Media Crema, Broccoli Soup, and I Shoulda Blogged 'Em Rellenos

I didn't know anyone canned cream! I assume it's half and half based on the name. I asked Nestle if it was half and half and had a few other questions but their response was very cookie-cutter and didn't address my specific concerns. That's okay. My main question was whether or not I could cook with it. They didn't answer that directly but did include several recipes that included baking and simmering with Media Crema.

It's got less than one carb per tablespoon, not bad. I don't buy cream because it's too pricey here and if I buy it out of town where it's cheaper, it frequently goes bad before I can use it. I never know when I'm going to need it so having it canned in the pantry is great!

Shake can well before use! It doesn't say so on the can but I learned that it was necessary.


Eight Minute Broccoli Soup
If you read my blog, then you may be experiencing déjà vu. Yes, this is pretty much the same recipe as the formerly published Eight Minute Tomato Soup. I made this broccoli soup for my dinner tonight and it was easy enough to take a few pix as I went along.

I should add that this was going to be Eight Minute Cauliflower Soup until I realized I only had frozen broccoli in the freezer.

3 TBS butter
1/2 a medium to small onion, chopped
1/2 a small bell pepper, chopped
14 to 24 ounces fresh or frozen broccoli (the more broccoli the thicker the soup)
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 cups chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock
1/4 cup of white wine (optional)
1 cup whipping cream, or half & half, or 1 can of Media Crema
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream or a few teaspoons of heavy cream to garnish (optional)

Saute onions and bell pepper the butter until soft. Add chopped garlic and saute a minute or two more.

Add four cups of your Preferred Stock or use canned broth instead. If using white wine, add it now. Add your fresh or frozen broccoli and bring soup to a boil and then simmer for seven or eight minutes or until broccoli is soft.

This is one of the very rare times that I tolerate overcooked broccoli but, since you will be pureeing it, crisp broccoli is not ideal.

Using a kitchen wand, puree soup to your desired consistency. Some people like a few more chunks, others like it much smoother. If you don't have a kitchen wand just puree the soup in a blender in small batches and return to pot.

Add the cream, salt, and pepper, return it to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for eight minutes.

I know, crappy photos. The light in my kitchen is awful. And I was shooting after dark.

The broccoli soup was for me, but hubby thinks I'm punishing him if I try to give him something like this for dinner. For him, I had planned chiles rellenos. I've never made them before and didn't know how they were going to come out so I didn't plan on blogging the recipe and didn't take photos of the process.

I don't personally like chiles rellenos, but people around here get positively ecstatic at the very thought of them. I made these using Monterrey jack cheese and ground venison. I won't blog the recipe right now but if you really want to know, then buy a 27 ounce can of Ortega whole green chiles because I used them and the recipe on the back of the can to make these. Except for the addition of meat, I changed nothing. Wes loved them! He happily ate several with our homemade habanero salsa. Considering I've never made them before, I thought they came out really pretty. Okay, the photo is lousy but they really were pretty, I swear. The next batch should be much improved.

Eight Minute Tomato Soup

Think what you like about Suzanne Somers and her diet books, the woman has some excellent gourmet recipes! Her eight minute tomato soup recipe is especially tasty and very simple. This recipe comes from her Fast & Easy book, although I have altered it a tiny bit.

I have insomnia something fierce. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and soup just sounded so good and soothing. I pulled 3 packages of frozen chicken stock out of the freezer and got to work.

Ingredients:

4 cups Chicken or Turkey Stock
1/4 to 1/2 an onion (depending on how heavily seasoned your stock already is with onion), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. basil
Sea Salt to taste
Crushed red pepper to taste
fresh ground black or white pepper to taste
One 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup of heavy whipping cream or half and half
2 TBS butter

In a pot, saute diced onion in butter until soft then add garlic and saute for a minute longer. Add stock and tomatoes and puree with hand wand or puree in blender then pour back into soup pot. Add all remaining ingredients except the cream and bring soup to a boil then lower heat and simmer for eight minutes. When eight minutes is up, add cream and heat through and then your soup is done!

Using canned stewed tomatoes or canned tomato sauce is just fine--it will just change the texture. The change in taste will be minimal.

How much you puree your soup is up to you, some people want it chunkier and some want it smoother.

Top with a little sour cream if you like and serve.

Click here to go to the more printer friendly version of Eight Minute Tomato Soup.

Variation on this soup:
Instead of adding canned tomatoes use cooked broccoli, cooked cauliflower, or a combination of the two and puree well. It makes for a thicker version of this soup and it's absolutely delicious.

Asian Style Soup

Last night I wanted something DIFFERENT! But I didn't have anything DIFFERENT in the house. Yet I managed to come up with a surprisingly good soup that reminded me of Hot & Sour soup. So good. This Asian style soup recipe really lends itself to some experimentation, have fun with it!

Ingredients:
Three boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I buy these frozen and by the bagful at the grocery store and keep them for recipes just like this one--they're individually frozen and it's so convenient and time saving to be able to just pull out what you need.

8 cups Chicken Stock

A tablespoon or two of grated ginger-- if you are remote like me, buy a hand or two of ginger the first chance you get and stick it in a Ziplock freezer bag and keep it frozen, grating off what you need. It will last you a long while. The ginger will soften quickly out of the freezer, so you can always opt to just let a hunk of it sit out for a little while and slice it super thin if you prefer it that way. I prefer it grated. You'll really have to use your own judgment as to how much ginger to use for this recipe. I've never gotten too much.... yet. You don't have to cook with ginger more than a few times to figure it out though. By the way, ground or crystallized ginger is not the same as fresh or frozen ginger. You can't substitute ground ginger for fresh/frozen ginger.

4 cloves of garlic, 1 left whole but peeled and the other three peeled, and sliced thin.

1 and 3/4 cups of rice, preferably Jasmine or some other aromatic rice. Whole grain is fine. So is any old white rice. If using quick cooking rice then you'll need to adjust the cooking time accordingly. The rice needs to be cooked in the stock, however. Leftover rice in this recipe wouldn't be right.

1 and 1/2 TBS chili powder

2 TBS soy sauce

Dried or fresh peppers. We grow Kung Pao peppers and I dry them and store them for use such as this. I used three dried Kung Pao peppers in this recipe. Crushed red pepper would be fine instead and it's certainly very easy to find. Use according to your taste.

1 large lime -- we only had some of the really small ones in the fridge for some reason, I used three.

1/2 a large, coarsely chopped onion (I prefer to cut it in short, fat strips but it's really not a big deal how you cut it)

1 TBS chopped fresh cilantro

2 TBS cornstarch (optional)


Directions:
Place the thighs, frozen or not, in a small pot, cover with water, and add 1/4 of the lime (with skin), 1/2 TBS of the chili powder, about 1/4 of the onion you have chopped, a chunk of the ginger--no need to slice it for this, some of the spicy pepper--half a teaspoon if using crushed red pepper, a tablespoon of the soy sauce, the whole clove of garlic, and black pepper if you like. Bring to a boil then simmer until the meat is done and tender enough to cut it easily.

After you've got the chicken simmering, put the stock into a pot big enough to make your soup in. Add the remaining soy sauce, chili powder, peppers (spicy and/or black) according to your taste, the juice from the remaining lime, the remaining onion, the ginger, and the rice. Don't worry about the cornstarch yet. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover and cook on low for 20 minutes. The chicken will likely be done before the rice is. This is a good thing. As soon as the chicken is done remove it from the liquid it's cooking in and set it on a cutting board to cool. Dispose of the liquid you cooked the chicken in, you won't need it. When the chicken has cooled enough, chop it into bite sized pieces or shred it if you prefer.

Five minutes before the rice is done, add the chicken to the soup pot--don't stir it, replace the lid and continue cooking for the last five minutes. When the time is up, check the consistency. Would you like it thicker? To a small amount of tepid water, less than 1/8th of a cup, add your cornstarch and whisk. Once combined, add the mixture to the soup and raise the heat under the soup pot, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken. Turn off heat, stir in the tablespoon of the fresh, chopped cilantro, and serve. Drizzle with more soy sauce if you like.

If you don't have cilantro you could use some fresh chopped green onions (just the green tops), or some fresh chopped lemongrass (yeah, like I can run out and buy THAT at our local grocery store), or a very small amount of fresh, chopped spinach, or a small amount of the softer, greener bits of bok choy could also be used.

Thin sliced tofu would probably be lovely in this recipe as well, either in place of or in addition to the chicken. The recipe doesn't NEED the chicken, by the way, the stock provides plenty of flavor but without the chicken, there's not much protein in the dish.

My favorite thing about this recipe is that the next day, it will be much thicker and won't be at all unlike congee. I'll get to that recipe in the near future. Congee is one of my favorite foods.

What makes this recipe really work is the chicken stock. That's the secret.