recipeworld

I came up with this idea after seeing beet mashed potatoes somewhere on the blogosphere. I used a potato to thicken the broth of this creamy soup. In the end, I would recommend using a russet potato, as the starchiness of the Yukon Gold I used made the texture of this soup a little bit slimy, but the combination of the sweet, earthy beets and the pungent blue cheese was very interesting, and of course the color was beautiful.

Beet Soup 

2 cups chicken stock 

1 potato

1 boiled beet

salt and pepper

1 125 g. container of plain yogurt 

1 oz. roquefort cheese

Boil the potato in the chicken stock until cooked, adding water if the stick begins to evaporate. Roughly chop the beet and add it to the potato and chicken stock mixture. Use an immersion blender to mix. Stir in the yogurt, salt and pepper to taste. Serve and sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese.

A great strategy for making an individual serving of soup is to use a can of beans and an immersion blender. Soups where beans serve as the base turn out thick and creamy while remaining healthy. A bean base is also quite tasty. The only problem is that leftovers dry out, as the beans continue to absorb the liquid, so just add more stock or broth to leftovers when you reheat them.

The cinnamon in this soup is not overpowering: it’s a great combination with the earthiness of the lentils and the goat cheese, and your guests will not be able to guess what this spice is, considering the absence of its normal partner of sugar.

Lentil Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 glass red wine
2 new potatoes, diced small
1 can lentils, not drained
1/4-1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 oz. goat cheese
Sweat the onions in oil with a bit of salt until they color slightly. Add the wine and scrape all the yummy bits off the bottom of the saucepan. Add the potatoes, lentils, chicken broth and cinnamon. Cook until the potatoes are cooked through and the flavors have melded, about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and blend slightly with an immersion blender, leaving about half the lentils whole. Stir in more chicken broth if necessary. Serve with goat cheese crumbled on top.

I never made too much real grilled cheese growing up. I do remember constructing a sort of haphazard grilled cheese in my boarding school dining hall, using the conveyor belt-style toaster to toast the bread and the microwave to melt the cheese, but that was nothing compared to this.

I like my grilled cheese with real cheese and lots of mustard, kind of like a Croque Monsieur, but this technique would work the same way for a grilled cheese with the traditional Kraft singles and Wonder bread as well.

Grilled Cheese
1 tbsp. softened butter
2 slices white bread (I like the pre-sliced boule from my grocery store: I use the center pieces)
1 tsp. mayonnaise
2 tsp. mustard
2 oz. cheddar cheese
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

Spread the butter evenly over one side of each slice of bread. Place the pieces, butter side down, on a plate. Spread one slice with mayonnaise and the other with mustard. Arrange the cheese slices over one side of the bread, and close the sandwich.

Preheat a skillet over low heat until warmed. Place the sandwich in the skillet and cook covered. (I like to use a lid that’s a bit too small for my pan so that I can press the sandwich down, panini-style, at the same time.) When one side is browned (after about two-three minutes… keep checking because all bread does not toast the same), flip the sandwich over and repeat on the other side. Sprinkle the finished sandwich with Tabasco sauce and serve.

As I promised, a recipe for yesterday’s home fries. These are easily adaptable to your own tastes: some people like their potatoes with peppers in them, along with the onions. Some like them a little spicier: add more cayenne pepper. It’s really up to you, but in the end the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the starchiness of the potatoes makes an excellent side dish to fried eggs. When I was growing up, we sometimes had this meal as “breakfast for dinner.” I always looked forward to it.
My mother’s hint is to always throw in an extra potato “for the pot.” So if you’re serving four people, use five potatoes. This recipe serves two, but it doubles or even triples very easily. You may have to work in batches depending on the size of your skillet.

Home Fries
2 tbsp. olive oil, separated
1 tbsp. butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold, sliced into rounds ¼ inch thick
1 tbsp. sweet paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt
Heat one of the tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt in the oil. When the foam subsides, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook only one minute.
Add the other tablespoon of oil. Add all of the sliced potatoes and toss with the onions and oil. Spread the onion and potato mixture out across the skillet and turn the heat down to medium. Cover and allow to cook for five-ten minutes, until the potatoes have crisped and the onions have begun to caramelize.
Add the paprika, cayenne pepper and salt to taste, and then toss the potatoes so that the other side can cook.
When all of the potatoes have cooked through, cook uncovered for an additional three-five minutes.

See… as I promised, no more pasta. Today, I want to talk to you about one of the top breakfast foods around these parts, fried eggs. Sometimes, they’re served with the home fries you see pictured above, but more often than not, it’s just fried eggs with some bread to soak up the yolk.

Fried eggs are really easy to get wrong, but if you get them right, they’re incredible. The secret is in the name: fried.

Fried eggs are not seared eggs, grilled eggs or poached eggs. They need to be fried, and every good cook should know what that means. Basically, think about making French fries: you submerge the potatoes in fat until they’re cooked. Now, that’s deep-frying. Shallow frying, like with eggs or some kinds of fried chicken, involves frying in a pool of fat… and yes, it has to be a pool.

This is where most people make their mistake: in not using enough fat. For three eggs, I usually use a tablespoon each of butter and oil. And before you jump down my throat, you don’t eat it all! When frying properly (i.e. over high heat), the food absorbs very little of the oil.

For Sunny-Side Up Eggs

3 eggs

2 tablespoons fat

salt and pepper

Heat your skillet until very, very hot. Add the fat and allow it to melt and evenly coat the skillet. Crack the eggs into the skillet and add salt and pepper to taste. When the whites are completely set, slide a spatula under each egg and transfer it to a plate.

For Over-Easy or Over-Hard Eggs

3 eggs

2 tablespoons fat

salt and pepper

Heat your skillet until very, very hot. Add the fat and allow it to melt and evenly coat the skillet. Crack the eggs into the skillet and add salt and pepper to taste. When the whites are nearly set, slide a spatula under each egg, and very carefully, flip it over to the other side. This is easiest when you attempt to let the whole surface of the egg hit the pan at once. Cook until yolk is to desired doneness, then slide from the pan (you may need to use the spatula again) and transfer to a plate.

Hash browns recipe to follow…