How would Mrs. like her Cobra cooked?

From soup to nuts, cobra to ice cream - "How would Mrs. like her Cobra cooked?" Effective February 21 2010 we have combined all three of our blogs under one heading LIFE - after all - food and travel are both part of the fabric of daily life. Come over and visit for recipes, commentary, observation of food, eating, shopping, growing. Gerry will be posting her Thai food experiences this coming week including close encounter with a Cobra a la mode and licked frog!

Rain Stops Play - Fennel & Cannellini Bean Soup with Sausage Sandwiches

Back from my Thai adventures and far from being sunny, Tucson has greeted me with a rain-dreary, chilly day! Grandsons soccer games canceled and with soup on my mind, I invited boys and their parents to lunch. This makes four - six hearty servings of soup. If you are making sandwiches for more than four people, add extra sausages. If you are omitting the sandwiches and adding sausages to the soup, four is ample number.

After pantry and fridge diving I came up with ingredients for the following chilly day lunch. Under an hour from idea to table.

Fennel & Cannellini Bean Soup with Italian Sausage Sandwiches - four substantial servings

For the Sandwiches you'll need a crusty baguette or individual rolls - sandwich is an optional item but I think the soup benefits from the juices gleaned from roasting the sausages along with the peppers and tomatoes. If you don't want to serve with sandwiches, slice the roasted sausages and add to the soup once it has been pureed. Omit the peppers and spaghetti sauce from the ingredient list. Serve the soup as a stand-alone meal with crusty bread and leafy green salad.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 Hot Jennie O Italian Turkey sausages
• 12 ozs of plump cherry tomatoes halved
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil.
  
• Tablespoon of thinly sliced garlic
• 2 sweet peppers - I used orange ones - sliced lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips
  
• A total of two (generous) cups of thinly sliced fennel bulb (1 large, two small)
  
• A total of 1/2 (generous) cup thinly sliced shallot (1 very large, 4 medium)
  
• 1 15.5 oz can Cannellini beans rinsed and drained
• 32 oz box of good quality chicken stock
• 1/2 cup prepared spaghetti or pizza sauce
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes - optional
  
• sea salt*
• freshly ground black pepper

*Regular, ionized salt simply won't work - too salty! My all time favorite sea salt is Maldon.

METHOD

• Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• Prick sausages all over with a fork. Put on the baking sheet.

• Put tomatoes and peppers on the same baking sheet but keep them separate.

• Toss the slivered garlic over the tomatoes, drizzle 1 tablespoon of then olive oil over the tomatoes and peppers. Scatter sea salt & black pepper to taste over the tomatoes and peppers.

• Roast for 30 minutes.

• While sausages and veggies are roasting add remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to large saute pan - heat gently and saute the shallots for about five minutes or until soft. Add the fennel, turn up the heat , mix well with shallots and continue cooking for about 15 minutes or until fennel is tender when pierced with a fork. Do not brown.
  
• Add beans to fennel mixture, mix lightly.
• Add red pepper flakes to bean mixture.
  
• Remove tray from oven. Set aside sausages and peppers. Scrape tomatoes and all accumulated juices into the pan with the fennel etc. Mix lightly.
• Add the chicken stock and simmer gently for 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend. NOTE: I have a large 12" circumference , 2.5 " depth saute pan - with anything smaller you'll have to transfer everything to a larger soup pot at this stage.
• Using a hand held immersion blender carefully puree the mixture to a rich cream consistency or transfer to a blender in batches to puree.
  
• Check seasoning - add salt and pepper if needed. Garnish with fennel fronds to serve.

SANDWICHES

Turn off the oven when you take out the baking tray and pop the baguette or rolls into the oven to warm. Split them, "butter" with the pizza or spaghetti sauce. Split the sausages - put them into the bread, fill with roasted peppers.

Foodie in Paradise

Inching our way through bank to bank longboats at the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market was a voyage to food nirvana. I love raw ingredients - the colors, textures, shapes of fruit and vegetables fascinate me - it's eye candy. The food end of the market did not disappoint despite elements of romance missing on the klong tour in general (check out Smile for the Python).


Not quite the iconic floating market scene depicted on travel posters - more of a jigsaw made up of colorful pieces allowing fractional glimpses of a now lost picture. The days when the market functioned solely for residents are long gone. The market unabashedly performs now during prime-hours for tour bus visitors. I was aware of local trade being conducted, of buying and selling between residents but for the most part I felt as though I was taking part in an elaborate production - one of many picture-snapping extras on the set.

Squeezed between longboats carrying tourists from around the world didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the visuals. Glorious mounds of dragon fruits, star fruit, mangoes, tiny, oh so sweet-finger-sized bananas, and my new favorite - pomelo - filled the painted boats - floating market stalls replete with quick witted vendors offering a bargain. Most were under the command of women wearing the lampshade style hat that typifies the region. The entrepreneurial spirit was evident in the rapid-fire sales talk and equally adroit dicing and slicing of juice-dripping pineapples into plastic bags - the knife dipped into the klong for cleaning! One gal had a different technique - she managed to slice the fruit while it was in the bag, her knife not breaking the plastic.



Coconut sellers deftly whacked off the tops of husk-wrapped nuts, popped a straw into the hole and presto - fast food Thai style. Other boats were floating kitchens. Tantalizing smells of chicken and pork sate, chile encrusted scampi, dainty coconut cream crepes, huge pots of simmering broth and noodles. Scoops ready, the stall-holders dished, chopped and ladled to order.


We avoided the freeway on the return trip and drove narrow roads bordered by prawn farms, rice paddies and fruit - grapes, mangoes, papaya - so ripe that they scented the air.


I was lusting for a kitchen! I would love to shop a market like this, fill my basket, head home and cook. Instead I had to be content with a bag of the freshest pineapple I've ever tasted - all in all not too shabby a compensation prize. And once again luck was on my side . "So sorry," said the guide, "No time to stop at the snake farm - you come back". For the market , yes!

Mac and Cheese Rocks!

"Mac and cheese rocks," declared my eight year old grandson when everyone gathered for family dinner on Sunday at my house. And it did rock! I'm having fun with Gourmet Today which I received as a birthday gift. I've made five recipes from it so far and each one has been a winner.

The updated mac and cheese from page 218 is really a Penne and Chicken Gratin. Sublime, silky Gruyere and Parmigiano - Reggiano laced sauce, the whole dish studded with chunks of chicken and topped with a crispy (mine might have been just a bit too crisp) bread crumb topping. I made things easy on myself by using a good quality store bought chicken stock and Trader Joe's "Just Chicken" - pre-cooked grilled chicken. I rounded out the admittedly rich dish with a bitter leaf salad of curly endive, slivered celery root, pomegranate seeds and slices of tart apple - dressed it with a vinaigrette of blood-orange flavored olive oil and aged balsamic.

There's a nostalgia about these comfort foods that featured large in growing-up years; memories of family dinners from days long past surface. My kids loved their mac and cheese and I rarely made a pre-packaged variety. I always found it soothing to make a roux, whisk in milk and stock and watch the magic chemistry take place by heating the mixture to produce a smooth, creamy sauce. I must say that the grownups at Sunday's dinner were equally fast as the kids to get up and serve themselves seconds.

Tuna Noodle casserole must be one of the more disparaged dishes of the Seventies. There is a recipe for an updated version in the book and I am going to make it.

Eat well -
Gerry