Comfort food: a quick, inauthentic asopao de pollo

Asopao is a Puerto Rican dish of soupy rice that is, eaten all over the  Spanish Caribbean.  It is sometimes translated as gumbo, but this is misleading, since okra and roux are the defining features of gumbo and this has neither.  Whatever it is, it is straightforward and comforting on a chilly night and it reminds me of Maurice Sendak's early book, Chicken Soup with Rice, which was one of our kids' favorites.

It is also a super-quick dinner.  While I generally go for hyper-authenticity rather than speed, sometimes one has to rise to the occasion and use what is on hand.  So, rather than achiote oil, which I don't have and don't care for, I used a pinch of turmeric which may or may not have a myriad of health benefits, but which we have in the house for Indian and Middle Eastern cooking.  Also,  though traditionally made with a whole chicken, skinless, boneless chicken thighs are easier and less fatty than whole chicken and juicier and tastier than breasts.   Finally, I made it with pareve soup powder, which is probably not an authentic Puerto Rican ingredient.

This takes about 45 minutes from beginning to end -- how I define quick and easy, if not everyone does.

Asopao de pollo -- Soupy chicken rice 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 rib celery, trimmed and finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• large pinch turmeric
• 1/4 cup cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 1 pound raw skinless, boneless chicken thighs, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 14 ounce can of chopped or diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted (with green chile or garlic is even better)
• 1 green pepper, cored, seeded and cut into half inch dice
• 1 red pepper, cored, seeded and cut into half inch dice
• Salt and pepper to taste.  If using canned broth or soup powder, hold off on the salt until the end.
• 6 cups chicken broth (ideally homemade, but in the real world, boxed, canned or even soup powder is acceptable, and tonight I used a large spoon of Osem's pareve chicken soup powder with boiling water)
• 1/2 cup short grain rice, like Spanish rice, Arborio or Canaroli
• 1/2 cup green peas (presumably frozen -- if you have wonderful fresh peas, use them in something else)
• 1-2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 10-20 pimento stuffed green olives, rinsed and sliced
• 4 scallions, while and some of the green, sliced

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a 4-quart pot on medium heat.
2. Add onions, carrot and celery to the pot and stir until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic, cook about a minute, until soft but not borwned.
4. Add turmeric, stir a few times, add half of the chopped herb, and then the chicken.  
5. Cook on medium-high until the chicken looses its raw color.
6. Add the tomato, bring to the simmer, add the chopped peppers, turn heat down, and cook on low for 10 minutes.
7. Add the broth, bring to the boil, and turn heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes.  
8. Add the rice and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add the peas, capers, and olives and simmer 5 minute more.  Taste the rice to make sure that it is cooked through, and if not, simmer for a few minutes more.
10. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and set aside to settle and cool for 5 minutes before serving.
11. Garnish with scallions and remaining herb.
12. Serves 4 for dinner with a salad.

Kale, chick pea and farro soup

As I noted in an earlier post while I am happy to use a bit of Osem soup powder now and again, I avoid canned beans when I can.  Go figure.

This is real detox food, something that we needed after the holidays and a deep-fat,sugar  and alcohol filled trip to Austin.   I will give the recipe how we made it (cooked, not canned chick peas but Osem soup powder, quick cooking farro) and suggest a varity of substitutions so that you can fit it with the way you cook.  If your pantry is stocked like ours, this is a super-easy soup an great on a chilly day.

Kale, chickpea and farro soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalkes celery, trimmed and chopped
• 2 carrots, trimmed and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
• 1-2 bunches of kale (preferably Russian or lacinato kale, but use what you can get, including a bag of the pre-washed stuff); wash, remove coarse ribs and cut into thick shreds
• Salt and pepper
• 1 to 1 1/2 quarts water (bringing it to a boil separately while you are doing the rest will save lots of time)
• parmesean cheese rinds (optional, but highly desireable)
• 1/2 pound chickpeas, cooked, with their soaking liquid (see below)
• 1 tablespoon Osem powder, or two bullion cubes (more or less)
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking farro

Method

1. Heat the oil on medium-high in a 4-quart pot, and add the onion, celery and carrot as they are prepared and saute until soft but not browned.  Add a sprinkline of  salt and pepper, which will help this along, but not too much salt since the soup powder and cheese rind will be salty.
2. Add the garlic and saute another minute.
3. Add the kale and saute, stirring occasionally until it wilts and loses much of its volume.
4. Add the water and cheese rind and bring the soup to the boil.
5. Turn heat down to simmer and cook 20 minutes. 
6. Add the chickpeas and their water and bring to the boil again.
7. Add the Osem powder if using, taste for saltiness, and correct seasonings.
8. Add the farro and cook about 10 minuts until tender.  If you are using pearled farro, not precooked, it may take around a half hour so add it when you add the water.
9. Serve on its own, with a drizzle of olive oil, or some grated parmesean cheese.

Chickpeas:  I prefer homemade chickpeas for this, and often have some in the freezer.  Soak one pound of chick peas for eight hours or overnight in plenty of water with a pinch of baking soda.  Drain, rinse and put in a pot,  cover with water by about one inch, bring to the boil and simmer until done, about 30-45 minutes.  Skim the scum that comes to the surface at the beginning of cooking.  Use half the chickpeas and liquid in this soup and freeze the rest to use in the recipe of your choice.  If you insist on using canned chickpeas it will still be good.  Use one large can, drain and rinse well, and increase the liquid in the soup by about 2 cups. 

Choices, choices, choices:  Fresh cooked chick peas but MSG-filled soup powder?  That is how I cook and people tend not to complain.  By all means, you can substitute canned chickpeas, as above, or use a vegetable stock (preferably homemade) if you swing that way.  If you are not concerned about kashrut, or eliminte the cheese rind, use a chicken or meat broth.   The parmesean cheese rind adds great umami flavor.  Alessandra Rovati of the wonderful Dinner in Venice blog notes that Italian Jews will often throw cheese rinds into soups in lieu of meat bones. The quantity is hard to specify, I would say a 2-3 inch piece is sufficient. 

Kale rib soup with rice

It has been a while since I paid tribute to the memory of Birdie Paris,  my wife's aunt and force of nature. Coincidentally, last time was in connection with her recipe for kale soup. She never made this kale soup, but certainly would have been proud of me for coming up with it.  Birdie was one of the most generous people in the world, but she was also one of the most frugal.  We used to say that she would give you the clothes off her back, and then tell you what she paid for them and most importantly, what it was marked down from.  While such frugality was not uncommon in people born after the First World War who came of age during the Great Depression, Birdie brought it to new levels.  She would brag about buying dented cans and expired and marked-down meat and claimed to have built their Cape house on the savings. . She would buy scraps of leftover cold cuts at the deli counter and turn them into a (mighty tasty) antipasto, of course reciting the price of  each component as she dished it out..  Her daughter Susan says that it took her years to realize that she did not need to buy tuna fish just because it was on sale, and, if she wanted to, she could but it even if it was not on sale.

We have become addicted to kale salads but are often trim off the leaves and are left with a whole lot of ribs.  Here is something tasty to do with them:

Kale rib soup with rice

Ingredients

• Ribs from one very large bunch of kale, preferably Tuscan (lacinato) kale, which will yield about one quart chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• medium onion, chopped
• carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 ribs celery, trimmed stringed and chopped
• 2 or more cloves or garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (more if you like it tomatoey, which I do not)
• 5-6 cups liquid (I used water and a tablespoon of Osem powder;  a homemade vegetable stock would be nice if you are so inclined)
• Parmesan cheese rind (a two inch piece is fine, but the more the merrier)
• Bay leaf
• 1/4 cup short grain rice, like Arborio or Spanish rice
• grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Method

1. When you make the kale salad, you will strip the leaves off the stems, which will keep for a week or more in the refrigerator. 
2. You can use all of the ribs except for the hard, woody stems which may still be attached, particularly if you got the kale from a farmers' market or CSA. Strip the ribs off the stem and discard the stem, since it is too fibrous to use.
3. Rinse the ribs and chop them.  You should have about one quart.
4. Heat the olive oil in a 3-4 quart soup pot and add, as you are finished preparing the, the onion, carrot, celery and garlic.  Stir occasionally until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes total.
5. Add the chopped kale ribs, and saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and stir until it is mixed in.
6. Add the liquid, cheese rind, bay leaf and some grindings of pepper and bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer for  about 20 minutes, partially covered.  
7. Taste the kale, which should be cooked but still somewhat firm before adding the rice.  Cook a few minutes more if necessary.  Add more salt if needed -- the rice will absorb some salt so it should taste every so slightly on the salty side.
8. Add the rice and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.  Cover the pot and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.  The rice should be cooked but al dente, with a little toothiness.  If you want more tender rice, cook it a few minutes more.
9. Serve with grated cheese.  Serves 6-8 as a first course and 3-4 as a very hearty main dish.

Variations: Rice is our favorite, but you can also prepare this with soup pasta (like ditalini) or toasted bread.  Just substitute the pasta for the rice, but cook the kale a little longer and  only cook the pasta for 5 minutes after adding.  If you use bread, the best choice is a stale, non-sweet whole grain loaf cut into 1-inch thick slices.  Toast them and rub with garlic and pour the soup (not a true zuppa/sop) over it when you serve. This can also be served with frissell, the hard biscuts available in some Italian bakeries. It is particularly good with pepper frissell. The soup itself should cook about 10 minutes more to tenderize the kale ribs.

Carrot soup with dill and matzoh balls

We are doing a dairy seder second night this year, and will be serving this soup.  It is a riff on the Mexican carrot soup that I posted last year.  The different seasonings give it a completely different character and it is quite nice.


Carrot Soup With Dill and Matzah Balls


Ingredients

• 1 medium white or yellow onion, peeled and chopped 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or more if you want
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots (about 750 grams), peeled and sliced
• 1 large starchy potato (white, russet or Yukon gold) peeled and diced
• 1 small-medium bunch dil, roots cut off and washed well until not sandy
• 2 quarts  liquid (vegetable or chicken broth, canned or boxed ok, or the equivalent in water and bouillon -- I used 3 tablespoons of Osem pareve soup powder)
• salt and white pepper to taste
• matzah balls (only if serving hot; make your preferred recipe from a box, and throw an handful of chopped scallions and dill into the batter before you put it in the fridge to set)

For garnish:

• chopped scallions
• chopped fresh dill
• lemon, cut into eighths

Method

• Saute the onion in the oil on medium heat until soft, but do not brown.
• Add carrots and potatoes and saute another few minutes.
• Add the liquid and bring to the boil .Turn heat down to a simmer.
• Tuck the dill into the soup.
• Cover and cook about 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
• Cool a bit, and fish out the dill. Puree using and immersion blender (much easier and safer) or in a regular blender or processor.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve hot or cold with with some or all of the garnishes above to 6 - 8 people.

Roasted cauliflower and tomato soup

This soup is easy (by my standards), low-carb, low-fat, vegan, and pareve.  You can gussy it up if you want -- some suggestions are below -- but it is fine just as it is.

Roasted cauliflower and tomato soup

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower
• vegetable oil spray
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 1 15 ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon each ground chitpotle chile, thyme,  smoked Spanish paprika, and cumin
• handful washed chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 quart boiling vegetable stock (I actually used 4 teaspoons of Osem powder in boiling water)

Method

1. Roast the cauliflower according to my recipe for Roasted Cauliflower with Eggs.
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion in the canola oil in a medium (3-4 quart) pot on high heat until it is soft and starting to brown on the edges.  
3. Add the spices and give a few stirs.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook down on high heat until it looks like a sauce, about 5-10 minutes.
5. Add half the cilantro and stir a bit
6. Add the stock and bring to the boil.
7. When the cauliflower is done, set aside a few of the smaller florets for a garnish, and add the remainder to the soup, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
8. Puree the soup using a hand-held immersion blender. (You could use a conventional blender, but then you have to let it cool down and the recipe would not longer be fast and easy.)
9. Reheat the soup, stir in the remaining coriander, and serve with a few roasted florets in each bowl.
10. Serves 6 as a first course.

Other accompaniments:  Although this soup is fine as it is, we had it with a little goat's milk yogurt stirred in.  I am not being precious, it is widely available now.  The sweetness of the goat yogurt counteracted the acidity of the tomatoes very nicely.  You could also serve the soup with a variety of traditional Mexican garnishes:  diced chili, white onion, tortilla strips, cheese, avocado, lime and more cilantro.  This could turn the soup into a main dish for up to four people, especially at lunch.  For more on these garnishes, and on preparing the tortilla strips, see my recipe for Mexican vegetable soup. If you were going to use a lot of garnishes, I would eliminate the roasted cauliflower garnish and just puree it all with the soup.

Mexican Carrot Soup

I work at the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (more on this program below) and our office manager, Adriana, has a very good palate so I sometimes bring her samples when I bring in my lunch.  She has apparently become a big fan of my cooking.  I know this because I recently returned from a meeting of our Latin American partners in Queretaro, Mexico.  I arrived on the 3rd day of the meeting and the first question everyone asked me was not about work, but about this carrot soup.  I had brought in some of this for Adriana, and she apparently raved about it to the group before I arrived.  So, this is for Adriana, Marina, Anabella and Fulvia, the cooks and foodies in the group. (I am including a very rough approximation of the metric amounts on their account.) The recipe is also for my niece Sarah, who when she is not surviving harrowing airplane rides on Eastern European carriers  that she thinks are safe and competent seems to have been checking this site regularly from Vienna.  I haven't updated it in more than a month and don't want to leave her hanging, so she will find this recipe shortly after she arrives in Lvov (which she insists on calling L'viv).

I adapted the  recipe from Diana Kennedy, but I like mine better. She uses scallions and purees them in the soup along with the cilantro, giving it a sort of swampy look.  I use white onion and remove the cilantro before pureeing, so the soup is a nice orange but still has the cilantro flavor.  This is good hot or cold, simple to make and  fun to eat since you can vary the garnishes.

Mexican Carrot Soup

Ingredients

• 1 medium white onion, peeled and chopped (white onions are the norm in Mexican cooking)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or more if you want
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots (about 750 grams), peeled and sliced
• 1 large starchy potato (white, russet or Yukon gold, about 300 grams) peeled and diced
• 1 small-medium bunch cilantro, roots cut off and washed well until not sandy
• 2 quarts (2 liters) liquid (vegetable or chicken broth, canned or boxed ok, or the equivalent in water and bouillon -- I used 3 tablespoons of Osem pareve soup powder)
• salt and white pepper to taste

For garnish, some or all of the following:

• chopped white onion
• chopped jalapeno or serrano (hotter) chile -- leave in the seeds if you want it hot
• chopped fresh cilantro
• lime quarters
• diced avocado
• tortilla strips (see below)

Method

1. Saute the onion in the oil on medium heat until soft, but do not brown.  
2. Add carrots and potatoes and saute another few minutes.
3. Add the liquid and bring to the boil  Turn heat down to a simmer.
4. Tuck the cilantro into the soup. 
5. Cover and cook about 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
6. Cool a bit, and fish out the cilantro.  Puree using and immersion blender (much easier and safer) or in a regular blender or processor.   
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.  
8. Serve hot or cold with some or all of the garnishes above to 6 - 8 people.

Tortilla strips:  This is a great way to use up stale tortillas.  Cut 6 tortillas in half, and then cut them into thin strips, about 1/8 inch.   Spray a baking sheet (lined with foil if you want) with vegetable oil spray, put the tortillas on the sheet and spray them again.  Don't pack them too close or it will take very long for them to dry out. Bake in a 250-300 degree oven until crisp, which will take 30 minutes or more depending on many factors.  You can also deep or shallow fry them.

Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP):  IFP is a grantee of the Ford Foundation's that provides postgraduate fellowships to students from 22 countries around the world so that they can become leaders in their fields.  The fellows are drawn from groups in their societies that have lacked access to higher education. The program has demonstrated that there is a demand for higher education in marginalized communities around the world, and that people from these communities are capable of completing rigorous graduate programs. Our fellows are chosen for their leadership potential as well as academic excellence, and the overwhelming majority return to their communities where many become social change leaders. It is a great place to work, and you get to meet some of the most interesting people in the world.

Spanish chickpea soup, farkashert

One of the nice things about cooking dried beans is that you can freeze them in the process, after soaking or after cooking, so it is easy to have some to add to a dish.  I keep beans in process in the freezer in zip-loc bags or plastic containers along with their soaking or cooking water which actually adds flavor rather than just slime and salt to the final product. The important thing, of course, is to label them so that you know at which stage they were frozen.

I was feeling under the weather today, and noticed that we had some frozen cooked chickpeas in the freezer, as well as some semi-dried turkey kubano sausages, and I was in the mood for a soup. This kosher version of Spanish chickpea and chorizo soup was the result.  I find the turkey sausages a good substitute for the chorizo, and I accentuate the smokiness by using smoked Spanish paprika and fire-roasted tomatoes. Then again, maybe it is just too long since I have had the real thing.  The quantities are very approximate and little more of this or a little less of that according to you taste won't hurt anyone. The amounts below make for a rather soupy soup.  A diced potato or turnip added 10 minutes before the end would be a nice addition as well.  It looks a lot nicer than the picture here, which actually looks like hubagrits soup with which it has little in common, but I though I should post a picture because my blog lacks visuals.  Here is how you do it:



Spanish chickpea soup 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 links semi-dried turkey kubano sausages (about 3 ounces)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion or shallot
• 5 cloves sliced garlic
• 1 heaping tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 14 ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes (I use Muir Glen fire-roasted -- the smoky flavor is particularly important here)
• 2 cups chicken broth (while homemade is nice, I used boxed Manischewitz; if you must, 2 use cups water and a bouillon cube or 2 teaspoons Osem powder)
• 2 cups frozen cooked chickpeas with their liquid (if you must, you can substitute a 19 ounce can, drained and rinsed)
• Pepper and salt

Method

1. Dice 2 of the sausages fine and saute in olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat until brown.
2. Add the onion or shallot and saute until soft.  Add the garlic and saute a minute or to longer.
3. Turn heat to low and stir in the paprika and a few grindings of black pepper if you want.  Saute another minute.
4. Add the tomatoes, turn the heat to high, and cook about 10 minutes until it thickens into a sauce.
5. Add the broth and the remain links, whole but pricked with a fork and bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.  
6. Add the chickpeas and their liquid if using (they will defrost in the soup), bring back to the boil, turn heat down, cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.  \
7. Remove the whole sausages, slice, and return to the soup.  Correct for salt and pepper.  (I don't salt until the end since the broth and sausages generally have salt.)
8. Serves 4 as an appetizer or two as a main course.  

Yemenite Chicken Soup

This is the Yemenite version of chicken-in-a-pot, which is the Ashkenazi comfort food of bland boiled chicken in rich broth with complementary carbohydrates:  kasha, noodles, matzo balls, and sometimes potatoes.  Instead of the multiple carbs, the Yemenite variant adds flavor.  I first had this at my cousin Susan's house, when her friend Tamar brought over this soup (and a basket of homemade laffa, a kind of Yemenite naan, which was a soft as a baby's bottom, but that is another matter) after her mother, the legendary and incomparable Aunt Birdie,  died a few years ago.  Tamar explained how to make it, and I played around with the recipe a bit, and here is how we do it:

Yemenite chicken soup


Ingredients

• 1 chicken, about 3 pounds, cut up into 4-10 pieces and skinned
• 2 quarts boiling water
• 1 bunch cilantro, washed well
• 6 cloves garlic, paper removed but unpeeled
• 1 tablespoon Osem pareve chicken soup powder (this is for the authentic flavor;  if you must, you can use chicken stock or just water)
• 2 tablespoon Pereg spices for soup (hawaji)
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks, more if you want
• 1 large russet potato, scrubbed well and cut into eights (you can peel it if you want but I find that the peel adds flavor to the broth and helps to keep the potato from falling apart
• 1 - 2 cups winter squash, like butternut, peeled and cut into 1 inch dice (optional, and you can use zucchini instead, just add it with the green beans)
• 8 ounces to 1 pound green beans, trimmed 

Method

1. Put the chicken in a 4-5 quart pot and pour the boiling water over it. (A 4 quart pot will be tight but will add some drama to cooking and serving;  5 quarts will give you plenty of room.)
2. Bring to the boil, turn heat down to a simmer, and skim off the scum that rises to the surface. (This will take about 10-15 minutes).
3. Add garlic cloves, soup powder, and spices.  Tuck the cilantro into a corner of the pot. (You can tie it with some kitchen string to make it easier to remove, but I don't. )
4. Simmer for 10 minutes and add the onion.
5. Simmer for another 10 minutes and add the potato and carrot.
6. Simmer chicken for another 20 minutes, and add the squash.
7. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the green beans and simmer until they are tender, for another 5-10 minutes.  Total cooking time is about 50 minutes to an hour.  Taste the broth for salt if you didn't use the soup powder, otherwise it will be plenty salty. Fish out the bunch of cilantro if you can.
8. We usually serve the soup as a first course, and the chicken and vegetables on a plate next, along with harissa or zchug. You can serve it all together in big bowls if you want.  In either case, serve it with middle eastern bread, preferably laffa, which is now available commercially, or thick Israeli-style pita.
9. Serves 4. 

Hawaji:  This is a Yemenite spice powder used for soup. It is much easier,  if you can find it,  to use bought Yemenite spices for soup.  Pereg is the brand I use.  Otherwise, mix together 1 tablespoon each  of finely ground black pepper and cumin, 2 teaspoons ground coriander, one teaspoon each ground cardamom and turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves.  You can play with this as you like, especially the proportions of  cardamom and cloves, and you can leave out the coriander if you want.  This amount will make enough for 2 pots of soup.


Soup powder:  Usually I only use pareve soup powder to keep a recipe vegetarian or dairy.  But Tamar swore by using a bit of Osem, which is a pareve soup powder that contains all sorts of horrible ingredients. Israelis use it all the time,  and it gives this soup an "authentic" taste, and if you don't overdo it, it is quite good.  I had a long discussion today about  Osem with Ruby, an Israeli of Persian extraction, who said that Osem powder is a good way of adding umami to all kinds of dishes. He even suggested that I use it in the lamb shank ragu that I described to him.  Maybe next time.  Umami is the "fifth flavor,"  associated with deep savory protein flavors from things like meat broth, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, anchovies and soy sauce.  A posting about lamb shanks and umami will follow shortly.

Matzo balls:  Though rarely served this way, matzo balls are a great addition to this soup.  Serve them separately with the broth first.  They soak up the spice flavoring beautifully.

Mexican vegetable soup

I have nothing interesting to say about this, other than that it is easy,  good, and can be made vegetarian or with chicken broth.  We always make it vegetarian.  It is a light meal by itself unless you serve it in very small quantities as a first course and a more substantial meal if you add roasted tofu or shredded chicken. People seem to love mixing in their own garnishes.  Since it does not contain potatoes, it freezes well.  Try it!

Mexican vegetable soup

Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery finely chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch lengths
• 2-3 small zucchini scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch dice
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon dried chipotle pepper (the larger amount results in a much spicier soup)
• pinch (and I mean a pinch) oregano
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice (ok to substitute about 2 cups butternut squash cut into 3/4 inch dice)
• 1 can crushed tomatoes or puree, 15 oz  (Muir Glen fire-roasted crushed tomatoes adds a nice smoky taste)
• 2 cups cooked chick peas (canned are acceptable, but then you can't use the liquid -- see below)
• bay leaf
• 6- 8 cups liquid (chick pea broth, vegetable broth, or water and bouillon cube -- see below)
• several sprigs cilantro, well washed
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional:  roasted tofu  (see below)
• garnishes:  chopped red or white onion, lime quarters, chopped cilantro, sour cream, grated cheddar or cotija cheese, chopped jalapeno, toasted tortilla strips (see below)

Method

1. Heat the oil on medium in a 4 quart pot and add onions, celery and carrot, a bit of salt, and saute until soft but not brown.  (This is really very flexible.  You can add the vegetables to the pot as you are finished chopping them.)
2. Add the green beans and zucchini as they are ready.
3. Add the garlic and saute for a minute.
4. Add the cumin, chipotle and oregano and saute for another minute.
5. Add the sweet potatoes, tomato puree, chickpeas, liquid and bay leaf.  Push the cilantro into one corner (you can tie it if you want, but I don't bother) and bring to the boil.  Simmer about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
6. Fish out the coriander, and if you can the bay leaf.
7. Correct taste for salt and pepper, and if using, add roasted tofu and warm through.
8. Serve with garnishes, as many as you want, but serve either the sour cream and grated cheese OR the lime, not both.    This makes a pretty hefty dinner for 4.

Non vegetarian variation:  use chicken broth and some poached shredded chicken breast.  I would leave out the cream and cheese here but it is up to you.  This makes more of a hearty main dish.

Cooking liquid:  If you cook your own chick peas, you can use the cooking liquid as some or all of your broth.  One cup dried chickpeas will yield the right amount cooked and will probably leave you with between 3 and 4 cups of liquid.  The rest can be made up with vegetable stock (I used Tabatchnick's boxed) or bouillon.

Tortilla strips:  These are sort of like Chinese noodles made out of corn, and thought they are traditionally fried, you can bake them which is both easier and far lower in calories.  Take white corn tortillas, cut them in half, and then cut the halves into 1/4 inch strips. For this quantity of soup, 6-8 tortillas is more than enough and will probably leave some for snacking.   Line a baking sheet with foil (to make it easier to clean) and spray with vegetable oil spray.  Scatter the tortilla strips in on the pan, spray with more spray, and bake in a 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes.   They are done when they are lightly browned and crisp. Separate them gently and put them in a bowl to serve.  It is difficult to be precise about the time since it depends on so many variables, like the size of the pan, etc.  You can also bake these longer at lower heat, in which case it will take longer they will become less brown or on higher heat, in which case you have to watch them more carefully.   You can use the same method for tortilla chips by cutting the tortillas into sixths, or make tostadas by using whole tortillas.  I find that whole tortillas work best directly on a rack which allows the air to circulate so that they dry out very quickly, and should be done in 15-20 minutes.  I will post some recipes for tostadas shortly.

Roasted tofu:  If you add this, it becomes a pretty hefty dish.  Take about half a pound of tofu and cut into 1/2  inch dice.   Marinate in a combination of pureed onion, a spoon or so of Bragg's amino (or soy sauce or salt), and about a teaspoons of ground cumin for between 30 minutes and a few hours.  Take the cubes out of the marinade, put on a sprayed or greased baking sheet (line with foil first if you want) , spray again, and roast for about 30 minutes in a 450 degree oven until lightly browned.  You can vary the marinade depending on the dish.  This cubes are also good tossed into salads if you have any left over.

Zuppa/Sop/Soup : Zuppa di cavolo/Cabbage soup

Etymologically, soup is less about broth than about bread. I got to thinking about this when I wondered what makes Zuppa Inglese, essentially an Italian trifle, a soup. The answer is that Zuppa Inglese is not a zuppa because it is a liquid soup, but because it is based on cake (a stand in for bread) soaked in rum syrup (a stand in for broth). Thus, Zuppa di Pesce is not just fish and seafood cooked in tomato sauce. It needs toasted bread, or those hard thick peppery crackers (frisselle?) in the bowl to become a zuppa. When we were in Southern Italy, zuppa di pesce was much drier than what we get here, a dish of fish cooked in tomato sauce, with some of the scant liquid spooned over toasted bread. Indeed, our word soup is etymologically related to the Late Latin suppa, which is bread soaked in liquid. Soup is a sop more that a broth. The bread turns it into more of a main dish than a first course and it is a great way of making sure that old or stale bread does not go to waste.

It is with this in mind that I approached the soggy defrosted head of cabbage leaking all over my fridge a few weeks ago. The story will be too familiar to readers of my facebook page. I was going to try to reconstruct my grandmother's recipe for stuffed cabbage for Rosh Hashana, so I had frozen a large cabbage the week before labor day. I really understood why the unit of measurement for cabbage is a head. It was like having a houseguest in our freezer, or at least the severed head of one. Then came the call from my brother that his family did not want stuffed cabbage for dinner, but rather the more traditional holiday dish of Semur Daging, an Indonesian beef stew with spices and sweet soy sauce. So, we made a special trip to Chinatown for Bango Kecap Manis, said to be a tastier sweet soy sauce than the more readily available brand, ABC. We found it after visiting five stores, on Mulberry street in a place stocking groceries from all over Southeast asia. I made a big pot (about 6 pounds of meat) of Semur Daging, and then got another call from my brother saying that his daughter was no longer eating read meat, could we have something else.

She had leftover salmon, but we were stuck with this head in our freezer, and given the scarcity of freezer space in most NYC apartments , this was not a sustainable situation. I transferred the head to the fridge, where it took about three days to defrost. Freezing and defrosting is the alternative to blanching to soften and separate cabbage leaves, and it worked beautifully. I made a Georgian (as in Tiblisi, not Atlanta) cabbage roll stuffed with walnut paste, and it was a big hit with our guests the first night of RH. This is shaped more like a Japanese nori roll than traditional stuffed cabbage, and the stuffing tastes a bit funky and consists of walnuts, garlic, basil, cilantro, vinegar, marigold and fenugreek leaves.

But I was now stuck with the inside of a defrosted cabbage in our fridge. It did not represent the kind of space crisis that a whole head in the freezer did, but was unwelcome none the less. So, what to do? Soup! Rather than going for a Jewish or Northern European Cabbage Soup, we had some nice bread getting stale on our counter, so we went with a zuppa. Here is a method, more than a recipe. You can make it with different vegetables, or a combination, and add beans if you want. You can even make it with rice or pasta rather than bread, but then it wouldn't be soup.

Zuppa di cavolo

Ingredients:

• 1 slice of bread per person (see below)
  
• a few cloves peeled fresh garlic
• butter and/or olive oil (see below on cooking fat)
• finely chopped onion, carrot and celery (about 1-2 cups total)
• canned or fresh tomato (here I used about 1/2 of a 16 ounce can, drained and chopped; you can use as little as one tomato, or as much as the entire can; blanch and skin fresh tomatoes if you use them)
• cabbage: about 2-4 cups, shredded (green or savoy, fresh or defrosted)
• liquid, about 4 cups (see below)
• 1 bay leaf (optional)
• salt and pepper
• 1 or 2 pieces of rind from chunks of Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese scraped to remove any unidentifiable growths (optional, but adds a lot of flavor -- see below)
• fresh grated Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese

Method:

1. If the bread slices are very large, cut them in half so that they will fit in your soup bowls. If it is already stale, toast it lightly to dry out more. Otherwise, toast lightly and then leave in a low oven to dry while you make the soup.
2. When the bread is done, rub it on both sides with a peeled clove of garlic, One clove is usually good for 2 slices of bread.
3. Heat the fat (between 1 teaspoon and 3 tablespoons, it is up to you) in a 4 quart soup pot.
4. Add the onions, carrots and celery, salt lightly to help them sweat, and saute until soft but not brown.
5. Add the cabbage and saute for a few minutes with the vegetable.
6. Add the diced tomato and saute.
7. Add liquid and the cheese rinds, and a few grinds of pepper, bring to a boil, and cook about 1/2 hour.
8. Taste for salt and pepper -- the amount will depend on the saltiness of the liquid that you used.
9. To serve, put a piece of bread in each soup bowl, top with the vegetables and broth, and serve with grated cheese.
10. This is a dinner for 4 with a salad.

Cook's perk: The cheese rinds add great flavor to the broth, and should stay in the pot and not go in the soup plate. Actually, they should go in the cooks mouth while they are hot and before the soup makes it to the table. The rinds become soft, gooey and edible. Depending on the cheese, and on how long the soup is cooked, they will either have a deep cheesy flavor, or just the ghost of a flavor that was once there. Either is profound. As you use Parmesan or grana, just save the rinds in a plastic bag in the freezer, and use when you make soup.

The bread: The bread can be white or whole grain, sourdough or regular as long as it is NOT SWEET. We like it with "peasant breads," ciabatta, or a sourdough whole wheat. This time we made it with something called "wine bread" which was like a light sourdough, which my parents picked up at a farmers' market on Long Island. If you know that you will be making this, cut the bread a day or so before, and leave it in a paper bag or wrapped in paper towels were it will get slightly stale. Florentine bread is ideal but rarely found in the US. It is made without salt, so it does not attract water and gets stale rather than moldy. I believe that Dante, who was a political exile, complained that "the bread of exile is bitter and salty." He should be taken literally on this.

The fat: Originally, this was almost certainly made with lard or for those who could afford it, guanciale (salted pork jowl) or pancetta (rolled salted but not smoked bacon). Having given up pork products, I find it is still wonderful with butter and/or olive oil. If you want to add a little funkiness, you might dissolve and anchovy fillet or two in the fat before adding the onions. I haven't tried this myself yet since my wife is anchovy averse and has limited cabbage tolerance, so I didn't want to press my luck.

The liquid: We generally use water with one Telma pareve beef bullion cube. We add a few rinds of cheese, which adds a remarkable, deep umami flavor to the broth. You can use homemade or boxed (not canned!!) broths, though Italian home cooks would probably use a cube. If you make this with beans and use home-cooked beans, the bean broth can be used and is rich and tasty. Salt towards the end to make sure that you don't oversalt.

Variations: You don't need a soggy defrosted cabbage to make this dish. A fresh green or savoy cabbage would also do nicely. It can also be made with zucchini, green beans, spinach (don't cook this so long -- 5 or 10 minutes will do), lancinato kale, or escarole. If using escarole or kale, go light on the tomato, and white beans are particularly good. The beans can be cannellini, navy, or great northern. If you use canned beans, discard the vile liquid, rinse very well, and add toward the end. If you cooked the beans yourself, use the broth in the cooking liquid.

Starch variations: You can leave out the bread and use short soup pasta like ditalini or orzo, or add a few spoons of arborio rice. Cook these for about 10 minutes after you add them. However, as said above, it will no longer be soup, rather some kind of minestra. However, it will still be good.

Yellow tomato gazpacho

Our CSA (community supported agriculture coop) requires members to volunteer one shift each season, to either set up or clean up after everything is finished. The volunteers who work the clean up shift get to take what they want from the produce that is left. I try to time my shift to coincide with peak tomato season. The problem is that by the end of the evening, what is left can be more than a bit bruised. We had some great heirloom tomatoes, but all the red varieties were gone or in sad shape by the end of the night. However, I did get to take home a good quantity of slightly bruised yellow heirloom tomatoes. I think that the variety was "yellow queen" which is a light yellow, almost cream color and sometimes has a slight blush. They are low in acid but still had a rich tomato flavor. They were so delicate that they had practically turned to gazpacho by the time that I got them home, so here is what I did with them:

Yellow tomato gazpacho

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic, peeled (1 more if you want, but the croutons will add more garlic flavor)
• 1.5 to 2 pounds yellow tomatoes ( trim off the mushy bits if you want)
• 3-4 ounces day old bread, crusts removed
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons vinegar (I used sherry vinegar)
• Salt
• 1 cup chopped English or Persian cucumbers, peeled if desired
• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 recipe croutons (see the recipe for white almond gazpacho I posted last month)

Method:

1. With the motor running, drop the garlic through the opening of a blender (or feeder tube of a food processor) which will pulverize it. This is actually fun, and you may be tempted to use too much garlic. Don't.
2. Add the tomatoes and blend to a puree.
3. Run the bread briefly under water, squeeze dry, add the bread to the blender and puree some more.
4. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil, one tablespoon of the vinegar and about 1 teaspoon or regular or 2 teaspoons of coarse salt.
5. Shut the motor, taste for seasoning, and add more salt and vinegar if you want, and run the blender briefly to incorporate.
6. Push the soup through a sieve, pressing so that it all passes through. This will vastly improve the texture of the final soup.
   
7. Chill well, for a few hours or overnight.
8. Serve in small soup bowls and pass cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and croutons for garnish.

Additions: This soup has a wonderful, pure tomato flavor. You can add parsley, cilantro or some jalapeno pepper if you want, but why?

The bread: People think gazpacho is about the tomatoes, but it is really about the bread. I once read that it comes from the Arabic for "bread and vinegar" and the first syllable sounds like khubz, Arabic for bread. I haven't been able to verify this but it has the ring of truth. Spaniards still serve white gazpacho, often with almonds, where the bread is even more central. I find that bread mellows out the flavors, particularly of the garlic and vinegar and lets the tomato shine through. Without the bread, it is far to acid and the garlic rapidly takes on an off flavor. If you have never made gazpacho with bread before, try it. It will be a revelation. It is important to use a non-sweet loaf that is not sourdough. A peasant-style white loaf, french bread, or ciabatta works best.

The vinegar: The flavor and color will change subtly with the kind of vinegar you use. I love the flavor of sherry vinegar in this dish, but you could easily use white wine, champagne, or red wine vinegar. Rice vinegar is probably too mild for yellow tomatoes. Don't even think of using balsamic.

White almond gazpacho, with homemade croutons

I am writing this post for three reasons. First, the soup is fabulous. We had it about 23 years ago in Seville when Amy was pregnant with Maya at a rather touristy restaurant with surprisingly good food, and it blew us away (except that the version we had used raisins and the recipe below uses grapes, which are far better....) and have been meaning to make it since. There is a wonderful recipe in Penelope Casas' 1983 and still classic The Food and Wines of Spain, perhaps the first really authentic Spanish cookbook widely distributed in the US. Second, because we finally did make it last week at Maya's last Shabbat dinner at home before moving to Madison on Thursday, and everyone loved it, and our niece Sarah keeps asking me to post the recipe. Finally, my friend and former colleague Del posted some disparaging remarks about croutons on her Facebook page, and I thought that the technique below for making your own might change her mind.

You might ask why, when tomatoes are at their absolute peak in the Northeast, we made almond gazpacho which can be made year-round. It is a legitimate question. I think we just finally wanted to try this version, and serving it when Maya was about to move away seemed like a fitting way of completing one particular circle in our lives. . You might also ask whether this is really a gazpacho. Remember that tomatoes only came to the Mediterranean after Columbus, and it took a while to get incorporated into people's cooking. This soup, which the Spanish call ajo blanco, or white garlic, if probably older than the tomato gazpacho we are all familiar with. It is probably based on an earlier, far less elegant soup which was basically stale bread soaked in olive oil and water and seasoned with vinegar and garlic. (Sounds really appetizing, doesn't it?) Also, this version is REALLY good in hot weather, and this summer has been nothing if not hot. You might also ask, is it easy? What's easy? To me this is an easy recipe because you can (and must) make it in advance, because cooking is a meditative act, and because you can listen to music or the radio while you are doing it. So what if you have to make croutons and peel 40-60 grapes? Anyway, here it is:

White almond gazpacho

Ingredients

• 6-8 ounces day old peasant-style white bread, crusts removed (I used half of a ciabatta-- the important thing is that the bread is white and not sweet; this is the equivalent of about 6-8 largish slices)
• 2-4 cloves garlic
• 8 ounces blanched almonds (slivers puree the most easily)
• 1 tablespoon kosher or coarse salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4-6 tablepoons sherry vinegar (start with the lower amount and stir in more after you taste, since sherry vinegar can be more acidic)
• 2 quarts cold water
• homemade croutons (recipe below)
• 40-60 peeled seedless grapes, more if you want, depending on your patience (you can use red or green grapes, since there isn't much difference once you peel them)

Method

1. The day before you make the soup, trim the crusts off the bread, leaving as much of the white part as you can. Leave the bread overnight, ideally in a paper bag or wrapped loosely in a napkin or paper towel. (A plastic bag won't do the trick here. I used half of a large ciabatta, and had the rest left for croutons.)
2. The next day, with the motor running, drop the peeled garlic cloves into a food processor through the feeder tube. It should atomize them nicely. (You can also use a blender, but given the quantity of soup, I think that a processor works better here.)
3. Add the almonds and salt and grind.
4. Soak the bread in cold water very briefly, squeeze it out, and then add to the processor and puree. (I am not sure why recipes tell you to use stale bread and then soak it, but it always seems to work.)
5. Drizzle in the oil through the feeder tube, with the motor running.
6. Add 4 tablespoons of the vinegar.
7. Depending on the size and shape of the machine that you are using, and the exact quantity of ingredient, it may or may not be a puree at this point. Don't worry. All things in time.
8. With the motor still running add 2 cups of the water slowly through the feeder tube keep adding water until the mixture purees nicely, and let it run until smooth.
9. Remove from the processor to a large bowl and slowly stir in the rest of the water. Taste for salt and vinegar. Add more vinegar if you want, and you will probably want to.
10. Pour the soup through a strainer into a serving bowl, pressing out the solids left in the strainer, and also scraping the outside of the strainer to get all the puree. It will be the texture of a tahini sauce or a cream soup.
11. Chill several hours or overnight. The soup should be very cold.
12. Peel the grapes. I thought that freezing them and then running boiling water over them would make them easier to peel, but it didn't seem to help. It just requires patience and doesn't take that long. Get a friend to help or listen to some music.
13. To serve, put a few croutons and some grapes in a bowl and ladle the soup over it. This recipe serves 10-12 and can be halved easily.

Homemade croutons: This is more of a method than a recipe. Slice up some non-sweet bread about 1/2 inch thick. I used the same ciabatta that I used for the soup. There is no need to remove the crusts here, but I find that most presliced bread is too thin for good croutons. Let the bread dry overnight in a paper bag or napkin. Don't use a plastic bag, which just seems toughen the bread. The next day, smash a few cloves of garlic and rub over both side of each slice of bread. Cut into cubes. Line a baking sheet with foil, spray with olive oil spray, and then add the croutons and spray them well. (You could just toss the croutons in olive oil but I find the spray works very well and coats them more evenly. Besides, you have to save calories somewhere.) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 20 minutes until brown, turning if you have the patience about half way through. The time is approximate, and depends on how densely packed the pan is and the oven you are using. I find that this works well in a toaster oven, but you have to watch it very carefully since the croutons are so close to the heating element, so you may want to lower the heat to 300. Use the croutons in soups or salads, you will find that they bear little resemblance to the ones you buy in boxes or bags (though I sometimes like these too, especially when they get soggy in Ceasar salad.) You can follow the same method with slices of baguette, which forms the basis of either crostini or makes a great addition to soups, especially a minestrone made without pasta. You can make these croutons with any non-sweet bread, though for the white gazpacho, a white loaf is preferred.

Cape-Cod Style Portuguese Kale Soup, farkashert

Aunt Birdie (my wife's mother's sister) was a force of nature. For those readers of this blog who didn't know her, she was the type of person who could tell an airport security guard to "take your f**king hands off my kinishes" and still get through security. She was also the type of person who could be found basting a brisket (or was it brushing a pie crust) stark naked in the kitchen, wearing only a bathing cap, when her teenage granddaughter walked in. She passed away just over two years ago and left a great void in the cosmos. Since I am blessed that all of my immediate relatives are alive, she is the person for whom I say Yiskor. She also was a wonderful, excessive cook, who thought vegetables were mostly irrelevant, that hard salami was low in calories because all the fat dripped out when you hung it up to dry, and that almost any dish could be fixed with a stick of butter. And she made wonderful kale soup, in style of the Portuguese of Cape Cod, and of course, it was full of treyf.

Last year when we were swamped with kale from our CSA I tried out this soup, using the dried kosher turkey sausages rather than linguica and chourico, the Portuguese-style sausages sold in much of coastal New England. (If Sarah is reading, I ask her to chime in as to whether or not I got the word "varkashert" right.) Not quite as good, but not bad either and well worth the effort. Here is the recipe:

Kale Soup

Ingredients

• 4-6 ounces dried turkey kubano sausage, sliced (if small) or diced (if large)
  
• olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
• 1 or 2 bunches of kale, about 2-3 quarts washed well and cut into 1 inch shreds
• 16 ounce can of kidney or cannellini beans, well rinsed, or about 1/3 pound cooked kidney or white beans (navy or cannellini) -- (see below)
  
• 2 quarts liquid (chicken or vegetable broth, bean broth if you cook the beans fresh, or a combination, or use water with 1-2 bouillon cubes -- see below)
• 1 medium turnip, peeled and diced, or about 1/2 to 1 cup tender young turnips, scrubbed and diced.
• 1 large russet or yukon gold potato, diced (see below)
  

Method

1. Saute the sausage in 1-3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat in a 4-5 quart pot until brown and a bit crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the onion and saute until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic and saute another minute.
4. Add the paprika and stir a few times.
5. Add the kale, a very little salt, and black pepper, and stir well. Cover the pot and cook until wilted. You may need to add a bit of the liquid now to move this along.
   
6. Add the beans and the liquid, bring to a boil, and simmer about 20 minutes.
7. Add the turnip and potato and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
   
8. Taste for salt and serve hot.
   
9. This freezes well, but only if you leave out the potato. Add a finely diced potato when you reheat to serve and cook until tender.

On beans and life expectancy: This has nothing to due with the health benefits of beans, bur rather that I often debate to myself whether life is to short to cook your own beans (rather than using them from a can), preserve your own lemons, or make your own chicken broth if you are just going to use it in a soup. I tend to cook my own beans, buy preserved lemons now that a number of brands are available (no, they are not as good, but they are easy), and save the home-made broths for when they are served by themselves and not one of many ingredients in a thick soup. However, there are times when I just reach for a can of beans. But cooking your own is easy, and the results are superior, and you do get the bean broth, whereas the liquid in the bean can is one of the most disgusting substances known to humankind (with the possible exception of black beans). You can also freeze beans that have been soaked but not cooked, as well as cooked beans. However, you have to be able to tell the difference. When I made this soup most recently, I reached for a bag of beans in the freezer which I though was labeled pre-soaked. Not being able to read my own handwriting (this will come as no surprise to those who have actually seen it) the bag must have said pre-cooked, because when I checked on them after 20 minutes of cooking, far less time than it should take, they had turned into a liquidy puree. So I just opened a can. By the way, for this soup, red kidney beans are the classic, but it is just fine with white beans, which is what I had in the house.

Comfort food: Krupnik (Hubagrits suppe) , in the style of Pruzhane

I was really bummed by the election in Massachusetts last night. It was like a mini-1994. Tomorrow is the time for action, whatever that might be. Today called for comfort food so I tried to reconstruct my grandmother's recipe for krupnik aka hubagrits suppe, or soup made with steel cut oats. Krupnik I believe is used to denote a liquid-y grain preparation and can be used for soups, porridges and even liquor.  This krupnik is similar to a beef barley soup, but steel cut oats (NOT rolled oats, the conventional oatmeal) are used as the grain and thickener. I haven't had it for about 30 years, but for me, it was comfort food par excellence.

There was a very lengthy discussion about the use of steel-cut oats in savory dishes on Elisheva Urbas' facebook page a few weeks ago, and I posted a suggested method for this soup. I couldn't find a recipe but one Anglo-Jewish cookbook had something that provided a starting point, and my father and others in his generation (70s-80s, sorry dad) described it to me in more detail than I remembered. Cooking, smelling and eating it, I felt myself back in my grandmother's immaculate (as in "Since I turned 85 I can't clean like I used to. I only pull out the stove to clean behind it once a week.") kitchen on Barnes Ave. in the Bronx, eating hot soup at her table with its plastic tablecloth. Just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, Amy is on a low-carb regime, Maya is a vegetarian and Harry seems to think that soup violates the inherent order of the cosmos (it is sort of his "tohu v'vohu") so I was the only who ate it. Their loss, but I think our guests on Friday evening will enjoy it.

My father's side of the family came from Pruzhane (we are of course Litvaks) in Belarus, and the other relatives remembered it in a similar manner, so here is:

Krupnik like in Pruzhane

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound small dried white lima beans
• 1 pound beef soup meat (I used kalechel, which is boneless chuck meat, which I cut into 1 inch slices)
• 1 pound beef soup bones with some meat on them
  
• 2 quarts water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-3 tablespoons schmaltz, or if you must, oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 6 tablespoons steel cut oats (like McCann's not quick cooking kind)
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 parsnip, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, stringed and finely diced
• 5 sprigs parsley
• 1 large russet potato, like an Idaho
  
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. The night before, pick over the limas for stones, rinse them, and soak overnight. (As I think Barbara Kafka points out, beans are legumes and not phantoms. It doesn't have to be overnight, just 6 to 8 hours depending on their age. You can also use the quick-soak method. Cover the beans with water in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil vigorously for a minute, cover tightly and then leave to soak for an hour.) Drain and rinse before using.
2. Put the meat and bones in a medium pot with the water and bay leaf and bring to the boil.
3. Turn heat down and skim off the scum as it rises.
4. Meanwhile saute the onion in the schmaltz in a skillet until soft but not brown. Add garlic and saute a few minutes more, and add to the pot. (Swish around some of the broth in the skillet and add liquid to the pot to get all the flavor.)
5. Simmer slowly for one hour.
6. Add 4 tablespoons of the oats, and simmer slowly for another hour.
7. Add the lima beans, carrot, parsnip and celery and the remaining two tablespoons of oats and simmer slowly for about 45 minutes.
8. Peel the potato and cut into medium chunks, about half an inch. Taste the soup for salt and add salt and pepper to taste. (Be careful if you are using kosher meat since it is often already quite salty.) Simmer slowly 45 minutes more until creamy and delicious.
9. If you wish, remove the meat from the bones, cut the large chunks of meat into bite size pieces, return to the soup, heat through and serve.

Notes:

The meat: Since Jews were not peasants (my family lived in a shtetl, or small city), this is not peasant food. But it is the food of the poor, or at least the very frugal. Who else would make a soup out of a grain used primarily as animal feed? My grandmother made this with flanken which is the logical choice for any dish like this. But at $14 a pound minimum for kosher flanken (boneless -- with the bones it was $15 -- figure that one out!) there was no way I could derive the comfort that I needed from making the soup with it. So I used kalechel (about $9 boneless) and meaty soup bones (about $3 per pound). The ideal cut would be shank if you can find it. The results were great and I felt duly comforted. The important thing is to use a tough meat with lots of gelatin that will dissolve in the long slow cooking along with some bones. If I made the soup with flanken, I would probably leave the pieces whole, use 3 pounds, and serve it as a separate course afterward with horseradish, which is often what my grandmother often did. But not at these prices. Flanken has become so expensive in the past few years as chefs have discovered short ribs which is the same meat, just cut differently.

Making it in advance: Your mother should have taught you never to freeze cooked potatoes, especially when they are boiled. Their texture will be ruined completely. If you want to make a larger quantity of the soup, set aside some and freeze it before adding the potatoes, and then add them and cook until tender the day you serve. You can refrigerate this soup for a few days, but add a little boiling water and reheat it very slowly or it may scorch.

Red cabbage soup (from leftover chicken with red cabbage)

We had about two cups of leftover red cabbage in the freezer from the chicken with red cabbage which I blogged about last time. If you find yourself with some of this, here is a great, quick soup you can make. It is adapted from a red cabbage soup of Marcella Hazan's without all the chazerai. A lot easier also.

Red cabbage soup with chicken sausage:

1. Take 1/4 to 1/2 pound of fresh (i.e. not precooked) chicken sausage. cut into half inch slices, which is a lot easier if it is frozen. Brown in a medium pot in a little olive oil on medium heat. You could leave out the sausage but it adds a lot to the final dish.
2. Add the defrosted cabbage. If there is any leftover chicken in it, bone it and add to the pot. Add 2 to 3 cups of chicken broth, preferably homemade (thought I used Tabatchnik which was surprisingly good; if you use bullion cubes you are on your own).
3. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Add a 15 oz. can of canellini beans, drained and rinsed very well -- all the foamy gunk should be washed out. (You could also use a cup to a cup and a half of fresh cooked white beans, but why bother?) Simmer another 5 minutes.
5. As a finishing touch, saute 3-4 cloves whole, smashed, peeled garlic to 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small pot. Cook until light brown, and add about a teaspoon of dried rosemary. Cook another minute, and then pour through a strainer into the soup.
6. Serves 2 people as a main course, 4 as a hearty appetizer. Of course, if you have more leftover cabbage, make more soup.

Fresh, kosher chicken sausage is available at Kosher Marketplace and is worth looking for elsewhere. You could also try it with the little spicy dried turkey sausages, but the effect would be very different -- more Spanish than Italian.

What to do with leftover Armico-- Soup!

I am just getting the hang of this blog thing. Rather than edit the old posts with variations, etc, you are supposed to add a new post. Duh.

Anyway, after Kol Nidre we had one chicken leg and thigh and a LOT of vegetables/sauce left. There wasn't enough for dinner for more than one, so we made a soup, and it was great and very easy. Here is how:

1. Degrease the leftovers to the extent that you can.
2. Scrape all the vegetables, sauce and jellied juices into a pot.
3. Add an equal amount of water and bring to the boil. Salt well (but taste!). Simmer about 10 minutes.
4. Skin bone and shred whatever chicken is left and simmer about 5 minutes more to warm through. Taste for salt again.
5. That's it, and you won't believe how good it is.

If no one in the house is low-carbing it, you can add a small handful of ditalini pasta or arborio rice. It will make it a lot thicker and more substantial.