Savory Snowman Soup

Snowbert - Snowberta - Snowthirda

It’s a snowy blustery day here in western Montana, but it’s January 30th and this is the first real snow we’ve had since the first of the year.  It’s a perfect day for Savory Snowman Soup!

Savory Snowman Soup is something I made to peek the curiosity of young and picky eaters.  How could they turn down Snowman Soup?  Unlike the recipes for hot chocolate on the internet that call themselves by the same name, this is a “real” savory soup.

This soup starts with a rich chicken broth. I always make broth from the carcass of my roasted Hutterite chickens because this is another whole meal you would throw away if you don't get this last bit of goodness out of it first.  If you do this too, it’s ok to add the little bits of meat you pick off the bones to the soup. You can also use canned stock or broth or Better than Bouillon vegetarian no-chicken to make the broth if you prefer.

Savory Snowman Soup

Cutting carrot noses.

 
6 cups Chicken stock or broth
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic mashed and minced
½ teaspoon thyme
2 cups finely diced potato
2 cups carrots peeled and julienne cut
15oz can of black beans rinsed well and drained
4 oz can diced mild green chilies (optional)
1 pint half and half
Salt and pepper to taste

Dice your onion and sweat it in the olive oil for a few minutes until it becomes translucent.  Add the broth and other ingredients, except the beans and half and half, and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes and carrots are tender.  

Snow Bunnies love Snowman Soup

If you would prefer a slightly thicker soup, you can add a few mashed potato flakes or mix a couple tablespoons of organic cornstarch with a little water and stir that into the soup and let it cook for a few minutes to thicken.

Next, add the well rinsed and drained black beans and the half and half.  

Grammie's Snow Bunnies

Taste the soup for seasoning and get ready to serve to curious onlookers.  You can garnish with a little chopped greens if you prefer and a nice accompaniment is soft bread sticks for dipping.

Stay warm and Enjoy!

Pork Roast with Apples, Carrots, and Asian Plum Sauce

I just got finished putting a pork roast in the crock pot.  I thought I’d better start documenting it before I forgot the measurements.  If you’re reading this post, it turned out awesome! 

As I was having coffee this morning, I was thinking about what to do with the roast that I had thawed in the frig.  I just bought a big bag of organic apples and just yesterday I peeled a bunch of my small carrots from the garden.  Supplied with adequate caffeine, the brain began spinning.........  Let’s put it all together in the crock pot and see what happens!!!

For some reason, all my creativity was used up on the ingredients today and I could not come up with a super snappy name for it.  If you have any ideas, let me know.  Here’s the details:

Pork Roast with Apples, Carrots, and Asian Plum Sauce

2 ½ - 3 pound pork roast - I used a sirloin tip roast, a loin roast or any meaty roast would be good

4 cups peeled carrots, cut into 3" long by 1" thick pieces
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 large apples, cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1 cup Asian Plum Sauce* - purchased or homemade - my recipe follows
* Don't have Plum Sauce?  Here is a perfect alternative - an equal amount of whole berry cranberry sauce.

Rinse and pat dry the roast, then brown it on all sides in a little olive oil over a moderately high heat.

Browning the meat adds lot of flavor.

Once the roast is browned, remove it, turn the heat down to low, add a little more olive oil and the chopped onions.  Caramelize the onions over low heat until they are translucent and a delicate brown color.  Sprinkle the salt, thyme, and sage into the onions.

Lightly caramelize the onions and add the herbs

 


I put my carrots on the bottom.  Then put the roast on top of the carrots, poured the caramelized onions over the top of the roast, and then added the chopped apples on top of that.

Carrots-roast-onions-apples

After I dumped the onions into the crock pot, I put the Asian plum sauce in the skillet to warm and to continue deglazing the skillet.  I wanted every little bit of flavor from the browning, caramelizing, and the herbs into the crock pot.  

Top it off with the sauce

Once everything else was in the crock pot, I poured the Asian plum sauce over the top and turned the dial to high to give it a kick start.

After about an hour, turn the crock pot down to low and let it cook for about 5-6 hours or until you are ready to serve.

This would be equally good served over a bed of wide noodles or rice.  I chose to make the rice today.

As mentioned above, whole berry cranberry sauce will make this dish equally as good and there's no need to search the stores for plum sauce.  This recipe made enough for a family meal or if you're only one or two, generous left overs.  It had a delicious sweet flavor with the mingling of the sweet carrots and apples.  A perfect compliment to the pork roast.

Enjoy!




Here is my recipe for the Sauce:

Asian Plum Sauce

This is a condiment that you can purchase at your local co-op or grocery in the ethnic food section, but it is easy to make if you have a supply of plums.  Plums seem to be abundant in the Missoula valley in the fall and last year someone gave me a bucket full.  I had already made more jam than I knew we would eat in several years so I decided to make plum sauce.  We have enjoyed it with many dishes, including stir fries and just over noodles.

 8 cups plums, pitted and chopped - skins on
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup apple juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

In large heavy saucepan, bring plums, onions, garlic, and apple juice to boil a over medium heat - reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Add sugar, vinegar, salt, and spices and continue to simmer until it reaches the desired sauce consistency.

Fill and seal canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes, or freeze in ½ pint containers.

Hearty Black Bean Soup

The weather has taken a turn towards winter and a hearty winter soup seems in order.  I hear from some people that they’ve never found a good black bean soup recipe and from others that the ones they have tried are too spicy for their family’s taste.  
Give this one a try.  I’ve worked on this recipe over the years to both simplify it and to combine some family friendly flavors.


Hearty Black Bean Soup

2 ½ to 3 cups of dry black beans (or 2-3 cans of black beans)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic               
1 large onion chopped
2 carrots finely diced or shredded
½ pound ground venison, lean beef, or turkey (optional)
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning
1 Tablespoon dried cilantro or parsley
1 28oz can of diced tomatoes or equivalent home canned

Begin by quick soaking the black beans.  Check the beans for small stones, rinse, and place in a large pan with 2-3 quarts of water.  Bring the beans to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave it set for 1-2 hours.   This method is preferred to the overnight soak as it removes more of the small chain carbohydrates that cause some people digestive problems.
After the beans have set, drain and rinse the beans under running water.  Return the beans to the pan with enough water to cover the beans by an inch or two.  Do Not add salt...Cook the beans for 60-120 minutes until they are done.  Add water as necessary.  As beans age, they lose moisture causing the cooking times to increase.  Fresh beans cook faster!
If you have a pressure cooker, an essential tool in my kitchen, you can cover the beans with 1 inch of water, bring up the cooker to pressure, and cook for 5 minutes.  Let the pressure reduce naturally.
There is the third alternative, if you prefer not to bother with cooking the beans yourself, or if you are in a big hurry, you can use 2-3 14oz cans of black beans instead.
Set the beans aside and begin to prepare the rest of the soup.

Browning optional meat, saute onion, garlic, carrot

Add the olive oil to a soup pot and begin to lightly brown the meat (optional).  Add the onion and cook until it is translucent.  Add the garlic and diced carrot and saute briefly.

Add the cooked beans, taco seasoning, cilantro or parsley and the 28 oz can of diced tomatoes.  Taco seasonings are not all created equal.  Some have high salt content, particularly the ones in envelopes.  

Combine all ingredients and simmer

While these are ok to use, be sure to check taste before adding additional salt.  I use a bulk organic taco seasoning from Frontier and it does not have salt.   I usually add about 2 teaspoons of salt at this point but if you are using canned beans or salted taco seasoning you will not need this much salt.  The best measure of how much salt you need is to taste.  Add small amounts and taste again.
 
Once all the ingredients are in the pot, cover the soup and let it simmer for at least an hour to blend all of the flavors.

Serve the soup in your favorite soup bowls and you can accompany it with a few corn chips for crunch.

Like every soup, this soup gets even better the second day so make a big pot and take a day or two off cooking!

Enjoy!

Ginger Carrot Soup

I always wait until we've had a frost to harvest the carrots.  The story is that this time of year they convert some of their starch into sugar.  They are definitely sweet! 
This year we went straight from 70 degree days and very cool nights to 4 inches of snow on the ground.  When I realized the snow was coming, I quickly dug my bed of carrots and got another record harvest.  53 pounds of bright orange carrots out of one raised bed.  
Last year I was able to keep them well in a crisper drawer for months, but I've got too many this year for that.  I gave a few bags away to friends and family and today I made a delicious Ginger Carrot Soup. 

I originally got this recipe from my friend Jen and then made a few changes.  We had it last Thanksgiving as a first course and it was delightful.  My biggest word of caution with this soup is don't add salt until you taste it at the end.  I made the mistake once of using a salted stock and it changed the flavor dramatically.  The flavors here are delicate and require just a small amount of salt added at the end to balance the flavors.

Ginger Carrot Soup

1 stick unsalted butter
1 large sweet onion - chopped
3 pounds of carrots peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon fresh peeled and shredded ginger root
5 cups unsalted chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 cups half and half or heavy cream 
In a heavy bottomed pan, saute the onion in the butter until tender and translucent.  Add the carrots, ginger, and 2 1/2 cups of the stock and simmer until the carrots are tender. 

Allow the cooked carrots and onions to cool until they can be  handled.

Puree in batches in a food processor or use an immersion blender to make quick work of the hot ingredients without the need to cool.

Add the coriander and the orange juice concentrate.  The orange juice concentrate was my addition.  The original recipe called for grated orange peel and I found that had a bitter taste while not giving it the intensity of orange flavor.  So, I tried a couple of different things until I landed upon the orange juice concentrate, which adds just the right amount of flavor and sweetness without the bitterness of the peel.  Stir in the remaining cups of stock and add the half and half or heavy cream.

An immersion blender makes the job quick and less messy.

I actually prefer the heavy cream to the half and half, but being calorie conscious is always an issue.  I've found that I can also use half low fat milk and  the rest non-fat Greek yogurt and that works well too, with fewer calories. 

Warm the soup gently.  You do not want to bring it to a boil.

Balance the flavors with a little salt and if needed a tablespoon of brown sugar.

The flavors of this soup are at their peak when it is well warmed, but not hot, so be careful not to overheat it.

This soup makes an excellent first course, or with a chunk of bread and butter and/or a side salad is a full meal.

You can garnish it with a sprinkling of fresh chopped herbs or the way I love it garnished is with a scoop of Greek yogurt.

Like all soup, it is even better the next day so make plenty and refrigerate the leftovers for another day.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Roast

Italian Pot Roast - Ready to cook!

I was planning something completely different for this post when a friend emailed and said, “We’ve used all the steaks and ground from our side of beef and now I’m left trying to figure out a good way to use up the roasts. I know you must have a tasty recipe or two.”

Well, yes I do.  Initially I thought I’d tuck the idea away for a while because I had already been working in a different direction.  But then ... oh what the heck, here it is.  Like I’ve said before, I’m not a recipe cook and so I never have anything written down.  That means I have to make it myself and try to figure out measurements, proportions, and times before I can give someone my recipe for anything.

Roasting is a slower cooking method for cuts of meat that are less tender.  The slower, longer cooking allows time for the connective tissue to break down and naturally tenderize the meat.

I was having company last Sunday and so I thought it was a great opportunity to document this recipe.  So I could enjoy my company and not be greasing up the kitchen while they were here, I decided - Let’s to a roast in the crock pot!  I did all the prep Saturday night and it took me about 45 minutes before I put it in the frig waiting for the next morning when I put the crock in the pot and cooked it for about 5 hours.

The minute my company walked in the door, the lid of the crock pot was being lifted with comments like "that smells delicious" and "what are you cooking".  The roast was ready in 5 hours with the first 3+ on high and then I turned it down to low.

Now, to make a long story short... I've had this post on my desk for over a week pondering how to explain the fact that this roast disappeared so fast that I had no time to photograph the final product or a plated version. This has bothered me, but short of remaking it just for the shoot, you'll have to take my word for how delicious it was and how quickly it disappeared.

You can change the flavor (country) based on the herbs and spices and a couple of ingredients.  I'm giving  you an Italian and a French version to choose from.  I made the Italian version, but the French version is equally as easy with a completely different taste.  It's all in the herbs!

Slow Cooker - Pot Roast

2-4 pound organic or natural beef roast - chuck, rump, shoulder
1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper OR a savory dry rub

ITALIAN                                                                     FRENCH
4 Tablespoons organic olive oil                                 4 -6 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 cups chopped carrot                                               2 cups chopped carrot
2 cups chopped onion                                               2 cups chopped onion
4 cloves of minced garlic                                           4 cloves of minced garlic

1 teaspoon sugar                                                      1 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon dried parsley                                       1 Tablespoon herbes de Provence

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning                                     OR  1/2 tsp fennel seed (optional)
1 28 ounce or 2 14 ounce cans of diced tomatoes   1 tsp each thyme, marjoram, basil 
1 cup of good red wine                                              1 bay leaf

                                                                                   1 cup of good red wine 

                                                                                   2 cups beef stock

I like to use a savory rub on my meat.  It’s my own combination of herbs, spices, and salt.  If you don’t have a dry rub, you can just use salt and pepper.  Rinse the meat and pat it dry.  Rub the meat with the salt and pepper or rub, wrap it up, and put it back into the refrigerator for an hour or so while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  I do not incorporate a lot of salt up front, but suggest that you taste the final product and add salt to taste before serving.  This is a better overall way to reduce salt and let the flavor of the different herbs shine through.

Veggies and herbs

Put the chopped carrot, onion, garlic, and seasonings in the bottom of the crock pot.  If you want to, you can saute these in a little olive oil before putting them in the crock pot, but it is not necessary.  I don't saute for the Italian version, but the caramelizing would be a good support for the French version.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet and brown the meat thoroughly on both sides.  Put the roast on top of the vegetables.

Browning the meat adds flavor

Add the tomatoes and top it off with 1 cup of red wine.  In the French version, since you don't have the juice from the tomatoes, add 2 cups of beef stock or water.

That’s it!  If you want to cook it tomorrow, refrigerate the covered crock until you are ready to start it.  Set the temperature at high and let it cook for about 3 hours and then lower the temperature to low and continue to cook another hour or 2 until the roast is fork tender.

If the sauce is too thin, you can put it into a pan on the stove top and bring it to a fast boil to reduce it to a thicker consistency.

You can also cook this in a roaster in the oven - I would have the oven at about 300 degrees and cook it for at least 3 hours or until fork tender, covered tightly.

I served mine over fluffy jasmine rice with a side of green beans, but serve it over your favorite rice - potatoes - polenta and with your favorite salad or veggie.  Enjoy!