Kale & Tomato Soup

Kale - I have a love hate relationship with this deep green legume. It is sooo insanely healthy for you, its something I've grown to love through the years. Honestly, you can only eat soo much before the taste becomes like chalk in your mouth. So with that, I devised a healthy soup to feed your body and tastebuds.

First the key to this recipe is fresh and clean homemade chicken broth. I can not express the importance and the deliciousness that is accompanied with fresh chicken broth to any dish. Yes, the canned stuff and the expensive one from Whole Foods is good, but none can COMPARE.

To make your own chicken broth, I usually take scraps of drumsticks and scapula bone (that bit alone proves that I'm a science nerd!) from breast meat (the bones that are left after you cut off the meat you want). This DOES NOT include chicken skin, if you put fat into the broth, you will get fat back. So with your scraps, stew with water in a pot and you'll see your broth forming slowly. Remember to remove the bubbles (dirty boiled off fat) from the top of the broth. 

You can usually keep the broth up to a week. Probably longer but mine never sticks around that long. Chicken broth is good to add to almost every dish cause it adds a richness of flavor without adding salt.

Kale Soup

INGREDIENTS:
Kale leaves - cut off the stems, you can always saute them with some other dish

3-4 Diced Tomatos

1 Chopped up carrot

3 Minced Pieces of Garlic

1/2 chopped onion

2 TSP cooking oil

3 C Chicken Broth

Pepper  (optional - just to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Lightly Saute garlic and onions with cooking oil in a pot (Cooking them before brings flavor to dish)

2) Add the rest of the ingredients

3) Cook at medium - low heat until the carrots are soft

And there you go! A simple tasty Kale & Tomato Soup. I usually eat this with a slice of multigrain toast. Seems hippiesh, but as the saying goes 'when in rome...' :D

Fusion Food: A Yummy Mosaic

In America, we have the idea of the Melting Pot as a means of explaining the mixture of many different cultures. This term was first used by Crevecoeur in 1782 in Letters from an American Farmer. This idea still remains to strong in our culture. Crevecoeur's idea makes me feel that the ethnic roots are lost and are not distinctive. 

However, as much as I have pride in being an American, I don't think it as beautiful as the Canadian's version the Cultural Mosaic. Which makes me think that the individual pieces remain in their own uniqueness but collectively they create a beautiful picture.

Either metaphor you like, it really doesn't matter. I think food is a prime example of cultures meeting whether its spices or techniques, they all trace back to something/ some people.  Just thought I would have a nerd moment and share that with you to open up to this recipe. 

Anyway, back to this recipe. It was first taught to be back in Santa Cruz when I was living with a woman of African and Indian decent. She was such an amazing person with a very strong spirit and very interesting background. She was fluent in French (she helped me but conversing with me), went to boarding school overlooking the Himalayas  and was super bad ass in Mauy Thai. Absolutely an amazing person

When she taught me this recipe it was a fusion of her Ethiopian and Indian background. Over the years, I have added my Vietnamese influence into this recipe.  I hope you try this out and tell me what you think.

Ingredients:

- Tomatoes

- Spinach

- Yellow Onion

- Garlic Cloves

- Cabbage

- Chicken (other meats can be used but I think poultry has a nice palette and compliments many spices)

- Chicken Boullion ( Chicken Broth)

- Whole Cumin Seeds

- Bay Leaves

- Vietnamese Fish Sauce
- Soy Sauce

- Vegetable Oil
- Water


* cut all fresh veggies into bite size pieces except spinach, leave it whole.

Recipe:

- Sautee Garlic and Onions until translucent then add Bay Leaves (about 3 large leaves) and Cumin (~2tbsp)

- Add in 2 tbsp of Fish sauce along with one cube of chicken bouillon (if using chicken broth wait)

- Add chicken and brown the surface

- Add dices tomatoes & 1/2 c water (if use chicken broth, substitute for water)

-Let the sauce simmer at medium low until most of the chicken is cooked

- Add chopped cabbage, add another 2tbsp  of fish sauce & soy sauce

- When the chicken is about done, add the spinach and lightly mix it in for no more than 5 min (want the spinach to hold some of its shape)

Serve with Jasmine Rice and there you have it!

P.S. I'm still getting used to writing recipe so bare with me as I play around with writing styles. 

Mexican Rice

My friend, Angelica, showed me how to make this a few months ago but I thought I would share the recipe and technique…the technique being the key component. When I was back in college, I failed at making this soo many times but I learned it was because I lacked patience which unfortunately is still a work in progress.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice

2 cup fresh chicken broth (you can substitute with a cube of chicken bouillon and 2 c of water)

5 diced Roma Tomatos

½ chopped yellow onions (or red onions)

5 cloves of diced garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1.       In a pot pour the olive oil and heat it up until it becomes viscous then add the garlic and onions at medium heat. Cook the onions until it becomes translucent.

2.       Add the dry rice into the pot and allow the oil to cook the grains – remember to stir or they will stick to the bottom.

3.       Add the 2 cups of the fresh chicken broth along with the diced tomatoes. Turn up the heat and let the stock start to boil with bubbles.

4.       Place the lid on top and reduce the heat to low

5.       Let the pot sit on low for about 20 min and then it’s done.