Welcome Fall with Root Veggie Soup

I once knew someone who liked to use the word "rutabaga" as an insult.  Like: "Shut the door, you rutabaga, you're letting in all the cold air."  Or, "Smooth move, rutabaga."

Never having eaten a rutabaga, what I took from all of these exchanges was that rutabagas must be really bad.

But then Lynne Rossetto Kasper sent me a recipe (she sends me one at least once a week — we're like this) for root vegetable soup, featuring the lowly, lowly rutabaga.

I couldn't let Lynne down, so I made a batch.  If you'd like the recipe, you can read it below, along with Lynne's description.  No one talks food like Lynne.

Overall, I'd say this was a pretty satisfying soup.


Fall Roots Soup
From The Splendid Table's Weeknight Kitchen e-newsletter

A trio of fall root vegetables — carrots, leeks, and a rutabaga — forms the savory foundation of this soup. Puréed and enriched with crème fraîche, this potage, with its velvety, smooth texture and glorious orange hue, is always a hit — whether it's a first course or the main attraction.

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2-1/2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts only (3 to 4 medium leeks)
• 1-1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 medium rutabaga (1 to 1-1/2 pounds), peeled and diced
• 8 cups chicken stock
• Kosher salt
• 1-1/4 cups crème fraîche
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  

Heat butter in a large, heavy pot (with a lid) over medium-high heat. When melted and hot, add leeks, carrots, and rutabaga. Sauté vegetables until softened, for 10 minutes or longer. Add stock and bring mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until vegetables are very tender, for about 30 minutes.

Purée the soup in batches in a food processor, blender, or food mill, and return soup to the pot. (Or use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pot.) Whisk in 3/4 cup of the crème fraîche. Taste soup and season with salt, as needed. (The soup can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cool, cover, and refrigerate. Reheat over medium heat.)

To serve, ladle soup into shallow soup bowls. Garnish each serving with a generous dollop of the remaining 1/2 cup crème fraîche and a sprinkling of parsley.

Lynne also suggested including a yam or roasting the veggies before sautéing and pureeing.  And I used sour cream in place of the crème fraîche and topped with chives and ground pepper.


The food: Fall root veggie soup
The verdict:Rutabaga, thou has redeemed thyself

Another One (Two-) Bites the Dust

Perhaps you remember me writing about Whole Foods' two-bite, cream cheese-topped brownies last fall. Or perhaps you've had the good fortune to experience them first-hand. They are a little piece of brownie heaven.

Oddly enough, and despite my polite request, Whole Foods has not contacted me with its recipe so I can create these brownies myself. Which wouldn't be such a big deal were it not for the fact that old Whole has quit carrying them! (My pal Katherine looks for them every time she's there. No dice.)

That forced me to attempt my own version, using mini muffin pans, my stand-by cream cheese frosting and a triple-chocolate brownie recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

The brownies, they weren't bad. But they just didn't have that oomph. And I hate to say this, Christopher Kimball, but you let me down. I don't care if you wear a cute little bowtie. I don't care if you are a fellow New Englander. I don't care if you pal around with the exceptional Lynne Rossetto Kasper. Triple chocolate two-bite brownies are a singular disappointment. No offense. And say hi to Lynne for me.




So the search for the perfect brownie recipe continues. Suggestions welcome.

Bread Head

Because I am generally cold in the winter (and fall and spring), baking is an excellent way to satisfy my culinary urges while also heating up the apartment. Sneaky, I know.

One of my favorites lately has been a really easy, really tasty bread recipe I first heard on The Splendid Table. (Shout out to Lynne Rossetto Kasper!) Called Five-Minute Artisan Bread, it's a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Basically, you mix up a bunch of flour and yeast and water and salt and put it in your fridge, and then bake it on a pizza stone. No proofing. No kneading. No punching down. And don't be scared of "artisan." That's just a fancy way of saying you made it yourself.

Zoe appeared on The Splendid Table about a year ago to talk about the book and share some tips; the show reaired on Dec. 27. If you're interested in trying her recipe, you can find it here. I'd recommend listening to the show as well. It's worth it to hear Lynne get all misty about a delicious loaf of bread. Lynne, you are my hero.

Oh, and one thing I learned the hard way -- unlike store-bought breads, which have preservatives to keep them fresh, homemade bread goes stale pretty quickly. I think breads with oils or eggs keep longer, but this one is good for 24 hours at most. There are ways to resuscitate it, but my solution is to only make as much bread as we'll eat in one night. Which is lots. We love bread.

The food: Five-Minute Artisan Bread
The verdict: Heat up the oven -- and not just because it's cold