Not your average Tomato Soup

Over the past few months, my South African friend Frank and his roommate Phil have brought up the topic of grilled cheese sandwiches. As a non-American, Frank did not grow up with this thoroughly Basic American Food. Phil and I, both foodies to some degree, determined it was our responsibility to make sure he was properly introduced. After an apparently blasphemous experience at the Chicago establishment of "Cheezie's" (sp?), we had to do it Right. Of course, Phil and I are different people, so we have our own perfect grilled cheeses.

After multiple innuendo and threats at introducing Frank to this cultural milestone, we finally got a night where Phil and Frank could come over to my kitchen to do this properly, albeit with some mix-n-match between Phil Style and David Style. Not that this makes a bad grilled cheese - compromise is good here. It introduces you to new options and methods. So Phil did the cheese, and I did the rest.

With three tasty cheeses shredded (I usually slice, but Phil prepared Phil's cheese via Phil's way), I fried up some bacon in the cast iron skillet and saved the grease for sandwich prep. So yeah, the sandwiches were easy enough: a little bacon, shredded gouda with some kind of cheddar and some drier cheese (not parmesan/asiago, but something between there and a sharp white cheddar), and then grill the sandwiches in bacon grease on the cast iron skillet. Can't go wrong. Very tasty sandwiches, in my opinion.

But the tomato soup... that was a little unconventional. I don't make many soups, so I tend to get excited and throw a whole lot of different things in. I was mildly careful on this one, ultimately to good effect.

So here we go, because you'll probably want to try it (and I want to hear your suggestions for variations on it):

• In a large (6 qt?) sauce pan, caramelize one onion, finely chopped (well, I finely chopped half of it and normal chopped the other half). I added about 1 t. salt and 1 t. sugar in the process
• While this is going on, cut up two slices of bacon into 1/4" pieces, fry in separate pan.
• Deglaze sauce pan with onions when they're done with white wine. I used about half a bottle of sauvignon blanc, plus 1 or 2 T. of balsamic vinegar. Not sure the vinegar added much. Turn heat to low.
• Let the onions/wine reduce for a little while, it should be gently simmering, and add the fried little pieces of bacon and 4 cloves of minced garlic
• Add one can of crushed tomatoes (I think it was one of the 14 oz. bigger cans), 1 normal size can of chicken broth, one of those cute little small cans of tomato paste, 1 normal size can of cream of coconut (find it in the Asian section of your grocery store), and 1 T. salt. Increase heat to medium/medium-low.
• Add 1/4 c. sugar (I used white because of a conspicuous lack of brown, but I'd like to try it with brown), 1/4 c. creamy peanut butter, a bay leaf or two, and 1 or 2 T. each of paprika and celery salt, and maybe some (a couple teaspoons?) of oregano if you like.
• Set the heat so it simmers gently for 30 mins - 1 hr, adding 1/8 c. chopped fresh parsley 5-10 min before serving.

But yeah, that's what I did. I did cream of coconut instead of heavy cream because I wanted to add creaminess but still have it be dairy free because my sinuses have been a little over-stressed lately by excess dairy. I'll still probably pay for the sandwich but... yeah totally worth it. These measurements for anything that isn't "1 can" are all approximate, so play around as you see fit. I also squirted in about half a lime worth of lime juice, but I don't know if it was enough to do anything.

Phil suggested it as a good base for a seafood bisque, and I'm terribly excited to try that sometime - add some shrimp, cheese (a couple varieties at least), maybe a little cilantro and cayenne pepper... mmmm. So yeah. Now my experiment is on the internet. I was very happy with it both because it tasted good and because, apart from all the proportions, I planned most of the recipe in my head a few days ago.


-D. Bon' appetit!