Artichoke soup or how to take pleasure while on a diet

In regard to one of my beloved friends, my sweet and spicy Ginger Cookie, who’s now making a diet, and being quite an expert in that, I’m going to make some posts with healthy, tasty and diet friendly recipes, which, I have to tell you, are quite a lot.
There are some arid days when you have to watch your calorie intake, group foods, and all that jazz (for some of us, its a lifetime thing), that you’re bored out of your mind about the stuff you’re allowed to eat. Everything becomes repetitive, tasteless, and more worrying, you stop enjoying eating.

Enjoy eating is one of the most joyful things in life, because is something you have to do at least thrice a day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you have to give into gluttony, no, but to take pleasure in all the things you eat, going from a luscious coulant au chocolat to a humble apple. It’s in your hands to do it, and to make from each meal a feast to yourself. We are what we eat, so the better we eat, the better we are.

So, let’s get into business, artichoke soup. It’s tasty, you can make a huge batch and freeze and, as a cherry on top, it’s so good for your health that just making the soup you get some workout done. It’s not complicated, or hard, but a bit tedious, not going to lie. Arm yourself with some food processor or hand mixer, and a strainer with the smallest mesh that you can find.

ARTICHOKE SOUP

Ingredients:

4 or 5 big nice artichokes
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 cube of vegetable stock
1 L of water
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon of sweet paprika
4 tablespoons of evaporated milk
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Procedure:

- In a heavy bottom saucepan pour the oil and both garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with the blade of your knife. Turn on the heat medium low and when it starts to smell like joy, add the onion, chopped roughly, there’s no need to be fancy here, we’re going to blend it!

- Salt a bit for the onions to sweat and cook a bit sooner. Put the lid on and stir from time to time. They have to become translucently glossy and soft and sweet.

- While your onions are cooking, get on with the tedious job of peeling the artichokes. Your fingers might turn dark nasty green, so, if you don’t know if you react to artichokes and pomegranates this way, put on some gloves as a safety measure. Artichokes oxidise quite easily, and they do it in a kind of nasty way. They turn black as soon as you cut them, the bastards, so they can dye your dish in a horrible, unapetizing, even gross, grey colour. Thanks to Mother Nature, we have the means to avoid it.

- Have prepared a bowl full of cold water with the juice of one lemon and the casks. Take a sharp knife and cut the pointy end, about one finger and a half wide. Peel the outer leaves (and stop pretending, I know you’re thinking: yeah, right, outer leaves, darling, this is packed with leaves! When do I stop?- well, just a row or two for this dish) and the stem, cut it in quarters and with a small sharp knife or a teaspoon take out the hairs in the center, they tend to bitter the dish.

- Toss the quarters into the bowl and continue with the other ones. Once you have them all in, drain the artichokes and toss them into the pan, add the water and the stock cube. Bring it to the boil and then lower the fire to let it simmer for about 40 minutes.

- Taste it and add the pepper, the paprika and more salt if needed (stock cubes are quite salty, so it might be ok for your taste). Bring again to the boil and taste again, keep in mind that the evaporated milk is a bit sweet, so if its a wee bit too tasty right now, that’s fine.

- When you’re satisfied with the taste, blend it as finely as you can. Insist quite a lot, because artichokes are full of fiber, and might be testy.

- Take a deep breath and look for a big bowl, bigger enough to hold all the soup. Ladle by ladle, strain the soup into the bowl. Clean your strainer from time to time, or you won’t be able to keep going.

- Add the evaporated milk and blend again. Strain one more time, and is ready to go!

Healthy, tasty, and a huge test to your patience, but absolutely worth it!

The lovely soup with crispy bacon bits

Hope you give it a go!

By the way, if you’d like to know how to make something, just tell me, and I’ll do my best.

Not so Hungry Games- Lamb Stew with Prunes

If we’re in the middle of discussing...I don’t know, the pros and cons about aquiculture for example, and all of a sudden you ask me: Come on, quickly, name one Hunger Games food, I’d say, without doubt: Lamb stew with prunes. Katniss’ favourite, and also Caesar Flickerman’s (whom will always be for me Julia Child’s husband, sorry)

Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci as Julia and Paul Child in Julie&Julia 

So, lamb stew...after having tried Irish Stew, which is mutton (old lamb) cooked with spuds, carrots and onion for hours (absolutely not similar to the “If Maria- that’s me-was Irish” stew), didn’t sound very inspiring, because even I do like roasted gigot (lamb leg), or grilled lamb ribs, I don’t like at all boiled lamb. Just can’t bear the taste. Much more if it’s served with overboiled potatos, carrots out of a can and without any seasoning at all. Imagine being presented with a plate of something quite lumpy and completely unapetizing.

Irish Stew, this one actually looks a lot better than the one I had

I was at a crossroad: Should I take the challenge and try to make something delicious, even if I’m not convinced of the result, or should I make a beef or pork dish, that would be undoubtedly lovely, but not accurate with the idea?
Ha, it has the word challenge in there, right? So you already knew that without a doubt, I’d go for the challenge, because let’s face it, as a friend told me in Inishmore, when I was a bit afraid of looking over the cliffs of Dún Aengus “No risk, no fun”.

My camera kind of died when I was here, so I've borrowed Rayco's one. Inishowen, Ireland

Don’t be afraid, really, and trust me in this, the stew is absolutely delicious, and it wont taste of lamb at all once is cooked. We were totally amazed by the results and we clean off the plates, which, I have to say, was an historic achievement, because we just gorged ourselves with a decadent goat cheese and apple tart and Peeta’s bread right before I served it, so, was really good. Wicked, even.

First of all, make sure you have plenty of time ahead, this recipe can’t be rushed, in fact, any stew should be rushed, it has to be cooked gently, over a low fire, with the broth simmering slowly, all the flavours mingling and filling your whole house with homey smells.

CAPITOL STYLE LAMB STEW WITH PRUNES OVER A BED OF WILD RICE

Ingredients: (I know, I know, they're quite a lot, but it's the pinch of this and splash of that what makes the stew so unique and flavourful)

3/4 kg of lamb for stewing already minced (don’t be a lazy ass and go to a proper butchery to buy it, because they can mince it for you, and believe me, is a huge pain in the ass to mince it at home, I tried- and I do have a Thermomix- and I won’t do it again if I can help it. Ever.)
3 medium onions, peeled and cut roughly
250 gr of dried and boned prunes
1 small glass of Brandy
2 cloves of garlic
1 pinch of salt and black pepper
1 teaspoon of cinnamon (Could Cinna be a short for Cinnamon? It would suit him well, right? Because he’s warm, and sweetly spicy but not overwhelmingly sugary...)
1 tablespoon of dried tyme
1 handful of fresh parsely, chopped finely
1 egg
2 tablespoons of fine dried breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon and a half of gravy granules
2 tablespoons of tomato sauce (any you have in a tin open, or even grated raw tomatos will do)
1 tiny winy pinch of ground cumin
2 bayleaves (it doesn’t mind if its dried or fresh)1 knob of butter and a glob of seed oil (olive oil-not a virgin one-, sunflower, canola...) 

300 gr wild rice mixed with basmati

Procedure

- Crush one garlic clove, add half the tyme, a pinch of the cinnamon, the cumin, salt, pepper, the egg, breadcrumbs, chopped parsley and the meat. Mix it well with your fingers and leave it aside.

- In a heavy bottom saucepan, dollop the butter and the oil and in a low heat and crush the other garlic, when all the butter is melted and you can smell the garlic, pour in the tomato and give it a quick stir.

- Add the onions and salt a bit, as the salt helps the water contained by the onions to sweat, and they’ll cook a bit quicker. Crush a bit with your fingers the bayleaves and drop them into the pan. Put the lid on, letting the onions cook slowly, they’ll become lovely translucent and the sugar in them will start to caramelize. Yum!

- Spice your base with the rest of the cinnamon, and add the prunes. You don’t need to chop them.

- We’re going to make a wee bit of a fancy trick, and if you don’t feel confident with it, just skip it, but I think it’ll help to enhance the rich flavour of your stew: Warm the brandy slightly on the ladle over the flames, and with the saucepan far from your smoke extractor, light it and pour the liquid on fire over your onions, just like Katniss’ and Peeta’s outfits, the flames will get off in a bit.

- Put the saucepan over the heat again and cover with water. Think about a glass per person. Bring it to a broiling boil on a high heat and try it to adjust the seasoning. My advice is to start being quite scrooge with the salt and pepper, and go adding more bit by bit until it reaches your taste. Because you can always add, but never remove.

- With your hands slightly greased, take your minced lamb and shape it into meatballs (around two educated person bites size). One you have one, drop it into the broth.

- Once you have them all done, lower the heat and let the stew simmer gently with the lid a bit lopsided for about 30 minutes. Stir from time to time to make sure nothing is adhering to the bottom.

- Disolve your gravy granules following tha package instructions and pour the mixture in the stew. Stir it and let it thicken the sauce.

- Cook the rice as the package recomends, but this usually is in huge saucepan with an abundancy of salty boiling water for about 18 minutes. Drain well.

- Serve your stew with about three or four meatballs over a ladle or two of wild rice.

Yummy!

It’s absolutely out of this world.

Hope you have enjoyed and try it soon!!!