Inspiration in a Crock Pot

It's been well over a year since my last post and I really can't apologize, it's just that I wasn't cooking anything interesting enough to share. It's been a year of great food, but most of it was food I had eaten or cooked before. Until last week when my mom gave me a crock pot for Christmas. Since then I have been back to trying new things and looking for recipes online.

The crock pot (or slow cooker if you are from the south) is a medium I have wanted to try for awhile. Traditionally, it makes me think of food my grandmother would like to eat, lots of meat and potatoes. However I believe there is a crock pot revolution going on that involved healthy food with vegetables all slow cooked while you are at work. I decided it was time to learn more.

The first recipe I made was a chicken tikka masala. It was good, but not great. I love chicken tikka masala and this one still needs work to be perfected. Then this weekend, we were up spending New Years with my in-laws in New Hampshire and I decided to try and recipe for Homemade Pho with Chicken from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker, a book that was free on the Kindle 6 or 8 months ago.

Pho is a Vietnamese soup of noodles, broth and chicken or beef. The broth and chicken are slow cooked together with ginger, spices and onions for a wonderful flavor. You then serve it with lots of toppings so everyone can individualize their own bowl. It was fun and wonderful.

Jared and I spent yesterday at the Patriots game. When we came home, we were both completely excited for a big bowl of Pho. At that point I knew I had to blog about it.

Homemade Pho with Chicken

from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker

Cooker: Large round or oval

Setting and cook time: high for 4 to 5 hours

Ingredients:

3 bone in chicken breast halves, skin removed

2 bunches green onions, white and green parts separated and green parts set aside for garnish

6 cloves garlic, unpeeled and smashed with the side of a knife

1/2 bunch cilantro

4.5 quarts reduced sodium chicken broth (I have a medium crock pot, so I didn't use all of this)

2 small yellow onions, unpeeled and halved

3 one to two inch pieces of fresh ginger, unpeeled

3T Vietnamese fish sauce

3 whole star-anise pods (I couldn't find these)

6 whole cloves

1 two inch piece cinnamon stick, broken in half

pinch of whole fennel seed, lightly crushed (I used anise seed, I think they are the same thing)

1 bay leaf

1/4 inch wide rice noodles

Garnishes:

Fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

Fresh parsley, coarsely chopped

Mung bean sprouts

Thai or Italian basil (I couldn't get this)

Thinly sliced jalapenos

Green part of green onions

Lime wedges

Hoisin sauce

Sriracha red cilli hot sauce (this really made it all come together)

Chinese noodles (my addition)

Instructions:

1. Place the chicken, white parts of the green onion, garlic and cilantro into the slow cooker. Add enough broth to fill the crock to just over three-quarters full. Cover and set the heat to high.
2. Place the onion and ginger on a baking sheet and place under the broiler about 3 inches from the flame. Char until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes, turning halfway through the cooking. Add to the crock along with the fish sauce.
3. Place the star anise, cloves and cinnamon in a small dry skillet and toast over medium heat, shaking until heated slightly, 3 to 4 minutes; you will smell the aroma as they release their essential oils. Place in a square of cheesecloth with the fennel seeds and bay leaf; tie with kitchen twine and submerge in the broth in the crock. Cover and cook 4.5 to 5 hours until the soup is steaming and fragrant and the chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove the chicken from the broth with tongs and place in bowl. Using a colander lined with a double layer of cheesecloth, drain the broth into a large heatproof bowl. (I was skeptical about this step, but it really was necessary.) Discard the vegetables and the spice bag. Return the broth to the crock, cover and keep on low. (At this point, I added a bag of the pre-sliced carrots to the broth.)
5. Cook the rice noodles according to directions. Remove the chicken from the bones and shred with two forks; return the chicken to the crock. (I added more chicken at this point and left it on low until we were ready to eat. Probably 30-45 minutes.)
6. Divide the noodles into the bowl, ladle chicken, broth and carrots on top of the noodles. Serve with all the garnishes and encourage people to try different things!

Fall Soup & Swine Flu

We spent most of the late summer and fall traveling. We went to Chicago, NYC, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Province Town. Out of 9 weekend, we were in our home relaxing for exactly 1! (This is probably also part of the reason why I haven't blogged as much as I would have liked.) We visited friends and family and had a fantastic time in all our jet setting.

Our last trip was to PA to visit my sister, brother-in-law and youngest nephew, Taylor. It was a great trip that included a Pearl Jam concert, a trip to the local farmers market and introducing my nephew to the spoon.

It also included picking up my first Food & Wine magazine since my subscription ended earlier in the year. It was the Thanksgiving issue, which is my all time favorite issue of any food magazine. You have to expect food magazines to go all out for Turkey Day. It is after all the holiday for which they are written. I find that if I get the November issues of Food & Wine and Real Simple each year, I can be kept cooking through most of the winter.

This year, interestingly enough, it wasn't one recipe that inspired me. It was all the great recipes with squash, sweet potato, leeks, and cauliflower that had be drooling and I didn't want to make each one, I wanted them all....NOW! So I made up my own.

I roasted cauliflower, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes in the oven for about 50 minutes. I could have eaten these as is, but instead I threw them into the food processor with some chicken broth and blended them until smooth.

I then sautéed onions, leeks and celery for 5 minutes before adding the pureed winter vegetables and a box and a half of chicken stock. I added about 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger, some nutmeg and let this simmer for 20 minutes. I topped it with some fresh parsley and roasted pumpkin seeds.

The result was a fantastic winter soup that was hearty and earthy. It carried Jared and I though the following week where we were both home from work for 4 days with the swine flu. I would recommend staying away from the flu and making some version of this soup!

The time of year for soup recipes!

I never liked soup when I was young, and I still don't like soup out of a can, but when the weather turns chilly and fall is in the air I don't hesitate to start breaking out my soup recipes. This winter I am sure I will share many with you, but the first is a brand new recipe from AF, my sister.

I have been searching for the perfect butternut squash soup recipe for a couple years now. There was a lunch place near my first job in NY that had a butternut squash and apple soup that I ate every day for a year. I have tried to recreate it, but I always find my attempts to be bland and lacking in inspiration.


This year AF had me drooling with jealously over the amazing garden she was able to plant at her new home in Royersford, PA. A couple of weeks ago when she was up visiting, she brought me two beautiful butternut squashes and a recipe for Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice soup.

I have to admit I was hesitant at first, the idea of sausage in soup is not something that thrilled me. I waited for my mother to give it a shot first, and when both she and my sister raved about it, I decided to try it out. As I was making it, I was still skeptical about a soup that had almost no spices in it! What is butternut squash soup without cinnamon and nutmeg?


As the soup started to bubble in the pot I took a taste and was blown away. How could such a simple soup have so many flavors and textures? You could taste the smoky spiciness of the sausage and the vegetables and rice combined to give the soup an amazing heartiness. It was everything my other butternut squash soups have not been, inspirational.



Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup

2 medium butternut squashes - peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch chunks
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper
12 cups chicken stock
2 1/2 cups chopped wild rice
1 box instant wild rice
3/4 pounds sausage - kielbasa, turkey kielbasa, jalapeno chicken sausage, chicken apple sausage, anything that inspires you
2 cups frozen corn
1 1/2 cups half-and-half (I didn't have this, so I used skim milk, it worked fine)
1T chopped parsley (I think I used 4 times this, you can never have too much fresh parsley!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss squash with 1T olive oil and some salt and pepper. Layout on flat baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes or until tender.

2. Remove the squash from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes and then throw into the food processor with 2 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of onions. You might have to do this in batches depending on the size of your food processor.

3. In a saucepan, cook the wild rice according to the instructions on the box except replace the water with chicken stock. Put to the side.

4. In a large dutch oven (a really big saucepan, perfect for making soups) add some olive oil and brown the sausage for 3 minutes. Add the remaining onions and the corn, season with salt and pepper and saute for 3 minutes.

5. To the soup pot, add 6 cups of stock and the squash puree. Stir well and allow to come to a boil. Reduce heat an simmer for 20 minutes.

6. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface (I used chicken sausage and there was almost none, but I expect if you use real sausage there is more.) Stir in the rice and continue to cook for 10 minutes.

7. Remove from heat, add half-and-half and season with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley and serve.