Bacon Corn Potato Chowder

I have become a good cook! Foods I create come out edible! Of course, I feel like this every time I make a success . . . but the success rate is really about 50/50. Last time I cooked, I created a roasted eggplant/hummus/yogurt/sesameoil/oliveoil salt monstrosity that lacked in taste, texture, color, and every possible scale of food meritocracy. Good thing I made it on the same night as the seared alaskan sea scallops with seashell pasta.

Anyway, this time, I made a winner. Sometimes, a disregard for all the fancy spices and flavor enhancers actually detract from the heady natural flavors of fresh produce. Corn chowder has always been one of my favorite things to eat. It was actually the very first thing I ever cooked all by myself. I was about ten and I think I used the JOy of Cooking book. I had to walk to the store and ask my mother for money. Those were interesting days.

The success of this chowder comes from the enormous amount of fresh vegetables, and the enormous amount of thick sliced, slow-fried, crispy bacon. I used an entire pack of bacon, minus 4 slices that were mysteriously eaten beforehand....

You also have to give credit to the dubiously large amount of onions. When I added them, my big ole soup pot was literally half full of onions and bacon. But never fear, little dears. I drained the bacon fat before getting dirty with my chowder. If I ate this in a restaurant, I would have no qualms about licking the bowl.

Ingredients:
1 pack of bacon
1 big russet potato, cubed
1 red potato, cubed
1 jumbo-sized onion (the size of 2 normal), chopped
1/2 bunch celery (about 7 stalks? including the heart?), sliced/chopped
1 can creamed corn
8 mini bell peppers, diced (about 1 cup)
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
organic chicken broth to cover, about 3-4 cups
1 cup whole milk
plain yogurt for garnish
cheddar cheese for topping
garlic salt, cayenne, and black pepper

Instructions:

1. With scissors, cut the bacon into strips (1/2") into a big fat soup pot. Turn on medium heat. Let sizzle until crispy, draining liquid when it gathers. I drained it twice. Bacon should be carmelized and crisp crisp.
   
2. Add onions. Stir occassionally and let cook. Add celery, potato, bell peppers. Let them get about halfway done. Then add corn and broth to just cover ingredients. Simmer or boil until potatoes are done. Turn off heat. Add parsley, pepper, garlic salt to taste, and milk. Stir. Serve with shredded cheese and/or yogurt. I eat it with both.
   

Chicken Winter Vegetable Soup

Feeling a bit sick, so I made chicken soup with winter vegetables. Chicken Vegetable soup is really just about the easiest things you can make. I don't know why anyone would want a can of soup full of preservatives and lacking in vegetably nutrients when they can just throw a bunch of ingredients in a pot, add some salt, and serve. It's bound to make you much better than anything from a can with a shelf life of several years.

Seriously, it really is that easy.

Hot and steamy chicken winter-vegetable soup with chicken breast chunks, celery, kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin), carrot, fresh corn kernels, crimini mushrooms, garlic, onions, and cilantro.
I cut all the ingredients into small pieces, threw it in the pot, added enough water to cover everything, and let it simmer for a long time. You can add rice if you want to make juk/chuk/congee. Oh, and add some salt and whatever spices you want. I personally like miso, basil, and black pepper. I may also have added a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, 2 bay leaves, and coriander. However, the natural goodness of the chicken and vegetables makes it unnecessary to add anything but salt if you're not in an herby mood.

Just after adding the mushrooms to the pot:
There is literally an entire wall of miso at every grocery store. I have no idea how to choose the "good" miso, but this one tastes pretty good, even if it doens't taste like your typical US restaurant dissolved-powder miso soup. Miso is very versatile and very healthy. Many Okinwans swear by it for breakfast. They also sometimes serve a spoonful of miso with rice for lunch. Add a scoop of it to stir-fries, or use some in your next marinade. Very versatile.I like this miso:

I was so excited to see fresh corn on the cob! This is the first time I've ever seen it on the shelves in Okinawa! At 100 yen/ear I got two. I like the way it's wrapped, with a peekaboo exposure so I can check the quality of the kernels on the ear I want to buy:





In conclusion, Join me--Let's boycott canned chicken soup as a cure for colds!

Thick Carrot Sweet Potato Taro Soup 厚いのスプ

厚い "atsui" : cordial, kind, warm (hearted), serious, faithful, thick, deep, heavy, serious, abundant, brazen, shameless.

I think Atsui Soup is a fair name for my most recent creation. It's thick, heavy, heartwarming, and shamelessly tasty. It's also surprsingly good for you, with a complex mix of Asian flavors imbued into a classic Western winter favorite. And it's easy to make! This is twenty times better than the carrot soup recipe I tried from the Silver Spoon book. And that one I made after comparing at least a dozen similar recipes on the internet! To be fair, that old carrot soup was also one of the first things I tried to cook here in Okinawa. I guess I must have leveled-up enough in experience to make something truly delicious.

The key to the sinfully creamy quality of this soup is the potatoes, which the first recipe I tried did not call for. Since I had taro and sweet potatoes (and carrots) lying around from the beef stew, I knew I had to make this!

This recipe requires only 1 pot, unlike others that make you sautee onions, take them out, blend the carrots, re-add them, etc, etc. And I think it tastes even better than those more involved recipes.

Oh, and to save time, I usually don't start cutting my vegetables until the cooking process has begun, much unlike the chefs I always see on TV. While something else is cooking, I'm cutting the next thing. AND for this recipe, since everything is going into the blender, you don't have to worry about cutting the garlic and onions as carefully as you otherwise might! Anyway, Now for what I did:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, diced
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 carrots
~1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled
1 medium taro (~0.5 lb)
3" ginger, diced
1 package (~1 tablespoon?) soup dashi--other soup stock can be substituted
1 gouging teaspoonful miso
water
milk

Recommended Spices (Probably not mandatory, but, y'know):
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
1/2 t. tumeric
1 t. sweet basil
black pepper
red chili powder

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic. Add onions. Add brown sugar. Carmelize all. Meanwhile, dice the carrots, sweet potatoes, and taro into small pieces. Add them to the pot.**alternatively, leave root vegetables in bigger pieces, but cook for longer time.
2. Add enough water to just cover the vegetables, about 5 cups. Add soup dashi, ginger, and miso. Season with maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, basil, tumeric, black pepper, red chili powder. Simmer until carrots are soft and potatoes are fully cooked, adding water if it dries up too much, about 15 minutes.
3. Optional: remove a portion of the cooked vegetables from the pot, to reserve as "chewable pieces" in the blended soup. After blending soup, re-add vegetables.
   
4. Transfer soup to a blender. Cover blender. blend to desired consistency.
   
5. TO SERVE: Just before serving, to thin soup, add milk. My soup was so thick, I added milk in a 1:1 ratio. Optional: garnish with plain yogurt, parsley (it won't need the extra flavor!)

Note: If you're going to save some in the fridge or freezer, do not add dairy! It will separate. (And it takes up too much space in the fridge). Reheat dairyless soup, then stir in milk or yogurt just before serving.