Pasilla Spiced Pea Soup

This is an attempt to make use of the dried peppers I ordered earlier this year. Part of that order were some pasilla peppers.

Pasilla chillies are a milder pepper with a scoville rating of 1000-4000. Popular in Mexican cuisine. When fresh they are called chiaca. Although they are almost always encountered dried; in this state, it is referred to as a pasilla. The pasilla has a dark brown color and a smoky flavor. This is milder than the jalepeno pepper at 2500-8000. There is a good wiki page of pepper ratings here

Ingredients	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)
457g dried Yellow Peas	1577	12	55	277	101
2 med. Onion (202g)	85	0.2	6	20	2
2 med. Carrots (140g)	57	0.3	97	13	1
2 Celery Stalks (97g)	14	0.2	78	3	0.7
1 garlic bulb (37g)	55	0.2	6	12	2
2 pork hocks (yeild: 727g)	1818	124	7125	7	153
2 tbsp oil	240	28	0	0	0
5 dried pasilla chillies (45g)	146	3	41	31	5
1/2 tsp salt	0	0	190	0	0
Pepper to taste
1/4 c dried oregano	37	1	2	8	1
2 tbsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried parsley
12 Bay Leaves
4 roasted red peppers	57	0.4	4	13.6	1.9
Totals	4086	169.3	7604	384.6	267.6
Per 12, 2c servings	340	14.1	633	32	22.3

The day before roast the red peppers, put in a sealed container to steam and then remove the skins & seeds and chop.
Also put the dried peas in a bowl and cover with water.

Dice the onion, celery and carrot. Finely dice the garlic or pass through a garlic press. 

In a your soup pot on medium heat add the oil, vegetables and garlic and the 1/2 tsp salt and pepper. Sweat the veggies with the lid ajar. When the vegetable begin to stick add the pork hocks, drained peas and enough water to cover. Add the bay leaves, oregano and pasilla peppers. Bring to a boil and simmer for 90 minutes or until the peas are cooked.

When the peas are cooked remove the pork hock and let cool. Remove the meat from the hocks. Dice the meat and add back to the pot.

Remove the bay leaves.


Remove the pasilla peppers and place in a blender. Removing the stems from the peppers. Add some of the cooking liquid or some water to the blender. Whiz up the peppers until smooth and add back to the pot.

Add the roasted red pepper and the oregano, parsley and thyme. Top up with water if needed. Bring to a boil again and serve.

Thoughts

• It did come out a bit spicy. If you don't like spice then cut back on the peppers. 
• I am surprised by the amount of sodium. Next time I would use only one pork hock. This would cut back dramatically on the amount of sodium.This would have cut back a bit on the protein but it still would have enough.
• The flavour seemed a bit thin. I should have used a home made chicken stock instead of water. I did have some store bought broth but it is also high in sodium. I guess I have to get off my lazy ass and make my own stock. Always better than commercial stock.
• After having another serving I can tell that the peas are not fully cooked. This is likely due to the salt in the pork hock. Another reason to use only one.

Enjoy!

Chorizo Spiced Pork & Bean Soup

A nice spicy soup, very hearty with lots of protein to fill you up. Something to do with some raw pork I had.

Item	Calories	Protein
407g navy beans	1384	93.6
500g raw pork meat	568	112.3
4 tbsp chorizo spice mix
25g oil	225
4 leaks	390	9.6
4 cloves of garlic	28	1.2
2 tbsp dried thyme	15	0.5
2 L chicken broth	133	13.3
2 L water
600g red potato	534	13.8
12 bay leaves
salt & pepper
TOTAL	3465	248

Yeild 10, 2 cup servings.
Per Serving Calories: 346, Protein: 24.8


Dice the pork and combine with chorizo spice mix. Refrigerate over night.

Cover the beans with water and let sit over night.

Cut the leaks in half and  slice thin. Keep some of the leak tops for cooking with the beans

Combine the beans with the water add some of the leak tops and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender. Remove the onion and bay leaves and reserve the water & beans.

Saute the pork in the oil in a soup pot on medium heat. Remove and set aside. Add the leaks with some salt & pepper. Sweat the leaks & garlic while trying to scrape off any bits that stuck to the bottom.

Add the meat back with the beans along with the water they were cooked in. Add the potato and chicken broth. Simmer until the potatoes are tender

Fennel & Squash Soup with shrimp

Making use of the leftovers from Christmas dinner. Squash is best roasted with garlic and then combined with the garlic to create a squash and roasted garlic mash, yum. It is pretty simple to do and always save the seeds and toast them while the squash is baking.

Roasted Squash
1 large butternut squash
1 whole bulb of garlic
oil
salt & pepper

Split the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush with the oil and season with salt & pepper. Peal all the cloves in the bulb of garlic. Divide the cloves of garlic between the two halves of squash. Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet with the garlic in the cavity and bake in a 350F oven until soft.

When the squash is done let it cool. Scoop out the flesh and push through a food mill or place in a food processor with the garlic cloves and process until smooth.

The flesh is quite sweet but if you prefer add a bit of maple syrup and serve as a side dish.

This soup makes use of the sofrito technique. Cook the vegetables until most of the water evaporates and concentrated the flavours. I think this recipe could be improves with the addition of some herbs such as thyme, rosemary, tarragon. If you were to add some herbs add them when you add the squash & broth.

Fennel & Squash soup with shrimp

Ingredient	Calories	Protein
4 fennel bulbs (1400g)	435	17.4
1 1/2 tbsp oil	145
3 med. onions (105g)	105	2.3
3 carrots (198g)	81	1.8
1 celery stalk (131g)	18	0.9
4 cloves of garlic (15g)	27	1.1
454g shrimp (peeled yeilds 366g)	256	47.6
4c butternut squash (782g)	313	7
2 litres chicken broth	80	8
1/4 c pernod	150
Salt & Pepper

Total Calories: 1610
Total Protein: 86.1

Per Serving (8 servings): 201 Cal. 10.76g protein

Directions
1. Chop the fennel, onion, celery, carrot. Crush or finely dice the garlic.
2. In the soup pot add the oil and on medium heat start cooking the vegetables with some salt and pepper. The lid should be slightly ajar.
3. When the most of the water has been cooked out add the butternut squash, Pernod and chicken broth.
4. Bring to a boil, taste and season if necessary.
5. Turn off the heat and add the shrimp.
Done