Creamy Cream-less Tomato Soup

I never liked tomato soup as a kid, probably because the only experience I had with it was that sickly-sweet mess served in the cafeteria. It always tasted more like watered-down ketchup than anything but I worked at this restaurant in Portland, OR one summer that made tomato soup that forever changed my view on said dish. It was creamy and rich-tasting, not overly sweet and had hints of basil and fennel. Since then, I've tried to mimic it with little success. I saw this recipe that uses bread instead of cream to create the kind of lush soup I'm after. I haven't tried this recipe yet but something tells me I'll love it.


If half of the soup fills your blender by more than two-thirds, process the soup in three batches. You can also use an immersion blender to process the soup directly in the pot. For an even smoother soup, pass the pureed mixture through a fine-mesh strainer before stirring in the chicken broth in step 2. Serve this soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for a Crowd or topped with Butter Croutons (see related recipes).
INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil , plus more for drizzling
1 medium onion , chopped medium (about 1 cup)
3 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
Pinch hot red pepper flakes (optional)
1 bay leaf
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 large slices good-quality sandwich bread , crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons brandy (optional)
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes (if using), and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Using potato masher, mash until no pieces bigger than 2 inches remain. Stir in sugar and bread; bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf.
2. Transfer half of soup to blender. Add 1 tablespoon oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. Rinse out Dutch oven and return soup to pot. Stir in chicken broth and brandy (if using). Return soup to boil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve soup in individual bowls. Sprinkle each portion with pepper and chives and drizzle with olive oil.

Ramps Part Deux

Last night, after eating some quiche, I was still feeling a bit peckish and had most of my ramp greens left over. The wheels in my head started turning and my inner dialogue went something like this, "I'm starving. But I don't want to eat a third piece of quiche. And I hate to waste all those greens. Hmm, what else do I have? Tofu? Ugh. Cheese and crackers? Boring. Peanut Butter Toast? No. Sweet potatoes?! I could saute the sweet potatoes with the ramps, it would be sort of like my papa's amazing fried potatoes with onions, wait, ramps are like onions are like leeks and sweet potatoes are a different twist on potatoes and, THAT'S IT! Sweet potato and ramp chowder!" Incidentally, that's what it's like in my head most of the time, dizzying, isn't it? This took me a while because I roasted the sweet potatoes for maximum flavor but once that was done, the soup came together in minutes.

Sweet Potato-Ramp Chowder

2 large sweet potatoes
The rest of your ramp greens, or pretty much the entire bunch
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
12-16 oz stock or water, depends on how thick you want to consistency to be
1 ounce cream
salt and pepper

Roast the sweet potatoes until completely soft, about an hour at 350 degrees. While they're cooling coarsely shop the ramp greens and saute in butter-olive oil for a few minutes and turn off the heat. Now peel the sweet potatoes and puree them in the food processor, add the cream here so they have a bit of liquid to get them going. Add the pureed sweet potatoes to the pot with the ramps and pour in stock/water until you achieve the consistency that tickles your fancy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: If you don't have ramps, sub leeks, or even onions. However, the ramps add a nice contrast in color so you might want to consider adding a handful of baby spinach or watercress, which I did anyway to amp up my vegetable intake. I am a huge fan of sweet-hot flavor combinations and so I wanted to offset the soup with a little heat. I threw in a dusting of chipotle powder, which was fine, but not what I was after. Heat with a more subtle flavor. I'll keep working on it.

Potato-Kale-Beer Chowder

My friend and co-worker told me she was making a potato-kale chowder with chorizo, which sounded delicious so I made the appropriate "mmmm" sounds until she promised to bring some in for me the next day. She didn't, but I didn't think about it until Sunday when I thought to my self "Hey, that sounded so tasty and mighty comforting during this cold spell." Although I didn't have any chorizo, I had just bought some fantastic organic kale from the Co-op. It was long, slender and very tender, unlike the curly, woody stems usually found languishing as a garnish on dinner plates. The beer was an afterthought. I hate wasting things and couple of weeks ago, I opened a beer that I could not finish. No, I'm not that dainty, I had two before that. Anyway, I didn't want to waste it and I am so glad I didn't. It was a dark beer, perhaps stout, I can't remember since I threw the bottle out already. I added the beer to deglaze the pot, after cooking the onions, and it really rounded out the soup and gave it a biting, nutty undertone. I'm really going to have to approximate the amounts in this recipe, I kept adding this or that.

Potato-Kale Chowder

1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1 onion, diced
1-2 T. flour
1/2 bottle dark beer
2 c. diced potatoes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into rounds
1 bunch kale
2 cups chicken stock
pinch salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg
pinch thyme

Heat the olive oil and butter, add onions and cook about 15 minutes. Once cooked, add the flour and stir. After a minute or two, once the brown fond starts to form, add the beer to deglaze. Add the potatoes and carrots, then the stock. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender. You can keep the soup like this but I fished out the potatoes and pureed them, then added the mash back to the soup pot to give it more body and heft. I sauteed the kale separatley and added it to the pot to simmer away a bit more but I did it like that so it was easier for me to remove the potatoes. Add seasoning. I ate this as is but yesterday, I aded some milk as I reheated the soup and, of course, that made it creamier and fuller. You can add more stock or milk if the soup is too think.

Butternup Squash Soup

I think this is a pretty standard soup these days. I like the sweetness that an apple or pear adds to the soup and simply roasting the ingredients brings out all their flavors. Unfortunately, I added too much stock so that it was too thin for my taste. Next time I will add a bit at a time.

1 squash-I used butternut
1 apple
1 large onion
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper

Roast the squash, onions and apple. Puree with a bit of chicken stock. Add to a large pot and slowly add the chicken stock to desired consistency. Simmer 10 minutes. I topped the soup with a dollop of yogurt muixed with cilantro and curry paste.

From Knucklebones to Chocolate Cake

I was invited to have pho over at 15th Street Heights today (that's what we call Dom's brother and sister-in-law's house, it's so classy). When I got there, Domma had beef knucklebones cooking down with charred ginger and onion, star anise, cinnamon and black pepper. The recipe he had called for oxtail or beef knucklebones, and at $3.99/lb vs. $1.49/lb respectively, the choice was obvious. I have never eaten knucklebones before but the smell was intoxicating. Dom strained the broth and ladled it over bowls of rice noodles, bean sprouts, basil and cilantro leaves and chili peppers. To top it off, Dom's brother added slices of grilled flank steak, marinated in chili oil, brown sugar and other goodies, as well as shrimp skewers in the same marinade. I've had more food on the grill in the past few days that I did in the whole month of August! I am really kicking myself for not having a camera to capture this beauty. It was amazing; complex and rich, mulit-layered and well-balanced, a kind of Vietnamese surf and turf.

As a side note, my family is proud of their succu recipe (that's red sauce or pasta sauce for those non-Italians who aren't in the know). It's typically made with three meats: pork ribs, Italian sausage and meatballs. When my mother started dating her boyfriend, who does not eat pork, we were all aghast. However will she make sauce for him, the ultimate expression of our love? My mother decied to use oxtail as a substitute and we were scandalized to find we preferred the oxtail sauce to the traditional. Anyway, these knucklebones got me thinking. I'm going to use them next time I make sauce, with meatballs of course.

After the pho, Robin pulled out a piece of birthday cake that she had made for her son but saved a piece for Dominick and me to savor. I normally don't care much for cake. I love sweets but I'm more of a pie, cheesecake, brownie kind of person. I think cake is often just too dry for me. Not this cake. Robin said she put a pound of butter in the cake and another pound in the frosting. Ridiculous but delicious. It was just a simple chocolate cake, but with all that butter and buttermilk and almond extract, it was far from the dry, tasteless Betty Crocker mix cakes.

Since the cake was just a little something for us to taste, Robin then brought out the real dessert. Ciao Bella has an outstanding Blackberry-Cabernet sorbet. I might not have tasted the wine had I not known, but I do think that it added richness without excessive sweetness. I have had sorbets and ice creams with wine before, with what I guessed was very cheap wine and too much of it so it was overwhelming in a bad way. This was subtle. Served with the sorbet were tiny coconut macaroons and chocolate-covered bananas. The dark chocolate, of course, complemented the sorbet beautifully.

Robin made us pomegranate martinis and we watched the game. By 5pm, I was pretty much in hypoglycemic shock, Robin was preparing her pizza dough and I thought I should make my escape. Well-sated and several pounds heavier, I made my way home thinking about how else I could use those luscious knucklebones.

Sunday Dinner

My mother, like most of my family, is an excellent cook. Lucky for us, so is her boyfriend. Every Sunday, he cooks her an elaborate meal, which I find quite endearing. I ocasionally receive an invitation to these lavish Sunday dinners. Greg really has no boundaries when it comes to food preparation. I'm always hearing about the new concoctions he whipped up with his smoker and his early morning treks to the Broadway Market for fresh bay scallops and the like.

Since N. was in town this weekend, Greg and my mamma invited us over to eat. I have to start by saying that I love biscuits. Maybe this is a by-product of living in the South or perhaps I have an affinity for all things light, airy and buttery. In any event, my mother got a recipe from Cook's Magazine, which I do not subscribe to but I won't be mad at you if you decide to get me a subscription for a present. I could go on and on about the glory of this magazine; it's so informative! But I will leave that research up to you. The point is, my mother found a recipe for the best biscuits I have ever had, although I have to give a close second to Miss Nettie, from Memphis, who makes biscuits and hot water cornbread to die for. I don't have the complete recipe yet but the technique that made these biscuits so delectable I can share. The melted butter is poured directly into cold buttermilk, whereby it immediately clumps up. This may look rather nasty, but the effect is that smalls globes of butter are suspended throughout the mixture, distributing their heavenly lightness and flavor. My mamma added snippets of fresh sage that just about put me over the edge.

So that was just the biscuits. The first course was a pureed soup of cauliflower and parsnips. Upon first taste, Greg pronounced that he would go to war for that soup. It was so seasonal, the taste of fall consummate. I love this time of year, when smooth, pureed soups of root vegetables really highlight local produce.

The main course was osso bucco, simmered in a spicy broth with carrots and turnips. I don't even like turnips but smothered in a rich, veal gravy, I cannot complain. The meat was tender to the bone. Sides included a risotto with chanterelle, shitake and oyster mushrooms and topped with TRUFFLE SHAVINGS! No wonder my mother loves this man. There was also swiss chard, sauteed with a bit of chipotle for a kick. I cleaned my plate and mopped it up with another biscuit. Oh my.

I should mention that Greg mixes a mean cosmopolitan, which I sipped on through the meal. After we finished eating, my mother whipped out this beautiful tea bud that she bought at the Elmwood Farmers Market. I'm kind of ignorant about tea so I can't say much except to describe how it looked. The long, slender green tea leaves were pulled together and knotted at the base, four wine-colored leaves extended up and the center was a raspberry burst of color. We watched it unfurl in the hot water while my mother snapped about a million pictures. I think the experience was better than the taste. It was nice, but very delicate. I prefer the more robust punch of coffee. But I would definitely buy this tea again, probably just to take a warm bath in and watch them bloom in the water around me.

Finally, gingerbread cake with lemon sauce. I could have happily lapped that lemon sauce up like a cat with a saucer of milk. That's not really polite so I was content to drown my cake in the moat of sauce. Greg and N. sipped some cognac, while bonding over manly fodder like baseball and the World Series. It was finally after 10 when we sleepily made our departure. My mom said she wanted to make the blog, so mamma, this one is for you two! That's one heck of a man you've got.

Chicken Chili

I made a really good pot of chili last night. I was inspired to pore through recipes for a "white chili" but nothing really popped out at me. I should warn you that measurement is not my forte but this is the best estimation of my Monday night chili. In honor of last night's amazing goal in overtime, I will call this chili....

Kotalik Chili

olive oil
1.5 lbs chicken breast, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. coriander
2 T. cumin
2 T. chili powder
1 packet Sazon
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped
1 15 ounce can cannellini beans
1 15 ounce can butter beans
1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 quart vegetable stock
File powder

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown for a few minutes.
Remove chicken and add onions. Cook on medium-high heat for a couple of minutes and then turn down the heat and caramelize for 30-40 minutes. Add garlic and bell peppers and cook 2 minutes. Add spices, stir and cook a few more minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and return the chicken to the pot. Cook on low for about 45 minutes. I like a thicker chili, so I smashed some of the beans against the side of the pot. I also added some file powder at the end, which is ground sassafras root that is often used to thicken gumbo.

Notes: I didn't use canned tomatoes because I am using up the last of my tomato harvest. I would estimate that a 28 ounce can is a fine substitute. Also, I used vegetable stock that I made with tomatoes, celery and carrots. I'm sure any stock or even water would be fine.