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.

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. 

Tomatoes coming soon, but until then... (Black Bean Salad)

It is the very beginning of tomato season in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They haven’t turned up on most of the farm stands, however the mid size folks, those with a greenhouse to start the plants around March, will have beautiful, large tomatoes for you to enjoy.  Since the large volume, the mother lode of tomatoes isn’t here yet, try using them mixed in with other things, for example as a flavor component in a salad. 

Black Bean Salad is a good example of this.  Fresh tomatoes combine well with the other vegetables, while their juice, mixed in with lime, avocado and olive oil makes a fine dressing.  While I don’t always encourage this kind of thing, canned Goya Black Beans are a good product and will save the hassle of cooking dried.  After all, it is summer, we don’t want to spend these glorious days in the kitchen.  Serve the salad over romaine or with grilled chicken that has been marinated in lime, garlic, chilies and olive oil.

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Mexican Black Bean Salad (serves 6 as a main course)

2 15.5 ounce cans of black beans

2 large tomatoes, peeled and diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 red onion, diced

1 bunch scallions, sliced

1 avocado, scooped and roughly chopped

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

4 tbs. olive oil

the juice of 2 limes

2 chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, chopped (La Costeña is a good brand)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Open the cans of black beans, place them in a colander and rinse them with cold water to wash off all the juice.  Allow them to drain completely while you assemble the salad.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, red and green peppers, onions, scallions and avocado.  Season them with salt and pepper.   Make the dressing in the same bowl by adding the olive oil, lime juice and chipotle chilies.  Again adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Allow the salad to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes so that the flavors of the vegetables and dressing will marry.

Stir in the black beans.  Mix to combine everything, check the seasoning and make any final adjustments, then cover the salad and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Jack is home from India! (green pepper bean cakes, tomato and fennel stew)

Jack is home from India! 

Jack is home from India!!!!!!!

His mother is very happy!!!!!!!!!!!

My son has been teaching in Dhrangadhra in Gujarat for the past six months.  We picked him up this morning at EWR and drove down the turnpike home in complete joy.  We are very proud of the kid.  He went to the other side of the world to do a job that he had never done before and apparently did it well.  We got some stories out of him, but mostly we’ll have to wait until the jet lag wears off and he is a little more coherent.  So now, he has taken a shower and is resting.  For how long, dunno, he was pretty jangled before he stumbled upstairs. 

Readjusting to Pennsylvania in winter will be a challenge.  He said that it was awful cute that his students would show up for class wearing sweaters and gloves whenever the temperature in Dhrangadhra dropped below 65°.  Today was 20° and windy, with a covering from yesterday’s snowfall.  The bigger adjustment will be with food.  That part of India is populated by Hindus and some Muslims.  The diet is largely vegetarian with the occasional chicken, no pork and certainly no beef.  Jack lost 30 pounds.  And this is a kid that didn’t have 30 pounds to lose to begin with.  Someone asked me what his “re-entry” plan is.  I don’t think he has one, other than loading up on kielbasa from Czerw’s http://www.kielbasyboys.com/, Banh Mi sandwiches and strombolis from Romano’s http://www.romanostromboli.com/.  We’ll have a processed meat theme for the next few weeks, I’m sure.

Jack said that he learned some of his favorite recipes before he left by hanging out with the women in the kitchen.  He has to formally write up what they taught him and that might be tricky since they were teaching in Hindi or Gujarati and he was learning in English.  In spite of that, I expect some good meals. 

I don’t know Indian cooking; however I did spend almost a year solely cooking vegetables in a French place in Philly.  Vegetables are difficult to cook properly, less forgiving than say, a pot roast.  It takes surprising skills to make a vegetable preparation that has real depth of character.  There’s technique involved.  You can’t simply throw everything in a pot and stew it for an hour.  Following is a recipe for bean cakes with a tomato and fennel stew.  The absolute best thing about this dish is that you can make it ahead of time and reheat the thing in about 10 minutes.  Really!  And it is better reheated!  Resist the urge to use canned beans.  The texture will never be right.

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Green Pepper Bean Cakes

1# dried white beans

1 green pepper, seeded, roughly chopped

1 cup spanish onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tbs olive oil

3 qts. water

salt and pepper

In a large stockpot, put the beans in water, season with salt and pepper and put on a low heat.  When it comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, the beans will have begun to swell and soften.  Add the green pepper, onion and garlic.  Continue to simmer the beans for a further 30 minutes.  By that time, they will have completely softened and started to break down.  The water will have almost evaporated.  The bean cake mixture will be the consistency of thin mashed potatoes.

Remove from the heat and add the olive oil.  The olive oil is added last to preserve its delicate, aromatic  flavor.  With a spoon or a hand potato masher, smash the bean mix until it has a consistent, lumpy texture.  It should resemble thick mashed potatoes.  Transfer the bean cake mixture to a plastic container and refrigerate until cold, overnight is best.

When it is time to serve the bean cakes, heat a large sauté pan or electric griddle.  Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil and fry patties of the bean cake mix that are about the size of small, thick pancakes.  When one side has browned, after about 5 minutes, flip the cakes and brown the other side for a further five minutes.  Transfer to a platter for serving and top with the tomato and fennel stew.

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Tomato and Fennel Stew

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1 head fennel, sliced, about 1 ½ cups

1 cup finely diced onions

1 tbs. sugar

2 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper

In a large sauté pan on low heat, fry the onions and fennel in olive oil.  Season with sugar, salt and pepper.  The sugar will help moderate the acidity of the tomatoes.

When the onions and fennel have cooked, becoming transparent, add the tomatoes, increase the heat and simmer the stew until it has cooked down to sauce consistency, similar to a chunky tomato gravy.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately over top of the green pepper bean cakes or refrigerate to be reheated later.

Leftovers?  This will make a serious stuffing for a morning omelette.