soup v and vi: tomato, lentil

Well aren't yall in for a treat ... a two-fer. Yup having to resort to this because I have been lazy. Thus I may not remember these as well as a should (as an aside remember is one of my favorite words. It implies the action of re-membering, like putting back together the traitor that has been drawn and quartered. They do not quite turn out the same as the original. Neither do memories when retold.) Now with that thought in mind lets turn to the Tuscan Tomato soup.

To make this you need a bunch of tomatoes. The the fun part is seeding them.

The book recommended after skinning them to quarter them and dig the seeds out. I found it a lot easier, and messier, just to squeeze those puppies. In the end I had a pile of tomatoes to mix with some chicken broth and herbs. We were in business. We added a little corn starch to thicken it up, toasted bread and cheese. The soup was excellent. As a bonus it was nice and cold out, perfect tomato soup weather.

The next soup we made was lentil. But this wasn't just some run-of-the-mill lentil soup, because I can make good lentil soup.

Nope this was lentils and curry and lemon. Sacrebleu! What in the world are all these extra ingredients meant for? They are there to make some nasty, bitter, rancid mess. I ate about three spoonfuls, and it was a fight to get those last two into my mouth. I don't think Michelle survived that long. I blame it on a bad lemon, but after reading up online I may of overcooked the curry. But I really don't see how, as I followed all the directions. Needless to say, don't put lemon and curry in your lentils unless you know what you are doing.

soup iv: new england clam chowder

Why do they call it new england clam chowder when my clams came from Cedar Key? Maybe I should just rename it.

This soup took longer than we expected because my potatoes wouldn't soften quick enough ('What's taters, precious, eh, what's taters?'). So there we sat with our steamed clams waiting, waiting and waiting. Actually it wasn't that bad compared to some of the others we have cooked; re: the caramelization of the onions and leeks for the French Onion Soup.

Other than that the recipe was pretty straight forward. Clam juice and milk make up the base and then add the goodies. I did modify the recipe of the book slightly. after thawing the chunk of salt pork that we had in our freezer, I noticed it had a strange green color to it. Not being Hogwallops, I decided that we should toss it. So we had NECC sans salt pork.

Regardless the chowder turned out delicious, and we got to eat a bunch of those tasty oyster crackers. We even broke out the china so that we could have a white bowl to photograph.

secret, mystery, expert guest poster

This blog hasn't even received 200 total page views in its entire lifetime, and we have already lined up a guest poster. That's right, I'm here working for you, dear reader. There are still a few things to hammer out, but this expert chefs musings on soups should start appearing here in a few days. Until then I will leave yall wallowing in suspense.

soup iii: split pea and bacon

This soup is going to make me rich! I now realize that I will not have to pay for overpriced baby food when Michelle and I have a kid.

Split pea soup ... pretty easy. Cook peas in chicken stock until mush. The soup came out a nice yellowish-green color. I suppose I could have located peas that were greener in color and made it look more akin to the vomit-color that this soup is known for, but really it is just an aesthetic decision. Taste-wise the soup was sweet. I am thinking that the sweetness

of these soups may have more to do with using homemade stock, perhaps the sodium in the store bought stuff just overpowers the sweetness. The peas had a nice velvety mush consistency that contrasted well with the crisp salty bacon. In fact I think that was the highlight of the soup. The soup portion was more of a backdrop, or canvas if you will, for the delightful bits of bacon. Come to think of it life is the canvas that contains, magnifies and provides occasion for the moments when I get to eat bacon.

tacos de lengua

Say it out loud. Don't you like how the words roll off your tongue? Phonoaesthetic.

Tuesday night, on the prompting of one Lauren Smith, I embarked on a culinary adventure, Beef Tongue. Actually it was more like Tuesday afternoon, preparing a tongue takes some elbow grease. First you get to wash it, then you get to photograph it, then you get to boil and simmer it (for three hours), then you get to peel it, then you apply the knife, then you fry it up, then you photograph it some more and finally you get to eat it.

That much work could make anything taste good. Actually, tongue is quite tasty on its own. Prior to Tuesday top blade steak was the most underrated cut of beef in my book, not any longer, tongue has claimed that title. Slow cooking this fatty cut causes the meat to come out like Sunday roast. The recipe that we chose for Tuesday night is a staple of higher class taco trucks around the world. In fact, if your taco truck is not serving lengua you need to question not only the quality of all of the food served there, but the status of your soul. Warm tortillas, fresh pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese and tongue. Heaven.

Needless to say Lauren and I tore through them ... Michelle, that is a different story. Do not feel bad for her though, she received chicken thighs that had been slow cooking in Rotel so long that they feel apart with a spoon.

To wash things down, I baked a sweet potato pound cake. Yeah that's right, a Sweet ... Potato ... Pound ... Cake. The sweet potatoes cut right through the extra-sweetness typical of a pound cake and made for a warm, nutmegy gratification on a cold winter night. All was right in the world.