Soups and Stews

I know this section needs a lot of revision, but this draft is pretty solid. Am I missing any good recipes? I would love suggestions!

[edit]I forgot potato cheese soup!

[edit]There, I fixed it.

Soups and Stews

This section covers soups and stews made with fresh ingredients. For soups and stews made with pre-cooked meats and vegetables, see Quick Meals, #.

Classic Chicken Soup

There are endless ways to make soup, but this one is useful if you are looking for that traditional, comforting bowl of chicken soup. Although this recipe calls for raw chicken, if you have cooked chicken that you would like to turn into soup, you can use this recipe, and add the cooked chicken at the end, right before serving. Or, you can use the Quick Soup recipe (recipe #).

Raw chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

Chicken stock or broth

Uncooked pasta or grain (you may want to use a grain with a shorter cooking time)

Carrots, chopped

Celery, chopped

Onion, chopped

Garlic, minced (or garlic powder)

Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

In the bottom of the soup pot, first sauté the onion and the chicken in a bit of oil. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic just as the chicken is almost done cooking. When the chicken is cooked, add everything else. Bring to a gentle boil, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta or grain are tender.

Borscht

Borscht is a traditional vegetable soup from Eastern and Central Europe. There are many variants. This is not a traditional borscht, but like many versions of borscht, it contains beets, which turn the soup a wonderful pink or purple color. Purple cabbage will make this soup even more vibrantly colored, and gives it a sweet flavor.

This soup is also fantastic with ham in place of chicken. A vegetarian version can be made with vegetable broth and no meat.

(optional) cooked chicken, or ham, or cooked sausage

Chicken, pork, or vegetable stock or broth

Shredded cabbage

Potato, cut small

chopped beets

salt and pepper to taste

Chopped or dried onion

Garlic, minced (or garlic powder)

(optional) spices such as Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

(optional) heavy cream or sour cream

Put all of the ingredients except for the cream in a soup pot, and simmer until the cabbage and potato are soft. Remove from heat and stir in the cream, or add sour cream as a garnish.

French Onion Soup

5 to 10 onions, sliced thin

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

4 cups beef or veggie broth

(optional) 1 or 2 cups chopped or ground beef

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice or Parisian Bonnes Herbes (#)

Thinly slice the onions. Melt the butter in a soup pot, and over medium heat, stir the onion in the butter for at least 20 minutes, until the onions are soft and sweet. While you are cooking, if the onions start to brown, add a little water to keep them moist. If you are adding beef to the soup, remove the onions and brown the beef. Then set aside the beef and put the onions back in the pot.

Add the flour to the onions and continue to stir over medium heat for a few more minutes. Then add the beef broth. Return the beef to the pot and simmer until the meat is cooked.

French Onion Soup is traditionally topped with Swiss cheese melted on toast. Follow the Cheese Bread recipe to make this.

Curry

With a jar of curry spices, a can of pureed vegetables, and some chopped vegetables and meats, you can put together a quick and nutritious meal.

In a pot combine:

1 15 ounce can of pureed pumpkin, pureed sweet potato, or other vegetable, or a small can of tomato paste

1 or 2 cups of water

1 teaspoon curry powder

¼ teaspoon salt

(optional) minced or dried garlic

(optional) minced or dried ginger

(optional) one or two tablespoons sugar

Bring this sauce to a simmer. Then, if you want meat in your curry, add:

1 pound of raw meat, cut into bite-sized pieces

Simmer the meat until it is cooked through. While the meat cooks, chop up vegetables. You can use pre-cooked meats instead of raw meat; add it to the curry right before serving. You can also use tofu instead of meat, or omit the meat entirely and throw in some more vegetables. You could also substitute paneer, a delicious Indian cheese, if you are lucky enough to live near an Indian grocery store.

4 or more cups of vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces.

Possible vegetables for this dish include bell pepper, carrot, beet, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, peas, and onion. Frozen vegetables can also be used. Combine two or three vegetables for best results. Continue to simmer the pot, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.

Serve over rice. This feeds 3 or 4 people.

Chicken Bean Stew

½ lb boneless chicken

2 cups frozen beans (or one or two drained cans of beans)

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp cumin, or spices such as French Four-Spice, Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

1 tbsp oil

1 bullion cube plus two cups of water (or two cups of chicken stock)

Cooked rice (optional)

Black pepper

Salt (optional)

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Coat with the flour and cumin, and brown it in the oil. (The flour is optional - it is there to thicken the sauce.) Dice the carrots and celery, and toss them in the pot. (Other veggies can be used here, instead, such as onion, potato, kale, etc.) Add the water and bullion (or chicken stock), bring to a boil, and simmer five or ten minutes, until the chicken and veggies are cooked. Add the beans, and heat until everything is bubbly and delicious. Season with salt and pepper. Eat as-is, or over rice. Serves three to six people, depending on how much rice you serve it with.

Beef Stroganoff

This hearty Russian stew is best when served over egg noodles, but any pasta or boiled grain works well.

2 or more tbsp butter or oil

1 lb raw beef, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 or 3 cups of milk

1 box or more of mushrooms, sliced

2 or 3 onions, sliced thin

1 or 2 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt, plus extra to taste

1/8 tsp pepper, plus extra to taste

Dill or spices such as Lemon Pepper or Old World Seasoning (#)

Garlic, dried or minced fresh

Heat 1 tbsp of the butter or oil in a large pan over medium heat until hot. Sauté the onions and mushrooms in this until they are done to your satisfaction. Remove these from the pan and set them aside.

Combine the flour with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Pour this over the chopped beef, and stir until the beef is coated. Heat another tablespoon of butter or oil, and brown the meat in this. Once the meat is somewhat browned, add the milk and the garlic, turn the heat up a bit, and stir with a spoon or a whisk as the milk comes to a boil. The browned flour from the meat will thicken the milk. Let this boil for a couple of minutes, and then add the vegetables back to the pan. Add dill or other spices to taste, and add more salt and pepper to taste if necessary.

Beef Stew

Beef is the most traditional meat used for stew, but almost any meat works in this recipe: pork, chicken, turkey, etc. If you use what the store sells as “stew beef”, or chuck roast, or other tough cut of meat can tenderize the meat by simmering the stew for an hour or so. Other types of meat won’t need to cook for so long.

Stew that uses a tough cut of meat also benefits by using vegetables that can withstand being cooked for a long time, such as potato, carrot, turnip, onion, mushroom, parsnip, or winter squash. Delicate vegetables can be added to a stew, but are best when added shortly before serving. Examples of these include peas, broccoli, leafy greens, and summer squash.

1 tbsp butter or oil

1 lb raw beef (or other meat), chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 or 3 cups of beef broth (or chicken (#), or other broth)

1 or 2 tbsp flour

3 or 4 cups of diced vegetables. (See above for suggestions.)

1/8 tsp pepper, plus extra to taste

Salt to taste

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

Combine the flour with 1/8 tsp pepper. Pour this over the chopped meat, and stir until the meat is coated. Heat another tablespoon of butter or oil, and brown the meat in this. Once the meat is somewhat browned, add the broth, turn the heat up a bit, and stir with a spoon or a whisk to break up the flour clumps. The browned flour from the meat will thicken the broth. Once boiling, add the vegetables back to the pan, and reduce the heat so that the stew simmers. Let the pot sit for ten minutes, if you are using a delicate meat. Let it simmer for at least a half hour if you are using tough meat. A few minutes before serving, add tender vegetables if you are using any. Add salt and pepper to taste if necessary, plus any optional spices you wish to try.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a stew designed to make use of summer garden vegetables. This is a dish that only makes sense to make during the height of the summer, when these vegetables a cheap and at their peak of flavor.

Ratatouille can be served on its own, or with pasta or boiled grains (#). Although untraditional, this dish can be made more filling by adding beans, meat, or cheese.

This feeds three or four people, depending on how many extras you add, and if you serve it with pasta or grain.

2 tbsp butter or oil, preferably olive oil

1 large eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces (or 2 smaller eggplants)

2 or 3 zucchini or summer squash, cut into large bite-sized pieces

3 to 6 tomatoes, chopped roughly into chunks

3 or so cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 or 2 onions, chopped

(optional) chopped mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, etc.

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Italian (#)

(optional) grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese

(optional) 1 cup of cubed ham, cooked chicken, or other cooked meat

(optional) 1 drained 15-oz can of garbanzo beans or white beans, or two cups cooked or frozen

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter in a pot over medium heat. When melted or hot, add the onion. Stir the onion over the heat for a couple of minutes, and then add the garlic. Stir for another minute or two. Then add the remaining vegetables, including optional vegetables. Stir occasionally over the next ten or 15 minutes. The tomato will break down, forming a liquid for he other vegetables to simmer in. Taste the eggplant occasionally - when it is cooked to your liking, the ratatouille is done cooking. Add salt and pepper to taste, and any optional spices you wish to try. If using any meats or beans, add them to the pot and continue cooking until they are sufficiently warm. If you want to use cheese, sprinkle it over the ratatouille as you serve it.

Potato Cheese Soup

This is a good warming winter soup. Feeds two to four, depending on how many optionals you add.

Usually when you add cheese to a soup, you must first add cream so that the cheese doesn’t melt into unpleasant lumps. However, something about this soup makes the cream unnecessary. But you can add cream anyway if you like the taste.

4 to 10 potatoes, depending on the size of the potatoes

3 or 4 cups of water or any sort of stock (such as chicken #)

(optional) 1 cup of milk

4 ounces or more of grated cheddar or other cheese

(optional) ½ cup of cream or half-n-half

(optional) chopped vegetables, cooked or raw, such as carrot, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, plus 1 tbsp butter or oil

(optional) fresh greens, chopped

(optional) ham or other cooked meat

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Italian (#)

Salt and pepper to taste

If you wish to add raw veggetables to this recipe, start by heating the butter or oil in the bottom of your soup pot over medium heat. Saute the vegetables until done to your liking. Then move the vegetables aside to a bowl and continue using the same pot for cooking the potatoes.

If you are using russet potatoes, or if you dislike potato skins, you may want to peel your potatoes. Otherwise, scrub the potatoes clean and leave the skins on. Roughly chop the potatoes. The smaller you chop them, the less time they will take to cook.

Put the potatoes in the pot and add the water or broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and put a lid on the pot. Every ten minutes or so, stick a fork in the potato pieces. When the fork slides in without resistence, turn off the heat, and use a potato masher in the pot to squish the potatoes. (For a smoother texture, you can put the soup through a blender in batches.)

Add the optional milk or cream, and stir in the grated cheese. Do not boil the soup once the cheese has been added, or the cheese will curdle!

Finally, add the optional spices, cooked vegetables, cooked meats, and/or raw chopped greens. Apply low heat if the soup needs to be warmed back up. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Try these variants:

Beefy Potato soup with Swiss cheese, beef stock, pot roast, onions, and Parisian Bonnes Herbes.

“Baked” Potato soup with chicken stock, cheddar, green onions, cooked bacon, and spinach.

Italian Potato Soup with vegetable stock, cream, parmasan and mozerella cheeses, tomato, greens, and Italian spices #.

The Heart of the Cookbook!

So here is the payoff of the cookbook: once someone learns how to cook beans, grain, sauteed veggies, and a chunk of meat, all of those things can be cooked in advance and then used to throw together good quick meals.

What's left after this? Soups and stews, Thanksgiving, maybe a pasta section (if I can think of anything to say other than "read the directions on the box"), and some short essays on food safety, freezing, and making baby food.

And then I have to edit everything so very hard, because holy inconsistency Batman! And it all has to be cross-referenced, with all of the ###'s replaced with recipe numbers.

Damn it, I think I'm going to have to bow out of NaNoWriMo if I hope to get this done properly by Christmas. Booo. *sulk*

But I SO want to do this right. I want it finished, and highly polished. I want people to speak highly of this book. I want people to suggest it to their friends. I want I want I want. . .

Anyway. . .

Quick Week-Night Recipes

Now that you have a baked chicken in your refrigerator (or pot roast, or pulled pork, or any other cooked meat), and some cooked grain, cooked (or frozen) beans, cheese, and vegetables on hand, you can now use these things to whip up any number of delicious, healthful weeknight meals in 30 minutes or less. The following are recipes that are designed to use whatever you have on hand.

Quick Enchiladas

This is a great week-night recipe to use with the chicken (recipe #), pot roast (recipe #), or pulled pork (recipe #) that you baked over the weekend. Or you can use another pre-cooked meat, or frozen or canned beans. Or you can make plain cheese enchiladas by using more cheese. You can also make a fun variant for kids using raisins instead of meat.

This is another recipe that doesn’t require precise measuring, or exact ingredients. Use whatever you have on hand.

1 cup pre-cooked chicken, or other pre-cooked meat, or frozen or canned beans, or ½ cup raisins

1 ½ cups Monterey jack and/or cheddar cheese

1 package of tortillas

1 can enchilada sauce (or about 1 ½ cups of home-made, recipe #)

2/3 cup chopped greens, such as frozen kale or spinach, or cooked onion or mushroom, or other chopped vegetable

In a microwave-safe, small (9 x 9 inch or so) casserole dish, pour about a third of the enchilada sauce. Dip one tortilla in the sauce so that both sides are wet. Then put cheese, meat, and veggies in the tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and move it to one end of the pan. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, until the pan is full and all of the ingredients are used up. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, and grate little extra cheese over the top. Then microwave the casserole for about ten minutes, or until the whole dish is hot and melty. (Alternatively you can bake in a 350 degree oven until the sauce bubbles.)

Serve on its own, with or without such toppings as salsa or sour cream, or with a side-dish such as rice or refried beans. Serves two to four people.

Quick Soup

With soup, every ingredient is optional, with the exception of the broth! Pick whatever ingredients below that you would like, in whatever quantities that you would like. For a classic chicken soup recipe, see recipe #.

Cooked meat of any sort (See the meat sections: #, #, #)

Chicken broth (recipe #), or any other sort of broth. You can use canned or bullion cubes if you don’t have any home-made broth on hand.

Cooked grain (recipe #) or pasta (recipe #)

Cooked vegetables (recipe #) or frozen vegetables, or fresh, chopped vegetables

Salt and pepper to taste

Herbs and spices of any sort (recipe #)

Milk or cream

Grated cheese (use ONLY if you are also using cream)

Heat the broth or stock to a boil. Add the vegetables first, if they are fresh or frozen, and, simmer until they are cooked to your liking. Add everything but the milk or cream and return to a boil. Then, remove the soup from the heat, until the pot no longer boils. If you want a clear soup, at this point you are all done!

If you want dairy in your soup, add milk or cream after the soup has stopped boiling. Do not boil a soup that contains dairy, because the dairy could curdle into unappetizing chunks.

If you wish to add cheese to your soup, do so after adding a significant quantity of cream. (Note that cheese will not melt properly into a soup unless you have first added cream. If not enough cream is present, the cheese will form lumps.) Heat just until steaming (but don‘t boil it). Season to taste. Serve, and enjoy!

Quick Chili

If you make pot roast or meat loaf on the weekend and have leftovers, you can use it to make chili later in the week, for variety. Chicken or other cooked meats can be used. Frozen cooked meats work well, too. Or, the meat can be omitted entirely. This is a particularly good way to get rid of overcooked pot roast or mediocre meat loaf.

You don’t need to measure ingredients for this dish. Just start with your leftover meat, and add frozen or canned beans, and tomato, until you have a pot of chili big enough for everyone.

Leftover pot roast or meat loaf

Canned or frozen beans

Canned or fresh tomato

Cumin

Salt and pepper

(optional) reserved liquid from Pot Roast

(optional) tomato paste

(optional) taco spices (recipe #)

(optional) onion, green or red bell pepper, chopped carrot, or other vegetables

Chop the meat into small pieces. Or, if the meat is frozen, just put it in the pot whole, and later (after a bit of simmering with the other ingredients) take it out and cut it up. Add beans (with or without the can liquid) and tomato (with or without the can liquid). If you made pot roast and reserved the liquid, you can add that to your chili. Add some tomato paste if you like. Add some water if it looks like too many dry things thrown together. Add other vegetables if you like. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add seasonings and spices to taste.

Serve as-is, or topped with cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, or green onions. Or serve on top of lettuce as a taco salad, with any of the above toppings.

Chili keeps for a few days in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen and reheated later.

Quick Curry

This curry isn’t authentic to any particular country’s cuisine, but it’s fast to make and tasty. It’s also a good excuse to eat vegetables. The sauce is based on the Universal Gravy recipe (#). Vegetables and meats can be cooked in advance, or you can use the sautéed vegetables recipe (#) or the sautéed meats recipe (#) immediately before making the curry. If you sauté vegetables or meats before making the curry, you can transfer the cooked meats or vegetables to a bowl and make the curry in the same pan that you just used - and you won’t even have to wash it!

1 tbsp fat, such as butter, bacon grease, chicken fat, or oil

1 tbsp flour

½ cup liquid: milk, tomato sauce, or coconut milk, or 1 tbsp tomato paste plus ½ cup water

½ cup very finely grated carrot, beet, sweet potato, and/or other vegetable, or canned pumpkin puree, squash puree, etc.

1 tsp curry powder

1/8 tsp salt

(optional) garlic, ginger, black pepper

2 cups cooked, canned, or frozen vegetables and/or cooked or frozen cooked meats and/or cooked, canned, or frozen beans

In a skillet on medium heat, heat the fat until it is melted and hot. Add the flour, and whisk it around for a few minutes. Then add the liquid, continuing to whisk. Bring the sauce to a boil and then add the finely grated vegetable matter. Whisk in the curry powder and salt. Bring the pot back to a boil and add the cooked veggies or meats. Heat until everything is heated through.

If served with boiled grains (#), this will feed about two adults.

Quick Tacos

This recipe makes tacos for two adults using leftover cooked meat of any sort. You can make a vegetarian version using beans instead of meat, or you can stretch a little meat further by using a combination of meat and means.

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 medium onion, chopped small

2 cups cooked meat or cooked beans, or some combination

1 or 2 tbsp water

1 tbsp taco spices (#)

4 to 6 tortillas or taco shells

(optional) grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese

(optional) chopped tomato, onion, and/or lettuce

(optional) salsa (#)

(optional) sour cream

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion until it is translucent. Add the spices and a tablespoon of water. This should make a saucy concoction in the pan. If it looks dry, add a little more water. Then add the meat and beans, and continue to stir over the heat until everything is heated and coated in taco sauce. Serve in tortillas with any of the optional ingredients.

Quick Stew

This stew can be made quickly from any cooked meats. For best results, use chicken stock with chicken, beef stock with beef. The sauce is a variant on Universal Gravy (#). This feeds about three adults.

1 tbsp fat, such as butter, bacon grease, chicken fat, or oil

1 tbsp flour

2 cups liquid, such as chicken (#) or beef stock. For variety, you can replace a cup or two with milk or tomato sauce.

Pepper

Salt (omit the salt if using a salty broth)

Other spices (optional)

1 or 2 cups cooked meat

2 or more cups cooked or frozen vegetables

In a skillet on medium heat, heat the fat until it is melted and hot. Add the flour, and whisk it around for a few minutes. Then add the liquid, continuing to whisk. Bring the sauce to a boil and then continue to simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens. (It will thicken even more after it cools.) Season to taste with pepper and salt. (Though salt may not be necessary if you started with a salty broth from a can or made from bullion.) Add the cooked meat and vegetables, and continue to cook until they are fully heated.

Beans, finally

I'm having to pinch myself to stay awake. Not sure why I've had so much trouble writing the bean section, seeing as how much I love beans.

I finally came up with a decent quick curry recipe today. Though, lunch's iteration came out better than dinner's, which was pepto-bismol pink and has an unfortunately stringy texture.

Gads, the last 10% of any project takes 80% of the time, doesn't it?

Beans

Few foods feed us so well for so little cost. Canned beans (#) are reasonably inexpensive and convenient, while dry beans cost pennies, and are simple to cook, if you have the time (recipe #). Beans can be cooked on the weekend and stored in the refrigerator to make quick meals with during the week. But better still, cooked beans can be frozen, for use at any time (recipe #).

Canned beans

Canned beans are cooked and ready to eat right from the can. Some people swear that the beans should be drained and washed in order to minimize gas, but you can cook with the water from the can if you want to. Be aware that canned beans contain a lot of salt.

Boiled beans

Nothing could be simpler than cooking dry beans: simply cover them with water, put a lid on the pot, and set them to a simmer or a low boil. Stir every 20 minutes or so. Cook with a lid on to keep too much water from evaporating. Add extra water to the pot if the beans seem to be crowded. Taste a bean every so often. When the beans are as soft as you like, use them in any recipe that calls for cooked or canned beans.

6 or more cups water

2 cups (1 pound) dry beans

1 tsp salt (optional)

There are many types of beans. Each type of beans has its own cooking time. Additionally, the older the beans are, the longer that they will take to cook (and the less nutritious they will be). This makes it tough to judge how long it will take to cook a pot of beans. Unless you are cooking lentils, which can take as little as a half hour to cook, assume it will take at least two hours to cook your beans.

Beans need to be rinsed before cooking, to remove dust. You should also sort through them before cooking to remove any pebbles or other agricultural debris that may have jumped into the bag. Also take out any beans that look particularly shriveled, discolored, or otherwise unfit to eat.

Cooking time can be reduced somewhat by soaking the beans overnight in cold water, but this is not a necessary step.

Most cooks will swear that adding salt to a pot of beans will cause the beans to take longer to cook. However, chef Mark Bittman has tested pots of beans side-by-side, one with salt, the other without, and reports that both pots of beans finished cooking at the same time. But if you want to add salt to the pot, and you wish to cover your bases, you can always wait and add salt then the beans are mostly cooked.

Beans double in size when cooked, more or less, so if you cook two cups of dry beans, you will get about four cups of cooked beans. One pound of beans is about two cups of dried beans.

Once your beans are cooked, you have several options. You can drain the beans in a colander, or you can keep them in the cooking water. (The cooking water can be useful for making soup or stew.) You can immediately turn some or all of the beans into soup or any other recipe. You can refrigerate the beans with or without their cooking water for use in recipes over the next five days or so. Or you can freeze the beans indefinitely.

Run cool tap water over your drained beans to cool them before moving them to the refrigerator or freezer.

Frozen beans

Cooked beans freeze beautifully. If you drain them, you can put them into one big freezer-safe bag or box, and then later use a butter knife to break off beans when you need some for a recipe. But chipping away at an iceberg of beans can be tedious. An alternative is to freeze beans (with or without cooking water) in individual serving sized containers.

Beans in soups and stews

Not only are beans tasty in soup, but if you mash them up a bit with a potato masher, they also function as a thickener. Frozen beans can be added directly to soups and stews without thawing them first. Add cooked beans at the end of cooking, if you wish the beans to remain whole and firm.

Beans in salads

Beans add a lovely heft to salads. Frozen beans need to be thawed before being used in salad - preferably in the refrigerator, but the counter will do in a pinch.

Beans in balls, patties, and loaves

Beans are fantastic in balls, patties, and loaves, particularly in meatless versions. You can add them whole and even frozen, if you are in a hurry. But for a better consistency, chop or mash the beans before adding them.

Refried beans

Beans can be “refried” by heating them in a pan with a little water, and the mashing them with a potato masher. For flavor, season with salt and pepper, and add cumin, garlic, onion, and/or taco spices (#). Or experiment with other spices.

Tofu

Tofu is a soft white substance made from soy beans. It can usually be found in two varieties: firm, and “silken”, which is softer. While it can be eaten raw, tofu’s flavor is very bland, making it an excellent candidate for dishes with a strong-flavored sauce or broth. Tofu marinates well (see Baked Tofu #). And tofu makes an excellent filler in Balls, Patties, and Loaves (#), especially when you want to make the dish meat-free.

Baked Tofu

Baked tofu has a tougher texture than raw tofu. When cut into one-inch cubes and baked, the toughened tofu cubes can then withstand being stirred in curries, soups, and the like, more than raw tofu can. Baked sticks of tofu make great finger foods for young children, or for parties. Or it can be eaten as a meat substitute, cut in a slabs. Baked tofu can be refrigerated for about five days, and it can even be frozen for later.

Use firm tofu for baking - or “extra firm”, if it is available.

You can bake tofu with or without marinating it first. You can marinate tofu just like you would marinate meat: cut the tofu into the desired shape, put it in a container with a lid, and cover it with a flavorful liquid. Marinate it from thirty minutes to overnight. Discard the liquid before baking the tofu.

Rub a little oil on a baking sheet or a casserole dish, and lay the tofu out with an inch of space between cubes. If the tofu has not been marinated, sprinkle it with a little salt. Then, for one-inch cubes, bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Use tongs or a fork to flip the tofu over, and bake for another 20 minutes. Larger tofu shapes may require additional time in the oven.

Mini Cookbook for the Harvest Festival

Anne Marie asked me if I could put together a few sample recipes to distribute at the Franklin Food Pantry booth at the upcoming Harvest Festival. Of course! Here is what I have put together. Step 2: lay these out in a nice format, get them printed, and drop of the shiny end product at the pantry.

Four Recipes Every Family Should Know

Anyone who has a family to feed can benefit by knowing these four basic recipes: how to boil beans, boil grains, bake a whole chicken, and sauté vegetables. With these basic recipes, some spices, and a few additional ingredients, a home cook can make chili, stir-fry, curry, soup, burritos, and numerous other healthy meals. By cooking beans, brown rice, and a chicken on Sunday, a busy family can throw together quick dinners each night for most of the work week.

These recipes are part of a larger cookbook being written for the Franklin Food Pantry. For more information and more recipes, visit pantry cookbook.blogspot.com

Baked Chicken

One whole chicken, or any chicken parts

1 tsp salt

1 tsp any other spices (optional)

1 tbsp butter or oil (optional)

You can get the most chicken for your money by cooking a whole chicken and then picking all of the meat off of the bones. A single chicken can provide meat for three or four meals for a small family. Or instead of whole chicken, you can bake any chicken parts, with or without bones.

Whole frozen chickens take a couple of days in the refrigerator to thaw. In a pinch, a microwave (on the “defrost” setting) or cold running water can be used to thaw a chicken. However, leaving any meat to thaw at room temperature is not safe.

When baking whole chicken, you can stick an onion, or apple slices, or other vegetables in the body cavity of the bird to add extra flavor to the meat. However, you will want to discard these things after cooking. It typically isn’t a good idea to cook stuffing inside of poultry, because the stuffing may not reach the necessary safe temperature.

Before baking a whole chicken, you must first reach inside the body cavity and remove the bag of giblets, or confirm that no bag of giblets is present. Then sprinkle the chicken with a teaspoon of salt, and any other spices that you would like. You can also rub the chicken with oil or butter, for more flavor.

Place the bird breast-side-up in a pan or casserole dish. A probe-type thermometer (with a wire that runs out of the oven and connects to a counter-top digital device that beeps when the desired temperature is reached) is the most reliable way of judging when chicken is fully baked. If you are using a probe thermometer, insert it into the middle of the thickest part of the meat, near the chicken‘s leg. In order to get an accurate reading, the tip of the thermometer must not be touching bone.

Cook the chicken until the thermometer reads 160 degrees. Take the chicken out of the oven and leave it out uncovered, and the residual heat in the outer part of the bird will cause the internal temperature to continue climbing to 165, which is the safe “done” temperature. Then, if you can, leave the chicken to “rest” (i.e. don’t cut into it) for another 20 minutes or so, so that when you do cut into it, the juices don’t run out and leave you with dry meat.

If you are cooking chicken pieces, remove them from the oven when they reach 165 degrees, as there may not be enough residual heat in the meat to fully cook the interior of the meat.

If you don’t have a thermometer, you can test for doneness by sticking the thickest part of the chicken with a knife. If the juices run clear, the chicken is done. If the meat falls away from the bone, the chicken is over-done - which means it is quite safe to eat, but may be a bit dry. For boneless chicken pieces, cut into the chicken and look at the color of the meat to determine if the meat is done. White meat is fully cooked. Note, however, that in parts of bone-in chicken, there will be some pinkish or reddish bits of meat against the bone, even when the chicken is fully cooked.

After you have carved off and eaten pieces of the whole chicken, don’t forget to pick all the remaining meat from the bones! There may be a meal or more worth of meat hidden on the carcass. Don’t forget to flip the chicken over to get the back meat! And save everything: bones, gristle, skin, and the liquids and crusty stuff from the bottom of the baking pan. These can all be used to make chicken stock. Refrigerate these leftovers for up to five days, or freeze them indefinitely.

Cooked chicken meat can be used to make quesadillas, burritos, soup, chili, or omelette. It can be used cold on top of salad greens or in chicken salad.

Boiled beans

Nothing could be simpler than cooking dry beans: simply cover them with water, put a lid on the pot, and set them to a simmer or a low boil. Stir every 20 minutes or so. Cook with a lid on to keep too much water from evaporating. Add extra water to the pot if the beans seem to be crowded. Taste a bean every so often. When the beans are as soft as you like, use them in any recipe that calls for cooked or canned beans.

6 or more cups water

2 cups (1 pound) dry beans

1 tsp salt (optional)

There are many types of beans. Each type of beans has its own cooking time. Additionally, the older the beans are, the longer that they will take to cook (and the less nutritious they will be). This makes it tough to judge how long it will take to cook a pot of beans. Unless you are cooking lentils, which can take as little as a half hour to cook, assume it will take at least two hours to cook your beans.

Beans need to be rinsed before cooking, to remove dust. You should also sort through them before cooking to remove any pebbles or other agricultural debris that may have jumped into the bag. Also take out any beans that look particularly shriveled, discolored, or otherwise unfit to eat.

Cooking time can be reduced somewhat by soaking the beans overnight in cold water, but this is not a necessary step.

Most cooks will swear that adding salt to a pot of beans will cause the beans to take longer to cook. However, chef Mark Bittman has tested pots of beans side-by-side, one with salt, the other without, and reports that both pots of beans finished cooking at the same time. But if you want to add salt to the pot, and you wish to cover your bases, you can always wait and add salt then the beans are mostly cooked.

Beans double in size when cooked, more or less, so if you cook two cups of dry beans, you will get about four cups of cooked beans. One pound of beans is about two cups of dried beans.

Once your beans are cooked, you have several options. You can drain the beans in a colander, or you can keep them in the cooking water. (The cooking water can be useful for making soup or stew.) You can immediately turn some or all of the beans into soup or any other recipe. You can refrigerate the beans with or without their cooking water for use in recipes over the next five days or so. Or you can freeze the beans indefinitely.

Run cool tap water over your drained beans to cool them before moving them to the refrigerator or freezer.

Cooked beans can be used in chili, soups, stews, salads, or burritos. They can be mashed into dip or refried beans. Beans can be spiced with Mexican spices or Indian curry spices and served with boiled grains of any sort. Beans can also be mashed and combined with boiled grains, grated raw vegetables, egg, and breadcrumbs, and then rolled and pan-fried to make vegetarian “meatballs” or veggie-burgers.

Boiled Grains

This recipe yields perfect rice, barley, whole wheat berries, rye, wild rice, or hominy. The cooking time varies from 10 minutes to over an hour, depending on the grain used. (White rice is quickest, unhulled grains take the longest.) In general grains double in size when cooked. (Barley, however, triples in size.)

6 or more cups water

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cup rice, barley, whole wheat berries, rye, wild rice, or hominy

In a medium or large pot, boil the water, and stir in the salt. Rinse the grain and add it to the boiling water. Continue to gently boil the water, without a lid, stirring occasionally. Add more water if it looks like there is too little. Taste the grain every ten minutes or so. When they have reached the desired tenderness, drain them in a colander, and serve or use in another recipe.

Cooked grains can be saved in the refrigerator for five days or so, or can be frozen indefinitely. If you want to move the grain straight to the refrigerator or freezer, cool them first by running cold tap water or ice water over them.

Cooked grains can be eaten as a side dish with little more than salt and pepper, and perhaps a bit of butter or oil. Or cooked grains can be mixed with chopped cooked vegetables for a more fancy side dish. Toss chopped raw greens in with a hot pot of grains, and the greens will cook just from the heat of the rice. Cooled grains can be used with chopped raw or cooked vegetables and salad dressing to make a grain salad. Cooked grains can be used as a filler in meatloaf or meat balls or hamburger patties, and cooked grains can be added to soups and stews.

Sautéed Vegetables

Sautéing is possibly the best way to get to know an unfamiliar veggie. Sautéing brings out the flavor in food quickly. And, importantly, when you sauté vegetables, you can taste them as you cook.

2 or so cups of almost any vegetable, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 pinch (about 1/8 tsp) of salt

A sprinkle of black pepper

1 tablespoon of butter or oil, preferably olive

Heat the butter or oil over medium heat until the butter melts or the oil is hot. Toss in the vegetables, salt, and pepper. Give them a stir every thirty seconds or so. If the vegetables get dry and start to burn in the pan, add some extra oil, or add a tablespoon or so of water.

As you cook, periodically taste what you are cooking. Note how the texture and taste change. When the texture and flavor seem to be at their best, remove the pan from the heat, and as quickly as possible, get the veggies out of that hot pan! Many a vegetable dish has been overcooked because it has been left sitting in a hot pan. For particularly delicate vegetables, such as leafy greens or broccoli, you may want to get the vegetables off of the hot pan before they have reached their peak of texture and flavor, because even out of the pan, they will briefly continue to cook.

Sautéed vegetables can be served immediately just as they are. Additional spices of any sort can be used to jazz them up. Or, the cooked vegetables can be cooled (you can put them under cold tap water to do this) and used in salads. Cooked vegetables can be refrigerated for five days or so, and used in any number of recipes: burritos, omelettes, pasta dishes, quesadilla, sandwiches, etc. Reheated vegetables on toast are delicious for breakfast!

Chipping away at draft 2. . .

How to Use This Book

If you have no experience cooking, start by reading the Basics of Cooking # and Basic Food Safety #. If you need basic cooking equipment but don’t know exactly what you need, read Basic Cooking Equipment #.

If you already know how to cook and you have the necessary equipment, then you can proceed to the recipes. Use the table of contents or the index to find specific recipes.

Tips for planning meals and saving money can be found in Planning a Week’s Worth of Meals (#), Freezing and Refrigerating (#), and Lunches for Work and School (#).

Basic Cooking Equipment

Equipment should be solid, thick metal if possible. Don’t bother with non-stick pots, pans, cookie sheets, etc..: the non-stick coating is too easily damaged, and once damaged, the metal underneath is likely to rust.

Restaurant supply stores carry the best equipment: plain and made to take abuse. Yard sales can be a great place to find good quality kitchen items for cheap.

The Essentials:

Large pot with lid

Small or medium pot with lid

Large frying pan with lid

Colander

Cookie sheet (preferably with edges, known as a “jelly roll pan”)

Medium or large casserole dish

Serving/stirring spoons, including a slotted spoon

Whisk

Potato masher

Mixing bowls

Spatula

Measuring cups

Chef’s knife

Paring knife (any small knife will do)

A plastic cutting board that fits in the dishwasher

Can opener

Box grater

Whetstone or steel knife sharpener

Optional items that may make your life a little easier:

Instant-read or probe thermometer

Salad spinner

Bread knife

Loaf pan

Countertop griddle

Toaster

Expensive Kitchen gadgets that you WON’T need for most of the recipes in this book:

Microwave

Blender

Food processor

Croc pot

Stand mixer

Rice cooker

Pressure cooker

Bread machine

This concludes our vegetable chapter!

*phew* Getting there. Trying hard not to be distracted by NaNoWriMo plans.

Yes, I do know someone whose mother blew the door off a microwave with a squash. I also know two people who have blown up pies (including the glass pie plates). And I, myself, blew up a pizza stone. Cooking can be dangerous.

I feel a little odd writing about steamed vegetables, because I never ever steam veggies. Ugh. I guess I should add that to my to-test list. But still, ugh. Flavorless!

Steamed Vegetables

When food is steamed, it is cooked in a pot with a tight-fitting lid and with a small amount of water. The food is suspended above the water with a steamer basket (or with a plate stacked on a bowl, or other ad hoc device.) The water becomes steam, and the steam cooks the food.

Cooking vegetables in steam is useful if you need to remove all butter and oil from your diet. There are some disadvantages to cooking with steam, however. First, because no oil is used in the cooking, and because no browning of the food occurs, the results will not be as flavorful as sautéing, baking, or broiling. Second, it is easy to overcook foods, because you can’t watch the food to judge its doneness. Third, if all of your water boils away and you continue to heat the pot, you can permanently damage the pot.

With that said, you can treat steaming much like you would treat sautéing (#): use it to cook bite-sized pieces of almost any vegetable. Once cooked, you can season and eat the veggie as a side dish, or store in the refrigerator for a few days to then pop on top of salad (#), toss into a quick pasta (#) or curry (#) or soup (#) or omelette (#) or. . . The sky is the limit!

Baked Vegetables

When you have a half hour to get dinner on the table and want a hands-off way to cook some flavorful veggies, try this. Preheat the oven to 350. With just about any vegetable wash or peel, and cut it into slices about ½ inch thick. Roll these slices in some oil (preferably olive), lay them in a single layer in a casserole dish or a cookie sheet with edges, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 20 minutes.

If you want more veggies, make it two layers thick and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Leafy greens and broccoli don’t cook well by this method, but squash, zucchini, root vegetables, and eggplant do.

Potatoes, of course, are known for being baked whole. You can bake just about any large root vegetable whole. Just be aware that it will take longer to bake a whole vegetable - up to an hour, or longer. Poke a few fork holes in your large vegetables before baking, to prevent it from exploding. (Potatoes don’t usually explode, but when they do, they can make quite a mess.) To bake larger vegetables, see Baked Winter Squash, #, below.

Baked Winter Squash

Cutting raw squash is difficult, so the best way to deal with it is to avoid cutting it as much as possible until it is cooked. With smaller squashes, this means cutting the squash in half, scooping out the seeds, and baking. Bake at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet until a fork easily pierces the squash through the rind. This will take at least 40 minutes. You can cook it cut-side up, or cut-side down. If the squash is to be eaten as a savory dish, sprinkle the cut side with a bit of salt and pepper, and drizzle with oil (preferably olive). Leave off these additions if you intend to use your baked squash for pie.

For larger squashes, such as pumpkins, you need only cut a dime-sized hole all the way into the hollow interior so that it does not explode while cooking. (And make no mistake: a squash will explode if you do not cut a hole in it before cooking. I have heard of a microwave door being blown off by an inexperienced cook messing around with squash.) Once the squash has had a hole cut into it, bake at 350 degrees until easily pierced by a fork. This may take an hour or more. Remove the seeds before serving.

Baked squash can be served as a plain vegetable, topped with brown sugar, salt, pepper, or maple syrup. It can also be served mashed. To mash, scoop the pulp into a pan, add a little water or milk, and mash with a potato masher

A large squash will generally contain more pulp than you will want to eat for dinner. Cooked squash freezes beautifully, however, so you can pop it in the freezer and reheat as needed.

Dishes such as pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin French toast require pumpkin puree. For this, you need a blender. Simply put pulp and a little water in a blender and blend until you have a paste. This paste can be frozen for later use.

Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are edible, but they are not as tasty as the smaller “sugar pumpkins” which were bred for cooking. Some squashes, such as hubbard squash, taste even better. In fact, if you read the ingredients on a can of “pumpkin”, often you will see that it isn’t actually pumpkin in the can at all, but another sort of squash!

Broiled Vegetables

Broiling is just like baking a single layer of vegetables (See #). The difference is that broiling imparts a grilled flavor.

With just about any vegetable, first wash or peel, and then cut it into slices about ½ inch thick. Roll these slices in some oil (preferably olive), lay them in a single layer in a casserole dish or a cookie sheet with edges, sprinkle with salt and pepper. (If this is your first time broiling, see #) Move the top oven wrack so that the food will be just three or four inches from the heat source. Set the oven to broil, and cook the food until it starts to develop small blackened spots. If necessary, flip the vegetable slices over and repeat.

This method works particularly well with red peppers. In this case, broil the peppers whole. Cook them, turning occasionally, until the outside of the peppers is entirely blackened. Then, in a bowl of water, peel off the burned skins. Discard the stems and seeds, douse the cooked pepper in olive oil, and delight in a tasty Italian treat!

Mashed Potatoes and Other Vegetables

Potatoes are not the only veggie that taste good mashed. Just about any root vegetable can work nicely. You can also mix vegetables. For instance, you can cook a beet along with potatoes to make hot pink mashed potatoes. Mashed yams or sweet potatoes are particularly good.

Scrub or peel your vegetables, and chop them into rough chunks. (The smaller the chunks, the faster they will cook.) Cover with water in a pot, and set them on high heat until the pot boils. (Caution: the starch in root vegetables will make the boiling water more bubbly than normal, and the pot can easily overflow.) Once boiling, turn down the heat just enough to maintain a gentle boil, and let the veggies cook for about 15 minutes. You will know the veggies are done when a fork will go through a piece with little resistance.

Then, drain the water. (You can use the pot lid to hold the veggies in the pot while you pour out the water, if you don’t want an extra dish to wash.) Add a splash of milk or a lump of butter to the pot, and mash with a potato masher. Add salt and pepper to taste. Other spices, such as dried garlic, are also nice to add.

Up past my bedtime. . .

I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo and distracting myself from this project. Silly me. So I glued my butt to the chair and cranked through a couple more veggie recipes.

Stir-Fried Anything!

Once you have mastered the previous recipe, sautéing multiple kinds of vegetables in the same pan together (#), you can add meat or tofu, and any sort of Asian sauce to the recipe to make a complete stir-fried entrée.

Meat, raw and boneless, cut into bite-sized pieces. Or use cooked meat. Or use baked tofu (#).

Vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces

Any sort of jarred stir-fry sauce

Any flavorless oil, such as canola.

First, if raw meat is being used, sauté the meat (recipe #) in a little oil until it is fully cooked. Remove the meat from the pan, add a little more oil, and sauté the vegetables (#). When the vegetables are almost, but not quite cooked, add the meat back to the pan, (or add the cold cooked meat or the tofu) and add enough sauce to coat everything. Continue to cook until the vegetables are done. Serve with boiled grain (#).

Sautéed and Steamed leafy greens

Leafy greens tend to be more delicate than other vegetables. With the exception of cabbage, which can hold its own against even some of the most tough root vegetables, leafy greens should generally not be tossed in a sauté pan with other types of vegetables.

Leafy greens range from being so delicate that they are suitable in salads, to cabbage, which needs a fair bit of cooking. Here is a list of some common greens, from tender to tough:

“baby” greens of any sort

Lettuce of any sort

Spinach

Chard

Beet greens

Kale

Collards

Cabbage

For what to do with raw greens, see Leafy Green Salads, #, or Coleslaw #.

Although the Southern treatment of collard greens might give you the impression that greens need to be cooked until they are mush, leafy greens are actually better for you if cooked with a light hand, cooked only until the leaf has wilted and the color intensified. With the more tender greens (including lettuce, which can, in fact, be cooked) you barely have to introduce the greens to a hot pan in order to cook them.

Greens should be stiff (not limp) and green, with no yellow or brown on the leaves. Some greens, such as kale, have a tough rib in the middle of each leaf that you may want to exclude from your dish. If you don’t use the ribs, you can chop them finely and include them in balls, patties, and loaves (recipe #).

Washing greens can be a hassle. I suggest that you first tear or chop the leaves before putting them in a salad spinner or large bowl. Then fill the bowl with cold tap water. Stir the leaves with your hand - and then using your hand, push the leaves to one side while you pour the water down the sink. (Or if using a salad spinner, lift the basket from the water.)

As you pour out the water, look for grit at the bottom of the bowl. If grit is present, rinse the greens again. Repeat until no more grit comes out of the greens.

Greens can be chopped up however you please, but a particularly nice way to chop them is to roll up a bundle of leaves and then slice the bundle, creating long ribbons of leaf.

Greens that are destined to be cooked can be washed, chopped, and then frozen. Cook frozen greens just as you would fresh greens.

To sauté greens, you need a pan or pot with a tight-fitting lid. Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pot on medium heat. Wash the greens, but don’t worry about drying them off. Add them to the pot with water still dripping from the leaves. Begin stirring the greens at once. (Tongs are particularly useful here, but a large spoon will do the trick if your pot isn’t overly full.)

Spinach will wilt at once under this treatment. Be prepared to get the spinach out of the pot immediately when it looks done. Otherwise, you will have mushy, bitter spinach.

Vegetables in the cabbage family (from beet greens to cabbage) will take a bit longer. After a few stirs in the oil, if they start to look dry or stick to the pot, try adding a few tablespoons of water to the pot and putting the lid on, to steam them. Taste them every two or three minutes to judge doneness. And just as with spinach, get them out of the pot when they are cooked.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve as a side dish, or over toast for breakfast!