Soup Season!

It's soup season. Everybody is talking about it. My normal food websites are emailing me recipes for easy vegetable soups; onions and potatoes are on sale at local stores. Everything about chillier weather is bringing out the broth; and I'm slurping, spooning, and devouring all the soups and stews I can!

That all being said, I bought a ten pound bag of onions to start my season off right (and it was only $4!)
This soup will start the bidding at amazing.

 A beautiful bowl of soup from Xi'an Famous Foods in Flushing, NY.

This first soup was awesome, a wonderful balanced mix of hot chili paste, thick luxurious noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts and ground pork; this bowl screams comfort food to me. I got it in Flushing on a food trip recently. I ate so many things the day I went there. I love Flushing. It's a shame I don't get to go more often.

This is a delicious Russian soup I got in Brighton Beach, called Rassilnik. It's one of my go-to soups when I'm in the area, and it always feels like comfort.
It's a light broth with barley, potatoes, and large stewed chunks of beef. Infused with dill and its friends onions, peppers and carrots, this soup always hits the spot. I'll usually sit down with a smoked fish or one of the homemade knishes.
This photo is from the boardwalk, a serene October day with the ocean and gulls. It makes for the best combination of circumstances to enjoy a hot cup of soup.

Of course, what did I buy while I was in Brighton Beach? Mushrooms!

Russians are known for their love of mushrooms, so I knew I would get some good finds, and some low prices. I'm thinking Mushroom Soup.

After scouting a couple places and comparing prices, I started buying.

And my harvest was good.

 Seven different mushrooms.

Chanterelles (both dried, and FRESH!)

Cremini

Brown Beech (or Shimeji)

White Button

Dried Shiitake

Wood Ear

Oyster

I was also really excited for these fresh chanterelles; which I had never eaten before. They also make for a wonderful picture!

Shallots, onions, a few strips of bacon, herbes de provence; as you can imagine, it is amazing.
The soup is heady, with an earthy flavor and meaty undertones.  The herbs, and especially the lavender and the thyme, play very well with the mushrooms. The flavors compliment each other in just a way that you can imagine walking from the field into forest, eating mushrooms as you pass.

It's hard to stop eating. Especially topped with a tiny knob of butter... just enough.

slurp

Spice Hunter

Ever visit SeriousEats.com?
It's a great site.

I recently discovered two columns: "Spice Hunting" and "Salt Mining." This kind of column is right up my alley, and excellent fodder for the pantry. Have questions about fresh turmeric, or how to use chilies with chocolate? This is the go-to column.


Check out Serious Eats Spice Hunting column:

Spice Hunting!

It's Awesome!

This light hued flower is from

a mint plant in my backyard.
(I thought it would be fitting)

Armadillo!

A recent Chinatown trip yielded more than the usual dried fish or tub of slippery eels. I found these two little guys in the back of a seemingly normal market. There was a worker standing nearby smoking a cigarette next to these armor plated morsels.

I've never had armadillo, I'm not opposed to trying it. I don't think that $15.99 a pound is a good price, but in reality I have no basis for comparison. Also, I don't know when or where the Chinese grew their love for the little critter.

To follow the stimulating picture I thought maybe someone that came across these culinary treasures and bought them needed a way to cook them, so I've included a recipe.

After scouring around I've found some recipes and some advice.

First - "Treat armadillo like turtle"
I think this is to help describe how to clean the armadillo if it's bought with full armor plating. In terms of a meat, turtle is usually used to make soups.

Second - Most of the recipes I found call for already cleaned armadillo meat. The people that are giving out recipes for armadillo are not very creative. Many of them just have a bottle of BBQ sauce as the ingredient for flavor followed by canned vegetables.

Third - The following recipe is not really my own. The recipe I found that was most promising still used canned mushrooms, so I had to make some adjustments both with ingredients and with flavors.

ARMADILLO AND RICE

1 armadillo, dressed and cleaned (believe that most are about 4 pounds)
4 large Spanish yellow onions
1 stalk celery
1 pound fresh white button or crimini mushrooms (or mixture!)
2 cups rice, uncooked
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Butter for sauteing
10 cups armadillo broth (we'll make this)

Boil armadillo until tender; reserve broth. Remove meat from bones. Cut onions, mushrooms and celery and cook in butter until tender. Add meat and simmer for 5 minutes. Put in a large baking pan or dutch oven and add 10 cups of hot broth; add rice, salt and pepper, cumin; stir. Place in 375 degrees F. oven and cook until tender. (I don't know how the stock to rice ratio is going to turn out)

I know that I found a bunch of southern recipes, but what I could not find were any Chinese recipes, which I think would have been fitting since that's where I found the creatures.

Maybe I'll go for it next time I see an armadillo, and I'll ask for a recipe.

Citrus

This is a sour orange tree in Mexico that I picked from. It was growing in a friends driveway, and I used it for an excellent vinaigrette for fish tacos, and I also used some of the orange juice and peel to flavor some black beans.

On that note, I love citrus. I describe it as my favorite fruit group and for good reason. So many phenomenal things can be made with citrus or you can just eat it as is.

Recently I discovered Cocktail Grapefruits. These smaller than average grapefruits are ridiculously good. First of all, I love regular grapefruit, and I peel and eat them like oranges. But cocktail grapefruit is an entirely different animal than the ruby reds or the white grapefruit. A sweet small grapefruit that would be good in any application that calls for oranges or grapefruits. I cannot believe that these haven't shown up on my radar before.

The words I would use to describe them would not do this sweet not-so-tangy grapefruit justice. Go get one.

Also, it's blood orange season, and Cara Cara orange season as well so maybe it's time we make a tropical fruit salad; or maybe a outrageous ceviche.

Go out and find them. The season is short but sweet for certain.

Wild Edibles

Another Link!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/dining/24forage.html

Love this. Although not new, eating wild items, whether foraged berries and greens or hunted game, is such an excellent way to go about the culinary experience.

In my post about the leg of lamb I roasted, I also harvested local American chestnuts to mash like potatoes. It turned out to be an excellent meal, and I felt even more proud that the side dish was harvested less than half a mile from my front door and by my own hands.

Need to prep for Thanksgiving. More on this later!

Soup Dumplings

Ever had a soup dumpling? If you have, your mouth is probably watering right now. If you have not, there is one more thing to add to your bucket list.

I could write a new post every day with a different kind of dumpling and dumpling derivative and never repeat a post for a year.

Soup dumplings are a kind of dumpling that has soup inside of it in addition to the main morsel. Arriving in bamboo steamers, they should be eaten hot and quickly. Often with the options are pork or 'seafood' which is supposed to be a crab based flavor. I always find that the pork dumplings are far superior.

The dumplings above are from Joe's Shanghai on Pell st. in Manhattan's Chinatown. I've found that these are the best. Joe's dumplings are always good. The fatty broth in the pork dumplings is a perfect balance of flavor, the dough used has excellent consistency and is never too thick or too thin. The meaty inside has a great pork taste, doesn't fall apart, isn't a glutenous ball, and is perfect after you've slurped the soup.

I don't really suggest the seafood dumplings, they really just are not as good as the pork.

Serve with vinegar and hot chili oil, add a side order of scallion pancakes, and you are certainly in for an excellent meal or snack.

Stuffed Cabbage

After I saw this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/dining/10mini.html
in the times recently I could not stop thinking about stuffed cabbage. It's consistently delicious, and honestly I don't think I've ever had a bad version of the dish. I don't really agree with all the things that Bittman says about stuffed cabbage, but I certainly agree with his title "a classic worth revisiting."

When I get my hands on some (soon I hope!), I will be certain to share my thoughts and pictures.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

I love smoked fish. Oily and deeply flavorful, it has always conjured up many powerful memories for me. And I've found that people that like smoked fish, have grown up eating it; half nostalgia, half culinary wonder-piece.

The fish here, a salmon 'wing' (the collar and belly) and a small mackerel, are of the Russian variety; purchased at M&I International Foods in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. But smoked fish all across the board are generally delicious and inexpensive, the intense smoke and fish oil combination lingers on the fingers for hours; a scent that both reminds and teases.

Tiny smoked fish, enormous whole smoked salmon, and all the sizes, shapes, and cuts in between will always have my attention and enamor.

Brooklyn and more

Sarang Burong- A Malaysian dish consisting of a deep fried taro bowl full of chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, snow peas, carrots, bell peppers, and baby corn



Nyonya
A Malaysian restaurant in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, one of several Brooklyn Chinatowns. This is one place that I must always visit when I return to Brooklyn for any reason. The food is delicious and fairly priced. Dinner for four including drinks and tip was only $60.

Favorite Nyonya dish = Crispy golden fried squid $8.95
Instead of a dipping sauce, the squid is liberally covered in a spicy chili paste. The dish comes with raw green and red bell peppers and raw red onion. This dish is the most delicious fried squid I have ever had, and it is always consistent - crispy, hot, spicy, fresh.

The food at Nyonya always comes out remarkably fast - within minutes of the appetizer being finished the food comes out - all at the same time. Even if the restaurant is full, the food is always quickly prepared.

More on this later!

An Autumnal Feast

Fall has succeeded in sneaking up on us again, marked by the cold, windy days, and the changing leaves.
That means it's time to start eating like it.
Several months ago I purchased a 7 pound leg of lamb. Vacuum packaging can do wonders in a freezer. As the freezer filled up with ribs, chicken, ice cream, and waffles, the 7 pound roast lay dormant. Purchased for half price it was a "cannot pass up" opportunity at only $20 but with no initial direction.

I had great plans for the leg, but they fell by the wayside as the months rolled on. almost 6 months in the freezer and the beast lie waiting. I planned a great birthday feast only to go out for dinner for two. Until finally I had had enough.

Nearby my apartment and on the Hood College campus, there are a triad of chestnut trees. The three gave off chestnuts all of September as squirrels and children collected the bounty. Realizing that this would be an excellent opportunity to: A get free food and B try to roast my own chestnuts; I collected a few every time I walked by, and soon I had a nice collection.

Unsure of their taste, I roasted about 7 in the oven to eat out-of-hand. Delicious. A combination of sweet potato and scallops but not too much of either, the waxy, light flesh of the nuts was quite a surprise and not overpowering.

I set up a date to make the lamb and invited a friend to join.

It was my first time butterflying a leg, but it was easier than I expected. The bone came out clean, the cuts precise. Mashed chestnuts seemed to be a fitting accompaniment for the roast. With only lamb, chestnuts and mint jelly, two of us sat down to a feast.

The leftovers have been delicious.