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!

PS...

P.S. It looks like I may have another (though briefer) Summer of Spandex in the works. With any luck I'll stop working after July and bike up the Rockies from Denver to Kalispell on the way to a family vacation in Idaho.

So I'm really looking forward to both that and a mildly planned trip in late May to the boundary waters with Nate, Mitchell, and Amber. Friends! Canoes! Fishing! Hopefully not too many bugs! And I get to try out a new backpacking tent I picked up on sale from DepartmentOfGoods.com.

April now

As of a few weeks ago, I am officially an applicant for master's programs in Delft, Netherlands (BME), Aalborg, Denmark (BME), and Zurich, Switzerland (Neural Systems and Computation)... should hear back in two months or so (to start this fall). As of last Wednesday, I have finally renewed my studio membership for ceramics after two months off. As of yesterday morning, I now have a nephew, Ozias. As of right now, I should go clean up my dishes/etc from dinner so I can go to bed soon and get up for work in the morning.

Short post, yeah?

Bread Time. This is How You Do It.

I made a bunch of bread for the family Thanksgiving feast. Sweet potato, cheddar/mustard, mushroom, beer, carrot, and Irish soda. Nine loaves of six different kinds - doubled up on sweet potato, beer, and Irish soda breads.

Overall they turned out quite well. I put extra cheese in the cheddar bread, which ended up overpowering the subtle flavors normally given by the whole grain mustard and the cayenne pepper. So that was a mistake, though not the worst possible. I will now tell you how to make the Irish soda bread. It caught my eye because, one - it's leavened by baking soda, so there was no double or triple two-hour rising, and two - you put raisins in it... after soaking them in Jameson whiskey.

So here's how you make Irish soda bread.
Step one: Jameson

Step two: Jameson.

Step 3: make the bread.

Step 4: what step four? (that is to say: Jameson)

This bread is really halfway between a bread and a scone, mostly having less sugar and butter than a scone. I was happy with how it turned out. Soaking the raisins in Jameson not only gives them a fuller flavor, but also re-hydrates them to a degree and keeps the surface raisins from burning in the oven.

Here's the pile-o'-bread, courtesy of The Bread Bible, a fantastic recipe book that makes me much better at baking bread than I in fact am.

(beer bread and soda bread wrapped in polystyrene, other breads in tin foil)

Note on Step 3: one possible improvement is to get someone to do it for you.

SOOUUUUUP!!!!

Share tonight's soup experience? Why of course.

It was inspired by sukiyaki and shabu shabu style foods I ate in Busan a few weeks back - not in the presentation mode so much as general thought - cook up a broth for a while, then add some nice fresh ingredients just a few minutes before eating. Actually cooking it on the table seemed a little overkill. Apart from a vegetable stock I spent an arduous half a day making once, this is certainly the tastiest soup base I've ever done - great basic flavor from the mushroom/onion saute, but a lot of depth is added by the deglazing mixture. But really I haven't made many soups, so there wasn't much competition.

This should make 3-4 modest servings.

the base
Saute half a chopped onion in a little olive oil (1 or 2 T is plenty). Get it well on its way to being caramelized. In fact, if you're not as hungry as I was, go ahead and caramelize it. A little before the onion's done, add a handful or two of thickly sliced mushrooms (any kind but white mushrooms), and throw in a couple teaspoons of salt for good measure.

the rest
Let it continue cooking. Stir frequently but not continuously, and when it's ready (you'll really smell the mushrooms nicely), deglaze with a couple liberal tablespoons of some vinegar. I used garlic-flavored wine vinegar. Balsamic and other wine vinegars - including rice - would work, too. Throw in a couple teaspoons soy sauce and a couple t. fish sauce if you're up to it. Let this simmer for a few more minutes over medium heat, then turn the heat up to high and add 2-ish quarts of water and a bay leaf. I also added a splash of a mushroom broth base gel concentrate thing I found at some grocery store and a few ounces of leftover ground beef (already cooked. with taco seasoning...).

Bring the water to a light boil and throw in a package of uncooked lo mein noodles. When it starts boiling again turn the heat back to medium/medium-high. After the noodles have cooked, throw in some sliced veggies'n'stuff. I put in bok choy, green onions, and fresh cilantro. Let it simmer on medium heat for a couple minutes and you're good to go.

the verdict
lo mein noodles are much easier to eat with chopsticks than udon noodles. also, remember to take the bay leaf out before you spoon yourself a bowl.

The Great Blizzard of 2011

Now won't that be an awkward title if a bigger one hits yet this year? I'll take the chance... really living on the edge, you could say.

It's a pretty cool thing when it snows enough to practically shut down a city. Not everything is closed, obviously, but a lot is. I like to pretend that everything except snow removal has shut down: 2.9 million people, 10 million if you count the greater metropolitan area, united by 24 hours of pounding snow, thundering winds, and thundering, well, thunder.  It would be a good day to have cross-country skis. And to know how to cross-country ski.

People are out in the street digging their cars out of drifts that cover their hood, and in some cases everything else. The lucky ones have shovels. Cameron will be using a bucket to dig his car out if he's going to get to work tomorrow. A "bail out" of a different sort, perhaps.

So for today everything has slowed to a walking pace, almost literally. The major streets are more or less drivable, but side streets - plowed or not - are dominated by pedestrians on their way to and from the lake shore. Anyhow, I joined their ranks, camera in hand, and came back with over a hundred pictures (well, 101). These are just a few of them.

A New Year. So many one's!!!1!11!!

1.11.11. Good grief just wait until November! Why not make a new post? It's 2011, Chicago has been home for just over a year, got a few more miles on the bike, watched some more Netflix, done a little more ceramics, and of course the laundry is in terrible need of being done.

And that sums up the past six months. Hm. That was supposed to be a joke, but thinking about it, it's pretty true. Yeah, I jumped out of a plane in September, traveled to Syracuse back in October, shot a couple more deer in Indiana in November, and went to Madison for Christmas. But overall not a whole lot has changed. Thinking about it, I guess I might say that change isn't as natural when you have a routine that lasts for more than two or three months - you really have to be proactive about introducing anything new in your life. It's kinda fun.

Bedtime. Peace.