Potato and Poblano Pepper Soup

The weather is cooler, so it's time for more experimenting with food.

I recently went to a cute little restaurant with a friend. We had this amazing Potato & Poblano pepper soup, that I wanted to try recreating. So here goes! (Note this recipe makes about 4 large servings of soup. If you want more, this is an easy recipe to double.)

Potato & Poblano Soup

·         1 poblano pepper

·         3-4 potatoes skin removed

·         ½ cup onion finely chopped

·         4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable)

·         ½ cup finely chopped celery

·         ¼ cup butter – NOT margarine

·         1 tbsp lemon juice

·         1 clove garlic

·         1 cup cream (I used 5%, but higher fat content would also be good)

·         Salt & Pepper to taste

·

Roast the pepper until skin is blackened and pepper is soft about 10 minutes.

Let cool completely, then remove skin and all the seeds. Chop finely.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes until fork tender.  15-20 minutes

In large pot melt butter.

Cook onions and celery until translucent, add garlic and cook until tender.

Add chicken stock, potatoes, lemon juice and pepper until well combined. Let simmer on stove for about 20 minutes.

Add cream and blend in blender or immersion blender until smooth.

I decided to put the picture up un-garnished, but adding a little dollop of sour cream or a little bit of grated cheese, would also be good. 

 There is a little bit of a "kick" in this soup, but it just adds to the taste. I'm not good with truly spicy food, so this is perfect for me. And amazing for a nice Wintry lunch or pre-dinner soup. Enjoy!

Ginger Snaps without molases

As in a previous blog I mentioned that I needed Graham cracker crumbs for a cheesecake I was making, but I didn't have any. Decided to use gingersnap cookies, crushed into a crumb instead. If you are in this situation you can use store purchased gingersnaps, or you can quickly use this easy recipe below. Pardon my lack of along the way pictures, but they are really so simple it's not really necessary.

Gingersnap Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves (I had whole cloves so ground them with my mortar and pessel
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350

In medium bowl add all dry ingredients, and sift.

Add butter, sugars and egg in a mixing bowl and mix with mixer until soft.

Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

The mixture will be quite dry, but you should be able to roll into walnut sized balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Press down slightly.

These don't spread very much, so they don't have to be very far apart.

Bake for 12 minutes. (If you like softer cookies, bake for only 10 minutes).

Cool on cooling rack, and enjoy!

If you are wanting to use them as a cheesecake crust as I did. Let them completely cool and harden slightly Then crush in a food processor.

For small cheesecake - mix 1 cup crumbs and 2 tbsp melted butter and press down into pan. For regular sized cheesecake, just double the above. 

Instant Pot Carrot Cake Cheescake

****Update this recipe at the bottom of page***

My husband loves carrot cake. He particularly likes the cream cheese icing. So when recently searching for recipes for my Instant Pot that I was gifted at Christmas, I found this Carrot Cake Cheesecake combo.

I always want full transparency with my recipes, so below are my conclusions if this recipe works or not. Here is my recipe and my results.

Instant Pot Carrot Cake-Cheesecake

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Cake Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 cup grated carrot (two medium carrots)
• 1/4 cup walnuts

Cooking Directions

1. Prepare 6" spring form pan by greasing with butter. If no spring form available, line 6" cake pan with aluminum foil and grease.
   
2. Mix all cheesecake ingredients together until smooth on medium speed of an electric mixer. Set aside.
   
3. In another bowl combine oil and sugar and mix until blended.
   
4. Add remaining ingredients except pineapple, carrot and walnuts. Mix until well combined.
5. Add carrot and pineapple until well incorporated.
   
6. Add walnuts to batter and stir by hand.
7. Pour 2/3 of cake mixture into pan, then gently pour 2/3 of cheesecake batter on top. Pour remaining cake mixture on top of that, then remaining cheesecake batter. Spread gently to cover completely.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Add 1 cup water and trivet to Instant Pot.
   
9. Tightly seal top of cake pan with tin foil.
   
10. Set pan on top of trivet and set Instant Pot to 35 mins.
    
    
    
    
11. Let naturally steam vent for 10 minutes.
12. Remove cake pan and tin foil. Let cool on counter, then refrigerate. Best if left for at least 2 hours in fridge.
13. Top with cinnamon or plain whipping cream if desired.
14. To make cinnamon whipped cream, add 1/4 tsp to cream while whipping.

CONCLUSIONS:

After letting the Instant Pot naturally release the steam for 11 minutes, I removed the cake from the pot. It was very, very underdone.

Decided to put in the regular oven to finish baking.

Baked a 350 degrees for 45 minutes. And it was perfect.

This is a great recipe, I just wouldn't use the Instant Pot to cook it in. My suggestion is to make the recipe as above, only instead of using the instant pot, I would bake in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes.

***Here's the update***

I realized that I did not mention starting with a graham cracker crust.

Mix one cup of graham cracker crumbs with 2 tbsp melted butter. Press down into the bottom of the pan, and refrigerate until ready to put cake batter into.

Important note: The second time I tried this recipe, I didn't have any graham cracker crumbs, so used the same amount of gingersnap cookies. The ginger flavour really works well with this recipe. Will post the gingersnap cookie recipe I used on another blog, but you can also use store purchased gingersnaps.

Since this second time around I'm not using the Instant Pot, I used parchment paper to line the dish rather than tinfoil. This will make a tidier cheesecake in the end.

The end result baking entirely in the oven, is a much higher, richer cheese cake. With these lovely defined lines. Conclusion: Do not try in the Instant Pot. This is a fabulous cheese cake, but bake it in the oven. 

Apple Strudel

It's Sunday in the Fall, so what I usually do is bake. I wanted to try something new this time, so I thought of apple strudel since it's also apple season.

I had pre-made puff pastry in the freezer, but wanted to try my hand at making my own. I didn't have the hours and hours it takes to make the French style, so I found a recipe for Rough Puff Pastry (recipe to follow) and it turned out really well, and it didn't really take that much time to make.  But first for the apple strudel recipe.

Apple Strudel

Recipe by Fluudbloggler

Ingredients

• 1 serving puff pastry (recipe below)
• 3 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup raisins (optional) 
• 1/3 cup icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp water

Cooking Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Roll out puff pastry to almost fit the baking sheet. 

Peel and core apples, and slice thinly, then mix apples, cinnamon, brown and and lemon juice together until apples are well coated.

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   

Mix apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, and lemon juice together until apples are well coated.

Put apple mixture down the centre of the pastry, leaving about 2 1/2 inches on either side.

Make diagonal slices down each side.

Fold up the bottom of the pastry, then alternating each side, put strips across the apple mixture.

Brush a mixture of 1 egg and 1 tbsp milk on the top of the strudel.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool at least 15 minutes.

Combine the icing sugar and water, and drizzle across the strudel.

Slice and serve. (Best while still warm.) 

And now for the beginning, how to make the puff pastry. You can always use pre-made puff pastry to save this step, but why not surprise yourself and try making your own.

Rough Puff Pastry

Recipe by Fluudbloggler

Ingredients

• 250 grams white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 250 grams butter
• 150 ml water

Cooking Directions

1. Place flower and salt in bowl of food processor. 
2. Cut the cold butter into small 1" chunks.
3.  Put butter in food processor all at once. 
4. Pulse 2 short times with food processor. 
5. Add 1/3 of the water. 
6. Repeat until water is incorporated. Do not mix too much, there should be chunks of butter. 
7. Pour contents of bowl onto plastic wrap sprinkled with a small amount of flour, and kneed a couple of times to incorporate all the dough. 
8. Roll out dough in one direction only until 3 times the width. 
9. Fold the top third down, then the bottom. Roll again. Repeat about 6 or 7 times. Roll up the dough and cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Tablescapes - Thanksgiving

They say you eat with your eyes as much as your stomach. That's why I always like to make any dinner table special. Have you ever wished you could make some of the beautiful "tablescapes" that you see on line? Whether it's for a Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas brunch or even a wedding. They look daunting, I know. And some can be very expensive. But trust me, it can be easy, and it can be inexpensive.

This picture is of this year's Thanksgiving table. Most of the decor items have been purchased either from the dollar store or Winners/Homesense/Marshals. And I basically collect items and add or take away each year to make it different.

To describe this table, I used copper coloured chargers. I had Orange napkins and black napkins that I folded into turkey shapes. I used an old door wreath as the base of the table centre with a small cake plate to elevate the ceramic pumpkin.

All the leaves and the two sparkly pumpkins were from the dollar store, as well as the candle holders and place cards. The burlap cutlery holders were just pieces of burlap wrapped around to which I glued fake acorns (from the dollar store).


So next question is where do you begin?  Well first think of your theme. Since this is Thanksgiving, you have a lot to choose from. You can just start with a colour scheme. Do you want mostly orange? Do you want golds or bronzes? Or all of the above.

Then pick what aspect of Thanksgiving you like. You can focus on the turkey. Or the pumpkins or the traditional cornucopia or even just the fall flowers. I don't normally include turkeys in my themes, but I found a great Youtube video, showing how to make these turkey napkins, so I made those.

If you have NOTHING in your house already that you can create a table, it can take a while to build up to it. However, last year my neighbour gave me $30 to go out and buy things for her table and it turned out quite nice. Here's THAT picture. Simple but festive.

So this is how you do it:

#1 - buy some silk fall leaves - these are so inexpensive, and you can hide a multitude of sins with a bunch of leaves.

#2 - use your own dishes - no need to buy special fall plates

#3 - invest in some cloth napkins - I bought these orange ones last year, but they will last for many years. If you don't want to get VERY fall looking ones, buy cream or tan. They can be used with other tables and other seasons. You can use paper, as my friend did in the picture above, but you can be more creative with cloth ones.

#4 - make sure you can remove large items from the table JUST before you are about to eat. It was easy to pick up the wreath, cake plate and pumpkin from the middle to make room for our dinner.

#5 - keep your eye out for simple things that you can use to build on. For example the burlap acorn cutlery rings. The burlap was on a roll, so I still have a ton left, and the acorns were in a bag.

#6 - don't be afraid to try something and if it doesn't look good, rearrange it.

All your guests will appreciate the extra time and effort you took to make the table look special. And even if your food sucks, they will remember how nice the table looked.

This picture is from last year's Thanksgiving table. See some of the same items from this year? But it still looked different.

Coming up next....how to convert you Thanksgiving table to a Halloween table. (And visa versa for our American friends.)

Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

I haven't posted in a while.  Summer usually keeps me outdoors as much as possible, and writing, and taking pictures of my food takes a back burner.

However, it's only the beginning of September, but in my area, it's already cooling down.  So I start focusing on cooking and my kitchen again.

Decided to try Butter Chicken.  I'm not one for crazy spicy food, but this had just enough to make it interesting, and putting it all in the slow cooker made it extremely easy.

Easy Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

Recipe by Fluudbloggler

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients

• 4 Chicken breasts 
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 onion thinly sliced
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you like spicy less if you don't)
• 1 tsp garam masala (more if you like spicy)
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 3 cups whipping cream (UNwhipped) 

Cooking Directions

1. Cut chicken into bited-sized chunks. (I actually use frozen chicken and cut it up while it's still slightly frozen. This makes it much easier to handle)
   
    
   
   
2. Place chicken and all other ingredients except cream in slow cooker.  Stir well to combine.  (At this point the butter will still be a hunk, but that's ok.)
   
   
3. 
   
4. Cook on low for 4 hours. Add cream, mix well to incorporate and allow the cream to heat about 15 minutes more.
5. Serve with white rice or coconut rice.