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What to do with all the basil?
I harvested a load of basil from the Aerogardens today, and it’s now too cool to just make salads out of the stuff, so I decided to do soups. I made a HUGE pot of tomato basil soup. I found this recipe that emulates La Madeleine’s soup. It’s a pretty close approximation. Yummy! I also made a vat of coconut basil soup. I glanced at a few recipes online, but none of them were exactly what I wanted. Ultimately, I ended up dumping in a couple of cans of chicken broth, a couple of cans of coconut milk, a can of evaporated milk, basil, ginger, cilantro, coriander, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin, and lime juice. My Braun hand blender came in very handy for making these soups. I was able to puree them until they were silky smooth.
Cups of the soup went down nicely with slices of the Sally Lunn bread I made in the bread machine last night. I cheated and used a mix that we bought in Williamsburg last year. Made things simple.
I’ve made gallons of these soups, so I’m going to package them up in individual serving sizes using my food sealer and toss them in the freezer for consumption at a later date. They’ll make great lunches!
I am supposed to make my three bean salad for Turkey Day at my cousin’s house, so I bought kidney beans and garbanzo beans. I put the garbanzo beans in the pressure cooker, but I let them go too long and they got all mushy. So I just broke out the hand blender again and whirled them up with garlic, parsley, paprika, tahini, olive oil, and lime juice and made a big old bowl of hummus. I suppose I’ll either have to freeze that, too, or I’ll have to take it to Thanksgiving. The thing is that I’m not sure that either my family or Lex’s likes hummus. Hrm.
Believe it or not, but after all this cooking, I still have basil left over. I suppose I should just make some pesto. I bought some walnuts today, but I’m running low on olive oil. Hrm. We’ll see what happens, I reckon. I should make ice cubes from pureed herbs and water and freeze them for use in soups and stocks. That’s the way to do it!
clam chowdah
I made Alton Brown’s Clam Chowder recipe this weekend.
Let me say this. I love clam chowder.
That said, making it myself grossed me out.
I don’t really care for mollusks, but somehow I do alright with fried clams, clam dip and clam chowder. Mostly because their true appearance is disguised by batter, sour cream and potatoes, respectively.
MJ said she liked it, so that will be how I judge the recipe.
Something about draining the clam juice, then having to chop the clams up.
The juice was this opaque greenish/gray.
The clams were green in parts and gray in others. It was just gah-ross.
Then after the potatoes were cooked, I had to pour that green/gray juice in.
So basically, the whole thing turned me a little greenish/gray, so I couldn’t eat any.
But I had Campbells Clam Chowder for lunch Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m weird, I know. Campbell’s clams were pinkish though. . .
I found an old email today.
I’ve spent the last hour and a half cleaning out my inbox. Deleting the crap, and sorting the rest into the appropriate folders.
I found this gem from Herr Roman:
On Dec 9, 2004, at 4:12 PM, Roman wrote:
I’m just writing what the book says. You should, of course, adjust
the garlick requirements since they’re kinda lame in this recipe.
Spanish Garlick Soup:
Serves 4
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 Large garlick cloves, peeled (you seriously need to adjust this one)
4 Slices of French Cursty bread, about 1/4” thick
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Qt beef stock
1/4 tsp ground cumin
a pinch of saffron strands
4 eggs (you may use less, depends on your tastes)
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
fresh chopped parsley, to garnish (my soup never makes it that far)
1) Heat the oven to 450°F. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the
whole garlick cloves and cook until golden; remove and set aside. Fry
the bread in the oil until it turns a golden brown; set aside.
2) Add the paprika to the pan and fry for a few seconds. Stir in the
beef stock, cumin and saffron. Add the reserved garlick, crushing the
cloves with the back of a wooden spoon, and season with salt and
pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
3) Ladle the soup into 4 oven proof bowls (or two big ones, which is
what i’ve done) and break an egg into each one (or the egg whites, if
you prefer). Place a slice of fried bread on top of each egg. Put
the powls in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes until the eggs are set (which
is a lie! don’t do it! the egg won’t even be touched by the heat. i
did it for about 10 minutes, and it was yummy). Sprinkle each portion
with parsley and serve and enjoy immediately
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