Vegan Corn Soup

I didn't start out trying to rid my kitchen of meat. Once I got started though, I couldn't stop! It became a challenge: how long can I keep the meat-free kitchen going? And so healthy eating month gradually became Vegetarian Cooking Month, with the eggplant, squash, and chickpeas dominating my cooking. And boy howdy has it worked. That's right ladies and gentlemen, with a week to go I weighed in at 132.3 this morning! Two asterisks here. One, there's been some serious gym attendance involved. Like 6 out of 7 days last week type of gym attendance (after returning to yoga for the first time in several months, I could barely lift my arms the next day).

And two, I am not a vegetarian. Not even temporarily. I have been eating meat, I'll order it when we go out and I'll grab a turkey sandwich for lunch at work. As far as cooking goes, however, I have been meat free since late July and since I prepare most of my own meals, that means a significant reduction in overall meat consumption. Apparently I am not alone on my quest to cut back on meat without cutting it completely from my diet. I heard a story on NPR about Meatless Mondays, a movement to reduce meat consumption across the country by 15%. The idea is to take Monday, a day where you are starting fresh and making good choices, and reducing the amount of saturated animal fat that you consume. Once this month of meat free cooking is over, I think I'll continue on by joining this campaign!

Strolling around the local farmers market last Sunday, I realized with horror that I had been neglecting one key late summer veggie. Corn. How could I have forgotten about sweet, fresh, summer corn! It's one of the first things I ever learned to cook when I moved out on my own, and yet the only time I've even glanced at it this summer was the experiment with grilling back in early July. I've been cheating on corn, running around with that little hussy the eggplant and those trampy chickpeas. As the farmer dumped a fresh bag of corn out on the table I dove, begging corn to take me back. $2 and 5 ears of corn later, I had just the dish to make things right with the betrayed.

I wanted to make a corn soup. My first thought was corn chowder, with its creamy deliciousness. As I shopped recipes, however, I quickly realized most of these required ridiculous amounts of heavy cream. Heavy cream that has 50 calories per tablespoon. Not the slenderizing soup I was looking for. Finally I hit upon a recipe that called for only low fat milk, and most of the comments said the milk really wasn't necessary at all. Swap out the chicken stock for vegetable stock and suddenly my soup was fully vegan. Score.

Vegan Corn Soup
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 teaspoons of corn oil
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 1 small fresh Poblano chili, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 5 ears of sweet yellow or bi color corn, kernels cut from cob
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- Chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, chili, garlic, and cumin and saute until onion and chili are tender, about 10 minutes.

Add corn to the pot. Stir in broth. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat until corn is very tender, about 45 minutes. Use immersion blender to puree soup until fairly smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls; garnish with cilantro and serve.

If you like, you can garnish with an avocado. It complements the flavor nicely!

A few side notes. If you don't own an immersion blender you can puree in batches by transferring to a blender or food processor. I heart my immersion blender every time I make a pureed soup and don't have to haul hot liquid, clean a blender, or worry about steam blowing the lid off said blender. If you make a lot of sauces and soups, this thing is great. Since it isn't a closed device, however, you don't get nearly as smooth a blend as you would if you used your other blending appliances. I liked a slightly chunky corn soup, Will felt it could have been smoother. Use your own judgement. Also the original recipe called for mixing in the milk at the blending phase to get the soup to a desired consistency. If you don't care about the soup being vegan and you want something creamier, you can add about 1 1/2 cups of milk at that point. Personally I thought the soup was a little on the thin side anyway and did not require additional liquid, and a taste test confirmed it was excellent without the milk. But the option is open to you.

The soup was a lovely late summer treat, very sweet (which could change depending on the type of corn you buy) and almost indulgent, without being indulgent at all. Will asked the question that always lets me know the truth of whether or not he's liked a dish. "There's more of this, right?"

Mushroom Barley Soup

I'm not sure I'm ever going to get around to making Beef Bourguingnon. Last summer it was all the rage after the release of Julie and Julia, one of Julia Child's most famous dishes. But... it was July. Beef Bourguingnon is a heavy beef stew, one that requires leaving your oven on for four hours. In the insane heat of my un-airconditioned apartment, there was no way that was on the menu last summer. I told myself come winter I will make it. Somehow though, the winter slipped by me. I decided I must hurry up, so this last week I rented The French Chef off of Netflix, and watched the very first episode of Julia's famous show, watched her saute and chop and roast until she had a perfect dinner. It's a classic and I highly recommend you watch it.

I would have gotten down to work, but I don't know if you saw what the weather was like in NY this past weekend, but it was beautiful. Fifty degrees, sunny, birds chirping, and all I could think about were flowery dresses and Spring. Had it been rainy, hanging out in my apartment all afternoon as my dinner roasted would have been lovely, but it was sunny, and I could not remain indoors. Sorry readers, maybe some rainy chilly spring weekend I'll tackle this French comfort food, but this weekend I went to a coffee shop on the Upper East Side, read the paper and sipped an iced cappuccino.

I did however, still require dinner that night. Tucking my paper into my bag, I decided to try my luck shopping at Citrellia, a gourmet shop in the East 70's. It has that fancy food shop thing where everything is arranged really pretty, which makes you suspicious that they are overcharging you. Luckily, the things I bought where comparatively well priced compared to what I've paid in other places, so I got out of there with only one impulse purchase. Good for me.

With the nice weather (and the approach of swimsuit season) I wanted veggies, and if I couldn't make stew I would make soup. A few weeks ago I took a class in soups at the Brooklyn Kitchen, and didn't even come close to fainting this time. We made three soups in class, a Roasted Butternut Squash (too autumn) an Almond Gazapacho (way too summer) and a Mushroom Barley soup. Perfect. The root veggies of winter, with a hint of what's to come with a leek. The barley would give it a fuller texture, while providing amino acids and fiber. It was healthy, and full of flavor. The class was full of good tips, like how to properly clean leeks and mushrooms (let soak in cold water for a minute, then agitate. Sand falls right to the bottom) and that if you are running around with way too much to do in the kitchen while your veggies are sweating, and you just aren't going to get to them before they burn, throw in half a ladle of stock. You're going to add it later anyway and it buys you a bit of time.

Despite my not making Julia's dish this time around, I learned something from her show, and that was how to tell how fresh your mushrooms are, and if the stem is usable. If the flesh of the mushroom cap meets the stem underneath, it is a very fresh mushroom and you can incorporate the stem. If the flesh has separated and the gills are showing (the edge of the cap should still be curled under), you should probably remove the stem and throw it away. The cap is still usable, however. If the edge of the cap is flipping out, that is not a fresh mushroom.

Mushroom Barley Soup

Adapted from Chef Brendan McDermott

Ingredients:

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-1 tablespoon unsalted butter

-1 pound of hulled barley

-2 carrots, sliced

-1 leek, diced and cleaned

-2 stalks of celery, sliced

-4 cloves of garlic, diced

- 20 oz of mushrooms, sliced

-1/4 cup of white wine (optional)

-2 Quarts of Stock or Water (The class used veggie, I used beef, go with your gut here)

-Soy Sause to taste

-1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

-3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:

In large stock pot heat oil until hot but not smoking. Add oil and butter. When bubbles subside, saute mushrooms in batches until tender (about 4 minutes per batch). Set aside.

Add carrots to the pot and sweat for 3 minutes. Add celery and garlic and sweat for 2 minutes. Add leeks and sweat for 1-2 minutes. If necessary, deglaze with white wine, and let reduce for 2 minutes.

Add barley and stir. Add the stock and the reserved mushrooms, with any liquid that might have accumulated. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, and herbs and soy sauce.

That's it! If my directions seem less then scientific, you should see the notes I was given in class. That 1 pound of hulled barley? It was given to me as 1# Barley. Thank god I thought to ask. The main idea here is that it's soup, you can do whatever you want with it. I didn't use 2 carrots, I used 1, because I don't really like carrots. This recipe is a great template to do basically whatever you want. I'm thinking about deglazing with red wine next time and then replacing a cup of stock with red wine. I may even incorporate meat at some point, cause I'm just that crazy.

One other fantastic thing about the arrival of spring. As I strolled around Citrellia, looking at its fancy food, I spotted it from across the room. One of those seasonal happy moments when your taste buds are about to know it's spring. I spotted Fleur de Maquis cheese. It is entirely possible this cheese is available all year long, but my affair with it is strictly a March and April fling. It is a sheep's milk cheese, hand made in France and rolled in rosemary, fennel seeds, juniper berries, and a few chilies. It is soft and slightly sweet, and the herbs make you think of lamb and asparagus and that first breeze of the year that carries the smell of grass on it. It makes you want to pop open a bottle of wine, cut some fresh bread, and wiggle your toes in that grass, all while wearing a pretty dress with flowers on it. Welcome spring. Sorry Julia.

Red Pepper Soup

As I mentioned in the Joseph Ambler Inn's review, haute comfort food is a big recession trend right now. I have discovered my own fancy comfort food dish in a Red Pepper Soup with Orange Cream. The Red Pepper Soup has a very fancy presentation, but it has the warming soulfulness and easy construction of tomato soup making it perfect for a rainy or chilly evening at home, or as a first course at a fall or winter dinner party. As a first course it stands alone, but for a dinner it needs a little more food, so, in the spirit of a tomato soup, it pairs well with a grilled cheese sandwich.

I have recently discovered that there are cheeses being created that have ingredients mixed into them, like a cheddar with chives, which allows you to create a grilled cheese and not feel like you are five years old. Last week, with the first hint of a fall chill in the air I walked into Whole Foods and saw cheddar with smoked bacon on sale, and I knew what we were having for dinner.

I have decided to start including the recipes I use on the blog, instead of just linking to them. It makes for more one stop shopping. This is America for Pete's sake. I'd go to communist China if I wanted to spend all day clicking on links. I'm a busy modern woman. The links will still be included, however, if you would like to do further research. This one comes from Bon Appetit February 2006 issue.

 

Red Pepper Soup
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 
  
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2/3 cup sliced shallots (about 4)
  • 1 15-ounce jar roasted red peppers packed in water
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 cups (or more) low-salt chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons whipping cream
  • 3/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
  • Thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and sauté 5 minutes. Add red peppers with their liquid. Stir in sugar; sauté 2 minutes. Add 2 cups broth and simmer 5 minutes. Cool soup slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to pan. Bring to simmer; stir in orange juice. Thin soup with additional broth, if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

Whisk whipping cream and orange peel in small bowl until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle orange cream over. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

What sucks is that step where you have to dump a batch of hot soup from pot to blender and then back again "working in batches" which means dirtying another bowl. This could be avoided with an immersion blender, which I own. I got one for my bridal shower. The problem is that the shower was in PA, and since I take the bus back and forth, I could not bring with me my many wonderful and rather large gifts. The next time Will's saint of a father drives up for a visit, he will bring me these wonderful things. For the moment I can only dream about them as I dump pots of soup into crappy blenders, sloshing the hot liquid over the side and screaming "God Dammit!" until Will comes and takes it away from me. Sigh.

The nice thing about the soup is it bends to slight adaptions. For instance, the soup calls for an orange, since the soup needs 1/2 cup of orange juice and orange zest goes in the cream. In a pinch, if you have orange juice in the fridge you can use that and skip the zest, you will lose a little something but it certainly wont ruin the dish. In my case I found Minneola Tangellos on sale and decided to play a bit. The purpose of the citrus juice is to offset the harshness of the peppers in a delightful way. If I have to offset something, I'd prefer it to be delightful. A Minneola is like a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine, and to be honest I found the flavor of the juice to be a little bright for the soup. With so many different types of orange type citrus though, it was nice to have a little room for creativity on the soup. The other substitution I made was half a yellow onion instead of shallots. I love shallots, and they have a much more sophisticated flavor, but I had forgotten to pick them up and I had half an onion hanging out in the fridge. If you were to have it for the dinner party, I would say be sure to get the shallots, it makes you look better. You don't want to look like some sort of crazy, oniony vagrant in front of your dinner guests, do you? But lets be honest, if you made this on a rainy weeknight as I suggest, would you be running back out to the store? The onions were a bit chunky, but worked just fine.

The other appeal to making this as a weeknight dinner is that it uses jarred peppers, which you can just buy and keep on hand. I'm a huge proponent of using fresh ingredients, but again, if it's Wednesday and raining I loves me a shortcut. Commenters on Epicurious say that you can use fresh roasted peppers, however, if you just got back from the farmers market and are feeling adventurous. I also love the excuse to go into the really nice Italian food store in Chelsea Market and buy something. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a well preserved Capsicum. That's right, look it up.

The picture on the website is very pretty, but not at all how mine looks. Perhaps a more precise pour is needed then just dribbling it out of a mixing bowl. But for an impressive dish that is easy to make an unintimidating to eat, this is my new go to. Now if I can just figure out how to dress up peanut butter and marshmallow fluff for a dinner party, I'll be all set.