Sunday soup

It was a Sunday. The weather was cold. I planned to be home for the next few hours. And my refrigerator's vegetable drawer was well-stocked. In other words, it was the perfect time to make cabbage soup!

This is an easy soup to prepare. It's very forgiving. You can omit ingredients, substitute other ingredients, change the proportions, or vary the cooking time, and nothing bad will happen. You'll still end up with a hearty and nutritious result. So what follows is more of a template than a precise recipe.

The one trick to this soup is to avoid adding the root vegetables too soon, so they don't become mushy.

Ingredients:

• One onion, chopped. Any size will do. Or you could use leeks instead.
• Several stalks celery, chopped. The exact quantity doesn't matter.
• One medium head green cabbage, cored and coarsely shredded.
• Fresh dill, chopped. Or parsley. Or both. Or any other herbs. Or dried dill. (I also threw in a dried bay leaf, since I happened to have some.)
• Several carrots and/or parsnips cut in one-inch lengths.
• Several potatoes, cut in large cubes. I used three large, peeled russets. If you use a thin-skinned variety, you could choose not to peel them.
• Four cups chicken broth. Or you could use vegetable broth. Or any other type of broth or stock. Or just water.
• Additional water as needed.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

In a large pot, saute the onion, celery and herbs in a little olive oil (or any other kind of oil, or butter) for 5 or 10 minutes until they begin to soften.

Add the cabbage and liquid ingredients, including enough water to fully cover the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour, until the cabbage is fairly tender.

You may need to add water occasionally during cooking. You can cover the pot or not. If you do, the cooking time might be a bit shorter. If you don't, you're more likely to need to add water.

Add the carrots and/or parsnips. Increase the heat to bring the soup back to a boil, then reduce it again and simmer for half an hour.

Add the potatoes. As before, adjust the heat the bring the pot to a boil and then back to a simmer. After 15 minutes, start checking the root vegetables for tenderness by poking with a fork. Once they're all tender enough for your taste, the soup is ready.

Taste the soup and add salt or pepper as needed.

Serve as a first course, or with crusty bread to make a full meal. Make approximately one zillion servings!

 

Filipino fare in Queens

This is a story about food I'd never eaten before, in a place I'd never been before. Because of that, I'm unclear on a few of the details, but it was an interesting and enjoyable dining experience that I want to share with my readers.

I had just dropped a family member off at LaGuardia Airport and was driving home to New Jersey. It was lunchtime, and I decided I could find a more interesting meal in Queens -- where I had never dined before -- than if I returned to my hometown. I randomly selected an exit off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, pulled into a parking space, and used my phone's web browser to search for restaurants on Yelp. I discovered that I was in the Woodside neighborhood, and that Filipino and Thai restaurants were prevalent there. I selected a Filipino place a few blocks from where I happened to park.

That's how I ended up at Papa's Kitchen. Here's a picture of the exterior, and the view looking westward on Woodside Avenue.

It was around 12:30 PM on a Saturday, and the sign in the front window said "open," but I didn't see any customers inside. I was about to walk away when a woman asked me to come in. At first she said they wouldn't be open until 3:00 or 4:00. However, when I asked if she could recommend any other restaurant nearby, she insisted that Papa's Kitchen would open early for me. I protested briefly, not wanting to put the staff to any trouble, but she said it would be no problem.

I soon learned that my kind hostess's name was Beth (I hope I'm spelling that correctly), and that the gentleman preparing food in the kitchen area behind the counter was Miguel. Then my second point of confusion arose. Beth said the restaurant could prepare a dish of vegetables, with a slightly spicy coconut milk sauce, for me. She did briefly show me a printed menu, but didn't give me any time to study it or suggest that I could choose from it. I assumed that, because the restaurant had opened early, most dishes weren't available at the moment, and I accepted her suggestion. A few minutes later, though, a couple entered. They clearly knew Beth. Although she mentioned that they should have called ahead, she seated them, offered menus, and allowed them to choose what they wanted to eat. Interesting!

Anyway, my food soon arrived. I found out that the dish was called laing. It was mostly a stewed, shredded green vegetable that reminded me of collard greens. There were also some thin slices of a crunchier, tan vegetable, and a few bits of meat -- I don't know what type. The sauce was indeed coconut-based and moderately spiced. The meal was accompanied by steamed white rice. When I asked Beth about the green vegetable, she said it was taro leaves. Here's a photo:

 

I don't know if this recipe is very similar to what I had at Papa's Kitchen, but it will give you the idea. The recipe offers some advice, which suggests that expert knowledge is required when working with taro leaves:

 

Do not stir the ingredients while cooking so that itchiness of the taro will not spread on the dish, otherwise it will cause an itching sensation in your tongue when eating this cuisine.

 

Raw taro, like some other vegetables, apparently contains calcium oxalate, which can be toxic and is minimized by proper preparation.

 

I can't say that laing is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, but I enjoyed it, and it didn't make my tongue itch. I found it very filling, perhaps because of the high fat content of coconut milk. Even though I didn't finish the whole serving, I still wasn't hungry six hours later. It did leave me hungry to try more Filipino cuisine the next time I get the chance.