The RedMolly Picayune-Democrat

Soup365 #116. Sorry about the whole vegan thing...

...and also about the split peas, which also didn't make it into this rendition of Veganomicon 's Double Pea Soup with Roasted Red Peppers.

Red lentils took their place, also bacon.

Never having eaten the original, I can't say whether or not this was definitely an improvement, but my suspicions are that yes.

(I do love me some split peas, and I had every intention of using them, but they weren't around, so oh well. Mess of pottage it was instead.)

Non-Vegan Non-Double Pea Soup (at least the roasted red peppers made it in there...)
Serves six-ish, or eight-ish, or somethin'-ish

4 slices good bacon, diced small
1/2 large onion, diced
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, unseeded, minced
1 2" piece of ginger, cut in cute little wee slivers
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
A couple sprigs of fresh thyme
1-1/2 cups dried red lentils, rinsed and picked through
5 to 6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 medium red bell peppers
Half a 16-ounce bag of frozen green peas
1 tsp or so thick hot sauce, preferably Drunken Angel Hot Sauce

Cook the bacon in a cold soup pot over medium heat until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels; reserve. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp fat from the pot and return it to the stove over medium heat.

Add the onion and jalapeno; cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add ginger, cumin and coriander; cook, stirring, 1 minute more.

Add thyme, lentils and broth. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until lentils are getting pretty darn tender and starting to fall apart, about 1/2 hour. Meanwhile, roast the peppers: Place them on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil, turning every few minutes, until blistered/blackened on all sides. Remove from the broiler and put in a bowl, then cover the bowl with a plate. Let stand, steaming, for a few minutes; then strip off the skins, pull out the stems and dice the peppery flesh.

Add diced peppers, reserved bacon and frozen peas to soup. Return to a simmer and cook for another 20 minutes or thereabouts.

Taste for salt and pepper; make adjustments accordingly; serve forth, piping hot and decidedly non-vegan.

Soup365 #115. Hats off to Madhur

A couple of months ago, we had a lovely Indian dinner at our friends Anne and Mark's house. Onion fritters, chicken, lentils, rice, etc., etc.... all fresh-tasting, spicy without being mindblowingly hot, and totally devoid of that generic "curry powder" flavor.

Anne confided that all her recipes had come from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking. So when I saw the selfsame cookbook on sale at Powell's the other day, I had to pick it up. (Even though it only had a couple of soup recipes in it, sniff.)

This is the one I made to try the book out. A rousing success, and even better tasting the next day. Thanks for the great recommendation, Anne!

Madhur Jaffrey's Gingery Cauliflower Soup (with, of course, variations by Molly)
Serves eight, or thereabouts.

3 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno or other medium-hot pepper, seeded and minced
1 1" piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 medium potatoes (I used 1 russet and 1 Yukon Gold, 'cause it's what I had on hand), peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
1 small-to-middling cauliflower, cored and chopped
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup buttermilk (You could also do just a cup of half-and-half or cream; I had buttermilk on hand, and the tangy note it adds was really nice with the cauliflower)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro

Heat a soup pot and melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 7 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and spices; cook, stirring, 1 minute more.

Add potatoes, cauliflower and broth. Bring just to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Using an immersion blender if you've got one, puree soup until fairly smooth. (If you don't have one, batches, hot be careful, yadda yadda.) Return soup to stove over low heat; whisk in half-and-half and buttermilk. Heat through; don't let it boil. Taste and correct salt as warranted.

Grind a little pepper and sprinkle a little cilantro over each serving just for prettiness' sake.

Soup365 #114. Chocolate soup

Fine, haters. You don't think ganache counts as soup? I think it does when you eat it out of a bowl with a spoon.

As we did after Fisher's birthday party (at the Spelling Bee at Mississippi Pizza, natch).

A bit of ganache went over the top of each of these brownie cupcakes (chocolagasm, seriously), followed by a sifting of confectioner's sugar and a sliced-and-fanned strawberry.

Jim took nice pictures, and once I track them down I'll post one.

Barely-Sweet Chocolate "Soup," a.k.a. Ganache

6 Tbsp butter
2 ounces unsweetened Dagoba baking chocolate
4 ounces 72%-cacao Guittard baking wafers

Combine everything in a metal bowl; set the bowl over a saucepan containing a couple of inches of water. Set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until everything is melted and delicious and ribbony and oh my goodness.

Good pooled on top of cupcakes, drizzled over fruit or ice cream, used as dunking materials for cubes of pound cake, or... as suggested above... out of the bowl with a spoon.

Soup365 #113. A last gasp of winter

It was blustery, grey and damp. The cold was settling in my bones; the sky was nothing but clouds from horizon to horizon.

"Screw seasonality," I thought. "What we need here is a nice hearty warming beef stew."

This one is a little less heavy than many of the varieties out there. I didn't put any potatoes in--instead, we served it over mashed potatoes. (Yeah, there goes the "less heavy" right there. Oh well.) And the cider used as braising liquid gave everything a welcome fruity lightness without being overly sweet.

If you don't have hard cider on hand, or if you're for some reason philosophically opposed to cooking with the Devil's Own Suds, then you could certainly substitute apple juice or soft cider. I would cut it down to just 3/4 cup, though, and increase the broth to 2 cups. Good hard cider isn't nearly as sweet as apple juice.

Beef Stew with Cider and Bacon
Serves six, maybe. You could easily double it, and I bet it would be even better the next day. I won't get to test that theory out, because it's all gone already.

1/4 pound hardwood-smoked bacon, diced
1 pound boneless beef chuck, cubed (about 3/4" cubes?)
Salt and pepper
1-1/2 large-ish onions, chopped
1 to 2 Tbsp Montreal steak seasoning (or coarse salt, ground black pepper, a little cayenne and some paprika)
1 12-ounce bottle hard cider, either pear (which I used) or apple (which would be fine)
1-1/2 cups beef or chicken broth (I didn't have beef, so I used chicken, and I really liked how it turned out... plus having 3 animals in 1 dish is sort of awesome in a gluttonous carnivorous sort of way)
4 or 5 carrots, well scrubbed but not peeled (unless they look ugly... then peel them), halved lengthwise and sliced
2 bay leaves
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
Optional: chopped fresh flat-leaved parsley for garnish

Put the bacon in a cold soup pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Brown the beef in the bacon fat, turning as required (but not sooner than necessary) until all sides are nicely darkened. Don't rush this process. As beef is finished, remove it with a slotted spoon to another plate.

If there's an inordinate amount of fat left in the pot, pour some of it off. I did not have this problem. (You'll want about 3 to 4 Tbsp.) Return to medium heat; add onions; cook, stirring regularly, until onions are translucent, about 7 minutes. Add steak seasoning and cook for another minute, stirring vigilantly.

Add cider, broth, bay leaves, bacon and beef. Bring almost--but not quite--to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. (Or more. Up to 2 hours would probably be OK.)

Stir in carrots. Cover, reduce heat and simmer another 45 minutes to 1 hour.

A few minutes before serving: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until flour smells toasty and mixture has colored slightly, about 3 minutes. Whisk mixture into soup. Stir it in really well.

Serve forth, preferably poured over some ridiculously creamy mashed potatoes.

Image by Flickr user Auntie P. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Soup365 #112. Nut job

There was every inclination that this was going to be a fairly standard-issue quasi-Chinese-restaurant-style soup. Basically like what would happen if you took a pork stir-fry and added a bunch of chicken broth.

Then I decided it needed some crunch, so I threw in a handful of slivered blanched almonds. And whaddaya know: they worked pretty darn well. Hmmm, note to self.

Celery, cooked not unto the point of mushiness, was another important contributor to this soup's texture and flavor. Were you to have some bok choy sitting around, that would be an admirable substitute (and quite possibly even better than celery). Have at it!

I forgot the sesame oil drizzle at the end, as I almost always do... so though I'm recommending it here, who knows? It might ruin the whole thing. Be forewarned.

Chinese-Style Pork and Almond Soup with Rice Noodles
Serves... well, I thought it would serve six, but only three of us were awake to eat it, and Jim ate the rest the next day

1/2 pound pork shoulder steak or other cheap pork cut, frozen for about half an hour
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp peanut oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 to 2 tsp Chinese chili-garlic paste
1 smallish (or 1/2 very large, which is what I had) red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
3 ribs celery, diced small (or about 1-1/2 cups diced bok choy)
A good handful (probably about 1/2 cup) slivered blanched almonds
4 cups chicken broth
2 Tbsp soy sauce
4 ounces (or so) rice noodles (粿条) broken into roughly 2" pieces
For serving: thinly sliced scallions and a little sesame oil

Slice the pork against the grain into very thin pieces, as you would do for pho, were you making pho. Toss in a bowl with a little salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Add the pork and stir-fry for just a few seconds, until it's no longer pink. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic, ginger and chili paste; cook, stirring, for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Don't let the garlic burn. Add the bell pepper, celery and almonds; cook, stirring, for about 4 minutes, or until pepper is slightly softened.

Add chicken broth, soy sauce and reserved pork. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Uncover and return to a rolling boil; add noodles and cook, stirring frequently, until noodles are cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Top each serving with scallions and a wee drizzle of sesame oil.

Image (of rice noodles being made in a factory) by Flickr user Martijn Nijenhuis. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Soup365 #111. Salmagundi

Hodge-podge. Witches' brew. Miscellany. Whatever.

Anyway, the sweetness of the apples, leeks and maple-smoked bacon performs a lovely balancing act here with the earthiness of the beans and tomatoes. Sherry, in its justly famed role as a matchmaker and ground-smoother, marries the various ingredients beautifully (ZOMG GROUP MARRIAGE HIDE YOUR CHILDREN), and the result is... this bouncing baby soup.

On the "how much did everyone eat?" scale of soup success, this one earned highest marks. Jim came home from work (after having had soup leftovers for dinner at work) and ate two bowls. The notoriously slight-appetited Rhys ate two bowls. I ate two bowls, even though I wasn't technically hungry when I started cooking.

And Fisher? Fisher had four. And only stopped because I told him we needed to save enough for Jim to take to work the next day.

There were about two or maybe three servings' worth left. Jim took all of it. And ate all of it. (Of course, this was the one occasion I had someone take me up on an offer of leftover soup--only to go home to pack some up for her and find it was vanished sans trace...)

I made double what the original recipe called for, since so many of the reviewers said they wished they'd had more. Still probably could have gotten away with making half again as much.

Salmagundi, or, Apple-Leek-Bacon-Tomato-Sherry Soup
Serves... eh, not enough.

1/4 to 1/3 pound good hardwood-smoked bacon, diced (or just kinda chopped, if you're using "ends and pieces" as I was)
1 medium onion, chopped, or omit it and use 1 or 2 more leeks
1 large-ish or 2 small-ish leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, rinsed well and chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic or more, minced
1 to 2 Tbsp Montreal steak seasoning, boughten or made yourself (if you don't have this to hand: it's basically coarse salt, pepper, paprika, red pepper flakes and a little dried dill)
4 cups cooked pink beans (I had some left from the sauerkraut & bean soup of yesterseveraldays; you could also use two 14-ounce cans pink or pinto beans, rinsed and drained)
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes
4 cups beef broth
2 medium apples--Granny Smiths or Jonathans would have been lovely, but what I had was Fujis and they were great too--peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup dry sherry (NOT COOKING SHERRY)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream for serving (seriously, a couple of teaspoons of sour cream in each bowl transfigures this entire soup)

Put the bacon in a cold soup pot over medium heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but about 3 Tbsp fat.

Return the pot to medium heat; add onion, leeks and celery. Cook, stirring regularly, until tender and/or translucent, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and Montreal seasoning. Cook, stirring, one minute more.

Add beans, tomatoes and broth. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and let simmer.

Once the soup is simmering, combine apples and sherry in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium-high heat for several minutes (you don't really have to stir constantly, but near-constantly is pretty good) until apples are softened. Transfer apples to soup, along with most of the sherry (I probably used about 2/3 of the remaining sherry; you could probably also just dump it all in). Stir in reserved bacon.

Continue to cook at a nice low simmer until you think it's good and ready. I probably gave mine about 40 minutes. Anywhere from 25 minutes to a little over an hour is just fine. Taste it and correct seasoning as warranted.

To serve: Ladle into bowls; whisk a little sour cream into each bowl until smooth.

Image by Flickr user alisonhulot. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Soup365 #110: If you carrot all

Most of the soups I make are more or less carefully calibrated to not make a crap-ton. There are only four of us, after all, though Fisher's usually good for three or seven or twenty-eleven helpings, and the last thing I need is miscellaneous soupy odds and ends cluttering up the refrigerator and slowly withering into stink.

Every so often, though, it's nice to make something that serves a Whole Bunch. Not least because that way one can pack up several servings of soup in a handy plastic container and tote them off to a friend who seems in need of soup for one reason or another. Really, it's no more bother to make soup for eight than four. (Except for the peeling/chopping, but that's mostly therapeutic rather than bothersome.)

This one was medium spicy--The Shady Lady says she won't mind. Hope she enjoys eating it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Herbed Carrot Soup with Honey and Nutmeg
Serves eight or so

2 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp (or more) minced fresh ginger
1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper flakes, or none if your servees object
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth (chicken broth will taste better)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey, or to taste
1 tsp or so nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
Plenty of freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Optional, but yummy: plain (preferably whole-milk) yogurt and/or additional fresh thyme for serving

Melt butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, marjoram and thyme; cook, stirring constantly, one minute more.

Add potatoes, carrots, broth and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes. (Maybe a little more or less, depending on how finely you've chopped the carrots.)

Using an immersion blender, puree soup in pot. (Or puree it in batches with a blender or food processor. You know the drill.) Return to low heat; whisk in honey, nutmeg, pepper and lemon juice, tasting as you go. You may need to add a bit more salt.

Serve with decorative swirls of yogurt and festive sprinkles of thyme, or without. Lovely with corn muffins.

Image by Flickr user bookgrl. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Soup365 #109. Bottled up

The only reason I ever wish our quite modestly sized house were bigger is so that we could have a huge gargantuan kitchen in which everyone could fit at once and multiple activities could be simultaneously pursued.

Although this is not currently the case, we didn't let that stop us from packing in to bottle Jacob and Rachel's beer the other night. (It's an Anchor Steam clone, so Jacob says, being brewed for Jim's Second Annual Amazing Birthday Campout. Are you coming? You should!)

I roasted the peppers earlier in the day, which was a good thing, because at soupmaking time the oven was taken up warming Rachel's delicious maple wheat bread (NOMZ, as Jacob would say). Somehow, with Jacob and Rachel filling the bottles and Jim and Rhys crouching in the doorway to the dining room to cap them, there was just enough room for me to squeeze around the edges and make the soup.

The only downside? I now have a 12-ounce bottle of used frying oil sitting on my countertop waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. I never fry things. I have no idea what to do with it. Anybody want to make a teeny-weeny batch of biodiesel?

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Fried Polenta Croutons
From Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
Serves six

You will need some leftover polenta, formed into a cute little log and refrigerated, to make this? Don't have any? That's OK... I'll wait... I also hear that Trader Joe's and suchlike places sell ready-to-serve polenta. Sounds a bit odd, but you can't fight convenience.

3 Tbsp olive oil (Deborah Madison says "2-1/2 Tbsp," but ZOMG are you really going to measure that? Let your conscience be your guide)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small russet potato, peeled and thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 nice bay leaf, or 2 pathetic-ish ones, which is what I had
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram, plus more for garnish
1 Tbsp tomato paste
4 red bell peppers plus 1 jalapeno (optional, but I think nice), roasted and chopped*
1 tsp Hungarian paprika
Salt and pepper
5 cups vegetable (or chicken--I used vegetable) broth
A couple teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
Polenta croutons**

Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and potato and cook, stirring frequently, until edges begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, bay leaves and marjoram, and cook, stirring, one minute more. Stir in tomato paste and cook for yet one minute more.

Add peppers, paprika, 1 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper and the broth. Scrape vigorously at the bottom of the pot to loosen all the scrumptious browned bits. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer until potato is quite tender, about 25 minutes. Make polenta croutons while you're hanging about waiting.

Fish out the bay leaf. With an immersion blender if you've got one***, puree soup until pretty darn smooth. (Otherwise, use a blender or food processor, and try not to burn yourself.) Taste and correct salt and pepper as needed. Whisk in the balsamic vinegar.

Serve soup with croutons on top (sort of a misnomer--they'll tend to sink like wee crispy stones) and a bit of additional marjoram. (Go easy on the marjoram garnish, especially if you've got sort of a bitterish batch--taste and see.)

*To accomplish this: Preheat broiler. Arrange peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet. Put under broiler and roast, turning every 10 minutes or so, until bubbling and starting to blacken on all sides. Remove from sheet and pop promptly into a pot with a heavy lid. Cover and let sit in their own steam for about 10 minutes. Remove from pot; pull off their skins; cut out their stems; chop, scraping away and discarding seeds as you go. You can do this hours ahead of time if you like.

**To accomplish this: While the soup simmers, pour an inch or so of frying oil into a deep skillet. Heat over medium heat until shimmery. Drop in a crumb of polenta, and if it sizzles, it's ready. While oil is heating, cut up cold leftover polenta into cute little cubes. Fry in batches in hot oil. They won't brown, really, and they'll tend to stick together. Give each batch 5 minutes or so, and let oil return to full heat between batches. Drain fried cubes on paper towels, then toss in a bowl with a little coarse salt.

***My immersion blender miraculously healed itself, hallelujah! All it took was a good thump on the counter. Percussive maintenance to the rescue once again.

Soup365 #108: Filipino Village Soup, Redux

So I made Dominique's Filipino village soup, and I made it wrong (though it was still pretty good), and there was this huge bok choy hanging out in the refrigerator looking at me every time I opened the door. Staring at me. Mocking me.

So, just as the only thing to do with a song stuck in one's head is to play that song (I'm talking to you, "Rainbow in the Dark"), the only thing to do with a bok choy that haunts one's dreams is to turn that bok choy into soup.

Whaddaya know? The last one was good. This one was better.

A lot better.

Filipino Village Soup, As-Told-To Style, But Without Mushrooms, And With Chicken
Serves four to six

2 Tbsp peanut oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small hot chile, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp minced ginger
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into roughly 1" pieces (or maybe a little smaller)
Most of 1 bok choy, chopped into roughly 3/4" pieces
6 cups chicken broth
1 heaping Tbsp tamarind paste
2 Tbsp soy sauce
Sliced scallions for serving

Heat peanut oil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add garlic, chile and ginger; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add chicken thighs. Cook, stirring regularly, until meat is no longer pink.

Add bok choy, chicken broth, tamarind paste and soy sauce. Bring just about to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 to 25 minutes, or until you're pretty much ready to eat.

Scatter a palmful of scallions over each bowl and serve.

Image by Flickr user Sokhar. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Soup365 #106: Quick as a chippie

Fisher started saying "Quick as a chippie," whatever the heck that means, when he was about three. Still no idea where that came from or what he might have misheard to originate it. ("Look! I'm running quick as a chippie! I'll be there quick as a chippie, Mama! That motorcycle is quick as a chippie." The hilarity never really faded.)

Anyway: this soup is quick, and you have it with chips. So I guess it's really more quick AND WITH chippies, but you know how that goes.

(In tangentially-related Fisher news: he asked me today, as we were walking to the store, "How do languages change?" And then, maybe six minutes later, "How do we know that black holes create spaghettification?" Never a dull freaking moment.)

Quick and Spicy Chorizo Soup with Chippies
Serves roughly six

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound bulk chorizo sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
3 cups beef broth
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes with chiles (or without... if you're a wuss), undrained
Tortilla chips for serving
Optional but good: sour cream for serving

In a soup pot, combine the olive oil and chorizo over medium heat. Cook, stirring to break up the meat, until it begins to render its fat; then add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent and meat is browned. Drain off excess fat.

Add zucchini and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Add beef broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until zucchini is fully tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

To serve: Put some chips in a bowl and crush them lightly. Ladle soup over the top. If you like, add a blop of sour cream. Eat quickly before the chips get irritatingly soggy. (You could also just serve the chips on the side, but they're pretty darn good in the soup.)

Image by Flickr user bobtravis. Used under a Creative Commons license.