Chilled green soup

a.k.a. Fridge cleaning before the veggies go bad.

It is the middle of another goddamn Houston summer so most nights I want the coldest, simplest food possible. Inspired by this NPR article on the subject, I set out to salvage a few items of produce that were getting kind of old:

1. 2 zucchini
2. 1 bunch parsley
3. 1 head roasted garlic



Shown here still in the pot, cuz I'm lazy. With lazy chunks of homemade bread.

Chunked everything up and boiled directly (adding parsley at the very end of cooking), didn't brown the veggies or use lemon as per the article's directives.
Once cooked, the pot of boiled veggies actually sat in my fridge for a few days before I got around to blending and seasoning...I waited to add salt until after I'd tasted the cold version, as cold tends to blunt flavors and you typically need more seasoning to get your point across. Also added a touch of half-and-half (aka remnants of cream and a glug of milk) while blending to round out the salt+green flavor.

It tastes really fresh (huge bunch of parsley). And cold. mmmm.

Hot Pot pt 1 (broth)

Okay. Tonight I am starting the hot pot broth and I will kick myself later if I don't write this down right as I'm doing it. In this bigass pot I have

1 lb pork soup bones (lots of knuckles and neck)
2 large fat carrots cut into diagonal chunks(4 or 5 normal sized ones, these were the freak asian market ones)
1 lemon grass stem cut into diagonal chunks
2 inches of galangal root sliced thick
a half dollar sized knob of ginger sliced thick
half a head of garlic
1 tomato, sliced into wedges
2 stalks of celery
1 onion sliced into half moons
1 Tb Szechwan peppercorns
2 Tb salt
1 Tb sesame oil
2 Tb chinese cooking wine
water to the top of the pot

let simmer overnight and reevaluate.

This morning I added another large knob of galangal, more salt, an extra lemongrass stem and another inch or two of ginger.

Parsley root

The result of some gardening:

Parsley root is supposed to have a nutty flavor, like a parsnip/carrot/celery.  I took a cue from iheartkale tried their recipe for parsley root potage, but in miniature because my parsley roots are barely finger-sized.  Also, I didn't so much try their recipe as just mess around in the spirit of the recipe, because I hate following directions.

I started with a knob of butter and some garlic:

The purest form of love.

Mise en place looks fancier from above.

Parsley roots, chopped...

...and thrown in the pot.

I tasted a bit of parsley root.  Indeed, it tasted like something between a parsnip, a carrot, and celery.

I tasted a bit of the garlic.  It was garlicky.

I would eat a whole bowl of this.

I poured some chicken stock in the pot to cover the solids,

And while that was simmering I turned my attention to the parsley greens.

Picking the leaves off the stems is boring.

Rough chopped:

And plopped in the soup.

I must pause now to thank Dan for rearranging our small kitchen so that the blender is set up in the kitchen and not on the dining table like it was before.  I am gonna blend SO MUCH MORE STUFF now that I don't have to walk an extra 8 steps to the blender.

Blorp.

I threw some cornstarch in the blender to thicken the soup.  Just 1/2 a teaspoon or so, since this was essentially a single-serving preparation.

So very green.

How'd it taste?

Green, nutty, sweet, earthy, on a creamy base of garlic and butter.  The big gobs of parsley leaves make it taste fresh, while at the same time the texture is perfect for winter comfort food.  Given that parsley root is pretty much unavailable at most grocers, I would totally do this again using parsnips.

Leftovers soup

Ok. First of all. It's been one of those days. up at 3 am, work is work and I picked up some things at the store to make dinner.


Yes I needed that ok. Wait.


Ok better.

Incidentally. That's the 28 oz wineglass. We saw it at Crate and Barrel one day and Stephanie loves me enough to buy things for me that she knows are a terrible idea.

Ok. By the way. The bottle is GONE. Granted there was a generous glass in dinner (not documented tonight, but I will eventually because it's delicious and simple as well) and a generous glass to Matt, but the rest of it is a 28 oz wine glass to me.

ANYWAY.

Leftovers soup. This is what happens when it's Sunday and everyone has wilty veggies from the week before and it's time to improvise.


I bought two bundles of kale the week before and steph had some sprouting potatoes and some wilting spinach. I also had some very pathetic carrots and emo celery and onions on the verge of going off. Oh and a quarter pound of bacon that I'm pretty sure we last used in the french toast experiment. TIME TO DIE.

Chunked up the bacon into about thumbsized pieces. Fried those up while peeling and chopping up the carrots, onion and celery. When all the delicious is extracted (there is a puddle of grease and crispy bacon. I took off some of the grease and saved it. because I'm one of those people. leave enough grease to coat the bottom of the pan) let the onion join the party. then the celery after about three minutes. and then the carrots. add a little salt, stir and scrape that awesome fond in, and cover. Before you cover it, it looks like this!

Yeah. Oh baby. hello. How you doin.

Ok if yesterday, if alone, if single and halfway into the bottle of wine the way I am now? This would be my blushing bride and I would teach it the ways of the world. But thats not where we are right now. And there are many things to come.

WHILE you are being very patient and letting that all hang out in the pot at medium heat, you are being productive and peeling and cubing potatoes, about half an inch on each side. And then you toss those in the mess, WHICH, if properly treated, will have let loose all the delicious liquid of flavor. Seriously, this is how you should always make soup.

Then kale. I chop off the ends and cut the leaves into strips and then jam them on top of the craziness in the pot then cover.

It eventually shrinks down. Promise. Threw the spinach in there too.

now that's fairly thick. I added a couple of cups of water, about a quarter cup of chicken broth powder and a small can of tomato paste. And a little cream. cause. you know. It was there. Thicken or thin to taste. I like to thicken either with a slurry of flour and water or if you're really decadent about it, a mash of flour and butter. Which is not only delicious, but keeps your soup from lumping.


SOUP.

And it was delicious. The acidity of the tomatoes cuts that gross sandpaper tooth feeling spinach can give sometimes and the kale was a little wilty and sweet and good even for kale. And it really never fails - no matter what we have on hand,I always wind up with exactly a pot of soup - which feeds 6 and then provides generous leftovers for two for the next day for lunch.

Carrot soup

It turns out I am a squirrel when it comes to produce, because I've managed to stockpile 3 bags of carrots, in various stages of consumption. My subconscious is very concerned about maintaining adequate carrot reserves.

What to do with a glut of carrots? Puree them into soup!



One onion, some chicken stock, an errant yam, some half and half, and a bit too much curry powder also made it into the soup. The pine nuts make for tasty garnish.

While I waited for the soup to cook, I made fennel oil following the suggestion of that book that tells us what to do. I pulsed the everloving fuck out of fennel seeds in my food processor, then stuck em in a jar with olive oil.


The fennel oil views you with indifference.

I am supposed to let the oil infuse for a week or so, then filter and bottle and probably use in salad dressing or on pork. If the fennel-seed paste has any remaining flavor, I may make a facsimile of Italian sausage.