Posole

Day 24: Pozole, Posole

Two day effort went into tonight's soup. Yesterday, I roasted a chicken and made broth with the carcass and was all prepared to cook Jay's favorite, posole, for dinner. Unfortunately Jay had to be an adult and work late and I wasn't about to cook posole for just myself... So I waited till tonight for the preparation. There are of course a multitude of variations. There is Mexican style pozole, served with a clear broth, and New Mexican style posole with either green or red chili. For those of you unfamiliar with New Mexican cuisine, it seems to pretty much revolve around one central choice: green or red. Green is milder and usually involves some diced cooked chili similar to a fresh pablano, while red is hot and spicy and usually ground into a powder. New Mexico red chili powder is far better than any chili powder I have ever used and quite honestly, I am not sure I could ever go back to the other stuff. When we are in New Mexico we buy it in bulk at the Albertson's (of all places) and use it for the rest of the year. So obviously, given the choices, I made my posole with red chili. It was delicious, easy and very, very satisfying:

Posole:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, minced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 tbsp New Mexican red chili powder

8 cups chicken broth

4 cups cooked posole (in cans available at many grocery stores)

2-3 cups shredded chicken

salt to taste

In a soup pot heat oil and cook onions over medium heat until just soft. Add garlic and jalapenos and cook for 3 or 4 minutes more. Add spices and cook for 2 minutes to release flavors. Add broth, cooked posole, and cooked chicken and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook 10 minutes until all the flavors are melded. Salt to taste.

Jay's review:

5 yums (out of 5)! chicken+chili+corn=kickass

Roasted Corn and Pepper Soup

Day 17: Sugar and Spice

On Monday nights I go to an aerobic kickboxing class at my gym which is conveniently located next to a Trader Joe's. This means I am totally beat but I also have the Trader Joe's right there if I need anything. Our TJ's carries a surprisingly good frozen roasted corn, so I tried a soup with it as the centerpiece. What resulted was a sort of southwestern corn soup. It was sweet and spicy (which can be mediated by using less jalapeno seeds), smooth yet chunky, and very very easy to prepare. If you had more time you could try roasting the pepper before adding:

Roasted Corn and Pepper Soup

2 tbsp canola oil

1 med red onion diced

3 jalapeno peppers, minced (seeded if desired)

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow or orange bell pepper, diced

1 tsp cumin

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups frozen roasted corn

1 cup chopped canned green chilies

1/2 cup lowfat milk

juice of 1/2 a lime

salt and pepper to taste

sliced avocado

shredded pepperjack cheese

In a large soup pot heat oil over medium high heat. Cook onion, garlic, and jalapeno peppers, stirring occasionally for 8-9 minutes until the onions are soft. Add cumin and cook for 2 minutes more. Add chicken broth, frozen corn, and green chilies and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes until everything is cooked. Reserve 2 cups of the soup and blend the rest, using and immersion blender or a food processor. Add back the reserved soup and add milk. Season with lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a garnish of sliced avocado, cheese, and a few warmed tortillas.

Jay's review:

4.5 yums (out of 5)! Smokey jalapeno!

Lentil Soup with Lime

Day 11: Limey

I wanted to try something really different with lentil soup and I found my inspiration in my new cookbook (Christmas gift!) The Feast of Santa Fe. In it I found a recipe for lentil soup with a southwestern flair. The addition of New Mexico green chilies and lime really do make for a different sort of lentil soup, but I can't say it was better than the classic. To be fair, I didn't follow the recipe exactly but I do feel that the recipe called for far too much lime juice. Below I describe what I cooked tonight, but went ahead and reduced the lime to what I think might have been a more reasonable amount.

Lentil Soup with Lime

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

2 dried bay leaves

2 cups lentils rinsed and picked over

8 cups vegetable broth

1/2 diced canned green chilies

juice of two large limes

pinch of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

slash of hot sauce (optional)

In a heavy soup pot heat oil and sweat onions, celery, carrots and garlic 4-5 minutes. Add cumin, oregano and bay leaves and cook for a few minutes. Add lentils and broth, bring to a boil and simmer until lentils are fully cooked. Add chilies and cook for 5 minutes more. Add lime, sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a splash of hot sauce (if desired).

Jay's review:

2.5 yums (out of 5). Holy Lime Batman!

Green Chipotle Chili

Day 7: Spicy Hot

Since Jay and I make chili often, I wanted to try something different for chili night. With the lack of chili powder in this recipe one could even question if this even qualifies as chili, but nonetheless it is definitely different from the kind we usually make. I perused somewhere around ten chili recipes and more or less created my own, what one could call a green chili. A word of warning about chipotle chili in adobo sauce: These are extremely spicy and depending on your tolerance to spice use accordingly. I generally blend the contents of the can in a food processor and then add as needed. Jay and I like spice and I would estimate I used about 3-4 tbsp. It ended up with an extremely potent, latent spice.

Green Chipotle Chili

2 tbsp canola oil

1 med onion, diced

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 lb ground turkey or meat substitute

2 small poblano chili peppers, diced

1 small green bell pepper diced

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp coriander

2 tsp oregano

1-3 tbsp chipotle in adobo sauce, blended

4 cups cooked pinto beans

3 18 oz cans whole tomatillos, drained and finely chopped

1 can beer or 1 1/2 cup water or broth

2 tsp sugar

salt to taste

Heat oil in a deep soup pot and saute onion, garlic, and jalapeno for 2-3 minutes until just soft. Add ground meat (or sub) and cook until the meat is not pink. Add chipotle, bell pepper, poblano, cumin, coriander and oregano and cook until peppers are slightly soft. Add tomatillos, beans, and beer and simmer 20-25 minutes. Add sugar and salt to taste and cook 5 minutes more. Serve with a garnish of grated cheese and chopped fresh cilantro.

Jay's review:

4.5 yums (out of 5). Hot!

On the Brighter Side

Day 4:

After the heaviness of yesterday's chicken and dumplings we were both craving something light and full of bright vegetables. We thought instantly of carrot soup. There are a myriad of carrot soups out there - I will surely be experimenting with many of them over the next few months. Today, I decided to follow Deborah Madison's (of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) advice and combine the sweetness of carrot with some spice. She also recommends adding a small amount of white rice to the soup to add body and prevent the soup from separating. I did this and it did in fact keep the soup from separating in the bowl, but it also added an almost fluffy consistency to my pureed soup. I combined a few recipes to come up with this south-of-the-border inspired carrot soup. I served with simple corn quesadillas. Overall it was a very easy and quick soup to prepare, but not my favorite so far:

Spicy Carrot and Red Pepper Soup

2 tbsp olive oil

1 med onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp sweet paprika

a pinch of cayenne

2 dried bay leaves

2 tbsp white rice

1 lb carrots, peeled and diced

1 red pepper, diced

4 cups vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

juice of one lime

good quality pepper sauce such as cholula (optional)

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil till onions are soft. Add spices, bay leaves, and rice and cook two or three minutes more. Add chopped vegetables and stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are very soft and rice is cooked. Using an immersion blender or food processor blend the soup and add lime juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a garnish of cholula or tabasco if a spicier soup is desired.

Jay's review:

3.5 yums (out of 5)! Cholula made this a winner. :) 3.0 yums without Guadalajara Goodness.