Soup, Beautiful Soup!

Now that winter has truly settled in with chilly gray days and fits of rain, I make soup at least once a week. Soup can be so simple to make - chop vegetables, saute for a few minutes, add stock to cover then simmer until done - that I'm surprised more people don't make soup themselves. I could make soup every day for lunch and not have the same soup twice in a month. It all depends on the ingredients you have available and the peculiarities of your imagination.


The most basic soup is stock, in which about equal portions of onion, carrot and celery are combined with meat, poultry or fish bones, covered in water and simmered gently with a few herbs for at least an hour (usually more). The stock is then strained, the veggies and bones discarded and you use it for soup as you like. I like saving up bones (chicken necks and backs for example) in the freezer until there is enough to make a thick layer in my soup pot, then I can make a big batch of stock which can be measured out into 1 or 2 cup containers and frozen for future use. I don't think there is anything wrong with using canned chicken or beef broth to whip up a quick lunch, although I look for ones without MSG and labeled "reduced sodium".

Cream of Asparagus soup, which I've posted a recipe for during asparagus season, is one of my favorites. Creamed vegetable soups with a chunk of good bread are really satisfying on a chilly day and a superb way to get your vitamins. Here's a basic, low calorie master recipe:

Soup of the Day

Saute in 1 Tbsp of olive oil, 1 peeled and diced carrot, 1 stalk celery and 1/4 cup chopped onion until soft.
Add 1 - 2 cups of the chopped vegetable you have. For example: 1 large sweet potato OR 2 smallish potatoes OR 1/2 lb of mushrooms OR 1 large can tomatoes, OR 2 cups frozen corn, etc.
Stir and add enough stock or broth to comfortably cover the vegetables, about 2 cups stock or 1 can broth.
Add a 1/4 tsp of dried herbs or spices if you are using them. Thyme is nice with butternut squash. Garlic, curry powder or coriander can spice up sweet potato. Basil and sugar are good with tomato. Nutmeg can be surprising - experiment!
Bring to a gentle boil then reduce heat and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until vegetables are nice and soft.
Remove from heat and puree with a blender, stick blender or food processor.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Summer Sorbet

Luscious fresh fruit - that's what summer means to me. Some people like summer for the beach or the pool; I prefer peaches and shade trees. This summer I've exploring new ways to keep enjoying some of my favorite fruits. After one incredible tasting batch of hopelessly runny strawberry preserves I tried making strawberry sorbet. Oh my, oh sweet strawberry nectar! It was eating a creamy, cool essence of strawberry, not at all what I expected a fancy sounding thing like sorbet to taste like.
Sorbet is not a dessert that I've spent time exploring before. If there is good chocolate or a baked good around, no other dessert gets a chance. Since getting a ice cream maker a few years ago, it has been in my mind to try sorbet and now I wish I had tried it sooner. The ingredients are simple - pureed fruit, water and sugar boiled to syrup and a bit of either lemon or lime juice. You can add a little liqueur at the end of churning to give the sorbet a kick. Peeling, coring or pitting the fruit can be time consuming, as can putting the fruit puree through a sieve to remove seeds, but the result is worth the trouble. You need to use the best fruit for the best flavor. The first batch of strawberry sorbet didn't even last a week and I had to make more but my second batch did not have as full a strawberry flavor - neither did the strawberries. Next batch was a delightful and decadent white peach sorbet, pictured above.

Last week I tried a plum sorbet using some Japanese red plums. The batch was too small but really had a lovely full plum flavor that has made me think of a William Carlos Williams poem ever since.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Pass the Peas

It is that time again for delicate, delicious peas. Every few years I try growing peas. Each time they sprout nicely, have some robust climbing growth, start forming pods and then something will begin an assault. Rabbit, squirrel, bug or bird strips the tender pods and leaves day by day until nothing is left of the sweet peas except their funny little corkscrew stems. The first year I grew Dakota peas which are a variety of garden or English pea, the little round green peas which grow in an inedible pod. That year I was able to salvage a handful of shelled peas which I promptly sauteed in a little butter. Those peas were the best I have ever eaten. They were so succulent and sweet freshly picked, like tasting a crisp spring morning. I vowed to try my hand at them again and again just for another little taste.

This year I'm still waiting for my gardener's optimism to return, getting my peas at the farmers market instead. The sugar snap peas have been a little trip to heaven the last few weeks. Steamed briefly, they are so crisp and sweet I could snack on them all day. Sugar peas and snow peas have edible pods which means in each bite you get a lovely crunch with the tender burst of the pea. I like not having to take the time to shell these peas although sugar snap peas do still have tough strings running along the seam of their pods that need to be removed before eating. If you grow your own sugar peas, they can be harvested young and flat with just the plump of tender peas showing (like snow peas) or when fatter and more mature. Sugar peas can also be shelled like garden peas but I like them whole the best.

The Asparagus Feast Ends

It's been a month and a week since the first handful of asparagus was harvested, a month since taking this photo and now the feast is over. Very few new spears are emerging now because too many shot up before I could cut them. Now the missed spears have branched out into a lovely ferny cloud, soaking in the sun and rain for the asparagus inundation next year. I may be able to pick a little more but they just don't taste as sweet now that the plant's focus is on storing its energy.
Our asparagus patch needs to be cut both in the morning and evening once it gets going in early April. I've been busy this last month with as many as 50 spears a day to turn into another yummy dish. This year we've had lots of steamed asparagus, cream of asparagus soup, asparagus sauteed in garlic butter and tossed with Parmesan cheese, asparagus timbales, asparagus and mushroom crepes, asparagus goat cheese tarts and several asparagus salads. I love being able to indulge in asparagus treats in the Spring! Didn't get to do the asparagus Benedict this time, there's always next year.

Here are two of my favorite asparagus dishes:

Cream of Asparagus Soup

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp minced onion or shallot
1 Tbsp flour
4 cups chicken stock (1 box)
12 thick (1" wide) or 24 thin (pencil width) spears
fresh asparagus
salt & pepper to taste
up to 1 cup cream (optional)

In a medium sized pot, saute onion in butter until softened. Whisk in flour and let bubble as you stir for a minute or so then whisk in chicken stock. Chop asparagus spears into 1" lengths and add all but the tips to the stock mixture. Slowly bring stock to a simmer then simmer gently for 10 minutes. Puree soup in a blender, food processor or with a stick blender until smooth. Return to heat and add the tips, salt, pepper and cream, if desired(I usually don't add it unless making soup for company). Serve when the tips turn bright green.

Asparagus Salad

12 medium spears fresh asparagus
2 chopped hard boiled eggs
1 Tbsp minced shallot
2 Tbsp of your favorite vinaigrette salad dressing, fresh or bottled
salt & pepper

Snap off the tough end of the asparagus and steam for about 3 minutes, just until the spears turn bright green and begin to get tender. Cool in iced water and chop into bite sized pieces. Whisk together dressing and shallots then toss with asparagus and chopped eggs. You can add a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper on top. Other nice additions are a good sprinkle of freshly chopped chives, a crumbled slice of cooked bacon or a little bit of diced ham.

To Market, To Market

The garden has been sadly neglected this past year. With a toddler to run after and a major issue involving some kind of tunneling critter, I have only been tending the established herbs and a few parsnips that sowed themselves. But what to do about getting peas that really taste like peas? Luckily, there are a number of farmers markets close to us which have been wetting my appetite again for all the wonderful things I haven't grown yet. Almost every Saturday we go to the Waverly Market (http://www.32ndstreetmarket.org/) for fruit, veggies, meat and bread. Waverly Market is one of the few open air markets that is open all year, though there are fewer sellers during the winter months.

Farmers markets and farm stands I remember being part of the normal shopping experience when I was a child. There is something about a bustling crowd and the rainbow of colors that has made going to a market a real treat as an adult. Working and living in the city started my love affair with the public markets around Baltimore. Oh, the delight of stopping into Cross Street Market for lunch or walking down to Broadway Market to find something for dinner, never quite knowing what to expect. Now I make a point of visiting markets when traveling, even in foreign countries. They are a wonderful way to immerse myself in a place, an everyday window into the lives of the people around me. Of course they're also the best place to find a really nice snack. Pictured here is the West Side Market in Cleveland which had some amazing sausages.

Spending time in farmers markets is also a great way to find out what to grow and when to grow it. Supermarket shopping skews our perspective as to what is actually in season and at its peak since we are able to ship food over considerable distances. Once I bought some oranges for a specific recipe and realized when peeling off their labels at home that they had come all the way from South Africa! They were not the best tasting oranges. These days I prefer getting ingredients for cooking out of my garden or at a farmers market, if I can, because fresh is best for flavor. This year we have gradually shifted to buying our fresh food almost exclusively from market sources. My husband was new to the market experience, but has really had a taste awakening over the last several months. He is still talking about the butter beans that appeared for several weeks this fall and tells me he can't wait for bean season to come again.

The Best Laid Plans

Things don't always work out the way you plan, both in life and in the garden. This is something I've been thinking about lately as the stack of seed catalogues grows thick on my desk. Last year at this time I had ordered kale, mustard and sunflower seeds; thrilled by the possibilities of the coming season. With kale, I would have a crop in winter! Ah, leafy greens sauteed with bacon or roughly chopped for soup! I would make my own mustard! Big happy sunflowers would be thriving in August when everything else droops and looks like they had too good of a time at a midsummer party. This was the plan.

Well, it turns out that kale and any member of the cabbage family is not a good idea to eat while breastfeeding. The new digestive system of a baby just doesn't deal well with even the diluted version. In fact most yummy things; milk products, citrus fruit or juice, tomato and anything with a strong flavor can make breastfed babies unhappy. So the kale seeds are waiting quietly in the freezer for another year.

The mustard crop grew beautifully and by July there was a great waving mass of seed pods ripening. I was having trouble telling if it was time to harvest since some pods still had a greenish tinge. One day as I surfed around the Internet looking for mustard recipes I heard a great commotion of birds in the back yard. When I went to check the mustard crop again, there was no crop! The birds decided the seeds were ready and had a little feast.

And the sunflowers? The two that made it from the dozen planted were wonderful, though a little small. A pair of yellow suns rising out of the green, weedy mess of my half tended garden as I fumbled around with our new baby boy. Of course, the birds ate all the seeds.

Serendipity is other side of garden planning, the happier sister of disappointment. I think the nice little surprises that nature gives us are what keeps gardeners out there digging in the dirt. There was parsley that I didn't plant poking out of Christmas snow this past year and that is something that can't be beat.

Goodbye Sweet Peach

Ah, the voluptuous peach, its fuzzy skin so soft and inviting to the touch. Not bright and brassy like the apple, the peach has a warmth to it, a sensuality. Its shape is alluring: a round swell ringed by a delicate crease with a single dimple for the stem at the top. The crease suggests where to run a knife to slice the peach into perfectly mirrored halves of gold, blushing red where where the pit is touched. Each bite is a melting gush, the flesh so full of juice and sweet. A delightful mess to eat, peaches leave me with wet fingers and a sticky dribble on my chin.

This summer has been a glorious stream of peaches, both the warm yellow-orange and the super sweet white. Local peaches first appear in July in Maryland and linger through September. By now most peaches I find are getting a little funny; bruised, overripe and tending to be mealy. The only thing they're good for is some kind of cooking, though I still haven't mastered a good peach pie, cobbler or crumble. Most recipes I come across are tacked on as a variation of an apple recipe which just doesn't seem right to me. The peach has such a mild sweet flavor compared to the tartness of apple and they shouldn't be treated the same. I have high hopes for a peach, brown sugar and ginger combination but nothing concrete yet.

The past couple of months I've been neglecting the garden, mainly because bending over became more difficult the longer I was pregnant. Now I've got a baby boy keeping me busy but we are beginning to go out to clear summer's weeds. The farmers markets have been my source for the garden fresh stuff this season. There is one by my house that had white peaches for awhile in July. What a treat! I've averaged eating at least a peach a day since July and the best thing I made was peach ice cream from a suggestion in Fannie Farmer.

Peach Ice Cream

2 cups sliced fresh peaches
1/2 cup sugar
1 T lemon juice

Mix together and chill for 1 hour. Combine with 1 chilled batch of your favorite vanilla ice cream base (I use the basic one from the ice cream maker book - milk, cream, sugar & vanilla). Pour in ice cream maker per usual instructions.

As a side note, I've had this across the range hood in my kitchen for years, patched together with a magnetic poetry set.

I want to eat

a mean peach

lick honey drool juice

from the cool pink rock

vision of summer sun

must crush.