Fasting for Russian Orthodox Christians: Potato Soup

With the no-oil days home cooking can be a bit difficult. Today was cold and I decided I was in the mood for potato soup.

Yes, there's a whole lot of dill, parsley, and black pepper in there.

If you follow this blog, you will know that I already tried to make this once and ended up making mashed potatoes instead because the cashew milk split. I still don't know what caused that, but today's experiment went quite a bit better.

I cooked 4 hefty potatoes in the pressure cooker on a rack (5 minutes, natural release) and left the skins on because I like it that way. I drained out the water and put the potatoes back in, minus the rack, and filled the pot with cashew milk about halfway up the sides of the potatoes, put it on to boil, added dill, parsley, black pepper, and two bay leaves. Once the cashew milk was boiling I lightly mashed the potatoes for a little body to the soup, served, and finished with a sprinkle of salt. That made two heaping bowls of soup. Just what I needed on a cold day!

Pressure Cooker Pork Loin

For Thanksgiving, my mother and I tried an experiment, which I called "duelling pork loins." She cooked hers in the oven, in the way she traditionally does it, with soaked dried apricots and fresh ginger. I bought her a stovetop pressure cooker a while ago, which she is too frightened to use by herself, but she will let me use it at her house, so I cooked a pork loin in it with rosemary (a herb my whole family loves).

In preparation for this, I read a whole bunch of recipes. I got results ranging from "don't cook pork loin in the pressure cooker; it will be stringy and tough," to "cook for 15 minutes," to "cook for 3 hours." So I used my experience (which, incidentally, was zero when it came to cooking meat in the pressure cooker) and guesstimated the entire thing.

How did it turn out?

Delicious!

Here's what I did: I heated a little olive oil in the pressure cooker, and seared the pork loin on all sides. Except for the oil used in the initial searing, I added no oil or other fat. I took out the pork loin, let the pot cool, added four long branches of fresh rosemary, put in a steamer basket, added about 1 1/2 cups of water, and put the pork loin back in. I locked the lid, and let it cook for 20 minutes under pressure, then used natural release (actually we sat down and had a glass of iced tea, and when we went back to check on it the lid was unlocked). We temped the pork loin and found it was done. At that point we added salt and pepper and let it rest while we cooked sweet potatoes and zucchini. Yes, you read that right, I did not salt the pork loin before cooking!

The loin was tender and juicy, and every bite (even in the very middle of the innermost slice) was infused with fresh rosemary flavor. There was virtually no difference in texture or juiciness between the two loins and I'm sure we'll be doing this again!

Herb Hack

So, in case anyone missed it, I got an Aerogarden from one of my neighbors when she moved, and I tried growing expensive lettuces in it and loved it, but the lettuces gave out after about four months. But my mother bought me another as a present, and inside was a herb kit, so I gave that a try and I love it, too. (What is an Aerogarden? This thing:

.) I've even reviewed it elsewhere, and yes, I love it.) But the problem is, the herbs grow much faster than just one person can eat them, so what should I do? One day when I was reorganizing my kitchen (which is growing to be my all-consuming task), I looked at a glass spice jar I was about to recycle, and . . .

I realized I could use the holes in the lid as support for herb stems! So I filled the jar with water, clipped the herbs, stuck the stems in the holes, and voilà! The herbs stay fresh, and some are even rooting (and with a week of nice weather and spring around the corner, time to get my patio garden going).


So before you throw out (or better yet, recycle) your empty spice jars, consider repurposing them to root cuttings, or to keep fresh herbs fresh. If you have a chance to pick up empty shaker jars anywhere, or even the shaker lids (contact your local Italian or pizza restaurant and ask them to save the lids from broken jars for you) to put on other jars, it's just a really handy way to keep those herbs fresh for when you want them, or want to plant them to grow even more.

Herbs, Part 4

Without a doubt, I'm a big fan of fresh herbs. I grow them myself, not only on my own property but at my friends' and neighbours' houses, too. And always people ask me, "How do you use all those herbs?"

One of my favourite ways to use herbs is infusions. Whether I infuse them in water (to make tea), in cream (to make sauces or custards); in stock (to make soups or gravies); in liquor, or in just about any liquid, herbs add a great kick to just about anything.

Need to spice up a recipe? Simple. A day or so before you make it, look at the recipe (you have to look at it anyway, before you go to the store, right?) and see what liquid it calls for. Okay, now take that liquid and measure it out. Stick some fresh herbs in it and put that liquid in the fridge. Now when you go to make that recipe, simply pick out the herbs with a tweezers and voilà! You've just found a way to use those fresh herbs!