Soup's on!

Last week's Supperclub was a soup potluck - a fairly random selection of soups that worked together quite nicely... we also had quite a crowd, so the potluck concept worked well! I made 2 kinds of bread, and we had 5 soups altogether... plus some chocolate chip cookies for dessert that we whipped up at the last minute. Mary brought the wine because she wanted to create some tasting notes for a blind tasting she was hosting later in the week, which added to the festive and fun nature of the evening.

The Breads:
- "No-Knead Bread" from Mark Bittman's Minimalist column in the NY Times (He's also done a much shorter version, but I opted to figure out the timing and let the bread do a nice slow rise overnight - it was delicious and the crumb was excellent, although next time I'm going to try baking it in a hotter oven to get a denser crust - it turned out fairly delicate)
- Oatmeal-Wheat Bread - a recipe I've been making fairly regularly for a few years

These two breads couldn't be more different - the No-Knead bread uses only a 1/4 tsp. of yeast and all white flour, while the Oatmeal-Wheat Bread uses 2 Tbls. and oats, whole wheat and white flour. The huge amount of yeast (and honey) in the Oat Wheat makes it rise quickly and have a nice light texture despite the dense whole grains. The tiny amount of yeast in the No-Knead bread lets it rise very slowly without using up all the nutrients in the flour, developing more flavor in the process. It was fun to make them both side-by-side and watch the biology in action! (I'm such a geek!)

The Soups:
People brought cold beet soup with sour cream (a beautiful, jewel-colored, clean-tasting pureed beet soup), curried cream of broccolli, veggie pho made with chicken broth, and Portuguese potato, chard, leek, sausage soup.

I made a cream of roasted cauliflower soup with chorizo that was inspired by a soup I had had in Paris a couple years ago... I was walking down the street after work on Monday, right past The Spanish Table, an awesome store near Pike Place Market in Seattle that features all things Spanish and culinary - amazing wines, cheeses, sausage, condiments, saffron, etc... so anyway I was trying to figure out what kind of soup to make, and as I walked past The Spanish Table I was hit with a very visceral memory of this soup - completely out of nowhere! So I ran in and bought some Basque chorizo and some marcona almonds, and concocted this soup:

Cream of Roasted Cauliflower with Basque Chorizo

- 2 heads of cauliflower, trimmed of outer leaves and sliced crosswise into thin florets
- 6-8 cloves of garlic, smashed lightly and peeled
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup (or so) olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 F. Combine above ingredients in a roasting pan, then roast in the oven, stirring once or twice, for about 40 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender and carmelized.

- 1 qt. chicken stock
- 1 cup heavy cream
- additional cream or milk to taste/texture
- additional salt and pepper to taste

Warm the chicken stock in a large pot - add roasted cauliflower and garlic. Puree with an immersion blender (my new favorite gadget!), or in a regular blender of food processesor (you'll probably need to do a few batches). Once fairly smooth, stir in heavy cream and additional liquid until the desired consistency is reached (should be fairly thick and will probably be a little chunky - that's ok unless you want to get all fancy and run it through a sieve). Check for salt/pepper and adjust as needed.

Garnishes:
- 6 links of chorizo, sliced and fried until brown in a little olive oil
- 1/2 cup of marcona almonds, chopped

To serve:
Place 2-3 pieces of chorizo in the bottom of your bowl, ladle the soup over them, then sprinkle with chopped almonds.


If anyone has links to their soups - please comment on this post and share them with us!

Mexican night

Last Tuesday was Mexican night - we seem to have been doing a world tour lately! I used Rick Bayless' "Mexico One Plate at a Time" cookbook and made a really good Roasted Poblano Guacamole (actually kindof combined both of his guacamole recipes - roasted 3 poblano peppers on the stovetop, let them sit in a paper bag, peeled the skins, then pureed them with 3 roasted (in a skillet, skin-on, then peeled) garlic cloves, 4 avocaodos (mashed), 3 tomatoes (diced), cilantro (chopped) and lime juice (freshly squeezed from the cutest little organic limes). It was inhaled by all with some chips!

We also tried making homemade corn tortillas, with only marginally successful results. The end product was a little thick and mis-shapen - it's definately not an art form I grew up with! But get me started on making koldunai (Lithuanian dumplings) - that's a whole 'nother story!

The turkey in mole came out delicious and tender - braising turkey breast definately makes it stay moist. The mole was good - but needed more salt (and a little more zing - a friend added chipotles to some leftovers and thought it was quite tasty - will have to give that a try next time). I also sauteed some kale with garlic on the side. The plate was quite lovely to look at with all the intense colors!

We drank beer with all of this - various kinds that folks brought, and I debuted the second beer I've ever made - a very hoppy (kindof grapefruity) pilsner - which was well received.

For dessert - a simple flan to which I added some roses - but which mostly tasted like vanilla... all in all, a good meal!

Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew (Seattle version)

I first had a version of a recipe had about 18 years ago (eek!), made by an ethnomusicology grad student and his wife - they had been to Africa for fieldwork, and made this for me and my now-ex-husband... I have no idea how authentic their version was, but the one that we developed over the years has a decidedly vegan-hippy-Seattle vibe (added tofu and veggies):

Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew
- 1 lb. extra-firm tofu, cubed (about 3/4 inch cubes) and patted dry with paper towels (or you will suffer the splattering consequences)
- Vegetable oil for frying

In a heavy saute pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, then add the tofu, in batches if needed - let fry on one side for about 3-4 minutes, then flip carefully to brown at least 1 more side (I usually do 3-4, then get bored). Drain on paper towels and salt lightly.

Start some rice - about 2 cups dry is good - I usually use jasmine or whatever is available.

- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 medium or 1/2 large onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp. turmeric (powdered - never tried it with fresh)
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (completely optional)
- 1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
- 1 can coconut milk (not "lite" - a waste of money since you can water it down yourself if you're worried about calories)
- 1/2 head (if it's big) cauliflower, washed and separated into florets
- 1 bunch black kale (or other leafy green), chopped
- 1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (optional - but tasty)
- 1 15 oz. can kidney beans (not drained)
- Salt to taste

In a heavy soup pot, heat up the oil, then add the onions. Saute for a few minutes until soft. Add the turmeric and cayenne (if using), and let it warm up in the oil, stirring, until you start smelling it - about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, and let them cook, stirring, until they have warmed up. Add the coconut milk, drain the kidney bean liquid from the can into the pot, and let the liquids come to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add the vegetables (cauliflower, kale and squash, if using), add a little salt (I never measure the salt, and consequently usually make it not salty enough). Put a lid on the pot, bring the heat down to medium-low, and let the veggies cook through for about 10-15 minutes, until they're soft but not mushy. Add the tofu and kidney beans, taste for salt and add more if needed.

Serve with rice - makes about 6 servings.

Supperclub Update - Continued

But wait, there's more! Now we're getting into the holiday season, and amazingly enough a ton of snow here in Seattle - we had close to 2 weeks of snowy weather, which is unheard of. Here's my backyard before I snuck out to the balmy midwest for Christmas - apparently, it snowed another 7 inches the day after I left!

We had a 1-week hiatus because of Christmas, then had a small Supperclub the day before New Year's Eve, featuring Carribean food, since Rita and Shane were on a cruise in that neck of the woods:

12/30/08: Jerk chicken (baked, not grilled), sweet potato fritters, greens, and an odd coconut bread (it wasn't very sweet - I thought it would be more cake-like - should have paid more attention to the recipe!) and fresh mango for dessert.

1/6/09: The New Year was celebrated with a Provencal-style beef stew (from Cook's Illustrated about 13 years ago), homemade sourdough bread, warm cabbage salad with peppered bacon and roquefort (that went great with the beefy stew), and Anne's awesome pannetone-based bread pudding with caramel orange sauce. That was one good meal... and everyone was in a particularly festive mood, since we hadn't seen each other in a few weeks (see silliness at right). We also realized that it was our official 6-month anniversary - we've been meeting every week except 2 (when I was out of town) since early July! Yea Supperclub!

1/13/09: Brazilian night! Our own International Woman of Mystery was recently in Brazil, and smuggled in various and sundry smoked pig parts and made us all an awesome pot of Feijoada (black bean stew - with piggy bits), Couve Refogada (collard greens - I think Heidi took liberties with this recipe), and rice, which we washed down with Caipirinha cocktails with hand-imported cachaca (delicious but lethal - especially on a Tuesday night - they were carefully rationed). For dessert we had home-made mango-passion fruit ice cream and coconut macaroons - all fantastic! And all I had to do was mix drinks... and drink them... and eat... ahhhh...

1/20/09: Inauguration Party! Supperclub this week was an expanded version to celebrate our new President - in his honor we had a potluck of (sortof) Obama-themed food... so I made Kenyan Kidney Bean Stew (my enhanced version - I'll put the recipe in a separate post since I've gotten many requests), and people brought vaguely-Hawaiian or Kansas-themed foods... like Hawaiian pizza or chili in crock pots... we all watched the recording of the inauguration speaches, and I read from my 9-year-old niece's eye-witness report.

1/27/09: Finally catching up here! Last week was Thai food night, and it was almost Ladies Night, until Tomas crashed the party... and then he felt like he was on the Phinney Ridge version of The View.

We had: Tod Man Pla (Thai Fish Cakes) with what my sister calls "Thai ketchup" (Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce), Kao Moke Gai (Chicken with Crispy Shallots in Yellow Rice) - one of my favorite dishes from Nancie McDermott's Real Thai cookbook - the shallots alone are worth the price of admisison, and Chinese Broccolli stir-fried with fish sauce and brown bean sauce. For dessert we had Mochi Ice Cream balls - chocolate and mango flavors - since it is the Lunar New Year and it's just not a party until someone chokes on the mochi!

Ok - I promise to be better about posting now - but at least I'm caught up! Until next week...

Supperclub Update

I've been horrible about keeping the blog up-to-date on the Supperclub menus - sorry! Somehow time keeps getting away from me... so, here's a quick-and-dirty recap:

12/9/08: Bari Meatballs and Braised Vegetables over polenta (recipe altered slightly to include brussel sprouts as well as chard), with my favorite chocolate ice cream (you make a caramel base, then create basically a pot de creme, then chill and freeze) for dessert. Meatballs and polenta pictured along with most of the usual suspects... I can't figure out how to upload PDF, so email or post a note if you want me to send you the recipe for the meatballs!

12/16/08: Cassoulet & Capuccino biscotti. Leroy made this amazing quick cassoulet with lots of delicious roasted veggies and beans and chicken - the secret is in the spice rub! I made some biscotti that I was going to bake everyone for Christmas anyway... wish I had photos of this one!

To be continued...