Pat Eby; a Food Writer Skinnies Up

One Cup of Tea

 

It’s late. Dinner’s been over for hours. You’ve had a healthy snack, but your mouth still longs for something. Here’s a thought. Try a cup of tea. Not only do you get no calories with lots of flavor, brewing a nice cup of tea requires process and ritual.

Don’t rush this through the microwave. Fill a tea kettle and put it on to boil. Find a favorite mug or cup and saucer. Choose a tea. Pack loose teas in a tea ball, or in a handy T-Sac. A nice mug of tea can short-circuit the urge to engage in mindless eating.

To make things easy, keep a selection of tea packets in a pretty glass dish or clear canister on the kitchen counter. Boxes of tea out of sight in a cabinet won’t give a visual cue to think teas as often. Loose teas should be kept in airtight, solid canisters to preserve freshness, but you may want to fill a small glass container with loose teas. It’s that now-you-see-it clue again. Make sure the cover fits tight.

Flavors abound in today’s tea market. Caffeinated, de-caffeinated or herbal, the choice is yours. You don’t need to live in a city big enough for a tea shop to get good teas, either. Most supermarkets carry a respectable selection. The internet offers endless choices, but if you’re lucky enough to have a tea shop in your town, plan a visit. Be warned. The selection can be dizzying.

In St. Louis, visit the Traveling Tea shop in historic Benton Park. Pick up a box of 100 T-sacs, a unique tea bag you fill with loose tea. Of course, teas and T-Sacs can be purchased online, too. Try Stash teas from Classical Coffee, an online coffee and tea vendor, based in St. Louis. Search out the tea shops in your hometown for a little field trip to see, smell and taste the teas.

Another  advantage of tea-sipping is that it slows me down enough to engage in creative distractions, another alternative to thoughtless food consumption. Here’s my list. Listen to a favorite cd, pull out the bead box and make a pair of earrings, put together a jigsaw puzzle, read an amusing book, like a mystery. 

To drink in the world of teas through mystery books, pick up the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. Sleuth Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in historic Charleston, South Carolina, serves up teas, scones and cakes. Along the way she uncovers murderers, fiendish plots and mayhem a-plenty. If you’re the sort who likes to read books in order, start with Death by Darjeeling, the first in the tea shop series. The author includes tea history, trivia and lots of recipes in each book.

If you’re a committed coffee drinker, read Sandy Murphy’s post for King’s River Life pairing coffees with mystery books. Be warned, one of her selections focuses on a chocolatier turned sleuth, so chocolate’s mentioned. Be strong. 

Note:  the lead illustration for this post, by Ann Paidrick, was created using Adobe Illustrator, a vector drawing program. View more examples of her vector-generated photo realistic images and illustrations here.

 

Lightened Up Lentil Soup; A Fork in the Road

It’s snowed this week  in St. Louis for the first time this winter. Two inches of snow and black ice forced commuters on highways and roads to a standstill during rush hour. While I sat in my car, headed to my part-time job, crushing grip on the wheel, eyes peeled for sliding cars, I got pretty stressed.

Dinner, I thought, will be a familiar comfort; warm and steamy lentil soup. My grandmother made lentil soup heavy on the kielbasa, fragrant with onions, carrots and celery, thick and rich.

I’ve lightened my cooking, eschewing meat most meals, increasing vegetables in my diet and limiting or eliminating fats. The lower-calorie lentil soup I make today packs plenty of flavor in a brothy soup with more vegetables and no fat. A winning combination for me.

The recipe comes from legendary Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme’s 1993 cookbook, A Fork in the Road. Regular old brown lentils, in the hands of this master chef Paul Prudhomme, make an unexpectedly sweet and spicy soup, worthy of dinner guests.

In the introductory Notes from the Test Kitchen, Prudhomme writes, “I was really having a hard time getting a complete, “round” taste without using butter or oil. Without a “round” taste, I’m not happy or satisfied with a dish. It has to be complete, filling my mouth with all kinds of flavors – sweet, salty, spicy.” Prudhomme arrives at a fully round flavor with this soup, relying on spices, tamari and buttery apple juice to build tastes.

Start to finish, the soup cooks in under an hour. Unlike dried beans, lentils don’t need pre-soaking. The soup clocks in at 106 calories per cup, too.

Used copies of this fine cookbook are available on Amazon. The reviewers rightly point out this may not be a book for a beginning cook, or a once-in-a-while cook because Prudhomme details complex spice mixes for nearly every dish. Prudhomme’s attention to each ingredient and technique, however, is what makes the recipes in this book taste so good.

Not-My-Grandmother’s Lentil Soup

Adapted from Paul Prudhomme’s Fork in the Road cookbook

Yield: 8 main dish servings; 16 appetizer servings

A different lentil soup. A bit of kick from the peppers. Layers of flavor from the seasonings, the apple juice and the tamari. A great use of parsnips. I like to vary the last two vegetables by the season. 

Seasoning mix:

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 ½ teaspoons salt (see note)

1 ½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried cilantro leaves*

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon ground white pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne

Soup:

Olive oil cooking spray

2 cups chopped white or yellow onions (not sweet)

2 cups chopped green bell pepper, divided

2 cups chopped celery, divided

2 tablespoons water

3 bay leaves

1 cup apple juice

2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic

2 cups dried lentils

10 cups vegetable stock, divided**

¼ cup tamari***

1 cup medium diced carrots

1 cup medium diced parsnips

1 cup medium diced zucchini (see tester’s note)

1 cup medium diced yellow squash (see tester’s note)

• Combine herbs and spiced for seasoning mix in a small bowl.
• Spray the bottom of a  5-quart stock pot or Dutch oven with cooking spray. Heat. Add 1 cup each of onions, bell pepper and celery, stirring often, over medium high heat. After one minute, add water and cook an additional 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add 2 tablespoons of the seasoning mix, bay leaves and apple juice. Cook until the liquid evaporates, about 10 to 12 minutes.
• Put the remaing onions, bell pepper and celery in the pot next. Add the rest of the seasoning mix, the garlic and the lentils. Stir to combine, then add 6 cups vegetable stock and the tamari.
• Cook uncovered over medium low heat for 18 to 30 minutes. Check the lentils for softening beginning at 18 minutes. Stir often to the bottom of the pot. Add 2 cups stock when the lentils are softened, but not completely cooked. Cook for 10 minutes.
• Add the remaining stock, carrots and parsnips. Cover and cook 10 minutes.
• Add the green and yellow squash, cover and cook 5 minutes. 

*dried cilantro available at spice shops and ethnic markets
**Deborah Madison has a great recipe for quick-cooking vegetable stock.  If you want a thicker soup, add less stock at the end.

***tamari is a very flavorful concentrated soy sauce. Available at Asian markets 

Tester’s notes:

usually omit the salt in the seasoning mix because the tamari is salty and the celery contains sodium also.  

Seasonal vegetables work great in this soup. In summer try corn and tomatoes,  or green beans and new potatoes. In fall, rutabagas and swiss chard, or celery root and sweet potatoes. Adding a handful of spinach at the end of the cooking time is nice, too.