Tortilla Pinto Bean Soup

I have another confession to make. I love soup. I'd eat soup for every meal of every day. I'm probably the only member of my household who can say that, so, needless to say I don't find myself whipping up soup all too often. Top that off with the little bit of sunshine we've finally began to see and soup seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Except me, of course! So, I figured it was time to spice things up. If only there was a margarita along side this bowl of soup today... one can dream.

I would have topped this with coriander and yogurt... had our coriander plant not been dying and my daughter hadn't hogged all the yogurt, le sigh!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 can plum or diced tomatoes (if plum drain and chop the tomatoes, retain the juice)
2 cups chicken stock
1 can pinto beans (or black beans, I was just out and delighted to find out that pinto beans worked wonderfully)

1 tsp dried oregano (or throw in fresh at the end)
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

top with freshly cut coriander leaves

Directions

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the red pepper chunks and onion. After a few minutes, throw in the garlic and cover for a few minutes.

Add the can of tomatoes.
Stir in your choice of beans, chicken stock, oregano, coriander, cumin, salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

Allow to simmer stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Remove roughly half of the soup to a blender and whiz it up, then add it back to the pot of soup. It'll give it a little smoothness. Simmer for another 10 or so minutes.

Serve with tortillas for dipping (ooo if you let the tortilla get soggy and then eat it together, its soo tasty), a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, and top with fresh coriander. I used basil, which was also delicious.

Now that's a summery soup.

Cormac's Chicken Caesar Salad with Bruschetta

Now and again, I enjoy sitting on the couch and letting Cormac make the dinner. I carved up a chicken we bought a few weeks back and froze the thighs/legs/wings, and that meat made for delicious chicken caesar. I have recipes for each little bit here.

Chicken for Tearing Up
Ingredients

2 thighs and legs
2 wings
Knob of Butter
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp brown sugar
Fresh thyme
Sea salt and black pepper

Directions
Melt the butter on medium heat.
Place the chicken pieces in the pan of melted butter for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Deglaze with wine and brown sugar (combined).
Season chicken while cooking with thyme, salt and pepper.
Total cooking time roughly 10-15 minutes. Keep pan and juices aside for bruschetta.
Place in oven on olive oil greased pan at 400F/200C covered for 25 minutes.
Tear off the bone into pieces for your salad.


Bruschetta
Serves two

Ingredients
1 Large Tomato, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 basil
Large ciabatta roll, halved.

Directions
Add all ingredients to the pan you cooked the chicken in.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, don't let the garlic burn!
Remove from heat.

Ciabatta cut in two, grilled under toasted.
Dip the cut side in the butter/oil left behind in the pan.
Top with tomato/garlic mix.
Grill again for a few minutes.
Top with fresh basil if desired.


Caesar Dressing
Ingredients

1/4 cup good mayonnaise
1/4 good olive oil (or all mayo)
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup Parmesan, shredded
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Blend! Add milk if needed to thin to your liking.


Salad assembly
We used fresh lettuce, spinach and a small bit of rocket from our garden. Topped with chicken, bit of corn cut from the cob, homemade croutons, dressing and Cormac added a few cashew nuts to his own. Traditionally, add extra Parmesan and pine nuts! ENJOY!

Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce

Pepperoni Pizza with Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:
Jamie Oliver's Basic Bread Recipes:

• 1kg/just over 2lb strong bread flour
• 625ml/just over 1 pint tepid water
• 30g/1oz fresh yeast or 3 x 7g/¼oz sachets dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 30g/1oz salt

This will make enough dough for three large pizzas. This is a great bread recipe, and its very very versatile. Thanks Jamie, you stud.

Sauce
6 plum tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup water
1 heaped tsp oregano
1 heaped tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper and a dash of salt
4 chopped chestnut mushrooms

I would normally use a can of tomatoes but I didn't have any left. Thus the puree- but it worked out so well! Puree the tomatoes and garlic, add to sauce pan with the rest of ingredients, adding the water little by little until you have the consistency you like.

Topping
Whatever you want.
I used a layer of sauce, a fine layer of parmesan, a layer of torn up fresh spinach, a layer of large thin pepperonis, a layer of shredded and soft mozzarella (I was cleaning out the fridge with these pizzas!) and more parmesan. I added more mushrooms and onions to Cormac's pizza.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375F/190C or until its as crispy as you like it. The best pan for pizza is the kind with holes in the bottom, I find, or straight on the rack!

Stir fry-like chicken and rice

This was a creation of necessity, as are many of my dinners. I open the cupboards and the fridge and pull out what I've got. This time I threw on 5 cherry tomatoes halved, and cut one red pepper into cubes, tossed them in olive oil and put them in the oven to roast.

I put on rice to cook with 1 cup rice to 1 cup chicken stock(homemade from the freezer) and 1 cup water. I slowly added more water as the rice cooked, and some of that Goya seasoning I mentioned earlier. Dash of white pepper, sea salt, and dumped in the tomatoes and peppers when the rice was cooked and the peppers and tomatoes were roasted. Add a big lump of butter. Handful of baby spinach, stir until softened. Done.

Chicken. Chop into cubes. 1 tbsp of white vine vinegar. Cover the chicken in a tiny coating of flour. Few lugs of Worchester sauce. Dash of white pepper (I love white pepper, god help me) and a good huge dash of garlic powder (or some minced garlic but I was feeling lazy). Lob of butter (yes, I used up a lot of butter in this recipe. I had butter sitting out left over from making cakes and felt, why not?).

Consume.



Lucky I remembered to take the picture, I was halfway done inhaling this before I remembered to share it with all of you ;)

Baked Bean Chili and Roasted Potatoes

I am aware how difficult it is to make beans look appetizing in a picture, so I made sure you could get a good glimpse of those deliciously crisp potatoes.
We're going away to England next week, so this was a meal of "use up all the stuff in the fridge so nothing will go off" necessity.

I made roasted potatoes and a beefed up version of American-style baked beans, and it was gorgeous. I got a thumps up from Cormac, my measure of delicious, so I thought I'd share it here-- in spite of the fact that the photo doesn't do the taste justice.



Baked Bean Chili

2 cans of beans (I used pinto and kidney, you can use anything you've got in the cupboard)
1/2 cup BEER (I used Guinness left over from my chocolate cakes!)
1/2 cup bbq sauce OR ketchup (I had bbq sauce so it was a bit zippy)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper
3-4 tomatoes (I had vine tomatoes, medium sized)
2 strips of bacon
3 slices of ham (can you tell I was using up the contents of the fridge? Obviously, adjust this to suit yourself. I'd say a 1/2 lbs of bacon would be awesome, or a chuck of ham chopped up)

Directions
1. Cook up your ham/bacon in a large pot. Add garlic.
2. Remove from and lower heat, add your beer, molasses, ketchup/bbq, dijon, brown sugar, worchester sauce and stir well.
3. Return to heat, add chopped tomatoes and chopped red pepper. Add rinsed beans.
4. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer, the better-- but keep stirring so nothing sticks to your pot (or maybe you have such a nice non-stick pot that its none of your concern, but I don't, so be forewarned).


Roasted Potatoes in Bacon Fat
That left over bacon I used in the beans was left over from our Valentine's Day breakfast-- from which I saved the bacon grease. It was very little, and I'm sure if you replace that little bit with more olive oil these will turn out just fine.
Ingredients
4 potatoes
3 pinches of sea salt
several large glugs of olive oil
optional: approx 2 tbsp animal fat
polenta/corn meal

toss it all together on a pan, sprinkle potatoes with a tiny bit of polenta, cook 30-45 minutes at 180C (350F). Stir them around occasionally to keep them from sticking. If they are sticking too much, you need more oil.