Zucchini and Saffron Vichyssoise with Scallops

I've made this soup a few times now, and it's one of my favorite indulgences, for when you've got saffron threads you're just dying to use.  A vichyssoise is a thick, starchy soup based on potatoes and cream typically served cold.  But I'm not so much a fan of cold soups.  So I serve this one hot, and it's definitely a winner.  The original recipe comes from epicurious, so you can see what you need and in what quantities, but I'll show you the pictures and tell you my process.

Ingredients: zucchini, onion, potatoes, butter, garlic, saffron, chicken broth, bay leaf, thyme, heavy cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper, scallops, and bacon for garnish (not in the original recipe, but how could i resist?)

For this dish I peel the zucchini and the potatoes completely.  I cut them both into small cubes as well as the onion.  First saute the onion in the butter.  Once softened add the potatoes, garlic, and saffron and cook for a minute.  

Next add the broth and your spices (bay leaf, thyme) and cook over medium/medium-low heat until the potatoes are softened, about 15-20 minutes depending on your potatoes.  

Add the zucchini last because it is already soft enough it shouldn't need to cook as long as the potatoes.  After about 10 minutes it should be softened enough.

At this point, bust out your immersion blender (or the regular blender if you don't have the handheld variety), and puree the soup nicely.  The recipe mentions pouring through a fine sieve, but I don't like losing some of the thick starchiness, so I skip that step, opting to leave every bit of the soup intact.  At this point you can add the cream, lemon juice, and salt/pepper.

If you want cold soup let it cool, then put it in the fridge (don't put it directly into the fridge or you ruin the integrity of the flavors from the cold-shock).  But if you want it served warm you can let it sit on low heat at this point, or leave the burner off until right before you're ready to serve it and turn the heat back up.

This soup is great on it's own, but if you need some meat with your dinner, the scallops are an excellent accompaniment.  Get the large sea scallops and slice them horizontally into smaller discs.  Since I'm a glutton for all things pork fat, I obviously decided a bacon garnish was necessary moreso than a zucchini garnish, so in a small skillet render some chopped bacon.  Remove from heat and to the bacon grease in the pan you can add a little butter and then sear your scallops.  Season with salt and pepper first, then add the scallop to the medium/medium-high heated skillet.  You'll only need to cook for about a minute on each side.  You want to cook the scallop through, but overcook it and you get a tough mess so err on the side of less time on the stove.  

To serve, plate (bowl?) your soup.  Add some scallop slices and sprinkle with bacon.  The soup provides a nice thick pillow for the scallops and the flavors really do play well together. 

Roasted Chestnut Soup

A very (belated) Happy New Year to you all, dear readers.  I amassed a bit of a backlog of recipes from the holiday season, and with time permitting I can now bring you the pictures and instructions.  This first winter soup was made following a recipe created by Chef Paul Virant from Vie in Chicago (I must admit I had never heard of him or the restaurant either, but then again I don't follow the Chicago restaurant scene at all).

Chestnuts are typically stocked at your local grocer seasonally.  I once attempted to procure chestnuts in the summer, only to discover no market in San Francisco had them in stock.  But come Thanksgiving and suddenly everyone is all about the chestnuts.  Go figure.  (not to be mistaken for water chestnuts, which are always easy to find).  You typically can purchase chestnuts already shelled and in a jar or can soaked in water.

So here's the recipe:
3 tablespoons butter
1 stalk celery, chopped into one inch half moons
1 carrot, chopped into one inch half moons
1 onion, quartered and chopped into one inch half moons
2 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 bay leaf
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth or stock
1 pound peeled chestnuts
½ cup cream
¼ pound bacon

Chop bacon strips into one-inch pieces and add to saute pan over medium-low heat.  Render the bacon and once cooked, remove with a slotted spoon, leaving behind the grease.

Next up add the celery, carrot and onion to same sauté pan over medium-to-low heat and sweat for 5 min, or until the vegetables become softer and translucent.

Add rosemary and chestnuts and cook for 5 more minutes.

Finally throw in the broth/stock and bay leaf, cook until chestnuts are tender and remove from heat.

Add cream and then puree the mixture until smooth, either with an immersion blender, or in an actual standing blender.

Garnish with the bacon and if you have any sage, feel free to fry some up and garnish with that as well.  This makes for a great seasonal cold-weather soup.

Chicken Curry Soup with Rice

I was feeling quite under the weather last week, so obviously for dinner I had to make the quintessential chicken soup.  Opting for rice instead of noodles, and a bit of a kick to really help drain those sinuses (tmi?) this chicken curry soup was born.

I found a spice bottle in our spice rack with a hand-written label on it that said "curry powder".  There are lots of types of curries, all with very distinct flavors.  I didn't really know what I was getting, but I figured I'd never met a curry I didn't like, so I would have at it.  Turns out this one resembled the Indian curries I'm accustomed to.  It worked out.

So first I sauteed the garlic and shallot in a little olive oil, then added 1/2 cup of brown basmati rice (uncooked) to coat in the oil mixture.  Then I added the curry.  Probably about 1 tbsp (it's better to under-add the spices at first, then go back for more if you need them).  I mixed and heated everything through to really let that flavor infuse as much as it could.

Then I added the chicken broth (maybe 3 cups worth? sorry, i never measure) and sliced carrots.  This would allow the rice to cook in broth instead of water, and the carrots to soften. 

The rice would normally take about 20 minutes to cook, so after about 15 minutes I added the raw chicken.  I used sliced chicken breast meat.  I added this later because I worried that if it was stewing too long it wouldn't stay as tender, so closer to the end point was when I wanted to start it poaching.

Once done, the rice was falling apart, the carrots were soft, the chicken tender, and the broth with just the right amount of kick.  You can add more broth as you find necessary, and I added a little bit of pepper and dried tarragon.  Suddenly being sick didn't feel so bad. 

Broccoli Soup

 

Hello faithful followers!  The brief hiatus in cooking and blogging is due to the fact that I just moved across the country and have primarily been dining out as a result of empty pantries.  I made this broccoli soup before the move, but due to the hectic nature of relocating, I am just posting it now.  

The original broccoli soup recipe came from an old Martha Stewart cookbook and is relatively straight forward:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 leek, minced
1 carrot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken stock
1 head broccoli, cut into small flowerets
1 cup heavy cream
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon celery seed

1.  In a pot melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the leek, carrot, and garlic.  Cook until they are tender, about 5 minutes, making sure they do not brown.

2.  Add the stock.  Bring to a simmer, and add broccoli.  Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until broccoli is tender.

3.  Pour the soup into a food processor and process until the vegetables are finely chopped but not pureed.  Pour soup back into the pot.  Stir in the cream, cayenne pepper, and celery seed.  Reheat before serving.

That's all well and good, but I amended it, as per usual.  I did not have any leeks so scallions sufficed.

Since carrots don't soften so easily I cooked it for more like 10-15 minutes.  Next up came the broccoli and chicken broth which I also let stew for a good 15 minutes or so. 

Finally, the best part, I used an emulsion hand blender, rather than a food processor.  It's way cleaner, easier, and definitely more fun.  

So if you like your soup with remnants of veggies left behind, by all means, don't puree it completely, but for this soup I like to blend it fully because I still notice a little texture creeping in from the broccoli and carrots that doesn't completely turn to mush.  I added a little cream, but was lacking the celery seed so used salt and pepper instead.  You can throw some cheese in at the end for a broccoli cheese soup or serve as is.

Butternut Squash Soup

It should come as a surprise to no one that my garnish of choice was bacon.

We've had a giant butternut squash sitting on our kitchen table for awhile now thanks to the roommate's CSA box, so it was high time it turned into something more edible.  I love butternut squash soup, but I've never made it before, nor have I ever peeled and sliced a butternut squash.  It was a fun, albeit time consuming endeavor.  Sadly I did not capture the squash in it's pre soup glory, so you'll have to imagine a giant, fresh, organic squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes, seeds removed.

Ingredients: 1 large butternut squash, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 14 oz can chicken broth, water, curry seasonings, salt/pepper, 1/4 cup milk/cream, bacon for garnish

Start by sauteing the onions and garlic in either butter, oil, or bacon grease.  Once softened, add your squash and seasonings.  I found the curry powder to be a nice compliment, but sage or thyme could be nice too.

I wanted to saute the squash just a little bit without liquids, which may or may not have added any depth of flavor, but I went with it.  I added the can of chicken broth, then a canful of water.  I wanted to barely cover the squash, and as it cooked and the liquid reduced, I'd add a little more water.  Let cook for about 30 minutes.

Once you can smash the squash with a fork or spoon, it's time to blend.  Bust out those immersion blenders, otherwise transfer to a regular blender and blend until smooth.  I then added a little milk here, because I was out of cream, and some more pepper and a little salt.  Season to your liking.  I poured the soup, garnished with bacon, and enjoyed.

Yellow Split Pea and Pumpkin Soup

 

My apologies for the blogging hiatus.  We've got quite a bit of backlog here at LND, so in no particular order here we go!

Soup.  Perfect for the winter.  I've had the last of a bag of yellow split peas for the past 2 years, and wanted to finally get rid of them, so I opted to make this soup I made with the split peas 2 years ago.  This is also great if you've got a leftover can of pumpkin in your pantry from the holidays that never quite turned into a pie.  

The most time consuming part of this soup is soaking the peas in broth.  I used vegetable, but in the past I've used chicken broth.  I emptied 2 cans of broth into a pot, and added about 3/4 cup of split peas. 

Also in the past, I've chopped 1/4 of a large onion and put it in the broth with the peas, but I sadly had no onion this time.  After about an hour and a half the peas will look like above...still a little crunchy but much softer than before.  At this point I added the can of pumpkin, some pepper, and thyme and cooked for another 45 minutes.

Next I spiced it up.  I added some powdered saffron, but you should throw in whatever you have/like.  No need to blend this soup since the ingredients are so mushy.  I added about 1/8 cup of cream because that's what I do, but it would taste just fine without the cream.  I feel like this would also work with squash and/or green split peas.  And if you wanted to throw some carrots in maybe?  Go wild with your winter soups!

Garlic Shrimp and Corn Soup

Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope you found yourselves warm and surrounded by loved ones this holiday season!  It's cold outside, which means it's soup weather.  So here's what feels and looks like a summery soup, but is warm enough you can enjoy it in the winter. 

Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil, 4 tbsp minced garlic, 1 lb raw peeled and deveined shrimp, 1 bag frozen corn kernels, 2 zucchini chopped, 3 cans chicken broth, 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme, bacon for garnish

Start by adding the olive oil, garlic, and shrimp to a hot soup pot to cook through.

Once the shrimp are nice and pink, transfer to a bowl for later, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as you can.

Next add the zucchini to the pot and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes until softened and slightly golden. 

Next add the chicken broth and thyme and let it all stew for about 15 minutes.  Add the corn and return the shrimp/garlic to the soup.  You only need to cook about 5 minutes more, but you can stew the mixture as long as you want before adding the shrimp back because the shrimp may overcook if left in a simmering pot for a long time.

Finally, I served with a garnish of crumpled bacon, because really everything tastes better with bacon.  You can put this over rice for more substance, or melt some cheese on top too.

Potato Leek Soup with Corn

Who doesn't love warm homemade soup on a cold winter's night?  So when I noticed my roommate's CSA leeks in the fridge the other night, I was immediately inspired.  I adore potato soups, cream soups, and thick blended soups, so potato leek was the perfect winter pick me up, and I threw in a splash of corn at the end for an added texture and flavor.

Ingredients: 3 large russet potatoes, 2 large leeks, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 2 tbsp butter, 2 cans chicken broth, water, 1/4 cup fresh taragon, 1/4 cup fresh thyme, 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 tsp dried saffron powder, 1/2 cup corn, 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, dollop of pesto sauce as garnish

Start by peeling the potatoes and chopping everything.  Add butter, garlic, and leeks to a large soup pot over medium heat.  Saute and stir for about 10 minutes until nicely softened.

Add the potatoes and chicken broth.  Add water until potatoes are just covered.  

Throw in your fresh herbs and let simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until potatoes are nice and tender. 

When flavors have melded, veggies softened, and you're so hungry you can't wait anymore, go ahead and blend the soup.  I'm a big fan of immersion blenders, but if you don't have one, puree in batches in a regular blender.  I blend on the lowest level so that most everything is blended, but there's the occasional piece of leek or potato.  Next I added the cream, saffron, and salt and pepper.  I threw in the corn, straight from the freezer bag, and let it heat through.

To serve I sprinkled in some cheese and spooned a little pesto sauce over the top.  Delish.

Tortilla Soup

I apologize for the less than glamorous "dishware", but sometimes it's more important not to dirty extra dishes.

Ingredients: Olive oil, Scallions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, oregano, chicken broth, corn, chicken
Garnishes: tortilla strips, cheese, avocado, fresh cilantro

This is my favorite recipe for tortilla soup.  I made enough soup for dinner and two lunches at work for this week, so the ingredient portions reflect that.  First, chop 6-12 small scallions and saute with 4 - 5 tbsp chopped garlic in a little olive oil.  Once tender, add 2 chopped tomatoes.  Add chicken broth (5-6 cups) and about a cup of chopped cilantro.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 15 min. Add corn and chicken (i sauteed the chicken in oil and finished by poaching in broth before adding to the soup) and serve once heated through.  Garnish with freshly made tortilla strips (tortilla + olive oil in a hot pan), fresh cilantro, avocado, and grated cheese that will melt over the heat of the soup.  Perfect for leftovers when you add fresh garnishes each time.