Back to Basics Onion Soup

I have a beautiful set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child, Bertholle & Beck. 

You know the one. Julia Child's cookbook debut, the volumes that launched an empire. I recently read an older article on Slate, decrying the books as a dust collector, something everyone buys but no one cooks from. I bought mine as a housewarming gift to myself when I moved out of my parent's for good. (I've included an Amazon Partner link below if you want to get it for yourself)

I'll admit it, I don't cook from them as often as I do from Serious Eats or Momofuku, but I love them nonetheless. I grew up in Eastern Massachusetts, where Channel 2 is WGBH. That's the station that produced the OG of home cooking shows, The French Chef. And I grew up watching that alongside Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross. So not only is the book full of comfort food, but the show itself is comforting. I put it on in the background when I want to work, I watch it when I'm feeling sad. I watched a marathon of it in my hotel room after spraining my foot! So if buying two books to sit on my shelf serve no other purpose than to make me feel warm and fuzzy, then I'm going to do it! I believe you can still watch episodes online, and I know an Amazon Prime account has them included in their streaming service. 

Where was I? Oh yes. So I do, on occasion, cook from the set. Usually when I want something fancy. French Onion Soup is not complex, nor fancy, but it's quite good. I opted for enhancing premade beef stock with Better than Boullion, but if you have the time, homemade stock always wins. If you have a technique for preventing onion-tears, use it, as this is an ONION soup!

Bon Appetit!

12 Carrot Soup

We're in the middle of a cold spell. The Polar Vortex is wooshing in and making it quite hard to illustrate or type. I'm wearing a fleece tunic and a knit hat and I'm terribly cold still. 

So it's time to make soup!

Carrot Soup is probably one of the simplest soups, but it's warm and delicious, and sometimes you're just too cold for elaborate recipes. 

Carrot Soup

• 1-1.5 lb carrots
• a medium to large white potato
• 4-6 cups of your prefered broth
• an onion
• thyme
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Peel your potato and carrots, and cut into even pieces, about an inch or so.
2. Dice your onion, then saute it in a big pot with olive oil on medium heat.
3. When the onion starts to soften, add the thyme.
4. When the thyme becomes aromatic, add the carrots and potato, and a little more olive oil.
5. Let everything sweat out for 5 minutes, or don't if you're in a hurry.
6. Cover with the broth and turn the heat up to Medium High. Cook until fork tender.
7. An immersion blender is clutch for this, but you can blend everything in a regular blender as long as you do small batches, holding the lid on with a towel. Or just stick your immersion blender in the pot and blitz til smooth. Add more broth if you want it thinner.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with grilled sandwiches or a good crusty bread.

You can take this super basic recipe and build on it. Instead of Thyme, use a tablespoon of curry, with a spot of coconut milk. Or a thumb's worth of lemongrass and an inch of fresh ginger. Or keep it basic and feed it to someone who has had their wisdom teeth extracted. 

I am, of course, speaking from experience with that last idea...

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Faux Posole fo Sho

Guys! This is going to be a SEMI ORIGINAL RECIPE! ARE YOU READY?! The Posole recipe is Oaxacan by origin, but I've edited it as I've cooked it many times over the years. I usually substitute the classic hominy (posole) with cauliflower to cut the carbohydrates, but feel free to use hominy in your own dish.

FAUX POSOLE

Transcribed by my sister, modified by me

BROTH

• 3-4 Good sized, healthy tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4oz dried Guajillo chilies*
• 1 Medium white/yellow onion
• 4-5 cups chicken broth

MEAT

• 6 Boneless, skinless chicken thighs**
• 2 limes
• Half a medium white/yellow onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 head of cauliflower
• Oregano
• Salt and Pepper

EXTRA BITS

• Queso Fresco ***
• Minced Onion
• Shredded Cabbage or Iceberg Lettuce
• Sliced Radishes
• Lime Wedges
• Cilantro
• Warm corn tortillas
• Proper Guacamole (thin and watery)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, place in baking dish with wedged onion and wedged limes (squeeze them a little over the chicken too). Tuck in garlic cloves (peeling optional). Bake for 25-35 minutes, until done. Set aside to cool.
2. Quarter the tomatoes and onions, peel garlic cloves. Devein and deseed the chilies. Place all three into a pot and cover with water. Boil until veggies are tender. Reserve some of the water and puree the vegetables until they're a thick paste, adding the boil water as needed. Cook in a fry pan on medium-low to reduce further and concentrate the flavors.
3. Cut the cauliflower into small bite pieces (1/2" or so). Season with salt, pepper, oregano. Pop into the oven (still at 350F) and cook until just tender. 
4. Shred the chicken, discarding the limes, garlics and onions.
5. Add chicken broth to the tomato chili paste until it's the consistency you like. Add the shredded chicken and cauliflower. Turn the temp up to bring everything back up to heat.
6. While the broth, chicken & cauliflower simmers, prep whatever Extra Bits you want, putting them in ramekins or cute bowls to put on the table. 
7. Serve up and have everyone add the Extra Bits as they like!

*I've used Ancho when Guajillo chilies are scarce. It's a different flavor and color, but still makes a great soup!

**Sometimes I have extra pork shoulder hanging around, so I'll use that instead of chicken. 

***For the photos I used Queso Blanco. Queso Fresco is waaaaaay better in this dish, but sometimes it just isn't available. 

Unphogettabowl

To start the new year, and this blog correctly, I made Pho. The winter weather has finally arrived, and there's nothing better than a hot bowl of something. The recipe comes courtesy of Lucky Peach from  their "101 Easy Asian Recipes" book I got from my sister.

I'm not one for substitutions in recipes I'm not familiar with, but I did use neck bones instead of short ribs. They were much cheaper, and I know other Pho recipes use them. It's a slow-cooker recipe, but my Crockpot is too small, so I used my dutch oven and set the oven to 250F. 

Then we couldn't find our sriracha, so we made do with Ssam sauce. I would definitely do this recipe again. I'm probably going to low-carb it for lunch by substituting the rice noodles with shredded cabbage, or more bean sprouts.