Tom Kha Gai-esque Soup

It's probably not all that unique how I crave soup in the dead of winter but there's just something so wonderful and complete about filling my body with a soothing liquid to heat me up and I think most people would agree. To keep me balanced on those days where the weather has me thrown for a loop. Something about the act of wrapping my hands around a bowl and letting the hot liquid steam up over me face...  it just makes my day. And when that soup happens to be one of my absolute favorite Thai soups, Tom Kha Gai, then double score... it alleviates ordering out for it, I can make it lighter by controlling all the sodium, vegetables, fat etc, and I can make it heartier by adding in some glass noodles to make it more of a full meal, some tofu, even some quinoa for a South American twist.

Roasted Sunchoke and Garlic Soup with Spanish Chorizo

Ok, so this is really more like a stew but who's really keeping track. Which is actually pretty incredible, considering that I started with basically no recipe laid out, just some great winter-y vegetables I wanted to roast and then puree. My first foray into making soups with my food processor... and what I'd been dying to do all last winter as I was coaxing my former food processor to work and manually mashing vegetables when it inevitably didn't. But I digress.

On a whim (which is what 85% of my food shopping is) I picked up some lovely plump sunchokes, otherwise known as Jerusalem artichokes, which when roasted give off this earthy, almost smokey flavor and taste amazing, think roasted potatoes with more depth. Lightly tossed in some olive oil and a few cloves of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and pepper then roasting away. Pureed with a touch of cream and a ton of low sodium chicken stock, threw it all in a giant pot where I had just sauteed up some Spanish chorizo, threw in a healthy splash of bourbon and finally added in the pre-cooked black eyed peas. Let it simmer for a few and voila... soup. Well, hearty soup. Like a stew, but not quite.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Welcome to fall. Despite the balmy 80+ degree weather we've had here in New York this past weekend, of course. I have no doubt though that soon we'll be fully immersed in autumn, for better or worse. Which means roasting, soups, stews, all those meals that'll warm up not only your home but erase the chill from your bones as well. And because you're roasting the vegetables prior they pick up further layers of flavor, so you don't need to simmer your soup for hours on end. This could actually be a meal made on a weeknight.

I love this particular soup because it's equally healthy: roasted squash, garlic, tomatoes with some spinach thrown in for good measure too, and also just as equally bad in all those delicious ways: caramelized onions, bacon, cream. It's thick and rich though, so you don't need to eat that much to fill up and freezes well, so you can make a large pot to put back for all of winter, or however long it'll last before being completely devoured because... well it's delicious. And it also gave me the chance to try out my brand new food processor (major appliance love post to come soon... this thing is seriously amazing).

Chupe de Camerones

I don't write about my Grandmother nearly as much as I thought I would, or think I should. Not a day goes by where she isn't somewhere on my mind, in a look or a moment, a scent or a sound, but it's hard to put her in words. She was a true force in life and after my Mom, she was my greatest female mentor, both in and out of the kitchen.

My Grandmother lived an amazing life that was transparent in all her adventures... climbing mountains, publishing her writing, marrying a Yankee after mere months of meeting, "rescuing" pre-columbian Incan artifacts, traveling all over the world. But she was also incredible in more obscure ways... being single until her mid 30s, having a child at 36 (now maybe not so amazing but we're talking about the '50s, people), leaving her home country of Chile for Peru and then leaving there for a completely different continent decades later, asthma, breast cancer, maintaining friendships that spanned across decades and countries, being married to my Grandfather for 49 years, taking such pride in herself, her home, her family. Maybe force doesn't even begin to describe her. She was one of a kind.

My take on chupe de camarones

Some Summer Blog Love

So here I am in a weird travel limbo. Got back late on Monday from LA, Tuesday I chose to spend my time outside of work wisely with the boy, which leaves tonight as my only real night home until I head out for my Maryland-DC-Virginia concert adventure, with the weekend after that to be spent in Avalon. Goodness. And here I was thinking that my life was settling down a bit when in fact it's just revving up.

Beautiful Cali. The view from the balcony in my room at the Four Seasons

With just one night home, shopping for food presents it's own little challenge. I don't want to make a mess, I don't want to have leftovers, but I also want to get enough so that I'm not repeating this entire process next week when I get back. So only non-perishables or items that can be frozen back. Which requires thought. And when I don't have the time to sit and plan I cheat a little and head to my favs. It's almost as though they knew I was coming.

Unloved Appliances and Cold Soup

I started looking into some recipes for chilled soups, a personal summertime favorite when the days are sweltering, just to be prepared ya know, and chatting with a few friends about nothing in particular while listening to some good ol' GT... and bam. That strange spring melancholy just melted away. Food and friends and good music... the combination never fails as a perfect pick-me-up. 

The perfect accompaniment to soup is an excellent immersion blender. This I do not have...

So I begin making lists (call me crazy but I just adore making lists) of all the soups I want to make again, or soups I want to test out. Just like pesto there seem to be endless combinations of chilled soups I can't wait to try once the weather takes a turn for the worst in terms of scorching heat. And then I added a little post script to my list: buy a new immersion blender.

A Year of Good Luck with Black Eyed Peas

This Friday my sister returns from Jordan. That's right. Jordan as in Middle East Jordan. She's been there since right after Christmas, just under 3 weeks and I'm excited to see her, to look over her pictures and have her share her tales. And excited also to think up what to feed her, as she will have been traveling for many many hours with airplane food as her only option and I'm sure we can all agree the thought of airplane food, even on an international trip, can turn our stomachs a bit. What I came up with was a lovely recipe for a southwestern chorizo chili with black eyed peas I had recently read about. Being in a foreign country, unsure if they were available or even exist there, I'm sure she hasn't had her requisite New Years black eyed peas. And if there's anything you must have to guarantee good luck in a new year, it's that.

Every year my mother makes them and her recipe is undeniably the best, with peas and beans and a giant ham hock marinating away for over 24 hours, all coming together into a soupy stew of good luck. Last year, being back in the Northeast already, I didn't have them and thought I was fine, my year going along pretty hunky dory and then something very sad happened  in November that affected not only the rest of my year but a lot of my memories of the good times in 2010 as well. Was it the lack of black eyed peas? Probably not, but you can bet I was first in line this year for my serving, not willing to take any chances regardless.

African Peanut Soup

I figured I should follow up the roasted chicken post with not just any old chicken soup, but an amazing chicken soup that represents not simply comfort but a spirit of adventure mixed in as well. A soup full of forward thinking combinations, a melting pot of both familiar tastes as well as an uncharted territory of flavors for a new year. I'm not trying to sound like an Amy Tan novel, just trying to say in so many words that I was craving a combination of both old and new.
When I was 9, we took a family vacation to Colonial Williamsburg and naturally some of my fondest memories of this trip revolved around the food. We went in November, the air crisp, the smell of fall and fires and frying bacon all making me realize that autumn in other places is more than just the fleeting moment it is in South Texas. More importantly I discovered how wonderful soup can be, especially coming in from the cold. Complex chowders, bread bowls, soup that didn't have that tinny, too salty Campbell's taste. All amazement's I'd never experienced before. Here's also where I tasted my favorite, Peanut Soup.