Update

   Hello readers!I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here. I haven't forgotten about you yet. My last posting was two months ago and it's been super busy since then. I work in accounting so you can imagine how busy it is during tax season.

   I will be doing some travels the next couple months, to Columbus, Detroit, Tampa Bay, and Indianapolis, so I'm hoping to showcase some great restaurants and food in those areas. If you have any suggestions for those places, let me know. You can comment here or send an email to cookingchromatically@gmail.com.

   Speaking of suggestions, are there any recipes, questions answered, or any other topics that you would like to know about?  Feel free to contact me and I will do my best to fulfill your request!

Chorizo Turkey Chili

Brrr it's cold and snowy outside! When it's cold outside, I love to make soups, stews, and chili to warm us up. Here is a recipe on a variation of chili that's delicious! I was gonna say somewhat healthier but the chorizo negates that altogether.

Chorizo Turkey Chili

1 lb. bulk chorizo sausage

2 large onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

8 cups chicken stock

1 can (15 or 16 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15 or 16 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, with their liquid

1 can or bottle beer

4 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeno chiles (or to taste)

6 tablespoons ancho chile powder (or substitute and ground pure chile)

2 tablespoons ground oregano

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 pounds ground turkey (or substitute 6 cups coarsely chopped cooked turkey)

Place the chorizo in dutch oven or large stewpot over medium heat and cook until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and repeat with the ground turkey. Remove meat from pan and drain off most of the oil, leaving only a thin coating on the bottom of the pan.

Cook the onion over medium heat, stirring, until it is translucent – about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, followed by the stock, beer, beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, spices, and meat. Simmer, uncovered for at least one hour, adding water as needed to prevent sticking.

Serve over crumbled corn bread and garnish with shredded cheddar, sour cream, coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, diced onions, etc., to taste.

Enjoy and stay warm!

Irish Cream of Turnip Soup

Welcome to winter! As the cold months arrive, more soups and hearty meals are on the menu. We were thinking a soup with roasted root vegetables would be something that would be comforting in this cold weather. I started looking for a good recipe with root vegetables to try out.

I found a recipe for this soup in my newest cookbook, Rotarian Flavors of the World Cookbook.** Since this cookbook is a collection of recipes from around the world, this one came directly form Ireland. As with most of my cooking, I adapted the recipe and used kale and tarragon to add color, texture, and flavor to the soup.

3 turnips, chopped
1 leek, sliced
3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 c. kale, chopped
4 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
8 c. chicken stock or vegetable stock for totally vegetarian
1/2 to 1 pt. fresh cream, depending on how creamy you like your soup
Dried tarragon
Curly parsley, garnish

Saute the celery, onion, and leeks in butter until onion is translucent. Add flour and stir well. Slowly add the chicken stock, mixing well, and then add the turnip. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the turnip is tender and remove from the heat. Use a blender until the mixture is smooth. Return to heat and add the cream and kale. Add tarragon, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir well and leave on heat for a few more minutes. Serve with tarragon and parsley as garnish.

This is a great meal served with a dinner salad and buttermilk biscuits.

**At my Rotary club meeting last month, a former District Governor came to visit. He was giving an update on the End Polio Now campaign, which is Rotary's project to eradicate polio for many years now. His wife had started a fundraiser to sell cookbooks to raise money for End Polio Now. She first published one with recipes submitted from District 6440, which I found out John already bought. A few years later, she published this one with a collection of 400 recipes from over 100 countries. Of course I had to buy it! I'm hoping to post more inspirations from this cookbook. If you want more information about it, you can check out at http://rotarianflavorsoftheworldcookbook.blogspot.com/ or email them at RotarianFlavorsoftheWorldCookbook@gmail.com.

Rosemary Almonds

I know, I know. It's been awhile since I've posted. It's been a busy couple months so I haven't had time to sit down and write some entries. The good news is that I already have some ideas in mind. My new year's resolution is to be more active with this blog.

With the holiday season in full gear upon us, this recipe is good for snacking while watching your favorite holiday movie, treats at a holiday party, or giving as small presents to friends and family. It can also be enjoyed throughout the year since it's a very simple and fast recipe.

I apologize for not having a picture at this time but will try to take a picture later and add it.

3-4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 cups almonds (blanched or unblanched, does not matter)

2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped

2 Tablespoons dried rosemary

1 Tablespoon coarse/kosher/sea salt

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat for a minute. Add the almonds, fresh and dried rosemary. Stir and toss almonds for about 5 minutes, while seasoning with the salt; remove from heat. Let cool in the pan a few minutes.

The almonds can serve immediately, but almonds will keep about a week in sealed containers - enough time to mail them to friends and family!

As most of you know I like experimenting with different flavors and combinations, so I used olive oil infused with herbes de Provence; toasted onion salt, roasted garlic salt, and rosemary salt. We had just gotten a sampler pack of  sea salt from around the world so I just had to try it! 

From my kitchen to yours, please have a safe and Merry Christmas! Thank you for reading and supporting my blog this year, and it can only get better from here. Look forward to more exciting recipes and stories next year!

Second Try

 This is part two of the previous post. I got some feedback from some friends on the last posting. They pointed out that since I don't know what surface I'll be presenting on, the clear plate might distract the judges away from the colors of the food. Also the round plate wasn't as successful with the bowl of fish sauce.

One thing about being a good chef is being able to adapt to make your dish or presentation better so I was open to changing it. I decided on a square plate instead and also a smaller sauce plate so it can fit on the main plate. I think it looks more organized that way.

I tried my mom's technique of pushing the shrimp chips down but they only worked for some of them. Most of them still curled up, especially the colored ones. I found the six best ones for the audition but this batch is the second best six. If I remember correctly, there's two red ones, a green one, and three white ones so it should be colorful.

I'm content with the dish the way it is now. Kelvin suggesting adding lines of Sriricha sauce on the bottom sides of the plate so that the red color makes it pop. Also it can be added to the fish sauce for some extra heat. I'm still contemplating on that part, or maybe little dots. It's going to be a last minute decision for me.

There Can Be Only One...Dish That Makes the Difference, That is

As most of my friends know, I am auditioning for Season 4 of MasterChef this Saturday. I have been quite nervous about it since food is really my passion and I would love to get onto the show. For the audition, I have to bring a dish to the site and then there's 3-5 minutes to plate it. They will be judging on presentation and taste. Since there's no cooking on-site(we have to bring all food, plates, utensils, etc), I figured I have to make something that will taste good when it's not heated up.

To showcase my Asian based cooking skills, I decided to do something Vietnamese because some of the flavor blends are intense, the colors are bright, and it's MC-worthy. One of my favorite dishes to make and eat is a cabbage salad. It contains cabbage with a sweet onion vinaigrette, pickled daikon radish and carrots, pork belly, shrimp, fresh Asian herbs, peanuts, and topped with nuoc mam cham(a Vietnamese fish sauce mixture). It is served with multi-colored shrimp chips on the side. I love the sound of the shrimp chips sizzling when you put the salad and the sauce on top of it. I will post the recipe of it next week since I'm taking this week to focus on the audition.

I already have most of the ingredients prepped, so I made the dish last night to practice putting it together on Saturday. My mom, unfortunately,  hasn't really been supportive of my cooking venture, only that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I sent a picture  of the finished dished to her and she actually said it looked good, but told me that I don't know how to fry the shrimp chips. Apparently to keep them from curling up(like the pink ones), I need to push them down into the oil when they're frying. That's how they stay flat when they plump up. I will keep that in mind when I do the batch for the auditions. Since they will be flatter, I'm considering arranging them "interlocking" as an arch on half of the plate. 

The taste, however, was perfect and I think I'm ready to WOW them with my skills! I will keep you posted on what happens next. Stay tuned next week for two recipes: this dish and one for my lemongrass pork with rice noodles and fresh vegetables.

Swiss Chard and Eggplant Recipe

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend had a healthy cooking in-service day at work. The chef (Cooking With Chef Kate) that was there taught the people how to cook with fresher and healthier ingredients. She brought some Swiss chard from her kitchen to give out for people to go home and cook. John was one of the lucky recipients of the gorgeous rainbow Swiss chard. I had never made it before but had eaten it many times so I know what it tasted like. As we were grocery shopping for that night's dinner(shepherd's pie), I was trying to figure out what tastes would compliment the meal and also be a great color with Swiss chard. Funny enough, we were walking down the aisles of produce and suggesting different vegetables to add and all of it sudden it clicked in my brain: eggplant. I love the purplish skin and the color it turns when you fry it up. We went back and found a big fat Italian eggplant to add to the dish. We ended up using only half of it and stored the remaining half for another meal. Remember, when storing it in a air tight container, you can add salt to it or brush it with lemon juice to prevent it from discoloring too much.

One thing with my recipes is that I try to use whatever is in the house so you don't have to go out to specifically get everything in the recipe. Just substitute it for something similar to it in your house and I'm sure it will still taste great!

Start off by slicing the eggplant into cube sized pieces. Use about the same amount as how much Swiss chard you have. Heat and oil a saute pan over medium heat with porcini oil. Add the eggplant and fry until lightly brown. While the eggplant is frying, strip the leaves from the stems of the Swiss chard, and separate the colorful stems from the green leaves. Chop the stems and and shred the leaves, and place in two separate piles. Also mince half a small yellow onion and slice the other half. Chop two cloves of garlic as well. The eggplant should be ready by now -  set the eggplant aside in a bowl and keep it in a place where it stays warm. Next, oil the same pan with some lightly toasted sesame oil. Add the garlic and minced onions into the oil and stir-fry until they are softened and translucent. Next, add the chard stems into the pan. Stir fry them for 3-4 minutes so they soften. Then add the chard into the pan. It should wilt and emit some liquid. If not enough liquid comes out, add about 1/4 cup of water(or accordingly) to make sure it doesn't get too dry. Add the sliced onions at this point. Stir and toss the vegetables in the pan until they soften up, but still leaving a crunchy texture. Add the eggplant into the pan and add salt and pepper to season. I like a little spice in my vegetables so I added some (whole) Apache peppers from our container garden
 at the end for taste. If you add hot peppers, take them out right before serving.

If you try this recipe, please send pictures and let me know how it turns out for you! Bon appetit!