Mushroom Barley Soup

This is a warming soup that is vegan and stores well. I love barley, and think that it has been largely ignored lately. I hope to see more of it served!

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ground rosemary
½ teaspoon ground thyme
dash of nutmeg
1 medium white onion, diced
1 pound white or crimini mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 pound pearled barley
salt
pepper
water


In a 6 quart saucepan, heat the oil and herbs & spices over medium heat and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook the vegetables until you see a little browning. Add the barley and two+ quarts of water. You want enough water to have about two inches of liquid above the solids. Add a tablespoon of salt, bring to a simmer and cook for about 30-45 minutes covered, until the barley is cooked through but still a bit chewy. Check occasionally while cooking to see if additional water is needed. Adjust seasoning, add pepper to taste and serve!


This soup can be frozen.


Tip: a mortar and pestle is useful for grinding spices.

Cupcakes

One question I am often asked is why I dislike cupcakes. The main reason is because of their poor design; too much plain cake topped by too much icing. Add to that the difficulties inherent in eating them, and, well, I'd rather have a petit four, mini cake or slice of real cake.

I'd also like to add that the pile of dog poop formation is not a legitimate piped figure and should be banished from bakeries -excepting the rare instance where a customer asks for a three-dimensional representation of feces.

Busy! Having Fun!

So, I'm helping a caterer set up a new business venture, and I've been swamped with work -10+ hour days with almost no days off. So, it's fun, but not a lot of time to write or take photos! More soon!

Just a reminder that we are approaching the end of the citrus season here in the SouthWest, so, it's time to get making marmalade and preserved lemons for later!

Food Storage: Eliminating Plastics

With all of the news over the past few years about the dangers of BPA and melamine, I have switched over to storing almost all of my food (dry ingredients, refrigerated ingredients, and leftovers) in glass canning jars of various sizes. Larger leftovers, like a partial lasanga, get stored in glass casserole dishes of assorted sizes.

I can use my foodsaver (with the jar sealer attachment) to seal ingredients like dry beans for long term cupboard storage, and items like leftovers headed for the freezer.

Potato-Leek Soup

Developing a line of soups for my current job, just thought I'd share an easy recipe!

This soup is deceptively simple to make, but very popular. So far, in our taste-tests, we have not found a person who didn't like it.

It does NOT freeze well, sorry. The potatoes get a weird spongy texture if frozen.

The amounts here are approximate, you'll need to make minor adjustments to taste.

Ingredients:
2 medium leeks
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
¼ oz dry rosemary, ground (or small amount fresh, minced)
3 quarts water
3 pounds waxy potatoes (Sangre are my favorite)
1 oz chives

Split the leeks lengthwise and wash carefully. There is always hidden dirt in the leaves. If they seem fairly clean, cut each half into thin slices. Soak slices in plain water to eliminate any remaining dirt. Skim out of the water with a slotted spoon, leaving the dirt behind in the water -discard dirty water. (this double-cleaning helps save your knives from getting dull from the grit in dirt)

Scrub the potatoes. You do not need to peel the potatoes, but, it depends on how rustic you wish your soup to look, so peel if you like. Some people think that the peels on red potatoes make the soup more colorful. Cut the potatoes to medium dice. If you left the skins on, make certain that no pieces with skin are larger than ½ inch long.

Mince the chives.

In a 5-quart or larger pot, heat the olive oil to medium-high and add the leeks. Add a teaspoon of salt and the ground rosemary. Cook while stirring to sweat the leeks evenly. When some of the leeks begin to brown, add the potatoes and water. Add another teaspoon of salt. Bring to a simmer, cover and allow to cook gently for about 20 minutes. Add additional water if needed to cover potatoes.

Test the potatoes for doneness and taste for seasoning. Add salt if needed. Add the chives, and serve or keep warm (at 140° to 150°) for up to 7 hours.

Korin's Sweet Creations!

Check out my friend Korin's pastry work on her new blog!

Drop her a line if you need a cake, or pastries and happen to be in Utah!

Emergency Food!

We are in the middle of a big storm right now, at least in Arizona, and it reminds me to write about emergency foods. I live in Phoenix, Arizona -a big city where we get most of our power from a nuclear power plant. Unlike any other major city I have lived in, we have power failures several times a year. Yesterday, my house experienced two power failures, each lasting over an hour.

So, I keep a supply of candles and rechargable flashlights on hand, along with a couple of oil lamps. (The oil lamps give good light with minimal smoke.) I make certain that matches are always available.

I also keep a small supply of food, enough to keep us going for a few days, if needed. (This is assuming that the fridge is empty, which it never is, and there's no bread or snacks around -which is rare.)

My plan is pretty simple. I try to allow for 3 days of food for each resident. I assume three meals plus snacks. I only stock ready-to eat food, canned or aseptically packaged (think Tasty Bites), since we have lots of stuff I could probably cook in my chafing dish. I like the ready-to-eat foods because they are sterile and do not require added water. The down side is that not everyone can stand to eat them cold.

A lot of these foods are things we don't normally eat at all, like: brown bread in a can, canisters of chips, canned desserts, canned fruit, canned soups, etc.

I try to vacuum seal some dried fruit, and nuts, but, these need to be rotated out fairly quickly to avoid rancidity.

I also store canned soda water and some soda pop, since it is also sealed and sterile. Commercial water bottles allow bacteria to enter them and are not sterile.


The biggest trick is to set aside a day each year to check the supply, rotate out old food and add fresh foods. I try to do it on the day we change the smoke detector batteries.

It seems so odd to be doing this sort of thing in this day and age, but, at least where I live, you can't always count on having electricity!