Fall Minestrone

Autumn Day

Lord: It is time. The summer days were grand.

Now set your shadows out across the sun-dials

And set the winds loose on the meadowland.

Bid the last fruits grow full upon the vine,

do them the good of two more southern days

then thrust them on to their fulfillment, chase

the final sweetness into bodied wine.

Whoever has no house yet will build none,

Whoever is alone will stay alone

And stay up, write long letters out, and go

Through avenues to wander on his own

Uneasily when leaves begin to blow.

Rainer Maria Rilke (Translated by A.Z. Foreman)

And to go with the poem I love so much, here is a autumnal minestrone, to enjoy on one of those short and somewhat dreary fall days we happen to have here. (Though the temperatures are supposed to go up for the weekend, yay!)

Fall Minestrone
Adapted from the minestrone alla romagnola by Marcella Hazan, and this minestrone I found on the Dinner: a Love Story blog.

120g dry cannelini beans (or 400g of the canned variety)
1 bay leave
salt

8 tbsp olive oil30g butter
3 onions, sliced
4 carrots, diced
2 stick celery, diced
2 large fennel bulb, diced
200g potatoes, peeled, cut into small squares
150g shredded Savoy cabbage
150g Swiss chard, chopped into small pieces
1,5l vegetable broth, or bean cooking water (but do not use the liquid that is in the cans, if using canned)
160g canned, whole Italian tomatoes
1/2 tsp smoked paprika (optional, if you don't already have it at home)
parmesan crust (optional)
parmigiano-reggiano to serve

If using dried cannelini beans: Cover the beans with 3cm of water and let soak over night.  In the morning, or before starting your soup, cook them, adding a bay leave, salt and some smoked paprika, until done, for about an hour. Set aside the cooking liquid to use as the broth for this soup.
In a large saucepan, put the olive oil, butter and onion on low-medium heat. Let the onion cook, uncovered, until it becomes soft and fragrant and starts to colour slightly.
Add the carrots, and cook for 2-3 minutes, making sure to cover it with the oil. Then add the celery, fennel and potatoes one ingredients at a time, stirring a few minutes before adding the next. Cook for another few minutes after adding the potatoes, add the cabbage, let cook for 5 minutes, then add the broth, the tomatoes, the parmesan crust if using and a little salt. Give the soup a good stir, then cover the pot, turn the heat to low and let the soup cook for as long as you can manage. Marcella Hazan says 2 1/2 hours, I'd say 1 hour should be more than enough to get a least a decent pot of soup. Add the cannelini beans and stir and cook for another 30 minutes.
Just before serving, remove the cheese crust and add freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano, about 3 tbsp. Only then taste for salt and add more if necessary. Let the soup cool down a bit before serving.

Serves 6-8 (According to Marcella, but for us two it made just enough to serve for dinner twice)

Apple Rhubarb Chutney with Halloumi

Today's adaptation for the Food Matters Project came to me after I was pondering what to use instead of the fish for quite some time, before I decided to go the Indian route. And then paneer was the first thing that came to my mind. I had to make do with halloumi, a cheese similar to paneer but quite a bit saltier. If you can get your hands on paneer or have time to make your own, please use it here.
The chutney I made to accompany the slices of pan-fried halloumi surprised me with quite a few layers of flavour and texture. The raw rhubarb stays crunchy and constrast nicely with the soft, cooked apple. The little sugar I added just cut down the sourness of the rhubarb without making the chutney to sweet. While I looked for inspiration for a chutney recipe I found this quote in Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons: To me, the beauty of chutney is that something delicious is created from something old and unwanted.
And in this spirit I decided to use apple in my adaptation, because making something delicious from something old is a great feeling.

Warm Moroccan Spiced Broccoli Orzo Salad

I did not actually plan on posting today's lunch until I tried my first bite. I am at home, writing an outline for my bachelor thesis, sanding the sides of my bed to later paint them and preparing for tomorrows classes. I only planned on making a quick lunch, using what I have.
A look in the fridge told me that I really needed to use this broccoli that I got in my csa last week (or was it the week before that? I really don't know). A quick search on 101cookbooks provided me with an idea for the broccoli: Broccoli Orzo salad. I mostly follow the recipe when it came to the main ingredients but decided to add some Moroccan spices. Or what I think are Moroccan spices, I really am not an expert on Moroccan cooking. Harissa, a little cinnamon and some preserved lemon and I am in heaven.
I have to keep this short, should be back to work by now.

Lemony Asparagus and Spinach Crepes

This is a quick post for a rather quick meal. I found myself in a bit of a hurry the last week or two. Or rather, I put myself int a bit of stress by not doing much during the first part of semester. Duh! I really should know by now, this is not my first semester. But every time I do the same, relaxing and enjoying my free time in the first part and then stressing about getting everything done on time.
 Thats when I crave simple food, simple but still delicious. Because I really need to step away from cooking all day in this time of the semester. Simple might mean different things to you, but making these crepes and filling them with simple ingredients was just the thing I needed. This is not the quickest meal around, but they were easy enough to make and reconnected me with something real.

Hummus Feta Soufflé

All I could think of the last days was soufflé. I never made one before, and I think I only had one once, and can't remember how it was. But I just love the idea of a soufflé, what it stands for in my imagination. I imagine that only really fancy people make soufflés, the ones who also have tea parties and wear hats. Or something like that. And while I thought it was a bit over the top to make a soufflé out of humble hummus, I just could not stop thinking about it.

I was a bit afraid to make a soufflé, though. I was afraid of failure, having heard that they are a bit difficult to get right. It felt a bit uncomfortable, moving into new territory. I'd love to think of myself as being a fearless cook, but I'm not. I have many insecurities in the kitchen. I don't know how many times in the past weeks I have said that I would love to try this or that, but don't because I am afraid of it. Afraid of failure. As if the cooking gods would come down to punish me if I end up making an imperfect soufflé.

I think the result was worth the risk, the nervousness, the sweaty hands I had as I stood in front of the oven, waiting for the magic to happen. And it happened, the soufflé rose nicely, but I guess I took it out a minute or two too early. It lost some of it's height. No cooking god came down to punish me, and the soufflé really tasted great. I think I can safely say that it was one of the best things I cooked so far. But perhaps that is just the feeling everyone has after conquering a fear. The hummus flavour did not come through much, but all the flavours combined with the lemon zest, and the light texture made me want to sing. I have that urge when I'm excited about something.

A picture of the not perfectly risen soufflé. I think it is pretty, anyway.

Using What You Have or: What To Do With Old Bread

I really hate wasting food. I feel bad when I have to throw something away because I did not come around to using it. Not because of the money. I usually have to throw away food that my flatmate bought and did not eat. I still feel bad about it. I don't know what it is, it is probably a mix between "there are people who don't have enough food to feed their children" and "this food had the potential to be something good". (is it strange to think that food has potential? I think I'm weird...)

So usually when I go out to buy food, I don't have a list of what I need to buy, but a mental list of what it is that I already have in my fridge. This wasn't reflected in my posts up till now. I thought I could only post "real" recipes.
This is not "me". I feel restricted by real recipes, I waste food if I have to buy all the ingredients in the recipe and then end up not using what is waiting for me in the fridge.

I often have old bread lying around. I eat bread for breakfast, but often I'm at my boyfriend's place and the bread does not get eaten quick enough. There are several things you can do with stale bread, but today I proudly present:

 

Crunchy Baked Acorn Squash with Mozzarella

A year or two ago I saw this recipe for baked squash with mozzarella in a cookbook. We looked at it in a bookstore and just loved the idea. My boyfriend took a picture of it, secretly and a bit ashamed because we had no intention to buy the book. I can't remember what the book looked like or what the name of the recipe was, but we took the inspiration from there and baked squash, topped with rosemary and mozzarella for quite a few times last winter, and I think also the one before. And it was absolutely delicious, the squash turns from hard to soft, it develops a balanced sweetness (not like pure sugar sweet) and the mozzarella melts, turns from white to golden brown and somehow changes its flavor.

Well enough, but this year I saw in the Ottolenghi cookbook Plenty, a recipe for crunchy squash with lemon. I don't remember the title of this recipe either, and I only remember the lemon bit about it. He cover the whole squash slices in a crunchy mixture that included lemon. Without looking up his recipe I decided to include the crunchy topping into the baked squash with mozzarella dish I already made. This is how this recipe was born, after thinking about it for quite some time, it came together really quickly.

Heidi's Feisty Green Beans

I love Heidi Swanson from 101cookbooks.com. I have tried out quite a few recipes she posted on her blog and I think I could cook everything on it and it would be a hit. I love her lemony chickpea stir-fry, I have made it several times already, and I don't usually cook the same things over and over again. A few months ago, I made this recipe for green beans and used Halloumi instead of the tofu in it. My boyfriend ate the leftovers cold and loved it, but I knew I had to make it again. I changed a few minor things, but basically it's the same recipe. It is somewhat difficult to describe the flavor of this dish, it definitely has Indian flavors from all the spices, but the wine doesn't quite fit into the Indian label. I served it with Basmati rice, sprinkled with some of the toasted almonds. I will be making this again, once everything is cut, toasted, chopped, etc, the preparation is really easy.

Eggplant Love

The eggplant. I don't like its name in English, the German or French "aubergine" sounds a lot nicer and highlights its beautiful color. We never had eggplant at home when I grew up, now I buy lots of them. Eggplants are one of the vegetables I buy out of season. I can live without tomatoes, without asparagus, without strawberries, just about anything, but you just can't replace the eggplant in my kitchen. We like to make a Moroccan tajine with chickpeas and eggplant here (recipe coming soon) and lately we began roasting them in the oven. The following is not a real recipe. But we already had it several times this year and it is just delicious.