Posted by The Serious Eats Team, May 14, 2008 at 2:45 PM
- serves 5 -
Adapted from Entertaining by Martha Stewart.
Ingredients
6 medium beets
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and minced
1 carrot, peeled and finely grated
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups chicken or beef broth
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sour cream
Garnishes: boiled potatoes, peeled and cubed; chopped fresh dill; cucumber, skin on, cubed; hard-boiled eggs; sour cream
Procedure
1. Wash unpeeled beets. Wrap in aluminum foil and put on a baking sheet; roast in a preheated 350°F oven until fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Cool, peel, and grate.
2. Sauté the onions and carrots in the butter for 10 minutes. Add the beets, sugar, and broth. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat. Puree in a food processor or food mill. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Chill.
3. Stir sour cream into soup and serve with bowls of garnish.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM
I'm sure a good deal of you already have dinner plans for tomorrow night, what with Mother's Day and all. Since I'll be about 1,200 miles from my own mom tomorrow, I thought I'd make a batch of one of my favorite childhood dishes as a sort of culinary tribute in absentia. Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I guess I just want to eat somethign to remind me of home tomorrow night. So I'm going to share this recipe for Beef Stew that my mom often made (and probably still does).
And for anyone who likes to quibble with recipes, now's not the time. It's my mom's, it's Mother's Day weekend, and anyone giving guff is on a fast road to Banyourassville. ;)
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Posted by Lucy Baker, April 25, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Today's cook the book recipe, excerpted from The Oprah Magazine Cookbook, is for a sensational Creole Gumbo straight from the Big Easy. Chef Leah Chase, owner of the restaurant Dooky Chase and arguably the Queen of Creole Cuisine, pulls out all the stops. Her version includes fresh crabs, oysters, and shrimp; veal and chicken; and two kinds of sausage. The recipe makes a lot—it serves 8 to 10—so mix up some Sazeracs and prepare it with a group of friends. This is soul food at its absolute best.
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 17, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Considering the length of most recipes in Judy Roger's Zuni Cafe Cookbook, the eponymous cookbook of her San Francisco restaurant, finding a quick dinner recipe is something of a feat. Every page of her book is awash with meticulous detail about the cooking process, from advice about the shape of diced onion pieces to the flavor a fish stock ought to have when it's just finished (minutes too long on the stove and it can go muddy). Her roast chicken recipe, for example, runs four pages. Yet despite the laborious descriptions of technique (or perhaps because of it), everything I've made from that book has been outstanding: a monkfish stew, that roast chicken, and now, this soup. As she mentions in the recipe's introduction, it's a soup of delightful flavors and unexpected textures.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 16, 2008 at 1:45 PM
It's been only within the last year or so that I've acquired a taste for beets. I used to hate the earthy flavor and slightly gritty texture, which reminded me of eating dirt. But my girlfriend loves them, and after many dinners out with beet salads and beet dishes as an appetizer, I've come to savor them in all their variations. So when I found this straightforward Beet Soup with Feta, I knew I wanted to highlight it as one of the Cook the Book recipes this week. The book it's adapted from, The River Cottage Cookbook, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, gives instructions for serving it hot but also mentions that it's good chilled as well, especially if you grate some raw beet on top as a garnish.
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 15, 2008 at 4:15 PM
The first time I tried kimchi, a spicy Korean concoction of fermented vegetables, a friend of mine had made a stew out of it for a group of friends. The hot, vinegary taste flavored the whole broth, which had tofu and scallions, and then he added Sriracha to dial up the heat further. It was in the middle of summer in a capacious west Philadelphia apartment with no air conditioning, and the soup burned. But I was surprised to find that we all began to feel cooler immediately as the sweat-inducing soup caused us to condensate and cool. The pungent, garlicky taste stayed with me for hours.
Since then, I've loved kimchi, especially straight out of the jar. It's strong stuff though, and not necessarily fit for a meal all by itself, which is why this recipe caught my eye. Basically, it's a delivery vehicle for kimchi, with a few other ingredients to elevate the flavors. The clean, wheaty flavor of udon noodles absorbs some of the kimchi's spice, tempering the stronger flavors to allow them to mellow and bloom more in the mouth. Toasted sesame oil adds a rounded, caramel flavor that warms the stringent acidity. Best of all, it's made in about 7 minutes, just the time it takes to boil the noodles, run them under cold water, and toss them with all the ingredients. This is my new midnight snack.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 9, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Until last week I never met a mulligatawny soup I liked. It wasn’t that I hated the ones I was introduced to; it was more that they were watery, wan, and forgettable. Usually they were included as part of some deal at an Indian restaurant. I was torn between feeling sorry for mulligatawny, clinging to its place on the menu for people scared to order anything else, and vaguely disdaining it as an Anglo imposition on the Indian table.
Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe intrigued me, though, because it is made with meat and thickened with chickpea flour. Mulligatawny takes so many different forms that it seems almost silly to group all these soups under one name, but most of them do seem to be chicken based and have nothing to do with chickpea flour. I had to try this version, and I’m very glad I did.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Yesterday we highlighted a Southern cornbread, so today I think it's only fair we make a bit of a deal about a Northern cornbread. Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of The Cornbread Gospels, says that this cornbread is sweet (as you'd expect), but not too sweet and that it rises high, so expect to see a little dome in the middle.
Win 'The Cornbread Gospels'
As is always the case with our Cook the Books, we're giving away a five copies of this book this week. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 3, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Spring vegetables are beginning to appear in the produce aisle—asparagus, sugar snap peas—so I wanted to take advantage. What I found is one of those absurdly simple recipes that you think just won't work. Or at least, that's what I was thinking. Really? I can just sauté some shallots and garlic, add stock and rice, simmer for awhile, then toss in crunchy delicious vegetables? And it will taste clean, healthy, filling, and delicious? Well, yes, that's the idea.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 1, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I wasn’t sick, but I did have a lot of leftover chicken. For some unknown reason, I was struck by the need to make the most chickeny chicken soup possible. I had loads of onions and carrots and enough thick stock to make a real meal happen—but I was put off by the long process. The fiancée and I had some wedding plans to attend to and not much time to spend. A crazy chicken soup would have been too much so I downgraded my plans to this highly spiced soup I found on Epicurious.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, March 24, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Nigel Slater’s luxurious and deeply aromatic noodle dish has been on my poorly-maintained “to-make” list since Amazon delivered my copy of Appetite
four years ago. It was the title that won me over, I must admit, though the pictures are pretty convincing, too: fat shrimp, tangled noodles, a beautiful green purée. One thing and another (lack of Cuisinart, fear of fish sauce) interfered, and I didn’t get around to making it until last weekend. And then—it was too spicy for me to enjoy. I suffered through it with a glass of milk and hoped it would mellow overnight.
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Posted by Gina DePalma, March 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Eggs are essential ingredients in Italian Easter celebrations, playing a role that extends beyond the huge, elaborately decorated chocolate eggs that decorate every shop window in the weeks before the holiday.
Eggs were a symbol of new birth and renewal for many of the ancient civilizations predating the Christian era, when they were adopted as a representation of the resurrection of Christ. They evolved as part of the traditional Easter feast partly because they were one of the foods originally forbidden to have during Lent. These traditions are still intact today, ingrained in the mind, heart, and stomach; each region of Italy has its own special recipes for consuming eggs on Easter.
Romans are likely to enjoy a light first course of Brodetto Pasquale at their Easter table, the local version of a soup that features eggs as well as lamb, another iconic Easter food.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 17, 2008 at 4:30 PM
The first of this week's recipes from Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking is for Mushroom Barley Soup. I couldn't resist highlighting this one, because a good mushroom barley soup is one of my favorites. I've never made my own, prefering to get a decent one at a handful of delis here in New York, but Arthur Schwartz doesn't make this seem so difficult. The most time-consuming part might be making the chicken soup that serves as a base, but even that's not too crazy—and you can sub in four quarts vegetable broth for the chicken soup and water listed below.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, March 17, 2008 at 2:30 PM
This chicken soup can be served alone as a clear broth or with the addition of matzo balls, kreplach, lukshen, or soup nuts (mandlen). It's adapted from Jewish Home Cooking by Arthur Schwartz.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 11, 2008 at 1:45 PM
My Last Supper takes the old "last bite on earth" game to the next level by asking that question of 50 of the world's best-known and most-loved chefs. Though beautifully photographed and almost more of a coffee-table book in size and format, there are some serious recipes in here to accompany the memorable visuals and fun interviews. As this week's featured Cook the Book entry, we'll be highlighting a recipe a day from it. Today's is from Mario Batali, who describes his last meal as a "seafood extravaganza" that would end with this dish, gamberoni all'acqua pazza, or "shrimp in crazy water."
As is always the case with our Cook the Books, we're giving away a number of them this week. Enter to win My Last Supper »
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 5, 2008 at 5:05 PM
I’ve had mixed results with blended soups lately. Sometimes it feels like I’m dealing with a wonderfully complex and succulent creation before it goes into the machine, and bland puréed slop afterwards. But I figured Martha Stewart could lead me in the right direction. She combats the blending problems I’ve had by amping up the spice and adding some much needed acidity.
The kick comes from a combination of grated ginger and curry powder, and some tart apples help keep it lively. This comes from The New Classics
, a massive volume with nearly half its paper weight coming from the dessert section. Of course, I gravitated towards the front and picked a soup that sounds rather similar to the curried butternut squash soup I made in the fall. But this is a far more balanced affair.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, February 26, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Photograph from zero-g on Flickr
I always thought that kale was supposed to behave like spinach. Granted, I haven't done much cooking with it, but I assumed that when exposed to heat it would wilt and shrivel down to a fraction of its original size. So when I decided to make the potato soup with kale and chorizo from the March issue of Bon Appétit I didn't bat an eye over the fact that the recipe called for a lot of it—16 cups, to be exact.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, February 23, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Our final Cook the Book recipe of the week, adapted from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver, is for a comforting bowl of shin stew. After sautéing some vegetables and searing the beef, the oven does most of the work, slowly cooking the beef shin to a tender-as-you-like-it texture while filling your kitchen with a tempting aroma.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 21, 2008 at 4:45 PM
After making Avgolemono a few weeks ago, I've been on the lookout for myriad ways that eggs and chicken stock can be combined to make soup. As sickness comes and goes and the cold of winter makes nothing more appealing than a bowl of chicken soup, new ideas are always welcome. In the case of Avgolemono, whipped eggs whites and lemon juice gave the soup an appealing lightness and acidity, while the result was still rich and chickeny. So when I was flipping through Mario Batali's Molto Italiano
, this recipe caught my eye for its similarity and simplicity.
It's also a little easier to pull off. Freshly grated nutmeg replaces the lemon juice and Parmesan cheese adds complexity and a round flavor. Chopped parsley goes in for freshness, and a little bit of semolina (pasta) flour to thicken. All you need to do is combine the ingredients with a bit of cold chicken stock, then whisk that into boiling hot stock over low heat. The egg breaks up into little "shreds" (stracciatelle), the Parmesan disappears into the broth, and the result is comfort food.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 8, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Apparently, people are clamoring for Avgolemono, a lemony Greek chicken soup, judging from the 62 reviews for the Epicurious recipe available online, which has a respectable three-fork rating. Personally, I don't have memories of slurping this soup down in some Greek diner on my corner, but many do, especially in Chicago, and they all want a good recipe. The only problem is that actually reading these abundant reviews (a post on Too Many Chefs lead me there) reveals a shake-up: the Epicurious recipe is disparaged as inauthentic. Hardly anyone likes it. Instead, a mysterious cook known only as "Boston, MA" who left a comment in 2002, is repeatedly praised as the provider of an "OUTSTANDING," "SUPER" and "MUCH better" recipe than the original—and many people provide high ratings for her recipe instead. It's just a quick paragraph and comes from the author's experience watching her Yia Yia (grandmother) make it when she was a child. It involves 5 ingredients, including pepper.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, February 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Besides big roasts, slow braises, and stuffed pastas that are probably best for lazy-Sunday cooking, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking has much to offer in the way of weeknight dinner (if you’re accustomed to spending about an hour making dinner, that is). I love Marcella Hazan’s frittate but somehow always forget that eggs for dinner are allowed, so I usually end up browsing soups, salads, and vegetables for ideas. Recently I put Chick Pea Soup, Potatoes with Onions, Tomatoes, and Sweet Pepper, and Shredded Savoy Cabbage Salad to the test.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, January 30, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
Every year, I get excited about the Super Bowl. It's not about the halftime show or the commercials, and although I've been trying my best to understand the finer points of the game, it really comes down to one thing: the food.
When I told my boyfriend I wanted to throw a Super Bowl party this year, he wasn't too thrilled when he realized it would attract a crowd more interested in eating than watching the game. He was so concerned that he went so far as to propose I throw a Saturday night eating party, leaving Sunday to intense game-watchers. Sure, like that's gonna happen.
Here are some great recipes for the big game that I'm sure will show him that serious eating doesn't need to be sacrificed for serious watching. Now, I'll just have to convince him that my red and blue Giants cupcakes could theoretically be for the Pats, too.
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