Sunchoke Soup

Adam and I were both out of town for our CSA spring share #2 (we had a friend pick it up and enjoy it instead) but here's #3 which I picked up on Wednesday. Check it: spinach, asparagus, eggs, radishes, shallots, scallions, chives, salad mix, sunchokes and yogurt!

(BTW, should you find yourself with an extra quart of yogurt around, perhaps because you bought one two days before your CSA pickup, this cake is a great way to use up a cup of it.)



Asparagus was a great reason to practice my hollandaise, shallots went into a pot of beans and some chicken stock, and I've been sprinkling chives on anything that finds its way into a bowl. Spinach and salad greens are easy enough to find uses for, and we go through eggs like nobody's business, but I was a little puzzled by the sunchokes. We got a few last year that we sauteed and put it an omelet, but with most of a pound kicking around I wanted to do something that would better show off their unique flavor.



Lucky for me, I remembered Olga's soup! I scrubbed the dirt off the little 'chokes and got to work.



I made quite a few changes based on what I had around, and I was really pleased with the results. I love foods that taste creamy without any cream, and the delicate sunchoke flavor comes through brilliantly. If you happen across these weird little tubers, pick up a pound and make some soup.



Sunchoke Soup with Caramelized Onions
adapted from Sassy Radish
serves 4

To my palate, artichokes taste expensive... probably because I know how much paring and peeling and dunking in lemon (that is, work) goes into harvesting the hearts! But sunchokes are so much easier to work with - just scrub and simmer - and the flavor is, if anything, even more refined. I can just imagine this soup passed through a fine sieve or tamis to filter out the skins and starchy bits, maybe with a little sweet butter blended in to bump this into fancy-dinner-party territory. 

3 cloves garlic, sliced or roughly chopped
scant 1 tsp fresh marjoram, chopped
3 Tbsp plus 2 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 lb sunchokes, scrubbed very well (a generous pint, if you're not weighing)
1/2 lb (about 2 baseball sized) potatoes (yukon gold or red bliss), peeled, cut in 1 inch chunks
4 cups chicken stock (or use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)
salt and pepper
2 large yellow onions, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 a lemon, juice only
1 tsp cider vinegar
extra virgin olive oil, to garnish
chopped chives, to garnish

Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil (I don't like to use extra virgin for this, why spend the money on flavors that are just going to disappear when heated?) in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and marjoram and a pinch of salt and sweat for a couple of minutes until it smells good. Add the sunchokes and potatoes and chicken stock, plus another pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Bring up to a low boil over high heat, then reduce to medium low and cover the pot. Simmer for an hour or until the potatoes and sunchokes are falling apart.

Meanwhile, caramelize the onions. Heat a medium skillet (I love my cast iron skillet for this) over medium low heat and add 2 Tbsp olive oil. Add the onions, stir to coat them with oil and then let them cook slowly, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until evenly browned and sweet.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, then adjust the seasoning. You'll need several more big pinches of salt, plus the lemon juice and vinegar. You could also use just lemon juice, but I like the different notes of two acids.

Pile some onions in a bowl and ladle the soup around them, then garnish with some really good extra virgin olive oil and chopped chives.

30x30 Update: Month Two

Update two is only a week and a half late! Sorry about that, but the actual month-iversary hit on my last day of work and the night before I flew to Paris.  ANYWAY let's see what I've done, eh?

Culinary Projects: Duck prosciutto! (see above.) Except I've decided that calling it duck prosciutto is silly, because prosciutto is a ham, which is a leg, and this is a cured duck breast. It was delicious. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit.

Professional Projects: None of the specifically listed goals, however, I've left my catering job for a job at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. It's an office job (assisting with job placements and things of that nature) and it's part time to start, but I'm really excited about it.



Personal Projects: Yes! We watched the Godfather Trilogy on April first. All the way through, oof. We propped up the tv on a box since we had no fewer than TWELVE people crammed into our not-that-big living room. I liked Part II the best, and I see why people hate on the third one so much (Sofia Coppola may be the worst actress of all time).



Also I went to Paris with my mom and my sister which was, in a word, delicious. We pretty much walked around and ate every 3 hours. In my opinion, there is no better way to fill your vacation days. All my Paris photos are here, if you care to take a look.

I'm still doing pretty well with Project 365, and I've read 4 more books (No Cheating No Dying, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows.

House Stuff: I guess the hamper we ordered is on its way, because they charged our credit card. Other than that, no progress. Sigh.

Fitnessy Things: Well, I can still only do one chin-up. And now that I've left my super physical kitchen job, I'm a little worried that my arms are going to wilt, so I better stay on top of this one. And I've run two 5k races, one of which I finished in 30:06 and the second one in 28:11, so I hope I'm getting better. Except then I was hobbled by a cold for a week before we left for France and I didn't get a chance to run again until this morning... which was brutal. Time to get back on that bandwagon!

New goals met this month: 3
Total goals met so far: 5

Pink Lentil Soup

So March flew by, eh? We had our first CSA pickup of the year, yaaaay!



We also ate our first grilled hot dogs of the year on an absolutely gorgeous 70 degree day in MARCH, which was kind of a big deal.

And then it got cold again, so I made lentil soup.



Pink Lentil Soup
serves 4

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons harissa, depending on how much heat you want
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 pound crimson lentils (about 2 cups)
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
salt and pepper
lemon juice
kefir or yogurt for garnishing

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium high heat. Sweat the onion until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the cumin and harissa and stir, then add the lentils and a hearty pinch of salt. Keep stirring. Toast the lentils in the butter this way for just a minute, then add the chicken stock and half the water. Let the soup come almost to a boil, then turn the heat to medium low and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. As they cook, add some water to keep it at your desired consistency; you may not use all 4 cups, but I didn't want a super thick soup.

Once the lentils are cooked, season the soup to taste with lemon juice and plenty of salt and pepper (and maybe another dab of harissa?). Garnish with a swirl of kefir or a dollop of yogurt, and enjoy. This soup will keep in the fridge for most of the week, so you might even get some lunches out of it, woo!

30x30: Month One

Well, folks, we're one month in to my personal challenge of 30 things to get done by the time I'm 30.

Here's what I've done so far! That is to say, not much.

Culinary Projects: Nope, not a one.

Professional Projects: Um, yeah, none of these either.

Personal Projects: Finally, progress!
I've been going strong for a month with Project 365 and you can follow my photos in this set on Flickr. I'm trying not to be so serious about it this time around (see the weird/terrible photo I took on the bus the other day. It's literally of the seat in front of me) and I hope that makes it easier in the long run. I don't have to be a capital letters ARTIST every day, I just have to snap a photo. That said, I would like to improve, too.

And I've read four books (Best Food Writing 2010, Swamplandia!, A New Turn in the South, A Game of Thrones), so I'm 13.33% done with my goal to read 30 books.

House Stuff: Two things accomplished, one on back order.
Top photo is a before & after of our living room bookshelf once we got all the dvds into a binder and recycled the cases. Hooray, less clutter! We started using natural cleaning supplies for the house (the all purpose cleaner and the grease cutter, though I think I'm going to keep using bleach if there's been raw chicken out on the counter). Also, a hamper for the bedroom is on back order but hopefully it will be here by next month's update.

Fitnessy Things: I did one chin-up! And then instead of falling off the bar I held on for a second, which I think counts as a fraction of chin-up number two.

Total Goals Met: 2. Ahem.

Sardine RIllettes

I resolved to cook and eat more fish this year, and when Adam realized that included sardines he was pretty excited. The guy can bring a can of sardines and some crackers to work and happily call it lunch. I am not quite so good at the oily little fishes. I know, I know, but they're so little! And oily! Here's the thing, though: they're also delicious and sustainable.

You can buy fresh sardines if you want (and you should, then you should butterfly them and pan fry them and serve them with orange beurre blanc), but since sardines are more or less shelf stable when canned, they make a great pantry item. Super fast dinner: cook them with boatloads of garlic and red pepper flake and toss it all with pasta. Nice and easy lunch: smash them up with cream cheese and a few other bits and bobs, then eat the mess on crackers next to a salad.

Sardine Rillettes
serves 2 as a light lunch or more as part of a larger spread, doubles easily

This is adapted like crazy from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table; I didn't have the herbs her recipe called for, and I had an odd size can of sardines, so I just mashed and smashed until it tasted good. I am confident that you could take this in a whole bunch of directions, so trust your instincts and embrace the little fishes. 

2 oz cream cheese
1 4.5 can sardines in oil, spines and viscera removed (see below)
1 small shallot, minced
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp capers, rinsed, chopped
1/4 tsp marjoram, finely chopped
lots of black pepper

To remove the spines and icky bits of the sardines, use a small knife to slit open the bellies and open up the fishes. The spines are soft, so be gentle, but you should be able to just pick them up and remove them quite easily. The icky bits will be obvious, darker and sometimes green. Just scrape them out. You should also remove any residual fins by cutting them away, but the skins are ok to leave on.

Put the cream cheese in a bowl and bang it around with a fork, smush it all up. This is easier if it's at room temperature, but no big deal. Add several grinds of black pepper, the shallot, marjoram, and capers. Continue mashing and smushing. Add the sardines and the lemon juice. Continue mashing and smushing. Give it a taste to see if you need salt; you might not  since the capers and sardines and cream cheese bring plenty to the table.  Now, cover the rillettes with plastic wrap and stick the bowl in the fridge for at least an hour or two. Taste it again before serving and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve with crackers or sliced baguette.

French Onion Soup

Are you chilly? It is winter, after all, and that makes it soup season. Let's get cozy.

First, slice 5 pounds of onions. Thin, but not too thin; you're going to cook them for quite some time. Your eyes may water.

Put half a stick of butter in a big, heavy pot. Turn on the flame, low. Stir every few minutes for two hours. After ninety minutes your onions will be sitting in a pool of oniony liquid and it will seem like they will never ever be done. Keep going! After two and a half hours your onions should be melty and dark golden brown, but if they're not, keep cooking.

Sprinkle the melty onions with a tablespoon or two of flour and stir it in. Add a cup of wine and simmer till it's all gone.

Add a cup or two of water and six cups of stock - chicken, beef, veal, duck, whatever you have. Homemade is great if you have it. If it's from a box, just make sure it's not crazy salty. Simmer the whole mess for another hour until it's silky and smooth.

Now the fun part: add a little blorp of dijon mustard, a splash of Worcestershire sauce and a bigger splash of soy sauce. Grind in a lot of black pepper. Taste your soup and put it in a bowl. Slice some bread and toast it up. Put it on top of your soup and cover it in a pile of sweet, nutty cheese, then stick the whole mess in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbling brown. Dig in.

Baked Potatoes with Broccoli Rabe and Raclette

Last week at work we got to try raclette in the traditional way, heated up and scraped onto some potatoes, so it seemed an obvious choice to top this fancied up 'tater. Instead of broccoli and cheddar, why not broccoli rabe and raclette? The creamy nuttiness of the raclette stood up brilliantly to the bitter broccoli rabe.

So yeah, sometimes we have baked potatoes for dinner. I actually bought these potatoes because we had lots of leftover chili after the Superbowl and baked potatoes with chili is an aaawesome repurpose of leftovers. Except then Adam ate all the chili for lunch. (I mean, not in one day, just that he ate three days worth of chili lunch.) The point is that after all that chili, a big pile of vegetables is super appealing. Do you do baked potatoes for dinner, or just as a side? What's your favorite tater topper?

Baked Potatoes with Broccoli Rabe and Raclette
Serves 4
You don't have to use actual Swiss raclette if you can't find it, just something that style. I will say, however, that if you're having baked potatoes for dinner, springing for a fancy cheese is not a bad way to go. If you'd rather go domestic, Spring Brook Farm makes a great raclette style cheese. 

4 large russet potatoes, preferably all the same size
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
kosher salt and pepper
1 large bunch of broccoli rabe, ends trimmed, cut in 1 inch pieces
4-6 ounces Swiss raclette or another alpine style melting cheese

Preheat your oven to 375. Put a baking sheet on the bottom shelf. Poke the potatoes all over with a fork, then rub them with a thin coat of vegetable oil and rub a generous amount of salt on the skin. Put the potatoes directly on the top rack of the oven. The baking sheet is there to catch any drips, and will probably be annoying to clean later, so you may want to put some foil on it first. After 30 minutes, turn the potatoes over. It should take 45 minutes to an hour for the potatoes to become tender all the way through (poke them with a thin knife to find out).

While the potatoes are baking, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Blanch the broccoli rabe for 1-2 minutes or until tender. I spread it out on another cookie sheet to let it dry/cool  faster, but you could also shock it in ice water and drain it. I just used it as is, but if you wanted to saute the blanched broccoli rabe in butter to warm it up, that would be good too.

Grate the raclette as best you can on the large holes of a box grater. It will be a little smushy, but that's ok.

When the potatoes are done, open them up. I like to cut them open (not all the way through to the bottom) the long way, and then make 2 cuts the other way so I end up with six potato segements. Season the potato insides with salt and pepper, then top with the broccoli rabe and raclette. Put the topped potatoes on a baking sheet (the one that was in the oven or the one that had the broccoli rabe on it) and stick them in the still-warm oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts.