225: Spicy Indian Carrot Soup

So Tuesday it snowed. It didn't stick, but they were decently fat flakes, accompanied by wind and a general desire to stay in bed- or at the very least get hot chocolate. I'd been wanting soup for a while now, but that set me over the edge. I settled on a carrot soup, and this recipe, because ginger. The only thing I didn't have was heavy cream...and I'm in a healthy-as-possible mindset, so I didn't feel right about buying any.

Searching the interwebs, a few people suggested yogurt, though with the caveat they'd only really used it in Indian dishes...and then the lightbulb went off.

I followed the recipe better than I tend to, adding about 1/8-1/4 tsp of coriander, cumin and turmeric. I also halved a jalapeno, removed the seeds, and tossed that in towards the beginning. Oh and I tossed in a few garlic cloves, roughly chopped, assuming that once everything got buzzed with the immersion blender it wouldn't really matter.

After I took the soup off the heat I swirled in a little yogurt, which looks super pretty in addition to amping up the creaminess. Let's pretend that parsley leaf is cilantro, ok? And that I'd actually wiped down that bowl properly.

Were I to do it again I'd take the jalapeno out sooner and add a bit more Indian flavor- it was very high on the spicy but low on the spices. And I'd also start off with a little hing. But I'm really loving this soup, and would definitely do it again. Any excuse to play with Indian flavors.

Delivery 22

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Beets - 2 pounds

Carrots - 1 pound

Red Russian Kale - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips - 2

Flat Leaf Parsley - 1 bunch

Garlic - 2 heads

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Popcorn - 4 cobs

Hot Peppers - take if you like

Red Russian Kale

Gorgeous! Kale with pecans. With smoked paprika. Kale chips. With buckwheat noodles.

Garlic

Guess. You'll probably be right.

Turnips

Believe it or not, I went for the smaller turnips, hoping to avoid the weird bitterness I had with the last big one. Slaw with carrots and apples. Slaw with carrots (bonus for parsley).

Acorn Squash

Soup with turnips. Soup with turnip chips. Soup with kale and bacon. What? I'm cold.

Popcorn

Note with the popcorn: let dry for three more weeks for best results. Um, thanks? I'll probably wait to bring this home to my parents', where there is a microwave.

Beets

Went for a bag with smaller beets. Salad with ginger. Salad with kale. Beet chips. Salad with potatoes.

Carrots

Boo orange carrots! Here's a slaw with beets (and beet greens, but I could use kale or something).

Potatoes

Ugh, potatoes. Part of me just wanted to swap these guys out for more garlic on the swap table. Here's fritters with turnips. Potato pancakes. Potato pizza dough. Or this potato cake (bonus for parsley).

Hot Peppers

Flat Leaf Parsley

I just kind of want to do wilted parsley on toast again.

Delivery 20

Butternut Winter Squash - 1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce - 2 heads Lettuce Smettuce, went for another bunch of radishes again

Broccoli - 1

Radish - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Garlic - 2 heads

Kohlrabi - 1 bunch

Sage - 1 bunch

Carrots - 1 pound

Hot Peppers - Jalapenos

Cauliflower - 1

I have a bit of a crazyplan this week, just to chop everything up and roast it with the sage. But then I don't have enough sheet trays/oven space/etc.

Turnips

Kinda giant turnips this week. Here's a soup. Fritters with potato and scallions. Frittata. Simple roast.

Cauliflower

Heyyy I got one that wasn't moldy this time! Faux cous cous looks neat (and I love excuses to use the food processor). Spicy roasty cauliflower steaks. Creamy curried soup. And a curry with potatoes.

Jalapenos

Part of the reason I was able to build up so many habaneros for that jelly was they were too spicy to use in normal dishes. Happy to have a few milder everyday peppers to just use as needed.

Garlic

Every time I look at this thing, I just keep thinking of Eraserhead. I'm sorry if that's now stuck in your head. I use garlic all the time, but don't want to just toss this in with a bunch of other flavors. One of my favorite things about the CSA is subtly but profoundly different ingredients taste when they're this fresh. Most likely this will just get roasted and spread on bread like butter.

Butternut Squash

Yay! Butternut squash is one of those foods I adore, but don't order it at restaurants as it's a borderline food. It can be sweet or savory, and I want none of the sweet. Or rather, additional sweet. So no cinnamon or maple syrup please, the squash brings enough of that to the party as is. Roasted squash soup. I have my own favorite soup recipe with rosemary and onions, may try that out. These wontons sound neat, if a little sweet.

Potatoes

Salad with salmon. Pizza dough. First batch that appear to have been cleaned before sending.

Carrots

Roasted carrots and avocado salad. Carrot cake pancakes. Carrots with potatoes and dill. Spoon bread.

Sage

Crispy sage. Pizza with butternut squash. If I didn't still have pate in the freezer I'd make that again.

Radishes

There was a lot of sage (and I mean a lot) on the swap table today, but thankfully my radish-hating friend left an extra bunch for me to swap out. It's more than a little ridiculous that I traded two heads of lettuce for a baby bunch of these radishes (especially when I'm on a salad kick lately), but it happened. Pickles, with cheese and chives on bread, or just with butter and salt. Or I'll just make a bunch of radish roses, and throw them at people.

Broccoli

Broccoli grilled cheese (healthy wha?). Hummus with white beans. Chilled soup (bonus for dill, which I still have from last week).

Kohlrabi

Salad with apples. Slaw with apples. Slaw with turnips.

191: Habenero Ginger Jelly

I was about a 1/2" short of the 6th half pint for this recipe, which turned out surprisingly well. This is the first jelly I've made, and while I was following a recipe, and read a few others I hadn't attempted, I still didn't think what is essentially a slurry of sugar and vinegar, with a few flavorful "bits," would work- set wise or flavor wise. 

But look! Adorable little flakes of habenero and ginger, suspended in a thick but totally spreadable base!

I followed this recipe as written (she waffles between writing 1 and 2 packets of pectin; it's one). Well almost. I had 5 orange habeneros and 3 green, and used a few cubes of grated ginger I generally keep frozen at all times (for oatmeal, and life). I also processed in a water bath, as opposed to the turning over method.

I made the mistake of breathing a few times while making this, you may want to be a little more careful. It wasn't the instant-death she mentions (or maybe I just breathe in a surprising amount of vinegar fumes on a regular basis), but it still wasn't pleasant.

The good part of that missing 1/2" (probably partly due to my using a pint jar) is that I have a decent amount to taste test, not that I'm sure what I'll eat it in/on besides toast. It's a situation where if you take just a little dab of it you may be mistaken on the spiciness level, but even a demi-spoonfull will make your mouth burn in a big but entirely pleasant way. Part of me is a little sad it's not overwhelming, but then I remember it'll continue to get a little spicier in the jars, and at least now I can actually use it for things.

Looking around the internets, there are much spicier versions out there, but were I to make this again I would probably just cut down on the sugar a little.

Delivery 19

Dill - 1 bunch

Beets - 2 pounds

Diakon Radish - 1
Cheriette Radishes - 1 bunch

Cauliflower - 1 head

Red Leaf Lettuce - 1 head (standard switch for more radishes)

Green Lettuce - 1 head

Napa Cabbage - 1 head

Bok Choy - 1 head

Leeks - 1 bunch

Broccoli Florets -1 bunch

Ancho Peppers - 4

Hot Peppers - take if you like

[no pic]

Cauliflower

Still love this roundup, though I'm tempted to try and fix my smothered cauliflower dish.

Napa Cabbage

With daikon I'm well on my way to more kimchi, but no. Loving this cabbage roundup from Bittman (picks: hot & sour, egg & tomato, caesar). Really feeling soup lately.

Leeks 

Still have my leeks from last week- I just went ahead and cleaned and chopped everything up without a definite plan in mind. Less excuses to dawdle. Here's a soup with cauliflower and cashews. Or that confit. Or fritters, again, though a different recipe.
 

Dill

There is some smoked salmon in my freezer that would be good with this- I'd go super simple though. Beyond that (as I still have tons of potatoes from the past few weeks): a potato salad with dill, roasted potatoes, or roasted radishes. Dill bread. Potato dill bread. And another.

Radishes

See other ingredients. Lazy this week. I'm not sure who doesn't like radishes, but for some reason they're always on the swap table. Not complaining, beats red lettuce any day.

Green Lettuce

A salad, natch. Not sure what kind, though could easily be a just greens with dressing kind of thing.

Beets

You have no idea how happy I am to see beets. I'd gladly take two pounds of these every week. Part of me was sad there were none on the swap table, but as it gets colder these will be more prevalent, so here's hoping. These guys are already roasted, earmarked for a repeat of sorts.

Daikon

This daikon is as big as my forearm. No kidding. Some will be pickled. Here are more recipes for that. I like this soup, even if it's more about the mushrooms than the daikon. Here's a simpler one.

Poblano Peppers

Not that I have a plan for it, but I'm tempted to make a sauce. Also maybe a pizza. Also also I picked up more hot peppers but forgot to add them to this pic.

Broccoli

Roasted with cauliflower and garlic. Spicy saute. These feel firmer than the last batch for whatever reason. Not a lot though.

Bok Choy

Cole slaw with radishes and daikon. Or a saute. I've gotten over my inherent meh-ness about this veggie, as I've made some fun things with it so far, but it's pretty hard to store in my greens-hatin' fridge.

177: Radish Flatbread

So: this. I used this recipe from food 52. I was hoping for a soft pliable flatbread, but I need to adjust my technique a bit. There are a few different ways to make this: like roti, parantha, not sure what to classify this but yet another site. Here are two with videos.

My dough was dry, I shallow fried it with some oil and kept the discs thick hoping they would puff. They did not. 

Next time I'd like to let this rest before frying, roll the dough out thinner, use less oil (water instead), and have a hotter pan. The flavor was really interesting, something I'd like to try again. 

Delivery 18

Leeks - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Broccoli - 2 bunches

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Lettuce - 1 head Exchanged for another bunch of radishes

Bok Choy - 1 head

Radish - 1 bunch

Rosemary - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips with Greens - 1 bunch

Hot Habanero Peppers - take them if you like

Red Cabbage - 1 head

Peppers - 2

Cauliflower - 1

Broccoli

Once again these were kind of ...floppy. I found the last batch pretty bitter, but at least there's a decent amount this time so I didn't swap them out. A few decent contenders for recipes, too: Pizza (with potatoes and rosemary), cooked forever, roasted with mustard.

Bok Choy

I'm on a salad kick lately (week long detoxes to make up for the crazy indulgence of the weekend wherein I eat all the bread, eggs, caramel sauce and butter), so a simple raw salad may be in order. Or cooked with broccoli.

Cauliflower

Crazy/amazing roundup from the Guardian, some of which will get made, but maybe not this week as I've found cauliflower and eggs with tomato sauce! Or there's roasted with ginger and mint.

Turnips

I'm not sure I've ever cooked turnips before. No wait, I did once, just roasted as a "Hey! These are cheap, let's add them to the weekly veggie roast" a few years ago. Looking to do something a little more exciting with them now. Here are options: with orange and hazlenuts, soup with leeks, mashed with potatoes and leeks, pickles, and Moroccan! Loving the looks of those greens, too.

Radish

I have four of these guys earmarked, as for what to do with the rest: easy with turnips, a pizza (pizzas are the new biscuits. also a bit of a cop out, but cacio e pepe is a great flavor profile), Indian flatbread (!), and then this weird weird bread I don't think I'll ever make, but wanted to share.

Potatoes 

Fritters with turnips, doing a more traditional potato pancake. Getting a lot of potatoesed out. Maybe I'll make bread and bring it to work to get rid of it: here are a bunch of recipes (and a German one).

Leeks

Going back to the archives a bit, but leek confit perhaps. Though a ton of recipes I've already listed use them, so I doubt I'll have trouble.

Red Cabbage

There were a few that I mentioned last time I would like to get back to: peanut/lime salad or sweet and sour. Galette with onions and feta.

Acorn Squash

Soup with Turnips, there's always a plain ol' roast as well. Or risotto.

Rosemary

I'm having trouble using all my herbs again. Still have a bunch of thyme from last week. I may whip up another batch of herb butter, just so I don't feel so bad about the sheet volume that exists in the crisper. Would also work well with potatoes and squash.

Peppers

I keep picking up tons of hot peppers without a plan in mind- though I used some in my chili verde. There are still some roasted from last week in my fridge. Let's pretend I'll make hot sauce, shall we?

168: Chicken Chili Verde

So maybe this isn't the prettiest dish, but damn is it tasty. I triangulated between a few recipes, and due to the nature of my tomatillos, I don't have anything easily official if you feel like playing along at home. Chili is something that I always wing. It's very forgiving.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 poblanos, roasted, skinned seeded and diced

1 jalapeno/serrano, roasted skinned seeded and diced

~ tomatillo puree/liquid*

~ chicken broth

1.5 tsp (guessing) cumin

~ salt, pepper, olive oil

1 Tbs cilantro, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

* recipe to post later that needed tomatillo juice. I had pureed 20 tomatillos, strained through a fine sieve/cheese cloth. This used about half that pulp and then maybe a 1/4 cup of juice

Brown your chicken thighs in a dutch oven all over, rendering out some fat. Remove the thighs from the pan, set aside, and put your onions in with the brown goodness on the bottom of the pot. Saute for a bit, until the onions start to brown, then add your garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the poblanos and the hot pepper, then the tomatillo pulp/juice, broth, and cumin. Taste it, adjust some seasonings to your liking (more hot pepper or cumin, etc). Put the chicken back in and simmer, covered, until cooked through. I don't tend to time it.

Remove the chicken again, add the lime juice and some of the cilantro. Let it simmer and thicken uncovered. Shred your chicken, add it back to the pot, and continue to simmer until you reach your desired consistency. Taste and adjust your seasonings again.

I probably added to much tomatillo pulp, but just barely. It's a nice sweet/heat with a slight tartness, but overwhelmingly savory. Is that a confusing enough description? Here's a shorter one: nom.

Delivery 17

Red Leaf Lettuce-2 heads Still having nightmares about the lettuce from the beginning of the season, so I switched out for more tomatillos

Mizuna-1 bunch

Mustard Greens-1 bunch

Radish-1 bunch

Potatoes-2 pounds

Cabbage-1 head

Tomatillos-10

Thyme-1 bunch

Rainbow Carrots-1 bunch

Hot Peppers - Habanero - take if you like

Ancho Peppers- 2

Sweet Peppers-2

Mustard Greens

The salad I made last week was just what I needed, so I'd like to do another raw preparation. Here are a few options.

Potatoes

A mix of red and white potatoes...and I still have some potatoes from last week that haven't found a recipe home. My time has been crazy limited lately, so I have a feeling that most things will probably be roasted/boiled. One of the mustard green recipes uses them. Here are some leftover recipes from other weeks: potato cake (with parsley), pancake, roasted (with cabbage), smashed (with cabbage).

Peppers

Rainbow of peppers! Bell, what they say is ancho (ancho is a dried poblano), cubanelle and habenero. Here's a frittata (bonus for potato). I may just roast them all and mix them with some kind of dressing.

Rainbow Carrots

Rainbow of carrots, too! I'm interested to see if the different colors taste different. Simple raw and roasted preparations are in order.

Cabbage

So...I still have that cabbage from two weeks ago. It's looking not-so-great. Can we just agree that I'll get to this when I get to this? But my perennial salad suggestion will hopefully not be the new pepper jelly (i.e. a recipe that I keep mentioning but never actually do)- it sounds lovely, but the "salt then let it sit for a few hours" gives me pause. When am I home for a few hours and then not on my way to bed?

It's a natural pairing with potatoes- here are some options: Ethiopian, Bolivian, more fried cakes, a few Indian preparations.

Broccoli

Makeshift "head" of broccoli...not sure it's worth making something dedicated out of this. I'm always in need of something simple (and healthy) to eat after interning on weekend, may just snack on these raw.

Tomatillos

These were smelling a bit musty, so as soon as I got home I washed and pureed. Will pick up some cheesecloth on the way home to strain out the juice for a tart. Or if not a tart, at least the curd portion of that tart. Any leftovers & pulp will probably be frozen/used in some kind of meat braise.

Thyme

Roasting herbage. Or biscuits, or popovers.

Radishes

Cherrette and one breakfast. Simple toast, salad (bonus for carrots), sandwich with herb butter, slaw with broccoli and carrot (technically daikon but I'd try it with regular).

Mizuna

Oh heeyyy Mizuna, long time no see. This post mentions an easy prep with potatoes, here's an insanely easy salad (hot garlic dressing), and here's a post on serious eats about it.