Potage Parmentier

We are in the midst of the final week of September...and again I find myself wondering where the month went.  It seems like only yesterday we were preparing for back to school.  Now, suddenly the stores are overflowing with Christmas merchandise (yes, I know it started appearing in the shadow of the furor of back to school, in August) and talk here has been about a certain girl's birthday and of Halloween. Call me whatever the Halloween equivalent of Scrooge is but I am seriously considering going into hiding that night this year.  We don't get many, if any, trick-or-treaters here anyway, and I think Emily is getting a little old now for candy-begging.  Besides she only eats the chocolate, and I don't need the temptation for my sweet-tooth.  But I digress, and here I am fussing about the end of October even as I lament the passing of September.
It seems life has found it's rhythm again, Emily has settled into the routine of school, enjoying more privileges and responsibilities.  Tuesday morning I asked again (as a follow up to the disregarded query from Monday) if she was cooking dinner.  Over breakfast she perused one of the cookbooks I had left on the counter earlier and decided that potato leek soup sounded good, as well as marinated onion rings.  I pointed out (hoping to dissuade her from deep frying) the onion ring recipe she had selected was not for the deep fried treats she loves, but raw, marinated rings of onion.  Then I skimmed the soup recipe before pointing her to another cookbook with a similar recipe I have made several times before, so I know it is good, and quite simple to make. (And it has a "fancier" name, which I figured would appeal to her too).
When Emily returned home from school she asked if I had been to the store yet.  I had.  Several minutes later she walked into the living room holding a leek in her hands, asking if it was a leek (I guess she's never seen one before!) They were large, and individually wrapped in cellophane.  I told her it was a leek & she dropped it like she was holding a snake.  I laughed and told her it was just a vegetable, like an onion.  I don't know what she thought it was, or what she though leeks looked like, but she picked it up again with relief and went back to whatever she had been doing.
While she started slicing the onion for the soup I trimmed the leeks and showed her how to clean them properly (slit them lengthwise to about 1" from the root, turn a quarter turn & repeat, then rinse) before she sliced them.
The leeks and onions were put in a large pot with a little butter over low heat, covered and cooked for about 15 minutes.  In the meantime Emily peeled some potatoes and diced them (the recipe says to slice them, but since the whole thing is pureed at the end it didn't really matter). The potatoes were added to the leeks with chicken stock, thyme and parsley. This was brought to a boil, then let simmer for 40 minutes.
Emily decided that she needed to make biscuits as well, so I pointed her to my well worn recipe, and instructed to follow the notes on cutting it in half.  Her technique needs a little work, but she's getting the hang of it.  I gave her my smallest biscuit cutter and showed her how to cut and reshape her dough.
Once the biscuits were in the oven Emily got to play with my immersion blender and puree her soup.  I told her to be sure not to lift it out of the pot until the blades stopped turning, and she only forgot once, so there wasn't much spatter.

The soup was rich, hearty and delicious.  I had forgotten how much I like this recipe.  I told Emily I always enjoyed stirring  a little grated cheese into my bowl, so we did that as well.  She was pleased with the results as well.  In fact she was indulging in spoonsful of soup while I gave the immersion blender a few extra whirls, where the single spoonful to taste it should have been to correct the seasoning, if necessary.

Potage Parmentier

2 tablespoons butter or margarine                 6 cups chicken stock (warm)

2 sliced leeks                                                  1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 Spanish onion, sliced                                 2 bay leaves (optional)

1 1/2 pounds (4 large) potatoes,                     2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

peeled & sliced                                              salt & pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add the leeks and onion, cover.  Cook for 15 minutes over low heat; stir occasionally.  Add the potatoes, chicken stock and herbs (the original recipe also calls for 1/2 tsp chervil, but I never have it, so I omitted it & used parsley here instead.  I also never seem to have bay leaves, so I leave those out too.) Season with salt & pepper.

Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium heat and simmer 40 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.  

Correct the seasoning (remove the bay leaves too) and puree the soup with a food mill or immersion blender.  If the soup seems too thick stir in a bit more chicken stock.  Garnish with fresh cream, chopped fresh parsley and/or grated cheese.

Easy Skillet Ravioli

It's hard to believe September is almost gone.  Mornings and evenings have a distinctly fall like feeling in the air, although most afternoons are still balmy.  Emily has taken to coming home from school and trading her jeans or leggings for shorts, or her shirt for a tank top.  Because I need more laundry to do. Ah well, soon enough fall will give way to winter; all I can do is hope it is much later, and that our autumn weather persists.
Emily decided she wanted to cook Tuesday night and not Monday, so Monday after supper I asked her what she wanted to make.  Her immediate response was "Chicken Pot Pie", a favourite of hers, but it takes some time to make and is something I usually do with leftover chicken, of which we have none.  She was disappointed, but found her "Dump Dinners" cookbook and quickly opted for ravioli.  The girl does love her pasta.  It was an easy enough recipe, so I agreed to buy frozen ravioli.
"Not the canned stuff!" she protested....she has never, thankfully, had an appetite for canned pasta dishes of any sort, apart from a long past affection for pasta shapes in tomato sauce.

Frozen ravioli was unavailable, but I did find fresh, and purchased spinach and cheese ravioli, as well as a jar of pasta sauce.  I re-read the recipe when I got home, and before Emily started to cook a couple of hours later, advised her to drain the water off the ravioli when it was done cooking, even thought the recipe did not specify that particular step.
She shooed me out of the kitchen, protesting even when I wanted to pass through to get a sweater from my bedroom.  She boiled the pasta and drained it according to my suggestion before stirring in the jarred pasta sauce. While the ravioli were cooking Emily came in and said she wanted to add some meat to the dish.  I told her it was a little late, since nothing was thawed, and explained the sauce I bought had sausage in it.  This, thankfully, satisfied her.  I do believe adding precooked meatballs might be a nice addition though, if a heartier meal was in order. There was a small argument because I had not purchased cream, which I was able to forestall by urging her to read further; the recipe stated "heavy cream, half & half, evaporated milk, milk or non-dairy creamer".  She stirred in some milk, added a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and, I discovered after liberally added ground pepper to my plate, a healthy dose of fresh ground pepper.

Dinner was very good, as usual, and the leftovers became both breakfast and lunch for Emily on Wednesday.  I'm already looking forward to what she chooses to set her hand to next week.

Easy Skillet Ravioli

1 package fresh or frozen cheese ravioli (680g, approximately.  We used 500g of Olivieri Spinach and Cheese ravioli)

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 jar (650 ml) chunky pasta sauce (we used Classico Italian Sausage, Peppers & Onions)

1/4 cup milk

In a large skillet bring ravioli, water and salt to a boil, over high heat.  Boil about 5 minutes, stirring gently to separate ravioli.  Drain

Stir in pasta sauce.  Cook, covered, over medium heat, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in milk, heat through.  Garnish, if desired, with Parmesan cheese.

Surprise!

September is rapidly drifting away, and while by and large our days have resumed something of a routine we have yet to nail down which night Emily is scheduled to cook.  This past Monday I went out for supper with some girlfriends, and Tuesday morning neglected to ask if Emily was interested in making dinner.  Foraging in the deep freeze I found a package of ground chicken and decided to make chicken tacos.  While at the grocery store collecting sour cream and lettuce I discovered imitation lobster was on sale and had a hankering for lobster bisque.  Fall is asserting itself and soup is always welcome on a cool evening.  That was my plan for Wednesday, leaving me enough leftovers to cover the remainder of the week.
I had plans to have coffee with a friend Wednesday afternoon, and I told Emily she could come home by herself after school after rehearsing the long standing rules.  Up until the past few weeks Emily, despite her pleading and assurances, has not been allowed to be home alone for longer than a short jaunt to the grocery store, so this was a big deal to her.  She called when she got home, as requested, and a reminded her of a couple of chores that needed doing.
I arrived home about an hour later, and as I walked into the house I could smell cooking food-an aroma that did not match the leftovers in the fridge which could have been chosen as an after school snack.  When I finally located my daughter in the kitchen she was in the process of preparing my coffee for the following day.  I asked what I was smelling, not quite having registered the culinary explosion that was my kitchen.  With a pleased smile she told me she had made dinner.  She had found another package of ground chicken in the freezer and thawed it out (apparently she couldn't find any beef, although the deep freeze is well stocked with packets of ground bison).  She then opened a pot on the stove and sadly stirred a creamy mass of something-it looked a little like watery Cream of Wheat, which she informed me was supposed to be mashed potatoes.  She had taken it upon herself to bike to the store and purchase a package of instant mashed potatoes, since we had none. (I keep them around for topping casseroles like shepherd's pie) She said she didn't know what had gone wrong, so I asked if she had followed the directions on the box.  As it turned out she had just put water in the pot, never considering there is a reason the directions specify 1 1/2 cups of water plus a half cup of milk.  I stirred in the second packet of potatoes, which thickened it up nicely, while explained again the importance of following directions.
While I did this she reheated the ground chicken she had browned with an onion and added peas to, before stirring in a can of mushroom soup.  I asked where her idea had come from, curious, since the only cookbooks out were my Company's Coming one, opened to the lobster bisque recipe, and a magazine insert dedicated to after school snacks, and this was neither.  "From my binder," she informed me.
She has a recipe binder in which, for a time, she was inscribing copies of her culinary experiments.  This was a version of the leftover turkey dish she made back in February ( http://viewfromhere68.blogspot.ca/2015/02/cooking-with-emily_17.html).  I didn't point out we had used pasta, not mashed potatoes, at this point I figured it was better to go with the flow.

Personally I would have spooned the meat and gravy over the potatoes, but Emily stirred the mashed potatoes into the chicken & mushroom soup mixture.  I'll confess it is not an appetizing appearing dish, but it did taste very good.

Although she had every reason to be pleased with her efforts, especially the reason behind them, to surprise me, she did receive a mild rebuke for using the stove when I wasn't home.  When she protested I told her it was not her ability I was concerned about, but her safety.  Kitchen fires and burns or cuts are easily incurred by them most skilled chefs and she is still lacking adequate knowledge to deal with any of those incidences.

Nonetheless, high praise is in order.  My coffee was a trifle weak this morning too.  Not too far off, but that's a lesson for another day.  Who was I to complain when a cup was in my hand moments after I finally staggered out of bed this morning?  She's a good kid, and generous to a fault, and I have no doubt she is fully aware of her upcoming birthday as well as her new more "grown up" privileges., which I suspect has something to do with this recent flurry of helpfulness.....not that I am complaining in any way.  Help in any form is appreciated!

Cooking with Emily: Sweet & Sour Pork

I have a confession to make....sometimes meals at our house are not complicated made from scratch recipes.  Sometimes we open a jar or thaw out one of my "in case of emergency" casseroles (an emergency, more often than not, is that I don't feel like cooking).
Monday is supposed to be Emily's night to cook.  However this week Emily decided she wanted to go to her friend's house after school.  She had intended to make Bison Meatball & Lentil Soup, but at quarter past five I still hadn't seen her, so I browned the ground bison I had thawed and made spaghetti sauce.  Tuesday I stopped at the grocery store for bread on my way home and decided pork chops looked good, and Emily again decided to spend the afternoon with her friends, although she did return home just before I lit the barbecue with a tearful and apologetic hug for "abandoning" me two nights in a row.  Wednesday she invited s friend home with her and I turned the leftover spaghetti sauce into baked penne.  Thursday was the church youth group kick off barbecue and I was freed from needing to make a decision about supper (leftovers were again on deck) Friday was definitely a leftover, because we need to clear out the refrigerator night, but I agreed to babysit for a friend and frozen pizza made an appearance on our menu.

And then it was Saturday.  Emily took it upon herself to clean the garage for me, and we finally made a trek to the bottle depot.  On the way home we stopped at the grocery store for a few odds and ends and to see if something sparked an inspiration for dinner.  Emily looked at the frozen meals, which I vetoed as overly expensive.  Then she suggested sweet and sour pork.  It sounded like a pretty good plan to me.  Bottled sauces were on sale so we picked up one as well as a small pork roast.  Dinner was planned.
While Emily cleaned her room I went out to tackle some much neglected yard work.  When it was done she asked if she could make dinner.  Even better.  I told her to cut the roast into small, bite-sized chunks and to brown it with a chopped onion, advising her to brown it half at a time.  Once the meat was all browned she poured over the bottle of sauce and let it simmer while she prepared some broccoli to steam and set a pot of water on to boil as she had opted for pasta instead of rice as a side.
She asked me for a simple sauce to make for the pasta, but I told her the sauce on the meat would be more than adequate.  She was a little disappointed I suspect, since her culinary muscles were not getting much of a workout.  Nonetheless dinner was very tasty, and we were done early enough to make it to a movie, her reward for helping with taking a summer's worth of bottles to the depot.

With any luck this week we should be back on track schedule-wise.  At least I hope so.  

Roasted Asparagus Risotto

Ah, September.  Back to school, back to normal, whatever it is that normal looks like.  September first is in many ways more the beginning of a new year than January first, at least for anyone going to school, I think.  As such I decided to separate my posts about Emily's forays into the kitchen into their own blog.  You can still read the earlier posts at viewfromhere68.blogspot.ca, and I hope you will continue to read it occasionally.  My intention is to post more regularly there as well, although with more focus on its original purpose.
After a crazy busy weekend, celebrating my mother's 70th birthday it was good to come home and just be for a day, preparing book bags and lunches and new outfits for the coming days.  Monday morning I asked Emily if she was planning to cook supper that night.  Her response was, "If you want me to..."
While that was not the question precisely she did pick up a magazine and find this recipe.  The child loves rice, so I'm not surprised she gravitated to it.  Risotto is time consuming, requiring a lot of patient stirring, but I agreed it was easy enough, and seemed like a light option after several days of big celebratory meals.  I added asparagus to our grocery list and moved forward with the day.

My sister came by later in the afternoon to give Emily a haircut before school started...those bangs were beginning to impede her vision as much as her nearsightedness.  Glasses don't fix hair in your eyes!  As Nancy was leaving Emily informed her she was making risotto for supper-with steak!  I had to advise her otherwise, there was no steak thawed out.  She told me there was steak in the freezer.  I agreed, but told her it was too late to be thawing meat for supper.

While Emily showered to rid herself of those little bits of hair that itch so after a haircut I cleaned and chopped the asparagus roasted it, as that particular step was not listed in the instructions.  Emily quickly shooed me out of the kitchen, insisting she could manage on her own.  She got the onion chopped, perhaps not as efficiently, and with the requisite tears.  She called me back seeking garlic, and I was surprised to discover we had none.  I told her she'd have to manage without.  She argued it was necessary; I couldn't really disagree, but there was not a clove in the house, so it was going to have to be a garlic-less meal.  I heated chicken stock for her in the microwave and left her alone again.
She browned the onion and added the rice to the oil, stirring to coat it with the oil before stirring in apple juice with a little lemon juice, an adequate substitute for white wine, another ingredient we were lacking (I prefer red, and rarely buy white). Once the "wine" was absorbed she began to add the warmed stock & water, a little at a time, adding more as each addition was absorbed by the rice.  Convincing her she had to stand there and stir the whole time was a challenge in itself, but she did it.  Just before she added the last amount of liquid Emily told me she wanted to add some kind of meat to her dish.  I suggested she see if we had a can of cocktail shrimp in the pantry, since the hunk of roast beef in the fridge would not have been a good addition.  There was no can, so I made a mad dash to the grocery store for some shrimp.  The things a sous chef has to do!

Once the liquid was fully absorbed Emily stirred in the roasted asparagus, Parmesan cheese, a little butter and about a cup of cooked shrimp that had been rapidly thawed under hot water.

Dinner was, as always very good, and just as tasty the following day at lunch.  Risotto sounds daunting to make but it is a surprisingly simple dish, only requiring patience.

Roasted Asparagus Risotto

900 milliletres chicken or vegetable broth

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 cups arborio rice (any white rice will work)

2/3 cup dry white wine*

1 bunch roasted asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces**

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon butter

Heat broth plus 1 1/2 cups water, set aside, keep warm.  Heat the oil in a large pot over medium low heat.  Add onions and cook until soft, but not browned.  Add garlic and cook for another minute.  Add rice and stir until coated with oil.  Add the wine and stir continuously until the wine has been absorbed by the rice.  Add 2 cups of the warm broth and cook, stirring, until liquid has been absorbed.  Repeat, adding broth in 1/2 cup increments until rice is soft with a slight firmness in the centre and liquid is absorbed. (About 20 minutes)

Remove from heat and stir in roasted asparagus, cheese and butter.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*you can replace the wine with apple or orange juice with a little vinegar or lemon to mimic the acidity of the dry wine.  In other recipes you can also substitute chicken stock, or for small amounts an equal amount of vinegar or lemon juice.

** to roast asparagus trim the tough ends and place spears on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper and roast at 400F for about 10 minutes (small spears will require less cooking time)