Pumpkin Turkey Chili // Breaking My Food Photography Obsession

I love food photography. I can browse Pinterest’s food & drink section for hours, staring at all the beautiful photos of recipes, both sweet and savory.

However, I don’t often love my food photos! Working at a food editor for a magazine, I often felt pressure to take beautiful photos to accompany my recipes; however, I never had any proper training, equipment or styling skills. It ended up being an obsession – but I am breaking through that obsession now (and because I’ve been rejected from Tastespotting and Foodgawker so much, I think it’s definitely time).

So, don’t mind if my food photos are more of the iPhone variety these days (although I still plan to use my DSLR when it’s handy). Really, it’s for my own well-being.

I’m officially calling this recipe “Pumpkin Turkey Chili,” though some might article that it’s a bastardization of the word “chili.” If you say that – fine, it’s a stew. Whatever you want to call it, it’s chock-full of healthy things and really filling, to boot.

Lunch at my Desk: Italian Wedding Soup

Before I do anything else, I need to profess my love to a certain feline. No, not Crouton — Grumpy Cat.

I don’t really know much at all about this cat, other than she swept the Internet with a number of viral memes. Plus, she kind of has the same coloring as my late, beloved Scout, a talkative part-Siamese kitty that I adored for 12 years until summer 2011.

Apparently, the cat’s name is Tarder Sauce, according to the Miami Herald, but all I care about is that this sassy kitty makes me laugh.

And then I got to this one, and couldn’t contain myself.

Crouton, you have intense competition.

Cheddar-Beer Soup

A few weeks ago — oh, who am I kidding? It was probably more than a month ago, the way time flies these days — I shared a recipe for a pretzel bread bowl. I get worked up when I think about how good it was, even if David doesn’t share my emotions, the carb-hater he is (what kind of man did I marry, anyway?)

If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the soup that goes inside of it — and I know you have, don’t act shy — your day is finally here.

The One Where Crouton Makes the Huffington Post // Pretzel Bread Bowls

There I was, nonchalantly checking my site statistics (which I nearly never do anymore because it depresses me), and I noticed something unexpected — a click-through from the Huffington Post. So it wasn’t Crouton herself that made the site (though they don’t know what they’re missing), but it turns out my sweet corn cake with spiced blueberry topping was included in a roundup of sweet corn recipes. What a nice and unexpected surprise!

It’s the time of the year to not only cook with pumpkin, like I mentioned in a previous post, but also with the fantastic seasonal beers on the shelf right now. I chose to make a cheddar-beer soup, but wanted a fantastic vessel to serve the soup in — enter these soft pretzel bread bowls.

Smokey Corn and Sweet Crab Soup

For as long as I can remember, pasta has always been my favorite food. Spaghetti with tomato sauce, pasta salad, macaroni and cheese — if there’s pasta in it, I love it.

But what does that have to do with this soup? Well, after I noticed snow crab was on sale, I brought home a pound intended for the soup. But while standing at my kitchen counter, shelling the crab, sneaking bites here and there, I had to admit that crab legs are actually the best thing in the entire world. Sorry, noodles, you’ve been knocked down a peg.

 

 

Beef and Mushroom Stew

This week has been a bear. We’ve dealt with illnesses, doing taxes, more illnesses, a lot of driving to places we didn’t really feel like going, and just general displeasure in our household. So it’s Friday, and I look back on the week and I see that I only actually cooked two times. Pretty miserable week, if you ask me. But this beef and mushroom stew? No, that’s not miserable. That’s quite homey, actually.

White Chicken Chili

One of my responsibilities as the food editor for a local lifestyle magazine is to create a foodie newsletter each week that’s sent out to between 9,000 and 10,000 subscribers. This newsletter includes a kitchen tip, ingredient of the week, local food calendar, and a new recipe every week. This requires me to create, cook, and photograph new recipes constantly. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I started this blog — so I could share these recipes and photographs with people beyond the newsletter subscribers.

So this week, in honor of the Super Bowl, I wanted to make a recipe that would work for a football party. Instead of classic chili, I created a recipe for a dish I like even better — white chicken chili. This recipe isn’t entirely unusual, but it is perfect for both football and a chilly winter day.

White Chicken Chili

3 cups chicken, chopped (I pulled the meat off a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store)
4 cups chicken broth
1 can beer (I used Modelo)
1 can navy beans
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 4-ounce cans diced green chilis
Juice of one lime
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and pepper to taste
Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Heat the olive oil  in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute for three to four minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano, and cayenne pepper, and cook until fragrant. Add the beer, chicken broth, green chilis, and navy beans. Turn up heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and let cook for 10-15 minutes.

Combine the sour cream and cornstarch in a small bowl. Use a measuring cup to ladle in about half a cup of the hot soup and whisk to combine. This prevents the sour cream from curdling when you add it to the hot liquid. Return the sour cream mixture to the soup pot and stir thoroughly. Add the chicken, lime juice, and cilantro. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Top each bowl with Monterey Jack cheese, if desired.

Leftover Turkey (or Chicken) Soup

There are two ways to make this soup: The long way or the quick way. Neither are hard, one is just, well, longer. However, I really do recommend the longer way — which includes homemade turkey stock and fresh noodles — if you can swing it.

Note that you can replace the word “turkey” with “chicken” in this entire recipe, making it good for the whole year and not just the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The long way begins by making your own turkey stock. I promise, this is not hard. Once you’ve picked off all the meat from the bones of the bird, throw it in a slow-cooker along with enough water to cover the bones. Let it cook on low for 12 to 18 hours (the timing is really flexible). THAT IS IT. Once it’s done, strain the liquid into a bowl and discard the bones. Voila — turkey stock, and how much work did you actually do?

However, if you decide not to take this route, you can use boxed chicken stock, water, chicken boullion cubes…basically whatever you would normally use in soups.

For me, this recipe was even easier because it basically used everything I had in my fridge that was leftover from prepping for Thanksgiving. Celery — already chopped. Onions — ditto. White wine — the bottle was already open from the Chardonnay gravy. Fresh parsley and sage — already minced. It made this recipe a snap.

The second lengthy caveat to this recipe includes homemade noodles. If you’re not up for that, you can use packaged egg noodles in place of it.

Hello, lover.

Leftover Turkey Soup

6 cups turkey stock (or boxed chicken stock)
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional, use a little chicken stock in place of it)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups chopped leftover turkey
Noodles (about 1.5 cups if you’re using store-bought)

Heat the olive oil or melt the butter in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add the onion and let it saute for a minute or two. Then add the celery, and do the same. Let both of the veggie soften a bit, and then add the garlic. Pour in the white wine and use a spatula to scrape up the bits from the bottle.

Add the turkey stock, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and add the turkey. Taste the broth and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Return to a boil and add the noodles. Cook for about 5-6 minutes for fresh noodles or according to package directions. Sprinkle in the fresh parsley and sage. Do not do what I did and add fresh rosemary — nothing like little pine needles in your soup. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

Pumpkin Ale Chili

If you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for pumpkins. I love using it in unexpected ways instead of just in pies, breads, or cookies (though I quite enjoy those, too). On top of that, it’s fun to spike food with a little alcohol, in this case — pumpkin beer. This flavor of beer is so common these days that I was surprised when a family friend commented on Facebook that she didn’t even know where she could find it — of course, she lives in Australia! So perhaps pumpkin beer hasn’t caught on in the rest of the world, but here in Maryland, I particularly enjoy Evolution Brewing’s Jacque au Latern beer, Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, or nationally, Blue Moon’s brand of pumpkin beer, Harvest Moon.

Pumpkin Ale Chili

½ pound ground beef
½ pound turkey sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
28 ounces diced tomatoes
½ cup pumpkin puree
1 bottle pumpkin beer
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 can black beans

Sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the beef and sausage to brown.

Add the tomatoes, pumpkin puree, beer, and spices to the pot. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer until the chili has reached desired thickness, or about 15 minutes with the lid off. Add a can of black beans and simmer until the beans are heated through. Serve immediately.

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

When I first began cooking, I used a lot of Cream of Mushroom soup. Don’t worry, I have since learned the error of my ways.

When you spend as much time on the food blogosphere as I do, you quickly learn that Cream of Mushroom soup is regarded as semi-evil, full of salt, MSG, and other processed evil. Even though I absolutely adore Chicken Spaghetti from The Pioneer Woman, I’ve quickly realized that these condensed soups are probably not something I want in my diet regularly.

Maybe once in a while, though.

BUT ANYWAY …. when I had a hankering for a creamy, mushroomy sauce over pasta tonight, I feel fortunate that I now know how to make a white mushroom sauce. While it might not be fat-free, it’s made with real ingredients and, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t too bad for you.

Homemade Cream of Mushroom

For the purposes of the photo above (where I was using this recipe as a sauce, not a soup), I did not chop the mushrooms. But if you like very small pieces of mushrooms, then by all means, chop your mushrooms. 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, chopped
8 ounces sliced Portobello mushrooms
1/4 cup white wine
1.5 cups reduced-fat milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion, then add the mushroom. Saute until the mushroom have released their liquid, and then add the wine. Continue to cook until the liquid is nearly gone, and then add the milk. Bring to a slow simmer; whisk in the flour. Cook until thickened, and then season with parsley, salt, and pepper.