A Study in (Soup) Contrasts

I have all sorts of exciting explanations that I cooked up (ba-dum bum!) for today's recipes -- Tortilla Soup in honor of Cinco de Mayo, a double-recipe post to make up for having been absent for a month, that sort of thing. Really and truly, though, I've been sitting on these two soup recipes for weeks and weeks, and I'm just now getting around to posting them. Because I am a slacker. Hopefully these will prove to be worth their wait (I am on FIRE!) in deliciousness. Also because I'm a slacker, this is yet another post without any pictures to entice you. Sorry.

Tortilla Soup

This recipe was actually a conversion of one that I found on the Food Network site. You will not BELIEVE how many chicken tortilla soup recipes are out there, and practically no non-chicken ones. It's obnoxious, really.

2 tbsp peanut oil
2 small onions, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp chipotle powder
2 tsp salt
6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 c fresh cilantro
1/4 c fresh lime juice
a handful of tortilla strips

Heat oil in a medium cooking pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, chipotle powder, and salt, and cook until onion is translucent. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add corn, and give it another 5 minutes or so (just until heated through). Remove from heat, and add the tomato, cilantro, and lime. Add a small pile of tortilla strips to the bottom of each bowl and ladle the soup over it. This ended up serving about 3. I actually did an experiment and made flour tortilla strips -- I don't recommend it. They get soggy and squishy. Corn tortilla strips will stay more crisp in the soup.

Creamy-Dilly Fish Chowda

I made this recipe up all by myself. I was inspired by a pot of fish chowder at the grocery store (in the hot food bar) that smelled so fantastic, I decided I needed to make some of my own...because I am morally opposed to buying that sort of thing pre-made. It's super-easy, but you have to pronounce it "Chowda!" If I catch anyone saying "chowder" I will take their soup away from them. It is that simple.

1/2 stick butter
3 tbsp flour
1 small onion, chopped
1 c frozen corn, thawed
1 large, or 2 medium, whitefish fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces
note: I used cod, but I think something a little more flavorful, like flounder, might be good next time. Any ole whitefish will do, though. Be a cheapskate! It's just soup!
1 c heavy cream
2 c milk
2 tbsp dried dill
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt your butter in your soup pot over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until consistent, then whisk more slowly, but constantly, until the mixture stops forming bubbles. At this point, immediately add your onion, corn, and fish. Trade your whisk out for a rubber spatula and continue to stir constantly for a minute or two (just long enough to get your roux heated back up). Add the heavy cream, and stir until consistent. Add the milk gradually, continuing to stir until smooth (not the whole thing, obviously, but you want the cream-base-part to be consistent). Add the dill, salt and pepper, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, until your fish is cooked through and the flavors are distributed. I recommend serving this with toast for dipping, or just throwing some croutons on top if you've got them. This is exceedingly simple and SO GOOD. But then, everything with heavy cream in it is going to be delicious.

Sweet Ginger Shrimp

Like every food item I post on here, I must include the story behind the dinner. I was attempting to make an Asian noodle stir fry type thing, and I cooked the shrimp separately so I could have two different flavors and then stack them. Well, I made an important discovery: I do not have the ability to make Asian noodles successfully. Whenever I try, they end up in a clumpy, starchy noodle cake. Also, unfortunately, I didn't have a good selection of vegetables to put in it, so the overall result of the noodle-fry half of the meal was, while tasty enough not to be an utter failure, certainly nothing to write home about (or to write you all about, for that matter). The shrimp, on the other hand, were fan-freakin-tastic, so I will now share that very simple and utterly delicious recipe with you.

Sweet Ginger Shrimp

1/2 lb large (16-20 count) raw shrimp
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tbsp ginger
1 heaping tbsp brown sugar
salt & pepper

Peel and de-vein shrimp, if necessary, then put into a medium sized bowl. Add ginger, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat with the butter and garlic. When the butter starts to bubble, add the shrimp. Cook until pink and opaque, then serve over rice (or a tasty Asian stir fry! :P). Enjoy -- and trust me, you will!

Steak Dinner, hold the steak

For this meal what I really wanted was something to reflect the classic steak dinner, meat-and-potatoes-type of thing, but (obviously) without the steak part. This is extremely simple, and the BEST part of it (I think) is that I've finally perfected southern-style green beans without bacon or salt pork.

Steak Salmon Dinner

2 1/4 lb salmon fillets
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp steak seasoning

2 potatoes*
2 tbsp low-fat sour cream or cream cheese
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped

fresh green beans (2 servings' worth -- can't really measure these by cups, they're too big. I'd say I used about 1/2 lb and had lots of leftover)
1 tbsp butter
1 shallot
1/3 c vegetable broth
generous sprinkling of bacon salt
1 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese

Start with the potatoes, 'cause they take a LONG time. Preheat the oven to 425, and toss the potatoes in it. Bake 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes.

When your 'tatoes have about 30 minutes left, start the beans. Dice the shallot. Melt butter in skillet over medium heat, then add shallot, heating until it begins to become translucent. Add green beans, seasoning with bacon salt and tossing to coat. Cook 5 minutes or so, stirring regularly. Add vegetable broth and reduce heat to low; cover.

When the potatoes have maybe 5 minutes left, prepare the salmon. This one's tough, so pay attention! Take a baking pan. Put the salmon in it. Coat them with a little olive oil, sprinkle them with steak seasoning. When you take the potatoes out of the oven, put the salmon in for 20 minutes. See? Really friggin difficult.

Turn off the green beans about 5 minutes before the salmon comes out. Split the baked potatoes and dress with cream cheese/sour cream and chives. Garnish the green beans with the parm. Then you eat it! :)

*potato note: When I made these I used red potatoes, but if you like baking potatoes or yukon golds or whatever, use what you like. It's just a baked potato.

Curry, my way

In my food I believe in two very important principles -- one is, obviously, deliciousness, and the other is simplicity. This has both. And it's ethnic, which makes you look impressive to your friends ;)

Sweet Tofu Curry

1 pkg extra-firm tofu
2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable oil for those with allergies)
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 heaping tbsp curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1/4 c vegetable broth
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup frozen spinach

First, and most importantly, the morning before you make this recipe, drain the tofu! The longer tofu drains, the more it will absorb flavor. I recommend slicing it into 4 or 5 pieces, then laying those pieces out on a pile of paper towels and leaving that in the fridge. If you don't have time for that, then before you start preparing anything else, lay out the tofu slices with paper towels on both sides, and put a weight over the whole thing (like a dinner plate or something) and leave it until it's ready to be sliced.

When you're ready to start cooking, finely chop the garlic, thin-slice the shallot, and cube up the tofu. Add your oil to a large pan on medium heat, and add the garlic and shallot. When the shallot gets translucent, add your curry paste, mixing it into the oil until it is consistent, then add your tofu. Cook tofu about 3 minutes with the curry paste mixture.

Add coconut milk, vegetable broth, and white wine, mixing until consistent. Stir in frozen spinach, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until mixture is reduced by about half, stirring occasionally. Feel free to add salt and pepper as you find necessary, but I don't think it really needs it.

Serve over basmati or jasmine rice.

So good it disappeared!

Ok, I meant to take a picture of this -- I really did. It's lovely, and colorful and worth photographing. But...uh...well, I ate it all before I remembered to take a picture.

Tri-Color Veggie Salad

1 c frozen whole kernel corn
1 c frozen green peas
1 fresh tomato
1/2 small yellow onion
1 c fat-free sour cream
1/2 tbsp garlic salt
1/2 tbsp adobo
2 tsp black pepper

This is about the easiest assembly ever: thaw the corn and peas. Chop up the onion and the tomato very small. Put everything in a bowl and mix together. The only note that I do have is about the adobo: I actually have a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that lives in my fridge, and that was where I got my seasoning from. If you prefer, feel free to substitute that with cayenne pepper, chipotle powder, pepper sauce, or anything else slightly spicy that would make you happy.

This salad is awesome for picnics because it is SUPER easy and looks really pretty because of all the colors.

What I had for lunch today

I spent a good portion of this morning trying to figure out what to post today. I have a pretty substantial number of tasty dishes waiting in the wings for days when I can't think of anything new, but really it's way too early in the game to be breaking out the old faithfuls. Fortunately, I happened to make a sandwich for lunch today that was just so good I had to share it.

Fresh Veggie Ciabatta Sandwich

Prep time: 10 minutes

~take & bake multigrain ciabatta rolls
~cucumber
~artichoke hearts
~alfalfa sprouts
~carrot
~kalamata olive tapenade
~fromager d'affinois

I'm not including any measurements here, because you can make this recipe for one or for fifty, it's all up to you. For my sandwich, though, I used one ciabatta roll (and if you can't find the take & bake ones at your grocery store, feel free to just get a regular one and warm it up in your oven or toaster oven on "warm"). The take & bake roll needs to heat for about 8 minutes (follow the instructions on your own rolls, of course) and while it's baking, you can multi-task and get your veggies prepared.

Peel and thinly slice the cucumber(s) into rounds, and peel and shred your carrot(s). If the artichoke hearts came from a can, chances are they're already quartered, but if they're whole, you need to quarter them, and you may also want to peel them apart just so the sandwich isn't too tall and falls apart.



Once the bread is done, slice the rolls in half lengthwise. Spread one side with the kalamata tapenade, and the other with the fromager d'affinois.

Cheese always deserves a special note from me. I love cheese, and use it in almost everything. For this specific sandwich I used fromager d'affinois that was actually made from goat's milk instead of cow's milk, which gave it that wonderful subtle bite that only goat cheese can offer. If you want the cheese milder to offset the tapenade, however, you could certainly use the regular cow's-milk variety, or if you would prefer it a brie would be just as tasty. For the timid, or those on a very tight budget, cream cheese might also be a yummy substitute.

The rest is even simpler than it started. Spread a few cucumber slices on the bottom half of the roll; place the artichokes on top of that, followed by your sprouts and some shredded carrot for color and crunch. Put the lid on your sandwich, and enjoy!

I know, I know, this is ridiculously easy, but it's the flavor that counts. We all love a challenge, but I love a good lunch even more.

Biscuits and Gravy 2 Ways

Let me warn you, just because I said this was a pescy/veggie blog doesn't mean it's a health-food blog. I love old-fashioned country meals; my mother was an expert, and she made two things that became my favorite foods as I grew up. One was meatloaf which, I'm sorry to say, I still have not been able to recreate without it's main ingredient: meat. The second, though, was biscuits and gravy -- sausage gravy, to be specific. I am proud to say that I have designed not one, but two new ways to make that old favorite: one is vegetarian, the other vegan. As my favorite food, I thought it would be only fair to make it my first post.


Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy

Mom's biscuits

Prep time: 20 minutes
Oven: 450 degrees F

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients together with french whip or fork. Stir in melted butter (or vegetable oil for lower-cholesterol biscuits) with a wooden spoon. Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased (nonstick!) baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes. Allow biscuits to cool 5-10 minutes.


"Sausage" Gravy

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

1/2 lb Gimme Lean sausage (or other meatless ground sausage-flavored product)
1 small yellow onion
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
generous grinds of black pepper
medium pinch of kosher or sea salt

other suggested seasonings:
smoked paprika
toasted onion powder
garlic powder
Bacon Salt

For anyone accustomed to making gravies with a roux, my method will seem a little strange here. Traditionally, one would brown the sausage, scoop out the meat and use the pan drippings as the fat for the roux. There are two problems with using fake sausage: one is that it doesn't produce any drippings, and the other is that it does need to be browned in a pan before it can join the gravy (even though all it really needs is to heat up, if it doesn't brown first the texture is all funny). I also dislike doing dishes, so I refuse to cook the sausage in a separate pan and add it later. That being said:

Pour your milk into a measuring cup or other container, and set aside (this works much better if the milk is at room temperature).

Use a medium-sized skillet with high edges, on medium heat. Melt the butter, adding the "sausage" and onions after the butter is melted but before it's gotten too hot (brown butter is not delicious in this situation). Break up the "sausage" with a spatula into small-bite-sized pieces and season, stirring with the butter until the sausage is slightly browned and the onion is translucent. Spread the flour over the mixture, stirring until it looks like the "sausage" has gotten coated in a paste or dough (which is your roux).

SLOWLY (I cannot stress that enough) add milk to the mixture; a tablespoon at a time is really enough. Stir constantly, incorporating each portion of milk as you add it. If you add the milk too quickly, the gravy will never thicken and it will be very lumpy. Continue to add milk until you reach the desired consistency (you may need more or less than called for).

Sample the gravy at this point (the fun part!) and add additional seasonings as needed.


Vegan Biscuits and Gravy

"Mom's" Vegan Biscuits

Substitute 1/3 cup butter with vegetable oil, and 1 cup milk with plain soy yogurt. Follow recipe as above.

Also, for a really lovely subtle sweet flavor, try using vanilla soy yogurt. This is great if you'd like to eat the biscuits plain, or with preserves, and surprisingly they're also very good with gravy!

Vegan "Sausage" Gravy

Substitute butter with vegetable oil, and milk with vegetable broth. For a little extra creaminess, you could use a mixture of soy milk and vegetable broth, but I personally feel that the soy gives the gravy a weird flavor. Follow recipe above.

The most fun part!
Crumble a few biscuits into a bowl, cover with a generous portion of gravy, and enjoy!

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Mattie, and I am a recently-converted pescatarian (get it? pesky Mattie, pesky-tarian? punny, no?). While I discovered, to my chagrin, that pescatarian is not, in fact, a real word acknowledged by the OED, it is nonetheless what I have become. I have eschewed all meat products save for fish and select other seafood products, as well as leather, fur, gelatin, and any cosmetic or cleaning product tested on animals.
Being someone who loves to cook, the first crisis I encountered after the change was "How do I make this without bacon?!" So many recipes just don't seem the same without their traditional meaty ingredients, and making dinner delicious without the aid of pan drippings, chicken stock, or any of the other animal products I used to take for granted is proving to be quite a challenge. My adventures in creating new, meat-free and delicious foods needed chronicling, and I've decided to share those chronicles with the lovely audience of the internet. This is where you come in.
Here you can share in my adventures, mishaps, and discoveries, as well as occasionally laughing at my horrific failures. I hope to be able to include images with as many recipes and stories as possible, as encouragement to try some of the dishes posted. Many dishes will be seafood or fish meals, but I'm also making endeavors into vegetarian, and occasionally even vegan meals. I even have some vegan baking recipes to share!
So if you've ever faced a time-honored family recipe, and been stymied by the question "How do I make this without bacon?" I might just be able to show you.