SW: Caramelized Shallot Soup (Guest Post!)

Friends, Audrey here. The post that is about to follow is full of silliness AND tasty soup. (Perhaps my new favorite kind of post?) Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for the tasty soup OR the silliness. My friend D is today's guest blogger, and you can find more of his work at Twenty-Fingered Cooking, where he blogs with his lovely wife K. You can also find a copy of his Chicken Tortilla Soup, which is one of my absolute faves. And be sure to check out D&K's recipe from last year's SW!


Caramelized Shallot Soup (or How Captain Soup-Man Saved the Day!)

So, uh, I made this soup about two months ago and have been patiently awaiting Soup Week so that I could share it all with you. I totally just didn’t forget to write about it for two months and then “conveniently” remember when Audrey started posting her Soup Week things. Nope. Not me.

I’ve always loved French Onion Soup – mmm, delicious cheese, crunchy-soft croutons, and yummy beef broth and other liquidy things¹. It’s like a little drink of heaven. So when we found a recipe for Caramelized Shallot Soup in one of Martha Stewart’s magazines, I decided to temporarily set aside my disdain for all things Martha and give it a slurp².

So as anybody knows, to make a good French Onion soup, you absolutely must use the best Gruyère cheese you can find. Fortunately for me, there is an exquisite cheese store with a very opinionated cheesemonger³ less than a mile from my house! So when I realized halfway through the making of this recipe that our fridge did not currently possess any Gruyère cheese, I put on my awesome superhero cape⁴ and dashed out the door, shouting to my beautiful wife K, “Hold down the fort and stir all the soup, honey! I’m off to get CHEEEESE!”

When I arrived at the cheese store, I walked confidently in with my spandex and cape, and had the following conversation with the cheesemonger:

Me⁵: “I’d like about 4 ounces of Gruyère, please.”
Cheesemonger⁵: “What are you going to do with that… cheese?”
Me⁵: “I’m making a carmelized shallot soup. It’s sort of like French onion soup, except with shallots in place of the onions.”
Cheesemonger⁵: “Oooh la la! That sounds amazing! I can just picture it now. The shallots will give it such a different flavor than the onions! More garlicky. And it’s the perfect day for it. And the beef broth… you are using beef broth, aren’t you?”
Me⁶: “Of course, evil cheesemonger! What kind of fowl chef² do you think I am? A chicken-broth user?”
Cheesemonger⁶ (cowering): “No! Never! I never said that! Please, just take your cheese and go!”
Me⁶: “I thought so. Thanks for the cheese, cheesemonger. Until next time.”
Cheesemonger⁶: “I’ll be ready, soup-man. MUA-HA-HA-HAAA.”

----
Footnotes:
1. So far everything in this post has been a fabrication. I’m not sure if the trend will continue, but odds are not good.
2. Lousy pun not intended (see footnote 1)
3. I always feel like I should follow up cheesemonger with an evil laugh. A sort of “MUA-HA-HA-HAAA!” kind of thing. I can totally picture the next Pixar movie about an evil cheesemonger villain who’s going to take all the world’s cheese and, I dunno, build a rocket to the moon with it or something. Actually, wait. Has that idea been taken yet? Can I patent it?
4. I may not actually own a superhero cape. But really? What kind of story would it be without details like that?
5. Actual line of dialog
6. Not actual line of dialog

Then I dashed home with my Gruyère to save the day and make the soup!

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1.5 pounds shallots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1.5 tsp coarse sea salt, and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 small red onion
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups beef broth
• 4 cups chicken broth
• More olive oil
• 1 day-old French baguette, cut into cubes
• more pepper
• 6 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated

(Note that I slightly modified this recipe, because shallots are a pain in the butt to peel, and 2.5 pounds of shallots is a lot of shallots. So I substituted a bit of red onion. Whatevs. Also, the original recipe used chestnuts instead of croutons, but I couldn’t find any at the store, and croutons are fun to make!)

The Cooking and the Assembly

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots and salt, and sauté, stirring occasionally until tender and caramelized (25-30 minutes).
2. Add the wine and cook until it evaporates.
3. Add the bay leaf, beef broth, and chicken broth, and bring to a boil Reduce heat and simmer until soup is reduced by a third, another 25-30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Meanwhile, heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high; when hot, add in the cubed French bread, making sure to get each coated thoroughly with oil (add more oil if necessary). Sprinkle a generous helping of pepper on them.
5. Continue stirring croutons until crispy (keep a weather eye on them so they don’t burn, though!); remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Mix croutons and Gruyère, and let cool.
6. When soup is ready, ladle into bowls, and add several croutons. Grate some more cheese over the top, and serve.

And so ends my saga. You can thank me once you’ve passed out on your sofa in contentment. Mua-ha-ha-haaa.

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There you have it, ladies and gents. Perhaps this is the new mascot for Soup Week?

SW: Lasagna Soup

 
Welcome to the Third Annual Soup Week! Soup Week is...oh Friends! There just aren't words for how awesome Soup Week is! And I'm really excited about this year's!

My idea was to feature soups made from dishes that aren't normally soups. (Does that even make sense? I have struggled and struggled, but I can't seem to think of a better way to say that.) For example, today's post is Lasagna Soup. Lasagna, at least to my knowledge, is very rarely a soup. But today's recipe shows that it can be, and I'll hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I bookmarked this recipe almost a year ago, and I'm just now getting around to actually making it. Sounds crazy, right? But I'm glad I waited. (And you should see my bookmarked recipe list. It's crazy insane.) This is the perfect recipe for Nathan and myself because it has lots of man meat (aka, sausage) and the center of it is CHEESE. (OMG. Did you just swoon a little? I know I did.) I didn't make too many changes to the recipe that I found, which is based on a recipe that she found, which may have been based on a recipe from a book or something? Meaning, this recipe has been around the block. But it's tasty. So go! Do your soup thing! Eat some soup to celebrate the greatest week of the year***!

Oh, and did I mention, at the end of soup week, we'll be having a linky party in case you want to make some soup, post a post, and share it with us Soup Week attendees? Because we will. And it will be awesome. So start thinking up what kind of soup you want to feature!
 

I mostly followed this recipe....
4 hearty servings; 6 not as hearty

Ingredients
For the soup: 

• 1 lb. ground sausage
• 1 yellow onion, cut into quarters (you can chop/dice this if you prefer, but I was running low on time, and we're not huge onion lovers)
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 8 oz. pasta of your choice (I had bowties.)
• salt and pepper to taste

For the cheese center: 

• 8 oz. ricotta--if you can bring this to room temperature first, even better
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

The Cooking and The Assembly

1. Brown sausage in your large soup pot over medium heat. Add onions, then garlic and dry spices. Cook for a minute or so, then add tomato paste and cook another 3-5 minutes. 
2. Add tomatoes and chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. 
3. Since you've got 30 minutes to kill, why not put on another big pot of water to boil and cook your pasta until al dente?
4. While the pasta is cooking, combine the ricotta and parmesan cheese in a small bowl and add a large spoonful of the cheese center to each bowl. 
5. When pasta is cooked and soup has simmered, spoon pasta over cheese center, then ladle soup over that. Cover with additional cheese if you'd like. (You know I will be.)
6. Eat!

Notes

You could very easily cook the pasta in with the soup, but if you plan on having leftovers (like we did) I strongly recommend cooking and storing it separately because left standing in the soup goodness, it will continue to soak up liquid and get kind of soggy. If you're not planning to have leftovers, by all means! Add it into the soup to save on dishes to wash. In that case, you'll add the pasta after it's simmered at least 25 minutes.

Bringing the ricotta to room temperature is a good idea because there's no cooking of the cheese center. Our first excited bites were a little weird because the cheese center was still cold, and the soup was very very hot.

Yum yum, Soup Week! (And it's only just beginning!)

***Soup Week may not, in fact, be the greatest week of the year, but it definitely ranks up there. 

Soup Week Prep: Stock Recipes

Are you ready for Soup Week? Six days!

In the meantime, why not prep and have some stock ready? All of my recipes this year include stock, and maybe some of the guest posters as well.

So, because I'm super generous, I found a couple of awesome links all about making your own stock. (Alright, so credit where credit is due, Aliza had the brilliant idea to talk about stock in advance, and I thought it was brilliant, so here we are.)

Veggie stock from Veganyumyum. Seriously, Veganyumyum is such a terrific blog name, I had to feature it! Also, it goes into an article from Cook's magazine, and I found the results very interesting and thought you might too. I recommend reading through this article, even if you're more of a chicken stock kind of person. I want to hunt down the original Cook's magazine article, but even without having read it, I'm pretty sure I always want to make my own stock from now on.

Chicken stock from Michael Ruhlman. I read The Elements of Cooking by Ruhlman quite some time ago, and it's absolutely fantastic. He talks quite a bit about stock in the book, but here's an easy recipe.

In Ruhlman's article, he also talks quite a bit about bacteria and the safety of leaving your stock on your stovetop for a week, and if that sort of thing grosses you out, how about this chicken stock recipe from Gordon Ramsay?

If those recipes still aren't enough, there are about a quatrillionbillion other recipes on the internet. I leave you to it, Friends. Remember! Come back Monday for the Soup Week opener! Not to toot my own horn, but it's pretty amazing!

soup week is coming!

<a href="http://pinkaudrey.blogspot.com/p/soup-week_28.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0EtGBs2atBbfbVarzHEOY1Irh1VuxDBkGcXS0hvaUsHvg4A1sPG0jIUZVM-vbPr8bh_HT-6HrZ4nlKw8SvcT113H8ErjZw3o2-eE2CVZQuT5fIn2r1QAOSoSEDhgXF8wPUmpD8TQvmpTl/s1600/+banner.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Hot Pink Mama" /></a>

The third annual Soup Week is coming soon.....

Can I get a woop woop? 

i thought this day would never come.

When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you would keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

That's the opening paragraph from "A False Spring" from Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Friends, do you know how much it hurts me to say that I not only read this book, but I maybe even kind of liked certain parts of it? I do NOT like Hemingway. At all. But maybe a little bit in this book. He didn't feel like the pompous jerky-jerk I got from his other work. He felt okay, and sometimes we even agreed on certain things, and that really amazed me. (And yes, this is that book I was reading that I kept quiet about. Don't you understand now?)

My favorite story from the collection is "Birth of a New School" where Hemingway essentially verbally beats down this guy who interrupts his writing. Leave it to me to enjoy that piece the most, but I thought it was hilarious.

I'd say more, but this is Hemingway we're talking about, and I already feel slimy admitting that I might have maybe kind of sort of been a LITTLE wrong about the worth of all of his writing. This collection was okay. And that's it! Also, I'm thankful my friend Lisa convinced me to read it. It really is different from his other writing.

Now, I'm off to start Firelight by Sophie Jordan and Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card.

conquering my addiction.

Friends, I've done my best to conquer my addiction.

I've practiced strict, cold turkey regiments. I've practiced stepping stone elimination processes to reduce withdrawal, and I have done my best to just not think about that aching feeling inside of me, demanding to be filled by books.

But I think I really do have a problem.

That's the first step, right? But I'm not actually sure I want to recover, though I may rethink that statement the next time we move.

I visited the library this weekend, and oh my awesomeness. They had a library sale. We're talking BRAND NEW hardbacks here, peeps, for amazing prices. I know I know I know that I said I wasn't buying books this summer so that I wouldn't have to lug them home, but dudes, how could I pass them up? Here's my loot:

Sure, I already have a copy of Guernsey, but since I have read that book about eight times, I decided that I needed a copy in hardcover. I also picked up an Elizabeth Peters novel--don't judge!--and a Geraldine Brooks book which I started but had to return to the library before I finished, and a copy of The Three Musketeers so that I can return the copy I've been borrowing from K for the past kajillion years. :) Oh! And an Arthur Conan Doyle collection. Volume 2! Woot!

Did I mention that I paid $5 for these bad boys? That's $5 TOTAL, not $5 each. (Fist pump!) And do you see my kid's hands going for my books? BAD! No! Those are PRISTINE hardbacks. Leave them alone! Well, the Everyman's Library isn't pristine, but the pages are so lush and fantastic.

Now, down to business. What have I been reading? I finished Ex Libris, but you already knew that. I finished The Statistical Probabilities of Falling in Love, which should have been on the list, but wasn't. (And it's a YA title, meaning I've found a way to check them out, even if I can't peruse the shelves!) I'm moving through Pilgrim and Elantris, and I just picked up Finnikin and Here Lies. When it rains, it pours, right? (Those are mostly abbreviated titles, BTW, because I'm too lazy to type out the full thing. You'll forgive me because you always do. Thanks for that!)

Back in the Saddle Again....

Okay. I might be settled in. Almost. I've figured out the library (grumble grumble) and actually found some of the books from my list, so hopefully I'll make up some time by flying through the titles. Here we go:

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
• Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern
• Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan [Realized I've tried to read this before and just don't want to try again right now.]
• Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
• Hood by Stephen Lawhead
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
• Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Firelight by Sophie Jordan
• Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
• Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card
• Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck
• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I finished Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman this afternoon. Dude, this was an awesome book. The essays were short and sweet and had meat to them, but at the same time, they were easy and fun to read--thank you, Anne Fadiman. I can't settle on a favorite essay, I just can't. As I'm trucking through this beauty, I kept thinking to myself, why don't I read some of these authors? Why don't I read Proust? I could read Proust! (Oh yeah. Um, I don't wanna.)

Now, off to finish The Night Circus, which I'm still nervous about, and start Elantris. Busy bee, I shall be!