Low Microbial Menu & Recipes

The freezer is full.....

2007-07-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

I've cooked my heart out & now the freezer is full up.

Here's what I cooked:

Lemon chicken
Chicken vegetable soup with beans
Turkey chili
Chicken lentil soup
Fish stew
Broccoli soup
Meat balls
Shepherds pie (but it should be called something else when it's made with beef)
Potato leek soup
Sukiyaki chicken with mushrooms and onions
Chicken soup

I tossed out the bread dough (don't ever let me try using the "white whole wheat" again!) and baked up the mini scones (now frozen with everything else.)

I'm now out of anything to cook with - no more chicken or veggies worth mentioning.

Tomorrow I'm back in the office.

First the good news

2007-07-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

Mom is doing well. She's headed to the last round of chemo in good shape, well nourished, and thensome.

The split pea soup is a favorite -- and even with the new 16 qt stock pot, I can never make enough spit pea soup.

Also made roast chicken with roasted root vegetables (turnip, parsnip, carrot, sweet potato, yukon gold baby potato) and a shitake flavored gravy. All the leftovers are for soup stock tomorrow.

(Note to self -- carrots and rosemary are not a good combination!!)

Shopping list and supplies....

2007-06-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Never a bad idea to make a list of the things I'll need. I"ll review and revise as I start to plan the next big cooking spree for Mom:

•Tools

12 qt stock pot (& any other soup pots that are available)

large skillet

knives (santoku, cleaver, utility knife)

cutting board (need to have long talk with Mom about replacing the little plastic ones that are so badly chopped up that they are no longer white)

vegetable peeler (need to be sharp!)

immersion blender (thank goodness we had it last time!)

•Vegetables

5 lbs carrots

10 lbs potatoes (russet & white rose)

10 lbs tomatoes

1 head celery

3 medium zucchini

10 lbs or more onions

2 lbs mushrooms (white, brown, shitake, etc)

3 lbs or more dried peas

1 lb lentils

1 lbs beans (maybe lima or navy beans this time?)

1 lb barley (we have this left over from last time)

2 lbs or more rice (white or brown. long or short grain)

peppers -- a mix of red, yellow, orange, and possibly green bell peppers

green beans (can be english, green, or round beans)

snap peas (a little more substantial than round beans)

bok choy (preferably the smallest baby size)

broccoli (tops for the broccoli soup, maybe chinese broccoli for stir fry)

2-3 bunches green onions

2 - 3 large kabocha (could also be butternut squash)

2 lbs rutabaga (or swede as my English friends call it)

1 lb turnips

1 lb parsips (but only if they look really fresh)

2 lbs sweet potatoes (or yams)

corn (either frozen or on the cob -- depends what I'm cooking)

chayote (if I'm making cocido)

•Meat

5 - 10 lbs chicken (can be the whole chicken or parts, preferrably with all the bones, especially since I'm going to make roast chicken this time with a nice mushroom gravy and roasted root vegetables)

5 - 10 lbs beef (mix of stew meat and other, nicer cuts)

2 - 3 lbs fish (we used sea bass last time)

•Canned goods & other seasonings

2 boxes almond "milk"

1 can coconut milk (should be thick)

vegetarian soup stock (a regrettable short cut)

stewed tomatoes (Pomi is just fine)

bay leaves

garlic

"italian spices" (i.e. marjoram, oragano, basil, rosemary, sage, thyme)

pepper

salt

curry powder (sweet japanese)

stir fry sauce (I'm too pressed for time to mix up my own, so here's to "Soy Vey"!)

chili powder (still have plenty left over)

Large can white hominy (for pozole)

vegetable oil

vinegar (rice vinegar is nice & mild)

Sherry

White wine

Chicken Curry

2007-06-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

This is a great dish for a cold day. It can be very filling, especially when served with rice.

I have a chicken version below. You can also make this with beef or eggplant (if you want a vegetarian version).

All proportions are approximate, and may vary depending on my mood, the weather, or who I'm cooking it for.

The curry I use is a Japanese curry powder which is sweeter than the Indian varieties, and in place of the premade blocks of curry that contain tallow.

Ingredients:

Chicken - about 1 lb cubed, boned, skinless
Onion - 1 medium or large -- cut in sixths or eights (can be on the large side)
2 carrots in large chunks
1 medium sweet potato in large chunks
2 potatoes in large chunks
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of curry powder (more for spicy, less for mild)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon salt (to taste), the water
4-6 cups of water (should be more than needed to cover all the vegetables in a large pot- excess liquid will boil off)

Again, when using curry curry powder, I always start by putting the oil in a pot to warm but not fry the spice to release the flavors, along with the garlic and salt to start.

Then I put the chicken and coat it with the curry mixture, as well as to start the chicken cooking.

I do the same thing with onion, maybe for no other reason than hoping a bit of a wilt will give it a better flavor. However, I'm not sure that it really makes all that much of a different in the end result, since the onions end up being stewed instead of fried.

Then add the rest of the vegetables and the water, and allow to simmer until the vegetables are completely cooked and the curry has thickened.

Chicken Soup

2007-06-10T13:24:00.001-07:00

The beauty of chicken soup is that it uses any little bit of chicken scrap that might be left over from another dish.

Basically I had a large stock pot that I threw in all the bones and other chicken scraps and just left it to simmer away until the meat fell off the bones and all the fat had been skimmed off.

I could have browned it a bit first, either in the pot or in the oven, but I had too many other things to do.

Of course there is then the almighty trinity of carrots, celery and onions, sliced or chopped finely.

A hint of garlic.

The fun came when fishing out all the bones, and imagining any number of friends or family members in the kitchen to "help."

The stock is lovely on its own, but I then made a vat of chicken lentil soup, and another of chicken vegetable with peas, beans, lentils, and barley.

The legumes and grains are there for roughage as well as flavor.

And for when she will be too nauseated for anything else....

chicken soup with rice will be made next time, and in vast quantities!

Squash soup (curry)

2007-06-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

I've played around with this over the years, settling on a vegetarian version that avoids all kinds of issues that come from encorporating cream into a dish without curdling it. I've also done a version of this that is sweet dessert version using coconut milk.

The other thing is that this is much easier to cook when you've got an immersion blender to smooth things out. If you wait until it cooks to a point where you can mash it, it takes much longer.

Ingredients

squash -- 1 large butternut, one kabocha, small sugar pie pumpkin, or other winter squash -- peeled & cubed
medium onion
2 tablesppons vegetable oil (I often use corn oil, but canola or sunflower oils work just as well)
1 box of almond "milk"
1 tablespoon curry powder (preferrably japanese, sweet, mild variety)
garlic (I used a bit of powder, but you could use a smal clove of garlic)
vegetable soup stock (or boullion cube)
water (if needed)
salt to taste

These are rough measures. I haven't actually quantified it sinice the amount of spice varies depending on my mood & how spicy I want it to be.

I start withe the by heating the curry powder in the oil, adding the garlic and the onion to give them a bit of a wilt.

Then add the squash with the soup stock, almond "milk", and enough water to cover all the squash, and bring to a boil.

Cook until the squash is soft and then use the blender to smooth it out.

Because there is often salt in the soup stock, it is often not necessary to add more salt, but it is always good to check that you have enough.

The thickness of the soup is a personal one -- I;ve seen it so thick that a friend was eating it like a spead on toast!

Bread & Scones

2007-06-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

I got the recipes for these from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook.

The bread is the french bread recipe using nothing more than flour, water, yeast, salt, and time. Normally I would start the dough the night before and leave it in the refrigerator, but for now it's in the freezer waiting to be thawed and proofed.

To bake, I usually keep it simple -- preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes. I put corn meal on the pan to keep the dough from sticking, and use either egg wash, milk, or oil to give the loaf a nice brown finish.

As for the "scones" I use the cream biscuit recipe. It contains flour, butter, half & half, sugar, salt, and baking powder. I made one batch plain, one with raisins, and one with plenty of chocolate chips.

This dough does not need to be thawed, and the pan must be ungreased and unlined. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake for 15 minutes (until golden brown).

Naturally they taste best when they are still warm.

Beef Stir Fry

2007-06-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderfully quick way to make a one dish meal using any bit of beef, and mixture of vegetables, and sauce from a jar.

The key is to bring a seasoned pan or wok up to a nice high temperature to sear the meat.

Once it's gotten a good start, add the vegetables.

One dish had onions and mixed mushrooms, The other has green onions, green beans, and snow peas.

Then I poured in Soy Vey Very Teri sauce, sirred the pot, put on the lid, and turned it off to let everything braise a bit.

All you need is some noodles or steamed rice and you ave a complete meal.

Broccoli Soup

2007-06-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

I got the idea from a Gordon Ramsey video clip on Youtube.

He says that you use the tops of the boroclli, since the flower head is the part with the most flavor.

You boil it in salted water, just long enough for a knife to go through the stalk without much resistance, but not to the point where its a gummy mess.

Then you put the broccoli in a blender with enough water from the stock to give it the right thickness, and then check to see if it needs any more salt.

It ends up being a nice green color.

I used an immersion blender in the pot after draining off enough of the water. I observed that leasst amount of broccoli stalk used is better, as it takes longer to cook, is tougher to blend, and won't really add that much to the texture of the soup.

Split pea soup

2007-06-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is the one thing that I can never make enough of. It freezes well and only gets better the longer it is cooked. You can't rush this process - the starches much break down in order to give it the necessary sweetness.

Here is the gerneral idea of how to make it:

dried split peas
chopped carrot
chopped celery
salt

For every small bag of split peas, you will want one medium carrot, one stalk of celery, and less than a teaspoon of salt.

For those that don't keep kosher, you can add ham and eleiminate the salt.

The pot should be a good size stock pot - no crock pot or shallow sauce pot will do. There is a balance between the need for space in the pot. smaller surface area, low constant heat, and room for plently of water that has to be balanced out.

The best way to tell that it's getting to a point of doneness is to let it cook slowly, stirring it regularly to keep it from forming one big lump at the bottom of the pot.

When the carrots have also cooked to a point where they have melted, you know that it is pretty much close to perfection. You might not even see the orange specks any more.

The rest of Sunday's cooking

2007-05-27T22:50:00.001-07:00

Made the dough for bread and cream scones (plain, raisin, & chocolate) which is currently frozen for later baking. The recipes are straight out of Fanny Farmer.

Also made cocido (beef soup) and beef stir-fry with mushrooms, green beans, snap peas, and green onions.

I'm officially done for the weekend. Will post recipes later.

Sunday morning

2007-05-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

Woke up early and got right to work.

On the stove now -- Turkey Chili

Brown the meat (I think I used 1 pound) in a little vegetable oil (such as canola)

Add garlic (I used about 1 tsp of powdered garlic) and chili powder (at least 2 tsp)

add water to fill pot & add beans

simmer

add one onion, 8 tomatoes, and one red bell pepper

simmer

Make sure to use a large stock pot as things have a tendancy to expand.....

To give you an idea of how long I let it cook, I had eaten breakfast, read the Smithsonian Magazine, showered, read my e-mail, and a few other things before coming back to it. By then, the vegetables were nicely cooked, the meat soft, and the dish refreshingly spicy.

Just a note regarding salt -- I know that I didn't list any salt, but when using kosher meat, I figured it would be better to add the additional salt later to taste at the table, rather than accidentally oversalt at the very start.

Saturday's challenge -- more of same

2007-05-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today I spent making beef dishes:

-Meat balls in tomato sauce

-Beef stew

-Pot roast (but using short ribs since that's what turned out to be in the package mom thought was brisket)

Then chicken dishes:

-Chicken curry (japanese style)

-Lemon chicken

-Chicken vegetable soup

I also made squash soup & fish stew.

It's now 8:15 as I type this, and there are still things on the stove or in the oven......

Tomorrow I plan to bake.

Friday's challenge -- getting started

2007-05-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

Basically the challenge was in getting started, getting all the ingredients together and starting to cook.

The idea is to create as many different dishes as possible for when sis is too tired to do anything other than put something in a pot and heat it up.

All are dairy free, and there will be a mix of fish, chicken, beef, and strictly vegetarian dishes. This is fortuitous, as some of the medications can interact with the calcium in dairy products.

I'll post the recipes later:

Chicken pozole (soup)

Beef with mushrooms and onions (stir fry)

Chicken lentil soup

Borscht (soup)

Pickled beets

Zucchini corn soup

Broccoli soup

Split pea soup