Mushroom Soup with Parsley Dumplings

So Alayna had a board meeting and in a strange swing of ambition I decided that I'd tackle a hard soup all by myself. And tackle is exactly what I did. I feel like this soup and I had a love hate relationship for the entire 2.5 hour cooking process. Maybe it was after going to the food store and spending $35 mostly all on ingredients (dried mushrooms, $8- actually you can remove this step if you want and just add 2 more cups of broth- it is less of an earthy taste but I mean, I'm cheap and sort of regret it, so just sayin.' Also, note I bitch that I spent $35 on soup supplies, which is way more than we normally spend, but still I have 6+ meals out of it. Not bad.)

Or maybe it was getting home, exhausted with 5 bags in my hands from work/gym/grocery store (this is essentially my gym/tan/laundry only it ends with a book in my bed and not a makeout in the bar) and the prospect of starting this big cooking process seemed daunting.

But I knew if just gave up and put veggies and lentils in a soup pot again and called it a different soup because I added say, both kale and chard, Alayna would kill me. So I embarked.

Note in this picture how I'm using all my burners. Then note how the cabinet above my stove which holds pots is totally empty. God bless dishwashers. All in all this soup was really good. I sort of butchered those dumplings because I never used an electric mixer or processor and instead did it all with fork and bowl. So they were eh, a little lumpy. Whatever, I'd eat lumpy dumplings over washing two more things any day. This soup was souper good though. At 10:30pm when I finally sat down with my bowl of mushroom soup and dumplings I was pretty proud of myself. Soups up laddles!

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 3/4 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms
• 3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Fine sea salt
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 big onion
• 3 thinly sliced leeks
• 4cups vegetable broth (such as Swanson)
• A big pinch of cayenne pepper
• a couple handfuls of carrots
• 1/2 bag of spinach
  

Parsley Dumplings

• 3/4 cup (scant) low-fat cottage cheese
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, room temperature, divided
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup all purpose flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation

Soup

• Bring 2 cups water and dried mushrooms to boil in small saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Put aside (with liquid)
  
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add baby bella mushrooms and thyme; sprinkle with sea salt and sauté until mushrooms are browned, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add wine; stir until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Set mushroom mixture aside.
• Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook until translucent and beginning to brown, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Add leeks and carrots reduce heat to medium, sprinkle with sea salt, and sauté until vegetables are soft and golden, stirring often, about 15 minutes.
• Bring broth to simmer in large pot over medium-high heat. Pour in reserved mushroom cooking liquid, leaving sediment behind. Add all mushrooms, onion mixture, and cayenne. Add spinach. Keep this pot simmering while you make your dumplings, occasionally giving it a stir.

Parsley Dumplings

• Puree cottage cheese in mini processor until smooth. Using electric mixer, beat 3 tablespoons butter and eggs in medium bowl. Add cottage cheese, 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and nutmeg; beat on low speed just to blend. Stir in 1/2 cup flour, cheese, and parsley.
• Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Using teaspoon, scoop piece of dough about size of cherry. Holding spoon just above boiling water, use second spoon to push dough into water. Working quickly, repeat about 10 more times. When dumplings rise to surface, simmer until cooked through, 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer dumplings to large plate. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add dumplings to skillet. Cook until brown in spots, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
• Bring soup to simmer. Divide dumplings among wide shallow bowls. Divide soup among bowls and serve.

Turkey Soup

After Thanksgiving Detox Soup



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!

Spinach Garlic Eggdrop Soup

Poor Alayna was home with a fever and couldn't make it to soup night. Which is a shame because I'm pretty sure the soup we made can cure any disease as it has about 10 cloves of garlic. Daniel and Zach came over and stood in for Alayna. They helped me cook and drank my left over wine and roasted eggplant dip. (Seriously, if anyone wants roasted egg plant dip, let me know...)

Anyway, the inspiration behind this soup was that I didn't feel like buying anything for it. This is a great poor man's soup. Especially if you have an herb garden then it's pretty much just water. I don't have an herb garden. Maybe next week.

Alright, there is a new New Yorker with my name with it. Go peal some garlic my little vampires.

• In a soup pot add 2 or 3 cups of vegetable broth (optional... well, isn't everything optional)
• Add 4-6 cloves of garlic into the broth with a bay leaf, sage, parsley and a few sprigs of thyme.
• Reduce heat to a simmer and let sit covered for 20 + minutes

Meanwhile...

• In a small bowl pour in some olive oil, salt, parsley, thyme leaves and pressed garlic and use a brush to paint it on both sides of a thinly sliced baguette
• Place on a oven tray and pop in the oven at 350 F for 10 minutes... or something... just flip when browned and let sit a little longer... you know.

And go back to the soup...

• Add a bag of spinach, stir it around until it wilts
• Mix olive oil and 3 eggs in a bowl
• Add a ladle full of soup into this bowl to temper the eggs (thanks for the fancey lingo, Daniel)
• Pour this mixture into the soup pot.

Now drop a piece of miracle toast into your bowl and then ladle the soup over the bread.

It's delish!

Ummm, I can't stop making videos. I don't see this going anywhere good.

Sopa Peliroja / The Art of Travel

*Alayna wrote this post. Thanks Alayna:

Alayna and Mary Lorraine in Corsica, trying to open a bottle of red wine without a bottle opener.

One of the reasons that this blog exists is that Mary and I both had that un-ingnorable urge when we were in our early twenties to throw caution to the wind, give up our homes and friends, jump on the next flight and go somewhere, anywhere, that sounded good in a story. When we met, we’d both had a few backpacking trips under our belts, and were ready for something a little less controlled than the rolling hills of Southern France, so we would take our breaks in Morocco and Croatia instead of Paris and London. By the end of college, neither of us knew what we wanted to do or be now that we were ‘grown-ups’ and, in a series of jokes gone too far ended up moving ourselves to Thailand, for Mary, and Costa Rica (followed by Panama, and after a sojourn in New York, Mexico), for me.

Both of us were working in ‘community development’, a vague term that, for people working in the field, implies many mornings, afternoons and evenings sitting at someone elses’ kitchen table eating their food, sitting on their porches drinking the local cold (or hot) beverage of choice and thinking of what you could possibly say next. The rare occasion when you can cook for yourself, you want something that reminds you of your past, of who you are when you’re not The American, but just the friend of so-and-so, that girl from class or someone’s room-mate’s coworker. Something that makes your current residence seem a little more like home.

A week ago, my friends Alice, who I worked with in Mexico, and Chelsey, who I know from New York through my dear friend Mojdeh sent me a message from Nicaragua. They’d been, through a series of accidents, placed together to head a project for Amigos de las Americas and realized that they both knew me and were both Monday’s Soup followers. Their request was simple: make a soup that they can make in Nicaragua that will remind them of home. This is a bastardized version of Sopa Azteca, a delicious Mexican soup that’s perfect for the chill of a rainy day, but light enough to have when it’s hot out too. And no, it doesn’t require blending, so you can make it on a hotplate too. Last but not least, this soup is all about the toppings, so it’s great to have with a group of people where everyone might want a personalized bowl.

So ladies, this is it. I can’t remember who’s veg, but you can also make the soup with more tomatoes instead of chicken.

To start, buy one small, plain rotisserie chicken and debone, pulling pieces into bite-sized pieces and leaving the skin on… place in a bowl and set aside

Dice about 8 cloves of garlic and sautee in vegetable oil

Add about 4 dried Chilies Anchos (or Chiles Pasillas, which are traditionally used… Chipotles would probably also be good), chopped with the seeds removed, and 2 red hot chilies (chiles de arboles)

Add one small yellow or white onion, chopped

Once everything is getting well cooked, throw in the chicken meat and about 4 roughly chopped tomatoes

Cook covered until warmed through

Cover with chicken broth and bring to a simmer, adding the juice of two big limes and a handful of cilantro, and cook about 5-10 min

• In a separate pan, heat vegetable oil and then lightly fry sliced tortilla strips until golden brown, draining on a paper towel and putting aside
• In separate bowls, have sour cream (or plain yogurt, or crema, depending on what’s available), sliced avocado, shredded cheddar (or oaxaca, or whatever kind is available) cheese and some more hot peppers and let everyone mix them in their own bowl

Enjoy!

Roasted Squash

squaThis recipe came from a mother so we knew it would probably be good (although we did not have such key things as "tin foil" and "the time we thought it would take to cook the squash just sliced in half and not in little pieces, even though little pieces took almost as long"). It was also exciting to roast an entire garlic. Roast a garlic when you're bored and then eat the wedges. Way better than you can imagine. Although your breath will be awkwardly bad when you go out later. Which I experienced first hand. But it's worth it. Who needs to make new friends? Not me.

So yes. New roommate. Summer is starting. Lease is ending. Or is it? New job. Uncertain future. Oohh my. I feel like I say this every other week. But this is a good comfort soup. Who doesn't want comfort? What isn't comfortable about comfort? So here we go, roasted squash (and garlic!) soup.

Soup!

Peel and de-seed a medium to small sized butternut squash and an acorn squash
Cut into small wedges (bite sized)
Chop a yellow onion (coarsely)
Take a full head of garlic chop off the top (but don't de-skin it)
Put the onion and squash in a baking dish, sprinkle with olive oil and fresh thyme, salt, and black pepper
Make sure everything is lightly coated.

In the middle of the baking dish, place your head of garlic
Bake it covered with tin foil (we didn't do that- but DO it) at 375 F for 45 mins to an hour
(or until everything is soft enough to put a fork through easily)

Transfer everything to a soup pot
Add chicken broth
and a big handful of parsley and bring up the mixture to soup temperature
Blend and put in 1/2 and 1/2 and salt and pepper to taste!

There you go.
Yo Kate, you forgot your bullet! (thank god)

Barley's the Best Soup

(Alayna got dressed and put on makeup for this picture. This blog is a big deal.)

Big News! I voted this soup the best of ALL the soups we have had to date. And I know, I know what you're thinking. "Great. This is the third soup on the blog." Well, let me tell you a little secret we have made more than three soups. The ones that don't make the blog have nothing to do with the quality of the soup and everything to do with my overall laziness. I regress, point being, I think this soup is the best.

Alayna won't make the grand statement yet, but I will. Anyway, we made this soup on the wonderful, workless Martin Luther King day. That was good because it was easy to let the barley soak for three hours (who knew?). There was a light nice snow fall. I bought two big canvases in Soho. Alayna got her bangs trimmed. Great day. Great soup. Here you go...

Ingredients

1 cup of barley

chicken broth

one large onion

three leaks (white and light green parts only!)

two large carrots

a few celery sticks

olive oil

two fistful of shitake and baby portabella mushrooms

1/3 cup of fresh parsley

rosemary sprigs

3 to 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, chopped into bite size pieces

Do This...

-cover 1 cup of barley in cold water and let it soak at least 3.5 hours

-once it has soaked, put into your soup pot and cover with about 9 cups of chicken broth and simmer... it will need to simmer for another 1 to 1.5 hours so don't get hungry yet

-in a seperate pan, sautee in order half a large onion, three leeks, two handfuls of carrots and a handful of celery in olive oil for about five minutes

-once things are sauteed nicely but still crispy, dump them into the soup pot!

-slice up shitake and baby portabella mushrooms and throw them into the pot too

-get about 1/3 cup of fresh parsley, chopped, into the pot, and rosemary sprigs (not the stalks) into the soup

-chop up 3-4 chicken and sautee in pan you used for the veggies (add more olive oil). Once pieces are cooked through toss them in the pot (there is a theme here)

-let the soup simmer for the rest of the 1 to 1.5 hours OR until the barley and veggies are nice and tender... enjoy!