Spicy Peanut Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is a fairly easy vegetable puree, jazzed up with some curry paste, jalapeño and peanut butter. It doesn’t take too much prep time and is super satisfying and hearty. The recipe makes quite a bit but the leftovers are just as satisfying and last a bit over a week in the fridge.

The curry paste that I use is a local brand called Thai and True and has the consistency of a homemade curry paste so it is less condensed than many other brands. If you are using a more condensed brand then I would advise cutting back to 3/4 or half the amount I call for.

Bake the butternut squash for about 20 minutes at 450° to soften the skin a bit which makes it easier to peel.

Spicy Peanut Butternut Squash Soup
1 small butternut squash peeled and cubed
2 large carrots peeled and diced
1 large head broccoli chopped into small pieces
1 large yellow onion diced
1 large jalapeño diced
5 cloves garlic diced
4 small tomatoes diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red curry paste
6 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water

Prep all vegetables and set aside.
Pour oil into a large pot over medium heat. Add curry paste and peanut butter and combine. Add garlic, jalapeño and onion to the mixture and saute for a couple of minutes, adding small bits of broth to prevent burning and sticking.
Add tomatoes and saute an additional minute.

Add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Add remaining vegetables and simmer until all are quite tender.
Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender or food processor. Return to heat, if soup is too thick for you add some water to thin it out a bit. Add soy sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Update! Thanksgiving etc.

Alright So…. a bit of a hiatus there. The last few weeks of school are a bitch, and eliminate all time for fun things like baking and blogging, not that I haven’t been baking, just no time for the blogging part.
I thought it would be good to provide a little update as to what I’ve been doin and cookin and eatin these last few weeks and I’ll have some new recipes up later this week.

First things first, Thanksgiving was incredible. I cooked all day while Rhino watched from his bed that I had lovingly placed by the kitchen heater, wearing his bright green sweater that I made from the sleeve of a giant wool sweater.                                                                        I got a beautiful 9 pound Heritage Turkey, which I first brined overnight.
For a brine I do about a cup of salt (non-idiozed) per 2 gallons of water, you need enough water to cover the bird completely (I used a 32 ounce bottle to measure how much water actually went into the mix then added the appropriate amount of salt). I dissolve my salt in some boiling water before adding it to the brine. Next I added a cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped fresh sage, 1 cup of white wine, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and probably some other stuff I can’t remember… The important part is salt, it makes your bird juicier!

After its aromatic overnight bath I rubbed that bird down with some dijon mustard then covered it in honey, black pepper, fresh sage, and of course, tons of butter. I surrounded it with a big ole pile of potatoes, onions, garlic, and some chopped apples and shoved it placed it lovingly in the oven. 4 1/2 hours or so later it came out lookin tasty! And oh it was indeed. Two days later I made a broth with the carcass and added veggies to make a brothy spicy soup that was delish if I may so so myself. 
After the bird was in the oven I assembled a gratin of sweet potatoes, spinach, purple potatoes, and caramelized onions. I will post this recipe in the next few weeks so you can try it out for your holiday celebrations if you like! Basically, I caramelize the onions and set them aside, next I saute the spinach until wilted and season with salt and pepper and set aside in a strainer to drain out the liquid. Next step is grating about 5 oz. of Gruyere cheese and making a Bechamel sauce.
Next I slice the potatoes quite thin, then begin to assemble the gratin, layering everything in a few layers then topping with the remaining cheese and sauce.

Also on the menu was missy’s pea soup and pumpkin pie, Bailey’s green beans and stuffing, Patty’s roasted garlic mashed taters, Johns cranberries, and Amandas cheese and scallion biscuits. We spent the day together cooking, ate an awesome amount then finished by drinking hot toddies and watching Jaws. It was a fantabulous Teesgivins!

I guess thanksgiving was the biggest news in the last few weeks… Aside from doing tons of reading and writing for school, I made cookies, and soup and other lovely things that I will be sharing with you in the coming days. I’ve also got a mean craving for shortbread cookies so get ready!

Mountain Rose Apple Tart

Last weekend Patrick and I took a trip to Hood River and visited one of my favorite places, Mount Hood Organic Farms. We come here every fall for the awesome selection of beautiful organic apples and pears, this year they even had quince but I forgot to get some. I guess I’ll have to go back.
The Farm is located in the upper Hood River Valley and is incredibly beautiful. If I could stay there forever, I would.

John, the farms proprietor is incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and appreciative of local support of his farm.
We came away from this visit with some Starkrimson pears, and a whole bunch of apples, Jonagolds (for apple butter), Fuijis, Rubinettes, and 10 lbs or so of our favorite, the Mountain Rose.
The Mountain Rose is a small apple with rose colored flesh inside and a tangy but sweet flavor.
Not surprisingly my first apple project after this trip centers around the Mountain Rose. I wanted to make something that would show off its color and be sweet and fatty to satisfy our winter cravings.
This tart recipe is normally made with fresh fruit so I had to get creative for using the apples. I decided that baking them first was the best idea, but I had to be careful not to bake them too much, so that they didn’t just fall apart as soon as I touched them, but not so little that they were too hard to cut through. I ended up baking them not quite long enough so I’ve added an optional extra 5 minutes to the recipe.
The Crust and Pastry cream recipes are adapted from one of my favorite cook books the Tassajara Bread Book, an essential part of my baking repertoire.

Mountain Rose Apple Tart
Crust:
1 1/2 cups white spelt flour
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cold water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
6 medium mountain rose apples (or whatever variety is available)

Pastry Cream:
2 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1 + 2 tbsp half and half
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For crust:
Mix dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
Cut in butter using a pastry knife until pea sized.
add egg yolks, vanilla, water, and vinegar mix a bit with a fork then finish by working the dough with your hands until it all comes together in a ball.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
In the Meantime prepare the apples by quartering, and seeding them. Slice into thin wedges and layer in a buttered baking dish. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until tender but not so tender that they fall apart when picked up.

while apples bake transfer dough to a floured surface. Flatten with the heal of your hand until about 3/4 inch thick, then roll out flat with rolling pin to the size of an 8 inch tart pan. Transfer dough to pan and trim off overlap. Puncture all over with fork. Cover with tin foil and line the foil with dried beans or peas to weigh it down.
After removing apples from the oven, bake dough for about 10 minutes then remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes until golden. The dough may puff up in the middle, so check on it now and then and stab with the fork to stop puffing.

Prepare the pastry cream.
Dissolve the cornstarch in the 2 tbsp of half and half.
In a small mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks, add half and half, then sugar, then vanilla, whisking to incorporate. Heat this mixture in double boiler while whisking, when it begins to steam add the cornstarch mixture. Whisk continuously until mixture thickens significantly to a custard like consistency. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using.

After pastry cream has chilled spread over crust and layer apples in a fan pattern on top. Ready to serve!

Beef and Bean Chili with Apple and Roasted Jalapeño

So I’ve been itchin to make chili for a few weeks now and I have finally gotten around to it with awesome results. This was a hot, hearty, and satisfying meal, perfect for the cold nights ahead. And when I say hot, I mean it, this chili is quite spicy which is just the way I like it, but if you’re sensitive to spice you may want cut out the cayenne pepper or use some milder Jalapeños.

I decided to use some apple in this Chili to provide a sweet flavor without the addition of sugar which many Chili recipes call for, I used an ambrosia apple but any sweet variety will do just fine. I also Roasted the Jalapeños which brings out their sweetness AND makes them spicier. I used canned tomatoes because I had some in the pantry, but if you have some fresh ones by all means use them instead.

Although I used beef for this Chili I think it could easily be adapted to be vegetarian. Instead of beef try using an additional apple and a couple of diced yams.

Beef and Bean Chilli with Apple and Roasted Jalapeño

2 onions diced
5 cloves garlic minced
1 green and 1 red bell pepper diced
1 sweet variety apple diced
2 carrots shredded
1 lb. organic grass fed ground beef
2 cans kidney beans (15 oz each)
2 Jalapeños
8 peeled chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp apple cider vineger
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup water
1/4 cup juice from tomatoes
3 tbsp. flour

Set oven to broil.
Spread shredded carrots in a small baking pan or sheet. Place Jalapeños in baking pan or on a sheet of tin foil. Place both on top rack of oven. Broil carrots until slightly shriveled with just a hint of blackening, stirring occasionally. Broil Jalapeños until the skins begin to blister and blacken, turning occasionally to cook evenly. Remove Jalapeños from the oven and immediately place them in a paper bag and seal it. This will steam the jalapeños to cook them additionally. You can leave them in the bag until you are ready to use them.

Dice onion, garlic, bell peppers, and apple. Saute in the olive oil until softened and reduced in size (about 10 min.)

Push the vegetables to the side of the pot and add beef next to them. Brown and break up beef and add cayenne pepper and salt.

Next add the tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, juice from tomatoes and water and bring to a simmer. Add carrots.

Remove Jalapeños from paper bag and chop them. Add them to the chili.

Add Flour. Thoroughly mix all ingredients then cover and let simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

Garnish with jack or cheddar cheese if desired.

I have to apologize again for My photos! I am still figuring out how to deal with lighting in the kitchen once the sun goes down.

Pear Spelt Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Alright…. So I guess I’ll just start writing.
Its been a long time since I wrote anything that wasn’t for a grade, or on some specific researched subject. So here goes nothing.

I’ve never really had a blog before, besides my travel blog from my trip to Spain which was mostly just photos and information I paraphrased from school lectures and wikipedia. I didn’t really keep up with that so well, but maybe because I was in Europe so sitting in front of a computer for several hours didn’t seem so appealing when I could be wandering around in the Barrio Gótico. Anyway… this is going to take some getting used to. Pardon me if my writing is a bit shabby, hopefully  it will get better with time, but really I know nothing about grammar or proper punctuation so don’t get your hopes up. My photos as well are going to need some work. Photographing food is not as easy as it seems. I did however just get a shmancy new lens just for this purpose. Thanks Dad!

So, the idea is to write about what I love, food, and share my recipes and love for all things tasty with my friends and whoever else is paying attention. I can thank my good friend and room mate Missy Ward for the good idea, she’s always full of those. Thanks Miss, I love you.

I can’t really think of a better time to start a cooking blog than fall, which is without a doubt, my favorite season for cooking. I’ve always thought it really magical that all the heartiest fruits and vegetables appear just when we need them, before the long, cold, wet, long, dark, cold, LONG winter. Apples, and Yams in particular are some of my favorite foods.
Today, I believe, is the beginning of the aforementioned long, hard, cold, winter. Yesterday, I keep hearing, was the last of the sunny days for some time.
But Winter is not all that bad, I hate to sound so dramatic with my description of it, its actually also a great time to cook… and cuddle.
Now that the sun has gone away, its time to crank up the heat, turn on the oven, and bake comfort foods until it comes back.

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Lekadia came to visit and left me with as many Bartlett pears as I could carry in my arms and jacket pockets. It took me a little while to figure out what I would do with these pears but my ideas finally culminated in the cake that I am going to share with you today. I have since acquired even more pears and 13 pounds of apples, but that is a story for another day.

This cake is incredibly moist and rich due to the addition of a substantial amount of unsweetened pear puree to a fairly basic yellow cake. You can cook the pears before pureeing anyway you prefer but I recommend baking them. Baking the pears gives them a rich caramelized flavor that adds that much more yum to the cake. This method also fills your house with a supremely comforting sweet aroma that actually smells a lot like cake even though it is just pears baking.

I used an Immersion blender for making the puree, a kitchen tool I highly recommend. I use mine for soups, hummus, and all kinds of other pureeing projects. These pears are so soft though that you could probably just use a potato masher or something like that to puree them, this may result in a chunkier puree but that is perfectly fine, in fact it may be better. I used about 6 or 7 pears and ended up with some extra puree which is great to put in oatmeal or just eat by the spoonful.

 

This cake, and all baked goods that I will probably ever bake, is made using spelt flour. For whatever reason, my tummy cannot deal with wheat, but spelt flour, as far as I have found works just as well as wheat flour in most baked goods. When we get into yeasted breads we run into some problems but not unsolvable ones, again, a story for another day.

 

The recipe actually makes two cakes, one 9 inch and one 8 inch, if you just want one cake, just reduce the recipe a bit.

 

Pear Spelt Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream frosting
For Cake:
4 cups white spelt flour
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 sticks (16 tbsp) butter
3 cups pear puree (about 6 large pears)
2 eggs
4 egg yolks

For Frosting:
1 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 400° F
Peel pears. Slice in half and remove stems and seeds. Lay the pears flat side down on a baking sheet. Bake until pears are very tender, juices will start to bubble and burn (about an hour). Remove the pears from the oven and allow them to cool a bit, then transfer them to a medium mixing bowl and puree. Set them aside.

Adjust oven temperature to 350°
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Combine Butter, Sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl, preferably using an electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed and fluffy. Add eggs and egg yolks and beat well to combine. Beat in pear puree. Gradually beat in flour mixture. The batter should be fairly smooth and a creamy beige color.

 

 

Spread the batter into buttered cake pans. Fill them about 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 40 min for the smaller cake, and 50 for the larger one). Allow to cool completely before frosting.

 

While the cakes bake, prepare the frosting.

 

 

Put sour cream into a medium bowl and stir until smooth. Add Almond extract and stir to combine.
Melt the chocolate chips in the butter using a double boiler (if you don’t have one just use two pots, one larger with a few inches of water and one smaller that fits into it just immersed in the water). Remove from heat.
Add chocolate to sour cream mixture and stir to combine.
Gradually add confectioners sugar until frosting is desired consistency, you may need a bit more or less than I have recommended.
Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to frost the cakes.

 

p.s. Rhino was only allowed to lick the mixing beaters after I was done using them. Rest assured those who ate it, there was no dog spit in the cake.