Italian Wedding Soup

My sister told me about this recipe - she saw it made on a Food Network show and copied from what they did. I made it this week, and it was easy to do and turns out really well. I had some chicken stock on hand, so I added that to the water I boiled the chicken in, because I just boiled one bone-in, skin-on breast, rather than a whole bird, since it's just me and I try not to eat a lot of meat. I also added some fresh tarragon that I had left over from something else, since fresh herbs are expensive and I don't like them to go to waste. It's great soup, and perfect since winter won't seem to move on!

Ingredients:

Whole chicken or game hen

Large head of escarole (or spinach - what I used because I couldn't find escarole)

Two yellow onions

Celery

Carrots

Garlic

Oregano

Bay leaves

Orzo (or very small pasta, like pastina)

Salt

Ground beef or turkey

2 eggs

Bread

Milk

Boil a whole chicken (for one person, I would get either some chicken on the bone or a small game hen or chicken piece(s)). Add to the water chopped carrot, celery and onion and some oregano, a bay leaf and some salt. Let the chicken boil down for about an hour. After an hour, remove the chicken to a plate to cool.

While the chicken is boiling, make your tiny meatballs (you can use ground turkey. I saute some onion, garlic and celery to add to mine along with a piece of bread soaked in milk and one or two eggs, two if you’re using turkey, salt and pepper. You can substitute breadcrumbs for the bread.) The meatballs should be small. Bake them for about ½ an hour to 40 minutes.

Tear the meat off the chicken, shredding it, and add back to the soup base.

Chop the head of escarole and add to soup

Add meatballs

Add orzo

Cook until the orzo is tender and voila! Italian wedding soup.

Chocolate Chip Cookie #10

Some of you may know that I've been having a couple crises over the last few years. One is my pie crust crisis. Ever since I've graduated from college, I just can't pull together a good pie crust, and the more I try (fancy recipes, ice water, using shortening AND butter) the worst they get. But that's a battle to fight another day, because yesterday I got a different monkey off my back: the chocolate chip cookie. My cookies have been turning into flat, anemic-looking rubber disks that burnt on the edges, stayed raw in the middle, and glommed together in the cookie jar so badly they turned into a chocolate chip mass. No longer, my friends! These cookies remained discreet, each one delicious and distinguishable from the next. This picture is of my actual cookies. And, they were pretty darn tasty, too. Huzzah!

In celebration of this achievement, I'm going to actually TYPE UP a long recipe from a cookbook. Normally, I'll do a search on the Google for a recipe from a cookbook, and if I can't find it, I don't post it. (sorry!) But this is a remarkable day. Enjoy. It's from Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food, which I like, among many other reasons, because it includes the weight and volume of the ingredients.

Dry Ingredients:
10 3/4 oz or 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
5 1/3 oz or 3/4 cup sugar
5 oz or 3/4 cup brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter* melted and slightly cooled
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Other: 2 cups chocolate chips

Combine the dry ingredients well (Alton recommends using a food processor. I used a whisk). In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar well, until you can't see the individual sugar particles but you can still feel them, and the butter has lightened in color and doubled in volume. Add the egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla. Then gradually add the dry goods, mix just until combined, then fold in the chips.

Using a 1-ounce disher**, scoop 24 portions onto two ungreased baking sheets. At this stage, the cookies can be frozen on the pans then moved to zip-top bags, they'll keep for 3 months.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until golden brown (I rotated the pans halfway through, both between the two racks and I rotated each pan so the back was put to the front). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

RESULTS: Well, you already know how I feel about these cookies. They weren't the best fresh, though, they had some crumbly grandularness to them, which evened out after resting overnight in the cookie jar. They had some good butteriness and also just enough saltiness. I will never make another chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is it, love at first sight.

*I was running out of butter, and I had a stick of margarine left over from before I swore off margarine, so I used one stick of margarine and one stick butter. I'm not sure how that affected the results, we'll have to see the next time I make them. Also, the butter, though almost soft, wasn't QUITE soft. Again, I don't know how that affected the results.

**I didn't have a 1-oz scooper, but I didn't really need it. The batter was more of a paste, and it was pretty easy to just split it in half, put half on each cookie sheet, then continue halving and, uh, thirding(?) until I had 12 equal portions on each sheet.

Tuscan Bread Soup?

I just realized I never posted one of my most favorite soup recipes. I thought it was called Tuscan Bread Soup, but a quick web search has shown me that this is wrong. Unfortunately, I've since thrown away the recipe so I'm not sure what it's called. Betsy, do you know? I'm also not sure that I still make it the way it's supposed to be made. Oh well. It's basically a lot like how I make Arrabiatta sauce, but in soup form.

Warm a little olive oil in a medium saucepan and brown a couple cloves of garlic (or you can chop them if you really like garlic) with a dash or too of red chili flakes. Drain a can of whole tomatoes, saving the juice, and toss the tomatoes in with a pinch of salt. When they start to soften, mash them with a wooden spoon (be careful, the juice spurts!). When they're pretty well mashed into bite-sized pieces, add the juice back in. I like to add some basil at this point and check the seasoning. Yesterday, I added a tad smoked paprika, which made it tres delicious. Let it simmer for a while until you like the consistency. Serve with good-quality day-old bread (seriously, if it's not good store-bought or homemade bread just don't even make this soup). Break the bread into little chunks and let them sit for a while in the soup until they get good and creamy. Mmmmm. It's really good with Italian or French bread. I don't like the idea of cheese with this, but it might work. Even Chris doesn't put cheese on it, though, and he puts extra cheese on everything I make, even macaroni and cheese.

Morrocan-Style Preserved Lemons

From my Gourmet Cookbook

Makes: about 48 pieces
Active time:15 min
Start to finish:5 days

Preserved lemons are perhaps most at home in Moroccan dishes, but we love their complex, bright flavor and aroma in all kinds of soups, stews, and salads. We’ve adapted Mediterranean-food authority Paul Wolfert’s quick method and made it even faster by blanching the lemons first. Save the pulp for bloody Marys or anything else enlivened by a little lemon juice and salt. If you manage to find Meyer lemons, this is a great way to capture their unforgettable taste and perfume.

10 to 12 lemons (2 1/2 to 3 lb)
2/3 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Equipment: a (4- to) 6-cup jar with a tight-fitting lid

Blanch 6 lemons in boiling water 5 minutes, then drain. Cut each lemon into 8 wedges and discard seeds. Toss with kosher salt in a bowl, then firmly pack with salt into jar.
Squeeze lemon juice from remaining lemons to measure 1 cup. Add enough juice to cover lemons and screw on lid. Let stand at room temperature, shaking jar gently once a day, 5 days. Add oil to lemons and chill, covered.

Cooks’ note: Lemons keep, chilled, 1 year.

RESULTS: In case you're wondering, lemons were on sale at Kroger. I bought a lot. Not the fancy-pants meyer lemons, I've never heard of those.

I think most of what I have to say about this recipe is about mechanics. First of all, my cookbook says to use a 6-cup jar. All I had was a 4-cup jar (from store-bought spaghetti sauce), so I thought I'd just do 2/3rds of the amounts for everything, but it was Saturday morning, and my tea hadn't enough kick for me to do the math, so I just decided to make it easier and do half the recipe and just have room at the top. The problem is that lemons float, so in order for everything to be submerged, I had to add a LOT of juice, and then that got me worried about the salt-juice ratio, and I was using sea salt instead of kosher salt anyway so it was already a little screwy.... anyway. I think it turned out mostly the way it's supposed to, but I've never had a Moroccan-style preserved lemon so it's hard to say. Take my advice, just follow the recipe the way it's written, don't try to get fancy with fractions and what not. Besides, I just now found this recipe on the Gourmet magazine website where they say to use a 4- to 6-cup jar. NOW they tell me! Sheesh.

You're probably wondering, "why would you preserve a lemon? They're readily available year round!" which is exactly the question Chris asked me as I was covered in lemon juice and sea salt. (By the way, don't make this recipe if you have any recent cuts or scrapes on your hands. Trust me.) I've seen a few recipes that call for preserved lemons and I intend to try them, but I also like just a couple wedges cut up small in salads, and the juice makes a good salad dressing with a little extra olive oil and pepper. The rind gets rather soft, and the lemons seem to have gotten more sour and rather briny... basically, they taste just like you would think they taste based on the recipe.

The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden in the White House lawn. I think this is a great idea, especially because they're inviting school children from DC schools to tend it. I don't know how effectively it'll provide produce for the White House kitchens, but I think the real value is for those kids. I've read about other city projects where inner city school kids are given gardening jobs, and they learn to like eating fresh fruits and vegetables. There's one project in Boston, I think, where the children harvest the fruit from the fruit trees all over the city, and they get to take it home for their families.

Soda Bread with Dark Chocolate and Candied Orange Peel

Yield: Makes 1 large round loaf
Ingredients:

• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/3-inch pieces
• 6 ounces candied orange peel, diced
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg

Directions:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; butter parchment. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in chocolate and orange peel. Whisk buttermilk and egg in medium bowl to blend; add to dry ingredients. Stir just until incorporated.
2. Turn dough out onto floured work surface and knead gently just until dough comes together, about 5 turns. Form dough into 6 1/2-inch-diameter round, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches high. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Using sharp knife, cut 1-inch-deep, 3-inch-long slits in top of bread, forming sunburst pattern.
3. Bake bread until well browned and very firm when pressed and tester inserted into center comes out clean, turning baking sheet halfway through baking, about 1 hour 10 minutes total. Transfer bread to rack and cool completely, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and store at room temperature.)

RESULTS: This tasted more like a very large and rather less dense scone to me than Irish Soda Bread. It makes a GIGANTIC loaf, so currently I'm experimenting with how well it freezes (wrapped in tin foil and then put in a freezer ziplock bag). It was rather tasty, though, if a little on the sweet side. I'm not sure it's the best one I've made this year, I prefer the second one from Gourmet. Mom, how'd yours turn out last weekend?

Lemon Curd Tart (aka, lemonade pudding pie)

Feeling spring-like (and lemons were REALLY cheap at Kroger) I felt like making lemon curd tart from the Alice Waters book. Chris said it sounded not so appetizing, so I redubbed it lemonade pudding pie.

Curd/Pudding:
Makes 2 cups

Wash and dry:4 lemons

Grate the zest of one of the lemons on the small holes of a grater. Juice the lemons; there should be about ½ cup juice.

Beat until just mixed:
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)

Stir in the lemon juice and zest and add:
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces.

Cook the mixture in a small nonreactive heavy pan, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Do not boil or the eggs will curdle. When thick, pour into a bowl or glass jars to cool. Cover and refrigerate.

Variations: With their sweeter juice and perfumed peel, Meyer lemons make an especially good curd.

Tart/Pie:
Fill a pre-baked 9-inch tart shell (I used a non-pre-baked graham cracker store bought pie shell since I don't have any tart pans) with the 2-cups lemon curt (aka lemonade pudding). Smooth out the curd/pudding and bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until curd is set.

RESULTS: Delicious. Tart. Lemony.

One thing is I don't know how one tells when the curd is "set". It was still jiggly and seemed pretty-unset when I finally gave up and pulled it out of the oven after 25 minutes, but when it cooled it was perfectly firm. So I don't know what to tell you. The other thing is that when I was cooking the curd itself over the stove, it thickened in, literally, 5 seconds. I was stirring, stirring, stirring for a few minutes and BAM, suddenly it was thick. I guess the eggs just suddenly all got to the right temperature. Just something to keep in mind. Don't walk away from this one!