This Soup is Two Kinds of Hot

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

It's the old question made famous by Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem, Ode to the West Wind, which used to be required reading in high school.

It always seemed to me that people quote that line as if to soothe us through the cold and bitter days, to remind us that warm weather eventually comes and it won't be as long as it seems when you're bundled up in down coats and covered with scarves, hats, gloves and furry boots but still shivering because it feels like it's zero degrees out and the wind is blowing in your face.

But in actuality, my answer is, yes. Spring can be far behind. 66 days in fact. Well after the groundhog jumps back into his hole and whether or not he/she sees its shadow. 

That means lots of hot, warming, comforting food is required to help keep us warm and feel secure and cozy.

Soup, for example.

Like this one, which is hot in two ways. First, it's seasoned with spicy chipotle pepper and a lush garnish of toast croutes loaded up with Sincerely Brigitte Chipotle cheddar cheese. Second, it's served piping hot for lunch or as a first course for dinner.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Chipotle Cheese Croutes

• 6 medium red bell peppers

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 2 stalks celery, chopped

• 2 medium cloves garlic, chopped

• 2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

• 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder

• 5 cups vegetable stock

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1 cup half and half cream or coconut milk

• cheese croutes

Preheat the broiler. Place the peppers under the broiler, about 4-6" away from the heat. Broil for 2-3 minutes, until the skin has blistered. Turn the peppers and repeat this process until the entire surface is blistered and lightly charred. Remove the peppers and place them in a paper bag or wrap them in aluminum foil. Let rest at least 10 minutes. Remove the peppers from the bag, peel off the skin and discard the stem and the seeds. Cut the peppers into pieces and set aside. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the onion and celery and cook for about 4 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Add the red pepper pieces, potatoes, parsley, chipotle powder and stock. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Puree the ingredients in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Stir in the cream and cook for 3-4 minutes or until hot. Serve with the cheese croutes.

Makes 8 servings

Cheese Croutes:

• 16 (1/2-inch thick) slices French bread

• olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)

• 1 large clove garlic, cut in half

• 7 ounces Sincerely Brigitte Chipotle Cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the bread slices on a cookie sheet. Brush the bread tops with the olive oil and rub the surfaces with the cut side of the garlic. Bake for about 15 minutes, turning them over once about halfway through. Remove the bread slices from the oven. Just before serving, place equal amounts of the grated cheese on top of each bread slice. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Place two croutes on top of each bowl of soup.

Ouch! It's So Cold

It's like 9 degrees outside.

And there's something wrong with our furnace so it's not exactly warm enough in the house either.

Fortunately, there's a serviceman here.

Plus a slow-cook dish in the oven.

Both, I trust, will get life warm soon enough.

Lamb Shanks with White Wine and Rosemary

• 4 lamb shanks, about 1 pound each
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large plum tomatoes, chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 onion, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 leek, washed and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 habanero chili pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 1-1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Trim any excess fat from the shanks. Pour the olive oil in a large, deep sauté pan over medium heat. Add the shanks and cook them for 8-10 minutes, turning them occasionally, to brown all sides. Remove them from the pan and set them aside. Pour out all but about a tablespoon of fat from the pan. Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, leek, garlic and chili pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes to soften the vegetables slightly. Pour in the stock and wine, mix the ingredients and bring to a boil. Place the shanks into the vegetable mixture and baste a few times. Place the rosemary sprigs and parsley in the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper and cover the pan. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 2 to 2-1/2 hours or until the meat is soft. Discard the rosemary sprigs. Serve the lamb as is, with the vegetables and pan fluids OR, puree the pan fluids with the vegetables and serve it as gravy with the meat.

Makes 4 servings.

A new day, a new year, a new website

After years and years of always making the same New Year resolutions to go on a diet or exercise more, or to be more organized with my papers, or to keep my car neat and clean, I finally have realized that I am who I am and love to cook and to eat, so giving up “all carbs” or “never eating another bowl of caramel corn” are vows I cannot keep.

I do exercise. More is unnecessary. 

Alas, my sloppy desk is, I am sure, a permanent thing.

Ditto, the car. I eat popcorn in my car. Some of it falls out onto the floor. I drive my grandkids around. They discard grain bar wrappers, banana peels and half-done artwork in the back seat. I don’t always get around to tidying up right away.

So be it.

So this year’s resolution was different. I decided to start a new website. And, thanks to my son-in-law Jesse Hertzberg, here it is!

Today is cold and dreary, dark, and about to snow. It’s stew weather. Any kind of stew. For warmth and comfort and filling up. For my new website? A recipe for Beer Braised Beef (you can call it stew).

This recipe is just the right dish for a day like this, and for some months to come.

You might notice that I don’t use stew meat. I get a large chunk of chuck instead, and cut it into big pieces. That’s because most of the time the packages of stew meat at the supermarket contain pieces that are too small. Stew meat shrinks — if you start with pieces that are too small, you wind up with tough little chewy bits rather than tender succulent, meaty nuggets. Also, chuck is the tastiest cut of beef for stew — I recommend it above any other cut.

Beer Braised Beef

• 6 pounds beef chuck roast

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 teaspoon dried herbes de provence

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 12-14 ounces beer or ale

• 4-6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

• 6 medium carrots, cut into chunks

• 3-4 tomatoes, cut into chunks

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Cut the chuck into large chunks. Combine the flour, paprika, herbes de provence, garlic powder and salt and pepper in a dish. Coat each piece of meat with the flour mixture. Pour the vegetable oil in a large, deep saute pan over medium heat. Working with a few pieces at a time, cook the flour-coated beef for 6-8 minutes, turning the pieces occasionally, or until crispy on several sides. Return all the meat to the pan. Pour in the beer. Cover the pan. Turn the heat to low. Cook for 1-1/2 hours. Add the potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and parsley. Cover the pan. Cook at a bare simmer for another hour or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Makes 8 servings

Chili Con Carne

I used to cook chili a lot more often than I do these days. I suppose I overdid it and Ed said “HALT!” on the chili and that was that for a while.

But it’s chili season isn’t it?

Maybe it’s time to start the cycle again. 

I have plenty of recipes that I’ve tried over the years but this one is my favorite. It’s extra delicious with a blob of guacamole on top.

Chili Con Carne

1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound chopped or diced beef

28-ounce can Italian style plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

6-ounce can tomato paste

1-3/4 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

2 bay leaves

15-ounce can white beans, drained

Heat the vegetable oil in a large, deep sauté pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the meat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until the meat turns brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, beef stock, chili powder, oregano, cumin, crushed red pepper, black pepper, salt and bay leaves. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the beans and cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the meat is surrounded by sauce as thick as gravy.

Makes 4 servings

 

Tropical Chicken with Pineapple, Mango and Avocado

People say that January is a month of Mondays. The big ugh at the beginning of the week, or in this case, the year, when it seems like there’s so much to do and accomplish. And it still gets dark out early in the day. And it’s cold and snowy and blowy and all you want to do is stay home where you’re warm and relax and maybe read a book or play a game or watch an old movie. But you can’t because it’s Monday or January and there’s so much to do.

I know lots of people who head for spots where there’s warmer weather when January comes.

I’m not one of them. 

But that’s okay. Long ago I read a magazine article that suggested making “tropical” kinds of food on days (weeks, months) like this. You know, to sort of lift your spirits by pretending you’re on some beautiful beach at some swell resort. Like in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” when the Baileys can’t make it to their honeymoon destination and their friends put up posters of tropical paradises so they make believe they’re actually in one of them.

The magazine article included a terrific bunch of recipes, including one for “Tropical Chicken.”

I don’t remember the magazine and don’t have the original recipe. But I do remember the advice. And I wrote down the ingredients and instructions (although I’ve changed it from time to time over the year). I’ve made this dish many times over the years.

So, here it is: Tropical Chicken. To warm you up if you happen to be cold or it’s snowy where you are and you need a bit of heat and sunshine, at least for pretend, when it comes to dinner:

Tropical Chicken

1 broiler-fryer chicken, cut into 8 parts

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

salt to taste

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 large pineapple, cut into chunks

1 cup pineapple juice

1 avocado, peeled and cut into chunks

1 papaya or mango, peeled and cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat and cook the chicken pieces a few at a time for 8-10 minutes or until the pieces have browned. Remove the chicken to a baking dish. Sprinkle with the onion, chili powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Place pineapple chunks around the chicken. Pour the juice over the chicken and fruit. Bake about 40 minutes, basting occasionally. Add the avocado and mango the pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4 servings

Basic Beef Stew and Sun-Dried Tomato Ketchup

I don’t like ketchup.

Is that un-American?

Almost everyone else I know douses french fries with ketchup. They use it on hamburgers. Even hot dogs.

NONONO, hot dogs are supposed to get mustard!!

My husband Ed gets the ketchup out whenever I grill a steak, make pot roast or serve anything he doesn’t really love, like fish.

NONONO, you don’t splash ketchup on branzini!!

Do you?

A neighbor of mine poured ketchup over scrambled eggs and into his mother’s homemade chicken soup.

OHNO! Absolutely not.

During the Reagan administration the USDA declared ketchup a vegetable, suitable for school lunch.

WHAT??????????

Fortunately, that decision was later reversed.

Okay ketchup lovers, do your thing. Have ketchup on whatever you wish. I am not convinced.

Except I got this new kind recently. I will confess here that it was given to me by Traina Foods, who asked my stubborn, anti-ketchup self if I would try it. If they could convince me I suppose, it might be a winner.

It IS!

No, I still would not, IMHO, ruin homemade french fries with ketchup of any kind. And I wouldn’t use it for steak.

But this stuff is splendiferous with braised brisket or other kinds of pot roast, beef stew and grilled burgers. It’s got more of a tang than standard ketchup, so the taste is roasted-toasted and tomato-y, not sweet. It’s thicker than most other ketchups too.

If you see this in the stores, it’s worth a try. Here’s a good, warm-you-up winter Beef Stew recipe you can use it with:

Basic Beef Stew

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon paprika

2-1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 cup red wine

3-4 carrots, cut into chunks

2 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Traina Foods sun dried tomato ketchup

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the flour, thyme, salt, pepper and paprika in a dish. Cut the meat into large chunks, about 2-inches. Dredge the meat in the flour mixture, coating all sides. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large, heat-proof casserole over medium-high heat. Using a few chunks at a time, cook the meat on all sides for 5-6 minutes or until lightly browned. Do not crowd the pan. Remove each piece to a plate as it browns. When all the meat has browned, add the remaining tablespoon vegetable oil to the pan. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Pour in the wine. Return the meat to the pan. Cover the pan and place in the oven. Cook for 1-1/2 hours. Add the carrots and potatoes, cover the pan and cook for another hour or until the meat and vegetables are very tender. serve with sun dried tomato ketchup.

Makes 4 servings