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 Ewan MacGregor wearing our clan colors. Royal is my race, ladies. 1 hour
Rob Roy is more than just a cocktail.
If you are Scottish, you have learned that you are a direct descendant of Rob Roy. Rob Roy MacGregor—we have to be distant cousins, at least. Everyone seems to be a direct descendant of this guy…I don’t quite know how it’s occurred, but every Scottish genealogy report I have seen says anyone with of this heritage is related to Rob Roy.
It doesn’t seem quite possible.
Kind of got around, didn’t he? What a manwhore.
Back when a hard winter effected what we did we throw away parts in our cooking and baking, the Scots discovered a beauty of a dessert. It involves about 3 ingredients that when, baked properly, tastes rich and butterscotch-y, flaky and dense. You will want to eat it till you’re sick.
Its Scottish Shortbread. Which I’m sure Rob Roy invented or something like that…
Like all good baking, there’s a level of chemistry involved. But unlike any baking you’ve done with scones or other delicate dough, shortbread likes to be manhandled. Get rough with shortbread. Kneed it well. Roll it out even. Bounce it around on the moors, lads. It will never get tough and will respond to your touch as if you’re hands were magic.
It must be the Rob Roy in us all.
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 tsp real vanilla
2 ½ cups flour, sifted
Tiny pinch of salt
Cream the butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Sift in flour and add salt. Mix well with your hands. When you start you will ask yourself, how can this bowl of dry sand come together? Only the warmth of your hands will bring this together. When all the flour is well mixed, make a large disc of the dough and place it on an unfloured surface. Flatten it out as much as possible—it will eventually be about the size of the 9 x 12 cookie sheet you bake it on with about a ½ inch thickness. You may want to use an unfloured rolling pin as well to ensure even thickness throughout.
Lay parchment paper on your cookies sheet and rub the butter wrappers on it for additional flavor. After the shortbread is on the cookie sheet, poke it all over with a fork, as you would a pie crust.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 (fan the door a few times to reduce the temperature quickly) and cook for an additional 40 minutes.
Remove for the oven and cut while hot. I usually cut it into squares and then half again so they are triangles.
Greek Spaghetti 
Prep and Cooking time: 20 minutes Serves: 4
The first time I went to Lola’s in Seattle I had their Greek Spaghetti. I loved it so much that I figured out the recipe and I want to share it with you. It doesn’t look like anything impressive but the flavor is rich and wonderful—and its just 3 ingredients! Everyone I’ve made this for has lost their minds.
Ingredients:
¾ lb. of Spaghetti (not angel hair, not fettuccine—spaghetti)
1 stick of UNSALTED butter
¾ c grated parmesan reggiano
Salt/pepper
Now, the key to this dish is browning the butter. Browning the butter changes the flavor entirely to a dark, nutty richness that butter in its regular form just doesn’t possess.
Let’s talk about butter for a minute. Just always buy unsalted. You can always add salt to your dish so why not start at square one instead of using salted ingredients. UNSALTED.
Put your water onto boil. I took a lesson from an Italian cook and she said “When you make the pasta, the water must be like the sea.” Lots of salt—but don’t add it until the water boils.
So, put your butter in a pan with high sides because you’re going to finish the spaghetti in that pan. On medium heat, it will take about 15-20 minutes to brown the butter. I really like my butter brown so I take it about as dark as a pecan. A light pecan. A dark peanut. When the butter is ready, it may look like someone added cinnamon to your pan. You’ll definitely be able to tell by the smell when it’s done. Everything about the butter will be different from when you started.
When your butter is browned, take it off the heat and start your spaghetti. When your spaghetti is cooked, put the butter back on a low burner. Remove the spaghetti from the water with tongs—don’t drain it—and add it to the butter. A little but of that starchy water will be good. Gently toss it in the butter as it warms up.
Add your cheese. Toss. TASTE. Add salt and pepper to taste.
That’s it! It’s comfort food at its best.
Make sure you serve it immediately—cold butter…not so much.
Enjoy!
 Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Tart
Prep and cook time: 90 minutes Serves: 6-8 as a side– Can be made in advance
I love onions—almost as much as I love a double negative. Unless, we are eating dessert, I consider onions a necessary ingredient. I occasionally *over onion*. I put together this recipe because I live in a world that needs more onions to continue spinning on its axis.
Depending upon how you cut this, this recipe can function as an appetizer or a hearty side. Hope you enjoy!
4-6 T olive oil
4 medium size onions, sliced thickly
1 1/2 t salt
5 T granulated sugar
1 cup sliced mushrooms, your choice
4 twigs fresh thyme
3 cloves garlic
¼ c red wine
3 oz Gruyere, sliced thickly
1 pkg puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten with 2 T water
Onion Filling
Get your oil hot in a large pan that will allow for 4 onions. When oil is hot, add your onions and give them a stir. This is the perfect time to add your salt—salt will soften your onions. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook onions, stirring occasionally. Add sugar. After cooking your onions for 15 minutes, add your mushrooms, thyme and garlic. Do not brown or burn your garlic—turn your heat down or remove from heat if you notice this is happening. Cook your onions till they stick to your pan just a little and you begin to see some brown on them—this could take 20-30 minutes, depending on your onions.
Add wine and increase heat to reduce. Remove from heat and set aside when most of the liquid is reduced—about 10 minutes.
Puff Pastry
Puff Pastry is very forgiving, so relax if this is your first time working with it.
Make sure your pastry dough is thawed out—this takes about 30 minutes. We will use both sheets (a top and a bottom) for this recipe. Lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and give it a couple of rolls with your lightly floured pin to smooth the seams and add a couple of inches.
Place one sheet on your well greased (or parchment paper covered) baking sheet with edges. Place the cooled onion mixture on the dough, leaving 1 inch all the way around the dough. This inch will allow us to create a seam with the top and the bottom. Top onions with sliced Gruyere. Use enough cheese so that all of the onions are covered. Place top sheet on. Using a fork, create a seal by pressing the edges together all the way around.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes because, just like pie crust, the flakiest crust is one that’s baked cold.
Mix one egg in a small dish with the water and beat. You just made egg wash. Remove the onion tart from the fridge and cut three diagonal vents in the top dough. Brush on the egg wash and bake at 425 for about 30 minutes. Rest it at least 5 minutes before slicing.
 Unfortunate hairstyle and Plum Pudding lighting One word.
Suet.
You don’t know what it is, do you? It’s an ingredient you will never use unless you are feeding birds during winter or making Plum Pudding. How do I describe this family tradition?
This recipe I’m about to share with you has been handed down from MacGregor to MacGregor for centuries. I am not kidding. This recipe came over on some boat and I can’t believe I have been sanctioned; neigh, encouraged , to share its secrets with you. This recipe is about history and tradition, men in kilts and making dessert out of throw away parts because it’s been a hard winter. This dessert is very *Please, sir, may I have another?*
This is not dessert—its pudding.
Butter? For weenies. Cream? For the weak. Chocolate? Don’t make me hit you. Essentially, Plum Pudding is a dessert that has none of your favorite things in it.
If you look up plum pudding in the dictionary you’ll see a picture of my mother’s worried face, pudding steam creating a glow on her furrowed brow.
This is not pie—its pudding.
Why is it called Plum Pudding? Honestly, they call it Plum Pudding because it purports too have everything in it BUT plums. Oh, they made a funny.
What is Plum Pudding to me? Its *who gets to pour the brandy over the pudding?* and *who gets to light the pudding?* and *Mom seems a little tense.*
I have made the pudding with my mom, this medicine ball of fat, fruit and flour that is placed in a muslin bag, boiled, stored and aged and then boiled again before serving. This is fruitcake on steroids.
I have made the pudding because I am MacGregor and I am genetically predisposed.
By the way, that’s what we call it—the pudding. We dropped the whole *plum* formality decades ago.
Who wants to make one?!
I thought so! Well, were going to have to have a conversation about suet, then. Suet is the fat they trim off beef. And it’s going in your pudding. First you must go to your butcher and ask for the fat he is getting ready to dispose of. To save yourself some time, bat your eyes and coyly ask if he will grind it for you. Life will be easier if someone else does this. He will ask why oh why do you want my throw away parts? Steel yourself—be prepared to talk boldly and with authority about a dessert no American will understand. Take pride in the fact that you are using cast off bits of fat (recycle and think green!) not because there’s been a potato famine but because you choose to.
Yes.
Let’s talk about muslin. You must use unbleached muslin to wrap the pudding. Very important—it will get cranky otherwise. Just do what I say.
And let’s talk about challenge. Let’s talk about conquering the unknown. Let’s talk about fortitude. I think you owe it to yourself to tackle the pudding–because the pudding is a rough sea that bows to no one. The pudding is a steam snorting bull that could easily take you down with its oversized horns—if you are not agile. The pudding is a 10-15 inch, dense, solid round thing that you have to boil properly so that it cooked all the way through.
No one likes thier suet underdone…
So, push up your sleeves, enlist another pair of hands, steady your nerves because today, TODAY! you make the pudding.
Or die trying.
Plum Pudding
Prep & Cook time: 20 minutes prep, 5-6 hours of cooking Weight: approximately 5 lbs.
Serves: your entire clan and their friends for several months as you hide in the hillside caves because you are outlaws (ie: a MacGregor)
Special tools: very large stock pot, wire rack that will sit in bottom of pot
1 pound ground suet
1 cup white sugar
6-7 cups flour
4 cups seedless raisins
2 cups currants
1 pkg (4 oz) each of candied lemon, orange and citron peel
3 eggs
1 c milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
Find your largest mixing bowl. Begin by combining 1 cup of the flour and all of the sugar. Then add all of the candied fruit, raisins and currants so that all ingredients will distribute itself evenly throughout the pudding. Add this to the ground suet and combine.
Mix with your hands.
Add the spices, salt and baking powder and soda. Add flour to make very stiff dough…6 to 7 cups. Add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly. When you have added 6 cups of flour, assess the dough. We want it stiff so, if needed, add the final (7th cup) of flour gradually.
Muslin Bag Time
Special tools: 25 x 25 unbleached muslin (can be purchased at the fabric store), twine
Soak the muslin in the sink in about 4 inches of water until thoroughly wet. Do not wring the muslin, but hold it up and let the excess water drip into the sink. The muslin will be very wet still. Lay flat on the counter. Sift all purpose white flour (approx 1 cup) all over the muslin, covering it entirely—this seals the bag. Flour only the side of the muslin that will be next to the pudding.
Dump the plum pudding dough in the center of the floured muslin and bring all the edges of the muslin up around the dough—which will allow you to form the pudding into a ball…a basketball…
Tie tightly with twine—wrap the twine around several times and tie it very tightly.
Let’s just take a moment—you may be feeling overwhelmed by this dish of my ancestors.
Have a glass of wine.
Remark in a jovial way that the plum pudding sort of resembles an oversized brain.
Plan for a *one for me, one for the pudding* brandy policy when lighting the pudding.
Cooking—Round 1
Get your very largest stock pot. Place a cooling rack on the bottom of your pot—you do not want your pudding to touch the bottom of the pot while it’s cooking because it will burn. Fill pot about half way with water and bring to a boil. When boiling add the pudding but do not allow the water to go above the neck of the muslin back where you have tightly tied it. If this happens, water will get into your bag and you will have soggy pudding.
Reduce heat to simmer for 5-6 hours. Boil in a wet muslin bag that has been heavily floured and tied tightly. The water level should be up to where the pudding has been tied. Watch the pot and keep the water level at this point.
Aging
After Round 1 of cooking, it’s customary to hang the pudding in it bag anywhere from 1 day to 1 month in a dark, dry place. If you live in a humid location—skip this aging process and just put it in the fridge overnight.
Cooking—Round 2
Before serving you will steam the pudding again. Repeat the process for “Cooking –Round 1” but only cook the pudding for 2 -3 hours. Leave it in the bag, in the hot water until you are ready to remove it from the bag and serve it.
Bet you have never done that before. This is not a pop tart.
Brandy Sauce (you will want to eat this with a spoon)
Note: Can be made in advance.
3/4 lb butter
3 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 shots of brandy
In a saucepan, melt the butter. Separately, whisk together the egg, sugar, vanilla and milk and slowly add to the butter, whisking constantly. Slowly bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until mixture thickens. Whisk, whisk, whisk.
Serving
BTW—congratulations for making it this far!
You will serve the pudding hot. Remove the pudding from the water, cut the twine and unwrap the muslin. Place the pudding on a large plate—THAT YOU CAN MAKE FIRE ON. Something made of pottery works best—avoid glass or your good china. Invert the pudding when you place it on your plate—so that the side that shows where the muslin was tied is on the bottom. Prettier.
Pour a jigger of brandy over the pudding, turn out the lights and flame the brandy.
Ooh. Ahh.
Slice the pudding and serve with warm brandy sauce.
 Available now at www.blurb.com Recipes are like stories.
They get passed around and retold over and over again by family and friends, changing a little bit in the retelling until they become the property of the teller.
My Granny passed on more than ten years ago. After she died, my cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and parents each wanted to have something of Granny, a keepsake, a physical memory that we could touch to help us remember all the summers we spent at her house, in her garden at her dock…city kids digging for worms and fishing in the Lake of the Ozarks and picking tomatoes.
I chose Granny’s recipes, an overflowing box of newspaper clippings, the back of boxes and her own unique scrawl sometimes on recipe cards that where gifts from my Mom and Aunt Doris but more times than not, they were jotted down on the complimentary notepad from the tractor seller that Papa visited or a used page from a calendar.
Handwriting is so personal. It’s like a fingerprint—so distinctive to that person that you need only see one written word to know who wrote it.
I look at these recipes, sometimes wrinkled around the edges, sometimes yellow with time and I’m back in Granny’s kitchen. I remember when she made that dish, hearing something fry on the stove, bacon grease in the air…
These are my Granny’s recipes. These are stories from my family.
I’m excited to announce that my cookbook is now available for sale at www.blurb.com. If you purchase 3 or more books on blurb.com by December 16, 2009, 11:59 pm PST you can use the code BUYTHREE and recieve dramatically reduced overnight shipping that will ensure you recieve your books by Christmas.
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For years, I’ve had great luck with my turkey. It’s usually very moist and tender and smells like the waiting room to heaven. I just have a couple of tricks and they’re all very easy but let’s begin with a little story.
Many, many, many years ago, when God was a boy, I invited my parents to MY house for Thanksgiving. This was a big deal because it was a first. I wanted it to be so special—full of some favorite and new dishes but more than anything, I just wanted people to go on and on about how fantastic the meal was and what a great cook I was.
I was in my 20’s. And it was all about me. Me and that damn turkey. So, I had toiled. I had set a table with my nicest mismatched flatware and dishes and tried to make like a big girl. Everyone was sitting around my cramped table, my 2 brothers, mom and dad as I laid the feast before them. One dish after another until I brought out the turkey unsliced to the table thinking we’d have a real Norman Rockwell carving moment (overrated) for all to ahh and ooh over.
My mom said, “Honey, your turkey’s upside down.”
“Oh, Mom, ha ha. Upside down. Right.”
My mom stared at me a bit and understood suddenly why I thought math was hard.
And that’s when I realized a turkey had a front and a back. I had never thought about it until that moment.
“Huh.”
“Yea.”
“Oh!”
“Right. Curved side up, honey.”
I looked at my Mom with the sad realization that all of my hard work was quickly being undone by my turkey…laying on its back…its little wings pointing to heaven—possibly giving thanks for its preternaturally golden belly.
“You know, we can just flip it over. It’s going to be just fine.” My mom was reading my face as I realized that there were no do-overs with turkey.
We flipped over the beautifully golden, yet concave, bird to reveal a slightly pasty, albino, barrel chested version of what had been.
“oh…”
“You know, that breast will be so juicy because you cooked it upside down.”
Because of my mad skills. As if I’d planned it. Turkey innovation. I imagine I pouted.
That is the first time I cooked a turkey and the last time I cooked it upside down.
INDELIBLE.
Here’s what I do to make it delish turkey these days.
First, I get what is on sale. I want to be honest. I should free range. I should probably fresh versus frozen. I should probably just have tofu but I derive great satisfaction from a 22 pound turkey that is $6.00 just because I spent $50 at the grocery store.
Let me have my little joys.
Tools
Big Roasting Pan
Reynold’s Oven Bags (turkey size)—trust me
Rolling Pin—didn’t see that one coming, did you?
Kitchen Twine
Ingredients for Turkey Poultice
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
4 tablespoons dried marjoram
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds, coarsely cracked in Ziploc bag
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoon black pepper
Inside the Cavity (in this order will make it simpler)
1 small handful sea salt
1 lemon quartered
½ red apple, quartered
1 stalk celery, in thirds
1 onion quartered
6 sprigs fresh thyme
I make a giant turkey because I like leftovers so if you use a smaller than 22 pound turkey, just reduce the amount of vegetables and salt that you put in the cavity, but not the turkey poultice. Keep those proportions as is even if you make a Tiny Tim turkey.
Turkey Poultice
First, put the whole coriander seed in a Ziploc bag, making sure that you get all the air out of the bag and that it is well sealed. Roll over the contents with your rolling pin several times. Turn the bag over and roll that side as well. You won’t have dust but if you bit into one of these coriander seeds in this state, it wouldn’t be alarming. Set aside.
In a small bowl mix the butter, maple syrup, marjoram, lemon peel, pepper together. Add coriander seeds and combine well.
Rinse your turkey inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels.
NOTE: I find it easiest to work with the turkey on a cutting board at this point and transfer it to the roasting pan after I’ve rubbed it down, stuffed it mercilessly and put it in an oven bag.
Tease the skin away from the carcass starting near the tail and then again at the neck area. Grab handfuls of the turkey poultice and massage it under the skin. Use ¾ of the mixture under the skin. It’s also good to rub the poultice under the skin at the drumsticks. Do focus the majority of the poultice on the back of the bird as it will melt
d-o-w-n during the hours of cooking. DO NOT SALT THE SKIN.
Take the remaining butter mixture and massage it on the outside of the bird—love those wings and drumsticks as well as the back and breasts.
The Cavity
Let’s stuff the cavity. First, take your small handful of sea salt and massage it around the inside of the cavity. Now, just cram everything else inside. This is not the delicate part so why pretend. Make sure the whole lemon (quartered) gets inside the bird. This is such a lovely flavor with the turkey.
Bind and gag your turkey with the twine at the drumsticks.
Follow the directions on the Reynold’s Oven Bag and prepare it for the bird. Place the bird in the bag. Remember to make several cuts in the bag for venting and to tent the bag as much as possible so that it doesn’t cook to the skin.
Place the bird in the bag in the roasting pan.
Cooking
The thermometer thing in the turkey? Well, not so much. Just take it out before preparation. I like this little, no math in my head chart that Butterball has put together: Butterball’s Cooking Calculator. It’s a great way to get an accurate time for cooking your turkey, regardless of the weight.
I do want to point out a huge flaw on this site. They say a 12 pound turkey will feed 5 adults. Yes, but for how long?! Sandwiches, bitches, sandwiches.
You are free to take the bird out of the oven after :
You’ve wiggled your drumsticks and they’re lose in the joint
You’ve stuck your meat thermometer into the thickest part of the turkey—without touching bone—and the temperature reaches between 165 – 175 degrees .
After taking the turkey out of the oven, let it rest at least 20 minutes while you run around like a crazy person finishing up the side dishes.
Have a glass of wine. You are going to love this turkey.
Prep and Cooking time: 30 minutes Makes 5 cups
This is my Mom’s recipe and everyone loves it. The family loves it. Anyone who joins us for dinner loves it, wants to take more home than is their due PLUS wants the recipe.
I think one of the nicest things about this recipe, aside from its universal appeal is that it’s easy. You have so much going on when cooking a Holiday meal—this can be made in advance and might take you a whopping 30 minutes.
I’d like to share a dirty secret: as we all sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, one of the many dishes on the table is, of course, the cranberry chutney—which everyone is staring at, waiting to dig into.
Except me. I am eyeballing the wiggling, sliced, still looks like the can it came out of… jellied cranberry sauce. This is the exact opposite of the cranberry chutney. There are numbers on the bottom of the can and I can see their imprint on the end slice. I want to eat the slice with the numbers on it.
The jellied cranberry sauce is the only thing on the table I know I will not have to share with anyone.
Tuck the recipe for cranberry chutney away—this will become a Holiday favorite!
Here’s the recipe to this fabulous and easy dish:
1 cup orange segments cut into small pieces
4 cups raw cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup chopped apples, unpeeled
1/2 cup seedless raisins
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a large pot and heat to boiling, then reduce heat to simmer. Stir often. Cook until cranberries pop. Remove from heat. Refrigerate and serve cold. Can be made in advance and keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
 Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: approximately 2 hours
Serves 4
First of all, you’re welcome.
I don’t know how it happened, but this is the best roasted chicken I have ever eaten. I got my motivation from Chez Pim’s Roasted Chicken a la Chrisitan DeLouvrier but my recipe is a little different from her’s. This is a great foodie site if you haven’t visited.
I just got it into my head that DAMN IT I am going to roast a chicken. I’ve never done this before so I hope this gives you courage if you feel nervous.
First of all, you must pretend you are a French peasant. You live off the land and all of its bounty. You appreciate things in a way that says “I am French. It does not matter if my clothes are threadbare and my hands rough from working in the fields.” (Go with me here) “Because I AM FRENCH! And because I AM FRENCH, I uniquely taste the delicate flavors of thyme, butter and wine like no one else.”
Last name’s MacGregor– feel free to play along.
Let’s get to our chicken, shall we.
You will need:
Big roasting pan
5 lb. chicken, free range
5 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, cubed into 6 pieces
6 big carrots, peeled, cut on the diagonal into 3 inch pieces
3 onions, quartered
1 head of garlic, cut in half lengthwise
1 big handful of thyme—no need to cut it or remove it from the stem
1 stick UNSALTED butter, softened
1 cup Lillet (inexpensive French dessert wine, not too sweet)
1 handful of sea salt (don’t be afraid)
Celery, onion for inside the cavity
Let’s get your roasting pan set up. Place all of the carrots, potatoes and onions around the edges of the pan—leaving a well in the center for your chicken. Add the Lillet to the pan. Salt and pepper the vegetables.
Rinse your thawed chicken. Don’t forget to check the cavity and remove the spare parts. Pat chicken dry with paper towels, top and bottom. Use the entire stick of butter to cover the exterior of the chicken—top and bottom. Massage some of the butter under the skin. If you have any excess butter on your hands, put it on the vegetables in the roasting pan. Wash your hands a lot.
Here’s what we’re going to add to the cavity—and it helps to do it in this order:
 Ready to go into the oven Fight every urge to salt the exterior of the chicken.
Cook at 350 for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and let the chicken rest for 15 minutes. Turn the oven to 400.
Let’s make the Sauce:
½ blackberry jam
3 Tbl soy sauce
1 ½ cups chicken stock
1/3 cup Lillet (because you are French)
Begin making the sauce when you take the chicken out of the oven to rest. Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium heat. Reduce for about 15 minutes. Expertly drizzle all of the sauce on the chicken and place chicken back into the 400 degree oven.
Bake for about 20 more minutes. Let rest for about 15 minutes before carving.
 Ees beautiful, non? WAIT! Look at the beautiful gravy that’s been created in the bottom of your roasting pan. Spoon this sauce over the chicken once plated. It’s so delicious you will want to put more on the table for your guests. Serve chicken with the roasted vegetables and garlic from cavity.
Die and go to heaven.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
Note: Save every bit of remaining gravy from your roasting pan. It’s fabulous in soups. The next day, I took the remaining vegetables, garlic and gravy—put them in the blender/food processor, combined it with chicken stock and had a beautiful winter soup. Easy and delicious with warm cornbread.
 Roasted Vegetable and Garlic Soup Roasted Vegetable and Garlic Soup
Serves 8. 1 hour cooking time
Oh, if you could smell what I smell right now. Roasted garlic and thyme are perfuming my kitchen and its making me feel so cozy on this grey Seattle day.
It’s a perfect combination.
And roasted vegetables—they retain their fresh flavor so much more than if they’d been boiled. This soup is very flavorful and gives you a big healthy dose of vegetables. Since the vegetables are pureed, it also a great way to trick picky eaters into eating things they may normally avoid.
I love soup. Soup makes me feel like all of the food groups were represented in one bowl. Just a note on preparation: I need a little chunk in my soup and that’s why I didn’t puree all of the ingredients.
Enjoy!
5 peeled cloves of garlic
3 carrots, peeled, rough cut
4 small red potatoes, cubed, peels on
1 cup cauliflower
1 cup frozen veggies, thawed, dealer’s choice
6-8 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 Tbl olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
2 chicken breasts, sautéed then minced
3 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 can white beans, pureed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
½ c whole milk
2 cups chicken stock or broth
Turn the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the vegetable and garlic. Lightly coat with olive oil and be generous with the salt and pepper. Set the sprigs of thyme on top. Pop this in the over for 35-45 minutes (and give it a stir midway through), until veggies are soft and have some crispy brown edges. Remove from the oven and let this come to room temperature.
Heat the oil in a pot big enough to make the soup. I like to use my Granny’s cast iron pans—it just makes everything taste better. Dry, then salt and pepper the chicken. Completely cook—about 8 minutes each side—and then set aside on a plate to rest.
Using the same pan—add the about 3 tablespoons of oil and the butter. When hot, add the onions and cook till translucent. Add the minced chicken, tomatoes and stock.
Puree the veggies and garlic (remove the twiggy thyme sprigs) and white beans in the blender or food processor. Add about ½ cup of broth to the mixture—it will puree smoother if you add s little liquid. Add the pureed mixture to the pot.
Give it all a good stir. Taste it—does it need more salt or pepper? A little too thick? Add more broth or water to get the soup to the consistency you like.
Like all soups, this will taste better the next day. If you’d like to eat it the day you make it, give the soup about an hour on the stove on low—it will come together nicely.
Note: This soup will not freeze well due to the milk. If you were to freeze it, the milk would be curdled when you thawed it. This does make a big batch. If you want to freeze a portion wait to add the milk until you’ve frozen and thawed the soup.
 The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking by Mai Pham I think the sign of a good cookbook is lots of notes in the margins, spills on numerous pages, dog-eared pages and torn pieces of paper marking the next recipe that has to be made. My copy of The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking is a well loved, beat up mess. It is one of my favorites and I want to make sure you know about it.
When I moved to Seattle 13 years ago, it was the first time I’d come in contact with really good Thai food. I was so fascinated by all of the different noodles and the flavor profiles that had some ingredients that I just couldn’t make out.
I decided I had to learn more.
After some research, I chose this cookbook by Mai Pham who is the chef and owner of the Lemon Grass Restaurant in Napa.
This is more than a book of recipes. It’s a book of explanations of why her mother cooked the way she did, of descriptions you’ll savor, of smells in her childhood Vietnamese kitchen. It’s a book of memories—something all good cookbooks should aspire to.
Between the recipes are stories of why, how and who which make everything come to life. The recipes are easy to follow and delicious. Not a clunker in the bunch and I’ve made half the recipes in the cookbook. The cookbook is also full of practical tips. Thank you Mai Pham for telling me how to store lime leaves and lemon grass in my freezer. Thank you Mai Pham for telling me the story of how your sister juices a lime with a fork—it is the best method ever. I could go on.
I want to stress that this is a solid cookbook, full of recipes that will delight the novice to the professional. Just an example of the goodness:
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce—ROCKS
Thai Green Curry—ROCKS
Singapore Noodles—ROCK
Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup—SHUT UP
This book is a great education for anyone who wants to learn to cook Vietnamese and Thai food authentically and easily.
Little tip: This makes a fabulous hostess gift next time you’re invited for dinner by your favorite foodie friend!
Interested? Take a look!
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My Book!
Recipes from Beulah...
By Jill Mitchell Mac...
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