curry

I know. I know.
I’m sorry.

I can’t even believe it’s been so long since my last post. Like really, where on earth did the time go? How is it even possible that multiple months have actually passed since I was here last?
My poor neglected little blog.

Before I posted the Jamhattan recipe in FEBRUARY (!!!), I was on a lil’ break from blogging because I was tricked into doing the Whole30 by my beloved husband Russell. Even though we tried some recipes that we really enjoyed, I was just too miserable and grumpy to write about food. Before that it was the holidays. Before that, the election. Before that I was working on building out and decorating Maxwell’s. Through all of that I was still posting the occasional recipe, but I wanted to post more often and I was absolutely certain that once all the big projects and excuses were out of the way, I’d be good to go and the blog posts would start flowing again.

Once we made it through the Whole30 I got to work sampling cocktail recipes, and had grand ideas of getting back into the swing of things after a crazy, hectic 2016. I even had (and still have) a long list of post ideas that I hope, at least in theory, will be coming soon to a blog near you. Of course, as you know, things don’t always work out quite the way you have in mind. While I was hard at work editing the Jamhattan post, just a day or two before I hit publish, I was approached by some very good friends to see if I’d be interested in contributing to a project they were working on.

As I mentioned earlier this year, I’ve been feeling anxious and overwhelmed by the current political climate here in the US, and I’ve been driving myself mad wondering what I, as a humble food blogger, could do about it. I’m no politician, no policy expert, no journalist, so what can I do? I went to DC for the Women’s March, I’ve gone to rallies in Manhattan, I’ve donated to the ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood; but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there should be something more I could contribute, something uniquely mine.

That’s when my friends, feeling inspired by their youth in the 90s, decided to publish a zine combining the stories, works, and talents of their circle of friends. The project has since grown to a scale I never imagined it could or would, and they’ve compiled the work of poets, film makers, artists, musicians, actors, writers, and activists from all walks of life, all wanting to share their truths, effect positive change, and further the cause of the new American resistance movement. What was originally conceived as a 90s style homemade zine, has grown into a beautiful, powerful, and professionally-printed magazine called “Esta Tierra“, Spanish for “This Land”.
And the best part? All the profits will be divided and donated to IRC, ACLU, The Audre Lorde Project, Planned Parenthood and Honor The Earth! I could not be more honored to be involved in this project.

Meanwhile, with Brooklyn Homemaker still on my mind, I made and photographed a soup recipe that I first tried when I was doing the Whole30 with Russell. It was so tasty that I knew I wanted to share it with y’all, and I knew that Russell and I would love eating it even after we (finally) finished with our stupid diet. I uploaded the photos to my computer, started a draft for the post, and had high hopes that I’d have the recipe up on the blog in a week or two. That was in February.

I was so excited about my involvement with Esta Tierra that I started brainstorming my contribution before I ever got around to editing my photos or taking my post from an outline to a draft. I dove into the project head first, and before I knew it, it was all I could think about. After a false start on a cocktail recipe that I abandoned because I was unhappy with the results, I decided to share a recipe and a story that was deeply meaningful and personal to me. I revisited my great-grandmother’s apfelkucken recipe, making it even closer to the way she made it when I was growing up, and, with current attitudes toward and challenges surrounding immigration in mind, decided to tell the immigration stories of my great-grandmother and my grandfather on my dad’s side. Without giving away too much, they both immigrated to the United States from Germany, both coming through Ellis Island and settling in Upstate New York, at a time in American history when German immigrants were often met with suspicion, fear, and hatred because of World Wars I and II.
I hope you’ll consider making a contribution to Esta Tierra, and once the magazine launches I’ll let you know on social media how you can buy a copy of your own so you can read my work and see the amazing work of all the other talented artists and activists involved.

Now that I’ve finally submitted my contribution and the magazine has gone from accepting submissions to fundraising for publication, I can finally get back to blogging. Who am I kidding though, chances are just as good that you’ll see a new post here next week as they are that I’ll get distracted by some shiny new project and won’t be back for another 3 months. Lately I’ve been doing some work in our back yard and finding that pretty distracting, so who knows?

Either way, this soups is seriously delicious, and even though soup season is basically over, I promise that you don’t have to be on some silly fad diet to enjoy it. It’s packed with the warm, tropical flavors of ginger, lime, coconut, and Thai curry; all of which pair beautifully with chicken breast, sweet potato, and Lacinato kale. This soup is so flavorful and delicious that you’ll totally forget that it’s good for you too! Go ahead and make a pot of it today before it gets too hot, or save the recipe to make on some chilly, rainy day to come.

Thai Coconut Curry Soup with Chicken and Kale

Servings: six-ish
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2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons coconut oil, divided
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 to 4 carrots, sliced into coins/disks
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 cups chicken stock
1 bunch Lacinato Kale, ribs removed and leaves roughly chopped
1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 to 2 limes

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a large heavy stockpot or dutch oven. Cook the chicken breasts, flipping at least once, until cooked through. Set aside to rest.
Add remaining tablespoon of coconut oil to the pot, along with chopped onions and carrots. Brown for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping up any browned juices from the chicken breasts with your spoon as you stir. Add garlic, ginger, and curry paste and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add sweet potato and chicken stock, cover with a lid and bring to a boil.
While the soup is coming to a boil, cube the cooked chicken and add to the pot.
Once the soup comes to a full boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are cooked through and tender. Add the kale and simmer about 5 minutes more, just until tender but still with a bit of texture.
Add the coconut milk, chopped cilantro, and juice of 1 lime. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. If desired, add the juice of another lime and garnish with more cilantro.

Have you been outside lately? No? Good. Don’t do it.

I’m not sure where you live, but if you live in the Northeast like me, specifically in New York City, then you know that this winter has officially been the worst. I’m no stranger to cold weather, I lived in the Adirondack mountains for several years, but New York City isn’t used to this amount of snow, especially not when it sticks around and piles up instead of melting after a day or two. The infrastructure of this great city is not designed to deal with this kind of build up and, much like the city’s inhabitants, there’s nowhere for it to go but up. The narrow strip of sidewalk between the road and the walkway carved out of the snow is the only place to put it, and in some places its reaching several feet high at this point.

To make matters worse, the weather has been pivoting back and forth between two stages lately. One day you’ll have complete white out snow coming at you from angles you didn’t know existed. Then the next day will be just warm enough for the piles of snow to start to melt, while simultaneously blocking all the storm drains, creating giant slush ponds at every cross walk in the five boroughs. Then we go back to white out conditions, the slush ponds freeze over, and we start the process all over again. When you consider that this is a city where most people who live here depend on public transportation and their own feet to get around, I’m sure you can imagine how all this snow and slush is starting to wear at people.

A few days ago it was looking pretty outside so I tried to wear a pair of less-than-waterproof leather boots to work. Call it hubris. Call it naiveté. Call it idiocy. Whatever you call it, I was out the door less than three minutes before my left foot was completely soaked. By the time I made it to work both my feet were soaked through and remained so for the entire day. If you’ve never tried to wear leather boots and thick wet socks while working on your feet for an eight-hour shift, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re considering it, trust me, it’s not what you might think. It’s not nearly as thrilling or dangerous as, say, spelunking, nor is it as relaxing as sitting in the sand and dipping your toes in the ocean.

As you can imagine, these past few weeks have left me wanting warm, hearty, filling meals when I get home and wring out my socks. That’s what led me to this soup. I love a creamy traditional squash soup in cold weather, but the way things have been going I wanted to brighten that concept up with some summery, fresh flavors and a bit of citrus and spice. I thought that something about this combination of flavors might help me forget about the frozen hellscape outside, and boy was I right. There’s something so hearty, homey and comforting about a thick, creamy winter squash soup. Rather than flavoring it with traditional autumn or winter flavors though, the tropical flavors of coconut and lime take this to a totally different place. Since these traditionally Asian flavors are usually associated with thin brothy soups, I was a bit worried that the two concepts might clash, but they actually work really really well together. When you take your first spoonful, if you close your eyes and taste the chili, coconut and lime, you can almost imagine you’re somewhere warm and tropical. So, I cranked the heat in my apartment, put on some flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers, and did my best not to dive into the bowl face first.

Because I have to be difficult, I couldn’t just find a recipe online and leave it at that, I had to make some changes to make it my own. The original recipe called for butternut squash, but I thought it would be fun to try a mix of different squashes for a depth of flavor. Along with butternut, I also used a pretty green kabocha squash. The flavors work really nicely together, but even with small squashes, twice the squash meant twice the soup. The recipe below feeds eight people so, unless you’re feeding a crowd, feel free to cut the recipe in half and choose one type of squash or the other. Both would be great on their own, so I’ll let you be the one to decide. The good news is that this soup freezes really well so, if you’re indecisive and want to make the full recipe, you can freeze your leftovers and pull a portion or two out on especially cold and crappy days.

Another small change I decided to make was to use strips of ginger instead of grating it. Not only does this mean you save yourself the steps of peeling and grating the ginger, but it also means the finished soup has a slightly subtler ginger flavor. I love ginger but it can sometimes be a bit intense, so this way the strips steep in the soup as it cooks, and you pluck out them before you puree everything. I’d recommend that you count how many strips go into the pot so that you know how many need to come out at the end. If one or two elude you though, and make their way into the blender, it’s not really anything to worry about.

You will want to have a strong blender or immersion blender to make sure you get your finished soup completely pureed. For this soup you want the squash to add a creaminess, but don’t really want to have any chunks left since they’ll be kind of mushy. Since the finished soup is so silky, smooth, and almost drinkable, I think a garnish of fresh cilantro and chopped roasted peanuts or cashews adds a bit of texture and interest. Garnish or not, this soup is seriously delicious.

Oh hey friends! One last thing! If you’re as big a fan of Brooklyn Homemaker as I am, please vote for me for “Best Daily Read” cooking blog on theKitchn’s “The Homies”. If I’m still in the top five at the end of the week, I’ll make it into the finals next week! So so exciting! Even if I don’t win, the exposure brings in lots of new readers, which is essential to the health of any good blog.
You’ll need to sign up for an account, but it only takes a second, and it means a lot to me. If you havent’ already, please show your support and vote for me here. And, seriously, THANK YOU!!! I never imagined I’d be doing so well so quickly when I started this blog last year. To be nominated, and to be doing so well, is such a honor.
Okay, without further ado, the recipe…

Thai Coconut Curry Squash Soup

Servings: 8ish
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adapted from How Sweet It Is

2 tbsp coconut oil (or olive oil in a pinch)
1 onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
1 four or five-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced length-wise
4 tbsp red curry paste
6 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into rough cubes
1 small kabocha squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into rough cubes
2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk
juice of 3 limes, about 1/2 cup
1 tsp sriracha (less if you’re scared, more if you’re feeling spicy)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
chopped cilantro, if desired
chopped roasted peanuts or cashews, if desired

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-low heat, add onions and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic, (counted) ginger slices and curry paste, stir until it is incorporated, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in the stock and add the cubed squash. Cover pot and increase the heat to medium. Cook until the squash is soft, about 30 minutes.

Once the squash is fork tender, turn off the heat, cool slightly, and very carefully pour the entire mixture into a blender, in batches. Blend until the soup is smooth and pureed. You could also do this with an immersion blender but be careful not to miss any squash. Pour the soup back into the pot and turn the heat to medium low. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, and sriracha. Stir well and cover, and cook for 10 minutes until it’s completely warm. Taste and season with salt and pepper if desired. If you’re feeling fancy, Garnish of chopped cilantro and roasted peanuts.