Crock-Pot Sopa de Ajo (Castilian Garlic Soup)

This recipe was sent to me by a reader, the original recipe came from Fox News website. The soup is a chicken base and is made in a crock-pot. With little pre-planning you can come home to savory garlic and chicken soup.

Ingredients

• 2 heads of garlic (approximately 40 cloves)
• 4 Tablespoon olive oil
• salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3/4 Teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 Teaspoon paprika, plus more for garnish
• pinch of saffron
• 1/2 Teaspoon cayenne
• 3 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 4 Cup chicken broth
• 4 eggs, poached

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2

In a small glass baking dish, place 30 unpeeled cloves of garlic. Drizzle over with 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper to taste, mixing to ensure that the garlic is evenly coated.

Step 3

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and roast the garlic for approximately 30 minutes, until it is soft and golden-hued.

Step 4

While the garlic is roasting, peel and mince the remaining 10 cloves of garlic.

Step 5

Heat the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan; once hot, add the garlic and onion and sauté over medium heat for around 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent and the garlic is fragrant (but not browned). Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Step 6

Once the garlic has finished roasting, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Gently unpeel the cloves and set aside (the peels should come off very easily). Discard the garlic peels.

Step 7

In a crock pot, add the sautéed garlic and onion mixture, the roasted garlic, and all of the remaining ingredients, except for the eggs, and adding more salt and pepper to taste at this stage. Stir to ensure the ingredients are evenly combined.

Step 8

Cook in the crockpot on low heat for 6-8 hours, stirring very occasionally if possible, until the potatoes are falling apart. Break up any remaining large potato pieces with a wooden spoon or a fork.

Step 9

When the soup has finished cooking, ladle into 4 bowls. Top each with a freshly poached egg and an extra pinch of paprika for color.

Paddy’s Chocolate Cobbler…

Yummy, is all I can say about this scrumptious dessert! This is so simple to make. Those who do not usually cook, this would be a great surprise for your loved one on Valentine’s Day.

When I combined all the ingredients in the dish, it reminded me of a child’s mud pie!

I changed the recipe a bit, instead of adding 1 ½ cups water, I added 1 ¼ cup of water and ¼ cup of Hershey’s chocolate syrup… I like chocolate!

I did not have any self-rising flour, so I substituted it for 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and added a teaspoon of baking powder.

Ingredients:

2 sticks of margarine

¾ cup chopped pecans

1 ½ cup self-rising flour

2 ½ cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ milk

5 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 ½ cups water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a 9X13 pan add pecans and sticks of margarine, melt in oven

In bowl mix flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar, vanilla and milk

In separate bowl, mix 1 cup sugar and cocoa powder, set aside.

When margarine is melted, evenly pour flour mixture into the pan

Top flour mixture with cocoa mixture, DO NOT STIR

Pour water onto of the cocoa mix again, DO NOT STIR…

Place in oven and cook for 30 minutes. If contents seem too fluid let cook five minutes longer. The mixture should firm and will not totally set up until completely cool.

You can serve with vanilla ice cream or top with whipped cream.