Kale and sausage soup

 

I tried this recipe when I took a week off to bake cookies and such, knowing that by supper time I'd have blown away the kitchen and just want food ready and waiting, as this slow cooker book says.

Portuguese Kale and Sausage Soup

Adapted from “Ready and Waiting” by Rick Rodgers

Ingredients

8 ounces sausages, such as chorizo, linguiҫa if you can find it, or kielbasa

¼ cup olive oil, divided

1 large onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups water

2 ⅔ cup chicken broth

3 medium potatoes, unpeeled, chopped into ½-inch pieces

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 cups chopped sturdy greens, such as kale, beet greens, etc.

Method

Remove any casings from sausages and fry up in a large, deep skillet, breaking up with a spatula. When brown, remove from heat and store in refrigerator until ready to use later in the recipe.

Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to any drippings left in the pan. Cook onions and garlic over medium heat until softened. Transfer to a large slow cooker. Add water, broth, potatoes, salt and red pepper flakes. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours until potatoes are tender. Mash up a few of the potatoes against the side of the slow cooker to thicken soup slightly. Add sausages and greens and cook for another 30 minutes to an hour until greens are tender. Serve drizzled with the remaining olive oil.

Rating: Fine enough, although it was better reheated once the flavors had more time to meld. Respectable warm food, but not as good as my usual recipe for kale sausage soup. 

But it was really nice to have soup simmering on the crockpot after my upteenth batch of peanut butter M&M cookies. Christmas comes but once a year, but it seems to last pretty much forever. A decent soup helps with the slog through, and the leftovers helped when I was on week 3 and counting. Enough already.

We did take a break from the madness to rewatch "Love Actually" at the Parkway. If we hadn't bought tickets in advance there's no way I would have made myself go out on a cold rainy night when I was frantically behind. But by the time I had a nice malbec in front of me at Pizza Biga for a pre-movie supper, I decided it was just fine.

Almond double (or triple) decker cookies

 

In mid-November, I received an e-mail from my great nephew with a suggestion: "I have this idea for a cookie, where there are three layers of sandwich cookies, where there are three sugar cookies with two frostings with complimenting flavors, for example, almond and pecan frostings on the cookies."

Who can resist such a challenge?  Well, obviously not me. First step: Find an almond-flavored sugar cookie.When the December issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived, it reminded me of her brandy-flavored sugar cookies, so why not sub in almond liqueur? 

The fillings were harder to ponder. Pecan and apricot could go nicely, for instance, but I already make some sour cream rollup cookies filled with almonds, apricots and coconut, so that seemed duplicative. So, almond and what? Or how about almond in two different textures? And let's put an almond on top to gild the lily.

Thus began the experiment with triple layer cookies, double-filled cookies, and to hedge my bets I tried some with layers of almond and maple cream.

Just so you know, Henry, I don't always take requests. But these were worth a shot, so thanks for the suggestion.

Almond double (or triple) deckers

The sugar cookie recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart’s Ideal Sugar Cookie recipe, the almond icing is taken from part of a wonderful-looking cookie that I might have to try next year, a Bavarian almond sandwich cookie from Mary Ehrenberger, a State Fair of Texas winner on the Gold Medal Flour site.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter, room temperature

1 lightly beaten egg

2 tablespoons almond liqueur (I used Disaronno, but Amaretto or even Frangelico would work as well)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Almond cake and pastry filling (you’ll use a small bit of 12.5-ounce can)

Sliced almonds for garnish

For Almond Icing:

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon almond liqueur

1 tablespoon corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Method

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, brandy and vanilla and combine well. Slowly add reserved flour mixture on low until just combined.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least an hour to make it easier to roll out.

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out dough to about 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured board (or I found it helped to roll it in between two layers of plastic wrap). Cut into preferred shapes; I chose to cut them into rectangles with a pastry cutter so they weren’t matchy-matchy with the other sandwich cookies I make. Transfer to baking sheets, placing 1 inch apart. If you’re making double deckers, place a sliced almond on top of half of the cookies. If you’re doing triple deckers, place an almond slice in the center of a third of the cookies. (These will be your top layer.)

Bake about 10 minutes at 350 until cooked through but not brown. Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

Pair up your cookies according to size matches, either in twos or threes, with one almond-topped cookie for your top layer. (At this point you can seal them in a plastic storage box and store them until ready to ice them, either a few days at room temperature or longer in the freezer. Thaw before frosting.)

To make the icing, beat all the ingredients together.

To assemble the layers, spread the almond icing on the bottom layer. If making triple deckers, spread the pastry filling on the top of the second layer cookie and stack it on top of the frosted bottom layer; top with an almond-garnished cookie. If making double deckers, frost the bottom layer with the icing and spread the pastry filling on the bottom of an almond-garnished cookie that you then stack on top of the bottom layer.

Your yield will vary based on how small you cut your cookies and how many layers you opt for. I experimented with different sizes. I think my preferred size was about 1½ inches square. I’d say you get about 3 dozen cookie parts out of the dough recipe, so you get either a dozen triple deckers  or 18 double deckers. I wound up making two batches of dough to get about 3 dozen cookies of various varieties.

Rating: I’d say these were well-received at the first family Christmas gathering, and definitely worth repeating to fine tune. The combo pack of the two almond flavors worked better than the maple cream both flavor-wise and in terms of structural integrity. I personally give the edge to the double decker variety, because I think they offer a better ratio of filling to cookie, but was pleasantly surprised that the triple deckers actually stuck together and weren't just monstrosities. At any rate, they certainly held their own amid the 10 kinds of cookies I baked.

  

The other new recipe I tried this season was one of the Star Tribune Taste section winners from this year, the white chocolate cherry tea cakes. They were tasty, because they're tea cakes and thus good eats. But really, I probably won't make them again because they're duplicative of the pecan sandies that are part of the core of must-make cookies every year. If I did make them again, I'm pondering what they would be like if the cherries were soaked in a liqueur. 

If you're still pondering what cookies to make, either this year or next, try the Star Tribune's online cookie finder. Or find all the past year's cookie contest winners collected in the newly released cookbook. It's handy to have them all in one spot and not have to print them out or keep flicking the recipe up and down on your phone.

2 takes on crockpot chicken: French and African

This is the time of year where on weekends I want something stashed in the crockpot by noon so by suppertime when I'm too tired of baking cookies to want to cook something, dinner is already made.

Here are two takes on slow-cooked chicken, one with French influences, the other allegedly African. I expected to like the French dish more, but it turned out the other way around.

African marinated chicken in onion sauce
Adapted from "Ready and Waiting" by Rick Rodgers

Ingredients
5 good-sized onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cut-up chicken, about 3½ pounds
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white wine

Method
Combine onions, garlic, lemon juice, salt and cayenne in a very large nonreactive bowl. Add chicken and toss to coat. Cover and marinate overnight in the refrigerator, turning occasionally.

Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry. Pour marinade and onions into a large slow cooker.
Brown chicken, skin-side down, in hot oil. You’ll probably need to do this in two batches in a large skillet. Transfer chicken to slow cooker, putting dark meat toward the bottom. Deglaze the skillet with the white wine and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook 5 to 6 hours on low until tender.

Remove chicken to an oven-safe baking dish and put in a warm oven to keep warm and help crisp  up the skin. Meanwhile, transfer remaining onions and liquid to a large saucepan and cook over high heat until liquid is greatly reduced and forms a sauce. Serve with hot rice.

The recipe as written says it serves 4, but I’d say it’s closer to 6. Lots of leftovers.

Rating: Nice. Browning the chicken first really helps this dish, and the onions and chicken are both falling apart tender. There’s a nice, but not overwhelming amount of heat. The recipe as originally written called for ¼ teaspoon of cayenne, but urged you add as much cayenne as one wanted since the dish would be spicy. It wasn’t overly spicy with just 1 teaspoon of cayenne, just a soft heat, so I’d add more if you want actual fire.

French basil chicken

Adapted from “The Healthy Slow Cooker” by Judith Finlayson

Ingredients

12 chicken thighs (bone-in)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cracked pepper

½ cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 can (14-ounce) diced tomatoes

1 can (14-ounce) artichoke hearts, drained and quartered

2 cups diced red pepper

½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Method

Arrange chicken in the bottom of a large slow cooker.

In a large saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute, stirring to incorporate. Add wine and cook for 1 more minute. Add stock and tomatoes, including juice. Bring to a boil and stir in artichoke hearts. Pour mixture over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Stir in bell pepper and most of basil and cook for another 30 minutes. Serve topped with remaining basil for garnish.

Rating: A tad bland, despite the ingredient list. Needs more garlic, for starters. Maybe some sliced fennel bulb in with the onions? And if I make this again I’ll transfer the cooking liquid to a pan to reduce the sauce because otherwise it’s thinner than broth. The chicken is wonderfully tender, however. The leftovers (it makes a ton) heated up nicely with some leftover rice, and I was happier with it reheated, so I suspect concentrating the sauce through reduction would help it a lot.

2 takes on chicken with lots of garlic

These are two variations on the standard chicken with 40 cloves of garlic recipe. One mixes it up by using the slow cooker; the other adds a touch of heat to the equation. The winner? The diner.

Crockpot chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Adapted from “The French Slow Cooker” by Michele Scicolone

Ingredients

40 cloves of garlic

12 bone-in chicken thighs

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper

½ cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Remove any loose papery skins from garlic, but don’t peel. Scatter garlic in the bottom of a slow cooker.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and sprinkle with rosemary. Place chicken atop garlic in slow cooker. Pour wine and lemon juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours.

Remove chicken from crockpot and place in a large, oven proof baking dish at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or about the time it takes to deal with the sauce. This will give the skin a chance to brown and crisp up a bit.

Remove garlic from slow cooker and remove and discard the skins. Pour cooking liquid from slow cooker into a small saucepan. Add most of the garlic cloves, retaining some to serve whole with the chicken. Smoosh garlic into the liquid and cook over medium high heat until it’s reduced and starting to thicken. Stir in butter.

Pour sauce over chicken and serve with the remaining cooked garlic. Mashed potatoes are nice with this.

Rating: This was so, so tasty. The lemon juice gives the sauce a nice zing, and crisping up the chicken skin in the oven saves it from being mushy chicken. The garlic cloves are essentially stewed, not roasted, so you don't have the same roasted garlic consistency you may be used to. But they are very soft and tasty. Great winter comfort food with minimal fuss. 

 

Roast chicken legs with lots of garlic

From Bon Appetit, Oct. 2018

Ingredients

4 chicken legs (or 8 thighs)

4 heads of garlic, halved crosswise

1 red chile, sliced lengthwise

5 sprigs fresh thyme or other aromatic of choice

1 lemon, thinly sliced into rounds, seeded

½ cup olive oil

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place chicken in a 13-by-9 baking dish. Tuck in garlic, cut-side down, and the red chile and thyme sprigs. Place lemon slices over the top of the chicken. Pour olive oil over the top. Roast for 75 to 90 minutes, until falling-off-the-bone tender.

Rating: Fine. Very minimal prep time and simple presentation. The lemon becomes like candy. While you can sop of some of that oil (aka elixir at this point) with some crusty bread, be prepared to have some leftover flavored oil and garlic that you can use as the starting point for a magnificent pasta sauce.