Mushroom Soup

The view from our window…my car is buried in snow

I love making big pots of soup in the winter. The soup keeps getting better in the days after it is first made and its the perfect way to warm your insides when it is freezing cold outside. When I was working, soup was a delicious meal which lasted for a few days (and I never tired of it). I usually prepared this after dinner before I went to bed…and dinner the following night was taken care of! One of my favorites is mushroom soup.

This recipe is really easy (ok, nothing I make is that difficult) and is based on a recipe from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. I was first attracted to this recipe several years ago because it doesn’t call for any cream. While I love mushroom soup, heavy cream does not agree with me (I usually cannot order mushroom soups in restaurants for this very reason). This recipe reminds me of the most delicious mushroom soup I have ever had (back in 2007 at Aria in Chicago):

Deliciously thick and mushroomy! Here’s my version:

Not pretty but certainly delicious!

If you follow the original recipe, you will undoubtedly have a pretty good mushroom soup on your hands. My adaptations:

• Double the mushrooms: triple if you dare–the more the better! It doesn’t mess with the proportions…your soup will just be thicker…you can easily thin it down with some stock if you want. Use any kind of mushrooms. I’ve used baby bella, portabello, button, shitaake, wild mushrooms…mix it up!
• Add two small diced potatoes: it helps thicken the soup without having to use cream.
• Add 3 cloves minced garlic: because everything’s better with garlic
• Skip the sherry: I never have any on hand and I don’t really know what it is anyway.
• Add shallots: because I always think they are tastier than onions
• Because I had leftover sour cream in the fridge, I served this last batch with a dollop of sour cream–YUM!

Pasta Salad

I love tuna and chicken salad sandwiches. However, I never order them because you never know who puts raw onions in theirs. I have also seen the rare raisin in chicken salad and there is nothing I hate more on this earth more than raisins. While I love caramelized onions, I can’t stand the smell of raw onions on one’s breath. I can smell when Joel has eaten raw onions for lunch and will avoid kissing him. Luckily, he’s a fast learner and usually picks raw onions out now. Smart boy!

While I was in class supposedly learning about how to successfully lead change within a company, I instead was thinking about what I would put into my pasta salad. I asked Joel to boil up some whole wheat penne and throw it into the fridge. When I arrived, I quickly threw it all together:

• a large can of chicken breast
• a few squirts of mustard
• a big squirt of ranch dressing
• an even bigger squirt of wasabi mayonnaise (but not too much because I didn’t want it to be overly creamy like a Hawaiian mac salad)
• three stalks of diced celery
• chopped green beans (leftover from shrimp & grits night)
• capers
• copious amounts of black pepper

Mixed it all up and we had a delicious dinner! While the pasta lacked color (just green & white) it was packed with flavor (mmm wasabi!). This is a really easy recipe (if you can call it one) that can accommodate whatever you want: celery root, brocolli, edamame, kalamata olives, horseradish cream…whatever. I’ve never made anything like this but will definitely make it again–especially when I’m pressed for time.

For lunch the next day, we shared the last of the shrimp & grits. This time, it was on top of chipotle cheddar grits–YUM!

Shrimp & grits

There are a few things that, if seen on a menu, I will always order: brussels sprouts, mac n cheese, polenta, and shrimp & grits. I went through a severe shrimp & grits phase this summer while living in Manhattan. My favorite? I fell in love with The Redhead’s version in the East Village.

I’ve made shrimp & grits twice now–two different versions from the same recipe based on what I had on hand (proof that this is a flexible and delicious recipe).

My modifications the first time:

• I omitted most of the chicken broth called for and used a little bit of butter and half & half for the quick grits and threw in some fresh corn at the end for a sweet crunch (it was the end of summer).
• Red wine instead of white (its what I had lying around)
• A can of fire roasted tomatoes for extra smoky flavor
• Italian sausage & pancetta in place of the proscuitto
• Doubled the garlic (I almost always do this)
• Didn’t use any of the herbs called for–would have been pretty but I rarely buy herbs because they are expensive and always die too quickly in the fridge. I would love an herb box…or my mom’s herb garden (without the maintenance required).

It was delicious the first time but I knew I could make it just as tasty without all of the fat called for in the grits. The second time around:

The second time around, I halved the recipe:

• For the grits (which Joel is now in charge of when we make this together), he used all chicken broth and no butter or cream. Towards the end of cooking, he added some shredded pepper jack. You can definitely use whatever cheese you have lying around…parmesan or gorgonzola would be good too. (BTW, what’s the difference between gorgonzola and blue cheese?)
• I used half fresh shrimp (butterflied and cleaned but shell on) from Dirk’s and half peeled/cooked/frozen shrimp from Trader Joe’s. In the future, I would take off the shell before cooking because its a bit of a pain to eat otherwise.
• Instead of prosciutto, I used 4 strips of chopped bacon
• Added sliced baby bella mushrooms in with the shallots & garlic
• Used sake instead of white wine (could probably use champagne, too…and then you get to drink the rest!)
• While I only made a half recipe, I used the full 14.5 ounce can of fire roasted tomatoes
• Doubled the garlic, of course, and omitted the herbs

I would always recommend using some fresh corn in the grits when you can. Since its the middle of winter here, we had to skip that. Served with steamed green beans on the side and a glass of crisp sake.  Future renditions will feature andouille sausage in place of proscuitto, different cheeses in the grits, and fresh tomatoes. Oh yes, and its never complete without a dash of some of your favorite hot sauce (I am now a Frank’s Red Hot convert). What else would you suggest?

Chex Party Mix

I LOVE homemade Chex mix. I didn’t eat it growing up, but in high school, my best friend’s mom always made it. She would always get mad because we would inevitably eat the entire batch before it finished cooling. I don’t really like the Chex mix you buy from the store because I find it too salty and I don’t like wheat chex or bagel chips.

When visiting some friends last year, I was gifted with a gallon batch of Chex mix, which I promptly destroyed. His had no wheat chex but included honey roasted peanuts, which I find to be a nice complement to the saltiness of the rest of the mix. Last week, I figured I’d try my hand at Chex mix. I made two half batches based on the recipe on the Chex web site. I tried to make a wasabi batch with some wasabi powder I had, but I guess I didn’t put in enough wasabi powder because you couldn’t really taste the difference.

CHEX PARTY MIX

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon Lawry’s seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 1/4cups Corn Chex®
• 2 1/4cups Rice Chex®
• 1/2 cup Honey Nut Cheerios
• 1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup butter pretzels
• 1/2 bag M&Ms

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 250°F.
2. In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, and pretzels; set aside.
3. In ungreased 13×9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings.
4. Gradually stir in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Bake 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes.
6. Mix in M&Ms.
7. Store in airtight container.

I used 1 teaspoon of wasabi powder and wasn’t able to taste any difference. I will try adding more next time. I also have Chinese hot mustard powder that I would like to try adding in next time as well. I destroyed this bag in less than two days.

Blondies

I also made blondies for the football game. I don’t bake much because I usually prefer the sugary sweetness of fresh fruit. However, the boy really has a sweet tooth and doesn’t feel satisfied unless his meal ends with something sugary.

I found this blondies recipe on Simply Recipes and was pleased to discover I had all the necessary ingredients on hand. Having a stocked pantry is key for this California girl stuck in Chicago winter. I never want to go outside in the cold, so I only cook with what I have in the house. Well, it took me a little bit of time to find the brown sugar but I eventually found a very, very dry brick of dark brown sugar. My mom always kept expired food around (she was a Vietnamese refugee with a small hoarding issue) and I remembered that she used to throw brown sugar bricks in the microwave to loosen them up…perfect solution!

I used a mixture of peanut butter and milk chocolate chips. The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of chips but I think I’d add a little more next time. I cut the blondies into small bite-sized pieces and some bites didn’t have any chips (but the yummy brown sugar flavor still came through and was still delicious).

Yes, I love vintage pyrex. This one came from my mom’s collection…which probably came from a garage sale.