Italian Wedding Soup

We both like Italian Wedding Soup but have never made it before, so we figured, why not try it now?  It seems light enough to enjoy in the summer, and we found a recipe that looks great in a cookbook we both have - Gourmet Today, edited by Ruth Reichl.  This is the cookbook that gave us the absolutely amazing Spicy African Chicken and Peanut Soup recipe, so I have a feeling this soup will be pretty good.

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP, from Gourmet Today edited by Ruth Reichl (page 147)

For stock:

1 (3 1/2) pound chicken, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into 8 pieces

2 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths

2 carrots, quartered

1 large onion, left unpeeled, trimmed and halved

2 garlic cloves

6 fresh parsley stems, without leaves

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

4 quarts cold water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

For meatballs:

1 cup 1/4-inch pieces Italian bread

1 cup whole milk

1 pound meat loaf mix (equal parts ground beef, pork, and veal)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup finely grated pecorino Romano

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

About 2 cups vegetable oil

For soup:

5 cups water

1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

3 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

1 (3-by-2-inch) piece pecorino Romano rind

1 medium head escarole, tough stems discarded, leaves chopped (about 5 cups)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make the stock: Combine all ingredients in an 8- to 10-quart pot and bring to a boil; skim froth.  Reduce heat and simmer gently, uncovered, skimming froth occasionally, for 2 hours.  Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, form and fry the meatballs: Stir together bread and milk in a large bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.  Add meat, garlic, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper and blend with your hands just until well combined (do not overmix).  Form scant tablespoons into meatballs; you will have about 60 meatballs.

Heat 1 inch oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.  Cook meatballs in 3 batches, turning occasionally, until well browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes per batch.  Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Make the soup: Remove chicken from pot and pour stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl; discard solids.  Skim off and discard fat.  You should have about 3 quarts stock; if you have less, add enough water to make 3 quarts.

When chicken is cool enough to handle, discard skin and bones and coarsely shred enough chicken into bite-sized pieces to measure about 3 cups (reserve remaining chicken fro another use).

Return stock to cleaned pot and add 5 cups water.  Add onion, carrots, celery, and cheese rind and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 15 minutes.  Stir in escarole, cover, and bring to a boil.  Add meatballs and simmer, uncovered, until escarole is very tender, about 10 minutes.  Discard cheese rind, stir in shredded chicken, and season with salt and pepper.  Serve with grated cheese.

ANN'S VERSION

Making a good chicken stock from scratch is time-consuming but in this case it was totally worth it.  I used a really nice organic 3-1/2 lb. chicken and parsley and bay leaves from my garden, and for once I was diligent about skimming the scum when it first came to a boil.  The simmering took 2 hours and at the end I had both a delicious stock and nice poached chicken.  While the stock simmered I made the meatballs using half ground beef and half ground pork since I don't approve of veal on ethical grounds.  The mixture was quite loose and I made the first batch of meatballs a little too large, but they held together and were absolutely delicious.  I made the last two batches quite a bit smaller and they do cook a lot quicker than the recipe says so be watchful!  Next time I think I'll refrigerate the meatballs for an hour or so between forming and frying and they should be rounder and prettier, but the flavor and texture were wonderful.

There was no escarole at the grocery so I substituted 7 c. of dino kale which had a slight bitterness and chewy texture similar to the escarole.  I used a parmesan rind instead of romano.  I shredded all the poached chicken meat to make about 4 c.  This makes a LOT of soup!  We ate it for supper, I put 1-1/2 qts. in the refrigerator, and there were still 4 qts. for the freezer.  I highly recommend this soup and will make it again.  You could certainly make it with good quality commercial stock and just poach some chicken breasts for the meat, but I wouldn't change anything about the meatballs as they are the stars of the dish!

CASSIE'S VERSION

I forgot to write about this soup after making it (which was quite some time ago now!).  It was absolutely delicious!  The meatballs I made were so very good, but also quite rich.  Due to a strange bout of grocery shopping, I found myself with almond milk and heavy cream, but no regular cow's milk... so I used a combination of these two things.  I also made them out of pork only, because I also don't buy veal and didn't feel like using only half a package of ground meat.  As a result, these were incredibly rich meatballs but that worked out okay because the rest of the soup wasn't too heavy.  And they were incredibly delicious!

Other than these changes, I believe I followed the recipe fairly closely.  I didn't use a whole chicken, but rather just chicken thighs.  This was because every chicken I encountered was at least double the required 3.5 pounds.  Why are the chickens of New England so large?!?  I was happy to find escarole, which proved to be a delicious green in this soup.

Once again, a winning recipe from Ruth Reichl's Gourmet Today!  I can't wait to try another...

Tomato Soup, Two Ways

In honor of it no longer being winter, we have resolved to take on tomato soup. As with our seafood soups, we've decided not to choose a single recipe, but rather to each find something that suits our own particular tastes, mood, and ingredient availability. My mom also suggested that we make something to go along with our soup, so that means a total of four recipes!

CASSIE'S SOUP: Egyptian-Inspired Tomato Soup

No, I've never been to Egypt, and given the current political state, I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon. But as I was searching for recipes, I came across one for Egyptian Tomato Soup which looked delicious, easy, and (usually most important for me) spicy. This recipe was created by an American woman who traveled to Egypt, had a transformative bowl of soup, and tried to recreate it when she returned home. Thus, neither she nor I can vouch for its authenticity, but I can certainly vouch for its flavor. I did, of course, modify the recipe slightly, taking it even further away from its inspiration. I got the recipe from the prolific website The Kitchn.

Egyptian Tomato Soup, by Patti Londre

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimientos
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice; or 1 pound fresh tomatoes
1 (14.5 ounce) can low sodium chicken broth, or 2 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 limes cut into wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large stockpot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic, cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the pimientos and tomatoes, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Add the stock, chili powder and paprika and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor or blender), puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh lime squeezed on top.

My version

I had just roasted red bell peppers, so I substituted one pepper for the jarred pimientos (I weighed it and it was just about 15 ounces). I opted for fresh tomatoes even though they are not yet at their peak, because I found some that actually looked quite good, and winter has made me so tired of opening cans! I substituted Urfa pepper, a rather fantastic and complex Turkish crushed pepper, for the "chili" powder called for in the recipe, and I used about 3/4 of a teaspoon of it. I used smoked paprika and increased the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. After blending everything together, I went ahead and squeezed about a quarter of a lime directly into the soup. I didn't want to overdo the citrus, as tomatoes are already very acidic, so I went easier on the lime than I often do, but I loved the result. (Another reason to go easy on limes right now: they are super expensive and increasingly rare!). One nice thing about this soup is  that it takes very little time to make; you need only chop ingredients roughly because it is blended at the end. The other nice thing is, of course, the taste. Absolutely wonderful - light but filling, flavorful without being overly fussy, and a very welcome break from winter. Topped with a dollop of sour cream and served with the flatbread, below, it makes for a very pleasant meal.


CASSIE'S ACCOMPANIMENT: Flatbread with Dukka

This recipe comes from the much missed Gourmet magazine. My mom is not only an avid cookbook reader and collector, but she has as times also been a rather obsessive recipient of cooking magazines (though I hear she's cut back recently!). Until she could scour each issue and clip out the very best recipes, she would keep all the magazines - Bon Apetit, Cook's Illustrated, Saveur, and of course Gourmet, to name a few - under our coffee table. Though I didn't cook much until high school, I loved pulling out a random issue while I was a kid, perusing it on the couch while my mom made dinner (we were a very food aware household!).  Even then, Gourmet seemed to have not only the most interesting recipes of all the magazines, but also the best writing. Gourmet's allure for me was compounded by my mom's brief acquaintance with its editor, Ruth Reichl, when the two were living in Michigan in their 20s. Their acquaintance might have been brief, but it was productive: a picture of my mother, looking quite stylish, appears on page 46 of Ruth Reichl's very first cookbook, the psychedelic yet strangely practical Mmmmmm A Festiary. I was always mighty impressed with this photo, and I now have my own copy of the book (which has become quite expensive and difficult to find as it is, like Reichl's magazine, now out of print).

Which is a long way of introducing this recipe for Flatbread with Dukka, which appeared in the November 2004 issue of Gourmet, though I found it online. Perhaps my mother once clipped it from the magazine and added it to her massive recipe binders. Which she should have done - it's wonderful! This bread is, like the recipe above, inspired by Egypt. The spice and nut blend, dukka, is apparently used throughout the Middle East, though I'd like to fix that, and have it be widely used everywhere.  It's a fascinating and highly addictive combination of flavors.

Flatbread with Dukka, from Gourmet

For dukka:

2 tablespoons whole hazelnuts

1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

For flatbread:

3/4 cup warm water (105 - 115°F)

1 tablespoon mild honey

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus additional as necessary

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Special equipment: 2 large (17- by 11-inch) shallow baking pans

Make dukka:

Pulse all dukka ingredients in a food processor or an electric coffee/spice grinder until very finely ground, about 3 minutes (do not grind to a paste).

Make flatbread:

Stir together warm water, honey, and yeast in bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment (see cooks' note below if you don't have a stand mixer) and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.) Add 2 cups flour, salt, and oil and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Replace paddle with dough hook and, if necessary, add 2 to 3 teaspoons more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, until dough begins to pull away from side of bowl and is smooth but still slightly sticky to the touch, about 5 minutes.

Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.

Punch down dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half and let stand, covered with plastic wrap, 10 minutes.

Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece covered) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a roughly 17- by 11-inch rectangle. (Dough will be very thin.) Transfer dough to 1 of shallow baking pans. (Repair any tears in dough by pinching together.) Repeat with second piece of dough, transferring it to second baking pan. Sprinkle half of dukka over each rectangle and bake, switching position of pans and rotating them 180 degrees halfway through baking, until golden, about 20 minutes total. Cool in pans on racks 5 minutes, then transfer flatbreads to a cutting board and cut each into pieces with a sharp heavy knife. (Centers will be crisp.)

My version

I don't particularly like bread, but I do love pizza and crackers, and this flatbread occupies a deliciously elusive space between these two things.  I baked only half the dough, putting the other half in the freezer to make another time.  The only modifications I made were to roll the dough into a circle rather than a rectangle (because it was easier), and to brush the dough with olive oil before sprinkling on the dukka, as some of the online reviews mentioned that otherwise the spice doesn't really stick.  The bread baked beautifully, though it did bubble up quite a bit in a few places (not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps dimpling the dough, like you do with focaccia, would help produce a smoother surface).  And even with the olive oil, the dukka did fall off a bit.  I strategically ate the bread over my soup bowl, so that the spice would fall directly into my soup and thus be put to good use.  The flatbread was quite lovely, and I'd like to try using dukka on other things, too - I think it would be particularly wonderful as a crunchy coating for fish.



ANN'S SOUP: Provencal Tomato Soup

I love Patricia Wells's recipes and own at least 5 of her cookbooks.  Her recipes use ingredients I can find and aren't so complicated that I would put off making them until I have a big chunk of time. Plus, every recipe of hers has proved to be delicious!  The recipe for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fresh Sage from her 1993 Trattoria cookbook is one of my family's favorite all-time dishes. (Maybe I should figure out how to convert that to a soup!)

Cold Tomato Soup with Basil, adapted from At Home in Provence by Patricia Wells

2 cloves

1 onion, halved

2 pounds firm, ripe tomatoes, quartered

4 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered

2 t. salt

1 stalk celery, minced

1 T. extra-virgin olive oil

2 c. water or veg. stock

1 bunch fresh thyme

2 fresh bay leaves

4 T. basil leaves, cut into julienne strips

Press a clove into each half of the onion and place in a stockpot.  Add the tomatoes to the pot along with the garlic, salt, celery, oil, water or stock, thyme and bay leaves.  Bring to a boil over high heat, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.  Remove the onions, thyme and bay leaves and discard.  Pass the soup through the coarse blade of a food mill into a bowl.  Taste for seasoning.  Serve the soup hot or cold, sprinkled with fresh basil.  Add a persillade of finely minced garlic and parsley if you like.

My version

Ann's Version:  For once I didn't double or triple the recipe, figuring it was so simple it'd be as easy to make a new batch as to unthaw a container from the freezer.  I made very few changes, just using vegetable boullion for the stock and cooking the tomatoes for about 15 minutes more.  When it was all strained it really was just glorified tomato juice (but really good) so to pep it up I added about a teaspoon of grated lemon rind and the persillade of garlic and parsley.  That turned it into delicious soup!  The first day I ate it hot from the pot and it was great.  Second day it was cold from the refrigerator and just as good.  So easy and fast!

ANN'S ACCOMPANIMENT:  Rosemary Brioche Rolls, from Country Living Magazine, April 2014

1 T. active dry yeast

3-1/3 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 c. sugar

1 t. salt

5 large eggs

1 stick unsalted butter at room temp.

1 T. finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 T. freshly ground pepper

1 T. coarse salt, such as Maldon or kosher

In a small bowl, whisk together yeast and 1/2 c. lukewarm water.  Let sit until it becomes bubbly (about 10 min.). Combine flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl.  Add yeast mixture and stir well to combine.  Add 4 eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition.  Add butter, rosemary and pepper and stir until just combined.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and it comes together. Put in a large bowl, covered with a damp towel and let sit in a warm place until it's doubled in size (about an hour).  Prepare a baking pan by lining it with parchment, divide dough into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball and place them on the parchment.  Cover loosely and let rise until doubled in size (about 30-45 min.). Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk remaining egg with 1 T. water and brush tops of rolls with egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake until golden brown, about 20 min.

My version

These were wonderful!  I picked this recipe because the rosemary seemed appropriate to accompany a Provencal soup and the pepper was an extra bonus taste.  I used Balinese long pepper that I'd gotten a while ago from Zingerman's Deli.  It has a very floral taste and not too much bite, and it gave the rolls an exotic flavor that would be not easily identified as pepper.  Using a Kitchenaid mixer the rolls went together really fast. I'll definitely be using this recipe again, maybe experimenting with substituting various other spices and herbs.  I made the rolls to go with the cold soup and the contrast of the hot rolls and the pepper with the cold tomato was fantastic.

Asparagus Soup

To celebrate the arrival of spring in the Northeast (it's been spring for months in the Southwest!) we are making soup from the springiest of vegetables, asparagus.  The basic recipe is quite simple--an Amish soup from the Midwest--but I'm sure we will fiddle with it a bit (that makes me think of fiddleheads, but I think they are already past their prime in the cooler regions already and they never appear in markets in southern New Mexico).

ASPARAGUS SOUP (adapted from Cooking from Quilt Country)

1 lb. asparagus spears
2 c. chicken broth
2 T. butter
2 T. minced onion
2 T. flour
1/4 t. salt
l/4 t. grated nutmeg
1/8 t. powdered mustard
1/8 c. half and half
Dash of Tabasco
Croutons

Break the tough ends off the spears and cut off the tips and reserve.  Cut the stalks nto 2 inch pieces.  Put the stalks and the broth in a med. saucepan, bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 5 min.  Let cool slightly, then puree with a hand-held blender.  In another saucepan, melt the butter, then add the onion and cook over med. low heat until the onion is transparent.  Stir in the flour, salt, nutmeg and mustard and cook and whisk until the mixture bubbles, about 2 min.  Add the half and half all at once, cooking and whisking until the mixture thickens.  Add the asparagus and broth puree, reserved tips, and Tabasco.  Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat just long enough to cook the tips, about 3 min.  Sprinkle croutons over the top before eating.


CASSIE'S VERSION

I was fairly swift in making this soup, as my mom posted the recipe just before I headed to the grocery store.  I did actually see fiddlehead ferns there (as well as fresh chickpeas and fresh, unpeeled almonds - this is a pretty amazing store).  We also bought a single morel to saute in butter (they were something like $32/pound, so one is all I could justify!).

Because there was so much asparagus available, and the soup sounded so good, I decided to double the recipe.  Made as written, I think it would be fairly bland, but with my modifications it was delicious.  I left out the hot sauce and added a 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika, as I thought its flavors would complement the other elements of the soup quite well.  I had fresh sage so I added a generous few tablespoons chopped leaves.  I thought the soup could be a bit richer, so I added maybe 1/8 of a cup more of half-and-half.  I had to increase the salt quite a bit, though I'm not sure how much I added.  I also liberally cracked fresh pepper into the soup, added several shakes of hot pepper flakes, threw in some dried marjoram at the last minute, and then finished it off with the juice of one whole lemon, plus the juice of half a Meyer lemon that needed to be used up.

I topped the soup bowls with fresh croutons, which I made using sourdough bread, good olive oil, and garlic salt.  I served the soup alongside chicken sausages.  Delicious!  A great soup for spring.


ANN'S VERSION

I had wonderful local purple asparagus from the co-op for this soup, but I know from past experience that purple asparagus turns green when it's cooked so I wasn't hoping for any special color.  The really cool surprise was that since the tips are reserved and only cooked briefly at the end they actually stayed purple!  So, nice contrast between the green soup and the floating purple tips.  I also doubled this recipe, finding it hard to believe that any Amish family could sit down to dinner with only one quart of soup.  My changes and substitutions are given for the original size recipe.

I added 2 T. minced parsley and 1 T. fresh lemon thyme to the stems as they cooked and also added 1/4 t. urfa pepper (dark and smoky and not too hot) to the flour, butter and spices.  When I went to the refrigerator for my half and half all I found was a partial carton of heavy cream gone quite bad and some 2% milk--oops!  It seemed the soup was going to be quite thick so I used the 2% and upped the quantity to 1 cup, adding 2 T. more butter to make up the richness.  The soup thickened and was very flavorful even with the reduced fat milk.  I added the tips with the pureed broth and stems to the milky mixture and simmered it for about 5 minutes or so.  At the end I added the juice of half a meyer lemon and another 1/2 t. salt. 

I'd put some homemade croutons to bake in the oven while making the soup and croutons and soup were done at the same time.  My croutons are just cubed french bread, a fair amount of olive oil, herbs de provence and kosher salt.  The soup was wonderful and the lemon thyme was the real star.  It's the perfect herb for asparagus and luckily I used just the right amount so it was noticeable but not overpowering.  I ate the croutons on the side (much better than crackers!).  Great soup for a spring day!

Seafood Soup

Our next soup will be a seafood soup, with each of us finding a recipe we'd like to try.  I've invited my brother Nathaniel - the beer cheese soup proponent - to join in.  We can make each others seafood soup recipes at some point, but I'm mostly curious to see what we are individually drawn to in this broad category.

 

CASSIE'S PICK

Hot and Sour Tomato Broth with Shrimp from Padma Lakshmi's Tangy, Tart, Hot, & Sweet

This soup is inspired by the South Indian soup rasam, which I really enjoy. It is certainly not a meal on its own, but shrimp would certainly make it more filling. Lakshmi warns that the addition makes this very different from the "original" it is based on, but that the flavors still work quite well together. She also suggests adding rice noodles to make it even more substantial (and, of course, even less traditional).

Ingredients: 

 
2 1-ounce knobs tamarind pulp
12 ounces peeled, deveined shrimp
juice of 1 ripe lemon
salt
1 ½ T vegetable oil
¾ t black mustard seeds
¼ t fenugreek seeds
½ t cumin seeds
20 fresh curry leaves
3 cloves sliced garlic
½ t asafetida powder
2 C halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1 to 2 fresh minced green chilies
½ t sambar curry powder (or Madras curry powder)
½-inch piece of jaggery (brown cane sugar or palm sugar)
1 T Thai fish sauce
¼ c chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

 
1. Soak the tamarind pulp in 6 cups of very hot water (bring it to a boil and then pour it over the tamarind) for 20 minutes and crush it with the back of a spoon to make a pulp.

2. Marinate the shrimp in lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Set aside in the fridge.

3. In a deep soup pot, heat the vegetable oil on medium heat and add the mustard seeds, fenugreek, cumin, curry leaves, and garlic; cook for 3-4 minutes. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop and crackle out of the pan, add the asafetida, tomatoes, and green chilies. Stir for a couple of minutes and then add the curry powder.

4. After 4-5 minutes, after tomatoes start to soften, pour in the strained tamarind gravy.

5. Stir in the jaggery and the fish sauce, and heat for about 10 minutes. Make sure the jaggery dissolves completely. Taste for salt. Once the oil begins to separate, and pools of it form on the surface, add the shrimp and cook until just opaque. This is where you could add in rice noodles, too.
 

6. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

My Version

This was so good!  And I know why: it is simply a seafood variation on our favorite genre of "spicy noodle soup."  I was rather impressed with my spice supply, as the only things I had to buy for this were shrimp, cilantro, and fresh tomatoes.  I somehow had all those other items on hand, although this did deplete my tamarind supply, and I am nearly out of curry leaves (20 is a lot, but don't scrimp; they really make this dish special).

I really didn't change much.  I had tamarind syrup instead of pulp, which is easier to use (basically a concentrate, and it doesn't need to be strained).  I added a bit more shrimp because I bought a full pound.  And I did opt for adding the rice noodles, which made the dish into a meal.  I just soaked them in hot water while I got everything else ready, and added them in, already cooked, with the shrimp.

This soup is so bright and fresh, and is an excellent way to transition to the lighter flavors of spring.  It was also fairly quick to put together, as nothing has to cook for very long.  I recommend assembling your spices and chopping all the vegetables first, to streamline the process.

Highly recommended! 

ALEX'S PICK (in place of Nathaniel, though he happily ate the results!)

It's finally my (Cassie's) turn to meet baby Josephine.  I'm in Colorado right now for my Passover/Easter/"spring" break and having a wonderful time.  (Josephine, by the way, is the sweetest baby there ever was.)  Last night, Alex made us a delicious bouillabaisse, and she passed the recipe on to me - though it came to her first from my mom.  She says she used different seafood (clams, mussels, and steelhead trout), increased the number of carrots, used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, and omitted the lemon juice.  She also used the full cup (!) of olive oil but was not satisfied with the results, thinking it needed less oil and more broth.  In the past she has used a large can of undrained crushed tomatoes, which she said worked better to thin out the oil.

This was really delicious, though quite rich!  One small bowl was enough for each of us.  We ate it with roasted Brussels sprouts on the side, in front of the TV, with the baby bouncing at our feet.  Vacation is great!

1904: Bouillabaisse, from The New York Times

1 cup olive oil

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 carrot, peeled and very thinly sliced

2 pinches saffron

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs parsley

2 cloves garlic

1 pound each boned and skinned cod and halibut (fluke or sea bass may be substituted for either), cut into 2-inch pieces

2 cups peeled and deveined medium shrimp

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup rich fish broth

1/2 cup white wine

6 slices toasted country bread.

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, carrot, saffron, bay leaf and parsley. Peel and crush 1 garlic clove and add it to the pan. Add the fish, shrimp and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and boil for 10 minutes. Add the fish broth and wine, bring to a rapid simmer and cook until the fish is just cooked through. 

Adjust the seasoning, adding more saffron, lemon juice, salt and pepper as desired.

2. Rub the toasts with the remaining peeled garlic clove. Set a toast in the bottom of each of 6 bowls and ladle the soup on top. Serves 6.

ANN'S PICK

I wanted to make a soup that would feel like spring (light and herb-filled) and would use frozen seafood, since in New Mexico we get our seafood from the freezer section.  If it's not frozen one wonders how long it's been away from the sea!  Cassandra forwarded a few recipes to me and luckily one used sea scallops (a bag of which I had stashed in the freezer). 

Spinach and Scallop Soup, from Bon Appetit, September 1997

makes 2 main course servings

2 T. butter
1/2 c. diced red bell pepper
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 c. canned low-salt chicken broth
1-1/2 c. (packed) thinly sliced spinach leaves
1/4 c. whipping cream
1/2 t. dried crushed red papper
10 sea scallops, halved horizontally
2 T. chopped fresh basil

Melt butter in heavy med. saucepan over med. heat.  Add bell pepper and onion and saute until almost tender, about 3 min.  Add broth, spinach, cream and red papper.  Cover pan and simmer until spinach is tender, about 3 min.  Add scallops and simmer uncovered until just opaque in center, about 3 min.  Mix in basil.  Season soup to taste with salt and papper.  Ladle into bowls and serve.

My Version

Very quick and easy recipe.  I tripled the recipe since who would ever make soup to serve 2?   One of the reasons for making soup in my opinion is to have containers in the freezer for days when you're just too tired to cook.  I used 1-1/2 large yellow and orange bell peppers instead of the red.  It's what I had on hand, but I think the colors also looked great.  So great, in fact, that I continued the festive theme and used an entire medium-sized purple onion.  Beautiful!  I had lovely baby spinach so figured there was no reason to slice such little  leaves (much work saved!).  I used med. hot Aleppo red pepper, one of my favorites and I didn't want to risk making this gentle-seeming soup too spicy.  The sea scallops varied a lot in thickness so I just tried to slice them between 3/8" and 1/2" thick.  This meant some were sliced once and others made two or three slices, but I wanted them all to cook at the same rate.  Even though I love fresh basil it just didn't seem to belong in this soup, so I picked parsley, lemon thyme, marjoram and chives from my herb garden and chopped them all up very finely with the ulu knife Gordon had brought me from Alaska (a wonderful contraption with its own shallow cutting bowl that I recommend to anyone who uses fresh herbs often).  Everything was done within a half hour, even with the longer times tripling the recipe required.  I added the herbs along with the broth and spinach rather than at the end since the slightly tougher leaves of the ones I used instead of basil needed a little extra cooking time.  The scallops went in last and were cooked in just a few minutes.  I suggest you stay with the soup once you add them so you can get it off the heat quickly enough to keep them from getting tough. 

I had the soup with a glass of ice water with fresh mint and some terrific small snack samosas Cassie had sent me.  Wonderful lunch!

CHEDDAR AND BEER SOUP (Adapted from Real Simple magazine)

4 T. butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 small carrots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c. flour
2 c. water with 2 tsp. chicken bouillon powder
2 c. whole milk
1 12 oz. can beer 
3 c. grated sharp cheddar (about 3/4 lb.)
1-1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1 T. sugar
1 t. hot sauce
1 baguette
1 t. olive oil

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cook until soft (5-7 min).  Add flour and stir for 3 min.  Still stirring, add water and bouillon powder and cook until smooth (about 3 min.)  Stirring constantly, add milk and beer and cook until foam subsides and soup thickens slightly (about 5 min.).  Add cheese, salt,  pepper, sugar and hot sauce.  Simmer over med. low heat for 20 min, stirring occasionally.  Let cool 5 min.  Thinly slice baguette, put on baking sheet and brush with olive oil.  Bake at 350 degrees until golden. Top soup with bread and more cheese.

NATHANIEL'S VERSION (WITH ANN'S ASSISTANCE)

Nathaniel had made this soup for us our last night of our Christmas/New Year's visit so I only got one bowl and had been craving it ever since.  Our next trip to Greeley was in February to meet our brand new granddaughter, Josephine, and since she of course was the focus of all our attention we didn't get around to making it until the last night of our visit again.  Nathaniel and I made a grocery run for the ingredients (nothing exotic!) and thought we were all set, but of course midway through making the soup we realized the milk container in the fridge was not nearly as full as we'd thought and he had to run back to the store.  We used the generic block sharp cheddar and grated it in the food processor.  Nathaniel prefers the chicken bouillon powder everyone in New Mexico uses for Mexican cooking (I think it's Knorr) over canned chicken broth.  We doubled the recipe (except for the hot sauce) and some of us ate the baguette in the soup and some on the side.  It was so good--more brothy than most cheese soups which so often are just basically a cheese sauce.  

ANN'S VERSION

I pretty much stuck to Nathaniel's version since it was so good.  I did use 2 c. unsalted chicken stock instead of the bouillon so had to increase the salt by about a tsp.  I had 2% milk on hand, so in place of the whole milk I substituted 1-1/2 c. 2% milk and 1/2 c. half and half.  I added an extra tsp. of hot sauce (no surprise!) and for some reason my soup was not as brothy as Nathaniel's so I used an extra half bottle of Tecate.  I didn't do the toasted bread but just ate some untoasted on the side.  Again, this soup was so delicious!  Nathaniel says he's made it using various kinds of beer (stout, etc.) and it's always good.  Very comforting cold weather soup!

CASSIE'S VERSION

Yum!  I absolutely despise beer and cannot drink it.  This soup, however, is delicious.  I made it almost exactly as written above, using a bottle of Samuel Adams Boston Lager (appropriate, given my location).  And the hot sauce I used was Portuguese (also appropriate for the area).  The only issue I had was that it was quite salty.  Next time, I will cut down on the added salt.  Maybe my Better than Bouillon is saltier than regular bouillon.  Other than this, I was surprised by how much I loved this soup, especially because I don't like beer.  The beer really does cook away, leaving a complex flavor that goes well with sausage and broccoli on the side.  This was perfect for the rainy, chilly weather we are currently having.  Thanks for the recipe, Nathaniel!

Moroccan Harira

From David Tanis, A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, page 219 

Tanis says the texture should be "velvety," which means it must be gently simmered for "a minimum of 2 hours."  He also says this tastes even better the next day. 

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

1 pound boneless lean shoulder of lamb, in ½-inch cubes

2 large onions, finely diced

½ t crumbled saffron

1 t each ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, and pepper

2 t powdered hot red chile

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 C dried peeled fava beans, picked over and washed

1 C red lentils, picked over and rinsed

13 C water

Salt

6 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 C coarsely chopped parsley

1 C coarsely chopped cilantro plus slivered cilantro for garnish

⅓ C all-purpose flour

4 T butter

Lemon wedges 

Directions:

Heat oil in a deep heavy-bottomed soup pot.  Brown the lamb lightly, then add the chopped onion, stir, and brown them.  Add all the spices and the garlic and let them sizzle for a few minutes.  Add the favas, lentils, and 12 cups water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a bare simmer.  Add 2 t salt and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 ½ hours.

Put the tomatoes, parsley, and cilantro in a blender with a little salt and puree the mixture.  Add the puree to the soup and simmer for another ½ hour or so.

Now puree half the soup and return it to the pot.  Make a slurry with the flour and remaining 1 cup water (stir together until smooth), add to the soup, and simmer for 10 minutes.  Taste and adjust for salt and spice.  Add the butter and stir until melted.  The texture should be quite smooth, neither too thick nor too thin.

Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with slivered cilantro.  Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice into each bowl, and pass a plate of lemon wedges.  Tanis suggests serving this soup with oranges and dates on the side.

Cassie's Version

This was terrific, and perfect as the weather cools down again.  I have to admit that I did not follow the time directives, hurrying this along because I was hungry and I just didn't see the point of the additional cooking time - it looked and tasted pretty velvety to me!  I probably cooked everything together (before adding the tomatoes) for a little over an hour, and then for another 15 minutes with the tomato puree and the flour.  The favas and the lentils had pretty much fallen apart after an hour.

Another reason that I didn't want to take the extra cooking time was because I had already spent about 20 minutes peeling the favas that I soaked all day.  I bought whole favas, and this recipe specifically calls for shelled beans.  There is apparently some debate over whether they need to be peeled or not - the French and Americans peel them, and it seems that everyone else might not.  But then I remembered that fava beans can be dangerous for some people to eat.  I've eaten them fresh with no problem, but for some reason I connected the danger to the peel, and opted to shell them so that tonight's dinner would not be anyone's last.

I also had to take a bit of extra time fishing out the lamb shoulder chops from the soup, to cut the meat off the bone.  Apparently there is a dearth of lamb in the Boston suburbs - I got what I could, and it was very good, but that too took a bit more work.  Perhaps because of these additional steps, I forgot to add the saffron, which was a shame (though I just threw in a few strands as we were eating).  I stuck to the recipe fairly closely in other respects, reducing the water slightly as I had already soaked the favas, and adding the juice of two whole Meyer lemons at the end along with more salt.

The end result was quite spicy, in a good way, as the Indian chile powder we had on hand is surprisingly potent.  The other spices were lovely in this dish; I particularly like adding cinnamon to savory dishes.  The lamb was such a nice change from other meat soups, and I enjoyed cooking with favas for the first time (despite the peeling!).

Highly recommended!

Ann's Version

There was no boneless lamb to be found at the grocery other than a 6 pound boneless leg.  Las Cruces stores are heavy on the pork and beef but the lamb selections are rather paltry.  Instead I used 2 pounds of bone-in shoulder chops that I deboned and cut in small pieces.  The bones weren't very substantial so I used quite a bit more meat in the soup than called for in the recipe.  The spices in this are wonderful and the only change I made was using 4 tsp. of powdered gualillo chile (a very flavorful type with medium heat) instead of the 2 tsp. of hot chile.  It made for perfect heat.  The only fava beans I could find were canned, so I used a 12 oz. can, drained and rinsed. 

When I got to the point where the soup needed to simmer for 1-1/2 hrs. I realized I had 3 oboe lessons to give starting in 15 min. so I put the soup on a really low simmer and ended up leaving it for 4 hours!  Actually not a bad technique it turned out since the soup would be pureed anyway.  The meat was extremely tender and the fava beans still held their shape but were nice and soft.  I pureed 8 small tomatoes with parsley and cilantro I had growing outside (yay for warmer weather!) and after adding that to the soup simmered it for only 10 or 15 min. more.  Instead of pureeing half the soup I half-pureed the whole pot with an immersion blender (one of the best appliances ever!), added the flour paste and simmered for another 10 min.  The added butter at the end is a nice touch, both taste and texture-wise.

A tablespoon or so of chopped cilantro and 2 lemon wedges squeezed in made this soup perfect.  I ate it with some very fresh sourdough bread and a tangelo (would have also eaten a few dates alongside but the last date had disappeared from the pantry that morning).  I don't think I've ever made a soup with lamb before or a soup that had pureed meat.  This may be my favorite soup so far and I found myself craving it while away from home.  Luckily it makes a large batch and I have 3 more quarts in the freezer!

Indonesian Spicy Chicken Soup (Soto Ayam)

Adapted from The Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon

3 lb. chicken parts
8 c. cold water
3 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns
few celery tops
2 onions
2 T. peanut oil
2 fresh red chiles, seeded & chopped
6 curry leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. dried shrimp paste
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 1/2 T. ground coriander
2 t. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground fennel
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
lemon juice to taste
2 small bundles egg noodles
Garnish:  3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
                 6 cloves garlic, sliced and fried
                 8 sliced green onions
                 fried dried chiles
                 crumbled potato chips
                 sambal olek

Wash chicken parts and put in pot with cold water, salt, peppercorns, celery tops and one onion.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 35-40 min. or until chicken is tender.  Strain stock into a bowl.  Remove bones and skin from chicken parts and cut into small pieces, then set aside.  Heat peanut oil in large pot, slice the other onion and fry it in the oil with the chiles and curry leaves until the onion is soft and starts to brown.  Add garlic, ginger, shrimp paste and fry, crushing shrimp paste with a spoon.  Add the ground spices and fry for a few seconds longer.  Add the strained stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 min.  Add lemon juice to taste.  Cook the egg noodles in boiling water for 5 min., then drain and add to soup together with the chicken meat.  Serve in bowls and garnish with the hard boiled eggs, fried garlic, green onions, potato chips.  Add sambal carefully each bowl to get the heat you desire.

Ann's Version

This soup is absolutely delicious!  The Spicy African Chicken and Peanut Soup had been my favorite so far, but this one is just as good.  Perhaps "spicy chicken" in the name bodes well.  I used 3 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breast and it made for a very rich broth.  Since there were no bones or skin it seemed like a lot of meat so when the broth was done I fished one breast out and fed it to my husband.  (Okay, that sounds strange!)  For the chiles I used 3 red serranos from my last summer's harvest that were in the freezer.  Freezing chiles definitely seems to temper the heat but since the sambal olek goes in as a garnish I figured that would ramp it up.  I could not find the shrimp paste I thought was in the pantry so instead used a couple of tsps. of some really thick Vietnamese anchovy sauce, figuring what was important was the funky fishiness. I used the juice of two whole lemons for the "lemon juice to taste" and it was perfect.  For everything else I stuck to the recipe.

I used chopped hard-boiled egg, chopped green onion, sambal olek and fried garlic as garnishes and they really make it special.  The garlic was sliced very thin and fried at quite a low heat in peanut oil until it was light brown (I could eat a lot of this all by itself!).  I had just bought a jar of sambal olek so it was really nice and fresh and spicy.  For a good-sized bowl of soup I used about a tablespoon, but of course this was for someone who loves hot chile! Crushed potato chips were suggested as garnish in the original recipe but soggy smashed chips did not appeal to me. 

This is is actually quite a hearty soup because of the noodles and the amount of chicken, but because of all the lemon juice and the wonderful spices it tastes light and healthy.  I will definitely make this one again!

Cassie's Version 

Perfect soup for a snow day - which this ended up being.  I went to class this morning, then all of metro Boston closed down because of heavy snowfall to be followed by freezing rain.

As I said in a previous post, I'm always looking for ways to use the habaneros in my freezer, which are from my mom's garden.  They are simply too overpowering to use in most dishes, but because I knew this recipe would make quite a lot of soup I thought one habanero would actually work better than several milder chiles.  This was a good move - the soup is definitely spicy (I did not seed and de-vein the habanero), but not overly so. 

I found what turned out to be a very nice shrimp paste at the grocery store.  My previous experience with shrimp paste resulted in disaster.  When I was in high school, my mom bought a really beautiful Asian cookbook full of color photos.  We decided to make an attractive-looking eggplant dish from this book that called for shrimp paste in it, and it started out really promising - until we added the paste.  We ended up tossing the entire skillet of food into the trash.  Its odor was so vile and pungent that I believe we opened up all the windows for several hours even though it was quite cold out.  So I was hesitant to use it here but I think I've found a paste that is a lot less potent - a Thai paste in oil.  I'm actually looking forward to cooking more things with it.

I used one very large lemon to brighten up the soup and threw in cooked lo mein noodles at the end.  I also topped my soup with hard-boiled egg, green onion, sambal oelek, and fried garlic.  When I was looking for shrimp paste in the Asian section of the grocery store, I also came across jars of fried garlic and fried onion.  I thought a jar of fried garlic would actually prove useful for quite a few dishes - as a garnish for stir fries, for example.  The garlic is shelf-stable and somewhat similar in consistency to French's fried onions (though not nearly as salty).

My one problem with the dish was really my fault.  I simmered the chicken either too long, or at too high a temperature.  This resulted in a lovely broth, but the chicken itself was overcooked.  So if you make this, be sure to check the meat as it simmers so you don't get past the pleasantly tender stage.  Even with this problem, the soup is extremely good - and just what I needed on a cold, snowy winter day!