1000 pizza doughs

Easy Potato Leek Soup

I picked up the last CSA box yesterday from the Fall extension, and reality started to set in.  Winter is coming, and we're about to have a vegetable drought.  (Admittedly, some in my house who are squash-averse are taking this better than I am.)  Here's the last of my Fall CSA harvest, although I did sign up for a special Thanksgiving basket too, since I will be cooking this year (woo hoo!).

I cannot wait to eat that broccoli.  Farmer Rick's broccoli has no equal (really).  And he tells me that people are already signing up for next year!

So, what's in season in the winter in Maryland?  Potatoes. Kale. Potatoes. Kale.  Well, you get the idea.

One thing that makes this transition a little easier is this soup.  It's really simple, especially if you have an immersion blender.  I've been making this so long, I don't remember where I got the recipe, as it now lives only in my head.  I do remember that the tip for how to clean leeks came from Tyler Florence.

Easy Potato Leek Soup

Makes 4 servings in about 45 minutes.

•     3 large leeks
•     1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
•     1 pound potatoes, white or Yukon gold (4 to 6 medium-sized potatoes)
•     3 to 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock*
•     1 teaspoon dried thyme
•     Salt and pepper, to taste
•     Paprika, for garnish (optional)
•     Chives or scallions, for garnish (optional)

 *Note about the stock: the stock is a critical part of this dish, and gives it a lot of its flavor.  This is not the time to try a bargain stock, or use one that you don't love the flavor of.  It's much better if you use your own homemade stock, but for store-bought I like Pacific or Kitchen Basics.

Slice the white and light green parts of the leeks into thin rings, and swish around in a large bowl of water, to remove dirt and grit.  Dry with towels.

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan (3 quarts or larger) over medium heat.  Add leeks and cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes, until tender.  (If they start to caramelize, that’s OK—it just adds flavor.)

Meanwhile, wash and peel the potatoes.  (Monkey optional - my daughter insisted that he was "helping.")

Cut potatoes into 1/2-inch dice.  When leeks are tender, add potatoes, thyme and stock (enough to just cover potatoes) to the pot, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 20 minutes, or until potatoes can be easily mashed with the back of a spoon.

Puree the soup using an immersion blender (a regular blender would work too, just be careful when pouring hot liquid).  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve garnished with paprika and/or chives. Goes well with grilled cheese (pictured, "the basic" - a standby of the picky kid).

Still looking for new in-season ideas for cooking this winter... What are your favorite winter soups or dishes?

Best Cold-Weather Soup Ever: Lentil Curry Stew

You know those recipes that you realize you no longer need the recipe for?  This is one of those in my house.  I found this recipe years ago during the vegan era (circa 2003).  Actually, if I recall correctly, it found me, through an e-mail from Dr. Andrew Weil to a long-closed account.  I no longer actually have the original recipe, though I think this one is pretty close.

It was good as-is, assuming you like lentils.  But given my unquenchable craving for Indian food, I decided to spice it up.  Unlike garam masala, Madras curry powder is an excellent addition to soup (well, this one anyway). 

Recently, I have also discovered that chard and potatoes make excellent additions to this soup, if you happen to be on a quest to use CSA vegetables at every meal, lest they plot revenge against you.  Add enough curry, and this soup will warm you up on the coldest of days (which, I am afraid, are coming).

Lentil Curry Stew

Makes 6 generous servings (~2 cups per serving) in about 1 hour and 15 minutes

• 2 cups green lentils (anywhere b/t 1-2 cups will work)
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced (~1 cup)
• 3 stalks celery, diced (~1 cup)
• 2 medium yellow onions, diced (~1 ½ cup)
• 1 bunch chard or other leafy greens, stems removed, and chopped to 1-inch pieces (optional)
• 1 to 2 cups potatoes, peeled and cut to 1/2 inch dice (optional)
  
• 1 28 oz. can tomatoes, crushed or diced (Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes work really well – you can find them in the organic section, or a health food store)
• 3 oz. tomato paste (½ small can)
• 1 to 3 tbsp. curry powder, to taste
• 1 tsp cumin
• ~1 ½ tsp. salt, or to taste (optional)
• pinch cayenne (optional)
• 2 tbsp. good olive oil
• 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar (optional)

 

Tip: don't chop anything to start.  You can chop the vegetables while the lentils cook.

Rinse lentils, and remove any debris.  Add lentils and bay leaves to a large pot, add 10 cups cold water (or enough to cover the lentils by about 1 1/2 inches) and bring to a boil.  Cook lentils partially covered at a low boil for about 30 minutes, skimming foam off the top occasionally if needed.

Add carrots, celery and onion and cook another 30 minutes partially covered over medium heat, until the carrots are cooked through.  If using the potatoes and/or chard, add them at this stage as well. You may also need to add another cup or two of water along with the vegetables. 

Lower heat to medium-low and add tomatoes, tomato paste, curry powder, cumin, cayenne and salt.  (If you don’t like curry, just leave it out and add a little cayenne instead.)  Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring often; soup will thicken slightly.  Just before serving, remove bay leaves and stir in olive oil and vinegar. 

Serve with naan or your favorite bread.  This soup is even better the next day, and freezes well in individual portions for later lunches.

 

Which one of these is not like the others? (Yes, it really aggravated me that I ran out of round bowls!)

Pumpkin Pie: Sanity is Overrated

Continuing the theme of doing things the hard way, I decided to make my first ever homemade pumpkin pie using an actual pumpkin.  I found this little guy at the store, labeled as a "pie pumpkin" and just couldn't resist. 

Plus, he was local and organic. And I don't know why, but I named him Henry.  This made it much harder to cut him open... (and yes, I may have finally and completely lost it. Meh. Sanity is overrated.)

 

(Sorry Henry.)  Then I quartered and roasted him at 425° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  And poked him with a fork, to check for doneness.

 

And then, the real fun began.  Scoop out the tender flesh, put into food processor, and WHIRRRRRR it until smooth.  Actually, at this stage it looks and smells exactly like baby food.

To make pie with fresh pumpkin, it has to be strained through cheesecloth to remove excess water.  This takes at least another 45 minutes or so.  After straining, a 3 pound 4 ounce pumpkin produced about 1 cup of puree.

The fresh puree is picture above at left next to a can of pumpkin, right.  Why?  Because my recipe called for 2 cups of pumpkin, and poor Henry only made one.  Rookie mistake I suppose.  

Anyway, here's the end result.  It never completely set, even after refrigerating, and I am guessing that the fresh pumpkin just added too much extra moisture/variability in the end.  I also made an apple and raspberry pie that day too (what can I say... I like pie!).

Here's the recipe, if you would like to try the pumpkin pie.  This is slightly adapted from Mark Bittman's recipe for pumpkin pie from How to Cook Everything, which has been my favorite cookbook since the moment I laid hands on it.

Pumpkin Pie

Makes 1 9-inch pie in about 1 1/2 hours, not including making pumpkin puree (add another 1 1/2 to 2 hours).

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie crust, placed in 9-inch pie pan and chilled (I also use Mark Bittman's flaky pie crust recipe)

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch ground cloves

Pinch salt

2 cups canned or fresh pumpkin puree (I used one cup fresh and one cup canned)

2 cups half and half or evaporated milk (I used half and half)

 

Prebake the crust, pricked with a fork and weighted with pie weights (or dried beans) at 425° for 12 minutes.  Remove weights and bake at 350° for another 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside in a warm place.

 

Meanwhile, beat eggs with sugar, then add spices and salt.  Stir in pumpkin puree and half and half.  Warm this mixture in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until hot (do not boil).

Put the pie crust on a baking sheet.  Pour hot pumpkin mixture into the still-hot crust and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the mixture shakes like Jell-O, but is still quite moist.  Cool on a rack and serve warm, or at room temperature.

p.s.  Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  I have been cooking like crazy, but after long days of staring at the computer at work, I've been sort of computered out by the time I get home.  Any other bloggers have this problem?

The Great Tomato Massacre

A short while ago, it seemed like a brilliant idea to procure 20 pounds of fresh, organic late-summer local tomatoes from my favorite farmer.  A stroke of genius, I thought.  Fresh tomato sauce (via the freezer) in the dead of winter.  What could be better?

And then, on a Wednesday evening, reality set in.  It came in a large box that smelled faintly of a rogue tomato gone bad.

 

"You should probably cook these today or tomorrow," said the farmer. On Wednesday night. In the middle of my workweek.  (Sigh.)  So, dutifully, Thursday after cooking dinner, began the great tomato massacre. (Insert creepy music here...)

Did I mention that I had never actually made fresh tomato sauce?  So, I decided to try two different sauces.  Kind of like airline fuel hedging, but for tomatoes (sorry, random MBA reference... sometimes I wonder if I should have just gone to culinary school instead).  So, with two sauces, at least one is bound to turn out OK, right?  Um... right... (Insert dripping sarcasm)

Fresh Tomato Sauce

For the sauces, I turned to my trusty copy of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, where I found a recipe for Fresh Tomato Sauce that promised to take about 20 minutes, did not require peeling the tomatoes first, and provided a great way to use my wilting CSA basil.  Here's the basic gist:

• 3 pounds ripe tomatoes (I approximately tripled this entire recipe)
• 3 tablespoons chopped basil
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Place roughly chopped tomatoes in a heavy pan with basil.  Cover and cook over medium-high until the tomatoes break down (about 10 minutes), being careful not to scorch. Then pass tomatoes through a food mill.  If you want the final sauce to be thicker, return it to the pot and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until it's as thick as you want.  Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the oil.

So after all that, and about a half hour of simmering, I got this: a watery, seedy tomato soup.  And the food mill pass-through?  I swear I now have tomato seeds on my ceiling, the top of the refrigerator, the back of my retinas, and every other surface within a 10-foot radius.  I gave up on this sauce, strained out the seeds and put it in the fridge to become tomato soup.  Or possibly a large bloody Mary. (But not too large... it was only about one cup.  One cup!)  So, I humbly ask you... what did I do wrong?  (And I am pretty sure it was my error, since this cookbook has always yielded good results.)

Tomato Sauce Concasse

So, on to sauce two: Tomato Sauce Concasse (which sounds a lot more exotic than what it could be called: sauce with diced tomatoes).  This one sounded more like what I was expecting.  Cut Xes on the tomatoes, and plunge in boiling water.  Remove the skins. (Burn fingers due to impatience.)

Then seed and dice the tomatoes. (Burn fingers some more, and create horror flick storyboard.)

Oh yes, little one... guess what is your fate?  Mwah hah hah....

Then heat some olive oil (recipe called for butter) over medium heat, and add 1 small diced onion for every 3 pounds of tomatoes used.  Cook onion for about 5 minutes, then add tomatoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the watery juices have cooked off.  This took about an hour for me, although the recipe said 15-30 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  (Along with the tomatoes, I added some fresh thyme--why not?--and dried oregano.)  Here's what it looked like to start:

After about an hour, it was still watery and tasted wimpy.  So I called in the cavalry and added an entire can of tomato paste and some salt and pepper.  Maybe that was cheating, but it worked, and it was well past my bedtime at this point (which is why I don't have an "after" photo).  It turned out OK.  (But, sadly, still not as good as sauces I've made from canned tomatoes.)  But still, several pounds of tomatoes remained.

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

Fast forward to the weekend (wouldn't it be great if you could really do that?)... and I took up my knife once again.  A bit beat down by sauces, I decided to roast the remainder of these little devils, following Mark Bittman's instructions for Oven-Roasted Plum Tomatoes (yes, I realize I was not using plum tomatoes).  I roughly chopped the remaining tomatoes and removed their seeds, then lined them up on a big cookie sheet and doused them in olive oil.

After roasting for about 45 minutes in a 325 oven, they were delightful sprinkled with a little sea salt.

I froze these in small portions to use later this winter (for more sauce, probably).

So what I've learned from this experience: don't be afraid to fail at new things (generally the results are still edible), don't squeeze the food mill with too much vigor, and never, ever take canned tomatoes for granted!

Sneak preview: My next "victim"? Cutest little pumpkin ever. (Commencing evil cackle...)