Butternut Squash Soup with Spiced Whipped Cream

This is a new twist on a #basic Pumpkin Spice Latte. But obviously, way less basic. 

We had an amazing time presenting this recipe on Daytime Ottawa- If you're a Rogers customer, check it out! 

You'll need:
1 good sized Butternut Squash, cubed and peeled; or a package of pre-cut butternut squash
1 chopped onion
chicken or vegetable broth - about 3 cups
1-2 tbsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander

1 tsp Turmeric
2 tbsp butter or fat alternative like coconut oil (if vegan)

1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 small carton of whipping cream (or dairy substitute like almond milk)

Start by tossing  your squash with half your spices and some olive oil until coated. Roast in the oven at 375 for 25 minutes or until golden.

Once your squash is roasted, melt 2 tablespoons of butter (or alternative) in a big soup pot and sauté the onions for about 5 minutes until they're soft. Season with salt and pepper and a bit more cumin.

Add the squash cubes into your sauté being sure to get all the cooking liquid from roasting into the pot as well. Add enough broth to cover and simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes until everything is soft. Puree in a blender or with an immersion blender.

If you are making the vegan version of this soup, whisk in about 2 cups your diary alternative. Taste and add more seasoning as necessary.

For the non-vegan/dairy –free version, pour the cream into a large bowl and add the rest of the spice. Using an immersion blender, automatic mixer, or good, old fashioned strength, whip until peaks appear.

Add a dollop (or quenelle if you’re fancy) as garnish. The cream melts into each bowl of soup and adds a delicious creaminess.  Serve piping hot on a crisp fall day!

Ceviche

Welcome to the first LadyGirlsTable Quick Cut!

 

Fresh off the buzz of the summer solstice, I have been craving super light meals lately. And although I actually finally have A/C in my new place, I hate turning it on. So a supper that is quick, cheap, and light sounded perfect to me this weekend.

Ceviche is the answer to everything, probably in life. It’s one of those amazing meals that feels really special, but isn’t very hard to prepare. And it’s sooooo pretty- perfect for entertaining. It can easily just be a light appetizer, or you can serve larger portions to make a pescatarian-friendly meal. Add some corn chips/tostadas/tequila, and you’ve got yourself a party!

You’ll need:

·         Light ocean fish, in 1-inch pieces (I used tilapia- super inexpensive and sustainable, but ask your fish monger what the freshest offering is. You definitely want FRESH fish for this)

·         Juice of lemons, limes, other citrus (I used 4 limes, 1 lemon, and 1 grapefruit)

·         Watermelon, cubed (we’re going to be jazzy!)

·         Feta, crumbled (because watermelon and feta are all the rage now)

·         ¼ finely diced red onion

·         1 cubed avocado

·         Chopped cilantro

·         Salt & pepper

·         Radishes and cilantro sprouts for garnish

Start by covering the fish in a bowl with the citrus juice and marinate from 20-40 minutes in the fridge. This “cooks” the fish. Meanwhile, chop your other bits. Drain the majority of the citrus juice from the bowl. Mix all ingredients and season. Plate. Garnish.

Could it be easier? Obviously not. Enjoy! (Also, please excuse the lighting in my little kitchen- fluorescent lights make everything a bit sad.)

 

 

Peruvian Chowder

Getting sick of my soup recipes yet? Well you won't be when you try this one. It's a hearty and healthy fall harvest recipe. Found it on the Food and Wine site and liked the idea of the flavours. Always, always trying to use as much veg as I can from that Farm Share Project, (As in Please let this project end very soon because I can't take it anymore!) And it's sort of a kitchen sink recipe in that you can modify it however you like. The base flavour is Peruvian from what I guess. And I'm pretty sure they'd be thrilled to let us modify it to suit whatever we have on hand and enjoy the flavours of their country. Easy to convert this one to vegetarian too if you like. I'll list the recipe and comment as I go along.

You'll need:
Vegetable or Canola oil - about 3 tablespoons
1 pound of unpeeled raw shrimp
Salt and I'll explain
1 finely chopped onion
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/2 tsp paprika (I used smoked because I'm so jazzy)
1/4 tsp cumin
Dash of Tabasco sauce
That's your base. You can improvise from here
1 butternut squash cut into 1/2 inch pieces. But I think pumpkin would work here too if that's what you have. Tip on how to keep all your 10 fingers when cutting up a butternut squash - put it in the microwave for a minute or two first to soften it up. Or better still, spend an extra buck and buy the already peeled and cut at the grocery store.
1/2 head of green cabbage chopped. I didn't use cabbage. I used chard since I like that more. So any green you like in other words.
2 potatoes peeled and cut into 1/2 in chunks
4 ears of halved corn on the cob. But they admit this is a messy business, so I used a can of corn unless you enjoy being covered in chowder from head to toe
2 quarts of water. Okay no. I didn't go for this. And that explains the salt. I just don't cook with water, but I get it that some people do. So you can use chicken broth or vegetable broth. I used vegetable and just enough to cover the vegetables. A box. And add water if needed to cover.
1 1/2 cups of cream or half and half.
That's the recipe. But here's what I think - Add any vegetable you like or even a can of
any beans you like. Or omit anything you don't like. This is your baby. The flavour base will get you to where you need to be.

And here is what I loved the very most about this recipe. They tell you to heat your oil (I say pretty low heat) and saute your shrimp with the shells on. And here is the magic - They tell you to leave the shells on because that will flavour your cooking oil. WTF? Kitchen secrets like that are just what you need to bring your recipes up to magical level! So I had respect and that's what made me decide to try this one. So do that and once they are pink, remove from the oil and add the onion, spices and Tabasco and saute until your onions are soft and transparent.

Add all of your vegetables and liquid and cover and simmer for about half an hour. Peel your shrimp and remove the tails when they're cool enough to handle. After half an hour, taste for salt and add as needed. Put some pepper in too if you like. Add the cream and bring it up to a simmer for about ten minutes and add your shrimp back in. Simmer for about two more minutes and serve. Can there be anything easier than that? Chowder on a damp and cold day can literally Rock Your World! Enjoy friends.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Pear Soup

Looks like I'm in a bad situation now. Not only am I inundated with vegetables from my Farm Share baskets, but now the fruit is coming in off the trees! It's too much! Souping and jarring and blanching and freezing is taking over my life. I glanced into my kitchen this morning and there just happened to be a butternut squash sitting on the counter alongside 2 pears. So I decided I was going to marry them! It turned out to be wonderfully delicious and so easy. So let's make some soup!

You'll need:
1 good sized Butternut Squash
2 pears, peeled and diced
1 chopped onion
chicken or vegetable broth - about 3 cups
allspice
nutmeg
butter
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups of cream or half and half

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil. Split the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. I always have a hard time cutting squash, so I put it in the microwave for a minute first and that makes the job easier. Put a tablespoon of butter into the center of each half and sprinkle them with salt, pepper, nutmeg (go easy) and allspice. Bake for an hour until they're soft. Your house will smell heavenly! Remove from the oven and let them cool down.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a big soup pot and sauté the onions and pears for about 5 minutes until they're soft. Season with salt and pepper and a bit more allspice. Scoop out the squash halves into your sauté being sure to get all the melted butter into the pot as well. Add enough broth to cover and simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes until the pears are soft. Puree in a blender or with an immersion blender. Whisk in your cream and bring up just to a simmer. Taste for seasoning and add salt or pepper if needed. And that's it. Delish! Garnish with a bit of fresh coriander and a swirl of good quality olive oil.

Savoy Cabbage Soup

I'm sure I've mentioned that I'm participating in the Farm Share basket program this summer. But honestly, I had no idea just how much bounty Mother Nature had to share. I am literally up to my ass in harvest! I get a delivery every Thursday of fresh and organic fruit and vegetables for just $17.00 a week and that includes delivery. I've been blanching, and jarring and sharing and freezing and souping and - well you name it! So much veg. Almost to the point of too much responsibility and commitment. I'm sure by the time the program ends in October, I'll be truly ready to divorce this program since commitment has never really been my thing. But that's not the story.

The basket comes full of stuff and is really quite rough around the edges from coming straight from the farm, so the first thing you have to do is sort through it all and wash it and trim off the slough and organize it. And thank God, it reduces itself by half. Then you get to work with your imagination so as not to waste any of it. They send an email with what you're getting on Monday, so you can plan. Since I had all of that work today, I decided to just throw a soup together with what I had on hand and find a way to start using some of the Savoy Cabbage. Now you don't have to use cabbage in this recipe. You can use Swiss Chard or kale or whatever green you like. But I was jammed with cabbage, so that's what's real today.

You'll need
1 small onion finely chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 potatoes peeled and chopped into bite sized chunks
3 large leaves of green cabbage thinly sliced. I roll them up like a cigar and just slice through
4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp of dried chile flakes (or a bit more if you like a bit of spice)
1 chorizo sausage thinly sliced
1 can of chick peas drained (or garbanzo or kidney beans. Whatever you like)
1 quart of chicken stock. If you use the box, don't add salt till you're ready to serve

Heat the olive oil on medium heat and add the onion and potato and the bay leaves. Let that soften up, stirring often. Add the chorizo and stir it all around for a few minutes. Add the garlic and the sliced cabbage and a tiny bit of water (about 1/3 cup) and put the lid on and let it steam for a few minutes. Add the chili pepper flakes and some pepper and push everything to the side and add the tomato paste to the bottom of the pot and give it a minute to toast on it's own there. When it bubbles, stir everything up all together. Add the chicken broth and the chick peas. Bring it up to a boil and reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for at least an hour, but 2 is fine. The cabbage needs to be soft. But if you use kale or chard, much less time is needed. 20 - 30 minutes is all you need. Stir it about every 15 minutes and if you start running low on broth, add water or more chicken broth to keep it to a soup like consistency. Cabbage will require this, but kale and chard will not.

Taste it before you serve and now you can add your salt if needed, and pepper to taste. A nice loaf of crusty bread would be the dandy too for a side. Pretty easy and it cooks itself while you chop and blanch away and marvel at that crazy bitch Mother Nature. Hahah but winter is just around the corner now my friends and she'll give us nothing but heartache. Cheers!

Mulligatawny Soup

Don't you think this is a weird recipe to be posting in July? Seems more like a cozy, winter soup to warm your bones. And normally it is. But with our weird climate change, I was sweltering in Delta like heat and humidity yesterday, and today I had to turn off the A/C and put the furnace on to try to warm up. Our temperature went from "can't step outside for the heat" to "can't step outside for the cold" in less than 5 hours. And I must say, I've never made Mulligatawny soup ever in July. It's depressing is what it is. I used to blame Mother Nature for the foibles in our weather patterns. But I no longer do. She has no control over the stupid and irreversible damage we've done to our own planet. So now I treasure Mother Nature as I would an ageing grandmother and try as best I can to deal with Climate Change. It's a disgrace and I take my personal share of the blame.

Now this is a very easy recipe. Quick and tons of flavour. Not to mention so easy. Especially if you have one of those little electric choppers and you're in a hurry. So I did the hurry up version of it today since it's a weekday. But on a lazy Sunday afternoon with a snowstorm blowing outside, I like to chop everything bigger and let it slow simmer all afternoon. And when I do the slow simmer, I usually use lamb instead of chicken. The flavour of the lamb is so much richer. But I'm not even sure if that's still Mulligatawny. But it's worth giving it a try next winter.

So you'll need:
1 small chopped onion
2 stalks of diced celery
1 large diced carrot
butter enough to sauté the vegetables (about 1/3 cup)
2 tablespoons of flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder (I use mild, but use medium if you love a curry heat)
1 box of organic chicken broth (homemade is better if you have it)
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
1/3 cup of long grain white rice
a splash of olive oil to brown the chicken
1/2 tsp of dried thyme or 2 sprigs of fresh
1 or 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of cream to add just before you serve

Brown your chicken (or lamb if you're taking that route) in the olive oil and set aside
Saute the onion, carrot and celery in the butter until soft then add the flour and the curry powder and stir it all around for 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the chicken and stir it for another couple of minutes to let it absorb the flavour of the curry
And the broth, apple and rice and thyme and cover and let it simmer for about 35 - 40 minutes.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
Whisk in the cream and serve with warm Naan bread.

So easy and so awesome! I'm actually glad that the weather went south on me today so I could enjoy this again without having to wait till I come in from shovelling snow. Enjoy friends!
(Just of note, this could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the meat and using vegetable broth and you'd still enjoy just as much flavour)

 

Creamy Three Sisters Soup with Spiced Whipped Cream

Summer is here! Thank goodness. I was beginning to think the Apocalypse was happening (and, in fact, an ice age) and we were about to try to survive it. I was imagining myself like that father from The Road, and I was thinking it would be so annoying to have to wrap rags around my feet and try to find a meaning in a soon-to-end meaningless life. (In all honesty, I know I saw The Road but I can’t tell you anything about it. I was more focused on my popcorn to butter ratio for the entire 5 hours of that movie.)

Soup isn’t necessarily a go-to for a summer meal, but I’m going to share with you a beautiful and hearty soup that celebrates some great harvest vegetables. I’ve been inspired by a new book, “The Third Plate,” by Dan Barber, and I’ve really started thinking about how we tend to focus on a large protein portion as our traditional meal. So in the spirit of Meatless Monday, let’s make a Meatless Friday too. Enjoy some vegetables, help save the planet, and learn some Indigenous history- today will be a good day!

Okay. We’re doing a fusion version of Three Sisters Soup. It’s a traditional Indigenous recipe across North America- you can find the various stories here. The traditional soup is a broth-based soup, with corn, beans, and squash- or the Three Sisters. It’s quite lovely, and lately, there’s been a movement in restaurant culture to include Aboriginal cuisine. It’s an interesting trend; using centuries-old recipes in “new” cuisine. If you are interested in delving into the honouring-vs.-appropriating debate, I encourage you to read another LadyGirl publication over in Racialicious. Kelly explores it with great depth.

In the meantime, we’ll make a creamy Three Sisters Soup. We’re going to fuse French cuisine with this soup- so instead of stirring cream into this soup (which is completely non-traditional) we are going to add a dollop (or quenelle) of spiced whipped cream on top.

The base of the soup is corn, beans and squash. I used white beans, because I think the orange colour you get from the squash and corn is really pretty. Obviously black beans would make for a strangely purple soup, but other than that, you decide. I used butternut squash as well, plus nice corn nibs. Full disclosure: I used canned beans and corn. Dried beans are possibly the least efficient use of time ever. People who buy dried beans are either cheapskates or people who read books like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, except they practice Zen and the Art of Bean Soaking. As for the corn, if you can find hominy, I recommend using that. If not, then you choose the corn you feel like using.

Start by sautéing an onion with cumin and coriander. I also used some mesquite powder, which I purchased at a very exciting new spice store in Ottawa, Cardamom and Cloves. I also have a smoked sea salt, don’t be jealy.com- you can use regular salt and pepper.

Add your veg, plus chicken stock. You can also use vegetable stock if you prefer to keep it vegetarian. This is also gluten free, and without the cream, can be vegan. It’s a great option for your hipster friends. And you know how hipsters love Aboriginal culture too.  (More reading on cultural appropriation.)

Simmer this for about half an hour (assuming all you vegetables are soft and not going in the pot dried. Don’t put anything in the pot dried- you’ll simmer this until the cows come home, otherwise.)

While this simmers, make your spiced whip. Wait until close to the end, so it doesn’t have a chance to “melt”. Since we’re only making a little whipped cream, you can do this in a large cup with an immersion blender. To your whipping cream, add a dash of chilli powder, cumin, coriander, and mesquite, or whatever southwest jazz spices you want to throw in. Whip until stiff peaks appear.

Once the soup has simmered and everything is soft, blend that. This soup is not going to be perfectly smooth, it will be a bit grainy. That’s fine. It’s going to taste delicious.

Pour into a bowl, top with a dollop of spiced whip cream. Serve immediately! And enjoy! Summer soups deserve love too.

Lobster Bisque

I received the best Christmas present this year- my dad got me six cooking classes at C’est Bon cooking school, and it’s just WONDERFUL. The chef trained in France, and the other chef who helps her trained in Switzerland. They speak French, and I basically spend every Saturday morning now living out my fantasy life as Sabrina, and immerse myself in their knowledge for several hours. 

Finished product, with a melting quenelle. 

My first stop on the way home from the class is the grocery store, so I can utilize all my new skills. I practice with my knives when I get home, I hang on every word the chef says, and I’m quite certain that if I ever left the charity world, I’d put myself in the Cordon Bleu as quickly as I could.

That all being said, I am in a basic class, which is a requirement of the school. My level of ego can only handle this because it makes it seem even more SERIOUS, because you must have the right techniques before going any further with your cooking. So, I gracefully accept my position in the basic class and remember everything they say. I often feel like the teacher’s pet too, because I know about the things they teach us much more than anyone else. I am sure everyone else finds me completely obnoxious, which is, I suppose, my burden to bear.

Some others in the class have a fair level of knowledge too, but others do not. One particular girl in the class seems to have an issue with reflecting on what she’s about to say before she says it. Thusly, she asks idiotic questions regularly.

Now, be forewarned, when I told my best friend about these idiotic questions she said I was being elitist. Let me give you an example of the questions, and we'll decide together if she is an idiot or I am an elitist.

Obviously a dinner this fancy needs an appropriate table.

Today, we started with a béchamel. We know that this requires beginning with a roux, which requires equal parts flour to butter to start. After confirming this several times, she then asked if you use the equal amount of milk as to butter and flour. This is a ridiculous question, because how would you have a bloody sauce if you only used a few tablespoons of milk? Then, she asked if you could make a cheese sauce using BRIE. Are you kidding me?! What kind of tomfoolery is that? What, you’re going to peel the brie? Or are you going to throw in that rind too and expect it to melt? What kind of person destroys a perfectly gorgeous brie by snarking it down into a cheese sauce? Brie is a star- she will allow others in bit parts, but let's not get it twisted. She is not meant to become a background flavour for your broccoli.

We also made pastry today in the class, which was wonderful; but of course she felt the need to ask another stupid question about that. This time however, in a rare moment of self-awareness, she pre-empted her question with, “This may be a stupid question, but…”

WELL, WHY STOP NOW.

Then she asked if the recipe for the pastry dough would be the same for any other kind of tart. As in, "We used this pastry for this quiche, but could you use it for, say, a tart? Or maybe a pie?" OBVIOUSLY. The instructor of the class has patience in epic proportions.

But, despite her occasional interjections, we do make some amazing recipes. And I do learn something new as far as technique every week. Last week, we made an incredible mushroom soup, and, instead of adding our cream to the soup, we made it into whipped cream and topped the soup with a quenelle     of it! What joy that gave me! You know how I adore a jazzy serving opportunity, and that really would highlight my skills.

I came home and made a lobster bisque that night, and of course topped my soup with a quenelle too! Making a quenelle is not as easy as you think. I watched several YouTube tutorials on it, and next time I paint my nails, maybe I'll even make a tutorial too. (But I'm not doing home videos without painted nails, that would just be embarrassing.)

Straining the stock

So here's the recipe for a lobster bisque, in case you want to be fancy one day. Start with 2 lobsters, live or not. I wanted so badly to use live lobsters, and I braced myself for the homicide of the Homarus americanus in my very own kitchen. "A real chef," I told myself, "would use live lobsters. They would never value the life of a crustacean over the necessary freshness of flavour. A real chef would bless the live lobster, they would use every portion of meat for the soup, they would boil the shell into stock, they would HONOUR the spirit of that little homard."

But, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The potential of self-loathing and sobbing in the powder room for twenty minutes while my guests were here was too great a chance to take. Instead, I used two fresh lobster tails. You will also need cream, celery, carrots, fish broth (if you can find it, otherwise use vegetable or chicken stock- but we will make our own fish broth too) garlic, sherry, tomato paste, chopped tarragon, flour and butter.

Start by cooking your lobster meat- please don't overcook it. Overcooked lobster meat is akin to eating a leather boot. Or a bicycle tire, as the brilliant Albert Burneko would say.  If you are going to use live lobster, I admire you. You can find lots of ways to kill them humanely before they go in the big pot of water beforehand (the general Internet consensus seems to be to drive a knife into the spot behind their heads,) but there is also a movement out there that says because they lack a cerebral cortex (or something) they can't actually feel themselves boiling to death. For me, I had a serious fear of one getting loose into my house and what kind of shenanigans might happen if my dog and I had to chase down a live lobster.

Well isn't that a lovely salad! 

Anyway. You can steam it until the shells just barely turn red, then take it off the heat. Remove the meat from the shell. Now, place the shells in water and simmer for as long as you possibly can to create a stock of sorts. Add whatever aromatics you have kicking around, like a bay leaf or an onion or fish heads. Or whatever.

Now, let's make a roux. Start with equal parts butter and flour (two tablespoons of each works well) and cook in your pot until it smells like cookies baking. (I learned that in my class, yay!) It will look a bit golden, (cook with all your senses, Chef would say) and this is because no one wants their bisque to taste like raw flour. Now add some minced garlic, chopped carrots and celery and sauté until they look translucent. Deglaze your pan with a splash of sherry and let that reduce by half. Now, add your fish stock, plus any extra stock you need to beef up your soup a little. Stir with a healthy amount of tomato paste. At this point, you should have a lovely orange-ish creamy looking type of soup with some veg in it. Simmer for 40 minutes until everything is soft. Then puree.

At this point, your lobster meat has likely cooled. You are going to add it at the last minute before you serve, but just enough to heat it through. Not enough to start cooking it again. You can add a splash of cream to your soup, but you are also going to make it into whipped cream, because your guests need to know this is not some proletariat bisque. This is some next level shit, your bisque is BOURGEOISIE. And you are going to top that soup with a goddamn quenelle, and people are going to know what's up. Sure, they will backstab you. They will say, "Oh, that Bailey. She thinks she's so good because tops her soups all jazzy like." And you know what? They will be right. Because you know you're that good.

(Apparently the theme of today's blog is my unmanageable ego.)

Make your whipped cream. Turn this into a quenelle by giving it three quick rolls between two spoons. There is a wrist action involved- I can't describe this very well. Therefore, I promise to make you a quenelle video soon, and in the meantime, there's this thing called YouTube you can check out.

There you have it. Serve with some nice bread and a salad. (Editor's Note: You are probably not as lucky to have gorgeous, fresh, homemade bread at your dinner table, such as I was. My lovely dinner companion Jenny brought bread, straight out of the oven to this dinner. It was still warm, and it was incredible. This is a late addition because I didn't want to brag.) 

As you enjoy your bisque, think about how awesome you are.