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Spicy Curried Coconut Yam Soup

Hi interweb friends. Today is Halloween. It is also a Wednesday so for those of you who do not live in a Halloween-obsessed town, or for those of you who have a real job, it might be rather anticlimactic. Lucky for me, my town is so weird that it is a pretty rare occurrence to go downtown on any day and not see someone dressed up. My favorite staple was Robert, a gentleman who dressed up in pink women's clothes and walked up and down the main drag all day, everyday, very slowly. Unfortunately, he stopped showing up in mid 2008. 

At any rate, I've been feeling rather under the weather lately. I don't know about you, but all I want to do when I'm sick is lay around and eat soup. So that is what I did! In case you haven't noticed, I've been on a little curry kick lately. So obviously this soup was curried, and since it is fall I obviously have been using as many yams (or sweet potatoes) as possible soo...I made curried coconut yam soup! Mine ended up being preeeetty spicy, but I have adjusted the recipe down for you. This soup is so easy to make it's sort of cheating. But whatever because it's also real tasty. Also as a side note- I use Cardamom all the time because I have it, if you don't have it on hand, go without! It will still be delicious. 

Spicy Curried Coconut Yam Soup

Ingredients

• 1 yam (or sweet potato)
• 1/2 C coconut milk
• 1 C veggie stock 
• 1.5 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne 
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 cardamom

Directions

• Preaheat oven to 400F
• Poke yam all over with fork prongs
• Roast yam, about 1 hour. The yam will be down when a knife or fork can be pushed into the yam with little resistance
• Allow yam to cool, no use putting a searing hot yam in a blender and causing an explosion!
• Now that your yam is slightly cool, add all the ingredients to a blender.
• Blend
• Serve! Cilantro is an especially enticing garnish. 

Ingredients!

Spices

Soup!

Mushrooms!

Hi all, it's Sunday afternoon and I am in San Francisco. Earlier today I went to the ferry building to their market place. I saw all of these fabulous mushrooms and I just wanted to share them with you real quick because they are just so...bizarre but also pulchritudinous! Later we walked down to Fishermans wharf and watched the Sea Lions flop all over one another. They are huge and loud and slightly terrifying. At any rate, it was a lovely day and here are the mushrooms!

Chantrelles, Pioppinis, Sea beans, Lion's Mane

Grow your own mushrooms!

Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins

It's "freezing" by my standards this morning. Especially up in the mountains, with a broken heater! Because of this, and also because I have a meeting later at Planned Parenthood (I'm an intern), I decided to make some delicious pumpkin blueberry muffins! These things are truly marvelous. My dear mother used to make them for me growing up. In the past I have always used canned pumpkin, but since everything tastes better when it is a) fresh and b) not processed by companies like Monsanto with innumerable corn products, I decided to make my own! Making pumpkin puree is embarrassingly simple. All you need to do is find yourself a pumpkin; any kind will do but the sugar pumpkin is readily available this time of year and has the best flesh, as well as being naturally sweet.

 I decided to make two batches this morning, one of mini muffins for my meeting and one of regular sized muffins for around the house. In my infinite wisdom, I put the mini muffins in the oven at 400 degrees F and put a timer on for 30 minutes. Why, you ask, did I do something so silly? Because it's the morning, and I'm tired, and I enjoy the sound of 3 fire alarms all going off at the same time in a small apartment! Lucky for you guys I now have proper cooking time for mini and regular sized muffins. Also, as you may have picked up, I like to use fresh, local, organic as often as possible. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and I can't spend $10 on a basket of fresh blueberries so I used frozen in this recipe. If you use frozen, be sure to thaw them before baking!

Blueberry Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients

1 medium size sugar pumpkin OR 1 C pumpkin puree

1.5 C flour (AP or whole wheat)

1tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp salt

1tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cardamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 C evaporated milk

1/3 oil

1 C packed dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375f, cut your pumpkin in half lengthwise. Remove seeds etc. Place pumpkin face down on a baking tray and bake until the pumpkin is very tender. Remove from oven, scoop out the flesh and place it all in a food processor (or blender, if you have a VitaMix). Pulse in 1 second increments until your pumpkin flesh is smooth. Voila! A homemade pumpkin puree. When you take your pumpkin out of the oven, reset the heat to 400F
2. Grease muffin tins
3. As your pumpkin bakes, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and all the spices.
4. In a separate bowl, mix 1C of pumpkin puree with 1/4C evaporated milk
5. In yet another, large bowl mix together the oil and brown sugar. Mix these two until they are fully combined and nearly fluffy
6. Add egg to sugar and oil mixture
7. Add your pumpkin puree and flour mixture into the sugar bowl, do so in small amounts and alternate between the two. 
8. Gently stir in your blueberries
9. Add your batter to the muffin tins, about 3/4 full. 
10. Place them in the oven and bake! Check on mini muffins after 10 minutes, and the larger muffins after 30 minutes. The larger muffins may take closer to 40 minutes. The small muffins bake quick so keep a close eye on them after the 10 minute mark!

YAM CURRY!

Hello little friends! Yesterday I made a very simple and also very delicious curry dish that I want to share with you! Since it is getting closer and closer to winter, I'm finding more and more yams available! I love yams. I use them interchangeably with sweet potatoes, but they really are two different vegetables. Sweet potatoes are popular in Southern United States cuisine, while yams are more often used in Caribbean or Latin American cooking. Yams have more natural sugar than sweet potatoes, and also a higher moisture content. At any rate, I love yams slightly more so this recipe is with yams but you can of course use a sweet potato!

Yam and Spinach Curry

3 Yams, peeled and cubed
2T coconut oil

1T curry powder

1tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp cardamom 

1/4tsp nutmeg

1 yellow onion, diced

2tsp grated fresh ginger

5 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz spinach, washed
1T red curry paste
1tsp salt
16oz coconut milk

1.   Preheat oven to 400
2.   Put yams in a bowl and toss to coat with coconut oil
3.   Mix together curry powder, cayenne pepper, cardamon and nutmeg. 
4.   Place yams on a baking tray, sprinkle spice mixture over yams (you should have some left over)
5.   Bake yams until they are cooked through, and tender
6.   While the yams are baking, heat your pan of choice over a medium flame with 1T of coconut oil
7.   When the oil is hot, add your onion, ginger and garlic, saute for about 3 minutes.
8.   Stir in the red curry paste. The paste will want to stay together in a lump; make sure you break it up
      your spatula
9.   Add your spinach, "fry" the spinach for about 1 minute
10. Add coconut milk and salt, stir to coat spinach
11. Add in your yams, reduce heat to medium low, cover and allow to simmer 

And thats it! Wait until your spinach is fully wilted and serve! This recipe would also be delicious with chickpeas, which you could add at the same time you add your coconut milk. And of course mixed in with quinoa or rice! Below are two of my renditions of this dish. I added some photos of mine below, so you will have a general idea of what you are getting into.  

Yam curry

Curry and rice

October musings

Good morning little internet friends! I'm leaving for Europe in LESS than 3 weeks. My love and I bought one way tickets to Portugal, with the intention of doing a "small" (6 month) all-things-culinary-tour of Western Europe! Or at least parts of it. The plan, as of now, is to hit Portgual, Spain, France and Italy. Most of our time, I'm assuming, will be spent in Italy. My oh so dear chef chef boyfriend was brought up in an Italian household, with a remarkably talented-in-the-kitchen mother, and he just can't wait to get back to his roots. This works just fine for me! Italy is so beautiful I can't wait to explore more!
We have been REAL bad about planning, and we have absolutely no concrete plans. Honestly, though, I think this is the best way to travel. Because let's be real, some of the best and most amazing experiences happen simply because you are in the right place at the right time. Having said that, since we do plan on WWOOFing in France and Italy, we should probably get on that. For those of you who don't know what WWOOFing is, it's really a phenomenal organization that helps link small organic farmers with like minded travelers. In exchange for 6 or 7 hours of work 5 days a week, the travelers are given room, board and a whole new perspective on their town of choice.

Besides not planning this incredible voyage, I have really been enjoying myself over the last several months. Most notable, I quit my job and spent two weeks on the East Coast. I went to New York to visit my man's hometown, and it was SUPERB! Don't get me wrong, the West Coast is of course the best coast, but New York City is amazing and the Hamptonites are a pretty radical bunch of people. Here are a few photos of the past few months. I hope you like them! ;)

Secret waterfall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresh local organic beans!

VOTE YES ON 37 CALIFORNIA! Label GMOs Check THIS link to educate yourselves!

Sunset on top of a mountain in a vineyard

Early morning run/surf sesh

 

View from my wine bar of choice ;)

 Sonoma, drinking only bubbles

My favorite beach

View of Jersey from NYC

Braised ground sparerib with black truffles and foie gras, complemented by confit-ed tomatoes. A TRULY exceptional burger

Fantastic Veggie Burger

I've been on sort of a 'meat free' kick lately. By which I mean I watched (another) PETA video and have been re-horrified about the realities of factory farming. At any rate, the other night we were BBQing, and while the bison burgers were awfully tempting, I refrained and ended up making the best veggie burger...EVER.
 

Mushroom & Bulgur Wheat Vegetarian Burgers

 

1/2 cup bulgur
2 eggs, whisked OR equivalent egg replacer*
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
2 tbsp olive oil
 2 shallots, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups mushrooms (I use crimini and button, generally)
1/4 cup dry white wine (think: Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño or Chardonnay)
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp nutmeg
 

 

1. Measure out your bulgur, and put it in a mixing bowl; cover with boiling hot water, about 1C but add more if all the water is absorbed and your bulgur still has that crunchy-ish raw feel
2. Mix together your eggs (or egg replacer), Panko and cilantro.
3. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat, saute garlic until fragrant. Add shallots and cook until tender.
4. Now, add in your chopped mushrooms, wine, and seasonings. Cook this until all liquid has evaporated
5. Mix your mushroom mixture with the bulgur wheat and shape into patties that are about 3/4 of an inch thick. (At this point you can saran wrap your patties and freeze them for later use. They will last up to a month!)
6. Grill up! These bad boys cook best over a medium flame. They will be heated through in 15 minutes-ish. You can saute them too, just make sure you have a little oil in the pan so they don't stick.

*My go to egg replacer is 1T of ground flax seed mixed with 3T water and chilled for several hours in the fridge. It works great! In this case, however, the equivilant of 2 eggs is not enough, so I would go with 4T of flax. Enjoy!