elizabeth's seafood stew

Question for Marnie at end of email....

I used this basic recipe:  ( dewey, could you put it on your blog?)

This simple soup is perfect for a quick lunch or a family supper with crackers or garlic toast.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken or fish broth
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup frozen green beans, thawed and drained
• 3/4 lb. fish fillets, cut into 1" pieces

Preparation:

In medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except tomatoes and fish. Bring to a boil and simmer 5-7 minutes until vegetables are crisp tender. Add tomatoes and fish; simmer 10 minutes over medium heat until fish flakes easily when tested with fork. 4 servings

My variations:  I had no carrots...used black and cayenne pepper and mixed frozen veggies.  My fish was left over shrimp, stone crab and canned chicken of the sea crab meat.  Dewey thought it was very yummy...  I wanted something a bit different in the flavor...I thought the cayenne pepper helped quite a bit but still it needs something more.  Any ideas?

Hugs, Elizabeth

Humus

Looking for a recipe for humus without the oil and fat that is in the supermarket variety, I came across this one online at All Recipe.

I wonder if the tool we use to smooth the lentils or peas in soup will smooth this out. Also wonder if Key Lime juice would be good either with the lemon juice or without it.

• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained, liquid reserved
• 2 ounces fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• My folders:
  DIRECTIONS
• In a blender or food processor, combine garbanzo beans, jalapeno, cumin, lemon juice, garlic and 1 tablespoon of the reserved bean liquid. Blend until smooth.

Further thoughts have me wondering about soy sauce used in place of oil in recipes for humus. Lots of healthy diet books are also trying to limit salt, so soy is ignored as is hot pepper sauces like Frank's. I'm not trying to limit salt. There does not seem to be a link between salt and cancer which is the healthy focus of my new eating. At any rate, I have to have some way to treat myself besides fruits.

11/6/08 Everything here worked well but the humus is a bit bland even with the nice pepper bite from Charley's habenaro which I used in place of jalapeno. I added a bit of tamari and black pepper and that seemed to make a big difference.

Exciting is the humus provides an entire new fat free medium with which to experimentally add spices and different flavors.
I tried eating it and then eating Joseph's Tahini Humus. The home made version is just as good. There is 20 fat calories in a serving of prepared humus that are missing in the home version. That is nearly half of the total calories.

THANKSGIVING

Started with mashed chick peas, a bit of Tamari, and a bit of lime, garlic powder. Broke the mixture down into four bowls, left one plain, and added these things to the other three.

1. added Mexican spice and a good bit of Nellie and Joe's lime juice and cilantro
2. added Chuckmonk's pepper sauce
3. added raw bulgar

These along with the basic made a nice mix of choices served with cut up veggies. I liked the cut red onion. I added some jars of hot sauce for variety.

I'd say the response was luke warm. Folks might miss the taste of the olive oil. Cory did ask later for the way humus is made.
I liked all of them. I especially liked what the lime juice does and may try just that with no Tamari next time.

Kale via vonda Shepherd

Here is one from Vonda shepherd, that great singer who we first heard on Ally McBeal.

SAUTEED BLACK KALE! Ingredients: One or two bunches of Black Kale, washed, with the tough stem removed and coarsely chopped. (This takes time, so put on some music and get that stem out!) One medium Red Onion, thinly sliced into half moons. Candied pecans, or any nut, candied or not. (Or no nuts) Dried cranberries or cherries, or if you can't find those, raisins. (You get the idea). Kosher Salt and Pepper. Olive Oil. Saute onions on med/low heat in olive oil until soft - about 5 minutes or so. Add Kale and saute about 3 minutes. (At the most) Add Pecans and Cranberries, a bit of salt and pepper. (Don't over salt... unless you want to, of course). That's it, friends! It's so delicious. I serve this with, well, just about everything. Have a great day. See you at the shows, I hope. Love, your friend in music and food, Vonda

lamb stew

this is a veal recipe, but I'd like to try it with lamb.

Spring Veal Stew

Yield 4 servings

Time 1 hour

Mark Bittman

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 pound veal cubes, no side larger than 1 1/2 inches
• 1 sprig fresh tarragon, or 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 1 pound spring onions or shallots, peeled (if large, trimmed and halved), or scallions, each cut in 2 or 3 pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine or water
• 1 1/2 cups fresh shelled peas, snow peas or frozen peas.

Method

• 1. Put a 12-inch skillet over high heat, and a minute later, add oil and butter. Add the meat, in one layer (if you use the larger amount of meat you may have to cook in batches). Cook, undisturbed, until the meat is nicely browned on the bottom, about 5 minutes.
• 2. Add tarragon, onions and some salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions soften and any meat stuck to bottom of pan is released, about 5 minutes. Add liquid, stir, reduce heat to low, and cover. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until the veal is tender.
• 3. Uncover, add peas and raise the heat to medium. Cook about 5 minutes, until the peas are done. Adjust seasoning, garnish if you like and serve.

Variations

• VEAL STEW, PROVENCAL STYLE: Use all olive oil. Omit tarragon, onions and wine or water. Instead add 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed; 20 basil leaves, washed and roughly chopped; 2 cups seeded and chopped tomatoes, and 1 cup good black olives. Omit the peas as well. If necessary, uncover to reduce the liquid until the stew is thick. Garnish with more chopped basil. Serve with bread.
• VEAL STEW WITH BACON AND MUSHROOMS: In Step 1, render 1/4-pound chopped slab bacon in 1 tablespoon olive oil until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, then brown the veal in the fat (pour some off first if it seems excessive). In Step 2, omit tarragon; cook onions with a few sprigs of thyme and 1 cup trimmed and chopped mushrooms; after onions soften, add liquid as above. In Step 3, return bacon to pan, and cook about 5 minutes more. Serve over buttered noodles or with bread.

polenta

I bought some prepackaged polenta and will use it today with some spaghetti sauce to see if I like it. I like grits so I may like this also. As far as I can tell, it too would be better than white rice/pasta/ect as the corn mash would turn more slowly to sugar. In the radical diet portions of this must still be limited.

pea mushroom soup curried

May 3, 2012

2 quarts of water
one bag of split peas- note that if fresh peas are good conventional buys, then split and dried do not have to be organic.
one Tablespoon of curry powder
one Tablespoon of tumeric
one third white onion finely chopped.
Five thin organic carrots finely diced
almost all of 24 oz containter of mushrooms cut in bite sized pieces
one large bay leaf
black pepper to taste

I cooked it on in the slow cooker high for about 4 hours and it really cooked up, but I like that consistency.  I did not blend it with the little soup blender.

Pizza

11/16/2008
Pita pizza

Use the pita shells found at Guido's market.
There are 280 calories per shell. All stone ground whole wheat flour.
no oil or fats in this.

Set up a small broiler pan in the bottom of the roaster.
sprayed the pan a bit.
Got two large spatulas ready for removal of the pizza.

Cooked up aging veggies in a casserole in water in the microwave.
Left them just cooked a bit. This batch included some portobello mushrooms, white onion, a lot of green pepper, celery, cauliflower, small bits of carrot.

Put some of the left over spaghetti sauce on the pita and spread it.
This one had some small sausage pieces in the jar.


Added Italian seasoning.
Added some anchovies.

cooked at 400 (maybe a bit high ) for tne minutes and it was done.
Scooped it up with the spatulas and with a bit of sprinkled parmesean it tasted like very good, crispy crust pizza.

Now, it is not really on the diet as there is a touch of meat and cheese and fish, but it is much improved over a store pizza. Next time I won't be using up left over sauce and will use just the crushed tomato, perhaps thickened with paste, and more spices including garlic. There was garlic in the prepared sauce.

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11/17/2008
Made the second one for Elizabeth. Did not cook it long enough and the bread was not crisped enough. Also she did not want anchovies, but for me that depleted the taste. Elizabeth liked it.

Heated up one piece in aluminum foil but it was too wet. Good but not as good as fresh made.

tofu pizza

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February 2 2009 in Florida

Put one can of Italian crushed tomatoes and a small can of paste in the slow cooker with baby bellas, slice, onions finely chopped, yellow pepper, and a small eggplant( other times the eggplant has overwhelmed).
spiced with Italian seasoning
oregano
powdered garlic
black pepper
Cooked until the eggplant was tender.
Put the mixture on top of a Sami's Millet and Flax Pizza dough circle.
Added a layer of tofu slices - mozzarella flavored.
baked at 400 for
1200-

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February 16
No slow cooker, just cooked the tomato down on the stove after browing onion and pepper in a bit of olive oil. Add the crushed tomato and let it cook. No paste.
no eggplant this time either.

Next time I may bake the crust a bit before topping it with the cooked ingredients, but this time I did not. Spooned the mixture over the crust. For the last bit dipped the veggies out of the tomato sauce as there was too much sauce.
Baked at 420 for about 30 minutes.
Everyone seemed to like it.
Some added cheese at the table. course grated mozzarella and boxed parmesian.

Susan added a fine romane lettuce wrap. The lettuce was filled with soy chorizo, black beans, onion, and roasted red pepper, all very finely cut or grated. First she cooked down the chorizo, discarded the fat and chilled it before filling the lettuce which acts easily as a little wrap.

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FEBRUARY 21

Took the mix and did it first on 50% power in the microwave for 10 minutes and then 10 minutes again;
This time remembered the eggplant but forgot we were out of baby bellas.
Added the tofu Italian sausage susan likes.

Out the microwave the mix came too watery. Similar too the slow cooker. So I am reducing the water on the stove top but must be careful not to burn that tomato mix as nothing kills a recipe like that. NIce nonstick pan helps that.

I put the crust in the over for a bit as high at one point as 450 but this oven is really not regulated well. It has a nice crisp on top now that should stay when I add the topping, tofu, and cheese.