Tortellini and Sausage Soup

Soup sounded good for dinner. What kind of soup? I was shocked and surprised when Chris actually suggested I make a new recipe. Woot, woot. Usually this is how it goes.
Me - "What sounds good for dinner?"
Chris - "I don't know honey, I am easy"
Me - "Something has to sound good"
Chris - "Everything you make is good"
Me -"No, but are you in the mood for something in particular?"
Chris - "How about macaroni and cheese?"
Me - "sigh......"

So I went on the search for a new recipe and this Tortellini and Sausage Soup is adapted from 3 recipes I found on the Internet.

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet Italian sausage (I used Insernos Italian chicken sausage)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef broth (I used Swanson's beef stock, not broth)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
4 large tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
About 6 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 small can of tomato sauce
1-2 small zucchini cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb tortellini

Directions:
1. In a stock pot, brown sausage. Remove sausage and drain reserving 1 tbl of drippings.
2. Saute onions and garlic in drippings. Stir in broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano, tomato sauce and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
3. Stir in zucchini and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Add tortellini during the last 8 minutes.

Ok, first off here are some specifics on how I actually cooked this:
1. For the sausage, I browned it whole in the pot and let it rest and then cut it down the center and then in 1/2 circles. I used Italian chicken sausage because I don't like how fatty and gristly regular pork sausage is. I almost bought Adeles already cooked Italian chicken/turkey sausage but the sodium content made me run screaming away.
2. For the onions, Chris hates them. As someone who loves to cook, that is just crazy talk. How can you develop flavor without onions? The answer is you can't. So, I have developed a way to get the flavor without him biting into an onion. I cut the onion in quarters and put 4 of the layers into whatever. Then I can pull them out before I serve it and nobody is the wiser. So that is what I did.
3. For the tomatoes, I peeled them and seeded them but instead of chopping them (again, Chris hates chunks of tomato in soup - whatever) I put them in the food processor and gave them a few pulses until they were more than chopped but not liquefied. Some texture remained but not chunks.

It was tasty. Below is the soup after dinner and also after I put it in a Tupperware bowl as leftovers. It looks greasy but it's just the lighting, really.

New Year's Food

Happy New Year!

No matter how you spent the new year, I will bet that food was involved. Us too! I will admit that my picture taking has been poor this last year so I will attempt to do a better job in 2010. Not a resolution, but just something I want to do. I am not calling these things "resolutions" because really, who ever keeps them? Nobody, that's who.

Since it's all about the food, not the resolutions let's get to it.

Menu (my portion anyway)
Lumpia with dipping sauces
Turkey Meatballs
Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

Lumpia
If you aren't familiar with this one, it's a Filipino egg roll of sorts. The one thing I know for certain is you can't make it right without lumpia wrappers and you also can't just be-bop down to Safeway and get some. Ohhhhhhh no. You have to go to an actual Asian grocer. I don't live in the boonies, but each and every time I need to buy a specialty food item you would think that I do. I ended up going to "99 Ranch Market" in Edmonds which is just about the coolest Asian grocery store around my area. If you are cooking food from that region and they don't have it, you are doing something wrong. They carry all types of grocery items, live seafood and cookware/serveware. Seriously, they have it all. They also are the only place I could find that carries lumpia wrappers. They are in the frozen section and I learned a valuable lesson. Buy the ones that are separated by a sheet of parchment and then frozen. Don't get me started, just do it. I bought the ones that are NOT separated by paper and drama ensued when I tried to defrost them to make the lumpia. They are paper thin, and take absolutely for-ev-er to defrost. We ruined 1/2 of them just trying to rush the process. Oh ya, don't do that either. They need all day to defrost at room temperature and not a moment less.

Lumpia

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground pork
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup minced carrots
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup thinly sliced green cabbage
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Lumpia wrappers
Oil for frying

Directions
1. Place a wok or large skillet over high heat, and pour in 1 tablespoon
vegetable oil. Cook pork, stirring frequently, until no pink is showing.
Remove pork from pan and set aside. Drain grease from pan, leaving a
thin coating. Cook garlic and onion in the same pan for 2 minutes. Stir in
the cooked pork, carrots, green onions, and cabbage. Season with
pepper, salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Remove from heat, and set
aside until cool enough to handle.

2. Place three heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally near one corner
of each wrapper, leaving a 1 1/2 inch space at both ends. Fold the side
along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll
neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Moisten the other side of the
wrapper with water to seal the edge. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap to
retain moisture.

3. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add oil to 1/2 inch depth, and
heat for 5 minutes. Slide 3 or 4 lumpia into the oil. Fry the rolls for 1 to 2
minutes, until all sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve
immediately.

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon chili oil (optional)
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 medium scallion , white and green parts, minced

Combine and serve.

Lumpia filling cooling in the pan.

Rolled up and ready to fry

All cooked and ready to eat!


Turkey Meatballs
These are really cocktail meatballs made with the same recipe as my turkey meatloaf. Just made smaller. So you use the turkey meatloaf recipe and form them into the size of your choice. Brown them in a fry pan with some oil in the bottom and them bake them at 350 for about 30 minutes on a sheet pan. Transfer them to a crock pot to keep them warm. Yum!


Roasted Shrimp Cocktail


These are super easy!
Ok...buy a bag of shrimp at Costco that are raw, devained and with the tails on and defrost them. Toss them with enough olive oil to coat and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in a preheated oven set to 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until just pink and cooked through. Cool and dip in your favorite cocktail sauce. Here's mine:

Homemade cocktail sauce
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco

Combine, chill and serve with shrimp.