Category Archives: Soup
Tomato Mania {CtBF}
Summer produce is at its peak this week. We have tomatoes coming out of our ears (no complaints). My counter is filled with heirloom tomatoes, other field tomatoes and bowls of cherry tomatoes. I know it’s fleeting so I’m trying to consume my fill of tomatoes while they last.
I’ve been slicing lots of tomatoes for topping toast, sandwiches, bagels, or anything else appropriate. I’ve been making plenty of salads, the favorites being panzanella (with bread) and Caprese (with mozzarella and basil). I pull out recipes for tomato tarts. This tangy Tomato Mustard Tart and this retro biscuity Spicy Tomato Pie are tops on the list. I’ve stashed some containers of tomato sauce in the freezer for winter enjoyment. I’ve also become enamored with the roasted cherry tomatoes we made last month. Before the season’s out, one perfect BLT sandwich is a must.
This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays (yes, I know I’m a little late) is Gazpacho. That fits perfectly with my current tomato mania. Early in the season, I make gazpacho with canned tomatoes, but right now, that would be a crime. I started with a trip to the weekly Farmers’ Market to pick up the vegetables.
David Lebovitz’s Gazpacho recipe from My Paris Kitchen could also be named “Summer in a Bowl”. Fresh tomatoes are peeled and seeded, then pureed with a slice of bread to add some extra body. The tomato puree is combined with finely chopped cucumber, bell pepper, and red onion along with garlic. A small shot of vodka is added to make the soup taste extra-cold, then chilled before serving. I found the cold soup to be delicious, but not that different from other recipes I’ve made. I know it’s traditional to add the bread slice, but I prefer recipes made without it.
The suggested garnish for this gazpacho is herbed goat cheese toast. Toasted baguette slices are rubbed with garlic and covered with a tangy spread made from goat cheese, olive oil and fresh herbs. I used lemon basil which added a lovely citrus undertone. The cheese toasts turned gazpacho into a light meal for me. And when I ran out of baguette slices, the herby goat cheese was equally delicious on crackers. The goat cheese spread counts as another winner from My Paris Kitchen.
If you want to make this yourself, check out the recipe on page 121 of My Paris Kitchen. To see what my blogging friends thought, check out their links here.
Being a bit over-obsessed about using every last drop of ingredients (when time permits), I used this occasion as an excuse to try out this recipe for Tomato Skin Salt. The skins peeled from the blanched tomatoes are sprinkled with their weight in coarse salt, then dehydrated in the oven to create a seasoning that, judging from the aroma in the jar, will extend summer’s flavors beyond the last frost.
Cottage Cooking Club: February 2016
Cottage Cooking Club is in the final stretch of cooking through Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg, a vegetarian cookbook filled with new ideas for eating your vegetables.
I had more hits than misses this month. I tried out three of the choices offered by the group’s leader Andrea, The Kitchen Lioness. Here are my reviews.
The Apple and Blue Cheese Toasties caught my eye as something to enjoy for a quick lunch alongside a bowl of soup. I always fall for grilled cheese, in any form. Toasties, which are melted under the broiler, are a great alternative to breaking out the frying pan.
I went all the way and baked my own no-knead whole wheat bread to use for the rustic country bread base. The topping was a mixture of grated apple, crumbled blue cheese and a touch of mayonnaise to bind it together. I love apple and cheese together, but to be honest, I found the blue cheese a bit too sharp. I made these a second time with grated cheddar cheese instead of blue which was a more appealing combination for my taste buds. I usually have all the ingredients on hand for the cheddar version, so I’ll definitely make these toasties again.
The Squash and Fennel Lasagna was also a hit. I typically make tomato-sauce-based lasagna, but have enjoyed white-sauce-based versions in the past. I love when a recipe offers a takeaway tip or technique that I can add to my arsenal to use in other dishes. Here I learned to steep the aromatics (onion, celery, bay leaf, and peppercorns) in the milk and then strain them out before making the béchamel. The flavors infused the milk and hence the sauce for an extra depth that surprised me. This lasagna has one layer of roasted butternut squash cubes and one layer of a mixture of sliced fennel and crumbled goat cheese. I ended up using a little less sauce over each layer and adding a final layer of lasagna noodles on top of the fennel-goat cheese layer, then crowning it with the remaining sauce and the Parmesan cheese. I served the lasagna with a green salad to round out the meal. I always feel like white lasagna is a “dressier” version of the dish, so one that company would enjoy. This will appear on my table again too.
The final recipe I tried this month were the DIY Pot Noodles. These were fun to put together and beautiful to look at. A canning jar is filled with quick-cooking noodles and a colorful assortment of vegetables (grated carrots, shredded lettuce, sliced scallions, a handful of frozen peas) and aromatics (veggie bouillon cube, grated garlic and ginger, a pinch of brown sugar). To pull it all together, fill the canning jar with boiling water and wait for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This is long enough to soften the noodles and vegetables. The final touch is a splash of soy sauce and fresh lime juice . Now, enjoy a delicious “bowl” of “instant” soup. This recipe offers a formula to play around. The combinations are endless.
I need to solve one challenge. When I put this together right before adding the water, it was a magical bowl of hot soup. I would love to be able to assemble these jars the night before for a quick meal, at work or at home. When I tried making them ahead and keeping them ready in the fridge overnight, pouring the boiling water into the jar didn’t have the quite same effect. The contents didn’t soften completely, and the soup was lukewarm. Any suggestions for perfect this for the lunchbox?
So, another month of delicious recipes down, and a couple more left to come. As always, I’m looking forward to the recipe reviews of the other Cottage Cooking Club bloggers, which you can read here.
Due to copyright considerations, I don’t share the recipes here, but you can find them in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s cookbook River Cottage Veg.
A Plateful of Happiness 