Humble Beginnings for a Beautiful 2012

When I was a little girl, my mother would often make very simple dishes with only a few ingredients from the cupboard to fill our bellies and keep us happy. We did not have a lot of money but did have many blessings. A roof over our heads, a big, grassy yard with mature trees to play in, a mother and father who made sure we never went hungry and always felt loved. Sometimes I crave the types of food that my mother would make for us. Beans with cornbread, a simple Sunday pot roast with potatoes and canned green beans with bacon, the occasional glorious steak dinner (most likely my dad would pick those steaks up on payday to celebrate his hard work with his family around the table). All of these dishes weren't fussy and we wouldn't have known either way. Now that I'm older, I like to 'fuss' in the kitchen with new recipes and ingredients as often as possible but sometimes, you just want to feel at home...

Today is December 31st. In just a few hours, we will ring in a new year as a family and I had an urge to start the year with a very basic, affordable, flavorful split pea soup and cornbread supper in homage to my childhood and all of the lovely things that came along with being a kid in the Walker household. We've got another little one coming along in a few months and though we are blessed enough to not have to pinch penny's for our mealtime budget, I will be sure that my kids know a good home cooked humble kind of meal because often times they just have more heart in them. Kids don't know filet and lobster...they know love in a bowl though. Phae got so excited when I told her I was making split pea soup for our new years eve supper. LIttle does she know or care for that matter that it costs about $10 to make a huge pot of it (and that's if you go organic on the ingredients) along with the Jiffy cornbread mix that I grew up on.

So here's to a beautiful new year with lots and lots of memories around the kitchen table with family. Sharing anything from a humble split pea soup and cornbread to filet mignon and fine wine. Home cooked is love. Always.

Smokey Split Pea Soup

1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 carrots (diced)
1 medium yellow onion (diced)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
3 celery stalks (diced)
2 bay leaves
1 lb dried split peas
1 ham hock
2 32 fl oz containers of low sodium chicken broth
Salt & Pepper to your taste

a dash of hot sauce to taste for garnish


This is a low and slow soup. Start cooking it in the morning and let it go low and slow all day long. The hubs earned some serious brownie points this year for Christmas by purchasing this beauty for me:




You can use any soup pot you have on hand with a tight fitting cover.

Start with a little oil in the bottom of your soup pot. Dice up all of your veggies and get them started over medium high heat with a good few pinches of salt and pepper until they are just getting tender. Add your ham hock and bay leaves at any time you wish to start cooking with your veggies. Once your vegetables are tender and you've got your ham hock in there with them, add your split peas to the mix and stir around to mix everything up. After about a minute, add your chicken stock. Bring the whole thing to a boil by bumping the heat up to high and covering. Once it's boiling, give it a stir and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer on low for the afternoon stirring once or twice an hour. If you need to leave the house, no biggie. Transfer your soup into a crock pot and cook on low for the day so you don't have to babysit it.

For a classic creamy texture to your soup, after many hours of cook time, remove the ham hock and bay leaves from the pot and put aside. If you have an immersion blender, it works really well for this part. You want to blend your soup with the immersion blender for a few minutes until it's creamy OR you can let it cool slightly and then blend it in a regular blender in batches for a few seconds per batch.

The ham should easily separate from the bone and you'll want to dice it up before adding it back into the pot with the creamy soup. Bring it all back to a simmer as it's probably in need of reheating before serving.




Jiffy cornbread mix is a great friend to bring along to this party. A box of Jiffy will cost you about $1. I make my cornbread just like mom used to. In a cast iron skillet with a sprinkle of sugar on top and served with a generous pat of butter and some honey if the mood strikes you.

Serve the soup family style and don't forget to put a delicious hot sauce on the table to add a little kick to the soup. I love the Smoked Serrano hot sauce pictured below (it's made here in Colorado). Oh and, just an FYI, Mom would put raw onions on her soup along with the hot sauce. Just saying... :)

Pregnant Kitchen = Game Changer

I'm at about 26 weeks pregnant and I'll just say that it's greatly affected my desire to cook until pretty recently...in other words, I've been making pretty stupid simple meals with one motive in mind, to fill the bellies of the hubs and my sweet little girl while being able to hopefully stomach it myself and feel nourished.

It's actually been a pretty awesome adventure to see how quickly and simply I can come up with a dinner when time isn't on my side and there are several ingredients which would trigger my gag reflux immediately (garlic was an inconvenient ingredient to have an aversion to. We're friends again though, garlic and I :)...

So I want to brag about my recipe for 'Organic Hamburger Helper' real quick. The idea of buying a good ol' box of Hamburger Helper with that nasty powdered whatchamacallit was so, so tempting but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I had to come up with a way to make what I was craving (simplicity but also actual hamburger helper) healthy and quick. If you have kids you can go ahead and thank me now because this is some really, REALLY good grub on the cheap and Phae went totally nuts for it.

Organic Hamburger Helper

1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I buy the double concentrated kind in a tube. Very convenient)
1 can stewed italian style tomatoes (Phaedra requested that I chop them roughly in the food processor so there weren't big chunks of stewed tomato in the dish. Either way is fine, really)
1 box of macaroni pasta or bow tie...fun shapes are fun
Salt and Pepper to taste
shredded parmesan cheese

Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta and put a large saucepan over medium high heat and drizzle with olive oil.

Add the meat to the saucepan to brown. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once your water is boiling, add your pasta and give a stir. When the meat is almost cooked through, add your tomato paste and stir into the meat. Then add your stewed tomatoes. lower your heat to medium-low and continue to simmer the meat with the tomatoes. When the pasta is al dente, add it to the saucepan and toss everything together. Sprinkle the dish with a generous, yummy amount of cheese (I liked Parmesan but you can use any kind you and your kids like). This meal is yummy and well balanced with a nice green salad! Happy easy eating!

Angel Hair pasta with Fresh English pea pesto, sweet corn & Grape Tomatoes

Guess what I felt like doing yesterday evening after a long weekend of drinking beer and eating nothing but crap? NOT COOKING! But too bad! I had a family with hungry tummies and my body was depleted of any actual nutrients (unless you count beer as a nutrient) so I needed something healthy, quick and delicious.

I got REALLY excited when I saw that whole foods had a large bin of fresh english peas in the produce section. English peas in the pod are cheap and one of the most delicious spring vegetables you could possibly ever dream of. I think the bins are always full because people are intimidated by the look of the big ugly green pod. Its simple. A) Open pod over a bowl (like a little present every time you open one!) B) REMOVE PEAS (and try not to eat all of them before they make it to the food processor). Yea, that's all folks. Simple and totally worth every second of hard labor.







Here is what you need. It will take about 20 minutes or less to to make this meal.

2 ears of fresh sweet corn (shuck & cut the raw kernels from the cob. I do it in a large bowl so the corn doesn't fly everywhere)
1 lb english pea pods (see above for pea removal instruction)
1/2 lb angel hair pasta
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon grated parmesan
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
a few lemon wedges
a few handfuls of grape tomato cut into wedges

Put a large pot of salted water on the stove top and bring to a boil. While waiting for it to boil, make your pea pesto. Very simple. In a food processor pour your raw peas into it and add salt, pepper, a few squeezes of lemon juice (about 1/2 tablespoon) and grated cheese. Pulse the peas until they are somewhat smooth. Add the oil and blend until very smooth. Taste to see if it needs more salt, pepper or lemon.



Boil angel hair pasta for about 3-4 minutes before adding your raw corn to the water to cook along with the pasta. Once you add the corn, cook until pasta is al dente (has a slight bite to it and not mushy). While the pasta is cooking, slice your tomatoes and spoon the pesto into a large bowl along with your tomatoes.



Drain your pasta (DO NOT RINSE YOUR PASTA WITH WATER! Your pasta will not soak up the flavor of the pesto if you rinse the starches from it). Dump the corn and pasta on top of the pesto and let it warm the pesto for 1 minute before tossing everything together with tongs.



Taste it after you've mixed it well to see if it needs any additional seasoning. When serving, squeeze a little more lemon juice on the dish and some more grated cheese. Such a gorgeous, EASY light dinner!

Coconut Corn & Leek Soup with Roasted Curried Shrimp

It's been rainy for the past week and I wanted to make a soup that was warming but hopeful for sunny spring days to come by using sweet corn and leeks. It was a pretty simple soup to put together with a few simple ingredients but made interesting with tastes of curry and garam masala.

This recipe feeds 4

1 lb shrimp (de-veined and unpeeled)
2 large leeks (cut and washed very important!!)
1 1/2 cups frozen sweet corn
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 large garlic clove minced
3 cans of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon of cane sugar
2 tablespoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 jalapeno pepper chopped
1 tablespoon or so of olive oil
1 tablespoon of kosher salt (more to taste if need be)
lime wedges

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Place your shrimp on a shallow baking pan after giving them a good rinse. Keep the shells on the shrimp as they help to give the shrimp beautiful flavor while roasting as well as prevent them from drying out. Sprinkle the shrimp with 1/2 of your curry powder and all of the garam masala. then sprinkle with a generous amount of salt. Add half the ginger and then Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Toss the shrimp in the spices with your fingers until they are each coated. While you are waiting for your oven to preheat, move onto the soup.

Cut and rinse your leeks. Here's how: http://youtu.be/R8glwRaS8OM

By the time you are through cutting and cleaning your leeks, your oven will most likely be ready for the shrimp. Put the shrimp in the oven and cook on a timer for about 10 minutes and stir them around at the 5 min mark.

Now In a large soup pot, drizzle some olive oil (just a little) and add your garlic and the rest of your ginger to the oil and cook briefly. Once aromatic, add your leeks, jalapeno pepper, and the rest of your curry powder and a few generous pinches of salt. Cook to soften and then create a well in the center of the vegetables to make a roux (this will thicken the soup. Here is how to make a roux: http://youtu.be/sGxvV7uwpkw )

Did I mention that I LOVE youtube? :)

OK, so back to the soup...after you make the roux in the pan (don't worry if it gets on the vegetables! No biggie). You want to add your liquids slowly to start. Add just about 1/2 cup of your chicken stock and use a whisk to prevent your roux from clumping up. Keep adding the stock at a slow and steady pour while whisking it all together. Then you want to add your coconut milk, sugar and corn. Bump your heat up to high to get that soup bubbling away. Once it's bubbling, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. Taste it to see if it needs a better balance between salty and sweet. You want it to taste a lot like a Thai curry. Delicious!

Once the shrimp are done cooking, wait for them to cool a little before peeling them. After they are all peeled, roughly chop them into large chunks.

When your soup is done and ready, ladle it into bowls and top each bowl with a heap of delicious roasted shrimp and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

Eat with some fresh bread or whatever you wish!

Poor Man's Hash

Is that on oxymoron? Is there a 'Rich Man's Hash'? Oh well...I made this recipe up in my head and the results were pretty delicious and healthy. This is a vegetarian dish with tons of flavor and potential to go just about anywhere you dare to take it with other ingredients. My approach was quite simple. I had 30 minutes to get 'er done before dinner had to be on the table.

So here she goes!

1 bunch of fresh escarole (chopped and rinsed well)
2 cloves garlic
a handful of large green olives sliced
about 12-15 fingerling potatoes sliced
1 8 oz can of stewed tomatoes
a few pinches of red pepper flake
salt and pepper
a bit of lemon juice



Boil the sliced potatoes in some salted boiling water until they are tender. Once tender, drain and set aside to dry a little.

In a large saucepan with the heat on medium high, drizzle some olive oil and add the garlic and chopped olives. Let the garlic cook for about 10-15 seconds and then toss in the potatoes and stir them into the garlic (so the garlic doesn't burn). Turn the heat up to high so the potatoes get a little bit of a crispy texture and after a few minutes toss them and crisp them a little more.




Once the potatoes have a little color, add the escarole and turn the potatoes over onto the escarole and sprinkle a generous amount of salt over everything as is cooks down (a few good pinches) and a small amount of pepper. Once the escarole has wilted, add the stewed tomatoes (be sure to drain the juices from them so the dish isn't too wet). Squeeze a little lemon juice over the hash to brighten everything up and sprinkle some hot pepper flake on top to give it some good heat.

Simple and really good for you! Bon Appetit!

Seared Scallops with grapefruit, sweet onions, mint and truffle oil

I think scallops scare people sometimes. They are slimy, strange and really complicated looking but the truth is, they are easy to cook and delicious when done right. This is a SUPER simple way to serve up scallops and to impress whom you are serving them to. My hubs and I ate at a fantastic little restaurant in Manhattan a few years ago and we ordered this incredible grapefruit salad and I like to recreate it when I can but make it my own by adding a few different ingredients. I tend to make this dish a few times a year but I'm not going to lie, I think this is the FIRST time I actually really NAILED it. It was perfect. The scallops were PERFECT and my belly was happy. Its not a meal. Its an appetizer...or serve it in place of a salad. Would be amazing as a starter followed by a delicious, juicy steak dinner (I'll post those goods later)!

I'll give you the recipe for 4.


12 large diver scallops (3 per person)
3 red or golden grapefruits (segmented and juices reserved for vinaigrette. Here's how (love her accent :): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3320000526185938826#)
1 sweet vidalia onion (cut into very thin slices)
a bunch of chopped mint
Salt and Pepper
White or Black truffle oil (I used white. Truffle oil is one of those things. Either you LOVE it or HATE it. If you HATE it, leave it out of the recipe...it will be just as yummy)

Directions:

Segment your grapefruit and reserve the juices in a small bowl
slice your onion very thin and add to the grapefruit in a larger bowl
chop the mint and put half in the bowl with the grapefruit and the other half in the grapefruit juices.
Add a few pinches of salt to the juice as well as white or black pepper and stir. Taste to make sure the balance of salty and sweet is right. Add the seasoned juice to the grapefruit and onions and gently stir together. Drizzle the salad with 1/2 tablespoon of truffle oil, stir once more and then place in fridge.

Set your scallops on a few paper towels and thoroughly dry both sides (very important! If they're too wet, they will not sear correctly and won't be pretty or tasty!). Lightly season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a non stick pan to medium high and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Add the scallops to the pan (don't overcrowd! Do a few at a time) and sear for 2-3 minutes on each side (they should be golden and crispy but not overcooked). When the scallops are done, you will put together a serving for each of your guests.

Spoon the salad into a salad bowl and top with 3 scallops and garnish with a pretty mint leaf.

Bon Appetite!

Salad Season: Bibb lettuce salad with pears, candied pecans & gorgonzola

It's time to start eating light! I served this beautiful salad tonight and it was so yummy!

Ingredients for salad:

1 head of bibb lettuce (sometimes called 'butter' lettuce-washed and leaves cut in half)
1 small wedge of gorgonzola cheese (crumbled)
2 pears (your favorite kind)
a handful or so of pre-made candied pecans (or walnuts-I get these @ whole foods)

Raspberry Walnut vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon of raspberry preserves
1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of walnut oil
2 tablespoons of peanut oil
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
a few of the candied nuts
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Make the vinaigrette:
Combine all ingredients for the vinaigrette in food processor. Let flavors meld while preparing salad.

Salad prep:

Simply wash and cut the lettuce and slice pears and crumble the cheese. Toss the lettuce greens in a large bowl with the vinaigrette. After tossing lettuce in the dressing, plate with other ingredients.

Enjoy!

Lamb Ravioli with Mushroom Cream

I'm a corner cutter when it comes to cooking most of the time. One thing you will NEVER see me making in my kitchen is pastry dough or pasta. When I want fresh pasta, I'll go to the Italian market to buy it. For this ravioli, I used wonton wrappers (not THAT bad...even Martha suggested using these for ravioli :)

This time of year I find myself craving lamb. Don't know why but I do know that this recipe satisfied my craving and I high fived myself after eating it. It's good enough to share.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used Panko crumbs)
1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
3 eggs (2 for filling and 1 to seal the ravioli)
2 large cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 yellow onion (or white) chopped finely
handful of chopped fresh mint
wonton wrappers (you can find these in the refrigerated section of most groceries)
1 package of baby bella mushrooms (sliced)
3 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup of your favorite cheese (I used Parmesan)
1 cup milk (room temp)
Salt and pepper to taste
olive oil














Instructions:
In a large saute pan, heat up a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat. Cook the chopped onion and 1 large clove of garlic minced. When onions are soft, add the lamb and salt and pepper generously. Break the lamb up with a spatula so that it cooks evenly. When the meat is finished cooking, put it in a large bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes while you prepare other ingredients.

Go ahead and start the sauce while the meat cools. In the same pan that you cooked the meat in, add 2 tablespoons of butter and the other minced garlic clove. Chop your mushrooms and place them in the pan and cook on medium low until soft. Once soft, reduce the heat to low so they don't burn while you are assembling the ravioli.




To the meat, add bread crumbs, ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, salt and pepper (a good few pinches of both) 2/3 of the chopped mint.



I used a fork to combine all ingredients but I think next time I'll use a food processor to grind the cooked meat smaller. It just depends on how fine you want your filling to be. It will be heartier if you just mix with a fork and fill the ravioli with the meat straight from the pan.

Once all ingredients are well mixed, open your wonton wrappers but only remove a few from the package as you need them (they tend to dry out). Lay a piece of wax paper on a baking sheet and place how ever many wrappers will fit. Break an egg into a bowl and whisk together the egg and a few splashes of cold water (this is called an egg wash). This will be used to seal the top wrapper to the bottom wrapper. WIth a brush, paint the egg wash around the edges of your bottom wrapper and then put about a tablespoon of filling into each wrapper. Seal the ravioli by placing another wrapper on top and squeeze the edges shut (very important! This step seals the ravioli so it won't break open in your boiling water).



before you finish your cream sauce, put on a large pot of boiling salted water. While you are waiting on the water to come to a boil, bring the mushroom pan up to medium high heat and add another tablespoon of butter. When it melts, add the flour to the butter and brown. Slowly whisk in milk so there are no clumps in the sauce. You can choose to make this sauce really thick (like I did) or add a little more milk or stock to thin it out. Once the sauce simmers (not boils! the milk will scald...YUCK) and thickens, add the cheese and taste to see if it needs more salt/pepper. Once the sauce is at your desired consistency, reduce to low just to keep warm.





Your water should be boiling now...so drop about 3-4 ravioli in the water at a time and cook for about 4-5 minutes each. When finished, take out with a slotted spoon and put on a platter and place somewhere to keep warm and cover with plastic wrap until all ravioli's are cooked. You can put them all on a pretty flat platter or you can make individual plates as you go along (that's what I did). Place 4-5 on each plate and spoon mushroom sauce on top and sprinkle with some pretty chopped mint. Devour.




***SIDE NOTE!! You can pre-make these, lay them on a cookie sheet and between layers, separate with wax paper and freeze individually on the sheet (so they don't stick together!). Once frozen, place them in a freezer ziplock baggie and you have a quick and easy dinner in the future. (these would be great with even store bought red sauce or alfredo sauce)