Austrian Cream Cheese Soup

I love food blogging - one of the best parts is that people are always sharing their favorite recipes with me. A few weeks ago in church, my longtime friends Debbie and Steve gave me this recipe for Austrian cream cheese soup that they adored at The Fireside restaurant in Rapid City, South Dakota. They're avid bikers who hit up that restaurant when they would go to the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally.

While I haven't been to the Sturgis bike rally and have yet to own my first motorcycle (sad face), I have the most wonderful memories of South Dakota. I traveled across the entire state on a teen service trip to help the Lakota Native Americans one summer. In big cargo vans, the leaders and teens were amazed at the variety of scenery across the state as we traveled the Badlands, the Black Hills, and through Mount Rushmore. Every hour it seemed the world changed. Grasslands like green flowing oceans, white dusty canyons, and the dark spruce-covered mountains of the black hills stunned us all.

In the Black Hills, I shared one of the most beautiful experiences of my life with my younger daughter Jenn. All the teens paired off for what the leaders called a "trust walk". One teen was blindfolded, and followed the directions of the other teen along a path up the side of a mountain. We gathered at a plateau at the top. The guides took off the teens' blindfolds, and they took in all that was around them: the rank of wooded hills in breathtaking display at sunset in oranges, yellows and greens. Jenn whispered to me that she felt God touching her soul. My soul was moved, too.

The Fireside restaurant in Sturgis is now closed, but this recipe, based on a traditional Viennese cream cheese soup, lives in my friends' memories and mine. We cut down on the fat by trading the 4 egg yolks for 3 whole eggs, and by using low-fat cream cheese, yogurt, and fat-free chicken broth. It's still creamy and delicious, but a bit more heart-healthy.

Ingredients

6 leeks
6 celery stalks
1/3 cup butter
2 tbsp oil
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
8 cups fat-free chicken broth
1 8-oz package low-fat cream cheese, softened
8 oz. plain low-fat yogurt
3 eggs, whipped
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup chives, snipped

Instructions

Trim the tough outer leaves and the roots off the leeks, and cut the stalks into quarters. Wash out the leaves well - dirt is often trapped between them. Dice the celery and cut the leeks into 1" segments. 

Melt the butter and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the celery and leeks until tender. Stir in the flour, pepper, nutmeg, and half the broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer.

Blend the rest of the broth with the eggs, cream cheese and yogurt. Stir the mixture into the soup and let it heat up without boiling, so that the cheese and eggs do not become grainy.

Serve topped with shredded cheese and chives.

Serves 6-8.

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Roll-Your-Own Sushi Party

I'm hesitant about posting about "how to host a roll-your-own sushi party" because I'd really rather go to each of your homes and make sushi with you. A sushi-making party is the perfect friend experience. Sushi takes a lot of prep but none of it is hard if you have a good sharp knife and a little coordination; the best part is having a glass of wine and catching up with people you love while you julienne vegetables and slice fish into tiny fillets.

I wouldn't say that I could eat sushi every day, but I could eat it a lot, and since you can put an astounding variety of things into them, I could eat a different sushi menu every day. You could start out with a recipe book if you wanted, but it's not necessary. At a recent sushi-making party, we had five cookbooks between the eight of us. But after awhile there were bowls of green onions and spicy tuna and fresh mango slices and an enormous bowl of sushi rice, and everyone improvised the items they put onto hand-formed rice balls and sheets of nori seaweed wrappers.

I'm gonna be realistic and assume you're not all going to invite me to make sushi with you. So here are some tips and ideas for making sushi at home, especially if you have a bunch of friends helping you. We have been making our own sushi for years and have learned a few things about how to help the party flow while actually producing something that wouldn't make a real sushi chef cry.

I originally posted some recipes on my Homemade Sushi post a few years ago (was it really three years ago?). So this post is intended to take the fun a little further with some things we've learned since then. If you have any questions for this avid amateur I'd be glad to answer them.

If you have trouble finding any of these ingredients in mainstream grocery stores, I would like to point you to Asian Food Grocer. I have heard good things about this online store but we live in an area with lots of ethnic variety and have found what we need without their help.

How to Host a Sushi Party

1. Plan for your utensils.

Here are things you'll definitely need on hand. We all had our favorite knives and cutting boards, and several of us brought full sushi dinner place settings which also came in handy when we were rolling.

• Bamboo mats for making sushi rolls - for 8 people, we used 4 mats; the other 4 people were slicing and forming sashimi
• Plastic wrap cut to the size of the nori sheets, for making sushi rolls
• Very sharp knives - we had 6 knives for the 6 people cutting ingredients at the beginning; some knives were just used for raw fish, some for vegetables and fruits
• Small bowls of vinegar water to seal the sushi rolls and rinse off sticky rice-covered fingers; wet towels are also helpful
• Chopsticks, plates, and soy dipping bowls
• Counter/Table space
• Plenty of cutting boards

2. Plan who will bring each ingredient to the party.

We made WAY too much food the at our last party. Friends brought home rolls and bits of fish we didn't eat; Joe and I had sushi again the next night, made seared ahi tuna wraps for lunch one day, and used up the rest of our leftovers in a luscious seafood udon soup.

We made sashimi of tamago (Japanese omelet), shrimp, ahi tuna, and smoked salmon. We made sushi rolls of spicy tuna and spicy salmon, California rolls, and rolls that had a mixture of fish, avocado, green onions, mango, and wasabi mayonnaise. Here's a suggestion to feed 8 people:

• 1/2-1 pound ahi tuna
• 1/2 pound red snapper filet or smoked salmon 
• 1/2 pound fresh sushi-grade salmon
• 1/4 pound crab or crab sticks
• 1/2 pound shrimp, cooked and cleaned
• 2 avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small English cucumber, julienned
• 2 stalks green onions, julienned
• 1 mango, peeled and pitted
• 1 small carrot, peeled and julienned
• 1/3 cup brown or black sesame seeds (toast briefly on a dry hot skillet to intensify the flavor)
• 1/4 cup fish eggs (the orange fish roe is called tobiko or masago and can be hard to find; try a jar of inexpensive small-egged caviar from the canned meats aisle of the grocery store)
• 1/2 block cream cheese, cut into thin strips (this works better if you partially freeze it first)
• Tamago made with 4 eggs
• Rice vinegar
• 3 cups uncooked sushi rice
• 1 piece of Kombu (thick seaweed) for making the sushi rice
• Chili-garlic paste
• Soy sauce
• Pickled ginger
• Wasabi paste
• 1/2 cup mayo mixed with 1 tbsp wasabi paste
• 10 sheets of nori

3. Plan the Party.

Once everyone has agreed on what they're bringing, there are a few things the host can do ahead of time. Note that it will take at least an hour, but probably more time to make the sushi, so appetizers and drinks are welcome. Here's a step-by-step plan to get ready for the party.

One Week Before
Finalize the food and utensil assignments; shop.

One Day Before
Make wasabi mayo; if desired, you can make the spicy tuna or salmon a day in advance by mincing 1/2 cup of fish with 3 tbsp chili-garlic paste.

If you'd like to provide a guide to popular sushi rolls, you can print off a list from our sushi post here.

3–4 Hours Before
Chill cold drinks.

Prepare sushi rice and allow it to cool.

Prepare appetizers or starter sushi rolls.

1 Hour Before
Prep ingredients for all sushi rolls.

Set out utensils and prepare a cutting area and a rolling area. We did our cutting in the kitchen, then brought the ingredients to the table and assembled the sushi there.

During the Party
Pour wine, guide slicers and assemblers, and enjoy your friends!

Since many of our friends hadn't made sushi before, we floated between groups showing them how to roll sushi and how thinly to slice different fish. We nibbled as we worked, but then cleared the ingredients off the table and set to eating full platters of sushi in earnest once we had made enough.

That's all there is to it! If you host a roll-your-own sushi party, let me know how it goes.

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Sweet Potato-Pear Salad with Walnuts and Potato Crisps

Ah, this salad fills many of my happy places: sweet and sour, crunch and mellow, nuts, fruits, spice, and tangy fennel vinaigrette. It's a satisfying winter salad recipe I developed from a banquet I attended a week ago.

Last weekend we stayed overnight on Chicago's Magnificent Mile for Joe's company's annual awards banquet. Tucked in between skyscrapers and Water Tower Place, just around the corner from Pizzeria Uno and Due, The John B. Murphy Auditorium was a former mansion turned surgeons club turned banquet venue. It's gorgeous inside and out.

Our banquet was on the second level, where a gorgeous stained glass window shone above a rank of ornately carved wooden thrones. It gave a rather Gothic effect, and I imagine many a young surgeon once trembled under the stern looks of the robed chief surgeons glaring down from this platform. Of course, later in the night the chief executives of Joe's company used these chairs to pose for photos.

This sweet potato-pear salad was one of the most memorable bits of the evening for me, food lover that I am. I was seated at a table with elderly couples who were all talking shop: investment funds and insurance minutiae. I wrote a short story in my head and formulated a recipe for this salad.

Unfortunately, the caterer had some unspecified problem with the rest of dinner and our entrees arrived nearly an hour after the tables in the front had been served. Our poor server was sweating as she faithfully filled our water glasses over and over while waiting for our food to arrive. Later during the mingling time I made friends with the photographer, the bartender, and the band, who knew every song The Carpenters and Anne Murray ever recorded. Thanks to my mom, I knew all the songs too.

So about this salad. A little cinnamon on steamed fruits and potato, a light fennel vinaigrette, toasted walnuts and some crispy potato flakes are about all you need, and you'll crave this over and over. It's filling enough for lunch, and the fruit/vegetable combo is perfect for a satisfying winter salad. If you want to listen to Anne Murray songs while you're eating it, I can recommend a few favorites.

Ingredients

For the dressing

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 drops hot sauce

1 tsp ground fennel seeds

1/2 tsp white pepper

For the salad

1 cup sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup pear, cored and cubed
1 cup Red Delicious apple, cored and cubed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sweet potato, shredded
1/4 cup oil
6 cups mixed baby greens
1/3 cup shaved Pecorino-Romano cheese

Instructions

In a screw top jar, shake together the dressing ingredients. Hold at room temperature.

Microwave or steam the cubed potato, pear, and apple. The sweet potato will take a bit longer to steam than the fruit, so add the fruit after the potato is becoming tender. Toss the fruit with the cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a dry skillet, toast the walnuts on medium heat, shaking constantly, about 5 minutes, or until the nuts are slightly toasted and fragrant. Set aside. Heat the oil in the skillet on medium-high heat, then fry the shredded potato until crisp but not browned. Drain on paper towels.

Arrange the baby salad greens on four serving plates. Sprinkle the potatoes and fruit on the greens, then top with the walnuts, potato crisps, and cheese. Pass the dressing.

Makes 4 large salads.

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Orange-Glazed Asian Chicken (or Ahi Tuna) Wraps

We recently hosted a "roll your own" sushi party, and ended up with a vast amount of little bits of leftovers, including avocados, ahi tuna slices, wasabi mayo, and napa cabbage. I marinated some chicken in honey and orange juice, then threw together these yummy chicken wraps for a quick dinner. Joe preferred to marinate the ahi tuna then sear it rare with more sesame seeds for his wrap.

I'm pretty sure avocado is one of the most luscious foods on earth. At my party, I was talking to a friend who trains for triathlons, and she said she eats eggs and avocados nearly every day. Delicious, right?

Then I started thinking about all the calories and fat content in those foods. I thought, well, there's your problem. If you didn't eat eggs and avocados every day, you wouldn't have to do all that running and swimming and biking. I didn't mention it out loud, though, because no one really likes unsolicited advice.

However, you can add as much avocado as you like to this wrap, since the napa cabbage cancels out the fat content. This is one of the quickest wraps I've made - you can prepare the mayo and glaze anytime, start your meat marinating in the morning, then quickly cook it up and get dinner on the table in 15-20 minutes. This is a fantastic lunch sandwich, too.

Ingredients

For the glaze

2/3 cup orange juice
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch

For the wraps

1 tbsp oil

2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp wasabi paste or powder

8 large flour tortillas

2 avocados, peeled and thinly sliced

2 cups napa cabbage, shredded

1 large carrot, shredded

1 orange, peeled and thinly sliced

2 green onions, chopped

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Instructions

Whisk together the orange glaze ingredients, then pour over the chicken. Allow it to marinate in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes, but ideally several hours. 

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the chicken and glaze until the chicken is just cooked through and the sauce is sticky. Place in a bowl.

Whisk together the wasabi and mayonnaise. Heat the tortillas on each side in a dry griddle. Wrap them in a clean kitchen towel or tortilla keeper to keep them warm.

Assemble the wraps by spreading the wasabi mayo on each tortilla. Place the chicken, avocado, oranges, carrots, cabbage, and green onions down the center of the tortilla.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Fold in the bottom corner, then roll up the sides.

Makes 8 large wraps.

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Mango-Tangerine Sorbet

Thanks to Joyosity for this photo, because we ate all our sorbet before I photographed it!

This has to be one of the easiest desserts I've ever made, and when I served it to a party of food epicureans, they just raved over it and wanted the recipe immediately. You know how you're always begging people to take home some leftover dessert so that it won't be around to tempt you for the next week? Didn't even happen this time. I tried to portion out the leftovers equally because they clamored for it.

I know it may seem weird to make a frozen dessert in the wintertime, but I made this for a party where I was teaching friends how to make sushi, and the fruit combo seemed the perfect fit. I'm definitely making it more this summer; it's mostly frozen fruit with mixed with a bit of syrup and coconut milk.

By the way, I'm not taking a stand on the low-fat/original coconut milk health debate, so use what you like. When mangoes are in season in your area, replace the canned mangoes with five fresh peeled and seeded ones, and 1/3 cup of sugar dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water.

P.S. I think this would make a delicious smoothie, too.

Ingredients

3 14-oz cans sliced mango in light syrup
4 ripe tangerines, peeled and seeded
1/3 cup lime juice (3-4 limes)
2 tsp lime zest
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 14-oz can coconut milk

Instructions

Grate the peel of the limes until you have enough zest before juicing them.

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend till completely smooth (do this in 2 batches if your appliance is not large enough). Pour into a 9x12 pan and place in the freezer. After 90 minutes, stir the puree well to break up any large ice crystals that may be forming. It is ready to eat as soon as it is completely frozen, about 3-4 hours.

Allow to defrost for at least 15 minutes before serving. Ours had been frozen for more than 24 hours, so it took about 35 minutes before it was soft enough to scoop.

Serves 8-10.

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