You Need Soup Today! (Tomato and Fennel Soup)

Here's a quick soup for this cold, rainy day that I am preparing for tomorrow's Healthy Vegetarian Soups class.  There's still time to sign up..

A watery fruit like tomatoes can be used like a stock.  Fresh or canned tomatoes combined with water and aromatic vegetables, quickly cooked, make a soup of surprisingly complexity.  There is no need to thicken this soup and it will be on and off the stove in under 30 minutes. 

Tomato and Fennel Soup

1 quart tomatoes, pureed and strained

1 head fennel, cored and sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 quart water

3 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

2 cups crusty bread, cut into 1/2 inch dice

salt and fresh black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed stockpot.  Sauté the fennel over low heat for at least 5 minutes.  It should wilt and cook through, but not brown.  Season with salt and pepper.

Increase the heat to high.  Add the tomatoes and water.  Adjust the seasoning.  When the soup boils, reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook for 10 minutes. 

Serve the soup over crusty bread, garnished with mint.

Sauteed or Grilled (Pork Souvlaki)

Any chef, at least out here on the US East Coast has a Greek chef or two in their lineage.  As I said in an earlier blog, one of my first important cooking gigs was at a Greek owned restaurant in Rochester, NY.  Christos Petsos taught me a bunch or early lessons and let me know that maybe, just maybe, I had what it took to be a professional chef.  When chefs get to late-night, end of shift boozing, everyone has a Greek chef story, most of them profane, however all of them filled with grudging respect, sometimes awe. 

You see, in the northeast, I don’t know about the rest of the country, Greeks run many of the restaurants that are low to mid priced, just perfect for a stoner to get a job where no obvious skills are required.  Sometimes all it takes is showing up at the right time, like say when the chef has just punched out a cook and thrown his tenderized body out on the loading dock to marinate in the blood and the muck and the garbage juices that collect there.  Who would you look at that scene and say, “Hell yeah, I wanna work here!!!!”  Well, I did.  That’s how I was hired at a diner in Saylorsburg.   Later, I was to be the guy doing the thumping, proving that chef DNA can be transferred by osmosis.  I’ve mellowed since then.

Pork Souvlaki can either be made in a pan, as a sauté, or more commonly grilled on skewers over an open fire.  This is serious street food.  The butchering and marinade is the same.  I’ll be preparing this version sautéed with onions and peppers, served over bread that was browned in the pan before cooking the Souvlaki.  It could also be served with pita bread and garnished with crumbled feta cheese and Tzatziki sauce.  If bamboo skewers are to be used, be sure to soak them in water for at least 30 minutes before skewering the meat.  Without soaking, they will quickly burn, making a big mess of your grill.    

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Pork Souvlaki (serves 6)

2 pounds pork country spare ribs, cut into 1 inch dice, ribs removed

3/4 cup olive oil

1 lemon, juiced, rind removed

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tablespoon dried)

1 Spanish onion, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon fresh black pepper

Here's what you'll need for the marinade.  Fresh oregano, lemons, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

Peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler, but not so deeply that you take off the bitter white pith.  Save the rind to cook in rice pilaf to serve with the Souvlaki.

 Combine 1/2 cup olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper in a large bowl to make a marinade for the Souvlaki.

Add the pork.  Mix to combine.  The acidic lemon juice will slightly whiten the pork.  Refrigerate for one hour.

Drain the pork.  You do not want to put wet meat cubes into a hot pan, because it will splatter and may flare up.  Heat a large sauté pan.  Add 1/4 cup olive oil.  When the pan is very hot, add the marinated pork. 

Turn the pork with tongs.  Brown each side.      

When the pork has cooked through, about 10 minutes, add to onions and peppers. 

Sauté for 2 minutes, until the vegetables have been cooked through.

We served the Souvlaki with sautéed kale and rice pilaf.

Yeah!!!!!! Eggfest!!!!!! (Pork Tacos, Chinese Style Ribs)

As promised, here are the recipes for what I was serving at PA Eggfest 2014 earlier today.  I had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed cooking next to my friend Jim Markowski.  It was his first catering gig and he pulled it off like a champ. 

For those I met today, please continue to follow the blog.  Good stuff here. 

A long, hot day.  Now, it’s nap time, right after bourbon time.

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Chili Smoked Pork

4 pounds pork butt

3 tbs. chile powder (recipe below)

2 tbs. brown sugar

1 tbs. kosher salt

Mix the chile powder, brown sugar and salt in a separate bowl until well combined.  Rub the seasoning mix onto the pork butt.  Marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, turning occasionally to redistribute the seasonings.

Heat your smoker to 160°F.  Smoke the pork butt for about 6 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.  Remove from the heat, hold warm for 10 minutes before slicing.  Serve sliced on a grilled corn tortilla with sliced iceberg lettuce and salsa (recipe below).

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Chile Powder (about 3 cups)

6 Ancho dried chilies

6 Pasilla dried chilies

8 Guajillo dried chilies

1 tbs. cumin seed

1 tbs. black pepper, coarsely ground

2 tsp. kosher salt

In a large, heavy sauté pan, toast the cumin seeds over a medium heat for five minutes while stirring constantly.  The cumin will begin to brown and may pop.  Transfer the seeds to a food processor.  Add the salt and black pepper.  Process on high speed for am minute, until finely ground.

Using the same sauté pan on medium heat, toast the chilies in batches until they begin to color, only about a minute per side.  Press down on each of the chilies with the back of a spatula, so that most of their surface browns.  Move the toasted chilies to baking sheet to cool.

Carefully remove the stem and the seeds from the chilies.  It is unlikely that you will get all the seeds, but don’t worry.  Break the chilies into roughly 1 inch squares.  Put them into the food processor with the other seasonings.  Process until the chilies have powdered, at least 10 minutes.  Store in an airtight jar.  Shake before using to remix the chilies, cumin, salt and pepper.

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Salsa

1 28 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes

½ cup white or red onions, diced

½ cup scallions, sliced

½ cup green pepper, diced

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tbs. canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce

2 tbs. red wine vinegar

3 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper, to your taste

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Remove 1/3 of the salsa.  Puree it finely to thicken the sauce.  Return it to the mixing bowl.  Refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving.

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Chinese Style braised Ribs

2 racks of pork spare ribs

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 tbs. salted black beans

1 tbs. chopped ginger

1 tbs. chopped garlic

1 tbs. sliced scallions

Ask you butcher to split the ribs lengthwise, then cut the meat between the ribs, making riblets about 1 1/2 inches long.

Preheat your egg or oven to275°F.  Combine all the ingredients except the pork in a large, heavy stockpot.  Place the pot in the oven until it just begins to boil, then add the ribs, cover and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the meat has softened, but is not falling off the bone, remove it from the pot of sauce and put it on a platter.  Drizzle the ribs with a few tablespoons of sauce and serve.

I Like Cider, a new discussion group!

I just started a discussion group about making, drinking and the developing hard cider culture. 

Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ilikecider/

For the past 20 years I have been making cider.  I'm taking this opportunity to pass on that experience and am inviting other cider makers to add their bit.  A trip to Normandy last October really changed my understanding of cider and cider culture.  My cider got better immediately.

We'll talk about fermenting apple juice and discuss the best ways to make a variety of ciders.  Additionally, I'll encourage consumers to post tasting notes, to develop a database of good things to drink.

This will be fun. 

Magnets and Soups and Why an Apprenticeship is a Good Thing

I got a big magnet for the car today and hope that will help get the word 

out about Fresh Fun Foods.

 If you see me out on the street, flash you lights a few times.  I'll pull over and give 

you a 10% off coupon.

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I’m a big National Public Radio listener.  It is my main source of news. Since I want long-form discussion and interviews with folks who are on the inside, NPR is my go-to when a story is breaking. Their initial coverage is usually just a sketch.  When all the facts are known, they can be counted on for a comprehensive story. Entertainment and lifestyle stories are the same.  I first heard Trombone Shorty on American Routes. The book features at the end of Fresh Air have turned me on to numerous fiction and nonfictions as the listing stack beside our bed will attest. I look forward to Kathy Gunst’s food features on Here & Now.

Earlier today, I heard a promo for Gunst’s bit where she was to tell everyone that there are soups that could be made and served either hot or cold.  That didn’t seem right to me.  When the story came on, I quickly scribbled notes, angry, contentious notes that would voice my disagreement in a snarky blog.  Needless to say, I don’t want to be that way, so I sat down to write a blog that would show respect for Gunst, who really seems like a fine person and a creative chef, while suggesting that there is a vast difference between cold and hot soups, a substantial difference that goes well beyond temperature. 

As I was organizing my thoughts, a promo for an upcoming program came on where a manufacturing executive said that in order to make high quality goods in the US; we need replicate the German apprenticeship program. Yep, and since today is the first day of school here in most of Pennsylvania and since I am a chef who went through a formal apprenticeship in addition to being a retired high school teacher, I am uniquely qualified to comment. 

But first, let’s get the cold/hot soup out of the way.  Ms. Gunst is correct that during this time of year both hot and cold soups can be appropriate. Weather dictates, along with what is in the market, the kind of soup that should be served. During the hot daytime, it is OK to go with a cold tomato soup. Likewise, as the sun goes down and the nights cool, a hot soup ought to be served.  Those hot soups should not be the hearty thick things we reserve for mid winter.  They should be soups made with the late summer bounty of tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers and herbs.  Where I very respectfully disagree with Ms. Gunst (especially since she is a published author with a radio show and I’m a guy typing in his kitchen) is that cold and hot soups require different cooking techniques to produce, since their aims are different.  A hot soup demands an extended period of simmering to marry flavors, while a cold soup often is just blended and served.  The flavors in a cold soup are married by careful selection and pureeing, an entirely different way of arriving at a finished product.  Additionally, the texture and seasonings are different.  You palate perceives flavors differently based on temperature. In my opinion, a chef has to decide what soup they are going to make then choose the proper technique to produce it.  Techniques to make cold and hot soups aren’t interchangeable.  Got that?

Back to the apprenticeship thing.  I spent a long time learning to cook and during that time I am grateful that a bunch of French chefs saw something in me that was worth teaching.  Maybe it was that I am reasonably bright and incredibly good looking or that I was willing to work for minimum wage or that I had a special ability where I was able to bully waiters with deft skill…I don’t know.  What I do know that I would not have invested the time and energy into someone as rough as I was in my early twenties.  I am grateful for the work that they put into me. I had the opportunity to teach other ragged kids in a similar way.

When I was coming up, places like the Restaurant School were just opening.  The C.I.A. was not really on the popular radar.  If you wanted to learn to cook you joined the army or sold your soul to a chef for at least five years.  My deal was that I agreed to work for minimum wage, $3.60/hr at the time. I would be paid for 40 hours, but would work as many hours as the chef decreed.  There was no democracy here. Many labor laws were ignored. If I wanted to learn, I had to do whatever the chef asked for however long he said. It was 10 years before I let anyone call me chef.

Later, when I quit the biz and went back to college, you see I found that I really liked my wife and kids; I got a job teaching high school. Since they knew my background, the guidance counselors always wanted me to talk to the kids who were on the fence about tech school. For some reason, after our talk none of these kids signed up for vo tech, which was the sole objective of the counselors, no matter the student’s needs. The reason the kids ran scared from vo tech was that I told them that there was a different route, one that would actually help them in their dream to be a chef. Instead of insisting that they should essentially become free labor for the tech school and be qualified to work in a cafeteria after graduation, I suggested that they stay in the high school and take every business class they could fit in their schedule. Also, they should get a job in the best local restaurant that they could beg their way into, all the while angling to move up in that kitchen or to move on when they have soaked every bit of knowledge out to that chef. They should get Serve Safe Certification and an AS from someplace like MCCC when they graduated, because you need the paper. In this way, they would have about four years experience, business skills, knife skills, a degree and a clue as to whether they liked restaurant work.  As a bonus, their debt would be minimal, probably none, since the student would be working in better and better places while going to school.

The guidance staff didn’t like this and eventually they stopped sending kids to me.  Enrollment at vo tech went up.

The apprenticeship system worked for me. The only hole was business education, something that could easily be built into a more formal program. Maybe, with the crazy changing job market that we have, a system where people enter into a formal agreement to learn job skills would be a better way to go. Right now, all the jobs with growth don’t require a degree, but also don’t pay a living wage or any kind of benefits that would permit someone to raise a family. Something has to change. The Germans might be onto something.