Gazpacho

I feel a little bit like I'm cheating, because this recipe does not contain anything I pulled out of my freezer except for the ice cubes. Nevertheless, I'm going to share it with you because it involves my beautiful garden, a handful of memories and just plain, good eating.

Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish soup, eaten cold. On a hot summery day, this is an absolute winner and it's fun to serve. You can let your guests (or yourself) dress up the soup as you wish: the usual toppings include diced cucumber, tomato, chopped boiled egg, green peppers and croutons. Keep a bottle of good olive oil on the side for that finishing drizzle.

This soup is as varied as each person makes it a little bit differently, but the base is always the same: tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, garlic, onion, day old bread, olive oil, water and salt. The first three ingredients can be found in abundance during this time of the year, so enjoy this great soup while you can!

Gazpacho
Six to eight medium size ripe tomatoes
2 medium sized cucumbers
1 green pepper
1 small red onion
4 garlic cloves
6 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 slices of day old bread, crust removed
4 cups of water
1 large piece of watermelon, deseeded
Salt
Pepper

Peel (optional) the tomatoes by quickly dunking them in hot water, then in an ice bath. Cut into large chunks. Peel the cucumber and chop 2/3rds in pieces, dice the rest. Add the large pieces to the tomatoes. Cut 2/3rds of the green pepper (cut and deseeded) into chunks, dice the rest, and add the chunks to the tomatoes. Now peel the onion and do the same, keeping 1/3 behind. Add three cloves of garlic. Soak the bread in the vinegar for a little while, then squeeze out the liquid and add the bread to the mix. Blend into a thick sauce. Add the olive oil, stir in two cups of water and taste. You are looking for a fresh, tomato/garlicky/cucumber flavor. Add some salt, add the rest of the vinegar and stir in a pinch of pepper. Taste again. If you like garlic, you may want to add the fourth clove. Finally blend in the watermelon, stir and chill. If you like your soup thick and chunky, don't add any more water. (I like mine soup-ier so I add the full four cups)

Serve in either a plate or in small soup cups or glasses, with a spoon. Set out small dishes with croutons, the diced cucumber, green pepper and onion so people can add them to the soup, or mix all three and serve the soup with a scoop of fresh veggies on top. It's all good. Have a squeeze bottle handy with good olive oil for that finishing touch drizzle!

Refrigerator Soup

I have days where I'm running around doing ten million things and I don't have (or want to make) time to focus on eating. Luckily, I'm not picky in that sense and take pleasure in even the smallest things, like a cracker with Brie or a slice of bread with butter and a piece of chocolate. But when it's cold outside, the body wants something more than just a bite: it's time for something warm, comforting and with substance to it! That's when it's "refrigerator soup" time. I put a pot on the stove, do some of the basics and let it slowly simmer while I do the running around. By the time I'm done, the soup's ready to eat!

I always keep a package of brats in the freezer, they're easy to fix and versatile: you can make Brat buns, use them for a stew or cook them up and eat cold with a piece of bread and some mustard. Pretty much any kind of bratwurst will do, although I do tend to favor the original brats.

The main ingredients to my refrigerator soup is: brats, onion, celery, carrot and anything you can find in the crisper of your refrigerator. The "crisper" is the bottom drawer of your refrigerator where you are supposed to keep fresh vegetables so that they stay crisp. In my case, the crisper is right on top of the freezer, so often I find my veggies frozen stuck to the bottom. Some people also call their crisper, "slimer" since veggies turn into unsightly squishy blobs if they stay in there too long. Well, here's a recipe to prevent that from happening!

Refrigerator Soup
2 brats, sliced
1/2 cup of diced onion
1/4 cup of diced celery
1/4 cup of diced carrot
3 cups of water
1 cup of canned beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of diced, shredded, cut up vegetables
1/2 a bouillon cube
Pinch of salt and pepper

This doesn't seem much of a recipe but it's all about what you have. I always have fresh carrot, celery and onions in the house, but I also keep these in dehydrated form. Go through the fridge and see what you can come up with: half a jar of salsa that needs to go? Throw it in. Some leftover broccoli from last Sunday's dinner? Use it up. Don't use anything that needs to go for real though: if it's moldy, slimey, or if it smells funky, throw it out. This soup is not going to save it!

Fry the slices of bratwurst in a Dutch oven until they are golden brown. Pour off some of the fat but keep enough to have approximately one tablespoon (some brats are fattier than others) in the pan. Add the onion, celery and carrot and stir in the hot fat until the onions are translucent and the carrot and celery are softening a bit. Pour in the water, add the beans and whatever vegetables you were able to find.

I had some leftover kale from a boerenkool dish I made a week or so ago and two tomatoes that looked rather tired. It really doesn't take much to make a sturdy soup!

Erwtensoep (split pea soup)

Oh, the ubiquitous split pea soup......when it's cold in Holland and people go ice skating on the lakes and the canals, the traditional picture is that a small shack "koek-en-zopie" sits next to the ice selling hot split pea soup and coffee with cookies for those tired and cold after such a wonderful day on the ice. I'll be darned, but each time I've gone skating I've never seen one of those shacks. May have something to do with the fact that I've only been skating once or twice in my life and the experience was so unpleasant that I may have blocked the memory of a soup shack. I fail miserably in the skating department, it is a very un-Dutch side of me.......

But I hopefully redeemed myself by making a very good split pea soup: it even passed the "wooden spoon" test! (i.e. the soup is so thick that a wooden spoon will stand up on its end and not fall over when stuck in the soup).  Hand over those bitterballen, I'm back!

Erwtensoep
2 cups of split peas
4 cups of water
1 carrot, peeled
2 ribs of celery
1/2 an onion, peeled
1 bay leaf
black pepper
pinch of salt

About 12 little smokies or half a kielbasa

Rinse the split peas and remove anything that doesn't belong (stones, sticks, dried up discolored peas...). Put the peas and the water in a Dutch oven. Mince the vegetables and add to the peas. Bring to a boil, add the bay leaf and simmer for about 40 minutes. When the peas are soft, either puree or just stir several times, the peas will dissolve and make a creamy soup. Stir in the smokies or the kielbasa (slice before adding), heat until warm and taste. Add pepper and salt if needed.

This is an easy, quick solution. I keep a pack of smokies in the freezer. Split peas do not have to be soaked in order to cook quickly so you can have this soup on the table in less than an hour.

Traditionally, this soup is served with dark rye bread and pancetta.

Chicken Soup

Sometimes less is more. A brothy soup with just a few choice vegetables can be more satisfying than a five course meal (not including dessert ofcourse, dessert always wins!). I'm not claiming to make the perfect soup but the one I prepared yesterday was pretty darn good!

Last night I cut up a chicken that I pulled a couple of days ago. I used the breast and thigh meat for shoarma, and saved the carcass to make today's soup.

Chicken Soup

1 chicken carcass, or four chicken thighs
1 large carrot, peeled
1 celery rib
1 medium size onion, peeled
6 cups of water
1 bay leaf
10 black peppercorns

For the soup
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 large celery rib with leaves, diced
Chicken meat from the carcass
2 chicken bouillon cubes
Salt
Pepper

Take the skin off the chicken. Break the carrot into pieces and do the same with the celery, this is just for the stock so it doesn't have to look pretty. Put the chicken carcass in a stock pot or in your Dutch oven, add in all the ingredients and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for a good two hours.

Remove any scum that may have gathered on top with a spoon. Ladle the broth into a clean vessel. Pull all the meat from the chicken: discard the bones and the vegetables.

Bring the stock to a slow simmer and add in the carrot, celery, the chicken meat and the two bouillon cubes. Stir and let simmer on low until the vegetables are done. Taste, adjust and enjoy.

Cauliflower soup - a quick lunch

Of all the food that I cook, perhaps one out of five makes it to this blog. It's either because I didn't care for the taste or because the recipe was too complicated or required too many ingredients. And sometimes it's because whatever I cooked is all gone before I can take a picture or jot down notes.

This recipe is one that would have not made it to the blog had it not been requested by a friend. It's one that I often make when in a hurry or just not in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's filling, comforting and above all easy and affordable.

Cauliflower Soup

1 small onion, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon of butter
1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets
2 cups of water
1/4 of bouillon cube
salt
pepper
1/4 cup of milk
2 teaspoons of spicy Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Saute the onion in the butter until slightly browned. Add the florets, the water and the bouillon cube, bring to a boil and simmer for about five to six minutes, or until the cauliflower is soft. Remove one or two florets if you want some for garnish. Blend the cauliflower with the water into a soft puree. Add the milk and the mustard until well blended, stir in the cheese and taste. Adjust with salt and pepper if needed.

Now...this is your basic cauliflower soup and from here on it's all yours to make it your own. If you use grated sharp Cheddar cheese and have some leftover crumbled bacon, stir in a handful. The cheese combined with the slight hint of mustard and the bacon will make a great soup. You can also cut up some ham and stir it in, add some croutons and some extra cheese and you've got a great lunch. A leftover boiled potato from last night can be cut in dice and added to the final minute of boiling to add some body and volume to the soup.

Whatever you add, think texture. A creamy soup with crunchy croutons will challenge the mouth and keep things interesting.

White beans with sausage and spinach

Whoa! This morning was a slippery slide to run errands: the snow thawed yesterday but froze up again during the night. The outside steps and walkway were covered in a superthin sheet of ice. Perfect weather to run out and do what you gotta do, then come home and make a quick, comforting soup, which is just what I did.

I pulled a serving of spicy breakfast sausage out of the fridge, two handfuls of fresh spinach that was left over from earlier this week and half a carrot. The sausage came out of the freezer last week because I had planned to make biscuits and gravy this weekend but somehow never got around to it. Fortunately, it will be perfect for my quick lunch soup: I'm busy baking some raisin buns and don't want to spend too much time on preparing lunch.

Quick lunch soup

1 serving of breakfast sausage*
1/4 onion, peeled and diced
1/4 cup of carrot, peeled and diced
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups of fresh spinach
2 cups of warm water
1/4 of a bouillon cube

Brown the breakfast sausage in a Dutch oven and add the onion and the carrot. Saute until the onion is translucent, add the can of beans, the two cups of warm water and the 1/4 bouillon cube or stock. Stir, bring to a boil and simmer for ten minutes or until the carrot is soft and the beans are warm. Stir in the spinach, taste and adjust seasonings and simmer for five more minutes until the spinach is wilted.

And that's it. Easy as can be, and it's tasty, filling and affordable.

* You can use any kind of breakfast sausage for this: spicy, sweet...whatever you like. As for biscuits and gravy, I like a combination of sweet and spicy so I usually buy two 16 oz packages with breakfast sausage: one sweet, one spicy, and divide each one in three pieces. I place one of each in a ziploc, mark it and freeze them until I need them.

Potage with chorizo

Potage with chorizo really doesn't *sound* that appetizing, does it? Especially if you don't know what potage is, I guess. Poh-taaazh..... I love that word. Here, say it with me: pohhhhh-taaaaaazzzzzhhhhhh........ I get visions of sturdy clay pots with bubbling, savory broth containing vegetables and meat, on a solid old farmers kitchen table in the middle of the Provence, accompanied by a piece of crusty French bread, and a fancy piece of cheese. Not that I've ever been to the Provence, mind you. Or at least doubt I have. But the word potage just sort of rolls of your tongue. Poh-tah-zhe. Poh-tah-zhe with chorizo. No, definitely doesn't sound right. Chorizo is such an abrupt, strong short word. Cho-ree-zoh. Almost sounds Japanese, if you didn't know any better. Which I don't, let's face it. Oh by the way, potage is " liquid food prepared from meat, fish, or vegetable stock combined with various other ingredients and often containing solid pieces", as defined by Answers.com. Hmmm....I think I like my visual better.

Julie Engel from the Argus had a nice article about bridging cultural gaps through food in last Sunday's edition. Two of the food items she mentioned have stuck with me all week: chorizo and baked ziti. Neither one of these dishes are in my freezer so I'm caught in a dilemma. Should I give the freezer a break for a day? I weigh my chances, yes no yes no, and go with the yes. What the heck, I'll just make up for it tomorrow, how's that !!

Potage with chorizo

Chorizo is a brilliant invention: a spicy pork sausage with garlic and paprika. Yummmm !!! It's originally from Spain, but can also be found in Mexico and the Caribbean, although in a slightly different version. The Spanish chorizos are usually cured, the Mexican chorizo is often fresh. For today's dish we're using the Spanish sausages, you can find these at Red Apple.

1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 large onion, peeled
4 medium potatoes, peeled
3 chorizos, cut in 2 inch pieces
warm water
half a cube of Maggi Pollo con Tomate bouillon (or beef bouillon)
1 1/2 cups of turnip greens, green cabbage or kale
pinch of thyme
salt, pepper
1/2 tablespoon of paprika

Choose a pan, or pot, with a lid. Add the olive oil to the pan and put it on the stove, on medium. Thinly slice the garlic cloves, chop the onion and add both to the pan, stirring carefully, letting the onions get soft. Cut the potatoes in bitesize pieces, and add to the onions. Keep stirring occassionally so that the garlic doesn't burn. Add the chorizo, cook for five minutes, then add just enough warm water to cover the contents. Carefully stir in the bouillon cube and the greens, then top off with the pinch of thyme, and the paprika. Bring quickly to a boil, lower to simmer and cover with a lid. Let it simmer until the potatoes are done, approximately twenty minutes. About ten minutes into the cooking, uncover the pot and stir the ingredients once. This will release some of the starches in the potato and thicken the broth. Serves 4.

This is great: it's simple, good, solid, honest food. Gotta love it!!

Sometimes simple is nice....Beef broth with biscuits

I went out to dinner last night, to a place that had been recommended by a coworker. The food was alright but not great, and I was a little disappointed. I love good food and it's hard enough to get something good out here where I live, so I had high hopes. But the ragout was too salty, the salad bar had dried out cucumber slices and crusty pasta salad, and the focaccia was spongy and wet.

So today's lunch was so refreshing, a simple beef broth with pieces of meat, some celery and carrots, and homemade biscuits. Easy peasy and oh so nice!

Beef broth

1 piece of beef (roast cut) approximately 3/4 to 1 pound)
1 big peeled onion
3 ribs of celery
a handful of baby carrots or sliced and peeled carrots
1 cube of beef bouillon

Place the beef in a pan, add water to cover, add the onion and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer on low for 2 hours. Set aside and cool. Make sure you refrigerate your stock within two hours.

The next day: cut and wash the celery and carrots, and brown quickly in a pan. Bring the broth to a boil, add the vegetables, the bouillon cube and turn down to simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Cut the meat in bitesize chunks and put back in the pan.

This broth is great the first day to serve with some ravioli, leaving enough liquid and reserving the meat and vegetables for a hearty lunch the day after.

Italian Tomato Bread Soup

Today I retrieved a brick from the freezer in the garage. It looks like a brick, it weighs like a brick and to be very honest, it has the consistency and coloring of an (old) brick. Nevertheless, it is not, trust me. What I pulled out of the freezer this morning is a remnant of my pre-bread machine days. It's half a loaf of "Ellie Mae" bread, as someone once referred to it. Presumably, Ellie Mae didn't know how to bake either. It looks like I consumed half of it, only the good Lord knows how, and I froze the rest, frugal as I am. I feed a lot of birds around here and much of my old bread goes into their suet feeders. Not today though, I'm keeping the brick to myself, as it's perfect for making a tasty soup with it.

Italian Tomato Bread Soup
Nothing like a good Italian tomato soup to bring a little bit of summer in your home. You'll need:

1 small onion

1 can of stewed tomatoes (preferably one with herbs, I use the ones with basil, oregano and garlic)

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 cubes of chicken tomato bouillon (or tomato vegetable bouillon if you'd like to make it vegetarian)

5 cups of boiling water

2 tsp italian herbs (or a mix of oregano, basil, thyme)

4 cloves of garlic

5 tbsp good quality olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan (or 3 tbsp of the dry cheese)

5 slices of old bread (no sourdough)

Cut and slice the onion, soften in a pan with the olive oil on medium heat. Add the garlic, sliced or chopped. After the onion has softened and the garlic starts releasing its yummy smell, drain the can of stewed tomatoes and stir. Bring to a boil, slowly. Dissolve the 2 cubes of tomato bouillon and the tomato paste in the 5 cups of boiling water, and add to the tomato mix in the pan. Add the italian herbs (usually sold pre-mixed as Italian Seasoning, or something along those lines), add salt and pepper to taste, turn down the heat and let it simmer.

In the meantime, break the bread in small pieces. You can use whole wheat, old rolls, whatever you can find in the freezer that you saved, just not sourdough. I used my Ellie Mae bread and its bricklike consistence made for a nice thick soup. Okay, now dump the bread in the pan and stir. When the bread has softened, bring out the almighty hand mixer or food processor and process the tomato/bread mix into a nice, thick soup. Check for consistency and add more bread if needed, taste to see if you want to add more salt/pepper/herbs.

Ladle into a nice bowl, put some parmesan cheese on top and pretend you're in Tuscany.... :-)