Ladles of Comfort

Winter is underway, which means that the temperatures are dropping to the tune of 'How Low Can You Go?' and snow is falling and winds gusts are calling.  It is that time of year once again, a time for hibernating within the warmth of home theaters and cozy media rooms, and for dining on heavier and heartier fare without guilt because the extra pounds can be concealed under bulky sweaters for the duration.

Nothing warms better than the aroma of a homemade soup simmering on the stove.  While a basic creamy asparagus soup or potato soup really only holds up as a first course, the heartiest soups can stand up as a meal.   A meal's balanced requisite protein, vegetable and carb sources are all offered in that one pot of winter goodness.

All soups begin with a stock as the liquid source.  If spending a Sunday afternoon at home with the family, consider making an extra large pot of stock for use in future soups.  The stock can be divided and frozen for easy retrieval when the cravings for soup abound.  A stock is simply water with added vegetables such as celery, garlic cloves, onions and carrots, seasonings such as sprigs of fresh herbs, whole peppercorns and sea salt, and a protein such as a turkey carcass, chicken wings or shrimp shells.  If you don't happen to have homemade stock available, a good quality stock from the supermarket can work just fine in a pinch.  Read the labels and be sure to choose one that lists only the same basic natural ingredients that you would use at home.  I like Kitchen Basics, but there are a few others.  When using store-bought stock, add salt sparingly to your soup recipe.

Once you have your stock, plan the remaining ingredients.  Stick to a theme or ethnicity and select ingredients accordingly.  Plan for vegetables, meat and carbs in the soup.  Carbs can be pasta, rice, potatoes, corn or beans.  Some vegetables need to simmer longer, such as carrots, while others, such as spinach or escarole, can be stirred in at the last minute until wilted.  Many soups begin by sautéing onions, garlic or shallots in olive oil or butter before adding the stock and remaining ingredients.

Whether preparing a soup or chowder, little is needed to accompany this one dish entree.  A simple green salad and an interesting bread, such as garlic toasts or cheesy rolls or Italian bakery bread studded with olives and rosemary are all you need.  Sorry, Atkins worshippers, soup demands bread with dinner like peanut butter demands jelly.

Try the recipes for my Mediterranean Roasted Eggplant Soup and Chicken corn chowder Here are three more recipes to try, starting with a first-course soup.  Once you make them and experience the big rewards from minimal labor, you'll abandon the mass-produced packaged soups in the cans.  So stock up on stock, and with a quick trip through the express lane of your supermarket you'll heat things up on those blustery days ahead.

Pot of Gold Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:

2 leeks, thoroughly rinsed to remove sand, chopped

4 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 tablespoons butter

4-5 cups chicken stock

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

4 teaspoon snipped fresh chives

butter for garnish

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a stock pot over medium heat.  Add the leeks and saute for about five minutes.  Stir in the potatoes.  Add 4 cups of the stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender.  Transfer the mixture to a blender container and puree until thick and smooth.  Return the soup to the pot and warm through, gradually adding more stock only if the soup is too thick and seasoning to taste with the salt and pepper.  Ladle into four bowls, top each serving with generous pat of butter and a teaspoon of the chives.  Makes four first-course servings.

Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients:           

¾ pound ground beef

1/3 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 large egg

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, minced

8 cups chicken stock

½ cup acini pepe pasta

2 small heads escarole, coarsely torn

Combine beef, 1/3 cup of the cheese, breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl until thoroughly blended.  Lightly oil your hands with olive oil, then roll the meat mixture, a tablespoon at a time, into small meatballs. 

In a large stockpot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and sauté for a minute.  Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a low boil and add meatballs.  Allow to cook for approximately ten minutes, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Add pasta and escarole and simmer for another five minutes until the pasta is cooked and the escarole is wilted.  When serving, sprinkle the top of each serving with additional grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and serve with warmed crusty Italian bread or focaccia on the side.  Makes four main-dish servings.

Five Bean Soup with Ham

Ingredients:           

1 onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, sliced crosswise

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

8 cups vegetable broth

½ of 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained, rinsed

½ of 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, drained, rinsed

½ of 15-ounce can dark kidney beans, drained, rinsed

½ of 15-ounce can light red kidney beans, drained, rinsed

½ of 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 pound fully cooked ham steak, diced

Freshly cracked black pepper

In a large stockpot over medium-high heat, sauté onion for about five minutes.  Add all remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about one hour.   Makes 6 main-dish servings.

Stew's On!

Last month we talked about chili , and also about soups.  We ushered in fall last October with the topic of chowders .  Now we conclude this four part series with a final look at a winter repast of meat and vegetables cooked in liquid, the stew.

The word stew may be applied as either a verb or a noun.  As a verb, stew means to cook by method of using liquid in the pot and simmering the food slowly for an extended period of time in a covered pot.  The noun stew is used to describe a dish that contains vegetables and usually meat, cooked in the aforementioned method.  Stews are heartier than soups, the liquid often thickened by stirring a combination of equal parts butter and flour into the cooking liquid during final moments of cooking.  While certainly appreciated as the quintessential winter fare, lighter stews are enjoyed in warm climates, such as bouillabaisse served at Mediterranean cafes.

Most stews contain a meat, typically beef because it is well adapted for slow cooking.  However, chicken and pork may also be used, as well as seafood.  Other requisite ingredients in a stew include a combination of vegetables, such as onions, carrots, tomatoes or peppers.  Starches such as potatoes or beans are often incorporated into the mix as well.  Seasonings of herbs and spice may also be added. 

While some cooks use water as the liquid base of their stews, more flavorful options include stocks and wine.  Some recipes call for additional liquid, such as cognac.  Carbonade flamande is a Beligian stew of beef and onions, stewed with Belgian beer.

Variations on stews from around the world include the French boeuf bourguignon, distinguished by the use of burgundy wine, mushrooms and pearl onions.  The aforementioned bouillabaisse is a fish stew that originated in the French region of Provence.  Also from France we have the cassoulet, a stew of pork and beans.   Irish stew is made from lamb and includes potatoes.  Another fish stew, the waterzoi, hails from Belgium.  Waterzoi can also be made with chicken, and both versions use cream to thicken the broth.  A tajine is a Moroccan stew so-named for the conical chimney-like pot in which it is prepared.  I shared my recipe for tajine with you last month in a feature on Moroccan cuisine.

And now I impart to you my recipe for a basic American beef stew.  There are hundreds of ways to make a stew.  Some call for browning the meat first, others call for filing the pot and relegating the entire cooking process to the oven.  Some stews cook entirely in the oven, some are start to finish on the stovetop, and others are prepared in a combination of both stovetop and oven.  I have found that the combination route takes less time, you will not have to sacrifice several hours to present a piping hot pot of stew for dinner.

Beef Stew (4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 pounds stew beef, cut into equally-sized cubes

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cups beef broth

2 cups red wine

15 new potatoes, halved

2 cups baby carrots

1 cup green peas

2 cups frozen pearl onions

3 tablespoons flour

3 tablespoons butter, room temperature

¼ cup chopped parsley.

Preheat oven to 250-degrees.  Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle the beef with salt and pepper and cook in the pot until browned on all sides.   Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.  Add the chopped onion and the carrots to the pot and stir, cooking until the onions are transleucent.  Add the garlic and sauté for another two minutes.  Add the wine and deglaze the pot.  Stir in the stock and return the meat to the pot.  Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for  1 hour.  Add the potatoes and stir, cover and continue cooking in the oven for another half hour, or until the carrots and potato are tender.  Transfer the pot to the stovetop over medium-high heat.  Thoroughly combine the butter and the flour and stir mixture into the stew.  Add pearl onions and peas  and continue to stir until liquid is slightly thickened.  Remove from heat, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Remember to serve your stew with some freshly baked bread from your local bakery to help mop away every last bit of gravy your plate has to offer.

The nice thing about stews is that you can get creative by varying ingredients to conjure a whole new ethnic twist.  For example, for a Mediterranean influence, use the above recipe but omit the potatoes and peas, and double the amount of garlic.  When adding the liquids, add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, one-half tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves and one teaspoon freshly grated orange peel.  When adding the pearl onions, add one cup of pitted black olives, such as Kalamata olives, as well.  Love chick peas?  When you heap in the olive, go ahead and add a fifteen-ounce can of drained and rinsed chick peas as well.  Prefer not?  Serve this stew over a bed of couscous instead.  For variations that do not include potatoes in the recipe, stews can be ladled over noodles, couscous or mashed potatoes.  The flexibility of stews ensures that this winter comfort fare is always interesting, always warming and always welcoming to your dinner menu.

Spoon Fed

There is nothing that warms the soul like the enticing aroma and taste of a piping hot bowl of soup when the wind is howling outside and the snowflakes are tumbling down like old man winter’s confetti.  From those first aromatic whiffs within the steam that swirls up from the simmering pot to that last spoonful from your dinner bowl, soup has the ability to envelope us in warmth.

Soup is essentially liquid, such as stock, in which vegetables are cooked, sometimes with meat or seafood, sometimes with pasta or rice.  The combination is ladled into bowls and often served with toppings such as croutons, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.  Soup is often served as a first course, but can also stand in as a main entrée accompanied by a salad and/or bread.

A soup can be served in its basic form of liquid with the vegetables and other ingredients free-floating.  It can also be pureed in a blender for a thick consistency.  Some soups are silky smooth, such as bisques which are typically pureed seafood with cream.  Other soups are very chunky, such as chowders http://cattroianoathomeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/chowder-house-rules.html While most soups are served hot and best enjoyed on a bleak winter’s day, some variations are served cold and can be a refreshing summer repast.  Examples of chilled soups include vichyssoise, a French style thick creamy potato and leek soup, and gazpacho, a chunky Spanish tomato-based vegetable soup.

There are probably as many soup recipes as there are mouths to feed; every nation around the world celebrates their specialty.  The French have bouillabaisse, a fish soup originating in Marseille; and also that favorite made with beef broth and caramelized onions, served over bread and topped with melted gruyere cheese. The Italians have their vegetable soup that we all know as minestrone, as well as ribollita, and my personal favorite from Tuscany: the garlicky cannellini bean and escarole soup ladled over toasty bread.  Callaloo is savored in the Caribbean, as gumbo is a favorite Creole soup; the Russians serve their borscht and the Hungarians partake in goulash.  When dining on sushi, we often commence the meal with a bowl of Japanese miso soup.  Mulligatawny is an Indian-influenced curried soup, often made with lentils.  The northeastern United States makes the most of their coastal bounty with clam chowders and Maryland crab soup.  Thai restaurants feature tom yum, and who hasn’t ordered wonton soup when Chinese food is the order of the day?  I have only begun to scratch the surface here, as there are many, many more.  An even greater plethora of variety can stem from your very own kitchen.  All you need to start with is a stock, and then what gets added to that stock is only as limited as your imagination.

Soup is perhaps the most forgiving, and therefore easiest, concoction to create.  I cannot fathom why anyone would pause at the canned soup aisle of the supermarket.  Once I made a few homemade soups, I tried to sample a once-upon-a-time favorite canned soup and was disgusted.  The flavor was so artificial, what little flavor I could detect beyond the saltiness.  Canned soups rarely taste like the flavors boasted on the labels, as the excess of added salt and monosodium glutamate overwhelm the small percentage of vegetables or garlic that are actually contained, leaving a very over-processed flavor that’s really not so comforting.  While making your own stock is best when preparing a pot of soup, using a quality store-bought carton of stock is perfectly acceptable if time is not on your side.  I like Kitchen Basics brand stock because its all-natural ingredient list contains only what you would likely use if you made stock yourself, and nothing that you wouldn’t.  So if you have a little downtime on a Sunday afternoon, make a big pot of soup and then refrigerate it once it cools.  You will have soup for later in the week when you come home from the daily grind in need of some winter comfort fare, without needing the time then to prepare it.

Mediterranean Roasted Eggplant Soup

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants, peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 red onion, peeled, cut into eighths

6 garlic cloves, peeled

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper*

½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

Juice of 2 lemons

1 15-ounce can chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 32-ounce carton vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Arrange the eggplant, red pepper, onion and garlic cloves in a single layer over a cookie sheet.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables.  Sprinkle vegetables with salt, pepper and cayenne.  Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, tossing once halfway through roasting time, or until the vegetables have started to brown and are soft.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature.  Transfer the roasted vegetables and any accumulated juices to a blender.  Add the lemon juice, half of the chick peas and the stock.  Puree ingredients until thick and well blended.  Pour into a pot over medium heat and warm through, stirring in the remainder of the chick peas.  Serves 2-3.

I recommend serving this soup with pita chips; and a light sprinkling of crumbled imported feta cheese, or a dollop of sour cream, on top will make it special.

* Brian and I love spicy food – really spicy food.  If you’re squeamish with the spice, I would recommend cutting back the cayenne pepper to ¼ teaspoon.

Warm Up Your Kitchen

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a way to start the year off, with substantial snowfall amounts all over the United States. I heard a report on the news that only one of the fifty states does not have snow on the ground somewhere today. Here on Long Island we just got slammed with over a foot of snow, added on top of snow from the post-Christmas blizzard ... we're running out of places to put it!

As the piles of shoveled and plowed snow grow higher and higher and the wind continues to blow, with evening temperatures plummeting, I for one would rather not venture out. My husband Brian and I love to dine out, always looking for that new dining experience, but admittedly we tend to delve into this dining adventure more frequently in the warmer months. By the time you figure out how to dress warm and trendy at the same time, pull on the coat, the gloves, the scarf, you feel like a mummy and then the thought of stepping outside of your cozy warm abode ... it all seems like a lot of work! In the winter months, we turn to making the kitchen really work for us.

Traditionally, the kitchen was the heart of the home. In some of the oldest homes that you can tour, you'll see that the kitchen was the largest room. This was the gathering place for the household, as it was also the warmest room with its blazing fire used to heat the area, cook, dry laundry, etc. Since everything was made from scratch, the families would hang out together in this great room where conversations were spoken and culinary magic took place in big cast iron pots.

Let the winds blow, let the snow fall. Next time you perform your grocery shopping ritual, plan as if you are going to be snowbound for a week. Oh yes, many people already do this. Before every predicted snow storm the local news station dispatches a reporter to one of the supermarkets where mobs of people have converged to shop and stock up as though Armageddon is on the horizon. But what are they stocking up on, the reporter queries? Milk, sliced bread and toilet paper! I have to laugh. This is New York, the northeast, it's winter, do these people really not expect snow to happen? And when it threatens, are they really to the point that toilet paper of all things may become an endangered commodity? Who needs sitcoms, this is live comedy right here. Instead, stock up on items that will allow you and your family to come together in the kitchen and pitch in to create a warming atmosphere as you prepare a dinner of comfort fare worthy of enjoyment in even the most severe of winters.

You will want to stock up on ingredients for stews. There are infinite numbers of recipes for beef stews as well as chicken stews, from traditional beef stew and boeuf bourgignon to coq au vin and chicken cacciatore. Cat-cooks-chicken-cacciatore-in-her-cozy-kitchen ... go ahead, now you try, three times fast! In addition to the meats, be sure you have plenty of stocks, wine for cooking (and for drinking too, of course), canned tomatoes, beans, frozen pearl onions, peas, baby potatoes, carrots, onions, fresh herbs and any other vegetables you will need for your recipe. Have plenty of stocks, beans, pastas and spices for homemade soups. Soups, chilies and stews will simmer on the stove, some stews even cook in the oven as well, and this will warm up the kitchen as will the conversations with your family and friends who come for dinner. The aromas which emanate from the stove or oven will permeate the air, thus warming the nose as well. There are so many one-dish meals you can prepare, from just about every ethnicity on the globe: Mediterranean lamb shanks, Italian pork shanks, Moroccan chicken tajines, Cuban chicken with chorizo sausage, French bouillabaise, Spanish paella, Cajun gumbos and jambalayas, the list goes on indefinitely.

Some ways to heat the kitchen using the oven include baking a dish of lasagna or homemade macaroni and cheese; and roasting a whole chicken along with some potatoes and vegetables alongside. Any baked dessert will always be a welcome component of the menu; save the ice cream maker for August and focus for these next couple of months on homemade cookies, brownies and cakes.

If you happen to own a pasta machine and you know a blizzard is coming, stock up on ingredients to make your own pasta, homemade sauce, homemade garlic bread and a tasty salad. The when the flakes start tumbling, gather the family into the kitchen and start delegating. One person makes the pasta, another makes the sauce, etc. Everyone will be rewarded by the role they played in the preparation of this meal that just may top that of your local favorite Italian restaurant, and no one had to brave the icy chills to savor it.

How about inviting a few friends for an evening of fun in the warmth of your kitchen? A pizza party is a great way for a group of people to have fun cooking together. Have a variety of toppings available, from the traditional to the 'Oh, wow, I never thought of that, yeah, that would work!' and enough balls of pizza dough to go around. Each person gets to create their own pie. If you want to introduce a little friendly competition, pick up a bottle of wine to send home with the winner of the best combination of toppings. All you need to make with this meal is a big salad and dessert. Try making some chocolate fondue and put out a platter of tidbits to dip, like fruits, shortbread cookies, pound cake, etc. Even pretzels work, there is something satiating about the combination of sweet with salty. A couple of my favorite fondues include dark chocolate with orange liquor and white chocolate with raspberry liquor. Fondues are warming desserts that can be enjoyed by a group while everyone sits around the pot, basking in the warm glow from the flame beneath it.

It may be frigid and dark outside, but it can be warm and cozy in your own kitchen. If you feel like treating yourself to something next time you browse the shelves of Williams-Sonoma or some other cooking shop near you, pick up a brightly colored large Le Creuset dutch oven. It will become your best friend every winter for the rest of your life. Another tip, don't forget to play with your food. Experiment! Traditionally stews were made from whatever happened to be on hand. Don't be afraid to deviate from a recipe. If you happen to have an extra fennel bulb sitting in your crisper that's about to be forgotten and eventually relegated to the garbage can, go ahead and chop it up and throw it into the chicken stew, why not? The favorite all-American winter comfort food is macaroni and cheese. Leave the blue box with the packet of day-glo orange stuff on the store shelf; make it yourself and you can add any cheeses you want. Use four cheeses if you want to; again, why not? This is your kitchen, not the restaurant; you are the chef tonight and you get to add whatever your creativity cooks up. Add other surprises to your mac and cheese too, like mushrooms and truffle butter or shrimp or lobster meat, for a more substantial entree. Last tip for some winter cooking, if you have accumulated some extra vegetables that you didn't need after all, say an eggplant, a zucchini and a pepper, simply cut them all up along with a couple of other vegetables you might find, roast them. Then blend them with some stock for a quick roasted vegetable soup that can be reheated and enjoyed any time.

So let it snow, just pour a glass of wine and make the executive decision to stay in and make the kitchen work for you to warm your home and your palate as you conjure up some comfort food at its absolute best. My pantry is well stocked. Another blizzard next week? Bring it on!