The Bitten Word

Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto

Fine Cooking (December 2009/January 2010)

Last month, we had a roasted chestnut soup at a restaurant here in DC. Tasting it for the first time was an almost religious experience. Sweet, nutty and silky-smooth, the soup was just one of those foods that instantly warms your soul. We couldn't stop smiling!

A couple days later, we saw pints of chestnuts at the farmers market. We decided to grab some and see if we could replicate that heavenly bowl of soup. By a stroke of luck, we came home, opened our December/January issue of Fine Cooking, and found this recipe for Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto.

Several days after that, DC got its first snow of the season. For eight hours on a chilly Saturday, fat wet flakes fell silently outside the windows.

Could there be any better day for this soup? We would literally have chestnuts roasting...okay, not on an open fire (our landlord wouldn't like that). But we were excited about the smell of roasting chestnuts wafting through our house while we gazed at the Christmas tree and the falling snow.

The universe, it seemed, was telling us to make this soup.

But the universe had some tricks up its sleeve.

Thanksgiving 2009: Scarlet Carrot Soup

Gourmet (November 2009)

 
Thumbing through the final issue of Gourmet [moment of silence], we were blown away by one of the first photos we saw, which was of this Scarlet Carrot Soup. Deeply red and topped by fried carrot strips, we knew it would make a dramatic start to any Thanksgiving meal.

But why is the soup so red?  Is it a special variety of carrots?  Food coloring?  Code Red Mountain Dew? 

Tomato-Cucumber Gazpacho with Grilled Parmesan Croutons

Bon Appétit (June 2009)

We're absolutely thrilled to be featured in today's Washington Post story about canning.

We loved talking about our experience canning tomatoes, but when they told us they'd like to come over and photograph us while we cooked a dish that used our canned tomatoes, we got a bit nervous.

What to make?!  In front of an audience?!

We thought about revisiting an old favorite, like Baked Eggs in Tomato-Parmesan Sauce or Creamy Tomato Sauce, but couldn't bring ourselves to do that.  The Washington Post was coming over! So we had to make a new dish.

After spotting this Tomato-Cucumber Gazpacho, we knew we had a winner.

German Split Pea Soup (Erbsensuppe)

Saveur (December 2008)

After nearly having our soup dreams derailed by Gingery Sweet Potato, we quickly got back on the train with this German Split Pea. 

So lest you be despondent over the disappointment of our last post's recipe, this more than makes up for it -- a delicious, substantial soup that has all the comforting goodness you're looking for this winter.

Gingery Sweet Potato Soup

Food & Wine (December 2008)

Doesn't a gingery sweet potato soup sound lovely?

Doesn't it look nice in that photo -- all orange and warm?

Don't you think that it would be delicious and the perfect meal on a wintery night?

That's where you'd be wrong. 

Thanksgiving Recap | Butternut Squash and Sage Soup with Sage Breadcrumbs and BLT Popovers

Well, Thanksgiving is over. And (if we do say so ourselves) it was awesome.

Zach's family joined in us here in DC for a most of the week, and we had a fantastic time. 

We spent several days preparing our feast, making a few dishes and stocks in advance.  On Thanksgiving Day, we started cooking at 10 a.m., barely left the house, and had a lovely late afternoon meal.

Over the next few days, we'll do a quick recap of the dishes we served and then tips for next year.  After all, our December food magazines have arrived and we've got to get to cooking!

As planned, we kicked off our meal with Butternut Squash and Sage Soup with Sage Breadcrumbs (recipe below).

Irish Beef and Stout Stew

Everyday Food (October 2008)

We both grew up in families with huge deep freezes at home, filled with enough food to last a family of four for several years. At one point, Zach's family had not only one but two huge freezers, in addition to two other stand-up refrigerator/freezer units. 

It's safe to assume that if were living somewhere with more space, we'd have a deep freeze, too.  The thought of what would be in it scares us a bit.  With Thanksgiving approaching, we cleaned out our freezer this weekend.  These are the current contents of our (relatively small) freezer:

• 3 gallon size bags filled with green & red peppers, 1 gallon size bag of squash, 1 gallon size bag of eggplant, 1 gallon size bag of butternut squash -- We couldn't keep up with the amount of vegetables we were getting from our CSA this summer, so we cut them up and froze them for use this winter.
• 4 jars of blueberry freezer jam -- When we went on a blueberry binge this summer, Zach decided to make freezer jam. Yum.
• 1 gallon-size bag of blueberries -- When Zach got tired of making freezer jam, we decided to just freeze several pints of blueberries.  We've only used these in blueberry pancakes so far, but we'll use them for more baking this winter.
• 2 quart-size bags of chicken stock & beef stock -- The beef stock was leftover from a can we bought for a recipe, but we actually made the chicken stock. 
• 1 chicken carcass -- We got this tip from The Amateur Gourmet.  After roasting chicken, you can save the carcasses in the freezer until you're ready to make stock again, so that you can make one big batch. 
• 2 gallon-size bags of frozen pesto (in small servings) -- Between an abundance of basil and garlic scapes, we've got enough pesto to last us a lifetime.
• 3 quart-size bags of tomato sauce -- When we were drowning in tomatoes from the farm, we'd make a quick batch of roasted tomato sauce, and freeze it for later use.
• 1 gallon-size bag of tomato skins -- When we canned tomatoes this summer, we saved the skins, thinking we would use them to flavor soups or stocks.  It was a huge bag and we decided to toss it yesterday.  Space is too precious.
• 1 unopened box of puff pastry -- It seems like a good thing to keep on hand, but we've had it for almost a year and haven't used it.
• 2 massive bags of store-bought frozen peas -- We love peas (but we're not sure why we have so many on-hand).  
• Leftover tomato paste -- This is something Clay saw on a cooking show a long time ago.  When you have leftover tomato paste, you can freeze it for later use. 
• 1 bag of store-bought frozen shelled edamame -- one of our go-to snacks.
• 1 gallon bag of frozen, breaded okra -- This is leftover from summer 2007, and it makes delicious fried okra. 

Why all this freezer talk? 

Everyday Food has an excellent recurring column called "Freeze It!" (the exclamation point is ours, not theirs).  In October, the subject is Irish Beef and Stout Stew.

Is it worth making and freezing?

Raw Sweet Corn and Cashew Chowder

Food & Wine (June 2008)

Our experience with raw cooking is pretty much limited to making salads and the occasional joke in which we suggest to each other that we go on a raw food diet. 

No offense, raw foodies. 

Food & Wine's recent profile of Ani Phyo, author of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, made us sit up and take notice.  It contained two delicious sounding and beautiful looking raw dishes. 

The first -- Zucchini Ribbons with Raw Tomato Marina -- looks amazing and we're dying to try it once we start getting these vegetables from our CSA. 

But our interests were especially piqued by the Raw Sweet Corn and Cashew Chowder.  The combination of corn and cashews sounded so unusual that we had to make it ASAP.

Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew with Sausage and Cabbage

Cook’s Illustrated (March & April 2008)

We noticed the other day that almost every recipe we've written about so far has been some shade of brown.  I promise we cook colorful meals, too!

But this Hearty Tuscan Bean Stew is not one of them.

The recipe -- as with all recipes from Cook's -- is accompanied by a lengthy explanation of the methods including an experiment between simmering beans on the stovetop vs. in the oven.  [Spoiler alert:  Near-simmered in the oven wins.]

The base recipe calls for pancetta, kale/collard greens and rosemary.  However, we chose one of the slight variations included in the recipe, which substitutes sweet Italian sausage, Savoy cabbage and oregano for these ingredients.  We had trouble finding Savoy cabbage and instead used a basic green cabbage.  We also decided to double the recipe and freeze the second batch. 

Doubling the recipe turned out to be a great idea, since we have loved eating this stew! Thawing a couple bowls out has made for a quick and extremely satisfying mid-week meal several times in the past few weeks.

Pork Cheek and Black-Eyed Pea Chili

Food & Wine (February 2008)

How hard could it be to find pork cheeks in our nation's capital?   

On a remarkably cold January weekend in D.C., our decision to make Food & Wine's Pork Cheek and Black-Eyed Pea Chili  was a no-brainer.  The photo accompanying the recipe, which was part of F&W's "Super Bowl Blowout," is beautiful, with chili resting in a teal dutch oven, accompanied by beautiful bowls filled with parsley, crème fraîche and smoked cheddar cheese alongside a basket of cornbread.  Is this the classiest Super Bowl food ever? 

Our first challenge, though, was finding five pounds of "cleaned and trimmed pork cheeks."  The recipe gives you the option of substituting pork shoulder, but it seemed like a cheat.  We started at the Dupont Farmer's Market on a Sunday.  One of the regular suppliers, who incidentally supplies pork cheeks to Momofuku, often carries them but did not have any this day.

After asking around to some other farmers, we trekked over to Whole Foods, where the butcher informed us that they do not carry them.  After consulting the Google, it seemed as if hog jowl may be an appropriate substitute for pork cheeks in some recipes, so we stopped by two grocery stores in our neighborhood to see if they carried jowl, but no dice.  Finally, we called the meat vendors at Eastern Market.  A 30-minute Zipcar reservation later, and we had our jowl, although it was salted and cured.