mushroom soup and gougeres

Last night I made the mushroom soup from Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. To go with it, I made gougeres...basically pate a choux with gruyere cheese added. Nummy.

Serious Eats has the soup recipe here, so I won't re-post it. However, I did add a shallot along with the onion, and I used dried thyme instead of flat-leaf parsley. This doesn't make a whole lot of soup, so if you like to make soup and freeze the leftovers, you should probably double the recipe.


For the gougeres, I used the basic recipe from Ruhlman's Elements, and added shredded gruyere to the batter before piping it out...about a cup and a half or so. After piping them out, I sprinkled more cheese on top, then baked them at 450 for 8-10 minutes. Simple!



Everything was good, as far as I can tell. I was catching a bit of a funk last night, which is now full-fledged. According to Tony, the soup gets better the next day. Well how about 2 days later? I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow and can actually taste things.

Curried Butternut & Carrot Soup with Homemade garlic naan

Last night it was snowing. Instead of cursing winter, I decided to embrace it by making soup and bread. Yes! Bread!! I made naan bread, an Indian flat bread, from scratch! It was the first yeast bread I've ever made. I had to knead and let it rise and everything! It was scary for me, but not as hard as I thought it would be. It may have helped that naan is flat, so I didn't have to worry about having a perfectly risen loaf shape. Anyway, I used the recipe and technique from this post on Never Bashful with Butter. I wasn't sure about the garlic, but I went ahead and added it and I am sooo glad I did.

Here are my naan balls. The recipe made 21 for me:

Cooked naan:


As you can see, it was definitely a soup kinda night. A friend had made this soup the other day and I asked him for the jist of it becuase it was so yummy. I veered a little from his (for instance he used half & half and I used yogurt for creaminess), but I got some good tips and ideas. Here's recipe I ended up with:

Curried Butternut & Carrot Soup

4 cups butternut squash, cubed
2 cups carrots, cubed
1 medium onion, sliced thin
2 shallots, sliced thin,
5 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
8 cups stock (I used a combo of vegatable and chicken stocks)
3 Tbsp curry powder
1 orange, 1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. hot chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. powdered ginger
2 tsp. worstershire
2 tsp. hot sauce
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
salt
pepper

1. cook garlic, onion and shallots and curry powder in olive oil until soft and fragrant. Add in squash and carrots and a pinch or two of salt and cook until they are kinda sweaty. Add stock, thyme, orange zest, juice from the orange, worstershire and hot sauce. Simmer until veggies are soft and mashable...about 40 minutes.

2. Strain soup through a colander, separating the solids and liquid, reserving both. Put the liquid back in the pot. Add turmeric, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, ginger powder and pepper to the solids and puree in a food processor. Stir puree into the liquid, taste and adjust seasonings.

3. Make a blonde roux with the flour and butter. Add to soup. Simmer all this together for another 30 minutes or so.

4. Serve with plain yogurt that's been drained through cheesecloth for 30 minutes, or Greek yogurt, and naan bread.

It was kind of a lengthy cooking process, and I didn't eat until late. It was worth it though. Plus, I froze the naan in batches of 3, and froze the leftover soup, so I have meals ready to go next time the weather calls for soup and bread.

almost awesome split pea

The weather has turned into a constant cold (rather than the fluctuating from mild to cold and back all through November), so something warming was called for.

I made a batch of pea soup last year that totally rocked. Best pea soup EVAR. Somehow, I was so awed by my abilities that I failed to record anything I did. So this time I kind of winged it...found a good basic recipe online and added what touches I could remember from that rockin' batch.

I crisped up some tiny diced bacon, which I set aside to top the finished soup. I cooked 1 white onion, two carrots and 2 stalks of celery, all finely diced, in the bacon fat and some olive oil until they were very soft. Then I put a 1 lb. bag of dried split peas (that I had rinsed and sorted through), a big hunk of my bacon and water to cover everything by a couple inches. I covered that and just let it cook away at a slight simmer for a couple hours.

By then it was bedtime and we'd already eaten something else, so I dropped in a bundle of fresh herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary wrapped in cheese cloth) while the soup was hot, let the soup cool and put it in the fridge overnight. The next night I simply took it out of the fridge, fished out my herb bundle and bacon, pureed the soup with my stick blender and heated it up. It wasn't as awesome as last time. I think I added too much water, and I also think a chunk of pork with bone in it would have added more body. Still a good winter meal though, with some beer and warm bread.

onion soup-er

So, the whole reason I made beef stock (besides needing the practice), was so that Jack could make some French onion soup.

He started with about 5 pounds of onions, both red and yellow. 5 POUNDS!! There were lots of tears shed by both of us. More by me, probably because I have the wimpiest eyeballs ever, and even though I stayed out of the kitchen while he cut the onions up, I still got verklempt.



The onions took forever to caramelize. Not forever, but, what, like an hour? Once they were just translucent, he took half of the onions out, and caramelized the other half. Then he added the rest back in and continued caramelizing everything. This gave a nice variance in the onions' textures. Some of the onions melt in your mouth and some still have a little bite to them.



Once they were nice and brown and sweet, he added a bottle of beer and my beef stock, some herbs (dried thyme (2 tsp.) and dried basil (2 tsp.) crumbled and ground with hands) and some salt and pepper.



And from there, it was just a matter of heating everything through.



For the whole crouton/cheese aspect, we sliced up a baguette, topped it with slices of aged provolone, broiled it until the cheese was bubbly and the edges of the crust were brown, and dropped 'em on top of the soup! Voila! Bon Appetit!



So my stock, although weaker than I would've liked, worked out well for this, because it let the flavor of the onions shine through, while still lending some nice savory warmth and a nice touch of richness.

There is a nice thorough article here about the layers of French onion soup, and some of the secrets and tips. And here's the Onion soup recipe from Tony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. He uses bacon!

All in all, the soup is not exactly hard to make. It takes time, and some patience, but is not complicated. Simple yet so very very satisfying. And better the next day!

Corn soup for the end of summer

Last week, Jack sent me a scan of a recipe he found in a magazine. It was an end of summer soup created by Wolfgang puck. It sounded really yummy, so we made it for dinner last night. The weather has been cool and fall-like, so soup sounded nice...but it still had the summery taste of sweet corn, because we're not quite ready to let go yet. We enjoyed this with unfiltered wheat beer, hot rolls and open windows.

I put my notes in bold type...

Corn and Bacon Soup with Jalapeño Crema

10 medium ears of corn, shucked
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 oz. lean bacon, finely diced (1/2 cup)
1 celery rib, finely diced
1/2 cup onion, finely diced
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, finely diced
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt
Pinch Cayenne pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
2 tbsp chopped cilantro, plus cilantro leaves, for garnish
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground white pepper

Set box grater in wide, shallow bowl, coarsely grate 6 ears corn to make 2 cups grated corn instead of grating the corn, we but the kernels into the food processor. Cut kernels from remaining 4 ears to make 2 cups of kernels. In large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp live oil. Add bacon, celery, onion, yellow pepper; cover and cook over low heat, stirring a few times until softened, about 10 minutes. Add grated corn, milk, 1 cup heavy cream; bring to boil we used fat free half and half instead of the cream, a substitution we have made in several applications with success. It didn't work out so well for this soup, however, as it kind of separated. We fixed it by adding a little bit of real cream, and blending all of the soup up with a stick blender. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, stirring often, until soup is thickened, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, keep warm.

In large skillet, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil until shimmering. Add corn kernels to skillet; cook over moderately high heat, stirring a few times, until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Season with salt. Stir cooked corn kernels into soup; keep warm.

To create jalapeño crema, whip remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream to soft peaks in blender, about 20 seconds I forgot to pick up sour cream at the store, so we just whipped more cream and added more lemon juice. Add sour cream, jalapeño, chopped cilantro, lemon juice, and blend until thick. Season with salt and white pepper. Ladle soup into bowls, top with spoonfuls of jalapeño crema and cilantro leaves; serve at once. Serves 6.



I think we'll be making this again. Next time with perhaps more bacon, and more cayenne. Jack thought it might be better suited as a sauce. Perhaps with seared scallops and a jalapeño oil instead of crema. Yum!

homina-homina-hominy soup

Over the weekend I made some spicy chicken & hominy soup. It was based on This recipe with some changes.

For one thing, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts. They were cheaper and I was worried about the breasts getting dry. I also used a can of golden hominy and a can of white hominy. I don't know how much of a difference this made. Besides the chili powder and flavored tomatoes, I added fresh garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper and onion salt. Finally, to make it more of a soup than a ragout, I added a couple of cans of chicken broth.

It turned out really good. It had a tortilla soup kind of flavor to it, because of the hominy. The chicken was super tender and the broth was spicy and kind of thick. So good in the fall weather. I made jalepeno cheddar corn mini-muffins to accompany the soup. I simply used a little box of corn muffin mix, added in some fresh chopped jalepno, filled the muffin tins a little more than half way and put some shredded sharp cheddar cheese on top of each one. The results were sweet, spicy little gems with crusty cheese tops.

I will definitely be making soup alot this fall & winter. It's so versatile and foolproof. And it makes everything warmer.

curried lentil soup

This weekend I decided to make lentil soup. I looked through some recipe and found this Curried Lentil Soup recipe on epicurious.com. Of course I had to modify it a bit because, well, that's just how I am. I used the whole bag of lentils, so as not to waste any, so I added an extra can of broth, another potato (I have a major thing for curry/potato combo...perfection) and one more carrot. I also added lots more curry powder and cayenne pepper, plus some garlic powder & turmeric.

It's an easy recipe and it turned out really yummy, and there's lots of it (and it cheap!). I'll probably have to freeze some, because apparently Jacks' not into lentil soup, and I'd have to eat it 3 meals a day for a week to finish it. Even though I do adore the stuff, I think that might get a bit old. Anyway, perfect winter cooking. It's hearty and spicy and rich...really warms you up, and makes your home smell wonderful. And with that little bit of olive oil as the only fat, very healthy, too!

kitchen ambition

Although I have a food blog, I really don’t play around in the kitchen much. I’ve really had my eye on some recipes to try lately. Most of them look pretty easy and they all, of course, sound very tasty. They also, I think are perfect for winter.

Soups, I’ve mentioned before, are a winter must. I’ve never made a soup with fish before, but I bet it’s yummy. Also this winter, I’ve been wanting to incorporate sweet potatoes into my life, so I may try this weight watchers recipe. (more WW recipes here!) Cabbage is an old fave of mine, and it’s also ver nutritious, especially when it comes to winter illnesses. This recipe for cabbage soup includes 2 cups of ketchup, which kind of scares me, but I’m not totally ruling out giving it a try. Although this one looks more appealing to me.

Some new and exciting ways to cook Tofu, Cauliflower, and Chickpeas!

It may be wrong to use canned croissant dough to make baked Brie, but it seems so right.

I never knew you could make your own microwave popcorn until I saw Alton Brown do it last week! I love popcorn and this excites me more than it should.

And for dessert, I’ve been wanting to attempt Nigella’s Pavlova for a long time. It kind of scares me, though. I don’t think I have all the proper equipment for fluffing it up. Someday…..someday.

Had your eye on any recipes lately? Please share!

Thoop!

This post from Maganda.org reminds one that with the falling of leaves comes soup season. In honor of that, I present this weeks list of "Soupy" Links.

I really want to try and make more soups this winter. Over the weekend I saw Michael Chiarello make this poached garlic soup, which I definitely want to try. And, while we're on the subject of my favorite Food Network boys, here's some soup recipes from Jamie Oliver.

Check out the history of the spoon.

Soup is good for the body and the soul. Chicken soup has been known in many cultures to have healing powers. Here's a recipe for Chinese ginger chicken soup. I'll have to try that when I get sick.

Soup quotes.

No Soup For You!!

*Slurp*