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Kale and Chickpea Soup with Lemon – a Tribute to Selma

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“Will I tell you the story of Johnny McGorry?

“Yes”

“Shall I begin it?”

“Yes”

“That’s all that’s in it.”

 ~ My Dad

For years, if we asked my dad for a story, he’d usually start out as above. Thankfully, he would end up telling us a story but never one about Johnny McGorry. Luckily for you, the story I am about to share is a bit longer than the tale of Johnny McGorry but has a sad middle and a cute ending. Shall I begin it?

Once upon a time, there was a little boy, known to all as The Jam. One day, just this week, as he was going to his violin lesson, his Mammy gave him a beautiful red apple. Would you believe this apple was so delicious that it tasted even better than chocolate?  As they walked down the street, The Jam munching on his apple, the unthinkable happened: the apple slid out of his hands and fell with a thud to the ground. The Jam was devastated. All he wanted was to pick it up and begin eating it again. Unfortunately for The Jam, his Mammy knew that right where his apple fell was a favourite spot of a few of the cats in their neighbourhood, so with heavy heart, she and The Jam placed the apple instead at the base of a tree for the birds and squirrels to nibble on. The Jam was so sad that nothing – not even shortbread biscuits his Grandma offered him or the tea his aunt made him  – could compare to that apple. He wouldn’t eat or drink anything for ages and when he finally did it was with great reluctance and comments about how delicious his apple had been and that this food and that food did not compare.

That evening, his auntie was at his house cooking dinner,her own version of Selma’s Kale and Chickpea Soup with Lemon. As she ladled soup for herself and his Mammy, The Jam took a bite  from his own bowl. With a jump, he ran into the kitchen and declared: “Mammy, you know my apple – the one that was more delicious than chocolate? Well, this soup is even more delicious than my apple”.

And that is the true story of one little boy’s horrid tale of the fallen apple and how he found something even better. The Jam is my little partner in crime when it comes to testing recipes for cooking with children and this was The Highest compliment I (or indeed Selma) can hope to achieve – a soup that tastes better than an apple that tasted better than chocolate.

On the 15th July 2015, while in work, I read an email from Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook letting me and many other others know the sad news that Selma @ Selma’s Table had lost her fight with cancer. In her email, she asked that people prepare one of Selma’s recipes, adapt one of her recipes or create a recipe in her honour and then share it with Fiesta Friday. I didn’t know Selma personally but I had read a few of her In My Kitchen posts as I had been a silent follower of that blogging event for many months before I ever posted my first IMK entry. My intention was to go home, pour over her blog and pick a recipe that I could adapt as a tribute to her. Unfortunately, that was the same day, when on my way home from work, I got the devastating call that my twenty-four year old sister had been struck down by a car and had died while working as a missionary in Liberia.

Understandably, all thoughts of Selma went out of my head. Fast forward a few months to October and that email came back to me. Even though Selma had lost her fight a few days before my sister’s death, I found out on the same day and that made it really important for me to do something in Selma’s honour – also the fact that she was an amazing food blogger, took gorgeous photos and not to mention she had great spirit and was truly respected and loved. So, in October, I messaged Jhuls’ to find out what I needed to do for Selma’s Tribute and then I picked out a really wonderful soup: Kale and Chickpea Soup with Lemon.

Selma’s original recipe is AMAZING. The flavours all shine both individually and together. I love that you can taste the chilli flakes and rosemary through the kale and chickpeas and, then, just as your mouth reacts to the bite of the chilli, the lemon comes in to round it off. After making the soup Selma’s way one more time, I decide to adapt the recipe. At first I concentrated on different citrus flavours but in the end, to me the lemon was the most perfect version. So, instead, I decided to concentrate on the two main ingredients: chickpeas and kale. This was a much better idea and produced a wonderful warm, incredibly healthy and spicy soup with undercurrents of lemon wafting through. The lemon that you float on top really gives an extra lemony touch that is really quite enjoyable. This soup does have an extra punch to it, compared to Selma’s, and  I would suggest if it is too spicy for you to either swirl in some yoghurt or to reduce the chilli flakes. Full disclaimer: The Jam’s soup did have some yoghurt swirled through but I reckon his lovely compliment still stands!

With chickpeas and kale being a double whammy of healthy you needn’t feel too guilty for enjoying bowl after bowl after bowl of this soup! Chickpeas alone assist with regulating your blood sugar and reducing cardiovascular risks (source: WhFoods). Kale is good for lowering your cholestrol (a problem I have considering all the cheese I love to consume) and is rich in vitamin K, an essential tool in anti-inflammatory health benefits (source: WhFoods). It’s a great soup for winter and for trying to get back on track after the excesses of the Christmas and New Year’s season. In fact, since having this soup, I’ve decided to cut down drastically on my cheese intake. From the 13th Jan for 1 week I won’t eat any cheese! I will do this once a month going forward. I know it’s only one week but already it’s been diabolical. So, what healthy food choices are you making for 2016?

IMG_3734

A little messy – but this is The Jam’s Sister’s bowl of soup with yoghurt swirled in.

Kale and Chickpea Soup with Lemon – a Tribute to Selma @ Selma’s Table

Adapted from Selma’s Table’

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1½ tbsp rapeseed oil or other vegetable oil (preferably not olive)
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 stick of celery, finely diced
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¼ tsp of chilli flakes*
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled, using the flat of your knife press down on the clove until crushed but still whole.
  • one 400g tin of chickpeas drained and thoroughly rinsed
  • 200g  chopped kale
  • 800ml hot stock
  • juice of half a lemon
  • salt to taste (0ptional)
  • paper thin lemon slices
  • freshly grated Parmesen cheese (optional)
  • hot buttered toast or crusty bread
  • yoghurt to swirl in (optional)
  • fresh coriander (optional)

Method

  1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Once hot, add the onions and stir to coat with the oil and cook for two minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. Stir in the celery and let cook for a further two to three minutes, stirring occasionally, until the celery and onions begin to soften and start to look translucent.
  4. Add the cumin, coriander, bay leaf, and chilli flakes and stir to coat the vegetables. Let it cook for around 30 seconds to a minute in order to release the flavours. If the spices dry out the oil, just add a splash more.
  5. Then, add the garlic and cook for another minute.
  6. Add the chickpeas and the kale and stir.  Pour in the hot stock and let it come to a boil before turning down the heat to simmer.
  7. Let it simmer for around 20 minutes until the kale is tender. Squeeze in  the juice of half a lemon. Taste the broth as you may need to adjust the seasoning.  You might want more lemon or salt but neither should be necessary.
  8. Using a stick blender, blitz until you have the texture you like. You can blitz completely or reserve a few spoons of chickpeas and kale to add after you blitz the rest of the soup so you have more texture.
  9. Serve hot, with freshly grated Parmesan, a handful of chopped fresh coriander (if you have it) and a lemon floating on top. The toast is really nice dipped into the soup. We used about 6 slices between 3 adults and two children, cut into quarters.

*chilli flakes can be reduced by half or swirl some yoghurt in for a less spicy version.

TIPS 

Too much kale for the saucepan: When I made this at my mom’s, I didn’t have this problem, but at my sister’s her biggest pot didn’t quite fit all the kale. So, if the kale is taking up too much room, cover for a minute or two and let the kale reduce slightly before adding any remaining vegetables and the stock.

Serving options: While we ate our hot buttered toast, dipping it into our soup topped with lemon and parmesan, as we went a long, The Jam preferred to also grate parmesan onto his toast to make a sandwich and then dip it into his soup, Alternatively, make a simple cheese quesadilla to serve.

Warm Pesto Pasta Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Brie

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“Cheese is milk’s leap toward immortality.”

– Clifton Fadiman

Happy 2016, everyone! May it be better than 2015 for us all and hopefully (in my case) without as much sadness.

While Christmas may be my absolute favourite eating season, as well my favourite season in general due to Thanksgiving, Christmas and my birthday all happening in it, I will be the first to admit I went overboard in the eating department. We had turkey, spiced beef and ham sandwiches for days afterwards – I like mine with mayonnaise, cranberry sauce and stuffing. Incredibly delicious but a bit heavy! Add on to that all the desserts and biscuits that make the rounds (seriously, there are still 5 giant boxes of biscuits in our house – and we ate at least 3 boxes over the holiday!) and it’s amazing I’m not just a ball of food.

Up until Monday, we were still in a Christmas zone as part of my sister’s present to us was a trip to the zoo and a lunch at Mary Ann’s favourite bar, The Market Bar for tapas of nachos, calamari, patata bravas, and meatballs. It was a really fun day that finished up at The Moving Crib – a Dublin tradition and a great venue for those with kids or who really enjoy the story of Christmas.

To try and end Christmas on a high note, I’ve been making a warm salad the last few days with some wild garlic pesto. Pesto is one of my favourite condiments and in summer I will use it on salads for days. While I still use it a lot in winter,  I find it much harder to use up the jar during that season. I think it must be partly because my brain connects it with summer and partly because, during winter, I usually buy it for a specific  reason. Anyway, during the Christmas, I had my birthday and made the Salmon and Pesto Toasties, that I had originally made for my birthday last year (hummm maybe that is a new tradition?). Consequently, I had about half  a jar of  pesto left and I needed to use it up before it’s expiration date. I also had two-thirds of a jar of sun-dried tomatoes left.  A quick rummage found some other leftovers and this warm salad was born (although it would be really good cold, too!). The Brie that I used was quite pungent as I’m pretty sure my sister had left it out for a few days which gave a lovely bite to the salad but it may not be to everyone’s taste, so judge for yourself how you like your Brie.

The second time I made this recipe, I added some smoked salmon. My mom was eating it when I was preparing my relatively healthy bowl and it looked so tempting and I felt that it was calling  out to me to add some to the salad, so I did. I loved the smoky addition, so if you have some in your fridge, go ahead and add it but it’s not a necessity at all. Happy eating!

Warm Pesto Pasta Salad with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Brie

Serves 1

Ingredients

  • 100g/3.5oz maccheroni al ferretto pasta (or pasta of a similar shape).  If you have a Lidl near you, it should be available there.
  • 2 tbsp flaked almonds
  • 1-2  heaped tsp Sacla Italia Wild Garlic Pesto, or other green pesto
  • 6-8  sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
  • around 50g/1.75oz  Brie cut into thick slices
  • A handful of rocket/arugula
  • ¼ cup smoked salmon (optional)

Method

  1. Cook the pasta as per package directions in boiling salted water until just al dente, adding olive oil just before you add the pasta.
  2. Meanwhile, toast the almonds gently under a grill/broiler. Once browned, turn off the grill and leave to cool.
  3. Drain the pasta, but retain about a teaspoon of the pasta water to mix with the pesto. Tip the drained pasta back into the pot you  used to cook it and add the pesto, mixing well.**
  4. Add the rocket, sun-dried tomatoes, Brie, half the toasted almonds and smoked salmon, if using, and mix well.
  5. Sprinkle the remaining  toasted almonds on top and serve immediately.

**If serving this as a cold salad, discard the pasta water and only add the pesto and remaining ingredients once the pasta has cooled.

 

 

 

 

 

In My Kitchen – January 2016

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Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s the first week of January 2016 which can mean only one thing: it’s In My Kitchen time! In My Kitchen is a great monthly blogging event originally hosted by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial who has passed over the reins to Maureen @ The Orgasmic Chef. In My Kitchen showcases the kitchens of a group of food writers and bloggers. If you are interested in joining, please follow the instructions from Maureen available on her January 2016 post linked above. Before letting you peek into my kitchen,  I would like to take the opportunity to thank Celia so much for beginning and maintaining this blogging event for so long. Thanks to her and this event, I’ve gotten to meet and make quite a number of blogging friends. I’m sure I’ll meet just as many with Maureen at the helm.

In my kitchen are some rather wonderful Christmas presents. From my mom and dad, I received a zoo inspired cupcake set:
zoocupcakes

I also got a  rather awesome and useful apron, that doubles as a  cooking reference guide ranging from  roasting times and freezer life spans to temperature guides and abbreviations of various cooking guidelines, (to someone looking at you it looks like all the instructions are upside down but for the wearer you can lift up the apron and have a quick read). I haven’t used it too often but it may be my favourite thing!

apron

My sister and her husband gave me a salt and pepper shaker set. At the moment it’s put away as we have several other sets around the kitchen.

saltandpepper

They also got me this water bottle as I am notorious for leaving half glasses of water all around the house. The bottle is a firm favourite with my niece who likes to drink “Maggie’s water”.

waterbottle

In my kitchen, we have pickled herring. Seemingly my Grandpa used to eat this at Christmas and one year my mom got it and several (but not all) of us really liked it. It’s now a bit of a tradition for when those who like it are home to have it on Christmas Eve. I fall in the “I can’t believe I like this – it’s so slimy” category. Nevertheless, I still eat it each time, and remind my mom to buy it!

pickled herring

In my kitchen, we have my Mom’s Date Roll, although this is shaped in the form of a wreath! It’s a dessert that we traditionally have at Christmas and (most) Thanksgivings. It’s quite simple to make and a firm favourite. I helped to prepare it this time and I couldn’t get over how easy it is!

dateroll

In my sister’s kitchen, my nephew, niece and I, made peanut butter sandwiches. I first heard about these from my friend, Jamie, who I went to college with. We had been Facebook friends for years but only reconnected really since I moved to Korea. The recipe I use is based on hers, and you can find it and more ideas on her Facebook page, Jamie’s Kitchen under her 2013 photos. This was the 4th time that I’ve made these handy “cookies”.

pbsandwiches

At the beginning of December, my sisters, nieces, nephew, mom and I went on a trip to Galway to the Christmas market. I don’t have too many photos from it on my cameras as we used my sister’s but here are some of our memories:

galway trip

Lastly, my friend, Joe, sent me a postcard from Korea. Thanks, Joe!

postcard

So that’s it folks until February! Until then check out the other In My Kitchen posts on Maureen’s blog and have a bit of fun peeking into lots of different kitchens.  Have a great January and all the best for 2016.

 

 

Easy Dressed Up Coriander/Cilantro Rice

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To you who eat a lot of rice because you’re lonely,
To you who sleep a lot because you’re bored,
To you who cry a lot because you are sad, I write this down.

Chew on your feelings that are cornered like you would chew on rice.
Anyway, life is something that you need to digest.

– Chun Yang Hee

Happy Christmas and all the blessing of the season.

First off, apologies for the delay in posting anything. To be honest, I’m still adjusting to life in Ireland and it’s hard to get used to managing my time properly. It’s very easy to watch a lot of Netflix and to spend hours upon hours reading. Thankfully, with Christmas here things are a little more busy and cooking-centric. However, any tips on time management and creating a proper blogging schedule would be HIGHLY appreciated. I feel as if I am wasting my year off instead of making the most of it.

Around 8 years ago, my sister and I took an Oriental Cooking Class where our instructor, a lovely Malaysian lady, taught us how to make so many amazing dishes from onion bhajis to rogan josh to spring rolls. The most important lessons that remained with us, that we still talk about even now, were the ones she taught us about rice: a) always soak and rinse your rice thoroughly, and b) never use boil-in-a-bag rice because it hasn’t been cleaned properly. Now, whenever I see boil-in-a-bag rice I give a little grimace, and whenever I prepare rice I soak it for a minimum of thirty minutes to an hour and then rinse in order to get rid of as much dirt and dust as you can. As she mentioned at the time, and as I am sure you are already aware, rice sits out to dry once it is harvested. I never really thought much about it before this class but, consequently, rice can be filthy. Her recommendation is to rinse the rice until the water runs clear.

This recipe is a really, really easy one that I have made several times for friends and family and can be used with a variety of cuisines from Thai to Mexican. The first time I made it was when I cooked Thai food with my friend, Becky, who used to edit for me when I lived in Korea (I now do all my own editing so any mistakes are completely my own!).  Since then I’ve made it several times most recently in a Korean fusion recipe that I will be working on again in the new year as well as when I made the Oven Roasted Yogurt Chicken and Vegetable Curry.  It also can be served with my Tomato, Bean and Avocado Salad to make a more substantial meal or as a satisfying accompaniment to Roasted Pork Chops and Sweet Potatoes. I generally make the most basic version (minus the optional ingredients) but the added ingredients give it a little extra pizzaz. The best parts of this recipe are that in the time it takes to cook the rice, you will have everything you need prepared and all the ingredients are readily available the world over. So whether you need a break from potatoes this week, or if your Christmas includes rice this recipe is for you.

rice1

Easy Dressed up Coriander/Cilantro Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 cups uncooked rice (I usually use either Basmati or Glutinous Rice)
  • 4 cups water
  • ½ tbsp butter/oil/ghee
  • fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped
  • juice of ½ to 1 lemon
  • juice of a lime (optional)
  • 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 3-5 scallions, finely diced (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Put the rice and water in a saucepan over high heat and stir. Once at the boil, cover and reduce the heat to the lowest temperature and cook as per package directions. Basmati rice is usually around  10-12 minutes. I always made glutinous rice in my rice cooker so I never actually paid attention to how long it took to cook as it beeped when it was done.
  2. Once all the water has been absorbed, fluff the rice with a fork and then add the butter along with the lemon juice and lime juice, if using, and stir well.
  3. Add the garlic and coriander and stir well.
  4. If you are using the scallions, you can sprinkle on top of the rice when serving, or stir them in at the same time as the garlic and coriander.
  5. Serve immediately.

Tips

Leftovers: Use the leftover rice with tuna salad instead of making tuna burgers. Alternatively, you can use the rice for gimbap.

In My Kitchen – December 2015

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I can’t believe another month has come and gone. 2015 is no longer creeping by but scurrying as fast as it can! Scurrying – that’s a great descriptive word, don’t you think? I love the image it conjures up – ants busy preparing for winter, squirrels hoarding as many nuts as they can and people running to and fro trying to get everything ready for the festive season fast approaching!

As I totally missed last month due to flying out to Nebraska on a whim, I am going to include some of my October happenings as well. My kitchen has several little things that are making life a teensy bit easier and a little more exciting. Some of these things are in preparation of the aforementioned scurrying as Thanksgiving has just gone and Christmas is approaching. Others are a reminder of trips taken, festivities that have been had and recipes that have been tried and tested, some of which have been perfected.

First up are my collection of spices (still growing). The glass jars on the bottom are from a shop called All Rooms in Dublin City Centre which was having a 50% off sale. The ones in the top photo are from a cute little shop in Prague that my aunt and I wandered into on our last day there. The larger picture is the tin where I will keep the remaining spice bags, which I got in TK Maxx.

spice jars

Speaking of Prague, I went there for 3 nights from the 18th October with my aunt. It was great trip as the city is incredibly picturesque and full of fun things to do and see.  I brought back some salami and treats. They went over a storm and were demolished in less than a day.

praguetreats

When we were in Prague, I tried Medovnik, a honey and nut cake. Even though I am a sweet fiend, I really liked this cake as it wasn’t overly sweet and instead you could really taste the flavour of the walnuts. I also tried Trdlink which is a hallow pastry. It was lovely, sweet and sugary. I tried the original recipe but you could also get ones that were filled with chocolate. Now, that looked smashing! I really liked that you could tear the pastry quite easily which is nice for sharing.

praguepastries

Photo credit for Trdlink by my aunt DMS

For Halloween, we carved pumpkins (I drew the faces and the kids picked which ones they wanted), died “spider web” eggs (my nephew is obsessed with Spiderman), and made ginger cookies. My sister and I made his costume – he was supposed to be a St George (and the dragon) so we dressed him like a knight. I made paper bats based on Ed Emberley’s drawings to decorate the windows as well.

halloweencollage1

The second last Sunday we had my niece’s birthday and my contribution was a brunch of my French Toast Roll-ups and some fantastic Leek and Stilton sausages and Leah’s white pudding, we got at the BITE festival on the Friday before her birthday.  The sausages were incredibly tasty and the choice of stilton and leek really complemented each other. The pudding was amazing with a nice kick but which the 2 and 4 year olds could not stop eating. I also picked up some rather tasty basil and lime dressing  at BITE which is only just coming on the market. We tried all the dressing they had on offer (they just got a bottle supplier) and this was our favourite. I also picked up this wonderful blackberry balsamic vinegar.  I couldn’t decide between it and a cherry one so my cousin helped seal the deadlock for me.

BITE

For a couple of weeks in October and the beginning of November, I didn’t eat bread. This was really good for me as since then I’ve been eating less bread and I’ve been a bit more creative with my breakfasts. Since being to Nebraska, I’ve started eating bread again but I’m going to give it up for December until Christmas. One of the things that I had for breakfast was some leftovers of Selma’s Kale and Chickpea with Lemon Soup. It’s hearty, tasty and incredibly good right away as well as a few days later. I’ve made another pot of it since then and I plan on making another one in the next week or so.

breakfasts

Lastly, I helped my mom with a lot of chopping for Thanksgiving dinner and I made pumpkin pie, including the pastry from scratch! I’m not a baker at all as I’ve mentioned several times. Me kneading dough is a sight for anyone who needs a laugh but I’m really proud of my pumpkin pie. My sister showed me how to make the pastry and while I’ll need her directions for a few more times, this pie was a success.

Thanksgiving

So that’s my October and November. I hope you all had lovely ones as well. I suggest that if you want to peek in some other kitchen’s to head over to Celia’s blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial where she created and hosts the wonderful In My Kitchen series where I am sharing this post.