Hoppin' John, Potato & Leek Gratin, Apple-Sweet Potato Soup, Impossible Squash

Apple & Sweet Potato Soup
Velvety smooth, slightly sweet and just a hint of tartness.  Some dishes are comfort food the first time you try them!

3 medium Sweet Potatoes, shredded or chopped very fine
2 large Sweet Apples, shredded or chopped very fine
1/2 Medium Red Onion, shredded or chopped very fine
3 cloves Garlic, minced
4 Cups Vegetable Broth or water + vegetable base
2 tsp Marjoram or Thyme
3/4 cup Icelandic Skyr or Greek Yogurt
Optional -- 1 can Evaporated Milk to adjust the consistency of the soup
Shredded Cheese for garnish

Combine the vegetables, herbs and spices in your soup kettle along with the broth, and simmer for 30 minutes or so. 

Puree the solids and return them to the pot.  Add the yogurt, and evaporated milk if you need it, to get the consistency you want.   Heat through and ladle into bowls.  Garnish with cheese before serving.  I used a very sharp English Cheddar.

A nice loaf of hot bread goes well with this soup.  Here you see a slice of my Irish Soda Bread made with Whole Wheat Flour, and a slice of my Cider Bread made with Angry Orchard Hard Cider.  Recipes for these breads can be found elsewhere in Fooding Around With The Kilted Cook, using the Search function.

Hoppin' John with Shrimp
This is classic low country South Carolina comfort food – beans, pork and rice!  Except I skipped the pork...

 The origin of the name “Hoppin’ John” is unclear. Some say an old, crippled man called Hoppin’ John sold bowls of peas and rice on the streets of Charleston. Most food historians think the name comes from mispronouncing the French term for dried peas, “pois pigeons.” It’s also uncertain why the dish became associated with New Years and good luck.

As you can see in the picture, my version skips the traditional pork aspect of the dish and substitutes shrimp in what is essentially a thick “stew” served over rice.  To remedy the bland nature of plain beans and rice there is plenty of spice and diced veggies in the stew:

2 cups dry White Rice"
3 cups cooked Blackeyed Peas
3/4 to 1 lb Shrimp, peeled
Everglades Seasoningtm or Salt & Pepper to taste
Cajun seasoning to taste
1 stick Celery, chopped
1/2 White Onion, diced
1/2 Bell Pepper, diced (we like red for the color and flavor)
2-3 clove Garlic, minced
1 cup Vegetable Broth
1/2 cup Fire Roasted Tomatoes, diced

Cook the rice and blackeyed peas according to package directions.  

Saute the shrimp with a splash of oil and Cajun seasoning  to taste until they just turn color.  Remove and reserve. 

In the same skillet, saute the onion, pepper, celery and garlic with Everglades seasoning or  salt & pepper until they are just going translucent and soft.   Add the cooked blackeyed peas, the vegetable broth and the tomatoes. Stir and cook until everything is heated through, the flavors marry, and the broth starts to thicken; maybe 10 minutes. 

Plate a bed of rice.  Ladle  the vegetable 'stew' on top and artistically surround with the heated shrimp.

Potato & Leek Gratin
Remember a couple of posts back I talked about Comfort Foods being a big trend this year?  Homemade soups and bread,  Hoppin' John and this Gratin certainly qualify!

2 Leeks halved lengthwise, washed, and cut into 1" lengths
2 lbs Potatoes, skin on,  sliced into 1/8" thin rounds
2 cups Half & Half or cream -- for a lighter dish use whole milk
1 cup shredded Cheese -- classically Gruyere is used, but use whatever you like
2 tsp Thyme -- no Thyme?  substitute Marjoram.
Salt & lots of Pepper to taste
2 cloves Garlic, minced
3 Tbsp Butter, melted
3/4 cup Breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray/grease the baking dish.  Arrange stacks of potato slices at angles in the dish, and tuck lengths of leeks, cut side up, among them.  The idea is to have a random, rustic look to the dish.  Combine the melted butter and breadcrumbs, and reserve

In  a sauce pan bring the milk, spices and garlic to a simmer, stirring to ensure that the salt dissolves.  Pour the heated mixture over the potatoes and leeks making sure everything get well coated.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and uncover the dish.  Sprinkle the cheese overall, then scatter the buttered breadcrumbs on top.

Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, the top is browned, and the edges bubbling.   

Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Impossible Stuffed Squash
So, my Publix the other day had 12 oz packages of Impossible Burger, so I thought I'd pick one up and give it a try as something other than a burger.  The Burger King Impossible Burger was frankly disappointing, but we'll see...

1 small Buttercup Squash
1 cup dry Jasmine Rice
1+ tsp Sazon Tropicaltm seasoning
1/4 cup diced Red Bell Pepper
1/4 cup diced Red Onion
1+ tsp Taco Seasoning
Shredded Cheese

Make a batch of rice with the Sazon seasoning.  While that is going on, saute 6 oz of the Impossible stuff together with the onion, bell pepper and taco seasoning. 

 Make sure to use plenty of oil as the Impossible fauxmeat has no fat in, it like hamburger would, and will start to stick easily.  

Fold the rice and saute mixture together to make a stuffing.

Top the squash and scoop out the seeds, then cook it (bake or nuke) upside down until just barely tender.

Fill the squash with the stuffing, top with shredded cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 400F to heat everything through and melt the cheese.  Alternatively, nuke the assembly for about 3 minutes to heat things through and melt the cheese.  Slice and serve.

I must say that in this application, the Impossible burger really shined.  It basically has no distinctive taste of its own -- but it readily takes on whatever spices and herbs you cook it with.  

If you need something which  like looks like cooked ground beef, and takes up bulk in a stuffing like this, it is an acceptable-to-good choice for vegetarians.  For stuffed things like squash, cabbage or shells, as a pizza topping, even tacos and enchiladas it will certainly do a good job.  But you really need to use spices wisely.  There isn't any "burger flavor" seasoning that I know of, although some of the MacCormicktm grilling spices would give the product a good flavor, just as the Mexican/Taco seasoning I used here did.