Irish Yellow Broth

Irish Yellow Broth

Irish yellow soup is a traditional irish soup that is one of my family's new favorites. Very simple to make, this soup is thickened with and given its flavor by steel-cut oats.  I promise, you will not even taste the oats. They take on the flavor of all the wonderful vegetables and stock. This recipe helps use up left over vegetables in the fridge, as well.  I served with fresh cut fruit and homemade rolls. 

  Ingredients:

4 TBS olive oil or butter

2 onions, minced

2 celery stalks,  minced

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 potatoes, finely chopped

4 TBS all purpose flour

8 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup medium steel cut oats

3 cups chopped kale or spinach

4 TBSp cream (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil or butter in a large saucepan.  Add the onion, celery, carrot and potato, and kale and cook for 2 minutes, or until the onion begins to become soft.

2.  Stir in the flour and cook slowly for 1 minute longer, stirring constantly.  Pour in the stock and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. 

3.  Stir in the oats and cook for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally.   Turn off the heat and allow to sit for 30 minute.  When serving, add the cream and season well with salt and pepper.  Garnish with parsley.  

I am so thankful to live in one of the prettiest places on earth.  

             We turn toward love like sunflowers to the sun, and then the human part kicks in.

                                                                                - Anne Lamott

            Perhaps everything terrible is, in its deepest being, something that needs our love.
                                                                                -Rainer Maria Rilke

Kale Salad even the Kids Love

Kale Salad even the Kids Love

Kale Salad with garlic lime dressing

Ingredients:

5-6 cups de-ribbed, finely chopped, curly kale

1 and 1/2 limes, juiced

3 TBS olive oil

1 TBS soy sauce

1/8 tsp nam pla (fish sauce)

a dash of saracha 

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1 TBS brown sugar, or equivalent sugar base

1 clove garlic, grated finely

1 carrot, grated finely

With your hands, mix the above ingredients together in a bowl, ensuring that the kale is well massaged.  Doing this breaks down the sometimes tough leaves of the kale, leaving the kale crunchy but deliciously edible!

"It (hope) is not so much about believing the impossible but believing that, because our knowledge is limited, there may be many possibilities of which we have not conceived. It is about leaving room for the improbable or at least the unproven; actually, not just leaving room, but actively making room. It is the daring act of staking a claim in the unprovable.  That is what makes it hope rather than optimism, because it is active."

                                               - Denise Inge, taken from the book A Tour of Bones

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

                                             

Black Bean Cakes

Great Black Bean Cakes 

(Finally, and thank you Cook's magazine chefs)

Ingredients

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2 large eggs

2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

4 scallions, minced

3 Tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional, but I use Siracha sauce)

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup tortilla chips, crushed

8 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Hamburger buns ( or just eat plain with the chipotle corn sauce)

Directions

Triple line a baking sheet with paper towels and spread the beans over them.  Allow to stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and flour in a large bowl.  Stir in the scallions, cilantro, garlic, cumin, hot sauce, coriander, salt and pepper until well combined. 

Process the tortilla chips in a food processor until well combined.  Add the beans and pulse 5 times.  Transfer the beans and tortilla chips to the egg mixture and combine well. Cover and refrigerate for 1-24 hours.

Heat 2 tsp of the oil in a non-stick skillet.  Arrange the bean mixture into firmly packed balls, about 8 all together.  Flatten out to 3 inch patties and fry in the oil, adding oil each time you flip.  Each side should take close to five minutes. 

Chipotle corn sauce:

Dry fry 2 cups of corn, cool and add 

3 Tablespoons plain yogurt

3 Tablespoons mayonaise

2 tsp minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp Siracha sauce

I love to stack 2 cakes and then heap on corn sauce and cilantro.



"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
                                                             - Aristotle