Lentil Soup Yums

It's Fall. Our first seedlings came up today (radishes, carrots, and cabbage--little overachievers:) and I've got a belly full of the first good soup of the season. Never mind it was 91 degrees outside today. It's been one oppressively hot summer, and even 91 degrees feels like sweet relief. Everybody can smell cool weather coming. The kids in school are extra restless, driving the teachers crazy, and there are festivals every weekend. Here's to the energy in the air, the best time of year to garden in Texas, and yummy, yummy lentil soup. This is a totally original recipe, so if I have any testers out there, this would be a great one to test. It turned out really good too. We had it with a salad of romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, beet greens, kale, a sprinkle of diced shallots, a bell pepper from the garden, and radishes with homemade ranch.

Next day: It is sooooo good the next day. That is all.

Lentil Soup

To cook the lentils:
1 cup dried brown lentils
2 1/2 cups water
1 love garlic
1 T pepper
1 T salt

For the rest of the soup:
4 cups water
1 1/2 T real butter and 1 more set aside to soften and add later
3-4 T olive oil
5+ large cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 T plus 1 t salt plus more to taste
sprig fresh oregano
1 poblano, chopped
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 T cumin
1 t cayenne pepper or a few diced fresh cayennes if you can get them
1 grated carrot
1/4 t nutmeg
1 bay leaf
2 T lemon juice*
1 T ginger, minced**
1 pureed sweet potato***

*I used 1 t apple cider vinegar because I didn't have lemon juice, and it was good, but I have no doubt fresh lemon juice would be better in this recipe
**I didn't add the ginger, but I know it would be really good and I will next time
***Great if you want a thicker soup. Add a pinch more each of cumin, salt, and cayenne if you use the sweet potato.

Boil 2 1/2 c. water with lentils, salt, and garlic clove. Bring down and simmer 25 minutes with lid on. Remove from heat and let sit until you are ready for them.

In medium stock pot, melt butter in olive oil over med-low heat. Add onions, peppers, garlic, ginger and shallots and sautee until fragrant. Don't burn the garlic, even a little. Add carrots, fresh and dried spices, cayennes, cooked lentils, tomatoes, bay leaf. Stir and let them cook a a little before adding the water. Bring to boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Add lemon juice, salt to taste. Cool some--maybe leave it on the stove top for half an hour while you make the salad. Then puree about a third of it along with another T of butter and pour it back in. Serve warm.


May I also add, I am reading Kitchen Confidential but Anthony Bourdain right now, and it is awesome. I am tempted to launch into tirades about garlic presses and dried herbs, but I used my garlic press yesterday and dried herbs tonight, so that would be lame of me. It is an enthralling, inspiring, and informative read so far.

Creamy Serrano Salsa

This is my approximation of Taco Deli's Dona Salsa. It's different, but I like it. I would guess that Taco Deli's does not have either lime juice or avacado, and I think they use jalapenos, but I had an avacado going rotten and a lime about to turn into a marble so I used them and the results were tasty and HOT. This one is for real fans of mouth burning heat. You could probably use milder peppers, but I love the taste of serranos, and we have them coming out of our ears from our late blooming plants.

about 6 serrano peppers (I used 8, but as you can see I have rather short stumpy serranos)

1/4 cup oil

sea salt to taste

juice of one lime

1 ripe avacado

1 clove garlic

Toss serranos in a high heat oil and roast under the broiler a bit*--only enough to be tinged with brown because you're not going to peel them. Throw them in the blender with all of the other ingredients except the oil. Slowly pour in the oil with the blender on--carefully! Try to keep the lid on and pour through the pour spout or sneak it under the lid--you don't want this stuff spraying you in the face! You will have to stop and scrape the sides a few times but it gets easier as you pour in more oil. Keep at it until you have a smooth green sauce. Great on sandwhiches, eggs, tacos, etc. Taste before you put on anything so you know what you are getting into:)

*I don't actually know how safe this is. Are you supposed to put oil under the broiler? It might be better to roast them dry, steam them in a plastic bag, and then peel them. Try my method at your own risk and have the fire extinguisher handy.

Nooch Tofu Scramble, Take 1

Prize Winning Vegetarian Chili Stage 1

I am going to enter the Vegetarian Chili Cookoff this year at the Austin Zoo, and I am working on my prize-winning chili. It's all going down November 9th at the Austin Farmers Market at 6701 Burnet Rd., noon to 4pm. Come vote for me!

Fried Venison Steaks, Kale Slaw, and Baked Mashed Potato

Here is a great example of why I need testers. I am totally guessing on most of these measurements! This was a great dinner though. Nicely balanced and pretty.

Kale Slaw

2 T. Hellman's mayo
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1 t. agave nectar, probably equivalent to 1 t honey
salt, pepper
1/4 small onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 sweet pepper, any color, diced
1 small bunch of kale, sliced thin and chopped again lengthwise
1 small ear of fresh sweet corn, uncooked and cut from cob

Whisk together mayo, agave nectar, salt, pepper, garlic, and vinegar. Toss in remaining ingredients until everything is well coated. Cover and refrigerate at least one half hour.

Fried Venison Steaks

My mom used to call these "minute steaks," probably because they are fast and easy to make. You can use venison backstrap, venison ham steaks, or beef cubed steak.

Whisk together 2 cups milk, 2 T vinegar, a good couple of splashes of your favorite hot sauce, 1 T salt, 1 T pepper, and 1/2 cup cream. Tenderize steaks with a tenderizer or the back half of a chef's knife, add to milk mixture and marinate at least one half hour. One at a time, remove from milk and dredge through plain flour to coat. Fry at med heat until brown on both sides. Place on a draining rack and sprinkle lightly with salt. Serve warm.

Baked Mashed Potatoes

Place one cooked white potato, skin and all, 1/4 c. cream, 1/2 c. milk, 1 T butter, 1/4 c. shredded colby jack cheese, salt, and pepper in a small, oven-safe dish. Mash together until well blended. Bake at 375 until brown at the edges and bubbly. Don't think about the calories.