If there were any question about the consequences of procrastinating on your thesis, this is proof. The above photo is the tomato soup that I have survived on through the last three meals. Why? Well, I’m short on time, so I definitely can’t make anything from scratch these days. (Long gone are the days of farmer’s markets, homemade pasta sauce, and experimental baking!)

This tomato soup, though a quick fix, also happens to be healthy, super savory, and easy to customize. So even though it’s ridiculous that I’ve essentially been on a liquid diet for a day and a half, it’s not that tragic, especially in light of the red velvet cupcake I had this afternoon (um, yum). If you’re not into the idea of living off of soup alone (and I can’t blame you), then this recipe also makes a great supplement to a bigger meal.

The Thesis Writer’s 5-Minute Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Tomato & Red Pepper Soup
Fresh spring onions, chopped
Seasonings (oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, etc.)
Carrots, celery, potatoes (optional)
Butter

Toppings:
Crispy onion bits (I recommend French’s Fried Onions or any Vidalia variety)
Cheese (either the cheap mixed variety or freshly grated parmesan)
Additional fresh spring onions, chopped

Directions:

1. Melt butter. Fry the seasonings and some of the spring onions. When onions turn soft, add the desired amount of soup (I like to mix in a bit of chicken broth for added flavor). Add vegetables, if desired. Simmer until hot, about five minutes without extra ingredients, but longer if you want vegetables to get soft.
2. Top with cheese, fresh spring onions, and crispy onion bits.

If you try this, tell me what you think!

Banana Coconut Milk Soup (The Elephant Walk Version)

Every since I visited The Elephant Walk a couple weeks ago, I’ve been smitten with their rendition of the Vietnamese dessert soup Che Chuoi. (They call it Chaek K’tih since they’re also technically a French/Cambodian place.) I knew that the recipe would be simple but I didn’t expect to find the exact one used by the restaurant. Turns out that The Elephant Walk has a cookbook accessible on Google Books. I tweaked their recipe because I lacked some ingredients (most importantly, tapioca balls) but here is the original version:

Ingredients:

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk, plus more for serving
l/2 cup water
2 tablespoons small Asian tapioca pearls, rinsed
12 small Asian bananas or 3-4 regular bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dried split mung beans or sesame seeds

Directions:

Put the 2 cups coconut milk and the water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in the tapioca and bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring, until the tapioca becomes translucent and soft, 10 to 15 minutes for tiny pearls, longer for larger tapioca pearls.

Meanwhile, slice the bananas lengthwise in half, then cut crosswise in half; if using regular bananas, cut each half into thirds or quarters. Gently stirring, add the bananas, sugar, and salt tot he tapioca and cook for 10 minutes more. Remove from the heat.

While the bananas are cooking, put the dried mung beans or sesame seeds in a small heavy skillet and dry-roast over medium-high heat, shaking constantly, until light brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. If using sesame seeds, pound briefly with a mortar and pestle or pulse in a mini-chop two or three times to release their flavor.

Ladle the warm bananas and tapioca into shallow bowls, sprinkle with the toasted mung beans or sesame seeds and serve with extra coconut milk on the side. Serves four.

Chianti Braised Beef Chuck

I tried braising meat for the first time tonight, and I’m happy to report that it was a great success! I regularly order braised short ribs and lamb shank when I go out to dinner, so I thought I’d try my hand at replicating one of my favorite restaurant meals at home. It was actually much easier than I expected. Though the entire cooking time was three hours, I was up for less than half that time, and in follow-up attempts, I’ll be even quicker. The results taste as good as they look. Best part: this costs next to nothing. I had most of the ingredients at home, besides the meat which was a cheap package of beef chuck from Shaw’s.

Ingredients:

2 lbs boneless beef chuck
1 tbsp cornstarch or flour
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 sweet onions, sliced
3 minced garlic cloves
1 cups Chianti or other red wine
1 handful dried porcini mushrooms
3 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/8 cup tomato paste or 14-oz crushed tomatoes
1.5 cups beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cornstarch or flour over it and mix to coat. (This helps the meat retain its juices later.)
2. Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high and sear the beef until all sides brown (approx. 3 minutes). Remove meat from heat and place in bowl.

3. Use pan to fry onions at medium heat until the former is translucent. Meanwhile, soak porcini mushrooms in water to release flavor. Add garlic and let brown before adding other vegetables and the porcini mushrooms. (Retain the water the mushrooms soaked in.)
4. After vegetables have tenderized slightly, begin to add liquids (beef broth, wine, tomato paste or crushed tomatoes), one at a time with a slight pause in between each addition in order to allow slight thickening. Add the porcini water as well. Add rosemary and bay leaves.

5. Return meat to pan and reduce heat to simmer. Cover and let simmer for 2.5-3.5 hours.
6. Remove meat from heat. Boil remaining liquid until thickened to desired consistency. Serve over meat.

On Friday night, Jason came over for dinner, so I decided that a particularly elaborate meal was in order. On the menu:

• Sangria
• Chips, salsa, and guacamole
• Carrot-ginger soup
• Shredded chicken enchiladas with mole sauce

The above took me approximately five hours to make, though one should note that much of that time was spent 1) figuring out the food processor since I’ve only ever used it once, 2) sitting on my ass in front of my laptop while waiting for things to cook, and 3) waiting for Patrick to retrieve some chicken breast. Also, I didn’t have any help and was making some of these things for the first time. Repeat attempts are always much quicker. For tips on efficiently preparing meals as an amateur chef, check out the following entry.

The results were pretty fantastic, at least as good as meals I’ve paid for and definitely quite good given the sparse Mexican options in Boston. My biggest success: a rich, flavorful mole sauce, which is still worlds away from the one served at Casa Romero. But it’s a work in progress!

Here are recipes for each of the dishes:

SANGRIA
(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 (750 milliliter) bottle dry red wine
• 1/2 cup triple sec
• 1 lemon, sliced into rounds
• 1 orange, sliced into rounds
• 1 lime, sliced into rounds
• 1/4 cup white sugar (optional)
• 8 maraschino cherries
• 2 cups carbonated water (optional)

Directions: In a large pitcher or bowl, mix together the brandy, lemon juice, lemonade concentrate, orange juice, red wine, triple sec, and sugar (though I skipped the brandy because I don’t like alcohol that much). Float slices of lemon, orange and lime, and maraschino cherries in the mixture. I also added cubed apple bits, and for those really hate waste, you can add the pulpy remainders from your juicer as long as you can strain out the pieces later. Refrigerate at least three hours or overnight for best flavor. For some carbonation, add club soda (I used sparkling limeade) just before serving.

CARROT/APPLE/GINGER SOUP
(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 4 cups chicken broth
• plain yogurt (optional)

Directions: Caramelize the onions in the olive oil. Add chopped carrots and apple pieces. Stir and cook the apples and vegetables until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add ginger, ground black pepper, salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and chicken broth (originally, the recipe called for vegetable broth but I wanted something more flavorful). Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes.

Pour everything into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Pulse a couple times to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Bring back to a simmer over medium-high heat, about 10 minutes. Add water or broth as needed to thin the soup to your preferred consistency. (Optional: Serve with yogurt for garnish.)

Unlike the original recipe, I didn’t use sweet potatoes or lentils and decided to leave out the butter and yogurt to make this as close to fat-free as possible.

MOLE SAUCE
(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1/8 tablespoon dried minced garlic
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers

Directions: Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion until tender. Mix in cocoa powder, cumin, cilantro, and garlic. Stir in the tomato soup (I substituted Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Tomato Soup instead of the condensed stuff) and green chile peppers. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. I used the finished sauce in the enchiladas (below) but you can also pour directly over food to serve.

SHREDDED CHICKEN ENCHILADAS
(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 pint sour cream (optional)
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 (15 ounce) can salsa
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (optional)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 8 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• 12 ounces mole sauce (see above for recipe)
• 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook chicken in chicken broth until no longer pink and juices run clear. (It’s fine if it soaks up the broth until there’s nothing left). Shred the chicken and return it to the skillet. Add the onion, sour cream (I left this out), Cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Heat until cheese melts. Stir in salt, salsa, chili powder, green pepper and garlic. (The original recipe calls for an additional half cup of water, but commenters mentioned it made it too soupy.)

Roll even amounts of the cooked mixture in the tortillas. Arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with mole sauce and 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Remember that the mole sauce is key! Accept no substitutes.

TORTILLA CHIPS, SALSA, & GUACAMOLE

Dips are classic food processor foods, since the machine can do all the work for you. Look up a basic salsa or guacamole recipe to figure out proportions and stick in the ingredients one by one if you want different consistencies or all at the same time if you’re okay with an unidentifiable blob of pureed goodness. Tortilla chips are easy. Just cut, fry, and let cool.

Huevos Rancheros with Roasted Potatoes and Salad

I hate throwing away leftovers or leaving old groceries to rot, so this morning, I whipped up a quick and tasty brunch using a hodgepodge of remainders. (Last night, I prepared a Mexican dinner for Jason and Patrick, so there were some extra ingredients on hand.)

Huevos rancheros are a classic and easy brunch dish to prepare. The only two necessary ingredients are a tortilla, an egg, and some salsa. Everything else can be improvised. I fried an egg and topped it off with caramelized onions (sweet onions fried for 10-15 minutes), mushrooms, and a sprinkling of cheddar cheese and cilantro. You can also add peppers, refried beans, and  avocado slices. While frying the egg, I also tossed two tortillas on a hot pan to make them crispy. I had a couple leftover items from last night, homemade salsa and half a can of diced green chili peppers, which were used as garnishes.

The side of salad was dressed with a mango-pepper sauce, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. I roasted some potatoes I had lightly pre-fried for a Japanese curry last week. They never made it into that curry, so I seasoned them with cajun and chipotle powder and stuck them in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Patrick juiced apples, oranges, kiwi, and carrots, and voila — breakfast! I could cut down cooking time to 30 minutes if I did this regularly.

Many more meals to document in the next few days. Coming up: a post about my recent attempts to prepare a week’s worth of meals in one night.