creamy corn soup with zucchini & tomato

first off, please excuse the weird illustrations. i neglected to take any pictures of this delicious soup and so had to draw some things on my phone. this is not quite as easy as you'd think.

nevertheless, hopefully they won't put you off making this soup, because it's quick, easy, and remarkably delicious. mike said that i could make it every day and he wouldn't complain (the subtext of that being that generally he DOES complain. just kidding! he is very easygoing, though he will suffer neither mushrooms nor fools gladly).

the corn here is amazing right now, so it would be great to snap some up and make this asap. out of corn season, i think frozen corn would be okay, but fresh is the only way to go when it's as juicy and sweet as it is now. zucchini and tomatoes are also pretty terrific, making this the epitome of the seasonal! local! eating! thing that everyone's always yapping about.

i also added some leftover grilled salmon, but you could also use chicken or tofu to add protein and bulk it up a little. it's also great with just the vegetables. so adaptable!

first, cut the kernels off of 4 ears of corn. this post regarding a tasty corn salad has a thing about cutting up corn, in case this is foreign to you. then put the cobs in a large pan with about 4 cups of milk. i used 2%, since that's what we keep around for coffee, but whole milk would of course be more decadent and skim more ascetic, so go with your instincts. heat the cob-milk mess over medium-high heat until it starts edging towards boiling, then let the cobs sit in there while you do the rest of the things. i think this just gives the end result a deeper and more complex flavor, but obviously if you're using frozen corn it'll presumably not come with cobs and should still be fine, so if you don't want to mess with this step, just skip it! it's your corn soup party! do what you want!

it's not in the picture, but you should cut an onion into smallish dice. heat up a bit of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the onion. also chop some garlic into little bits. you can even cut the zucchini and tomato into bite-sized-or-a-little-smaller pieces at this point as well, if you're one of those fancy people with enough room on your cutting board to do so. 

so the onion starts getting translucent fairly quickly and then you can add the garlic and some herbs. i used a small bunch of lemon thyme stems that still had a few leaves on them. it was maybe like 1/2 the size of my thumb (i like to think that i have normal-sized thumbs, if that measurement was unclear) and i changed out the rubber band holding it together for one of those wire bread bag wrapper things from which i removed the paper. maybe you have some kitchen twine or something? just don't melt rubber into your soup and you'll be okay.

i also added a couple of big pinches of dried fines herbes, but pretty much anything not too weird would go well here - marjoram, chives, a little tarragon... (so, like, the things in fines herbes)

then throw the corn in, along with the milk in which the corn cobs have been steeping (sans cobs, obvs). probably some salt and pepper wouldn't be too out of place, either. bring it to a low boil and then turn the heat down to medium-low, so it keeps simmering. let it go for 20 minutes or so. 

at this point i like to blend some of it (like 2/3) up so that the soup has a thicker, creamier texture. you could blend the whole thing like crazy, but i prefer it with some whole kernels. an immersion blender would be best here (avoiding the thyme bundle), but i broke mine a few years ago in an ill-fated margarita disaster, so i made do with the food processor (a regular blender would be better than the processor, leakwise, but i don't have one). 

finally, brown the zucchini in a little olive oil, add some cumin and then the tomato, then add the whole thing to the now-blended soup. ta da! if you have some cooked fish or chicken you could flake/shred/chop it and add it so that it heats through.

don't eat the little bundle of thyme, if you used one.

somehow this ended up tasting almost kind of coconut-y - i guess maybe from the sweetness of the corn? i did use some really superlative corn, so that definitely helps the end result. 

*ingredients*

4 ears corn

4 cups milk

1 small bunch thyme - lemon thyme is particularly good (or some dried thyme)

other herbs

1 onion

3 or 4 cloves garlic

1 zucchini

1 tomato

1/2 teaspoon cumin (optional)

cooked fish or chicken (optional)

listening to: my kind of dumb/kind of awesome spotify mix of 90s-ish hip hop/r&b, so like GZA's shadowboxin', 2pac's california love, destiny's child's say my name, and tlc's waterfalls.

sweet & spicy roasted squash

i made these last night for a halloween party to which we were meant to bring spooky foods, so i called them goblin ribs.* when you make them, you can just call them delicious!

delicata squash is fantastic when roasted with an asian-inspired glaze that is equal parts sweet and savory and entirely tasty.

do you know the delicata squash (Cucurbita pepo)? it's one of my favorite winter squashes because it's dead easy to cook and you can eat the skin, so you don't have to take your life into your hands as you (i) do when trying to peel butternuts and the like. it's also a good size - two people can eat one and not have ridiculous leftovers.

all you do here is preheat your oven to 375. then trim the top and bottom from the squash and cut it in half. scoop out the seeds with a spoon. if you're the adventurous type, you could roast the seeds too, but we just got composting here in portland and my roasted squash seeds are never that awesome, so i don't feel too bad tossing them.

then cut each half into ~ 1/2 inch thick slices. don't they look a little like ribs? weird little alien goblin ribs, maybe? or maybe not. whatever.

just spread the slices on a cookies sheet and drizzle a little olive oil over them - maybe a tablespoon or two. then stick them in the oven for half an hour or so, flipping them after maybe 20 minutes or whenever the bottom sides are browned. while they're cooking, mix up the glaze.

i wanted them to be nice and garlicky, so i minced up two big cloves of garlic. you can use however much you prefer, though. mix this with about a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon and a half or so of soy sauce. you also need a good few shakes of pepper flakes - however much you feel comfortable with. i also used a teaspoon of molasses, but you can skip that if you don't have any. it does add some nice depth, though.

pour the glaze over the sliced squash and stir it around a bit so all the slices get covered. then stick it back in the oven for 5 or 7 minutes - just until it gets nice and sticky and the garlic cooks up. you don't want it to burn, though, so keep an eye on it.

ta da! the glaze melts into the squash a bit and gets kind of candyish. these are good just eaten with your fingers, but you could also have them atop a salad or in a sandwich with some chicken or with rice and greens. you could also use the glaze on other winter squashes, like acorn or something.

*for the curious, other spooky foods included chicken witch's fingers, more witch's fingers made of cheddar-thyme gougères (soon to appear here), broken leg bones of phyllo-wrapped asparagus, pig-in-blanket eyeballs, and other delights. it was a deliciously spoooooky repast.

*ingredients*

1 delicata squash

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

pepper flakes, to taste

1 teaspoon molasses (optional)

peppers and zucchini stuffed with rice & beans

i randomly picked up some gorgeous anaheim peppers at the produce market the other day and was at something of a loss as to what to do with them. although i use jalapeños and any-color-but-green bell peppers with some frequency, i rarely branch out in any significant way to other members of the capsicum family.

i don't know if i'd even tasted anaheim peppers before. but look at them - could you have left those dark green beauties sitting on the shelf? i don't think so.

having discovered via the magic of the internet that they're generally not too crazy-hot, i decided to stuff them. we had stuffed peppers not infrequently when i was growing up and while i always liked the filling, the peppers themselves were not my favorite. for one thing, they were almost invariably stupid green bell peppers. for another, i think bell peppers generally are too thick and sturdy to make a really good stuffed pepper. you end up getting too many bites that are all pepper and no filling. because these anaheims are longer and thinner-fleshed, i thought they'd be perfect for stuffing.

i got some smallish zucchini at the same time and decided to stuff them as well. stuffed vegetable party! to prepare the zucchini, i used a knife to cut part of one side off, then used a spoon to scrape out the middle flesh to make it kind of a zucchini-canoe. if you use larger zucchini, you could probably just cut them in half and do the same. make sure to save the parts you scrape out to use in the filling!

the peppers were slightly more complicated. i don't know if you have to do this, but i wanted to roast and peel them before stuffing. i don't like the skin on peppers and i thought they'd be easier to stuff if they were soft already. you can roast them under the broiler in the oven, turning them as the outside blisters and blackens. if you are lucky enough to have a gas stove, you can use a set of tongs to hold the peppers directly over the burner to cook. i decided to use the broil feature on the toaster oven, which worked well. i just put the peppers on the grate and broiled them on high, turning them occasionally until the skin was blistered and blackened in spots and the peppers were soft. then i put them in a bowl and covered it with a plastic bag so that they would steam up - this loosens the skin. after about 10 minutes, i was able to peel the skin off easily.

i decided to make a rice and black bean stuffing with some vaguely mexican flavors - i thought it would work well with the slightly spicy peppers (and zucchini goes with everything, much like gin and the color black).

i started with half an onion, chopped pretty small. i let it cook down for a few minutes, until it was translucent and starting to brown. then i added three large cloves of garlic and half a jalapeño, minced. we are pretty big fans of garlic, though, so you should add whatever you're comfy with. this is the point at which you should add spices as well. i used perhaps a teaspoon of cumin and the same of smoked paprika. i also used some chili powder - maybe 1/2 teaspoon or a little more.

let this cook for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, then add the chopped meat from inside the zucchini. after this cooks down a little (maybe 2 minutes), add a can of drained black beans (clearly you could also make these yourself - i just didn't have any at hand) and maybe a cup or cup and a half of cooked rice. i used white rice, but you can also use brown if you like. i also used like 2/3 of a cup of frozen spinach. it would be totally fine without that, though.

let the filling mixture cool, then add some cheese - i used a couple of ounces of crumbled feta and a couple of ounces of extra sharp cheddar cut into small cubes, but you can use whatever you like. queso fresco would be great, for instance. i let the filling cool before adding the cheese because i wanted it to stay in discrete shapes rather than melting throughout.

then just stuff away! i pulled the stems from the peppers and used my hand to split the side open. you have to be somewhat gentle with them so they don't start splitting all over the place. i used one hand to cradle the pepper and the other to push the stuffing in, then laid them on their sides. for the zucchini, just pile the stuffing into your little boats (press it in firmly) and you're done!

finally, i sprinkled them each with a tablespoon or so of panko breadcrumbs for crunch and baked them in the toaster oven at 400 degrees for about half an hour. you can certainly bake them in a regular oven, of course - just bake until the zucchini are tender when you poke at them with a knife.

this was a really satisfying and healthy vegetarian dinner. it would also be great (and vegan!) without the cheese. the anaheim peppers were great - i will definitely be getting them again. the filling could also be used to stuff any number of things - yellow squash, chayotes, tomatoes, winter squash once the weather changes, etc.

*ingredients*

2 anaheim peppers

2 small zucchini

1/2 onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 jalapeño

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon (+) chili powder

zucchini (from the ones you're stuffing)

1 can black beans

1 - 1 1/2 cups cooked rice

2/3 cup frozen spinach (obviously you could also use fresh)

2 ounces feta

2 ounces sharp cheddar

*i should note - this makes a lot of stuffing, so you will probably have extra*

~4 tablespoons panko crumbs (optional)