Knot Sew Crafty

Best Soup of 2010--Michael Symon's Spicy Tomato and Blue Cheese

I know we're only four days into 2010, but I'm ready to hand the crown over to Iron Chef Michael Symon.  I made this soup over the holidays and we've all been dreaming about it ever since.  I made two changes to the recipe, the first of which is that I used less sriracha than called for because I don't like things too spicy, and second, I used a different kind of blue cheese because I couldn't find Roth Kase Buttermilk Blue Cheese.  If you've never tried sriracha, I recommend it for its unique flavor, as well as its heat. 

This is not a low-fat soup, but, even with the cream and blue cheese, it doesn't feel too heavy.  I might try to make a lighter version, so that I can eat it more often, but I don't want to mess too much with perfection!  I was not able to take a picture because I can't find my camera, but the truth is that, while the soup looks good, a picture could not possibly convey its amazing depth of flavor. 

If you are not vegan, give it a try and let me know what you think.  If you are vegan, maybe you can help me think of substitutes or other delicious things to put in instead of cream and blue cheese.

Spicy Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup
from "Michael Symon's Live To Cook" by Michael Symon

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 28-oz can San Marzano tomatoes, with their juice
1 1/2 cups Chicken Stock
3/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons sriracha sauce
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
1/2 cup Roth Kase Buttermilk Blue cheese

Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart pot over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and a three-fingered pinch of salt and sweat for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to sweat for 2 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juice and the stock and bring to a simmer. (I added a little more salt here too). Add the cream, sriracha sauce, and oregano and simmer for 45 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, add the blue cheese, and blend until smooth, working in batches if needed.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot, taste, adjust the seasoning if necessary, and reheat to serve. The soup will keep, covered in the refrigerator, for a few days.

Breakfast Pizza

Oh, Michael Ruhlman, what have you done to us?

Food writer extraordinaire Michael Ruhlman recently had a breakfast pizza on his blog.  We are highly suggestible, and happened to have fresh mozzarella on hand, so we made breakfast pizza this morning. It was good good good.  (The picture above does not do it justice--does anyone have food styling tips?) Pizza dough with egg, bacon and fresh mozzarella.  So simple.  So easy.  So tasty.  I would like to eat that specific pizza once a month for the rest of my life.  It's a little rich to eat more often than that, but the basic idea of breakfast pizza has many interesting possibilities--Roasted Fruit pizza?  Butter and Jam Pizza?  Cinnamon toast pizza?  

I might have found my new life's passion...

Jessica's Soup Swap

Jessica from Turkey Cookies is having a soup swap!

We make this soup every year for Thanksgiving. One year, we tried to make something else, but the families protested, so we went back to the favorite and have never strayed again. I think that the pancetta/bacon cast a magic spell on everyone, but you can certainly leave it out if you are anti-bacon.

Butternut-Corn Chowder With Goat Cheese Croutons
from Bon Appétit | November 1999

Servings: Makes 8 to 10 servings.

ingredients:

4 ounces chilled soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet), cut into 1-inch-thick rounds
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
4 ounces 1/4-inch-thick slices pancetta or 4 thick bacon slices, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 2 1/4-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
4 1/2 cups canned roasted-garlic chicken broth or low-salt chicken broth
2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies*
1 16-ounce bag frozen sweet white corn (unthawed)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons minced fresh sage

preparation:

Cut each cheese round into 8 wedges. Place eggs in small bowl. Place cornmeal in another bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Working in batches, dip cheese into eggs, then into cornmeal, turning to coat. Press cornmeal gently to adhere. Place on baking sheet. Freeze 1 hour.

Cook pancetta in heavy large saucepan over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to paper towels. Add onion to drippings in pan; sauté until just tender, about 4 minutes. Add butternut squash, broth and chilies; simmer until squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes.

Mix in corn; simmer until tender, about 8 minutes. Transfer 3 1/2 cups soup to blender; puree. Mix puree into remaining soup in pan. Season with salt and pepper. (Pancetta and soup can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover pancetta; chill. Chill soup uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Bring pancetta to room temperature before continuing.) Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add frozen cheese; brown well, about 1 minute per side.

Meanwhile, bring soup to simmer. Mix in sage. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with pancetta and cheese croutons.

Dorie Greenspan Saves the World

I just made these cookies for the first time and they are so good that I had to share them right away! They are the chocolate sister of Grandma Jen Cookies. There are no pictures of the little bits of chocolate heaven because we fell upon them like starving piranha. My advice is to make some. Make some right away.

World Peace Cookies

Excerpted from Baking: From My House to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Dorie Greenspan.

Makes about 36 cookies

I once said I thought these cookies, the brainchild of the Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé, were as important a culinary breakthrough as Toll House cookies, and I've never thought better of the statement. These butter-rich, sandy-textured slice-and-bake cookies are members of the sablé family. But, unlike classic sablés, they are midnight dark — there's cocoa in the dough — and packed with chunks of hand-chopped bittersweet chocolate. Perhaps most memorably, they're salty. Not just a little salty, but remarkably and sensationally salty. It's the salt — Pierre uses fleur de sel, a moist, off-white sea salt — that surprises, delights and makes the chocolate flavors in the cookies seem preternaturally profound.

When I included these in Paris Sweets, they were called Korova Cookies and they instantly won fans, among them my neighbor Richard Gold, who gave them their new name. Richard is convinced that a daily dose of Pierre's cookies is all that is needed to ensure planetary peace and happiness.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

3. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don't be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

Getting Ready to Bake:

5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

6. Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them — don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Grandma Jen Cookies

from smitten kitchen by way of commonplace

Cripsy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

smitten kitchen substituted white chocolate for regular chocolate, and I highly approve of that choice in these cookies.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

6 ounces good-quality white chocolate bar, chopped

1/2 teapoon flaky sea salt (like Maldon or fleur de sel) (for sprinkling on top)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and table salt in a medium bowl.

2. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down bowl again. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until just incorporated and smooth. Gradually add oats and white chocolate and mix until well incorporated.

3. Divide dough into 24 equal portions, each about 2 tablespoons. Roll between palms into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about ¾-inch thickness.

4. Sprinkle a flake or two of sea salt on each cookie

5. Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack to cool.

Lousy picture, great cookie.

I think that I'm going to call these "Grandma Jen Cookies" (unless she objects!), not because she makes them, but because her allergy to chocolate has us on the lookout for good white chocolate recipes to serve at holidays. This is the best white chocolate recipe I've ever come across. Bar none. Seriously. So good that I would eat one every day if I could. So scrumptious that I have actually convinced myself that they are health food--rolled oats, hello?

I was introduced to these cookies by Amy from commonplace, who brought some freshly bake ones to me one day, for no reason whatsoever other than sheer niceness. If you can arrange to have Amy live in your town, I'd definitely advise it. And if you can have her bake for you, so much the better.

Head on over to Meet Me at Mike's to see what all the fabulous Australian crafters are baking this week!

Zucchini Bread

I'd had CSA zucchini sitting around for a week, just waiting to make Caroline's Zucchini Muffins. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to buy the crushed pineapple that Caroline says is the key to the recipe. Yesterday, the zucchini started to look a little bit sad, so I broke down and made Zucchini Bread from Beth Hensperger's Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. I was shocked at how much my kids loved it. It basically just tastes like really good bread. They weren't even frightened off by the green flecks!

Zucchini Bread
2 POUND LOAF

1 cup nonfat milk
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 2/3 cups bread flour (I used four cups of white whole wheat flour instead of this and the ww flour)
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 lemon, zest of (I didn't have any, so I added some lemon curd instead)
1 tablespoon gluten, plus
1 teaspoon gluten
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons fast rising yeast (or 2 3/4 t. bread machine yeast)

Directions:
--Add all ingredients in the pan according to the order in manufacturer’s directions.
--Set crust on medium and program for the Basic cycle; press Start.
--When the baking cycle ends, immediately remove the bread from pan and place on a rack.
--Let cool to room temperature before slicing.

I'm getting a new CSA delivery soon, and I expect to be swimming in zucchini again, and then I will get the crushed pineapple and try Caroline's recipe. Oh yes, I will!

Sick Day Crafternoon

All three girls are home at Camp Mama today due to a combination of stomach-aches and torrential downpours. We decided that it would be a good day for crafts with Oma. I had ordered some tank tops, bandannas, and baseball caps from Dharma Trading Company and we all had a great time decorating them with fabric markers. My favorite is the one that Oma made for Willa, which was supposed to say "Sweetie":

Oma has been in this country for 49 years and her English is excellent, but she has been known to space out on occasion...

I spent some time in the kitchen, turning the CSA apricots and blueberries into this:

A lovely afternoon all around. The clouds have dispersed and the girls' stomach-aches seem to have miraculously disappeared. A good apricot and blueberry crumble mit schlag will do that every time.

Life is Good!

Amy from fourpatch just dropped off some rhubarb that she picked at her mother's house.

Should I make, perhaps, a flummery?

Labné and Flummery? Yes, Please!

One of my all-time favorite blogs is Eggbeater, by Shuna Fish Lydon. It's a great food blog, which would be enough, but it's also delightfully written, funny, and the pictures are fantastic too.

This week, Shuna is featured in the New York Times Magazine, in Amanda Hesser's Recipe Redux feature. I can't wait to try her recipe for Labné-and-Ricotta Cheesecakes With Rice, Nut and Raspberry Relish. The original idea was to serve the labné with a raspberry flummery, which is a fruit pudding of sorts, but Shuna followed her instincts and ended up with a relish on top instead. I am so glad, because the relish sounds amazing!

As for flummery, I am especially happy about its resurgence, because the name just couldn't be better--flummery!!--and because my family has been making a variation of it forever, calling it by the German name, "rote grütze." For the linguistically minded among you, that translates to "red grits," even though the dish has nothing to do with grits at all. I bet you could serve it over grits and it would be delicious. We usually have it with vanilla custard or whipped cream, or if we're very lucky, both.

Jamie's Strawberry Jam

Yesterday, CMR and I were watching Jamie Oliver's delightful show Jamie at Home (companion book available on Amazon) and I was imagining us visiting Jamie and Jools and Daisy and Poppy and eating fabulous things that Jamie made for us in his outdoor oven, or in the little kitchen which looks like it's in a potting shed. Ah, the fun we would all have!

The show we saw yesterday was all about strawberries and it was lovely. Jamie picked strawberries from his strawberry patch and then made some terrific things with them, including a savory salad and a strawberry jam that I thought the kids would really love to make because you mush up all the strawberries by hand! It's so easy that it barely even counts as a recipe. The jam only lasts for a few days in the fridge, but the way we go through jam here, it won't even last that long. I call our middle child "Bread and Jam for Willa" because that's just about all she'll eat these days. Sadly, we don't have our own strawberry patch--or Jamie's great gardener, Brian, for that matter-- so we'll have to use store-bought, but I vow that next year we'll make it with our very own berries! Maybe Brian would like to visit the States?

Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
10 1/2 ounces (300 grams) sugar
2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) strawberries, washed

Run your knife down the vanilla pod scrape out the seeds and add with the pod to the strawberries and the sugar. Mush everything up with your hands, leaving some large chunks. Put on a medium heat to bring to a gentle simmer and leave to cook for about 4 minutes. Using a ladle remove the scum from the top and leave to cool. Place in sterilized jars and store in the refrigerator.

Couldn't be easier. I can just imagine Poppy Honey and Daisy Boo cooking up a big batch...