Month: January 2021

Rich and Hearty Kubasa and Bean Soup

Kubasa and Bean Soup

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 medium-sized onion chopped
  • 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 540 ml canned white kidney beans (19 oz) drained and rinsed
  • 540 ml canned bean medley (19 oz) drained and rinsed
  • 454 g ring of kubasa (kielbassa)
  • 796 ml canned tomatoes (28 oz)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 ribs celery chopped
  • 4 medium-sized carrots peeled and chopped
  • 4 cups beef or chicken broth
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

Instant Pot directions

  • Set pot to "Sauté" setting and add the oil, onion and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add celery and carrots, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well. Set the Instant Pot to "Soup" setting, under pressure, for 20 minutes.
  • Remove and discard bay leaves and serve.

Stovetop direction

  • Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat until onions are translucent. Add celery and carrots, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well.
  • Turn heat down to medium to medium-low (soup should be simmering but not boiling). Cook for 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Remove and discard bay leaves and serve.
Keyword Beans, Instant Pot, Kubasa, Mixed Beans, Sausage, Soup

And now for the details…

Let’s set the scene: it’s the middle of winter. The temperature is cold and icy outside and just looking out the window causes a deep chill to set in, right to your bones. All you want is something warm and comforting to heat you up from the inside, something that feels like a hug in a bowl. This is exactly what our weather is like right now, and when I was looking in the fridge to see what was available, I came up with this recipe as a solution.

Kubasa, also known as kielbasa or kolbassa, is a sausage of Eastern Europe descent, often known as Ukrainian or Polish sausage. It’s a pretty broad term when you think about it… it seems pretty doubtful that an entire country (countries) has just one type of sausage, no? And that’s entirely true. The term “kielbassa” is a translation of “sausage” and in those countries, it refers to a wide range of different sausages. But, where I am from, the Canadian Prairies (think smack in the middle of Canada), the term kubasa/kolbassa is used for a smoked sausage, heavy on the garlic, that is most often served up alongside perogies (dumplings) and holuptsi (cabbage rolls).

In this recipe, I used the kubasa in a soup with beans and some veg to get a hearty, rich, salty, and slightly smoky soup that might actually be nearing “stew” in texture! The beans add a thick silkiness to the broth as they cook, and the addition of paprika gives a hint of heat without actually adding any spiciness. All in all, it’s the perfect meal to come home to after a cold day of skiing, skating or building a snowman 🙂

Let’s get to cooking, shall we?

There are two sets of instructions in the recipe, one for the Instant Pot and one for stovetop. They are both extremely similar, the biggest different is the amount of time to cook the soup for after adding all the ingredients in. I will go through both options, so follow along with your cooking approach!

We start with the veg. Peel and chop your onions and garlic and place in your pot with the oil. At this point, you can prep and chop your celery and carrots, and chop the kubasa into large chunks, to get everything ready to go.

A quick note on prepping the kubasa: most kubasa that I have had has edible, soft casings. But there are some that have a stiff, dry casing that needs to be peeled off before eating. You can usually tell if you try and peel a bit of the casing off. If it “flakes” off in small pieces that tear easily, it’s probably good to eat. If it easily comes off in large strips that peel off easily, peel the whole thing off to avoid unchewable pieces of casing.

With your onion, garlic, and oil in your pot, set to “sauté” setting (or medium-high heat on the stove) stirring and cooking until the onions have turned translucent. Then, add the carrots and celery, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes, so that the celery and carrots soften slightly.

Next, we add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot, stirring well. In this recipe, we are using canned beans, but there is an opportunity to use dried beans if you would like. If you do use dried beans, you will need to add time (about twice the time listed here) as well as add a cup or two of water. If you are using canned beans, don’t forget to fully drain and then rinse the beans before adding them to the pot.

Next, we will be going one of two directions depending on whether you are using and Instant Pot or stovetop: If you’re using an Instant Pot, cover and seal it, and set it to “Soup” for 20 minutes. If you are going with the stovetop method, lower the heat of your stovetop to medium-low to medium heat, just enough so there is a little simmering action going on (a few bubbles every few seconds), but not a big, bubbling boil. Cover the pot and cook it for 45-50 minutes, opening it up every 5-10 minutes to stir and prevent anything from burning/sticking to the bottom of the pot.

And that’s it folks. It is that easy. Last step is to remove it from the heat and discard the bay leaves before eating. I like to have this soup with either some crunchy seed crackers, or a nice, fresh piece of crusty bread!

Happy eating.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken, Leeks and Peppers

Thai Chicken Red Curry

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 4 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (canola, safflower, peanut, avocado, etc.)
  • 2.5 Tbsps red curry paste
  • 1 inch piece of ginger (or galangal, peeled and grated)
  • 1 clove garlic (peeled, grated)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 800 ml coconut milk
  • 6 makrut lime leaves
  • 4 small potatoes (washed and sliced into medallions)
  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 bell pepper (cored and cut into large chunks)
  • 2 leeks (white only, sliced into 1" thick pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp lime juice (fresh, from about 1/2 lime)
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • salt (to taste)
  • 4 cups steamed white rice (to serve)
  • chopped fresh cilantro or Thai basil (to serve)

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a wok or large pot at medium-high heat and add the garlic, ginger and curry paste, and stir until fragrant.
  • Add the coconut milk, broth, and makrut lime leaves. Stir until the curry paste is mixed into the liquid and it comes to a simmer.
  • Reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken pieces, potatoes and leeks, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add the fish sauce, sugar, and peppers, stirring in well, cover and  cook for 5-10 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.
  • Take off the heat, squeeze in the lime juice and serve with rice.
Keyword Chicken, Curry, Thai, Vegetables

And now for the details…

Hello dear friends. I know it has been quite a long time since I last posted a recipe, and I apologize for that. Computer screens have been a bit of a nemesis of late, and I have been restricting my time in front of them in order to cut down on my headaches and dizziness spells. Here is to hoping that my brain will be able to better manage these going forward! Especially since it is really hard to create media online when one needs to limit the time in front of a computer screen 😛

Let’s talk about Thai curries. Like most Thai foods, it’s focused on a balance of flavours: spicy, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. If you hear the word “curry” and immediately think of Indian curries, Thai curries will be quite far from what you are picturing. The spices used tend to differ quite significantly, and the texture of the curry itself is quite different. I would use words like “rich”, “hearty”, or “spiced” to describe Indian curries, while I would use “vibrant”, nuanced” or “bright” to describe Thai curries.

The interesting thing that I found while researching for this post is that the Thai word “kari” for curries is specifically used when referring to Indian style curries, or Thai curries that have used Indian style spices. Gaeng or Kaeng are usually used to describe what we in the western world call “Thai Curry”. I am not sure when we as Westerners decided to use the same word to describe what I have experienced as very different types of dishes; I think I need to go for a more in-depth research on the etymology…

In this recipe, we are going to create a red curry with chicken, potatoes, leeks, and bell peppers. You probably noticed in the photo that the curry itself is not super “red”. The “red” in the name comes from the red curry paste we are using, which uses dried red chillies, along with a number of other ingredients, like ginger, garlic, galangal, shallots, coriander and cumin. The paste itself is a deep red, and it becomes the more orangey colour you see in the photo with the addition of the coconut milk. You can find a fairly wide variety of curries pastes in asian grocery stores, and I have found that a lot of western grocery stores now carry curry pastes as well.

Let’s get started.

I am going to start by stir frying my chicken. You have a Choose Your Own Adventure option here. You can also start with the chicken, or you can wait until the curry is formed up and made and add the chicken toward the end. The main difference is that you will get the caramelization of the meat in the “dry” stir fry (known as the Maillard reaction) if you cook the chicken first. Whereas if you wait until the end to add your chicken, there will be no Maillard reaction and the chicken will be cooked by simmering in the liquid of the curry. Cook’s choice if you want that browning/caramelization and are going to join me now, or add the chicken later 🙂

If you are going to stir fry the chicken, add the vegetable oil to your wok or large frying pan and heat up on medium-high heat. Then add your chicken, and stir, cooking just until the outsides are slightly browned, but the chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through. We will be adding it back to the curry later to finish off the cooking process. Transfer the chicken to a dish to the side until we are ready for it later. You may notice in the photos that my chicken is still a little bit frozen when I added it in. It is so much easier to cut chicken when it’s a little bit frozen. So if you are taking it out of the freezer to use for this recipe, cut it just before it’s fully thawed to make your life easier! If you have fresh chicken, you can put it in the freezer for around 5-10 minutes until it partially freezes to make the cutting process easier.

Next, we move on to the curry itself. If you have opted to not cook your chicken first, now is where you add the vegetable oil to the pan. For those who cooked the chicken first, there should be some residual oil in the pan, but add a little bit more if the pan is quite dry. If you want to be a bit more authentic, you can use some of the coconut cream skimmed off the top of your coconut milk instead of using the vegetable oil.

We are going to keep the heat at medium-high. Add the curry paste, garlic, and shredded ginger to the pan, smooshing (yes, we are getting very technical) the paste, garlic and ginger together and around the pan. As it heats, these ingredients will become very fragrant, at this point (about 60 seconds), add the coconut milk to the pan and stir well so the paste mixes fully into the milk and you pick up any caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan (you may need to scrape your spoon a bit along the bottom of the pan to do this). Next, add the broth and makrut lime leaves and stir until the broth is fully mixed.

I have talked about makrut lime leave before, but I am going to take a moment to talk about them again. Words are hard to use to describe the aroma that these little leaves provide to your dish. They are floral, citrusy and add a layer of complexity to the taste that cannot be replaced by a different ingredient. I have had a hard time finding makrut lime leaves lately, but often they can be found at an asian supermarket. If you cannot find them, you can omit them. The flavour will still be good, it will just have one of the layers of flavour out of the picture. If you cannot get lime leaves, use a bit more lime juice and a little bit of grated lime zest at the end of the cooking to help amplify the citrusy flavour you will be missing from the leaves. I have tried using dried makrut lime leaves as an alternative and I do have to say that they are basically as useless as dried basil. The aroma from the fresh leaves seems to be lost almost completely as they dry, so I would say it is probably best to just omit if you cannot find the fresh leaves. I have heard that you can find frozen lime leaves as well. I haven’t tested this, but I would imagine they are much more flavourful than a dried counterpart. I should also note that, unlike basil leaves, the makrut lime leaves are quite tough, and are typically removed before/while you eat, similar to bay leaves.

Moving on, we are going to allow the liquid to heat until it comes to a simmer, then lower the heat to medium. Add the potatoes and leeks, pushing the ingredients into the liquid so they are submerged. If you did not brown your chicken at the beginning, you will also add your chicken to the pan at this point. Cover the pan, and allow these ingredients to cook for 5 minutes. You can lift the lid every couple minutes to give the curry a stir to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom fo the pan.

Next, add the bell pepper, fish sauce and sugar. Stir well, cover the pan back up and cook for another 5 minutes.

For the folks who opted to not stir fry their chicken first: Check the ingredients for doneness. If the chicken is fully cooked and the vegetables are cooked to your liking, you can remove from the heat. Cook for another few minutes if the ingredients need a bit more time to be done.

For the folks who stir fried their chicken first, now is when we add the chicken back in, stirring into the liquid. Cook for another few minutes until the chicken and vegetables are fully cooked, then remove from the heat.

Squeeze the fresh lime juice into the curry and stir in, then serve the curry immediately with steamed rice, topping with some fresh cilantro or Thai basil.

Happy eating.