Posts Tagged soup
Venison Chili
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on March 11, 2011
Ingredients:
- 4 cups good stock.
- 2 cups barley
- 1 cup dry beans
- 2 lbs venison sausage
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 2 cups chopped leek
- 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
The night before soak beans in water.
Toast barley in cast iron. Add 2 cups stock and toasted barley in sauce pan. Cover and bring to boil.
Boil beans in water. Saute Venison. When barley is finished put barley in soup pot. Add venison and 2 cups stock. Drain beans and add to pot. Add carrots and leeks. Fill the pot rest of way with water, not too much, I like it chunky. Bring to boil. Turn down to simmer. Add parsley and serve! Bon appetite
Like this:
Black Truffle Miso
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on February 3, 2011
Black Truffle Miso
- 1 onion
- 2 grated carrots
- 1 oz Black Truffles
- 3 scallions
- 1 block of tofu
- 1 tbsp grape seed oil
- 2 heaping tbsp Miso
- 4 cups water
Chop onion, scallions and tofu. Slice thin rounds of truffles. Grate carrots. Heat cast iron skillet to med-hi. Add oil and onions. Sautees until translucent add tofu and truffles. Sautee for another 2 minutes and remove from heat. In sauce pan heat water, add miso. Stir in contents of cast iron skillet. Add scallions and carrots. Salt and pepper. Heat up, but don’t let boil.
Jerusalem Artichokes
Posted by castironidaho in Farm and Garden, Recipes on January 24, 2011
Jerusalem artichokes
Our high mountain desert is brown and frozen. It seems as if there is nothing fresh to eat, but if we dig a little we can find a sweet little jewel – The Jerusalem artichoke also known as Sun Choke. Winter is the season to eat this exotically flavored rhizome. I think they are best eaten right after they have been dug up. You want to harvest the Jerusalem artichoke after the entire plant has died back all the way to the ground. As I kneel in the cold winter dirt picking up Sun Chokes and letting frozen soil slip through my fingers, I imagine I am a native rooting for Camas root.
How I like to eat them:
- In soup. Fast and easy. Wash, cut in cubes, put in soup.
- Shave thin like ginger. Put in shallow bowl with vinaigrette. Let soak for 30 to 60 min. Serve as side dish like a pickle.
- Whatever you would do with a potatoes you can do with chokes.
- Eat them soon after picking. The longer you wait the tougher the skin. Eaten right after picking no need to peel.
Growing Jerusalem artichokes:
Sun Chokes grow like an invasive weed. I sometimes wonder if they aren’t called chokes because they will take over. The plant gets about ten feet tall and need full sun. At the end of Fall they finally bloom. Little sunflower like blossoms a top a very tall plant. Stalks and leaf also resemble sunflower. Put somewhere you don’t care if they take over because they will. I grow them on the ditch bank. Harvest after plant has died back all the way to the ground. Best not to harvest the rhizome when frozen, wait for a day when the ground is thawed like after rain. Once they start sprouting root will vanish soon after. Best time to plant, now until March! Pick a day when the ground is thawed and you can dig.
How to get Jerusalem artichokes:
Call Farmer Marty (208)713-1675 $2 a lbs. For seed or food.
marty.citygardens@gmail.com
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Here is a recipe that we published last year in the Global Gardens’ CSA cookbook. I don’t have a photo of it because we haven’t made it since last winter. We served it at a pre-season party for Marty’s CSA members, with a big loaf of crusty homemade bread, and I remember it being wonderful! More info on both CSAs, coming soon!
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 ancho peppers or other medium-hot peppers (we used barbecued, frozen ones from last season!)
- 20-30 Jerusalem artichokes, chopped into 2 or 3 pieces.
- 4-6 c. water or broth
- 1/2 can of coconut milk or to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Pumpkin seeds (available in the bulk section at the Co-op)
Heat olive oil in a soup pot and add onions and garlic. Cook slowly until clear and caramelized, 10-15 minutes, adding ancho peppers halfway through cooking. (Farmer Marty likes to barbecue his anchos, and freeze them to use later in soups.). Add artichokes and water to pot and simmer until they are soft. Puree with a blender or food processor, stir in coconut milk, salt, and pepper. Serve in bowls topped with pumpkin seeds.
Soup Swap
Posted by castironidaho in Events on January 17, 2011
As it turns out, two of the 14” trout Marty caught were quite a bit more than enough to feed the two of us. His fishing buddy (and faithful blog reader) Randy suggested trout chowder made from the leftovers, so we decided to try it. We made up one batch for ourselves and it was so delicious, that we decided to make another batch to share…..
I had received a invitation earlier this week from my friend Josie, to participate in a “Soup Swap.” Josie tells me that this Sunday, January 16, was National Soup Swap Day, and that all over the country, soups were being exchanged. The idea was this: Each participant makes a soup and comes to the party with 6 quart containers of soup. Soups are exchanged and each participants goes home with 6 different soups, and either doesn’t have to cook all week, or can put them in the freezer to eat later. In addition, Josie made a big pot of veggie chili for everyone to eat at the party, along with some other yummy dishes people had made. My favorites were the corn pancakes with honey butter. Delicious, and an interesting change from corn bread with chili. Some patient soupswapper had fried up dozens of them, and they were still warm.
Now, Farmer Marty generally is not a big party goer. In fact, I would go so far as to say, he’s anti-party. In fact, I go to a lot of parties by myself. But he was so sure that his “Rainbow Trowder” was the best soup in town, that it only took a tiny amount of convincing to get him to accompany me to the Soup Swap. We showed up and lined our soup up with all the other soups.
Here’s how the swap worked. Everybody picked a number. Then, by number each person got to pick one soup. In the second round, we picked three more, and in the last round, 2 more. There were a lot more than 6 participants, I think there were 14, so everybody didn’t get every kind. Some of the more popular soups were Sauerkraut Soup (our first pick), Cilantro Dumpling Soup, Caldo Verde, and White Bean, Garlic, and Goat Cheese (we missed out on these), Chicken, Black Bean and Cilantro, Coconut Chicken, and Creamy Carrot (we’ll be trying these!).
Marty was disappointed that the Rainbow Trowder was not the first soup to disappear. Actually, I think quite a few of the participants may have been vegetarians, as they made a point of telling us that their soups were. But we thought our soup was so spectacular! Do people not like fish as much as we do? Were they unsure about the homegrown Jerusalem Artichokes? We don’t know. However, as I pointed out, there was no actual tasting of soups involved…(and, it’s not really a contest). Here’s the recipe to try for yourself.
– Katie
