How I Earned My Expertise In Sustenance And Verve
I’ve lived in or around Chicago for thirty years, and there has been a winter in every one of those thirty years. You could look it up.
And, every one of those winters has been painfully cold.1
One felicitous consequence of this otherwise unfortunate situation is that I have accumulated, after careful and replicated testing, recipes for three winter dishes that meet the Heck Of A Guy criteria for cold weather survival rations:
- The recipes are simple enough to be completed by Da Boyz without endangering nearby persons or property. There are, for example, no instructions to “deglaze” whatever it is one deglazes (donuts?) or “start with a basic mirepoix.” And, everything on the list of ingredients can routinely be found at the local medium sized Jewel grocery.
- The leftovers can be frozen and will taste better reheated than the servings that were consumed the day they were cooked.
- One serving results in most folks — who are not teenage boys — feeling content but not bloated
- The first, second, third, … and last mouthful overwhelms winter despair and triggers expressions of epicurean delight, such as Yummmm or its equivalents2
Being generous of spirit as I am, I hereby grant amnesty and pardon for those living without the benefit of horrid winters who nonetheless wish to indulge in these feasts.
My only tip for all these recipes is Do not go gentle with the spices. Each of the three is intended to be medium spicy and skimping on the hots will result in pleasant but bland product. I’m not promoting a macho-pepper approach (I don’t tolerate super-hot foods well myself), but following the recipes as written or even adding a fraction more of the spices or using a tad hotter pepper than listed is a safer bet than holding back.
All the recipes are from published cookbooks3 and all can be found on the net; I’ve included links to those sites.
Enjoy.
Spicy Shrimp and Noodle Soup
A wonderful Ex introduced this to me.4
It is, from my experience, a seductive dish that goes well with Riesling or rosé wines and works well for lunch or dinner.
Prep: 25 minutes
Marinate: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh or frozen medium shrimp in shells
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 cups water
2 3-ounce packages shrimp- or Oriental-flavored ramen noodles
1 16-ounce jar salsa
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 8-1/4-ounce can no-salt-added whole kernel corn, drained
1/4 cup snipped fresh cilantro
1 green onion, thinly sliced
Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
Fresh cilantro (optional)
Directions:
1. Thaw shrimp, if frozen. Peel and devein shrimp. In a medium mixing bowl combine lemon juice, chili powder, cumin, and pepper; add shrimp. Toss to coat. Let shrimp stand for 20 minutes at room temperature, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan bring water to boiling. Stir in 1 noodle flavor packet (reserve remaining flavor packet for another use) and the broken noodles. Return to boiling and cook 1 minute. Add the shrimp and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more or until shrimp turn pink. Stir in salsa, beans, corn, snipped cilantro, and green onion. Heat through. To serve, top each serving with cheese and garnish with cilantro, if desired. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Make ahead tip: Peel and de-vein shrimp; cover tightly and refrigerate up to 2 hours before using.
Cajun Seafood Gumbo
After surveying a batch of southern hospitals for the Joint Commission, I went on a gumbo po’boy muffuletta jambalaya jag. Julie5 modified this recipe to make it a bit healthier, but her version (if it was ever written) has been lost. The original recipe, however, is dandy as is.
Prep: 20 min.
Cook: 55 min.
Ingredients:
12 ounces fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp
6 ounces fresh or frozen crabmeat
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped red sweet pepper
1/2 cup chopped green sweet pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 cups chicken broth, heated
1 14-1/2-ounce can tomatoes, cut up
1-1/2 cups sliced okra or one 10-ounce package frozen cut okra
2 bay leaves
1/2 pint shucked oysters, drained
3 cups hot cooked rice
Directions:
1. Thaw shrimp and crab, if frozen. For roux, in a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven combine flour and oil until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium. Cook and stir about 10 minutes more or until roux is light reddish brown.
2. Stir in onion, red sweet pepper, green sweet pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper, and ground red pepper. Cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are just crisp-tender, stirring often.
3. Gradually stir in hot chicken broth. Stir in undrained tomatoes, okra, and bay leaves. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. Stir in shrimp, crabmeat, and oysters. Simmer, covered, about 5 minutes more or until shrimp turn opaque and oysters curl around the edges. Discard bay leaves. Serve in bowls with rice. Makes 6 servings.
White Chili with Salsa Verde
The white chili is my favorite of the batch. My first dish (although I don’t know that it was this recipe) of this potion was at a dinner prepared by the greatest fiber artist I’ve ever known.
This is a treat that everyone seems to love. As Prodigal once declared, You don’t have to be Caucasian to like white chili.
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 40 min
Carbs: 24g
Ingredients:
3/4 pound ground raw turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups water
1 15-ounce can great northern or white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 4-ounce can diced green chilies
2 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (4 ounces)
5 – 6 medium tomatillos (8 ounces), husks removed, and finely chopped, or one 13-ounce can tomatillos, drained, rinsed, and finely chopped
2 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 small serrano or jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon snipped fresh cilantro or parsley
1 teaspoon finely shredded lime peel
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Directions:
1. For Salsa Verde, in a medium mixing bowl stir together tomatillos, onion, serrano or jalapeno peppers, cilantro or parsley, lime peel, and sugar. Cover and chill up to 2 days or freeze up to 1 month; thaw before using.
2. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven cook ground turkey, onion, and garlic until turkey is no longer pink and onion is tender. Drain fat from pan, if necessary.
3. Stir in the 3 cups water, beans, undrained chili peppers, chicken bouillon granules, cumin, and pepper. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
4. In a small bowl stir together the 1/4 cup water and the flour. Add flour mixture to the chili mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Top each serving with some of the shredded cheese and the Salsa Verde. Makes 4 servings.
- DrHGuy is not a celebrant of the Winter Wonderland conceit or a participant in any winter sports that require equipment other than pillows, handcuffs, and a few extra batteries. In fact, as far as DrHGuy can determine, winter in Chicago is why a merciful God made Maui and keeps bankrupt United Airlines flying there.↩
- Also acceptable are delectable, luscious, delightful, scrumptious, scrumdidelicious, mmmmmm, delicious, heavenly, yummy, yum yum yum, délicieux, quite toothsome, and damn, that’s good↩
- Consequently, dishwashers are used only to wash dishes. Sorry.↩
- And has thrice given me the recipe again when I’ve lost it. Yes, she’s incredibly nice, and I didn’t deserve her.↩
- Julie was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer. This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces (at Julie’s Writings and Unpublished Julie.↩
Yum – I’ll have to try these. It’s certainly wet and gloomy enough out to call for winter cooking, even if temperatures aren’t frigid yet at my house.