Corn Soup - had the ganas and got 'er done!

It's slightly torturous to live in Argentina and read all my cooking blogs from the US because they have summer veggies and fruit while we're in winter and can't get any of the same ingredients.  I kept reading summer corn recipes for soup and corn cakes.  I figured that that was one ingredient we had here during the winter so I threw a couple fresh corncobs in with some roasted squash and onions to make a pretty delicious soup.  It was a little thick for my taste, so next time I'll be sure to add more water or broth.  Serve with chopped ciboulette, "sour cream", and buttery toast. 

Sauteed Leek and Corn with Cobs

Roasted Squash and Onions

Nice warm bowl of soup

Ingredients:
3 Ears of corn with kernels cut off
1 large leek, sliced (only until the green part)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large onion (chopped large)
1-2 cups chopped butternut squash
3 cups chicken broth or water
Salt, pepper, and garnish


Directions:
Add the squash and onions to a roasting pan.  Sprinkle with olive oil, a touch or honey, and salt.  Roast until tender and beginning to caramelize.  Stir occasionally.  

Add leeks to a buttered or oiled pot.  Saute until cooked through, add garlic.  Add corn and the cobs.  Saute until everything is cooked a gets a little color/char from the pot.  Add the water and simmer until the squash and onions are cooked through.

When everything is ready, add all the ingredients together and put them in a blender.  Blend for 30 secs to 1 min until you get a smooth texture.  Less time if you like your soup more chunky.  Add the soup back to the pot and add salt and pepper to taste.  At any point so can add more broth to make the soup thinner.  Keep cooking on low so that the flavors continue to develop.  Serve with garnish and toast.

My style pasta primavera

Pasta Primavera my style

Sometimes when I'm feeling like eating healthy I go to the verduleria and pick out one of each colored vegetable.  The food looks great and makes you feel good.  This was a simple rice noodle pasta with sauteed veggies and grated parmesan cheese.  Simple and tasty.

Ingredients:
Rice pasta
Veggies of choice: carrots, corn, onion, bell pepper, etc
3 cloves garlic
Bunch of basil
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Bring salted water to a boil.  Add the noodles and boil for 5 min, lower heat and eventually turn off.  They cook fast and are easy to work with.  Just taste to make sure they are tender, and drain.

Saute veggies in a pan.  Add onion and garlic first, cook 5 minutes and then add the rest.  Add the pasta to the sauteed veggies and mix in chopped basil.

Serve with grated cheese on top and salt and pepper to taste.

Pad Thai

It's been far too long since I've posted a blog and even longer since I've been able to cook.  I miss it and I'm getting back in the action.  My new favorite thing to cook is my version of Pad Thai.  You can buy rice noodles in any dietetica and add whatever veggies, meat, tofu, egg, etc you want.  The sauce is the only tricky part, but you can find the ingredients in Barrio Chino easily and no cheating is required!  With the ingredients, it's an easy meal that shouldn't take more than 30 min to make. 

Pad Thai

Ingredients: 
Rice Noodles - small package feeds 4
1 package of cut veggies (the ones they prepare for sopa)
Other veggies of choice (I threw in broccoli this time)
1 green onion, chopped
1 chicken breast or tofu cubed
2-3 eggs, scrambled in a separate pan
Peanuts

Sauce: (I am guessing on these proportions because I just add until I like the taste, but they seem about right).
3 LARGE tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/5 cup of rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup of honey
2 tsp of siracha
1 tbsp of diced ginger and garlic
Pinch of dried or fresh chili

Directions:
1. Bring salted water to a boil.  Add noodles, wait 1 min and turn heat off.  If you buy the thin rice noodles (which i recommend), they just need to be heated until tender.  Takes about 3-5 min.  Drain noodles and set aside.

2. Saute veggies in pan until tender.  Do not add salt.

3. Prepare sauce in small pot.  Add a touch of oil on medium heat.  Add ginger and garlic.  Saute for 1 min.  Add soy sauce, vinegar, oil, and chili.  Stir 1 min on higher heat.  Add peanut butter and honey.  Stir until it's all incorporated.  Keep on med high heat until sauce begins to reduce.  It should taste really strong, so strong you wouldn't want to eat a spoonful straight.  This is good because it needs to coat all the noodles and veggies.  Trust me that it may seem like a lot of sauce with a lot of flavor, but after it's spread out through everything, it's the perfect amount.  Let the sauce reduce until pretty thick.

4. Scramble eggs.  Add veggies to noodles and pour sauce on top.  Mix evenly.  Add eggs, green onions, and peanuts.  Mix lightly. 

Simple lunch: Polenta, egg, and salad

Guest post: Colombian Specialties from my Roommate!

La linda Joanna

I'm lucky enough to live with my fantastic Colombian friend Joanna.  When she gets herself in the kitchen, she GETS in the kitchen and whips up some of the best Colombian treats ever.  This week, she's done a guest post in memory of her recent cooking adventures.  Here's what she had to say (P.S. she wrote this entirely herself in English and I didn't change a thing, which makes me feel slightly bad about her having to put up with my Spanish after all these months!)

Joanna's Culinary Adventures:

Distance makes you do things you never thought you would. I always refused to cook; if there was anything in the house I used the least, it was the kitchen. Well, now it’s not any different, but because I miss my food, my flavors, my variety, and am tired of the same Argentine food, I decided to try a little harder and make something by myself. The result: success!

So this is what I did:

For Saturday’s lunch: Ajiaco Santafereño
For Sunday night: Patacones with cheese, tomato, ham and boiled corn

Wait, what is that you ask?

Well, it’s Colombian food. Ajiaco Santafereño is a typical soup of Bogotá, Colombia. The original Ajiaco is a potato-based soup and has three varieties of potatoes: criolla, sabanera and pastusa, but it’s not easy to find all those potatoes in Buenos Aires (I'm pretty sure they don't exist in here), so with the basic potato you find in Disco is fine. The other main ingredients are: chicken, guascas, cream and capers and accompany it with rice and avocado. If guasca is not added, the flavor changes a bit. Here’s a good recipe I found in the Washington Post.

Ajiaco Santafereño

Then I found green Plátanos (plantains) at Disco and I had to buy at least one, because that doesn’t happen very often. Sundays are dedicated to studying, so Anna and I are at home studying hard (sure) and we eat a lot (true). “We need energy to do it” Anna always says.  She is the chef, she loves doing it and she makes veeeery tasty dishes. But this time I made the dinner. Nothing special, but very Colombian: Patacones, cheese, ham, tomato and boiled corn.  Plantains become sweeter and less starchy as they ripen, but they also lose their firmness, so I like them better greener.  It’s fast and easy to do, here is a good recipe and don’t forget to sprinkle with salt when they are still hot. Patacones are a good fit for almost everything; you can eat them with rice and meat; as a snack with sauce; with fish and salad, or just the patacones with cheese if you have antojos. 

Patacones

Israeli Couscous with Roasted Fennel

Israeli Couscous with veggies, feta, olives, and basil

I love Israeli couscous!  I made this dinner with the last remaining trader joes resources I had stored away.  I was inspired by these two recipes: recipe 1 and recipe 2.  I had never cooked fennel before and I really liked it.  The key was letting it brown and caramelize enough before flipping it over.  Next time, I'll leave the tomatoes whole because they really shrunk up on me and nearly disappeared.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 2 packages of couscous
- 1/4 kilo of cherry tomatoes
- 2 large fennel bulbs
- 100 grams greek olives
- 100 grams feta cheese
- fresh basil
- salt, pepper, honey, balsamic, olive oil


Directions: Follow the directions from this recipe for the couscous, but add the feta and basil rather than the herbs listed.  To roast the fennel, just cut it in thick pieces and lay on a baking sheet with salt, pepper, honey, balsamic, and olive oil.  Roast until it get some color and then flip and continue cooking until done.  You can't really over roast it too easily, so just check until it looks good.

Whole wheat pesto pasta with veggies

Ingredients

 Homemade pesto is the easiest and best way to spice up and ordinary meal.  This week's meal was inspired by all the beautiful, fresh produce I found at the verduleria and my last remaining goat cheese from Tandil.  I loved all the different colors and textures of this one.  Super quick and tasty!

The outcome, not the best photo of all time!

Ingredients: 
- 1 package whole wheat pasta (I choose a tricolor one)
- Fresh basil
- Handful of chopped walnuts or other nut of choice (pine nuts are the traditional, but super expensive here so I usually use almonds, but had walnuts this time.
- Sharp cheese (I use goat, but usually use parmesan)
- 1 eggplant - cut into bite size pieces
- 2 carrots - sliced
- 1 bell pepper - chopped
- 1 onion
- garlic (1 bulb for pesto and 1 for veggies)
- 15+ cherry tomatoes
- olive oil, salt, and pepper

Directions: First make the pesto by adding the basil, 1 garlic bulb, 1/4 cup shaved cheese, a handful of nuts, salt and pepper to a blender or food processor.  Then add about a 1/5 of a cup of olive oil.  Most recipes call for more oil until the pesto become paste like, but I find that you have to add so much oil that it's greasy and unhealthy.  So I just add a bit of water until it starts becoming a paste.  I also usually add about half a container of queso finlandia if I'm going to use it on sandwiches etc.  In this case, I didn't because it seemed like overkill.

Add chopped onion and garlic to a pan and saute until golden and clear.  Add eggplant and peppers and cook for about 5-7 min. When eggplant is nearly done, add carrots.  I hate overcooked carrots, so I add them last.  Cook until eggplant is done.

In the meantime, bring salted water to a boil and add pasta cooking until done.  Drain pasta, add veggies, cherry tomatoes, and pesto to your liking.  Voila!

Curried squash, lentil, feta, and almond salad

 

This is one of my favorite meals when you want something spicy, not spicy hot, but spicy-flavorful.  It's healthy, hearty, and makes you feel good afterward.  I like to eat it as a salad or even better, in tortillas with a little extra cheese.   In this photo, I made the salad without any greens, but I usually put some rucula in with the mix to make it a little more fresh and colorful.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of dried lentils

1 package of cut squash

100-200 grams of feta (goat cheese is good too)

100 grams of almonds, chopped

Spices - curry, cumin, condimento para aves, garlic powder, salt, and pepper

2 Bay leaves

Honey

Olive oil

Directions: Rinse the lentils and let them soak for 15 minutes or so.  Once done soaking, rinse them again.  Bring them to a boil in a pot with tsp of salt, garlic, and the bay leaves.  Once they start to boil, let them simmer covered until cooked through.  Watch them because it can take 20-45 minutes and you don't want them to over cook and fall apart.  Although I've done it and lentil soup is a good backup dish!

Spread the squash onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with about a tsp of curry and 1/2 tsp of the remaining spices.  Drizzle a tsp of honey and tsp of oil over the squash and mix them all around with your hands until evenly coated.  Place sheet in a HOT oven and let roast, turning the squash with a spatula after about 15-20 min so both sides brown.  Cook until done and let them cool.

On another baking sheet, spread out the almonds and roast them for about 10 minutes.  Be careful that they don't burn.  Once they are done, take them out of the oven and drizzle with a touch of honey and salt so that they candy slightly, but aren't too sweet.  Let them cool and the honey harden.  

While each element cools down, chop the feta into little pieces and prepare the rucula.  Drain the lentils and put them into the serving bowl.  Add the squash from the baking sheet, scrapping off any of the juices and browned parts (there is no dressing, so make sure the get all the honey and olive oil goodness). Add the cheese, almonds, and rucula.  Mix all together, adding salt to taste.  Sometimes I squeeze a lemon onto the salad for an extra punch.

Mediterranean Roasted Veggie Salad

I like vegetables, what can I say?  I might even go so far as to get kicked out of Argentina for saying that I'm nearly a vegetarian by choice because I think that veggies taste better than meat.  Please don't stop reading my blog for that statement!  I just find that veggies and grains absorb flavor so much better than meat (especially beef - now I'm really going to get kicked out).  Here's a easy dish that can be a quick lunch, dinner, or side.  I had it as a salad with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Check it out!

Ingredients: 
1 Package Squash/Calabaza
1 Eggplant
1 Red Pepper
Large handful of golden raisins
Basil - chopped
Spices - cumin, curry, cinnamon, salt, pepper
Olive oil
Honey

Directions: Chopped all veggies and lay onto a roasting pan.  Sprinkle with spices, drizzle with oil and honey.  Mix around so each pieces has flavor on it.  Place in oven on high and roast until cooked through (20-30 min).  Remove from oven and let cool.  Add chopped basil and raisins.  I sometimes add cheese and almonds for a more hearty meal.  Mix salad and add extra salt if needed.