Kiwi-marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin with a Kiwi and Fig Sauce
And this little figgy piggy screamed “kiwi, kiwi, kiwi” all the way home!
This semi-exotic fruit lends a clean, tart flavor to savory dishes.
Category: Soup
Thai seafood soup with Northwestern twist brings taste of tropics in winter
On a rain and blustery night last week, I decided to take a dish from my childhood memories in Bangkok, Tom Yum Kung, a pungent soup with shrimp and mushrooms swimming in lime-flavored broth, and give it a Pacific Northwest flair by adding salmon to it.
Chase off the chills with Chicken, Tortilla and Roasted Chiles Soup
One of the things I miss most about Texas is Tex-Mex food and also our summertime sojourns to Colorado and trips through New Mexico that would expose me to the piquant flavors of the desert Southwest. It was there that I had tortilla soup for the first time, as well as roasted chiles. Until we […]
An easy and tasy smoked salmon chowder
This wonderful and rich smoked salmon chowder will take you less than 30 minutes to make and is a great dish for a cool wet night.
Soups for the cold, flu, or what ails you
The flu. Cold. Sniffles. Crud. Whatever you call it, the evil that is aching muscles, stuffy sinus, scratchy throat, pounding headache, malaise, and coughing that seems to be going around is taking its toll. Every culture seems to have a common cure for this ailment. When Americans feel this way, we usually think of chicken […]
Chilled Cream of Corn and Crab Soup with Oregon White Truffle Oil
Vic and I had the pleasure of trekking through a cool, damp grove of young Douglas firs in Yamhill County with Jack a few years ago and returned home with a nice bounty of white truffles and even a couple of large black truffles. When I told Jack about anointing a chilled cream of corn soup with his oil, his face lit up with a broad smile of approval and suggested adding dried onion and mushroom powder to the ingredients.
Salmon and shrimp dumpling soup with chayote
Now that Chinese dumplings and wontons have become so mainstream America, it’s ripe for a regional hijacking as well. Chinese dumplings are traditionally stuffed with chicken and chives, pork and chives, or pork and shrimp. But since we’re in Oregon and salmon is so plentiful, here’s an Oregon-tinged dumpling stuffed with salmon and shrimp.
Cream of Leek and Potato Soup
On cold and wet days, nothing warms you up like a bowl of creamy leak and potato soup. Plus, it’s hearty enough to eat as a dinner with a small salad to go along with it. Just make sure you have some good sourdough bread to go along with your soup as you’ll want to sop up all that creamy liquid.
Oregon Cioppino
A good fisherman never wastes his catch. So what do you do when you go jetty fishing and end up with a kelp greenling? (A boney but tasty fish) You make an Oregon version of San Francisco’s famous fisherman’s stew, cioppino! Just add dungeness crab, clams and mussels!
Golden Gazpacho
One of summer’s delicious and juicy treats is fresh heirloom tomatoes. They come in so many varieties, each with a unique flavor that adds its note to the chorus of tomatoes. There are purple varieties, beefstake, orange and golden yellow. Wandering the farmers markets in the late spring and early summer, its one of the vegetables I look forward to coming into season. And when they do, what a more perfect way to enjoy them than in fresh gazpacho. Chilled to take the edge off your summer afternoon.
Easy and Tasty Chicken Stock
Making chicken stock isn’t difficult. I watched Martha Stewart demonstrate it years ago, except she used two whole chickens and then tossed them! But if Martha can do it, so can you. You don’t need to use whole chickens like she did. Just think, how often are you stopping at the grocery store to get baked rotisserie chicken for your family meal? Instead of throwing out the carcass the next time, put it in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and on a lazy afternoon make some chicken stock and then freeze it.
Tom Yum Seafood Soup with Kaffir Lime
As I was growing up in Thailand, kaffir limes were a common sight. Not so much here in the U.S. So imagine my surprise when I get a call from Charles, the excitement in his voice palpable, extolling that our little organic food store in Salem, Lifesource Foods, had kaffir limes and did I want any? Are you kidding? Yes! My family has gone to great lengths to make sure that wherever we’ve lived — Texas, Maryland, Oregon — we’ve always had a kaffir lime plant. Usually, Mom has to scour her friends in Houston and bring a live plant back on the plane after one of her annual visits there. Sometimes, we beg to have plants sent to us via FedEx. The fruit doesn’t contain much juice, but in Thai cooking, the rind and the entire fruit are used to impart their bright, clean, citrus flavor and aroma. The most common dishes that use kaffir lime rind or leaves are Tom Yum soup and Tom Kha soup.
French Onion Soup and Roasted Acorn Squash— An Easy and Tasty Winter Supper
French onion soup is one of my comfort foods. I don’t make it more than a few times a year, but it never fails to bring back memories of Fort Worth, Texas, oddly enough. That’s where I fell in love with French onion soup. It was one of those loves that borders on infatuation, when […]
Lunch at Tiffany’s — Split Pea Soup
For some reason, Tiff called me spontaneously with a special invite. I had less than an hour to get there and I was still dressed in my, ahem, morning attire. Why would I spring into action like a three-ring circus to get ready, out of the house and drive 10 miles to a vacant house in Keizer for a bowl of soup? Obviously there was something in the soup! As Yoda might say, “Souperlative, it was!”
A Hearty Asian-Style Vegetable Stew — For Those Days When You Just Can’t Eat Another Bite of Meat
It doesn’t happen frequently, but every now and then I just can’t bear to eat another meal of chicken, beef, pork or seafood. On those occasions when Mom’s in charge of the meal and asks what we want for dinner, I’ll say Kang Chup Chay, or our family’s version of a hearty Asian-style vegetable stew.
Cream of Corn Soup — An Easy Way to Enjoy Summer’s Bounty, Hot or Cold
There are a few foods I first experienced in grade school cafeterias that I’ll admit to still loving. One of them is tuna casserole, another is green bean casserole. The third is creamed corn, although I’m sure the creamed corn served to us in school came out of a can. My version is simple and tasty, and you can enjoy it either hot or cold. If you want to serve it as a refreshing cold soup, make it the day before and refrigerate it. You’ll be amazed at how simple and delicious this is.
Chilled Leek and Pea Soup — A Refreshing Bowl of Summer Flavor
I don’t know if it’s global warming or what, but while it seems it’s been quite warm in the rest of the country, it’s been an unusually wet and cool spring here. But that unseasonably cool weather has extended the growing season for several cool-weather vegetables. While at the farmers market today, I noticed beautiful leeks and French sorrel, so I decided to buy some to make a cold soup for dinner. Call it wishful thinking and an offering to the universe for the temperature in Oregon to finally warm up.
More Chowder, Please, and Make It Mo’s
“Chowder breathes reassurance. It steams consolation.” Clementine Paddleford.
Mo’s has been serving up soul-satisfying clam chowder since 1946.
Menu for Good Luck - Black-eyed Peas, Cornbread and Love
New Year’s Day was always an open house for family and friends and the table was laden with other pleasures as well. A baked ham, potatoes, some turnip or collard greens and various cold salads such as potato, macaroni or green pea and there was always a substantial bowl of one of my favorite condiments, chow-chow for the beans. Oh, and there were pies, pecan pies. A generous slice of pecan pie is the best chow-chow chaser.
Give Thanks for the New Allison Inn and Spa — Especially for the Restaurant’s Butternut Squash Soup
Our usual holiday group scattered this year leaving us to fend for ourselves on Thanksgiving. No problem! We began dreaming about our options of letting someone else pamper us with dinner at favorite restaurants that we visit on special occasions. That’s when we thought of Jory Restaurant, a new one for us. Fortunately we called in time to score a 7 PM table at the newly opened restaurant in the equally new Allison Inn and Spa in Newberg, Oregon. It was a wise choice. Our expectations were met with traditional Thanksgiving fare carried out with the creative touches of Executive Chef Nathan Lockwood and served with relaxed, friendly attention.
Oregon’s Got What It Takes to Serve Up a Taste of The Big Easy — Chicken and Andouille Gumbo
Making a gumbo can be a religious experience and shouldn’t be attempted when you’re short on time. Most will agree that any gumbo will begin with a dark roux and can be thickened further with the okra or filé powder (ground sassafras leaves). Not wanting to be exclusive, I use all three.
When It Comes to Thai Food, Sometimes You Just Have to Pound It — Tom Kha Gai
I remember as a child growing up in Bangkok, our family cook would often enlist me to help in the kitchen. I think it was because she knew I liked to pound on things. One of the essential tools in Thai cooking is a mortar and pestle. Oh, forget the convenience of a blender or […]
