Tofu Soup

Looking for appetizer recipes the other day, I picked up a Korean cookbook. The ingredients in Korean food are very different from my comfort food favorites: cheese, cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese. All high in fat and calories!

I always gain weight over the winter. I blame the historical need to be prepared for a long hard winter - gain a little weight, kind of like hibernation strategy. :-)  I am looking to avoid comfort food!

Although Costco has been in the area since 2004, we joined a few weeks ago. It took so long to join because I was never impressed with Sam's Club. It just wasn't a nice place to shop, and there were very few items I could use.  I assumed Costco was similar. It's not. Costco has very nice produce and good prices on things we often use. We stocked-up with groceries from Costco last weekend including: broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, mini-peppers, onions.  Too much for the refrigerator. Luckily, it is winter. A table in the garage works. So, how to use all the food before it goes bad? Soup! There was half a block of tofu in the fridge left from Zucchini Tofu Patties last week.

Then I remembered the delicious miso soup at Fusion Japanese.  It was the best, most balanced, flavorful Asian soup I had ever eaten.  A delicious clear broth with a few tofu cubes and green onions. Well, I thought, I can do that.  

Cotehele's Tofu Soup

1/2 block tofu, drained and pressed dry.  Cut tofu in 1/4 inch cubes.

Make a marinade of:
soy sauce
garlic
chili oil
olive oil

Combine tofu and marinade.

In the meantime, make the soup base:
1/4 cup diced onion
8 cups water
2 packets George Washington Golden Broth
1/2 - 1 tsp McKays Chicken Style Seasoning
Bring to boil and simmer while cutting up the veg.

Vegetables:
1 small carrot, slivered
1 each yellow and red mini peppers, slivered
6 thinly sliced brussel sprouts
6-8 finely chopped bella-mini mushrooms

Add vegetables and tofu to soup base.
Simmer a couple of  minutes.

Add Korean Pasta 2-3 minutes before serving.
Sprinkle a little hot chili flakes in soup before plating.

This goes in my keep file. It was very good! This made enough for supper (two of us) and a bowl left for lunch.

Gift of Wild Rice

Just after Thanksgiving a GardenWeb cooking forum member generously sent hand harvested Minnesota lake wild rice to a few lucky members. I was thrilled to learn my name had been drawn because I had not eaten wild rice before (Uncle Ben's Original doesn't count).  I thought wild rice was as thin, hard and black as no. 5 pencil led.  This wild rice is brown and  larger diameter.

Along with the rice, Teresa sent her recipe for wild rice soup and instructions on how to prepare the rice: it is baked.  One cup raw rice yields 4 cups cooked rice.

The cooked wild rice resembles little wiggly, damp creatures straight out of a sci-fi movie. The luscious flavor quickly trumped any hesitation to eat creepy crawlies. 

Mr. C was not up to eating just anything after a post-Thanksgiving bout with a virus, so I did not add the cream. Anyone who know me will be surprised I passed up this opportunity to use cream! The soup was delicious without the cream. It had nice body and yummy flavor.

Teresa's Wild Rice Soup
Yield: about 6 cups

• 6 tablespoons margarine or butter 
• 2-3 tablespoons minced onion 
• 1/2 cup flour 
• 3 cups chicken broth 
• 2 cups cooked wild rice 
• 1/2 cup finely grated carrots (I use more) 
• 1 cup minced ham or leftover cooked chicken 
• 3 tablespoons (or more!) chopped slivered almonds (you can put them in the soup OR toast and top as a garnish) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup half and half (I used Fat Free. I have also used low fat evaporated milk) 
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry (I used Holland House cooking sherry) 

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, melt margarine; saute onion until tender. 
2. Blend in flour; gradually add broth. 
3. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute.
4. Stir in rice, carrots, ham, almonds and salt; simmer about 5 minutes. 
5. Blend in half and half and sherry; 
6. heat to serving temperature. 
7. Garnish with snipped parsley or chives. 

 

Mushroom Soup Take Two

Things happen so gradually it is hard to realize a change has taken place. It takes a new eye to notice. My son drives my car when we go someplace.  About a month ago, he noticed the car steering wheel was shaking. Well, I had noticed too, but it didn't shake all the time. I thought it was rough road. Nope. The rear summer tires were worn through the rubber and a bit of the steel belt. So off to the shop my car went get the wheels aligned. Mr. C followed me down and we spent the day Christmas shopping. All of the cookware at Williams Sonoma was 20% off. I couldn't pass up the chance to get the Staub dutch oven I've been hoping to find on sale for months. The other two Staub pots don't match. They were purchased on sale at different times. This dutch oven is Mr. C's favorite color, a gorgeous blue.

We thought we found the last of the Christmas gifts until we got home and discovered Sweet Girl raided the stocking stuffer bag. All that was left of the cappuccino truffles was the bag. Cheese ball mix covered the hall carpet. She is okay thank goodness, but she had plenty of energy that evening.

My new blue dutch oven was meant to be cristened with mushroom soup. The good kind. Bella Mini mushrooms were buy 10 get 1 free at the market. I loaded up the vegetable crisper with mushrooms.

The soup is a little of this and that made up as it went along: mushrooms, onion, rice sticks, GW golden broth, salt, pepper, butter, thyme.  Cream is added at this point, but Mr. C was still recovering. He didn't want cream in the soup. It was very good without cream, I would make it without again.

I am very happy with the new pot!

Mushroom Soup

I was four years old when we moved into a developing neighborhood.  The houses were small brick three-bedroom homes with one and a half bathrooms, kitchen/dining room/family room (was that term already in use then? I don't think so!), living room, and full basement.  It's the first house that I have memories of living in. Too bad. I love old houses, and our first house was a two-story frame older home.

The neighborhood was so new, construction of other new houses was taking place.  No one had a fenced in yard, which made running next door or to the house behind ours to play with friends ideal.  The grading left a low area in our back yard that always filled with water and froze in the winter.  It made an excellent skating pond where lots of neighborhood kids would play. Mom didn't want all the kids in the house, but she occasionally made hot chocolate for all of us and passed it through the milk chute.

When I finally came in the house, I was shivering and frozen. Mom would turn on the gas oven,  open oven door, plop me in front of it, and stick my feet in to warm them.  Mom drank Sanka although it was frowned upon in our church to drink any form of coffee.  She never would give me a taste. Instead she made me Pearl Tea, a mixture of hot water, canned milk and sugar.

Lunch was often soup and a sandwich.  Always Campbells soup.  Was there any other kind?  Tomato soup and grilled cheese.  Mushroom soup and grilled cheese. Chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese.  Okay, so I loved cheese from a very early age.  Now that I am firmly in the midst of middle age, I do not use canned soup. Mushroom soup made with fresh mushrooms, cream, butter and thyme tasted is divine.  I confess, we do keep a few cans of Campbells Mushroom Soup in the pantry.  It's just the thing when the GI bug gets hold of one of us.  Must be a comfort food from childhood.  Mr. C is home from work today, sipping Campbell's Mushroom Soup. I hope it helps.

Glorious Day

It was a glorious, sunny, warm day with very little breeze. So unusual for November weather. Put the top down on the car running some errands. My Sweet Girl loves the wind blowing on her face.

Still eating leftovers for supper tonight. 

Lima Bean Soup

Grilled Cheese and Veggie Hot Dog Sandwich

Mr. C is on holiday a few days this week. I can't wait to go to Traders Point Creamery for lunch. Last time we ate on the deck overlooking the gazing fields. It reminded me of Switzerland's wide gables and lush green fields.

Lima Bean Soup

1/4 c onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 serrano pepper, minced
Simmer in butter until softened. Add salt, pepper and cumin to taste.

2 small sweet potatoes, small dice

1/2 cup frozen lima beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
In a sauce pan add (in succession so all are done at the same time) enough water to cover. And 1 cube veggie broth.   Simmer until done.

Add skillet vegetables to sauce pan.

Serve with sour cream and pita bread cut into small cubes and warmed in butter.

Yield: 2 servings and about 1 cup left over.

Cotehele's Recipe