Cream of Tomato Soup

Growing up in a single parent household with two hungry siblings, we relied heavily on simple, quick meals to get us through the week when mom had to work late.  That meant quite a few casseroles (Penny Casserole, Chicken a la king), baked Italian pastas (it took me a few years of not living at home until I could eat a stuffed shell again) and of course - Grilled Cheese with Cream of Tomato Soup.

When I hear "Cream of Tomato Soup",  like millions of Americans, I think of the salty, savory flavor of Campbell's Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup.  Tasty for sure, but one dimensional.  But, if Campbell's is 1D, the version of the soup in Saveur's 101 Classic Recipes produces a soup that is full on 3-D.

 The ingredients are:

4 slices thick-cut bacon, finely chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 15-oz can whole, peeled, crushed by hand
1/4 cup heavy cream
Kosher salt and ground pepper, to taste
Creme fraiche, croutons and finely chopped chives, to garnish

Many of the recipes in that I have been cooking call for the use of a 4-quart saucepan, but in my experience the more room your food has to cook, the better the final results.  The bottom of my pot is a bit thinner than my saucepan, so I have to keep a closer eye on the flame that I cook with to make sure the food doesn't burn or heat more quickly than I'd like, but that tends to be the only difference for me.  Plus the wooden spoon makes a satisfying clang when I bang the remnants off of it by hitting the side of the stock pot.  When I hit the spoon on the side of the saucepan the sound it makes is more of a "plink".

I placed my stock pot on medium heat and heated the bacon until all the fat had rendered out and the bacon had crisped nicely. 

I then added the butter, cranked the heat up a bit and added the onion, garlic and carrot, stirring until it had softened and the onions had become translucent, about 10 minutes.  I was surprised that there was no celery in the recipe, leaving the traditional soup/sauce base mirepoix incomplete.  That would be an interesting addition when I make the recipe again.

I tossed in the tomato paste and cooked until caramelized a bit, then added the flour and cooked while stirring constantly (about 5 minutes total).

 Next - the big dump.  Into the pot went the stock, thyme, bay leaf and tomatoes and once they had boiled, I reduced the heat to low and simmered the soup until it had reduced a bit, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the soup had finished cooking I removed it from the stove and engaged my trusty immersion blender to puree the heck out of it.  After pureeing the soup, I stirred in the cream and seasoned lightly with salt, but liberally with pepper.

For garnish the recipe calls for creme fraiche, croutons and diced chives which posed some problems. Trying to stay as low carb as possible, croutons were out,  I checked a few local groceries and couldn't find creme fraiche, so I tried to make it at home using a recipe I found online (two cups buttermilk mixed with one tablespoon of lemon juice, left on the counter, covered, overnight), but it was unsuccessful.  Instead, to plate (do you "plate" soup?  Maybe you "bowl" it?) the soup I  used sour cream mixed with a little milk and chopped chives.

Cream of Tomato Soup - Schuler Version

I made the soup for a group of friends (as all great cooking should be) and there wasn't a lick left in each bowl when they finished.  In comparison to the salty, almost tinny taste of the Campbell's Tomato soup, this was fresh tasting with a smoky undertone from the bacon.  I am a big fan of sour cream in all forms and one of my favorite moments in eating this was when I would put a spoonful in my mouth and the hot, savory soup would first coat my tongue, only to be extinguished by the creamy, tart taste of the sour cream.  Kind of like the mouth feel of cool blue cheese on a chicken wing.  Yum.

I'll probably make this again, but to me the experience of making this soup is a little less about this final product as it is about learning the basic structure of the recipe and playing with the parts - Cream of  Potato, Cream of Asparagus, Cream of Parsnip, Cream of  Broccoli, etc, etc.  I'm a big fan of the skill of "Kitchen Cupboard" Cooking.  That is, the ability to look into the kitchen cupboard, fridge and pantry and making a great meal out of whatever is in there.  Culinary problem solving at its finest.

Credit: Todd Coleman

16 down, 85 to go!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

When the holidays are approaching, I always get the urge to bake copious amounts of cookies.  Cut-outs, jam thumbprints, pecan sandies, snickerdoodles and especially my infamous pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.  I figured I would feed the urge and knock another of the 101 Classic Recipes off the list and kill two birds with one stone and make recipe 80 - Chocolate Chip Cookies.  The recipe includes the ingredients listed in the classic Toll House Cookie recipe.  A bit of an aside - if you have ever wondered why they are called Toll House Cookies - it's because the recipe is from the Toll House Restaurant in Massachusetts, where Ruth Wakefield first made them in the 1930's (find more information here). 

The ingredients are:

2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
16 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg yolks (save the whites for breakfast)
9 oz bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Full disclosure - this is the first recipe that I completely screwed up and had to make again.  I can blame it on bad lighting or smudges on my glasses, but I misread the recipe and used 1/4 cup of both dark brown sugar and sugar, rather than the 3/4 cup that the recipe calls for.  I even noted to my wife, "I can't believe these cookies use so little sugar."  The cookies that resulted were super dry, almost powdery when you bit into them. More like dog biscuits than cookies.  When I re-read the recipe and tried again. All photos are from attempt #2.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and whisk together the flour, soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.  Combine the sugars, vanilla and butter in a mixer and beat until fluffy and smooth (and mighty tasty...I can't help but munch on the dough at each phase in the recipe, it just smells so good!).  creaming the butter/sugar should take about 3 minutes.

Then add the yolks, two at a time, beating completely between each set.  Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and divide into 3 pieces and flatten into a 4 x 6" rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.  I don't usually keep a ruler in the kitchen, so the pieces may have been different sizes, but I'm more of a "eyeball it" kind of guy anyhow.

With the dough in the fridge, I set to chopping some chocolate.  I'm a big fan of labor saving devices.  You saw the Kitchen-Aid mixer (my second love, next to my wife) and I'm also a fan of the microwave, slicers and my food processor.  I realize that I have an unhealthy connection to my kitchen tools and utensils, just ask me about my wooden spoon, cleaver and dough blade.

I chopped the 9 oz bar of chocolate into thinner bars and tried to chop it in the food processor using the chopping blade and the results were less than astounding.  Because of the hardness of the chocolate and the fact that the pieces bounced around the processor bowl, all I got was big hunks of powdery chocolate.  I dumped it out onto the chopping block and went at it with the knife.

After the dough had thoroughly chilled, I placed one layer of dough on the floured counter and covered with half the chocolate.  I then laid the second layer of dough on that, followed by the remainder of the chocolate.

Finally I placed the final layer of dough on top of the pile.

Using a floured rolling pin, I rolled the pile out to the recommended 9" x 6" x 1 1/2" rectangle and using a 2-inch round cut out the cookies and placed them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, spaced 3" apart.

After munching on some of the smaller scraps, I bunched the survivors...I mean remainders, and rolled them out to 1 1/2" thick, cut out cookies and placed them on the sheet.

I baked them for about 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the cook-time, and they came out golden brown.

It's tough to screw up chocolate chip cookies...says the man that screwed up this recipe once, but these were pretty good.  Hand chopping the chocolate caused there to be chocolate morsels of varying sizes in the cookies and because of the way the cookies were layered, there was chocolate in every single bite.  Some bites you would get a swirl of chocolate, possibly from the smaller, powdery chocolate.  Other bites you would get a fantastic, gooey pocket of sweet goodness.

They were good, but I'm not sure if they were worth the extra work of chilling the dough, layering it and rolling it out.  I could have been eating cookies 30 minutes sooner if I'd just dropped tablespoons of dough on the sheets (and they would have been a bit chewier too).  I believe that the chopped chocolate would still have the same wonderful effect on the cookies.

As for the response of my wife and kids, they didn't need to tell me that they liked them.  The fact that cookies kept disappearing off the cooling racks was comment enough.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Schuler  Version

 

 

Credit: Todd Coleman

Over the next few posts I will be writing about making a bunch of recipes, but this will be my last dessert until I make Croquembouche for our Christmas party.  I'll also be making a few of the past recipes I've blogged about (Ful Medames and Gougeres for sure).

Thanks for reading this post - hopefully you enjoy the cookies as much as my family did!

15 down, 86 to go!