Hamburger-Vegetable Soup with Tortellini

Today is a second day of snow day so there's no school for my son and myself.  Yesterday I did housework that included laundry, vacuuming, mopping, and dusting!  It's very rare that I got to do dusting when I do my weekly cleaning--ooppsss--as that chore is very tedious and I do not like it at all.  If I can do dusting at least once a month, it is already a triumph for me.  Hey, I am not perfect, are you? :)

I also did some baking which I will probably post the recipe in here.  I do like having snow day because I get to catch up with my chores and to play around in the kitchen.  And yes, I am the kind of person who can't sit still because I will end up eating snacks all day long.  Plus, being at home always makes me hungry; I think it's the comfort of the home that brings calm, stability, or equilibrium to my mind that the immediate response--at least for me--is hunger.

Speaking of being hungry, this past weekend I made this soup which was soo good and easy.  It defines comfort food with rich tomato broth and the pillow-like texture of cheese tortellini.   The flavor is very similar to having hamburgers; that's a plus!

 Wouldn't this be great to have on snow days?

Hamburger-Vegetable Soup with Tortellini

Serves 6 to 8


1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 teaspoon vegetable oil, if needed
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) petite diced tomatoes, no-salt added
6 cups beef stock or broth
2 cups tomato juice
1/4 teaspoon dry Italian seasonings
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 drops Tabasco sauce
1 package (10 ounces) frozen mixed vegetables, rinsed
1 package (9 ounces) cheese-filled tortellini
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping


In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, brown meat with onion until meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.  Add oil if needed to keep meat from sticking.  Add tomatoes, stock, tomato juice, dry Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Increase heat to medium-high.  Add vegetables and tortellini and cook, uncovered, until vegetables and tortellini are tender, about 10 minutes.  Ladle into a bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.


Source:  adapted from The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt

Salmon, Vegetable and Cheese Chowder

Every now and then, even in summer, we love to eat comfort food like soup or chowder.  This chowder satisfies the need of eating something wholesome and relatively easy to prepare.  Not too mention a way to use fresh corn that is in season.

I served this with slices of sourdough bread along with butter and considered dinner accomplished :)

Salmon, Vegetable and Cheese Chowder

Serves 4 to 6


1 cup chopped yellow onion
2 medium russet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cubed
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/4 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
4 cups chicken stock or broth
1 cup half-and-half or milk
1 cup flaked cooked salmon
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese or a combo of Cheddar and Monterey Jack
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large soup pot over high heat, bring vegetables, garlic, rice and 3 cups of the stock to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until vegetables and rice are tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer to a food processor and blend in batches until slightly chunky.  Return to soup pot.  Stir in remaining 1 cup stock, half-and-half, salmon, cheese, salt, thyme, and pepper.  Simmer, uncovered, until cheese melts and flavors are blended, about 10 minutes.


Source:  The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt

Roasted Carrot, Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

This soup is super easy and tasty, not to mention that it also contains super vegetables, packed with vitamin As.  The kind of soup that you want to make for a chilly evening.  You can even substitute butternut squash with a different kind; I've tried it with kabocha squash and it still came out delicious.

Roasted Carrot, Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

Serves 4



1 butternut squash (about 2 lbs.)--peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds

1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

2 onions, peeled and cut into 8 wedges each

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

3 tablespoons chopped dried cranberries

3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage



Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Divide the squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and onions between 2 rimmed baking sheets.  Drizzle 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil over each baking sheet; toss the vegetables to coat.  Roast until lightly browned, rotating the pans halfway through cooking, about 25 minutes.

In a large saucepan, combine the roasted vegetables and 8 cups water; bring to a boil over high heat.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 15 minutes.  Using a blender and working in batches, puree the soup, transferring pureed portions to a clean pot; season with salt and pepper.  (The soup can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days.)

In a heavy, medium skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the pepitas and stir until toasted, about 2 minutes.  Add the cranberries and sage and stir until fragrant, about 1 minutes.  Remove from the heat; season with salt and pepper.

Stir the soup over medium heat until it simmers.  Ladle the soup into bowls; top with pepita-cranberry mixture and a sprinkling of pepper.



Source:  Everyday with Rachael Ray, January/February 2013

Ang Chow Chicken Soup with Preserved Mustard Greens

Do you have a hand-me down recipe that you frequently make now?  Several years ago I asked my mom if she would write down her recipes for me.  I wanted her to write down recipes that she is used to cook while I was growing up, and recipes that she also continues to make at present time.  She obliged, and in about 6 months presented me with a notebook containing her hand-written recipes.  I have also written down her recipes once I started cooking, so her notebook supplements what I have.

One of the recipes in her notebook is this Ang Chow Chicken.  Ang chow is red rice wine from Foochow (or Fuzhou), the capital city of Fujian province in China.  To make ang chow, ang kak, or red yeast rice, is used along with jui piah, or wine cake, glutinous rice, and water.  Glutinous rice is cooked first, which then will be put together in a container with the rest of the ingredients.  Jui piah, or wine cake, is rubbed loose to get the content blended with rice and ang kak.  The process of fermentation will take about 30 days.

I did not know how one would make ang chow before until I searched the Internet and came upon this wonderful article regarding the making of ang chow.  It is fascinating!  I hardly see or know where ang chow is sold here in the Oregon, and whenever I get to go back to Indonesia, I make sure I bring a bottle of ang chow with me.  I cherish that bottle and would only use a little bit at a time even though I love the taste of ang chow in a cooked dish.  I don't know how my family came to cook this particular dish; I'm not sure if one of my ancestors came from Fujian province either.  I'd better asked my father the next time I talk to him.

There are two version of cooking with ang chow in soup in my family, one is with chicken and preserved mustard greens/pickled mustard greens, the other one is with beef and daikon radish.  Ang chow is believed to have health benefits in cooking, for lowering cholesterol, and for mothers who just have given births.  I may not care too much about the health benefits because this dish is certainly a comfort food for me, especially during the cold season.

Ang Chow Chicken Soup with Preserved Mustard Greens

2-3 lbs bone-in chicken thighs (or breasts)

1 10.5 oz preserved mustard greens/pickled mustard greens

3 garlic cloves, sliced

3-4 thick slices of ginger

1-2 tablespoons ang chow

Salt and white pepper to taste

Rinse chicken, chop into smaller size.  Parboil the chicken for a few minutes and drain.  Drain the mustard, and immerse it in a bowl of cool water for 10 minutes.  Drain again, and chop leaves to about 1-inch long.

In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, saute garlic and ginger slices for 30 seconds.  Add the ang chow and stir for another 30 seconds.  Add chicken parts, mustard leaves, and water (about 5-6 cups).  Let it boil, then simmer the soup for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.  Taste with salt and pepper.

Shrimp Ball Soup with Chai Sim

There's so many things I've done this month that it's hard to find time to write anything here. Everything was to be done in a hurry, I was looking at the month through numbers. Certain number means certain things to be done. I'm hoping by the end of this week I could catch my breath and start doing things more leisurely.

Today also marks my son turning nine years old; there's always a joy of remembering how he came to the world after so many years waiting for that moment to come. Following his mom devotion to food, he asked me to bring donuts for his friends today. I was happily obliged, knowing that his friends would be more than happy to gobble up goodies.

Don't you think donuts is one of comfort foods of all time? I'm now getting into the mood of cooking for cooler weather. Soups, braised dishes, generally anything that spells comfort is on my menu for the next few weeks. I'm trying to use what's available in season, which is a sensible and budget-friendly approach. When cooking Asian-style dishes, I try to also use what kind of v egetables available in the Asian market. Some vegetables, like long beans are scarce during fall and winter seasons. One vegetables that stays constant is choy sum or chai sim or chai xin. It's a type of Chinese cabbage that's mild in flavor and is very good in soup.

Both the flavor of the soup and the texture of the shrimp balls are delicate. Don't be alarmed that the soup will be colored light green from the vegetables.

Shrimp Ball Soup with Chai Sim

Serve 4



400 gr small to medium shrimps with shells
100 gr chai sim
Salt

For the shrimp ball mixture:
1 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons egg white
2 tablespoons cornstarch



Rinse shrimps several times, peel off the shells, and devein them. Put the shells in a large stockpot and fill with about 6 cups of water. Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. If you don't want to use shrimp stock, you can use chicken stock of the same amount.

Rinse chai sim and chop roughly to 2-inches long.

Mince the shrimp meat and mix with cooking wine, salt, egg white, and cornstarch. Shape the shrimp mixture into small balls. Put them in a lightly greased dish and steam over high heat for about 5 minutes.

Bring the soup stock to a boil. Add chai sim and salt. Pour soup into a large soup bowl and add shrimp balls to it. Serve immediately.

Shrimp, Potato, and Corn Chowder

The summer almost ends, in a few weeks we'll begin new days with shorter days and cooler temperatures.  Between entertaining my son from summer boredom, I'm also keeping up my personal blog with my vacation stories.  Prior to writing those stories, I also have to edit numerous photos from the trip.  Sometimes when it's too overwhelming, I take a break.  Some breaks are short, reading magazines or books, biking with my son; some breaks are long, canning blueberry pie filling and blackberry-chocolate sundae topper.  I still have bags of blueberries, safely frozen in the freezer, waiting for me to make use of them creatively.

There's already a box of freestone peaches that need tending, as I'm planning to can them as well.  I'm still debating whether to can all of them as fruit in juices, or to make some preserves, peaches pie filling, peaches preserves, or peaches ice cream.  I know, I know, the list is long, the time is short, I just need to make up my mind soon before the peaches go bad.

That got me thinking, what else is there to eat while we're at the season's transition?  Fresh corns.  Since there's plenty of corns still available in the market, I want to utilize them for my dinner this week.  Fresh corns are juicy, sweet, and flavorful, the best way to eat them in my opinion is boiling or grilling them until they are tender and slab them with butter and a bit of salt.  Back in Indonesia, grilled corns are flavored with many sauces.  You want sweet, salty, spicy, with barbecue sauce?  You can have it all.  But I'm not posting a recipe about grilled corns this time.  My mind wandered to soup.  Corn and potato chowder to be exact, because even though it is a soup dish, it doesn't have to have many ingredients in it.  With garlic, leeks, potato, milk, and cream, the soup is delicious.  If you use bi-color corns, the soup will look fantastic, and you could omit the shrimp to make it a vegetarian soup.  Give me a bowl of soup and crusty bread, I'm ready to sit and eat.  This is something comforting to make as I get ready to welcome the fall season.

Shrimp, Potato, and Corn Chowder

Serves 4-6



1 1/4 lbs. medium shrimp

3 corncobs, husks and silks removed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 leeks, white part only, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 1/4 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup cream

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-parsley



Peel and devein the shrimp, then chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

Cut the kernels from the corncobs.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the leeks.  Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until soft and lightly golden.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then add the corn, potatoes, stock, and milk.

Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not mushy.  Remove the lid and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low.  Put 2 cups of the soup in the blender and blend until very smooth.

Return the blended soup to the saucepan and add the shrimp.  Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.  Stir in the cream, cayenne pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley.  Season to taste with salt, then serve garnished with the remaining parsley.



Source:  adapted from Bowl Food by Katy Scarlett