Cooking with Brooke: Icelandic Fish Soup

A few years ago when my little peanut was literally the size of a peanut (sans shell) Joe and I traveled to Iceland for our delayed honeymoon where we encountered the worst food we've ever tasted.

Why, then, you ask, am I creating a recipe to duplicate something from the land of fire and ice?

I'm so glad you asked. You see hidden in a tiny gift shop along the shore of the glacial lagoon, Jokulsarlon was the best soup I have ever eaten. This brothy, hearty fish-based soup that I have found myself dreaming about since.

I had done a cursory google search to see if the recipe was available a few months ago and found nothing. But yesterday I took charge and realized I never tried searching for "Icelandic Fish Soup," which was gross oversight.

I found a few recipes, melded them with my own ideas and tada:

Icelandic Fish Soup




Though I had long dreamed of this soup, I have to say I was afraid that I only remembered it being delicious because I was so starving that in comparison to all the other food the island offered it was astounding, but when pared with my kitchen of endless possibilities it would fall flat. It did not. This soup is amazing.

Obviously, you could use any vegetables you like, I am writing it with what I used.

Makes a large pot of soup
Takes approximately 1 hour

5 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
2 large carrots
4 medium yellow potatoes
2 golden beets
1 head of broccoli
Handful of green beans
1 jalapeno
1 chipotle pepper or ancho chilli
3 bayleaves
1T. fennel seed or fresh fennel
1 1/2 T. tumeric
2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. chilipowder
2 pinches ground cloves
salt & pepper as desired
12 oz. crushed or strained tomato
32 oz. low-sodium chicken broth
12 oz fish (I used white fish in the form of Mahi Mahi, you could use any fish but white fish will be the least "fishy")
Handful of shrimp
butter



Chop vegetables and onion. Saute onion in olive oil and butter (or butter substitute) on medium heat while you chop the garlic. Add garlic and spices and saute for a few minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.

Remove bay leaves and use an immersion blender to smooth onion. Feel free to skip this step if you like onions. But if you don't (or are married to someone who doesn't like me) this is a great way to add onion flavor without the textural mishap.

Add veggies and cook for a few minutes, then add tomato* and broth and 1 1/2 cups of water. Boil for 30-40 minutes. While it is boiling, cut the fish into small pieces and prepare the shrimp. Right before you are ready to serve it, throw in the fish and shrimp and continue on a low boil for 3-5 minutes. I used still frozen fish, but it may take less cooking with fresh fish.

Turn the heat down to low and serve when ready.

Joe said a nice crusty piece of bread would have made a good accompaniment, but I think the soup was hearty enough on its own.





*A note about canned tomatoes: Most people have caught on that BPA, which is used when making plastics can act as a hormone disruptor in humans. It's why we don't drink from polycarbonate plastic water bottles anymore, right? Well, unfortunately we actually get most BPA in our system from canned foods and (this is really scary) carbon copy receipts. The more acidic the canned food, the more likely the can is lined with BPA.

The solution? Buy tomatoes from a glass jar. I finally found some made my bionaturae.

Cooking with Brooke: Profiteroles with "no business being this good"

Sometime a few years ago I fell in love with profiteroles we had for dessert at Chez Danielle. We've returned on various special occasions, often with profiterole-virgins in tow, to eat this dessert. You'd think it be something terribly elaborate to entice us so, but in reality it's just a vanilla ice cream-stuffed cream puff shell with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. But, my friends, it is amazing.

We made it for our friends Derrick and Carrie this weekend and all came to the conclusion that it's really better than it should be.

Joe: "It has no business being this good."



Cream Puff Shells:

• 1 cup water

• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter

• pinch of salt, if you like

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/4 a cup whole wheat)

• 4 eggs

Preheat oven to 375. Bring water and butter to a full boil, stirring. Add flour, stirring until it forms a ball in the center of the pan. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding eggs (so they don't cook). Beat in eggs one at a time.

Place on a greased cookie sheet aproximately 2 inches apart. Squish down any points. Bake for 25-30 min. without opening the oven.

Makes 12.

While they bake make the chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Chocolate Sauce:

Melt 6 ounces of good chocolate (we have an on-going feud in our house of milk v. dark, but agree on Ghirardelli) and 1/2 cup of water in a heat-safe pan over simmering water until the chocolate and water are combined and y
item, if you have a fast mixer.

Profiteroles:

Cut the cream puff shells in half, place a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream on the bottom half. Place the top half on top, cover in chocolate sauce and dollop with whipped cream (or use a pastry bag and tip to make it pretty, as I did).

And there you have it, a dessert so good you won't believe it.

Thanks for coming to visit Derrick and Carrie! And for anyone else who's been contemplating a visit, I hope this tempts your tastebuds.

Cooking with Brooke: Shrimp Vindaloo

My first Indian dish went so well, I decided to tackle one of our favorites, Shrimp Vindaloo. Here is the recipe taken from myrecipe.com with my additions (not as many this time). We thought it was delicious, though I will be tinkering it in the future to get it just the way we like it, which is exceptionally hot. You, of course, can make it as hot or mild as you like. I served it with Basmanti rice.

Shrimp Vindaloo:

2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt (as I said before, I just eyeball salt)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (I used mustard seed and crushed it; I'd suggest buying already crushed)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I used Cayenne once again because it is what was in my kitchen.)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (I used white vinegar, which led to this funny exchange:
Joe: I thought that was poisonous.
Brooke: No, it's just vinegar.
Joe: Well, we keep it with all the poisonous cleaning supplies.
Let it be known white vinegar is a magical substance that will clean your diapers and floors then make you Shrimp Vindaloo.)
1 tablespoon canola oil (I used olive oil)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I pulverized them into a mush because Joe HATES onions and it turned out fine.)
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons golden raisins, chopped (omitted)
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Combine first 9 ingredients in a small bowl. Add vinegar, stirring to form a paste; set aside.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons ginger and garlic; sauté for 20 seconds. Add spice paste; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and raisins. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Add shrimp; cook for 4 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring occasionally. (As you would expect, I was not focused on the exact times for each step, except the shrimp. Over cooked shrimp is gross.)

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup) It fed me and my food-camel husband with the left-overs pictured above.

For fun, here is what it looks like sitting in a lightsphere, aglow in wonderful spiciness:

Cooking with Brooke: Khichri

Last night for dinner I made Khichri, which just a version of Indian lentils and rice. I'm terrible at following recipes and generally don't like to use timers, so my version was certainly slightly different than the recipe I am about to share, but even with all of my additions it turned out fabulously, making me assume this is a recipe you can't mess up (as long as you stay in the same flavor neighborhood). For fun, I'll include all of the changes I made in this color.

Taken from Extending The Table:

In a large sauce pan ( frying pan) heat 2 tbl. oil; I just eyeballed the oil amount.

Add and saute 2 minutes: (I sauteed longer to better enhance and combine flavors, and because I was busy organizing the spices)

1 large onion, chopped
2 green peppers, sliced (I used 1 orange. Two would have been nice)
2-inch stick of cinnamon (I didn't have a stick, so I used ground, eyeballing and, mostly, smelling how much)
4 cardamom pods or 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom (omitted)
4 whole cloves (again, I substituted ground spice here, being careful not to add too much. Cloves can be powerful.)
2 cloves of garlic, diced
Curry powder
Cayenne to taste. I actually only put a little in and added the amount I wanted to each bowl so Truman could eat the un-spiced version.

After two minutes (or more) add:

1 cup uncooked rice (if brown , soak 30 minutes and drain first) I missed that instruction because it was at the end of the recipe, so when my rice wasn't done at the end, I simply boiled the whole thing until it was done.

1/2 cup lentils. I chose to do 3/4 cup for both rice and lentils because the ratio seemed off to me.

Stir-fry for 5 minutes, then add:

1 1/2 cups of potatoes, cubed
1 cup cauliflower (omitted)
1 large tomato, chopped (omitted)
1 1/2 tsp. salt (added random amount of sea salt that was almost certainly less than this)
4 cups water

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice, lentils and vegetables are tender, 20-30 minutes. Consistency will be like stew, not dry or fluffy.

The recipe also suggests using any vegetables you want, especially dark green leafies. I suggest garnishing with cilantro.

If this post hasn't scared you away from ever cooking with me then you should try this. It was delicious and, really, It would be hard to mess it up, as you have seen. Next time I am picking up the missing spices and adding in the cauliflower and maybe some carrots.

Side note: The book says "Khichri is one of the foods that Hindu people serve to the gods and goddesses during Pujas (prayers). It is also one of the first solid foods offer to babies."