Sasha's Kitchen: Roasted Peanut Soup with Honey-Whipped Cream

The other night, I decided to do some innovative southern cooking.  I made deviled eggs with sliced pimento peppers which were delicious as an appetizer.  I had heard about peanut soup being served as a delicious appetizer at Marcus Samuelsson's Red Rooster in Harlem, which I would love to try one of these days. Then, Bon Appetit, my favorite cooking magazine, was doing a special on Southern cooking and had a delicious sounding recipe for roasted peanut soup with honey whipped cream that I just had to try.  It's a little involved, so I made it on a Friday night when I had some extra time.  The end result was an amazing main course that followed those southern style deviled eggs quite nicely. The soup had just the right consistency and a smooth flavor with just enough of a peanut touch.  The honey whipped cream was absolutely lovely.  I made only one change, I used pistachio oil instead of peanut oil and the result was a fabulous whipped cream that tasted amazing with the peanut soup.

Roasted Peanut Soup with Honey-Whipped Cream (recipe from Bon Appetit)
2 heads of garlic
4 T of olive oil
1 1/2 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts
3 cups chopped onions (about two onions)
3 cups chopped celery
2 T butter
2 quarts low sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 8 oz yukon gold potato, peeled and chopped into quarter inch cubes
3/4 cup chilled heavy cream
1 T honey
1 T roasted peanut oil or pistachio oil

Preheat the oven to 450.  Slice off the top third of each head of garlic.  Place the garlic on a sheet of foil and drizzle with two tablespoons of the olive oil.  Roast on a baking sheet until soft and caramelized, about 45 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly and squeeze garlic into a small bowl, pouring in any remaining oil.

Pulse the peanuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped.  At this point, reserve a quarter of a cup for the garnish.  Continue pulsing the rest until a smooth peanut butter forms, about two minutes.  Set aside.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pot over low heat.  Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes.  Add the butter and the celery and cook until the celery is softened, about another 15 minutes.  Add the bay leaf and chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Add the potato and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until the potato is tender, about twenty minutes.  Remove from heat and discard the bay leaf.

Puree the soup in a blender until smooth, adding in the peanut butter to the last batch.  Strain using a strainer if needed. Whisk in a quarter cup of the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Using the remaining cream, whisk in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form and whisk in the honey and pistachio or peanut oil.  Serve the soup with a dollop of the honey whipped cream, a celery leaf and the chopped peanuts. I added a bit of paprika as well.

Sasha's Kitchen: Roasted Peanut Soup with Honey-Whipped Cream

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Shoyu-Chicken Ramen

Ramen is the new cupcake.  Well maybe not, but at least in New York, gourmet ramen noodle joints are one of the biggest food trends to hit the city, from Chuko in Brooklyn to Momofuku Noodle Bar.  I've heard great things about Ippudo as well.  I thought I'd give homemade ramen a try.  Initially I considered using David Chang's recipe from Momofuku noodle bar, but I don't cook with pork at home.  I've had a great soy broth and also a great miso broth at Chuko, so I figured I could try devising my own soy-chicken based ramen, or Shoyu, as the Japanese refer to the soy flavor.  I came up with my own recipe that was delicious and had a great Japanese flavor.  I love serving the ramen with the hard boiled (or soft boiled if you prefer) eggs as well. Yum!  Instead of serving in regular soup bowls, since I don't have Japanese ramen bowls, I used large cappuccino mugs from Anthropologie - so cute!

Sasha's Shoyu-Chicken Ramen
1 whole chicken, cut up, about four pounds
1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1 large onion, cut into quarters
4 garlic cloves
4 quarts of water
four small pieces of kombu
2 oz fresh ginger, peeled
soba, lo mein or ramen noodles
3 large soft boiled eggs, soaked for an hour in equal parts soy sauce and mirin
three diced scallions

In a large stockpot, combine the water, chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and kombu.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and simmer, partially covered for two hours to allow the broth to get a delicious flavor, just like if you were making chicken stock for matzo ball soup. The when the two hours are up, strain the broth and reserve it of course.  Prior to simmering, but after boiling, you'll want to skim the chicken fat from the top of the broth so the end result will be clear.  Shred some of the chicken for serving in the ramen soup.

Boil the noodles according to package instructions and add to the broth and chicken.  Hard boil three eggs and soak for an hour in a mixture of mirin and soy sauce, and chop up some scallions for serving.  Optional - add some corn or steamed spinach.

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Shoyu-Chicken Ramen

Sasha's Kitchen: Red Lentil Chicken Soup

I love lentil soups and recently tried a new recipe for lentil chicken soup that was quite delicious and easy to make.  This recipe had plenty of leftovers soon.  It was my first time making lentil soup (surprisingly) and I was pleased to learn that you don't have to soak the lentils or anything before using them.  I was planning on eating my leftovers last night but we wound up going out for dinner to Lucali, a great little quaint pizza place over in Carroll Gardens where we had some of the best pizza and calzone we had ever had. Yum!  At any rate, here's the recipe for the chicken lentil soup, which is spiced up nicely in the original recipe.

Lentil Chicken Soup (recipe from Chicken and Egg)
About 1- 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into one inch pieces
2 T cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions
2 celery ribs
4 garlic cloves, minced
two 32 oz containers of reduced sodium chicken stock
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Toss the chicken in a medium bowl with the cumin, cinnamon and allspice until coated. Heat a large pot over medium high heat with the olive oil and saute the chicken for 3-5 minutes until lightly browned.  Add the onions and the celery and cook for three minutes until softened.  Stir in the garlic and cook for thirty seconds longer.

Pour in the chicken stock and tomatoes, lentils, salt, red pepper flakes and pepper.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer partially covered for 45 minutes, which is long enough for the lentils to be tender.  Top with cilantro when serving.

Sasha's Kitchen: Red Lentil Chicken Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cardamom Soup

It's October and fall has arrived. I'll be the first to admit that I miss summer - the carefree summer days, swimming, tank tops, and all of that luscious summer fruit.  But fall isn't so bad.  There's something about a crisp fall day and the changing of the seasons that always makes me glad to live on the east coast.  I love getting out of Brooklyn/NCY for a taste of fall foliage as well - the colors are so gorgeous in just a couple short weeks.  Fall means pumpkins, apples, carrots, and  squash in the kitchen.  And, I've started cooking with them all.  I came across a great carrot cardamom soup with marshmallow (yes, a marshmallow garnish!) when reading Daily Candy, and figured I'd give it a try its from Saxon & Parole, a restaurant that I'd love to try out (newly opened).  At any rate, I didn't make my own marshmallows but otherwise stuck to the recipe and found it to be a new warm and lovely fall favorite.  Has the loveliest flavors with pumpkin oil, carrot, cardamom and coconut. Yum!

Carrot Cardamom Soup (original recipe here)
1 1/4 tsp honey
1 can of coconut milk
3 1/2 cups of hot water
juice of half a lemon
1/2 fist size white onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 large thumb of ginger, diced
2 green cardamom pods
2 oz unsalted butter or olive oil
1 2/3 lb carrots
salt and pepper to taste
garnish with: toasted marshmallow, toasted pumpkin seeds (I left out) and pumpkin seed oil

Combine the liquids (water, coconut milk, lemon juice and honey) and set aside. Combine the cardamom, onion, garlic, and butter in a pot over medium low heat and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the carrots and turn heat to high and cook another three minutes or so.  Add the liquids and bring to a full boil. Then reduce to a simmer and simmer for about thirty minutes, until the carrots are soft. Remove the cardamom pods.  Puree in the blender until smooth.  Garnish each bowl with a toasted marshmallow (I toasted using a creme brulee torch) and some pumpkin seed oil.  If you like, you can add toasted pumpkin seeds and/or chile flakes. (I used a bit of ancho chile powder instead)

Sasha's Kitchen: Carrot Cardamom Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Cream of Asparagus Soup

Asparagus is one of my husband's favorite vegetables. I'd been looking to make an asparagus soup for awhile, before coming across this one in one of my favorite soup book that we bought a couple years ago on a lovely trip to Ireland. This is isn't a traditional Irish soup by any stretch of the imagination, but the Irish sure do know how to make a good pot of soup. This cream of asparagus soup is nice and healthy, and a good, easy to make soup for spring or summer. I've been under quite a bit of stress lately (more of the crap that I seem luck enough to get in extra-large doses), so this was a nice and easy weekday soup that didn't further complicate my day. It's a perfect, quick and east weekday meal.

Cream of Asparagus Soup (adapted from Irish Soups & Breads)
16 spears of asparagus
1 cup potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium leeks
4 T butter or olive oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
5 cups low sodium chicken stock
4 T non-fat sour cream (recipe calls for creme fraiche)
salt and pepper to taste

Cut off the tips of the asparagus and set aside for garnish. Chop off the lower portion of the stalks and discard.  Cut up the remainder of the asparagus, and peel and cube the potato. Wash and finely chop the leeks. Blanch the tips of the asparagus in lightly salted water for five minutes and set aside.

Saute the asparagus (main portion), potatoes and leeks in canola oil or butter and cook for about five minutes. Then add the chicken stock and simmer for about 25-30 minutes. Puree in a food processor and add in the creme fraiche or sour cream. Serve and top with the asparagus tips, and some croutons, and season as desired.

Sasha's Kitchen: Cream of Asparagus Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Irish Potato Leek Soup

A couple years ago, my husband and I went on a great trip to Ireland. Ireland is probably not really known for its food, but it is known for its soups, especially those involving potatoes, which are a pretty traditional irish food going way back for historical reasons. Anyhow, while in Ireland, we tasted a few pretty delicious soups (my favorite being the Guinness stew at the brewery in Dublin), and I picked up a small book of Irish soups and breads. I've tried a couple from this book and they are all excellent. Here's the delicious potato leek soup we made last week.

Potato Leek Soup (from Irish Soups and Breads)

1 1/2 pounds leeks (I used three extremely large leeks)

3 medium potatoes

3 sticks celery

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

4 T butter

5 1/2 cups low sodium chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

3 scallions

croutons

my additions - bit of parmesan cheese and paprika

Peel and chop the potatoes into cubes, and chop the garlic finely. Clean the leeks and the celery well, and chop those too. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add all of these vegetables to the melted butter. Cook gently for about ten minutes on medium heat, not allowing the potatoes to burn. I used a mixture of 1/2 olive oil and half butter instead of all butter, and that worked out well too.  Add 3/4 of the stock and simmer until the potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes. Puree the soup in batches in the blender and add the rest of the stock.

To serve, I topped with croutons, a bit of parmesan cheese, diced scallions and a pinch of paprika. It was a pretty perfect Irish soup!

Sasha's Kitchen: Irish Potato Leek Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Mushroom Soup

I haven't made a recipe from Ad Hoc at Home in awhile, but it is a great Keller cookbook, so I decided to give another one of his soups a try. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about mushroom stoup, but this soup, made with a homemade mushroom stock, was an absolutely wonderful vegetarian soup, and a nice, healthy soup. Surprisingly, making mushroom stock is actually quite easy and far less time-intensive than making a homemade chicken stock. The soup itself calls for Hen of the Woods mushrooms. There are no other mushrooms quite like these - they are extremely flavorful, funny looking and fantastic. I've cooked with them before when I got them at Wegmans, but this time I couldn't get my hands on them in time. It's Ok though, because just as Keller suggests in the book, oyster mushrooms are a perfectly reasonable substitute.

Thomas's Keller's Mushroom stock from Ad Hoc at Home (this is 1/2 of the original recipe)
2 lbs button mushrooms
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
greens from one leek, chopped
3 quarts of cold water
1/4 head of garlic, crushed, skin left on
1/4 bunch flat parsley
1/4 bunch thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 T black peppercorns

Keller suggests pureeing some of the vegetables  (specifically the mushrooms), but I decided not to do that, and just left them as is in the soup. It worked out fine and the broth had a fantastic mushroom flavor that soaked it up from the mushrooms. Put all of the vegetables in a stockpot and add the water, then bringing to a boil. Add the garlic, herbs, bay leaves and peppercorns and put the pot on simmer. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Then, strain the soup, keeping only the stock. Keller suggests doing this using an ice bath, but you don't really need that either. Measure the stock. If you have more than two quarts, reduce it in a saucepan, simmering. The mushroom soup recipe on page 119 of Ad Hoc at home (see below) requires eight cups (two quarts) of the mushrooms stock, which is why I cut the recipe in half.


Thomas Keller's Mushroom Soup from Ad Hoc at Home
Canola oil
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced leeks
1 cup diced onion
kosher salt
1 1.2 tsp minced garlic
1 small bunch of tuscan kale (cavolo nero)
1 1/4 pounds (2 or 3 large) yukon gold potatoes
1 sachet (1 bay leaf, three sprigs of thyme, 10 black peppercorns and 1 clove garlic)
2/3 lb hen of the woods or oyster mushrooms
1 1/2 T butter
1/4 cups minced shallots
1 T fresh thyme
8 cups homemade mushroom stock
freshly ground black pepper
5 to 6 T garlic puree (I used five)
1 to 2 T red wine vinegar (I used one)
extra virgin olive oil

Heat three T of the canola oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, leeks, onions and a pinch of salt. Cover with parchment paper and cook slowly for about 25 minutes. The vegetables will have released their liquid, Keller says, but will not yet be tender.  Take off the parchment lid and add the garlic. Cook for another ten minutes until the carrots are tender. Remove the ribs from the kale and set aside for later.

Peel the potatoes and slice crosswise into large pieces, then quarter. Put the potatoes, herb sachet (which you can make using cheesecloth) and 2 tsp of salt in a saucepan. Simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, which took me about 15 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.

If using hen of the woods mushrooms, break them apart. If you are using oyster mushrooms, you will not need to do this. Heat some canola oil and add half of the mushrooms, seasoning with salt and cooking for about a minute to let the mushrooms absorb the oil. Add half of the butter, shallots and thyme and saute until mushrooms are browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Then repeat with the other half of the mushrooms.

Add the mushroom stock to the stockpot with the carrots and other vegetables and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Blanch the kale in a large pot of salted water until just wilted and tender. Add the mushrooms, kale and potatoes to the pot, and add the vinegar at the end. Serve hot.

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Mushroom Soup

From Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Super-spicy cauliflower soup

This is soup that made my lips hurt.

Before I went to boarding school (my choice, I wasn't a juvenile delinquent...at least, not much :) I had a really good tolerance for spice. I ate Thai food at Seattle Thai restaurants, where the stars were in Asian terms and not ours: 4-star Asian is like 40-star American. But at a boarding school, they can't spice things very highly, or add particularly engaging ingredients, due to allergies and moderate palates. I made do with Tabasco, but it's just not the same.

So after four years there, and four years in college, which was nearly as bad, my palate had degraded. A lot (but not alot). I've been a wuss ever since.

Lately though, in part thanks to my husband, who really enjoys some heat in his meals, I've been rebuilding my tolerance. And this is the rather extreme result.

I got a medium-sized head of organic cauliflower at Atkinson's, our local market, and steamed it until it was soft...too soft, actually, I got distracted by coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I put that, and two-ish big chipotles (the dehydrated ones, in adobo sauce) in my Cuisinart.

In a separate nonstick pan, I sauteed one medium white onion and four large cloves of garlic, fairly finely chopped, with some olive oil, salt and black pepper, and about a tablespoon of white sugar. Once they were browned, I added about half a cup of College Inn Thai Coconut Curry Broth (which, incidentally, I have fallen in love with) and cooked that down so the onions and garlic were soft. That mixture went into the Cuisinart with the chipotles and cauliflower, and was pureed until the mixture was nearly smooth. I added another cup or so of broth and about a tablespoon and a half of lime juice, and heated it all back up again.

What's in the picture above is the teeny bit that remained once I realized I needed to take a picture to tell y'all about this awesomeness, with a side of Chenin Blanc and some sourdough baguette slices. And all that's left of the soup is my still-burning lips and a portion I froze for my husband, who's out of town...because I know he'll love it!

From Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Super-spicy cauliflower soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Chilled Pea Soup

Another great Brooklyn recipe from The New Brooklyn Cookbook that I love so much. This recipe is from The Farm At Adderley, a great farm-to-table restaurant out in Ditmas Park. It's a bit of a schlep to get out there for a meal from Manhattan or even Park Slope, but boy is it worth it - one of Brooklyn's best restaurants.

What I love about this recipe for chilled pea soup is how easy, simple and healthy it is. Most of the delicious soups I have made or have had out have heavy cream, or at the very least chicken broth, or some combination of the two. This recipe captures the essence of the fresh peas that I used to create it. Sure fresh peas are not in season right now, and I am sure it would have been even better if they had been, but I was able to get good quality, non-frozen english peas from Fresh Direct.

Farm At Adderley's Chilled Pea Soup with Fresh Lump Crabmeat
6 T Canola Oil
1 small onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups of fresh English peas
1 tsp of sugar or 3/4 tsp agave nectar
1/2 pound lump crabmeat, about 1 1/2 cups loosely packed, picked over
grated zest of 1/2 lemon, plus 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
grated zest of 1/2 lime, plus 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1 or 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat 3T of the canola oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and add the diced onion. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until translucent but not brown, which will take about five minutes.

Prepare an ice bath. Bring a large pot of water with salt to boil and add the peas to the boiling water. Blanch in the boiling water for two to three minutes and then transfer to the ice bath for one minute, before draining. Combine the peas with the onion and a cup of water in a blender, and puree until smooth. With the motor running add the rest of the canola oil, and season with salt and pepper. If you used fresh peas like I did, add the sugar or agave nectar.

In a medium bowl, combine the crabmeat with the zests, and lemon and lime juices, as well as the oilve oil. Season with salt and pepper. If you prefer you can cook the crab (I confess, I did), or you can simply place two tablespoons of the crab mixture in each bowl of chilled soup.I served with some bread and a lemon wedge.  Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chilled Pea Soup

Charlene's Kitchen in Philadelphia: Peasant Soup

This recipe for "peasant soup" is perhaps the quickest dinner I make. While there are hundreds of variations on peasant soup, this one originates from my beloved Jacques Pépin and goes like this:

For each serving:

heat a cup or two of chicken stock
toast some bread until it's crunchy like a crouton
rub a little garlic on the toast (optional)
put the toast in a bowl
top with a handful (or two) of Gruyère
pour the hot broth over the toast and cheese
sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper

So comforting and simple...

Charlene's Kitchen in Philadelphia: Peasant Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Parsnip Apple Fall Soup (and an upcoming product review)

CSN Stores has offered a product for review through their site, which offers a world of great products, from cookware like Le Creuset to barstools and I look forward to reviewing a product from their store. I have been using a very old ice cream maker for many years (truly old school) and I look forward to reviewing a new, updated and automatic ice cream maker from CSN Stores.  I can't wait to try it out to make some fall pumpkin spiced ice cream.

Pumpkin soup is one of my favorite fall soups. Last year, I made two delicious pumpkin soups - a pumpkin cashew soup and a pumpkin pear soup.  Nothing is better in the fall then a delicious root vegetable soup. Although I plan to get back into the pumpkin soup groove soon, this time I decided to try making a soup with one of my favorite root vegetables - parsnips. What better combination than with fresh New York fall apples? I was inspired to create my own parsnip-apple soup by the recipe for parsnip-apple soup in Tyler Florence's new cookbook. However, my recipe is totally different. Tyler adds oysters and bacon which are totally not needed in my vegetarian rendition. I found the paprika to be a great complement as well, and I much preferred the crisp tartness of honeycrisp apples - my all time favorite apple. The result is slightly, but not overwhelmingly sweet - it is a natural sweetness from the apples, as I did not add any sugar. It also has that wonderful fall crispness. This was a real treat and a soup I will surely make again. Be sure to use farmer's market fresh apples and parsnips. This soup is all about your starting material so it is imperative to use the best local produce!

Sasha's Parsnip-Apple Soup
2 1/2 lbs of parsnips
2 large honeycrisp apples (use three if the apples are small)
2 large granny smith apples
2 cups of heavy cream
2 quarts of low sodium chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
paprika to taste
parsley to garnish
4 T olive oil
1 onion, diced

First, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pot with the peeled and chopped parsnips and the diced onion. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes until the parsnips are softened.  Add the peeled and chopped apples and cook over medium heat for another ten minutes. You may need to add the rest of the  olive oil at this point.  Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then add the heavy cream and cook over medium heat until the parsnips and apples are full cooked.  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before pureeing in batches in the blender. Season with salt, pepper and paprika, and garnish with a bit of parsley.

Sasha's Kitchen: Parsnip Apple Fall Soup (and an upcoming product review)

Sasha's Kitchen: Cool Cucumber Mint Soup

It has been so unbearably hot in New York that, upon my return from a nice weekend up on Lake Champlain in Vermont, I decided that I couldn't bear to cook any hot food.  I decided that some cool summer salads and soups were in order.  My plans for this work week include two summer soups, both of which are easy to make.  I am making gazpacho with locally grown, farmers' market tomatoes later this week, but I decided last night to make a cool cucumber soup.  And what flavor is better to complement the cool summer flavor of the cucumber than mint?  Actually, I think a cucumber-watermelon soup would be a fantastic variation as well for the summer, so I will have to try that soon.

On my way home from work, I bought four cucumbers at the Union Square Greenmarket, a great farmers' market in NYC. I decided that the soup would be a cold soup that would incorporate mint as the primary secondary flavor and would use Stonyfield Farms nonfat yogurt.

Sasha's Summer Cucumber Mint Soup (four servings)
4 large cucumbers
1 pint of Stonyfield Farms fat free plain yogurt
2/3 or a quart of lowfat buttermilk
1 cup of mint - pureed and shredded in a food processor
2 T of diced fresh dill
cumin, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste (note: this is not spicy at all - the cayenne in a small amount just helps to balance the flavors)
pomegranate seeds to serve (optional)

To prepare the soup, peel the cucumbers and halve them.  Remove the seeds and season with a bit of salt.  Allow to sit for a few minutes.  Then dice the cucumbers. Puree the cucumbers with the buttermilk and the yogurt in a blender.  You may have to do this in batches like I did if your blender can't hold it all at once.  Season with cumin, pepper and cayenne to taste.  I served with some fresh pomegranate seeds.

Sasha's Kitchen: Cool Cucumber Mint Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Cream of Cauliflower Soup With Red Beet Chips

I recently realized that not a single Thomas Keller recipe has been featured on this blog yet.  It's certianly time to change that!  Keller, the renowned celebrity chef and owner of a number of world famous restaurants, including The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon and his newest restaurant, Ad Hoc, which opened in 2006.   I have been to Bouchon and hope to make it to Ad Hoc on my next trip to Napa Valley.  I have not been to Per se or the French Laundry, as reservations there will set you back quite a few pretty pennies, but they have earned their reputations as some of the best restaurants in the world according to my friends who have dined there.  I am very excited about Thomas Keller's new cookbook, Ad Hoc At Home which brings Thomas Keller's celebrity kitchen to the everyday chef in a more accessible manner.  Sure, the French Laundry cookbook looks absolutely amazing, but even I was too intimidated to make the $70 investment in the book and the time investment required to make any of the recipes inside.  Never mind - Ad Hoc At Home  makes Thomas Keller accessible to the proletariat.  My first recipe from the cookbook, the Cream of Califlower Soup With Red Beet Chips was a huge success.  I plan to make his caramelized scallops next.  Please note that I am posting the full soup recipe, but I halved the recipe to serve two, which was perfect for our dinner!

Ad Hoc At Home's Cream of Cauliflower Soup With Red Beet Chips
2 heads of Cauliflower
4 T butter
3/4 cup chopped leeks
3/4 cup coarsely chopped onion
1/2 tsp curry powder (Keller only uses 1/4, but I like a bit more curry)
kosher salt
2 cups milk (I used skim milk)
2 cups water
2 cups heavy cream
canola oil for deep frying the beets
1 tsp white vinegar
croutons (I didn't make my own like Keller suggests, I just used Mrs. Cubbison's store bought croutons)
1 medium red beet
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

First, remove the leaves from the cauliflower and cut out the core.  Coarsely chop the cauliflower.  Reserve about two cups of the florets for the garnish and place aside.  Coarsely chop the leek and onion.

Melt three tablespoons of butter in a large pot or Dutch Oven.    Add the onion, leek, curry and cauliflower to the pot and season with 2 tsp of salt.  Cover the pot with a lid and cook on medium heat for twenty minutes until the vegetables are almost tender.

Add the milk, cream and water and increase heat to medium high.  Then reduce to a simmer, and simmer the contents for thirty minutes, skimming off the foam occasionally.    Then allow the soup to cool for about five or ten minutes, and puree in the blender.

To prepare the beet chips for the garnish, fill a pot with an inch of canola oil.  Slice the beet super thing with a mandolin and fry for a couple minutes in the oil.  The place the fried beets on a paper towel to allow the oil to run off.  The beets are absolutely necessary to make the soup work, so don't skip this part, even if you are wary of beets (like my husband was).  The purpose of the beets is threefold - they add texture, color and a bit of sweetness.  Yum!

To prepare the reserved cauliflower garnish, take the cauliflower you set aside and boil in some water with salt for five minutes until the florets are tender, along with a teaspoon of vinegar.  The vinegar will allow the florets to retain their white color.  Then, drain the florets and saute in a tablespoon of butter.

Serve the soup with the florets, croutons and beet chips, and season with pepper.  This recipe was fabulous!

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Cream of Cauliflower Soup With Red Beet Chips

Sasha's Kitchen: Corn Chowder With Crab, Potatoes and Mushrooms

The following recipe was inspired by my desire to prepare a crab and corn chowder.  I researched a number of recipes and was loosely inspired by a recipe from an old issue of Gourmet magazine.  However, I made a number of changes, especially changing the spice mixture of the chowder.  The end result was good, but perhaps a bit on the busy side with a variety of different vegetables.  Next time I make the chowder, I think I will adapt the recipe further.  Here's what I plan to change the next time I make the recipe:  I will leave out the celery and leeks to make the recipe less busy, and I will puree the corn as a variation.  However, in my opinion, it was lovely this way, as well.  In addition, in the summer, it would be nice to prepare the recipe using fresh ears of sweet corn, but since it's only March, that was not an option for me at this time.

Despite my desire for the perfect chowder, this recipe was still very enjoyable and had a lovely texture.  I highly recommend making it, but encourage readers to make the variations that I suggested to make the soup a bit less complex.  Still, the broth had a lovely flavor and the potatoes, mushrooms, crab and corn all complimented each other nicely.  I have written the recipe below with the changes I will make next time incorporated.

Crab Corn Chowder (loosely adapted from this recipe)
4 cans of organic corn
3 cups whipping cream
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped leeks [I suggest omitting these next time]
1 cup chopped celery [I suggest omitting these next time]
20 small baby golden potatoes
6-8 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 1/2 tsp ground fennel
1 1/2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
pepper to taste
2 T butter
3/4 lb lump crabmeat
2 T sherry
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
chives

First, puree the corn, or leave the corn whole (I might try pureeing next time in a miniprep).  Then, combine the corn with the whipping cream and chicken broth and summer for five minutes.  Set aside.

Heat 3 T of canola oil in a large saute pan.  Add the onions, fennel, potatoes, cayenne pepper and paprika.  Also add the leeks and celery if you are using them (I plan to leave them out next time to make the soup a bit less busy and to focus more on the other flavors).  Saute about 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender, including the potatoes - until the point that they are about halfway cooked.  Add mixture to the broth and simmer until the potatoes are tender, for about another 10 minutes.  Add some pepper to the broth, to taste.

Saute the mushrooms in a separate pan with the butter and sherry, and add to the soup.  Saute the crab in a bit of canola oil.  To serve, place a bit of crab in each bowl and top with chowder.  Season with pepper and chives.

This soup was enjoyable, but is a bit off from what I had hoped for when I was craving a crab chowder. I think it would be even better with the variations I suggest, and I think I will explore additional modifications the next time I am inclined to work on the recipe.

Sasha's Kitchen: Corn Chowder With Crab, Potatoes and Mushrooms

Emily's Kitchen in Seattle: The Fluffiest Matzo Balls West of the Mississippi

Everyone knows that not all matzo balls are created equal. I started experimenting with matzo balls in Jerusalem, and even though I use the exact same recipe, they are different in the US. In Jerusalem they were a little more dense and took a lot longer to lighten up, whereas they practically hit the water fluffy here. Maybe that is a metaphor for something.

On the other hand, one should not be intimidated by the matzo ball. I link the myth of the matzo ball to the myth of gardening and writer's block: Everyone can have a green thumb, and everyone can write, and likewise everyone can make a matzo ball. It may take a few tries, but plunging a spoon into that perfect, moist, melt-in-your-mouth matzo ball is worth the effort.

As part of the Matzo Ball Soup Off here in a Kitchen in Brooklyn, check out these matzo ball masters: Sasha's Matzo Ball Soup and Eric's Matzo Ball Soup.

Here is the recipe I use. I got it off of recipezaar.com and I have never looked back. I, as usual, have changed a few things. Perhaps I should keep them secret like a good old crafty Jewish cook. But for you, I tell the truth.

4 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup matzo meal
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
pinches, up to 1/2 tsp., of the following:
black pepper, cumin (optional - my addition), dill (optional - my addition), garlic powder

I know, you're thinking cumin AND dill? I am one of those people who puts cumin in everything. Just a little.

Mix up the dry and wet ingredients separately. Add the wet to the dry and combine - without over mixing! Over mixing is death to matzo balls.

Refrigerate the mixture for an hour.

This is a good time to get a broth going. I do not make a traditional chicken broth because I'm a vegetarian. You, however, may choose to make one, chicken neck and all. Alternatively, I like to make a vegetable broth with fresh vegetables, lots of salt, pepper and cumin (yes). I brew the stock veggies for a while, then strain them out and start adding spices until it tastes a little like chicken soup. I swear, people who eat my soup can't always tell it's vegetarian (salt is key).

Another option is to buy a soup mix - either a packaged broth or a "chicken flavored" powder mix, like the one by the brand Osem, which can be found in the kosher aisle. It is kind of toxic stuff, but it tastes, well, like chicken. Add chopped celery and carrot to your broth for the total experience.

What I do is once my balls are in the fridge for about half an hour, I get my broth ready to receive them. Bring the broth to a rolling boil. Add the chopped carrots and celery about now.

Remove your mixture from the refrigerator, and with the broth at a high simmer, form small balls (about 1 inch in diameter) and drop them into the broth.

Side note: I have a moment of panic right about now. The gates of heaven are open and my balls are undergoing judgment: who shall sink and who shall float. If you have faith, treat the balls with love and respect, and follow the recipe, they will float. I'm not joking.

The balls will, at first, hit the bottom of the pot, but in a few moments they will spring up to the surface and bob there, absorbing broth and getting bigger. Let them hang out there in the simmering broth for about 20 minutes.

If you have a few hours before dinner, I suggest boiling the balls in a separate pot of salted water so that they don't absorb all the broth first. It is sort of embarrassing to run out of broth when you have dinner guests, and these suckers will just keep on growing off the life force of broth like Audrey II. As my mother has been known to say, "this matzo ball is the size of a head of a small child!" On the other hand, letting the balls sit in the broth for a long time is a pretty good cure for dense sinker-types.

Matzo ball soup is somewhat labor and emotionally intensive, but once you have the hang of it it's very easy. I make it just about every other week for my shabbat table, and it's always a crowd-pleaser. It is warm, hearty, salty, a tribute to the old days and it just makes people feel good.

Emily's Kitchen in Seattle: The Fluffiest Matzo Balls West of the Mississippi

Sasha's Kitchen: Matzo Ball Soup

We're having a little Matzo Ball Soup-Off here on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  I love my mother's Matzo (also Spelled Matzoh) Ball Soup.  In my opinion, her soup is a panacea for healing everything from colds to grumpy moods.  I like my Matzo Ball Soup and chicken stock prepared a very specific way, but it seems like everyone like's their mom's version the best.   We have not one, but three Matzo Ball Soup recipes that we will share with you here on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  Eric's Matzo Ball Soup Recipe can be found here on this site.  In addition, another contributor to this site in Seattle, Emily, will be sharing her Matzo Ball Soup Recipe in a future post.  So, with Passover (and Spring!) around the corner, it's time for a friendly "Soup Off."

My Matzo Ball Soup is prepared just the way my mother makes it, with plenty of Jewish momma's love and a homemade chicken stock prepared from a whole Kosher chicken.  I like a hearty Matzo Ball Soup all winter long, rather than appetizer style.  To prepare the soup as an appetizer, you would want to discard the chicken after preparing the chicken stock.  However, I never do that.  I always prepare the soup as a main course and shred quite a bit of the chicken and put it back into the soup.  I just can't let a good chicken go to waste, and in my opinion, the chicken pieces help complete the soup.

Sasha's Matzo Ball Chicken Soup (with thanks to my mom)
Water (enough to cover the chicken in the pot)
One 3-4 lb whole chicken
1 parsnip
small handful of parsley
1 onion, quartered
a couple of large handfuls of baby carrots
3 stalks of celery
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup matzo meal
4 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water (for the Matzo Balls)

The first step is to prepare the chicken stock.  Break up the chicken into a couple of pieces.  I used a whole Empire Chicken,  In my opinion, to make the perfect chicken stock, it's best to use a Kosher chicken for this recipe.  My mom actually lives around the block from a Kosher butcher in Rochester, New York that sells perfect small chickens just for making soup.

Cover the chicken with water in a large pot with the water an inch or two higher than the chicken.  Bring it to a boil.  Then simmer for 30 minutes, while skimming off the top every couple of minutes.  After a half an hour, add the parsley, parsnip, onion (does't have to be diced because it will be discarded from the stock later), carrots, celery and bay leaves to the pot.  Add a couple of pinches of salt.  Simmer (on low) for about two hours with the lid of the pot half on.  After about two hours, the stock should be yellowish in color and have the flavor of the chicken stock, plus all those vegetables and bay leaves that you added.  The salt is important here too, so make sure to add a couple good size pinches.

Use a strainer to strain the broth into another large pot.  Then, add the celery and carrots back in, but discard the onion, parsnip, bay leaves and parsley.  At this point, you can also remove the chicken when you strain, and discard the skin, and shred some of the chicken off the bones.  Add this shredded chicken back into the soup.

To prepare the Matzo Balls, combine one cup Matzo Meal with four eggs, 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of Canola Oil.  Mix well and refrigerate covered for about half an hour.  Form into 11 or 12 Matzo Balls, just a bit larger than golf balls.  Don't make them too small, or they will be hard.  However, don't make them too large, because they will expand when added to the pot.  Bring the chicken soup to a boil and add the Matzo Balls.  Then reduce to a simmer for about 20 -30 minutes.  Serve, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

This soup makes enough to serve 4 to 5 people as main courses, which means plenty of leftovers!

Sasha's Kitchen: Matzo Ball Soup

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: New England Clam Chowder

Growing up right on the Long Island Sound in CT most of my youth, I could get great fantastic New England clam chowder anytime I wanted it. In fact, working in seafood restaurants in high school we were pretty much given free access to the soups since they were always hot, we had giant pots of them and no one would really notice or care. So my friends and I would eat it all the time. The first restaurant I worked in even had 'Rhode Island' or 'Noank' chowder which was basically New England clam chowder without the heavy cream so you could eat it more often and not feel bad about it. I grew to be very fond of it but most people probably wouldn't like it as much the first time around. Regional foods are tough because these dishes are pretty great almost anywhere you go in that region and almost always wrong or not as good for some reason anywhere outside the region. I feel this way about cheesesteaks. If it is called a 'Philly Cheesesteak', it's probably not in Philly and therefore will not be as good. The same is true about New England clam chowder. I haven't found a New England clam chowder that I really enjoyed outside of New England.

I lived in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn for a year in 2007 and my girlfriend and I saw an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay where he took on 'The Chowder Surfer'. He was from Brooklyn and was supposedly working at 'The Surf Bar' in the nearby Williamsburg part of Brooklyn. I was blown away watching him make clam chowder and it gave me a hankerin' for some good New England clam chowder. So we went there and tried both the clam chowder and the lobster bisque. The lobster bisque was probably the best I had ever had but the clam chowder really didn't hit the spot. This is when I first decided I needed to learn to make New England clam chowder myself. I've made it now probably half a dozen times and it's evolved and changed almost every time I make it. This batch I was not personally proud of but I know it will be that much better the next time around.

I use hard clams for my chowder. These are clams referred to as littlenecks (smaller), cherrystones (medium), or quahogs (large). The bigger the better for chowder.

Ingredients (serves about 8-10):
5 lbs. or 2.5 dozen fresh cherrystone clams (get the biggest ones you can find and about 5 lbs)
5 large boiling or mashing potatoes, cubed
1 qt. heavy cream
3 tbsp. butter
1 package salt pork or thick cut bacon (mine was 12 oz.), chopped
2 leeks, cleaned thoroughly and chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
3 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
handful fresh parsley, minced
black pepper and tobasco to taste
3 8oz. bottles of clam juice
2 8oz. cans of clams
4-5 bay leaves
a little cornmeal & salt (to soak the clams in to clean them)

One more note! This is the first time I ever used canned clams and don't think I ever will again! I highly recommend adjusting this to use either more fresh clams or less potatoes and cream. I just had too much soup and not enough clams and wanted to fix it and I regretted it as I could clearly taste the difference between the two types.

First you need to scrub the clams under cold water to remove any debris from their shells. Then soak the clams in cold water with a little cornmeal and salt for about 30 minutes or more in the refrigerator. This makes them take in all the water and spit out all the sand and dirt. After they are sufficiently cleaned to can steam them in a large pot with a couple of inches of water. You can cover it at first to get the water hot and then check on them and as soon as they open take them out and set them aside as you don't want your clams to get overdone and rubbery.

They should start to smell delicious and as they open they release all the water they have taken in and that is your clam juice or stock and is the key to good clam chowder. You want to set aside the broth for later. Once the clams cool a little you can remove them from their shells, chop them into little bite size morsels and set them aside as well. Again, the secret to good clam chowder in my humble opinion is the fresh clams and broth. I could clearly taste the canned clams and don't think they will ever be included again.

Having worked as a prep chef for two restaurants over the course of almost two years in my youth, I take pride in chopping and preparing my ingredients properly. You'll never find anything that isn't bite sized or tough to eat in my recipes. When I cube my potatoes, I try my best to make them into small perfect cubes, but I HATE peeling potatoes and almost never peel them. The skin adds flavor and nutrients as far as I am concerned. When you are done with them set them aside.

You should prepare the leeks by thoroughly cleaning and chopping them. They can get lots of mud and dirt in between their leaves so you may have to chop a bit and then rinse as you see any dirt. Chop your leeks, garlic, shallots, parsley and onions and set them aside. Then comes the bacon or salt pork. If you try to open a package of salt pork and start cutting it you will be very frustrated. My dad taught me to put it in the freezer for a while until its hardened so as to make it easier to chop into very small pieces, roughly the size of the tip of your pinky.

Get a nice large pot and add the salt pork or bacon first, cooking until it's crispy and the fat is completely rendered. If you read my split pea soup recipe you will know how difficult it is to pick out all the fat later if you don't make it crispy. You will cook your veggies in the fat from the salt pork and if it's not enough add the butter. You can actually remove the fat later which I will do the next time I make this as there was too much this time around and it is clearly visible in the pictures, floating at the top.

Once all your veggies are nice and soft you add your potatoes and clam broth and let them boil and cook until soft, at least an hour or so, more if you can. As the potatoes get nice and soft you can mash them against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon and this will thicken the broth without adding flour. Flour makes the soup almost gelatinous and I don't personally like this approach.

Once your potatoes are nice and soft you can add in the cream and stir until it's nicely mixed. Add the clams last to avoid them getting overdone and remove any bay leaves when serving. Serve while hot with oyster crackers or a nice crusty bread. I will probably revise this recipe and re-post it in the future, but this should give a good idea of how to get started.

Enjoy!

Eric's Kitchen in Jersey City: New England Clam Chowder