Beef Stew

I posted about my Moroccan Chicken Stew a while ago but now I am going to give you the other half of that fun chilly weekend. Even though the weather seems unsure of where it is going I am still up for snuggling on the sofa with a warm cup of soup. This recipe is another one that I started on the stove but finished in the crock pot. For this one I decided to head out with some friends and leave dinner at home cooking for me while I enjoyed myself!

I just crave hearty stews like this once the temperature starts to go down. There is something about a cup of soup that just warms your whole day up. Luckily I haven't started to feel the winter sniffles and coughs but if you are this is a low maintenance way to enjoy some really tasty homemade soup. This soup was inspired by a new line of organic beef that was made available at my super market and was on sale... don't need to ask me twice!

Roasted Butternut Squash Coconut Soup

I try really hard to pack lunch for Jeremy in the morning before work. Eating out in NY City every day can be not only expensive but really unhealthy! Not only is packing lunch a good savings but it gives you the ability to use your lunch hour for something fun too. When he doesn't have a pre-packed lunch one of the places he loves to go is Num Pang. Its a few subway stops from his work but they have one of the best bahn mi sandwiches in the city and they also have a soup that he just loves. We unfortunately don't know the recipe (and to be honest I haven't tried it since I work in NJ). But I did find a little info online about the ingredients though! The soup was listed as Roasted Butternut Squash Coconut Soup with Basil Croutons on a few Yelp reviews so that was was where I started.

Luckily I had a few cans of coconut milk sitting in my cabinet along with some fun herb cubes (that I keep meaning to post about! sorry) and a squash to roast. What could be easier? I asked a friend to bring over a crusty loaf of french bread and got to work... Roasting squash can be done one of two ways - either half the squash and scoop out of the skin after cooking or peel and cube before hand. It can be annoying to peel squash but I find that my oxo peeler actually does a great job and then I don't have to burn my hands when its out of the oven (I have to admit I never wait long enough!) I just sort of made this up as I went along but he was pretty happy with it. It wasn't exactly the same but it was a good start... I was hoping to get a chance to taste it so I could get a bit closer. but unfortunately it looks to not be on the menu any more.


keep reading for my recipe

Asian Veggie Soup

Soup is one of those meals that I can't help ordering even if summer is in full swing outside. It is a staple of my diet all year long and I love to come up with some different ideas from standard chicken noodle and the Italian soups like Pasta Fagioli I ate growing up. I have tried to make Tom Yum soup a few times but I always get discouraged because it doesn't taste "right" and it takes so long and uses hard to find expensive ingredients. Sometimes its easier and cheaper just to order take out! This soup is a take on Tom Yum and other south east Asian soups but it uses  ingredients that are easier to find at the ethic market. Since I am a believer in sweating out the heat, this soup base is great for summer time!

I used boxed chicken broth to make this base but please feel free to take the homemade route and either make your own chicken stock or be even more traditional and go for a shrimp stock. If you are interested in making an authentic bowl of Tom Yum check out the directions on Chez Pim.  You can make a million different version of this soup - noodles or none, chicken, shrimp, veggies etc so feel free to add or subtract as you like...one of my favorite treats is pre-made frozen dumpings! The basic broth is really versatile and can pull together all those "why did I buy this?" ingredients that are starting to sag in the crisper drawer.

Click through for the recipe!

Guest Post: Randy's Beet & Braised Beef Soup

Hi Readers - my friend Randy wanted to share a delicious recipe and some photos of a soup party they recently attended. She and her husband Mike are great friends and wonderful cooks so I am very excited to share this with you. If we are lucky we might even get another guest post from her on all the New Orleans eats they tried when on vacation to Jazz Fest!

now Randy will take it away.....

I consider myself blessed to have such an amazing group of friends, and a few of them happen to be just as obsessed with good food as I am. A few weeks ago, my friend Krissy had the awesome idea of hosting a soup party, and invited us all to bring our own brand for a potluck extravaganza.  The results were better than expected, and we all had a fantastic time preparing and sharing our soup-y goodness. I spent a few days getting ready for this event.  I searched the web and several cookbooks for a delicious-sounding recipe, and settled on one from www.epicurious.com for Beet and Braised Beef Soup. This recipe calls for beef short ribs, lima beans, and a colorful medley of fresh vegetables and herbs.

I found some beautifully marbled short ribs at my local grocery store, and knew I was heading in the right direction!  Gathering the entire assortment of produce required a trip to a specialty market for some of the harder-to-find (and probably out-of-season) items.  Once I had everything required, I returned home to pre-season the meat and soak the dried lima beans overnight.The next evening, my husband and I started chopping up a storm.  We were quite pleased with the beautiful mise en place sprawling across our counter tops. 

 

Shells with Bacon and White Beans

I am one of those people who eats soup year round. I honestly have a bowl almost every lunch time thanks to a few amazing NJ diner's who have 5 or 6 choices year round. Soup is one of the best meals out there. You can make it with just about anything - just throw some meat, vegetables, noodles, beans in a pot with some water or broth and you have a delicious meal that can be reheated over and over. I am trying to break my habit of going out to lunch every afternoon and so I have started to make a big batch on the weekend that I can then store in individual containers that I grab on my way out the door.

This soup was a little more thought out than usual...  I even made sure to have the bacon on hand and defrosted so no running the package under water for 10 minutes before I can start cooking. I saw the inspiration for this recipe earlier in the week on the kitchn and decided that I just had to make it. I went a bit more traditional for the pasta fagioli by including some diced tomatoes but you don't have to....and that is the beauty of soup!

Over All Soup Swap Winner: Indian- Style Seafood Stew

We had so many wonderful options in the soup swap but there can be only one winner. Matt's Indian-Style Seafood Stew won not only in his category (seafood and meat) but took in the most votes overall! He agreed to write up a little guest post about his experience cooking this winning dish and share it with us.....

I had this recipe in my possession for a while now however, since it feeds six, and I'm a single guy who's doesn't generally have dinner parties, finding the right opportunity to make this eluded me until this event. I picked up all the fish from my favorite local fish market, Two Cousins Fish Market on the Nautical Mile in Freeport (once you find a good local fish market you'll never buy fish at the supermarket again). I doubled the recipe to make sure I had enough stew for both the swap and the contest. It took me longer to clean the shrimp and marinate the fish than it did to cook. This couldn't have been an easier recipe to follow. When I first tasted it after it was done I was worried I had used a bit too much cayenne, but the jasmine rice balanced out the heat perfectly. I was blown away by how everybody enjoyed this! Seemed like I everyone was going back for seconds (and some for thirds). There wasn't a drop left in the crock pot by the end of the night. I look forward to the next time I can make this for friends.
read on for Matt's recipe

Souper Soup Swap & First Annual Soup Awards

Food swaps are the newest craze in the foodie world....they aren't exactly new as cookie walks have been around as a holiday staple basically forever. But now you can mass produce and swap baked goods, soups, baby food, garden harvests, frozen dinners or any thing homemade! The benefits of food swapping are simple instead of having leftovers for a week of the same old boring meal,  you switch with friends (or strangers in some cases) for their versions of the food in question. If you have ever tried to cook soup for one you know how hard it can be - it seems like no matter how carefully you measure you end up with a giant pot simmering away on the stove and lunch leftovers by the dozen.

 (pictured clockwise from top left - split pea, minestrone, indian style seafood stew, 

and tom yum goong) 

We had 9 different soups entered into the swap and everyone who participated brought home 4 different containers for a variety of leftovers. We ended up with three main categories for our soups - vegetarian, meat/seafood and chicken broth based.  It was a lot of fun and we had a great time sharing our recipes and picking our favorites. Then again when you have good friends any reason to get together is always a great time!


Here are the entries & winners in each category:
Vegetarian:
1st Place - Split Pea Soup
2nd Place - Cold Watermelon Soup
3rd Place - Wild Mushroom and Leek Soup

Meat/ Seafood:
1st Place - Indian Style Seafood Stew (pictured above)
2nd Place - Chili
3rd Place - Tom Yum Goong

Chicken Broth-Based
1st Place - Pasta Fagoili (pictured above)
2nd Place - Vermont Cheddar Ale
3rd Place - Minestrone

Some of the participants:

                       

White Chicken Chili

With the North East in the middle of one of the worst winters in memory, its no surprise that hearty, warm soups are being requested more often. For me, it seems like I can barely go a day without having a soup of some kind! New Jersey is pretty much know for its diners - often open all night and serving up what generally is pretty close to homemade comfort food. Diners are not really know for bending to the newest food trend, classics like tuna melts, greek salads and even meatloaf are the staples of these places served with a cup of their homemade soups and a scoop of pudding for dessert. But that is their charm - no matter what diner you do to you almost don't need a menu because you know what they serve...it hasn't changed in probably 50 years!

I recently had a delicious bowl of chili at the Windsor Diner in Clark, NJ and I just couldn't stop thinking about it for days. It was everything that a bowl of chili should be...and came with ample sour cream and salsa on the side so you could dress it up as you wished. This White Chicken Chili on the other hand, is pretty much the complete opposite! While it is delicious, warming and comforting it is more delicate rather than hitting you over the head with a hunk of ground beef. I have tried other recipes before but this was a new one for me and I think that it came out really well. I used my 7.5Q dutch oven to make the chili and let it cook in there for a few hours in the oven to really marry the flavors together. It was a little more soupy than my other attempt but I actually liked it and felt it had more flavor... use a bit less chicken broth if you would prefer a more stew/chili appearance.

click through for the recipe! 

Carrot and Squash Soup - Thanksgiving Recycle!

We had over quite a group for Christma-Channuk-Thanksgiving-mas. Twelve people for a sit down dinner which was our largest crowd ever. It was so much fun and we really enjoyed having all of our friends over. This year I tried more than ever to have the left overs from dinner go home with my guests as I usually need a break after prepping for a big party. But I was left with a few of the baby squash and it was an east decision to make a delicious soup in time for the cold front that moved in.

Baby Squash and Carrot Soup
1 c maple glazed carrots     (I also add a tiny splash of aged balsamic vinegar to the glaze)
6 roasted baby squash halves - skin removed (split in half, cover with olive oil and savory herbs and roast at 350F for 45 min)
2 c milk 2%
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
salt & pepper
special equipment: immersion blender

1) In a large pan, heat the milk over a medium flame.
2) Add the squash pulp and carrots and let come to a simmer
3) CAREFULLY! Remove from heat and blend till smooth
4) Add seasoning

I also recycled my stuffing into croutons by spreading it out onto a cookie sheet and baking at 350F for 15 min
Stuffing:
1 loaf brioche loaf - cut into 1" cubes, covered in olive oil and toasted for 15 min
4 tbsp butter - melted
1 c carrots - sliced
1 c onion - diced
1 c red bell pepper - diced
2 c mushrooms - chopped1 tbsp fresh sage - minced
4 cloves garlic - minced
3 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
1 c walnuts
1 c vegetable broth (or chicken broth)

1) In a pan with some oil, saute the onions, peppers and carrots until soft.
2) add mushrooms and allow all moisture to evaporate
3) In a large bowl - mix together melted butter, bread cubes, vegetable mix, herbs and walnuts
4) Place in a large buttered casserole dish and add broth
5) Cover with foil and place in oven 350F for 35 -40 min - remove foil for last 10 min or so to brown top

5/4/10 - Creamy Tomato Veggie soup with Spicy Chicken Sausage

This weekend was almost a diet-buster! Between the burgers, ribs, homemade french fries (!!!) and fresh falafel, grabbing some of the (delicious) spinach salad with some grilled chicken was just not an option. So I tried to obey the good old rule of moderation. In theory, this rule works....in practice, well.....it doesn't count if no one sees it, right? So even though my friends were eating plates full of ribs, I stayed focused and enjoyed more than one taste of all my favorites.  But now its back to the work week and even though we didn't get to the grocery store doesn't mean I have an excuse to order takeout!

This soup is made with some vegetables that were still hanging around in the fridge and few pantry staples that I try to keep stocked....just in case! I took the cue for this soup from a childhood favorite, pasta fagioli - while my mother always made this more as a pasta dish my grandmother's was definitely a soup. I love soups so it was easy for me to twist that recipe into this creation. This dish is easily made vegetarian by increasing the beans and taking out the chicken sausage.

3/4/10 - Left Over Chicken Soup...recycling in the kitchen

Since I had a party on Saturday night I wasn't up to roasting my usual Sunday afternoon chicken (in fact I wasn't even up for most of the day!) so I didn't have chicken stock on hand for my usual weekly soup. Soup is one of my favorite meals - honestly I could eat it every day (and I usually do have a bowl at lunch most days) so I had to resort to some boxes of stock that I had been saving up when they go on sale (4 /$10 for the organic chicken at stew leonards). While the broth wasn't its usual flavorful self I did have plenty of left over veggies and appetizers that were perfect for making this soup more than just your average chicken soup.

I started with the left overs from my crudites plate - carrots, celery and red peppers and I added in some onion. Then I went to my hot appetizers and used the mini meatballs (both the chipotle and the moroccan) as well as the cheese wontons as my pasta. While each had its own unique taste when it was served on its own, together they blended together and complemented the dish nicely. I threw in a few more veggies (mushrooms and spinach) and a touch of grated cheese to pull it all together.

2/25/10 - Snow Day Chicken Soup

Even though its well past Groundhog's day it seems that winter isn't going away here in New Jersey. We have been luck enough to have most of the storms skip over our area since we are right on the coast... but this one was a different story. It started snowing early on Thursday and went all day and night until Friday late night. We ended up with more than a foot which leads to a messy city (and more than 2 trips to the car to dig it out)! Since I was stuck in the house I was so thankful that I had some fresh broth and got started on this.