Name This Soup

On Sunday evening, knowing I had a busy work week ahead of me, I decided I would make a nice pot of soup so that Nerdy-Boy and I would have leftovers and something easy to heat up for dinner this week.  Good intention, but that didn't work out so well.  This soup was so good, Nerdy-Boy ate almost the entire pot Sunday night leaving not even enough for a lunch serving.   Which is fine by me - we're making reservations for dinner this week.

I also didn't think I was going to get back to the Pink Stove Diaries this week -- but, so many of you asked for this recipe, here I am at 6:00 a.m. posting the recipe for dear Pink Stove blogees.  I hope you and your family enjoy this soup as much as Nerdy-Boy and I did.  And, I hope you will take the time to help me name this soup.  Post your name suggestions in the comment section here or leave them on my Facebook page. I'll post a poll with the top suggestions so that everyone can vote on the name of this soup.  I even have a special Pink Stove prize for the winner of the "Name This Soup" contest!

I think the Italian turkey sausage and the herbs I use in this soup gives it a swell Tuscany flavor.  It was rich, hearty and warm on a cold Sunday night.   The 2009 Beaujolais Nouveau was surprisingly good this year and was the perfect compliment.  If you've already polished off your bottle, a Pinot Noir would work well with this.

Please don't forget to help me name this soup -- it's too good to remain nameless!

No-Name-Yet Soup
1 lb Hot or Spicy Italian Turkey sausage
1 medium onion - diced
3 cloves of garlic - minced
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of carrots - sliced into 1" in pieces
4 small to medium red potatoes - 1" in cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 cup of fresh baby spinach leaves - packed
salt and pepper to taste-(If needed.  Frankly, I forgot it and didn't even notice).

In a large soup pot, brown the sausage over medium heat..  Add onion and garlic and cook until just soft - 5-7 minutes.  Add wine and cook to reduce - approximately 5 minutes.  Add chicken broth, carrots and potatoes.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until carrots are tender.  Add cream, thyme, rosemary and let simmer for 30 minutes until soup begins to thicken.  Stir in baby spinach and let wilt just before serving.

Citrus Fennel Salad

Giada, Ina, Paula, Emeril, Bobby and all those people on the Food Network always make it look so easy.  It simply just ain't.  Especially when you don't have an assistant or someone to clean up after you.

I found this recipe in Giada's collection and since I wanted something summery and citrusy to help chase off the winter blues at our dinner party, I settled on this.  I hate licorice, but, love fennel - go figure and if I find a salad recipe with raw fennel, I'm going to try it.  It has such great crunchiness.  Also, anything with lots of basil in it is always good in my book -- since come summertime, I run out of things to do with it.

I made this for the dinner party the other night and besides struggling with getting the citrus out of the membranes, oranges that were seriously NOT juicy, I wish I would have made this the night before giving the flavors more time to meld.   Lesson learned.

Fennel Citrus Salad
1 large orange, peeled and ends trimmed
1 grapefruit, peeled and ends trimmed
1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Place a sieve over a medium bowl. Hold an orange over the bowl, and using a paring knife, cut along the membrane on both sides of each segment. Free the segments and let them fall into the sieve. Repeat with the grapefruit. Squeeze the membranes over the bowl to extract as much juice as possible, reserving the juices in the bottom of the bowl. Place the fruit segments and fennel in a salad bowl.

In a blender or the bowl of a small food processor, blend together the oil, basil and 3 tablespoons of the reserved juice until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour over the fruit and fennel. Add the chopped walnuts and toss until all the ingredients are coated.

Lemon Yogurt Cake with Blueberry Sauce

I am still experimenting with different lemon cakes in order to come up with a good lemon lavender cake.  Since my lavender has gone to sleep for the winter and I spent more money on lavender buds in New York than I can publish here in case Nerdy-boy is reading, I decided I would first experiment with just lemon cakes and add the lavender later. 

I found this recipe for Ina Garten's lemon yogurt cake and this may be the vessel for my lemon lavender cake with a few adjustments.  This cake is light and very lemony.  Ina claims that it's not as calorie heavy as most cake because there is no butter in it.  I'm not buying that one.  Nonetheless, it's quite tasty.  I know that because there was about 1/4 of it leftover from the dinner party the other night when Nerdy-boy and I had this conversation.

NB:  Honey, do you want a piece of this lemon cake?

ME:  Not right now - I'm good.

NB:  Do you think you're going to want a piece later?

ME:  No, honey. But, if you want to eat the rest of the cake, go ahead.

Of course he did.


Lemon Yogurt Cake (from Ina Garten)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
nocoupons

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar 

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

nocoupons

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

For the Blueberry Sauce (this leftover sauce was great on our fluffy pancakes this morning).
1 1/2 pints fresh blueberries, rinsed
1 cup vanilla sugar1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine the blueberries and vanilla sugar in a large heavy saucepan. Add 1 cup water and the lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken.

Remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve. Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate.

A fun commuinity dish - Paella!

There are so many things to love about Paella.  It's such a great dish to place in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves.  There is something in it for everyone.  I love finding a shrimp or a little morsel of sausage nestled in the rice richly flavored with saffron.  Have I mentioned that saffron is one of my very favorite spices?  Of course it is - it is the most expensive spice in the world!  I began experimenting with different paella recipes several years ago just because of the saffron.  Last month on a trip to New York City, Chris, Colleen and I received a recommendation for a paella restaurant from a guy in a wine store as we were indulging in one of our favorite hobbies - purchasing wine. 

A no-reservation restaurant in New York City on a Saturday night a few weeks before Christmas that seats approximately 40 is not going to stop the likes of the three of us. Thanks to Chris and Colleen's charming personalities, (those two could sell honey to bees) our wait wasn't terribly long.  The Soccarrat Paella Bar was fabulous and the proprietor's were happy to share with us some great tips on fixing authentic paella.

The following recipe is an amalgamation of several recipes I've drawn from plus tips from the The Soccarrat Paella Bar.  The only tip from The Soccarrat I didn't use in this recipe is to use a genuine paella pan that I have yet to purchase.  According to these paella experts, it's what gives the dish the crunchy flavorful goodness on the bottom.  I can't wait to purchase my very own paella pan!

Paella
3 Tbsps olive oil
1 medium onion (diced)
4 cloves garlic (diced)
1 medium red onion (diced)
1/2 lb sausage (I use Italian turkey sweet sausage but, many recipes call for kielbasa or other types of sausage - to me, it's a personal preference)
2 cups cooked chicken (diced) - I like the white and dark meat in paella
1 cup dry white wine
1 tsp saffron threads
2 cups long grain rice
1 cup asparagus spears blanched and cooked crisp tender (cut into 1" pcs)
1 cup sugar snap peas blanched and cooked crisp tender
4 cups seafood stock or chicken stock (I think the seafood stock is lot more flavorful but sometimes I can't find it at my grocery)
1 lb shrimp (uncooked)
2 dozen clams

Place wine and saffron in a small pan bring to a boil over medium heat.  Set aside and let steep.

Over medium heat in a large heavy, covered oven-proof pan, heat oil and brown sausage.  Add onion, garlic and red pepper.  Cook until just tender.  Add chicken, chicken broth, rice and wine and saffron.  Cover and let cook for 20 minutes or until rice is cooked through and tender.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cover pan place in oven and cook for 45 mins to 1 hour.  The last 10 minutes of cooking, remove pan from oven and nestle shrimp and clams in rice mixture.  Top with asparagus and sugar snap peas and return to oven covered and cook until shrimp turns pink and clams open up.  Remove from oven and mix together before serving.



  

Hits and Misses

Sometimes you just hit in the kitchen and sometimes you just miss.  I think I hit it more times than I miss, but, this menu for a recent dinner party was a slight miss. Nothing (I believe) was inedible - there were very few leftovers, but, by far, not my best outing.  The good thing about a dinner party is that it's more about the company, the conversation and the time spent with friends than anything else and in that regard, with Doug, Jen, Barb, Pat and their fabulous children, it's always a hit!

When I do miss, I generally learn what I did wrong and hit it right the next time.  I whip up a lot of things in my kitchen and on my pink stove that I don't publish here because I don't think they are worth your time or effort.  Even though, I had a miss on this outing, I think this is a good menu and great receipes and worth publishing.  My goal with this menu was to bring a bit of sunshine with citrusy flavors to the bitter cold weather we have recently been experiencing in central Pennsylvania.  I'm going to try these recipes again soon and you should too!

Welcome Back!

So The Pink Stove Diaries and I have been on hiatus.  That doesn't mean that Her Excellency The Pink Stove has been on hiatus.  She has been very busy this holiday season whipping up all sorts of delectable delights.  She's been so busy, she plum-tuckered me out completely leaving me no energy whatsoever to blog.

But, a new year and new intentions (I did NOT say resolutions - just intentions.)  I'm looking forward to 2010 and trying new things on the Pink Stove and hopefully sharing them with you.  What are you doing on your stove and won't you share with me?

Happy New Year Pink Stove Blogees!

Pork and Sauerkraut Stew

New Year's Day at my mother's table in the midwest was always the leftover Christmas ham bone and black-eyed peas.  Mother told us that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day would bring us luck and prosperity in the new year.  I think it was just her way of using up the leftover ham bone and and getting us to eat black-eyed peas.

When I moved to Pennsylvania 10 years ago, I found that pork and sauerkraut is the dish that central Pennsylvanians propagate to get kids to eat what they don't want to.  This year I decided to embrace my central Pennsylvania-self and get Nerdy-Boy to eat what he doesn't want to eat.  When it comes to Nerdy-Boy, I like getting lucky.  And lucky for me, he loved this dish!

May the new year bring you love, peace and joy.  Oh and luck and prosperity as well!

Pork and Sauerkraut Stew
1 2-lb pork tenderloin - cut into 1 inch cubes
2 Tbsps olive oil
1 medium onion - diced
3 cloves of garlic - rough diced
3/4 cup of celery - rough dice
1 cup of carrots - peeled and sliced
4 small potatoes - cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup of white wine
2 cups of chicken broth
32-oz sauerkraut
1 apple (sweet-variety, peeled, cored and in 1 inch-dice)
2 tsps caraway seed

Over medium-high heat, brown pork tenderloin in a large dutch oven.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Saute onion and garlic in pan drippings 3-5 minutes - just softened, not browned.   Add wine and deglaze pan.  Add chicken broth, celery, carrots and potatoes.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes until vegetable are slightly tender.  Return pork to pan and add sauerkraut, apple and caraway seeds.  Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

I'm not a big fan of caraway seeds, but, just the slight hint gives this stew a warm aromatic flavor.  And the secret ingredient -- an apple!  It drew just enough of the bitterness out of the sauerkraut to let all of the other flavors come out.  Perfect for a bitter cold Pennsylvania day.