Lavender is the New Black

I've always been fond of lavender. When I was a kid, my aunt, who runs an organic herb and flower farm in Rhode Island, used to give me bunches of it to make my room smell nice (a good tactic for the room of a teenager!).

I never quite realized that it was edible until a few years ago when I was eating at a lovely Ethiopian restaurant in Cambridge and ordered lemonade. What I got was an infusion of fresh lemon juice, lavender and rosehips that I can only describe as transcendent.

Since then, bringing lavender into my kitchen has been on my mind. A few weekends ago, a friend and I trekked to Penzey's Spices in Arlington and I procured some lovely culinary lavender (among lots of other wonderful things that will show up right here very soon!) and decided to do some experimentation, using lavender in two very different ways. The first, which appears below, is meant as an accent or a rich dessert after a lighter soup. The second will be incorporating the herb into a soup itself.

This is my first non-soup recipe of the blog but I hope you will embrace it as a lovely addition to any soup-tacular meal!

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

This was my first time making shortbread and I was astounded at how much butter shortbread actually requires. More amazing however, was the alchemical process of infusing the elemental lavender with the rest of the ingredients. Keep reading to see what I mean. 

Note: Baking is a lot more exact than cooking, so you won't see eyeball measurements here.
Also Note: This is more comfortably accomplished as a two-day, two-hands-needed process.

Gather up:

1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsps (unsprayed, dried) culinary lavender, crushed
1 Tsp (unsprayed, dried) culinary lavender, whole flowers
1 lb unsalted butter (slighty soften and at room temp)
1/2 Tsp sea salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tsp pure vanilla extract
4 cups flour

Part One: The Infusion

1) Combine the honey and the crushed lavender in either the top of a double broiler or in a heat-safe bowl tucked in the top of a pot with some softly simmering water (I did the latter as I do not have a double-broiler) and heat for about 15 minutes or until the honey melts a bit.

2) Using a screen sieve or some other strainer with very small holes, strain the honey, discarding as much of the crushed lavender as possible.

3) In a large bowl, combine the butter (which should be slightly softened and room temp), salt, the whole lavender flowers, and the infused honey. Beat until completely blended. This takes about 5 seconds in a Kitchen Aid but if you don't have one, you can use a mixer, an old fashioned egg-beater or elbow grease. (I had a friend and an old-fashioned egg-beater. If you decide on this course of action, be sure to have a beer or cocktail ready for your friend as a reward.).,

4) Cover the newly infused butter and refrigerate overnight.

Part Two: The Bake

1) Bring the infused butter to room temp. Add the sugar and beat with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy.

2) Beat in the vanilla and very slowly add the flour. Beat until just blended (everything is pretty much uniform).

3) Take the dough and shape it (on a floured surface, of course) into a log that about a foot long. Wrap in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days if you want to make it beforehand).

4) After your dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 and grease 2 cookie sheets.


Part Two Point Five: Shaping Your Shortbread

1) Wanna get creative with your cookies? Go over to your favorite kitchen store (mine's Kitchen Witch in Jamaica Plain) and pick out some fun shapes! I got a penguin, a teapot, and a skull and crossbones.

2) Now take out your chilled dough, roll it about a 1/2 inch thick on a floured surface and cut those shapes!

3) Place on greased cookie sheets (they don't have to be very far apart because shortbread doesn't expand much) and cook for 10-12 minutes or until they are just starting to get golden at the edges.

4) Place on a rack to cool and then....

5) Serve them up! (Preferably after a mild soup)

Rating: 5 (pretty much the best cookies, very rich and buttery. Walker's eat your hearts out!)

Taste: Ambrosia-infused nectar of the gods

Easy-o-meter: Fairly simple, though the infusion process can get tricky if you don't have the correct sieve.

Time: Two days for a relaxed and pain-free experience.

Adapted from Tony Hill's The Spice Lover's Guide to Herbs and Spices

How to be a Spice Grrl

This is different, of course, from a Spice Girl, that silly 90s phenomenon we'd all do best to forget.

Since the broken elbow has impeded solo soup making over the past few weeks, I decided to spend some time studying how spices and herbs impact each soup I make. I found a wonderful guide called: The Spice Lover's Guide to Herbs and Spices (by Tony Hill) and I've stocked up on a bunch of amazing spices and herbs which I will experiment with over the coming weeks (don't worry! there will also be soup!).


In The Spice Lover's Guide, the author leads us through an alphabetical journey of international proportions. From ajwain to zedoary, we learn a bit about each herb or spice: where it is harvested, parts used, and different ideas for how to incorporate each into your culinary adventures. Following each mini-history is a recipe that will tickle your taste buds in ways you never thought possible.

This is culinary alchemy (what I like to practice while I'm creating my soups;  using the magical power of food to engage in the process of transmuting a common substance into a substance of great value and comfort) at its finest.

Check out the book and the following recipe to see what I mean.  

Melanie’s Amazing Veggie Chili

When I graduated from college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Like many folks in their early 20s, I felt like I wasn’t done learning, like I hadn’t yet figured out my path. While most of my friends had moved on, I stuck around New York and moved in with a friend of a friend and her son. This friend of a friend soon became an extremely important figure in my life. She inspired me with her dedication to the Spanish language, teaching, and her wonderful stories of meeting Jorge Luis Borges as a graduate student in Buenos Aires.  In her house I learned the flavors, accents, and love involved in Mexican and South American cooking.

Here’s a recipe right from her sunny kitchen in Rhinebeck, NY.

Gather up:

2 lrg white onions, chopped coarsely

4 lrg garlic cloves, finely chopped

*2 jalapeños, minced with seeds

2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes (plum if you can find them), reserve juices

½ cup tomato paste

*2 peppers (I like using poblanos for their smoky flavor), chopped

2 lrg carrots, chopped

**1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, drained

**1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained

**1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained

2 small zucchini diced

cheddar cheese (grated for garnish)

*If you are timid about heat in this chili, de-seed the jalapeños, OR use a milder pepper. In fact, feel free to substitute any of the peppers in this soup for your favorites. Of course, this will change the flavor.

**Use any beans you like! I’m a fan of garbanzos and sometimes cannellini take the place of kidney beans.

Eyeballing it:

Vegetable oil (enough to generously coat the bottom of your soup pot)

ground cumin, flat palmful

salt, cupped palmful

cayenne (half a cupped palmful, adjust as you see fit)

I made this awesome chili at my friend Vicki’s casa, who along with my pal Kari, did the chopping.

Do it:

1)      If you’re down a hand, ask your friends to help with the chopping of the veggies. It will be fun and the work will go much faster!

2)      Heat oil in a heavy, large pot (we used  Vicki’s lovely Dutch oven) over medium heat.

3)      Add the chopped onions, garlic, and jalapeños and sauté until the onions are translucent and the the amazing aromas of this base are tickling your nose.

4)      Add 1 cup of the reserved tomato juices to the pot along with the tomato paste, the poblanos, carrots, cumin, salt, and cayenne. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

5)      Add all the beans, cook 15 more minutes and add more reserved tomato juices if your chili is too thick (aka if you can stick a spatula in it without it moving).

6)      Add the zucchini and cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

7)      Ladle it into cute bowls (our had a funky Marimeko-ish pattern on them) and top with some grated cheese (the best for this chili is sharp cheddar).

YUM!

Rating: Hi-Fives All Around

Easy-o-meter: wicked, though you should know a bit about chilies if you’re going to experiment. You don’t want to burn a hole in your tongue (hopefully).

Time: 1.5 hours from unpacking the groceries to tucking in.

Taste: Spicy but not too hot. Just the way I like it!

The Magic of Pickles

When I was a kid, I lived for dill pickles. I loved them so much I drank the briny pickle juice when the pickles themselves were gone. My grandmother, who  didn’t really allow indulgence unless it came to food or drink, encouraged my obsession, even going so far as to wrap jars of Heinz Dill Pickles (my favorite kind, long since gone off the market)for Christmas.

When I discovered my friend Bill also thought pickle juice a necessary and yummy treat, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. The kind of kindred spirit I found in the following soup.

Since breaking my arm, the alchemy required of soup creation has been difficult. I owe much of the success and most of the creation of this soup to Abby Machson-Carter, who also loves pickles.

Pickle Soup (or everything in your veggie drawer on a chilly March night)

Gather up:

½ cup pearl barley

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 bunch scallions, chopped

2 cloves  garlic (we had heirloom on hand, which tasted lovely)

1 pkg crimini mushrooms (about 10 oz)

2 small Yukon Gold potatoes

2 medium carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 medium turnip, peeled and diced

½ bunch kale

1 wedge of cabbage

1 orange bell pepper (choose the color that strikes your fancy!)

***1 cup finely diced dill pickles

Eyeball:

sea salt (full palmful)

Extra Virgin olive oil

thyme

dill

freshly ground black pepper

Our broth!

3 cups broth (we made our own with the leavings/scraps of our diced veggies, just boil in a pot with water until flavor is at desired level)

Let’s do it!

      1) Rinse the barley and put in a large soup pot with about 8 cups of water and half your sea salt. Simmer covered for about half an hour.

   
  2) Saute chopped onion in skillet with EVOO (just once around the pan) on low heat for about 10 minutes. Add chopped scallions and sauté until both onions and scallions are beginning to brown and are soft.

     
  3)In another skillet add another round o’the pan of EVOO and your garlic and sauté it up on high heat for about a minute or so. Add the mushrooms, just a dash of salt and a few good pinches of thyme and sauté until all the excess liquid cooks away. 

      
4) By this point your barley is well on its way. You can add the root veggies to the soup pot, adjusting the water-levek to keep all veggies submerged if you need to do so. 

5) Chop your kale (I always remove the tough stemmery because who wants to chew their soup?), bell pepper, and the cabbage and set aside (don’t worry! you’ll add it soon!).

6) Add all the things that have been sautéing (scallions, onions, garlic, mushrooms) to the soup. 

7) Stir your kale, cabbage, bell pepper, dill and broth into the soup. Simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Pickles!

        8) Now, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Add the pickles, simmer 10 more minutes and adjust the taste by adding salt and fresh black pepper.

The pickles will add a great, slightly acidic flavor that makes the soup quite special. Share with good friends. And give your mom a mason jar of it for her birthday. She’ll like it!

Rating: One of my fav's 
Easy-o-meter: 4 Pretty easy, though definitely time consuming. Consider chopping veggies beforehand

Time: 2 + hours (particularly if you only have one hand)

Taste: Even my mom loves it. No seriously. It’s comforting AND tasty.

Sweet Potato Bisque

This is my mom's version of Anna Thomas' Sweet Potato Bisque (found in Love Soup). 

Before she visited, I visited the co-op and got:

 

2 lrg Japanese sweet potatoes (subtly sweet! perfect to pair with yams!)

1 lrg yam

2 sm onions

1 med celery root

I had on hand: (Mom is much more into exact measurements than I)

1 tsp sea salt

1 Tbs dried sage

4 cups vegetable broth

Mom brought:

a beautiful bottle of fancy olive oil from Milk and Honey Bazaar

an a bottle of nice dry sherry.

Without further ado, my mom makes the soup:

"Here goes---

1)Take sweet potatoes and yams and wash and evenly slice, place in pan with a little water and roast in oven for about an hour or until tender.

 

2) Wash and chop celery root place in soup pot and boil in enough water to cover just until tender.

 

3) While potato is roasting, chop onion and saute in olive oil ( I did this in my fav pan at my daughter's house, a well-seasoned skillet from Crate & Barrel), once onion is almost translucent add sherry. Continue to

saute just until sherry has been absorbed.  Add seasonings.

 

4) Dissolve vegetable cubes in 4 cups hot water. 

 

5 )By this time the sweet potatoes and yam should be about done;  peel them and chop into smaller pieces. 

 

6) Place the sweet potatoes, yams, sauted onions, and vegetable broth to celery root.  Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes and then it's ready to emulsify.

 

7) Should be ready to serve with Greek yogurt and pine nuts for garnish.

 

I really liked this bisque---so make it for me whenever you desire."

Sure thing, Mom! Once the arm is better, I'll make you all the soup you want!

The One-Handed Souper

Ever wondered if you could do something one-handed? Like a kid in a field-day contest, I've spent the last two weeks (that I have not been blogging) doing everything with my right hand only. No, this isn't some bizarre kind of regressive dare between me and my friends but the result of breaking my elbow while training for the Susan G Komen 3 Day Walk for a Cure. I won't bore you with the story, suffice it to say, souping (and, well, everything) has been a chore so I took a break (no pun intended) and handed the souping and blogging reins over to my mom and my fabulous friend and cuisiniere, Abby Machson-Carter (see her blog in the sidebar).

The next few posts are from them. I merely sat and looked pathetic and mixed one-handed drinks to keep them properly watered while they were hard at work (Mom likes Kahlua Sombreros and Abby sips on Nutty Jews).

Enjoy! And don't fall!