plenty of liquids.
Jun. 28th, 2005 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gfrancieToday we discuss soup. I am making chicken matzo-ball soup for dinner tonight but not everyone may be a fan of such things. I will probably serve that up with some bread (I need to walk over to the bakery) and we will work our way through some more of the lemon meringue pie. I must say this is probably the best pie I have made in some time. Tomorrow Mr. Jenner will have the task of making dinner since I am working quite late.
Today's vegetarian option is a roasted carrot soup.
Roasted Carrot Soup
1 Lb carrots, peel and cut into 3 inch lengths (feed peelings to your bunnies if you have them)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 medium onion, cut into medium dice
1 large rib celery, cut into medium dice
1 Tbs of minced fresh ginger. (about a half inch piece, peeled. You might like more ginger in your soup so go for it)
2 cups of vegetable broth*
1 tsp kosher salt
pinch of white pepper
Heat oven to 375F
Place carrots in a medium baking dish so that carrots will be held in a single layer, drizzle olive oil all over them. Toss them to coat well and roast. move them about half-way through. You will roast them until they are tender, blistered and lightly brown. (about 1 hour) While this is going on you can entertain people with stories of your questionable youth in Zanzibar and what you said to Brooke Astor over dinner last week. Sure it might be all lies but it will keep people amused.
Next you melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook till translucent and fragrant. (you know...smelling a bit like a gym if you ask me) Stir in the celery and ginger and cook until the celery softens a bit and the onions begin to brown. (4-5 minutes if you want to be exact about it) Add the carrots, broth, salt and pepper (if needed) and 2 cups of water. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to med. low and cover. Pretty much things will be moving about and cooking and the carrots will become quite tender. (this should take about 45 minutes) Turn off the heat and let the liquid cool.
Now you break out the blender. (what you don't have one? Oh I don't know if I can talk to you. Seriously though...it is a good investment. You can get a cheap one for now until you can afford the fancy-pancy one you lust after.) You puree the soup in a blender in batches. You can do it all at once if you have a rather sick sense of fun and like to splatter your entire kitchen with carrot puree but I don't encourage it. Stains. Then when ready to serve you return the soup to the pot and reheat, garnish with chives or chervil if you want to appear sophisticated. You can refrigerate this soup up to five days and gently reheat. (sounds like you are coaxing the soup to behave.)
If you want to add a certain kind of sex appeal to the soup you can take a small piece of crusty bread and put a dollop of softened goat cheese on the bread and drop it into each bowl of soup. It will be so damn good you will want to moan a lot. Which is alright.
* making your own vegetable broth!
Now I know you can purchase many nice vegetable broths in the stores these days and it sure does make it easier if you don't have much time. (especially if you have small people running around or you are the dictator of a medium-sized country) But now and then it is nice to make your own and adjust it to your particular tastes.
Here is a super simple one.
2 carrots with their green tops
1 small bunch of celery stalk
1 small beet
1 large potato
1 small onion (helps to give the broth a nice color and keeps it clear)
1 tomato
Few spinach leaves
Parsley
Thyme
Garlic
salt and pepper to taste.
Just put in about 4 cups of water and heat to boil, put in all of these vegetables (it helps to cut them up into a few pieces) and boil for five minutes. Add salt and pepper. Reduce to very low heat and simmer for an hour or two. It should draw out all the flavor. You will then remove the vegetables and discard. Usually by then they are soft and mooshy and lack anything. You could probably feed them to your dog since dogs eat anything. I had a dog who had a fear of bananas. I kid you not. She loved over-cooked broccoli though; that and saltines. But I digress. This broth should give you something nice that you can freeze and use for next time.
Today's vegetarian option is a roasted carrot soup.
Roasted Carrot Soup
1 Lb carrots, peel and cut into 3 inch lengths (feed peelings to your bunnies if you have them)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 medium onion, cut into medium dice
1 large rib celery, cut into medium dice
1 Tbs of minced fresh ginger. (about a half inch piece, peeled. You might like more ginger in your soup so go for it)
2 cups of vegetable broth*
1 tsp kosher salt
pinch of white pepper
Heat oven to 375F
Place carrots in a medium baking dish so that carrots will be held in a single layer, drizzle olive oil all over them. Toss them to coat well and roast. move them about half-way through. You will roast them until they are tender, blistered and lightly brown. (about 1 hour) While this is going on you can entertain people with stories of your questionable youth in Zanzibar and what you said to Brooke Astor over dinner last week. Sure it might be all lies but it will keep people amused.
Next you melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook till translucent and fragrant. (you know...smelling a bit like a gym if you ask me) Stir in the celery and ginger and cook until the celery softens a bit and the onions begin to brown. (4-5 minutes if you want to be exact about it) Add the carrots, broth, salt and pepper (if needed) and 2 cups of water. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to med. low and cover. Pretty much things will be moving about and cooking and the carrots will become quite tender. (this should take about 45 minutes) Turn off the heat and let the liquid cool.
Now you break out the blender. (what you don't have one? Oh I don't know if I can talk to you. Seriously though...it is a good investment. You can get a cheap one for now until you can afford the fancy-pancy one you lust after.) You puree the soup in a blender in batches. You can do it all at once if you have a rather sick sense of fun and like to splatter your entire kitchen with carrot puree but I don't encourage it. Stains. Then when ready to serve you return the soup to the pot and reheat, garnish with chives or chervil if you want to appear sophisticated. You can refrigerate this soup up to five days and gently reheat. (sounds like you are coaxing the soup to behave.)
If you want to add a certain kind of sex appeal to the soup you can take a small piece of crusty bread and put a dollop of softened goat cheese on the bread and drop it into each bowl of soup. It will be so damn good you will want to moan a lot. Which is alright.
* making your own vegetable broth!
Now I know you can purchase many nice vegetable broths in the stores these days and it sure does make it easier if you don't have much time. (especially if you have small people running around or you are the dictator of a medium-sized country) But now and then it is nice to make your own and adjust it to your particular tastes.
Here is a super simple one.
2 carrots with their green tops
1 small bunch of celery stalk
1 small beet
1 large potato
1 small onion (helps to give the broth a nice color and keeps it clear)
1 tomato
Few spinach leaves
Parsley
Thyme
Garlic
salt and pepper to taste.
Just put in about 4 cups of water and heat to boil, put in all of these vegetables (it helps to cut them up into a few pieces) and boil for five minutes. Add salt and pepper. Reduce to very low heat and simmer for an hour or two. It should draw out all the flavor. You will then remove the vegetables and discard. Usually by then they are soft and mooshy and lack anything. You could probably feed them to your dog since dogs eat anything. I had a dog who had a fear of bananas. I kid you not. She loved over-cooked broccoli though; that and saltines. But I digress. This broth should give you something nice that you can freeze and use for next time.
