Indian Food

Custard apple (also called sugar apple, or atis)

Oops! Guess where I've been?

I was frantically busy before leaving on my trip, and so I figured I would write an "on vacation" post when I arrived at my destination. But it turns out that it was way harder to find internet access in India than I expected!

Coming soon: pictures, picture, pictures! (Plenty of food pic's - best vacation food ever!)

Blueberry Hand Pies

For some reason, herion addicts develop nasty sweet toothes (sweet teeth?!). For example, I had one patient that favored chocolate milk with hot cocoa mix and six (6!) sugar packets added to it. Their hospital rooms rapidly become piled high with the fallout from their snacking - candy wrappers, crumbs everywhere, stockpiles of the little jams that come on their mealtrays, etc etc.

Any-hoo, I had a patient like this the other day. Buried within her pile of junk food was one of these these. Um, yuck. But here I was at home a few days later, with a pile of blueberries that needed used up quickly, and I found myself thinking about those pies, and the glaze they put on the crust...

















So the filling and the crust were nothing special, but I want to jot down the glaze that I used, because it was exactly what I was hoping for:

- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk (I used evaporated)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla

Stir together well, then brush onto warm pies.

Garden Envy

Corn Cheddar Chowder

Yup - more soup. I usually don't start in with the soup until fall, but considering the weather lately, a pot of hot soup has seemed pretty appropriate.

This batch started out the same as the salmon chowder, but it ended up with corn and cheddar cheese instead. (Very tasty - I've already repeated this one.)

Corn Cheddar Chowder

- chopped onion
- white wine
- chopped potatoes
- broth
- chopped celery
- corn
- 1/2 and 1/2
- oregano
- thyme
- salt and pepper
- grated sharp cheddar cheese

I pretty much followed the same process as with the salmon chowder. The corn gets added when the potatoes are about half way cooked. Then the half and half and cheddar cheese get added last.

Frozen Goodies

My popsicle molds get a lot of use. When I was a kid living in Texas, I remember always having frozen orange juice or grape juice popsicles, and a lot of times that's still what I'll have in my freezer. But I also need some chocolate now and then...

All the recipes I found for fudgsicles involved mixing up a box of instant pudding and then freezing it, which I was not going to do. Then I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart FOOD for vanilla pudding pops. I tried a batch (which I infused with cardamom pods - yum.) So then I took the chocolate pudding recipe I usually use, and tweaked it a little bit...then stuck it in the freezer. I think I have made it two or three times this summer.

Later in the summer my dad made some incredible strawberry jam. One batch didn't set, so he was left with some strawberry syrup. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it...(see the picture above!) I used this recipe for lemon pudding, then swirled the strawberry syrup through it. I can't even begin to express HOW GOOD these are!

Fudgsicles

- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, starch and salt in a saucepan. Whisk in milk, then yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until first bubbles appear, then cook another minute (pudding will be starting to thicken.) Take off heat. Pour through seive, then add vanilla. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.

Salmon Chowder

This is my first food post in a zillion years, and I don't have a photo! And I even have my new camera... But I made this soup late at night, then brought the left-overs to work for lunch, and that was that. But I want to remember this recipe, so I may as well store it here!

I am so bummed I went so much of the summer without a camera. I got to go to fabulous farmers markets in Santa Fe (I got pictures there, but they were still on the camera when it got lost) and Austin. And I ate in all sorts of good restaurants. And there was the posole I made. And the cardamom ice cream bars. And oatmeal blondies. And the homemade vanilla ice cream with strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. I would have loved to post all of that here! Any-hoo, nothing I can do about that now. The picture I ended up posting instead of soup is my favorite farmers market treat - french bread with lots of butter, sliced radishes, and sprinkled with salt. I could eat just that for several weeks and be content.

Coming soon (hopefully with pictures): more frozen summer treats...

But for now -

 

Salmon Chowder

 

Ingredients:

- leeks, cioppino onions, or some other mild onion

- 1 clove of garlic, chopped

- white wine

- 2-3 stalks of celery, chopped

- 8 small potatoes, chopped into chunks

- salt and pepper

- unsalted vegetable broth (TJ's organic in a box), aboiut 2 cups

- milk

- about 8 -10 ounces of smoked salmon

- half and half*

- dill

 

Cook the onions in the bottom of your soup pot, stirring constantly, and adding a small amount of white wine or vegetable broth when onions begin to stick to bottom of pan, scraping up the browned bits.  Repeat this several times, until the onions are carmelized.  Add garlic, celery, potatoes, and salt and pepper.  Continue to stir, and cook another few minutes.  Pour in enough broth to cover the potatoes.  Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.  Stir in the salmon, milk, and half and half over low heat - do not boil.  Stir in dill and serve.

 

*Next time I am going to try replacing the half and half with cream cheese.  In the past I have made a fish soup that had cream cheese in it, and it was fabulous, and I wanted a little bit of that flavor here too...