December 11, 2012
Sometimes, you just want soup. When it’s rainy (no snow?) and cold and dreary and grey, you need something that says, “Bubbala, where are your mittens?”
This fantastic soup is something that anyone can make, with the most simple of ingredients. And it’s pretty much the single most biggest bang for your buck kind of thing you can make. People love it. It’s funny like that. Because you say to yourself, “Really? This is that good?”
But it is. You might even get a bit greedy for the leftovers. But then, you won’t, because you know better and because this is wonderful to share. Because the leftovers are even better. And this, in the season of giving is a wonderful thing to give: warming, comforting and 98% love by volume.
This particular recipe/method uses every possible bit of the soup, even the fat that you skim off the top of the stock. Because thrift is what takes this soup from ho hum to oh nom. Yeah, I went there.
Matzo Ball Soup, Serves two for dinner, plus five for leftover lunch, so, yeah. Lots.
For the stock
1 split chicken breast, bone in, skin on
2 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
2 chicken drumsticks, bone in, skin on
2 carrots, quartered
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Posted in Carrots, Chicken, Family, Hanukkah, Holidays, Music, Parsley, Recipes, Seasonal, Soup, Winter |
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August 19, 2012
I stood in this kitchen this morning knowing that I wanted a traditional Sunday dinner. I was in the mood to let something cook, take a bit more time preparing something. I pulled out one of my favorite books that I hadn’t looked at in a while: Heart of the Artichoke, by the wonderful David Tanis. In it, the summer menus tugged at me and I decided to roast a spatchcocked chicken and make up a rice salad with some of the beautiful Carolina Gold rice some dear friends brought back from a summer vacation in South Carolina.
And, as luck would have it, none of this was actually time intensive. I love it when I have the time to give to something and the fates tell me not to worry about it.
In addition to being a really nice guy, Mr. Tanis is such a clever chef and cook, in the book he offers numerous variations on many of his recipes, adding or omitting an ingredient or two and giving you a whole new way to enjoy a dish, transitioning from side dish to satisfying lunch in a short jump. Really good stuff. It’s a way to start thinking about what you have in the pantry and the fridge to re-purpose yesterday’s dinner into a wholly new meal. It’s leftovers, elevated.
So tonight, after devouring half a lemony roast chicken and having just the teeny-ist bit of the herb rice salad leftover, I eyed the golden fond in the chicken roasting pan and remembered my favorite soup from Tasi: a lovely lemon chicken soup.
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Posted in Chicken, Cooking Tips, Greek, Herbs, Leftovers, Lemon, Local Foods, Quick, Recipes, Rice, Soup |
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July 24, 2012
Eating soup when it’s hot out can strike people as odd. But think French-inspired Pho in steamy Vietnam, or British-influenced Mulligatawny in India. There’s a point to eating something hot and spicy when it’s hot out: it makes you sweat (I glow). And that helps you cool off. So while it may seem counter-intuitive, now is certainly the season to give some spicy soup a go.
It’s always hot in Texas. So it’s not surprising that tortilla soup is on just about every menu you peruse in San Antonio. There’s something about it that San Antonians can’t seem to get enough of, no matter the season. Perhaps it’s the mix of textures, but like Pho and Mulligatawny, it’s spicy and hot and a treat to eat. (It also happens to the be the exact thing I was eating when Hades first fell in love with me fifteen years ago. I even spilled it all over myself and he still loved me. Magical stuff this is.) And summertime is when the produce that comprises the bulk of the ingredients for tortilla soup are at their peak.
I like to play around with ingredients: if there’s corn, add some, if there’s not, no worries. Zucchini and summer squashes work wonderfully, too. Tomatoes, however are a requirement.
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Posted in Appetizers, Cheese, Chicken, Chiles, Coriander, Cotija, First Course, Music, Peppers, Quick, Recipes, San Antonio, Soup, Squash, Summer, Tex-Mex, Tomatoes |
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June 4, 2012
This past weekend the most recent Top Chef winner Paul Qui was in town at Market District to do a demo and answer questions. Honestly, I don’t think there has been a nicer, more unassuming winner of that crazy show. He’s just such a humble, talented guy. His dishes were lovely light versions of chicken rice (his with lots and lots of a lemony ponzu) and a summer miso soup. Things, he says, are his comfort foods. I can completely see why.
His cooking got me thinking about dishes I had made in the past but could bring together for the perfect, almost no effort summer dinner. Granted, you’ll have Asian food a couple of days in a row, but I don’t think that ever hurt anyone. Plus, this is the time of year that you can gather just about everything locally, aside from the kombu, katsuobushi and a couple of pantry items.
But perhaps the thing that makes me happiest about this kind of dinner is that since everybody gets to choose what to include in their bowls, it’s lots of fun for Cherub. She amazed even me tonight by her choice of tofu, zucchini, carrots, green onion, bean sprouts and snap peas. But she passed on the fresh sweet corn. (What kid does that?) And she even had seconds.
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Posted in Carrots, Chicken, Citrus, Corn, Dashi, East Asian, Gardening, Kid Friendly Fare, Leftovers, Local Foods, Music, Quick, Recipes, Rice, Seasonal, Soup, Summer, World Cuisine |
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February 24, 2012
This is truly and honestly my most favorite soup of all time. It is creamy and comforting, spicy and flavorful. It is African-influenced. It is at once modern and familiar. And while you’ll need a handful of spices (have you been building your spice cabinet?), the technique is simple and fairly quick.
I first came across this soup years and years ago when I lived in New Jersey. Montclair, with its “winter views” of Manhattan, had an outpost of what was, for a brief shining moment, a wonderful little soup shop. Initially, it was really great. But then, the original owners dropped out after making a cookbook, someone else took over. You know the story. This shop was in a teeny what-used-to-probably-be-a-closet-for-maintenance-equipment underneath railroad tracks.
But this soup. The combination of leeks and curry and peanuts and spice and goodness, well, it was worth it what I seem to recall being like nine bucks a bowl.
Here’s my take on all the warm toasty soup goodness with none of the pesky cost. Enjoy it when it’s chilly and you want to skip the meat for a night or four. This makes plenty.
Spicy Senegalese Peanut Soup, makes a whole bunch (inspired by a recipe in The Daily Soup Cookbook)
1 12 oz bag of roasted, salted peanuts (this is the size of a bag from Whole Foods)
2 T vegetable oil, (or preferably peanut oil)
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Posted in First Course, Music, North Market Spices, Peanut, Recipes, Soup, Spices, Vegetarian |
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December 7, 2011
Tonight’s dinner wasn’t really planned, per se.
And lately I’ve been trying to formulate a way to express just how meals come together at our house. Because I think it’s kind of important. Cooking is a part of almost all that I do. But not in an intrusive, takes-up-all-my-time kind of thing. It’s easy. I keep saying that because I think everyone can look at how they use their time and fill in a spare five or ten minutes with a few small tasks that really elevate meals into something special. Even if a portion of it is takeaway from a grocery store.
Yesterday I picked up some crab cakes from Fresh Market (December is buy one get one free salmon fillets and crab cakes on Tuesdays). And I knew that I had a good piece of butternut squash in the fridge. A whole roasted pie pumpkin from over the weekend was in there, too.
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Posted in Basics, Butternut Squash, Chicken, Music, Pumpkin, Recipes, Seasonal, Soup |
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October 24, 2011
It’s simply the best of the last of the garden. Eight ears of the last of the sweet corn. Cobs scraped completely clean, releasing all that sweet corn “milk.” I think it’s what makes this soup special.
But perhaps, too, it’s that I added in the last few peppers still standing on my counter. Another handful of tomatoes that were picked green in the back garden, but managed to ripen despite that deep insult. And green onions picked up at the farmer’s market. Plus two palmfuls of teeny purple potatoes (that were a growing experiment by me) from a more experienced gardener friend. Generous pinches of fresh thyme from the terracotta pot on the patio. Twists of pepper. A blessing of salt.
Poach a few shrimp in the hot soup to make it more substantial. Or some smoked haddock would be perfectly at home. Or if you have leftovers, top bowls of soup with a crumbled a link of andouille and some sauteed shrimp for a take on a gumbo. That’s what I’m going to do.
Corn Milk Soup, serves 6 to 8
4 strips bacon, sliced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
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Posted in Corn, Farmers Market, Farms, Local Foods, Music, Ohio, Peppers, Potatoes, Seasonal, Soup, Tomatoes |
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Sometimes, you just want soup. When it’s rainy (no snow?) and cold and dreary and grey, you need something that says, “Bubbala, where are your mittens?”
