Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup

Here's a simple lentil soup made with beef broth, diced carrots, onions, celery and Portuguese sausage.

Although we never ate much in the way of lentils while growing up, I've grown to really enjoy them. Lentils have a certain meatiness to them and are extremely versatile. They're good used in soups of course, and salads or as a hot side dish or even fried in patties for a vegetarian main course. In addition to the fact that lentils are used as an ingredient in many old world cuisines, they contain a good amount of fiber and really fill you up, making them a good choice to keep stocked in your pantry.

Beef Barley Soup

Beef Barley Soup

After all the lavish eating we did over the past two days we needed to come back down to earth and have something a little more simple.

I made this beef barley soup with leftovers from our Christmas roast. Aujus, beef broth, leftover roast beef, carrots, celery and barley make up this easy soup. The barley needed to be pre-cooked because it takes about forty five minutes to soften up from it's dry state, but other than that, it's just a matter of assembling the rest of the ingredients and bringing them all to a boil. Crusty French bread made it a meal.

Mmm Mmm Good.

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

T1 was busy in the kitchen while I obliviously goofed around on the computer in the next room. I had no idea what she was up to so I just left her to it because I knew I had something good and tasty to look forward to. Before I knew it, she comes into the room announcing "lunch is ready". Wow! I know time can fly by especially when I'm mindlessly surfing around. It's odd how at times when on the computer, it's almost as if you live an out of body existence. Kind of like the movie Altered States :) (Now if that reference isn't dating myself...) Anyway, in what seemed like a few minutes, or just enough time to open a can and heat up some soup, T1 made a pot of market fresh home-made vegetable soup from scratch.

Steak and Potato Soup

Steak and Potato Soup

What a difference a day makes. As I mentioned in the previous post, it's been really hot lately. Well today, Mother Nature gave us some much needed relief from the heat. I woke up this morning and it was drizzling and overcast. Now this finally felt like fall. I don't even think the temperature topped seventy degrees. It was perfect soup weather.

We had some leftover steak in the fridge. It got sliced up and put in the pot along with a cubed potato, onions, carrots, green beans, sliced crimini mushrooms and beef broth. I seasoned the pot with some dried Italian herbs, a little garlic powder, a dash or two of Maggi seasoning, salt and cracked pepper. Simple yet effective especially on a cool day like today. Goes great with a crusty baguette.

Attack of the Killer Chayote

Killer Chayote Vine

My next door neighbor has a chayote vine and all through the summer I observe it as it slowly creeps over the top of our fence and eventually cascades into a pile of lush foliage below. The vine almost seems intelligent by the way it's tendrils grope around for something to cling to. Any nearby plant is fair game but so is my car antenna, the handle of the bucket I use to wash my car with and the clay roof tiles on top of our garage. Once the tendrils are firmly anchored, tiny little yellow buds begin to pop up along the vine and shortly thereafter, miniature chayote appear.

The chayote grow quickly and around this time of year (early fall) the chayote finally get as big as they're going to get and they need to be harvested and put to good use. Wait too long and their skin gets tough, they develop hard pits and their flesh becomes fibrous. Left on the vine, some of them even begin to sprout leaves out of the bottom end. Chayote season happens to be great if you're a chayote lover or need to feed an army on a budget but the fact that they all mature at the same time means you'll be eating a lot of chayote all at once. At the going rate of a dollar to a dollar fifty a piece, I can't let them all go to waste.

I thumbed through our cookbook collection and searched the web looking for chayote recipes and found that just about every ethnicity has found a way to use this versatile vegetable. From Asia to Africa, the America's and Europe, this plant knows no boundaries. We must eat it before it takes over the planet!!!

With so many options at hand, I decided to make a Mexican style chicken chayote soup referencing a chicken tortilla soup recipe as a starting point. First, I peeled the chayote. The skin was just beginning to get tough and my trusty vegetable peeler wasn't up to the task so I resorted to cutting the skin off with my chef's knife. Right below the skin, the flesh was tender but still firm. If you've ever peeled a chayote before, you know it can be slippery business. I salted my hands while peeling the chayote, which seemed to help with the slime factor, it was then cubed up and thrown in a bowl of water. I browned some onion, added some leftover shredded roast chicken, chopped celery, sliced carrots, corn kernels, diced tomatoes and added enough chicken broth to cover. Next, I rinsed the cubed chayote well and into the pot it went. For seasoning, I used ground cumin, a little garlic powder, chili powder, some cayenne, a pinch of dried oregano, salt and pepper. I brought the pot to a boil then simmered the soup until the chayote was cooked through.

Mexican Style Chayote Chicken Soup

It turned out great. The chayote is mild and allows all the flavors to come through well. Although fresh cilantro isn't something we use a lot of, (T1 is allergic) it would be a nice addition lending a fresh, herby component. Served with hot corn tortillas, this hearty soup makes a filling meal.

How far does $200.00 go?

Yesterday we made an overdue trip to our local supermarket. The refrigerator and cupboards were looking pretty sparse and my girlfriend, Taster 1 (who I'll refer to as T1) and I were having trouble coming up with anything decent to eat, so off to Albertson's it was to stock up on some much needed groceries and supplies.

We usually like to shop at several markets for variety and value. There's Trader Joe's for good, fresh, organic produce, Von's for staples, Whole Foods for special but pricey ingredients, Santa Monica Seafood, Mitsuwa and Marukai Japanese markets and on the rare occasion when we feel like indulging, Bristol Farms. The Santa Monica farmer's market is also a favorite for their seasonal produce and unique offerings. This time however, it was Albertson's. I guess you can say I'm a creature of habit but once in a while, shopping at a different market get's the creativity flowing in the kitchen which is just what we needed.

So what did we spend $200.00 on? The cart was brimming full of much needed fresh fruit and veg, canned tomatoes, pasta, bread, you name it, we picked it up. We stayed away from anything overly processed or prepared opting to take the whole food approach to cooking. Not only do we feel this is a better, healthier way to eat, (we have control over salt, sugar and fat content) it's also more economical. It amazes me that even an innocent looking jar of peanut butter has so many additives, some of which I can't even pronounce on the first try. I should add that the $200.00 also got us paper goods, drinks, and some cleaning products as well.

Here's the plan. To kick-off the Kitchen Forager Blog, I will attempt to cook as many meals as I can before having to do another shop. Not all of them will be winners I'm sure, but it will be fun to see what I can come up with.

Here's the first dish. After coming back from shopping we were pretty wiped out. Not feeling like cooking anything fancy, T1 suggested a simple vegetable soup and an open face tuna melt. Perfect. Tomorrow is the first day of fall and although it still averages eighty five degrees here in sunny Southern California, we can at least start to think about cooler weather meals.

My Grandfather used to refer to this kind of soup as Musgo soup because everything that "musgo" ends up in the pot. It's a great way to use up all the leftover bits and pieces in the fridge. This version had cauliflower, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, leeks and beef broth. It's an easy to prepare, old standby and as with most stewey or soupy things, tastes even better the next day as all the flavors have time to come together.

Musgo Soup