You Say Potato?

I say potato soup! Or rather, two potato soups in one week! This week, I decided to have a little contest with myself involving one of my very favorite foods: the potato.

Here's what I did: I searched out two NEW potato soup recipes (meaning recipes that I have not made before) and decided to test which potato soup was the winning-est (ie-the best tasting soup). 

The first soup I chose was an adaptation of  Potato and Leek Soup. I have made potato and leek soup many a time to great success, so I figured why not?


ROUND ONE: Rustic Potato and Leek Soup (from Love Soup by Anna Thomas)

This soup called for:
3-4 large leeks, green and white parts, chopped small
2 med-lrg Yukon Golds potatoes, diced with peels on

Eyeballing it:

Olive oil (2 turns round the pan)
Unsalted Butter (two good pats)
Sea Salt (to taste)
3 cups Vegetable broth (I used Rapunzel, unsalted bouillion cubes)
Parsley (cupped palmful)
Thyme(I used a cupped palmful of Penzey's French Thyme)
Lemon Juice (a few good squirts)

This process went very quickly because my mom helped. The leeks were super fragrant as we washed and chopped them (mom had the great idea of saving the scraps for broth, so we stuck those in a ziploc and I keep it in the freezer, adding to it each time I have scraps from soup-adventures) but it was nothing compared to the aroma that wafted about as we sauted them with the olive oil and the butter (and but a pinch of sea salt) in a small skillet until they were soft (10 minutes or so).We placed the leeks in a 6 qt stock pot with the potatoes, 3 cups of water and the vegetable broth until the potatoes were nice and tender (but not falling apart).

Then...the seasoning (always my favorite part). We added the parsley, french thyme, black pepper (because we think everything is better with black pepper) and some lemon juice.

THE RESULT:

Rating: Pretty good (but not amazing, I think this recipe could use some beefing up in terms of texture and taste, and the lemon, though I love it, was a bit distracting from the warmth of the potatoes).

Easy-o-meter: Very Easy

Time: 40 minutes, from wash to bowl.

Taste: VERY FRAGRANT in the nose but not so much on the tongue.

And now...

ROUND TWO: Mexican Potato Soup /Caldo de Papa (from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey)

At first this soup scared me a bit; I've never cooked much with chiles but I've been using my soup making adventures as an excuse to get out of my comfort zone and experiment. As I was buying the ingredients, I got really excited about the new spices I was playing with and decided to double it! Let's see if that was a good idea...

This soup needed:

2 large Yukon Gold Potatoes, diced in 1/2 inch squares
2 1&1/4 lb cans of whole peeled tomatoes (a good compromise in winter months and cheaper!)
2 med. onions, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 sq. inch of dried chili, coarsely chopped (I used an Ancho)
4 cups vegetable stock

Eyeballing it:

Sea Salt (to taste)
cilantro (open palmful)
Fage (to garnish)
home-made croutons (to garnish)

To get this soup going:

1) Chop the potatoes and boil them in water that covers them + 3 inches until they are tender but not crumbly and drain most of the water (I kept potatoey stock in the bottom of the pot).
2) Chop tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chili and put through immersion blender until smooth and fragrant. Add stock.
3) Add blended mixture (from #2) to potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes or so.







And to season....

Add salt, very generous helpings of black pepper and cilantro and just a dash of sugar (to warm the pot and bring the flavors together).

Serve with healthy dollops of Fage and croutons!

VOILA!

Notes:
Want more of a stoup (a stewy-soup)? Next time, use more potatoes and more concentrated stock for a thicker soup.

Chiles: The original recipe called for chipolte chiles but I had a hard time finding them at my local co-op. I chose the anchos because they were dried in bulk and I was allowed to fish out just one (which was all I needed) and call it a day. I used only a small section of the pepper and it really kicked in in the aftertaste. Very nice. Maybe next time I'll be more brave and use a bit more. If you're squeamish about handling hot peppers, you can always use cayenne powder, too.

Rating: Abso-freaking-lutely AWESOME

Easy-o-meter: 1.5 (wicked easy, with a chile!)

Time: 45 minutes

Taste: Hell-yeah it's great.

So, who won my great potato soup contest? It must be obvious. Mexican Potato! It is highly flavorful, warm and bright and as welcome as the Mexican sun in the cold North-Eastern Winter.

Why don't you try these recipes and see which you like best?  And if you do, let me know about it!

My Wishlist!

My mom always says, if you want something, put it out there and the universe will provide. A little hippie, I know. But I think she's right. How are our wishes and needs and dreams going to happen if we don't actualize them?

So in the spirit of my mom (who's a damn fine cook herself), I'm publishing my soup-kitchen wish-list. Mostly to remind me of my goals, and partly to invite the magic of serendipity (you never know when you'll come across a gently-used treasure when someone is moving house!).

1) Le Creuset Stockpot

OK, I know these babies are pricey, but I believe in the power of traditional French cookware that is both functional and beautiful. I'm still torn on whether I'd get the 6qt (the size I soup with now) or the 8qt. Rose at the Kitchen Witch says that it's great to have the larger one so that one has the option of creating a whole lot more. So I've been considering that (and saving my pennies!).

I love the new Caribbean Blue color! It's funky and vibrant. 

But then there's the deep red, perfect to inspire a hearty winter's soup.

How does a girl choose?



2) Bamboo Cutting Boards (in various sizes)

I love nice cutting boards and bamboo is one of my favorite materials (see my mention of the new bamboo wooden spoon). I think a medium-sized board and a small would be perfect for my kitchen (which is quite tiny).

3) Santoku Knife

My mom says I will not be getting this for Christmas because it's bad luck to give someone a knife (apparently it means you will fight with them). I think this is a silly old-wives tale, but she stands firm.

I like to Santoku style because you can chop through pretty much any vegetable with ease and dice and mince and even use it as a scooper (tiny pieces stick around those pretty shell-like indents in the blade). Also they are pretty.

4) All the Spices in the Penzey's Catalogue

I love Penzey's. Their herbs and spices are amazing, high quality, fragrant and just plain yummy. There's a Penzey's store in the suburbs but I'm afraid if I go in there I will get so excited that I'll roll around in yummy spices and preserve myself like an Egyptian mummy. Or really, that I'll just overspend. =)

What's on your kitchen wish-list? Please post in comments!

Comforting Creamy Tomato Soup with Guest Chef and Blogger, Cat Boleyn!

KL and I agree on a lot of things.  We have similar tastes in music, and books, and – this is the pertinent part – we both love a good bowl of soup.  So when I went over to her place last week, I came with the ingredients for a tomato soup recipe I’ve been wanting to try.  Also wine, because that’s important.  KL & I agree on that, too.

The New York Times ran a piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/dining/08junk.html) not long ago about the rise of comfort food lunch spots in the Washington, D.C. area, and included the tomato soup recipe.  I’ve only ever had canned tomato soup: Campbell’s when I was younger, Muir Glen now that I’m older & all hippy-crunchy-granola concerned about high fructose corn syrup blah.  The prospect of homemade tomato soup was appealing, to say the least.

So when I got to KL’s, I took over the kitchen & got to work (KL was sniffly, & we both prefer our soup sans snot).  I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe, noted below; my main complaint was that the soup was surprisingly un-fragrant.  There’s not a lot that can compete with the scent of a nice pot of soup simmering on the stove, and we didn’t really get that experience with this soup.  Still, with all the vitamin C and beta carotene and other good things (and none of the bad things that are in even the best canned soup), I’m not about to quibble.

Homemade Tomato Soup (adapted from The New York Times, who adapted it from Ted’s Bulletin in Washington, D.C.)

Makes 8 (generous) servings.

Ingredients:

½ pound butter

1 pound onions (about 3 medium), cut in ¼ inch dice

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes

1 ¼ cups chicken broth (I used vegetable)

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon celery salt (I couldn’t find any; I used a 1:1 ratio of celery seed to table salt)

¾ teaspoon pepper

¾ cup half-and-half (I used whipping cream because I had it on hand)

2 tablespoons honey

Method:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot.  Add the onions and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent (about 20 minutes).

2. Add flour and stir until mixture is slightly thickened and pale gold, about 3 minutes.  Don’t let the mixture to get too brown.

3. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices, the broth, sugar, kosher salt, celery salt, and pepper.  Raise the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot frequently.

4. Stir in the half-and-half and honey.  Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender, or allow to cool slightly and puree in batches in a countertop blender.  Return to medium heat just until heated through; serve hot.

The Serenity of Soup

Soup has healing qualities. When we are young, we are given soup to warm our bellies on a cold Winter's day or to chase away that early Spring cold.

I was reminded of the healing qualities of soup this week while away on a writing retreat in a small seaside town in New England. The house I stayed in was largely isolated: lonely woods on three sides opening out into the ocean at the backdoor. It was a rare opportunity to spend some quiet time with the things I love, writing, soup, and relaxation.

I made this soup while my writing partner was working away on a project. Just me in the kitchen with my food and my thoughts. As I constructed it, everything washed away and it was just me and the present moment. Suddenly, there was perspective and a viable way to reach for moments of calm in an otherwise hectic day-to-day life.

Lentils are also good luck for the new year (so says my friend, fellow soup-goddess, and soon-to-be guest blogger, Cat Boleyn) so the combination made for an evening constructing serenity followed by just about the best comfort soup you could possible imagine.

Here's my version of Serenity-Now Lucky Lentil Stew:

Ingredients:
1lb of brown lentils (I find them a bit heartier than red or orange or green lentils)
3 carrots (I like the thin, organic ones but any thickness will do)
4-5 small Yukon Gold potatoes (more or less depending on how stewy you want it)
2 cups vegetable broth (Rapunzel is my fav; warm 1 cube in 2 cups water in micro and be sure it dissolves pretty evenly and then set aside for later)
1 large yellow onion

Eyeballing it:
sea salt (probably 2 small palmfuls, to taste)
1 bay leaf'( I always scoffed at the bay leaf but have come to learn that it actually adds a whole lot of flavor)
1 small palmful of dried thyme (I swear by Penzey's french thyme)
3-4 cloves of chopped garlic (more or less depending on how much you <3 garlic)
ground cumin (up to 2 large, or flattened palmfuls, depending on taste, added SLOWLY)
freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
butter (yes, both.)
1 small palmful of dried cilantro
1 large palmful dried parsley
lemon juice (2-3 Tbs, to taste)

A note on my "hand" measurements: I have pretty small hands. So what I mean by palmful is a general way to figure out how NOT to drag out those hard-to-find measuring spoons all the time. From experience I know that if I cover the bowl of my palm or fill the bottom of my cupped palm it's about a teaspoon. If I hold my hand flat and cover my palm, it's about a tablespoon. Experiment and see what works for you. And don't be afraid to get your hands spicy!

1) Get a large pot (12 quarts is ideal as this soup serves about 12 servings) add 10 cups of water and a few small palmfuls of sea salt.
2) Rinse lentils in warm water (I find a strainer works really well for this) and add to pot with a bit of butter (I add butter in lieu of EVOO periodically to any lentil recipe because butter flavors lentils in a way that EVOO just doesn't, making them fuller and warmer on your tongue).
3) Wash and dice the carrots and potatoes medium fine and add to the pot with the thyme and the bay leaf.
4) Bring soup to a boil and simmer loosely covered.
5) While the lucky lentils simmer, dice the large onion and put half into the simmering soup and saute the other half in a medium-hot skillet with EVOO until soft. Add finely chopped garlic and when you smell it, add all to the soup pot.

Now, it's time to season! Add the ground cumin (in small batches, tasting between so as to not overwhelm the pot), the lemon juice (again, to taste), black pepper, veggie broth,  other herbs and a good tsp or two of butter.

Now you're done! Garnish each dish with a few tablespoons of Fage Greek Yogurt!

Doesn't it look yummy?

It's even BETTER the day after. After sitting in the fridge and soaking up the flavors overnight, you'll think you died and went to soup heaven.


Please note that this recipe was adapted from an old lentil recipe a college friend, Lesley Pfennig, taught me, Mollie Katzen's tips in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Anna Thomas' Love Soup.

Green Goddess Soup REDUX

Many of you have asked for the recipe for the green soup I made last week (affectionately renamed Green Goddess Soup for all your goddesses out there), so here it is:

1/2 bag/bunch of fresh spinach
1 bunch fresh kale
5 sliced scallions, green and white sections
1 large Yukon Gold potato
1 medium yellow onion
3-4 cloves garlic
2 cups vegetable broth (I like Rapunzel brand vegetarian buillion cubes, no salt added)
1/2 handful dried cilantro (more or less depending on taste)
a pinch (and I mean a pinch) of cayenne (depending on taste, or adventurous spirit)

Here's where I get iffy with measurements. I really like to eyeball it. That's just how I work. If you like precise measurements, feel free to tweak these to your taste!

sea salt (a few tsp, use as indicated, and to your taste)
extra virgin olive oil (2-3 Tbs, again to the taste and texture that gets you all excited)
freshly ground black pepper (I use lots but I taste as I season so I don't overwhelm the dish)
lemon juice (I used pretty much an entire squeezy bottle, which is absolutely yummy if you're a lemon-lover like me. Squeezy bottles=less picking seeds out of your soup.)

1) Wash and "chop" (see my hands-on technique below!) all the green stuff.
2)Get a huge soup pot (8-12 quarts is optimal) and dump all the yummy green stuff in with 3 1/2 cups water and a small palmful of sea salt.
3) Grab the potato and wash well, peel and chop into smallish pieces (you'll want them to be a nice addition texture-wise but not too much a surprise) and throw it in the pot.
4) Bring everything to a boil, then lower flame, cover pot and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes.
5) As all the greenness is comingling and getting really healthy, dice up your onion and cook in a skillet with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil (about two and a half good rotations around a smaller skillet) and a pinch (seriously, just a pinch) of salt until the onions are a warm brown-gold (think the desired color on toasted marshmallows). Add these caramelized onions (hey! you just learned how to caramelize onions!) to the soup.
6) Finely dice your garlic and before the skillet cools off, add them to the pan and saute with a bit of the EVOO for a few minutes (you want to release the flavors here and you'll know you've done so when the scent of garlic starts to take over your kitchen).
7)Keep the soup a'simmerin and add the broth to the soup.
8) Now use your immersion blender (sounds like a sub-par 90s rock album doesn't it?) and blend until you've got a pretty smooth surface (not too much though, you still want texture).
9) Now the SEASONING. Add a pinch of cayenne (and wash your hands before you touch anything, most importantly your face, nose, eyes, etc.), adjust the salt, add a whole lot of the fresh black pepper, and FINALLY the lemon juice.
10) Now do a little dance. You're done!

Garnish with crusty bread, feta cheese or whatever strikes your fancy and go to town!

Did you like this recipe? I adapted it from Anna Thomas' Love Soups. Have an idea for a great soup? A request? Comments or suggestions? Please post in comments! Thanks for reading!

Green Soup! And a New Wooden Spoon!

 So for my first soup-of-the-week I choose "Green Soup-The Original" from Love Soup by Anna Thomas.

 

I decide to "cut" the leafy greens by hand rather than with a knife (I need a better chopping knife anyway). I simply love the process of tearing the slightly spongy spinach and feeling the furls of kale tickle my fingers. The air is pungent with an earthy, slightly thick odor, a perfume that I don't smell as strongly when I chop with a blade. And I use LOTS of greens, though probably slightly less than the recipe calls for because my pot is getting full. I might just need a bigger pot.

I’m hopeful for the flavors— I realize it may be bland without the cayenne but cayenne freaks me out because I'm not adept at knowing just how much to use (yet). I'm thinking I will have to doctor it a bit with lemon (which I always use and love). 

After major ingredients are added to the pot to cook down, I carmelize onions (with minimal crying!) and wait.  Onions take much longer to carmelize than I think they should. But it all smells good so I just go with it.

Once all is cooked I dump everything in the soup pot, immersion blend (I don't know how I ever lived without the immersion blender) and think more about flavor. Being creative is also about being brave, trying new things, so I decide to conquer my fear and open my little bag of cayenne.  Sadly, in the process of either opening or mixing, the cayenne gets up my nose.

Nose running and eyes watering like mad,  I add a hella lot of lemon juice (like a whole squeezy bottle full). The from the pot pre-taste is to die for but I still have to finish with some garnish.

I don't believe in garnish that isn't edible AND delicious. It's just a waste of my palate. So decide on crusty kalamata olive bread and marinated feta in oil on the surface of my very green zingy soup. 

I dig in and this is it, the moment of truth: THE FIRST TASTE.

WOW! Lemony and green (AT says a bowl is = your weekly veg intake) and sooooo good.

Totally worth the red schnoz for this amazing soup.

Rating: A-MA-ZING (with a dash of extra zing!)

 Easy-o-meter: 1(wicked easy)

Time: 2 hours (leisurely washing, chopping, and tasting as I went along)

Taste: Uh-huh, good. (especially with my lemony addition)

PS- Love my wooden spoon? It's gorgeous isn't it? This bamboo beauty is from my favorite kitchen supply shop, Kitchen Witch, located in Jamaica Plain. I go there for all my cookery gadgets and doodads. Y'all should definitely check them out!

Cooking is Creative!

OK, maybe this is not a revelation to most of you out there but it's something that I've had to discover over and over again, a lesson I forget and have to relearn.

I'm a teaching artist and sometimes it's damn hard to find the time to make enough money to live and finish that novel and care for yourself. Sometimes your creative and spiritual well goes dry. What do you do? Refill it, of course.

There are many ways to do this, and everyone has a way (or ways) that work for them. For me, it's cooking and tarot reading (particularly this amazing Lenormand deck that I'm in love with). And I've been finding that while I don't have a whole lot to say about writing right now,  when someone talks about creating a meal, I'm suddenly bubbling over with questions, anecdotes, and...well, happiness. Cooking makes me feel refreshed.

A knowing writer-foodie friend saw my longing and gifted me with the best birthday present--Love Soups by Anna Thomas (famous for her ground-breaking The Vegetarian Epicure) and I decided it was time to devote myself to self-artist care by doing something creative that I love--making soup.

Soup is just about my favorite thing. I could eat it regardless of season, temperature, or appetite. And I've made quite a lot of soup in my day. So this year, I'm going to practice what one of my wonderful friends calls my "soup alchemy"; I'm going to make a big pot of yummy soup each week and blog about it. Mostly I'll be using the Love Soup book (with 160 soups on deck there will be lots of choose from) but there will also be room for other fun recipes from friends and guest bloggers.

So get your ladles and big soup pots out! This is going to be fun.