Vichyssoise (Leek & Starchy Vegetable/Root Soup)

Sometimes you just nee a nice, simple bowl of soup for your dining pleasure.

And sometimes you also bought too many leeks at the store because they were on sale!

Vichyssoise is very forgiving.  Don't have a lot of potatoes?  Use cauliflower, potatoes, celeriac--whatever you have on hand.  You can even toss in sweet potato chunks and be successful!  Don't have leeks?  Onions work as well!

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil
3 leeks, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced.
6 cups of peeled and chopped starchy vegetables (I used potatoes, cauliflower, and celeriac)
6-8 cups chicken broth (enough to cover the veggies, and my chicken broth was very dense, so I did half broth, half water)
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Clean and slice your leeks.

Chop up yo' veggies/tubers.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add in leeks and stir.  Allow to cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes.

Add in broth and bring to a simmer.

Add veggies/tubers, bring to a simmer again, and cook for 20-30 minutes, until veggies are fork-tender.

Using an immersion blender or a processor/blender, puree the soup.  Season with salt and pepper.  Some people put cream in their vichyssoise.  I don't think it needs it.

Serve hot!

Pomegranate-Glazed Salmon

Americans -- I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was good!  I'm sure you all gorged yourselves in glorious gluttony :).

This is a nice, light recipe for salmon that can help you lighten up your diet a bit for a few days!

I think you could even use some leftover cranberry sauce in place of the pomegranate molasses, hehe.

Ingredients:

4 6-ounce filets of salmon, skin-on (or adjust to however many people you are serving)

Rub:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. packed light brown sugar
2 t. corn or potato starch
1 t. lemon-garlic seasoning
1 t. coarse salt
1/2 t. black pepper

1/4 cup pomegranate molasses (recipe here)

Instructions:

Prepare the salmon rub in a small bowl.  Sprinkle over your salmon and rub into the flesh.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.

Heat a non-stick grill pan (or sautee-pan, make sure it's oven-safe) over medium-high heat.  Spray liberally with olive oil.  Sear salmon, skin-side-up first, for 2 minutes, until the rub has created a crisp, browned layer.  Carefully flip over and sear on the skin-side for 1 minute more.  Brush with pomegranate molasses and move into the preheated oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the salmon is done through.  Brush with pomegranate molasses a few times while baking.

Served with lemony leeks and green beens!

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

I'm back!

Spent a week with Charles in Boston.  Had a great time, I really love that area.  Told myself I would update, but I didn't.  Oops.

Today's recipe is one I've had saved for over a year, and last night, I finally decided to make it.  I frequent a site called Reddit (Frequent?  Ha, it's really an addiction to a time sink!), and I give all the credit to user sardonicsalmon for posting his in-law's grandmother's recipe for chicken jambalaya.

Be warned, you can feed a small village with this recipe.  But, it freezes well, so do what you will!  It also takes up a large chunk of time to prepare, so it's a great all-day weekend food-project.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, giblets removed (mine was about 3 lbs.)
2 quarts, or more, of water
5-6 hot Italian/cajun/andouille sausage (whatever you can find)
6 (yes, 6) medium onions, diced
3 green bell peppers, diced
3 red bell peppers, diced
6 stalks of celery, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 serrano chiles (or jalapenos, or chipotles), minced
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
1 T. thyme leaves
2 t. marjoram
Hot sauce to taste
1 T. salt
1 t. black pepper
2 cups of rice (not instant; I used a wild rice blend per the recommendation of a commenter)

Instructions:

You can do this in one pot or two.  Use a heavy-bottomed stock pot or a dutch oven, but whatever you use, make sure it has a heavy lid.

Take your chicken and place it in a large pot, pour the water over it (enough water to cover it) and bring to a boil over high heat.  Turn down your heat and simmer until the chicken meat is falling off the bones (about 30-45 minutes).  Remove, allow to cool a bit, and pull all the meat off, chopping into bite-sized pieces.  Place the chicken bones, skin, etc. back into the pot and continue boiling to create your chicken stock.  After about an hour, remove the chicken parts, strain the mixture, and cook down until it is about 1/3 of the original amount of stock.  Make sure you have enough to cook the rice per package instructions (about 4-5 cups).

You can empty out the pot and reserve the stock in a bowl, or use another pot now.

Place sausages, whole, in the pot and brown over medium-high heat.  Make sure it's fatty sausage so that you render out some grease.  When just cooked through, remove the sausage and reserve, slicing it into bite-sized pieces.

Add in all the chopped veggies (onions, peppers, garlic, chiles, celery) and turn the heat down to medium-low.  Cook for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veggies are cooked down a bit and translucent (no browning, though).   It looks like a lot, but as the original poster said, it will reduce by half, at least.

Add in the herbs, salt, pepper, and hot sauce.  Stir and cook about 5 more minutes, taste, and correct seasoning.

Add in the meats and rice.  Stir in your stock.  My veggies had let out a lot of water, and I ended up only using a few cups of my chicken stock to cook the rice properly.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to LOW and place the lid on the pot.  Cook for 50 minutes, no stirring, no bothering.  It won't burn.

When done, remove from heat, and allow to sit for about 10 minutes with the lid on.  Serve!

This is fantastic, and I hear it's even better leftover.  Enjoy, everyone!

Old-Fashioned Sorghum Molasses Drop Cookies

I like these gluten-free cookies because they don't require three or four different kinds of gluten-free flour in the recipe, just one!  And they are delightfully chewy, like gingersnaps, only a bit less ginger.

I pulled this out of 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster--if you're gluten-intolerant/celiac/allergic, I highly recommend it!  Everything I've made out of it is fantastic.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened/room temperature
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1/4 t. vanilla extract
2 cups sorghum flour
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. xanthan gum
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
2 T. granulated sugar (for rolling)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper/another non-stick element.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth.  Add in the egg and beat until combined.  Do the same with the molasses and the vanilla.

In another small bowl, combine the sorghum flour, cinnamon, ginger, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt.

Add it in batches to the wet mixture, using an electric mixer.

When well-mixed, either immediately make your cookies, or refrigerate the dough until you are ready.

Take a small spoon, scoop out the dough, and roll 1-inch balls of dough between your hands, rolling them in the sugar once formed.

Place them on your baking sheet and flatten them slightly.  You should end up with 24-30 cookies.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, until they are cracked and golden-brown all over.

Enjoy!

Potato and Celeriac Mash

What is celeriac, you ask?

What is this bundle of ugly that I see at my supermarket every week next to the bell peppers and eggplants?  It's celery root!  It has a nice, starchy texture like potatoes, with a hint of celery flavor (it's milder when cooked), but it's got half the carbs and calories and twice the fiber!

This was my first foray into cooking it, so I decided I'd combine it with potatoes to make sure I could take the flavor :D.

Ingredients:

1 pound celeriac (celery root), washed, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 pound potatoes (I used Yukons), washed, peeled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup milk
3 T. butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, big enough to boil the potatoes and celeriac.  Cook until a fork easily pierces the cubes, about 10 minutes.  Drain into a colander.

Place the potatoes and celeriac back into the pot and mash with a potato-masher or a fork.

 Once it's almost entirely mashed up, take an electric mixer and whip the mixture.  Add in the milk and butter and continue whipping until it reaches the desired texture.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Citrus-Roasted Turkey

I went all Thanksgiving last night, since we had a turkey in the freezer and I spent a few days letting it thaw.  I kind of threw together this recipe using ingredients I had around, and I thought it came out great!  It would also translate well to roasted chicken.

Also, sorry, I have no pictures.  Next time!

Ingredients:

10-pound turkey, thawed or fresh, patted dry
1 lemon, zested, one half juiced, the other half reserved
1 orange, zested, one half juiced, the other half reserved
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
10 whole cloves
2 T. butter, melted
1 t. salt
1 t. thyme
1 T. rosemary
1 T. maple syrup
1/2 cup apple cider

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 325 F.  Place turkey in a roasting pan.

In a small bowl, mix together orange and lemon zests, butter, salt, thyme, rosemary, and maple syrup.  Rub all over the turkey, making sure to spread it evenly.

Place remaining halves of orange and lemon into the cavity of the turkey, along with the garlic cloves.  Truss (if you do that thing, I never do).

Place cloves underneath the skin of the turkey breasts.

Pour juices and apple cider around the turkey in the pan.  This will be your basting liquid as it cooks.

Cook for 3 hours (or more or less, depending on the size of your turkey), basting every 30 minutes.  If it begins to brown too much, tent it with aluminum foil and continue roasting.  Remove from the oven 30 minutes before carving, and allow to rest, tented.

Gravy:

1/4 cup GF flour/starch
Drippings from the pan (mine totaled about 1/2 cup in the end)
1/2 cup-1 cup chicken broth (depending on how thick you want your gravy)
Salt & pepper to taste
Extra rosemary & thyme, if desired

Take 1/4 cup of the drippings and heat them in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Once hot, add the flour and create your roux.  Once the roux foams, whisk in the rest of the drippings and the broth.  Whisk until the mixture thickens, taste, and correct seasoning.

Carve the turkey and serve together!