winter - soup, salad and sauvignon blanc

Yogi wants a soup. Right then. Better get on that.

Normally I make soups in the late fall and freeze them so I can have great soup all winter. But, Yogi is cold and she wants something hardy. So this morning I trundled out to the back yard, got the pitch fork, broke through the first layer of frost and dug up some potatoes. Got to love nature's refrigerator. Keep in mind it is also citrus season in California so ladies this evening's menu will be:

a hardy leek and potatoe soup with a thick crusty bread, radicchio and blood orange salad, a lovely sauvignon blanc, and for dessert fresh citrus over raspberry sorbet with a splash of Grand Marnier.

When I went to the store today they had loads of Fraser Valley mushrooms in so the other option is wild mushroom soup.

Today's shopping list is:

• 3 large leeks or one sweet onion if you want mushroom soup
  
• 1 head of garlic
• enough potatoes that amount to the size of your fist 3 times or enough mushrooms to fill an entire cookie sheet (portabello, brown cremini, oyster and shitake were all at the store so I had to buy some!) - atleast half the mushrooms have to be cremini
  
• 5 cups chicken stock*
• fresh thyme
• green onions
• 1 head radicchio slightly larger than your fist - radicchio has a slightly peppery, almost bitter taste - it is a bit like arugula if you need to substitute
• 2 blood oranges and 1 grapefruit
  
• small amount (1/2 c) of feta cheese or ricotta or fontina - essentially white, salty cheese
• small amount (1/4 c) of hazelnuts or pine nuts or almonds
• small container of raspberry sorbet
  
• one loaf of crusty bread - I bought Terra Walnut Bread but I was eyeing those breads at Seb's the other day too
• one bottle sauvignon blanc, sancerre, pouilly-fume or any dry, non-oaked white wine

* I would love it if you guys made your own chicken stock but I know: baby steps. Because you are buying it try to get the best available (organic, home made, not a lot of crap, go for tetra pack over tinned).

I assume in the pantry you have: butter (atleast 4 tbsp), olive oil, salt, pepper, flour, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, honey, Grand Marnier.

So, today's local items were:

• Chez Stucco-low: potatoes, thyme, chicken stock (and next year garlic)
• BC: radicchio, mushrooms, crusty bread, feta cheese, garlic
  
• WA: onions, leeks
• CA: blood oranges, green onions
• sadly the grapefruit came from Florida. Ugh.

So, here's what we are going to do - about an hour or so before you want to eat dinner make the soup, then make the salad, chop the fruit up for dessert and we are good to go. The soup recipes serve four people as an entree.

THE SOUP

Alright then, assemble the following for Potatoe Leek:

3 tbsp butter
3 large leeks, trimmed and sliced thin (only the white and pale green parts)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 large potatoes (or whatever you got), chopped coarsely (you're going to puree them later so size doesn't matter) - I leave the skins on but it is a personal preference thing
5 cups chicken stock
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme*
one green onion, chopped for garnish

* UPDATE: yes, Yogi, for this recipe put the entire 'stick' of thyme in (do not chop this up) and pull them out before you mash everything up.

. melt the butter over medium heat in your soup pot until bubbly
. add the leeks and garlic and sautee for atleast 5 - 7 minutes
. add the potatoes and give it a stir so that the leeks are kinda coating the potatoes
. add the stock and bring to a boil, then add thyme, salt and pepper
. reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft and almost falling apart
. remove from heat and puree soup (either with one of those funky braun hand mixers, in batches in your food processor or the old fashion way with a masher and a lot of upper body strength)
. put the lid on it and let it rest while you make the salad

If you want to make this soup even more hardy when you puree you could add: 2 heads of roasted garlic or sprinkle a couple slices of cooked thick bacon.

Alright then, assemble the following for Wild Mushroom:

1 lb mushrooms - cremini, portobella, morel, chanterelles, shitake, oyster. If you use shitake the stems have to be removed (they are far too tough)
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp butter
1 medium sweet onion, chopped small
3 tbsp flour
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 c chicken stock
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves*

* UPDATE: Yogi, for this recipe DO chop up the leaves only (do not put the whole sprig/stick in)

. preheat oven to 425F
. toss mushrooms in olive oil and spread on cookie sheet. roast in the oven for ten minutes or browned.
. once the mushrooms are cooled put the cremini mushrooms in the food processor and mince. slice up the rest of the mushrooms into small bite size pieces.
. melt the butter over medium heat in your soup pot until bubbly
. add the onion and sautee for atleast 10 minutes or until golden brown
. stir in the flour and 'cook' for a few minutes until it browns a bit
. add the garlic and stir
. add the minced cremini mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and cook until the mushrooms have exuded all their moisture and become a part of the sticky concoction.
. add the stock, scraping the bottom of all the browned bits and bring to a boil.
. then add the other mushrooms, thyme and more salt and pepper if needed. turn the heat off.
. put the lid on it and let it rest while you make the salad

THE SALAD

OK, just to review, the five components of salad at Chez Stucco-low are: nuts, cheese, fruit/veg, onion, and greens. So tonight's mix is:

greens = radicchio, shredded or chopped
cheese = feta, crumbled
nuts = almonds, roasted*
fruit = blood orange, peeled, white bits removed and chopped coarsely
onion = green onion (you've got it from the potatoe soup) or shallot

* to roast nuts either put them dry on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350F for ten minutes or until brown. Or, the lazy way (my way), is to put a non-stick fry pan over medium heat and brown them.

My vinaigrette's are always 1 part acid, 3 parts oil with something interesting (dijon mustard, honey, whatever). Tonight's vinaigrette will be:

acid = balsamic vinegar
oil = olive oil
interesting = 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp honey

Put it all in a bowl, toss, set aside.

THE SAUVIGNON BLANC

Yeah! Time for dinner. If you haven't already, open that bottle of wine! Pour yourself a glass and do the final tasks:

. put the soup on low heat to warm back up again
. pull sorbet out of the freezer to soften
. chop up the other blood orange and the grapefruit - no white bits! - and set aside
. slice some thick slices of bread
. set the table, plate your food
. grab that old bottle of Grand Marnier or some other orange liqueur

Right then. Hot soup in bowls? check. Bread slices on table? check. Tossed salad on table with side plates? check. Wine in glass? check. Then it's time to light the candles and have dinner.

When you are ready for dessert scoop the sorbet into a bowl, put the chopped citrus on top and drizzle a bit of Grand Marnier.

Bon Appétit!