Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Mulligatawny

This recipe is copied and pasted from here.  And, then, edited to reflect what I did or would do in the future.
  •  1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1/4 cup butter (We used olive oil and about 2 Tbsp.)
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons curry powder  (I would use this amount next time.)
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 apple, cored and chopped
  • 1/4 cup white rice
  • 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half - cut into cubes
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 pinch dried thyme
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, heated  (I didn't heat it.)

Directions

I served this with homemade naan.  I started the naan 45 minutes before starting the soup.  

Saute onions, celery, carrot, and butter in a large soup pot. Add flour and curry, and cook 5 more minutes. Add chicken stock, mix well, and bring to a boil. Simmer about 1/2 hour. 

Add apple, rice, chicken, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until rice is done. 

I, think, next time I would put at least some of it in a blender to give it more of a creamy texture.

When serving, add hot cream.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Salsa for Canning

I am copy and pasting this recipe.

10 lbs tomatoes, chopped
6 medium onions, chopped
3 cups bell peppers (any kind), chopped
12 jalapeno peppers, chopped and seeded
5 chili peppers, chopped and seeded (this will make it spicy or milder, depending on the peppers you choose)
10 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 1/3 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tbsp lime juice
3 cans tomato paste (the bigger cans, not the tiny ones)

Combine all ingredients except tomato paste in a large stock pot. Simmer approximately 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and mix well. Simmer another 20 minutes or so. At this point, I take out about half of the salsa, blend it smooth in the blender and then return it to the pot, but you can leave it chunky if you prefer. Ladle into hot jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Cap and process 15 minutes in a water bath canner. Remove jars and let cool.

This recipe makes approximately 15 pints.


I followed directions from here for getting the jars,  tomatoes, and finished product ready. 

The main tips I used were:
1) Use Roma tomatoes for salsa.

2) Place a few tomatoes at a time in boiling water, for 30-45 seconds.  Pull out and submerge in ice water.  Skins will slide right off.

3) Run jars through the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle.  (Our dishwasher does not have a sanitize cycle.  So, I used the pots and pans cycle and put it on heated water and dry.)

4) Bathe the jars in boiling water for 20 minutes.  (I aimed to have the jars covered with water, but my pans aren't big enough for the taller jars.)

5) I covered my towels after the bath to keep them from draft overnight.  All my jars were sealed in the a.m.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Stuffed Pepper Soup

We have been gone and this morning we were home and the weather was cool.  So, we picked all the good stuff out of our garden.  I could not bring myself to freeze all of it and, did I mention, the weather is cool.  So, the logical conclusion is...SOUP!

 
So, after looking on-line for a recipe, twice because my youngest takes great humor in closing my tabs or clicking on and opening ads.  I came across this recipe and proceeded to follow it very loosely, which for me is NEVER done with a new recipe.  But, did get great reviews from my husband.  :-)
So, after reading the recipe, I decided to start by browning my hamburger because I do not want all that grease in my finished soup which would be added if I added my raw hamburger to my veggies.
After browning the hamburger, while it was draining, I sweated my veggies.  These are the veggies at the beginning of cooking.
Once the veggies were tender, they looked like the picture above, I put the hamburger in.
I, then, added the rice and began adding tomatoes.  I'm not really sure how much tomato is in there.  I just kept pulverizing and adding till I thought it looked good.
So, here is my version of the recipe...

1 onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
4 small bell peppers chopped
1 pound hamburger browned
Garlic (Definitely used more than a clove)
1/2 cup white rice (uncooked)
Tomatoes
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp sugar (I will probably use less next time)
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Cinnamon

Brown your hamburger and drain.
While your hamburger is draining, put your onion, bell pepper, celery, and fresh chopped garlic in your soup pan.  (I used some of the hamburger grease that remained in the pan to sweat my veggies.  Or, you can use a little cooking oil.)
Let veggies cook until they are soft.
Put hamburger back in the pan.
Add rice, water, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Put a lid on it and let it cook till the rice is tender, roughly 45 minutes.  Watch it and stir it occasionally.  If it is looking like there isn't enough liquid, add more tomatoes.
Taste the soup at this point to make sure you like it.  You can add more salt, pepper, sugar.  When it is to your liking and the rice is cooked and a good sprinkle of cinnamon.  Stir and serve.  (I served with saltines because I thought it might need a little extra salt but didn't want to risk screwing up the goodness I already had going by adding to much salt.)