National Soup Month?

As my Dishtastic Peeps know, I make a lot of soup. I take pictures of my soup and I sometimes (although infrequently) blog about it.

While looking for inspiration to blog more regularly, I thought about the "Days of the Month" food options. It seems there's not a lot of science behind said "national (insert food) day" selections. If you google chocolate cake, it could be tomorrow and also four other times in the year. That said, it's chocolate cake people! I'm almost positive there could be a justified movement for making that an every day of the year sort of thing - but maybe that's just me. In any case, I've discovered a few different sites that list a special food day for every day of the year. Some of them are a bit far-reaching (like Groundhog Day on, well, on Groundhog Day) - BUT a few of them said that January is National Soup Month.

Now, I know that January is coming to a close but it is starting to look like the cold weather never will. Cold weather screams, "Make Soup!" to me. Even though I typically make two different soups a day at the cafe, I find that lately, I've been feeling like I could run a Soup Only business.

The Original Soup Only Guy

At the cafe, I make almost everything from scratch - and with the advent of the Polar Vortex and all of the other (less SFW) names people are giving the weather phenomenons, there has been a bit of an influx in people braving the cold because they know there are hot pots of soup waiting for them.


With that in mind, today's blog isn't so much a recipe but rather some of my non-recipe comments about making soup. For the sake of photos, we'll go with the Tomato Soup I made yesterday.

Tomato Soup!

• Caramelize onions! Almost everything in the universe tastes better when you add caramelized onions to it (except maybe, chocolate cake). I get that we're busy and that we are looking to save steps but I'm telling you that taking a little bit longer to bring out the flavour in simple and inexpensive ingredients will make you glad you took the time. 

The beginning of caramelzation magic

• It does not have to be complicated! Use ingredients you already have on hand. Don't stress out about finding a rare kind of saffron or panicking because your paprika is not Hungarian.
• Having the right tools makes your life easy. See the onions and garlic in the pic above? They're HUGE! They will cook down and get brown and delicious and when I add the other ingredients and they simmer I will use my immersion blender to puree them and make everything smooth and ready for dipping that grilled cheese sandwich you ordered to go alongside it.

Imersion blender - blending

Tomato Soup is the most popular soup at the cafe - and I make it several different ways. The tomatoes can be roasted; they can be green ones that didn't ripen in the fall. Perhaps you have some grape tomatoes you think have seen fresher days in the fridge - add them in with a couple of your favourite cans. You can use fresh from your garden, crushed, diced, whole, even tomato juice - but make sure they taste good because there aren't a lot of other ingredients being added to hide potentially un-delicious flavours. Like cream in your soup? Okay. Watching your dairy intake? Don't use it. See? Uncomplicated! The photo below shows what went into the Tomato Soup offering I gave to peeps yesterday. I also added some salt, pepper, thyme and water.

There you have it. Tomato Soup for a Polar Vortex Cold kind of day. Serve it with Grilled Cheese and people from all around will think you're fantastic.

Maple Curried Pasta

Although my husband and I are not necessarily on the Gluten-Free bandwagon, we have taken a lot of bread and pasta out of our diet. However, eastern Ontario has just gone through what I can only describe as the coldest cold snap in the history of my existence. (I tend to embrace hyperbole with alarming frequency but this is just true.) The cold weather screamed for comfort food. I was in a pasta mood.

Those of you who follow my blog and/or have come to my cooking classes know that I'm more of a "use what you have" type of person more than a recipe follower. We've made various versions of this dish over the years but this is how we did it the other night.

Maple-Curried Chicken, Mushrooms, Pears and Asparagus with Fettucini

1/2 lb fettucini, cooked to al dente in a large pot of salted water

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 shallots, diced

handful assorted mushrooms, sliced (we had cremini and button)

yellow pepper, chopped

1 pear, peeled and diced

2 chicken breasts*

1/2 cup white wine or chicken stock

bunch asparagus, snapped in half

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1-2 teaspoons curry powder

1 cup cream

salt and pepper to taste

Add extra virgin olive oil and butter to pan. Add shallots, peppers and mushrooms and saute about 5 minutes. (*If you are using raw chicken, add it here. However, we were using leftover cooked chicken breasts so I didn't add it until later so it would heat through without getting dried out.) Add the pear and saute a few minutes more. Deglaze the pan with wine and/or stock. Add the asparagus, syrup and curry.

 Add the cream to the pan and let simmer until cream begins to thicken and reduce. Taste and season.

Meanwhile, drain your pasta and add it to to the pan. Toss and serve immediately.

 

Variations: As I mentioned above, this is a really versatile recipe. You could easily omit the chicken for a vegetarian meal. I've used apples instead of pears, thrown in fresh herbs like parsley when I had them, used red peppers (or no peppers)... 

We had no maple syrup once (I blame my children) and I used honey. It was still delicious.

For those of you who don't eat wheat, you could use the gluten-free pasta of your choice. This is also pretty darn yummy on rice - or if you are averse to all things starchy, omit the mushrooms from the mixture, roast or grill some portobellos and then top the mushrooms with the yumminess in the pan.