Carrot soup with miso

Being single usually isn’t all that bad.  You can watch whatever programs you like; nobody hogs the remote, reprograms your car radio buttons, snores, eats the slice of cake you were saving for later, or requires you to go to really boring work parties because “I went to yours.”

But being sick when you’re single really sucks.  I know “sucks” is an inelegant way to put it, but “unpleasant” just doesn’t catch the depth of feeling.  It sucks, and there is no way around it.  One can’t arrange to have a suitably sympathetic boyfriend on call to insist that you sleep in, go to the drugstore when you’re so dizzy with flu you can’t see straight, or to make you soup. 

Soup, of course, is key.

Much as I like soup, when I’m sick, I want simple.  Sopa Azteca, tortilla soup, gumbo, etc. are all wonderful, but too complicated.  A good chicken soup is therapeutic, but it takes time to make, and I haven’t found a canned chicken soup I like. (Being a foodie can be hazardous.)  Campbell’s canned tomato soup (made with water, please) is almost perfect, but I didn’t have any on hand.

I could have gone to the store, but I was in that mid-level range of illness. The point where you’re mind says you should be up and doing, because lying in bed has become unutterably boring, but your body is just not cooperating. (Case in point, Sunday I got winded making the bed and had to sit down and rest afterwards.)

This soup was one I bookmarked because I’m trying to use up miso I bought for my Japanese cooking experiment*. And other than the miso, all the ingredients are things I usually have on hand, so no going to the grocery store and infecting the neighborhood.

True, this recipe does involve chopping 1 onion and 2 pounds of carrots, but you can do that sitting down.  I did.  Deb Perleman of Smitten Kitchen finishes this soup with a drizzle of sesame oil and and some scallions.  Oil makes me feel slightly nauseated at the moment, so I pureed a seeded ancho chili into it, because I like a soup with a bit of bite. The soup was both hot and sweet.  And all the beta carotene, vitamin C or whatever it is you get from all those carrots has got to be good for you.

Carrot soup with miso

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 regular or 6 small garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped or grated ginger, or more to taste
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used chicken)
• 1/4 cup white miso paste, or more to taste

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and garlic sauté until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add broth and ginger. Cover and simmer until carrots are tender when pierced, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Puree soup in batches in blender, or all at once with an immersion blender. In a small bowl, whisk together the miso and a half-cup of the soup. Stir the mixture back into the pot of soup. Taste the soup and season with salt, pepper or additional miso to taste. ( I found the miso contained enough salt to make any extra salt unnecessary.)

This soup is a good basic. It's good plain, as a ginger carrot soup, or you can finish it with sesame oil and scallions, or red pepper flake. You can do what I did and puree a seeded chili into it. Coriander might be nice. 

*if you’ve been following the blog, you know the Japanese cooking experiment was over a year ago.  But I’ve found that miso, refrigerated in a sealed container, has a shelf life of approximately forever.

Recipe: French Onion Soup

I have a new soup pot. Isn't it beautiful? And what better way to break it in with a recipe from the late great Julia Child.

I'd never made onion soup before, and was amazed by how simple a recipe it is. It's caramelized onions in beef stock. That's it. The hardest thing about it is slicing up the onions. It does require some time stirring the pot while the onions cook down, but get a good book and the time will fly by. I listened to Imperium by Robert Harris, while caramelizing my onions. A novel about Republican Rome that proves that politics has always been a dirty game, controlled by money, vested interests, spin and swayed by people who are total boors, but mysteriously popular with the public. (Sound familiar?)

All of the ingredients

It is traditional to gratinée French onion soup (meaning bake a crust of cheese over the bowl) but personally, I find it:

• over the top when eating alone
• messy, and
• a waste of cheese, since you always lose some to the oven and bowl

Instead, I did Gruyere croutons, which is simply toasted bread with Gruyere baked onto it. The advantage to this is you can make a bunch of these little toasts ahead of time, store them in the refrigerator, and heat them up (with the soup) when you feel like eating.



One thing I noticed, is that onions are amazingly sweet when cooked down. I actually dug the bag out of the trash to make sure I hadn't used sweet onions by mistake. (I hadn't.) Julia only has you put in 1/2 tsp of salt, but you may want to increase that. It depends on how salty your stock is.

French Onion Soup
(from Julia Child's The Way to Cook)

Note: The house will smell like onions for two days afterwards; not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are going to have company, maybe wait until they're gone.

3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
8 cups thinly sliced onions (roughly 2-1/2 to 3 lbs)
1/2 teaspoon each salt and sugar (sugar helps the onions brown)
2 Tablespoons flour
2-1/2 quarts beef stock (2 cups of which should be hot)
4-5 tablespoons brandy (optional)
1 cup dry white French vermouth (I used a dry white wine)

Set your pot over moderate heat with the butter and oil, and when the butter had melted add in the onions.  Cover the  pan and cook until tender and translucent, about 10 minutes.

Blend in salt and sugar, raise heat to moderately high, and let the onions brown, stirring frequently until they are a dark walnut color, approximately 25-30 minutes.

Sprinkle in flour and cook slowly, stirring, for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a moment. Whisk in 2 cups of hot stock. When well blended, bring to a simmer, add the rest of the stock, brandy (if using) and vermouth. Cover loosely and let simmer for 1-1/2 hours. Add a little water if it reduces too much.

Yummy!

In Search of Lost Soup

If you lived in Houston in 2000-2013, you knew Taco Milagro on the corner of Kirby and Westheimer. It wasn't a restaurant known for its food; it was one of the city's "see and be seen" meet markets for single people. It had a huge patio, salsa dancing, good margaritas, and was completely packed in the evenings.  



Ancho chili

I was at Taco Milagro when someone told me her theory about deciding if men were datable depending on their shoes. Gucci tasseled-loafers were particularly favorable. I can't remember why. "Never date guys with cheap shoes" was what it boiled down to.   I've never followed this advice, because it seemed like one of the dumber ways of selecting a mate, but I'm still single, so what do I know?

white corn tortillas

Anyway, Taco Milagro served the usual tacos, burritos, chips, salsa and guacamole, which were passable, but my favorite was the tortilla soup, which was not a brothy chicken soup, but a thick and spicy tomato based soup (with chicken). I loved that soup. It had depth to it. I would go there just for the soup.
 

cilantro

But Taco Milagro closed in 2013, cutting off my supply. So I've been noodling around the interwebs looking for a recipe that might work. This is my first attempt. It's good but a little thin. The search continues. . .

Spicy Tortilla Soup 1
 

Soup

• 2 ancho chilis
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 4 corn tortillas (torn into pieces)
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken

Garnish

• salt
• cilantro
• queso fresco 
• lime juice
• avocado

Instructions


Seed the ancho chilies and soak them in hot water for about an hour.

Puree the chilies with the onion, the tomatoes and the garlic.

Heat up your soup pot and put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in it.  Fry the pureed vegetables for about 5 minutes, until aromatic.

Add 6 cups chicken broth, the tortillas, the cilantro and the chicken and simmer until the tortillas have dissolved and thickened the soup.

Salt to taste. (I used about a teaspoon.)

Garnish with fresh cilantro, avocado, lime juice, and tortilla strips. You won't see any tortilla strips on mine because I'm a chicken about frying things. (Hot oil in large amounts scares me.)



My soup, you can tell my avocado was bit bruised, but it still tasted okay.

Hot and Sour!

It's cold. It's really cold. It's February out there. Usually, I have time to ease into it, but this year we skipped autumn and went directly to winter, and I am reeling from the shock. If you live in a genuinely cold climate, I don't know how you manage. I'm wearing socks to bed with two blankets a quilt and two cats. (I don't think the cats really help, but I can't convince them otherwise.)

Of course, I'm thinking about soup. There is nothing like soup when your feet feel like ice.

This is a hot and sour soup I've been considering for the past year. It's not authentic. It's a quick and dirty version of a hot and sour, but it's good.  I particularly like that it uses ingredients you can find in a regular supermarket. I'm sure it would be better if you used wood ear mushrooms instead of button mushrooms, but since it's a 45 minute drive to my closest Asian market, that makes this version just that little bit better.

It is also genuinely hot and sour. If you are used to the Americanized version of hot and sour, where they wave the vinegar bottle over it and give it a quick dash of pepper, this will be a revelation. You can, of course, reduce the amounts of vinegar and heat, and it will still be good, but the real full-bodied flavor is sinus-clearingly wonderful. 

And it only takes half an hour, start to finish. So you can start warming up even faster.

It looks almost as good as it tastes. 

Joanne Chang's Hot and Sour Soup

Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, smashed and minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, white and green parts, minced, plus more for garnish
8 ounces ground pork
4 cups store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 pound soft or firm tofu (not silken and not extra firm), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 or 5 medium button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced (or substitute dried, rehydrated wood ear mushrooms)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2/3 cup rice vinegar, or to taste
3 tablespoons soy sauce, or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon sesame oil, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce, or to taste
2 large eggs
White or black pepper for garnish

starting with the pork

In the saucepan, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic, ginger, scallions, and pork and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute. You want to break up the pork into smaller pieces with a spoon, but don’t worry about breaking it down completely or cooking it through.

Add scallions, ginger and garlic

Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Add the tofu, mushrooms, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil, and Sriracha sauce and bring the soup back to a simmer over medium-high heat. Taste the soup. If you want it hotter, add more Sriracha sauce; if you want it more sour, add more vinegar.

pour in everything else

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. With the soup at a steady simmer, slowly whisk in the eggs so they form strands. Bring the soup back to a simmer. Divide the soup among 4 to 6 bowls and garnish each with a little sesame oil, scallion, and white or black pepper. Serve immediately. (Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The soup may take on a slightly different appearance, but it will taste just the same.)