Cream of Broccoli (or Brussels Sprouts) Soup

I am really excited to share this recipe with you guys.  Really, really excited.

You see, when I was a student at UCLA oh so many moons ago, one of my favorite things to do was go to the cafe in Kerckhoff Hall for lunch.  They had a cream of broccoli soup there that was just divine.  It was served in a bread bowl, had big chunks of broccoli and just the right texture -- not so creamy that it was practically congealed, but not so thin that it was like water, either.  If I opted not to have the bread bowl, I'd have it with a toasted cheese bagel.



I still dream of that soup.  I haven't gone back for it since I graduated -- I don't know if that cafe still exists, and if it does, that they even still serve the soup, or if they do, if they use the same kind they did before (I doubt it was made in house).  But even if everything were the same, I'm not the same, my palate has developed a lot since then, and I bet it wouldn't be as good as my memory.  So I'm not going to be seeking it out.

I can, however, attempt to make my own version of this soup at home.  In fact, it's been a kind of quest of mine.  I've tried sooooooo many different broccoli soup variations over the years, but they've all been disappointing.  That's why I've never posted about it.  First, most of the recipes use a lot of cheese.  I didn't remember this soup being a "broccoli cheese soup," but maybe I just didn't know it was in there, so I was game to try it out.  Several recipes later, I was convinced that cheese was not involved.  Cheese just made the soup grainy and gave it an unpleasant texture, especially when heated to high temperatures (which is a requirement of mine; I like my hot soups SUPER HOT.  There's nothing worse than tepid soup) -- the cheese would separate.  Ick.  Second, the recipes used either a lot of cream, which STILL didn't make it thicken as it was supposed to, so added a ton of calories for no reason, or no cream, and claimed that using a stick blender to homogenize the whole thing would give it a thick texture -- which didn't actually work very well, it wasn't a creamy thickness, and the next day all the blended vegetables settled to the bottom of the pot, with the water-like broth at the top.  Ew.  And for me, big, identifiable chunks of broccoli is a must, which blending would make difficult if not impossible.



Well, I have found the recipe that finally resembles the soup I love and remember -- at least in the most important aspects.  It's thick, chunky, and makes my mouth sing with happiness.  It's creamy in just the right way, yet uses very little cream compared to other recipes, and no cheese at all (except for the cheese you sprinkle on top if you like, but the soup is so rich you really don't need it).  It's also for my more-sophisticated palate, with depth of flavor coming from cooking the vegetables a good, long time, white wine, and frozen cubes of demi-glace I keep around to give more oomph to just about anything.  You can, of course, use store-bought demi-glace, or simply substitute with regular broth.  The soup will still be delicious.

The funny thing is that the recipe looked so plain and simple (and I'd been burned so many times before) that instead of actually using broccoli, which I didn't have, I substituted it with what I did have on hand -- Brussels sprouts, which I quartered.  As much as I like Brussels sprouts, and as delicious as the soup turned out, I can't wait to make this properly, with broccoli, which is probably my favorite vegetable.  But it definitely works with both!



The soup is a little more rustic than one might expect from a cream soup.  Grated carrot, celery, and onion display themselves unapologetically.  For a less rustic look, I suppose the vegetables could be pureed before the saute step, which would 'hide' them better.  I may try it next time just to see if that actually works, though having them be obviously there doesn't affect my enjoyment at all.

I should also mention that after refrigerating, the soup thickens up quite a bit.  When reheating, add enough water while stirring to get to the consistency you like.

Cream of Broccoli (or Brussels Sprouts) Soup (recipe adapted from The Domestic Goddess)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1 head broccoli, divided into florets (or 1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved if small, quartered if large)
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1/2 vidalia (or other sweet) onion, diced
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped or grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsps freshly chopped parsley
• 7 tbsps flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cubes frozen demi-glace (about 2 tbsps)
• 1 cup water (or instead of the demi-glace and water, use another cup of chicken broth)
• 1 cup white wine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup whipping cream

Method

1. Melt the butter and olive oil in large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the broccoli, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and parsley. Stir to combine the vegetables with the fat.
3. Cover and cook about 10 minutes, or until the onion and broccoli are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the flour and stir the mixture until the flour has almost completely disappeared (one or two specks is okay).
5. Add the chicken broth, demi-glace, water, and wine. Cover and simmer the soup for 40 minutes. Stir and scrap the bottom every once in awhile, as at this point the soup may stick and you don't want the bottom to burn.
6. Taste the soup and adjust seasonings -- add thyme and salt/pepper if needed.
7. Add the cream and cook through, about 5 minutes.

Spring Hill's Fried Chicken Dinner

One of my favorite foods in the world is fried chicken. There are few things better than biting into hot, crispy batter then encountering juicy, flavorful chicken.  It's damn good.  Not ever having had the pleasure of eating homemade fried chicken in the south, most of the fried chicken I've had have been at fast food establishments and restaurants.  I've just about given up having fried chicken at restaurants.  It's inevitably overpriced and not as good as the fast food places -- such as Church's or Ezell's (a Seattle establishment famed for having fried chicken so good that Oprah Winfrey has said that it's her favorite fried chicken and has it flown out to her in Chicago).

Well, one restaurant has finally done it right.  Is it really any surprise that it's West Seattle's Spring Hill?  Not to me, at any rate.  Spring Hill rarely disappoints.  At least when it comes to their food.  Their Fried Chicken Dinner for 4 -- by special reservation only and served only on Monday nights -- is something special.  It comes with two whole chickens (with the breasts cut in half, so there's a higher crunchy batter to meat ratio, which means you can get delicious skin and meat in every bite), which is more than you think it is.  It also comes with seasonal sides.  It was one of the most satisfying meals I've had in a long time.

And now, the pictorial.


A truly enormous platter of fried chicken, fried in peanut oil, that once you start eating, seems to grow in size.  We thought we'd be able to tackle it easily.  We ended up taking a box and a half of chicken home.


What's a fried chicken dinner without mashed potatoes and gravy?  It would be wrong.  Spring Hill doesn't leave it out.  Here's buttered russet potatoes with a light but intensely flavorful gravy.


Spring Hill calls this "herbed dumplings with Beecher's Flagship."  I call it upscale macaroni & cheese, made all the more delicious by the use of Beecher's Flagship cheddar.  Beecher's is another wonderful Seattle institution.


Then of course, there's cornbread.  But with a twist, or maybe a kick; these are jalapeno.  It came with a delicious honey butter (not pictured).


Caramelized broccoli; I like to call it oven crisped.  I like pretty much any preparation of broccoli, but there's something about the texture it gets when prepared this way that I just love.  I could have eaten five plates of this on its own, so really for four people it's quite small (especially in comparison to the chicken).


Put it all together and what do you have?  A PLATE OF HEAVEN, THAT'S WHAT.  Oh, the dinner also came with marinated cucumber spears, but I didn't have a chance to take any photos of that before it'd been passed around too much and was obliterated.


After dinner I went home and sliced up a mango, Thai style, because it was overripe and needed to be eaten.  Lord mangoes are good.  Fried chicken and mangoes ... life is good.

Friday Dinner: Apple Dijon Pork

This meal is a solo edition of the Friday dinners, as Trix had an emergency with her dog and couldn't participate. There was also no Gossip Girl watching, which is sad only in that it means we still have 4-5 episodes to go before we can start Battlestar Galactica.



I love pork. I love it in soup, in barbecue, in sandwiches, and basically any way it's prepared in a restaurant. At home I'm most successful with cooking pork when it involves slow cooking somehow, whether in the Crock Pot or in soup. (And I'm talking about cuts of pork rather than, say, bacon or ham.) Otherwise, it tends to be tough rather than tender, and is always just a little bit disappointing.

This recipe has shown me what I've done wrong all this time -- I've been overcooking it. According to the recipe, "Pork tenderloin is a very tender and lean cut of pork, and should not be served well done. Pork is completely safe to eat cooked medium, and may be slightly pink in color if cooked properly." I've always been very careful to make sure my pork was well done, because I was raised in the camp of thought that that was the only safe way to cook and eat pork. It's particularly painful for someone who enjoys her beef medium rare, which is why I generally avoid cooking cuts of pork -- I don't really enjoy sawdust in my mouth. I felt very daring the one time I had medium rare pork at El Greco. Now knowing that it's perfectly safe to eat it medium, well -- I won't be avoiding pork cuts anymore, because this was simply wonderful. The meat was tender and flavorful, and it was very simple to prepare.

As for the apple dijon sauce in this recipe, I can take it or leave it. I'm not a huge fan of sweet sauces to begin with, but the combination of the sweetness and the overabundance of rosemary (I like it in small quantities) is a little too much for me. Since the pork was so wonderful just seasoned with salt and pepper, the sauce was, for me, extraneous. If you like sweet sauces and/or rosemary, you might enjoy it a lot more than I did. In the interest of full disclosure I should admit that I used dried rosemary rather than fresh, which is what the recipe calls for, so I might have overdone it.



Rather than searing the meat in a frying pan then transferring it to a roasting pan, I used my new Le Creuset roasting pan right on the stovetop. I heated it up, added the oil, and seared the meat. Then I just placed the whole thing into the oven. If you have a cast iron roasting pan, you can do the same -- otherwise, just follow the directions as they are.



I also didn't use a pork tenderloin. I used pork sirloin, which was on sale at the market when I went. And I had just read this in the latest issue of Gourmet magazine: "Sirloin pork cutlets or chops come from the part of a pig's (very long) loin nearest the hip. The fact that they're inexpensive and naturally dark or two-toned in color doesn't mean that they're of poorer quality than paler loin chops or rib chops. In fact, they are tender, juicy, and full of wonderful flavor. They also behave beautifully during cooking: Both loin and rib chops have a tighter, dense texture that turns bouncy or cottony if cooked a second or so too long; sirloin cuts are much more forgiving."

Now I'm not sure if the tenderness of the meat was due to the cooking method or the fact that I used sirloin! I let it sit out longer than the 10 minutes the recipe suggests, because I made 3 sides and was putting the finishing touches on 2 of them when the sirloin was ready. Gourmet was right though; it must have been extremely forgiving, because they were still great even by the time I got to slicing them.

As for the sides, I made Zuni Cafe's buttermilk mashed potatoes (hey, I had Yukon Golds and buttermilk in the fridge, so why not), broth-boiled kale, and a new recipe for creamed broccoli that I also got from the latest issue of Gourmet. The head of broccoli I used was smaller than the suggested size, so the dish turned out a bit too thin, and next time I will probably just use a sprinkling of nutmeg rather than the full 1/4 tsp it calls for, but was otherwise very tasty -- I'll be making it again, but with a bigger head of broccoli!



Apple Dijon Pork

Ingredients:

• 2lbs pork tenderloin or sirloin (about 2 pieces), trimmed of excess fat
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 cups apple cider, or juice
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
• 2 tbsp cold butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Season the pork tenderloins well with black pepper and salt to taste.
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan, over medium-high heat, until it begins to smoke. Sear the pork on all sides, about 2 minutes per side.
4. Turn off the heat, transfer to a shallow baking pan, and place the pan in the oven. Roast the pork for about 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees F.
5. While the pork is cooking, pour off the excess oil from the frying pan. Place over high heat and add the garlic. Cook for 30 seconds.
6. Add the vinegar, apple cider, Dijon mustard, and rosemary. Cook until the sauce reduces by about 2/3, and begins to slightly thicken. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cold butter, stirring constantly until the butter is gone. Taste and adjust seasoning.
7. Remove the pork from the oven and move to a platter. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving with the warm sauce.

Creamed Broccoli (adapted from Gourmet)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch broccoli (1 1/4 lb)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 3 tbsp grated parmesan
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Method

1. Peel broccoli stems, then corasely chop stems and florets. Cook broccoli in boiling salted water (1 1/2 tsp salt for 4 qt water) until just tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Drain in a colander and run under cold water to stop cooking. (Note: Broccoli can be boiled 1 day ahead and chilled.)
2. Simmer cream, garlic, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in a medium saucepan, uncovered, until slightly thickened and reduced to about 2/3 cup, about 5 minutes.
3. Add broccoli and simmer, mashing with a potato masher, until coarsely mashed and heated through, about 2 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan and lemon juice.

Friday Dinner: Seafood and Vegetable Medley

This week was supposed to be a boring Friday night dinner. Trix and I both had food aplenty in the house and didn't feel like spending the time or the money to get more. We listed the items we each had, and the only things we had in common were vegetables -- and then, not even the same vegetables. Just in the fact that we both had vegetables. We could just have a generically themed dinner. What about a vegetable medley? I suggested. Trix said she had some scallops, and would use those in her medley.





Sometime during the week I discovered Melissa Clark's recipe for roasted shrimp and broccoli (one of the veggies I had), and I decided I wanted to make it, so the theme turned instead to a seafood/vegetable medley.



What started out as a plain, generic veggie medley therefore turned into a couple of delectable, repeatable meals -- one I'd personally like to have again and again.



The recipe for the roasted shrimp and broccoli is easy. Melissa's recipe calls for a few spices, but you could probably just toss the whole thing with salt or salt and pepper, maybe some butter, and it would be equally as good -- maybe even better. This is a recipe I'm definitely going to experiment with. As for roasting the broccoli in the oven, that's something I should have thought of doing long ago. I'm the one who loves broccoli pizza, after all, and go through the same steps when I use it as a pizza topping. So why haven't I ever just made it on its own?



Trix turned hers into a seafood/vegetable casserole by adding pasta and cheese to some squash and mushrooms.



To finish, we spent hours making raspberry & brie fillo rolls from scratch...okay, no we didn't. We took the easy way out and had some frozen ones from Trader Joe's.



They were yummy, but in my opinion, they really are better served as appetizers (as the box suggests) instead of dessert, even though to me, raspberry and cheese just screams dessert. It's not very sweet though, which is why the appetizer verdict. In retrospect I should have served it with some of the lemon curd I recently made from my Meyer lemons; I still have 10 in the package so I may yet do that. Perhaps the sweetness of the lemon curd will make these rolls work better as dessert.



On the side I had more veggies -- the shredded half of a head of cabbage, to be precise. I love stir-fried cabbage, especially when you cook it until it's completely wilted with some hot sauce and soy sauce or salt. Mmm delicious.



Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli (recipe by Melissa Clark, spice conversion by The Wednesday Chef)

Note: I halved this recipe with no problem, and used bottled lemon juice because I had it.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds (or 1/2 teaspoon ground)
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds (or 1/2 teaspoon ground)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon hot chili powder
• 1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1 1/4 teaspoons lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)
• Lemon wedges, for serving

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, toss broccoli with 2 tablespoons oil, coriander, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and chili powder.
3. In a separate bowl, combine shrimp, remaining 2 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
4. Spread broccoli in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes.
5. Add shrimp to baking sheet and toss with broccoli. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until shrimp are just opaque and broccoli is tender and golden around edges, about 10 minutes more.
6. Serve with lemon wedges, or squeeze lemon juice all over shrimp and broccoli just before serving.

Saturday Dinner: Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Saturday night dinners are officially being changed to Friday night dinners. It's so we can be just like Lorelai and Rory on Gilmore Girls. Ha! No really, as much as we love them, and as much as we are tickled to be able to say that we have Friday night dinners just like on GG, it's a scheduling change to better suit our (or more specifically, my) needs. We made this decision too late to do anything about this week, so tonight we made yet another (relatively!) healthy recipe. Perhaps not the most visually appealing thing we've ever made, but once you taste it and know how little work went into making it, I guarantee you'll be a fan.



The original recipe (I don't have a link for it) was called simply "chicken and broccoli pasta" and involved a slow cooker. It sounded good, even though I generally don't like ground poultry (it's just so watery). After reading the recipe I could not really picture what it was supposed to turn out like -- what was it? After having made it, it seems very like what one of my friends calls "goulash," so I've elected to call it that as well. I also made a few adjustments to the recipe, and it came out really great, so I'm going to stick with the tried and true.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that it utilizes the slow cooker, which is one of the greatest inventions ever. Throw a bunch of stuff in, then come back hours later to find perfectly cooked and yummy food? What's not to like? This recipe requires a little bit of pre-slow cooker work, but not much. And best of all, I think the leftovers will be just as good -- if not better -- than the first serving.



Turkey and Broccoli Goulash

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lb ground turkey (or chicken breast)
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large shallot, minced (optional)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 12 oz frozen broccoli flowerets
• 14 1/2 oz canned Italian-style tomatoes, undrained
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 7 oz rotini pasta, cooked and drained
• 3 1/2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Method

1. In a large skillet, cook turkey, garlic, shallot if you're using, and onion until turkey is no longer pink.
2. Mix in basil and oregano.
3. Transfer mixture to slow cooker. Add broccoli, tomatoes, and chicken broth. Mix well.
4. Cover and cook on low for four hours.
5. Stir in tomato paste, pasta, and cheese.
6. Cover and cook on high for an additional 30 minutes.

Note: You can use lowfat/low sodium versions for each ingredient if you wish; I don't think it would make a big difference, flavor wise. As for the tomatoes I used stewed whole tomatoes, but I think diced might be even better. About 4 1/2 oz of dry rotini pasta was used to make the 7 oz of cooked. I don't think the shallot would make a big difference, but I threw it in because I had it. Also, Jade used ground chicken instead of turkey, so the choice is really up to you. Despite the fact that I don't usually like ground poultry, it worked really well in this dish.

Oh also -- today is apparently National Bundt Pan Day, so I made a quick white cake using an easy peasy Betty Crocker mix. Hey, it's been a very cold autumn and my open kitchen with its hardwood floors isn't my favorite place to be!

Wedding Eats!

Not mine, my cousin's. I couldn't make the wedding, so my uncle took pictures of the food for me. Unfortunately his camera's not that great so the pictures are a bit grainy, and he was so involved with eating all the appetizers (apparently there were dozens of different kinds) that he forgot to photograph any -- yes, we're obviously from the same family -- but the entrees look absolutely scrumptious. I'm sorry to have missed all that good eating!


I don't care how common it is, salmon is one of my favorite fish. I just love its texture. Cooked, at least. I don't care for it as much raw. However, salmon is best when it's just cooked through, so that it's still tender and succulent. Overcooked salmon, while still edible, isn't nearly as good. This one looks like it was done just right.


Here is either the chicken or the veal. I'm missing two entrees, the vegetarian option, and either the chicken or veal, depending on what this is. But how can you go wrong with all that delicious-looking gravy/sauce? And what I assume is a giant fried thing of potato, possibly onion? Potato seems more likely.


Ohmygod these huge prawns look absolutely mouthwatering. Even though I LOVE prawns, I never get it when it's offered as an entree choice if there's something more filling available. Because even though these are huge and undoubtedly yummy, I probably could eat 3 times this many. Easily.


Someone else's plate of prawns. But I'm sharing it because -- seriously, is that not the most giant piece of broccoli you've ever seen? It totally dwarfs the prawns. Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables so I would have been all about that, though. If I'd gotten that wimpy broccoli in the last photo and someone else had this, I'd have felt totally gypped.


Last but not least of the entrees, a 16oz New York steak. My mouth is salivating as I type this. I am such a steak person. And New York is my favorite cut, due to being extremely lean, tender, and flavorful. I don't know how I would have been able to choose between all these entrees. I would have had to ask for one of each.


To finish, a beautiful dessert. Looks like a scoop of vanilla or maybe hazelnut or some kind of nut-flavored ice cream (I could be totally wrong), sitting in a dish of a crispy pastry. Mmm.