Try the World

Hello adventurous eaters!  Have you heard of the website Try the World?  By subscribing, you receive a new food box every 2 months from a different country.  I love food, and I love world cultures.  Unfortunately, I don't have the budget to jet hither and yon, tasting the culinary delicacies around the globe.  Perhaps you're in the same boat.  If so, try this subscription out.  I'm expecting a box from both Argentina and Paris!  I just registered late last night, so hopefully you, too, can get in on this special deal.  I'll be sharing all my luscious goodies with you all soon. (-:

P.S.  Check out the Try the World Blog, which gives an inside look at each country with video clips.

Chicken Soup and A Hope For Immunity

My man has a big-time bad-arse cold, and I'm trying to make him well. AND, with full-disclosure let me say, I'm hoping the chicken soup cure will also be a preventative for me, because baby, I don't want that bug! Just in the nick of time comes a immunity-fighting recipe from the website, Well+Good (if you don't know about it, check it out--it's a great one). They grabbed it from the the website Crunchy Radish. I added a few additions of my own, and in after 4 hours, we had some luxurious chicken soup, the smell of its lime juice still clinging to my fingertips as I type now. Here is my re-creation in pictures.

Here's the end result first.  Mmm.  So steamy and good!

Kman is allergic to olive oil--yes, unbelievable--so I use healthy coconut oil instead in a heavy, well-seasoned pan.  My workhorse Calphalon, in this case.

Season chicken with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Use a 3 lb. mixture of chicken breasts and thigh meat.  The recipe calls for skinless, but I used an organic bit of thigh pieces with a little skin and thigh bone.  It adds good flavor.

Don't crowd the chicken.  I did these in 3 batches, 5-8 mins. per side.  The chicken isn't meant to be cooked through--just a sear.

Mmm.  Wonderful bits on the bottom of the pan.  Keep that delicious flavor!

Inflammation-fighting urmeric.

Add spice to pan to roast it.

Dried oregano, too.

Come to me, oh mighty rhizome!

Grate 2 T. of fresh ginger.  I have a white, ceramic dish specifically for grating ginger.  I've had it for about 15 years, and it catches all the ginger juice.  It's been in the stored in the same place for all those years, up until 3 weeks ago when I rearranged some things.  Do you think I could find it?  

Note to self:  DON'T reorganize! 

Throw in the juice, too!

Flying carrots!

Ginger, spices, garlic, one white onion, carrots, celery.

America's Test Kitchen rated ol' RR's stock (actually, it was Beef Stock) as one of the best.  Who knew?!  I decided to give this product a whirl--not usually what I use.  The original recipe calls for vegetable stock and just for 5 cups.  I used chicken stock and 8 cups instead.

I added an uncalled for bay leaf.

Had to switch to a big stock pot at this point.

You'll always see this bit of muck as a chicken soup comes to a boil  Just skim, and move on!  Lower to a simmer for 1 1/2 hrs.

I also added lovely shitake mushrooms at the very end, as a personal addition.

Into the bowl:  baby kale, freshly chopped dill, and lime juice.

First the kale.

Mmm.  A big scoop from the bottom of chicken goodness.  By the way, I easily broken up the chicken with a long-handled oversized spoon while it was still in the pot.

Steamy egg noodles for the man. 

Generous squirt of lime juice.

Freshly chopped dill.

Steamy goodness.

Ebert, our beagle, taking my chair.

Molly, our basset hound, loving the smell, too.  

Our German Shepherd, Kingston, got the skin--lucky boy.

Blackberry Pie

Happy New Year!  First pie of the year?  A totally inappropriate summer fruit pie.  Uh, huh.  I do what I want, lovely people.

I live in the Midwest and it's about 10 degrees out, so needless to say, I do not have fresh blackberries.  I do, however, have Oregon canned fruit, the best canned fruit in light syrup I have ever found, and which most closely resembles real fruit directly off the branch.  Hmm.  As I type this, I think, I could have used a frozen bag of blackberries.  Oh well. C'est la vie.

I mainly followed the recipe on the inside label of the can below.

Use the reserve juice of 1 can of fruit...it's not much as you can see in the level of the pan.  Add sugar and lemon juice.

Here's my first difference.  I used King Arthur Flour's "Instant Clearjel" instead of cornstarch.  It's the first time I've used it.

This stuff thickened up my juice mixture, but to me it seemed too thick.  Perhaps you need less of the clearjel than you would cornstarch.  See, this is where you just have to experiment as a baker.  Sometimes you can't follow the directions exactly.  Use your eyes, smell doneness with your nose.  Seriously, you get to that point.

I love this whisk.  It's a gravy whisk, and to me it is so much better than a balloon whisk when you're trying to prevent clumps when whisking in a thickener.

The main ingredient.

One of my favorite butters, Kerrygold.  I tried to remove the price tag, but no go.  I also love Plugra, but I didn't have it on hand.  Any super-fatted European butter is the way to go.

Anyway, my second variance of the directions was that I added several tablespoons of butter to my getl mixture to make it smoother.  Than I felt I needed to add the juice from the second can of fruit as well.  That Clearjel is powerful. (-;  Anyway, finally I was happy with the consistency.

Below I dotted the pie with more butter that will eventually give it a luxuriously silky texture.

It's finally to vary up your crust edging.  Here I used the front of a spoon.  

I topped this pie with heavy whipping cream and Demerara Turbinado sugar.

Almost ready for the oven.

Make a few slits for steam to escape.

One more shot in different light.  Sometimes these pies look better before they're baked.

All done!  Yum!  Like a slice of summertime in the midst of winter.

Midnight Mocha Cookies

Here's Midnight Mocha "raw" food cookies from the great cookbook, "Practically Raw Desserts."

No, it's not pie, but it's still baking. (-;

Midnight Mocha Cookies, gluten-free, no added oil, grain-free.  I'm just showing the ingredients.  I know recipes aren't copyrighted, but I don't think it's fair to the author to print their hard-earned recipes...it's a great cookbook.  You should get it! (-:

Almond flour.

The coconut flour is on the left, almond flour on the right.  Just thought I'd show you the difference in color and texture.

 Doesn't the coconut palm sugar look like brown sugar?  It's finer and doesn't pack like the latter.

The coconut nectar looks like molasses, but is much light in taste.

I know this is almost a repeat photo, but I love that little drop falling down.

Coffee Extract.  I get both these extracts from Williams-Sonoma.  Oh, there was also brewed coffee in these, too.

 Pre-mixed.

Mixed.

Raw and perfectly delicious just like this.

Lining them up on a cookie sheet.

The finished product.