Tomato Basil Soup with Cheese Dumplings

Made this for dinner and had leftovers for 2 lunches. Originally served with lettuce wraps*. Leftovers heated up with leftover meatballs and ate with toast. The cheese dumplings make this soup much more filling than it would be alone. There end up being quite a few dumplings - I could see cutting that part in half, or just doubling the soup and it all being fine. Soup = ***, Dumplings = ****

• 4 cl garlic, diced
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
• 3 c broth
• 1/2 c fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 c ricotta
• 1 c parmesan
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 c flour (or less when in Canada)
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t freshly ground pepper

1. Heat the oil in a large pot. Saute the garlic and red pepper flakes, about 1 min, until fragrant.
2. Add in the whole can of tomatoes, broth, basil, 1/2 t salt and some pepper. Stir and bring to boil. Reduce heat.
3. Simmer for 7-8 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, mix the cheeses, eggs, flour, salt and pepper. Stir just until dough forms.
5. When soup is done simmering, roll dough into small balls (~48) and drop into simmering soup. Cook for about 2-5 minutes until cooked through (depending on size...better to go smaller than what I did in the picture). Note: keep at a simmer only as boiling might make the dumplings fall apart.

Turkey Cranberry Apple Cheese Meatballs

I could only find sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins) so went with that instead of the unsweetened called for in the original recipe. They definitely came out with a sweet kick - which was ok, though if using Craisins again I'd probably reduce the amount so it wouldn't be so sweet. The cheese disappears in the final result so can be left out altogether if needed.

• 0.6 kg extra lean ground turkey
• 1 egg
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
• 1 t rosemary
• 1 green apple, peeled and grated
• 1/2 c grated extra sharp cheddar
• 1/2 c dried unsweetened cranberries (or 1/4 c sweetened)
• ~1/2 c dried breadcrumbs

1. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients. It will be very wet.
2. Make golf-ball sized meatballs and drop into 4.5 qt crockpot, layering up as needed.
3. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours or high for half the time. (Mine started lightly browning after 2.5 hours and the ones close to the sides starting getting very dark brown after 5 hours.)
4. Serve with rice/quinoa and green beans.
5. Leftovers may be frozen.

Note

Can be baked in oven instead of cooked in slow cooker. 375F for 25 min

Easy Slow Cooker Meatballs and Sauce

Made this today in a rush - sauce came out tasty but meatballs needed more spices. Served with spaghetti. Could use leftovers to make meatball sandwiches. Worth trying again and adjusting the spices and flavorings. Definitely was easy as it was. Most other recipes require cooking meatballs separately. This is done all in the slow cooker. The risk is a greasier sauce. There was minimal grease in mine - I was able to spoon off some extra liquid/grease from the top.

• 1.5 lb (extra) lean ground beef
• 1/4 c parmesan (increase to 1/3)
• spices: parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, rosemary, coriander, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, etc
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c - 2/3 c breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomato
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T parmesan* (or more?)
• more spices* (same as above, generous pinches of everything)
• optional: diced carrot
• optional: 1/3 c red wine

1. Mix beef with parmesan, generous amount of spices, garlic and egg. Add in breadcrumbs until desired consistency.
2. Pour crushed tomatoes and sauce in 4.5 quart slow cooker. Add in sugar, parmesan and pinches of spices (and optional carrot). Stir.
3. Divide beef mixture into 16-20 pieces and roll into balls. Place in slow cooker and stir to cover with sauce.
4. Cook on low 6-8 hours.

Variations

- add in tomato puree to thicken sauce

- add minced onion to meatball mixture

- use homemade sauce instead of store bought

- use mixture of beef, sausage, turkey, etc

- use fattier meat, at the risk of greasier sauce. To counter it, you could prebake the meatballs at 350 F...but then it wouldn't really be an "easy" slow cooker recipe anymore.

- make meatballs night before, then throw in sauce ingredients next day to cook.

No Knead Bread

Peasant Bread

This was pretty easy to throw together and came out nice and chewy. It's my first no-knead bread attempt. It was quite an interesting process just using a spatula and 2 forks. The original post has pictures of the whole process. The dough really is super wet. The bowls she uses are VERY small, which you can't tell from looking at her pictures since they are all close up shots.. I made a 9x5 loaf using about 2/3 of the dough (she recommends 3/4 of it) and the remainder in a small, shallow, square 1.5L dish. When mixing it originally my dough was quite dry, not wet like hers in the picture so I added a couple T of cold water. The alternative** is to start with less than 4 cups in the bowl and add extra flour after mixing it together. 

• 4 c flour (or slightly less**...should be 1 lb 2 oz), not bleached
• 2 t sea salt
• 1/2 c boiling water + 1.5 c cold water (or just 2 c lukewarm water)
• 1 T sugar
• 2 (+1/4) t yeast
• 2-3 T butter

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour and salt.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve sugar in the water. 
3. Sprinkle yeast on top and wait 10-15 minutes until yeast is frothy, to prove that it is still alive.
4. Pour yeast mixture into flour and mix with spatula. Mixture will be very wet. 
• Either put dough in a greased bowl
• ...OR...scrape sides of mixing bowl and butter the sides.
5. Cover with cotton towel and let rise in warm, moist area (like a warm oven with a pot of boiling water inside) for minimum one hour, but preferably 1.5-2 hours.
6. Generously grease 2 containers, no bigger than 1.5L each, with 1 T (or more) butter each.
7. Using 2 forks, pull the dough from the sides and punch down, turning sides onto itself. It is important that the dough is pulled from the sides and entirely punched down. Use forks to separate the dough into 2 pieces (of equal size if containers are equal...or if using 9x5 bread pan, then about 2/3-3/4 of the dough for that, remainder for small container or muffin tins or ramekins). Scoop up each piece and plop into prepared containers.
8. Cover and let rise in warm area for 30-45 minutes. Dough should rise to just below/above top of container, depending on the container.
9. Bake at 425F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375F and cook for 22-25 minutes more.
10. Remove from oven and turn onto cooling racks. If they were sufficiently greased, they should fall out.
• If the breads look pale and soft, put on cookie sheet and continue to bake for 5 min.
11. Let cool for 10 min before slicing.

Raspberry Lemon Muffins

The batter turned out super thick but I went with it and they turned out fine. Could have used a touch more liquid but were tasty nonetheless. Lemon is a great complement to raspberries. Original called for 3/4 c sugar but I used less. It still turned out a little too sweet for me - would reduce further next time.
Feb 2013: Made these again, again batter was really thick, so added some milk. Came out to only 11 very small muffins. Needs improving.
2/8/13: Made these again adding 1/2 t baking soda, 1/2 c milk + 1 T lemon juice, and another egg. Made 12 good sized muffins that rose appropriately.
5/6/13: Changed it up again and finally got these with a good texture. Modifying below and putting original in parens.
5/24/15: Used a newer baking powder and it was bubbling while stirring it altogether which has never happened before. Also used less sugar and just as good, so also adjusted below. Very spongy.

• 1.5 c flour
• 1/2 c sugar (2/3 c)
• 2 t powder
• 1/2 t soda (not in original recipe)
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 t grated lemon zest
• 1 c (1/2 c) vanilla yogurt (or plain)
• 3 T canola oil
• 4 (3) T lemon juice
• 2 (1) eggs
• 1 c frozen raspberries

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, powder, salt and lemon zest.
2. In small bowl, combine yogurt, sugar, oil, lemon juice and egg.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
4. Stir in raspberries.
5. Divvy out to 12 muffin cups and bake at 400F/200C for 27 (22) minutes (or until the top springs back when lightly touched).
6. Let cool on wire rack. Eat some now and freeze the rest for eating later (microwave at 30 seconds to warm).

Pongal - Karnataka style

Had this for lunch, and then snack. Can't find curry leaves in Toronto so didn't use them. Very different from other pongals I've had, but in a good way - coconut adds nice texture and wonderful smell.

• 1 c rice
• 1/4 c mung dal (or channa dal [the bigger one])
• 1/2 c dried coconut
• 3 c water
• 2-3 T ghee
• 1 t cumin seeds
• 1 t mustard seeds (brown or black)
• 1/4 t turmeric
• 2 cl garlic, minced
• 1 t freshly ground pepper
• 6 curry leaves
• salt to taste

1. Rinse and then soak dal for 20 minutes (to ensure even cooking time with rice).
2. Combine dal, rice, coconut and water in rice cooker. Cook.
3. In the meantime, heat the ghee in a small pan. Then add the spices and lightly toast over medium/low-med heat, until aromatic (about 2 min). Transfer to cup.
4. When rice cooker is done, stir the rice. Pour in the spice mixture and stir until evenly spread.

Variations

- add a cinnamon stick to rice

- add raisins

- add minced ginger and finely chopped chili

Slow Cooker Brown Chicken

Made this a couple days ago and it turned out alright. Leftovers tasted even better. Search on 'shoyu chicken' turns up all sorts of recipes with different ratios and some slight variations in ingredients. Hard to go wrong it seems.

• 1 c soy sauce (shoyu)
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 c water *
• 1/2 c sake
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1" ginger, sliced
• value pack of skinless (boneless) chicken thighs

1. Combine everything but the chicken.
2. Place thighs in slow cooker dish. Pour sauce over. Add extra water to cover thighs (for 16 thighs I added 1 c water). Note that they float so some will not be fully covered.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, turning chicken once (I turned after 4 hours).
4. Serve with rice and veggies.

Variations

- add chopped scallions

- add 1 T vinegar