Oriental soups

This is going to be a lazy post, by which I mean, I am not going to write up a recipe. The reason? Ethnic. I don´t feel I can speak with any authority or knowledge about Asian soups. I was born and have always lived in a country that used to have no immigrants, where all Chinese restaurants were called "La gran muralla" . They served fried rice and gloopy lemon chicken and if anybody ever asked for a soup there I´ve never met them.

Now things have improved, and it´s possible to have pretty good stuff, at least in Madrid. Most importantly, it´s possible to buy lots of ingredients that allow you to replicate many of the lovely things found in books and around the internet. And that´s what the beauty of my lack of Asian food education comes in; my standards are so low that I just looove what I make.

The fun bit with all these things is stocking up the pantry. A trip to the Mostenses market and its adjacent shops will have you coming back with bulging bags for very little money. I buy noodles, won ton wrappers, dried shiitakes, fish sauce, chili garlic sauce, Hoisin sauce, big bottles of soy sauce, sesame oil, bean sprouts, good cheap chicken, massive ginger roots, even chinese chives and bok choi and pak choy.

It´s a lot of fun. You can even brave the underworld and try to eat at the subterranean restaurant in the Plaza de España parking lot, which is always packed and so rather difficult. I hear it´s great, and hope some day to put it to the test.

Meanwhile, I´ll be trying to make won tons, and making lots and lots of soup. What kind? Well, on lazy days it might be instant miso soup. On more energetic ones good chicken stock with fish sauce, a hint of chili and some mint or chives. And for true soul warming stuff, filling yet light, the full on chicken noodle treatment, or a version thereof with scraps of leftover roast meat.

It´s a very accomodating patron, the noodle soup, and one that always hits the spot, so have a go.

Meringues to die for

Here´s Gasparini, a blog I´ve been meaning to link to for ages. It has the most drop dead gourgeous meringues, and shares the recipes, which is lovely of course. Not that I could ever make anything so pretty, ever, at any time, but isn´t it lovely to see it? I have contributed to the all around prettiness, I like to think, in the blog header and the logos, so go have a look.

Chicken soup in a relative hurry

Ideally the freezer should never be out of some chicken stock, neatly parcelled and labelled, the sort that has simmered for hours and is full of jellied goodness. But we all know that is not always possible, and so, here´s a way to make chicken soup that will give you a steaming bowlful in thirty minutes or so.

Buy some chicken, preferably on the bone.Chop leeks and carrots, onion perhaps, celery if you like (I do), potato if you don´t want pasta later. Chop them small. This might seem counter productive if you´re in a hurry, but the smaller you chop the quicker they cook. Sweat them in a bit of oil, then add water and some good bouillon powder. I have some Marigold I brought over from the UK, but plain old Knorr is quite ok, really. And yes, I know it´s just flavoured salt, but what do you think is in those nice looking cartons of broth? Stock cubes and water, my friends, marked up to make us all look like idiots.

So, stock cube, water. Now the chicken bits. If it´s breast, then you don´t want to give it much time, but thighs or drumsticks can take twenty minutes´ slow simmer very well, by which time the vegetables will have cooked to an agreeably soft texture. At the end, throw in a handful of tiny pasta and take out the chicken. Let it rest a little and tear the meat, put it back in the pot, and taste. You´ll probably need salt, possibly some lemon juice to perk it up, definitely a dash of sherry to enliven it, a small cube of butter because it´s always a good idea, and a sprinkling of parsley to make it look good.

A bowl of this won´t keep you on your feet for a day´s skiing, but it´s just the thing for a blustery January evening.

Soup month

The problem with January is that you´re supposed to be all virtuous all of a sudden, even though you are still wrapped in a million layers of clothing, and it´s so cold that the mere thought of a salad can make tears freeze in your eyes.
There´s precious little point in even pretending that a big turnaround is going to happen. You might as well be realistic and eat something good and filling, because if you don´t, you´ll just walk intoLe pain quotidien and demolish some overpriced croissants and hot chocolate, and what´s the good of that?

Also, there´s a lot to be said for making food that keeps the kitchen hot and steams the windows. You can then wipe a bit off to watch the snow, which is always fun.
The best thing to have on hand is soup, of course, which can be all things to all people; filling, nourishing and light, all at the same time. I will be doing a few soup posts, because Pía and I are living on soup at the moment (oh, and pie, too, and cake, but that´s another just recreational).

One such is Scotch broth, which, in Laurie Colwin´s version is a beauty. Not physically,really, but in a general comforting bowlful way. I have given this soup to extremely picky eaters and to lamb haters and they ate it up and had seconds.

It´s very easy, too, as long as you do it over two days. If you don´t, you won´t be able to skim the fat properly, and it won´t be so good.
Just boil some bony cheap cut of lamb, like neck, with a few parsley stalks and the green tops of some leeks, and celery and onion if you have them on hand. Do skim well in the first twenty minutes because the broth can look rather grey and disgusting. Leave it for a couple of hours, until the meat falls off the bone. Pick the meat from the bones, and put it, with the broth, in a container. Next day, defat this well.
Chop leeks and carrots, as small as you can or feel like, and sweat them briefly. Then add the broth and the meat, and either throw in some pearl barley or, if you are like me and grudge the grain drinking up all the broth, boil it separately the day you make the stock, until it´s just al dente. Then add it to the soup until it´s as you like it.

I think no clear soup is complete without a dash of sherry, and a grind of black pepper, perhaps.

We´re packing up to leave for the south of Spain until after reyes. I wish you all a very fun evening of the 31st, a hangover free 1st and all the best for 2010.

Winter Caprese

I know, I know. Oximoron, right?

It´s just that after eating so much rich food every day I need a rest. The tons of smoked salmon and stuffed meat and roast potatoes and caramelized onions and the chocolate and polvorones, they´re great, but need some balance.

And since I found my favourite cherry tomatoes, pear cherry tomatoes from Pascual, in Murcia, practically given away at a Chinese grocer´s the other day, I simply had to do this.

It makes for a perfect dinner for two. A bag of fresh mozzarella, the tomatoes, sauteed, topped with either the last of some home made frozen pesto or a sprinkling of dry oregano.

Toast bread, or a few flour tortillas and you´re laughing.

Top 9 of 2009

I love a good end of the year best of list, so here is one: best things I have learnt to cook this year.

1- Bread. Tips that have meant I bake every week. One, that as long as I have a packet of gluten in the cupboard I am free of the whims of bakers who may or may not sell me strong bread flour. Two, that dough can sit around in the fridge happily for days, and be pulled off to make a small bun or a flatbread in a few minutes. Three, that this method works beautifully and can be taken in many directions, and makes for a fast, easy way to avoid turning on the oven or having leftover pizza luring you into the kitchen for dangerous snacking.

2- Korean pancakes. Wonderful stuff, the sort of thing to be knocked up for a quick dinner for two or a starter for a bigger dinner.

3- Brownies- I didn´t know that all you need for a hard, crusty top is to beat the hell out of the eggs, which will form a sort of meringue on top. Also, that you can bake a few spoonfuls of the batter and so have a quick chocolate hit in no time.

4- Yogurt. Easy to make, much better than any store bought stuff and quite fascinating, in a science project kind of way.

5. Poached fruit- Sally Schneider´s trick: poach it in white wine sweetened with honey and aromatized with cinnamon or vanilla. Right now I´m on a wintry kick of dried apricots, prunes, and eating apples.

6- Stock- I´ve always tried to have some on hand, but since my baby eats real food, I couldn´t be without it. Throw some frozen chicken stock, a couple of florets of broccoli cut really small and a handful of pastina, and while Pía has her bath, her dinner cooks.

7- Peanut butter- an unsual ingredient in Spain, but one I´m learing to love. It can stand in for tahini in a batch of hummus (ok purists, leave me alone, it really can) and give oomph to one of my favourite second-breakfast treats: a flour tortilla smeared with a teaspoonful of peanut butter, filled with poached fruit and lightly warmed/toasted in a pan. Yogurt also very good here.

8- Knife skills.Learn how to keep your knives sharp, and it´s a world of difference. If you can chop quickly prep time is whittled away to nothing, and so are cooking times.

9- Cooking makes me happy- I used to have tons of time to lounge around in the kitchen. Now I have less, what with a job and a baby who has learnt to open drawers and bang doors, and is only weeks away from lighting matches, I dare say. But I still cook all I can, and any five minutes snatched to make a batch of dough, or throw some bones into a pot, or mix a jar of dressing to have on hand in the fridge are relaxing and make me feel in control (as if!).

If only shopping were so easy and adaptable...

Asparagus soup

It´s a previously published recipe, and you can find it here, but I feel it is very appropriate now. Like every year, tins and jars of asparagus are flooding the shelves of shops, and turning up in every single Christmas gift basket, so you might welcome some ideas.

Of course if the asparagus are the real thing and come from Navarra or La Rioja and are the thick, good ones, just have them with mayonaise or vinaigrette, please. But upstarts from China or Peru masquerading under labels that look charmingly rustic and Spanish, they are perfect candidates for a quick warming soup.

Big cuts

Today is a holiday, and we´re struggling with a 6 kg front leg of pork (paletilla) that´s been in the oven for three hours already. It´s a test run for a pre-Christmas dinner we´ll have on the 20th. I´m too selfish to want to eat this amazing stuffed bird four days before the day, and then again, after having waited all year, so I´ve convinced my mother to let me try this.

Let me tell you, it´s alarming to manouver around a cut of meat that looks so utterly huge, but I have high hopes for this one.

The inspiration for the big one comes from this article. In the meantime, a reminder of a less unwieldy piece of meat, slow roast pork shoulder.

Empanada gallega

Empanada gallega is a pie from Galicia. It has a top and bottom crust and traditionally it´s a vehicle for leftovers; any bits of meat or small pile of seafood can become a gorgeous pie with some dough and a lot of slippery slow-cooked onions.

Being one of those traditional homely dishes, there are as many versions as there are grandmothers. The dough can be yeasted, use baking powder, or nothing. You can use the oil of the sofrito in it, or not. Liquids for the dough can be orange juice, white wine, beer, or milk. Strong words are sometimes exchanged on the subject of putting tomatoes inside. And so on.

As for the filling, anything goes, but make sure you use more onions than seem reasonable. It´s all about the onions, really. And my mother´s trick: a couple of hefty spoonfuls of sugar. Classic combinations are tomato sauce and tuna or sardines(from a can); peppers and onions with pork (pimentón optional); onions, salt cod and raisins; squid in its own ink sauce; peppers and onions with any shellfish or any of the more esoteric tins manufactured in Galicia.

I have been trying several versions, based on the instructions of several of my empanada instructors, and at last have decided on this. It´s an adaptation for the Thermomix, but is easily done by hand, and responds well to tweaking to suit what there is in the pantry. Although it seems to be a big production at fiest sight, like most things it comes down to experience: once you´ve made it a few times you realize that it´s easy, and impressive.

The filling:

The first thing you have to do is sautee a lot of onions and peppers, slowly. This takes the longest, but isn´t hard, as you know. However, if you´re in a hurry and need to get the pie off the ground quickly, a tin of Hida fried onions and a bottle of piquillo peppers, or a tin of Hida pisto will be great. I won´t tell anyone, just take out the trash before the guests arrive.

Mix this with the tinned seafood or meat and let it cool a little.

The dough (enough for a pie for 4/6. If you want a big one that takes up the whole oven tray, make two batches in the Th or a double batch by hand)

You need 80 grams of oil and 3 tablespoons of another fat. The oil can be from the tins of fish you´re using, or it can be fresh olive oil. The fat can be butter, lard, or bacon fat. Mix these with 80 ml of white wine, and heat them a little so the fat melts. In the Th. this is 50ºC 1 minute speed 1.

Now add approximately 450 grams of all purpose flour. You may also want to use yeast, in which case 1 sachet is what you want, plus a good spoonful of salt. I don´t bother with the yeast any more, and it cuts down on waiting time not to.

Either mix in speed 6 for 20 seconds until it forms a ball and then give it 2 minutes of kneading speed in the Th, or do it by hand. You want a dough that is smooth and soft and warm, very nice to the touch. As ever with dough, you might have to add a bit more liquid or more flour to get where you want.

Give it a rest while you preheat the oven to 200ºC. This usually coincides with the onions finishing cooking.

While they cool a little, divide the dough in two. Make a big rectangle, stretching the dough as thin as you can, and spread the filling evenly. Roll out the other half of the dough, cover the bottom crust with it, and them crimp the filling shut. Use the stray cuts to make decorations, make a few cuts to let the steam escape, and brush with beaten egg.

(Here´s a post with step by step photos. That pie is nothing like mine, but illustrates well the point I make about there being no two alike.)

Bake for about half an hour, until golden all over.

Do not, EVER, serve this piping hot. Warm is best, cold second best. Leftovers possibly best of all, and if you take it to a picnic you will receive ovations.