Creamy Minnesota Wild Rice Soup slow-cooked in the Crock-Pot

Posted on by
16

For the past month or two, I have been preparing a meal every Sunday that cooks all day in the Crock-Pot on Monday and welcomes us home for an easy, satisfying supper.  Earlier this week I made a delicious Wild Rice soup in our Crock-Pot.*  I bought Wild Rice that was raised on the Red Lake Reservation, a community about 40 miles from where my parents live in northern Minnesota.  When I buy Wild Rice, I seek out rice raised on a reservation from that region, White Earth, Red Lake and Leech Lake Bands all harvest and sell wild rice.  It is the very best wild rice, and I like knowing where it comes from, and supporting the local economy in these communities with the purchase. Before establishing a weekly Crock-Pot routine, we often arrived home on a Monday night tired, a little worn down from stress of the new work week and in no mood to cook.  Nights like that, we often end up going out to eat.  Sure, it is nice to be able to give ourselves a night off, but neither of us are thrilled about using part of our “dining” budget on a last-minute meal that we haven’t anticipated as a nice evening out.  As much as I have been resistant to planning meals ahead in the past, I am tentatively starting to use forethought to my advantage.  I am glad I didn’t know I would start doing this 6 years ago though.  I think I would have been scared by the prospect of becoming a crazed Crock-Pot enthusiast, or at least would have hoped that the meal was served with a touch of irony.  It turns out, at this point in my life, the routine is the opposite of scary, and there isn’t a hint of irony involved.  Making a small effort to have a meal ready when I come home is breathing new life into Mondays!  I leave for work in the morning feeling organized and like a real, functioning grown up.  When the evening ahead crosses my mind throughout the day I look forward to being welcomed home by the scent of simmering soup seeping from the cracks of my old house as I approach the door.  As I cross the threshold, I have little to do to enjoy a satisfying supper and a relaxing evening.

To make this week’s soup, I chopped and measured all of the ingredients into the liner of our Crock-Pot on Sunday night, covered it, and placed it in the fridge.

Minnesota Wild Rice Soup Ingredients:

  • 1 Medium Onion, Chopped
  • 2 Stalks of Celery, Diced
  • 1 large Handful of Julienned Carrots, or about 2 Medium Carrots, Chopped
  • 2 Yukon Gold Potatoes, Washed and Chopped
  • 5 to 8 Button or Cremini Mushrooms, Wiped Clean and Sliced
  • 2 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts optional
  • 1 Cup of Minnesota-Grown Wild Rice
  • ½ Cup Brown Rice – not necessary, but it is cheaper, and adds additional texture to the soup.
  • 1 Teaspoon Dried Tarragon Leaves
  • 1 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
  • 2 Bay Leaves – remove before serving.
  • 2 – 32 Ounce Carton of Vegetable, Chicken or Turkey Broth
  • A Splash of Skim Milk, Half and Half or Heavy Cream optional. 
  • Salt and Pepper, to taste.

You might notice that there is no oil or butter in my recipe.  Some soup recipes call for sautéing the onion before putting it in the crock.  I find that step to be unnecessary.  With the long, slow cooking process, everything cooks thoroughly and all of the flavors blend well.  As an added bonus, without sautéing any of the vegetables in butter or oil, calories are spared.  Monday morning, I added the carton of broth, gave it a stir, and set the crock to cook on low heat for 8 hours.  I am not sure if all slow cookers have this feature, but my crock switches to “Warm” when the programmed cooking time is done.  It works wonderfully to keep the soup warm, but not to continue to cook it longer than needed.  This recipe made a nice amount of soup for us for supper and leftovers for lunch.  We don’t need more than two meals of soup, but there would be plenty of room in the crock to double the recipe to feed a larger group, or to freeze extra soup for a later date.  If the entire crock of soup will be devoured the night it is first served, I might add just a touch more Tarragon and Poultry Seasoning, because seasoning was a bit faint on first night.  We thought that the seasoning in the soup came together nicely when we reheated it for our lunches at work.  This is great soup to make in advance and reheat.

If I was making this strictly for meat-eaters,** I would add a few boneless, skinless chicken breasts to the crock when I added the broth.  The chicken breasts can be chopped and mixed back into the soup right before serving

If there are vegetarians in your house who are not strict about meat juices in their food,*** you could even cook the chicken breasts in the soup, take them out and then add chopped chicken to the bowls of only those who want it.  If you want your soup to be strictly vegetarian, chicken can be cooked separately, and added to the bowls of those who want it, or not cooked at all, if no one is eating meat.  There is a continuum upon which every vegetarian places themselves that ranges from unoffended by some exposure of their food to meat at the one end, to completely avoiding meat coming into contact with their food or having meat juices in their food at the other end of the continuum.  You need to do what works for you and yours, and this recipe is easily adapted to accommodate varied diets.  The only remaining step is optional.  About ten minutes before serving you can stir in a splash of warmed milk, half and half or cream.  The soup would be fine without it, but I really like having a little milk or cream in my soup.

Tonight, we didn’t top our soup with anything, but some sliced almonds or sunflower seeds would be nice.  I also like a little shredded cheddar on my wild rice soup upon occasion.  Some people wouldn’t go near soup without a shot of spicy Rooster Sauce, or Sriracha for those who are less familiar with what has become the most popular condiment in the world.  The soup is very hearty and satisfying on its own, so you don’t need much to round out the meal.  A chunk of warm, crusty bread, with or without butter and cheese would be perfect.  Tonight I pulled out a few crackers from the pantry, which I served with some sliced white cheddar and Asiago cheese.

Growing up, my Mom always served egg salad along with soup or chili, so it is what I crave when we’re having soup for dinner, so of course, I made some.  The egg salad was mostly made before I realized that we had no mayonnaise.  I used Dijonnaise instead, and it turned out to be a surprisingly good substitution for regular mayo.  Dijonnaise has the creaminess of mayo, and with the kick of Dijon mustard flavor, I swear that you cannot tell that it is fat-free.

When life is busy and stressful, there are little things you can do for yourself and your family to provide warmth and calm.  Coming home to delicious soup for supper that has simmered slowly in the Crock-Pot all day feeds the body and soul.  We loved this creamy, comforting soup full of vegetables and wild rice.  I will make it again soon.

*I apologize if trademark dilution offends you.  My slow cooker just so happens to be a Crock-Pot.  Words like Crock-Pot, Kleenex and Kraft Dinner are far too deeply embedded in my vocabulary to use their proper generic terminology, especially since I actually use these brands.

**I can’t think of why I would make this soup solely for meat eaters.  It is so good!  I would want a bowl.  Maybe if I made a separate crock of the meat-free version for a party.

***In my reference to vegetarians who are not strict about being meat-free, I might be politely referring to households with picky children.

Hot and Cold Mac and Cheese Salad

Posted on by
1

A cacophony in the kitchen that sung in harmony on the plate.

Sometimes I come up with odd combinations of foods for us to eat for supper.  Tonight was one of those nights.  I came home with the idea of making macaroni and cheese. I didn’t want to eat a huge portion, but I didn’t want to go hungry with a tiny plate of pasta.  We happen to have a fridge full of veggies and I wanted a salad that was satisfying enough to be a meal.  I also wanted roasted veggies.  These ideas danced in my head for awhile, and an idea emerged — I will make a salad, Mac & Cheese and roasted veggies and put them into the salad rather than serving the three separate things side-by-side.  Obviously, pasta tossed into a salad is nothing new, I make this constantly in the summer for our back yard BBQ’s.  I recently read a blog post about a tasty salad combination of Penne, Chickpeas, Sun-dried Tomatoes and baby Arugula on Skinnytaste which looks pretty good.  I know I’ve heard mention of hot and cold salads.  When Bjorn gave me a thumbs up to having a sort-of salad for supper, away I went.

I started by breaking off florets of broccoli and cauliflower to roast for the “hot” part of the salad.  I tried to picture the amount I would want for 4 servings of salad so that I didn’t make too much.  My goal is to prepare enough to feed us twice.  Two plates at supper and then leftovers for lunch.

I dumped the broccoli and cauliflower, along with some sliced button mushrooms on a sheet pan coated with cooking spray, and threw it in the oven, which was heated to 425 degree Fahrenheit.  I didn’t add any oil to the veggies.  A drizzle of olive oil tastes great on roasted veggies, but I was planning to dress the salad before serving, so I didn’t use any.  It really isn’t necessary.
When you roast veggies without oil, they tend to char a little more than when they are tossed lightly in oil.  That char is tasty.
While the veggies roasted, I put a small saucepan of water on the stove to heat, and salted it lightly.  While that heated, I chopped a half of a red pepper into chickpea-sized chunks, and rinsed and drained a can of chickpeas.

I assembled an assortment of greens.  We had a great variety in the fridge.  Our salad tonight had baby spinach, Butter and Romaine Lettuce and Pea Shoots.  When the Broccoli, Cauliflower and Mushrooms had roasted for about 8 minutes I used tongs to toss it around so that all sides would get exposed to heat.  I also added a few handfuls of whole grain pasta shells to the saucepan of salted water to cook until al dente, according to the package directions.

While the pasta cooked and the vegetables roasted, I began assembling the cold portions of the salad:  two on plates for dinner tonight, and two in portable containers for our lunches tomorrow at work.  I whisked a little balsamic vinegar with olive oil, and added a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes and a good shake of Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salut to dress the salad.

When the pasta was done cooking, I stirred in a spoonful of light cream cheese, a small handful of grated sharp cheddar, and a shake of nutmeg.  I didn’t go to the effort of making a cheesy roux for the Mac & Cheese.  I just tossed the cooked pasta with the cheese.  The cheese melted and coated the noodles nicely.  It was easier to make this way, and actually better to have the pasta coated in cheese, rather than a creamy sauce, since I was planning to toss it into the salad.

I divided the roasted vegetables between our plates and two small containers for our lunch.  I dressed the two plates of salad for our supper lightly and tossed them before adding the mac and cheese, since I didn’t want too much dressing on the pasta part of the salad.  If I hadn’t been saving half of the salad for our lunch, I would have tossed the hot and cold vegetables with dressing in a bowl before placing in it on our plates.

I happened to use all of my homemade dressing up on our dinner portion, so I packed a small container of Trader Joe’s Light Champagne Vinaigrette* to take to work.  I added a pinch of red pepper flakes and some grated Asiago so that the salads would still have a good flavor even without the balsamic vinaigrette that we had at supper.

Once our plates were assembled, we charged to the dinner table and dug in.  I put out a nice chunk of Asiago cheese and a grater, salt and pepper for us to adjust the flavor at the table.  A Hot and Cold Mac and Cheese Salad might sound a bit of an off the wall, but it was great.  The balsamic vinegar and spicy red pepper flakes were a punchy contrast to the warm, cheesy pasta.  The variety of colours was visually appealing.  The crunchy lettuce and red pepper contrasted with the soft noodles and chickpeas.  The roasted vegetables added warmth and charred flavor, and were roasted perfectly to retain their bite.  Chopping, assembling, roasting, boiling, dressing and stirring together three different dishes raised a mild cacophony in the kitchen, that sung in harmony on the plate.  I started with three ideas, and ended up with a meal that satisfied a hunger for Mac & Cheese, but kept the portion size reasonable, it was a plate packed with antioxidants and vitamins as well as great flavor and texture contrasts.  We’ll make it again!

*Trader Joe’s Light Champagne Vinaigrette is my current grocery store salad dressing favorite.  It contains champagne vinegar, white wine, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard, and clocks in at 50 calories for two tablespoons.  It is light and zingy, and it is a legit way to have some bubbly at noon.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Mushrooms, Broccoli, Spinach and Peas

Posted on by
1

A bunch of veggies roasted, steamed or sautéed and served with some type of pasta is a meal we eat every week.  Sometimes we eat it on multiple days.  It is easy, and it can be absolutely yummy and healthy, if its made it right.  There are infinite variations, and every time we make this we both think it is pretty great.

We keep vegetables on hand, both fresh and frozen.  We almost universally have mushrooms of some type, fresh spinach and broccoli in the fridge.  We keep them on hand because they are wholesome and extremely versatile, but even more importantly, because I really love these veggies.  I can’t imagine what I’d eat during a week that I do not eat mushrooms and broccoli.  Frozen peas make a frequent appearance on our plates too.  There are a few short months in the year where we might have fresh, home grown and farmer’s market peas, but the rest of the year, frozen peas are quick to make and taste great.  I am partial to fresh spinach.  A huge bag of washed spinach is cheaper than lettuce.  You can add a few handfuls to soup, pasta, quinoa, or even a packaged frozen entrée, if you eat them.  Spinach adds calcium, antioxidants, flavor and if the food is warm, it cooks in a few minutes after you add it.  I am not a big fan of frozen bricks of pre-cooked spinach.  I think they might be the reason spinach got such a bad rap.  It works fine for spinach dip, but it is otherwise, too dark and mushy for me.

The first key to a pasta meal being a healthy, lovely meal is veggies.  Veggies!  Vegetables are the absolute most powerful tool to healthful eating.  They fill you up and they are full of good things like calcium, potassium, antioxidants and fiber with a very low-calorie count.  The key is to try every veggie you can, get them fresh from a good source, or preserved in a wholesome manner, make sure they are prepared in a way that doesn’t ruin them and pile them on 3/4 of your plate.  I love vegetables, which makes this easy.  If you don’t, just try them, one at a time.  Make a lot of the ones you like, and give the rest a chance.  They are an acquired taste, but they are satisfying when they are the center of your meal.  Tonight I sautéed garlic and a diced shallot in a little olive oil, then added mushrooms.  When the mushrooms began to brown, I added a splash of pasta water, and then covered to pan to allow the broccoli and peas to steam.  I didn’t cook the spinach at all.  I placed two large handfuls into the bottom of the bowl I used to serve the veggies.  When I added the veggies, the spinach wilted, but didn’t totally lose its shape or get soggy.  I frequently roast veggies, and recently, I’ve also been steaming them in my Mom’s Bamboo steamer that she has had since the 1970’s.  The entire key to veggies is not to overcook them to use a light touch with oil, salt or other seasonings.  They don’t need it.

The next step to making this meal, of course, is the pasta.  I make homemade pasta, and I have yet to post about it.  It is delicious, but I’ll admit, I like to eat pasta a little more often than I have time to mix it and roll it out.  I consider it to be a process to go through for a special occasion.  Tonight, we had organic, whole grain angel hair pasta, cooked al dente, according to package directions.  If you ate whole wheat pastas a few years ago and found it dry, grainy and generally too serious, you should try them again.  There are whole grain pastas that have a delicious nutty texture, there are even some whole grain pastas that have no noticeable difference from traditional “white” pasta.  Using whole grain adds a little stomach-filling fiber, lowers the glycemic index of your meal and helps nudge a week-night pasta meal in the direction of health.  Also worth noting are fresh herbs.  In the middle of winter, a big bunch of flat leaf parsley costs less than $2 at our grocery store.  In the summer, we grow herbs, and buy them at the Farmer’s Market for pocket change.  The addition of chopped herbs to pasta is unbelievable.  Your eyes will thank you.  Your tastebuds will thank you.  Fresh herbs elevate a dish and only add good.

One out of two of us eats meat.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:  it is a good thing for Bjorn that he is a flexible meat eater.  It makes it easier for me that he doesn’t expect meat to be a central part of every meal.  I enjoy preparing meat for a special occasion and Bjorn makes it whenever he wants it, and he swears he gets enough.  There are many meat eaters who don’t feel like they’ve had a meal if meat isn’t center stage.  I think we’ve all gotten the memo advising us that people aren’t supposed to eat as much meat as we did before we knew where our next meal was coming from, or we needed to fuel ourselves through 12 hours of hard physical labor.  Reframing meat as a dish that you have for a special occasion opens up a world of opportunity for meat to be a meaningful garnish.  Here enters Soppressata.  It is a flavorful hard salami.  Just a few slices, casing removed, cut into little chunks and heated briefly puts a tasty bit of meat on the omnivore’s plate and rounds out their meal.

Finally, there is sauce.  We don’t always have sauce with our pasta and veggies.  I like to use spaghetti sauce, or a can of San Marzano tomatoes, torn into chunks when we feel like tomatoes.  If we aren’t feeling tomato-y, I would use a touch of olive oil or butter and a sprinkling of grated cheese or nothing.  Tonight I made a simple creamy sauce.  This isn’t an “every night” sort of thing though.  We had a little heavy cream left over from the Soufflés Bjorn made for Valentine’s day and I couldn’t let it go to waste.  I melted the tiniest bit of butter and added a sprinkling of flour.  Once it cooked a bit, I added the cream and let it thicken before adding a bit of pepper and grated Asiago.  Just like the meat, if you are going to use butter, oil or creamy sauce, if you use a light touch, you can enjoy the richness without consuming excessive calories.

I want to live in a world where I can have my pasta and eat it too.  I am finding that if I keep an eye on portions and make thoughtful choices about ingredients and preparation, I can enjoy my plate of pasta without feeling gluttonous or guilty.

Lentil and Chickpea Soup in the Crock Pot

Posted on by
Reply
It took me a while to recognize the pattern, but so many Mondays I come home and don’t feel motivated to cook.  I realized that I should figure out how to do something easy that is prepared in advance.  I have finally started to use and appreciate our pretty red crock pot.  On a Monday when I’m adjusting to the transition between weekend life and work life, it helps me to know that when I come home, while I fumble for my keys outside of the kitchen door, I will smell something warming and well-seasoned wafting out of the cracks in my house that has been cooking all day in the crock pot.  A meal slowly simmering at home gives me an all-day attitude adjustment, a sense of impending peace, calm and well-being ahead of me.  It makes the day and the evening better.  Much, much better.  Tonight, we came home to a simmering crock of Red Lentil and Chickpea Soup.
Ingredients:
  • 3 cloves of garlic – crushed in the garlic press, or smashed and finely minced;
  • 2-3 inches of fresh ginger – peeled and grated;
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into “chickpea size” chunks;
  • 2 stalks of celery, rinsed, peeled and chopped into “chickpea size” chunks;
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced;
  • 1 cup of red lentils – picked over;
  • 1 14 ounce tin can of Eden Organic garbanzo beans- rinsed and drained;
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric;
  • 1 teaspoon Garam Masala;
  • 1 pinch saffron threads – chopped,  or crushed and rolled between index finger and thumb;
  • 1 teaspoon cumin;
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper;
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom;
  • 4-5 cups Vegetable Broth;
  • Optional additions:  One 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes or 2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste– we are both needing a rest from acidic canned tomatoes in every soup and sauce we make, so I left them out, no matter how ill-advised that was;  1 diced winter squash or a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes chopped into “chickpea sized” chunks.
  • Toppings, optional, but highly recommended– a squeeze of lime juice 5 minutes before serving and one handful of chopped flat leaf parsley or cilantro.  More optional–a dollop of Greek Yogurt, Sour Cream or a tiny dash of saffron-infused heavy cream.  I have never tried saffron-infused cream, but it sounds good, doesn’t it?
  • For serving – cooked rice, or a slice of grainy bread with butter, also optional.

Method:  chop the vegetables and measure the spices on Sunday, or whatever day is right before your most tiring and hectic day of the week, and put everything into the liner of the crock pot, cover it, and placed it in the fridge.

Next morning, add the vegetable broth, give it a gentle stir and place the liner in the crock with the heat on low.  This should cook 8-10 hours on low.  If you want to give the broth a little body, you can blend a few cups of the finished soup with an immersion blender.  Or you can use my trick, and mash some of the soup solids with a potato masher.*  The soup goes well with a nice chunk of bread and butter or a little scoop of rice.  It reheats beautifully.  It is Monday.  This is all I have to offer.

*Still haven’t gotten an immersion blender… it is at the top of my kitchen wish list.  Accepting trade offers.

First trip to Pizzeria Lola

Posted on by
2

If you happen to live in Minnesota, and pay attention at all to local food media, you’ve probably heard mention of Pizzeria Lola.  Every food blogger worth their salt has already been there, snapped photos and gushed about the Sunnyside [here, here and here].  I know, I know–this place has been around for a couple of years.  It’s been said!  It’s been done!  But I consider myself to be a passionate participant in the local food scene so I have to grab a few eager eaters from my circle and harness the energy to drive 20 minutes to check it out, snap a few pictures with my mobile phone, [no flash of course!  I don’t want to ruin the night for others] so that I can add my two cents to the dialogue about this hip, wood fired neighborhood pizza joint.  Without further adieu, our first trip to Pizzeria Lola.

As I alluded above, every blog entry that I have found dives right into gushing about that Sunnyside pizza.  From me, this will come later.  For me, the first trip to Lola started with swag.  I love fun restaurant swag.  I don’t expect it, but when a restaurant sets out a fridge magnet, an interesting business card, a poster or a book of matches for their patrons, I’ll take it and save it to make a collage.  We walked in the door and I helped myself to a business card and a box of wooden matches, which have been useful for lighting candles and a fire in the fireplace, thank you very much.  All of the tables were full, and we were told there would be a wait.  My brother-in-law bought a round of beers and I purchased a couple of trips to the photo booth.  I love photo booth snaps.  I consider a photo booth to be a medium for producing spontaneous and lighthearted art.  We were supposed to leave our contact info on the back to the photo booth passes, and a few pictures on the wall, but there were already an entire wall full of very nice photo booth pictures so we, as a group decided it would be better to keep all of the above photos for ourselves so we could all have some.  Somehow I still have all of them.  Oops.

As usual, the wait wasn’t bad.  I am always optimistic about restaurant wait times, though I do appreciate when a host makes a worst-case-scenario prediction about the anticipated wait time.  It never fails to give me a lift when I wait for 20 instead of 40 minutes.  When we were seated, we started by sharing the Lola Antipasto Platter.  It came on a large bamboo cutting board and contained house made bacon from Hidden Streams Farm, grainy Dijon mustard, a few slices of natural casing pepperoni, La Quercia Prosciutto twisted into rolls, a dish of mixed olives, some kind of olive-loaf-type bologna thing,* a dish of cashews, slices of toasted bread and a few wedges of a creamy cheese. **  This was an ample appetizer for four of us to share, and even though I didn’t eat the meat, I thought the antipasto platter was great.  It was probably my favorite part of the meal, along with the Surly Furious.

I enjoyed the intersection of Korean and Scandinavian touches throughout the restaurant.  I don’t know of any other restaurant that thoroughly references these two cultures in its decor. This is a plate that is perched in the ladies room.  Girls iss funny tings vot?  I agree.  Girls are funny.

We ordered our pizzas, and then the server brought plates for us to eat from.  Mine is pictured just above reads Var så god.  When I was little, after my family finished eating a Sunday roast beef dinner, my Grammie, who moved to Norway to marry my Grandfather taught me to circle the table and curtsy, and clasp hands with the hosts [my parents] and say “Takk for Maten!” which translates to “Thank you for the food!”   Each person would reply Var så god! which translates to “There you go!”  but means “You’re Welcome.”  Pizzeria Lola, you may not be my new favorite pizzeria of all time, but you had my heart at Var så god!

I see on the website that posters by Aesthetic Apparatus are for sale.  I am not sure if Aesthetic Apparatus made these fun I Heart 피차  design that appears on the matchbooks and posters and throughout the restaurant.   I have several band posters by Aesthetic Apparatus in my collection, and I Heart Pizza too.

I am going to be honest and say that I am not going to rave about the pizza I ate at Pizzeria Lola.  That isn’t the pizza’s fault.  I wanted a pizza with mushrooms on it, so that is what I had, a Pizza Margherita, which comes with Italian red sauce, fior di latte, olive oil and fresh basil with the addition of sautéed oyster and cremini mushrooms, which is available on all pizzas for $2.  I get it, foodies.  When I go to a place that uses good ingredients, and creates things artisanally, I should order dishes from the menu as they are envisioned by their creators.  But a plain pizza with no veggies doesn’t do it for me and, tonight I just didn’t feel like a Forager, a mushroom pizza without sauce.  I have a penchant for controlling the things I eat, and I’m pretty much obsessed with mushrooms.   I won’t apologize for customizing my pie.  I know that even though it was not my favorite pizza of all time, it was good.

My cousin and brother-in-law both tried out one of the night’s specials.  Above is Alice’s pizza.  It was described as Russian.  It contained slices of sausage and red and green peppers.  I think Alice liked it, but maybe liked my pizza a little bit more.  She is also a fan of mushrooms.

Brett’s pizza was also a special that evening, and it contained some kind of meatballs that look a lot like crumbled fennel sausage to me.  He has been to Lola before and sampled the Lady Za-Za, a pizza topped with House-made Korean sausage with kimchi, serrano peppers, soy chili glaze, scallions and sesame oil.  This pizza was a little less adventurous than the Za Za, but he reported both to be good.

Pizzeria Lola is known for a great pizza crust.  The creator is a certified pizzaiola, trained at the International School of Pizza in San Francisco.  I liked the crust.  The dough was a little bit sweet and had the charred crunch and slight chewiness I’ve come to know and love in a wood fired pizza.  We have several strong options for pizza cooked over coal or wood fire in the Twin Cities.  I’ve been to Pizza Nea, Blacksheep and Punch Neapolitan Pizza.  Punch in Highland Park is in my neighborhood, I have been there the most.  The meltingly thin Neapolitan wood fired crust, with San Marzano tomatoes and Mozzarella di Bufala with basil and added mushrooms is impossible to oust as my favorite wood fired pie.  For me, Nea just didn’t have enough cheese, and the oddly topped, dry pizza I had at Black Sheep didn’t win my praise either.  For me, Lola comes in second for pizza, but probably tops all 3 for beer selection and has a great atmosphere.

And the moment you’ve all been waiting for… The Sunnyside.   I first experienced a soft egg on a pizza when I was 14, visiting my cousin in Leysin, Switzerland.  There, the egg was fried, sunny side up and placed in the middle of the pizza, which was topped with otherwise typical western pizzas toppings.  Bjorn ordered Lola’s Sunnyside.  Of all of the pizzas at Lola, I think the Sunnyside has received the most media attention and praise.  It is topped with La Quercia Guanciale, pecorino, cream, leeks and soft eggs.  These days, it seems that soft eggs are everywhere served with vegetables, pastas and meat dishes.  The one I think sounds the best is grilled bruschetta with soft eggs and lobster at Bar La Grassa.  The warm, running egg yolk has achieved show stopper status in the food world.  Let’s face it, there is something undeniably rich in the simplicity of a perfectly poached egg.  I appreciate restaurants employing simple creativity, but I’m not dying to have more soft eggs in my life.  What can I say?  I like mozzarella, tomato and mushrooms on my pizza, and soft eggs with salt and pepper on toast.  Even so, I applaud restaurants for challenging our palates and expectations by putting together unique flavors and artisanal ingredients, and so I’m glad we tried it.

We shared our pizzas around the table, and ended up with leftovers which were wrapped for us to carry away in puffed up paper bags.

The check arrived to our table in a vintage tobacco tin.  Another unique and interesting touch!  I give atmosphere and presentation at Pizzeria Lola A +.  And for the pizza, I will go back and try another some day–probably when I am more in the mood for a mushroom pizza without sauce, and definitely to try the Calabrian Chili Roasted Cauliflower which sounds yummy.  I bid Pizzeria Lola belated welcome to the Twin Cities.  When you are feeling up for wood fired pizza with a great crust and toppings that are just a little bit off the beaten track, I encourage you to try it.

*I am sorry, I cannot identify that meat.  The server described the antipasto platter rather quickly, and I missed that part of the description.

**I also cannot identify the cheese.  It was mild in flavor, creamy and soft.  I think it may have been a toscano fresco, a delicious sheep’s milk cheese from Tuscany.

Principles of a Satisfying Snack

Posted on by
3

I’ve been thinking about snacks.  If you say the word “snack” I associate it with the small plate containing Triscuit crackers with peanut butter and jam or slices of cheddar cheese that greeted me after school when I was a child.  I recall the semester that I studied abroad in England the break between morning lectures was an occasion for friends meeting in a  dorm room for cups of instant coffee and McVitie’s Biscuits.  It also calls to mind taking part in the ritual of afternoon noshes — a tiny bowl of salty-crunchy bits and nuts served with a cocktail and a crossword at my great Aunt Margaret’s home Victoria, British Columbia — très sophistiqué.  In these moments, snacking served a dual purpose — it was a time to pause and enjoy a simple and comforting luxury, and to stave off hunger for a few hours more until mealtime arrived.

If you don’t happen to be in the midst of childhood or your college years, or making precious memories with elderly relatives, snacking can have a dark side.  This would be most snacks that come in 100 calorie servings sealed in shiny wrapping, or anything mindlessly inhaled while standing fridge-side.  I don’t find those snacks to be satisfying.  For me, a snack composed according to a few simple principles fits into the romantic episodes in my life as well as the real world.  Take this tasty morsel — a tiny slice of rye bread topped with a little leftover egg salad and a sprig of fresh dill from my garden.  It is well worth  saving a few leftover spoonfuls of egg salad so I can have a snack like this one in the middle of a summer afternoon.

The first principle of a good snack is that it should be quick.  It should take less than 5 minutes, or preferably less than 3 minutes to prepare.  I start each day with only so much energy to devote to food preparation, and I don’t want to devote very much of that to snacks.  I like to keep a small bowl of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge so we can grab one for a snack at work.  It only takes a moment to crack the shell and eat it with a little salt and pepper.  The protein and small amount of fat that an egg contains can sustain me through the afternoon.

The second principle of a good snack is that it should either be light, or very very small.  I usually opt for light.  For this snack that I prepared for myself and for Bjorn, I spread a wedge of light Laughing Cow cheese on two Wasa Crispbread Crackers.  I sliced a radish and some cucumber very thin.  I sprinkled a little smoked paprika on the cucumber and a dash of salt and pepper on the radish.  The whole snack contains less than 150 calories, and also healthy things like fiber.  You can enjoy the crunch of the crackers and veggie slices, the creaminess of the cheese, and take in the brightly colored veggies with a punch of paprika with your nose and your eyes.

The final principle of good snacking is to pause.  While eating, it is so important to take a moment to pay attention, so you know you’ve eaten something, and to appreciate the nourishment.  I also try to pause when I’m done. If it was a tasty snack, I might think that I want a little more, but if I give my mind and stomach ten minutes to catch up with each other, I usually find that I’m satisfied.

White Bean, Corn and Potato Chowder

Posted on by
2

It is a good indication that we are getting pretty low on groceries and fresh produce when I decide what is for dinner by googling the few ingredients we have left to find an idea.  Tonight, I poked around the kitchen and found a can of white beans, a potato, and a half a bag of frozen corn to work with.  Those three ingredients sounded like a good base for a soup.  I wasn’t feeling like a chunky Tuscan White Bean Stew, or a creamy Rosemary White Bean Soup even though they looked tasty. We didn’t have half the ingredients for this luscious looking Corn Chowder with Chilies by Pioneer Woman and we wanted something lighter.  As far as I can remember, I don’t think I’ve ever combined white beans, corn and potato in one pot, but it seemed like these 3 pale, starchy comforters had to go together.  I thought “there must be a recipe for this white bean, corn and potato chowder!”  I immediately found two, fairly similar recipes that sounded tasty, [here and here].  I took cues from both recipes, made a few adjustments of my own and ended up with a soup that was healthy and warming that we both enjoyed.  First, I assembled my ingredients.

I think it is a good sign about a recipe when the ingredient list is short.  For one thing, in a simple recipe each ingredient plays a vital role in the dish as a whole.  There is also a better chance that your pantry and fridge will contain what you need so you don’t have to run to the store.  Most importantly you won’t have to pull out your hair trying to follow a complicated recipe or spend your evening chopping and measuring a zillion ingredients.  My White Bean, Corn and Potato Chowder contained:

  • One cup of Frozen Corn.
  • 1 16 ounce can of Cannellini Beans.  — I happened to have a large can of beans so I used it, but you’d be fine with a 14 ounce can.  If you are up for preparing dry beans, which sadly, I am not, you should use about 1 cup of dry beans, soaked and cooked in water until tender.
  • 1 Yukon Gold Potato washed and chopped.
  • 1/2 of a yellow onion, diced.
  • 1 carrot, peeled and diced — I ended up using only one carrot, even though my photo contains two.
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped.  –I didn’t have any celery, but normally, I would include it.  Diced Onions, Carrots and Celery, or a mirepoix if you are cooking in French, makes a solid aromatic base for almost any soup or sauce.
  • 1 four cup carton of Reduced Sodium Chicken Broth or Vegetable Broth.
  • For Garnish:  1 thinly sliced green onion and coarsely chopped flat leaf Italian parsley  are both optional, but good.
  • About 1/2 a teaspoon each of crushed dried Rosemary, and dry Thyme.
  • A splash of skim milk, or half and half, or heavy cream, depending what fits into your diet.
  • A small amount of Olive Oil for sautéing the veggies.
  • Salt and Pepper to taste.

We have 2 people eating in our house most nights, so I try to cut soup recipes down to 4 portions, so that we each get to have a hearty bowl for supper and a smaller bowl for lunch the next day.  It took me two years to figure out that I need to cut down most recipes.  Having a few frozen portions is great for lunches at work or an easy supper, but a freezer can fill up fast in the winter when I feel like making a new pot of soup a few times per week.  If you have a bigger head count, or feel like stockpiling soup for lunches and lazy days, you can easily double or triple this recipe.

Once I had all of the veggies for the chowder chopped, I began by sautéing the onion and carrots.  I rinsed the cannellini beans, and mashed about half of them on a cutting board with a potato masher.  I did this for several reasons.  Since I wanted the chowder to be light and healthy I decided not to use half and half or cream in my chowder which are traditional chowder ingredients.  Mashed white beans added velvety texture to the soup liquid that it would otherwise lack without cream.  I used a potato masher because I don’t have an immersion blender* and lugging out the blender or food processor to puree half of the soup is far too much effort for me on a Tuesday night.  The potato masher works quite well to create a rustic creaminess and it cuts down on dish washing which is also a plus.  When the carrots and onions began to get soft in my enamel dutch oven, I added the rest of the ingredients except the milk and garnishes.  I let the soup simmer for a good half hour to 40 minutes.  This gave me time to set the table, check Facebook and chop up some grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and leaves of romaine lettuce for a small salad, along the lines of a caprese, minus basil.  I dressed the salad with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salut herb mixture.  Once the chowder was hot and all the flavors combined, I removed the pot from the heat.  I mashed the entire mixture of veggies little a more with the potato masher right in the soup pot to allow the carrots, corn and potatoes to add body to the liquid in the chowder.  Right before serving the chowder I stirred in a splash of milk.  I served the chowder in a small bowl with the salad on the side of the plate.

On top of Bjorn’s salad I added a few this slices of Sopprasetta, a dried, cured Italian salami.

We loved this chowder.  It was warm and satisfying, but still light and healthy.  It will reheat well for our lunch, and we will able to eat the whole pot in two meals.  This meal made good use of the last few vegetables in the house.  Even if my fridge is fully stocked, I’d make it again.

* An immersion blender might be a good gift idea, hint, hint.  

Taco Soup for the Superbowl

Posted on by
2

If you are ready to take a break from Chili, Chicken Wings or Pizza as your Superbowl staple next year, you might want to try Taco Soup.   I made a crock this year and it was tasty, and so easy.  This is a meal that you can easily adapt for omnivores as well as the vegetarians in your crowd.  You can make this meal and have time to enjoy your day if you are capable of visiting the grocery store and using a can opener.  The ingredients pictured below include Two 14 ounce cans of Stewed Tomatoes, Two 14 ounce cans of Diced Tomatoes, One small can of chopped green chilies, One 14 ounce can of Pinto Beans (I used Chili Beans which are seasoned Pinto Beans), One 14 ounce can of Kidney Beans and One 14 ounce can of Golden Hominy, which you can find in the grocery store near the canned beans.

Not pictured:

  • One medium yellow onion, chopped and sautéed;
  • An envelope of low sodium Taco Seasoning or your favorite homemade mix of spicy seasonings, mixed according to preference, which should probably include, Cumin, Mexican Chili Powder, Paprika, Cayenne Pepper, Oregano, Salt and Pepper.
  • An envelope of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch Dressing or onion powder, dry dill, and a shot of low-fat Buttermilk, added 10 minutes before serving;
  • 1 pound of ground beef, browned for the omnivore-version; and
  • If you wish, you can add Vegetarian taco crumbles, prepared according to package directions for the vegetarian version.  If you do opt for Vegetarian Taco crumbles, I like Taco Filling by Fantastic Foods.

I put everything into the crock except for the meat, and set the heat to high because game time was only a few hours away.  You can make this on the stove in your favorite soup pan or dutch oven just as successfully as the crock pot, but I love the “fix it and forget it” aspect of cooking in the crock pot.  After the beans, hominy, seasonings and onions had a good hour and a half to get warm and combined, I ladled a vegetarian portion into a separate sauce pan and put it in the fridge.  I recommend giving the ground beef version more time in the crock, and separating out the veggie version into a separate pan as needed.  The beef needs time to gather up the flavors in the pot, and is less likely to get dried out than the vegetarian version.  Next, I added the browned ground beef to the crock.  Then, all I had to do was keep the crock cooking until game time, which gave the flavors time to combine.  This is where certain celebrity chefs who regularly appear on the Food Network who will remain unnamed would say that constant heat and time will allow the flavors to “marry.”  I like the thought of distinct ingredients of a the soup spending time together, falling in love and then hanging out long enough to allow the distinct characteristics of each element to meld together and become a unified as a whole.  But the Food Network has overworked the marriage of flavors descriptor a tad, so I’m trying to leave it on the shelf for now so that perhaps someday, that term can be revived into common use.

When it was close to game time, I took the saucepan of vegetarian Taco Soup out of the fridge and reheated it on the stove over medium heat.  This is where the fun part of taco soup comes in:  the toppings.  I assembled a small array of some of our favorite taco toppings to serve along with the soup.  Today we had shredded lettuce, crumbled corn tostadas, sliced jalapenos, light sour cream, shredded cheese, sliced black olives and radishes.  Avocado, diced cucumber, chopped green onions or diced red onion and pepitos would also be great toppings for Taco Soup.  Scoop chips are great for scooping up the soup and toppings from your bowl, regular tortilla chips or crackers would also be great to serve with the soup.

I served the soup in wide, shallow bowls.  I wanted there to be enough surface space for us to add toppings.  We each topped our bowl of soup the way we wanted, and then headed to the couch for kickoff.

Taco soup was the main dish for us on Superbowl Sunday, but it would also work well at a potluck, served in smaller bowls or cups.  Also, you sure don’t have to have an important sporting event on TV to make this for supper.  As a dish for the Superbowl, it is essential that you can eat it while seated on the couch.  I will report that the shallow bowls were a good call because they did, in fact allow us to top the soup generously without making a mess, and the soup is thick enough to work just fine even with an ottoman as a dinner table.

This soup works because once you bring the crock pot and the right cans into the kitchen, it practically makes itself.  It is hearty, and the toppings add variety and make for a fun and casual meal.  Taco Soup also reheats wonderfully, so we both had a delicious bowl today for lunch.  If it sounds good to you, give it a whirl!

Baked Chips Fit for Superbowl Sunday

Posted on by
5

This Sunday, people across the country will gather around the television to evaluate the entertainment value of the newly-released beer commercials and eat chicken wings* and cheesy dips.  Many of those people will watch the accompanying football game.  Whether you are really into the game or just the commercials and other fanfare, isn’t Superbowl Sunday at least partly about the food?  I am not one to begrudge myself or others their favorite snacks at a Superbowl Party.  They are All-American comfort food.  A typical menu is inspired by Stadium Food, Backyard BBQs and Tailgating favorites, but prepared indoors and served in a manner fit for eating at the couch.  I don’t know about you, but my Superbowl Sunday is also Super-Sedentary Sunday.  When people around me who are watching the game cheer because the right team has scored, I leap off the couch to high-five/fist-pump/bump chests on cue.  That is the only exercise I get the whole day.  Even if I am just not that into sports, I enjoy this day and all of the fun it has to offer.  The challenge I’ve given myself this year is to make food that completely is worthy of the celebration, and doesn’t send my caloric intake for the day over the top of the high-end of the recommended range for an adult male.  I am not saying I am swearing off nacho cheese for life.  No, no, no.  This is the thing:  I have seen those darned, heartwarming Dominos commercials about how they are improving their pizzas and I’m as susceptible to the marketing of convenience and processed snacks as the next person.  I have just realized that falling for that message limits the potential for enjoying good, simple food without guilt.  Are you with me?  Without further adieu, my version of Oven Baked Potato Chips, a snack fit to eat this Sunday.

To make:  scrub a couple of Russet Potatoes.  I sliced 3 potatoes and made plenty of chips for the food testers [Meghan and Bjorn].  You can increase or decrease the number of potatoes you use depending on the size of your crowd and how many other awesome dishes you are preparing.

I like to slice the potatoes very thin.  I used my brand new OXO Softworks Mandoline to slice the potatoes .  The Mandoline was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law.  He is a die-hard sports fan, so it is totally appropriate that the Mandoline’s first use is to test a Superbowl Snack.  If you have a Madonline, please be very, very careful.  This is one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment you can keep in the house, if you ask me.  If you use it with extreme care though, the food chopping results are pretty cool.  If you don’t have a Mandoline, you could use a sharp knife, or the long blade part of your cheese grater if it is still sharp.  I will slice the potato just a little thicker than I did this time on game day.  My slices were fine, but as you can see, they had some tattered edges and they got pretty crispy upon baking.  Crispy is great, but a little less crispy might be even better.  I went for round rippled chips this time, but next time I might do shoestrings, waffle fries, or regular French Fries.  The recipe is the same no matter how you slice ’em.  Just be aware that when potatoes are baked with little or no oil, the bigger chunks don’t crisp up the same way they do when deep-fried.  You have to try it out and see what shape and size you like.

I soaked the sliced potatoes in cold water for a while before baking them.  This helps release some of the starch from the potatoes, which helps them get crispier when baked. Once the potatoes had a good soak, I dried them off on paper towels and put them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil which was sprayed thoroughly with cooking spray.  You could toss the potatoes in olive oil before this step, or drizzle them with a small amount of olive oil when they are in the pan, but that is optional.  I didn’t and I was totally happy with our crispy baked chips.

I sprinkled the thinly sliced potatoes with seasoning.  Today I used an envelope of Spicy Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, oops, I guess I did go ahead and use a processed convenience food. I had it in the cupboard I thought “what the heck?!  I’ll use it.”  It was good, but I’d be totally happy with a bunch of herbs.  I love the combination of herbs in a jar of Poultry Seasoning, or a good shake of 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe’s; if you don’t use a mix, Paprika, Onion Powder, Garlic, Chili Powder and Thyme would also be good… Seasoning is another part of this recipe to adjust to your own personal taste.  The seasonings you love will taste good.  Notice that I didn’t say anything about salt.  I think its best to let everyone salt their own chips according to taste so I put out the shaker when the chips were served.  I threw the baking sheets in the oven at 425° for somewhere between  30-45 minutes, tossing the chips once, half way through.  I like crispy tatos, so I let them go to the done side and made them extra crisp by finishing the baking briefly under the broiler.  Depending on preference, you can bake them until they reach a “tender-crisp” level of doneness.

While the chips were cooking, I whipped up a little bowl of “Skinny” Garlic Aioli.  All credit for the Aioli goes to the wonderful blog Gina’s Skinny Recipes.  My recipe for “Oven Chips” is also heavily adapted from Gina’s recipe for Baked Seasoned Fries which accompanies the Garlic Aioli recipe.  The Aioli is made with 2 Tablespoons of Light Mayo, 2 Tablespoons Fat Free Greek Yogurt, 2 finely minced Cloves of Garlic and salt and pepper to taste.  This Aioli is a seriously garlicky and kicky condiment.  I topped the bowl of Aioli with a little bit of flat-leaf parsley.  I think almost everything looks and tastes better when it is topped with fresh herbs.

When the fries were ready, I served them on a platter.  I set out ketchup, shakers of salt and pepper, and tarragon vinegar.  I always serve chips with vinegar.  I’m Canadian, so vinegar is a must.  Malt vinegar is traditional, but I love using other flavor-infused vinegars to make dressings and cook and flavor food.  They add zero calories, you know.

We probably eat potatoes once a month or so, and when we do, we often have oven baked chips or fries.  They are fit for your Superbowl Party, or any old Thursday night.  Try it!

*I read that the National Chicken Council estimates that a 100 million pounds of chicken wings will be consumed over the weekend.  Holey Moley.  That’s a lotta wings.

A Vibrant Quinoa Salad for a Dark Winter’s Day

Posted on by
3

Some days there is nothing more refreshing and satisfying than having a hearty salad as a meal.  A salad can be extremely handy too, when it is built to last so that it can reappear the next day as our lunch.  That is the sort of meal I had in mind today.  The salad I made was loosely based on a recipe for a Wheatberry Salad that I read about on Macheesmo, a blog I like to visit.  I’ve been trying to follow more recipes because I want well-developed flavors and predictable results when I cook.  Even though I’m trying to follow recipes, I still have to strike a balance.  I am not one to plan meals in advance, and I don’t like to run to the store when I decide to make something.  I began by gathering ingredients.

In my salad, I subbed Quinoa for Wheatberry.  I’ve glanced at a bag of Wheatberry in the grocery store, but haven’t purchased that grain so far.  I am still working on integrating Quinoa into my regular cooking routine.  I also subbed fresh spinach for kale, and half a block of drained and crumbled tofu for feta cheese.  We’ve been working our way through a bag of organic parsnips from the Farmer’s Market that we bought at Thanksgiving, so I decided to add a few.  I started cooking 1 1/2 cup of quinoa in an equal amount of water, and while the quinoa cooked, I chopped the vegetables into small, uniform chunks.  They say you eat with your eyes first; the vibrant rainbow of crunchy vegetables chopped for this salad was a visual feast.

The salad is dressed with the juice of a lemon, the lemon’s zest, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  It gives the salad a lot of kick with zero added fat.  Healthy!!  The lemon juice has the added benefit of keeping the avocado from turning brown.  If I make this again, I will cut back on the lemon zest a little bit.  The zest of a lemon is pretty punchy, especially when you eliminate a creamy dairy component which was included in the original recipe.

Did we notice the substitutions I made to the original recipe?  A little.  Crumbled tofu has a similar texture to feta cheese, but it lacks the tang.  There is also a certain creaminess that feta would add, which would also probably help balance the pungent citrus in the salad.  Neither of us are huge fans of feta, and so it was a fair swap to make, and healthy too.   I am all for subbing spinach for the kale called for in the original recipe.  I have yet to delve into kale, and I love how easy it is to add a big bunch of fresh spinach to almost anything you are cooking and allow it to steam in just a few minutes.  We both enjoyed the salad with a dash of Habenero Chili hot sauce that we brought back from Mexico.

This salad was a success for several reasons.  It contained an antioxidant rainbow of healthy vegetables.  It also contained the healthy fat found in avocado.  The texture was the best part of the salad; it had crunchy carrots, celery, onions, parsnips, peppers which balanced well with the creamy avocado, supple quinoa, tofu and tender steamed spinach.  There was plenty of kicky flavour without any regret with the spicy-citrus dressing.  It was also a win from a vegetarian-protein perspective since it contained both tofu and chickpeas. All in all, it was a light, uplifting, healthy and hearty entrée salad that hit all of the important notes that it needed to pick us up on a grey day in January.  Yes!!

Bjorn said the salad was tastier than he expected, and we both ate it again the next day.  For me, it was both breakfast and lunch.  I need to make a crunchy, kicky, creamy, low-fat, high flavor, protein-rich salad more often.