In the Name of the Father

As some of you well know, my father taught me to cook and to love good food. I'm so happy to share one of his newest recipes with you all. Also, I don't have a photo to accompany it, so here's a photo of Daniel Day Lewis.

And here's Dad's recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash & Red Pepper Soup:

Ingredients:

1 really large Butternut squash, seeds scooped out and quartered

1 large jar fancy roasted red peppers, drained

3 medium leeks, white part only, cleaned and sliced thin, about 1-1/2 or 2 cups

1 package frozen corn bits/niblets

1 32 oz. box chicken stock

4 tbs. + 2 tsp. olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, peeled

Garnishes:

4-6 oz. crumbled blue cheese

3 links chicken sausage, sliced into 3/8” long disks

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Rub 2 teaspoons of olive oil on squash quarters, sprinkle with coarse salt and roast skin side up @ 375 deg. F on cookie sheet covered with baking parchment for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the leeks and garlic, drain the roasted peppers, and slice the sausage disks. You can has andouille or other spicy pork sausage.

Remove squash from oven and cool. Sweat the leeks, garlic and ½ to 2/3 of the frozen corn with a little salt and pepper in a 6 quart heavy saucepan. Peel the squash, or scoop out the edible portions and add to pot with peppers and the chicken stock to cover by ½”. Add water or more stock to cover by ½”.

Raise to the boil, then simmer for 30 – 40 minutes until mixture is so tender that it easily breaks up with a spoon. Meanwhile, brown off the sausage disks in a skillet and reserve.

Reduce heat to warm, puree with an emersion blender until smooth, and stir in remaining corn niblets. Add salt and pepper to taste, and, if desired, squeeze in ½ lemon to brighten the flavor.

Serving:

Slice baguette.

Place a bunch of browned sausage disks in bottoms of up to 4 soup bowls, and spoon in a few ladles of the soup. Place a generous tablespoon of crumbled blue cheese on top in the center. Serve with the bread.

Makes 6 servings.

Comfort food... and Rachel Griffiths

I had a stressful morning, a day where I juggled seven things at once (but managed to snag a commission to write a piece for HuffPo, holler!), and to top it all off, a positive, but emotionally draining conversation with my mother. At the end of a day like that you need a few things, chief among them, a good drink and a good meal. I chose to make myself the following black bean dish while watching the two-hour Brothers & Sisters special that aired on Sunday (thanks, Hulu!). I love this dish, and I love that show. The black beans are complex, flavorful, good for you, and comforting. Brothers and Sisters is... just comforting. Rob Lowe and Rachel Griffiths (Ms. Griffiths, will you be my girlfriend? I've loved you since Muriel's Wedding, and I promise I'll never stop.) make up for all Callista Flockhart's many, many flaws. OH GOD, who decided inhaling through your teeth was the same thing as acting??? And Sally Field, I KNOW you can act bitch, so why don't you? I mean really, you tell your dead husband you hate him with the same tone that you tell the kids you're afraid you've ruined the roast! You're better that.

Black Beans for a Tough Day

Ingredients:
- 32 oz canned black beans, do not drain (you can be a hero and soak some dried ones, but remember, this is something to make at the end of a long day... although when using canned beans, I mandate LOW SODIUM)
- 16 oz. canned chopped, pureed, or diced tomatoes, drained (if you're one of those tomato haters, feel free to replace this with some tomato paste)
- low sodium chicken or veggie stock (a tad less than one cup)
- 5 scallions, chopped
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 sweet potatoes, diced into 1/2" chunks
- 2 small or 1 and 1/2 larger green peppers, diced
- the following spices, to taste: cumin, coriander, basil, oregano, cocoa powder (no sugar), smoked sweet paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper
- lime juice, low fat sour cream, diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro (these four you throw on top just before serving)

Step one: Heat olive oil and the butter in a pot and saute the scallions, garlic, and sweet potatoes for about 15 minutes, season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Step two: Add in the peppers and continue to saute for 5 minutes; add in a another pinch of salt and pepper.

Step three: Add in the tomatoes, the stock, the beans, and the spices (but no more salt, trust me, unless you used dried beans, you little gourmand). Bring to a boil for five minutes, then turn down to a simmer and let it go until it reaches the consistency of chili. Serve topped with lime, sour cream, cilantro, and avocado. Pour yourself a nice grenache or a malbec or a beer and enjoy the hell out of it.

They Don't Have to Be Roasted

Some time ago we all decided that you simply MUST roast your Brussels sprouts (Sacha, I totally checked, capitalize the B, no apostrophe). Maybe it's a fear of the bitter, slimy gross mini-cabbages of our youth... maybe it's a shameless love of caramelizing (a love I certainly embrace). But there comes a time in every cook's life when you look in the fridge and see a carton of Brussels sprouts and not much else and wonder what the hell you're going to do with them. And you want to do something new. And that's what inspired this recipe.

Ingredients
- one container Brussels sprouts
- 2 table spoons of unsalted butter
- half of one very large lemon, cut into several large chunks
- olive oil
- salt
- 5 anchovy filets & capers, chopped up (optional, but preferred)... but if ya don't use anchovies, please throw in a few capers anyway
- mushrooms (I used shitakes I found on sale, but you don't have to)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 scallions chopped

Wash the Brussels, chop off the bottoms and cut them in half. I was lazy last night. Probably I ought to have sliced them into many leaves. But you don't have to. Begin by sauteeing the Brussels in a skillet with the garlic, butter, olive oil, scallions and lemons on medium-high heat. The Brussels will turn bright green, and you will gaze upon their beauty. Sprinkle a LITTLE salt on them too. Good. After they get a bit soft, throw in the mushrooms and anchovies and/or capers and turn the heat down to lowish.

Cook mushrooms through, and you are done. You can also throw in a splash of water, or, better, UNSALTED stock when you put in the mushrooms to create a kind of sauce and put this all over pasta (that's what I did). Enjoy!

EDIT: I forgot to tell you that I highly recommend seasoning the Brussels with a fair amount of chili flakes before serving. And definitely some Parmesan if you're going to serve over pasta.

Nina-the-cat says "I hated it!"