Soup!

Just as I am likely to hum Christmas carols at Easter or watch White Christmas in August, in general I can advocate for "out of season" offerings of roasted vegetable soup or Guinness pot pie.  But now when nights lengthen, and the air becomes crisp, and it's finally time to put on sweaters and jeans, I welcome that big pot of soup bubbling on the stove that embodies the fulness of fall in a way that it couldn't before.

Here's a snippet I found in one of my food diaries: 

SOUPS! 11.11.09

In my fridge/kitchen today: leeks, yams, 2 little squash (gold nugget & a yellow/green one), onion, garlic, blue cheese, walnuts, walnut oil, eggs, butter, cheddar, olive oil, salmon (use for something else!), Malbec, cotes du rhone, rosemary, apples

Ideas: roasted vegetable soup w/blue cheese, walnut & sweet potato fries as garnish

Needs: broth, fresh herbs (bay leaf & thyme), potatoes, another leek, fennel root, cream, citrus, scallions, cabbage?, bacon/pancetta

Also: BEER BREAD! (just need beer)

So... Roasting most of veggies on the list @425/450 for 45min to 1hr: squash, fennel root, potato, yams, whole garlic cloves (smoshed), and leeks - all cut into chunky size (about the size of a couple of knuckles)

Then... Squeeze juice from one big satsuma, drizzle walnut oil & olive oil, salt & pepper (generously), fresh thyme & bay leaves

While veggies roasting... Fine chop onion & brown with 6 slices of bacon cut rough, add spices (ginger, nutmeg, red chile flake) then deglaze with 1/2 satsuma's worth of juice.  Reduce, then add chicken broth and bring to a simmer, add fresh thyme & bay leaf.

Periodically... Check on the roasting veggies, turn with tongs, baste with broth if needed.  Put roasted veggies into broth, simmer until all items are soft, then put through food processor and strainer.

Garnish... with crushed walnuts, crumbled blue cheese or shredded cheddar, and sweet potato fries on the side.

Pies pies pies

It is amazing how important they seem, those little details, when you've switched to auto-pilot cooking after the fifth hour of the project.  You think to yourself, if I begin the project at 4pm, surely I'll be done by 9 or so.  Something inside you propels you toward your goal, and no one [not even your snuggly bed/cat/partner] can tear you away.   If your method is as improvisatory as mine, then things will just have a tendency to stretch and bend into a full-on marathon cooking session where you awake from your frenzied trance to find yourself trying to take the perfect picture of your final creations at 1:40am.  Ours is not a way of life to judge purely on its efficiency --  there is a greater good to be gained so we throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the thing.

Step 1: 

Open up your scope to the FB masses to provide herculean criteria for your project.

Step 2:

Spend way too much time at the co-op searching for the perfect ingredients [and while you're at it, partake in the complimentary wine and cheese tasting, because nothing says "inefficiency" like drinking during the day].

Step 3:

Do your best not to follow one single recipe, but combine the parts you like from all the applicable versions, incorporating feedback from various message boards and your own common sense, and then synthesize it into a vague game plan that can still be flexible and accommodate the inevitable whims and hits of inspiration.

Now we are set to have a marathon cooking session.  Another good idea is to have a movie or a podcast running in the background [I recommend  The Tobolowsky Files].   That way, you will not be as aware of the passage of time.  My pointed advice to you, as well as to my future self, includes continued hydration, appropriate fan placement, and a suggestion to wear a weightlifter belt if you are bound and determined not to work on your posture.

If you would like to peek at my "final" recipes here is what I can remember:

Pumpkin Pie with Hazelnut Crust [gluten-free, vegan, using sweeteners with low glycemic index]  

Preheat oven 350°F

Crust Ingredients

1 1/2 c. hazelnuts [in food processor until cornmeal texture]

1/2 c. Bob's Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 c. date sugar

1/2 c. coconut oil [melted]

dash sea salt

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then pour in melted oil to make texture like rough wet sand.  In springform pan work mixture up the edges with fork to form a 1/4 inch thick crust on all sides and bottom.  Bake in 350 F oven for 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

I used this Custard Recipe as a model for the filling.

Filling Ingredients with my adjustments in red:

2/3 cup almonds
1 cup hot water
1 cup coconut milk

1 1/2 c. cooked pumpkin2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 c. brown rice syrup 

1 c. apple juice [reduced to 2 Tbs syrup]

1/2 tsp fresh ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 tsp fresh ground ginger root

1/2 tsp ground clove2 Tbsp arrowroot starch
1 tsp agar agar powder pinch salt

While crust is cooling, place almonds and hot water in a high powered blender and blend until totally smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend on high until well-mixed.  Transfer to a small saucepan and heat on medium-high until bubbling, whisking constantly and occasionally scraping bottom. Once it starts to thicken considerably, remove from heat and whisk vigorously for 1-2 minutes until totally smooth.

Cover bottom of pan with tin foil, and place in larger cake pan or cookie sheet for water bath.  Pour filling into crust cover top edges with tin foil, then put in 350F oven, pour hot water into the cookie sheet for water bath.  Bake for 45 minutes until set , but the center should still giggle a bit.  Allow to cool very slowly.  Cool completely before serving.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

Preheat oven 350°F

Chocolate Filling taken directly from one of the magazines that we continue to get every month compliments of the previous tenants [Thank you!], but instead of a packaged pie crust I made the basic 9 inch recipe from the Betty Crocker cook book  And since I didn't have the shortening it called for - I used half butter, half Earth Balance.  I also used the meringue recipe from Betty Crocker - but used pasteurized egg whites so I wouldn't have to cook them after.  However I did use my culinary torch [bd gift from my favorite cousin!] to define the meringue contours with that lovely toasted color, which added a lovely burnt sugar flavor [bring on the brûlée!].

Cheddar Crusted Apple Pie with Port

Preheat oven 425°F

The crust is from this recipe, but I rolled the top crust extra thin and cut it up using an apple shaped cookie cutter.  Those pieces I layered over the filling from this recipe.  However I did add some extra ground clove.  Then I added a few splashes of tawny port [a splash for me, a splash for the pie, repeat].  This meant some extra cook time, but so worth it.

***Be sure to use a cookie sheet or tin foil to catch the drippings, because there will be drippings.  

****Also before you put it in to bake, give it an egg yolk wash with salt, sprinkle with sugar, and cover the edges with tin foil [which gets removed 15 min before the end].