Quintessential Garlic Oil

I don't know why it took me so long to come up with this, and I don't know why it took me so long to post this. It is imperative you have this at all times in your fridge!

So Pan and I are fans of garlic. I use it often, and there is a garlicky, peppery pork rib soup that we love to have which uses about 60 cloves at one go, so it's a no-brainer that we purchase lots of garlic. But peeling every single bulb is sometimes very trying on my nerves, especially when those papery skins go flying.. Sure there are little culinary tricks to help, but when i've got my wok to smoking point on the stove, and need to add the garlic quickly! quickly!, i don't want no fuss at all, ma'am.

So we buy garlic in bulk, and peeled. When we say bulk, we mean 3 pounds of no-fuss garlicky goodness. We give some away, but more often than not some of the garlic start to grow mould in the bag. Never thought it was possible, but trust me. It's not a pleasant sight.

Instead of letting it go to waste, or frantically try to incorporate it in EVERY dish, I decided one day to make a whole pot full of garlic oil. It's so simple, and it will change your life forever.

Start with smashing bulbs of garlic. You can work with as much or as little garlic as you'd like, but honestly if you're going to get into it, you might as well make a bigger portion. They keep well both in the fridge and freezer, and is so easy to use, you'll find yourself drizzling it over just about anything.

I've smashed them both using the flat side of a butcher's knife, and using a motar and pestle. No preference over either. You can do a coarse or fine smash, or a mixture. Frankly, I don't really care and neither should you. There are many other things to worry about, such as making sure your little fur baby doesn't pee on the carpet again, or that you remember to take the garbage out for pickup.

Go for a proportion of about 1 part garlic to 1.5 parts oil. You can play around as much as you like, but i've found that this ratio allows for a very aromatic and flavorful oil that isn't too pungent or weak. Just make sure that there is sufficient oil to cover the garlic as you heat it gently.

As mentioned, heat it gently, stirring occasionally. I let it sit on the stove for 1/2 hour, sometimes more. Make sure it does not burn. Don't go over an hour though, I did it once and somehow it didn't taste quite right.

Store in airtight container in the fridge. You can opt to strain out the garlic, or leave it in. I leave it in. Why waste? Mine is about a month old in the fridge and still going strong.

USES

1) Stir-frys
2) Vegetable soups
3) Salad dressing
4) Condiments (heat the oil with the garlic up until the garlic turns medium brown color-- you probably want a finer mash for this)
5) Dipping crusty bread
6) Making pasta sauces, both tomato-based and oil-based (eg aglio olio, anchovies etc)
7) Drizzling over home-made pizza
8) Drizzling over hummus and other creamy dips

go bananas with it!



PS: don't freak out if some garlic turn green. It's a harmless chemical process called oxidation. Proceed to eat.

My Bell Pepper (and pasta sauce) Soup

Yeah.. so I'm shameless. But don't you hate how pasta recipes just seem to always call for one and three quarters of a jar of tomato sauce? Not two, but one and three quarters. You'd almost always find a jar of pasta sauce in my fridge, poor babe.

This was my cure for the poor quarter cup of pasta sauce languishing away..


Red Bell Pepper and Pasta Sauce Soup

And actually, I'm not ashamed, because it is so, sooooo damned good. I used to think that celery was the vegetable of choice (I've had 6 bowls of that stuff in the past two weeks. Just thinking of it should make any normal person shudder, but I'd gladly dig into some right now!) but guess what? This takes the cake. A rich, decadent cake..


Recipe


1 red bell pepper (red>orange>yellow, NO green!)
1/2 vidalia onion, coarsely diced
1/2 russet baking potato, skinned and coarsely diced
1.5 tbs butter
2 tbs garlic oil
1/2 cup good chicken stock
1.5 cups water
Leftover tomato-based pasta sauce (marinara's the best)-- up to 1/3 cup.
salt, pepper to taste


There is only one additional step to this recipe, other than that, it's basically the same Mother Vegetable Soup recipe-- and that is to blanch the pepper in hot water so that the skin peels right off. You could char it so the skin blisters, but hey, too much work.

Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Score the skin of the pepper at the ends and top and around the sides. Once the water comes to a rapid boil, lower the pepper in, and let it boil away for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally so that all sides are boiled thoroughly.

Pour the hot water away and fill the pot with cold water to cool the pepper down. When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off. If you can't get it all off, it's ok.

Roughly dice, and you're ready to rock and roll!

In the same pot (wiped down of course), add the butter and garlic oil and let it sizzle at medium heat. Add your diced onion AND the bell pepper so that the pepper gets some of that hot action.

Stir fry for about 5 minutes-- you'll see the onion turning translucent, then add your diced potato. Season with salt and coarse black pepper, add in your pasta sauce. Fry until the edges are slightly brown (about 5 more minutes(, then add in the chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let it cool before attempting to blitz it in the blender.

You're basically following the same Mother Vegetable Soup Recipe.. except that this time, the liquids are altered to make way for the pasta sauce. Also, the serving size is smaller. It might be because I couldn't stop spooning the stuff from the blender straight to my watering mouth?

I can imagine this being an excellent side to a grilled cheese sandwich, or if you were to crack an egg into the pot while reheating/bowl before zapping in the microwave or, oh! meatballs! this soup could be a super hearty meal on its own. 

Looking forward to lunch tomorrow! PS: I have the worst lighting ever.

The Mother Vegetable Soup

I've been obsessing over veggie soups a little.. You know, the creamy, comforting, luscious kind. The kind that sticks to your soup spoon and makes you scrape off the sides and bottoms of the bowl to get one last half spoonful.

So I went to look for a couple of ideas, and I thought about it a lot. And guess what? There are TONS of recipes, all just a LITTLE different from one another.. by an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, by the proportions of ingredients, by the cook time and the prep time.. all silly differences, in my opinion, cuz when you read the commenters' take on the original recipe, their alterations actually make the recipe someone else's recipe. You know what I mean?

I figured it's about time we put an end to all these cross-referencing how to make a bowl of pea soup, or edamame soup, or carrot soup, or whatnot. With a bit of common kitchen sense, taste sense, and a sense of adventure-- oh and sensibility haha-- you can make your own damn recipe.

So instead of just giving you yet another recipe (I lie-- there are recipes at the end of this post),  I thought the most sensible thing would be to dissect it and explain why these ingredients, why this step. I must warn you gravely that the measurements will be absolutely imprecise, but that's the whole point. Wouldn't it be lovely to waltz around the kitchen stirring away here, adding a sprinkling of salt there, with the music on and no freakin' STRESS? Yepp, it's possible. But you need to tune in to your senses of smell, taste, and intuition. And you start building it up here.

BASICS 

You need at least item from each class:

FAT

vegetable oil (olive, canola, sunflower. Neutral tasting, it will allow the taste of the vegetable to shine)
butter (salted/unsalted. If salted, obviously taste before adding more salt when seasoning! Adds oomph)
flavored oil EG: garlic oil (my favorite, it adds tons of flavor and for this reason will also go under seasoning)

reason: you will need some fat to add some richness to the soup, and the fat will add depth to the flavor profile when sautee-ing the vegetables, thus resulting in a more robust, full-tasting soup.


VEGETABLE

edamame (try mixing in a teaspoon of miso. It's fantastic)
carrot
asparagus
pea
corn
celery
cabbage (yes! even cabbage!)
etc

AND
onion (I recommend vidalias over yellows)
AND
potato

reason: you MUST have the onion to add depth of flavor. The onion, caramalized in the fat, will set the outline to the soup. The potato adds the backbone, the heartiness and calorific oomph that your tastebuds and stomach will appreciate, and together, these two humble vegetables will allow your chosen vegetables to shine through the soup. Some will say that the potato is not mandatory, but I say it is. Just choose to put in less if you are wary of super thick, rib-sticking soups (as I am).

LIQUID

water (neutral tasting, very important when thinning in the end)
chicken stock
vegetable stock


THICKENING INGREDIENT

milk (will definitely get you closer to the "cream of xxx" taste)
creme fraiche (can only imagine good things this will do to your soup!)
potato (it truly is the thickening ingredient, and enables the meal to be vegan or vegetarian. Like I mentioned earlier, play with the amount of potato to get to the right consistency)

reason: you need this to bind the soup together, or else the taste of the soup will not come together and it will just be a thin-tasting, insipid, oliver-twist-eque-"please, may I have some more"- mess.

SEASONING

salt (sea, kosher, smoked (eh,) pink, etc)
cracked black pepper
garlic oil (I recommend)
miso paste (for vegans or vegetarians who need more umami than what water or veggie stock can offer)
broken up sour cream and onion lays potato chips (my guilty pleasure)
ground cayenne pepper
a spritz of lemon juice (for brightness)


so pick at least one from each class, or mix around to find your favorite balance. Personally, for FATS I like a combination of garlic oil and butter.. Very delicious. For VEGETABLES, I have had great success with frozen peas, a carrot and corn blend, and edamame. I have always also used a mix of chicken stock and water as the LIQUID. The chicken stock adds great flavor, and I top it off with water to prevent the chicken taste from being too overwhelming.  Potato has always been my choice for thickening ingredient. I am not particularly fond of milk, and have my fair share quantity wise in the form of ice cream and yoghurt. For SEASONING, always salt and pepper and garlic oil. I've found that miso paste is particularly good in the edamame soup. It just taste so.. right. Like they belong together.

METHOD

Heat up fat in a medium sized pot. If you are using butter, take care not to let it brown. 
Add diced onions first, sweat over medium heat. 
reason: releases the sweetness.

Add the diced potatoes. When the potatoes start to brown along the sides, add in the vegetables, continue to sweat until softened, mixing often. Season with a little salt, and some pepper. 
reason: releases the sweetness, allows flavor profile to develop. Mixing prevents the veggies from steaming instead of sweating.

Add in your liquid, bring to boil, simmer until vegetables are tender. 
reason: you want soup, right! not a stir fry?? Also, make sure the vegetables are tender by tasting it. How long it will take to simmer depends on the size of the diced veggies, etc. Estimate about 20 minutes. Add just enough liquid to cover all your vegetables and simmer away, topping up with water if necessary. Do not add too much, as you will need to go through trouble-shooting steps to re-thicken. But you can always thin your soup out at the end with more water. There will be minimal if no more cooking after it reaches the blender. This is because the thick soup will bubble and burst in the pan, and can scald you. Very dangerous. So make sure everything is tender so you get a smooth soup, and not a soup full of unpleasant hard grains.

Cool mixture down before pouring into the blender. (I use ice cubes since I am terrible at waiting)You might need to do this is several batches if your total volume is large. This prevents hot liquids from spitting out from the blender, which can scald you badly.

Season to taste, add hot water if soup is too thick (I find through all my soup making that this is most probably so).

Measurements, did you say? WHAT? Even after such a thorough explanation of how things work? You big baby.

 A rough measurement would look like this. It depends entirely on how thick you want your soup to be, how hearty, how salty, how rich, and what types of vegetables you use. Naturally, legumes such as peas and edamames will require much less potato, and if you are using a sweet potato as your chosen vegetable, you probably don't need very much potato at all, unless you are hoping to lighten the taste of the sweet potato (not a bad idea). If you are using milk or creme fraiche as your thickener, you obviously will need MUCH LESS total liquids to cook with, duh. Don't get it? IT'S BECAUSE IT'S A LIQUID TOO.


My Edamame Soup

~1 cup edamame (I shelled it from 16 oz of edamame-in-shell)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup water (1 additional cup of water to thin it out after blending)
salt, pepper, and hoba miso (a sweet miso)
1tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter


My Carrot and Corn Soup

~1.5 cups fresh corn kernels (from 1 ear of corn)
2 cups carrots (chopped or diced so that it cooks faster)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
2 cups chicken stock
1 cups water (additional for thinning)
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter

NEW! -- I just made this yesterday and I have to say, this was absolutely delicious. Use a longer simmer time to ensure that the celery is entirely tender.

My Celery Soup

5-6 stalks of celery, strings removed and diced (at least 3 cups)
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia potato (about 1 cup)
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter


My Cabbage and Jalapeño Soup

shit-- I forgot to take photos.. or else this could go up as an independent post. This is what happens when I'm too motivated to eat what I cook, asap.

4 cups chopped cabbage (i used a green cabbage, but i'm sure you could use fancier ones like savoy, maybe even a red cabbage!)
1/2 Jalapeño (it could use up to one whole), diced, seeds and stem removed
1/2 russet potato (about 1 cup)
1/2 vidalia onion (about 1 cup)
2 tbs garlic oil
1.5 tbs butter
2 cups chicken stock (unlike other veggies, cabbage is rather bland, so I upped the chicken stock)
1.5 cups water
salt, pepper to taste

Same method, just make sure to put in the Jalapeño before the cabbage so it can blister and lend its flavor.




I hope this helps! Honestly, a lot of cooking involves trial and error. Your preferences will certainly differ from another's, and you will have to use your own intuition and imagination to come up with a bowl of hot, savory soup that you will be proud of serving.

photo credit:tvrage

trouble-shooting tips #1: if your soup is too thin (what did i tell you about not adding too much liquid??) simmer half a diced potato in lightly salted water, drain and mash with a fork in a bowl, then add it to the soup, and whizz in the blender OR add some more creme fraiche. I don't recommend more milk, can't imagine how that could help much since it is in itself so liquid-y.