S.N.8.19 report

Admittedly, winter is the prime time for Soup Night: there’s the warmth of the bowl, the warmth of the red wine, the warmth of being inside, the warmth of the general coziness. But in summertime, Soup Nights come with white wine, fruit desserts, bare feet, and soups served cold. It’s just as fun.

As we learned when my dad came to town, the best way we know to honor a guest is to throw a Soup Night for him/her/them.

This time, Ryan’s parents were in town, which automatically signed us up for some of his Ma’s Gazpacho, a longtime favorite in his household.

My brother Rob was in NYC too. He doesn’t have enough kitchen years in him to have a recipe named after him yet — give him time, folks, I’ve no doubt there’ll be one soon — but I couldn’t escape all of those summer memories as a kid of shucking corn with him and my other brothers.

I ended up with a chilled corn recipe, taken from last month’s Gourmet, but doctored heavily. When I did the soup test run the weekend before, the soup was deemed to thin (would slosh easily, wouldn’t feel substantial) for a Soup Night contender. Yet, the more I looked at corn recipes, the less I could shake it’s chilled simplicity.

I decided to experiment. After consulting some food-savvies, I went with a combination of their suggestions: Added a roux, added a potato, added some cream.

Both soups were deemed delicious. Success!

I’ll post the recipes in a minute, but first, here’s a snapshot of the night in numbers:

Soupers: 46

First-time soupers: 26

Pounds of tomatoes gazpachoed: 8

Ears of corn shucked: 25

Featured out-of-town guests: 3

Super secret featured out-of-town guests: 1

Amazing desserts brought: At least six

Soup Nights looked forward to: All to come

Ma’s Gazpacho
Serves 4

1/4 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 small onion, sliced
1 small green pepper, seeded and sliced
3 tomatoes, quartered
1 large cucumber, peeled, sliced and seeded
1 clove garlic
1/2 t dried or fresh basil
1 t salt
2 T olive oil
3 T red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chilled chicken broth*

-Blend until almost smooth. Chill.

*for this Soup Night, we substituted vegetable broth for our lovely vegan friends.

Chilled Corn Soup
Serves 6

3 ears of corn, shucked
1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T butter
4 1/2 c water
Garnish: sour cream and chives. I also recommend: dill!

– Cut kernels from cobs with a sharp knife, then cut cobs into thirds.

– Cook onion and garlic in butter with 1/4 tsp salt in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add corn and cobs, water, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.

– Discard cobs, then puree corn mixture in batches in a blender until very smooth. Force soup through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids.

– Chill until cold, at least 1 hour.

On soup in China: Beyond eggdrop and won ton

They eat a lot of soup in China.

I spent 10 days eating there in July and saw soup at nearly every meal. But, surprisingly, with all that soup, not once did I see the classic egg drop or anything featuring won ton. Oh, how the Chinese restaurants of the US have deceived us!

Egg drop and won ton are two classic soups, of course, but we ate such a great variety in a short amount of time that we only saw a couple repeats.

Among the soups I saw and ate, the general rule seemed to be: anything goes. Many of the broths were clear liquid, making it easy to see what was floating around under the surface. I saw quartered tomatoes, lots of noodles, mushrooms, lots of various greens, the occasional scrambled egg. (Scrambled, not dropped.)

Although, even thought the collection of ingredients seemed really random, I would be surprised if it was. The Chinese are well-known for concocting perfectly balanced dishes, and I can only imagine that goes for their soup ingredients, too.

Here’s a few sites that offer a great directory of links and other information about Chinese cuisine:

• About.com’s guide to Chinese Soups
• Soup in Chinese cooking, from chinesefood-recipes.com
• Soup guide at chinavoc.com

Finally, although vastly unrelated to soup, is something else I tasted in China. Snakes! In Wine! I did drink it, really I did!

This soup’s for Kenan

Two things brought me back to the soup blog.

One was Kenen. Kenan said reading this makes him hungry. What better review could you ask for?

The second is this soup I ate over the Fourth of July weekend. This soup was so good, that it stood out amongst all of the rest of the amazing food that I also ate that weekend. Lest you think that’s no big deal, allow me list what passed over my lucky palate that weekend this year:

– a watermelon salad with feta, pickled red onions, toasted pumpkin seeds, and olives (at Sweetwater)
– anise hyssop ice cream (at Marlow & Sons)
– buttery morels on toast (Marlow & Sons)
– awesome guacamole (4th of July party)
– Shackburger (at the Shake Shack)
– cheese fries (Shake Shack)
– chocolate milk shake (Shake Shack)
– key lime pie (Sweetwater)
– an insane chocolate dessert (Sweetwater)
– another insane chocolate dessert (Marlow & Sons)
– red-wine poached cherries over ricotta (cooked at home)
– pesto-flavored pasta with mushroom and garlic scape sauce with garlic scape flowers (cooked at home)
– cheesecake ice cream (cooked at home)
– and this, the second reason for returning to the soup blog:

When the Marlow & Sons waiter described it as a “summer squash soup” I might have stifled a yawn and considered the market salad. How silly of me! I cannot accurately describe just how amazing this soup was, except to say that it was creamy and velvety with hints of squash, perfectly melted Parmesan, and some breadcrumbs and basil floating on top.

It was absolutely perfect.

Want to make it? Try one of these recipes:

• – Cream of Squash Soup (from About.com: Southern Recipes)
• – Yellow Summer Squash and Corn Soup (from Gourmet via epicurious)
• – Summer Squash Soup with Parsley Mint Pistou (from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen)

Asparagus Avgolemono

The first official soup of spring is here!

When Wiley lent me his Moosewood Simple Suppers cookbook, this recipe was dog-eared. “It’s so easy,” he said. “And so, so good.”

There were two things about this that appealed to me: One, that it featured asparagus, and two, that it was based on the classic Greek lemon/rice soup called avgolemono.

Turns out, Wiley was right on both accounts. This soup consisted of just a handful of ingredients: vegetable broth, orzo, asparagus, dill, egg, lemon juice, and three steps.

When my dinner companion found out I was making an avgolemono, he literally cheered, as it was one of his favorite foods as a child. We made a funny pair of judges: He, the avgolemono lover, and I, the avgolemono novice.

And the verdict?

“Could use more lemon,” he said. “But yum.”

“Yum, indeed,” I said. “But where’s the salt and pepper?”

Want to make it? Here’s one that’s similar, albeit a bit more complicated: Asparagus and Dill Avgolemono (from Gourmet via epicurious.com)

It’s here!

I seriously feel like bringing out a bottle of bubbly.

Yesterday, I finally crossed paths with asparagus at the farmers market.

Tonight, I cook.

Tomorrow, I post.

Stay tuned…

The last few weeks in Soup

• Celebrate the arrival of spring (or a belated Earth Day) with a whole host of green soups (from The Kitchn)
• Another soup celebrating the arrivial of asparagus: Apsaragus and Rice Soup with Pancetta and Black PepperThe Zuni Cafe Cookbook, via Serious Eats)
• Using up the last of your root vegetables is really not a chore at all with a beautiful bowl of borscht. (from The Kitchn)
• For more of a beet fill, try out this Beet Soup with Feta (from The River Cottage Cookbook, via Serious Eats)
• A spring twist on the classic minestrone that includes brown rice. (from Super Natural Cooking, via Design*Sponge)
• Nettles are another reason to get excited about spring, but they have such a short growing season! Make the most of this teeny window with this creamy soup. (from The Kitchn)
• In a perfect way to honor the holiday, this Roman Easter Soup incorporates eggs and lamb. (from Serious Eats)
• Cauliflower is one of those foods that seems so bland and boring on its own…but always turns up in such delicious recipes! Case in point: Spicy Cauliflower Soup from Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet.
• Remember the lentil lesson? So simple, yet so, so good? Here’s another lentil soup to try: Syrian Vegetarian Red Lentil Soup (Shurbat Addes) (from Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews, via Herbivoracious)

Arugula, Potato, Bread Soup

To the untrained eye, it looks like spring is right around NYC’s corner. You’ve got sunny days, birds, little buds of green dotting tree branches. But as anyone who’s lived here for more than one spring knows you should still wear shoes that require socks. Don’t pack away the duvet just yet. And, it’s still cool enough at night to want to hold a warm bowl of hearty soup in your hands.

I went to Wiley’s for dinner and he made an amazing Arugula, Potato, and Bread Soup. The culinary nerd in me was excited for two main reasons: I’d never had bread soup before, and when Wiley’s cooking, you know you are going to leave happy.

Admittedly, I was too busy probing the other dinner guest for travel hints of spending a weekend in Montauk to watch this soup come to life. But as evidenced by how much time Wiley spent chatting with up (a lot) and how much time he spent in front of the stove (not a lot), I’d venture to say this soup was a pretty easy one to make.

The recipe was from a Lidia Bastianich cookbook (I’m pretty sure it was this one), which is appropriate because bread soup is a classic Italian family supper meal. Perfect for a laid-back Sunday evening, don’t you think?

Back-in-Town Soup

“So…dinner! What shall it be?”

“Hmm…”

“I’m actually not even all that hungry, so whatever you want is fine.”

“Well, I’ve been eating a lot of fried food. That’s all they eat down there.”

“That was exactly me a week ago. Eating when you’re traveling is…well, not good.”

“Yeah. So…vitamins. Vegetables. Healthy.”

“I have frozen mushroom broth.”

“Maybe greens? Let’s add greens.”

“Rice too.”

“Yep.”

“I’ll be over soon.”

And just like that, the “I’ve been eating crap for a week, I need to get something good in me NOW but I don’t want to go grocery shopping” soup was born.

• 1/4 c. butter
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• Handful of mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces (we used baby bellas)
• Thyme
• 1 qt. mushroom broth
• 2 handfuls of spinach, chopped
• 1/2 c. cream
• 1 c. cooked brown rice
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and onions, cook until fragrant and translucent. Add mushrooms, cook until tender.

Add thyme, mushroom broth, simmer for a bit before adding spinach. When spinach cooks down, add cream and cooked rice.

Serve with Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.

This Week in Soup: Some weeks in March

• Just when you think you’re tired of winter and it’s root vegetables, along comes a recipe that keeps you going a little longer. This Curried Apple and Potato Soup gets a bit of help from ginger, too. (From Martha Stewart’s The New Classics, via Serious Eats)
• A dinner-in-minutes White Bean Stew from Gourmet, via Smitten Kitchen.
• More root vegetable plus spice action: Pumpkin, Peanut, & Ginger Soup from The Kitchn.
• Ever since I visited Greece, any recipe that calls for Greek yogurt is an immediate winner in my book. Here’s one that mixes it into split peas – yellow ones! (From 101 Cookbooks)
• Can you ever have enough chicken soup recipes? We think not. Here’s another one to try: Arthur Schwartz’s Chicken Soup. (From Jewish Home Cooking, via Serious Eats)

Mini Soup Night: Dad’s in Town! Edition

In these parts, parents visiting usually means “Get everyone together.” Of course, in La Soupe speak, that translates to “Get everyone together and eat soup.”

Dad swooped into NYC for one night this week, so I got the neighborhood crew (+ a few Manhattanite stow-aways) together and welcomed him in the best way we know how: throwing a Soup Night in his honor.