Tag: souper duper

Cream of Golden Summer Squash

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Didn’t I just make this soup?

Summer time vegetables are terrific to turn into soups which can be served both hot and cold. As you can see, the basic template for a puréed soup is pretty simple, and infinitely adaptable:

1. Sauté your alliums (onion, shallots, garlic, etc.) in butter and olive oil until soft and translucent.

2. Add your chopped vegetables to the pot, warming them in the oniony mixture.

3. Cover with water. Cook until tender.

4. Purée and adjust seasoning.

Golden summer squash is in season right now. And it makes a soup the color of sunshine.

Ingredients:

1 knob of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 golden summer squashes, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons of crème fraîche

Water

Fresh basil

Special Equipment:

A hand-held immersion blender

How to prepare:

1. In a medium sauce-pan (about 2 quarts), heat the butter and the olive oil together over medium heat until it begins to foam. Add the chopped onion, and sauté it until it is translucent. When the onions begin to get a twinge of goldenness, add the squash. Toss and warm everything together for about another a minute or two. Make sure that the squash is well-coated with the onion mixture.

2. Cover the squash with about 1/2-inch of water. Add a few healthy pinches of salt, and simmer everything until the squash is nice and tender. When the squash is done, turn off the heat. Using an immersion blender, purée the vegetables in the pan (makes for easier clean-up). You want the texture to be smooth and creamy. If the soup seems a little thick, you can add some more water to thin it. Stir in the crème fraîche. Adjust the seasoning (I just use salt because I like to keep the vibrant color of the soup unmarred by little flecks of black pepper).

3. Top the soup with a chiffonade of basil, and serve it hot or cold. If you serve it cold, it will thicken upon standing.

Cream of Carrot Soup with Cumin and Honey

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With puréed soups, sometimes I use water, not stock for the base. If the vegetables are lovely and in-season, I just want a pure taste with minimal distractions.

Carrots pair well with cumin, and the honey heightens their natural sweetness.

Ingredients:

1 knob of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

Ground cumin

1 bunch of carrots (about a pound), peeled, or well-scrubbed, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1-2 tablespoons of honey

Water

Salt to taste

Special Equipment:

A hand-held immersion blender

How to prepare:

1. In a medium sauce-pan (about 2 quarts), heat the butter and the olive oil together over medium heat until it begins to foam. Add the onions, and sauté them in the butter until they are translucent. When the onions begin to get a twinge of goldenness, sprinkle them lightly with cumin (a little goes a long way). Toss the onions and the cumin together for about 20 to 30 seconds. You want the ground spice to become a little fragrant and toasted, but not burnt. Add the carrots, and toss them with the onions.  Warm everything together for about a minute or two, making sure that the carrots are well-coated with the onion mixture.

2. Cover the carrots with about 1/2-inch of water. Add a few healthy pinches of salt, and simmer everything until the carrots are nice and tender. When the carrots are done, turn off the heat. Using an immersion blender, purée the vegetables in the pan (easier clean-up, no?). You want the texture to be smooth and creamy. If the soup seems a little thick, you can add some more water to thin it. Stir in the honey. Start with one tablespoon, and add another if you feel like the soup needs more sweetness. Adjust the seasoning (I only use salt because I like to keep the vibrant orange smoothness of the soup unmarred by little black flecks of pepper).

3. Top the soup with a dollop of crème fraîche, and serve it hot or cold. If you serve it cold, it will thicken upon standing.

Caldo Verde

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It is officially spring in New York, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. It feels schizophrenic actually as beautiful sunny days alternate with dark gray ones filled with freezing rain and hail.

Yeesh.

This has led to a kind of odd assortment of things to eat at home as I vacillate between going out with friends for dinner (it’s so nice out!) and wanting to stay at home and burrow under the covers until the chill finally goes away.

While perusing the contents of my fridge and freezer yesterday to see what I could whip up for dinner from its random contents, I was super happy to find a pair of CSA chorizo hiding behind some frozen loaves of bread to go along with a nice bunch of kale in the crisper.

I love the combination of kale and chorizo. There is something about the clean bitterness of the leaves that marries so beautifully with the spiciness and bite of the sausage. The flavors always make me think of sunnier places like Spain and Portugal. Places where I can eat standing upright in a bar, tossing cheap paper napkins on sawdust-covered floors willy-nilly.

This soup is good for this strange weather we have been having. It’s warming and comforting, but full of bright, big, assertive flavors. It gets even thicker and spicier overnight.

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil

3 yukon gold potatoes (about 1 pound), halved and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch thick slices

4 cups of chicken stock

1/2 pound of chorizo, cut into half-inch pieces

1 big bunch of lacinato or Tuscan kale, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch ribbons

Salt and pepper to taste

How to prepare:

1. Heat the tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed casserole. Sauté the chorizo in the hot oil until it is browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the chorizo to paper towels to drain.

2. Pour off any excess oil in the pot, leaving about 2 teaspoons. Sauté the onion in the same pot over medium heat until the onion begins to become golden. Add the potato slices to the onions and toss them together. Continue to cook both for about 4 minutes more. Add the chicken stock and bring everything up to a simmer. Continue to cook the soup until the potatoes are very tender.

3. Using a potato masher, coarsely crush about half of the potatoes in the pot. Add the chorizo back to the pot and continue to simmer the soup for about 5 more minutes. Add the kale and continue to cook the soup for about 10 minutes more. Adjust the seasoning now, keeping in mind that the chorizo will probably add a fair bit of saltiness to the soup.

4. Let the soup stand about 10 minutes before serving. It will get even thicker and spicier overnight.

Super Bowl of Chocolate Chili Con Carne

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A few years ago I read Amy Sutherland’s terrific book Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America. In it, she she follows groups of amateur chefs across the country as they compete in national cooking competitions. Two of the competitions featured in the book are the the big chili cookoffs in Terlingua, Texas: the larger Terlingua International Chili Championship run by the Chili Appreciation Society International, and the smaller, rowdier Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert-Wick Fowler “Behind the Store” Championship Chili Cook-Off.

One day, when I work up the balls and enough chest hair to do so, I would love to fly into Midland and check out the competitions. Sutherland reports them to be macho, testosterone-driven affairs, full of “nudity and carrying-on — like Spring Break only in the high desert.” She is warned by others to not assume that the little old ladies there are grandmotherly (they drink Jägermeister, a lot of it, and will drink you into your grave). People paint their Coleman stoves with images of men “running out from an outhouse with flames shooting out of their behinds.” There are wet tee-shirt contests and lots of trash talk.

Maybe they’ve cleaned up a little bit since Sutherland’s book was published, but I was still about to find these and these on the web without difficulty.

The most important thing to know about chili is that there are rules. Strict, no-funny-business at all, rules.

“In competitive chili,” Sutherland writes, “There is only one bowl of red — meaning cubed meat and absolutely no beans — and you’d better not screw with it.”

Ever since reading about these desert chili-heads, I have been dreaming of coming up with the ultimate recipe for the perfect bowl of red. My recipe is derived from fancy-panted Napa chef Michael Chiarello’s recipe, which means that from the get-go, there is a fair bit of “funny business.”

But it’s effing delicious.

I’ve played with the recipe for several years now and have managed to come up with a version that I adore that also feeds a hungry army of football fans sans légumes.

‘Cause if you know beans about chili, you know chili ain’t got no beans!

Ingredients:

6 pounds of beef chuck or sirloin, cubed

Freshly ground black pepper

Kosher salt

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, plus 2 teaspoons

2 teaspoons of ground cumin, plus 4 teaspoons

4 tablespoons of chili con carne seasoning blend, plus 4 heaping tablespoons

Masa harina

Grape seed oil

8 large red onions, minced

12 cloves of garlic, minced

8 jalapeño peppers, sliced thin with seeds and stems removed

6 ounces of tomato paste

4 teaspoons of dried oregano

1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer (ideally lager)

1 (12-ounce) can of fire roasted diced tomato in juices

2 quarts of chicken stock, divided

4.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

How to prepare:

1. Place the meat in a large bowl. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of the cumin, and 4 tablespoons of the chili seasoning powder, and 2 heaping tablespoons of masa harina. Mix well with your hands, making sure that all the meat is evenly coated with the spice/corn flour mixture.

2. Preheat a very large cast-iron Dutch oven on the stove over medium heat.* Add enough grapeseed oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil until it is almost smoking. Add the coated meat, spreading it out evenly so that it covers the bottom in a single layer. Do not overcrowd the pan — you want the meat to develop a nice crust. When one side is nicely seared, turn each piece with tongs. Once all the sides are seared, remove the meat from the pan let it rest. You will probably need to sear the meat in batches, adding more oil if the pan starts to get dry. Leave the oil and juices in the Dutch oven to sauté the vegetables.

2. When the last batch of meat is done, add the onions and garlic quickly to the pan and sauté for 10 minutes over medium heat (this way, the nice crusty bits on the bottom of the pan don’t get the chance to burn). As they start to caramelize and get soft, scrape up the tasty brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the jalapenos and cook for 4 more minutes until they are soft. Add the remaining 4 teaspoons of the cumin, 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, the oregano, 4 heaping tablespoons of the chili powder, and the tomato paste. Stir to mix everything up evenly and sizzle the tomato paste a little. Stir in the diced tomatoes, beer, and 1 quart of chicken stock. Add the reserved meat and accumulated juices.

3. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat to a slow simmer. You will need to cook everything until the meat is wonderfully tender, about four hours depending on how big your chunks of meat are. Periodically skim the top of the chili. As it thickens, add the remaining quart of chicken stock, a little bit at a time, to keep the liquid level and the consistency consistent. Once the meat is tender, add the chunks of bittersweet chocolate.* Stir until it all melts.

4. Serve topped with sour cream, cheese, and sprigs of cilantro or chopped green onions.

Notes:

• If you’re not making you own chili spice blend, make sure you buy one from a good spice supplier. Sometimes chili powder that you buy in a store is exactly that: one kind of chili, powdered. For this recipe, you want a spice blend. I like one that has some ancho chile in it. Penzey’s blends are wonderful, but for a little bit of real Terlingua, order online from Pendery’s.

• If need be, you can sear the meat in a large skillet, sauté the onions and garlic in it, and then transfer everything to a much larger pot before you add the liquids.

• I used a nice big chunk of Callebaut Bitterweet Belgian Chocolate. See? Lots of funny business here.

• My great friend, Gideon, brought over a bottle of Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce made from bhut jolokia, the hottest pepper in the world. It’s hot. Really, really hot. He put just a touch from the end of a skewer into my big bowl, and that was enough for me. If you are fan of lots of heat, I strongly recommend you give it a try. It adds a terrific, smoky dimension to this chili.

Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Soup

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Doesn’t it feel good to be back home after two weeks away? The kitchen especially feels calm and cozy, ready for warming soups and stews — the kinds of things you crave when the weather is nippy.

This recipe is super easy, as are the recipes for most creamed soups. It can be endlessly adapted for other vegetables, with or without the cheese.

Ingredients:

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 tablespoon of olive oil

2 small heads of broccoli, or one large one

1 quart of chicken or vegetable stock, or milk, or water

1/2 cup of heavy cream

4 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Special equipment:

A hand immersion blender. You can also use a regular blender or a food processor.

How to prepare:

1. Separate the broccoli florets from the stem. Cut the florets so that they are roughly the same size and shape. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the stem to get rid of the tough outer layer. Slice the stem into 1/2 inch rounds.

2. In a medium to large-sized pot, heat the butter and olive oil together over medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté them until they start to brown. Add the broccoli florets and stems, tossing to evenly coat them in the butter-shallot mixture. Add the stock. Cover the pot and lower the heat. Simmer until the broccoli is fairly tender.

3. When the broccoli is tender, use an immersion blender to purée the broccoli in the pot. Stir in the heavy cream. Turn the heat back on low and add the cheese, stirring conscientiously to make sure that it all melts and does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the cheese has melted and is evenly incorporated in the soup, turn off the heat and adjust the seasoning.

Serve with bread or crackers.

White Bean and Tuscan Kale Soup

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Argh! What to make for dinner when you have nothing in the fridge except for a bunch of Tuscan kale? After scouring the cupboards, I came up with a lone, forgotten can of cannellini beans. Immediately I thought of a thick white bean and kale soup that I once had. It was warming, creamy, and rustic — perfect for a chilly fall evening. But could I come up with an equally tasty result with so few ingredients?

More digging around unearthed a couple of single-serving Tetra-packs of organic chicken stock. I also had some lovely organic garlic left, as well as about a cup of grated Parmesan from last week’s macaroni and cheese.

Now, I thought, we’re in delicious business.

The soup came together quickly, and although it was a little thinner in consistency than the soup I remembered, it was still a wonderfully satisfying supper.

And can you believe it, Readers, I even managed to make some croutons.

Ingredients:

For the soup:

1 bunch of Tuscan kale, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped

1 can of cannellini beans, drained

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

2 cups of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup

For the croutons:

About 1 cup of bread cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

Special equipment:

A hand-held immersion blender

How to prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.

2. To make the croutons, toss the cubes of bread, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Once the bread cubes are evenly coated, spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake the bread cubes, turning them occasionally, until they are golden.

3. For the soup, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium casserole over medium-high heat. Add the sliced garlic. When the garlic begins to sizzle, add the canned beans. Toss the beans in the garlicky oil. When the beans are warmed through, about 2-3 minutes, add the chicken stock. Partially cover the pot and bring the beans and stock to a boil. When the soup starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium and simmer for about 5-7 minutes.

4. Using an immersion blender, partially blend the soup, leaving some of the beans whole. Continue simmering until the soup has thickened up a little bit.

5. Stir the kale leaves into the soup. When the leaves are wilted, partially cover the pot and simmer for about 10 minutes more. Turn off the heat and stir in 1/2 a cup of Parmesan.

6. Spoon the soup into warmed bowls. Top the soup with a few croutons and the remaining Parmesan cheese. If you want, you can even drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top before serving.

Tips:

Tuscan kale is also known as Lacinato kale, black kale, and dinosaur kale.

You can easily remove the stems from the kale leaves by folding the leaf lengthwise along the stem and pulling the leaf away from it.

For the croutons, use good crusty bread if you have it — I didn’t have any, but I wish I did!