fighting omega-3s even more.  

Tuna tarragon on a bed of super greens.  

Day Three Dinner--Add some greens to your favorite soup recipe.  

What's your favorite soup?  Chicken noodle?  Mexican chicken?  Italian meatball?  Whatever it is, toss a generous quantity of super greens into it.  If you want to try something new, how about this Indian tomato spinach version:

Indian Tomato Spinach Soup

Ingredients:
3 T olive oil
2 leeks chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 t ground cardamon
1/4 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t ground pepper
2 t curry powder
3 cups organic chicken stock
2 cans organic stewed tomatoes
6 boneless organic chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup cooked basmati rice
1 can organic chick peas (also known as garbanzo beans)
4 cups spinach or other super green

Put olive oil and leeks into a soup pot and saute until leeks are softened.  Add all ingredients up to tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add in chicken and continue simmering until chicken is just cooked.  Add in rice, chick peas and spinach and heat just until spinach leaves have softened.  Serve.


See our next posting for Day 3

Turmeric, Ginger and Kale for a Superfood Soup

Okay...I confess.  I'm a food snob.  I don't put any food in my mouth that doesn't taste delicious.  I simply don't...I won't waste my time and calories on it.

Food should taste fabulous and bring us pleasure.  It only takes a little bit more effort in the kitchen to eat food that bursts forth with flavor. I want joy from my food and I'm willing to do what it takes to get there.

However, food is more than just a wonderful eating experience.  It should also keep our bodies healthy, self renewing and supplied with plenty of natural energy.  And I want one other thing from my food...brain power--none of that basketball head blurry mind feeling for me.  I want top-level thinking performance.

Yes, it's a tall order, but there are plenty of foods out there that easily fit the bill.

Lately, I've been interested in some of the inflammation fighters, specifically turmeric, ginger and kale.  I've never really focused on turmeric before.  Somehow I had the impression it was more of a coloring agent than flavoring agent.  Although I have added it to recipes when called for, I never really noticed much about it.  Boy, was I missing out!  Turmeric has a lovely warm, peppery and earthy flavor that I am starting to crave.

I've been cooking with turmeric for several weeks now and I am absolutely in love with it.  In fact, I woke up this morning obsessing so much about it, that I made a turmeric, ginger and kale soup.  Turmeric soup for breakfast?  Okay, I admit it's a little crazy, but well, why not?  It tastes much better than any old bowl of porridge.  That's what I think!

By the way, fresh turmeric root is available in fall and winter months so start checking your farmer's market now. You might also be able to find it at a local Asian market.

When you cook with turmeric, keep in mind that turmeric absorption in the stomach is aided by the inclusion of freshly ground black pepper, so be generous with the pepper grinder.

Turmeric, ginger and kale.  All three of these ingredients are inflammation fighting power-houses.  Inflammation, as you may know, is a leading cause of many diseases including many cancers, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's, all the auto-immune diseases and diabetes, plus many, many more.

I'll take my medicine in the form of yummy superfood soup, thank you very much!

Turmeric, Ginger, Kale and Garbanzo Bean Superfood Soup

Toss the following ingredients into a large soup pot:
3 T olive oil
2 small onions chopped into small pieces
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 1/2 T fresh turmeric chopped very fine or grated (or 3/4 t dried turmeric)
1 1/2 T fresh ginger chopped very fine or grated

Saute until softened.  Then add:
32 oz organic chicken stock
1 can garbanzo beans rinsed thoroughly
2 large chopped tomatoes
6 lightly packed cups of raw kale
generous fresh ground black pepper and sea salt

Optional:  Add either 1/2 cup organic cream, 1/2 cup goat yogurt or 4 T cashew butter

Let soup simmer until flavors soften and combine, about one hour.  Option:  If you eat dairy products, you can add the cream to thicken and enrich the soup.  If you are on an anti-inflammation diet, try the goat yogurt,  And if you never eat dairy, you can add cashew butter, if desired.

I'm Cooking with Tomatoes These Late Summer Days

Fat, gorgeous, red and beefy.  

Tomatoes seem to be everywhere these days.  I'm finally getting a few off my vines!  At the farmer's market yesterday, the growers were asking me for extra Project Mana crates and stuffing them full of ripe and juicy tomatoes to give to the hungry.  Even the supermarkets have beautiful organic and heirloom tomatoes in August. 

Fifteen gorgeous but broken tomatoes from the farmers market

Last week I received a tomato bonanza at the farmers market.  After picking up the vendor donations of full-to-bursting crates of every kind of gorgeous produce for Project Mana, I noticed my favorite tomato lady walking toward the trash can with a saggy carboard box full of slightly smashed tomatoes.  Now folks, these were not your ordinary tomatoes, but a beautiful, colorful mix of ruby red, orange and summer golden heirloom tomatoes perfectly ripe and plump. These turned out to be all the tomatoes that customers had dropped on the ground during that day's market.  Hey, I'm not proud, especially when it comes to  beautiful produce.  Plus, I know how to use a faucet!  I asked her if I could have the boxful and she gave it to me, but only after extracting a promise that I would cook up something wonderful with it. 

Well, wonderful is what I did.  This simple packed with summer flavor and gorgeously red smashed tomato soup became a family meal for both my household and Debbie's crew who were visiting down at their Tahoe cabin.  And it couldn't be easier to make.  Grab yourself a basket full of the ripest possible farmer's market tomato seconds and make up a batch for your family.  My lot raved about this soup.

Smashed Tomato Soup (Sooooooo easy!)

By the way, I served this with organic chicken sausage, sliced fresh farmer's market cucumbers and delicious homemade pear and ginger muffins. 

·        1 onion chopped

·        15 mixed variety smashed or very ripe tomatoes, cores removed

·        generous handful of fresh roughly chopped basil

·        salt and pepper

·        balsamic vinegar

Simply saute the onion in a generous dollop of olive oil.  When translucent drop in the 15 tomatoes and smash them up further with a wooden spoon.  Add basil and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes until tomatoes are softened and heated through.  Puree most of the soup in a food processor leaving some unprocessed to create a hearty texture.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Drizzle in balsamic vinegar to taste.