Butternut squash soup with balls

I was browsing through Williams-Sonoma one day (love that store!) and got a sample of a yummy butternut squash soup. It was made from the $21.95 Organic Butternut Squash puree. Why not just buy a butternut squash for a few dollars and call upon my fabulous blender for a little motorized help?

From an earlier cooking experiment, I had some coconut milk left and decided that this would be a great opportunity to put that to use. A little unconventional, but I have watched far too many episodes of Iron Chef America to have to courage to go with it. This would definitely give the butternut squash some balls!

I looked up a few recipes to get a hold of the technique. The recipes either want you to keep the squash chunky or to roast the squash first and then puree it. My oven has been out of commission for a few weeks now. My teeny–tiny toaster oven wouldn’t be up for the challenge. So, I decided to cook the butternut squash and then puree. What’s a bit more improvisation?

Ingredients

1 organic butternut squash, peeled, seeds scooped out and chopped into 1” cubes
3 cups of low sodium chicken broth (you can actually use the whole carton, which I think is 4 cups, but 3 cups would have been sufficient)
½ can coconut milk (if you have a whole can, go ahead and use it all)
½ medium onion chopped
½ tsp garlic finely chopped
2 tbsp oil
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
2-4 tbsp brown sugar
cayenne/black/chili/any other pepper according to preference
cilantro for garnish
salt

Put the cubes of the squash along with the chicken broth in a large non-stick pot. Turn the heat on high. When the broth begins to boil, turn the heat down to medium and cover. Cook until the chunks of the squash are very very tender. In theory, at this point, you could mash them with a fork. Very carefully, use a slotted spoon and take the chunks out of the pot and into a blender. Puree. Transfer back to the pot where broth is waiting. Add the pepper. Keep cooking on medium heat. Stir occasionally to avoid the soup sticking to the bottom of the pan. When the soup has reached its desired consistency, add the coconut milk. Turn the heat up until the soup starts boiling. Turn the heat back to medium and cook until you reach your desired consistency again. Keep the soup on very low heat.
Now, in a frying pan, add the oil. When hot, add the onions. Cook in low heat. This step is important for the sugars in the onions to caramelize properly to develop the sweet taste of caramelized onions.  When the onions start getting a nice golden brown color, add the garlic. When you get delicious garlicky fragrance, after about a minute, carefully pour the caramelized onions and garlic into the soup. Add the nutmeg, brown sugar and salt. Stir. Taste. Adjust sugar or salt or pepper if you need to. You are the chef!

I have tried this soup with chopped cilantro, but I think I like without better. The sweet squash, caramelized onions and the brown sugar give layers of sweetness to the creamy soup. The little pieces of onions add texture to the soup. More texture on the way if you prefer with the cilantro. The coconut milk gives the concoction its balls. Really! It gives it an Asian twist, which makes this American fall favorite dee-lee-shus! 

Stir-fried all-purpose shrimp

Jumbo wild shrimp was on sale last Friday at Whole Foods. Turns out the problem with these big shrimps was that they were neither shelled nor de-veined. Fear not, I know how to do both. I have watched enough episodes of Chopped on Food Network where many many contestants got yelled at (and chopped) for not de-veining their shrimp. Lesson learned!

I am bragging, but it was deliciously spicy, and no I don't mean just heat. The crunch from the whole spices and fried garlic along with the citrusy, juicy shrimp creates a wildness in your mouth that lives up to the official adjective used to describe the shrimp.

1 lb jumbo shrimp (you can use any size really)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds 

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

2 tbsp canola/olive oil

2 tsp garam masala (from Indian grocery stores or Penzeys)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cayenne pepper (adjust if needed, use any kind of chilli powder or even paprika if prefer less heat)

1 tbsp lemon juice (I love a strong citrus flavor)

Salt to taste

Add the garam masala, turmeric, salt and cayenne to the peeled and de-veined shrimp. Toss to marinate and leave it alone for about 10 minutes. Bobby Flay said not to marinate shrimp for too long. Noted. 

Heat the oil in a wok. When hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds together and cover right away. When the seeds are done spluttering, add the chopped garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds. When in doubt here, go with less than 30 seconds, not more. You don't want your garlic to burn. Add the shrimp. Cook until opaque. Mine took about 2 mins to cook after being flipped once a little after a min. Cooking shrimp can be tricky. You never want overcooked shrimp. It's like nightmare on a dinner plate. Considering how much I love food, that's probably one of the worst nightmares, EVER. Add the lemon juice and toss before taking it off the heat.

Voila! It was that simple! While you wait for the shrimp to cool just a little so you can pop one in your mouth, smell the garlic, the lemon, the cumin, the mustard, the "Indian" spicy-ness and the shrimp.

Resist popping a hot shrimp into your mouth. 

Resist.

Give up. 

I just finished watching a Bobby Flay show where he did a similar thing with shrimp on the grill (duh!) and he made a cilantro-mint chutney for dipping. You could make this shrimp  recipe (or any variation of it) as hors d'œuvre with the dip or as filling for shrimp taco or anything else your shrimp-loving heart desires. 

The best chicken wings you have ever had. Period.

I love chicken wings. Yes, a moment on my lips, forever on my hips, but totally worth it. On the first weekend of college football Anthony and I decided to make our own. He loves buffalo wings. I don't. Buffalo sauce, is heat without a purpose. We were swept off our feet by this Bobby Flay recipe of hot wings with bleu cheese and yogurt sauce. I love Bobby Flay's food! I love his spicy, bold flavors and simple techniques.

These wings are probably the best wings I have had, EVER. And yes, I have had a lot of wings. These are spicy but not too hot. The three different kinds of pepper and honey create a unique blend of smoky sweetness that explode in your mouth. Regular wings from your fave bar will bow to these fabulous concoction. I kept my creativity to a minimum while working with this recipe. Bobby knows better. I cut down on the butter. The sauce just has so much flavor that a little less butter won't be noticeable.

To satiate my football-and-wings companion, we made a batch of buffalo wings also. Basically we tossed the wings in Frank's Red Hot Wings sauce. That's all. Simple is not always as good as the following recipe.

Ooooh cheese (sauce):
1 cup greek yogurt
1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
2 tbsp finely chopped onion (any would do, we think)
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Los wingos:
1 lb organic chicken wings split to drums and flats
1 quart peanut oil
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

The most delicious sauce EVER:
2 tbsp ancho chili powder
2 tbsp chipotle chile in adobo (available at the Hispanic food section in large grocery stores)
1 tbsp Mexican style chili powder
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
1/2 stick unsalted butter cut into small pieces (original recipe calls for 1 stick)

Stir all the ingredients for the bleu cheese sauce together. Taste. Adjust if needed. Place in a Tupperware container. Refrigerate.

Make a puree of the chipotle chile (I put a little more than what was called for because I love the flavor of chipotle and it doesn't give a lot of heat) with the vinegar. In a saucepan simmer the chipotle-vinegar along with 2 tbsp ancho and the Mexican style chili over medium heat. Once bubbly, turn the heat down to low. Whisk in the butter, mustard, salt and honey until the butter has melted and the mixture is even and smooth and has a nice shimmer. Taste it. Lick your lips. Pretend that it needs "something" and taste again. Repeat. Set it aside if you can.

Heat 2" of oil in a large deep pan. This is actually a lot of oil. We were unpleasantly surprised to discover that. Use a deep fryer if you have one. Mix the flour, 2 tsp ancho, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a large-ish bowl. The oil takes a while to heat up, so you can actually coat all your wings with the flour mixture, tap excess flour and line the wings up (in an assembly line fashion) ready to be dipped into the oil. Ideally you are supposed to heat the oil to 375 degrees F. We didn't have a deep fry thermometer. We probably overheated the oil because as soon as our sous-chef dropped the first batch of wings into the pot, the hot bubbling oil started smoking and both the smoke alarms went off. We dropped everything, safely, and ran to wave kitchen towels next to the alarms to make the infernal things to stop blaring. Finally they stopped and our arms hurt from all the towel waving. Hopefully you can skip this frantic step completely. The wings were nicely frying themselves in the pot in the meantime. Phew! Fry the wings for about 8-10 mins. It's chicken, so better to fry a little longer just to ensure that it's cooked through. Remove the wings from the oil with a slotted spoon. Paper towel the wings to soak up excess oil.

Toss the wings in the hot sauce in a large bowl. If you are not going to eat the wings immediately, neatly place them on a large baking dish or cookie sheet and keep them in a warm oven.

When you are ready, scoop up some of the bleu-cheesy yogurt-y cilantro-ey goodness with a few celery sticks. When you know you have had enough veggies for the day (one or more celery pieces), go for the wings. You are welcome!

Lentils - the step-child

Lentils, or daal, in Bangladeshi family dinners (okay, just the ones I am familiar with) is a step-child. It’s there for every meal, but it’s not really the highlight of the meal. It also has a bit of a stigma for being “poor people’s food”. Last time I heard from my mom, lentils are really not cheap any more, however, definitely cheaper than animal protein.

I love lentils. I love anything bean-y really. I used to be not much of a veggies fan, but lentils were a different story. Sometimes, I would even get looks from people not familiar with my “strange” food choices, when I would say, “Oh I am good with just lentils with rice.” Probably I am not “classy” enough, or am I?

I saw the following recipe on Aarti Party on Food Network. It is not really my mom’s everyday daal, but it is my mom’s fancy daal. My mom would make it on a special occasion or when tomatoes were in season. She would actually make a kind where you replace the tomatoes with tart green/raw mango. I will have to try that one of these days; as soon as I can find some real green mangos.

This is a two-part recipe – boiling the lentils and mixing flavored oil with the boiled lentils. Anthony asked me a good question. Why do the oil separately? Why not do the oil part first and then add the lentils and cook them together? My notion is that because of the cooking time, you tend to lose some of the flavor of the tempered oil. I have had lentils done both ways, and trust me doing the oil separately is totally worth it!



Ingredients

The star of the show
1 cup organic red lentils (available in bulk section of large grocery stores or in Indian grocery stores)
4 cups water
½ onion, diced
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
½ cup tomatoes, finely diced
1 green chili, split

The oomph
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds (mom always used black, I didn’t find any at the grocery store, I got the yellow kind, which turned black in the oil anyway)
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Soak the rinsed lentils in water for about 15-30 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients under lentils and bring it to a boil over high-ish heat. It might help to skim off the foam from the surface. Be careful not to skim off the onions or tomatoes. Aarti says not to add salt yet. It would take longer to cook. Who am I to argue with her logic? Turn the stove to low, cover the pot and go do your own thing for about an hour. Don’t totally forget about your food on the stove though. Check on it once in a while. No need to stir.

After done cooking, at which point the lentils are falling apart, my mom uses a wooden utensil, resembling a pestle but with a flat end for muddling. This process makes the lentils creamy and delicious. I don’t have the tools, so I used the back of a big spoon. I also listened to Aarti and used a whisk which apparently releases the starch from the lentils. Whatever makes my lentils thick and smooth! The consistency should be similar to that of bean dip. Add water or evaporate some off if needed. Some like their lentils more watery. I don’t. When you put a scoop of my ideal lentils on rice, there shouldn’t be water oozing out from the bottom of the mound of rice.

In a small frying pan, warm the oil. Once sufficiently hot add the cumin and mustard and cover. After they are done with their spluttering, add the turmeric and cover again. After about 30 seconds, err toward less and not more, pour this oil mixture into the lentils. Be careful not to splatter any on yourself. The oil is also likely to be a little feisty once it hits the lentils. Watch out!

Mix the oil and the lentils in the pot. You should be getting an enchanting (yes it is!) aroma now. Add salt and now taste. Incredible, isn’t it?