Chunky Split Pea Soup
It has been cold and rainy the last few days–typical of a Rocky Mountain spring–and all I want to do is snuggle up with a blanket, a book, and a big bowl of soup. This concoction fit the bill perfectly. I know the typical split pea soup is all smooth and pureed, but I was a) too lazy to wash the blender and b) not really feeling the dirty-olive-green color it would become. So, chunky soup it is! I liked having something to sink my teeth in to. If you wanted to bulk this up even more you could add a few potatoes, or some diced up ham, or whatever.
Chunky Split Pea Soup
6-8 pieces bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
3 celery stalks, minced
2 carrots, chopped
2 ½ cups dry split peas, rinse in cold water
10 cups water or stock
2-3 cups cooked chicken or turkey, chopped
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper generously
(optional: 1-2 potatoes, diced)
Chop the bacon and cook in a large stock pot until crispy, add onion, garlic, celery, carrots and sauté until the onion and celery are soft. Add peas, water, (potatoes), and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes, add the cooked chicken or turkey and simmer another 15-20 minutes until peas are soft and chicken is heated through. Test for salt, add if necessary. Serve hot with crusty bread, cracked black pepper, and sour cream if you want.
You can puree this whole thing in a blender or with an immersion blender, but I kind of like it chunky. It seems more like soup and less like brown-green sludge.
Jalapeno Corn Chowder
This soup is absolutely perfect, you can easily adjust the spiciness by adding (or eliminating) jalapeno seeds. I prefer my soup rather mild, so I only put in perhaps 6-8 seeds per jalapeno. J-Mo prefers his soup spicier than humanly tolerable, so he adds a bunch of spice after he dishes up.
Jalapeno Corn Chowder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, minced
3-5 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 jalapenos, diced, with a few seeds (to taste)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 4 oz can green chilies
1 tablespoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon mustard powder
4 cups chicken stock
Roux
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups half-n-half (or, 1 cup milk, ½ cup cream)
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/3 cup feta crumbles
1 ½-2 lbs frozen corn
3 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
Cilantro, for garnish
Heat oil in large soup pot, sauté onion, garlic, jalapeno, and red pepper until tender. Add green chilies, vinegar, and seasoning, stir. Add stock and keep at medium heat.
Make a roux by melting 3 tablespoons butter in small saucepan on high heat, when it’s melted add flour and whisk to make a paste. Add milk and whisk constantly until it bubbles and gets thick. Remove from heat and add feta, whisking until mostly smooth (a few lumps are okay). Add the milk-feta mixture to your soup pot, dump in the frozen corn and chicken/turkey, if using, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes. Served with chopped cilantro.
*You probably do not need to add salt to this recipe, the chicken stock and feta make it just about perfect. However, you can ad it at the end of necessary. If you use a low sodium broth, or vegetable broth, you may need ½-1 teaspoon of salt, but taste it first before throwing it in.
Birthday Pound Cake
For most of my life this has been the ONLY option I wanted for birthday cake. I distinctly remember a castle cake with towers out of OJ concentrate cans covered in construction paper; and I remember one of those doll skirt cakes. But after about third grade this pound cake was, for me, the only suitable option for birthday cake. Most of my siblings have similar feelings, and here we are decades later (!!) and all I want for my birthday is pound cake. The outside crust is a little bit chewy, but not too chewy. The inside is soft and tender without being delicate. The top crust crinkles under your teeth in the most satisfying manner. Basically, this cake is perfection. With birthday candles. And because today I turn 31 (cue: noisemakers with confetti, balloons, party hats) it is only appropriate that I share some cake with you.
Birthday Pound Cake
Preheat oven to 325*
1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
3 cups sifted flour (sift, then measure)
¼ teaspoon salt
Birthday candles
There is a lot of mixing in this recipe (thank you, trusty KitchenAid for taking on the heavy lifting), and more timing requirements than anything else I’ve ever made. But I’ve found I don’t mind hanging out in the kitchen for 15 or twenty minutes if the prize is an entire pound cake all to myself that I can share with my friends. So, set the timer and find something to do in the kitchen for a little while so you can babysit the mixer while it creates this delicious cake!
At least an hour prior to mixing the cake remove the butter, cream cheese, and eggs from the fridge to come to room temperature (if your house is cold, let them sit on the counter for longer than that). When they are soft, cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar for 10 minutes in a stand mixer on medium speed. Every 2 or 3 minutes stop the mixing and scrape the bowl with a spatula to make sure the butter and sugar on the bottom is getting whipped into frothy goodness with everything else. While this is mixing sift your flour into a bowl, and then carefully grease a bundt pan. Add eggs one at a time, beating one full minute after each. Again, use a spatula to scrape the bottom of your bowl to make sure the butter and sugar are thoroughly mixing with the eggs. Add vanilla with the last egg. Sift flour with the salt (this makes the flour sifted TWICE, then measured). Add flour to batter 1 cup at a time with mixer on low speed, folding in for about 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure you are incorporating the butter and flour together.
Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes. Loosen edges with a small spatula or thin butter knife, turn out of pan onto rack or serving platter and let cool completely (several hours). The easiest way to do this is to rest the rack/platter on the cake while it’s in the pan and then turn the whole thing upside down, trying to flip the bundt pan without the platter in place results in an achey-breaky heart cake. Pound cake really doesn’t need frosting, a little raspberry sherbert or strawberry ice cream on the side is perfect.
Rosemary Chickpea Soup
I have made some variation of this recipe a half-dozen times, and I find the more I make it the more I tweak it. This version I let simmer in the crock pot all day long, and even then it is better the next day. I also find I like this spicier than not (more red pepper flakes!), which is highly unusual for me. But there you have it.
Rosemary Chickpea Soup
1 white onion, diced
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 – 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 15 oz. cans petite diced tomatoes
2 15 oz cans chickpeas, rinsed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons rosemary, crushed
4 cups cooked turkey or chicken, chopped
Parmesan cheese, for serving
Dump everything into the crock pot and cook for 8-10 hours. Adjust salt and red pepper flakes and serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. (Or, you know, wait until the next day and THEN serve with Parmesan.)
Coriander Crusted Pork Tenderloin
This was my second attempt at this recipe and the results were absolutely delicious. The pork was savory and flavorful and deliciously tender. I loved how easy-peasy it was, and the pork drippings were perfect for grilling up some blanched Brussels Sprouts. You will probably need a meat thermometer for this dish so you don’t have to cut into the pork to check if it’s done. If you don’t have one, cutting a little slice in it is just fine (that’s exactly what I did the first time around), you want a little bit of pink in the center, and the outside edges a nice white-ish color. (This would be a perfect, easy, romantic dinner if you’re looking for inspiration.)
Coriander Crusted Pork Tenderloin
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoon onion powder (or dry onion, crushed up a bit)
3/4 cup ground coriander
3 tablespoons dry mustard powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 pounds of pork tenderloin
extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line 9×13 baking dish with foil.
Combine bread crumbs with garlic powder, onion, coriander, mustard, salt and pepper in small bowl. Add melted butter and mix well (it will be crumbly).
Season the pork with salt and pepper, coat with the bread crumb mixture, packing it onto the meat with your hands. Heat the oil in a large skillet (that your pork loin can fit into), you need enough oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan about 1/4″ deep. Add the pork and sear it on all sides, using large tongs to turn. After the outside is seared, place the tenderloin in a foil-lined 9×13 pan and roast, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes until internal temperature reads 140 degrees (or when you slice it open you aren’t grossed out by too much pink).
*If you want to complement this with Brussels Sprouts, wash, trim and halve about a pound of sprouts. Quickly blanch them in boiling water (for 3-5 minutes) and drain. When your tenderloin is about 10 minutes from being done, heat up your skillet with it’s pork drippings, toss in those sprouts and saute until they are nicely browned and you’re out of drippings. Season with salt and pepper and serve while hot.
heidikins cooks 