Sauce for Fish dishes

I made something seriously unhealthy.
It's so yummy.

You've done it before, I'm sure. You went to the store, said to yourself, "I don't feel like eating what's in my house. I mean, I have food in my house, but that food sucks. I want new food." Maybe you don't phrase things like I do, but I'm a pretty in-the-moment type of person. Right then, it sucks. When I bought it, it was awesome. Golden retrievers and I should hang out.

So we come across some yellow fin tuna filets. Ooo. Fish. Okay, I know that fish are being incredibly over-harvested and I want to not be a part in that, but once in a while one can't help themselves. Maybe the population would go up if everyone only ate seafood once a month, whether they caught it or not. The idea that most of the things we eat from the ocean could die in my lifetime is pretty horrific. We need a change.
I bought the tuna anyway. Maybe I'll die by then, or 2012 is our last year. Maybe there are zombies in Florida and we're already screwed. Who knows? I wanted fish.

To top it off, I wanted this bottle of creamy lemon-dill sauce. Looks gooood. Has a great label and everything.

I can't tell you how much crap was in it. I took chemistry for a year and a half. I can't tell you what the compounds are, but I can tell you that they aren't natural. They were likely created in New Jersey, where a lot of the new flavorings, colors, and additives are often made in factories. I've been trying to get away from the preservative thing, so I chased Kevin down the aisle and away from the nasty (but probably yummy) lemon-dill cream sauce.

I went home, put the pan on with a little olive oil, salt and ground black pepper, and went to making sauce.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but we buy a lot of jars. Have you noticed that? I don't think I like the idea of plastic nearly as much. Why? It's not incredibly reusable. Not in the fashion I'd like, anyway. Sure, I used them as pots, but that's obnoxious. They're flimsy, there's likely going to be chemical run-off, and they blow away sometimes (which is annoying). Upside? It's easy to drill draining holes into them. So it's a give or take (mostly take).
I started keeping my jars from various things (see: pickles, relishes, pesto, bamboo shoots, jams and jellies..) and filled up a whole cabinet. Downside? I'm not really vast with my cabinet space as it is, so this was a huge hit to my kitchen's functionality. Upside? I can jar just about whatever the frick I want, including dressings and sauces. And, believe me, I've made dressings (like olive oil, with some salt and pepper; and Italian herbs such as basil, oregano, marjoram and parsley. Put whatever you want in there and voila, dressing. Oh, and Balsamic  vinegar. That's TONS healthier than store-bought stuff, and TONS cheaper).

I must say that the overall healthiness of the sauce I made today, though, is relatively atrocious. Is it still healthier than in the store? I'm sure. Do I want to eat 3 liters of it? Not really.

I have a jar that looks like it's a little less than a pint; maybe 1.5 cups? So 16-20 ounces. I cut up two sticks of butter, and melted them in the microwave. This is easy. Actually, the whole flipping thing is simpler than pie (why do people say 'easy as pie'? Have you seen some of those pies? The blueberry one I made took about an hour. I guess it was easy but..)
Add about 1/8 of a cup of lemon juice, or to taste. Add about a tablespoon (or more, to taste) of the following things, each: ground black pepper, dill, lemon pepper, coriander. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar (work with me, people). 1 teaspoon of white pepper went in there, but I'm not sure how relevant that is.
Then, top off the whole jar with mayonnaise (or, about 3-5 tablespoons; enough to thicken it up.)
Stir the heck out of it with a fork to de-clump the mayo.
It's so good.

It's so unhealthy.
I need to find ways to make this without, you know, 2 sticks of butter and a huge hunk of mayo..I can make my own mayo, and butter, if I wanted, but maybe there're other things, like Greek Yogurt and homemade butter. Or maybe just homemade mayo -- Duke's has a very noticeable flavor in the lemon-dill sauce I just made, and I'm scared it eats up the undertones the coriander is supposed to put forth.
If you make it, but change it, let me know!

Bacon and Potato Crab Soup, as per request

You know I usually cook for quite a few; today it was for seven. Here's how it went, guys.

Stock up on potatoes. I mean, like a bag of them. Yer choice. I used Idaho, 'cause that's what Costco had.
Stock up on Bacon. I used about 10 slices. Don't cheap out. It was really tasty using this seriously fatty, apple wood-smoked stuff (least, I think that's what it was. They were thick, though. Thin stuff would be okay, but not quite as good.)
Get some shallots (2).
Get a bunch of crab meat. I used 16 ounces.

Put about 1/3 stick of butter into your soup pot (I did that PLUS olive oil, to keep the shallots from burning, but in hind sight I likely wouldn't repeat that; it separates when you add a liquid-fat), chop up a ton of the shallot into chunks (minced, ish. I didn't put too much effort into making them super tiny or anything). Grind some black pepper onto it. Let them sizzle for a while.
Add three of those cartons of chicken stock in there. (96 ounces) Let it boil. Add a few bay leaves, some shakes of dill, marjoram, lemon peel in there.
Dump about 3-4 breakfast bowls (7-10?) Idaho potatoes. Let them cook for a while.
Add the crab. Let it cook for a few moments (enough to get the bacon, open the bacon.. get a handful of it, then remember you need to find your shears.. so you put the bacon down, wash yer hands, search for shears..You know, the usual.)
Put bite sized chunks (remember that cooked bacon shrinks) of bacon in there.
Add as much heavy cream as your comfortable with. None? Add milk. Remember, potato soup is typically creamy, so suck it up. I mean, it's bacon based soup. Cream won't really make it much better or worse health-wise.

Remember, since it's boiling, the bacon will cook pretty quickly. It'll lose its flavor if you let it sit for too long, so don't dawdle at this point. Until now, there's no rush (pre potato, I took a shower).

Get a bowl. Add a bunch of corn starch, and cold water, and stir with a fork until there's no more clumps. Continue this process until it gets to the point of thickness you desire.
Top with shredded mozzarella and eat. =) The boys LOVED it.

Carrot and Ginger soup

Everyone's eating it now. I served eight again, but two of them are different than the original crowd due to how the cards fell, if you will.
Carrot and ginger are fantastic together. I was scared that, due to carrots and sweet potatoes both being roots, it would be very similar to a sweet potato soup. Thankfully, it doesn't. The cost is extremely low; I spent about 20 bucks for the full amount of ingredients and didn't quite use it all, then have enough maybe to feed about 20 people (I obviously changed up the recipe).

It says it serves 6. I tripled it, so it's about accurate.

Ingredients:
2 tb butter
1 chopped onion
1 chopped celery stalk
1 chopped medium potato
5 1/2 cups chopped carrots
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 quarts veggie stock
7 tablespoons whipping cream (or, to taste)
A heavy pinch of ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

1. As per usual for a lot of these, melt the butter in your pan and saute the celery and onion. Let it soften.
2. When that's done, add the carrots, the potato, ginger and stock. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for twenty minutes or so. This isn't strict. Stir a bunch.
3. Process this into smoothness in whatever fashion you prefer. I still love my stick blender. Bring it back to the stove and let it warm up; add the spice, cream and the salt'n'pepper all to taste. I'd love to say to stick with the recipe, but everyone's going to prefer something a little different. Let it heat back up.
Optional: garnish with a small dollop of yogurt to each bowl.

This takes up time just because of the chopping. If you do it before hand, you'll be able to have this cook in about a half an hour. Make sure to cook it long enough to make the carrots mushy; it doesn't really need to cook much longer than that, so depending on how they're chopped (or processed) it could be done sooner.

Hope this works

I'm on an old computer in the school's kitchen, so I'm not sure how well this will publish, if at all.

I ran through the estimated serving sizes / proportions of potato-to-squash from the soup I made last week. It means I also found the location of the 'low sodium vegetable broth' option, which was eluding me in the program I've been using. Hello, improvement!

Basically what this means is I have an idea of what went where. I think I have my amounts about as close as I can get - four potatoes and about 4 pounds of squash equal a lot. 

This is what I found, as a general idea:

• Serving size: 414 grams or about 14-15 ounces (a filling amount)
• Calories per serving: 2.5g
• Saturated fat: 1.5g
• Trans fatty acids: 0
• Cholesterol: 5mg
• Sodium: 150mg
• Carbs: 32g
• Fiber: 5g
• Sugars: 9g
• Protein: 3g
• Vitamin A: about 500%
• C: 70%
• Calcium: 10%
• Iron: 10%

I think, for a craving food, this is pretty good. I would grade this soup, but it needed something to offset a tangy, almost bitter flavor I was receiving. More potatoes? No pepper? I love the pepper flavor, though. So I'm not ready for that just yet.
It's obvious significance lies in the Vitamin A, in my opinion. It has a perk of having very few calories, saturated fats (an obsession now with people due to Clinton's weight loss), low sodium, healthy carbs, decent amount of healthy fiber, a small amount of protein, and some calcium and iron.

According to a site from Harvard, Vitamin A is related in not just eye sight, but in bone remodelling, white blood cell activity and the ability to grow and regenerate new cells. There are definitely downsides to having a deficiency in A, but according to the site there are a couple things related with overdose, as well, so if you take a supplement, this soup may be something you'd want in moderation (much like any other food high in X-nutrient). The things related with overdose are hip-fractures and pregnancy problems, but they weren't specified exactly as to why. Too much of a good thing is bad, which is all I know right this minute (which can also apply to Vitamin C, which people uselessly consume the living heck out of. It doesn't make your colds go away. Sorry, dears!)


Anyway, this Sunday is Indian Beef and Berry soup, a thing of which I don't have the recipe for right this minute. That's what my trip to the store tomorrow evening will entail. I'm looking forward to it -- it's leaning in a cultural direction I don't head to very often, and the only reason I ever really do is if I pull out some curry just to mix things up once in a while. An India-inspired soup sounds exciting, so I'll be sure to have photos up again this week (and they won't be phone photos this time, which apparently make my red pepper soup look like it's infested with ghosts. It's not, but I still wouldn't eat too much of it. Habaneros. Yikes.)

For anyone who reads, feel free to comment. I'm not trying to push people into it, but I think I may come across as a bit judgemental or overly Type-A personality. Typing gives me time to breath and actually decide what to say, so I'm generally nicer through here than in real life (I think). I'm just excitable -- I promise, I'm still approachable! =)

On a note of commenting, I will be needing a project for sometime next year (roughly 2-3 weeks into the month of January). I'm thinking of something that primarily utilizes baking; for the summer, I want something that primarily utilizes the crock-pot or the grill outside, hence why I'm saying to continue to use my stove. It helps warm my house up through the winter, but that's not welcome come May or so. If anyone ever comes up with any ideas, or has a recipe suggestion for me to look over and work on, I definitely welcome it. If you want me to test taste your favorite meal, then lower the salt or fat content in some way, I'm willing to give it my best shot. It's great for preparing for my career, so we'd both be winning out in that situation. Just a thought!! This Monday and Tuesday are also days I have break, and I may be willing to do a mini-experiment at home.. Hint hint.

Happy cooking!

Small sized orange habanero

 I promised myself I would add more pictures. This is my first attempt at making this a little more than my rambling on and on about food (now, you can see the food!)
This is a habanero. I was fortunate enough to grow them in my back yard this year. I had many more that were bigger than this, but at this time of year it's hard to grow them big (at least, for me).

Hot peppers on a large plate

 I had about 4-5 of those small-ish habaneros, two jalapenos, and a mix that I can't differentiate between tabasco, cayenne and something else I forgot the name of (I bought the plants and forgot to tag them, so this whole summer I've been asking people if they remembered the name of that last plant. We didn't. Oh, well, too bad. Still yummy!)
I plan on doing something very similar to these as to the recipe for the bell peppers. On top of the bells, I had about 5 or 6 green bells from out back, which were about enough, each, to fill maybe a 1/3 measuring cup. I'm supposed to make hot pepper oil out of them, for winter use, but I can't keep myself from eating them. Oops.
I'm not done making food. I still have a little while (someone's bringing my onions. This meal isn't free for them, despite their disappointment). But, I've already roasted all the peppers and I plan on doing a small-scale soup for the hot ones. That way, if people want, they can add a little hot pepper soup to their soup, allowing for an increase in heat. Every pepper I used is organically grown -- the hot ones are from my own yard -- so I'm looking forward to how this will turn out!









Oh, and then we get to have dessert!

Strawberry cupcakes

 These are strawberry cupcakes with buttercream icing (whip two sticks of butter like mad, add 3 cups of powdered sugar, spritz it with salt, spritz it more with vanilla, and add cream until you're happy with the consistency.) I wanted to play with the cream. I preferred the flavor with more cream, but it ruined the whole spreading concept. I don't care what they look like -- those babies are kickin' some serious strawberry-cream tush!

Soup 2: Butternut Squash Bisque

This is oh-my-gosh easy to do, unless you hate cutting up butternut squashes. It doesn't yield as much as the Apple Soup (fed seven people, had maybe three or four bowls left, I think; they all had FULL bowls, too, though.)
This also has a lot less cream and other milk products in it, and no added sugar, so I'd *assume* it's healthier for you. I haven't run things down about that yet, though. I will! Eventually...

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
2 small onions, minced (or one medium onion? :P )
3 cups peeled, seeded, cubed butternut squash
1 1/4 quarts chicken stock (low sodium)
1 1/2 cups cubed potatoes (used Idaho; think I'd prefer Red ones)
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 tablespoons snipped fresh chives, plus a few whole chives for garnish
salt and ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Chop all the things up.
2. Melt the butter in your soup pot, then add the onions and cook them until they're soft.
3. Add the squash, stock, potatoes and paprika and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for about 35 minutes -- until all the veggies are soft.
4. Pour the soup into a food processor or blender (or do what I did and use a stick blender, therefore making clean-up so much easier!) and nullify all solids. Return the pan to the stove. Stir in the cream, pepper and salt and reheat slowly.
5. Stir in the chopped chives just before serving. Garnish each with a few whole chives, if that's your thing.