Winter and soup have so many tasty directions you can take.  Broth based is at the top of my list.  This Beef and Cabbage soup is outstanding with all the fresh flavors.  I used local vegetables from Crisp Country Acres and the ground beef mixed with heart from Country Dairy.  All procured from my friends at West Michigan Farmlink.  Do not fret if you cannot get local vegetables.  Using fresh veggies is the key to making this great soup.  Enjoy!

Beef and Cabbage Soup
3 TB olive oil
1 onion, Diced
3 Carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
4 cloves of garlic
1lb Ground Beef
4 cups rough chopped cabbage
8 cups beef broth
¾ Cup long grain white rice
2 TB brown sugar
1 28oz can petite diced tomatoes
3 TB sherry vinegar
2 bay leaves
¼ cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:  Heat olive oil, onion, garlic, celery and carrots on medium.  Saute until onions are translucent.  Add ground beef and brown.  All remaining ingredients with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir, raise heat to medium high and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes until rice is fully cooked.  Remove bay leaves and taste the soup.  Add more salt and pepper if necessary.  Ladle into bowls and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped parsley if desired.

I love soup.  Hearty soups with a broth base are my favorites.  This White Bean soup is one of my new favorites.  Loaded with fresh beans, kale and sausage turns the soup into a filling savory meal.  The reason dried beans are used instead of canned is because of the flavor they add to the soup.  Dried beans add an earthy flavor, something canned beans cannot give.  This recipe is simple to prepare.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

White Bean, Kale and Sausage Soup
1lb dried white beans (pinto, cannelloni, great northern), soaked over night in water
1 large onion, diced
7 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 TB olive oil
3 stalks of celery, sliced thin
4 carrots, sliced
1lb bulk sausage (I used Hehlden Farms kielbasa)
2 smoked ham hocks
8 cups chicken stock (turkey stock works too)
1 cup white wine
Parmesan rind (about 3 inches by 1 inch, less is ok)
2 TB chopped rosemary
2 bay leaves
3-4 cups chopped kale (Lacinato Kale)
2 TB rice vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Shredded Parmesan for garnish

Directions:   Soak beans in water overnight.  Heat a stock pot at medium high with olive oil, add celery, onion, garlic and carrots.  Saute for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Add sausage.  Break it up and saute until fully cooked.  Strain dried beans and add them to the pot, stir.  Add stock, wine, Parmesan rind, ham hocks, rosemary and bay leaves.  Bring to a light boil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes, stir often.  Add Kale.  Simmer for 30 minutes, remove ham hocks and let cool.  Simmer for 15 minutes, remove bay leaves, add rice vinegar, cut off any bits of ham (there will not be much) and add it to the pot..  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil

Cote de Beouf.  An old school French method of serving a really good thick steak!  The name alone can be a turnoff for those who do not have strong faith in their cooking abilities.  Do not fear....this is a simple dish to make.  All you need is patience and a great cut of beef.  Which cut you ask?

A thick good quality Ribeye is they key.  For presentation...a bone in ribeye.  You do not need the version I procured from my friends at The Grilling Company,  which by the way is a Tomahawk Chop.  Impressive, isn't it?  The reason yo want a good quality ribeye....the fat.  See the thin veins of fat going through the meat.  That is a good sign of a great cut of meat.  Those fat lines mean flavor.  Essentially...fat is flavor. 

Now for the cooking.  I removed the ribeye 1 hour before I was set to cook it.  The goal is to get it up to room temperature.  With 15 minutes remaining to warm it up, light up all the burners on your gas grill (I lit all 5 of mine).  Then season the meat generously (I mean generously) the top, bottom and sides with Maldon Sea Salt and cracked pepper.  Nothing else.  Next up is the cooking.  Turn off the middle burner, place the meat directly over that turned off burner, close the lid and start cooking.  If you do have 5 burners, after 5 minutes, turn the burners next to the steak down a quarter turn.  This is to prevent the very large fire that might happen as the fat melts off the steak.  After 10-15 minutes, flip the steak, close lid, keep cooking for another 10-15 minutes.  Then.....let it rest for 15 minutes.

While the steak is almost done resting, heat a cast iron skillet or saute pan on medium high heat.  Let it get good and hot.  Once meat is sliced (FYI, cut away the thick fat layer around the meaty middle section. The meat and fat you cut off is still edible and great to soak up what will be left in the cast iron skillet.  Cut the middle section up into slices).  Add 5 Table Spoons of butter, 3 cloves of garlic and two large sprigs of thyme to the pan.  Remove from heat.  Place sliced meat into pan.  Coat with bubbling butter, top with parsley and a good pinch of sea salt.  All that's left is a buttery garlic and smokey goodness.  Enjoy each and every bite!

A dear chef/writer friend suggested last week that we should do a Thanksgiving Sunday.  We were busy discussing meals we had made with other chefs on Facebook.  I was excited.  What was I going to do? What recipes would I try?  I can easily say, I was like a kid waiting to open presents at 5:30am on Christmas morning.  So, Amy Sherman, currently seen doing food stories with John Gonzales for MLive doing Michigan's Best Searches and I set out to do a home bound Thanksgiving meal.  If we ever needed a reason to do this, I think a stay at home order is all we need.  Below are the pictures (as best as I could get) of my meal.  If you know me...I am not a lengthy blogger.  Each Pic will have a description and some of them will have recipes.  During this stay at Home Order....take the time to get creative with your meals, post on my FB page pictures of those meals...have fun and be safe!

Chantilly Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Crust
I used Food and Wine's recipe which turned out great!

Sourdough Sweet Potato and Cranberry Dressing
3 cups sourdough bread, 1 sweet potato (diced, about 1 cup), 1 celery stalk sliced thin, 4 cloves of garlic(chopped), 1/2 cup diced onion, 1/2 TB chopped rosemary, 1/2 TB chopped sage, 1 TB chopped parsley, 2 TB butter, 3 to 4 cups turkey or chicken stock (warmed), 1/2 cup dried cranberries.  Directions:  saute vegetables at medium heat in butter.  Add some olive oil if it gets too dry.  Add to bowl with bread, herbs, pinch of salt and pepper, and cranberries.  Toss in 1/2 of the warmed stock.  If still too dry, add more stock.  Place in a greased casserole dish, cover and bake at 425 for 45 minutes until internal temp is 165.  Serve.

Corn and Bacon saute with Foraged Green Onions

Roasted Turkey Gravy.  Made with what I call "liquid gold"..aka Roasted Turkey Stock

Green Bean Casserole prepared from scratch.

I relived my past recently.  A culinary school past...Classic French Cuisine.  If there was one love from my days training at GRCC's Culinary Arts program, it was my love of Duck Confit (A future post on that awesome food).  I recently invited some fun friends over for an evening of Confit.  After breaking the duck down into its parts, I roasted the remaining pieces with vegetables and made a fresh and rich stock.  Like this recipe here!  Just substitute duck for the chicken.


Now, for the fun part.  Clarifying the Stock to make a classic Consomme.  The rich and flavorful broth that can amplify your soup to super star status.  What is a consomme?  How do you make it?  How hard is it to do?  Ahhhh.  Time is the most difficult start. 

Consomme is a clarified stock that is the base for your soup.  It is a process that takes a few hours to create the best soup you will ever have.

allTV appearances give me a chance to rethink recipes, create new ones and most importantly, offer cooking tips.  Today, February 21st, 2018, I had the opportunity to be on WZZM's Noon news for their Better Bites (click here for the video).  What I shared was a super healthy meal that truly has Superfoods in it.  Kohlrabi, a root vegetable with broccoli and cabbage flavor profiles, is rich in vitamin c, complex b, iron, potassium, vitamin k and much more.  Salmon is rich in omega fatty acids.  Wait....2 awesome superfoods in one meal?  That is the way to go.  Enjoy the recipe!  Note that any fish or shell fish would be a great substitute for salmon as well as chicken.  If you have leftover vinaigrette, use it as a vegetable dip.  Enjoy!

Pan Fried Salmon with Kohlrabi Salad
 
4 salmon filets, 5-6 oz apiece
2-3 TB Vegetable Oil
2 kohlrabi, peeled
5 radishes, washed
½ lb of asparagus, trimmed and washed
2 Cups arugula
¼ cup Toasted Almond Slivers
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
Zest 1 lemon
Juice of 2 lemons
1 TB Dijon Mustard
1 TB Honey
¼ tsp of salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
 
For the salad:  Slice, spiralize or cut kohlrabi into thin slices, add to a bowl.  Do the same with the radishes.  Cut asparagus diagonally, ¾ of an inch in length, add to the bowl.  Add almonds, add 3 TB of vinaigrette and mix salad.  Put ¼ of each salad on each plate.  Cook salmon
 
For the vinaigrette:  Place all ingredients from shallots down to olive oil into a food processor.  Mix until smooth.
 
Fish:  Take salmon out of packaging and let sit on counter to air dry for 30 minutes.  Then, Heat ¼ cup of vegetable oil in a large skillet or saute pan.  Salt and pepper salmon.  Once oil is shimmering, place salmon into pan, skin side down, cook for 3 minutes, flip and cook skin side for 3 minutes.  Remove from plate, place on top of salad.  Pour 1 to 2 TB of vinaigrette over salmon and rest of salad, serve.

Local food sourcing for the home cook is incredibly easy in the Spring and Summer months.  It is truly stunning at what we can find at our local farm markets.  But alas, Winter arrives.  It feels like a punch in the fresh flavor gut.  What can we do if we want to use more local food?  If you think about it, back in the day, cooks would resort to using lots of different root vegetables.  They might look like a difficult task to undertake but the end result is always a beautiful thing.  Below is a great recipe I did a few years ago on  the local Grand Rapids WZZM Better Bites segment.  Now is a great time to share it again as it is truly a tasty bowl of root vegetable goodness.  Enjoy!

Root Vegetable Stew
1 Beet, peeled and cubed
1 Turnip peeled and cubed
1 Parsnip peeled and cubed
2 Carrot peeled and cubed
2 cups of cubed butternut squash
1 bulb of garlic
1 medium onion diced
1 lb. ground turkey Heffron Farms is a good local source
1 Tsp chopped rosemary
1 Tsp chopped thyme
2 tsp chopped sage
2 TB lite soy sauce
3 cups vegetable stock plus 1 more if needed
1 Cup red dry wine
1 8oz can tomato paste
Salt and Pepper to taste
 
Pre-Heat Oven to 375.  Cut top off bulb of garlic, toss in a tsp of olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil.  Roast for 30 minutes or until soft.  Let cool and squeeze garlic out and reserve.
 
Toss beets, turnip, butternut squash, parsnip and carrot in 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil, place on cookie sheet pan and roast for 35 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
 
In a medium sized stock pot, place 1 tb of extra virgin olive oil into the pan, turn heat to medium high.  Add onion and stir.  Cook to medium brown color.  Add Turkey, brown turkey.  As turkey cooks, chop roasted garlic into a paste.  Add to pan.  Once turkey is cooked, add wine.  Bring to boil.  Add vegetable stock and herbs, simmer for 15 minutes.  Add roasted vegetables and tomato paste.  Simmer for 2 minutes.  Add 1 tsp salt and pepper.  Add more if necessary.  Garnish with green onions sliced thin and shaved parmesan.  Serve with crusty whole grain bread.

Soup is the key to my food heart in the tundra like cold of winter.  I make various types 3 times a week for my family.  They get tired of it but I never do.  I eat leftovers for breakfast each day!  I prefer it over cereal if given a choice. I must admit though, sometimes my soups get a bit heavy.  There are vegetables but higher in carbs and fat.  Just recently I was on eightWest on WOOD TV 8 discussing healthy options for standard comfort foods.  As a Personal Chef in the Grand Rapids and West Michigan area, I pride myself on making recipes for a wide range of dietary needs.  I can prepare a full flavored no holds barred recipe as well as putting a tasty healthy twist.  Below are two recipes for corn chowder.  They are similar but you will notice a bit of a twist to lessen the carbohydrates as well as increase the fiber.  They are both great recipes worthy of a side by side comparison.  Enjoy!

Corn Chowder
6 Ears of Corn, Corn removed, reserve cob for corn stock
8 Slices of bacon, cooked, reserve bacon fat
½ onion diced fine
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 stalk of celery diced
2 carrots diced
2 medium potatoes, skin left on, diced
1 ½ quarts corn stock
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, tied into bundle with string
1 bay leaf
4 scallions (green onion) sliced thin
1 cup of heavy cream
3 tb flour
3 tb olive oil
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp cracked pepper
 

• Remove corn from cob in a large bowl.  Set corn aside.  Place cobs in a pot, add 2 quarts of water, let simmer on stove for 1 hour.  Remove cobs, strain stock into a bowl with a fine mesh strainer
• Chop cooked bacon, reserve in a bowl.  Pour bacon grease into a stock pot.  Turn heat to medium high.  Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery.  Stir often and cook for 3 minutes.  Add diced potato, corn stock, thyme, bay leaf and bring to a rolling boil but not rapid boil.  Cook until carrots and potatoes are cooked (approx 15 minutes).  Add salt and pepper.
• In a small pan, put in the olive oil and flour.  Stir roux until fully mixed.  Heat on medium high heat.  Once it begins to bubble, stir often for 3 minutes, remove from heat and set aside.
• Once potatoes and carrots are cooked, add corn and cream.  Bring to a light boil.  Remove thyme and bay leaf.  Add all the roux to the pot.   Stir until chowder is thickened.  Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
• Ladle chowder into bowls, garnish with bacon and scallions.

Low Carb Low Fat Corn Chowder
6 Ears of Corn, Corn removed, reserve cob for corn stock*
2 Slices of bacon, cooked, reserve bacon fat**
½ onion diced fine
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 stalk of celery diced
3 carrots diced
2 medium potatoes, skin left on, diced
2 quarts corn stock
8 individual sprigs of fresh thyme, tied into bundle with string
2 tsp hot sauce
1 bay leaf
4 cups peeled and chopped celery root
1 leek, washed and trimmed, white and mild green parts only
1/3 to 1/2 cup skim milk
4 scallions (green onion) sliced thin
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp cracked pepper
 
Directions:   Remove corn from cob in a large bowl.  Set corn aside.  Place cobs in a pot, add 2 quarts of water, let simmer on stove for 1 hour.  Remove cobs, strain stock into a bowl with a fine mesh strainer
Cut bacon into 4 pieces.  In a sauce pan, cover leeks and celery root with water until they are just floating.  Place on stove and bring to a small boil.  Once bacon is crisp, remove.  Turn heat to medium high.  Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery.  Stir often and cook for 3 minutes.  Add diced potato, corn stock, thyme, bay leaf and bring to a rolling boil but not rapid boil.  Cook until carrots and potatoes are cooked (approx 15 minutes). 
Once celery root is tender, drain, place in a blender or food processor, add milk and puree until smooth. 
Remove bay leaf and thyme, add celery root puree and stir into pot until smooth.  Bring to a light boil.  Add corn, hot sauce,  taste and add pinch of salt and pepper.
Ladle chowder into bowls, garnish scallions.

I love appearing on Television.  Not because of "Oh, look at me!" but because I have an awesome time sharing recipes live to whomever is watching.  What these segments do is challenge me to come up with fun new recipes which sometimes have me reinventing some classic dishes.  Take today, January 10, 2018....I tasked myself with coming up with truly healthy comfort foods.  That phrases is an oxymoron.  Those two things are not supposed to go together.  BUT...they can and should.  Is it the same?  No.  Does it taste good?????  YES!  Click the picture so you can go to the eightWest website and check out the recipes!