Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

So when we moved to the Seattle area two years ago the first thing my husband asked before moving up here was “what is one thing you want to do in Seattle?” I’m sure he was expecting me to say go to the Space Needle or something like that, but no, I said “I want to go to the Herb Farm.” He said, “sure.” That was until we saw the price and nearly fell over. Phoenix is not the culinary mecca of the world and try as it might it never will be. It isn’t around fresh anything and to make a good restaurant, in my opinion, you need to be around the bounty of the land. Phoenix has no bounty…just dirt. Back when we lived there I had read about the Herb Farm in one of my food magazines, I want to say Food and Wine. I saw the restaurant on the Food Network and read a many articles after that about the amazing experience at the Herb Farm. My husband is never one to go back on his word so we saved up so that we could go. We had nothing to do for Thanksgiving last year and so we decided that is when we would go. Oh what a wonderful experience it was….and well worth the price. Keep in mind you are getting a 9 course meal with wine(or beer…that is what my husband had if you special request it) pairing as well as a goodie bag to go home(on Thanksgiving that is)…plus we ate our weight in these delicious herb popovers. The whole experience takes about 5 hours, so we chose to sit European style(where you sit with a bunch of strangers), since though I love my husband sitting alone with him for 5 hours talking about food would be painful for him.  My hubby and I will be going back to the Herb Farm in a couple of weeks and will give you a full report.

My sister-in-law was kind enough to buy me The Herbal Kictchen, chef Jerry Traunfeld’s second book and I immediately fell in love that I ran out and bought the first book, The Herb Farm Cookbook. Now there is one big thing I don’t like about the cookbook is that the ingredients are somewhat hard to find. Lucky for me I live in Washington about 15 minutes from the Herb Farm so I do have access to farmer’s markets that carry a lot of the herbs. When we get a house someday I do plan on a small herb garden just so I can make these dishes more frequently.

This is my first attempt at something from the cookbook. It was time consuming because you make your own shrimp stock, but well worth it. It’s a wonderful soup and you might find the combination odd but they merry well together.

Pumpkin and Shrimp Bisque

1 pound large shrimp (16 to 20)

Shrimp Stock
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 cups homemade or canned low-sodium chicken stock
Pinch saffron threads (about 24)
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
1 medium onion (about 8 ounces), coarsely chopped
4 fresh bay laurel leaves, torn, or 2 dried
3 3-inch springs fresh sage

2 cups pumpkin purée, fresh (see Note) or canned
1/2 cup heavy cream
About 3/4 teaspoon salt, less if using canned stock
Scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh sage

1. Shrimp stock: Peel and devein shrimp, reserving the shells. Cover the shrimp and refrigerate. Heat the olive oil in a medium (3-quart) heavy-bottomed saucepan over high heat until it begins to smoke. Add the shrimp shells to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until they turn deep orange and are just beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. This step—pan roasting the shells—gives the stock much of its flavor, so take the time to do it carefully. The roasted shells should release a concentrated, toasty, shrimp aroma that will fill your kitchen. Add the wine to the pan, first turning off gas flames to prevent the alcohol from igniting, then boil it over medium heat until all the liquid is evaporated. Add the chicken stock, saffron, celery, onion, bay leaves, and sage. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Partially cover the pan and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, pushing down on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid. Rinse out the saucepan and pour the stock back into it.

2. Soup: Whisk the pumpkin, cream, salt (omit if using canned stock), and cayenne into the shrimp stock. Bring the soup to a simmer, then cook very gently uncovered over low heat for 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and season with black pepper and more salt if needed. (The soup can be made up to this point up to 1 day ahead store covered in the refrigerator. Keep the peeled shrimp in a resealable bag buried in a bowl of ice in the refrigerator.)

3. Finishing the soup: Pour the olive oil into a large sauté pan placed over medium heat. When hot, add the reserved shrimp and sage and cook, tossing often, until the shrimp is just cooked through, pink, and no longer translucent, but not curled into a circle, 2 to 3 minutes. They should still have a tender snap when you bite into them. Arrange the shrimp in warmed serving bowls or a tureen. Bring the soup back to a simmer and then ladle it over the shrimp. Serve right away.

Note
To make fresh pumpkin purée, cut a sugar pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds. Place it cut side down in a baking dish and pour in about 1/4 inch of hot water. Bake it in a 400°F oven until the flesh is tender, 40 to 50 minutes. Turn the pumpkin halves cut side up to cool. Scoop the pumpkin flesh from the skin and purée it in a food processor until smooth. Transfer the purée to a large sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth and let it drain for 2-3 hours until it is firm enough to hold its shape on a spoon.

Variation

Substitute winter squash purée, such as butternut or acorn, for the pumpkin.

Makes 8 servings.

From THE HERBFARM COOKBOOK by Jerry Traunfeld. Copyright ©2000 by Jerry Traunfeld.

To some the most wonderful time of the year is Christmas, I mean they wrote a song about it being just that. And though I do love me some Christmas, nothing is better than October, my favorite month of the year. Hockey season officially starts. It is the one moment that no matter how good your team or bad(going through a “rebuilding” year) you have a small glimmer of hope that your team will win the Stanley Cup. For years, no one paid attention to my team, there were a lot of rebuilding years, but as of late they have come on strong. The slate is clean. The trades have been made and all you have is hope. Now some may scoff at the idea that I refer to the Calgary Flames as my team. No, I do not play for them, and no I do not work for them(though my wedding was blessed by them…I have it on paper). Many people pick on others when they say “we won or we lost” and so on. But without the fans, there would be no team. If no one comes to see the team or buys the merchandise than there is no money to have that team…so the Flames are my team.

If you watch hockey or you play hockey you know what a superstitious sport it is(especially if you are a goalie). Each person(okay Canadian persons I know) has a quirk if their team is in the playoffs. I am no exception to this. Each year when my teams(hopefully) makes the playoffs whatever I am eating the first game they win is what I eat every game there after until they are out of the playoffs. One year I had to eat Kraft Dinner, another year macadamia nuts and sour licorice and last year was Split Pea Soup. Weird to outsiders of the game, not so weird to the die hard fans. So I say teams, which is really a lie(again with the lies). I have only one team, and one player. My player doesn’t play on my team so I must root for his team so that I can watch him play longer. Well that team, the Buffalo Sabres made it to the Eastern Conference finals with a couple game 7’s which meant I ate A LOT of soup. My poor husband dreaded coming home to the smell of pea soup and deep down I think he wanted them to lose so I would stop making and eating soup(he didn’t eat it, he wont eat soup).

In hopes of bringing luck to my team/player the following season I always eat whatever I was eating during playoffs the year before. So out I dragged the soup pot and my husband raised his eyebrows for he knew what smell would soon be coming. It’s not a very exciting soup. I learned it from my mother who I am quite sure got it out of a Betty Crocker cookbook somewhere. I really do love this soup(yes, even after eating it about 20 times), especially with some homemade corn bread. The secret to making it really good it to get a nice and salty ham hock. I did not do this sadly as I am dieting(yuck) and stuck just some boring fat free ham in it….whatever you do….don’t do that.

There is no real recipe for this so I will just write down what I remember doing each time:

about a 1 pound ham hock( I am lucky enough to have a smoke house down street that makes great smoked ham hocks)

1 large onion(I usually use sweet), diced

1 pound of dried peas, sorted and rinsed

8 cups of water(give or take…that is what I start with but sometimes add more as the soup cooks)

3 large carrots, peeled and diced

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat all the ingredients except the carrots(unless you like them really mushy like me…throw them in then) to boiling. Stir occasionally, reduce heat and cover and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.

2. Remove your ham hock(let it cool) and strip the meat. Chop the bigger pieces into about 1/2 inch pieces.

3. Stir ham and carrots(if you didn’t add them in the begining) into  the soup. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer about another 30 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how thick you like your soup.

4. Cheer your favorite hockey team to victory…especially if it is the Flames!!!

My favorite hockey player Daniel Briere…. co-captian of the Buffalo Sabres and one heck of a nice guy too!

Well I thought that I would give this a try even though I am a paper chef virgin. I have to admit this one was particulary hard since I don’t like ground corriander, bit I do love corn and pine nuts. It was also hard because of the wild card. I chose Dominion Day. When I was younger my mother never bothered much with Dominion Day because it falls the day before my birthday. She was always busy planning parties for it and making cupcakes and such. So she liked to make us soup because she could fix it and forget about it. We never had corn soup I must admit, we usually had Navy Bean or Split Pea…something that could sit around awhile. This was quite an interesting adventure and I think it turned out lovely…but I am biased.

Corn and Walla Walla Onion Soup with Corriander Pesto Crouton

2 cups corn, off the cob
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup Walla Walla Onions
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp ground corriander
3/4 cup white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium saucepan, heat unsalted butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute without letting it brown. Add the onions and cook for another 1 minute or until translucent, then add the corn and sauté without browning for about 2 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with white wine. Let the wine reduce by half and then add chicken stockand ground corriander. Bring to a simmer and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the corn is soft and cooked in the center. Mix thoroughly in a food processor or blender and then pass through a sieve. Reheat, add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer, let cook for another 5 minutes. Season to taste and reserve hot until ready to be served.

Corriander Pesto
1 large bunch of fresh coriander
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 TBL pine nuts
2 ½ fl oz. Olive oil
1 oz. Grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
1. Put the coriander leaves in a food processor fitted with a steel blade with the garlic, pine nuts, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the grated cheese. With the blade of the food processor turning, slowly pour in the remaining olive oil in a thin, steady stream. Continue working the ingredients in the machine until the pesto thickens and emulsifies. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To assemble the soup: Spread pesto on a baguette slice and place under broiler untl bubbly. Laddle soup into bowl and place the pesto crouton in the middle of the soup.