If you’ve never had pho, I was right there with you until just a few weeks ago. I knew it was a Vietnamese soup (the national dish of Vietnam, it turns out), that it was pronounced “fuh” rather than “foe” and that a lot of people really love it. Like love it.

Happily, pho is no longer a mystery to me. I have now tried it both at a restaurant (Nam An in Kearny Mesa, which came highly recommended by Twitter friends) as well as at home, using an organic pho starter from Pacific Natural Foods. What I enjoyed most about both versions were the bold, complex flavors of the broth and the myriad of condiments – bean sprouts, lime, chiles, culantro to name a few – that you can add in with your chicken and rice noodles to customize each spoonful. It’s such an incredible comfort food.

I wasn’t sure if the prepared broth – albeit an organic one without any preservatives – would measure up to the kind I’d find in a well-regarded Vietnamese restaurant. But I was definitely game to put it to the test. Read on for my comparison of the Easy Chicken Pho I made with the Pacific starter versus the restaurant version plus the chance to win a Pho Starter Kit.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2011. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/easy-chicken-pho-pacific-natural-foods-giveaway/

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My mom recently mailed me a pasta press attachment for my stand mixer. I’d secretly been hoping it might fall into my hands at some point after she received it as a giveaway from a Martha Stewart Show taping a while back. She determined after about a year of it sitting in the cabinet that it might receive more use at my house. As usual, she was right.

For my first go with the pasta attachment, I thought I’d try a shape that’s not too easy to make without a contraption like this – macaroni. All I had to do was mix together the dough, push it down through the extruder and out came continuous tubes of pasta that I had to keep active watch over and cut before they got too long. Picture that classic “I Love Lucy” scene where Lucy and Ethel are overwhelmed by the speed of the chocolates coming down the conveyor belt…that was me!

So all didn’t go perfectly…no matter, it at least resembled macaroni so I was happy!

There was a recipe for classic Minestrone Soup inside the recipe booklet that came with the attachment, with lots of fresh vegetables and white beans as well as macaroni. I’m not usually a big vegetable soup person but this one ate almost like a pasta dish – a hearty, flavorful one at that. If I hadn’t made my own pasta, the whole thing would have easily been done in under 30 minutes (even with my super-slow chopping skills!). I adapted the recipe below for store-bought macaroni, but if you ever have the opportunity to extrude your own pasta I promise it’s a fun time!

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Continue reading "Minestrone Soup…and My “Lucy” Moment" >>

© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/minestrone-soup-and-my-lucy-moment/

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I’ve done what I used to think was the impossible, a feat reserved for only the superhuman among us. With the exception of our regular Saturday night take0ut, as of tomorrow I will have cooked dinner at home every night for the past two weeks.

Between activities, errands, a second infant and witching hour (do all children receive the memo on this one during delivery??) I’d been cooking two to three nights a week at best. Meal planning never worked for me, as I struggled to decide what to make – just thinking through a menu takes a lot of time I usually don’t have. A few weeks ago I finally decided to try those weekly menus and shopping lists you see in some food and lifestyle magazines, like the Grocery Bag feature in Everyday Food and the Real Simple Recipe Shopping Lists. For once I’m glad to have the decisions made for me! I just buy all the ingredients and make all the dishes on the menu, even the ones I’m not sure I’ll totally like. The ingredients in both magazines’ menus are seasonal and take relatively little hands-on prep time; the Everyday Food ones, in particular, tend to be rather economical too. I save my “big fancy meals” and most baking for the weekend when I have more time and an extra set of hands (my husband’s) to watch the kids. I should have started this long ago.

In the spirit of getting mid-week dinner on the table, I wanted to share this incredibly quick, easy and tasty recipe for a Fiesta Chicken Soup that comes from a carton of chicken broth. I suppose it’s called “Fiesta” as it’s similar to a Mexican chicken tortilla soup, with the zing of lime juice in the broth along with the flavors of jalapeño, cilantro and avocado. The way I prepared this soup actually wasn’t so quick, as I made my own chicken stock and grilled some organic chicken. But for nearly as good results in under 20 minutes you could easily use a good quality ready-made stock and rotisserie chicken.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/quick-fiesta-chicken-soup/

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Split pea soup can be a little deceptive. With its bright green color, your eyes convince your mouth that it’s in for something really fresh and herby. You go in for the first spoonful and your tastebuds are surprised to be hit with rich, earthy, smoky flavors with a hint of sweetness – the result of having been simmered with smoked ham hocks for upwards of four hours.  Yes, they’re surprised – but they sure are happy.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/split-pea-soup-with-ham/

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I’m an adult now (and have been for some time) so I shouldn’t really need excuses to eat my vegetables. But I still kind of do. It’s not that I don’t like them…but I don’t necessarily jump for them either. That is, unless they’re made in an especially tasty manner. This Creamy Broccoli Soup definitely qualifies.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/creamy-broccoli-soup/

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“You’ll never guess what Bobby Flay’s ‘Throwdown’ dish is tonight!”

My mother-in-law called me immediately when she saw the Food Network promos for the “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” episode featuring matzo ball soup. I set my DVR to record it right away – I was going to need all the tips and techniques I could get. When she and my father-in-law were out here visiting from the East Coast a week earlier she suggested that I try out her longtime recipe for matzo ball soup. As it turns out, she had cut out the recipe from a box of Horowitz-Margareten Matzoh Meal almost 40 years ago. With Passover approaching, the opportunity to try out this “vintage” on-the-package recipe was irresistible.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/matzo-ball-soup/

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