My only ray of light came from my favorite foodie resource, Twitter (don’t hate…I’ve learned how to make fudge, found duck fat, discovered great hidden restaurants AND formed friendships from the little blue bird).  Anna sent out a tweet about making her green chili stew for the upcoming cold days.  Being ever curious, I asked her for the recipe.  She was more than happy to send it along (thanks again) and before I knew it, I had a great recipe to fight the cold.  This is a wonderfully organic stew that can be amended to suit your tastes.  For example, Anna said to use either ground beef or cubed pork.  I decided to instead use some beef stew cubes from Smith Meadow Farms to give the dish a heartier texture.  And although I couldn’t find any New Mexico chilis, I did find the Anaheim chilis she recommended at Whole Foods.  I also opted not to peel the potatoes and found some Yukon Gold ones with a thin skin.  The result of my dabbling around with the recipe was a comforting beef stew with the Southwestern flair of roasted green chilis.  I served the stew with some homemade tortillas, which made me almost forget how cold it was outside.  Notice I said almost….

Recipe: Green Chili Stew

Ingredients

• 2 pounds cubed beef or pork or ground beef
• 6 medium Yukon Gold potates, diced
• 6-8 roasted and peeled green chilis (anaheim chilis unless you can find quality chilis from New Mexico), diced – here’s a post on how to roast peppers!
• 2-16 ounce cans stewed tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2-3 cups water
• 2 tbs olive oil

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, saute the meat and potatoes until the meat is browned. Drain the fat from the meat and potates and set aside.
2. In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions start to soften.
3. Add the meat and potato mixture to the Dutch oven, along with the tomatoes and water (add up to 3 cups of water, depending on how thick you like your stews).
4. Bring the stew to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium. Allow it to simmer for 20 minutes or until the stew reaches your desired consistencey (I like my stew thick).

For me, some of the best meal ideas are born strictly at the farmers market.  Last Saturday, I headed over to the 14th & U Street Farmers Market for my weekly grocery shopping (yes my friends, you can get pretty much all your grocery needs from your friendly, neighborhood farmers markets). In the back of my head I knew I wanted to make a soup for lunch for the week, but wasn’t sure what to put in it.  Save being dead set on using apples (we do still have a lot of them from apple picking), I hadn’t a clue what to make.  But as I walked along the market, all the Fall offerings started giving me ideas.

To say I’m forgetful is pretty much an understatement.  So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that as I was plotting my produce purchases, it dawned on me that I didn’t have any cash.  That’s when I remembered the 14th & U Farmers Market ATM program.  Instead of using a bank ATM, I decided to give it a try.  I headed over to the market information table, where Maia was manning the ATM/EBT machine.  She took my ATM card and explained that instead of dollars, I’ll receive $5 wooden tokens that I can use throughout the market season at 14th & U.  But the best thing about using the market ATM is how it helps to provide fresh food to low income residents in the DC area. The ATM fee of $2 (which I would have incurred anyway since the nearest ATM wasn’t my bank’s ATM) goes toward the food stamp program offered at the farmers market.  The program allows food stamp recipients to use their stamps at the farmers market to get fresh produce, meats and dairy.  So not only are you getting local, fresh and in season foods, you’re also giving someone less fortunate the opportunity to do the same thing.  I was wowed by the program and psyched that there was another way to support universal access to fresh, local produce.  Robin Shuster, market manager, said she would love to see more people use the market ATM program (my hint to those of you who shop the 14th & U market regularly).

With tokens in hand, I started walking around the market, trying to get some inspiration.  As I was walking around Garner’s Produce stand, my eyes caught sight of some amazing poblano peppers and huge sweet potatoes.  This triggered the memory of  a soup I tried at a restaurant consisting of Chipotle peppers, sweet potatoes and apples.  I decided then and there to try to recreate the same dish at home.  Since the poblano peppers were right in my face, I opted to use them instead of Chipotle peppers.  Roasting them only came to my mind when I got home and unloaded all of my farmers market finds onto the counter.  Hours of chopping, sauteeing and simmering later, I had the equivalent of a warm hug in my soup bowl.

Signs that it’s Fall:

• I broke out a long sleeve shirt for last weekend’s farmers market trip
• I can actually walk around DC landmarks and museums without tripping over tourists (no offense to all the DC tourists out there…but you do make it harder for us DCites to get around)
• The crockpot is being moved from the top shelf to a place where my short arms can reach
• My mind turns from salads and fruit ice creams to bread baking and soups

And most importantly, even though it’s still in the 70′s here in DC, I’ve already started breaking out the soup recipes.  This is called the insanity of seasonal transition folks…welcome to it!

A couple of months ago, I happened to stumble upon a serious sale at Borders.  There were entire bins of books under $5, some of which were cookbooks.  Usually a discounted cookbook means its not very good but I was lucky enough to find several gems in the pile.  One of those gems was a slow cooker and one-pot recipe book, Best Ever Slow Cooker, One Pot and Casserole Cookbook, covering everything from appetizers to desserts (oh yes, desserts from a crock pot). The pictures were brilliantly shot and there was an entire section on how to properly pick ingredients.  I’d been anxiously waiting until the weather turned cool to try my hand at some of the recipes.  When the weather took a dip in temperatures on Saturday, that seemed reason enough for me.

A lot of the recipes in the book seemed deceptively easy and had few ingredients.  To say that I was skeptical is an understatement.  But one recipe, the Mediterranean Lentil and Sausage Soup, grabbed my attention not only because of its simplicity but because it just looked so freakin’ cool.  Much to my detriment, I sometimes forget that food stylists can make just about any dish look delicious.  But this soup, luckily, turned out to be as tasty as it photographed.  Because it calls for pesto and tomatoes, two things that I can still get fresh from the farmers market, it perfectly straddles the seasons of Summer and Fall.  And with the weather still bouncing from chilly to warm in DC, this seemed the perfect time to make this soup.

Mediterranean Lentil & Sausage Soup (adapted from “name of cookbook”)

One pound smoked sausage

Enough vegetable oil for deep frying

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion

1 cup red lentil soup

14 ounces diced tomatoes (or 14 ounce can chopped tomatoes with herbs)

4 cups chicken stock

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1 teaspoon dried basil

salt and ground pepper to taste

4 tbsp pesto (I used this recipe)

Pour the vegetable oil in a large, deep pot and heat to about 375 degrees.  Take one of the sausages and slice it up.  Deep fry the sausage slices until browned, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate covered with paper towels.

Slice up the remaining sausages.  Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven and sautee the red onions until soft.  Add the sausage and allow them to cook through.  Add the lentils, tomatoes, stock and herbs and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce the heat and allow the soup to simmer for 20 minutes.  Let the soup cool completely and then use an immersion blender to smooth and blend the soup.  If you don’t have an immersion blender (I bought one just for this recipe…any excuse to buy a new kitchen gadget), use a food processor (working in batches) to blend the soup to a smooth consistency.  Reheat the soup and ladle it into four bowls.  Using a tablespoon, swirl the pesto into the soup and then top each bowl with at least one deep fried sausage.

FYI, this won’t be the last recipe you’ll see from this cookbook.  I may even try my hand at crock pot chocolate cake…maybe.

Oh my heavens have I missed you guys!  After a much needed recovery and recuperation, I am finally back in my kitchen!  And just in time too because it’s the height of red pepper season and I LOVE RED PEPPERS!  They are all over the farmers markets too (did I also mention how much I missed going to the farmers markets every weekend?), along with eggplants, carrots in a rainbow of colors, sweet corn and peaches galore!  I feel like I’m having to play catch up, so I’ve been whirling around my kitchen like a drunken teenage girl on prom night.  I wasn’t sure where to begin until the Boy (who took VERY good care of me while I was down for the count) kindly reminded me how much he loved roasted red pepper soup.  And after how awesome he’s been, I figured the least I could do was whip together this soup as a thank you of sorts.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Soup in the Summer??? Are you insane??? Have you been outside lately?”  The answer to that is while I may be eccentric, I don’t really think I qualify as insane.  And no, I actually hadn’t been outside during the heat wave that struck D.C. over the few weeks in August.  But that doesn’t negate the fact that I think you should get on making this soup ASAP.  Not only is it super easy, it puts any soup you’d buy at Panera to shame (but let’s be honest, Panera’s not all that hard to top).  Pair this with a BLT (or any sandwich using the wonderful heirloom tomatoes bursting off the tables at the farmers markets) and you have a lunch worth going to work for.

Although you can use jarred roasted red peppers (I shudder as I write those words because I am, in fact, a food snob…I’m so sorry), it’s really worth it to roast the peppers yourself.  The Boy picked up the red peppers from McLeaf’s stand at the 14th and U Farmers Market for a mere 75 cents a piece (Thrifty DC Cook would be proud) and roasting them was unbelievably easy (as my recipe will illustrate).  Using fresh red peppers you roast yourself add a depth of flavor to the soup that no jar can match.  And the smell that penetrates your house as they roast is just a wonderful bonus (take that Glade).

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

8 red peppers, roasted, de-seeded and coarsely chopped

1 large onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

3 garlic cloves, diced

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped

4 cups vegetable stock

1 large potato (I used a German butterball potato from the Mountain View stand at 14th & U), peeled and diced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

To roast the red peppers:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the red peppers in half and remove the seeds and stem (trust me, this will save you a LOT of time later).  Place them cut side down on a baking sheet and bake for about an hour.  Remove the peppers from the oven and using tongs, place them in a bowl.  Tightly wrap the bowl using aluminum foil and let the peppers cool to room temperature.  Once they’ve cooled, remove the skins from the peppers and then coarsely chop them.

To make the soup:

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat and add the garlic, onion, thyme and carrots.  Cook until the onions are soft and translucent, about 7 minutes.  Add the red peppers, potatoes, broth, wine, sugar, chopped basil and red pepper flakes and stir.  Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to medium low, partially covering the Dutch oven.  Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 35 minutes.  Allow the soup to cool completely.

Working in batches, blitz the soup in a blender until smooth.  Serve either at room temperature or you can heat it up again.  You can also serve this soup cold for a more Summer friendly meal.

Let me be honest here:  I wasn’t impressed with season 5 of Top Chef.  From Leah’s whining to Hosea’s sense of entitlement, it was hard to see the few quality chefs on the show.  Sure Carla was overly enthusiastic at times, but her love of cooking was evident from day one.  And yes I couldn’t understand half of what Fabio said, but his sense of fun was a welcome respite from Hosea bitching to the camera constantly about Stefano.  Then there was Jamie…Jamie who constantly complained whenever she didn’t win a challenge.  Yes, I thought there were a few times she may have deserved the win.  But her attitude wore on me quicker than Rosie Perez’s voice.  I had almost written her off completely as a waste of space until she presented the judges with a wonderful Chilled Sweet Corn Soup with Mint and Chili Oil.  The way they cooed over the velvety texture of the soup convinced me it was something I had to make at home.

The one thing I could respect about Jamie was her committment to using local, in season produce in her cooking.  I could have rushed out to the grocery store and bought out of season corn to make this soup.  But I knew only fresh corn could produce the results I saw on my television screen.  So when I spotted the first of this season’s corn at Bloomingdale Farmers Market on Sunday, I snatched up a bunch.

The recipe was fairly simple, using a combination of flavors that normally one wouldn’t associate.  Corn and mint? Really?  Yes really…the layers of taste meld unexpectedly well together.  And serving this soup chilled only enhances those flavors.  Although Jamie topped this soup with a chili oil, I decided to use up the extra sourdough in our house to make croutons to top it.  The resulting combination of crunchy sourdough and the corntastic soup (corntastic is a word…adding “tastic” to anything instantly turns it into a word) made for the perfect Summer lunch.  The recipe below makes either about 15 appetizer size portions or 8 entree size portions of soup.

NOTE:  I used bi-color corn, as it’s what is currently in season.  The bi-color corn will lead to the soup being a more muted color yellow.  If you use yellow corn, your soup will be a brighter shade of yellow.

Chilled Corn Soup with Mint

15 ears corn, cleaned and kernels removed from the cob

1 bunch celery, chopped

5 onions, diced

10 garlic cloves, smashed

5 potatoes (I used white, as they are in season), peeled and quartered

1 bunch mint (if using farm fresh mint, use a small bunch)

5 quarts vegetable stock

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)

1 quart heavy cream

Salt to taste

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium high heat.  Add the garlic and cook until golden brown (stirring constantly to make sure the garlic doesn’t stick or burn).  Add a dash of salt and then add the onions.  Continue to cook until the onions are soft.  Add another dash of salt before stirring in the celery.  Cook until the celery is semi-soft, about 4 minutes.

Using kitchen string, tie the bunch of mint securely.  Add the potatoes, corn and mint to the pot and then cover everything with the vegetable stock.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat until the boil turns to a simmer.  Continue to let the soup cook until the potatoes are tender.  Once the potatoes are tender, check the soup for seasoning and adjust if needed.  Remove the pot from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.

Working in batches, ladle some of the soup into a food processor, turn it on and pour heavy cream in until smooth.  Pour the smoothed soup into a new bowl with a lid.  Repeat this process until all the soup has been blitzed.  Refrigerate the soup for at least four hours or until it’s completely chilled.

When serving, ladle the soup into a bowl and top it with the croutons (see recipe below).

Sourdough Parmesan Croutons

6-8 slices sourdough bread, cubed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and lightly grease them.

Place half the bread cubes in a large bowl and pour 1/4 cup of the olive oil evenly over them.  Toss quickly to ensure the cubes are evenly coated.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese over the cubes and toss again.  Place the cubes in a single layer on one of the baking sheets.  Repeat this entire process with the remaining bread cubes, olive oil and parmesan cheese.  Bake the cubes in the oven for five minutes and then flip over each cube (this can be done easier with a spatula).  Bake for another 5 minutes, being careful to check frequently to make sure the croutons don’t burn.  Once the croutons are a nice golden color and hard (but not burnt), remove the pans from the oven and allow them to cool before using.

Sometimes I get a little too big for my britches. I concoct fanciful recipes in my head thinking they will come out fantastic and somehow catch the attention of Mark Bittman, who will beg me to be his apprentice. I usually have such thoughts while at my desk at work, which leads to furious scribbling of ingredients on post it notes. This is how this recipe started out…unfortunately, this is one time it should have stayed on a post it note.

No, your monitor is not having color issues. This soup is gray (side note: do you spell the color gray “gray” or “grey”…discuss amongst yourselves). It wasn’t meant to be gray; it was meant to be a rich, creamy color that would wow Mr. Bittman and thus lead to my fabulous life in New York cooking and writing along side the great one himself. And it probably would have been had I not thrown PURPLE potatoes into the mix. Why on Earth did I think purple potatoes would work nicely in this recipe? Uhmmm, honestly I can’t really tell you. I think the conversation in my head went something like this:

“Hmmm, there is a sale on mixed color potatoes in the Star Hollow Farm online market!”

“But we only need white colored potatoes for this recipe.”

“I can get THREE pounds of potatoes for five dollars! I’d have to pay way more for three pounds of strictly white potatoes!”

“But we plan on making one combined soup out of these potatoes. Won’t the purple throw off the color?”

“Nahhhh, it will be fine. The purple color will boil out and there’s like waaay more white potatoes that will overpower it.”

“Uhmmm, I don’t think it works that way.”

“Look, the purple potatoes photograph well and I have control of her hands and feet today, so I’m doing it!”

“Oooohhh, a shiny object!”

Yes, I lost an argument with myself because of a shiny object. And the soup was the one to suffer. The actual taste of the soup is quite good. The combination of smoky bacon, roasted garlic and shallots work well with the potatoes…the potatoes that should have been ALL white. But alas, I didn’t listen to myself and now my soup looks like prison food. Que Sera Sera!

Roasted Garlic Potato Soup

3 pounds WHITE potatoes (please, please use only white…learn from Shaw Girl’s mistake), cubed

3 slices bacon

4 whole garlic heads, roasted and cooled

3 medium sized shallots, diced

5 cups chicken stock

3 bay leaves

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup to 1 cup heavy cream (depending on how thick you like your soup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place each individual garlic head in the center of a small square of aluminum foil (enough to completely cover the garlic head. Drizzle with olive oil and surround the garlic head in the foil (forming a packet). Place the garlic heads in the individual cups of a muffin tin and roast them for approximately one hour. Remove the tin from the oven and allow the garlic packets to completely cool before handling. Once cooled, squeeze out the roasted garlic pulp from each head into a small bowl. Set aside.

In a large Dutch oven, fry the bacon over medium heat. When crispy (but not burned), remove the bacon and place on a plate to cool to room temperature. Using the grease from the bacon, saute the shallots until softened. Add the potatoes, stirring them in to coat them in the lovely bacon grease. Add the chicken stock, parsley and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the salt and pepper to suit your tastes and cover the Dutch oven. Cook for 40-45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Take the Dutch oven off of the heat and add the roasted garlic pulp. Stir the soup to get the pulp to distribute evenly throughout the broth. Allow the mixture to cool. Working in batches, pour the soup into a food processor or blender and blitz until smoother (you may still have some chunks here and there). Repeat this step with the remaining batches of the soup. Once all the soup has been processed, place the Dutch oven back on the stove at medium heat. Add the heavy cream and allow the heat to warm the soup back up. Dish the soup out into bowls, topping each serving with some crumbled bacon.

I’ve been whipping up soups left and right, even though I’m not a broth based soup fan. But it’s cold and I’m running out of ideas for tubers and carrots. To find out more about this lovely looking soup, head on over to DCFoodies.com! And believe it or not, I have another soup recipe for you guys this week!

I opened my front door and walked in, my bag of groceries banging at my side. I was a bit annoyed at the 25 minute wait in the grocery line (thank you Ms. “So How Much Does This Cost…Wait, Can I Put This Aside And Decide If I Want To Buy It Later?”), but all was forgiven when the smell of roasting squash hit my nose. This was definitely the smell of Autumn…and it filled my entire apartment.

One of the things I love most about belonging to a CSA is my introduction to produce I’ve never even heard of before. As I was piling my share into my reusable canvas shopping bag, I came across what looked like a miniature pumpkin and its green twin. I quickly learned they were a red and confection kabocha squash (the confection squash being the green one). Their coloring was very vivid and I must admit I was excited at the chance to photograph them. But I’d never worked with them, let alone tasted them, so I had no clue what I was going to do with them. That was, until I hit up the internet. A quick google search (how did I manage to live almost 30 years without Wikipedia?) revealed that both the red and confection kabocha squashes are in the winter gourds family, even though their peak harvest times fall in the Autumn months. Both have a sweet, nutty flavor and are excellent when roasted.

Since I had a spaghetti and delicata squash leftover from another CSA share, I decided to combine all the squashes to make a roasted winter squash soup. Hence the reason my small apartment had a cozy, warm and subtly sweet aroma permeating every corner of it. I was still trying to figure out the recipe for the soup, but from the smells coming from the oven, I knew whatever I did, the result would be amazing.

Roasted Winter Squash Soup

Four medium sized Winter squashes (I used a red kabocha, confection kabocha, delicata and spaghetti squash)

32 ounces chicken or vegetable stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cut the tops off the red and confection kabocha squashes and place them in a large baking pan. Cut the spaghetti and delicata squashes down the middle and scoop out the seeds and stringy fibers. Place them in the same dish along with the kabocha squashes. Brush all of the squashes with olive oil and generously salt and pepper them. Place the dish in the oven for 15 minutes and then remove the delicata squash (it roasts quicker than the other squashes). Continue roasting the remaining squashes for an additional 35 minutes. Remove all of the squashes from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly before handling.

Once cooled, scoop out the fibrous strands and seeds from the center of the kabocha squashes. Scoop out the meaty flesh of the kabocha squashes and place in a large dutch oven. Do the same for the spaghetti and delicata squashes and add the stock. On medium high heat, bring the squash and stock to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure the squash doesn’t stick to the bottom of the dutch oven. When the squash are very soft and mushy, turn off the heat and allow the mixture to become completely cool. Once cool, blitz the mixture in batches in a blender and return it to the dutch oven. Return the dutch oven to a medium heat and add the heavy cream. Heat the soup back up, stirring occasionally. When the soup is at your desired temperature, turn off the heat and serve it up!

Why is the soup in quotes you ask? Because I don’t like soup…scratch that I don’t like non-creamy, really wet soup. And that eliminates quite a good portion of soups in the world. When I ran across a recipe for a smoked sausage, kale and potato soup, I thought “Nice flavor combinations, but why does it have to be ruined with broth”. So I put on my little thinking cap and came up with a way to incorporate the flavors of the recipe without all that pesky wet stuff. The result? A delicious concoction that made me glad I don’t like soup.

Feel free to follow the original recipe if you are a fan of soup, as I’m sure it’s just as tasty wet as it is the way I detail below. But not me…my fear of soup is deep seeded and haunts me to this day. When I was younger, my family lived in Baumholder, Germany on an Army base. For reasons I cannot recall, one lovely evening we went to a restaurant that I could swear was on a farm (I was only five at the time, so memories are still fuzzy). It was the first really nice restaurant memory I had…and it was ruined by a horrid french onion soup. To this day I remember that the soup tasted like the toe jam between a runner’s foot after he finished a marathon.

From that moment on, it was an uphill battle between my mother and me whenever she served soup. I’d sit at the table, pushing the fluid around in the bowl with my lip stuck out a mile long. She’d insist I stay at the table until it was finished but eventually relent when it got too late (I have always been stubborn). Since then, I’ve allowed exceptions for cream based soups and stews, but still shy away from most other soups. This, however, didn’t stop me from making this kale, potato and chicken sausage dish…by boiling the hell out of the broth until it was more of a thick reduction. Either way, it was delish and healthy…and all of the produce came straight from the farm!

1 pound new potatoes, cut into quarters

Large bunch Kale (curly variety), chopped into manageable pieces

2 cups chicken broth (I used low sodium)

1 cup dry white wine

1 pound chicken sausage (I used a very flavorful variety of chicken sausage from a local butcher), removed from casing

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat and add the chicken sausage. Saute until no longer pink and then add the broth and white wine. Bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Lower to a simmer, cover and allow to cook for about 10 minutes (unless you’re like me who let it cook for about 20 minutes in an attempt to reduce the sauce). Add the kale and allow to cook until the kale has wilted, about another 10 minutes (or about 15 if you’re trying to turn soup into something else).

The “broth” for me turned into a nice sauce that complimented the savory flavors of the chicken sausage (I distinctly tasted fennel), potatoes and ripe kale. I could definitely see how the broth would make a great soup base…but I’m not sitting at the table for soup. Yes, I’m still that stubborn.