carrot

Fat and Happy Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup

23 Dec 2011
squash soup

Would you like something rich and creamy? How about Roasted Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup? Sounds good, huh?

I like creamy soups. In fact I love creamy soups. Except sometimes I seem to like them even better when there's no cream in them. Does that make any sense?

Sure sometimes a touch of cream will elevate a recipe. That's because fat binds flavors together. It creates a sum that is greater than its parts. So I have no problem with cream. But there are other fats that do the job just as well as cream. Like butter. I have no problem with butter. In fact wasn't it Julia Child who mockingly said: "If you are afraid of cream, just use butter."? Or was it the other way around? Oh well. No matter. My point is– I am not one of those people who is afraid of fat, in any form. So if fat is called for in a recipe, and I believe it will make it better, I scream bring it on. No fear here.

In fact I am far more afraid of chemically altered processed foods that are deemed "fat free" than I am of any of the fats that God gave us. Because whenever I see "fat free" printed in big bold chemical ink on my food I have to wonder what they replaced the fat with, and how the hell they got it out. Oh, and particularly– where in God's name did they put it? But that's a digression.

I wanted to talk about "health food" my way. It's not a new concept but it has certainly fallen out of fashion.

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Roasted Acorn Squash & Turnip Soup

Acorn Squash Soup
By jgreghenry Published December 22, 2011
Prep time: 90
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 1 (1 1/2 lb) acorn squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
  • 1 pn each, salt & white pepper, or as needed
  • 5 T unsalted butter
  • 2 leeks, cleaned, halved lengthwise and roughly chopped
  • 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
  • 1 carrot, roughly chopped
  • 2 clv garlic, peeled & smashed
  • 1 t sugar
  • 0.5 lb turnips, pelled & roughly chopped
  • 6 c chicken stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 pn ground coriander
  • 3 T brandy
  • 0.25 c celery leaves, as garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Season the squash with salt and white pepper. Place 1/2 tablespoon butter into each cavity and place the squash halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until tender and caramelized, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the tray.

Melt the remaining butter in a medium soup pot set over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, carrots and garlic. Sprinkle the mixture with sugar. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes, until softened. Add the turnips, stock, bay leaf and coriander then bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, season with salt and white pepper. Cover and cook another 20 minutes, until the turnips are very tender. Remove the bay leaf.

Scoop the flesh from the cooled squash halves straight into the soup pot. Using an immersion blender puree the mixture until very smooth, or use a standard blender working in batches if necessary. Return the soup to the soup pot (if using a standard blender) and add brandy. Bring the soup to a simmer and adjust the seasoning. Garnish withe celery leaves. Serve warm in individual bowls

Hot Days Call for Cold Soup- Spicy Cucumber Soup with Poached Shrimp & Riesling too

07 Jul 2011
Spicy Cucumber Soup with Poached Shrimp

It's July and it's hot where I live. Is it hot where you are too? Well when it’s hot its time to consider a few changes to your culinary habits.

So I have a simple summer soup for you. Cold Spicy Cucumber Soup with Poached Shrimp. It's a great summer starter or even a light meal all on its own. You see there is no hanging over a hot stove involved. In fact if you can boil water and count to 60, you can make this soup. I am serious this soup only requires 1 minute of actual cooking.

Because it's not much more than a spiced splash of cucumber juice serving as a bright green pool for the simply poached shrimp to swim in. The colors are so vivid. See– don't you feel a bit cooler already?

However there is more to a summer soup than merely chilling something flavorful. Summer soups have a whole psychology about them that must be considered when choosing how to prepare one. Because when it's hot out a bit of spice on the tongue tricks the brain into thinking its cooler than it really is. I don't know how and I don't know why. But I promise you its true.

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Cold Spicy Cucumber Soup with Poached Shrimp

cucumber soup with shrimp
By jgreghenry Published July 7, 2011
Prep time: 120
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 1 T sea salt
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 sli stalk celery
  • 1 c white wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 whole black peppercorns
  • 20 jumbo shrimp
  • 5 seedles cucumbers
  • 2 green Thai bird chilis
  • 2 T asian fish sauce
  • 0.25 c freshly squeezed limejuice
  • 2 T mint leaves

Directions

Mix salt, carrots, celery, white wine, bay leaves, and peppercorns in 1 quart of water in a medium-sized saucepan set over medium-high heat. Bring the liquid to a simmer.

Add the shrimp in their shells then let the water come to a boil. Cook for 60 seconds, stirring once or twice. Remove the shrimp immediately and lay out in a single layer to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until well-chilled, about 1 hour. Peel shrimp just before serving.

Make the soup: Wash the cucumbers, but do not peel them. Cut off a 6-inch piece from the center of one cucumber. Cut this piece into tiny 1/8-inch dice; set aside. Cut the rest of the cucumber into 1/2-inch chunks. Place the 1/2-inch chunks into a food processor along with 1/2 -cup water, pulse a few times to grate, then run the machine until the cucumber is completely smooth and nearly liquified.

Line a large, fine meshed strainer with 2 layers of cheesecloth. Set the lined strainer over a large bowl. Add the cucumber puree, letting the liquid fall into the bowl. then using the back of a wooden spoon press the remaining pulp to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Discard the pulp.

Add the minced green Thai bird chilis, Asian fish sauce and limejuice. Chill well. (You can make in advance to this point and refrigerate for up to 2 days.)

Taste the soup, adjust seasoning if necessary with a bit more fish sauce or lime juice to taste. Avoid salt.

Ladle the cold soup into shallow bowls and serve, garnished with reserved diced cucumber, peeled poached shrimp and mint.

Source: Adapted from Jean-Georges Vongrichten & Mark Bittman

A Marvel of Balance & Proportion- Pork Belly and Braised Endive Sandwich

27 Apr 2011
Pork Belly and Braised Endive Sandwich

Sandwich. Panini. Grinder. Hoagie. Submarine.

Do you sense a theme here? Yep, my brain is stuck in sandwich gear. You can blame the Saveur Magazine sandwich issue if you want, or maybe the Tom Colicchio cookbook ‘wichcraft. Both of which are living on my desk this week.

But in truth I have been a sandwich fan since I was a kid. Because one things kids know about sandwiches is this: less is more. And today that adage is truer than ever.

I realize Jared Fogel and the rest of the Subway franchise are looking at me askew right now. But I am sorry it’s true. Nobody needs a 12-inch sandwich loaded up with 16 ingredients to be happy. I don’t care how much weight he lost eating those things. That sandwich doesn’t pass the muster in my opinion.

It’s the super-size mentality that has destroyed so many great foods in the past few generations. Did you realize that a standard bagel used to be about  3-inches in diameter and contain about 140 calories? Today they have more than 350 calories with out the schmear!

Remember when McDonald’s introduced the Quarter Pounder? (Yeah, well I do…)

A quarter pound of meat seemed obscene at the time. But a quarter pound of beef no longer shocks anyone. In fact you can hardly find a 10-inch dinner plate anymore­– ‘cuz a burger won't fit on it! 12-inches is the new norm in plate size.

Well these behemoths are not sandwiches. They shouldn’t even be food.

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