Spicy Peanut-Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet potatoes make such a plush-textured soup, good for cold weather. This vaguely African-inspired soup is very filling and, if you use two unseeded chiles de arbol, aggressively spicy. You might consider using 1 chile, or seeding them. The rice helps create a smooth texture - but it will continue to absorb liquid, so add a little more water if you are reheating leftovers the next day.

Spicy Peanut-Sweet Potato Soup

2 large orange sweet potatoes, peeled
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 heaping tbsp white rice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 dried chiles de arbol, seeded if you like less heat
1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Dice the sweet potatoes. Add them to a large saucepan or soup pot along with the chiles, rice, and garlic, and add about eight to ten cups of water and the chiles. Bring to a boil, and boil until the sweet potatoes are very tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add the soy sauce and smoked paprika. Remove from heat and puree thoroughly (easiest with an immersion blender). Return to low heat and stir in the peanut butter until well combined and creamy.

Garnish with nuts if desired.

Serves 4-5.

Pumpkin Muffins

Yum! I cut the sugar from the recipe I was adapting, but would try cutting it further and might try using a bit more pumpkin and 1 fewer egg. However, these were very well received.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or otherwise
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar [I would try 1/4 cup each next time]
2 eggs [I would try 1 next time with a bit more pumpkin]
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tin. Using a whisk, gently mix together all ingredients just until blended. Spoon into muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full -- should make exactly 12 if you scrape the bowl well. (I recommend that you don't forget to add the sugar and baking soda until after you've started to spoon it into the muffin tins, as I did.) Bake 25-30 minutes.

Makes 12

Plum Swedish Pie

The most treasured recipe I have inherited from Ben's family is Swedish Pie, a cobbler-like fruit desert. You can make it with any fruit, raw or frozen. When I make it with plums (=the best way), I like to substitute some cornmeal for some of the flour for a nice texture. I also like to add orange-blossom water or rosewater, like I do with most fruit deserts.

When I make it, this is not a tidy or attractive desert -- I find the topping to be difficult to pour and spread. My mother-in-law's are beautiful! Either way, it will be very tasty.

Plum Swedish Pie

~20 Italian prune plums
3/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar (regular recipe uses 2/3)
1 stick butter
1 egg
orange juice, rosewater or orange-blossom water to taste
cinnamon to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.

Wash, pit, and quarter the plums. Put them into a pie pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and, if you like, with orange juice, rosewater or orange-blossom water. Put the butter in a large Pyrex bowl and microwave just until melted, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and mix well. Beat in the egg, followed by the flour and cornmeal. Carefully pour the batter over the fruit, covering as well as you can. Bake for 1 hour or until solid (if you bake more than one at a time it may take more than one hour).

Serves 8.

Variations: apples + apple cider; apples + bourbon; apple + cranberry; any combination of stone fruits; stone fruits + berries; mango; mango + cranberry; mixed berry or blackberry or blueberry. Thaw and drain frozen fruit before using. If using berries, consider adding some cornstarch with them.

Savory Summer Cobbler -- Take 2

Revisited this. This time, a crust with half whole wheat flour, a touch more cheese; took the unorthodox step of melting the butter first rather than spend the time working it into the dough. (Ben's family melts the butter for their famous Swedish Pie, and it turns out fine -- just different.) Turns out it's better this way - a bit crisp and with more flavor. I might cut down on the baking powder next time and see what happens, as I think the taste comes through too much as it cools (weird, no?). But for a great filling, cook two large sliced onions till light brown, add a can of diced tomatoes and let most of the juice cook off; season with fennel seeds and a tsp of vermouth.

Famous Grouse Chicken

Normally, I would use wine to flavor chicken with onions, but yesterday morning we were out. "I've heard of bourbon chicken," I thought. "Why not with Scotch?" So, into the slowcooker went a shot of Scotch. Result? Delicious!

I cooked this for about 9.5 hours, which is really the most you would want to cook it: the chicken gets browned, but not dried out as it would with longer cooking, and the peppers and onions get browned -- peppers slightly blackened in spots -- but not burned. If you will be at work longer than that and thus need to cook it longer, you could try adding more liquid at the beginning. I might do that next time even for this amount of time.

Famous Grouse Chicken

4 chicken thighs, bone-in. Remove and discard the skin and any visible fat.
1 very large sweet onion, Vidalia or Walla Walla or the like.
2 red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, quartered, or about 10 mini bell peppers, caps removed
1 shot Famous Grouse Scotch
1 tsp coarse Dijon mustard
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
Few drops Sriracha
Black pepper
Paprika
1 cup water

Slice the onion very thinly -- should yield about 3-4 cups. Lay the onion slices over the bottom of the slowcooker. Arrange the peppers evenly over the onions, and lay the chicken over the peppers.

Mix together the Scotch, mustard, vinegar, oil, Sriracha, and water. Pour over contents of slowcooker. Sprinkle the chicken pieces thoroughly with pepper and Paprika. Cook on Low 7 to 9.5 hours.

Serve with rice.

Serves 2-4.

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage with Feta (and Tofu)

Please don't laugh at this title and ingredient list. It's basically an Eastern / Central European - inspired sweet and sour red cabbage dish, bulked up with tofu, and garnished with Balkan seasonings and feta. You don't really taste the tofu, and could omit it to make this a side dish, or replace it with chicken if you're not concerned about mixing meat and dairy. It was surprisingly good, and I'll be making it again.

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage with Feta (and Tofu)

1 lb firm tofu
2 tbsp canola oil, divided
1 large onion
1 small head red cabbage
1/2 cup grapefruit juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp honey -- optional. (I added this and found it too sweet.)
6 dried tomatoes, soaked, drained, and diced
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 large pinch fennel seeds

Drain the tofu and cube it. Heat 1 tbsp oil over high heat in a large frying pan. Add the tofu and brown lightly on one or two sides only (it will keep browning as you add other ingredients), about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the onion, and core and dice the cabbage. Add the onion and cabbage to the tofu, along with remaining 1 tbsp oil, and continue to cook over high heat, stirring occasionally.

After about 8 minutes, when the vegetables have begun to wilt, add the grapefruit juice, vinegar, fennel seeds, and dried tomatoes. Continue to cook over high heat until just about all of the liquid has evaporated and the cabbage and onions are tender, 10-15 minutes.

Turn off the heat. Add the dill and feta; mix well. You can reserve some feta for garnish.

Serves 4 (with nothing else) or 6 (as part of a larger meal).

Yemenite Flatbread (Lachuch)

This is the first time I've ever made lachuch/lechuch/lahoh, a Yemenite flatbread that's sort of like injera. While this is likely not the most authentic recipe around -- cobbled together from several other sites -- it is definitely delicious. Still needs some tweaking; the batter was not as runny as I hoped, causing thicker breads that didn't cook quite evenly, but I couldn't resist posting it now anyway.* Eat with soup or stew, wrapped around tomato salad, with Yemeni fenugreek dip (not that I know how to make that), with za'atar, or with a drizzle of honey.

Lachuch
2 cups white flour
2 cups warm water (next time I will experiment with 3 cups water)
1 heaping tbsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Combine warm water and yeast in a large bowl until the yeast begins to dissolve. Mix in other ingredients together well, until creamy. Cover loosely and let rise in a warm-ish place for two hours.

After two hours, the batter should have at least doubled in volume. Stir it several times to deflate.

Very, very lightly grease a cold frying pan. Scoop about 1/3 cup batter into the pan, and then place it over medium heat. When the top of the bread is pocked with bubbles that pop and do not close and has taken on a cooked look, and the bottom is golden brown, use a spatula to lift the bread onto a clean kitchen towel to cool. Turn off the heat and either allow the pan to cool or run it under cool water to cool it off -- this is very important. (When I experimentally did not do this, the bread did not bubble correctly.) Repeat until you have used up all the batter.

Makes about 6-8 breads.

*I have now (3/28) determined that 2.75 cups of water is TOO MUCH!

Spicy Sweet Potato-Black Bean Soup

This is a favorite of my spouse. It is rich-tasting, full of warm spices, and very delicious, although not particularly attractive. I've made two big batches in the past two weeks, to take advantage of the last cold weather of the season.

If you have any leftover beans lying around -- e.g., half a can of refried beans -- just dump them in.

Spicy Sweet Potato-Black Bean Soup

2 large sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and diced
2 cans reduced-sodium black beans, well rinsed
1 medium or large onion, chopped roughly
4 cloves garlic, diced (or not; it'll just get pureed anyway)
1 tbsp olive or canola oil
3 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp Sriracha (or to taste)
1 pinch dried oregano
(1-2 tbsp honey -- depends on the sweetness of the sweet potatoes)
Water -- lots
salt & pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, cook the onions in the olive oil over medium heat while you are peeling and dicing up the sweet potatoes, about 5 minutes, adding the garlic in the last 2 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and beans; add about 8 cups of water (until the vegetables are covered), and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, add the remaining ingredients except the honey. Boil until the sweet potatoes are very soft, 30-45 minutes, adding water if it runs low. Puree using an immersion blender. Taste, and add honey if you think it is necessary. Thin with more water if you'd like a thinner texture.

Serves at least 5.

Creamed Onions

I have always surmised that I would love creamed onions. We had heavy whipping cream left over from a chocolate-ganache/caramel tart this weekend, so I finally had the opportunity to make them (what, waste good cream?). Turns out I do love them. So, so, so good.

I adapted Simon Hopkinson's recipe from Roast Chicken and Other Stories to fit the ingredients I had on hand, and wouldn't make it any other way. We modern folk aren't that used to eating things made with heavy cream, though -- it's unbelievably rich (even after I cut the butter in half), so I might just try making it with whole milk some time.

They look like nothing special, definitely not photo-worthy, but are impossible to resist.

Creamed Onions

3 large Spanish onions, sliced thinly
4 tbsp unsalted butter (original recipe: 8 tbsp)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or 1/3 cup white wine vinegar and the remainder white vinegar, if that's all you have like me)
1/4 cup extra dry vermouth
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (might try only 1 cup next time)
salt and pepper
pinch dried rosemary

Cook the onions in the butter, with salt to taste, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 30 to 45 minutes (it's a lot of onions -- just barely fit in our largest saute pan until they cooked down). Add the vinegar and reduce until evaporated; add the vermouth and reduce until evaporated. Add the rosemary, lots of pepper, and cream; cook another 10 minutes or so, until thickened.

Makes about 6 servings.

Recommended serving suggestion: for a great dinner for one, eat onions with Ak-Mak crackers dipped in Trader Joe's Bulgarian eggplant garlic spread.

Reasonable Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

While I normally have no problems with cookies that are dessert, with sugar and butter aplenty, sometimes that's not what I want. On a cold day, when I didn't have much for lunch and wanted a more substantial afternoon snack, it made sense to make a more, well, reasonable cookie. Very good with tea. We have about ten bags of cranberries crowding the freezer, so I used chopped cranberries, but raisins would be more traditional and would make a sweeter cookie.

Reasonable Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg + 1 egg white
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 2/3 cup chopped cranberries, or raisins
Cinnamon to taste (several dashes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, additional egg white, and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients, then the fruit.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon or your hands, drop small cookies onto the baking sheet, about 1.5 inches in diameter (or larger if you'd like). Bake 10-15 minutes, until the edges are colored but the cookies are still soft.

Makes 2 dozen or possibly a few less.

Rice Pudding

Continuing on the pudding trend, I made two batches of rice pudding this weekend by special request from my charming associate. For the first (for a dinner party), I essentially followed this recipe, which calls for whole milk and two eggs for a double batch. Just too rich -- not how either of us thinks of rice pudding. So today I made another batch, using skim milk, one egg, and less sugar -- just right. It worked out even though I accidentally used only 1/2 cup of rice instead of 2/3, so I'm leaving it as 1/2 below -- but I'm sure 2/3 would be just fine. (And it's a perfectly acceptable breakfast -- it's just milk, rice, some egg, and a little sugar.)

Rice Pudding

1/2 cup white rice
5 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 green cardamom pod
1/3 cup raisins

Bring the rice, milk, cardamom pod and salt to a boil in a sturdy saucepan, stirring frequently so that it does not stick to the bottom and burn. As soon as it boils, turn the heat to low and simmer until the rice is cooked, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir frequently. When the rice is cooked, beat the egg together with the sugar until smooth. Add several large spoonfuls of the hot rice mixture to the egg; beat after each addition. Then add the egg mixture to the rice mixture and stir well. Add the raisins. Cook about 20-30 minutes more, stirring occasionally, over very low heat, until thickened. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir well. Eat hot, at room temperature, or chilled; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Serves about 4 in medium portions or 6 in small portions.

Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding

I was really impressed by how this turned out -- puffed and golden, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, rich and tasting of mushrooms and onions and cheese.

I'm sure it would be delicious if made with whole milk or cream and white bread with the crusts cut off, but it tasted pretty spectacular made with what I had on hand -- skim milk and whole-wheat "double protein" sandwich bread (and I didn't cut the crusts off). If I'd thought ahead, stale bread would probably work better as I'd prefer a slightly drier pudding, but YUM.

Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding

8 oz. crimini/"baby bella" mushrooms, washed and sliced thinly
1 medium-large onion, diced (about 3 cups)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
5 eggs
2 cups skim milk
8 slices whole wheat sandwich bread, cut into cubes of less than an inch
1/2 to 2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
black pepper
cayenne
salt
1/2 tsp dried sage
2 tbsp butter

Grease a 1.8 quart casserole dish with a little of the butter. Heat the rest in a frying pan over medium heat, and saute the onions in it until they have softened and released some of their liquid, about 5 minutes. (Use this time to wash and slice the mushrooms and cut up the bread). Add the mushrooms and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have softened, released their liquid, and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes more. Season with salt, pepper, and a couple of dashes of cayenne. Remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until well blended. Beat in the milk. Add about a half teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of pepper, a couple of dashes of cayenne, and sage; blend. Mix in the bread cubes and then the onions/mushrooms, making sure it's well blended.

Pour into the greased baking dish. Top with the grated cheese. Bake 55-65 minutes, until the top is puffed and well browned.

Serves at least 4.

Tomato and Cabbage Gratin

I'm rapidly falling in love with cabbage/renewing the love affair cabbage and I began last year. It's so versatile -- it works in every cuisine, is delicious (and takes on the flavors of whatever you cook it with), and takes well to fast or slow cooking. This dish is warming and great for winter without being heavy in the least. With hearty bread to mop up the sauce, it is a great dinner. Not exactly a gratin, I guess, but "cabbage casserole" wasn't a very appealing name.

Tomato and Cabbage Gratin

1/2 large head regular green (not Savoy) cabbage
1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 mini can tomato paste
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 to 2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs or cracker crumbs
about 10 leaves fresh rosemary
pinch of fennel seeds

Dice the onion and saute over medium heat in 1.5 tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan until translucent, soft, and starting to color, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the garlic finely and add it to the onions after about 5 minutes. When the onions are ready, add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste; fill the empty tomato can with water and add that as well. Stir well. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat (above a simmer but below a rolling boil) until fairly thick. (Should be done about the same time as the cabbage, below.)

While the onions are cooking/sauce is simmering, dice the cabbage fairly finely. In a large frying pan, saute the cabbage and fennel seeds in the remaining olive oil over medium-high heat, stirring almost constantly, until it is soft and fairly limp but not browned.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Layer half the cabbage in a medium-sized casserole dish (mine is 1.8 liters and approximately 8.5'' x 11'') and top with half the tomato sauce. Continue with the remaining cabbage and remaining tomato sauce. Top with the cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake, uncovered, about 30 minutes, until nicely browned.

Serves 3-4.