Smoked Whitefish Chowder

I have posted other fish soups previously, and they are favorites because, in addition to taste, they are relatively straightforward to make. Smoked Whitefish Chowder does not fit that description. However, it is a dish so special that it can be served as a main course for company. It was introduced to us by one of our children, who loves to cook no matter how demanding the recipe.

Whitefish looks like the fish any amateur would draw, the archetypal fish, and is found in North American lakes. By the time it is smoked, it becomes golden and wrinkled. The flesh takes on a pinky gray tinge and develops a strong flavor.

Although Smoked Whitefish is what is called for, another smoked fish might work if it was meaty enough to provide 3 cups of skinless, boneless fish. This is a thick and rich dish; although the fish is only added toward the end, there has to be enough so that the other ingredients don’t overwhelm it. When working on taking the fish off the bones, either wear rubber gloves or have a lot of lemon on hand to get off the fish smell.

The soup can be frozen, which is helpful since it is almost too rich to eat several days in a row, although we enjoyed it at two dinners the week our son came and cooked it for the family.

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup heavy cream*

1 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 leek, washed and thinly sliced

1 tsp thyme

1 cup dry white wine

3 ½ cups (low sodium) chicken broth

1 10 oz package frozen corn kernels, thawed

3 cups smoked whitefish (approx. 2 lbs of fish with skin and bones)

2 Tbsp chopped dill

2 Tbsp chopped parsley, flat leaf

Dash of Tabasco to taste

*As always, heavy cream may be too rich, in which case one of the following might work: low fat evaporated milk, half and half, whole milk. The pureed potatoes make the soup thick so heavy cream is not necessary for that purpose.

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes chunks with cream and milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook partially covered until tender, about 15 minutes.
2. In a large soup pot melt butter and oil. Add onion, celery, leek, and thyme. Cook over medium heat until soft, about 4 minutes.
3. Add wine and boil until nearly evaporated, 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock.
5. Transfer ½ cooked potatoes to a soup pot.
6. Transfer remaining potatoes and all the liquid to a blender and puree until smooth.
7. Add pureed potatoes and corn to soup pot and simmer until corn is just cooked, about 4 minutes.
8. Stir in whitefish, dill, parsley, and Tabasco. 

Cabbage, Potato, and Leek

This Cabbage, Potato, and Leek Soup was meant for Saint Patrick’s Day, but could work any time of the year. It is quite healthy, and with its cross-cultural addition of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, hearty, too.

The recipe took a whole medium size cabbage, with the outer leaves trimmed off and the core left out. Since the soup is NOT pureed, it is necessary to shred the cabbage, either by hand or in a food processor. However, if the consistency isn’t pleasing, a small amount of the soup can be pureed and then put back in the pot to create a smoother base.

Ingredients

6 Tbsp unsalted butter or margarine

3 medium leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned and thinly sliced

8 cups shredded cabbage

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

4 cups chicken stock

4 cups water

2 tsp salt (depending on how much is in the stock)

2 springs of thyme, or two pinches dried

1 tsp pepper

3 Tbsp Grated Parmigiani cheese

Directions

1. Melt butter in soup pot and cook leeks and garlic until soft and beginning to turn golden.
2. Add the cabbage and stir occasionally until cabbage begins to caramelize.
3. Stir in potatoes, stock, salt, pepper, thyme and bring to a simmer.
4. Cook until potatoes begin to disintegrate, about 50 minutes.
5. Add cheese.

Moroccan Lentil Soup

This Moroccan Lentil Soup could be considered a variation on a previous Moroccan style soup posted earlier. However, this version is interesting as one of few soup recipes that call for eggplant among its ingredients. Although the list of ingredients looks long, the actual preparation is straightforward.

Eggplant often shows up in dishes that emanate from parts of the world where lamb is a frequent menu item, and lamb stock was the base for the previous Moroccan soup (see 23 February 2011). This recipe calls for chicken stock, a somewhat milder base, but has plenty of ingredients to give it the intensity that the lamb stock provided in the 2011 soup. Beware, like the previous Moroccan soup, this one is on the spicy side.

Since the recipe only calls for 1 ½ cup of chopped eggplant, the question becomes what to do with the rest. Another 1 ½ cup went into a minestrone soup, and a couple of remaining slabs appeared at our dinner table as Eggplant Parmesan. For the cilantro, I keep a container of cilantro pesto in the refrigerator and dole that out when cilantro is called for. In this case, I happened to also have mint, so used some of each, but heavier on the mint.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, chopped fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. curry powder

½ tsp. allspice

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. red pepper flakes, or start with less and add

1 ½ cups peeled, finely diced eggplant

1 14 ½ oz. can diced tomatoes

1 16 oz. bag lentils, preferably red

10 cups stock, or combination of stock and water

¾ cup cooking sherry

2 tsp. cilantro or mint

Salt and pepper

Juice of ½ lemon

Yogurt when serving if desired

Directions

1. In a soup pot, melt butter over medium heat and cook garlic, cumin, curry powder, allspice cinnamon, and pepper flakes until spices release their flavor.
2. Add oil and cook onion, carrots, and eggplant until coated and just soft.
3. Add stock, tomatoes, lentils, sherry, cilantro and lemon juice, and chopped mint, if using. Cook until lentils are completely soft. 

Creamy Vegetable Soup

This Creamy Vegetable Soup is utterly French in the rich delicacy of its texture and taste. Even those who are generally attracted to the exotic and spicy in their cuisine might occasionally enjoy something so elegant as this soup.

Hard as it may be to get excited about a soup based on cauliflower, squash, and onions, when you want something soothing, try this. A thinner version of this might also be the basis for a cold soup in a different season, although I haven’t tried it and have never actually been served a cold soup in France.

This recipe calls for cream, however, once the soup is pureed, it IS CREAMY, without the addition of actual cream. I had planned to serve it that way, when a bottle of heavy cream came my way, so I added just a couple of tablespoons to give the soup an even richer taste. Normally, when cream is called for I would use Low Fat Evaporated Milk. In this case, if the soup is very thick, even a little milk might work.

Ingredients

4 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and seeded

1 small cauliflower

2 Tbsp. butter

4 medium onions, peeled and chopped

8 cups chicken stock

4 Tbsp. cream

Salt and pepper

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Directions

1.    Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.

2.    Take enough of the squash to make one cup finely diced. Put squash in boiling water.

3.    Remove core and break cauliflower into florets. Take enough of the top florets and break into smaller pieces to make one cup. Add to boiling water. Par boil until JUST tender (Squash takes at least twice as long as cauliflower).

4.    Immediately rinse vegetables in cold water and set aside.

5.    Chop onions and cut rest of squash in chunks.

6.    Melt butter and add onions, squash chunks, and remainder of cauliflower, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook covered until vegetables are soft, but do not brown.

7.    Add chicken broth and cook until all vegetables are soft. When cool enough, puree vegetables. Return soup to pot and add cream and reserved vegetables.

Curried Cream of Celery Root Soup

Each food group has its own candidate for the ugliest, the least likely to succeed in attracting through appearance. Monkfish are mighty ugly when encountered head on; wild boar are pretty scary; and there are some prickly looking fruits that resemble weapons more than edibles.

Among vegetables, the celery root is right up there when it comes to daunting looks. However, the vegetable has its uses. In addition to celery remoulade, the sophisticated French way with a raw vegetable, celery root can be cooked, often combined with potatoes. Recently I tried out a celery root soup and found it both delicate and flavorful. It was the curry that brought out the taste without overwhelming the flavor.

One problem of dealing with this vegetable is that the weight in the store includes scary hairy protuberances that have to be trimmed, so it is hard to know how much root one will end up with. Some of the bulbs are only baseball size, while others are considerably larger but include a lot more that needs trimming.

Since I like my soup to have a sturdy consistency, this recipe requires a large bulb, or a couple of smaller ones. I find that a peeler works on the top and sides, but the bottom definitely requires knife work.

Ingredients                                                               

4 Tbsp butter

2 leeks, cleaned and chopped or one medium onion

1 Tbsp sliced garlic

1 Tbsp curry powder

2 tsp ground cumin

3 lbs. celery root, peeled and cubed

6 cups chicken broth

salt and pepper

½ cup cream, half and half, evaporated milk or to desired consistency

chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add leeks, or onion, and garlic and cook until soft
2. Add curry powder and cumin, salt and pepper, until seasoning releases its flavor.
3. Add celery root, stir to coat vegetable,
4. Add broth and bring to a boil.
5. Cook until celery root is soft, about 25 minutes.
6. Cool sufficiently to puree in blender.
7. Add cream to desired consistency.

Cold (or Hot) Ginger Beet Soup

Summer is supposed to be a relaxing time, but with gardening, family, and ferociously hot weather, the summer of 2011 has not turned out to be full of down-time. Early mornings, when the house is still cool, there has been plenty of cooking going on, a lot of it having to do with cold soup, since this is one of the few meals people feel like eating when the thermometer zooms in the direction of three digits.

Although my Lemon Artichoke recipe is my signature cold soup, this summer there have been times when Ginger Beet has run a close second. This soup turns out to have an unusually vivid color, and a taste to match: both bold and soothing. My family is divided on beets as a hot vegetable, but they all seem to enjoy the taste of this soup.

As a bonus, we save the beet greens and use them sautéed Italian style, in olive oil with garlic, to serve with pasta or grilled meat. 

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. beets trimmed

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 leeks, coarsely chopped, and washed

2 cloves garlic

3 heaping Tbsp chopped ginger

1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut up

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups water

Juice of one lemon

2 Tbsp chopped dill

1/3 cup Greek style yogurt, sour cream, or crème fraiche

Directions

1.    Put the beets in a pot with water to cover and boil until tender. Run under cold water and slip off the skins, and any remaining stalks and stems. Cut into quarters.

2.    In a soup pot, heat the oil and cook the leeks, garlic, and ginger until just soft.

3.    Add the beets, cucumber, broth, water, dill, and lemon juice. Cook 20 minutes.

4.    Cool and puree. The yogurt can be added at this stage, which will turn the soup PINK, or added as a dollop to the chilled soup when served.

Sweet Potato Chili Puree

One way to cut the sweetness of vegetables such as corn and sweet potatoes is to overdose on the spice side. This combination accounts for a smooth, rich sweet potato and chile recipe I made recently.

I discovered this recipe when the combination of ingredients ended up in my refrigerator at the same time. Next, I decided to try them in the same pot. The result was a rich, smooth soup that might also be tasty if served cold in summer, although sweet potatoes don’t naturally come to mind in summer.

Since the soup will end up in the blender, the vegetables don’t need to by finely chopped.

Ingredients

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks

I medium onion, cut in quarters

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp chili powder

4 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

1 cup heavy cream, or one can condensed evaporated milk

Directions

1. Cook onion and jalapeno in oil until wilted.
2. Add chili powder until it is moistened and gives off scent.
3. Add broth and water and cook until vegetables are soft.
4. Puree vegetables in blender, adding cream.
5. Adjust seasoning so soup has a spicy tang.