Happiness is Kenji's Ski Lodge Chili

 

 Adapted from the recipe here.

Kenji's Ski Lodge Chili

Ingredients in the order I used:

2T avocado oil

1 lb ground beef

1/2 large white onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

2T tomato paste

 

Seasoning blend (my basic rule of thumb is 1/2-t per pound of ingredients, adjusted later to taste): salt, black pepper (1/4-t per pound), chili powder, red pepper flakes, cumin powder, oregano leaf. 

 

1 can Original Ro-Tel Tomatoes

1 empty Ro-Tel can chicken stock

1 lb already prepared black beans from an Instant Pot or canned

3 bay leaves

3 oz shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

sour cream

2 diced green onions

1 handful chopped cilantro 

 

Method:

 

1-Brown meat on one side on high heat in oil, spread out in the bottom of a porcelain Dutch oven or stainless steel Dutch oven, large saute pan, or heavy bottom stock pot, while you dice.

2-Turn the browned meat and add the diced onion, garlic, and jalapeno and finish the browning and sweat the vegetables for a few minutes.

3-Make a well in this mixture and briefly cook the tomato paste and mix.

4-Make a well again and briefly cook the seasoning blend in the juices and mix.

5-Add the Ro-Tel and mix.

6-Add the chicken stock and mix.

7-Add the beans and mix.

8-Add one more can chicken stock and mix.

9-Add bay leaves and cover to simmer on low for 30 minutes.

10-Stir, taste, adjust seasoning and liquid as needed.

11-Serve topped with cheddar cheese, green onion, cilantro, and sour cream, with corn bread and side salad.

Happiness is low-sodium barley lentil soup for lunch

Barley growing in Provence to the right, lavender to the left

3 cups turkey stock from Thanksgiving, made from the leftover bones

6 cups water

3/4 cup green lentils, rinsed

3/4 cup hulled barley, rinsed

2 bay leaves

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 small carrots, chopped

1 large garlic clove, chopped

extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon French sea salt

2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

 

1/ bring the stock and water to a boil and add the lentils, barley and bay leaves

2/ simmer at a low boil one hour, covered

3/ chop the onion, carrots and garlic and saute in the olive oil until softened, set aside

4/ to a spice grinder add sea salt, black pepper, rosemary and thyme leaves and pulse until powdery

5/ when the barley and lentils are soft, add the sautéed vegetables and the spices to the soup and stir occasionally while simmering, twenty minutes more

makes about eight cups, approximately 310 mg sodium per cup (lentils 15 mg, barley 15 mg, onion 10 mg, carrots 105 mg, salt 2325 milligrams = 2470 mg/8 = 308.75 mg/cup)

Happiness is low-sodium split pea soup with smoked pork hock

1.5 lb smoked pork hock, soaked in water (about 115 mg sodium/oz = 2760 mg sodium)

1 lb split peas, rinsed (250 mg natural sodium)

3 carrots, peeled and diced (about 126 mg natural sodium)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 10 mg natural sodium)

12 cups water

1/ bring 12 cups fresh water to a boil, add split peas and simmer partly covered about one hour

2/ meanwhile soak the smoked pork hock in fresh cold water while the peas simmer

3/ dice the carrots and sauté in extra virgin olive oil

4/ chop the onion and add to the carrots and sauté until soft-ish

5/ remove the pork hock from the soak and add it to the soup

6/ add the vegetables to the soup

7/ cover and simmer another hour or two

8/ remove the hock and when cool enough remove the fleshy meat, chop it finely and return it to the soup, heat through and serve

Makes about 12 cups (you can make this soup thicker by subtracting a cup or two of water at the start, but you will increase the sodium concentration accordingly)

Sodium per cup 262 mg (3146 mg/12)

Happiness is sodium-adjustable barley, beef and mushroom soup for lunch

6 cups water

.75 cups hulled barley, rinsed

1.25 cups leftover, strained and defatted beef stock made from a chuck roast

8 oz. leftover shredded beef chuck (braised in onions, rosemary, peppercorns and 1 T balsamic vinegar all day)

.5 cup sauteed baby bella mushrooms, sauteed in extra virgin olive oil and chopped

1/ boil the water, add the barley, and simmer covered until puffed up, about 1 hour

2/ add stock, beef and mushrooms and heat through on simmer, about 15 minutes

makes about 8.5 cups

contains about 32 mg natural sodium per cup

add 1/8 teaspoon salt per cup served or to taste (an additional 291 mg)

Obama's Soup

Mmm Mmm no good

Mmm Mmm no good

That's what Obama's Soup is

Mmm Mmm no good

Eat Lentils Today To Bring Good Luck For The New Year

So say the Italians, according to this story:

We all get another chance in the new year — clean slate, new resolutions. For a little extra push of luck there are culinary superstitions from cultures all over the world. ... Legumes of any kind bring good luck because they resemble coins and, therefore, wealth. ... Italians eat lentils and sausage to bring in the new year. The lentils play the same role as black-eyed peas and the sausages, sliced crosswise, resemble coins. The pork — specifically the fat — signifies abundance.

I was making Lentil Soup from The Silver Palate Cookbook, somewhat modified, when I learned of the superstition (great minds think alike):

8 cups homemade chicken stock

1.5 cups organic green lentils, washed

2 small bay leaves and 2 matching-sized pieces of Parmesan rind (I save these in the freezer)

6 oz. uncured bacon, diced

1 medium organic onion, diced

3 organic carrots, peeled and diced

3 large cloves homegrown garlic, diced

1 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1/4 tsp. celery seed

1/4 tsp. Folgate lavender buds

1. Wash the lentils, drain, and boil gently for 45 minutes in the chicken stock in a covered large soup pot along with the bay leaves and Parmesan rinds, which add a unique creaminess.

2. Meanwhile prepare the bacon and saute in a dutch oven, stirring frequently until crisp over less than medium heat. Reserve for serving.

3. Dice the vegetables as the bacon finishes and sweat them for 20 minutes covered in the bacon fat of the dutch oven over less than medium heat. I add the carrots first, then the onions carefully on top and sweat together for 10 minutes, then I stir and sweat five minutes more, and then I add the garlic on top without stirring for the last five minutes.

4. Add the vegetables to the stock and lentils, which by now should be done. Also add the seasonings, which I grind ahead of time in my coffee grinder very briefly. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and the Parmesan rinds, if you can find them.

5. Serve with reserved bacon dice, and season with salt and pepper to taste with some buttered, toasted bread or an English Muffin.

Good luck!

h/t Monica

Lentil Barley Soup With Paprika and Rapini

I'm forever making soup with lentils and barley because they are super for you, inexpensive, taste good, and cook quickly. And you can marry them to a variety of herb and vegetable combinations to make healthy eating more interesting from day to day.

Sometimes it's sage and butternut squash, other times oregano and diced Italian tomatoes, or rosemary, bay leaf and parmesan rind with a pinch of cayenne or crushed red pepper flakes. Sometimes I'll leave out the barley, sometimes I'll use cooked leftover long grain brown rice instead. Soup is flexible.

In this recipe I use a little sweet Hungarian paprika with chopped rapini, otherwise known as broccoli rabe, a relative of the turnip family, a dark green leafy vegetable loaded with nutrition and a unique flavor.

When thinking soup, think three steps: the boil, the sweat, and the finish. The boil is where the "hard" cooking occurs, in which you avoid adding the more delicate ingredients which will suffer for the experience. The sweat is for softening the base vegetables like garlic, onion, carrot, and celery. In the finish, you add your herbs, spices and showcase ingredients to heat them through and simmer for a shorter period.

Lentil Barley Soup With Paprika and Rapini

3 quarts prepared Quick Chicken Stock

1 cup lentils, washed (French green lentils du Puy hold up best)

1 cup organic hulled barley, washed (use pearled barley if you must)

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 large onion, diced

3 large carrots, peeled and diced

.5 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 t salt

.5 t black pepper

1 heaping teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

.5 cup tomato paste

4 oz. chopped rapini leaves and heads, washed

1. Add the lentils and barley to the chicken stock in a large stainless steel pot, bring to a boil, and bubble on the boil gently about one hour, until the barley is tooth tender.

2. Heat the oil over low heat in a heavy sauce pan, press the garlic, chop the onions and carrots, and saute these together, covered, over gentle heat, about ten to twenty minutes, stirring now and again, until the onions are translucent and the carrots softened. Let rest covered off the heat.

3. Wash and dry the rapini, accumulate 4 oz. of leaves and heads and chop up finely.

4. To the cooked lentils and barley, add the salt, pepper, paprika and tomato paste. Stir and adjust seasonings to your liking. Then add the onion and carrot mixture and stir. Bring to a boil and simmer for fifteen minutes, and then add the chopped rapini and simmer for ten minutes more.

It's a pretty soup to serve, with little green, orange and white colors bobbing in a reddish brown sea. Perfect for today's blizzard in Michigan.

Quick Chicken Stock for Soup

A big bunch of rapini on sale means you've got left overs after you've made my Italian meatloaf. And leftovers means soup, which I consider fundamental to the menu everyday, despite the comments of a young French visitor to Michigan a few years ago who scoffed at me saying, "Soup is for old people!" Hot liquids have been shown in studies to satisfy and turn off the hunger impulse, which makes soup, as well as hot liquids like green tea, a daily imperative if you are trying to watch your calories.

Soup from scratch is easy, but requires a little planning. The plan always begins with the cheapest chicken I can find. The right price is about 79 cents per pound, and the right quantity is about five pounds. But I usually buy fifteen or twenty pounds and throw the chicken in five pound flats into my freezer for future use. With five pounds you can make copious amounts of broth quickly, and better and much cheaper than the best broths and stocks found on the shelf in aseptic packaging.

I use a poultry shears to cut the chicken into individual pieces as necessary, and I layer them skin side up in a large stainless steel roasting pan. Under the broiler they go for about fifteen minutes, and then on bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Roasting the chicken first intensifies the flavors, and when it comes out it goes right into the crock pot on low for about eight hours, covered in fresh, clean water. Alternatively, you can use a large dutch oven with a heavy lid in a gas oven set on warm for eight hours if you prefer. Don't forget to scrape the roaster pan clean into the crock pot or dutch oven. Every extra bit of the caramelized stuff just adds to the flavor of your broth.

At the end of eight hours, scoop out the chicken from the crock pot into a large stainless steel stock pot. Then strain the broth from the crock pot through a colander or sieve into heatproof bowls and allow to cool a while before refrigerating overnight. In the morning you can easily skim off the hardened fat from the surfaces leaving some very fine broth behind. Use this to start your soup, in combination with an equal amount of fresh water.

Back to the chicken in the stock pot. Using your poultry shears, cut up all the chicken into pieces, making sure to cut the bones in half. Cover with two quarts of water, bring to a boil, and simmer on the bubble for at least one hour, two if you've got 'em. The marrow of the chicken bones will produce a second batch of broth which is creamy and gelatinous. Strain and cool as with the first batch, and supplement with equal parts water when making your soup. The chicken meat, by this point, has had it. It won't even satisfy the cat, so just pitch it.

You can get much fancier in the making of broth by adding onions and garlic and other vegetables to the roasting pan to make your broth more complex if you wish, but for people in a hurry this bare bones method works very well without too much fuss. And did I mention how cheap it is?

Butternut Squash, Sage and Lentil Soup

Family from Provence visited and brought along some lentils du Puy, the world's finest, and Mr. Wenger kindly shared some of his hefty butternut squashes with us . . . time to make some soup with these memorable gifts!

Baking squash is easy. Wash them in cool water. Slice them lengthwise and place them cut side down in a large oiled broiler pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour and twenty minutes, until a knife passes through easily. Let them cool on the counter, scoop out the seeds and strings and discard. Then spoon out the flesh to use and/or store. Bada bing, bada boom. Just like downtown.

Butternut Squash, Sage and Lentil Soup

6 cups chicken stock

2 cups, firmly packed, baked butternut squash

.5 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 dash cayenne pepper (aka 1/8 teaspoon)

.5 t ground sage leaf

1 t salt

.75 cup lentils, washed (if you don't have the French variety, domestic green lentils will work)

1. In a large covered stainless steel pot, simmer the lentils in the broth until tender, about 45 minutes.

2. To the reservoir of a blender, add the garlic cloves, cover and puree. Then add some squash, and broth from the pot, and puree. Add the oil, cayenne, sage and salt and puree some more. Add the rest of the squash, more broth if needed, and puree until combined and smooth.

3. Pour the blended mixture into the soup pot, stir and heat until bubbly. Serve with some nice buttered toast and an apple.

Soup makes me happy. Mm. Mm. Mm.