I swear I cook more than soup!
By the way LJ, I'd love to live in Star Trek world.
Today's experiments thus far are:
Carrot soup, because I found organic carrots for less than "normal" ones
Fruit leathers
Attempting to alter a pickle recipe
So far the fruit leather has been in my oven for about 3 hours, spread thinly onto ceramic oven-safe dishware. (I'm in need of better bake ware) It's been at 140, with the door slightly propped open to release excess moisture. (Since my house is actually a bit chilly I'm not considering this wasteful like I might otherwise, since I've been able to keep the thermostat off because of the extra warmth.) Since this was a first run I used some unsweetened natural applesauce I had lying around. One dish is spread with a layer of plain old apple, and the other has a spoonful of red plum jelly. I did this for variety, and because some people recommended adding sweetener. So far the leather is tacky, but the edges are dry enough to steal a nibble - and let me tell you, even unsweetened applesauce gets plenty sweet after you dry and condense it! Depending on how this turns out I may move up to fresh/frozen this weekend. The lighter spots in the photo are from the less dry areas, and the weird pieces missing form the edges are my texture/taste nibbles, haha. They recomended using Pam for easier release, but I don't have any so I dampened a paper towel slightly with vegetable oil and rubbed my plates down before spreading my puree. I also need a new rubber spatula for easier and more uniform spreading.
*please ignore my dirty oven, until the flash lit I wasn't aware it was quite that grimey on the bottom. Ick.*
The pickles look ok, but I think I might have overcooked them slightly. Too bad I can't open the jar for 6 weeks.
The soup, ohhhh the soup.... It's a lovely shade of orange, and for a pot (which would probably serve 4, give or take) it cost roughly 1.50 - maybe less.
1 bag of organic carrots, chopped into chunks but not peeled (any carrot will do, these were just on sale)
water to cover
lots of garlic
roughly 2 teaspoons of salt
a tablespoon of sugar
some random spices, like red pepper flakes and lemon pepper
splash of oil
Cook until mushy, then puree in blender (that you hopefully bought second hand!) until velvety smooth. (that's why I didn't bother to peel my carrots, since I was going to puree them anyway. The added fiber helps to replace what I cooked out. I am a HUGE fan of fiber, especially since most Americans are either taking fiber supliments, or are getting way too little roughage. John Harvey Kellog may have been a loon - but he was right about some things, like a "healthy bowel", haha.) If you don't own a blender, just use a potato masher or fork to get a consistency you like.
I then added a splash of milk to cool it and thin the mixture down slightly. It has a very pumpkin-esque flavor. Since I didn't have any sour cream, I plopped a spoonful of cottage cheese in the center, and it's proving to be a decent replacement. It's still thick enough to hold your toast up when you dip, like cream of wheat density. My toast looks obscenely buttered in this shot, haha, but that's just the flash and the fact that my toast wasn't quite warm enough to totally melt my butter.
It reminds me of those fancy organic soups in the carton you can buy at the IGA on Lafayette for outragious prices (I guiltily admit to purchasing these a few times as a vegetarian) except it costs slightly more than a dollar for twice the soup.
I'm sure something similar could be done with any squash or pumpkin. Fall is the best time for soup, and root veggies.
Today's experiments thus far are:
Carrot soup, because I found organic carrots for less than "normal" ones
Fruit leathers
Attempting to alter a pickle recipe
So far the fruit leather has been in my oven for about 3 hours, spread thinly onto ceramic oven-safe dishware. (I'm in need of better bake ware) It's been at 140, with the door slightly propped open to release excess moisture. (Since my house is actually a bit chilly I'm not considering this wasteful like I might otherwise, since I've been able to keep the thermostat off because of the extra warmth.) Since this was a first run I used some unsweetened natural applesauce I had lying around. One dish is spread with a layer of plain old apple, and the other has a spoonful of red plum jelly. I did this for variety, and because some people recommended adding sweetener. So far the leather is tacky, but the edges are dry enough to steal a nibble - and let me tell you, even unsweetened applesauce gets plenty sweet after you dry and condense it! Depending on how this turns out I may move up to fresh/frozen this weekend. The lighter spots in the photo are from the less dry areas, and the weird pieces missing form the edges are my texture/taste nibbles, haha. They recomended using Pam for easier release, but I don't have any so I dampened a paper towel slightly with vegetable oil and rubbed my plates down before spreading my puree. I also need a new rubber spatula for easier and more uniform spreading.
*please ignore my dirty oven, until the flash lit I wasn't aware it was quite that grimey on the bottom. Ick.*
The pickles look ok, but I think I might have overcooked them slightly. Too bad I can't open the jar for 6 weeks.
The soup, ohhhh the soup.... It's a lovely shade of orange, and for a pot (which would probably serve 4, give or take) it cost roughly 1.50 - maybe less.
1 bag of organic carrots, chopped into chunks but not peeled (any carrot will do, these were just on sale)
water to cover
lots of garlic
roughly 2 teaspoons of salt
a tablespoon of sugar
some random spices, like red pepper flakes and lemon pepper
splash of oil
Cook until mushy, then puree in blender (that you hopefully bought second hand!) until velvety smooth. (that's why I didn't bother to peel my carrots, since I was going to puree them anyway. The added fiber helps to replace what I cooked out. I am a HUGE fan of fiber, especially since most Americans are either taking fiber supliments, or are getting way too little roughage. John Harvey Kellog may have been a loon - but he was right about some things, like a "healthy bowel", haha.) If you don't own a blender, just use a potato masher or fork to get a consistency you like.
I then added a splash of milk to cool it and thin the mixture down slightly. It has a very pumpkin-esque flavor. Since I didn't have any sour cream, I plopped a spoonful of cottage cheese in the center, and it's proving to be a decent replacement. It's still thick enough to hold your toast up when you dip, like cream of wheat density. My toast looks obscenely buttered in this shot, haha, but that's just the flash and the fact that my toast wasn't quite warm enough to totally melt my butter.
It reminds me of those fancy organic soups in the carton you can buy at the IGA on Lafayette for outragious prices (I guiltily admit to purchasing these a few times as a vegetarian) except it costs slightly more than a dollar for twice the soup.
I'm sure something similar could be done with any squash or pumpkin. Fall is the best time for soup, and root veggies.