Angela Does Food!

Ok Peeps! Food Inc. is on OPB tonight at 9pm! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch it! You will be glad you did!

Ok everyone! It’s coming on! Turn your tv to ABC and join me while I watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution!! It will AMAZE YOU!

This is a must watch.  My husband Matt just sent this video to me and I thought it was pretty amazing.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_QOzc79Uc&feature=featured

A little more info on the TED Prize.  http://www.tedprize.org/about-tedprize/

Wow, this soup is so tasty!  This is the second time around making this soup. But, this time, I used the whole garlic cloves the recipe calls for.  You can adapt the garlic to as much or as little as you want depending on how much you love garlic!  This has become my hubby’s favorite soup, which is great considering it is so easy to make.

Ingredients

• 10 garlic cloves
• 1 lb of peeled uncooked shrimp
• 2 pinches of cumin
• 2 pinches of paprika
• 6 cups free range chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of cooking oil
• 4 slices of thick sliced french bread
• 2 tbsp of chopped parsley (garnish, optional)
• salt and pepper

So, put 1/4 cup of cooking oil into a large skillet over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic cloves into the oil.  (An easy way to remove the paper from the cloves is to twist it between your fingers as if you are giving it an indian burn.  It loosens the paper.)  Add some salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes.  Flip the cloves to brown each side.  After each side is brown, remove from pan and set aside.

Place the pieces of thick sliced french bread into the pan over the oil.  (I noticed that I needed to add a little oil to the pan in order to brown both sides of the bread.)  Once the bread has browned to your taste, flip and brown the other side.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Add the 6 cups of free-range chicken broth to the pan along with the 2 pinches of cumin and 2 pinches of paprika and give it a couple of stirs over medium-high heat.

Once the broth has just started to boil, add the 1lb of uncooked shelled shrimp into the broth and cook until they are completely pink.  This will hardly take any time as shrimp cook pretty fast.

Dish up into bowls, add the browned bread and garnish with chopped parsley.  Bon appetit!

Thank you to Serious Eats and Mark Bittman for the recipe.

…test your food IQ with Michael Pollan tomorrow on Oprah.  It is a MUST WATCH!  I love this guy.  He has written some AMAZING info about foods that you should and should NOT eat!   I have read some great articles he has written and was lucky enough to watch his video “Botany of Desire” on PBS.

Here are some links to check him out.

• The Botany of Desire
• Food Rules
• Michael Pollan

Let me know what you think!

Tonight I made my husband mushroom risotto.  It was very delish!  Of course, I changed a couple of things.  What can I say? I like to use ingredients that I already have. I used 2 cups of beef broth and 6 cups of chicken broth.  There was already an open container of beef broth in the fridge so why not?  Also, I misread the directions and only got 8oz of mushrooms instead of 1lb, and I didn’t get the dried mushrooms.  I know they would have been fabulous in the risotto, though.

The mushroom risotto recipe I used was adapted from Tyler Florence into a ‘Healthy & Delicious’ recipe.

Mushroom Risotto

- makes 4 to 6 servings -
Adapted from Tyler Florence.

Ingredients

8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced and divided
2 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1lb mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoons dried thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2/3 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the chicken broth on medium heat and keep warm.

2. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil over medium heat and add 1/2 of the diced onion and 1/2 of the minced garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes or until they are soft and translucent. Add the butter, mushrooms and herbs and saute until the mushrooms are browned and almost completely cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.  Let cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper and set to the side.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat and sauté the left over onion and garlic in a large Dutch oven until they are soft and translucent.

Add the rice and stir until each grain has been coated with oil and is a little translucent. Add the wine and cook until it is almost completely absorbed.

5. Add 1 cup of the broth that has been keeping warm  into the rice and cook until it’s all absorbed.  Stir often.  Repeat this step until rice is tender.  It should take about 25 to 40 minutes.

6. When the rice is tender, stir in mushroom mix, stir in cheese and continue cooking until melted. 

I was talking to a friend on the phone when she mentioned that she had recently had some soup that was so delicious.  It was made from beets, carrots and a can of coconut milk.  So simple but she didn’t have a recipe.  Her friend had made it for her so she couldn’t exactly tell me the recipe.  So here is my attempt at it.  We felt that the soup was missing the savory part so if you make this at home or even have an idea from reading what it could be, leave me a comment!

1. Take 3 red beets and cut the scaly part of the skin off and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Cut 2 carrots into 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Heat 2 Tbs butter in a large saucepan.
4. Throw in the carrot and beet mix and stir occasionally.
5. Once the carrots and beets are soft enough to cut in half with a fork, pour the contents of the saucepan into your blender.  Add about  1  1/2 C water and the can of coconut milk. (if this willnot all fit in your blender, add the coconut milk to the soup pan for later)
6. Blend the ingredients all together and liquify!  It may be a small challenge but you can do it!
7. Once you have liquified the beets and carrots, pour them into the soup pan and heat it up.  Salt to taste.

I went grocery shopping the other night (about 11pm) .  I wouldn’t suggest it if you can help it.  It was exhausting and did not have enough brain power to put some dinners for the week together in my head.  Anyway, while strolling along the meat aisle I found beef heart.  I thought to myself, “Hmm… Matt said he liked the beef heart he had at his favorite restaurant Andina, maybe I should give this a try.”  And so I did.  After searching and searching for the right recipe I finally picked one out.  But like usual, I gave it my own touch.  I fully expected to try it and let my husband have the rest of the meat all to himself but I was pleasantly surprised.

1. Rinse the heart and remove any fat and arteries then cut in 1/2″ thick slices
2. Dredge the slices in flour.
3. Heat the butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat then add the slices and brown each side for 45 seconds.
4. Stir in the onion, beef broth and red wine.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.  Bon Appetite!

Ok, so first of all, this was my ‘accidental’ version of the Beef Heart Braised in Wine recipe.  Once you check out the link for the real recipe, you might laugh.  I had looked at so many recipes that I forgot what this one needed.  When I turned heat down to low to simmer I found that I had missed the carrots and potatoes.  And I just noticed that I also missed the thyme!  LOL  Guess that is what happens when you are cooking too many things at once!  I put the beef broth and red wine in shortly after I had started to simmer the meat.  Even with all the missing ingredients it came out very tasty!  I ate all my portion and my husband repeatedly made sure I knew how tasty it was.  Even better?  I paid about $2.40 for the meat.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Her name is Buttercup!  :D

*The lovely Buttercup*

Ok, I have wanted a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for a long, long, long time!  As long as I can remember!  Do I bake?  No!  But that is because I haven’t had a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer!

While we were in Cannon Beach over the weekend, I told Matt I wanted to stop by the Outlet Mall in Seaside to see the Kitchen Connection store.  While I was in their oooing and aawwwing over the beautiful mixers, I saw a sign that stated the mixers were refurbished.

refurbish [riːˈfɜːbɪʃ]vb