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Tag Archives: lazy

Even More Soup! Fish Chowder with Fresh Fava Beans

23 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cooking, ingredients, lazy, passion, recipe, soup, South America, weekend

…OK, I admit right off the bat I didn’t use Fava beans in my version (*ducks behind the sofa*), but this still is some GOOD STUFF in a bowl.  And I smile and remember my hilarious (and Danish) co-worker’s Facebook comment that I’m turning into the “Soup Master.”  Well, I humbly am not but I appreciate her compliment and humor (she’s a great friend too).  I am just a (middle-aged) girl in the Seattle suburbs with a passion for making soups from scratch.  Just executing/attempting on other’s recipes and not coming up with my own, save for what I ad lib and substitute where needed.  And having a blast along the way.

Today (Saturday) was one of those days where a big batch of soup was the perfect antidote to a tough end of the week.  I’ll save the recap for tomorrow’s post, however.  It did involve an extremely rainy day and a change into illegal, ripped-up leggings once I got home, just as a preview.

Let’s get down to the good stuff:  Chupe de Pescado con Habas Verdes (Fish chowder with fresh Fava beans)  Serves 6.

  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 tsp ground annatto or sweet paprika
  • 1 medium-sized onion, minced (about 1 cup)
  • 3 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • 2 medium-sized ripe but firm tomatoes (about 10 oz), peeled, seeded and chopped
  • 1 T tomato paste
  • 1 T fresh mirasol pepper puree, store-bought or homemade
  • 2 T plus 1/4 C minced fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 3 C fish stock or chicken broth
  • 1/4 C long-grain rice
  • 4 medium-sized all-purpose potatoes, peeled and sliced 1″ thick
  • 1 1/2 lb firm white-fleshed fish fillets such as sea bass, monkfish, catfish or halibut, cut into 6 pieces
  • 3/4 C shelled fava beans, blanched and peeled, or fresh peas
  • 2 ears corn, each cut into 3 pieces, or 1 C fresh corn kernels
  • 5 oz fresh goat cheese
  • 1 C milk, or more if needed
  • 1 large egg (optional), lightly beaten
  • 8 oz large shrimp, peeled and deveined

In a large, heavy saucepan (I used a 6-quart Calphalon pan, wider than it’s tall), heat the oil over medium heat. Stir in the annatto/paprika, onion, garlic paste, tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper puree, 2 T of the cilantro, oregano, cumin and sugar.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened and the mixture is like a thick sauce, about 20 minutes.  Add a little water while the tomatoes are cooking if the mixture begins to get dry.  Add the fish stock and simmer for 15 minutes.  The soup can be prepared ahead up to this point.  Let cool, cover and refrigerate up to overnight.

To finish, bring the soup back to a boil, add the rice and potatoes, and cook for 15 minutes.  Add the fish, fava beans and corn and simmer for 8 minutes.  Add the cheese and milk and cook, stirring constantly, until the cheese has melted and the milk has heated through.  The soup should have the consistency of heavy cream; add more milk or water if it is too thick. (Keep in mind that potato-based soups thicken as they stand.) Taste for salt and white pepper.  If using the egg, add in a stream and stir until it forms strands.  Just before serving, stir in the shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes, until they turn pink and begin to curl.

To serve, in each soup plate place 1 piece of fish, a couple of shrimp, 3 or 4 potato slices, and 1 piece of corn (if using ears of corn). Ladle the chowder over these, sprinkle each plate with some of the remaining 1/4 C cilantro, and serve immediately.

Fivenineteen notes:  Wow, this is a delicious chowder!  And while I like to first make new recipes exactly as they’re written, I took a few liberties right off the bat with this one due to – admittedly – some laziness.

I could not find Fava beans at my nearby QFC (grocery store).  So I decided to just go with the frozen peas I knew I had in the freezer and let them thaw out a bit before adding to the chowder. 

I used 3 potatoes instead of 4.  For some reason, the 4th one I peeled tonight to get sliced up was an oddly weird and pale shade and full of too many moldy spots after peeling.  Just a flukey thing, so into the trash it went.  I figured it was worth the risk of too few potatoes versus having one that was not up to par.

The Mirasaol pepper puree?  I didn’t feel like making it from scratch (maybe I’m still gun shy thanks to my leaky blender, heh)  and could not find it in the grocery store either.  I’d decided to substitute my favorite hot cayenne pepper sauce made by Trappeys.  But I’m glad I picked up a backup plan of a hot Mexican hot sauce at the grocery store just in case, because when I got home, I noticed my trusty bottle of Trappey’s was near-empty and greyish red.  Not the happy, vibrant color it usually is.  I took a tiny taste of it on my finger and yep, it’s gone stale.  It’s great stuff and I’ve placed an online order to get restocked meanwhile, as it’s no longer at my nearby QFC.  Be SURE to find a good, hot cayenne or Habanero pepper sauce for this chowder if you are opting not to make the Mirasol pepper puree from scratch!

The aroma of this chowder is heavenly.  And I opted for a seafood stock (rather than using chicken broth) from Bar Harbor Foods.  I appreciated that it was all-natural…and at over $4.00 for a 2-cup can it better be great, right?  I needed 2 cans to get 3 cups of stock for the recipe. (and it was fantastic, by the way).

Given I splurged a bit on the stock, I opted to choose the local store brand version of basmati (long-grain) rice, rather than the pricier Texmati brand I’ve used prior.  I don’t have a lot of rice typically in my pantry save for the type suited for risotto.

And…I chose sole fillets for the fish.  I was surprised at how they broke up into tiny pieces after adding to the chowder, even after cutting into large pieces and stirring gently.  I’m not sure if that’s because they were sole (vs. another type of white fish) or not. 

I breathed a sigh of relief when it was time to add the cheese and milk to the chowder.  The recipe was turning into more like a super thick stew at this point than a soup/chowder in the making.  I was sooo tempted to add more water or a splash of stock or white wine meanwhile, but I’m glad I didn’t.

I sliced the potatoes less than an inch thick.  And as they were cooking I ended up cutting them with my stirring spatula into smaller pieces.  I like the idea of adding slices to each soup plate for serving, but in my case they were not cooking through thoroughly in thick slices.

And…the cheese.  Either I spaced it or the grocery store did not have goat cheese (Chevre), so I sprung for some gorgonzola.  This actually added a nice tang and punch to the chowder without overpowering it.

Here’s the author’s notes on this recipe: “There is nothing better than a bowl of chupe on a cold winter night.  I especially like this variation from Peru because it is flavored with hot peppers and, instead of peas, it uses fava beans.  This chowder can be made with either fish or shrimp, or a mixture of both.  Peruvians always add eggs before serving.  They either stir in the lightly beaten eggs or put one poached egg in each soup plate and pour the soup on top.  This is a hearty soup that can be used as a main course for a light supper.”

Buon appetito!

From The South American Table, by Maria Baez Kijac.

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..but I didn’t WANT to use the blender…

02 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by fivenineteen in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blender, cooking, flavors, food, lazy, passion, preparation, soup, spices

…or perhaps we could call this post “Soup Bender weekend #2:  the extended dance remix.”

I broke one of my hardfast rules about cooking – ALWAYS read a recipe through thoroughly – every single word – before you start the prep work.  Even before you start grocery shopping for ingredients.  Somehow in skimming through this latest intriguing soup recipe, I’d missed a casual yet crucial phrase in the final steps while the cooking was already well underway.  “…transfer to a blender…”

Um, OK.  The last two soups I made did not require blending/pureeing at the final step, and I’d made a bad assumption this one wouldn’t either given it’s from the same cookbook.  So I’d planned to just make this recipe un-pureed (is that a word) and keep it chunky-style, which is just as flavorful, though a far different texture.  (And yeah, I felt lazy too).  Good news that the vegetables did NOT get too mushy…my alternative turned out great.

Crema de Cangrejo (Crabmeat soup) – Serves 6

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 C)
  • 1/2 C chopped carrots
  • 1/2 C peeled and diced (1/4″) all-purpose potatoes
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 1 T minced fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 T minced fresh parsley leaves
  • 1 tsp dry mustard
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp chicken bouillon granules
  • 4 C hot water
  • 6 oz fresh or canned good-quality crabmeat, undrained but picked over for shells and cartilage
  • 1 T fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 C whipping cream (optional)
  • Cayenne pepper or sweet paprika for garnish

Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan over low heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, carrots, potatoes, celery, cilantro and parsley and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes.  Add the mustard, white pepper, salt, bouillon and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add the crabmeat and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Let cool for a few minutes, transfer to a blender, and process until smooth.  Return to the saucepan, bring back to a boil, and taste for salt and white pepper.  Stir in the lemon juice and cream (if using), keeping the soup on the burner just long enough to heat through.

Serve in soup cups, sprinkled with cayenne.

Fivenineteen notes:  dry mustard is like a mustard powder.  You can find it in the spice section of most grocery stores.  Do NOT try to substitute regular, creamy mustard or mustard seeds.  It’s not the same and won’t work.  I also chopped up a whole, small potato and a whole, small yellow onion.  It might have been more than the recipe called for, but it turned out great.

Crabmeat:  another sticker-shock moment, although not surprising.  Fresh Dungeness crabmeat was US$29.99 per pound at the grocery store.  Compare that to whole, fresh Dungeness crabs at $8.99 per pound, plus all the cracking, cleaning and scraping/steaming I’d need to do with them…I splurged on a half pound of the prepped, shredded crabmeat.  Which is delicious, by the way.

I was a bit surprised to see a recipe with crab in a South American cookbook for some reason.  But the author, Maria Baez Kijac, explains everything wonderfully in her preface to this recipe:  “In South America, there are a variety of cream soups that don’t necessarily have cream – they owe their creaminess to being pureed.  This crabmeat soup is perfect without cream, but for cream lovers like me, adding a bit of whipping cream just makes the soup taste better.  Sometimes I serve the cream in a separate bowl, so that guests can take a tablespoon to the soup, if they so desire.  Though expensive, crab is found in abundance along the Pacific coast of South America, including Ecuador, where this recipe comes from.”

Yet another fantastic soup meal, with leftovers to savor!  Enjoy!

From The South American Table,  by Maria Baez Kijac

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