Silky Cauliflower Soup with Fresh Porcini Mushrooms

This soup has a remarkable texture, and is very versatile: you can make it simple, with cauliflower and water instead of stock, or you can use the cauliflower as a base for other flavors.

You'll need:

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

6c stock, water, or a combination

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2T butter

fresh porcini mushrooms for garnish*

*I put a few mushrooms in with the cauliflower but I don't think it added much. Keep them as a topping.

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, about 10 minutes, until very soft. Don't let the onions brown.

Add cauliflower and salt (more if you're using water or no-salt broth). Add liquid to cover; bring to a boil, then simmer gently until cauliflower is soft (about 10 min). 

Puree in a blender (I tried using a hand blender but it didn't get the silky consistency) until frothy and smooth. 

Slice porcini mushrooms and saute in butter and salt. Serve soup garnished with mushrooms. I sprinkled Aleppo pepper on top as well. 

And we're back!

Spot Prawns ready for the fire!

Since I blogged last, I've been busy reading, writing, and generally working more than ever before. But now! exams are over and I can't wait to get back to cooking. We just got back from a celebratory vacation to Vancouver and Vancouver Island, and I'd like to share a few great meals we ate while there. If you ever find yourself (or are lucky enough to live) in BC, check out these restaurants.

Honorable mention, Seattle (we flew to Seattle, then drove to Vancouver)

Paseo: Cuban sandwiches. 

Yum. Meat-filled goodness. And that corn on the side was seriously delicious.

Vancouver

Guu with Garlic: Izakaya-style (like Japanese tapas) means you get to keep eating and ordering all night long (and it's cheap!). Some highlights: chopped octopus and seaweed wasabi salad with nori chips, panfried kimchi pork udon, shatteringly crisp calamari, small cubes of barbecued eel, and my first Oden-- a tasty broth with various floating foods (the fish cake was the best).

Gyoza King: also Izakaya-style, maybe better than Guu but a tiny bit more expensive. Their panfried udon was delicious. My favorite dish here (which I plan to try to recreate) was a terrine-shaped tower of avocado, fresh raw salmon, and a raw quail egg on top, with yuzze (reduced shoyu) dressing and nori strips on the side for rolling. Of course the gyoza (we got pork & veggie) were fantastic too. We got bbq'd eel here too, and it was delicious. One of the most surprising dishes was the spinach with sesame sauce, cooked and pressed into a cube so that all the moisture came out and it was just crunchy and flavorful.

Go Fish: 

We went here two days in a row for lunch. It was that good. It's basically a fish shack on the Vancouver seawall (which I recommend biking). The first day, I had a seared scallop sandwich with chili mayo; J had a half pound of spot prawns, which are the sweetest, most delicious prawns ever (more on them later):

The second day, we had incredibly crispy, moist halibut fish n chips. Even the fries were good.

Bin941: J went here last time he was in Vancouver, twice. We would have gone back twice if we'd had more money and time. It was fantastic. The best part was sitting at the chef's counter and getting to see them make all the food! Highlights: navajo frybread (crispy and fluffy) with goat cheese sun dried tomato terrine; crispy pork belly and scallops; balsamic-pepper shoestring fries; cape gooseberries for dessert! (oh how I wish we could get those here!)

Vancouver Island (one of my new favorite places)

smoked salmon at Goats on the Roof

Shelter (Tofino): This was surprisingly good. It looked like a "fancy" chain-style restaurant but the service was warm and the food delicious. We both got the spot prawn risotto with seared salmon. It was creamy and sweet and the salmon was perfectly cooked.

Wildside Grill (Tofino): 

The perfect lunch spot. We went here twice. The first time we both got the Cod Club (shrimp, cod, bacon, avocado): 

The second time J got fish n chips (which he said were better than Go Fish's) and I got the salmon sandwich-- a large, seared salmon fillet with corn tomato relish and avocado.

Markus' Wharfside Restaurant (Sooke): This was probably the best meal of the trip. J had the soup of the day and the risotto of the day (yes, they have that). The soup was creamy sunchoke with a duck confit goat cheese quenelle. This might have been the best soup I have ever had. Ever. I had seared scallops with double-smoked bacon and then a Tuscan-style seafood stew, which was delicious-- the broth was intensely flavorful (cooked for 6 hours!) and the seafood was perfectly cooked (I'm always wary of seafood in soups because it's usually overcooked, since, for example, shrimp takes less time than mussels and clams). We had a Rioja that was simply fantastic-- Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva, 2003. Get it if you can.

The Edge Restaurant (Sooke): This opened days before we went. We actually tried to go for dinner but they hadn't gotten their liquor license yet, so they were only open for lunch. We told them about the soup at Markus' and they gave us a cup of theirs-- lightly curried cauliflower soup with pulled pork and green olives. The pork was a perfect pairing, both flavor and texture wise, for the thick soup. J got a homemade sausage sandwich; I had the "kitchen sink"-- a cilantro broth with noodles, clams, mussels, halibut, and homemade sausage. It was fantastic, but the real highlight here was the bacon (on J's side cesar), which came from the chef's farm's pigs and was smoked for two days straight. It had an intense flavor and crispy, almost spongy texture. It was so good that J ordered a slice for dessert.

Lest you think that our trip was all about food, I should say, we did do other things. We smoked Cuban cigars. Also, by the time we were in Tofino, we were so in love with spot prawns, that we built a campfire in the firepit outside our door, on the rocky banks of the Clayoquot Sound, and roasted spot prawns and scallops on the open flame:

 If you *ever* see fresh spot prawns, get them! I even had one raw from a market on Granville Island. Delicious.

We also visited a Pocky Store that had expired Pocky on clearance. I overheard someone saying they must be ok to eat or they wouldn't sell them. I'm not sure about that.

We also ate mangosteens!

A Crab Dip to hold you over...

Though you've probably guessed by now, I haven't been blogging lately; I have been, and will be, studying for my qualifying exams, which doesn't leave much time for blogging, or even cooking. Here's a hot crab/spinach/artichoke dip to hold you over:

1 tub whipped cream cheese
1 large handful spinach, chopped
8 oz artichoke salad, chopped (we used Genova's. you can make it fresh or use frozen artichoke hearts)
1t red pepper flakes
black pepper
4oz cheese of your choice, grated (we used pepperjack)
1/3lb fresh crab meat [omit for vegetarian version]
1/4c grated parmesan
fresh bread crumbs (we used herbed bread crumbs I made earlier)
1t olive oil

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix cream cheese, spinach, artichoke, red and black pepper, cheese, crab, and most of the parmesan in a large mixing bowl, folding gently. Fill ramekins with mixture. Sprinkle remaining parmesan on top. Bake until bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Mix bread crumbs with olive oil. Top cooked dip with bread crumbs and place under broiler until toasty on top.

Serve with toasts made from baguette.

I'll be back in May! Stay tuned.

~purplecook 

Thanksgiving 2008

No pictures in this post; just an update on Thanksgiving, since people have been asking. I'm not doing a real post for two reasons-- one, we basically did the same thing as  last year, since last year's Thanksgiving was so ridiculously good; and two, I didn't have a camera on hand for pictures. Honestly, some of the tastiest things are the least photogenic-- stuffing, for example. So the menu was: (most of the recipes are on last year's post, linked above)

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Brined & BBQ'd Organic Turkey

Gravy (made from turkey stock, which we made the day before)

Wild Mushroom Stuffing (recipe below)

Butternut Squash Gratin

Spicy Cranberry Relish

Jelled Cranberry Sauce (yeah, the Ocean Spray kind. I love the stuff.)

Lemony Brussel Sprout Hash

Sour Cream Cheesecake (my dad's delicious contribution)

The wild mushroom stuffing was really amazing, and can easily be a vegetarian main dish or brunch dish any time of the year. We tweaked last year's recipe a bit. Here goes:

Make cornbread and let it sit out overnight so it dries out a bit.

Cut the cornbread into crouton-sized (1/2inch) cubes. Toss cubes and all crumbs into bowl. Add 2T each chopped thyme & sage; add olive oil and toss until well-coated.

Spread seasoned cornbread cubes and crumbs onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees until golden. Cubes should be crunchy. It's ok if the crumbs get a little dark.

Clean 2lbs mushrooms. We used 2/3lb shittake, 2/3lb oyster, 2/3lb chanterelle. Reserve the shittake stems.

Add shittake stems to 4c chicken (or veggie) broth and bring to a boil. Lower to a strong simmer and cover. Cook about 20 minutes, until reduced by half. Strain. You should have 2c mushroomy broth.

Slice mushrooms.  Slice 5 large shallots. Saute shallots and mushrooms in about 1T butter and 1T olive oil until golden brown, about 20 minutes (they'll release liquid, and then start drying out and browning). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the cooked mushrooms to the strained broth.

An hour before serving, beat 1c heavy cream with 3 eggs. Combine with mushroom mix and cornbread cubes only. Pour into gratin dish. Sprinkle cornbread crumbs on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, until set (a thin knife inserted into the gratin will come out clean).

Morcilla-Stuffed Squid

Morcilla is Spanish-style blood sausage. It's meatier than boudin and has a coarser grind. The one we got (at The Spanish Table) was combined with rice, which makes a really nice, substantial stuffing mix. If this kind of thing scares you, you can easily make this recipe with normal bulk sausage.

You'll need (serves 2-3):

6 squid bodies, cleaned (remove inner cartiledge)

4 links morcilla or other sausage

1 onion, chopped

1/2T cumin

1t cayenne

1T paprika

1c red wine

for the sauce:

7 cloves garlic, crushed and sliced

1/2 onion, chopped

4 shallots, sliced

1T tomato paste

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1T paprika

In a large heavy skillet, heat some olive oil and saute the chopped onion until brown, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausage from its casing and add it to the skillet, crumbling it up with your fingers as you add it. Stir to combine; add spices to taste. Deglaze with red wine and let simmer until almost dry. Taste and adjust spices. Remove from pan and let cool.

When the stuffing is cool enough to handle, stuff squid bodies (but don't stuff them too much-- they'll shrink quite a bit when they cook). Secure opening with toothpicks.

Add oil to skillet (same skillet-- don't clean it out) and brown stuffed squid lightly, about 5 min/side. Remove. Add sauce ingredients: onion, shallot, garlic. Let cook slowly over low heat until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring so garlic doesn't brown. Add tomato paste; let caramelize, then stir to combine. Add tomato sauce and paprika; return squid to pan. Add some chicken broth or water so that liquid comes halfway up squid. Let simmer about 45 minutes, until squid is tender (can be easily pierced with a fork).

leftovers, in the pan

cross-section of stuffed squid

When is a pumpkin edible?

Who knows? I sure don't. This looked edible to me:

It was a bit strange looking inside. The meat was porous and the seeds were an incredible dark green.

crazy technicolor seeds!

So I cleaned it out:

And got it ready for roasting:

But once it was cooked, the flesh was stringy and watery and surrounded by a mold-colored layer. So I called Durst Organic Growers, whose sticker (still) adorned the pumpkin's extremely hard shell. After extended consultation with the grower, I learned that some of their pumpkins are edible, while some are not. Unfortunately, there's no indication on the product sticker as to the product's consumability; I offered him the product number and he said they're all the same.

Based on the texture of the cooked squash, I decided it'd be best to abstain. I tasted it and it wasn't great-- not evil-tasting, but not creamy and delicious pumpkinyness either.

Here's the real question that remains:

Are these golden-green seeds edible?

The Purplecook Makes Vietnamese Food!

Banana Blossom Salad

My friend Trang, patiently and generously, taught me to make Banana Blossom Salad and Clay Pot Sea Bass, two of our favorite Vietnamese dishes, a while ago. I decided to try them myself to see if I still remembered the lesson. A few phone calls to Trang and some quick internet searches later, here are the results.

Clay Pot Sea Bass

I'd say the two best moments were at the Vietnamese market when the cashier rang up the banana blossoms and said, "Do you know what to do with these?" and I proudly responded in the affirmative, and at the end of the cooking process when my caramel sauce actually, magically, came together (even though I probably put too much oil in the oil-to-sugar ratio).

Vietnamese mint; Thai basil

Chopped fried peanuts; fried shallots

sliced banana blossom

in acidulated water

cutting the sea bass into cubes

sea bass cooking on caramel sauce

sea bass, cooked

the finished salad

another picture, just because it's so beautiful

(and delicious!)

Braised Calamari in Spicy Tomato Sauce

This is shockingly easy and cheap-- for some reason (probably because people don't know what to do with it), squid is pretty inexpensive, and most markets sell it pre-cleaned. You can play with the ingredients to create different flavor combinations-- this would be great with olives and red wine, for example.

You'll need (per person for a main course):

1 lb squid (calamari)
1c cherry tomatoes (or any other tomato. canned is fine too)
2T olive oil
5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 serrano chili, chopped (or red pepper flakes)
chopped fresh herbs (I used thyme and sage)
1T tomato paste
1-2T paprika (I used sweet; I'll probably try smoked next time, for more oomph)
1 1/2c white wine

Heat oil in skillet. Add tomatoes, garlic, chili, tomato paste and herbs. Saute, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes collapse and garlic turns golden. Add squid, salt and pepper, and paprika. Add wine and cook, uncovered, at a simmer for about 45 minutes, until sauce is thick and squid is tender. Serve with baguette.

Salmon with Herbed Bread Crumbs and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This is an easy way to dress up salmon for a weeknight dinner. It follows my standard roasted salmon recipe, with the addition of herbed bread crumbs on top. The crumbs create a tasty crust that's a nice textural complement to the silky fish.

Preheat oven to 500 with the baking dish inside it. Rub salmon with olive oil, salt and pepper; top with bread crumbs (see below). Toss the salmon into the baking dish, skin side down, and lower heat to 275. Cook about 10 minutes, until just flaky. 

To make the bread crumbs, grind up some stale bread in the food processor with whatever fresh herbs you have on hand-- I used a mix of sage, rosemary and thyme. If you end up with a lot of bread crumbs, just put the leftovers in a jar in the freezer and use them next time.

These brussel sprouts are even easier than the salmon. They've been featured on The Purple Kitchen before, but the recipe is so simple I'll repeat it here. Just quarter the sprouts, toss with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and roast in a 400 degree oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes. They should be crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.

Tingly Spicy Stir Fry

I know these are not the most appetizing photos, but I made this in a hurry and it smelled so good that I wanted to get around to eating it as soon as possible. This is an easy way to use up veggies that need to be cooked. I had some string beans and an eggplant on hand, but other things would be delicious in this too-- broccoli, kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, etc. 

Unfortunately I've been a bad blogger lately, and I didn't write down what went into this. But it was something along the lines of 1/2lb ground beef, 1/2lb ground lamb, cubes of roasted eggplant, green beans cut into halves or thirds, shittake mushrooms, garlic and ginger; all that cooked in a sauce of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic chili paste. When I took it off the heat, I mixed in some toasted ground szechuan pepper for its delicious tingly spice.

Kale Shittake Pasta

I had some leftover cooked pasta, but not quite enough for a meal, so I sauteed an onion, some chopped garlic, sliced shittake mushrooms and some chopped kale. I added the pasta til it warmed up and topped the whole thing with some good olive oil and freshly grated parmesan

Quick Pickles

All you need to make these delicious "quick pickles" is something to pickle (cucumber works nicely) and some vinegar and spices. I chopped-- and sliced-- some "Mediteranean pickling cucumbers (the small bumpy ones) and stuck them in a jar with a teaspoon of sugar, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a chopped serrano chili, and some cilantro; I covered them with rice vinegar, gave the jar a good shake, and stuck it in the fridge for a day or two. The result was perfectly crispy, vinegary, spicy pickles!

In the photo above, I roasted cubed eggplant in the oven, tossed it with sesame seeds and bits of seaweed, and put it (and some leftover green beans) on top of steamed rice. I topped the whole thing with pickles and some of the pickle juice, which dripped down into the rice sushi-style. It made for an easy and delicious lunch.

Chicken Chanterelle Stew

I've been waiting for months for the rain and cold to come, and it's finally here so I decided to celebrate. This is the perfect rainy day dish, and it's a one-pot meal.

You'll need (serves 6):

3 1/2lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3/4-1lb meaty pork neck bones

5 medium yukon gold potatoes

2 onions

2 carrots

10 cloves garlic

4 anchovies

1T tomato paste

1 bottle dry red wine

4c chicken stock

2c chanterelle mushrooms

1T herbes de provence

1c flour

veggie oil

bouquet garni:

3 bay leaves

2 springs rosemary

4 springs thyme

1 large branch sage

Heat 1T oil in a dutch oven. Brown neck bones well on all sides.

In the meantime, clean the chicken. Remove all the fat you can find. 

When the bones are browned, remove them and set them aside.

Salt and pepper chicken generously and dredge in flour. Heat more oil in the dutch oven, if necessary, and brown the chicken in batches, about 4 minutes per side. Set aside browned chicken.

Chop onions and carrots. Crush and slice garlic. Chop anchovies.

Add more oil if necessary. Saute onions and carrots about 2 minutes; add garlic and anchovies. Saute about 10 minutes until golden brown.

In the meantime, clean the chanterelles. Remove dirt from the gills under running water. Cut off the tough stem ends. 

Move the onion mix to the sides of the pot. Add a little oil in the middle. Add the chanterelles, ripping them into pieces as you add them. When they're all in, mix them with the other vegetables and saute about 4 minutes.

Return the neck bones to the pot. Add the bouquet garni (just tie together all the herbs listed above with a piece of string) and the herbes de provence.

Pour the bottle of wine into the pot. Boil about 20 minutes, until reduced by at least half. You'll end up with about half an inch of liquid in the pot.

While the wine is reducing, peel and quarter the potatoes.

Return the chicken to the pot and add the potatoes. Add broth to cover. Bring to a boil. Stir to make sure everything's fully submerged. Lower to a simmer; cover and cook about 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the potatoes are done. Uncover and continue cooking to reduce liquid to desired amount and consistency, or smash a few potatoes to thicken the liquid.