Asian Soup

I don't do so well with cookbooks and recipes. I often seem to leave out something or jump ahead and get things in the wrong order. I once left the eggs out of a quiche. What I like to do is make up something from ingredients on hand. Rummage through the icebox and pull out the things that might go together. I do the same thing in the super market, walking the isles thinking up something to cook and forgetting two things on the list. It's what I did last night for this soup I made tonight. I don't think I've ever bought bok choy before.

I write it down here for those who like a recipe or at least a starting point for personal variation.

Asian Soup

2 T. dark sesame oil
2 large garlic cloves minced(that's a great word isn't it?)
T. minced fresh ginger
1/2 lg onion thinly sliced
2 medium carrots cut thin diagonally
1 stalk celery cut like the carrots
1/2 lb. sliced baby portabellas
    - I was thinking shitakes but balked at the price
1 baby bok choy roughly chopped

Saute these in your soup pot.

Add:
1 qt. vegetable broth
    -you can buy it by the qt. I used a powdered variety.
1 lb. tofu cut in medium cubes
A bunch of water.
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. rice vinegar
1 T. asian hot sauce
    -or some kind of hot sauce. Our asian one is a little sweet.
black pepper

Cook for a while and then add:
Some kind of noodles.
    -I picked up some fancy stuff in the asian section but it looked like it was made of the usual stuff so I bought a very thin short noodle in the regular noodle aisle. A rice noodle might be a better choice.
   
Cook 'till the noodles are done.

Note: I made up these amounts using my best guess at what I splashed and poured.

I served it with a flatbread and it was good. I kept thinking it might need just a little something else but I couldn't think what that might be.

Any suggestions?

My favorite pie

Made with cherries Margy picked at our local orchard last year and froze. A nice gesture as she is not partial to cherry pie. It's my favorite however and once you have a fresh one the canned variety will disappoint. This recipe calls for a little almond extract, a nice addition. The listed sugar amounts make a fairly tart pie, add more for a sweet tooth. This time I added a cup of blueberries too just because we had them.

Cherry Pie

4 cups sour cherries

1/2 cup cherry juice

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

4 T. minute tapioca

1 T. butter

1/8 t. almond extract

Pastry for 1 1/2 10" crusts for lattice top
Combine cherries, juice, sugars, and tapioca
Let stand 15 minutes.
Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter.
Place crust or strips on top as preferred.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then 375 for 30 minutes.

The recipe is in this book, published in 1957,  a favorite of the Frysinger family. It also contains the family's chosen unique pancake recipe. Margy received her own copy after leaving home. It is inscribed:

To make use of that 1/4 Dutch blood!
With love, Dad & Mom  6/1974

Beet Soup

Margy grew some nice beets this year. I made up this soup last night and we thought it was pretty good.
 
Beet Soup
4 large beets, trim ends, quartered
1 qt vegetable broth
1 large onion
2 T. minced fresh ginger
4 lg cloves garlic, minced
1 t. ground cumin
2 T. olive oil
1 T. each vinegar, lemon juice, vermouth or sherry
lots of black pepper
salt to taste

Boil beets until tender. Rinse in cold water, remove skins. Saute onion, garlic, ginger in olive oil. Put it all together with broth and puree in blender. I added a cup or two of water as it was too thick.
Serve with dollop of sour cream.

Making Bread

Made bread today, my usual recipe, James Beard's Oatmeal Bread with Cooked Oatmeal.
I'm not sure when I first made this recipe, many years ago for sure, but it is really the only recipe I have used ever since. I only make bread once or twice a year and since this one has always been so well received I wasn't motivated to experiment.

Its unique characteristic is a wonderful chewy texture. It's a touch sweet with some brown sugar in the mix so is best with butter and jam. A lovely breakfast bread.

I usually have made it along side some homemade soup and the family of four will wolf down a loaf or more fresh from the oven. The recipe (download doc) as written makes two small loaves, only 2/3 the height of a normal loaf. But today I made 1 1/2 times but still used 2 tins. This made a taller loaf that will do nicely for sandwiches.

James Beard's book Beard on Bread was published in 1973 and was his best selling book. Beard (1903-85) was quite a character it seems and has been called the father of American style cooking by some.

If you've never made bread it's worth a shot just for the way it makes the house smell.