Julia Child. Just her name is intimidating. Her blue and white tome
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Category: soups
Turnip Soup with Greens from Greens
I have recently become a little bit addicted to cookbooks. Awhile ago, I realized (duh) that I could check them out from the library, and decided that was an excellent way to test drive a book to see if I would really cook from it before shelling out the big bucks. Of course, what I discovered is that I’m very likely to fall in love with a book, even if the likelihood it would make its way off the shelf often is nill. That’s what happened with The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison and Edward Espe Brown.
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Hunger Games Lamb Stew
I, along with seemingly the rest of the world, went to see the Hunger Games this weekend. I read the books when they came out a few years ago and really loved them. The character of Katniss Everdeen was the perfect counterpoint to Stephanie Meyer’s Bella (yeah, I know everyone says that) (also I read too much YA fiction). The books capture all the things I love about dystopic fiction, and I was pleased that someone wrote a female character for whom there are bigger concerns in life than boys. Like, y’know, survival.
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Saffron Chickpea Stew
The rainy season appears to be underway here in the East Bay. I’m not complaining because it’s still the mildest winter I’ve experienced in over eight years. I’d forgotten how much rain freaks Californians out, though. We get confused by weather. I can’t even tell you how many people in my office this morning said some variation of the phrase, “I thought people moved to California for nice weather,” or “I think we might get washed away in this deluge.” We won’t, we’ll be ok. But the freakouts are happening, nonetheless.
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Winter Vegetable Stew with Rosemary Biscuits
My kitchen has been a bit quiet lately. I’ve been feeling a little down, and often when that happens, I start to rely on those culinary staples that are simple, and basic, and designed to make sadness feel a little lighter: minestrone, pizza, big pots of lentils. Macaroni and cheese is right around the corner, I can feel it.
This root vegetable stew is just right for sad, grey winter days. It’s warming and hearty, and fluffy biscuits are the very definition of comfort food. Plus, it’s easy, and allows for plenty of time to sit on the couch watching re-runs of your favorite television shows while it burbles away on the stove.
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Five-Spice Beet Soup
I have a hard time putting beets on the menu. I love them, but I feel limited in how to prepare them. It can be difficult to introduce them into a meal because of their overly exuberant tendency to tinge everything pink. They’re delicious roasted, but they can dominate when roasted with other vegetables. I learned long ago they aren’t necessarily a great addition to pasta. I love them in a salad, but the beet and goat cheese combination, while admittedly perfect, sometimes feels a little dull. And most beet soup recipes look a lot alike. Sometimes it’s like the whole recipe-writing world has a case of beet boredom.
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Chicken and Dumplings
While a California winter isn’t as wintry as New England, or even Walla Walla, we’ve been getting our fair share of damp chill lately. But unlike the onset of winter in Boston, the Bay Area winter doesn’t fill me with dread. I’m actually loving it: the damp and the fog, the drizzly rain, and the grey chill that suggests a coat, but doesn’t require ankle-length wool overcoats, scarves, and hats. I think it’s just perfect. The best part is that it’s just cool enough to make me crazy cozy winter foods, like chicken and dumplings.
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Celery Root Soup with Pomegranate and Bacon
I got my hands on my first every celery root last week, when it made its homely appearance in our CSA box. I felt a little intimidated by the thing. It looks so tough. I really wasn’t sure what to do with it. I put it in the crisper and pretended it wasn’t there for a few days. Then I came across this recipe for Celery Root Soup in Gourmet Live, and I knew what I had to do. It was time to face the celery root.
Celery root is also called celeriac, but that makes me think of a disease, which you really don’t want to think about in relation to food…which means I probably shouldn’t bring that up…moving on. It is not, as I once thought, the root of a common celery plant. You probably already knew that. It’s very knobby looking and gnarled, and for those of us use to more suburban vegetable offerings, but celery root can be a bit of a mystery. I had no idea what this thing would smell like or taste like, or how it would cook. Luckily, once you break past its daunting exterior, the celery root isn’t challenging at all.
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‘Tis the Season for Beef Stew
Last weekend, fall finally arrived in the East Bay. It was grey and rainy, but not, at least to me, gloomy. I was delighted: Fall is my favorite season. California may not show off in fall with bright red and gold leaves, like New England, but it has its own charms. And I, in true homebody fashion, love being cozy and warm in our bright little apartment when the skies turn grey and damp. So I welcomed fall in the best way I know: by cooking up a big pot of beef stew.
Beef stew is the perfect food for fall. You can fill it up with all the lovely root vegetables appearing at the markets, and it requires a nice, long cooking time, while your house fills with amazing smells and cooking warmth. If you want to really warm up the house, you can throw it in the oven, although it turns out just as well cooking on the stove. And while it cooks away, you can curl up on the couch and read or knit or watch a movie, or do whatever you like to do when it’s cold out and you are feeling snug and secure inside. Soon enough, you’ll have a hearty and warm dinner to make your wonderful rainy weekend just about perfect.
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Beer Cheese Soup
It was kind of a surprise to me when I realized how much I care about tradition. As a rebellious teenager (is there any other kind?) I saw myself as completely unconventional, someone who wanted to break with the past completely. But lurking under those attempts to figure out who I might be was the real me: the one who appreciates routine and sameness, the one who thrives on rules and order. The one who relies on the careful acting out of family traditions, and of personal traditions, year after year, in order to maintain the continuity that makes me feel safe and protected in what can be a fairly chaotic world.
One of those traditions is one I’ve written about here before: Every Christmas Eve, for as long as I can remember, my family has gathered to eat beer cheese soup. There are other key components to this tradition: the oyster soup that my Dad prefers, the beef stew that my Aunt Penny brings every year, and the tiny summer sausage sandwiches that accompany whichever soup you decide (or all three, as is more often the case). But for me, the beer cheese soup has always been the centerpiece. Over the years, the recipe has changed slightly, but the presence of the soup never does. And the soup held such a sacred place in my mind that I would not deign to make it any other time of year.
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