Rainy Weather Makes me Want to Cook

It's been a rainy weekend.  Rain means soup and comfort food and so on Saturday I made a Thai Coconut Chicken Soup (Tom Ka Gai) and Sunday I made a Caramel-Apple Upside Down Cornmeal Cake.  It may have been cold and rainy outside, but we were warm and full inside.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

The Thai soup starts with 2 cooked, shredded chicken breasts and a quart of chicken broth (The Tyler Florence Foodnetwork recipe this is based on uses homemade chicken stock, but I used low-sodium store bought chicken broth).  Get the broth simmering and add the following:

To 1 quart chicken broth add: 1 tbsp lemon grass puree, or 1 lemon grass stalk white part only, cracked open (I used puree), Add 1 tbsp (roughly) lime zest, about 2 tbsp grated ginger (peel and freeze it first and it's super easy to grate), and 1-2 jalapeno peppers or Thai chilis, seeded and chopped.  Oh, you also need 2 chopped garlic cloves.

Let the broth and added ingredients simmer for about 10 minutes.  Then add 1 can of coconut milk (I used light coconut milk) and the shredded chicken.  Also add about 1 cup sliced mushrooms and the juice of 1 lime.  I actually threw the lime halves into the soup and let them simmer with it.  Finally, add 2 tbsp Thai fish sauce and 1 1/2 tsp sugar.  Let simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

Top your soup with fresh cilantro.  It's very light and brothy, with a slightly sweet and spicy taste. I'll be making it again, that's for sure!

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cornmeal Cake

You'll need: 6 tbsp butter (plus another 1/4 cup melted later), 4 apples, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tsp milk, 1/2 cup chopped pecans (i used walnuts), 1/3 cup dried cranberries (optional, I left these out), 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 2 tsp granulated sugar, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup cornmeal, 1 cup hot water, 2 eggs, lightly beaten, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Peel, core and slice the apples.  Melt 2 tbsp butter in an oven-safe, 10" skillet and saute the apples.

 I sauteed these for about 8 minutes.

Next, remove the apples from the pan.  Melt 4 tbsp butter and add the brown sugar.  Stir until everything is dissolved and the mixture boils.  Remove from heat and add the milk.  then sprinkle in the nuts (and cranberries if you used them).

Layer the apples on top of the walnuts and caramel.  You can be pretty about it if you wish.

In 1 small bowl mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  In a medium bowl mix the cornmeal, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 cup hot water.  Then add in the eggs and vanilla.  Finally, mix the flour mixture into the cornmeal mixture, just until combined.  Pour this over the apples.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until a knife, inserted, comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes.

Ta-da!  Carefully invert the cake onto a platter.

Doesn't that look awesome?  We had ours with a scoop of Ben and Jerry's caramel ice cream with dark caramel swirls. In this house, there's no such thing as too much caramel!