Sunday, October 17, 2010

corn and cauliflower chowder


Hooray, it's soup season again! Not like it really stops ever being soup time in SF, but after a summer of oppressive heat here in NYC, I for one am damn sure glad I can eat soup without sweating again. This was the perfect treat for using some of the last corn and cauliflower of the summer to make something warm and comforting, and totally fall.

Ingredients:
1 huge head of Cauliflower, about 2 pounds, cut into small florets, don't forget those tender pieces of stem too- chop those up and throw them in there too!
6 ears of Corn, kernels taken off the cob, about 2.5-3 cups of kernels
1 Onion, diced
3 cloves Garlic, minced
6 cups of Veggie Broth
2 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
1/4 cup AP Flour
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance
2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp. Dried Thyme
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a soup pot over medium heat, saute' the onions, garlic, and thyme until the onions are translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. When you have reached a boil, add the cauliflower and cook for 3-5 minutes until the cauliflower is cooked through, but not mushy. Add the soy milk in and stir to incorporate.

Now, this next part is completely optional: If you would like to make a smoother soup, you can blend all, or a portion of the soup so far, and get a slightly more velvety texture from the end product. Just sayin'. We chose to blend half, mostly because we don't have an immersion blender any longer, and because we still love texture. Alright, did you blend it? Whatevs, its your call, either way its gonna taste good. Back to the soup.

Add your corn and continue to cook for 10-12 minutes until the corn has cooked through. (If you used frozen corn this should only take about 5-7 minutes.) Season with salt and pepper, grab yourself some crusty bread, put on your Snuggie, and pop on a movie. Hooray for Fall!

chorizo and potatoes for brunch

This was a quick breakfast idea when we woke up kind of on the wrong side of the bed (read: hungover) one morning. It requires little action, but reaps great rewards.

Ingredients:
1 pound fingerling potatoes, sliced into approx. 1/2" rounds
1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
2 peppers, whatever color you have, coarsely chopped
1 package Light Life Chorizo Style "Sausage", cut into 1/2" slices
1/4 cup crumbled Cotija Cheese, or Queso Fresco
2 Tbsp. Canola Oil
1/2 Tbsp. Cumin
Salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste
Fried Egg (optional)

Wake up. Grab glass of water and Emergen-C. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop stuff. Mix everything except cheese and eggs in a bowl. Put into baking dish and put that into the oven. Put on pot of coffee. Set timer for 25 minutes. Crawl back into bed.

When the timer goes off, get out of bed and check the potatoes. Are they fork tender? OK, good. Remove the dish from the oven and top with cheese. Cook some eggs if you like and throw them on there too. Grab your coffee, sit down and watch some cartoons.