Alayna and Mary Lorraine met in art school in the south of France. They have eaten together in Corsica, Morocco, Croatia and now (and often) Manhattan's lower east side.
Sometimes Alayna and I surprise ourselves. I feel like here, bathing in soup bowl #64, we are still making some pretty awesome soups with unique and rich flavors. The thing that's particularly wild about that is that they are all so simple. We were discussing how we've never incorporated tools beyond a blender, oven and stove. This attests to both our zen and lazy personalities.
Further, with each passing soup bowl ladled and served I feel more like ... I'm feeling heady so excuse me ... but soup as a way of life. (WWYSBD = What Would Your Soup Bowl Do? ... well, probably just sit there.) I have been making a point to utilize local farmer markets more and more and make and use our own broth-- the idea of knowing exactly what I'm putting in my bowl (the bowl that Alayna made in pottery) and that it's good and simple is quite the rarity in these fast, strange New York City times.
So as I sit back at my desk at work, sipping a Diet Coke, a product I have no clue what it actually is, where it came from, or how long it can last, though I have a feeling an awfully long time-- the fact that I am totally aware of the stuff in my soup bowl is a delight.
To think Alayna never saw a purple potato before!
cut up about a handful and a half of baby potatoes into bite-sized pieces (we used multicolor ones) and put into a separate pot to boil
fill a medium sized bowl with water and about two ounces of dried porcini mushrooms and microwave for five minutes, letting the mushroom steep until needed
saute 6 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil with one sprig of fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh thyme, adding half a yellow onion when they begin to be fragrant
when the onion is translucent, add six chopped carrots (the skinny kind or two of the fat kind) to the pot and cook covered
wipe off 3 portobella mushrooms and chop into bite-sized pieces, adding to the pot and stirring
cook until the portabella mushrooms are done all the way through, then add the porcini juice (straining out the mushrooms) and potatoes (strained), topping off with bouillon cubes and water
when broth is heated, add a bunch of chopped chard and cook five more minutes until done
Yup, that there is a bowl of spring if I ever did see one. This Monday Alayna and I had a soup party. Friends as far as Vermont came for a bowl of blended vegetables and artichoke leaves, or rather, another vehicle to melted butter. "People ask me, what's my favorite food? And I always say lobster of course," Alayna tells the group. "But I really just mean butter."
P.J. might have said it best- "Peas are so hot right now." Peas ARE hot right now. Do you guys utilize a pack of frozen peas as often as you should? Those things are like popcorn. I love when they are still a little bit frozen in the center so they sort of burst in your mouth like a veggie-gusher. I swear, that tastes good.
If you live in NYC, which you probably don't because my Google Analytics say you're more likely to live in Canada or Dubai, you'd know it's been a hot week. Probably not as hot as Dubai right far flung soupettes? This is a great soup warm but I can imagine would be wonderful cold with a dollop of yogurt. Okay friends, enjoy!
Asparagus and Pea Soup
in a medium saucepan, put 4 chopped medium red potatoes in water to boil and take a bag of peas out to thaw. you don't really have to thaw them if it's warm enough outside that they'll melt (they also make a delicious cooling snack in the meantime)
chop and saute one large yellow in olive oil on medium low heat
add 3-4 leeks, white part only, also chopped and half a bag of baby carrots (or 2-3 large carrots)
cook covered until onions are translucent
add two bunches of asparagus, also chopped, bring heat up some and cook covered
when asparagus is bright green, add the thawed peas, and min
when asparagus is easy to poke through with a fork (about five minutes) add potatoes in their water, a handful of parsley and top off with as much more as you need, adding vegan bouillon
voila! vegan soup
Delicious artichokes
cut the stems off your artichokes
cover with cold water and bring to a low boil
boil for 35-45 minutes.. when they are done, you should be able to easily poke through the bottom with a fork and pull leaves out of the center
drain and serve with melted garlic butter (microwaved or stove melted butter with two cloves of chopped garlic)
TO EAT: pull the leaves off, dip them in butter and scrape them with your teeth to get the meaty part, discarding the rest. the further in you go, the more tender the leaves will be. when you get to the tiny leaves, grab a spoon and scrape the babies leaves and the thistles (which you do NOT want to eat b/c they hurt when you swallow them, so clean thoroughly) to get to the HEART, which you can just cut into bite-sized pieces of butter dipped heaven and eat
I love when Mo is in town because it makes Monday's Soups feel like a whole lot less work (uhm, maybe just for me) and a whole lot more wine. Mo introduced us to the mung bean, explained how to make our own yogurt, and told us about how wonderful sour cherries are from her uncle's trees in Iran. That all sounds nice doesn't it?
It especially sounded nice on red wine bottle number 2.5. This soup might win for overall bulk. See picture below. Not even that time we used an entire Halloween pumpkin have we filled the soup pot so high. This soup took longer than normal to cook, because we had to soften all those beans, but that was fine by me. We ate Alayna's baba ghanoush, I realized I need to buy a small food processor, and we talked about how stupid the Atkins Diet is and my new obsession with potted herbs and how maybe putting them all on my bathroom windowsill isn't the smartest idea. A few hours later I walked home, all 30 blocks north, with the heaviest giant pickle jar of soup I've carried yet. So many lunches. So exciting.
saute one large yellow onion in olive oil with a generous bit of turmeric until soft
add three cups of mung beans and cover with water and bring to a low boil
after the mung beans have been simmering for about ten minutes, add about two cups of green lentils, one cup of rice, and about 3/4 a stick of butter (butter is delicious), adding more water if necessary, and get back to a simmer for another 30-40 minutes until all parts are soft and mushy
at this point you can also chop 2-4 carrots and throw them in (optional)
chop up two bunches of chard (red or swiss) and put them in about the last ten minutes, as well as a generous handful of parsley
adjust turmeric, salt and pepper flavoring as necessary
New York has had a series of disappointing snowstorms in the last couple of weeks... the kind that make you sit inside because instead of sticking to the ground they just melt and slush on impact. Last week some people even had a snow day (which pretty much never happens), although I'm pretty sure that was out of jealousy over Washington D.C. since it barely even snowed and trains were delayed less than they are when it rains. I never thought that living in New York I'd be wishing for snowstorms like they have in the South, but stranger things have happened, right?
Anyway, Mary went off to her skiing in Vermont and I had a not incredibly productive but very relaxing weekend in the city, hanging out with coworkers, watching terrible movies, throwing some pots at the studio and finding a new (to me) speakeasy in my neighborhood. After a visit to the MOMA Monday, split pea soup, a kitten on the lap and a few hours to get work done were just what the doctor ordered. And the best part about this soup is that it only involves about ten minutes of actual work, then two hours of cooking, so you can wander off and cozy up until you get hungry. So without further ado...
Split Pea Soup
Warm up your dutch oven (or regular soup pot) on low heat.
Saute about five finely chopped cloves of garlic in a little olive oil, adding one chopped white onion when they are getting translucent.
When the onion is translucent, add three chopped leeks (white and light green parts only) and one or two large chopped carrots
Add 2lbs of dried split peas and fill the pot with broth to about 2 inches below the rim (I used home-made broth from a chicken I roasted earlier in the weekend, this time with the addition of LEMON which was phenomenal, but if you're not using home-made broth, at this point I would also throw in a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme and oregano, and one whole lemon, cut in half)
Cover and let simmer for about two hours, adding water if necessary, until peas are mushy and delicious
After about an hour and a half, add in the leaves of one bunch of swiss chard, torn into bite sized pieces.
So this weekend my dear friend and fellow-blogger Mary-Lorraine left me to my own devices for not one, but TWO blog-meals. She went to the wilds of Vermont DESPITE Friday being national soup day AND Monday being Martin Luther King day, which, like all no-work Mondays, is a day of extra complicated (or at least long) souping. And sometimes bread baking. I know, intense.
The upshot was that I had a wonderful weekend with some friends I don't normally see. Friday I hosted Alexa, Elizabeth and Drew (all former Amigos volunteers and incredibly entertaining) for a vegan Ethiopian feast that featured not one, not two, but three stews and some hand-purchased-from-a-restaurant traditional bread, and then Monday Lindsay came over to share some Martha Stewart inspired cock-a-leekie soup with home-made rolls from Kate's Mom's recipe. Deeeelicious.
You'll have to check Friday's Dinners for the Ethiopian food, but here is some good old chicken soup with a twist of... prunes? Don't worry, it was delicious.
Cock-a-Leekie Soup
This soup starts in the afternoon, so make sure you’ve got enough time on your hands!!! • Start off my taking a 3-4 lb chicken and put it in a dutch oven. Chop one onion into eighths, two large carrots into big sized chunks, about 4 celery sticks and peel about 6 cloves of garlic. Arrange them all around the chicken except two of the garlic cloves. • Stuff a bundle of fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano into the body cavity of the chicken (check to make sure they don’t have the bagged intestines inside... gross, but important) with the two cloves of garlic, and spread a smaller bundle around with the onions and carrots. Sprinkle the whole she-bang with salt and pepper. • Cook on very low heat for about two hours • When the chicken is cooked, let it cool off for a little bit and then pull it, the veggies and any herbs out of the pot, leaving any liquid in the bottom of the dutch oven and set aside • Put about four pints of broth into the pot and bring to a simmer • Add half a cup of barley (dry), about 7 leeks (white and light green parts only) lightly chopped and about fifteen dried and pitted prunes cut into quarters. Cook for about forty minutes until the barley is cooked through • While the soup is cooking, let the chicken and reserved veggies cool.... roughly chop them and set them aside. De-bone the chicken, discarding the skin and keeping the bones to make broth later, and shredding the meat into bite-sized pieces. • Once the barley is cooked through, add the veggies and about half of the chicken meat back into the soup, along with a handful of fresh parsely • Simmer for about ten more minutes and eat!
Egg Buns (From Kate’s mom)
This is another one that takes a while! Just so you know! • Soften 2 teaspoons of dry yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm (not hot) water. Let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients together. • Beat 2 eggs, 5/8 cup of whole milk and 1/3 cup melted butter together. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of sugar and yeast mixture. Stir well. • Slowly beat in flour, first a cup, then in half cup increments or less. The MOST you should use is 3 cups, but you might not need it all. When dough is no longer runny, turn it out onto a well-floured surface (really put a lot of flour on there, not just a dusting) and knead for 10 minutes. Add more flour as needed to keep it from sticking to the surface, but try to use as little flour as possible. You want your dough to be very tender and soft, like a baby’s bottom, not stiff. • Put dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a moist cloth or plastic wrap, and set in a warm place for 1- 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size. If you stick your finger in the dough and the depression bounces back, let it rise a bit more. • Turn the dough out onto the floured surface (just a dusting this time) and cut into 12 equal pieces. Form each into a roll and place on a baking sheet that has been dusted with cornmeal (or greased with oil or butter) about 1” – 2” apart. Cover the rolls with the cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until double in size (same test with your finger). • Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until brown.
Gang, holy heck but next week is OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF SOUP. Dang, time flies when you're spooning ladles and peeling garlic. Can't believe it only took us 47 soups before we decided to make CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP. 47 soups? Is that how many we made? Golly.
And look at us now. Back in the old days we only sliced up sausages, now we're de-boning, breaking wish bones (I won) and slaughtering pumpkins... and yet I'm still wearing the same ridiculous glasses that are my Dad's. Awesome.
Alayna got a dutch oven. She hasn't really been able to stop talking about it but I understand. It's cool to come home and see your chicken soaking up flavors in a pot on the stove. Homey. And that chicken tasted good. Even the breast meat which Alayna is weirdly adverse to, she admitted, was tasty.
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Remember that book series? Jeez, they really have a book for everyone. Good thing they have a Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, and for a second I didn't know what to get Alayna for Christmas...
Chicken Noodle Soup
roughly chop about 6 cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil
add half a large yellow onion and cook on low until translucent
add two chopped parsnips and 3-4 carrots, cooking covered until they begin to get soft
add some sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme and oregano, and about 3 bay leaves. cook more until fragrant (five more minutes). at this point you should put your water on to boil the noodles (two large handfuls of egg noodles)
defrost a package of frozen peas, adding them to the pot with broth. DON'T fill all the way, because you're still adding things
put in about two handfuls of shredded chicken. we roasted our own with our awesome brand new dutch oven this weekend, but you can also just debone a rotisserie chicken.
once the noodles are done, drain them and put them in the pot as well
add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about five min
Look at baby Zizi cat eat kale chips, that's a kitty who was raised right!
Everyone talks about what to eat for Thanksgiving. And I have seen more than one article about what to eat before Thanksgiving. (Egg white omelet, thanks Self.) But do you know what to eat AFTER Thanksgiving?
No? Well you're in the right place old friend. Alayna's sister made turkey broth from her leftover carcass. (Recipe below- my favorite line: "break bones into small pieces." Sounds badass, right?) And I know what you're thinking, but I'm so full. That's why this soup is SO great because it's super light (think Detox Soup). It's a great light meal for the day after. A perfect after Thanksgiving soup.
Dang. You think, those soupies do it again. Knock your socks off with a spot on soup. I know, I know. We're so good at this by now-- month 11 of soup laboring- scratch that, I mean ladling- that we should probably get a book deal. Any day now, folks...
I bumped into a closet soupie while in my hometown in Jersey, she suggested a good idea for the new comer soupy- to make a top five list of best soups for easy navigation when a first timer wants to make a winner (or an old timer). I know, all the soups are winners, but some are like, big time lottery winners.
Either way, ballots are open. Cast your vote: Best soup.
In the meantime my little pilgrims and native americans, eat up.
The perfect post turkey day light soup without losing the spirit of the holiday:
roughly chop about 5 pieces of garlic and saute in olive oil, adding half of a chopped yellow onion when becoming fragrant
add a fennel bulb (only the white parts) 4-5 carrots, 4-5 celery sticks, all roughly chopped, and cook covered with a few bay leaves until you can stick a fork through them
cover with FRESH TURKEY BROTH* (or any other kind of broth if you don't have an awesome sister) and bring up the heat, adding a handful of chopped parsley, three heaping handfuls of sugar peas, and your leftover turkey torn into little pieces
serve once it's heated through!
Turkey broth, courtesy of my sister:
first, thoroughly clean the meat off the turkey carcass, then break the bones into small pieces and bake them at 400 for about an hour until they look crispy
put them in a pot of water with the onions, apples and celery, (adding salt and herbs) and boil for about an hour with the lid on, on low heat
pour through a colander to get out the 'gross stuff' and refrigerate or freeze for later use!
Union Square Market. Where I buy my beets & they play the Amelia song and I want to die because I'm so filled with joy. Hello soup lads and ladles. (O.M.G. I'm good at this.) November is here. Which means all of our little vegetable friends are burrowing deep into the ground to stay warm, thus the perfect time for root soup.
Root soup sounds cool, doesn't it? Like Alayna and I somehow have morphed into two heavy set frontier women surviving the winter with only one donkey and a plow. It sounds almost as cool as when Lauren Cook casually mentioned how she pickles AND CANS her beets. My jaw dropped I was so impressed.
The thing is, I've been eating beets every day since Saturday afternoon. And I plan to eat them again in a few hours for lunch. Everything that comes out of my body is red. I love it. Poor little Zachy who had beet dinner with me on Saturday doesn't so much.
Via text message: Zach: My poop was red and it scared me and I'm never eating beets again. Mary: I ate the leftovers today and now my pee is red too! Zach: I feel ill.
Of course, Zach didn't feel ill. He is just nervous because he has a marathon to run in 12 months and he's freaking. Don't worry Zach, keep eating nutritious foods like beets and you'll do fine.
Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
chop about 4 parsnips, 4 turnips, 6 regular sized carrots,one large yellow onion, and 3 medium sized beets into bite sized pieces and put into a brownie pan
add 4 whole peeled cloves of garlic
sprinkle the whole mix with sea salt, black pepper, herbs De Provence and olive oil and mix with your hands to coat
bake in the oven at 450-500 degrees for about half an hour, stirring once or twice, until you can fork through all the veggies fairly easily
transfer to a soup pot, cover with vegetable broth and bring to a boil until the veggies are easily mashed
This is what I mean, these are the things I've started to do differently. I buy the New York Sunday Times at the store on 25th and 3rd even though I can read it for free online. I drink coffee in a mug which I refill and refill and refill on the long part of my couch and pick apart the paper. I bought a hard covered book (Sherman Alexie, War Dances) at the store. It was new and cost $23. I just re-read all the underlined parts of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," my copy is taped up the spine. I read it in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Barcelona. I re-read it in Barcelona. I mailed it home on a box that took a ship across the Atlantic.
"There is no such thing as safety. There are so many seeking safety here now that they make a great danger. In seeking safety now you lose all."
I underlined that. But I didn't add any stars on the margin next to it. Which means those sentence were my lowest priority of underlining. I have a structure. Two stars is as high as a sentence can be. I won't tell you what those are though.
I meant to write about something else for this post but then I started looking through books because I was looking for Something. A line or something. And instead I remembered how much I miss the feeling of books. I remember pretty much almost exactly what I was thinking when I underlined everything I have ever underlined. It's a gift. I paged through a Mary Oliver book of poems, and then a Frances Driscoll book of poems, which I don't think is a big name but I found her in a used bookstore in Maine-- which place in Maine, Brunswick? and I cried sitting in the corner reading it because it was sad. And then I probably pitched a tent somewhere.
Alayna and I haven't discussed the texture revolution that thoroughly yet but I know she's part of it, too. She forgot what it felt like to receive mix tapes and then she did in the mail and remembered. She builds pots in her hands. That's a good one.
What do you do to keep texture in your life? Making soup counts, too.
Carrot Coconut Cah-Cah-Cah
4-5 garlic cloves chopped in olive oil, saute
Add 2 shallots, 5 stalks of celery chopped, 1 head of broccoli chopped
a few generous shakes of garam masala, chili powder and coriander
Add 2-3 large leeks, a "decent" amount of ginger chopped
4 small red potatoes, skin on, add a bag of regular carrots chopped
Pour in a can of coconut milk
Add enough chicken broth to cover the veggies
Bring to boil and then let simmer for about 25 minutes until veggies are soft
Blend!
Alayna and the soup. I cannot smile while spooning soup. We tried. We took 8 pictures. I can't do it.
Alayna and I chose this soup because I had a bunch of asparagus at home I didn't know what to do with it. We found a recipe that incorporated asparagus and brown rice and we were tentatively planning to work off that until we re-read the recipe at home and realized adding soy sauce and hot sauce sounded sort of gross. Plus it instructed us to use multiple dishes.
We did not like this.
We altered the recipe so we only used 1 soup pot and 1 pot for rice. No other dishware was dirtied! (Minus our feeding bowls... I said that with a southern drawl and I hope you did, too.) This soup set a lot of records actually. Alayna came over at 7pm and we were sitting down eating by 7:40. This never happens. Not necessary because soup takes that long but because we have a habit of dilly dallying over things like kittens and craftware. And Alayna ate, I kid you not, 4 bowlfuls of this soup. To make her feel better I ate three. And my second bowlful was REALLY big.
When she asked for her fourth bowlful she reasoned, well it's just vegetables and water, really. It's true. Now enjoy this soup yourself and don't be shy with the Parmesan cheese. Trust me.
Oh! I was asked to include an Obituary for Gourmet Magazine in here. It's true, it was the Vogue of cooking. Alas, I too, miss paper.
Cook a cup of rice (mixed brown and wild is best) in a seperate pot
Sauttee one chopped yellow onion, adding 3 finely chopped shallots at the end
Adding as you chop, put in about 5 celery sticks, 4-5 smallish carrots and a bunch of asparagus, keeping the pot covered on medium heat
Add a handful of chopped parsely, several sprigs of fresh thyme and some ground black pepper
Once the veggies are cooked through but still have some crunch (the asparagus should be bright green), add in the cooked rice and fill the pot with chicken or vegetable broth
Squeeze in the juice of one lemon, bring to a simmer and serve with a sprinkling of parmesean on top
Maybe it’s because Monday’s Soups is rounding to it’s 6 month anniversary, that is a lot of soup, folks, but I find myself bursting with soup thoughts on a daily basis… So with that in mind, here I go.
Jamie came over to my apartment last night because Alayna is vacationing in Texas. This means that Yes, this was the first soup that was ever made outside of Alayna’s apartment for the blog. And it went well. It was a little less smooth than when Alayna cooks. She has mastered the art of chopping, sauteing and knowing what goes in the pot next while talking. I can’t do that so well. Thus, I would realize I forgot to add the cannellini beans five steps later. Or I added the green beans too early. But because soup forgives, none of this mattered. This soup also brought me back to my never ending question, Why do we blanch vegetables? I was afraid of kale for so long because blanching seemed like such a pain. But I soon realized that kale really doesn’t need to be blanched at all. I don’t taste a difference. Can a foodie help a soupie out?
The New York Times reported yesterday that obesity rates are going up based on a nationwide survey from 2005 to 2009. Nothing is new here. Seven of the 10 states with the highest poverty levels are also among the 10 states with the highest obesity rate. In Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia more than 30% of adults are obese. And—this is crazy—in 30 states, 30% or more of children are overweight or obese. That’s insane. It’s insane and it’s stupid. And it probably gets on my nerves more than it should but I can’t help it.
Jamie asked me what I was learning through this blog. I’m learning that cooking brings together people and conversations in a very authentic way. And that heady, karma part of me—that was born in college—believes that these are the real things you put into your food when you cook.
I know I’m getting annoying, and I’m trying not to fall over the line of being too preachy. This means a lot to me, and I feel like I learn more each week.
This is what I know.
A friend who I was very close to when I was a child, who I slipped away from as we grew older and we fell into life and trying to figure out who we were and who we certainly were not and all that, and then, only recently we began to inch back together. And the dialogue that brought us back was food. Was, stuff like, Yes, oh my gosh kale is wonderful and how do you bake a spaghetti squash and all of that. And while we were in the process of coming back to one another a tragedy happened in her family and it was awful and it broke my heart. I did the dance of all those awkward words that don’t feel like your own. I’m So Sorry and Is There Anything I Can Do and All My Sympathy. We put together those words and it felt strange and not right. And then it began to come back. It came back with, ML, I’m going to the market to make your soup.
Really?? Which soup?
Thai! I already have most of the ingredients.
And that is how we started to feed each other back to ourselves.
*
Now, lets eat... Summer Minestrone with Penne (or whatever pasta is in your cabinet
My first kitchen picture!
This is one of those soups where veggies can be swapped in and out. It doesn’t matter. Throw in whatever you have around or is in season.
-Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 medium yellow onion chopped into a soup pot over medium heat
-Add 4 chopped carrots and 4 chopped stalks of celery, add a pinch of salt, mix around for 10 minutes or until veggies soften.
-Throw in 6 cloves of garlic chopped and a few shakes of thyme (or fresh, obvi!)
-Dump in a big can of chopped tomatoes with juices, fill up half the tomato can with water, dump that in too.
-Chop up some fresh parsleyand add it. Turn the heat to simmer. Throw in a basil leaf or two if you have them.
-Rinse 1 can of cannellini beans and add them to the soup.
-Meanwhile in a separate small pot boil a few cups of water, once boiling add about one pound of fresh greenbeans (with the ends snapped off, cut into bite size pieces.) Leave them boiling for 5 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Put to the side.
-Rinse out the pot and boil more water. Once boiling add a cup of penne pasta. Cook for ten minutes.
-Add the green beans while the pasta is cooking, taste the soup add salt or pepper or whatever you think.
-When pasta is done throw that in and you’re done!
-Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and more parsley just because that looks pretty.
Note: If you are going to make a bunch of this soup and not eat right away might want to add the pasta separate because it will get mushy in the soup after a day or so.
