Shrimp Chowder

Shrimp Chowder, the title says it all.  These soup requires a little bit of prep work and can take some time but the result is well worth it.  This recipe comes from a class I took through Adult Ed here in Missoula titled Soups and Stews.  Originally the chef had wanted to make clam chowder but couldn't find some good clams so he went with shrimp and I am so glad he did.  As he said at the time, this is a treat that you make, not an everyday meal.  So don't be shocked at the fat in this recipe.  Also, don't be afraid to make your own shrimp stock, it's not as hard as you think.

Here is the ingredient list:

2-3 organic carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onions, peeled and diced
2 stalks of organic celery, diced
1 cup of par boiled potatoes, diced.
1 pound of shrimp, shelled and deveined and cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 pint of milk
1 pint of half and half
4 cups of shrimp stock
3/4 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste

A couple of things, you do want to use the butter and olive oil together.  The oil stops the butter from browning but you still get the taste and flavor of the butter.  Par boiling potatoes means to cook them separately in boiling water until done or just about done.  You don't want to boil the potatoes in this milk to get them done because it can take 15 to 20 minutes for them to become tender and by then the milk has scorched or become separated.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large pot over medium to medium high heat.  Once the butter has melted, throw in the thyme, carrots, celery and onion and cook until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the flour and stir well and cook until bubbly about 5 minutes.  Do not rush this, you are trying to get the flour to cook a little so your soup won't have a floury taste.  Slowly add the stock, about a cup at a time and stir well to avoid lumps.  Next add the milk and half and half and bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the mixture is thick.  If it is too thick, you can thin with more stock or milk.  Add the potatoes and shrimp and cook until the shrimp is pink or white and firm, about 5 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper and be sure to taste the soup.  Sometimes, if I think it needs more of a flavor kick, I add a teaspoon or two of Better than Bouillon Clam Base.

I served this with some sliced baguettes that were buttered and warmed in a 350 degree oven until the edges were brown and crispy and the center soft.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions!

Shrimp Stock

I have a weakness, it's called cookbooks.  It's so bad that I purposely avoid cooking sections in bookstores because I inevitably want a new one and they are not cheap.  However, I have invested in many and one of the areas I always look at is the soup section and if they have stock recipes.  There is something comforting about soups and the backbone to most soups are stocks.  When a recipe started calling for a homemade stock, I would always panic!  I can't possibly make stocks, they seem so difficult and complicated to make.  Boy was I wrong!  You can make this soup staple yourself.  The first one I'm going to share is a quick one, Shimp Stock.


The following is a Fish Stock recipe that I have converted to Shrimp Stock.  I took a class, years ago, titled Soups and Stews and the chef shared many of his recipes.  I wish I could remember his name to give him proper credit, but for the life of me I cannot.  Anyhow, when I buy shrimp, I usually try and get it with the shells on.  I take the shells from peeling the shrimp and throw them in a ziploc bag and put them in the freezer for use later.  When I have done about 3 or 4 pounds of shrimp, I have enough shells to make a huge batch of stock.  Okay, so here is the ingredient list:


Shrimp shells and tails (legs too if they are attached)
2 stalks of organic celery, cut into thirds
2 organic carrots washed but unpeeled, cut into thirds
1 yellow onion, unpeeled, cut into quarters
Bay Leaf
1 tsp of dried thyme
1 tsp of caraway seeds
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
5 to 6 whole black peppercorns
At least 10 cups of water


The secret to this stock is the caraway seeds.  By adding them to mixture, it takes the pungent fishy smell out of the stock and the house.  Now put all of these ingredients into a big stock pot.  Put enough water in to at least cover all the ingredients.  Bring the pot to a boil over medium high heat and then reduce to a simmer over low to medium low heat.  You don't want a hard boil with any stocks, it will discolor the stock and can turn it into a gelatin when it cools.  It generally takes about 30 to 45 minutes.  You'll know it's done because the shells will be pink, the stock will be a yellow color and it will smell amazing.  Drain the solids from the liquid and discard the solids.  Cool the liquid or use immediately if desired.

Stocks do really well in the freezer.  After cooling, measure the stock into containers.  I like to put a piece of masking tape on the container and mark on the tape the contents, date and quantity (ex:  Shrimp Stock, 2/10, 2 cups).  Be sure to vary the size of your containers so you can defrost the size you need for your recipes.  Besides soup, stocks are great to make pasta sauces, or you can cook noodles or rice in the stock.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Decadence

We had just finished an fun evening with friends, enjoying some adult beverages at the Kettle House and then great food at the Mandolin in the Union Club, when we came home and I had a hankering for something sweet.  I had planned to make this desert for Valentine's Day but we went to DQ instead.  So knowing that I had all the ingredients in hand, I began creating Chocolate Decadence which is a Cooking Light recipe from their December, 2003 issue.  I have made this desert before and it is a relatively simple dish with some great chocolate flavor.  The recipe says that it is best served warm and they are correct.   It is like a warm chocolate cake with a molten chocolate lava inside.

Here is the ingredient list:

1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup 2% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa plus 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
8 teaspoons semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  I find when I cook a desert where there are a lot of steps and ingredients, I like to prep all the ingredients.  This means chopping the chocolate ahead of time, separate the egg and measure the other ingredients.  By doing all this prep, making this desert will be easier and much less stressful.  

Now get out 4 ramekins or oven proof custard dishes and spray the bottom and sides with a cooking spray.  I do NOT use Pam, there are too many chemicals that I don't recognize in the ingredient list.  Instead I use a canola oil spray where the ingredients are pretty much canola oil.  I then take the 3 tablespoons of sugar and dump into one custard dish and then turn it over until the all the sides are covered in sugar.  Any excess sugar I then dump into the next dish.  I generally find that I need more than the 3 tablespoons sugar that is suggested.  Finally I take the dishes and put them into a rimmed jelly roll pan so it will be easier to put into and out of the oven.

For the batter, get a small saucepan and combine the 1/2 cup of sugar, the milk and the cocoa and stir together with a whisk.  Over medium heat, stir the ingredients until they come to a boil, stir another 30 seconds or until the sugar has dissolved.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter and chopped chocolate to the mixture.  Stir until the butter and chocolate have melted.  Set aside for 10 minutes to cool.  This is important, the next ingredient you will add will be some egg whites and if the mixture is too hot, you will basically be making scramble eggs.

After the mixture has cooled, add the flour, vanilla, salt and egg whites.  Stir until just combined.  Put 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each of the prepared dishes.  Add about 2 teaspoons of chocolate chips onto the top of the batter.  Top each dish with about a tablespoon of batter.  Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.  The desert will be barely set.  Let cool for 10 minutes and then invert onto a desert dish and serve.  I like to top with a little chocolate syrup and whip cream.  Powdered sugar is a nice option as well and of course a little ice cream would be heavenly!  Enjoy!






 

Black Bean Soup

So this blog is to give you a little insight on how my mind works when it comes to food.  God help you all!  I have read a lot of articles in Cooking Light and Runners World where beans are a necessary part of a healthy diet.  A few blogs ago I did a Ham and Bean Soup which turned out great with some amazing flavor.  For a different twist on another bean soup I wanted to try a southwestern twist.  The Good Food Store has such a great selection of dried beans and lentils and we have found a great turtle black bean to use.  I had some of those beans in our pantry so I just needed to think what else would go well with that.  Onions and celery are staples for most soups so of course I would need them.  To give it that southwestern twist I wanted to add some jalapeno and garlic.  We had just purchases some frozen organic white corn at Costco so I thought that would add some nice flavor.  Now what else could I add to give it some extra flavor, pork would be good but I really didn't want to invest any time in cooking up a roast or cut up a loin chop.  My answer, of course, is BACON! 

Okay, so I think I have the basic ingredients together.  Now what else can I add to make this amazing, I know I'll cook this in some chicken broth.  I wish I had some homemade chicken stock to throw in this but I haven't made any in awhile and therefore the freezer is empty of stock.  A future blog will be in order for stock making.  In addition to that stock I know I have some organic better than bouillon in the fridge for back up.  Finally, when it comes to putting all together at the end I wanted to add some fresh flavors to really give that soup the final touch.  Sour cream always goes well with bean soup (think chili) and then I have an avocado ripening on the counter and that would not only taste great with this soup but look good too.  So with all of that in mind, here is the ingredient list.

• 12 oz of dried black beans
• Half of an onion
• Couple of stalks of celery
• Jalapeno
• Garlic Clove
• 4 or 5 slices of bacon
• Quart of Organic Chicken Broth or Stock
• Cumin
• Mexican Oregano
• Salt and Pepper
• Water
• Organic Better than Bouillon Chicken Base
• 1/2 to 1 cup of organic frozen corn
• Sour Cream
• Avocado

I started out the night before by rinsing the beans and letting them soak overnight.  If possible, change the water at least once during the soaking period.  Next chop slice the bacon into 1 inch pieces.  Place into a frying pan at medium heat.  Chop up the onion and celery and throw into the pan with the onions.  Next cut up the jalapeno.  The best way I find to do this is to cut off the top of the pepper and then slice it in half lengthwise.  Seed the jalapeno.  If you want a pit more heat leave the seeds in.  Next, thinly slice the jalapeno and then chop into very small pieces.  Add to the frying pan.  If you have never used fresh jalapenos before, take care to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and don't touch your lips or eyes until you have.  The seeds and inner membrane are where the heat in a jalapeno is stored.  I actually keep some disposable latex gloves on hand to throw on if I am cutting a lot them up.  Now let all of the vegetables cook in the bacon fat.  It will give everything such great flavor.  Once the vegetables are tender, either set it aside or place into the crock pot for use in the morning.  Take some of the chicken stock or broth and put a little in the pan that you just used for sauteing the vegetables.  Swish the stock around to loosen the flavorful bits of food stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Dump this liquid into the crock pot and pour the rest of the stock or broth into the crock pot as well.  Store all of this in the refrigerator until morning.

The next morning drain the black beans and put into the crock pot with the bacon, vegetables and chicken stock.  Now add roughly a quart of water with some salt and pepper, about a teaspoon of mexican oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin.  Also put in about a tablespoon of the organic better than bouillon mixture.  Turn the crock pot on low and cook for about 8 hours.  

So now comes the time to confess that this recipe didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  When I got home the soup ended up being more watery than I wanted.  I originally put in a lot of water because sometimes the crock pot lets a lot of water evaporate plus beans can soak up a lot of water when cooking.  However, this didn't happen with this soup.  Now I had to try and find a way to get rid of some of the liquid or thicken up the soup.  My first thought was to puree some of the beans and see if that helped thicken the soup.  I placed about 3 ladles of the beans with some of the liquid in the blender.  I left the middle part of the lid off and placed a clean towel over the top.  This is very important when blending a hot liquid, if you leave the lid on too tight then it will explode and make a very big mess.  Trust me, I have had a huge mess to clean up after making that mistake.  Okay, back to the soup, after pouring the puree back into the soup, it was still too watery for my liking.  I transferred the soup, puree and all, into a large saucepan.  Next I brought the mixture to a boil and continue to boil for about 20 minutes until enough liquid had evaporated to make a nice thick soup.  Be sure to stir the soup occasionally during this process so that the beans don't stick to the bottom of the pan.  I must say, I was impressed this worked.  At this point I added the frozen corn to the soup and cooked over low heat for about another 5 minutes stirring occasionally. 

To serve the soup, I ladled some of the soup into a bowl.  I topped it with about a tablespoon of sour cream and a few slices of avocado on top of it.  Some chopped cilantro and or a few squeezes of lime would also go great with this. I completed this meal with some homemade corn bread and sliced red pears.  It balanced the soup out nicely.  The flavor was just fantastic, not too spicy, not too salty, just a nice balance of flavor.

This soup turned out really great and I hope you take some time to make it or something similar.  Let me know if you have any questions and thanks again for reading.