Jade Sea: Chile Lime Coconut Curry Soup

This soup is mainly a slow-cooker meal, but the tofu takes a little extra work so that it becomes tiny little flavor-bombs instead of tasteless mush in some soup.  I will admit that some of these ingredients won't be able to be exactly replicated, but I'm sure you can come close.   For example, we were given some lovely homemade curry spice for christmas.  We also have some dried red chile peppers that we found at a flea market awhile back.  No idea what they are, but they are slightly spicy and slightly sweet and lend a really nice flavor to dishes.  The weather has taken a cold turn lately, so this soup was nice to cozy up with on a chilly night!

What you need:

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (I generally use Silk brand)
• 1 tbsp coconut mana
• 1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
•  3 tbsp lemongrass paste
• 1 dried red chile pepper, finely chopped
• 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 head bok choy, chopped lengthwise
• 14oz. Extra Firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 2 limes, juiced, with the juice of 1/2 lime separated
• 1 1/2 tbsp chile powder
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

This recipe really couldn't be any easier.  To start, mix together the juice of 1/2 lime, lemon juice, and chile powder, then cut your tofu into small squares.   

Our curry spices!  Curry and ginger is a wonderful combination.

Place the tofu and the chile-lime mixture in a plastic bag and really shake it up to make sure each piece of tofu gets coated.  Place in the refrigerator.

Mystery Chile

Put all of your other ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6.  In the last hour of cooking, pull the tofu out of the fridge and place in the freezer, and preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit.  Once the oven is ready to go, pour the tofu onto a greased baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Put the tofu squares into the crock pot and serve.  We ate it with some delicious sourdough bread from the farmer's market, and it was a great combination!  

Viper Tomato "Bisque"

For christmas, I received an immersion blender, which is something I have been desperately wanting.  Although the vitamix is a miracle machine and I am still smitten with it after a year, it was always a hassle to ladle hot soup into it whenever I wanted a smoothly pureed, thick, creamy soup.  For my first recipe with the immersion blender, I decided to play around with tomato soup.  I love tomato soup, but my favorite type of tomato soup is generally filled with cream, which isn't really diet-friendly.  To revamp the recipe, I decided to veganize it and create a tomato "bisque" using tofu, a few cashews, and nutritional yeast (we call this stuff magical vegan fairy dust in my house - it's so good!).  Now, I am not sure that our recipe was 100% vegan, as I added in some white wine and I have no idea whether the brand I used was vegan friendly, but if you are interested in making the recipe and being 100% sure it is vegan, you can go to this website, which provides a handy guide to vegan wine (and other alcohol).

What you need:

• 3.5 lbs fresh tomatoes, cored and halved
• 1 14oz. container of tofu, drained (I used firm because that was all that was available, but I think silken would be prefereable)
• 1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup raw, unsalted cashews 
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup dried basil
• 1 tbsp Emeril Essence Seasoning (or Old Bay)
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 dried red chile pepper, de-seeded

Turn the oven broiler to high.  Place your tomatoes on an oiled baking sheet and place them in the oven to broil.  Let them broil until they have blackened slightly (around 5-10 minutes) and then put them in the crock pot.

In a blender, add cashews, 1 cup vegetable broth, and the red pepper, and blend until you have a nice puree.  Add that mixture to the crock pot.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat and then saute the onions.  Add the cooked onions to the crock pot, as well.

Dump the rest of your ingredients into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.  When you are ready to serve, use an immersion blender to make the soup into a beautifully creamy consistency.  Enjoy!  We served it with some hot, crusty bread, and it was a great way to stay warm and cozy on a cold evening!

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Blood Magic: Vegetarian Borscht

Stoney and I have been on a vegetable kick lately, and I decided to make a vegetarian version of one of my favorite soups: Borscht!  I've made borscht in the past using the stovetop, and while it's always delicious, it's a pain in the neck to make.  The solution?  Crock pot it!  I also had the vitamin to help me puree up some of the recipe, so that was an extra plus.

What you need:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 4 small celery stalks
• 4 small daikons, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 leek, diced
• 3 beets, peeled and chopped
• 2 14oz. cans diced tomatoes
• 1 potato, peeled and diced
• 1/2 medium green cabbage, shredded
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt & pepper, to taste
• Optional toppings: yogurt or sour cream; horseradish or dill

To begin, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and then sauté the garlic, onion, celery, carrots, and daikon, seasoning with salt and pepper. Once everything has softened, pour it into a blender along with one can of tomatoes and puree it.

Next, sauté the leeks in the skillet that you used for the onion mixture, adding a little more oil if necessary.

 Put your puree in the slow-cooker, and then add in the other ingredients (except the optional garnishes).

Let it cook on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 3-4).  I had planned to whip up some horseradish yogurt to serve it with, but I forgot yogurt at the store, so that didn't happen, but I still maintain that it would be outrageously delicious.  Sour cream and dill would also be a tasty addition.

Battle of the Blackwater: Beef Chile Verde

The weak are meat, and the strong do eat.

Cloud Atlas

It's not every day that you have to feed 8 hungry dudes fresh off of a weekend playing music for the hordes at Bonaroo, but that's exactly what we had to do this week!  My brother is a band manager, and so I provided a stopping point for him and one of his bands on the way to and from Bonaroo.  My solution to all of these hungry people?  Throw a ton of beef and other goodies into the slow cooker for a delicious (and filling!) rendition of chile verde.  We paired it with some corn bread and it was a feast fit for an army.

What you need:

• 2.5-3lb Ground sirloin
• 3 tomatillos, diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalepeno, finely diced
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 16 oz. jar green salsa
• 4 oz. can green chiles
• 1 can kidney beans (black beans would also be good, Kidney is just what I had on hand)
• 2 tsp cumin
• Salt to taste
•  Fresh cilantro (to taste, for serving)
• Shredded cheese (for serving)
• Your favorite cornbread recipe 

It really doesn't get much easier to make:  Just dice everything up, put the tomatoes and peppers in, put the ground sirloin, green chiles and beans in, sprinkle the salt and cumin over the meat, toss the rest of the veggies in, and then pour the salsa over the top of everything.

 Cook on low for 8-10 hours, giving it a good stirring about halfway through.  If things are looking too watery, you can thicken it up by adding some flour or cornmeal.  I ended up adding about 3 tbsp of cornmeal and a pinch of flour, which thickened it up to a nice consistency.

Spoon the chili over a slice of cornbread (or just crumble the cornbread in afterwards, whichever you prefer), sprinkle some cheese on top, and garnish with fresh cilantro.  This recipe served 9.

Pretty Pig: Orange Dijon Pork Roast

Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.

Robert Heinlein

Pork paired with wild rice

This is an exceedingly simple holiday roast, perfect for the person who would rather spend the holiday hanging with family and friends than slaving over the stove.  It's so easy in fact, that I only bothered to take photos of the final product.  The rest was just kind of boring.

What you need:

• Pork Roast, mine was 2.5 lb 
• ~1/2 bottle orange juice
• ~1/2 bottle Dijon mustard
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 2 tbsp paprika

Grab your roast and toss it in a freezer bag.  Throw in enough orange juice to cover the bottom quarter of the roast, and then add in about a quarter of the bottle of mustard.  Add in the thyme, rosemary, 1 tbsp cumin, and 1 tbsp paprika, close the bag, making sure to get the air out, and rub everything into the roast to get it good and coated.  Refrigerate.  Our roast marinated for about 3 days, and we just made sure to flip it once a day.  On Christmas morning, we tossed it in the crock pot with the marinade, added in more orange juice to cover about half the roast, add another 1/4 bottle of mustard, 1 tbsp cumin, and 1 tbsp paprika.  Set the slow cooker to low and cook for about 8 hours, flipping the roast occasionally.  When it's cooked to falling apart delicious, serve!

Winter is Coming: Veggie Quinoa Chocolate Chili

"Now is the Winter of our Discontent / Made glorious Summer by this sun of York..."

Richard III, Act I, Scene I

I hate winter.  I don't ski or snowboard, I hate the cold, and I hate how it gets dark early.  The only thing that winter has going for it?  It's the perfect season for slow-cooked soups, stews, chills, and roasts.

So for our first post here at Game of Scones, we will be making a healthy, slow-cooked, Veggie Quinoa Chocolate Chili.

What you need:

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 large butternut squash, cut into chunks
2 bell peppers
1 large zucchini
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
2 (15 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
2-3 tablespoons chili powder, to taste
1/2 cup 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips (or more, if you prefer)
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Step 1:

Cut up the veggies.  Let me start this step by saying that if, like me, you like to cook but haven't quite mastered the art of chopping, you may want to forego the whole butternut squash and spring for pre-chunked, frozen butternut squash.  That was always my go-to, but for this recipe I thought I would boldly try my hand at dicing a butternut squash.  Mistake.  After hacking it in half, I realized I had no way to get the skin off, so I had to run out to the store to find a vegetable peeler.  Even once I had the peeler, however, it was still impossibly hard to peel, and equally as hard to cut into chunks.  After way too long, I ended up with many enormous chunks, and a few smaller ones.  Anyways, whether you chop the butternut squash yourself or buy it pre-chunked, once you have it in chunk-form, set it aside by itself.

Once the onion and peppers are chopped, put them aside together.
Then, dice up the zucchini and jalapeño, put them aside together and add the garlic.

Step 2:

Heat the oil in a pan or pot large enough to hold all those veggies you just cut up.  Add the butternut squash and cook for 5 minutes.  I alternated between covering the pot and stirring the squash over the five minutes.  Next, add the onion and peppers, once again cooking for 5 minutes.  Finally, add the zucchini, jalapeño, and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.  When you're done, you'll have a delicious-smelling mixture that looks something like this:

Cooked Veg Mixture

Step 3:

Pour the cooked veggies into the crock pot.  Add quinoa, water, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, coriander, chocolate chips, salt, and pepper.  Stir.  Cook on high for 4 hours.

All the ingredients, pre-stirring

Step 4:

Enjoy!