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Thai Soup is Summer Delight

Sometimes a taste can get stuck in your mouth in the same way a song can get stuck in your head. When the hankering for that taste keeps popping up, you can’t feel satisfied until you get yourself some of whatever it is that’s haunting you.

So it was with me and Thai soup with coconut milk recently. That was what I was hungry for so I had to try cooking some. We are trying to lighten up our meals this summer by including more vegetarian choices, so I did a web search for “Thai vegetarian coconut soup” and found this recipe, which I used as an outline. I scanned what I had on hand and what I could use from our garden, which included kale, broccoli, lemon balm and basil– more than I would have guessed– and I was good to go.

Here’s the recipe I made. My apologies to anyone of Thai descent or with the slightest experience with Thai cooking. With all of my substitutions, I really don’t have the right to use the “Thai” adjective on this recipe. I considered adding “Faux” or “Mock” but that’s just dumb. But Thai or no, this delicious soup satisfied my craving.

Thai Vegetarian Soup with Coconut Milk

* 6 cups homemade strong-flavored stock
* 6 lemon balm leaves, chiffonaded
* 2 tsp. chili sauce
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 Tb freshly grated ginger
* 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
* 2 cups kale, chopped
* 2 cup broccoli florets, chopped
* 2 tomatoes, chopped
* 1 can light coconut milk
* 1 tsp. brown sugar
* 3-4 Tbsp. soy sauce
* 1 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lime juice
* 1-2 cups soft tofu, sliced into cubes
* 1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

1. Pour stock into a soup pot. Add the lemon balm, chili, garlic, and ginger. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, or until broth is very fragrant.

2. Add the mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes, or until mushrooms are soft.

3. Add the kale, broccoli and tomatoes. Gently simmer 1-2 more minutes (kale should remain on the crisp side).

4. Reduce heat to low and add the coconut milk, sugar, soy sauce, and lime juice. Finally, add the soft tofu and gently stir.

5. Do a taste-test. Add more chili sauce if not spicy enough. If not salty enough, add more soy sauce or a little more stock cube/powder or salt. Add 1 more tsp. sugar if too sour. If too salty or sweet, add another squeeze of lime juice.

6. Serve soup in bowls with fresh basil sprinkled over. Enjoy!

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By 20 Minute Jan – July 5, 2010

Basil Pesto Time!

It’s officially summer because we just had our first fresh basil pesto pasta meal of the year.

I don’t know if it’s the particular type of basil we planted or the weather conditions (lots of rain, lots of sun) so far this summer or some wacky combination of both, but this year’s basil plants are looking especially good. The individual leaves are extra large– I don’t remember so many huge leaves on the plants in seasons past. I easily picked the 2 cups of fresh basil leaves needed for the recipe.

If you’ve never made pesto, the process might seem a little intimidating. In truth, it’s really easy. If you have a food processor, a blender, or ever a mortar and pestle, you are all set. Out of habit, I most often use the blender for making pesto, even though it’s a little tricky to scrape all of the pesto out of the area around the blades– but that doesn’t stop me from trying! Working with a food processor with its removable blade makes that part a bit easier.

Fresh Basil Pesto

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups fresh washed basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1. Put garlic, salt and olive oil into the blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Add washed fresh basil leaves, preferably straight from the garden. Push the basil down with a wooden spoon or scraper tool, with the blender off. Blend until smooth.
3. Add pine nuts and blend until the mixture is smooth. Then add soft butter and blend.
4. Move mixture to a bowl and stir in parmesan cheese. Thin with a little water or broth if you’d like.

Variations: Walnuts can be used instead of pine nuts, if that’s what you prefer or what you have on hand. Romano cheese can be used for some or all of the cheese for a slightly different pesto.

Our favorite and simplest way to enjoy pesto is on pasta. The flavors are so intense and so fresh that the dish really doesn’t need anything else to make a great meal.

There are, however, a multitude of other ways to eat pesto. Sometimes we add grilled chicken or shrimp to pesto pasta. Vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, fresh or sun-dried tomatoes can also be added alone or together for a delicious pasta meal. Pesto can also be spread on bread for sandwiches or bruschetta; for a fantastic and special grilled cheese sandwich, a layer of pesto can be added. It’s great on pizza. Pesto is so popular at our house in the summer that it’s a challenge to keep it on hand.

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By 20 Minute Jan – July 1, 2010

Serviceberries or Juneberries?… Or Sugarplums, Shadberries or Saskatoons…

We have gotten in the habit of marking years by their culinary discoveries. 2004, for example, was the year of the Black Raspberry Daiquiri. Another year, we claimed marinated grilled chicken breasts as the dish of the year; all summer long, we marinated and grilled chicken often enough that we could tweak the recipe until we achieved perfection. In the summer of 2006, I believe, we learned how to make a darn good sangria.

2010 will be remembered in our history as the Year of the Serviceberry.

Last summer, the landscaper our neighbor hired to make her stone patio mentioned in passing that she had a serviceberry tree in her front yard. When that elicited no response from us, he continued telling us that serviceberries were in fact edible.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of something called a serviceberry does not trigger a mouth-watering reflex for me. Nor a yum-response. More of a shrug. The name leaves one cold.

This summer, however, I stumbled upon a couple articles in our local (?) online newspaper that sang the praises of serviceberries and furthermore asserted that they were indeed edible. Linda Diane Feldt wrote about learning to identify and appreciate serviceberries. Edward Vielmetti’s article included information about where serviceberry trees are planted around town. His article also referenced the various names of the Amelanchier, including juneberry, sugarplum, shadberry, or saskatoon.

And I knew what a saskatoon was! When we lived in the big city of Toronto, our best friends were rather pleased and proud to have a saskatoon bush in the front yard of their apartment house. I remember Jan picking them and, I’m pretty sure, making a pie.

So armed with history, information and encouragement, I picked enough serviceberries to make a pie. When I gave a piece to our neighbor– the owner of the tree– she asked if I was sure it wouldn’t kill her. And it didn’t. In fact, she liked it a lot, maybe even better than blueberrypie. And we liked it too.

Three serviceberry pies later, I’m sharing my recipe. Next June, you can bet we won’t hesitate to pick and eat and bake with serviceberries.

Serviceberry Pie

Pastry for a 2 crust pie (my recipe is here)

3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I like fresh ground)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 cups serviceberries
1 tablespoon butter

1. Prepare pastry. Roll out half of pastry and line a 9-inch pie pan. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. For filling, toss together, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and salt. Mix in and thoroughly coat serviceberries. Place berries in piecrust; dot with butter.

3. Roll out remaining pastry for top crust. Cut a few slashes and cover filling with slashed top crust.

Trim and tuck under to make a decorative edge.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until the piecrust is golden brown.

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By 20 Minute Jan – June 30, 2010

Tuesday Night at the Movies: Summer Squash

Tonight’s movie may be the last one of our 2009 retrospective. Unless we find other clips in the archive, we will be moving on to the Garden Clips 2010 Series very shortly.

This week’s 30 second tour is of the summer squash patch. There are some nearly ready to eat yellow crock neck squash on display– we like them best when they are just a little bigger than pictured and oh-so-tender. Listen carefully and you can hear the birds chirping in the background.

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By 20 Minute Jan – June 29, 2010

Sun Chip Compostable Bag Experiment Update- 90 Days

One of the things I love most about composting is that it’s one of the few activities you can be doing, without actually doing anything. Unlike making dinner or doing laundry or balancing the checkbook or working, composting is an ongoing activity for which you get full credit, whether you are thinking about it or not.

That being said, the Sun Chip Compostable Bag experiment sort of slipped my mind for a while. Sure, back in March when it was too early to get out in the garden and plant or weed or harvest, the compost pile was the light of my gardening life so I gave it a lot of thought and attention. Then the garden kicked into gear and, other than regular feedings of kitchen scraps, the compost has been left to its own devices. Which is sort of the point after all.

The other day when I was out in the garden with the camera, I thought of the Sun Chips Bag experiment. I dug around in the compost bin and snapped the picture above. The Sun Chips Bag is still there, but it is looking a bit more decomposed than in previous pictures. The bag got a bit torn up when I was digging around to find it, and the material seems more easily ripped. Compared to Day 1,

the Sun Chips Bag is definitely making progress breaking down after 90 days in our home compost bin; it’s just not there yet.

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By 20 Minute Jan – June 28, 2010