Coconut Wild Rice Soup

When the weather turns rainy, I start making soup. It must be one of those "settling in for the winter" tendencies that I have, along with pulling out the flannel sheets and walking around in sweaters and stocking caps. Though this fall has been so mild we've primarily had beautiful sunny days with a few rainy ones scattered about. Maybe I'm wishing for fall more than experiencing it.



Anyways, back to the soup. I've made several lentil versions, a hearty chicken and sweet potato chowder, and a couple weeks ago this delicious coconut wild rice version. It was hearty and used basic ingredients that I have in the pantry so was thankfully pretty easy to pull together.




This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking, and one I find myself turning to more often then not. I love the simplicity of the recipes, and yet the layers of flavor built in to each one. And wild rice is so hearty and distinct its hard not to try anything that highlights this ingredient.



Reading up about wild rice in my handy Food Lover's Companion, I learned that it is "known for its luxurious nutty flavor and chewy texture, and actually isn't rice at all but rather a long-grain marsh grass native to the northern Great Lakes area, where it is harvested by the local Indians. Though it is also producing commercially in California, as well as several Midwest states." I love learning little random facts about what I eat.


Coconut Wild Rice Soup
adapted from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Serves 4

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 medium potato, chopped
1 cup wild rice, rinsed
4 cups water
1 14-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce (low-sodium if possible)
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
salt

Heat the coconut oil in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat, then add the curry paste, garlic, and onion and saute for 3-4 minutes, until the onion begins to soften. Ensure everything is well coated in coconut oil and curry paste before adding the next ingredients.

Stir in the chopped potato, wild rice, and 3 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and add the garbanzo beans. Stir well then lower the heat a bit, and cook, covered for about 40 minutes, or until the rice starts to soften, and split.

When the wild rice is tender, stir in the sugar, soy sauce, coconut milk, and remaining cup of water. Stir, return to a simmer and add salt to your taste. Cook for another 5 minutes to meld the flavors. Remove from the heat and add any additional salt or pepper as desired.

When serving, be sure to ladle from the bottom of the pot to make sure each bowl gets a good helping of wild rice, potatoes, and beans.

Alison's Notes:
*I served this soup with crackers on the side, sliced baguette would also be good.

Homemade Spinach Pasta

Have you ever made your own pasta? No, I didn't think so. Because really - who makes their own pasta? That is not a retorical question. Until last weekend I would have never thought to make my own, but like most homemade dishes, it is well worth the effort. It's so good!

Over the weekend as I was doing my weekly ritual of scanning the cookbooks and magazines on the shelf to come up with new recipes for the week I came across an easy sounding pasta dish in a new cookbook, The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. This gem was a gift from a friend earlier this year, however with the recipes coming out of the heartland of northern Italy I have saved looking through it seriously until the weather turned cold.





I'm sure other cookbooks I've looked through before have walked me through making pasta, but for some reason this one spoke to me. Maybe because there are no pictures, and so I couldn't get too scared. Or maybe because it offered a hand made variety vs. using a pasta maker (which I don't have). Whatever the reason, I can now say that I've made my own pasta.




It probably, no - it definitely, did not turn out perfectly, but that was part of the beauty of it. It wasn't form made, or uniform at all. There were holes where their shouldn't have been holes, and I didn't have the special tool to make ziti, which my sauce recipe called for, so I went with a basic spaghetti noodle instead.



I'll be trying this again, because I obviously have tons to learn. But for those who've ever thought about trying to make their own pasta - I say go for it, and maybe it will turn out like some of the picture's here, or maybe not...but I can almost assure you that it will taste good!







Spinach Egg Pasta
adapted from The Splendid Table

Serves 4-6, and makes about the same amount as 1 pound of dried boxed pasta

2 jumbo eggs (I used large eggs and added more water when mixing)
10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed, stemmed, steamed, squeezed dry, and finely chopped; or 6 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry*
3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

Mound the flour in the center of the work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs, and chopped spinach to the middle of the well. Using a wooden spoon beat them together gradually incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As more and more flour is worked into the liquid use a pastry scraper (or your hands) to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate as much flour into the dough.

Once the dough has become a cohesive mass, use the pastry scraper (or a knife) to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface - these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough about 3 minutes, so that the consistency is elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny smooth, and very elastic. Don't shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it relax at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or up to three hours.

Using a regular size rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time. Keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. Shape it into a ball and being rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins out start rolling and stretching the dough using your hands to pull the dough as you continue to turn it a quarter turn. Stretch the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way, then gently pushing the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the dough in place with the other hand. Repeat these processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner.

The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For spaghetti and other flat ribbon pastas it should be thin enough to see your hand through it. Be careful to not take two long in thinning and stretching as the dough starts drying out, and then it can be difficult to stretch and will possibly cook unevenly.

Either lay the pasta sheets onto a flat surface, or drape them over the back of a chair covered with a dish towel to dry for 20 minutes, or until leathery in texture (turning several times to encourage even drying). Repeat with the remainder of the dough.

To cut, roll up the pasta and slice it to the desired width, then lay it out as necessary to continue drying or cook up in very salty water. This fresh pasta cooks very quickly, and is done in about a minute of cooking in boiling water.

Alison's Notes:
*I used one large bunch of organic spinach from Earthbound farms.
**Like I said this was my first go at it and I definitely struggled with the stretching of the dough. As I write up the instructions I'm already thinking of ways to make it easier and quicker next time.

Buckwheat Pear Pancakes

Sometimes I have a hankering for eating something specific, and this morning it was pancakes. On a crisp fall Sunday morning, this sounded like the perfect breakfast.

Not sure if I've mentioned my marathon training yet, but - for the past three months I've been training for the Santa Barbara Marathon with Team in Training. As the mileage has continued to creep up each week (next Saturday I'm running 20 miles, the longest I've ever run before), I've had to be more and more careful with what I eat. And the thing is...I want to be.

The more I run, the faster and stronger I want to get and much of that has to do with what I eat. As my coaches say, "You are what you eat." I've heard this before, but training for a marathon has made it more real for me than ever before.

Needless to say, these days I'm really trying to cut down on the sugar, processed food, and saturated fat in my diet. And at the same time figuring out new ways to eat good, nourishing food. Which is how the buckwheat pancakes came about. When I woke up wanting pancakes this morning, I knew that I wanted to make a healthier version of this breakfast treat. Buckwheat flour, which I picked up a while ago from my local food co-op, is a whole grain flour with a distinct nutty flavor, and its loaded with magnesium and other heart healthy benefits. Making it the perfect flour substitute in my pancakes.




Also, instead of regular sugar I used honey. A friend recently turned me on to the idea of using honey instead of sugar. She was telling me that up to a certain point you can use a one to one ratio of honey over sugar. I'm pretty sure it was at least 1 cup, so my substitution worked out just fine in this recipe.



I added the pears for the fun of it. I thought they were a nice flavor combination with the buckwheat, and I like how cooking them directly into the pancake batter softened and toasted them just perfectly.



Buckwheat Pear Pancakes
adapted from Betty Crocker's Fast Pancake Recipe

makes 9 medium sized pancakes

1 large egg
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 pinches salt
1/2 pear, thinly chopped

Beat egg in a medium bowl with a fork until fluffy. Stir in the remaining ingredients, except the pear just until smooth. Heat skillet over medium heat or to 375. Grease pan with butter.

For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Place the thinly chopped pears into the batter. Cook until bubbly on top, puffed and dry around the edges. Turn and cook on the otherside until golden brown.

Notes:
- Next time I might try using all buckwheat flour to see what it tastes like, or adding chopped nuts instead of pears. There are all kinds of combination's to try here.
- This was a great recipe for two, but I would definitely plan to double it if there were more people coming for breakfast, or I wanted left overs for the week.

oktoberfest beef brisket

I've made this beef brisket twice now in just a matter of weeks. Though you wouldn't know it, after the beautiful weather we've had here the past couple days, fall is coming and my inner clock is telling me to cook hearty, fragrant food that fills the belly. The first time I made this brisket I paired it with these soft-pretzels and apples with caramel sauce for an Oktoberfest feast. And more recently it was an easy dish that I made the night before a busy day of hanging out with family, knowing it would be a hit.





The original recipe recommended making this the day before and letting the flavors meld and come together for a night or two before serving. And it works! The earlier the better. Which brings me to the only slightly difficult part of the recipe - planning ahead, and by more than just a couple hours, which is my usual M.O.

But let me tell you it is well worth the effort and planning needed to cook the brisket on day one, and heat and serve it on day two. This allows the flavors to meld nicely, plus, when spread out over two days the house smells heavenly for just a bit longer.




Brisket Braised in Porter
adapted from Bon Appetit

(this takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes to make, but most of that time is hands off, plus time to re-heat on before serving)

1 tablespoon coarse kosker salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dry mustard seeds, ground)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 3-pound brisket, trimmed but with some fat still attached
2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat
4 cups low sodium chicken broth, divided
1 12-ounce bottle of porter or stout beer
6 whole pitted prunes
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons packed brown sugar
3 cups thinly sliced onions
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 pound medium carrots, peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Rub herb mixture all over brisket. Heat bacon fat in a heavy extra-large wide ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Add brisket to pot and cook until deep brown, 5-7 minutes per side. Transfer brisket to platter.

Add 2 cups of broth to pot and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Stir in prunes, porter, bay leaves, and brown sugar; bring to boil. Return brisket to pot, fat side down; scatter onion slices over to cover meat, then add garlic.

Cover pot; place in oven and braise brisket 1 hour. Remove pot from oven; uncover and turn brisket over so that the onion slices fall into the liquid in the pot. Return pot to oven and braise uncovered for 30 minutes. Add 1 cup broth. Cover and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes. Add carrots and continue to braise until the meat and carrots are very tender, adding more broth by the cupful as needed, about 45 minutes to 1 hour longer. Cool slightly then refrigerate uncovered until cold. Cover and keep chilled at least 1 day and up to 2 days before serving.

About 1 hour prior to serving spoon off any fat from the surface of the brisket or in the pot. Re-heat on the stove by first bringing the juices to a boil and then simmering the brisket for at least 45 minutes until heated through. Serve meat and vegetables with sauce from the pot.

Serves 6.

(photography by: alison clayshulte)

homemade soft pretzels

As part of an Oktoberfest dinner party we had a couple weeks ago, Matt and I made these fabulous soft pretzels. We had made them once before last spring, and just like before they were no fuss and easy to pull together. This time we got a couple kinds of mustard to dip them in, and I would totally recommend this Jack Daniels version, yum!



I always thought soft pretzels were one of those items you got at the fair, or sports games, not something you made. But the homemade version is so incredibly yummy, that I think it will be hard to go back to the sports game variety. These pretzels are soft and chewy, and I like how when I make them at home I can add as much or as little salt as I want.




Similar to other kinds of bread the primary ingredients are flour, water, yeast and salt. I still have yet to find a local all-purpose flour, so unfortunately can't say that these are very local. I do wonder however if there is fair-trade flour that I can get? Hmmm, something to look into. I pretty much followed the recipe spot on for these and both times have come out with fantastic results. Though they take about 1 hour and 30 - 45 minutes to make, the hour is really due to them needing to rise until about double in size.



homemade soft pretzels
from Alton Brown via the Food Network

makes 8 soft pretzels

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
2 large egg yolk, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
pretzel salt (large flake salt - I used Maldon)

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50-55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 1 large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly brush with vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil.

In the meantime turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment lined pan.

Place the pretzels in the pan 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12-14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with your favorite mustard and/or pint of beer.

photography by: alison clayshulte