October 2021 – Rainy Saturday Creative

This weekend I decided to cook four things. A little ambitious for a weekend I just wanted to relax. I cooked Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale by Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life, Chili by me, Panry Porridge by Tara Jensen, and Buckwheat Pancakes courtesy nostalgic memory of mom’s cooking.

Now any reasonable human being, not me of course, would look at all the recipes, take note of what ingredients they have on hand and then make a grocery list of what they need. How dare I be reasonable! So a number of ingredients were omitted because I didn’t have them on hand. It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend besides my cooking ambitions and I wasn’t about to run to the store to get ingredients. I had the major ingredients, so I went with it.

CREAMY WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH KALE

By Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life

I am not vegan, but she is one of those people that makes vegan food accessible. It’s like you are eating like a real human being, not a rabbit. Food is food and her food is delicious, regardless of it being vegan. When I saw her Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale I was in love, and I hate Kale. I used baby kale here. Just make sure to still de-stem it and cut it up, unlike myself. Haha! Ingredients missed because I wasn’t prepared are carrots and celery. While not two of my favorite foods, I still like them in soup and I will make sure to include it in the future as I plan on making this a few more million times.

Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale

chili

Chili doesn’t need a recipe really. I have a basic I start with, but it has been a long time since I have made it, so I couldn’t remember if I use two 28oz cans of diced/crushed tomatoes or one. This time I used one and it worked out, but I think normally I do two. There is really no right or wrong in my opinion. Here are my basics:

One or two 28oz cans of crushed or diced tomatoes
Two small cans or one large can tomato sauce
Two small cans or one large can tomato paste (I like my chili thick, you can lessen this)
Onions
As many cloves of garlic as your heat desires
Other veggies you may have on hand like carrots, celery, or hot or sweet peppers
Oil for cooking the veggies
1 to 2 pounds meat of your choice or if omit if you don’t want meat
2 cans red kidney beans (15oz?)
Chili powder (no measurement, but maybe 4-6 tablespoons)
Cumin (maybe two tablespoons)
Onion powder (maybe one tablespoon)
Garlic salt (maybe one tablespoon)
Soy sauce (maybe one tablespoon)

You can always do more or less of anything. Add more spices or other liquids like Worcestershire sauce and so forth. I start off with sauteing onions and any other veggies for a few minutes. Then I add garlic and saute for another couple of minutes. At this point I add the meat and cook it until brown. Then I add in all the other ingredients, then stir all the ingredients together. Make sure you are cooking on medium heat. At this point I set my timer for 5 minutes so every 5 minutes I keep stirring it until it looks like I want. To help with the spatter I put a spatter cover on top of my pot. It isn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t do without it.

pantry porridge

By Tara Jensen from her book A Baker’s Year

I feel like I have been wanting to make this for years, but the book was copyrighted 2018. I must have gotten the book right when it came out. It is made with milk, spices, spelt, barley and fruit. OMG, delicious. i hate overnight oats, but this is way different. Chewy, nutty, warm, and comforting. This is what you want to wake up to.

buckwheat pancakes

A childhood memory

I remember growing up every so often eating buckwheat pancakes. I couldn’t remember if it was my mom or my grandma, but my nieces said it was my mom. My mom said she just winged it. The following recipe is one I received from my mom. I used buckwheat flour instead of whole wheat flour. It tastes great with whole wheat flour too. For my weekend of omitting ingredients I couldn’t find my baking powder, but I knew that they would be fine without it. Baking powder just helps it to be fluffier. To be honest, I like my pancakes thinner. Also I didn’t have any maple syrup or the cheap alternative. I did have Caro Syrup. It poured out. I ate those pancakes on the plate, but not all of the syrup. After work tomorrow I will buy some regular syrup. The pancakes tasted like warm childhood memories!

Until a couple of years or so ago I had never had butternut squash soup. Not sure why. I don’t remember anyone making it growing up. In adulthood I had continued my picky eating from childhood and had not wanted to try it. I thought it would be gross. Only soup I liked was Campbell’s cream of tomato, still a favorite, and the occasional potato or chicken noodle soup.

I am still a picky eater, except for various Asian food I adore, but suddenly butternut squash soup looked appealing. I don’t recall seeing it at restaurants or in cans at stores. A couple of years or so ago I decided to try and make it. I followed a recipe exactly. It didn’t look like all the photos and it was bland. I consider myself a decent cook, and I rarely follow recipes, I always add and takeaway making a recipe my own, it usually works out. Making a recipe as is, is clearly a mistake. More just my inexperience making butternut squash soup. Looking back, it was too thin, too much whatever stock.

Recently I decided to try again! I looked at recipes and YouTube videos galore! It became clear I would not follow any recipe! The ideas I came away with are: roast vegetables in the oven, blend, then add liquids until desired thickness.

The only real recipe part, at least what I did, is roast: 3-3.5 pounds of butternut squash skin and seeds removed and cubed, 1 small onion, ends and skin removed and then cubed, and 3 mini bell peppers cut in half with ends and seeds removed. I put them on a foil lined cookie sheet in a 400° oven. After a half hour I took out the onions and peppers and put the butternut squash back in for another half hour.

At this point I tried to use a traditional blender. Not everything would fit but I tried with part of it and added a small carton of whipping cream and a little of the chicken stock. it was quickly clear this wasn’t going to work. So I put it in a pot and went to work with my immersion blender. I then slowly added chicken stock until I was happy with the thickness. Turned out 32 oz was the sweet spot. I had more just in case. Then I added spices, measuring nothing, but it turned out fantastic! Canned ginger, canned garlic, ground nutmeg, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, coriander, ground sage, Trader Joe mushroom umami, and cardamom.

I would have normally used fresh ginger and garlic, but can’t remember everything. In the future I may also add chive oil as garnish. Still, I am very happy with it.