Garlic-Infused Olive Oil

My week of being sick has involved a very determined cat on a serious mission to paw at the television screen whenever he is not distracted by yummy unfortunate moths.  This is what we have had to do to him, in defense of the television.

On a more culinary note, I keep meaning to post this recipe, but unfortunately I had to get rid of all my infused olive oil first before I could make any more!  I have been putting a leetle too much into pasta water lately, just to make that level sink a little more.  All in the name of blogging.  ;)

What do you do when you experiment with a new brand of extra-virgin olive oil (or any other kind of oil) and find that it just isn't good enough to sprinkle over salads, and that you wished you'd spent a little more money on some extra-expensive olive oil you'd actually use?  Well!  That's when you can infuse your own oil with very tasty results!

Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Materials
1 bottle for the olive oil with a drizzling stopper top
1 funnel

Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil, enough to fill the bottle.
2 cloves garlic
3 small Thai chili peppers (or 1/2 tsp chopped hot peppers of your choosing)
5-6 peppercorns.  I used sweet red ones, but feel free to go with white or black.
1 tsp herbes de Provence
Optional:  stalks of rosemary, lavender, thyme, basil, dill, a few cubes of ginger, Thai basil, etc...

Directions
Clean the bottle and its stopper well; dry upside down for awhile.  No one wants watery oil.

Lay your knife over the clove of garlic, flat side up, and bring your fist down on the blade to crack the garlic out of its shell.  Remove the shell; you should be left with a moderately smashed clove of garlic.  This is good; it will let the flavors infuse more quickly.  Pop the garlic cloves into the bottle.  If they do not fit easily, break or cut them.  DO NOT force them inside; this will make too-big cloves impossible to get out later.

Toss in the chili peppers and the peppercorns.  Place the funnel over the opening and add in the herbes  de Provence; it's much less messy this way.

Then, take the extra virgin olive oil and pour into the bottle through the funnel, leaving enough room for you to put the stopper in.  The olive oil will shake up the herbs, infusing everything with an amazing aroma and an even more luxurious taste.  Voila!

Use to drizzle over bread or to dip bread in as an appetizer, for salad dressings, for pasta water, for savory soups--for anything!  Except sweet things; don't use it with those.  It's too savory for that.

The brilliant thing about this recipe is that you can literally put in just about anything.  Last summer, I picked stalks of rosemary from my porch and put it, along with its pretty blue flowers, into the olive oil. You can put in anything from thyme to basil to dill to oregano to lavender.  You could even put in ginger, Thai basil, and Thai chilies and give yourself an option for a Thai-themed salad or stir-fry.  You could cheat with the chilies and throw in crushed red pepper flakes or just ground paprika or cayenne.  I'm sure you could toss in a bay leaf, a piece of star anise, or even a cinnamon stick.  You could add some toasted or raw walnuts for a flavor reminiscent of walnut oil!

You don't even have to buy gourmet olive oil for this to taste great; that's the beauty of it.  I usually buy about 54 oz. of the most inexpensive extra virgin olive oil I can find (in this case, $5,49 from Trader Joe's) and leave whatever I don't use at the back of my cabinet.  Do leave it in a cool, dark place, so it doesn't go rancid.

The best part is that it takes so little time:  all you need is olive oil, a funnel, and the insides of your pantry.  And it adds nothing in terms of fat/calories; you're still only enjoying the flavor of everything you put in, while the actual ingredients (except for ground herbs) stay safe and sound inside the jar, to be cleaned out when the oil is gone.  So easy.

When I don't add avocado to my salads, I love drizzling this over the top of mixed greens, bell peppers, raw fennel or corn, and fresh tomatoes, topped with some cracked peppercorns. and lemon juice.

Then, when you have gourmet olive oil infusing away on your countertop, take a moment, if you have an overenergetic kitty, and introduce him to the marvels of a slippery ice cube.  He will chase it like a chipper little chipmunk, and send you into some serious giggles.

ETA:  A lovely lady just suggested that these would make great Christmas gifts--infused olive oil in bottles!  I heartily agree, and they'd be even prettier with real stalks of the herbs inside the bottles instead of just crumbled herbs.  Food for thought!

Turkish Tomato-Stuffed Eggplant

Man, you guys, I'm cold.  Like, permanently cold.  It is November in Georgia, the night temperatures have only started to dip down into the forties, and my fingers are so cold they make the boyfriend yelp and shout "Gah!  Cold!  Get them off of me!"  So, of course, I do it to torment him.  This is how our relationship works:  we pretend to be snarky and terrible to each other, burst out laughing, and end up cuddling on the couch with the cat.  It's disgustingly cute.

I have some awesome mementos of these snarky moments, like when I was in Arabian Nights and wore a belly dancing outfit--he took me out to eat at Cali-n-Tito's, a fantastic local Cuban restaurant, and I ate so much that he tore off a corner of my napkin and drew a picture of a monstrously obese me in a sparkly bra, skirt, and belt, wearing a huge smile and waving a ham in one hand.  It was titled "Sche-HAM-ezade.  I tried to be offended but ended up laughing myself sick.

Despite the laughter, though, my toes are trying to freeze.  I see two solutions to this:  one is to warm myself up, the other is to cut them off.  I like my toes, and feel like option A is the way to go.   

So!  Do you remember this stack of eggplanty tomatoey vegetables I posted the other day with the Baba Ghanoush recipe?  I still had one eggplant, the zucchini, and a load of tomatoes left over.  The zucchini went towards a simple but amazing raw spaghetti, but the eggplant needed something special.  Something very special.  Something that used the oven for an extended period of time so that the apartment would warm up.  And voila!  It combines neutrally, unless you sprinkle pine nuts or almonds on top.

Turkish Tomato-Stuffed Eggplant

Serves 2-4 (makes two large, stuffed eggplant halves)

Ingredients

1 eggplant

2 tomatoes, chopped

1/2 large sweet onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

3" piece lemongrass (optional)

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup sliced green onions

1/4 cup chopped parsley or sweet basil

A few almond slices or pine nuts to garnish (optional)

1 tsp fenugreek

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Take the eggplant and slice off the spiky green stem.  Slice in half lengthways, then take your knife and score it in a criss-cross pattern like in the picture.  BE VERY VERY SURE not to cut more than 1/4 close to the edge of the eggplant and DO NOT pierce the skin with your knife.  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven; it should look like the picture on the left.  

With a spoon and a sharp knife, scoop out the insides of the eggplant to leave two eggplant bowls; do not remove so much of the flesh that you can see the purple skin.  It will tear and leave you with a mess.  Chop the insides of the eggplant into bite-sized pieces and reserve.  Turn the oven heat off and slide the eggplant bowls inside to keep warm.

Drizzle a pan with a little olive oil and heat to medium high.  When the oil is hot, toss in the chopped onions, garlic, the stalk of lemongrass, sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss, and let saute for 2-3 minutes until the onions are translucent.  

Add the two chopped tomatoes, all the spices, and the lemon juice.  Bring to a boil and then add in the eggplant.*  Simmer for 5-7 minutes, then fold in the chopped basil or parsley and green onions.

Take out the lemongrass stalk.  Remove the eggplant bowls from the oven and spoon the tomato-eggplant mixture into each bowl.  Transfer to plates.  Garnish with a few more green onions and some herbs, or with pine nuts (as is tradition) or almonds (as I did).

Serve as is or with a side of couscous; enjoy!

*If you like, you can add anything to the dish at this point; you could toss in some shrimp, maybe some bell peppers, maybe scallops, maybe sauteed pieces of lamb...it's pretty versatile!

Mediterranean Baba Ghanoush

I found myself with this amazing grocery bag of eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes this week, and I wanted to do something awesome with them.  Now, some of the best eggplant recipes I know are Greek and Middle Eastern (and believe you me, after researching Arabian culture from the Islamic Golden Age, I have a heck of a stash of recipes).

I adore non-traditional American food, and I especially admire the way Britain has embraced it so eagerly that curry sells better there than fish and chips.  Germany is embracing kebabs like nobody's business; I had the best kebab of my life when I visited my sister in Wiesbaden this summer and we celebrated my birthday with a heck of a lot of German beer and the now-traditional stumble to the all-night kebab place.

Another pretty awesome thing about this kind of food is that, while it usually does include a great deal of meat, yogurt, ghee, nuts, etc., you don't have to use those things to make food taste non-Western; that's what the spices are there for.  It's like Thailand and fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro, lemongrass, and chilies; it's Japan with quality soy sauce, ginger, rice wine vinegar, pickles, and really good rice.

So here's a lovely Greek and/or Middle Eastern recipe (depends who you're talking to!) that you can eat hot, cold, or at room temperature, and it's great with celery sticks for dipping at a party (or on an evening where four of you are eagerly playing Settlers of the Catan for four hours...).   Combines as a nut-based meal/snack with the Natalia Rose program, but only if you use the tahini.


Baba Ghanoush
Makes about 1 1/2-2 cups.

Ingredients
1 eggplant
1 tbsp tahini (optional; I've made it without and it's still good)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp dried fenugreek
1/4 cup fresh parsley or sweet basil, chopped
2-3 shakes cumin
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Cut the end with the spiked stem off of the eggplant, then slice the eggplant lengthwise down the middle.  Slash cuts horizontally and vertically through the eggplant flesh like an avocado, being careful not to cut too deeply and pierce the skin.*  Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cut sides up, and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over each eggplant half, then bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

Remove eggplant from oven and let cool to room temperature.  Chop roughly and add to food processor, along with tahini, garlic, lemon juice, fenugreek, cumin, and most of the parsley, except for a pinch or a small sprig.  Pulse until combined, then add olive oil gradually until the baba ghanoush is as creamy as you like it.  Add salt and pepper to taste; pulse one final time.

Spoon baba ghanoush into a serving bowl along with crudités of all kinds, garnish with a leftover pinch of parsley or sprig of basil,** and enjoy!

*This allows the olive oil and salt and pepper to ooze down and flavor the whole eggplant, not just the surface of the eggplant or the aluminum foil covering your sheet.
**You can garnish with just about anything:  chopped kalamata olives, pine nuts, chopped sundried tomatoes, a lemon wedge, some freshly pressed garlic...

A sizzlingly savory Turkish tomato/eggplant dish, garnished with pine nuts, is up next!

Savory-Sweet Butternut Squash Soup

Crisp fall weather, bright orange leaves decking the trees, root vegetables galore in the produce aisle--what does that call for?

To me, it's butternut squash soup time.  This is one of the creamiest, most delectable, most comforting vegan soups I have ever made or tasted, and it's so darn magical that, except for about a tablespoon or so of olive oil (or butter), it's almost completely fat free.  But it's thick, warm, starchy, and really, really good!  Combines, obviously, like a starch with the Natalia Rose program.


Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
1 large to medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 large sweet onion, minced
1 32-oz carton low-sodium vegetable broth
1/2 cup original flavor almond milk (really optional)
1/2 juicy lemon, juiced
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp coriander
Large pinch of herbes de Provence
1 tbsp butter or extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Chop up the butternut squash and scoop out the pulp.  Squeeze all the seeds out of the pulp and reserve them in a small bowl.  Cut up the pulp and add to the pot when you add the butternut squash cubes.


In a large pot, turn the heat to medium-high and add the olive oil or butter.  When hot, toss in the onions, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, stir, and wait, stirring as needed, until they turn translucent.

Add in the spices:  the garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, paprika, cinnamon, coriander, and herbes de Provence.  Toss and cook for about 1 minute, letting the spices roast a little.  Be careful not to let the spices or the garlic burn; add more oil or butter as needed.

Add in the cubed butternut squash.  Toss with the onions and spices and saute, occasionally stirring, for about 3 minutes.

Pour in the vegetable broth, about a teaspoon of salt, and at least half a teaspoon of ground pepper.  Bring the soup up to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer, cover the pot, and let cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Even a cheap blender will do this well, because the squash has been cooked through.  Either use an immersion blender to blend up the soup, if you are lucky enough to own one, or pour the soup into a regular blender and process in batches.  If you do the latter, have an extra bowl nearby so you have something to pour the blended batches into while there is still unblended soup in your pot.  Be careful; it's very hot.  Pour all the soup back into the soup pot.  Isn't that the most gorgeous orange color?

Add the lemon juice and, if you like, the almond milk; stir.  It will be hot, so keep that in mind as you season to taste.  If anything, it will most likely need more salt.  Mmmmm!

Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Take the reserved butternut squash seeds and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spread the seeds out on the foil, and bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool for a few minutes, then sprinkle over the bowls of soup.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

Tips

• If you can possibly buy pre-cubed butternut squash, this recipe will be a total breeze.  On the other hand, I used to think that chopping it up was a total nightmare, but I made it last night and it is not.  
• I also used to think that I needed almond milk to make it creamy, but you really don't.  I added it because I always have, and later thought "Huh.  I wonder why I used to need this."

Spicy-Sinful Thai Red Curry

Ever since working at Lemongrass Thai Bistro in Macon, GA, I've been a huge, huge fan of Thai food.  However, I'm also addicted to trying to figure out amazing recipes and making my kitchen smell awesome.  One of my favorite recipes at that restaurant, and one I always find myself ordering, despite the summer shrimp basil rolls, the duck with mandarin oranges, and the clay pot, is the red curry.

That dish is simply unbelievable, and I'm going into so much withdrawal that I refused to just buy red curry paste.  I had to make it for myself.  Especially since I've got a Thai basil and a Thai chili pepper plant doing very well on my balcony; check out the picture!  I'm pretty proud of that hot piece of flora!

Needless to say, this will be a much simpler task if you just go buy red, green, or yellow curry paste at your local Asian market or online.  Amazon had 480 results when I typed in "Thai red curry paste," of which I'm assuming at least thirty are actual jars of potential food.

Thai Red Curry Paste
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/3-1/2 cup Thai chili peppers
1/4 cup sweet onion, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 cloves garlic
1 1-inch piece of galangal or ginger, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp soy sauce, preferably Nama Shoyu
1 Tbsp fish sauce (optional; add a pinch of sea salt to substitute)
1/4 cup canned coconut milk (or about 2 Tbsp almond milk for detoxers)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions
Put all ingredients except the coconut milk (or almond milk) into a blender or food processor and process very well to create a smooth paste, unlike the picture.  I do not have a Vitamix for optimal demonstration, sadly.

Add the coconut/almond milk a little at a time if your machinery needs a little help processing into a paste.  DO NOT taste this without a glass of something soothing and cool nearby.  (I was out of ice cubes so I ate about half a tablespoon of pumpkin butter.  Surprisingly, it worked!  The chilies did not shatter my skull with their immense powers to torture.)  It will be hard to gauge, anyway, because the flavor's supposed to be so strong and spicy--if it's off, you can tell best when you're actually using it in curry.  Fix it then.  Use whatever you need immediately and put the rest into an airtight container; store in the refrigerator.  After 10 days or so, transfer it to the freezer for optimal storage.

Thai Red Curry
Serves 1-2

Ingredients
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
12-oz can coconut milk , minus the 1/4 cup used for the paste (or 1 1/4 cup almond milk for detoxers; in which case, use much less or no vegetable broth)
1 Japanese eggplant, chopped
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1/2 cup broccoli
1/2 cup red bell peppers, chopped
8-10 shiitake mushrooms, chopped into thirds
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2-1 cup vegetable broth, as desired
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil or coconut oil (preferred)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
5-6 Thai basil leaves (optional)
2 Kaffir lime leaves (optional)
1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions
In a large sauté pan or a wok, heat the coconut oil over medium high.  When sizzling, toss in the chopped eggplant, onions, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli.  Toss until coated in the coconut oil, then add the curry paste.  Toss to coat the vegetables in the curry paste and let sauté for 2-3 minutes, stirring as needed.

Add in the coconut/almond milk, cinnamon stick (if using), and green onions.  Stir and cook for about 1 minute. The sauce should be fairly thick now.  My favorite version of this curry has a great souplike sauce that welcomes a good deal of hearty brown rice, so I'd add in a decent amount of vegetable stock, but simply add a little at a time, stirring, until you get the consistency that's right for you.  Add in the cilantro, Thai basil (if using), and Kaffir lime leaves (if using).

I actually did not use the Kaffir lime leaves, because I was on a budget, and it still turned out great--however, they're fantastic as well as authentic.

Taste-test the curry:  if too spicy, add more coconut/almond milk.  If too salty, add a little bit of lime juice (this also works well with too-salty guacamole); if not salty enough, add soy sauce, fish sauce, or salt.  If not spicy enough, add anything spicy in your cupboard, although Thai chili garlic sauce works best.  If too sour, add something sweet: stevia, agave nectar, or honey.

Before serving, remove the cinnamon stick (if used).  Serve in individual bowls, either by itself or with a mound of rice per person.  Sprinkle some cilantro over the top and enjoy!

Seasonal Produce Bliss

Arabian Nights finally opened and closed!  Guess what that means?  Extra sleep and family visits!  My mother came up to see the show, and she stared at my sadly depleted refrigerator, which was totally devoid of fruit by that point (thanks, new oatmeal addiction!), and by the time I came back from our last performance on Sunday night, there were a few Publix paper bags in front of my door:  a gorgeous yellow-and-orange potted mum (yes, the one in the picture) and two bags of produce--mmm!  Ripe plums, three Bosc pears, a whole bag of grapefruit, limes, asparagus,  a mango, two tomatoes, a few little cucumbers, and a pineapple!  And she'd sneaked about five avocados into my dining room, too.  Isn't that simply amazing?  I thought so.  =)  

She's left me with a challenge:  to help her recreate the Kashi Black Bean Mango frozen entree and to revel in guacamole.  I absolutely cannot wait!

And in other seasonal news...check out the photo to the right:  see that crazy pink liquid in the wine glass?  It's red grapefruit time!  

I love that time of year when grapefruit actually turns bright, beautiful reddish pink.  It tastes seventy thousand times better, and it's so gorgeous that I want to do everything from juice all the ones I can find to displaying slices of grapefruit gorgeously on top of salads or making a grapefruit tart.  Something.  It's so inspiring!  The picture to the right doesn't do it enough justice.  

So, for the past few days, I've been luxuriating in actual, fresh produce, actual sleep, and actual free time!  My favorite salad, which I threw together last night, is as follows:

Ingredients

A few handfuls of Spring Mix

1 diced tomato

1/2 minced sweet onion

1/4 cup each chopped red, yellow, and green bell peppers

1 cob of raw corn, cut off the cob

1/4 cup cooked, chilled beets

A few sliced portobello mushrooms

Julienned basil, to taste, plus sprigs for garnish

Dressing

1 tbsp walnut oil

1 lime, juiced

1 tsp Dijon Country Mustard

Pinch herbes de Provence

Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste

I mix the dressing in a small bowl, add in the minced onions, whisk together, and pour on top of the mound of chopped produce--mmm!  There's something about raw corn with the mustard and walnut oil dressing that just makes me smile--sweet, tangy, and flavorful!

I leave you with a picture of that glorious red liquid grapefruit elixir.  I'm choosing it hands down over wine right now, guys.  That's some seriously good stuff!

Guacamole and cream of asparagus soup (well, with almond milk) are on the recipe for tonight, so hold onto your hats!  I have never, ever, heard anything but awe and praise for this guacamole recipe...

Sweetly Comforting Almond-Pear Oatmeal

I love, love, love everything about fall, from the color scheme to the fashion to the blessed relief from boiling hot air.  (I mean boiling.  In the sense that something needs to be liquid to boil.  Georgia air is like wading through hot mud, some days.)  I also love the recipes that come with fall, and eatingbirdfood posted an amazing oatmeal recipe the other day.  But then the boyfriend's mother took us to Publix and insisted on buying us over $100 of groceries (because she is spectacular), so I found myself with all kinds of amazing produce--and, first and foremost, Bartlett pears.

Now, I love pears, raw, in salads, marinated, in pies, and poached.  But I've never had them in oatmeal, and haven't always been the biggest fan of bananas, which is what this original recipe used.  So I tinkered around a bit, and this is what I came up with:

Sweetly Comforting Almond-Pear Oatmeal
Serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain almond milk
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 pear, chopped into cubes (preferably a reddish one, because the colors are pretty!  I realized this after I'd taken pictures of the recipe made with a yellow Bartlett pear.  Silly me.)
• Sliced raw almonds to garnish
• Drizzle of agave nectar

Directions
On the stove, bring almond milk, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla bean seeds to a boil.  Add in the oats, stir, cook for one minute, then cover, turn the heat off, and let sit for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in the chopped pear, spoon into bowls, and top with sliced almonds, a little more cinnamon, and a drizzle of agave.  Enjoy!

Note:  I've been experimenting with this since I ran out of pears and vanilla beans, and have found that adding a teaspoon of amaretto or a little almond extract instead of the vanilla is a fabulous treat, and apples are a much crisper alternative to pears.  I intend to try kiwi next!

What are your favorite oatmeal recipes?

Slightly Manhattan Clam Chowder

I promised another recipe tonight, didn't I?  Well, although rehearsal for Arabian Nights went on till eleven, here I sit, flopped on the couch after being unable to contemplate an evening without cooking and therefore wandering into the kitchen and blissfully giving up sleep.

Seriously.  It's kind of embarrassing.  I get a weird kick out of chopping fennel and julienning basil.  I stand in the kitchen for an hour as the boyfriend patiently waits for dinner, shouting back "Yes, I heard that!" as he watches the latest recorded Jon Stewart or Community, and keeps hoping I'm laughing at the latest jokes.  Instead of, you know, doing a quick sauté of vegetables and snuggling up to him and to the cat.  (Oh, priorities.  But y'all, cooking is addictive.)  My mother and I have a very closely knit relationship over food:  on her last visit, we spent a morning on the balcony eating fruit spring rolls with mint and honey while relettering my spice jars to showcase her calligraphy skills.

By the way, I feel like I should explain the label pictured above.  The words "Crushed Red Peppers" are very difficult to translate into calligraphy.  I suggested "Crushed Slightly Orange Peppers", which looked much prettier.  It does make sense.  I swear.

But!  Here we go.  I do realize that the only relation this has to Manhattan clam chowder is the tomatoes, but this is called creativity.  And it worked.  And it's Natalia-Rose detox-friendly:  flesh-based.

Slightly Manhattan Clam Chowder
Serves 4-8 or 1 for two days

Ingredients
1 onion, minced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 large bulb or 1 small bulb fennel, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
4 15-oz cans diced tomatoes, unseasoned (since you don't usually make soup when great tomatoes are in season)
2 cans clams with liquor (or about 18 scrubbed fresh clams; steam them for about 8-10 minutes in a covered pot instead of the 3-4 minutes at the end of step 3.)
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups vegetable broth
1 heaping tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Herbes de Provence
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
1 lemon or lime (preferably lemon, but I've got to use up a whole bag of limes!)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fennel fronds or torn basil leaves, to garnish

Directions
1.  Drizzle your largest pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil and turn heat to medium high.  When the oil sputters when you sprinkle it with drops of water, add the onions and some salt and pepper.  Sweat the onions until they turn translucent.

2.  Add the diced carrots, fennel, and garlic, toss, and season with more salt and pepper.  Sweat for a few minutes, then add the diced tomatoes in their juice.  Season with a little more salt and pepper*.  Bring to a slow boil.

3.  Add the clam liquor**, dry white wine, herbes de Provence, red pepper flakes, and the tomato paste, stir, and simmer for about 3-4 minutes.  If you like, you can add about half the mixture to a blender to make a soup with a slightly thicker texture; it makes for a slightly creamy-looking soup without actual cream...


4.  Add the vegetable broth, the lemon or lime juice, and the bay leaf.   Bring to a slow boil and then turn the heat down to low; simmer for 15 minutes.  Add in the clams and simmer for 5 minutes more, then serve, garnished with some fennel fronds or julienned basil leaves.  Also possibly a bit of cracked pepper.  Enjoy!

This soup, too, gets better the longer you allow the flavors to marry.

*The reason for the continual seasoning with salt and pepper is that each ingredient absorbs the seasoning as it cooks, thus giving you more flavor if you add salt and pepper gradually versus adding all at once at the end.
**Not the canned clams, not yet; just open the can almost all the way and keep the lid on to let only the liquor pour out while the clams stay inside.  They will get tough if you add them too soon.

The soup kick will be over soon, I feel.  And it's still warm enough for some truly out-of-this-world guacamole...

Mmmm.  I think I have to go shopping for avocados now.

Unforgettable Winter Potato Soup

I've been longing for this soup for ages, and finally it rained and dropped Georgia temperatures down to the 70s!  Not ideal, but, hey, I'll take what I can get.  I've loved this soup for years, and my mother, who is a brilliant cook herself, originated it one long winter when we had a whole lot of Yukon Gold potatoes in the house.  It's unbelievable.  


If you're not too worried about miscombining (a la Natalia Rose), add the clams (directions for those in italics).  It's out of this world!


Unforgettable Winter Potato Soup
Serves 4-8, or one for two days if you don't feel like sharing!
5 large gold potatoes (Yes, they must be gold potatoes.)
1 sweet onion. diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carton low-sodium organic vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 lemon or lime, juiced
1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp Herbes de Provence
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1/4 cup Cognac or brandy (V.S.O.P., preferably)
2 small cans chopped organic clams


Directions
Prick the gold potatoes with a fork a few times and boil them in water with a tablespoon of salt until they're soft inside.  Drain, run cold water over the potatoes, and peel them quickly.  (Or don't, if you like potato skins.  I love them!)  Chop into cubes and set aside.


In the largest pot you have, turn heat to medium-high and add olive oil.  When the oil sputters when you flick a few drops of water onto it, add the diced onion, a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook, occasionally stirring, until the onions turn translucent.  Add in the diced carrots, celery, and garlic, season with a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for about 4-5 minutes, stirring.  


Add in the 1/4 cup Cognac or brandy and let boil for about a minute.  Open the cans of clams almost all the way and drain out the clam liquor into the pot, keeping the clams in the can.  Add in the potatoes, some more salt and pepper, at least a tablespoon of herbes de Provence, and the crushed red pepper flakes.  Toss the vegetable mixture so that each cubed piece is coated in everything and spends a bit of time cooking directly in the cognac and clam liquor.  Add the carton of vegetable broth and the juice of the lemon or lime.  Stir, and use the back of the spoon to mash up the potatoes a bit if you want a thicker broth (and this is why we wait to add the clams, plus they get tough easily).  


Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 15 minutes.  It gets better the longer it sits, although it will be most brothy in the beginning, before the potatoes have begun to absorb all the liquid.  I like my soup with lots of broth, so I add extra water and a bit of seasoning if I think it's become too thick.  Serve and enjoy!

Tips

• I use a Westmark garlic press, which is better than any American one I have ever found.  I grew up with it in Germany, and was desolate without it when I moved away from my mother's house until Amazon's endless suppliers saved me.  It's small, which means that it's lightweight, and all the garlic comes out of the bottom instead of spreading out and sneaking out the top of the press.  It's also easy to clean--just rub it under running water to get the bits of garlic out of the holes.  If a bit of garlic is really stubborn, blow through the holes and make a fun spitting sound that entertains children worldwide!  But the most brilliant thing about this garlic press is that it actually presses so hard that you get garlic juice, not just garlic pieces! It infuses everything you make with intense garlic flavor, so you get to save on the amount of garlic you use.  It's a win all the way around!
• You can use a tablespoon of butter instead of olive oil to sweat the onions; this is just the vegan version.  But nothing really beats the smell of onions in butter, does it?
• I usually add in a bit of water on top of the vegetable broth, just because I like to spoon liquid soup.  It's up to you!
• This tastes pretty awesome with a slice of the Publix gourmet Sports Loaf or Multigrain Loaf.  
• By the way, the Sports Loaf is on sale this week for $3.99!  Just be sure to ask for it in one of those bags covered with holes, and then take it out of the bag immediately upon getting home to preserve the crust.  I have a small wooden cutting board for bread, so I just cut whatever I want and leave it, cut side down, on the wood board.  The crust stays crusty until the bread is gone, which is usually very quickly!  If you don't have one specifically for bread, just use your regular one, although I'd prefer wood or bamboo.

I'll share more recipes soon!  Cooking, to me, is the supreme form of fun, relaxation, and winding down, so I get a whole lot of practice!