Weekend cooking smorgasbord

This weekend featured a surprising number of experiments in my kitchen.

Blueberry soup

I’d seen a few recipes for blueberry soups over the past week, and it seemed like too much of a coincidence not to try it.  It’s incredibly easy: simmer and blend the berries, chill, stir in yogurt.  It made a nice and refreshing dessert, and I can see it as a side dish for a meal, too.  It’s a little sweet, and full of flavor.  This will be a reason to buy even more blueberries than usual, just to make this soup and have it on hand.

It makes me wonder, though: blueberries are a pretty adaptable fruit.  I’ve had good luck cooking savory dishes with apples; why not blueberries?  I’d have to try it out before I recommend it, but I could imagine something with black beans, blueberries, sour cream, and a touch of cilantro, maybe in a strange New England burrito.  Or am I just being weird?

Seitan and chard with lemon dill cream sauce

It is what it sounds like.  And it was tasty.  This was inspired by a craving for something fish-like; I’m not a huge fan of swordfish, but I associate lemon and dill with fish in a pleasant way.  It works equally well with seitan, and the chard turned the sauce an amusing pink color.

The sauce consisted of:

• half a lemon’s juice
• half a tablespoon melted butter
• a generous helping of dill
• several spoonfuls of sour cream
• salt and pepper

Just stir everything up while sauteing the seitan and chard, then pour the sauce over and heat gently until it’s warmed through.

Iced coffee

I’m not a coffee drinker.  I’m a tea person, through and through.  But the thing that turns me off coffee is mostly the bitterness, and I’ve been hearing for a while that cold-brewed coffee is the way to go, if you want to get rid of that bitter taste.

So I tried it, and it’s true!  My cold-brewed iced coffee was smooth and pleasant, with very little bitterness.  I’m not about to be a convert, but I can imagine making it from time to time.  And the process is easy: put your coffee grounds and water (don’t ask me what proportions; I assume it’s similar to normal coffee) in a mason jar; put on the lid and leave it sit overnight; strain the liquid through a sieve and/or coffee filter, catching the liquid in a cup; chill and drink!

I found that it needed sugar, but that’s just the sort of person I am.

Blackberry pudding

Steamed pudding is a bit foreign to me – I’ve always thought of pudding as a creamy thing made from a box mix or (more recently) cornstarch and lots of milk.  But I saw this picture of steamed blueberry pudding and it was so gorgeous, and I was so hungry for berries, that I had to try it.

Rather than translate the recipe out of the metric system and hunt down unfamiliar ingredients, I went searching for something a little simpler.  I ended up with something similar to this, and it was very tasty.  I made two ramekins (little ceramic dishes) worth, which was just right for a half-batch.  Though, the blackberries from the farmer’s market were so huge, I thought there wouldn’t be room for the pudding!

My recipe looked like this:

• 1/2 T butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/2 c flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T yogurt
• 1 T water

Stir together the butter, egg, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Butter a tall dish and put in a bunch of blackberries.  Sprinkle on a little sugar, then cover with the batter.  Cover them with foil, place in the oven at 350 in a dish full of water.  Mine were done in about 45 minutes; your mileage may vary.

We ate these last night with vanilla ice cream, and it was heavenly.  I had to take them out of the molds to add the ice cream, and they didn’t make it out in one piece, but you can imagine how pretty they were beforehand when I forgot to take pictures.

On top of all that, Nathan is making a sourdough starter!  From scratch!  Right now it’s just a bowl of flour and water, but I’ll give updates as it progresses.  I’m looking forward to loads of fresh bread.