Lunch
In a moment of some bizarre mania, I bought a giant beautiful cauliflower right before Thanksgiving. It smiled at me from the vegetable crisper last night and I knew something needed to be done with it pretty durn quick. All I've been wanting recently, as the hernia takes over my life, is soup, so soup it was to be. No carrots or celery, so I couldn't make a mirepoix. I also had a couple pounds of potatoes to deal with and bacon getting close to its due date.
Thus:
Cauliflower chowder (loosely speaking)
1 head cauliflower (or however much you want), chopped
a bunch of potatoes, peeled and chopped to a similar size as the cauliflower bits
2 onions, chopped
bacon, chopped (I used a lot, you don't have to, as well as extra bacon grease still in the frying pan from the breakfast bacon, but there are times that less is more, if you know what I mean)
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes (you can use diced or crushed or whatever, I like to crush the whole ones myself even if they end up spitting tomato juice and seeds all over me in the process)
1 can corn (or frozen corn, whatever)
1 qt. chicken broth and then maybe a cup or so of water
1/4 c. flour or so
sat, pepa, parsley, dill, hot pepper flakes (or other seasonings as you prefer, you might not have dill sitting around anywhere, so oregano and basil is fine)
This method of making chowder doesn't have dairy in it, so maybe it isn't a real chowder, but who cares. It's thickened with flour in a method I learned from an Emeril recipe (about the only thing of use I've ever gotten from the guy).
Soften the bacon over a low heat in your stock pot of dutch oven. Add the onion and soften that too. It's good to keep stirring, and this was when I added in a little extra bacon grease. Once the onion gets semi-transparent, add the potatoes, keep stirring to warm and coat with fat. After that, do the same with the cauliflower and the corn, continuing to stir. You want all the parts coated with whatever fat you're cooking with (it doesn't have to be bacon, but bacon fat makes everything taste better).
At this point, sprinkle about half the flour on top, and stir thoroughly to coat the vegetable/bacon mix. You need to keep stirring pretty constantly now, until you add the liquid, so nothing scorches. Add the second part of the flour and keep stirring. The flour will get sort of pasty when it coats the vegetables and begin to cook, which is good. Just don't let it burn. Keeping the heat low here helps with this. You can always turn it up later. (This is the Emeril part, by the way).
Add tomatoes and stir in to cook briefly, then the stock and water, enough to cover the vegetables by a bit and not boil away. It isn't a science. Add seasoning and herbs, stir and bring to a low boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook till the vegetables are as tender as you like them.
Obviously, this soup would be easy to make vegetarian or even vegan, but that's not my bag. If you wanted to add milk or cream at the end to make it more chowdery, you could do that too, just don't let it boil again if you do.
Thus:
Cauliflower chowder (loosely speaking)
1 head cauliflower (or however much you want), chopped
a bunch of potatoes, peeled and chopped to a similar size as the cauliflower bits
2 onions, chopped
bacon, chopped (I used a lot, you don't have to, as well as extra bacon grease still in the frying pan from the breakfast bacon, but there are times that less is more, if you know what I mean)
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes (you can use diced or crushed or whatever, I like to crush the whole ones myself even if they end up spitting tomato juice and seeds all over me in the process)
1 can corn (or frozen corn, whatever)
1 qt. chicken broth and then maybe a cup or so of water
1/4 c. flour or so
sat, pepa, parsley, dill, hot pepper flakes (or other seasonings as you prefer, you might not have dill sitting around anywhere, so oregano and basil is fine)
This method of making chowder doesn't have dairy in it, so maybe it isn't a real chowder, but who cares. It's thickened with flour in a method I learned from an Emeril recipe (about the only thing of use I've ever gotten from the guy).
Soften the bacon over a low heat in your stock pot of dutch oven. Add the onion and soften that too. It's good to keep stirring, and this was when I added in a little extra bacon grease. Once the onion gets semi-transparent, add the potatoes, keep stirring to warm and coat with fat. After that, do the same with the cauliflower and the corn, continuing to stir. You want all the parts coated with whatever fat you're cooking with (it doesn't have to be bacon, but bacon fat makes everything taste better).
At this point, sprinkle about half the flour on top, and stir thoroughly to coat the vegetable/bacon mix. You need to keep stirring pretty constantly now, until you add the liquid, so nothing scorches. Add the second part of the flour and keep stirring. The flour will get sort of pasty when it coats the vegetables and begin to cook, which is good. Just don't let it burn. Keeping the heat low here helps with this. You can always turn it up later. (This is the Emeril part, by the way).
Add tomatoes and stir in to cook briefly, then the stock and water, enough to cover the vegetables by a bit and not boil away. It isn't a science. Add seasoning and herbs, stir and bring to a low boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook till the vegetables are as tender as you like them.
Obviously, this soup would be easy to make vegetarian or even vegan, but that's not my bag. If you wanted to add milk or cream at the end to make it more chowdery, you could do that too, just don't let it boil again if you do.