I started off by browning some bacon and using the fat to cook some miripoix (onion, carrot, celery) along with oregano, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. After all that had softened up nicely for 5-10 minutes, I added a few tablespoons of flour to make a roux of sorts and help thicken the eventual soup. I let the flour cook off for 5 minutes and then added the liquids. 'Twas about 1/2 a cup of white wine, a pint of whipping cream, about 1.5 cups of milk and two 8oz bottles of clam juice. Brought everything to a boil to let the flavors meld and added in 3 medium Yukon potatoes, cut up in medium dice. Cooked those on low heat till just soft, 15-20 minutes, and added about 2 cups of chopped up cooked clams. These were pre-cooked, though not canned, but you could replace with canned or fresh - depending on who you're trying to impress. Don't cook the clams too long though or theyll get tough and chewey. Add the bacon back in and that's about it. Now if only the Pats had held up their end of the bargain this would've felt much more successful. Oh well...
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
10/12 Chowdah
In anticipation of what turned out to be one of the worst Patriots game in quite some time I'd decided to make some clam chowder tonight. I forget when I had made some last, but I didn't quite remember the Garibaldi's recipe I had learned. I think this ended up being relatively close...
I started off by browning some bacon and using the fat to cook some miripoix (onion, carrot, celery) along with oregano, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. After all that had softened up nicely for 5-10 minutes, I added a few tablespoons of flour to make a roux of sorts and help thicken the eventual soup. I let the flour cook off for 5 minutes and then added the liquids. 'Twas about 1/2 a cup of white wine, a pint of whipping cream, about 1.5 cups of milk and two 8oz bottles of clam juice. Brought everything to a boil to let the flavors meld and added in 3 medium Yukon potatoes, cut up in medium dice. Cooked those on low heat till just soft, 15-20 minutes, and added about 2 cups of chopped up cooked clams. These were pre-cooked, though not canned, but you could replace with canned or fresh - depending on who you're trying to impress. Don't cook the clams too long though or theyll get tough and chewey. Add the bacon back in and that's about it. Now if only the Pats had held up their end of the bargain this would've felt much more successful. Oh well...
I started off by browning some bacon and using the fat to cook some miripoix (onion, carrot, celery) along with oregano, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. After all that had softened up nicely for 5-10 minutes, I added a few tablespoons of flour to make a roux of sorts and help thicken the eventual soup. I let the flour cook off for 5 minutes and then added the liquids. 'Twas about 1/2 a cup of white wine, a pint of whipping cream, about 1.5 cups of milk and two 8oz bottles of clam juice. Brought everything to a boil to let the flavors meld and added in 3 medium Yukon potatoes, cut up in medium dice. Cooked those on low heat till just soft, 15-20 minutes, and added about 2 cups of chopped up cooked clams. These were pre-cooked, though not canned, but you could replace with canned or fresh - depending on who you're trying to impress. Don't cook the clams too long though or theyll get tough and chewey. Add the bacon back in and that's about it. Now if only the Pats had held up their end of the bargain this would've felt much more successful. Oh well...
8/20 southwest-like corn + potato soup
not sure what the inspiration was here, but i had some corn and potatoes and thought to myself - southwest! the end result didn't exactly taste like something you might find in albuquerque, but it was pretty good none the less. started off sweating some onions/celery/jalapenos in olive oil seasoned with coriander seeds/lemon/pepper/salt/ancho chili powder/bay leaf. let that go for a while while i cut up three yukon golds into medium sized cubes and added them to the pot. covered the whole thing with a chicken broth and let the potatoes get all soft. before adding the fresh corn and kidney beans i gave the potatoes a proper mashin' to get everything all gooey-like. then i let everyone get acquainted in the pot while i pondered what was missing. ideally a squirt of lime and cilantro, but a spoon of yogurt and parsley did the dirty work tonight. finished everything off with some fresh ground pepper for a surprisingly heather-like meal. my favorite part was crunching into the occasional corriander seed - i definitely need to play with this flavor some more.
12/15 two winter soups
Have you ever looked into your refrigerator and been truly horrified by the amount of produce that is lurking therein? I guess I haven't been as vigilant as is needed on the cooking front, and this is the season of bulky, space-taking leafy greens (arugula, cabbage, spinach, beets and their greens, etc.)
This soup, of the roasted carrot variety, used up onions, carrots, and potatoes, roasted until very caramelized with garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. I pureed the soup, thinned it a little with milk, and topped it with goat cheese.
And here we have what I have decided is the new Christmas soup - borscht! Look at how lovely and seasonal the borscht appears with its ruby red broth, creamy white creme fraiche, and ivy green italian parsley. Into the borscht goes cabbage, potatoes, celery, onions, leeks, garlic, carrot, and of course, beets. Borscht is a real powerhouse at reducing an intimidating pile of produce into a ...well...giant pot of soup. Ohwell, at least I can freeze it.
The common element uniting both of these soups was a large batch of vegetable broth, started with a base of frozen bean cooking water and dressed up with the vegetable trimmings from both soups.
This soup, of the roasted carrot variety, used up onions, carrots, and potatoes, roasted until very caramelized with garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. I pureed the soup, thinned it a little with milk, and topped it with goat cheese.And here we have what I have decided is the new Christmas soup - borscht! Look at how lovely and seasonal the borscht appears with its ruby red broth, creamy white creme fraiche, and ivy green italian parsley. Into the borscht goes cabbage, potatoes, celery, onions, leeks, garlic, carrot, and of course, beets. Borscht is a real powerhouse at reducing an intimidating pile of produce into a ...well...giant pot of soup. Ohwell, at least I can freeze it.The common element uniting both of these soups was a large batch of vegetable broth, started with a base of frozen bean cooking water and dressed up with the vegetable trimmings from both soups.
10/20 Battle Chestnut
As usual, I waited till the last minute to cook my chestnut dishes, but here they are. It was my mom's birthday, so it was a good opportunity to try out some dishes. The first is a chestnut ravioli from the french laundry cookbook. Now, i've cooked a few of Keller's dishes, and every single time, I realize why they charge as much as they do at the Laundry. This food is complicated, and doing it alone is a tall task. So, definitely want to thank my mom for the help pulling all of this together. So back to the ravioli... the filling was a puree of roasted chestnuts, mascarpone and butter. The recipe was actually for agnolotti, 
but after struggling to roll out the pasta dough, i decided ravioli was going to be far easier. The sauce was made with pureed celery root, potato, heavy cream and fontina cheese. The sauce to me was the highlight, it was amazingly light and refined.The second dish was quite a bit easier. Just a chestnut and fennel soup recipe I found in Gourmet. The fennel provided a nice bright finish to the chestnuts. The soup could have been a bit smoother, but the flavors were there.
To be honest, i'm somewhat happy battle chestnuts is over.
Peeling 4lbs of roasted chestnuts was not fun. Rolling out the pasta dough was frustrating and trying to do all this in one meal was maybe a bit much. But, everything worked out in the end and the food was quite tasty. What else can you ask for.
9/26 Soup
Alright, it's my turn to make some soup... I'm not sure what to call it - maybe an early autumn soup - but I'm pretty sure even Donovan McNabb's mom would have found it rather chunky and satisfying. It was composed of parsnips, carrots, heirloom tomatoes, fresh kidney beans, spring onions, celery, a couple cloves of garlic, fresh thyme and fresh oregano. The kidney beans were simmered 20 minutes ahead of time with some herbs and finished with the rest of the soup. This was all cooked in the chicken stock I made last week. Overall it was pretty tasty, though it was significantly under salted. Fortunately, this is a problem which has an easy remedy.
9/23 winter squash soup with cannellini beans, turnips, and fried sage bread crumbs
My CSA supplies me with many a squash throughout the fall and winter months. I'm pretty comfortable with butternut squash and spaghetti squash, but I've been getting delicata squash for the last couple of weeks, which is a little more mysterious. It looks a lot like an acorn squash, and I've never been particularly found of acorn squash.
I decided to try out another Vegetable Soups recipe that calls for butternut squash. I figured it would be close enough - right? Without having had the opportunity to make a direct comparison with butternut, I think the delicata might be even better here. It held up well over the course of cooking and brought a sweet, subtle flavor. The other veggies are little white tokyo turnips (also quite sweet when cooked), cabbage, and onion. To this, I added canellini beans and their cooking broth plus some store-bought veggie stock.
Debora Madison warns that this is a very sweet soup and needs something savory to balance the flavors (here, bread crumbs fried with sage and garlic). It looked lovely and tasted great on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, with the smell of our first rain in something like 6 months drifting in through the window.
9/13 white bean soup w/ kale and farro
So a few things have happened recently. One is that I have been literally *awash* in leftovers. This is good for me in one way, but it cuts back on my posting. Another thing is that I am exhausted from work. This cuts back on enthusiasm for cooking as well (thank god for the leftovers). I am happy to pop my frozen summer squash quesadilla on the stove and call it a night.
One factor that pushed me into making an actual "new meal" this week was that I was running short of work-appropriate leftovers (i.e., those that can be either microwaved or eaten cold). I hardly ever purchase lunch, which satisfies a desire to not spend all my disposable income on so-so burritos and is a convenient market for all of my dinner extras. Since a quick glance in the fridge told me I'd need more lunch material by the end of the week, back to the kitchen go I.
I have already expressed a love of soups both verbally and in sheer number of posts that have been devoted to them. I'm definitely going through a soup phase. This is partially fed by acquiring Vegetable Soups, which I cannot praise highly enough. But I think it also feeds into the urge to really *understand* what makes a pretty simple formula tick: how can veg, beans, grains, and dairy live together in brothy harmony? Beans and whole grains especially are really getting me excited. I even placed an order with Rancho Gordo for some heirloom varieties.
Yes, beans can be a real pain in the ass to cook from scratch - but I've taken a multi-day approach that seems to be working well. If I want a bean soup on Wednesday night, I soak the beans Monday night, simmer them for an hour or more Tuesday night, and by Wednesday all I need to do is throw them in the pot with the rest of the soup stuff. I even let the pot just sit out on the stove (covered, minus any aromatics) in the in-between. Not exactly high maintenance.
So here we go: white bean soup with kale, farro and a can of tomatoes for good measure. I finished it off with croutons, parm, and a bit of drizzled olive oil.
One factor that pushed me into making an actual "new meal" this week was that I was running short of work-appropriate leftovers (i.e., those that can be either microwaved or eaten cold). I hardly ever purchase lunch, which satisfies a desire to not spend all my disposable income on so-so burritos and is a convenient market for all of my dinner extras. Since a quick glance in the fridge told me I'd need more lunch material by the end of the week, back to the kitchen go I.
I have already expressed a love of soups both verbally and in sheer number of posts that have been devoted to them. I'm definitely going through a soup phase. This is partially fed by acquiring Vegetable Soups, which I cannot praise highly enough. But I think it also feeds into the urge to really *understand* what makes a pretty simple formula tick: how can veg, beans, grains, and dairy live together in brothy harmony? Beans and whole grains especially are really getting me excited. I even placed an order with Rancho Gordo for some heirloom varieties.
Yes, beans can be a real pain in the ass to cook from scratch - but I've taken a multi-day approach that seems to be working well. If I want a bean soup on Wednesday night, I soak the beans Monday night, simmer them for an hour or more Tuesday night, and by Wednesday all I need to do is throw them in the pot with the rest of the soup stuff. I even let the pot just sit out on the stove (covered, minus any aromatics) in the in-between. Not exactly high maintenance.
So here we go: white bean soup with kale, farro and a can of tomatoes for good measure. I finished it off with croutons, parm, and a bit of drizzled olive oil.
8/29 potato and fennel soup with rouille
Another first time on a recipe this week - with another soup. Can I just say that I love soup? Soups and me are like *this* (crosses two fingers together, shakes hand). But seriously, soups are good in the summer, they are good in the winter. They showcase vegetables to no end. I heart a good soup. Here we have a very simple soup: homemade stock, fennel, potatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes (here, a combo of canned and fresh) white wine, herbs and "aromatics" (as if saying "I'm using saffron in this dish" isn't pretentious enough - I get to lump it in with "aromatics").What really pulls this dish together is some stupid french thing that I can't pronouce (uhhh, "roo-yay??? Help a brother out, Tom). It's basically bread pounded together with lots of chile powder, garlic, and salt. It's hard to see in the photo, but that's the icing on the cake, as it were.
8/28 red wine, tomato and onion soup
I guess this is sort of a veggie take on French onion soup, although since I've never made French onion soup I can only surmise. My friend Serena borrowed one of my cookbooks (The Greens Cookbook) just to make this recipe, so I figured I had to give it a shot. The basic idea is summer tomatoes and their juices, stewed with a bunch of thinly sliced red onions, red wine, and thyme stock.Two things about this recipe: I went ahead and bought a baguette, sliced it into crouton-sized pieces, and popped them in the freezer for convenient as-needed usage, which worked perfectly here. I am brilliant. Also, it was immediately clear to me on completion and tasting that a nice crumbled goat cheese should really be used to finish this off. As a "mostly vegetarian," I'm extremely sensitive to the components of food that make a person feel full and satisfied after eating - and a soup without beans, grains, potatoes, or cheese/cream has a hard time cutting it as a main course.
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