DUTCH PEA SOUP

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THE TEMPERATURE TO DROP so I can actually stand turning on the stove but I couldn't wait any longer and made pea soup tonight. 

When I lived in Holland (which was literally ages ago), I had a dear friend named Bep. She taught me how to speak Dutch and she also gave me quite a few pointers on how to cook real Dutch food. This included a dynamite split pea soup. She excelled at soups in general and Sunday dinners would always begin with a soup before the main event. Sometimes it was tomato soup with meatballs, or chicken vegetable soup with dumplings (or not), and in the winter, there would be - at least once - split pea soup. And there was a ton of it which lasted as the first course until at least Tuesday. The Dutch are frugal people and, like other Europeans, they never throw food away. It's the practical thing to do. 

The basic thrust of her soup remains in this recipe but there are a few tweaks that I've given it, which definitely makes this soup a complete meal (if you want). It is also unabashedly non-dietetic as you will see once you read this lengthy list of ingredients.

First of all, to best describe what I've done, let me just say that this soup has been in the planning stages for the past three days. I went to Fairway on Friday night and got most of the ingredients but due to the unseasonably warm and extremely muggy weather (as I mentioned before regarding my lady fingers), I decided to shop my freezer for a morsel or two to get things moving. I had a huge ham bone and two large containers of consomme (beef, veal and chicken) so I cooked the bone and a smoked pig's foot in the bouillon with more chicken stock.* I cooked this for about 6 hours and then turned the whole thing off let it cool overnight and removed the bones and the pig's foot. I removed all the meat from the foot and discarded all of those bones as well. Then, after refrigerating the stock for about 36 hours, I skimmed off all the fat to find a vat of truly gelatinous stock jiggling away in the pot. It may sound like overkill here, but, even though I already had consomme in the mix I decided to clarify the stock once more. What resulted was heaven on a spoon. I then cooled that and stored it in the fridge (the meat from the pig's foot too in a separate container). I had to wait until today to make the soup because it was still just too close outside to slave away over a stove.

Segue to today. Here is what we do:

To clarify stock

1 small chopped onion

1 carrot peeled and chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/2 lb. ground beef

2 tbs. chopped tarragon

6 black whole peppercorns

4 egg whites

Mix these ingredients together in a bowl and put them into the stock. Turn on the heat to moderately high and stir constantly to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom or sides of the pot.

When the water comes to the boil, you will see an amalgam of matter rising to the top and the liquid beginning to separate from the mass of egg whites. Stop stirring and lower the heat to a simmer. Do not disturb the liquid for any reason. Just let it simmer and produce small geezers or volcanoes of liquid. Regulate the heat, if necessary. Cook on the stove for about an hour. Turn off the heat and let rest for about 15 minutes. While the pot is resting, take two sieves and line the outer one with a wet paper towel or cheesecloth.

Gently pour the liquid into the sieve over a clean bowl or pot. There should be a clear and very rich broth with no residue or fat at all. This should yield anywhere from 12-16 cups of clear broth.

1 package dried green split peas

4 cups cold water

Soak the peas in a large bowl overnight to let soften.

When you are ready to make the soup you will need to assemble a mise en place so you can work quickly and ensure that nothing scorches or burns while you are cooking.

Place each of the ingredients below in separate bowls.

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup leek (white part only) sliced thin

2 cups very large carrots (large dice)

2 cups chopped celery

3 cloves garlic smashed and minced

1 tsp. thyme

Meat from the pig's foot, coarsely chopped

1/2 whole salt pork, diced

4 tbs. pork drippings

4 tbs. olive oil

Heat the oil and pork fat over moderately high heat. Add the salt pork and saute until somewhat crusty. Add the pig's feet, the garlic, onions, leeks and the celery. Lower heat to moderate and cover pan for about 5 minutes to sweat the vegetables and soften. Remove cover and turn up the heat somewhat and continue to cook until the vegetables are completely cooked. Add the thyme and then the split peas and the soaking liquid. Add the broth and the carrots. Stir well and  bring the soup to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for about 5 hours, stirring occasionally. The soup should become very thick. Remove pan from stove, allow to cool and then refrigerate (covered) until you are ready to serve or serve immediately. This soup is almost always better the second or third day down the road.

Optional: If the soup doesn't thicken sufficiently, you can add diced potatoes and croutons if you like, when serving.

As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart! It is the type of soup that puts meat on your bones and is perfect for a cold winter's day.

*I boil chicken for Ludwig every week and therefore have vast quantities of available chicken stock in the fridge and freezer.

MORE SALAD AND MORE STUFF

I HAVE BEEN KNOWN to take my dog almost everywhere and it's true that I do. The one place that I do like taking him to is our local green market. It isn't unusual for us to run into someone or some dog that Ludwig doesn't already know from our "off leash" morning romps in Riverside Park and so, we go as if on an adventure, always taking away a few gourmet treasures and always walking back home along the Drive or in the park. Anyone will tell you that dogs are very social animals and need to be in their own society as often as they can. It helps them interact with humans enormously and they definitely develop a better personality because of it. But I digress. 

I have mentioned before that I try to buy overripe tomatoes at the end of the day. I wasn't lucky enough to find them at $1.00 a pound, but I was fortunate enough to find yellow and red plum tomatoes (very, VERY ripe) which I scooped up in anticipation of something I could conjure up when I got home and conjure I did.

This salad is so simple it's almost ridiculous.

1 cucumber, sliced very thin (a mandolin works wonders for this)

4 yellow plum tomatoes

4 red plum tomatoes (all tomatoes trimmed at the base and head and sliced lengthwise)

1/2-1 fennel bulb sliced very thin (mandolin also)

2 shallots sliced thin

1 clove garlic, smashed and minced

16 leaves fresh basil (cut into chiffonade)

Olive Oil

White wine vinegar

Blue cheese (crumbled)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Pinch of sugar

Put all sliced vegetable in a large bowl. Sprinkle on a little salt and toss. Let stand for about 15 minutes.

Add the oil and vinegar and the pinch of sugar. Toss again. Add the basil leaves and gently toss. Crumble the blue cheese and sprinkle over the salad. Taste for seasoning and serve.

See what I mean about simple. And it is totally delicious!

And what do you think? Ludwig, after eating his dinner (while I ate mine, of course), is looking up at me and I offer him a morsel of blue cheese. Not only did he eat it, he wanted more.  

FEGATO VENEZIANO

THIS WAS originally a post from October 2013 and could now be called the Dog Days of July. 

THE LAST FEW DAYS have been utter nonsense in New York. It hasn't felt like October at all. The mercury hit 85º on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday were harbingers of more humidity and a piddly rain storm which made it all the more tropical. The air still lingers with a thickness that precludes any sort of ambitious cooking. 

I wanted to make Lady Fingers today and try though I might, even with the air-conditioner on full tilt, my egg whites wouldn't stiffen. So much for making a fabulous dessert or a torta con mascarpone e cioccolata. They were the sorriest lady fingers I ever made and are more suitable for dipping in espresso than dessert. 

On to something less ambitious, or is it?

Fegato alla Veneziana

There are two schools of thought here: to dredge in flour or not. The Harry's Bar Cookbook does not dredge their Fegato in flour. Other cookbooks do. It's all a matter of taste, really. The one drawback with the flour is that you must wipe the pan clean of all burnt floury residue after frying the liver to proceed with the recipe. This in itself isn't such a big deal but it is an extra step which takes a little bit of time and doesn't agree with the idea of being able to retain all of the flavors already accumulated in the pan. It's a personal choice. I have included the dredging step herein but feel free to omit it; especially if you're a gluten-free person.

3 large onions sliced very thin

3 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper

1/2 cup dry white wine

Nutmeg

1-2 lb. Calves Liver (cut into 1/2 inch slices*, 1/4 inch thick and dredged in flour - approximately 1 lb. for 3 servings, 2 lb. for 6 servings)

3 tbs. unsalted butter

1 bunch flat Italian parsley chopped extra fine

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sweat the onions in a covered pan for about 15 minutes to soften and render their juices and continue to sauté the onions uncovered over a low flame for about 45 minutes. Stir often You want them to become extremely soft and acquire an amber color. Salt and pepper to taste. When finished sautéing the onions, add half the wine and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the pan and keep warm. 

Add more oil to the pan and sauté the liver over moderately high heat. Salt and pepper to taste and add a few dashes of nutmeg. You want the liver to take on a crispy crust while the pieces cook. When the liver is done (about 3-4 minutes), remove from the pan and add the pieces to the plate with the onions. Deglaze the pan with the rest of the wine, add the butter and half the parsley. Swirl around the pan until the butter is completely melted and incorporated with the parsley and then pour the contents of the plate with the liver and onions back into the pan and mix well.

Serve immediately with the whitest polenta you can find or mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes (dressed with butter and the other half of the chopped parsley) or even gnocchi or a wide buttered noodle such as pappardelle. The last time I made this, I served it with a salad of wax beans, cucumber and shallots with little bits of pickled red pepperoncini and garlic. Delicious!

*Holding the liver flat with one hand, carefully cut the liver lengthwise into long strips and then cut them in half.

NEW BACKGROUND!

IT REALLY ISN'T that I bore easily, it's only for the fact that I have thousands of pictures of food (taken all by yours truly) and it seems a waste if I don't use them periodically for my own purposes as I do here on this blog. 

My big burning question, though, is this: does anyone really read what I write. My comment sections remain woefully blank and "vuota!"

In the meantime, let us lament the death of MARCELLA HAZAN. She truly brought us a way to cook which is right up there with Julia Child but in a completely different way. Italian cooking isn't French, after all, and even though the approach to food isn't necessarily that different, the application of sauces and the differing uses of butter, lard and olive oil penetrate the Italian landscape as no other does. 

Marcella, a Northerner herself, from Emilia-Romagna no less, transcended all of that by embracing recipes and cucine from all of the Italian peninsula as well as the two largest islands in the Mediterranean: Sicilia e Sardegna. Who knew that a doctor in biology would become the queen of Italian food for decades? I think her son found out soon enough - as did her husband - and is now the heir to a very distinguished culinary legacy. When I went to study piano in Bologna, her Classic Italian Cook Book came along as a guide of sorts and it was her cookbook(s) that helped me find the many different pathways to all sorts of restaurants and neighborhood food. My local green grocer ("fruttivendola"), Maria, was also an arbiter of what a good Ragú was made from and how to massage a good pasta dough, but it was Marcella's instructions that led the way on exactly HOW Italians eat as well as being there to experience it first hand in my daily life. 

Here in America, we have forgotten - did we really ever know? - how to portion out food and I would venture to commit blasphemy here by saying that it isn't all about what we eat but more about how much we eat. A pound of pasta, for instance, between 2 or 3 people is fair game in the good ole USA. In Italy, a pound of pasta would feed 6 as a first or second course (that's less than 100 grams per person), allowing room for the next plate of meat or fish or game, accompanied by some other dish - with a starch and/or a vegetable - and then followed by a salad and/or a dolce and/or cheese.  I know French people who wouldn't even think of excluding a cheese course, deeming that completely uncivilized. In Provence, it would be a sacrilege, not to mention the Perigord or Burgundy! Small portions, many courses, is the way in almost all European kitchens and this is not exactly exclusive to France and Italy; one always starts with something. Americans could learn a great deal from this attitude. We shouldn't scarf down food, but taste, savor, and allow our palates to enlighten and uplift the soul (try telling that to teenagers at McDonald's!).  Marcella knew this as much as Julia did. They both brought great food to the table and from the bottom of my heart, I thank them for every morsel of morels and truffles, panna and crème fraiche and the all important artichoke (in season, of course)! 

So, let us remember to eat smaller portions, but cultivate a more varied diet and wash more dishes. Oh, and by the way, the biggest meal of the day is usually during the day before il riposo. Look at the statistics: we suffer from more heart disease and cancer than any other nation in the world. We eat garbage most of the time and always while on the move and most people, I would venture to guess, eat with the television glaring and blaring the latest disaster story or stupid sitcom. Lunch and dinner, like breakfast, should be accorded the respect it deserves: quiet (but lively) conversation and complete surrender to the food you are about to put into your mouth. Even if it's an egg!

Per il resto, io me ne vado a riposarmi un pó.

AS OF TODAY, WE'RE STILL EXPERIENCING SUMMER . . .

IT IS OCTOBER 1ST and the mercury hit 80º today. Oh well. 

I decided to make Caponata and Egg Salad this morning. Click on the link: Caponatina from last year (September 22, 2012) for the complete recipe. 

I made this because there was enough of everything to make it well and quite frankly, I think it was better than last year's. Considering I'm going to give a tiny jar of the stuff to a vegan friend of mine, I left out the anchovy and the preserved lemons (didn't have any in the house!) and the sugar, but doubled the raisin and vinegar content to make a super agrodolce and that is exactly how it turned out. 

I hope she likes it!

Egg Salad

I don't like egg salad with large curds of egg whites so this is almost like caviar as the whites are beaten to a pulp with a pastry blender. There are two schools of thought - actually three - on egg salad: Jewish or French and then there is Italian.

This recipe can be interchangeable depending on the spice or herb you use (French - Tarragon; Jewish/Russian - Dill; Italian - Basil or the very complicated and hearty Insalata Russa with peas and tons of mayonnaise and carrots and relish which will not be discussed further on this page).

4 hard boiled eggs

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped scallion (green and white)

1 small squirt anchovy paste

1 heaping tbs. Coleman's powdered mustard OR

2 tsp. French's yellow mustard

2-3 heaping tbs. Hellman's mayonnaise (but not too much)

1 tsp. creme fraiche or heavy cream

1 tsp. fresh herbs of your choice as mentioned above

Before boiling the eggs take a push pin and insert a tiny hole at the top of the egg and place in a pot with cold water. Bring the water to the boil and maintain at a rolling boil for a minute. Turn off the water and cover the pot and keep the eggs in the water for 8 minutes. Drain the hot water, pour cold water constantly from faucet for about 2 minutes. Drain and cover the pot and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds. Peel the eggs making sure that you peel off the membrane between the shell and the white. It should all come off in one or two pieces. Rinse the eggs, slice in an egg slicer (both ways) and put in a bowl. Add the scallion, the celery and anchovy and the Colemans. 

Using a pastry cutter, mash the egg mixture into a fine crumble. 

Add the mayonnaise, creme fraiche and herbs and continue to process with the pastry cutter. It should be creamy and thick. Finish off the salad by adding a dash or two of:

Tabasco or Sriracha* Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Paprika 
Nutmeg
And more of whichever herb you are using plus a sprinkling of chopped parsley of you like.

Refrigerate for about 30 minutes or longer but you should definitely use up the salad within 2 days.

*Sriracha can completely overpower a dish with pungency and heat if used in excess - so one dash should suffice for the quantity of eggs being used.

Buon appetito!

GAZPACHO

TODAY IS THE END OF SUMMER. I promised cucumbers a while back when I mentioned peppers and tomatoes and there isn't a better way to describe cucumbers (besides salad) than Gazpacho. 

Recently, on my last trip to Milwaukee, the high point of my eating experience (I was only there 65 hours) was in a little village called Mequon about 15 miles due north on Highway 43 from Milwaukee on the way to Port Washington, Sheboygan and Green Bay - go Packers! My friend Linda and I often go to Cafe 1505 for our ritual lunch repast of delicious egg salad sandwiches - she's a vegan but will eat eggs - and ice tea. I was visiting on Labor Day weekend and they had gazpacho as the soup of the day and it was without any doubt one of the best gazpachos I have ever eaten. Keeping that in my memory banks, and referring to Simon Hopkinson - again - I decided to make some of my own a while back and here is what I did.

6 tbs. red wine vinegar

1 cup ice water

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

4 sweet peppers (1 of each: orange, yellow, red and green) cored, seeded and chopped

1 lb. very ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 

1 12 oz. can chopped tomatoes

5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

8-12 drops Tabasco

1 tbs. ketchup

salt and pepper

1 1/4 lb. ice cubes

1 cup olive oil

Puree all of the ingredients together in a blender, but use only half of the peppers and cucumbers and only half of the tomatoes. Stir in the olive oil and mix in the other half of the chopped vegetables (I like it chunky). Chill if not serving immediately. Garnish with either a fresh basil or a mint leaf and serve with croutons (optional). 

This yields about 8 cups of soup and can serve up to 12 people in a pinch.

CUCUMBER SALAD

This is the simplest thing in the world and utterly delicious. 

1 seedless cucumber, peeled but leaving green stripes to make a green and white border, and sliced on a mandolin on the thinnest setting possible (you want transparent slices).

1 small onion, sliced paper thin

1 small clove garlic smashed and minced to a paste

salt and pepper

1 tbs. olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

Place the cucumbers in a large bowl with the onions and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste and let sit for 15 minutes. Add the olive oil and vinegar and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Cucumbers should be bathed in juice but not swimming in it. Serve cold.

CROISSANTS!

I KNOW I said that I was going to make croissants, and I did; it's just that it's taken me a while to formulate my thoughts on the matter and get all the steps in my memory to write it all down. It is also never as it was when it happened, or rather, when the thought occurred to me to make these in the first place. If you remember, on the morning I decided to make them, it was a blustery, chilly day. Since then, the weather has turned unseasonably warm again and when I finally did make them on Wednesday morning, it was 10º warmer outside, which means 20º warmer in my apartment (my apartment is an oven at all times). Be that as it may, these turned out to be quite good and the recipe that follows should yield enough dough to make about 2 dozen croissants. I used only half of the dough and froze the rest, which I will use soon enough -  possibly with almond and/or chocolate for a little variety. 

To give proper credit here, I have used Jacques Pépin's recipe from his Complete Techniques cookbook (p. 568).

3 cups tightly packed all-purpose flour

2 tbs. extra flour to mix with the butter

3 sticks unsalted butter (softened)

1 generous cup milk (90-100º)

1 1/4 oz. package of dry yeast

1 tbs. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. salt

Combine milk, yeast and sugar, mix well and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Place 2-1/2 sticks of the butter and the 2 tablespoons flour in the bowl of an electric stand mixer or a food processor and mix until it is creamy and completely mixed. Add the flour with the remaining 2 oz. butter, salt and milk and mix on low speed until a ball forms. 

Remove from the bowl and place the dough on a lightly dusted wooden board or a marble pastry board and knead and shape into a rectangle. Roll the dough into a rectangle to approximately 20x12 inches. Spread the butter mixture over 2/3 of the surface, leaving about 1 inch unbuttered along the edges. Lift the unbuttered third over the center and fold the other buttered section over that. Place the dough into a plastic bag or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably longer). 

Put the dough again on a lightly floured wooden board or marble slab and roll out into another rectangle, always rolling out from the center (not back and forth), of the same dimensions as above and fold into thirds as before. Do not roll too much as you don't want the butter to come through the dough. Once you've created another rectangle, refrigerate again. This will be two turns. You will repeat this process four more times to reach 6 turns. 

As you can see this is an all-day affair so if you like, you can do this throughout the day and refrigerate overnight (as I did) and roll out for the last time in the morning and continue with this recipe as follows.

Prepare baking sheets lined in parchment paper.

Roll out the dough into yet another rectangle of the same dimensions and divide the dough lengthwise into two strips. Cut diagonally to create triangles (one strip should yield about a dozen or so triangles). Take each triangle and press lightly with your rolling pin to stretch each triangle to a larger dimension and start to roll them up from the widest point so that the tips end up on the top. You can place them on the parchment and either curl them to be rounded or leave them straight (see photograph below). Once you've finished creating your croissants, you will need to proof the dough in a warm place for about 50-60 minutes (the inside of the oven is perfect) at a temperature of 80-90º. Remove from the oven and set the temperature at 425º.

Take an egg yolk beaten with a teaspoon of milk and brush the croissants and let sit while the oven is preheating.

Ready for the oven!

Once the oven is hot enough, place the sheet(s) in the middle level and bake for 15-18 minutes until they are golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before eating (with more butter and really fine apricot preserves!).

Bon appetit!