Lesson 1.7: How to Make Cream Soups — Cauliflower & Spinach Soups

Ingredients
. Roux (butter, onion, flour)
. Chicken Stock (for veloute sauce base-spinach)
. Milk (for bechamel sauce base-cauliflower)*
. Spinach or Cauliflower
. Heavy Cream
*The recipe called for whole milk, but in the interest of certain individuals of higher cholesterol levels, we opted for skim-plus milk, which, from the taste, seemed an adequate substitution.




Special Tools
. Fine-Mesh Sieve
. Flexible Spatula
. Immersion Blender



Notes from the Kitchen
. Mise en place (preparing ingredients first) is effective.
. Try to remember to bring your own knife (Laura).
. When effectively skimmed during the cooking stage, the chicken stock will not have that satisfying layer of fat to peel off; instead you must gently skim the thin floating fat off the top.
. The translucent or glassy stage of the "sweated" onion is much easier to determine (to the untrained eye, ahem, Laura) in a stainless steel pot.
. Cauliflower florets need to be chopped very finely to cook thoroughly; stem sections should cook for longer than the extra 1 minute suggested.
. As with all our soups, without a pot taller than wide, evaporation eventually wins out during the cooking process, requiring, in the case of the cauliflower soup, additional milk in order for the vegetable to cook until soft.
. The cauliflower stems never actually got mushy before we gave in and just pureed it. It worked out just fine. No pun intended.
. Rinse the pot in which the spinach is blanched—ours had grit, even after 2 thorough washes of the raw leaves.
. Cut all stems off of the spinach; the fibrous mass just ends up plugging up the sieving process.
. Passing the final soup through the fine sieve makes it incredibly smooth, and thus well worth the effort.
. Heating the serving bowls is an excellent idea, but on a cold February evening, the soup still got cold quickly. Solutions?



Notes of Less Pertinence but Equal Importance
. What exactly is the consistency of cream?
. Is it any surprise that the artist created the cream design
in the spinach?
. Do the gentlemen actually recall this precious soup at all?



Eating the Results
Laura says: The most interesting thing was comparing the two bases for the soup—milk versus stock. The richness of the homemade stock really punched through the spinach, balancing perfectly a sometimes-overwhelming vegetable. And the cauliflower had such silkiness that the creaminess was eased of any heaviness. Long gone are my assumptions that a vegetable puree soup is a simple matter of using the hand-blender.

Claudine says: Though the book says any of the vegetable soups can be made either as a "veloute-based" (stock thickened with roux) or "bechamel-based" (with milk instead), my instinct tells me that the milk vs. stock pairings we chose (stock with the spinach to balance the strong flavor and milk with the cauliflower to underline the creaminess) really worked out well. If we had switched the pairings I have a feeling the spinach flavor might have been overwhelming. But maybe the cauliflower would gain from the flavor of the stock, in which case, are all soups better as veloutes?



Useful Links
Chicken Stock



Photo from www.MarthaStewart.com

Lesson 1.3: How to Make Chicken Soup — Tortilla Soup

Homework Review: Lesson 1.1 How to Make White Stock
. One pound short of chicken (according to our bathroom scale and Laura stepping on and off, with and without a bag of chicken parts); no effect on stock richness, likely do to the inclusion of whole legs and thighs in the stock making.
. Certainly don't try to do the stock and the soup in the same day.
. Bag and freeze chicken backs and wings from fresh cut chickens; also bag and freeze leftover fresh aromatic vegetables from other soup recipes.



Ingredients
. Chicken Stock
. Whole Chicken
. Pasilla Chiles (or Chile Negro)
. Fresh Tomatoes
. Corn Tortilla
. Green Cabbage
. Cotija Cheese
. Fresh Cilantro
. Ripe Avocado
. Lime



Special Tools
. Fine-mesh Sieve
. Flexible Spatula
. Cast Iron Pan (optional, but recommended)
. Blender or Food Processor



Notes from the Kitchen
. If you are a little short of the 8 cups of homemade stock, finish with water. (Not tried with less-rich store-bought stock.)
. Suggested 4 1/2 pound chicken is probably accurate; 4 1/2 pounds of chicken parts (4 breasts, 4 legs) was a little heavy on the chicken. (And, yet, there were no leftovers 2 days later.)
. Cast iron works beautifully for toasting the chile, broiling the tomatoes and cooking the combined mixture.
. To split the toasted chiles, cut top and lay flat on cutting board. Insert knife and run along the fold of the flattened chile.
. Larger tomatoes (2 small "beefsteak" were used) needed about 7-10 minutes broiling under the flame of a gas oven.
. As much as the pureed chile puree looks fabulous as-is, pushing it through the sieve is worth the extra work. (The strained liquids provide not just intense flavor but a creamy texture.) . Push chile puree through a sieve in small batches to maximize liquid extraction.



Special Note on Garnishes
. Red onion was omitted, accidentally, apparently not missed.
. Double the cabbage to feed 8.
. Sliced jalapeno, especially grilled first, would have added a nice bite. (This recipe is not spicy.)
. Fried tortilla strips were worth the homemade effort, but made easier, and perhaps better, by the use of an electric deep fryer. Fry for 3-4 minutes.



Notes of Less Pertinence but Equal Importance
. When purchasing ingredients with non-English names, be sure to look up (beyond the Cooking School book) the ingredient. Or, if you want the extra exercise, you can run back and forth to the store after you've returned home the first time not having seen any of the many dried peppers labeled "passila." (That would because they are also known as chile negro.)
. We kept the solids from the chile-tomato-onion puree and plan on trying them out as a spread, perhaps with some leftover cotija cheese toasted on tortillas?
. With the garnishes, the soup is easily a full meal in and of itself.
. For drinking a hoppy amber or IPA beer goes well, although its not as spicy as you might expect.
. Topped off well with strawberry merigue buttercream cupcakes for dessert.
. Note that the Everyday Food recipe for Tortilla Soup is not the same soup. Without the chile puree, it loses a lot of its magic.



Eating the Results
Laura says: I may have found my new favorite soup, well, at least until the next lesson. The richness was truly intense. In fact—as shocking as this is coming from me--I would try halving the 2 Tbs of coarse salt from the enriching of the broth. The creaminess added by the chile puree created a perfect testure, and the rich and sweetness was balanced perfectly with the tanginess of the lime and the fresh crisp of garnishes like cilantro and cabbage. (I did not miss the red onions as a garnish, perhaps others did.) I was also surprised that my restraint in not pulling out some sour cream was rewarded by far better results having just a sprinkling of the shredded cotija cheese.

Claudine says: I loved this soup as well. I wasn't going to mention it, but since you brought it up... I did taste the salt when I heated up my leftover soup the next day. I think that one needs to keep in mind the saltiness of the various garnishes (I think the cheese may have been salty enough) and adjust the seasoning during the cooking process. I would like to make it again with boxed TJ broth and see if you can taste the difference through the chile puree. It would definitely entice me to make it more often on weeknights if that substitution worked.

Useful Links
Chicken Stock
Photo Glossary of Dried Chiles
Notes on Tortillas

Lesson 1.6: How to Make Dashi — Miso Soup

Note: Due to the flu, Tortilla Soup Class was postponed. Homework will be collected at that future date, to be determined.

Ingredients
. Kombu (or dried kelp)
. Bonito flakes (boiled, smoked and sun-dried flaked tuna)
. White Miso
. Firm tofu
. Wakame (dried seaweed)
. Scallions



Special Tools
. Stock pot or other medium to large sauce pan
. Flexible spatula



Notes from the Kitchen
. Ingredients: Good luck trying to find Kombu and Bonito Flakes.
(Sources: Wholefoods-but not all of them; Morton Williams)
. Have a zip-lock or other resealable container ready for the leftover bonito flakes;
it smells bad.
. Fine mesh strainer works as well as a fine sieve, although broth was cloudy



Notes of Less Pertinence but Equal Importance
. Serve with a baby green and arugula salad topped with goat cheese for a lovely little meal

Eating the Results
Laura says: Making the dashi stock definitely makes a difference. Rich and filling without being heavy; it's the perfect feel-healthy soup.

Claudine says: I agree. This miso soup was noticeably more flavorful than your standard Japanese restaurant variety. Serving immediately kept the freshness of the tofu and scallions which I also enjoyed.



Useful Links
Dashi Recipe

Lesson 1.2: How to Make Chicken Soup — Matzo Ball Soup

Notes from the Kitchen
. Each chef needs her own chef's knife.
. Grocery store vegetables are about 1/2 the size of farm vegetables—double ingredients accordingly.
. Mise en place (preparing ingredients first) is effective.
. Cutting the bone-in breast involves cutting off the chicken's "back."
. Organic chickens are more pleasant to cut up than conventional.
. The chicken tender is on the underside of the breast, and easily separates
after cooking.
. Soup pots—taller than wide—would be useful in minimizing evaporation.
. Simmer—not boil—keeps the chicken moist and tender.
. Crack an egg on a flat surface to avoid shell in your beaten egg.
. Hand-whipping egg whites into stiff peaks is possible.
. Dark meat cooks longer because it is a slow-twitch muscle unlike breast meat,
a fast-twitch muscle.
. Recipe feeds 4, not 6 to 8.



Notes of Less Pertinence but Equal Importance

. Start with a beverage before sinking your hands into chicken fat.
. Blake and Claudine have more notebooks than a stationery store.
. Measure 3 times and cut (pour) once. (Ahem, Laura.)
. Get used to eating dinner at midnight.

Eating the Results
Laura says: Clear and flavorful broth with almost no oil (deft skimming Claudine!) almost didn't need the matzo ball, or at least two. The carrots were soft without becoming mushy and perfectly sweetened the soup. Chicken sandwiches from the spare meat made for a perfect pre-soup snack.

Claudine says: So pleased with first lesson. A lot of fun and I already feel I've learned new techniques and skills. Have since made the chicken soup and found that even with consistent simmering (unlike first attempt where we discovered how hard it is to keep something at a simmer without boiling) the chicken pieces still took much longer to cook than the estimates in the recipe. I think this does have to do with not being able to get a small enough chicken. (Martha also says you will end up with three cups of chicken meat off the bones and I think I had at least four or five cups.)



Useful Links
How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken
Basic Chicken Stock


Homework
Lesson 1.1 How to Make White Stock (Basic Chicken Stock)