Welcome!

Welcome! 

The sole purpose of this blog is to share my favored recipes with my friends. I'm not selling anything; I just love to cook!

I can think of many things I'd like to say as an introduction, but I've decided on this: I don't consider myself a good cook. To me, a good cook is someone who doesn't need a recipe. I've known many good cooks: Laurie Hartman, Karen Snyder, Angelika Mein, Diane Tompkins, and others. They don't need a recipe to make a wonderful dish; they can make something out of nothing! Me, I need recipes.

I do consider myself a real cook. I cook. I don't open a box, mix some ingredients with its contents, and call it good. In fact, I use very few prepared foods in my cooking; I do almost everything from scratch. On very rare occasions, I will use a recipe with a prepared ingredient, such as a cake mix, because the end product is absolutely wonderful. I am, however, much more likely to make that cake from scratch. By the same token, I don't grow and harvest my own ingredients! If you looked into my pantry, you'd see cans of diced tomatoes and evaporated milk, boxes of chicken stock, and dried pasta in glass canisters. (I do own a pasta maker; I just haven't spent the time to learn to use it well.) If I don't have fresh lemons on hand, I'll use bottled lemon juice. If you're looking for recipes with Hamburger Helper, however, you won't find them here.

In addition, about 90% of my cooking is with organic ingredients. I don't use soy, except for the unavoidable soy lecithin that appears in many ingredients. I don't use a microwave at all. I'm not a low-fat cook, and I don't use artificial sweeteners. I try very hard to make everything fresh.

When I post a recipe, I will tell you, if I can, where I got it. However, I don't have records of all the sources I've used over the years and will apologize now if I neglect to give appropriate credit. I will also share with you any notes I've made to myself about a recipe - changes I've made, what I've done differently - but I'll give you the original recipe in each case.

Well, this is a bit more of an introduction than I had in mind. Here is a recipe for Mulligatawny Soup. This one takes about an hour of prep time, simply because of all of the fresh vegetables in it, but it is very good and makes a large amount for freezing.

Mulligatawny Soup

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 green pepper, cut into 1/2-inch lengthwise slivers *

1 red pepper, cut into 1/2-inch lengthwise slivers *

2 cups chopped Granny Smith apples (about 1 1/2)

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 1/2 cups chopped Roma tomatoes (about 3)

4 tablespoons flour or 1 tablespoon arrowroot

4 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 cups chicken stock

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

8 whole black peppercorns

Heat butter in large stockpot. Add onions, garlic, peppers, apples, and celery and sauté over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and sauté briefly.

Stir in flour, curry powder, cardamom, and ground pepper. Cook over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in stock and mix well. Bring liquid to a low boil and simmer, partially covered, for 30-40 minutes.

In the meantime, poach the chicken breasts. Put chicken in a large skillet. Add the peppercorns and water to cover. Lay a sheet of waxed paper over the chicken. Bring water to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook chicken for 5-7 minutes, turning over about halfway through, until they are just cooked. The breasts will finish cooking as they cool in the water.

Shred the chicken and add to the soup. Season to taste and cook for a few minutes more to blend flavors.

If desired, serve with a dollop of yogurt and chutney. Sprinkle some coriander on top.

* Cut lengthwise into slivers, then cut slivers to 1/2-inch lengths.

Donna's Notes: 

If you use arrowroot as the thickener in place of the flour, you will have just produced a gluten-free soup!

I usually use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe, as that's what my husband prefers. You can easily use leftover chicken, too.