12/14/11
Week 21: Minestrone x Two (One with; One without)
I
went grocery shopping on Sunday for soup ingredients for today's
(Wednesday's) Multicultural Center staff and volunteer holiday luncheon,
and I made the soup last night (Tuesday). Soups, actually. We have
several vegetarians and vegans on our staff and volunteer team, so I
made one batch with and one without meat.
12/3/12
Week 22: Soup and salad? Soup in salad? Salad in soup? Salad 'n soup? Soupy Salad? Whatever...Yuuummm!!!
12/?/13:
Week 23: Cappelletti in Brodo Per Natale (Stuffed Pasta Hats in Broth for Christmas)
My contribution to this year's Multicultural Center staff and
volunteer holiday lunch turned out to be pretty good, despite the major
adaptations to the recipe I ended up having to make. It actually hardly
resembles the original recipe at all, and I really shouldn't even call
it by the name of the actual recipe.
“There are moments of frustration in life. You must build good relations
to support you in these moments. You must also learn to encourage
yourself and decide to stay determined in life.”
~
Lailah Gifty Akita,
Think Great: Be Great: Beautiful Quotes
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Week 20: Spezzatino Di Agnello E Patate (Lamb and Potato Stew)
"Make this stew in early spring, on a day when the weather is chilly and damp. The spicy sauce will warm you right up."
My friend CK wanted to come visit this weekend from downstate (near St. Louis), and she wanted to see some of our other friends and go watch our softball team play Friday afternoon and two games Saturday. The weather forecast was for high temperatures in the mid-30s with a chance of snow and rain, so she said if the games got snowed out, we could watch basketball and I could fix soup. She added that she loves soup. I asked her what kind(s) she likes (and doesn't like), but then I said maybe it would be easier if we looked through my Soup cookbooks when she got here and picked something out then.
She arrived Friday afternoon, and that evening when we returned from dinner with some of our friends, she looked through The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, and she was intrigued by a couple of the Christmas soups, but I encouraged her to look through Chapter 4: Primavera (Recipes for Spring) instead. She said it feels more like winter as cold as it is, so I suggested she look through the Spring soups and if she didn't find one she wanted to try, then she could look through the winter chapter (but not pick one with Christmas in the name). She found the perfect Spring stew for a chilly and damp day: Spezzatino Di Agnello E Patate (Lamb and Potato Stew). We read through the whole recipe (as I've learned to do) and added up how long we thought it would take to cook so we could plan our weekend activities accordingly. We were going to go grocery shopping for the ingredients Saturday morning so we'd have that done before the first softball game at noon. We decided to plan to eat around 7:00 Saturday evening, so we thought I should start cooking around 4:30. CK asked if I have a Dutch oven, in which the recipe said to make the stew, and I said I wasn't sure. I pulled out a big pot and asked if that's a Dutch oven, and she said no, it would be a heavy cast iron pot, which I said I didn't have, but I could go get one while we were out shopping for groceries.
This morning we went to Farm King and I bought a Lodge Dutch oven (which I was almost as excited to get as I was the dark green anti-gravity lawn chair I found on the way to the kitchen aisle on sale at an amazing discount!). We then went to the HyVee and started out in the produce aisle where I got celery, carrots, and Yukon gold yellow-fleshed potatoes. I realized I hadn't read closely enough to see that the garlic cloves were to be passed through a garlic press, which I don't have, but CK said I could get minced garlic instead. As I went to get canned whole tomatoes, I read the recipe more closely and it said they were to be "passed through a food mill fitted with the plate with medium-sized holes," which I don't have, so CK said to get diced tomatoes. I found diced Italian Style Tomatoes, and the recipe called for two cups, but the cans were each 14.5 oz. instead of 16, so CK said to get two cans and save the almost full can of unused tomatoes for another time. We went looking for oregano in the spice aisle (along with red pepper flakes, which we got), but then we realized it was supposed to be minced fresh oregano, so back to the produce/fresh herbs aisle we went to find that. The recipe called for minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, and I remembered I still had enough of that left from last weekend's Asparagus Soup, and CK said that should still be fresh enough to use. The recipe called for "boneless lamb stew meat (leg or shoulder), cut into 1-inch cubes," so we went to the meat counter to ask if they have lamb, and they pointed us to the case that has the packaged chicken breasts, pork, beef, etc. The only lamb we found was still on the bone, but the woman who worked at the meat counter (the Lamb Lady, as CK calls her) advised us it was more bone than it was meat. Then she showed us a 5-pound package of fresh boneless leg of lamb (which was full of fat and $8/pound), but we only needed two pounds, so she asked the butcher and he said he could trim the fat, cut the lamb into 1-in cubes, and package it in the 2-pounds we needed, which was great. The recipe said to serve "Italian Country Bread alongside," and after much debate, we settled on Savory Parmesan Rolls. Finally, the recipe called for a half a cup of dry white wine, so we stopped by the liquor store and picked out a Gallo Chardonnay which we thought would be good in the stew and for drinking while cooking and with the meal.
After a full day of fun activities (including a brief and VERY chilly stop at the softball game to cheer on our team), we returned to my house at 4:00 and began preparing the veggies and meat. As I arranged the lamb cubes on the bottom of my new Dutch oven to sear them in olive oil, I commented that I've never seared lamb before, and CK asked, "Have you ever seared ANYTHING before?" Well, now that you mention it, I can't say I have. CK watched a basketball game while I fixed the stew, though she offered to help and did peel the yellow potatoes, bake the bread with olive oil, butter and garlic drizzled on it, and offered helpful tips throughout the process. Everything went very smoothly, except that I burned my left index finger and thumb three times trying to take the lid off the Dutch oven without a potholder (I'm a slow learner).
The stew and bread were ready at about 6:15, so we had an earlier dinner than we had planned (which I'm pretty sure was a first in the history of "The Soup Diaries"). We sat down to eat and I held my breath and waited for CK to take the first bite and pronounce the verdict, which was that it was tasty, and she really liked it. I took a bite and was pleased to find it surprisingly delicious!
A couple of hours later, after the remaining stew had cooled and I went to put it in the refrigerator, I realized I had forgotten to add the parsley. I was soooooo disconcerted, but CK said no worries, just put a couple of leaves in the pot and they'll make the leftovers all the better, so that's what I did and am looking forward to yummy leftovers tomorrow. Just like the recipe said, this was the perfect soup for an early spring day when the weather was chilly and damp, and the spicy sauce warmed us right up!
"I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food."
~W.C. Fields
My friend CK wanted to come visit this weekend from downstate (near St. Louis), and she wanted to see some of our other friends and go watch our softball team play Friday afternoon and two games Saturday. The weather forecast was for high temperatures in the mid-30s with a chance of snow and rain, so she said if the games got snowed out, we could watch basketball and I could fix soup. She added that she loves soup. I asked her what kind(s) she likes (and doesn't like), but then I said maybe it would be easier if we looked through my Soup cookbooks when she got here and picked something out then.
She arrived Friday afternoon, and that evening when we returned from dinner with some of our friends, she looked through The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy, and she was intrigued by a couple of the Christmas soups, but I encouraged her to look through Chapter 4: Primavera (Recipes for Spring) instead. She said it feels more like winter as cold as it is, so I suggested she look through the Spring soups and if she didn't find one she wanted to try, then she could look through the winter chapter (but not pick one with Christmas in the name). She found the perfect Spring stew for a chilly and damp day: Spezzatino Di Agnello E Patate (Lamb and Potato Stew). We read through the whole recipe (as I've learned to do) and added up how long we thought it would take to cook so we could plan our weekend activities accordingly. We were going to go grocery shopping for the ingredients Saturday morning so we'd have that done before the first softball game at noon. We decided to plan to eat around 7:00 Saturday evening, so we thought I should start cooking around 4:30. CK asked if I have a Dutch oven, in which the recipe said to make the stew, and I said I wasn't sure. I pulled out a big pot and asked if that's a Dutch oven, and she said no, it would be a heavy cast iron pot, which I said I didn't have, but I could go get one while we were out shopping for groceries.
This morning we went to Farm King and I bought a Lodge Dutch oven (which I was almost as excited to get as I was the dark green anti-gravity lawn chair I found on the way to the kitchen aisle on sale at an amazing discount!). We then went to the HyVee and started out in the produce aisle where I got celery, carrots, and Yukon gold yellow-fleshed potatoes. I realized I hadn't read closely enough to see that the garlic cloves were to be passed through a garlic press, which I don't have, but CK said I could get minced garlic instead. As I went to get canned whole tomatoes, I read the recipe more closely and it said they were to be "passed through a food mill fitted with the plate with medium-sized holes," which I don't have, so CK said to get diced tomatoes. I found diced Italian Style Tomatoes, and the recipe called for two cups, but the cans were each 14.5 oz. instead of 16, so CK said to get two cans and save the almost full can of unused tomatoes for another time. We went looking for oregano in the spice aisle (along with red pepper flakes, which we got), but then we realized it was supposed to be minced fresh oregano, so back to the produce/fresh herbs aisle we went to find that. The recipe called for minced fresh flat-leaf parsley, and I remembered I still had enough of that left from last weekend's Asparagus Soup, and CK said that should still be fresh enough to use. The recipe called for "boneless lamb stew meat (leg or shoulder), cut into 1-inch cubes," so we went to the meat counter to ask if they have lamb, and they pointed us to the case that has the packaged chicken breasts, pork, beef, etc. The only lamb we found was still on the bone, but the woman who worked at the meat counter (the Lamb Lady, as CK calls her) advised us it was more bone than it was meat. Then she showed us a 5-pound package of fresh boneless leg of lamb (which was full of fat and $8/pound), but we only needed two pounds, so she asked the butcher and he said he could trim the fat, cut the lamb into 1-in cubes, and package it in the 2-pounds we needed, which was great. The recipe said to serve "Italian Country Bread alongside," and after much debate, we settled on Savory Parmesan Rolls. Finally, the recipe called for a half a cup of dry white wine, so we stopped by the liquor store and picked out a Gallo Chardonnay which we thought would be good in the stew and for drinking while cooking and with the meal.
After a full day of fun activities (including a brief and VERY chilly stop at the softball game to cheer on our team), we returned to my house at 4:00 and began preparing the veggies and meat. As I arranged the lamb cubes on the bottom of my new Dutch oven to sear them in olive oil, I commented that I've never seared lamb before, and CK asked, "Have you ever seared ANYTHING before?" Well, now that you mention it, I can't say I have. CK watched a basketball game while I fixed the stew, though she offered to help and did peel the yellow potatoes, bake the bread with olive oil, butter and garlic drizzled on it, and offered helpful tips throughout the process. Everything went very smoothly, except that I burned my left index finger and thumb three times trying to take the lid off the Dutch oven without a potholder (I'm a slow learner).
The stew and bread were ready at about 6:15, so we had an earlier dinner than we had planned (which I'm pretty sure was a first in the history of "The Soup Diaries"). We sat down to eat and I held my breath and waited for CK to take the first bite and pronounce the verdict, which was that it was tasty, and she really liked it. I took a bite and was pleased to find it surprisingly delicious!
A couple of hours later, after the remaining stew had cooled and I went to put it in the refrigerator, I realized I had forgotten to add the parsley. I was soooooo disconcerted, but CK said no worries, just put a couple of leaves in the pot and they'll make the leftovers all the better, so that's what I did and am looking forward to yummy leftovers tomorrow. Just like the recipe said, this was the perfect soup for an early spring day when the weather was chilly and damp, and the spicy sauce warmed us right up!
"I like to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food."
~W.C. Fields
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Week 19: Spring has Sprung! Vellutata di Asparagi con Orzo Perlato (Cream of Asparagus Soup with Pearled Barley)
Makes 6 first-course servings
Today started out as a cloudy day, and the forecast was for clouds and rain, so I planned to have a productive day with some things I needed to get done in the house and for work, and I figured I'd go grocery shopping in the early afternoon and have plenty of time to make the soup. But by late morning, the sun was out and I decided to eat lunch out on the back deck and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather while it lasted before the clouds rolled in. I took the soup cookbook out to the deck and read through the entire recipe and made my grocery list. It sounded like it would take about an hour to make, so I planned to ride my bike to the store at 3:15 so I could be home by 4:15 and start cooking. I e-mailed CS to see if she preferred chicken or beef stock, and she said chicken, though either would be fine. It was still sunny and warm (70 degrees!) at 3:45, and I didn't want to go in but knew I had to get to the store, so I grabbed a couple of canvas grocery bags, put my saddlebags on the back of my bike, and off I went.
When I was in the produce aisle, I found the asparagus just fine, but that's as far as I got on my own. The nice young man stocking the shelves asked if he could help me find anything, and I said yes: spring onions ("not scallions, but rather young bulb onions still attached to their bulbs") or leeks, a fennel bulb, and pearled barley. He showed me the leeks, but he was stumped about the spring onions and barley. He went in the back and asked someone and found out the barley is in aisle 4, so he took me over there and we both looked high and low (neither of us knowing what we were looking for). Not finding anything that said pearled barley, he went and asked another guy who came and showed us where it was--right next to the chicken stock and broths, which I needed, too. (I was delighted to find low-sodium--which the recipe called for--and free range chicken, so I grabbed two boxes while I was there.) Turns out barley comes in a box and looks like oats--in fact, one of the brands is Quaker, and one of the options was "Quick" (cooks in 10 min.). Knowing I'd gotten a later start that I'd planned, Quick it was. Back to the produce aisle I went to get fresh flat-leaf parsley. I found parsley right away, but there were different kinds, and they weren't clearly marked. Fortunately, my friend AC was standing right there, and I know she cooks, so I asked her and she showed me which was the flat-leaf parsley. Next: freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. I found several kinds of romano cheese, including shredded (but not grated), but nothing that said "pecorino." After stewing for far too long, I settled on a wedge of Casaro Romano Cheese ("Wisconsin Quality with Italian Tradition") and figured I could grate it myself with my (still somewhat new) box grater. I couldn't find anything that said "country bread" in the bakery, so I decided Focaccia Asiago bread would go well with my Italian soup. I picked up a few grocery items I needed other than for soup, then packed my bicycle saddlebags with all the groceries and rode home, stopping at my friend SR's house to pick up two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies I'd ordered from her daughter.
I got home at 5:00 and started cooking the barley and prepping the veggies right away, and I e-mailed CS to let her know my ETA was now 6:30 p.m. The recipe said to simmer the barley for 45 minutes, but as I started to set the timer, I suddenly remembered I'd bought "Quick" barley that was supposed to cook in 10 minutes. (Good thing I remembered that, because the recipe also said the barley "should not be mushy at all," and I'm sure it would have been had I simmered it for 45 minutes!) I trimmed off the tough ends from the asparagus and discarded them, according to the directions. I cut the asparagus stalks into 1-inch pieces and set aside the tips, as the recipe said. I sautéd the veggies, sprinkled and mixed in the flour, started to add the stock--oops, STOCK. In my excitement to find low-sodium and free-range chicken, I'd inadvertantly picked up broth instead of stock. I'd already decided not to take the time to make the Brodo di Pollo (Chicken Stock) from scratch this time, but I'd fully intended to buy stock. Oh, well. Next time I'll be sure to look more closely at the box and get the stock, but broth would have to do this time. I added the asparagus pieces-except for the reserved tips--and the parsley sprigs, increased the heat and let it simmer until all the veggies were tender, then removed from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then, in a blender, working in batches, I pureéd the soup. I panicked for a minute, realizing I don't have a blender and not knowing if my food processer can be used as one, but then I remembered my Cooks 5-in-1 Power Blender (similar to the Magic Bullet, which I'd called my Magic Squisher), and it worked perfectly for working in batches as I filled the five cups with soup and pureéd them one at a time. After straining the soup to remove any tough fibers, I returned it to the pot and stirred in the cooked barley.
At this point, the recipe ended with "season to taste with salt and pepper." It said nothing about the 1 cup of freshly grated cheese, nor about the asparagus tips which it had said several times previously should be reserved (not discarded). I looked at the picture of the bowls of soup that accompanied the recipe, and there were what appeared to be a few asparagus tips and some grated cheese floating in the soup, so I dumped the tips in the pot of soup, grabbed the bread, cheese, my grater, and soup ladle, and off I went. As I pulled into the driveway, I looked at the clock in my car, and it said 6:21p.m.--the exact time of the Vernal Equinox. Soup's on! Well, almost. When I got in the house, the table was all set and a yummy salad ready to be served. I put the soup on the stove to heat it up a bit, and when MB saw the green soup, she said we should have had it a few days ago for St. Patrick's Day! I pulled out the bread and asked CS how you know what's to be done with it since it doesn't say anything on the package about cooking or warming it. She said it would be good warmed up, so she cut several slices and put them in the toaster oven while I grated the cheese. At 6:30, we were eating salad, and the bread and soup were ready shortly thereafter. We each had our fill and had enough left over for another meal later this week.
The verdict: "DE-LISH", "Yuuuuuummmmmm!!!!!!" and "VERY tasty"!
Yay!! Happy Spring!!!!!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Week 18: Chicken Soup for the Sick Doctor Friend’s Soul and Health
pasta rings. I hadn't cooked the pasta because I thought I remembered M telling me back in Week 2 (seven years ago), that pasta can cook in the stock. (I didn't take time to look that up, and it turns out I should have, because when I looked it up just now, I discovered it was rice she had said that about. Oops.)
I hadn't left time for the soup to cool down before I put it in a container to take to my friend's house, and I couldn't find my soup storage containers I'd bought 5 or so years ago anyway (I think I must have donated/temporarily loaned them to the kitchen at work when we moved into our new building a couple of years ago). I had made a double batch so I'd have some for myself, so I poured half of it into a slow cooker pot to transport it and put the other half in my fridge (in the pot I'd cooked it in). I grabbed the loaf of bread and the dillweed and drove over to Doc's place. She and her mom met me outside, and we put the soup in her trunk and figured it would be ok for a couple of hours while we were at the movie since the temperature outside was in the mid-thirties. On my way home from the movie, I realized I'd forgotten to give her the bread and dillweed, so I swung by her house and dropped those off. Then I swung by K-mart and bought a new set of soup storage containers so I'll have those for future.
I fixed a bowl for myself for dinner (with dillweed sprinkled on top), and I was disappointed in the soup--the flavor was good, but the consistency of the stock was too thick because of the pasta which was all mushy, much like my Souper Bowl soup a few weeks ago. (I don't think that's what Doc had meant when she originally said she'd "take anything She sent me a message saying she and her mom enjoyed the soup and bread very much, and it was very yummy! I thanked her for saying so, but told her I was disappointed in the way the stock and pasta had turned out. She said the flavor was great, and that they ate some and wanted to stretch it out so they added some Rachael Rays chicken broth, so the consistency is a little thinner now and it tastes really good.
I Googled how to keep pasta from getting mushy in soup, and found a tip that said to "store the soup separately from the (rice or) pasta. If you mix them together, the rice or pasta will drink up the broth. Chicken soup freezes great!"
The bread was delish. The soup, though nutritious, wasn't delicious. I'll work on getting the pasta to cook right and try again sometime.
When I went to fix dinner tonight, I remembered I have some chicken-flavored boullion cubes in my cabinet, so I boiled two cups of water, added two cubes, and poured it into the chicken soup to help thin it out. It worked! It's delicious!! I forgot to have a piece of bread though, so I'm gonna go fix another bowl of soup and warm up a slice of Asiago Batard to have with it.
"Scientists say they have confirmed what grandmothers have known for centuries -- that chicken soup is good for colds....Some researchers have suggested...perhaps the steam from the soup, or the chicken fat, may play a role in soothing inflamed airways. (Dr. Stephen) Rennard said this was possible. He also said there could be a 'TLC'...factor. 'If you know somebody prepared soup for you by hand, that might have an effect.'"
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Week 17: Super Bowl Sunday Souper Bowl Alphabet Soup
We had a blizzard last week and the University was closed Tuesday and Wednesday, so it seemed like a good opportunity to fix some soup; but, between shoveling and doing some work I'd brought home that I had to get done, and the fact that I don't keep any food/ingredients in my fridge or pantry to speak of, soup didn't happen. Besides, I knew I was going to be fixing some for a Super Bowl party I was going to at some friends' house on Sunday, so I needed that full week to recuperate between soup adventures. I was going to look through my Soup and Italian soup cookbooks on Saturday to see if I needed to go grocery shopping and start working on it that evening, but I worked all day Saturday and didn't get home till about 7:30 p.m. and was too exhausted to care. Sunday morning I picked one out that looked simply (yeah, right--I should know better by now) delicious and nutritious: "Alphabet Soup," (called for alphabetto or other small soup pasta) which is a vegetable soup with pancetta or proscioutto. It said it serves 4, so I decided to triple the recipe since there would be about a dozen friends at the party, though I knew there would be other main courses and lots of good food, so I'd have plenty left over to have later in the week.
Sunday morning, I went to breakfast and grocery shopping with my friend CS, and I'd forgotten to make a copy of the recipe, so I grabbed the whole Soup cookbook on my way out the door. Didn't have much trouble finding most of the ingredients, except I wasn't sure which of the different kinds of onions or potatoes I should use, and CS said the yellow onions and the potato I held up would be good, so I went with those. The recipe called for "4 oz. smoked pancetta or prosciutto cut into cubes," so I asked the woman at the deli for 12 oz. of either pancetta or prosciutto cut into cubes. She looked at me funny and said she had prosciutto and could slice it thick, but I'd have to cut it into cubes myself. OK, fine. No problem. (I didn't realize till I got home I'd forgotten to ask for smoked, but that would have to be OK, 'cause I wasn't going to smoke it myself!) After much internal debate in the pasta aisle, I picked out small rings; and, after more internal debate in the canned food aisle trying to decide which of the suggested beans to get--cannelini, red kidney or chickpeas--I went with the chickpeas. I was taking so long that my friend was ready to check out, so she left and I started to panic in case I needed help figuring anything else out. But, we had run into a couple of other friends, B&DO, and I knew they were still there, so I felt better knowing I could ask them if I needed any soup 911 (which, thankfully, I didn't).
Got home just in time to unload and put away the groceries, change my clothes and get to church, after which I came home, ate lunch, and did some laundry and started picking up the house to get ready to be gone for a few days to a conference. Suddenly, I remembered that our local kitchen store used to have football shaped pasta, so I jumped in the car and dashed up there, hoping first of all that they would be open, and then praying they'd have football pasta for my SouperBowl Soup. I was relieved to find they were open, but disheartened to find they didn't have any football pasta. (The woman said they had some a year ago, but they didn't get any this year.) Disappointed, back home I dashed just in time for the Bowl game I'd been excitedly awaiting which I thought was on from 2-3: Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VII! I knew I needed to care about washing, peeling and chopping vegetables, and cubing meat; but I thought that could wait till 3:00 and I'd have plenty of time to prepare and cook the soup before leaving for the Super Bowl party at 5:15. Turned out the Puppy Bowl was on till 4:00, and I wasn't able to tear myself away from it (and the fun Kitty Halftime Show), until I got an e-mail about 3:30 from my friend asking how the Soup making was going. Oops, time to get busy!
I got out all the ingredients, cookware, and utensils, and started cutting, chopping, cubing, slicing, seeding, coring, and measuring vegetables and meat. The proscuitto was to be heated gently and sautéed in a large saucepan, then the onion added and cooked gently, then "Add the potato, carrot, celery, zucchini, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Add the stock and heat until simmering." OK, wait a minute. My one large saucepan was full after only the meat, onion, and potatoes were put in, so I got out another saucepan and put the carrots and celery in it, but it got full, so I found a third saucepan and put the zucchini, and tomatoes in it. Then I decided I should have some of everything in each saucepan, so I divided everything into thirds and had three saucepans of veggies and meat simmering.
Then the recipe said to add the stock and heat until simmering. At no time did it say to put anything in a large pot, but while I was still cutting and chopping veggies, I got out my 8-qt. soup pot I'd bought last week and poured the three boxes of Chicken Stock in and heated it. I looked at the clock and it was 4:45, and I suddenly panicked that I was supposed to be at the party at 5:00. I looked up the email invitation, and it said the game starts at 5:00, so I called one of my friends who said she was on her way to the party and our pre-game betting and parlay card games were to start at 5:00. I told her I'd be there as close to 5:15 as I could, but if I wasn't there by the time they needed to do the little games, go ahead without me. I suddenly realized I hadn't cut up the large head of cabbage, or washed and cut the green beans. It seemed to take an eternity to cut the little ends off the green beans, so I only did half the bag, and I only did half the cabbage (and sloppily, at that), threw them in the pot, dumped all three skillets of veggies and prosciutto into the big pot, added the pasta and beans, brought it to a boil and cooked it for 5 minutes, then added the peas and chickpeas (after draining them) and cooked it for another 2-3 minutes till the veggies and pasta were tender. Added sea salt and black pepper (which wasn't freshly ground, but that's OK). Then it said to serve sprinkled with parsley (which, I realized, I'd forgotten to get), crusty Italian bread (which, I realized, I'd forgotten to bake), and freshly grated Cheddar cheese (which I didn't have time to grate).
I put the extra veggies back in the fridge, wiped the counters, turned off the stove, grabbed the bread and cheese, my new (from last week) cheese grater, my soup ladle, the pot of soup (which looked YUMMY!), my soup bowls, my coat and quarters for the betting board, threw everything in the car, and rushed across town, arriving at 5:17, just in time to put my name on the boards and fill out the game sheets. Soup's on!
As the football game started, I grated my cheese and asked one of the hosts if I could use her oven to bake the bread, which she graciously said I could, and preheated the oven. I didn't want to miss any commercials, so when the commercials were over, I went up and put the bread in the oven, and then after the next set of commercials went up and got the bread out, sliced it, and served it hot and fresh out of the oven. It was delicious. When I finally got a bowl of soup, which looked delicious, I was crushed to discover that the pasta was mushy. It had been almost the last thing to go in, and I didn't over-cook it, so I will have to try to figure out why that happened and how not to let it happen next time. No one said anything about the mushy pasta, but I felt bad that it had almost ruined an otherwise scrumptious soup.
By the end of the night, more than half the pot of soup was left, and I knew I was going to be out of town for several days so I didn't know if it would keep till the end of the week. My friend asked if I was going to freeze it. I didn't know you could freeze soup, and she said sure--put it in a bunch of little Ziploc freezer containers and I'll have soup for the rest of the winter! So, that's just what I did when I got home, and I'm looking forward to having some later this week. I'd share it with friends and neighbors if I weren't so embarrassed about the mushy pasta. Next year, I'll plan ahead and buy (special order if I have to) football pasta, and I won't have mushy footballs!
"Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable."
~Ina Garten, 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook'
Sunday morning, I went to breakfast and grocery shopping with my friend CS, and I'd forgotten to make a copy of the recipe, so I grabbed the whole Soup cookbook on my way out the door. Didn't have much trouble finding most of the ingredients, except I wasn't sure which of the different kinds of onions or potatoes I should use, and CS said the yellow onions and the potato I held up would be good, so I went with those. The recipe called for "4 oz. smoked pancetta or prosciutto cut into cubes," so I asked the woman at the deli for 12 oz. of either pancetta or prosciutto cut into cubes. She looked at me funny and said she had prosciutto and could slice it thick, but I'd have to cut it into cubes myself. OK, fine. No problem. (I didn't realize till I got home I'd forgotten to ask for smoked, but that would have to be OK, 'cause I wasn't going to smoke it myself!) After much internal debate in the pasta aisle, I picked out small rings; and, after more internal debate in the canned food aisle trying to decide which of the suggested beans to get--cannelini, red kidney or chickpeas--I went with the chickpeas. I was taking so long that my friend was ready to check out, so she left and I started to panic in case I needed help figuring anything else out. But, we had run into a couple of other friends, B&DO, and I knew they were still there, so I felt better knowing I could ask them if I needed any soup 911 (which, thankfully, I didn't).
Got home just in time to unload and put away the groceries, change my clothes and get to church, after which I came home, ate lunch, and did some laundry and started picking up the house to get ready to be gone for a few days to a conference. Suddenly, I remembered that our local kitchen store used to have football shaped pasta, so I jumped in the car and dashed up there, hoping first of all that they would be open, and then praying they'd have football pasta for my SouperBowl Soup. I was relieved to find they were open, but disheartened to find they didn't have any football pasta. (The woman said they had some a year ago, but they didn't get any this year.) Disappointed, back home I dashed just in time for the Bowl game I'd been excitedly awaiting which I thought was on from 2-3: Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VII! I knew I needed to care about washing, peeling and chopping vegetables, and cubing meat; but I thought that could wait till 3:00 and I'd have plenty of time to prepare and cook the soup before leaving for the Super Bowl party at 5:15. Turned out the Puppy Bowl was on till 4:00, and I wasn't able to tear myself away from it (and the fun Kitty Halftime Show), until I got an e-mail about 3:30 from my friend asking how the Soup making was going. Oops, time to get busy!
I got out all the ingredients, cookware, and utensils, and started cutting, chopping, cubing, slicing, seeding, coring, and measuring vegetables and meat. The proscuitto was to be heated gently and sautéed in a large saucepan, then the onion added and cooked gently, then "Add the potato, carrot, celery, zucchini, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Add the stock and heat until simmering." OK, wait a minute. My one large saucepan was full after only the meat, onion, and potatoes were put in, so I got out another saucepan and put the carrots and celery in it, but it got full, so I found a third saucepan and put the zucchini, and tomatoes in it. Then I decided I should have some of everything in each saucepan, so I divided everything into thirds and had three saucepans of veggies and meat simmering.
Then the recipe said to add the stock and heat until simmering. At no time did it say to put anything in a large pot, but while I was still cutting and chopping veggies, I got out my 8-qt. soup pot I'd bought last week and poured the three boxes of Chicken Stock in and heated it. I looked at the clock and it was 4:45, and I suddenly panicked that I was supposed to be at the party at 5:00. I looked up the email invitation, and it said the game starts at 5:00, so I called one of my friends who said she was on her way to the party and our pre-game betting and parlay card games were to start at 5:00. I told her I'd be there as close to 5:15 as I could, but if I wasn't there by the time they needed to do the little games, go ahead without me. I suddenly realized I hadn't cut up the large head of cabbage, or washed and cut the green beans. It seemed to take an eternity to cut the little ends off the green beans, so I only did half the bag, and I only did half the cabbage (and sloppily, at that), threw them in the pot, dumped all three skillets of veggies and prosciutto into the big pot, added the pasta and beans, brought it to a boil and cooked it for 5 minutes, then added the peas and chickpeas (after draining them) and cooked it for another 2-3 minutes till the veggies and pasta were tender. Added sea salt and black pepper (which wasn't freshly ground, but that's OK). Then it said to serve sprinkled with parsley (which, I realized, I'd forgotten to get), crusty Italian bread (which, I realized, I'd forgotten to bake), and freshly grated Cheddar cheese (which I didn't have time to grate).
I put the extra veggies back in the fridge, wiped the counters, turned off the stove, grabbed the bread and cheese, my new (from last week) cheese grater, my soup ladle, the pot of soup (which looked YUMMY!), my soup bowls, my coat and quarters for the betting board, threw everything in the car, and rushed across town, arriving at 5:17, just in time to put my name on the boards and fill out the game sheets. Soup's on!
As the football game started, I grated my cheese and asked one of the hosts if I could use her oven to bake the bread, which she graciously said I could, and preheated the oven. I didn't want to miss any commercials, so when the commercials were over, I went up and put the bread in the oven, and then after the next set of commercials went up and got the bread out, sliced it, and served it hot and fresh out of the oven. It was delicious. When I finally got a bowl of soup, which looked delicious, I was crushed to discover that the pasta was mushy. It had been almost the last thing to go in, and I didn't over-cook it, so I will have to try to figure out why that happened and how not to let it happen next time. No one said anything about the mushy pasta, but I felt bad that it had almost ruined an otherwise scrumptious soup.
By the end of the night, more than half the pot of soup was left, and I knew I was going to be out of town for several days so I didn't know if it would keep till the end of the week. My friend asked if I was going to freeze it. I didn't know you could freeze soup, and she said sure--put it in a bunch of little Ziploc freezer containers and I'll have soup for the rest of the winter! So, that's just what I did when I got home, and I'm looking forward to having some later this week. I'd share it with friends and neighbors if I weren't so embarrassed about the mushy pasta. Next year, I'll plan ahead and buy (special order if I have to) football pasta, and I won't have mushy footballs!
"Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable."
~Ina Garten, 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook'
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Week 16: Minestra Di Pasta Grattata; "Pasta grattata is a clever way to enjoy homemade pasta without a lot of work..."
Some friends invited me over to watch "Secretariat" this weekend, so I suggested we do dinner and the movie Sunday evening, and I'll bring soup. They thought that sounded great. So when I met CS for breakfast Saturday morning, I brought my soup cookbooks and we looked through The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy: Seasonal Soups and Stews--Italian Style! that my dad had given me for Christmas several years ago. She thought the Cream of Asparagus Soup with Pearled Barley sounded good, and so did I; but it was in "Chapter 4 Primavera: Recipes for Spring," so I said we'll look forward to having that one in a few months. We looked through "Chapter 3 Inverno: Recipes for Winter" and picked one that sounded yummy and doable: Minestra Di Pasta Grattata (Grated Pasta Soup). Looked like simple ingredients--beef broth and pasta--and sounded pretty easy, so I thought I'd just swing by the grocery store on my way home to get the ingredients.
I felt kind of silly taking my cookbook into the store, but turned out to be a good thing I had it. Upon closer reading, I saw it said "A rich homemade beef broth is essential to the integrity of this soup," and it directed me to "Sostanzioso Brodo di Manzo" (Rich Roasted Beef Broth) on p. 25. I already have sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, and I had no trouble finding the carrots, celery, fresh baby bella mushrooms, large yellow onions, and fresh thyme. I don't like cloves, and since it didn't say they're "essential to the integrity of the flavor," I decided it would be fine without those. That left 2 1/2 pounds of boneless stewing beef such as chuck, cut into 3-in pieces, and 2 1/2 pounds of beef marrowbones. I went to the meat counter and the nice butcher showed me the chuck beef for stew they had but it was cut in 1" cubes. He had boneless chuck that wasn't cut and said he would be glad to cut it, but was I sure I wanted 3" pieces? I showed him the recipe in the cookbook, and he said, OK, sure enough, that's what it says, and he went to cut it for me. Meanwhile, the other nice young man working at the meat counter took me to show me where the marrowbones were in the meatcase, and I picked out a couple of packages that totaled about 2 1/4 pounds instead of 2 1/2 and hoped that would suffice.
The opening paragraph of this soup recipe says "Pasta grattato is a clever way to enjoy homemade pasta without a lot of work; you simply grate pieces of dough on the large holes of a box grater to create little shavings." (Note to self: check when I get home to see if I have a box grater. I don't think I do, but for some reason, I'm thinking I may have used one once, but maybe that was at someone else's house.) The recipe then tells how to make the Pasta Grattata: "Mix and knead the pasta dough as directed in the recipe...." Recipe? What recipe? I can't just buy pasta dough? Sheesh. OK. I see over in the left-hand column where it says 1 batch of Pasta all'Uovo (p. 31), so I turn to that page and find a whole other recipe for Pasta all'Uovo (Fresh Egg Pasta Dough). I know I have sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, and I'm pretty sure I have a little thing of nutmeg (I'm not gonna care that it's not freshly grated). It calls for 3 extra-large eggs, but they don't come in a carton of six, and I'll never use a dozen XL eggs, so I just get a carton of a half-dozen large eggs and wonder if 4 large eggs would be equivalent to 3 extra-large ones, or if I should just use 3 large ones. I pick up a bag of unbleached all-purpose flour and search fruitlessly for semolina flour. It only calls for 1 tablespoon (plus some more to sprinkle on the work surface), but it seems to be important for making pasta. I read the packages of all the different types of flour and don't see any that say they can be used instead of semolina, or used in pasta. Remembering that my dad had found a section in my cookbook that provided info. about pancetta and prosciutto, I look to see if it says anything about semolina. Sure enough, it says it's a pale yellow flour made from durum (hard) wheat. So, I pick up a little bag of Organic Whole Wheat flour and hope that will work, even though it doesn't say anything about being made from durum.
When I got home, I looked in my cabinets for a box grater, and I didn't have one, so I started a shopping list. I then skimmed over the pasta dough recipe, and it said "...set up your pasta machine with the rollers on the widest setting...." Wait--what pasta machine? I don't have a pasta machine. And besides, I thought the dough was just to be grated, not put through a machine. I asked a couple of friends, CS and BS, if they had one I could borrow, but neither did. I looked on K-mart on-line, and they have a couple of electric ones on sale...for $139.99 and $143.99. That would be an expensive pot of soup. They also have a hand-cranked one for $29.99. Muuuuuch better. I went in to work Saturday afternoon and then went to our women's basketball game (which we won, yay!), so I swung by K-mart on my way home but they said they don't carry any in the store. So, I checked Hy-Vee, no; Wal-greens, no; CVS, no. I very rarely shop at Walmart, but as a last resort, I went there. They didn't have a pasta machine, but they do have quite the variety of small kitchen appliances, including a beef jerkey maker kit and at least 101 different kinds of George Foreman Grills. You'd think ol' George could branch out a little and make a pasta maker....
When I got home I put a cooking 911 post out to my Macomb facebook peeps to see if anyone had a pasta maker I could borrow, and within 30 minutes, my colleague and friend, DV, came through and said, "Are you talking about the cranky thing you keep putting the dough through to make it thinner and then it cuts it into long noodles? If so, we've got one and you are welcome to borrow it!" Schew. Now I don't have to pick out a different recipe and start all over w/ the grocery shopping, etc. for tomorrow's dinner!
I Googled substitutions for semolina flour, and found the following list:
Kamut Flour
Spelt Flour
All-Purpose Flour (However, it is not nearly as good for making pasta. Pasta made from all-purpose flour should be cooked in lots of water and served while hot to avoid a mushy dish.)
Rice Flour (However, the pasta made from rice flour has a distinct rice flavor.)
Amaranth Flour
Quinoa Flour
Garbanzo Flour (Garbanzo flour is also labeled as gram flour.)
Hmmmm. No Whole Wheat Flour. Guess that means I'll have to take it back to the store Sunday and hope they carry one of the above so I can make the exchange. I need to go back to the store, anyway, because I forgot to get some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for serving. I did, however, remember to get a box grater while I was out looking for a pasta maker. I also recalled that a strainer was on my kitchen utensils to be purchased list from Week 4, so I picked up three different sized strainers--a 3", a 5" and an 8"--while I was at it. (When I got home and went to put them away in the drawer, I discovered I had a 3" one already--which, it turns out, I bought in Week 4, but that was 7 years ago, and I've never used it since.) Oh, well, maybe I'll need both, or donate one to the kitchen at work.
Ok, so upon further reading of the pasta dough recipe, I realized I should have read the ENTIRE recipe first, before beginning cooking or even doing any of the shopping: "Purists maintain that truly good, tender pasta dough cannot be made in a food processor, but I disagree. Once you make this dough, you'll see why. This recipe is easy to follow and works every time....To mix the dough, put the all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of semolina flour, salt, and nutmeg in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade." Yup, that's right. I DON'T HAVE A FOOD PROCESSOR (except my magic squisher, which doesn't have a work bowl). Breathe. Read on. "Knead the (dough) briefly on the work surface. Then, using a rolling pin..." Rolling pin. Hmmm. I've certainly used one before, but I can't recall if I have one of my own, or if I'm just thinking about when I was little and helped my mom make pie dough and Christmas cookies. A search of my kitchen drawers and cabinets confirms that it's the latter.....And, looking back at the beef broth recipe, I now see that it says: "Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, skimming any foam that forms on the surface with a skimmer." Skimmer. Hmmm. Nope, I know I don't have one of those. "...Strain the broth through a colander lined with cheesecloth..." Cheesecloth. Hmmm. Where's my shopping list?
And NOW (at 11:30 Sat. night) I see something that makes my heart sink: "...simmer very gently, uncovered, skimming the surface as necesary for the first hour or so, for 5 hours..." Wait. I have church at 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch and the Annual Meeting, so I was planning to run to the store after and go by D & CV's to borrow their pasta maker, and start cooking around 2:00. Keep reading: "...Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until well chilled...." OK, so what time's dinner? 10:00 p.m.? Seriously.
Not finished reading--there's some fine print I hadn't seen earlier: Makes 6 to 8 first-course servings. First course? Hmmm. My friends are making salad and bread. I'm bringing the main course. Or, so I thought. Oh, good--there's a Cook's Note at the end of the Beef Broth recipe: "Resourceful Italians often serve the meat and vegetables, drizzled with good olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, as a light second course to a broth-based soup." Schew. Good thing I'm a resourceful Italian. I'm providing the entree, which consists of two (apparently light) courses: soup; and meat and vegetables. Hope my friends aren't very hungry, 'cause it's gonna be a late, light dinner.
"To Do" list for Sunday morning BEFORE church:
--get all ingredients and utensils out and ready
--prep the veggies
--Kmart for food processor, rolling pin, skimmer, and cheesecloth
--Hy-Vee for flour and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese;
--D and C's house to borrow pasta maker
--Video store to rent "Secretariat"
Sunday morning I only got the first three things on my list done before church, so I slipped out about 5 minutes before the service was over and ran to the grocery store. As I rushed down the flour aisle, I happened to see a whole huge section of specialty flours across from the regular flour which I hadn't noticed yesterday. And right there it was--the Semolina Flour nearly jumped off the shelf and into my oh-so-happy waiting arms. Got the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and some cheesecloth (which I hadn't found that at K-mart), and made it back to church just in time for the start of the lunch. I could only stay for the first half hour of the meeting, though, or I'd never have time to get the soup made. Swung by D & C's, and he gave me a brief but thorough lesson in how to use the pasta maker. Stopped by the movie rental store and picked up "Secretariat" and was home and ready to cook by 1:15.
"Arrange the (meat and veggies) in a large roasting pan." Hmmm. When I went to get out my pan, I realized it's a broiler pan, and I had a sinking feeling that wasn't the same thing as a roasting pan (which a quick Google search confirmed). At the same time, it occurred to me that my 5 qt. pot (Dutch oven) wasn't going to be big enough to hold 5 qts. of water plus all the meat and veggies. Ok. Breathe. Don't cry. I arranged most of the meat and veggies in the broiler pan and the rest in a brownie pan, put them in the oven, and ran back to Kmart to get a large roasting pan and a 12 qt. cooking pot. When I got back home, I washed the roasting pan and transferred all the meat and veggies into it. However, the celery and carrots were already mushy and somewhat burned from being in the brownie pan, so I picked out and threw away the mushy burned celery and carrots and cut up more and put in to replace them. All fixed.
I had to figure out what to do about the time, though. The soup started to simmer at 2:15, and it was supposed to simmer on medium or medium low for 5 hours, then cool to room temperature, then be refrigerated until well-chilled, then be brought to a boil and reheated for 15-20 minutes. I estimated if I did all that, dinner really would be served at 10 p.m. I decided it would cook faster on medium, plus the label on my new pot said "faster cooking," so maybe 4 hours would be OK. I talked to CS, and she said DG was making bread from the dough I'd given her for Christmas, and she was going to have it ready at 5:00 and wanted to serve it warm. We decided the three of them should go ahead and watch the movie on Direct TV, and I would watch it (the DVD I'd rented) on my computer as I cooked and made the pasta. They could have some bread and appetizers to tide them over till I got there at 6:30, and I'd bring some more appetizers for us to have while the soup cooled and was reheated.
While the broth cooked, I got the pasta maker all set up, washed and assembled my new food processor, and started making the dough. Now, remember, I'm working from THREE recipes here: the primary Grated Pasta Soup one; and the beef broth one; and the pasta dough one. Once I got the dough kneaded and was ready to tackle putting it through the pasta machine, I happened to turn from the dough recipe to the main soup recipe, and I read: "Mix and knead the pasta dough as directed in the recipe, but do not roll it out after it has rested. Instead....Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the dough...." What? So, I don't get to use the pasta maker at all? At this point, I sat down and carefully re-read all three recipes. Sure enough. Just as the name of the soup says, it's grated, not run through a machine.
I got the pasta dough made just fine (except for the part where I cut my hand on the grater--did I mention I sliced my left index finger and right middle finger with the carrot peeler earlier?), and the soup was cooking nicely. I started to gather my cookware, utensils, and food to take out to my friends' house where we were having dinner, and I couldn't find the Parmigiano-Reggiano I'd bought at the grocery store this morning. So, I jumped in the car and rushed back to Hy-Vee to get another wedge of that, along with some grape tomatoes and spinach dip to go with the carrots and celery I was going to take for appetizers. I finished watching "Secretariat" just in time to load the car and head to my friends' house. (Wonderful movie, by the way.)
I got there at 6:30, and while they finished watching the movie, I fixed them a plate of veggies and dip (they'd already had some crackers and cheese and grapes) and started getting the soup cooled. We all gathered in the kitchen and visited while I got the soup chilled and re-heated, and dinner was served at 8 p.m. (Yes, I put the soup in the freezer instead of the fridge to speed up that process.) The salad and bread were delicious, and everyone seemed to like my soup and the "second course" (served simultaneously) of meat and cooked veggies. There was nothing light about the meal--it was very filling. DG had made pumpkin muffins for us that looked yummy, but no one had room for dessert, so we each took a couple to go. I just now had one for a bedtime snack, and it was delicious.
Biggest lesson learned this week: I need to read thoroughly--not skim or glance through--the entire recipe (and any additional sub-recipes) and make sure I understand the entire scope and have ALL the ingredients and supplies, including cookware and utensils, before I start. Also, I learned I should ask someone who works at the store if I can't find something--the clerk could have shown me the other section of shelves of flour the first time I was there if I'd asked instead of just thinking they didn't carry the semolina when I couldn't find it. And, I learned a lot about cooking utensils, cookware, how to make pasta dough, and how to set up a pasta maker, though I didn't actually get to use it, so I can't yet say I've learned how to make pasta. D & C said they hadn't used their cranky pasta maker in about six years, so maybe they won't be needing it anytime soon and will let me hang on to it till I get a chance to use it in another recipe that calls for homemade pasta! (~:
I'm too tired tonight to look for a suitable quote for this week; so, for now, I'll share this one from the Intro. of "The Soup Diaries":
“Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?” ~Judith Martin (Miss Manners)
I felt kind of silly taking my cookbook into the store, but turned out to be a good thing I had it. Upon closer reading, I saw it said "A rich homemade beef broth is essential to the integrity of this soup," and it directed me to "Sostanzioso Brodo di Manzo" (Rich Roasted Beef Broth) on p. 25. I already have sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, and I had no trouble finding the carrots, celery, fresh baby bella mushrooms, large yellow onions, and fresh thyme. I don't like cloves, and since it didn't say they're "essential to the integrity of the flavor," I decided it would be fine without those. That left 2 1/2 pounds of boneless stewing beef such as chuck, cut into 3-in pieces, and 2 1/2 pounds of beef marrowbones. I went to the meat counter and the nice butcher showed me the chuck beef for stew they had but it was cut in 1" cubes. He had boneless chuck that wasn't cut and said he would be glad to cut it, but was I sure I wanted 3" pieces? I showed him the recipe in the cookbook, and he said, OK, sure enough, that's what it says, and he went to cut it for me. Meanwhile, the other nice young man working at the meat counter took me to show me where the marrowbones were in the meatcase, and I picked out a couple of packages that totaled about 2 1/4 pounds instead of 2 1/2 and hoped that would suffice.
The opening paragraph of this soup recipe says "Pasta grattato is a clever way to enjoy homemade pasta without a lot of work; you simply grate pieces of dough on the large holes of a box grater to create little shavings." (Note to self: check when I get home to see if I have a box grater. I don't think I do, but for some reason, I'm thinking I may have used one once, but maybe that was at someone else's house.) The recipe then tells how to make the Pasta Grattata: "Mix and knead the pasta dough as directed in the recipe...." Recipe? What recipe? I can't just buy pasta dough? Sheesh. OK. I see over in the left-hand column where it says 1 batch of Pasta all'Uovo (p. 31), so I turn to that page and find a whole other recipe for Pasta all'Uovo (Fresh Egg Pasta Dough). I know I have sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, and I'm pretty sure I have a little thing of nutmeg (I'm not gonna care that it's not freshly grated). It calls for 3 extra-large eggs, but they don't come in a carton of six, and I'll never use a dozen XL eggs, so I just get a carton of a half-dozen large eggs and wonder if 4 large eggs would be equivalent to 3 extra-large ones, or if I should just use 3 large ones. I pick up a bag of unbleached all-purpose flour and search fruitlessly for semolina flour. It only calls for 1 tablespoon (plus some more to sprinkle on the work surface), but it seems to be important for making pasta. I read the packages of all the different types of flour and don't see any that say they can be used instead of semolina, or used in pasta. Remembering that my dad had found a section in my cookbook that provided info. about pancetta and prosciutto, I look to see if it says anything about semolina. Sure enough, it says it's a pale yellow flour made from durum (hard) wheat. So, I pick up a little bag of Organic Whole Wheat flour and hope that will work, even though it doesn't say anything about being made from durum.
When I got home, I looked in my cabinets for a box grater, and I didn't have one, so I started a shopping list. I then skimmed over the pasta dough recipe, and it said "...set up your pasta machine with the rollers on the widest setting...." Wait--what pasta machine? I don't have a pasta machine. And besides, I thought the dough was just to be grated, not put through a machine. I asked a couple of friends, CS and BS, if they had one I could borrow, but neither did. I looked on K-mart on-line, and they have a couple of electric ones on sale...for $139.99 and $143.99. That would be an expensive pot of soup. They also have a hand-cranked one for $29.99. Muuuuuch better. I went in to work Saturday afternoon and then went to our women's basketball game (which we won, yay!), so I swung by K-mart on my way home but they said they don't carry any in the store. So, I checked Hy-Vee, no; Wal-greens, no; CVS, no. I very rarely shop at Walmart, but as a last resort, I went there. They didn't have a pasta machine, but they do have quite the variety of small kitchen appliances, including a beef jerkey maker kit and at least 101 different kinds of George Foreman Grills. You'd think ol' George could branch out a little and make a pasta maker....
When I got home I put a cooking 911 post out to my Macomb facebook peeps to see if anyone had a pasta maker I could borrow, and within 30 minutes, my colleague and friend, DV, came through and said, "Are you talking about the cranky thing you keep putting the dough through to make it thinner and then it cuts it into long noodles? If so, we've got one and you are welcome to borrow it!" Schew. Now I don't have to pick out a different recipe and start all over w/ the grocery shopping, etc. for tomorrow's dinner!
I Googled substitutions for semolina flour, and found the following list:
Kamut Flour
Spelt Flour
All-Purpose Flour (However, it is not nearly as good for making pasta. Pasta made from all-purpose flour should be cooked in lots of water and served while hot to avoid a mushy dish.)
Rice Flour (However, the pasta made from rice flour has a distinct rice flavor.)
Amaranth Flour
Quinoa Flour
Garbanzo Flour (Garbanzo flour is also labeled as gram flour.)
Hmmmm. No Whole Wheat Flour. Guess that means I'll have to take it back to the store Sunday and hope they carry one of the above so I can make the exchange. I need to go back to the store, anyway, because I forgot to get some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for serving. I did, however, remember to get a box grater while I was out looking for a pasta maker. I also recalled that a strainer was on my kitchen utensils to be purchased list from Week 4, so I picked up three different sized strainers--a 3", a 5" and an 8"--while I was at it. (When I got home and went to put them away in the drawer, I discovered I had a 3" one already--which, it turns out, I bought in Week 4, but that was 7 years ago, and I've never used it since.) Oh, well, maybe I'll need both, or donate one to the kitchen at work.
Ok, so upon further reading of the pasta dough recipe, I realized I should have read the ENTIRE recipe first, before beginning cooking or even doing any of the shopping: "Purists maintain that truly good, tender pasta dough cannot be made in a food processor, but I disagree. Once you make this dough, you'll see why. This recipe is easy to follow and works every time....To mix the dough, put the all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon of semolina flour, salt, and nutmeg in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade." Yup, that's right. I DON'T HAVE A FOOD PROCESSOR (except my magic squisher, which doesn't have a work bowl). Breathe. Read on. "Knead the (dough) briefly on the work surface. Then, using a rolling pin..." Rolling pin. Hmmm. I've certainly used one before, but I can't recall if I have one of my own, or if I'm just thinking about when I was little and helped my mom make pie dough and Christmas cookies. A search of my kitchen drawers and cabinets confirms that it's the latter.....And, looking back at the beef broth recipe, I now see that it says: "Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, skimming any foam that forms on the surface with a skimmer." Skimmer. Hmmm. Nope, I know I don't have one of those. "...Strain the broth through a colander lined with cheesecloth..." Cheesecloth. Hmmm. Where's my shopping list?
And NOW (at 11:30 Sat. night) I see something that makes my heart sink: "...simmer very gently, uncovered, skimming the surface as necesary for the first hour or so, for 5 hours..." Wait. I have church at 10:30 a.m., followed by lunch and the Annual Meeting, so I was planning to run to the store after and go by D & CV's to borrow their pasta maker, and start cooking around 2:00. Keep reading: "...Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until well chilled...." OK, so what time's dinner? 10:00 p.m.? Seriously.
Not finished reading--there's some fine print I hadn't seen earlier: Makes 6 to 8 first-course servings. First course? Hmmm. My friends are making salad and bread. I'm bringing the main course. Or, so I thought. Oh, good--there's a Cook's Note at the end of the Beef Broth recipe: "Resourceful Italians often serve the meat and vegetables, drizzled with good olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, as a light second course to a broth-based soup." Schew. Good thing I'm a resourceful Italian. I'm providing the entree, which consists of two (apparently light) courses: soup; and meat and vegetables. Hope my friends aren't very hungry, 'cause it's gonna be a late, light dinner.
"To Do" list for Sunday morning BEFORE church:
--get all ingredients and utensils out and ready
--prep the veggies
--Kmart for food processor, rolling pin, skimmer, and cheesecloth
--Hy-Vee for flour and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese;
--D and C's house to borrow pasta maker
--Video store to rent "Secretariat"
Sunday morning I only got the first three things on my list done before church, so I slipped out about 5 minutes before the service was over and ran to the grocery store. As I rushed down the flour aisle, I happened to see a whole huge section of specialty flours across from the regular flour which I hadn't noticed yesterday. And right there it was--the Semolina Flour nearly jumped off the shelf and into my oh-so-happy waiting arms. Got the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and some cheesecloth (which I hadn't found that at K-mart), and made it back to church just in time for the start of the lunch. I could only stay for the first half hour of the meeting, though, or I'd never have time to get the soup made. Swung by D & C's, and he gave me a brief but thorough lesson in how to use the pasta maker. Stopped by the movie rental store and picked up "Secretariat" and was home and ready to cook by 1:15.
"Arrange the (meat and veggies) in a large roasting pan." Hmmm. When I went to get out my pan, I realized it's a broiler pan, and I had a sinking feeling that wasn't the same thing as a roasting pan (which a quick Google search confirmed). At the same time, it occurred to me that my 5 qt. pot (Dutch oven) wasn't going to be big enough to hold 5 qts. of water plus all the meat and veggies. Ok. Breathe. Don't cry. I arranged most of the meat and veggies in the broiler pan and the rest in a brownie pan, put them in the oven, and ran back to Kmart to get a large roasting pan and a 12 qt. cooking pot. When I got back home, I washed the roasting pan and transferred all the meat and veggies into it. However, the celery and carrots were already mushy and somewhat burned from being in the brownie pan, so I picked out and threw away the mushy burned celery and carrots and cut up more and put in to replace them. All fixed.
I had to figure out what to do about the time, though. The soup started to simmer at 2:15, and it was supposed to simmer on medium or medium low for 5 hours, then cool to room temperature, then be refrigerated until well-chilled, then be brought to a boil and reheated for 15-20 minutes. I estimated if I did all that, dinner really would be served at 10 p.m. I decided it would cook faster on medium, plus the label on my new pot said "faster cooking," so maybe 4 hours would be OK. I talked to CS, and she said DG was making bread from the dough I'd given her for Christmas, and she was going to have it ready at 5:00 and wanted to serve it warm. We decided the three of them should go ahead and watch the movie on Direct TV, and I would watch it (the DVD I'd rented) on my computer as I cooked and made the pasta. They could have some bread and appetizers to tide them over till I got there at 6:30, and I'd bring some more appetizers for us to have while the soup cooled and was reheated.
While the broth cooked, I got the pasta maker all set up, washed and assembled my new food processor, and started making the dough. Now, remember, I'm working from THREE recipes here: the primary Grated Pasta Soup one; and the beef broth one; and the pasta dough one. Once I got the dough kneaded and was ready to tackle putting it through the pasta machine, I happened to turn from the dough recipe to the main soup recipe, and I read: "Mix and knead the pasta dough as directed in the recipe, but do not roll it out after it has rested. Instead....Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the dough...." What? So, I don't get to use the pasta maker at all? At this point, I sat down and carefully re-read all three recipes. Sure enough. Just as the name of the soup says, it's grated, not run through a machine.
I got the pasta dough made just fine (except for the part where I cut my hand on the grater--did I mention I sliced my left index finger and right middle finger with the carrot peeler earlier?), and the soup was cooking nicely. I started to gather my cookware, utensils, and food to take out to my friends' house where we were having dinner, and I couldn't find the Parmigiano-Reggiano I'd bought at the grocery store this morning. So, I jumped in the car and rushed back to Hy-Vee to get another wedge of that, along with some grape tomatoes and spinach dip to go with the carrots and celery I was going to take for appetizers. I finished watching "Secretariat" just in time to load the car and head to my friends' house. (Wonderful movie, by the way.)
I got there at 6:30, and while they finished watching the movie, I fixed them a plate of veggies and dip (they'd already had some crackers and cheese and grapes) and started getting the soup cooled. We all gathered in the kitchen and visited while I got the soup chilled and re-heated, and dinner was served at 8 p.m. (Yes, I put the soup in the freezer instead of the fridge to speed up that process.) The salad and bread were delicious, and everyone seemed to like my soup and the "second course" (served simultaneously) of meat and cooked veggies. There was nothing light about the meal--it was very filling. DG had made pumpkin muffins for us that looked yummy, but no one had room for dessert, so we each took a couple to go. I just now had one for a bedtime snack, and it was delicious.
Biggest lesson learned this week: I need to read thoroughly--not skim or glance through--the entire recipe (and any additional sub-recipes) and make sure I understand the entire scope and have ALL the ingredients and supplies, including cookware and utensils, before I start. Also, I learned I should ask someone who works at the store if I can't find something--the clerk could have shown me the other section of shelves of flour the first time I was there if I'd asked instead of just thinking they didn't carry the semolina when I couldn't find it. And, I learned a lot about cooking utensils, cookware, how to make pasta dough, and how to set up a pasta maker, though I didn't actually get to use it, so I can't yet say I've learned how to make pasta. D & C said they hadn't used their cranky pasta maker in about six years, so maybe they won't be needing it anytime soon and will let me hang on to it till I get a chance to use it in another recipe that calls for homemade pasta! (~:
I'm too tired tonight to look for a suitable quote for this week; so, for now, I'll share this one from the Intro. of "The Soup Diaries":
“Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?” ~Judith Martin (Miss Manners)
Monday, January 17, 2011
Week 15: The Soup Diaries Redux!
The first weekend of December (2010), some friends, KO and KV, and I made a fun roadtrip to see our friend JT and her art work that was on display in a coffee house in her town, and on our way home we stopped to do some Christmas shopping and pick up some things we each needed. I bought myself a new "Cooks 5-in-1 Power Blender" to replace my magic squisher that had died last summer. (It was on sale, and I could have gotten an additional rebate, but I forgot about it until I found the rebate form a week after it had expired.) So, now, I'll be able to fix that Gazpacho come summer!
Last week, I started thinking about reviving "The Soup Diaries" and got excited about starting to cook soup again and having friends over for dinner, and maybe even cooking some to take to friends when they're sick. I also decided
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming – “WOW – What a Ride!” ~Author Unknown
“Keep trying. Stay humble, Trust your instincts. Most importantly, act. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” ~Yogi Berra
Last week, I started thinking about reviving "The Soup Diaries" and got excited about starting to cook soup again and having friends over for dinner, and maybe even cooking some to take to friends when they're sick. I also decided
“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming – “WOW – What a Ride!” ~Author Unknown
“Keep trying. Stay humble, Trust your instincts. Most importantly, act. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” ~Yogi Berra
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