07 May 2010

Curried Vegetable Chowder of Epic Proportions





Live for them. Love them. I have been a customer of theirs on-and-off for years. When I can afford it, I get shipments of organic vegetables DELIVERED to my house and then life is GOOD, people! Now, due to financial constraints, I am on the every-other-week delivery cycle with Boston Organics. Life is still good...BUT sometimes you have to figure out what to do with a bunch of organic vegetables QUICK before they go bad. This is what I did the other night and it was a thing to rejoice!

Curried Vegetable Chowder
(of epic proportions!)

In fridge/freezer/pantry I found:
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/4 head of cabbage
  • 2 red potatoes
  • 1 sweet potato
  • broccoli (yuck)
  • collard greens (yum)
  • 2 onions
  • 1 red chili pepper (not sure what kind, but i think it was this)
  • a few cloves of garlic
  • spices: curry powder, cinammon, cumin, salt, pepper
  • olive oil
I also found a large portion of frozen veggie stock I had the foresight to make earlier that week. For a detailed description of how to make your vegetable ends into usable stock, read the play-by-play here.

A quick thing I will add to that epic is leave the skins of your garlic and onions on and also when you take the skins off in your regular cooking, throw em in your stock bag. EVERYTHING goes in except for lemon rind because that will make your stock bitter and inedible. Everything else, fair game. Im talking potato peels here, folks. Also an addendum to Tony's post is - add a shit ton of salt (Can I say shit on the internet? I dunno. I'm sure Dave will bleep me out if need be). (Ed. note: You sure can say shit on the internet. -dave) Like more than you think you need. Just TRUST me on this.

Anyway, now that you have an awesome veggie stock at your disposal, you can move on with your life and make better career choices :). Also, it cures acne.

Things I bought at the store for the curried chowder: Fresh ginger and organic half and half. Amazing! Let's start cooking.

So...take a massive pot and heat up some olive oil. I made a huge pot of soup which I have been eating for days and let me tell you, it gets better every day. So, I probably added about 4 tablespoons of oil to the pot, 2 tablespoons of curry powder, two teaspoons of cinnamon, a teaspoon of cumin, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and a couple of fierce grinds of black pepper and then turn the heat on low. After the oil spice mixture begins to warm (you can tell by the smell), add the onions, sliced and let them sweat on low while other things happen. I grabbed the ginger, broke off about a half inch, peeled it, minced it, threw it in the pot. Sliced the chili pepper, seeds and all, into the pot and give it a stir. Peeled and minced the garlic, about three cloves, into the pot. At this point in time, your house should be smelling so good that you just cant function.

OK, so stir your aromatics that are in the pot and add the 2 red potatoes diced (don't need to peel, just take out any eyes) and the sweet potato, peeled and diced. Turn the heat up to medium, cover and get those potatoes cooking. Peel your carrots and chop them. I sliced them and found the rounds to be a little imposing, you may want to dice them to the same size as your potatoes. Add them to the pot, stir, make sure nothing's burning, move on. Next, grab that quarter of a head of cabbage, take off the outer leaves if the look suspect and cut off any areas that are starting to brown, shreddddd the cabbage by slicing it thin and throw into the pot, stir. Take your broccoli (yuck), about two big stalks, and start slicing at the top of the florets so the little nibs separate individually and make this heinous vegetable palatable. NO bias here. Once all your florets are macerated, chop a little of the soft, upper part of the stem and save the rest to put into the stock bag. Into the pot, stir.

Okay, folks, we're almost ready. Can you feel the excitement building? Grab your collards and slice about a cup's worth (2 inches, how does one measure collards?), into the pot, big stir, life is good, go grab your stock. Add about a quart of the veggie stock into the pot until the vegetables are covered, but just showing underneath the surface. Add another 2 teaspoons of curry powder (yes, really) another dash of cinnamon, a teaspoon of salt a few more fierce grinds of black pepper an cover. Bring up to a boil and let this mixture boil, covered for about 15-20 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender. Once this happens, turn off heat and add your half-and-half slowly until you achieve the desired creaminess. I didn't use much-maybe about a cup in total. Stir and taste. Mixture should be just creamy, slightly curried, spicy, delicious and totally like whoa. If this is not the case, add more salt and pepper, maybe another shot of the half-and-half and try again. If it's not amazing at this point then I just don't know. Maybe it's karma from a past life...shake your first at the sky, discard and order pizza.

But anyway, our soup was incredible, spicy, organic, delicious, dinner, lunch, lunch, dinner. So good. Also, google the health benefits of turmeric, found in curry powder, and feel pleased with your meal choice and morally superior to others. I kid. Seriously though, this soup is amazing and life is good.

Until next time,
A

7 comments:

  1. This sounds amazing. Do you have any left?

    And be assured that my food choices are ALWAYS intended to help me feel morally superior to others.

    ReplyDelete
  2. um also, i just checked out the website, and its amazing. signing up right now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi - It's Jeff Barry, owner/founder of Boston Organics. This is a great post. Can I link it to our facebook page?

    I think our customers would appreciate it as this post deals with a common issue most customers (including myself) face... coming up with creative ways to get through a bunch of vegetables before they go bad or before the next delivery arrives so as to make room in the fridge.

    I personally start to get a little stressed as the week goes on and the next delivery is about to arrive and the fridge is still full of vegetables.

    It always feels good when I make a nourishing, healthy meal for my family.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Jeff, glad you found us! Absolutely feel free to link to us. I'm really looking forward to my first shipment on Thursday so expect more Boston Organics-themed posts shortly!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi! I saw this post on Boston Organics' FB page. I made it last night... SOOOO GOOD. It did indeed make my house smell so good that I couldn't stand it. I threw in some carrots, which are my personal most-hated vegetable, and it even made the carrots palatable. Do you think it would work with coconut milk instead of half n half, or is that more of a Thai thing?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi allison. I was also considering the same thing. I bet you coconut soup would be a wonderful alternative to the half-and-half. I was specifically thinking chowder that night, so I went for the cream, but the flavors would be consistent with a coconut milk thai type of soup which is never a bad thing in my book. My only caution would be that the veggies in this soup add sweetness of their own (carrots and sweet potatoes, etc) so the coconut milk may push that sweetness a little too far. I would maybe keep some fresh limes on hand and give a squeeze to the soup to balance the sweetness. If you try it, let me know and THANKS FOR COMMENTING!

    ReplyDelete

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