Bacon Butternut Squash Soup with Crispy Shallot Rings

I love how cold, wintery weather is the perfect excuse for comforting, hearty soups. I also love that the layers of sweaters and jackets can easily hide my lovehandles from both indulging in comforting soups and being sequestered in my house for days. Full disclosure, this soup isn't super healthy. You could easily lighten it up by omitting the bacon and using 1% milk instead -- but you'd also be really lame. I kid, I kid, you'd also be thinner too. This kind of soup is best to do on a lazy Sunday when you can just lounge about looking at the snowflakes fall as you curse your decision to live in the frigid midwest.


Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1.5 hours
Approximate cost: 15 dollars

Soup Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes (more or less)
1 medium shallot, diced
1/4 medium onion, diced
1/4 lb of bacon (about 3 slices)
3 c low sodium chicken broth
3/4 c half and half
a sprig or two of thyme
3 leaves of sage, chopped or 1 tsp dried
dollop of sour cream (optional)
1 green onion, sliced (optional)

Shallot rings:
1 medium shallot, cut into thin rings
1/3 c flour

1. Preheat oven to 400. Submerge shallot rings in a bowl of water while you prepare the soup.

2. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Then, using a spoon, scrape out the seeds.
 
Cut the squash into cubes. I like to cut them into large rings, then make 3 cuts to remove the rind. Then you can cut them into nice cubes.

3. Toss the squash cubes with salt, pepper, and a fair drizzle of olive oil. On a cooking sprayed baking sheet, bake them in the preheated oven for 45 minutes (until tender), turning once. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

4. While the squash cools, render out the bacon until crispy. I cut the strips into thirds before cooking them in a large pot. Drain the crisped bacon on a paper towel and remove most of the bacon fat. Leave a little to cook the veggies in, or if you're boring you can dump it all out and cook the veggies in vegetable oil.

5. Saute the diced shallots and onions in the bacon fat, seasoning with salt and pepper. If the pan starts to get a bit dry, you can deglaze a little with a drizzle of the chicken stock. Once the onions/shallots are soft and transparent, add in the thyme and sage.

6. Stir in the cooled squash and stir. After about a minute, add in the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer, scraping the bottom, for a few minutes until everything comes together.

7. Remove the thyme leaves. Turning the heat to low, and using an immersion blender, blend the liquid until smooth. Seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Alternately, you can blend the liquid in batches in a blender.
 
8. After the liquid is smooth, add in the cream and bring back up to a simmer, stirring until heated through, turning to low.

Shallot rings
1. In a plastic sandwich bag, mix the flour with salt and pepper.

2. Drain the shallots and toss in the bag to coat.

3. Heat about 3 tbs oil in a large pan until very hot. Slowly drop the dredged shallot rings in the oil in batches, frying until golden brown and turning once. Drain on a paper towel as you cook in batches. If you have leftovers, they taste great on sandwiches.


Serve the soup with a dollop of sour cream, crumbled bacon, green onions and a few crispy shallot rings.

Curried Maple Baba Ganoush

For some reason, I thought Baba Ganoush was as mysterious and exotic Kim Zolciak's marriage to Atlanta Falcon Kroy Biermann. Let's just take a minute to appreciate the loving and supportive union of those two -- God bless. Really, though, it's pretty easy and simple, something Kim Zolciak definitely is not. The combination of spicy, warm curry and sweet maple make this a fun fall dip. The secret is roasting the vegetables over the flames of your stove. That's enough of an excuse to make this recipe, and if you don't have a gas stove, you can always roast your vegetables in the oven at 450 for about 20 minutes, but that's seriously a lot less fun.

Cost: under 10 dollars
Time to allot: 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
1 medium red bell pepper
1/4 c diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tbs curry powder
1/2 small jalapeno (more or less depending on taste)
2 tbs tahini
1 tbs pure maple syrup (not pancake syrup)
1/4 c plain greek yogurt
salt/pepper to taste
smidge of spicy paprika

1) First you want to start roasting your eggplant and bell pepper. The fire-roasting process is where the dip gets its smoky flavor so don't skimp on this part. Turn your burners to a medium high flame. Place the eggplant and eggplant on its own flame. You'll notice the vegetables start to sweat then finally blister. You want this charred, blistering all over the vegetable.

What you're doing is roasting the vegetables from the outside in. You want to make sure the outside is charred, but more importantly you want to get as much of the flesh on the inside soft and cooked as possible. This isn't as much an issue with the bell pepper as the eggplant as the eggplant is typically larger. As the skin chars, rotate the eggplant to cook all sides, don't forget the bottom too. You'll notice a popping and hissing as it cooks. Don't worry, your kitchen won't explode.

2) This process should take about 8 minutes for the bell pepper and around 20 for the eggplant. When it's done, put both smoldering vegetables in a paper bag and fold it shut. Locking the vegetables in with their smoking skins imparts the smokiness into the flesh. Say smokey one more time.

3) While the vegetables are sitting, saute the onion and garlic in a few teaspoons of olive oil over a medium heat, adding salt and pepper. When the onions are soft, add in the curry powder and stir for another minute or two then take it off the flame.

4) Now, take the eggplant and bell pepper out of the bag and rinse them off to remove the charred skin. Get as much of it off as possible because it can be bitter. Here's a picture of the rinsed, naked eggplant.

5) Remove the stem and cut the eggplant into 2 inch chunks. Same for the bell pepper, but only use half. Save the other half for sandwiches or something.

6) Pile everything into the blender - eggplant, bell pepper, curry onion mixture, jalapeno, tahini, maple syrup, pepper and a good helping of salt. Pulse away! Check periodically and season with salt and pepper to taste. You're going to want to pulse it to a very smooth consistency.

7) Finally, mix in the yogurt. This helps give it a creamy, spreadable texture.

I like to top mine with the spicy paprika or even cayenne for an extra kick. I was trying to work in a final Real Housewives of Atlanta reference here but it all seemed pretty forced. Don't be Tardy!

Eggplant Parma-touille

I have a very interesting relationship with eggplant.  Though I enjoy it cooked by other people, I've never really found a good way to cook it myself.  Growing up, my grandmother used to cook the long, slender Japanese eggplant with preserved bean curd -- the result was a gray, pungent dish that, frankly, wasn't my favorite.  Since then, I've played around with baking it, grilling it, stir-frying it, just about everything I can think of.  Ultimately, this is the best eggplant recipe I've done. It has DNA of both eggplant parmesan and ratatouille but not enough of either to really by one or the other.

Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
3/4 c mushroom, diced
salt/pepper

Eggplant:
1 medium/large eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch slices lengthwise
1 c panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tbs herbs de provence
salt/pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/4 c shaved parmesan cheese
handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400. While the oven is preheating, set up your dredging station. In one large bowl, beat the eggs. In another large bowl, mix the breadcrumb and spices.  Line a large baking dish with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

2. Take each slice of eggplant and dip on both sides in the egg mixture.  Then, dip and pat each side in the breadcrumb mixture.  It helps to use your right hand for the egg and your left hand for the breadcrumb so you don't develop 3 inches of breadcrumb batter on your fingers.

Place each slice on the greased baking sheet.

3. Bake the eggplant for about 25-30 minutes, turning once during the baking. They should be slightly shrively around the edges and lightly browned.  Take out the slices and let them cool slightly. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

4. While the eggplant is baking, prepare the sauce.  First, saute the onion, garlic and mushroom in a generous drizzle of oil over medium heat.  I always try to cook the mushrooms first because Julia Child via Amy Adams via Julie and Julia tells me to.

5. After everything gets soft, dump in the cans of tomato.  Sometimes I feel guilty using things in cans, like it's cheating, but you know what  -- only crazy people with gobs of time and oodles of money sit there and stew their own tomatoes.  Just open a can and save yourself the hassle (I'm looking at you Giada). Salt and pepper generously (taste it to make sure it tastes like you want).  This is a good time to improvise a little bit -- add red pepper flakes or rosemary or italian spices, go a little crazy.  Just a little, this isn't Hell's Kitchen.

Once the mixture comes up to a boil, turn it down real low and just let it hang out while you get the rest of your act together.

6. Okay, now start to assemble. In a 9x9 baking dish, ladle a generous amount of sauce and a nice drizzle of olive oil. This is important or stuff will burn.

On top of the sauce, lay 3 slices of breaded eggplant. Cover the eggplant completely with a single layer of zucchini.  Top with a bit more sauce then a handful of the mozzarella.

7. Repeat these layers until you run out of stuff. You should get 3 full layers in, but maybe more or less depending on the size of eggplant you use.  If you notice you're running out of sauce, just put a can (or less) of water in to make it stretch.

8. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes. Mostly, you want to be sure the zucchini gets cooked.  After 30 minutes, top with the parmesan and bake an additional 10 minutes until melted.

Top with the chopped parsley.

Now, full disclosure, casserole type stuff like this never really photographs real appetizingly.  It always sorta looks like brown mush, so sorry about that.

Falafel and Curried Cucumber Sauce

For some reason, I used to think falafel was some sort of magical food that was only procured from places with meats on spits. Turns out, falafel really isn't that difficult, in fact, it comes from the Arabian word meaning "Easier than you think" (actually it means 'little tasty food') -- in fact, you can probably throw this together in between episodes of season 4 of Arrested Development (No touching!).  It's best to eat them in pocket bread filled with your favorite veggie add-ins and slathered with tons of creamy cucumber sauce. This recipe makes a ton of falafels and are super good chilled the next day for lunch or for a quick, satisfying snack.

Note: You can also bake these in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once but really, really really -- they taste much better shallow fried.

Prep time:
Cucumber sauce - 5 minutes
Falafel 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes cook time)

Ingredients

Cucumber Sauce - 

1/2 cucumber, grated (about 1/2 cup of pulp)

1 clove of garlic, grated
2 green onions, sliced
7 oz. plain greek yogurt
3.5 oz. light sour cream
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp paprika
juice from a small lime
salt/pepper and a squirt of honey

Falafel - 

1 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained
3/4 cup (a BIG handful) parsley
1 sweet onion, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 egg
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
drizzle of olive oil
pinch of cayenne, salt and pepper
1 c (plus more) plain breadcrumbs

Curried Cucumber Sauce

1. Grate the cucumber. Squeeze the juice out of the pulp in your (clean!) hands over the sink. Place drained pulp in a medium bowl.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients and refrigerate in an air-tight container. Tip - you can just fill the empty yogurt container half way with sour cream so you don't have to dirty a measuring cup.

                                                  

Falafel

1. Mash the garbanzo beans using a potato masher. It should be pretty lumpy still and you should be able to see the shape of some of the beans.

2. In the blender: parsley, onion and garlic. Don't do what Donnie Don't Does aka -- don't put your ingredients the way I did -- instead, put the onion and garlic at the bottom and the parsley on top. It will blend easier this way.

Eventually it'll look liks this appetizing pea-soup, vomit concoction. You'll have to shake and pulse and smash and pulse until it becomes creamy.  I know it looks gross but stay with me.

3. Add the parsley mixture to the mashed beans. I know, I know -- just hang in there.

4. Combine the egg, spices, baking powder, olive oil and lemon juice. Add it to the bean/parsley mixture.

5. Add a full cup of bread crumbs to the green mixture. Stir. Assess the mixture and add breadcrumbs a shake at a time until the mixture comes together and forms a pasty, applesaucy consistency. It should hold itself together in ball-form.

6. Start to form little discs. Roll a ball of the mixture (about 1.5 tbs, or the size of a ping pong ball) and then gently flatten it. 

7. Heat about 1/4 c oil in a heavy-bottom skillet. Bring the heat up to medium. When the oil is hot enough (you can test it with a bit of the falafel mixture, it should sizzle) start placing your falafel discs in a circular pattern around the pan.

8. Cook for about 3 minutes on the first side. Then, flip each patty over, browning the other side and cooking for an additional 3-5 minutes. 

9. Drain the patties on a paper towel and while they are still hot, sprinkle some more paprika and cumin.

10. Serve with a cucumber salad and the chilled cucumber sauce.

Coconut Ginger Salmon in Parchment

Cost: 8 dollars
Cook time: 20 minutes

So most of you know Paul -- most of you also know that there's a laundry list of things Paul won't eat (beans, asparagus, cooked spinach, most non-shell seafood)...and fish. So when Paul is out of town, I relish in trying out some fun fish recipes.

Here, I used salmon because it was on sale at Whole Foods which basically means regular-people prices at any other store.  I feel a lot safer getting my fish from WF over some of the local markets around my house that, um, well let's just say aren't the most hygienic.

I feel a little guilty posting this recipe, I mean it's simple and intuitive and you could probably figure out your own version on your own.  I used ginger and coconut water but you can sub any number of aromatics (dill, garlic, capers, etc).  The coconut water, though somewhat of a bougie ingredient, gives it a very subtle, tropical note.

Also, when wrapping the parchment, make sure you make a tight seal -- I don't have a good technique, just crimp the corners and tuck it under the fish; the tighter the seal, the more moist and delicious the final product.

And do yourself a favor -- serve it on a nice bed of sauteed spinach just like Paul would have not liked.

Ingredients:
Salmon plank - 5 oz per person
1 tbs olive oil
2 slices of lemon
1 tbs ginger, sliced
1/4 red pepper, julianne
1 green onion, sliced
2 tbs coconut water
salt/pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Here are all the ingredients prepared.  And a knife.

3. Lay your parchment down. Rub each side of the fish liberally with olive oil. Salt and pepper each side.  Note -- put the parchment on a cookie sheet before you start layering the ingredients.  I didn't and the coconut water spilled everywhere.  Cooking like a teacher means learning your lesson.

4. Start with the lemon slice.  Then layer on the slices of ginger followed by the green onions. Put the most aromatic ingredients on first so the fish absorbs all that smelly goodness.

5. Then layer on the bell pepper slices.  I like the bright pop of red, but you can use any color of pepper (I guess...)

6. Pour on the tbs of coconut water. Be careful, it can spill.

7. Wrap and roll.  Again, this isn't a science, just make sure there's a tight seal. Crimp every edge, fold every corner and fold it all under the fish.

Place in the oven for about 15-17 minutes until tender.

I'd recommend serving each piece of parchment on its own plate and letting your guest open their own. Since I'm alone, hungry, and taking pictures for a blog, I jazzed it up a bit.