Cold Artichoke Soup

In the heat of summer I have been experimenting with a variety of cold soups. Having had an incredibly busy past few days there was little to work with in the fridge, so I rummaged through the cupboards and found a couple of jars of artichoke hearts.

I threw them in the Cuisinart and voilá, I discovered a fantastic cold summer soup that met with raves by everyone! The embarrassingly easy recipe is below.

It is very light and refreshing, a perfect starter for a dinner salad and a crisp glass of chardonnay.

Cold Artichoke Soup

Two jars artichoke hearts, with liquid
1 clove garlic
Salt, to taste
1 Tbs sour cream
½ cup water or chicken stock
½ cup frozen peas

Garnish - coarsely ground roasted nuts or seeds
Fresh cilantro chopped coarsely

Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor, puree completely. Add more liquid if too thick. Chill well before serving. Garnish with toasted nuts, I particularly like chopped toasted pumpkin seeds. Add a few cilantro leaves for color.

Caviar Pie, Appatizer Exotique That All Love

I grew up in a rural part of California where there was little opportunity to expand my culinary interests. In high school, already addicted to creative food, I enrolled in a cooking course at the local community center. I don't know the name of the woman who taught the course, but forty years later I am still using her recipes!

After all my travels and moves around the globe I have saved little from my youth. But my close friend, Carolyn Kelso, with whom I shared those recipes has given them back to me. The one that we both continue to make today, and which we both relish because it is a hit at all potlucks and parties, is caviar pie.

It is simple, elegant, tasty and different. It is incredibly easy to make, to carry to a party, and to serve. Wherever I serve it, virtually everyone asks me for the recipe. I only wish I still had the name of the woman from whom I got it so I can give her credit.

Even people who say that hate caviar love this dish. Try it and you will see!

I now use a food processor even for all parts, giving a creamy, dreamy sensation to each layer.

CAVIAR PIE

Oil quiche or spring-form pan. I like to use a spring-form pan so the layers are high and fully revealed when serving.

1st Layer
6 lg hard-boiled eggs
3T mayo
Mix together in a processor or by hand, spread over the bottom of the pan

2nd layer
Green onions, finely chopped, they can be coarsely chopped in a food processor
Spread over the egg layer

3rd Layer
2/3 c sour cream
8 oz soft cream cheese (or low-fat cream cheese)
Blend in a processor or with a mixer. Spread on top of the onion layer

Let set for at least 4 hours in fridge, or overnight

Right before serving:
Top with 2 8oz jar Danish lumpfish caviar, drained—(drain the liquid off in a strainer)

Garnish with chopped parsley or chives

Serve with fine crackers or baguettes

Winter Portabella Mushroom Soup – Divinely Rich in Flavor and Low Fat

(Taken from the Portabella Mushroom Chapter of my upcoming book, Make It Sing Cuisine)

This rich mushroom soup tastes like it has a cream base and is as smooth as velvet. But the only fat is a bit of olive oil used to sauté the mushrooms. Unabashedly rich in flavor, it is light yet full-bodied.

The secret is the homemade chicken stock. I have tried making it with the best commercial stocks, organic and expensive, as well as standard off the shelf canned variety. The soup is still good, but to take it to the higher octaves with full range, homemade stock is best. (Following the recipe is my simple method for making chicken stock)

This recipe serves 4
Be sure to do periodic taste tests as the flavor-impact of the ingredients can vary, and adjust quantities to taste.

2 cups sliced portabella mushrooms
2 Tbs Olive Oil
Salt, to taste
Dash Allspice
½ c Sauterne
( if you can’t find Sauterne, I have used Trader Joe’s Moscato from Paso Robles)
1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock
1 clove garlic chopped finely

Sour Cream or Crème Fraiche for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan large enough to hold all the mushrooms. Sauté with salt and allspice, and garlic. Add the Sauterne and cook until the mushrooms are soft and black.

Put the mushrooms in a food processor and purée. When the mushrooms are fully puréed, gradually add chicken stock. It should be the consistency of thinnish pea soup. Don’t add all the stock if you don’t need to. Stop adding when the desired consistency is achieved.

Heat through just before serving. Garnish with a swirl of sour cream or crème fraiche.


Simple, Rich Chicken Stock

This is a very simple process and I am not sure why many people are intimidated by making their own stock. Simply put the chicken parts on the stove and cook, taking them out and reduce the liquid. Then pour the liquid through a fine strainer, put it in the refrigerator and then next day spoon off the congealed fat. Very easy.

Depending on how much you make, it takes about an hour of slow simmering on the stove. You don’t have to attend to it, just let it sit on the back burner while you cook or watch TV.

I make stock using only chicken parts, never adding vegetables or spices. I like my stock pure and add flavor according to how I will use it later, making a large batch and freezing it in small plastic bags. I get chicken backs from a local butcher, but any parts will do. If you use pieces with meat, such as breast and thighs, be doubly sure to cook it on a gentle heat so that the meat will remain tender. Do not trim the fat before making stock as it enriches the flavor, then remove all fat once it is cooled.

NOTE: Use homemade chicken stock as the liquid base for polenta, it's heavenly!

Step 1:
Put chicken parts in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least an hour. If using breasts or thighs remove them once the meat is cooked.

Step 2:
Remove chicken from the stock and reduce the liquid by 50%

Step 3:
Pour the liquid through a fine strainer or for a purer stock, line the strainer with cheesecloth. Let cool.

Step 4:
Refrigerate the stock overnight. The cooled fat will coagulate on the surface and is easy to remove with a large spoon. The stock will be gelled. Spoon it into freezer bags. Can be stored in the freezer for up to 4 months.

The Zen of Tasting, from my book in progress

Reading the menu is not the same thing as eating the food.
Takayuki Zoshi, Master Buddhist Sculptor
From his talk on the Value of Spiritual Practice

There are some people who are quite well versed in palate awareness when it comes to wine, and a few others when it comes to coffee. This attention to our palate is far less developed regarding food. Good cooks and chefs do have a developed palate awareness, but few talk about it with the same vigor, confidence, and relish as do wine connoisseurs. Think about it — the passion and focus that is inherent in a sommelier’s description as he tastes and describes a fine wine: buttery, chewy, nutty, tart, racy. Now that’s palate awareness! If you attentively notice what happens in your mouth while tasting your cooking, your cuisine will improve instantly.

We can create fascinating, pleasing, exciting, exotic, subtle, imaginative, sensational taste experiences right in our own kitchens. More than exotic ingredients, it takes astute awareness of our palate – a simple method for discovering remarkable culinary secrets every day.

Food is about eating, not about measuring. All garlic cloves have different sizes and different flavor-powers. One bottle of balsamic vinegar is sweeter or more sour than another, one salmon filet is more or less flavorful than its neighbor. Let recipes guide you at the grocery store so you know what to buy but let your palate guide you in the kitchen. Remember, each ingredient carries its own flavor-power, and this varies greatly depending on the brand, the age, and the quality of the ingredient. Creating good food is less about measuring quantities and more about measuring flavor-power on your palate.

What happens on your palate when you add a bit of balsamic vinegar to, let’s say, turkey gravy? Feel the taste widen and rest along the sides of your tongue and tease your throat. For me, the sensation is like pulling a cashmere sweater onto cold arms, warm and slightly prickly at the same time.

What happens to your palate when you add a bit of horseradish to turkey gravy? Perhaps the center of your tongue is piqued as the taste wafts slightly upwards at the back of the throat. If you’ve added a bit too much, notice it march right up your nasal cavities and obliterate the turkey flavor all together.

What happens when you add ground sautéed portabella mushrooms to turkey gravy? Feel your tongue languish while the flavor glides like a slowing ice skater all the way down to the middle of your throat.

The sensations may be different for you; you may describe them in another way, or you may not be able to describe them at all. What is most important is to notice the sensations and have them guide your cuisine.

There is a scientific taste sensation map of the tongue, but this is not how I relate to tasting food. I taste food much like I watch the sunset, sit in a hot bath, or listen to opera with closed eyes: pure unadulterated sensation. I try to fully experience the sensations in the act of tasting. In addition to flavor, tasting is also about texture, temperature, smell, and how the elements blend.

I remember the first time I ate an avocado. I was in high school visiting a friend, and for an after-school snack she grabbed a perfectly ripe avocado from the refrigerator and cut it open and handed me half with a spoon. Never one to shrink from a new experience I dug the spoon in and put what turned out to be heavenly green manna in my mouth. I smiled for hours after that. The texture, the coolness, the calming subtle flavor, all these things combined for a premier sensation that I never forgot.

Imagine that first time someone accidentally dropped a scoop of vanilla ice cream into a glass of root beer en route to their bowl -- what an exciting taste experience that must have been! So simple and so enjoyable.

A good chef is always experimenting, a great chef is a maestro of the symphonic palate. All flavor and textural combinations achieve a certain balance on the palate. I remember that one of the first chefs I worked under kept telling me that I had to be able to taste every ingredient I put into a dish, EVERY SINGLE ONE. He trained me to taste with consciousness.

We made a simple but excellent Madeira sauce for chicken, and I had to be able to taste not only the Madeira but also the salt, white pepper, nutmeg, chicken drippings and the other ingredients, no matter how subtle. He taught me, within a second or two of tasting, to differentiate the flavors and their power in the combination. It wasn’t hard to do — it just took that split second of attentive consciousness — tasting all the flavor elements and noting their balance. Balance does not mean equal. In the Madeira sauce the Madeira was dominant, as it should be, and each element played its part, some were bit players and others supporting actors.

Through keen attention to your palate you will learn to adjust your dishes to maximum effect, guided by your own taste preferences.

Welcome!

Make It Sing Cuisine is dedicated to enhancing creativity in the kitchen. We are going to start with ordinary ingredients that can be easily found in supermarkets and grocery stores across the US. Each month there will be an article about a particular ingredient or technique, and how to use it to launch greater creativity.

I am in the process of writing my first cookbook, Make It Sing Cuisine. It is a guidebook to achieving creative success with your everyday meals. The book highlights one particular ingredient and walks you through using it in a variety of ways to make your meals SING.

This blog will feature highlights from the book as well as other fun and interesting food writings, recipes and tips.

I look forward to your suggestions and recommendations.