Delicious Soup

Just this evening, I made a huge pot of amazing vegetable soup that will easily last me for the rest of the week.

I filled our biggest pot about 40% with water and set it to boil with a generous amount of salt to hasten the process and begin its seasoning.  I chopped an entire head of celery and added it immediately to the boiling water.  Celery needs the most time to soften up as it's essentially pure fiber.  Second, I cleaned and chopped three fairly large vine-ripened tomatoes.  These were added with two cans of whole kernel corn (rinsed thoroughly).  At this point, the soup had risen to boil several times at each subsequent adding of ingredients.  It was time to season.

Now I'm not playing around when I say season.  I like my food flavorful with a little bit of spice.  In went a heap of finely chopped, dried parsley; in went a heap of powdered garlic (for the taste and eye-health).  I ground a generous amount of pepper and stirred the pot thoroughly, mixing it all deliciously together.  The broth turned bright orange due to the garlic and tomatoes and was bubbling as I kept the heat up the entire time.

Finally for the two newest additions to the recipe... We stopped by our local Asian market earlier tonight in search of noodles and mochi.  While we struck out on the latter, we headed to the veggie section for the noodles (shirataki yam noodles, kept refrigerated) and gathered about eight packages--more on these later.  On the way, Lindsay had to have a giant head of cabbage, and we  also grabbed a 2 lb. bag of bean sprouts.  I'm beginning to love sprouts in a variety of meals for their added crunch and flavor.  Of course, I used the whole bag in tonight's soup.  I finished the dish with another Asian ingredient--a fairly large dollop of sriracha sauce, which is essentially a hot garlic, chili paste.  Mixing this all together, the pot was nearly overflowing!

I brought it up to a boil one more time, continuously stirring and mixing the wealth of veggies, added a heavy dose of lemon juice to brighten the flavor, cut the heat and put a lid on it.  Done!  With the volume of ingredients, the soup had become more of a stew than anything.  This is one of the reasons I'd only started with 40% water--I like it thick.


This took under 30 minutes from start to finish.  I'm incredibly grateful for Lindsay's sharp, sharp knives and her help as I've been preparing this for the past two weeks under her guidance.

Sampling throughout the process, I could tell the stew would be great on its own.  For each meal though, I will pan fry (with a touch of grapeseed oil) a small amount of chicken to add to the dish as well as a small amount of cheddar/monterrey jack cheese.  For larger meals, I'll even add the shirataki noodles mentioned above.  This really takes the stew overboard as it generally means a much larger bowl!  The yam noodles are great in that the add a huge amount of body to an already full dish, are basically pure fiber (the entire meal is gluten-free) and require only a cold-water path to prepare.  The bath washes off the extra starch and you just add them to an already hot bowl.

Three weeks ago, I didn't know how to prepare soup stock.  Now, I'm making chicken-noodle-veggie stew that will last all week and is incredibly healthy.  Including what I prepped for myself at the end of the process, the whole thing was completed in less than 30 minutes.  This is true convenience eating and cost less time and money than a past trip to KFC might have.  Awesome.

On the Importance of Sharp Knives

An analogy. Besides cooking my other passion is partnered dancing (swing, blues, tango).  A lot of beginners do not understand the importance of your shoes. Technically you can dance in any shoes you want, but it's going to be much more difficult and dangerous with the wrong shoes. You can really tourque your knees if the soles don't slide smoothly when you turn or you could totally faceplant if they fall off your feet (sidenote - flip flops and swing dance do not mix well). You may think you are terrible at dancing, when really your shoes are just making things difficult.

Terrible knives can make cooking seem way like way more effort than it is.  If you have to expend more force each time you make a cut, it tires you out faster.  A good sharp knife will make beautiful slices and it goes through "like buttah".  You don't have to work so hard. Just equip yourself properly.

• Buy decent ones to start with.  Using steak knives or really cheap terrible knives is going to make everything less fun.  You do not need the huge block of every knife known to man (seriously, a boning knife?  I have never used one or seen anyone else use one).  In general you need three knives - a paring knife, a chef's knife and a serrated knife. Once you've been cooking (and chopping) for a little while, your style will develop and you may decide you want something a little different or bigger of heavier. They do not have to match.  you can pick and choose from any brand.  I use Rada knives - they are very lightweight and rather good looking, I think.  On Amazon, they're not too expensive -you could get your basic three knives for under $30.
• Do not put them in the dishwasher.  It dulls the blades - they clink up against the tines in the dishwasher and can get nicked. Yes, you have to handwash them. I usually wash and dry my knife and return it to the magnetic strip above my sink whenever I finish chopping something.  It takes about 30 seconds and has become such a habit that I don't even notice doing it anymore.  Letting them sit in standing water is another big no-no. They can rust and if it's at the bottom of big sink of dishes you could forget they're in there and slice your fingers.  I know people it has happened to.  Handwashing - just do it.
• Do not just throw them in a drawer. They will hit other things in the drawer and become dull.  Also reaching into a drawer full of loose sharp objects is *asking* for trouble.  I don't like how much counter space a traditional knife block takes up, so I use a magnetic strip attached to the wall. Works for me.  This article outlines some other safe knife storage options.
• Get them sharpened. At least once a year.  This is usually (one of) my birthday present(s) from my fiance.  It's fun.  We go to this funky little knife store that actually has classes in knife throwing out back.  While my knives are being attended to, he gets to puruse all the cool knives (and swords and brass knuckles and nunchucks, etc.) while I geek out over the high end kitchen knives.  It cost about $3.50/each and I have about 7 knives, so it's not the cheapest thing to do, but it ensures more safety and enjoyment in the kitchen for me.  And once you get them back you will notice *such* a difference!

This is not just an issue of ease of use. It is an issue of safety.  I almost lost a finger when I tried to cut a watermelon at my friend's place.  A cheap knife that had routinely been washed in the dishwasher, of course.  I was pressing the knife pretty hard to get it to break the skin of the melon (which is already round and wobbly and sort of dangerous to work with). Instead of sliding into the rind,  the blade slid off almost got my other hand that was steadying the fruit.  My catlike reflexes saved the day; but my fiance saw what a close call it was and wouldn't let me finish trying to hack the watermelon up with that terrible knife.

So invest in your safety and make cooking more enjoyable - get decent knives and take good care of them.