Mediterranean Fish Soup with Rouille croutons

 This is a wonderful recipe from Jacques Pepin for a      party as you can make the base the day of the party and finish it by cooking the fish at the last minute. I steam the mussels separately in white wine to make sure they all open and would do the same with clams if I used them. I used halibut that I skinned and cut into 3/4′ pieces and bay scallops. Yield about 3 quarts-serves 6

1 1/2# fish fillets, a mixture of 2 or 3 kinds of fish or all one kind-halibut, cod, haddock,monkfish,seabass or snapper, any firm white fish, skinned, cut into pieces

1 1/2# clams or mussels, scrubbed and  cleaned

1/2# scallops

3 T olive oil

1 1/2 cups onions,chopped

5 scallions, thinly sliced, about 1 cup

1 T. garlic, chopped

2 cups fresh or canned tomatoes, with skin, juice and sees

1 cup white wine like Chardonnay

4 cups fish stock (you can make, buy or substitute clam juice,diluted with water)

1 t. fresh thyme, chopped

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

1 t. saffron threads, or less if you wish

1 1/2 T fresh tarragon, if available

Rouille

1 slice firm white bread, crusts removed

6 cloves garlic, peeled

1/3 cup potato (helps for a great consistency but not absolutely necessary)

1/4 cup canned pimiento pieces (essential to recipe)

1/4 cup broth from the soup pot

1 egg yolk

fresh salt and pepper to taste

1/8 t. cayenne

3/4 cup olive oil

Croutons

24 slices of baguette, about 1/4″ cut on the diagonal

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and toast croutons on a baking sheet until crisp and beginning to color on both sides, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

In a large soup pan, heat up the olive oil and saute the onions, scallions and garlic. Cook over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, and fish stock and stir in thyme and s&p. Bring to a boil and cook gently for 10-15 minutes, partially covered. You can hold this base for a day or two and finish at the last minute!

For the rouille, tear the bread into pieces and put into processor with the garlic cloves. Process until finely chopped. Add the cooked potato, pimiento, and 1/4 cup broth from the soup pot and process until smooth. Add egg yolk, s&p, and cayenne and process. Add olive oil slowly with machine running. Taste and adjust. Put into a bowl.

To finish-

I cook mussels or clams separately in white wine until opened to make sure there is no grit and all shellfish opens.

With soup base at a boil, add saffron and cook 2 minutes. Add fish and scallops and return to a gentle boil for 2-3 minutes. Add mussels or clams and stir in chopped tarragon.

Spoon rouille over half of the croutons and ladle portions of the seafood and broth into large soup bowls. Garnish with rouille croutons. Serve hot with extra croutons and rouille on the side.

Black Bean Chili and Lasagna

I have continued to cook almost all day and am super excited about my black bean chili from The Greens cookbook page 109. I will post that recipe later as I am more excited about David Rocco’s Lasagna.

My husband David loves Rocco’s show “La Dolce Vita” so I ordered the cookbook and it is chock full of fabulous recipes. His lasagna layers bolognese, bechamel, noodles and mozzarella. I am making the base bolognese now will assemble tomorrow.

Bolognese sauce

One onion finely chopped, (Rocco grates all of his vegetable so they melt into the sauce)

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped

2 T. uns. butter

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 cup white wine

1 cup milk

3 cups tomato puree

salt

Note ***If making bolognese for lasagna, increase tomato puree to 5 cups ( I am adding some diced tomatoes as they will simmer down into great texture)

Grate or finely chop the vegetables and saute in the olive oil (Marcella Hazen-Italian food goddess from years ago) recommends using an earthenware pot or heavy cast iron deep pot.

Take your time as you saute and gently brown the vegetables so the flavors become sweet and intense. Add butter and ground beef-cook over medium high heat until browned. Stir in wine and simmer until it’s evaportated. Add the milk and soften the meat. Add the tomato puree, salt and simmer for a few hours.

Assembly will follow tomorrow with the bechamel recipe! When using this sauce for lasagna, increase the tomatoes to 5 cups. I used part tomato sauce and part diced tomatoes.

Green Cabbage Soup

In anticipation of another huge snowstorm coming tonight, I am making Deborah Madison’s wonderful Cabbage Soup. It is so easy and delicious!

1 1# Savoy cabbage, quartered, cored and sliced

2-3 T. Butter

1 large Leek, quartered, chopped and rinsed

1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and roughly chopped

sea salt and fresh pepper

Rustic bread, sliced

Sliced Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese, like Maytag or Point Reyes

You should have about 5-6 cups of sliced cabbage. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and blanch the cabbage one minute. Drain,

Melt butter in soup pot. Add leek and potato ad cook for two minutes. Add cabbage and 1 t. salt. Pour over 5 cups water, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes, covered, until the potato is tender.

Tear bread into small pieces and to pot. Turn off heat and let stand 10 minutes. Ladle into soup bowls and top with gorgonzola. Break up the bread as you eat the soup.

You can also omit the bread and gorgonzola and simply garnish the soup with sour cream-divine!

Indian soup

I am not original in my idea today as I saw it on another blogger’s site who I really like and it sounded so delicious. She lives in Boulder and is into all of the good things- hiking, photography, food, dogs, etc! I am making the Red lentil dal soup from Whole Foods cookbook. The recipe is so easy and comes together in 30 minutes. Here  is a link to her site:

http://userealbutter.com/2011/10/23/indian-dal-recipe/#more-8963

Fall harvest

This morning I made Richard Olney’s soup au pistou with a few changes to the original recipe. The best part of the recipe is the pistou, which you make by grinding a handful of basil leaves in a mortar and pestle with salt and pepper, parmesan and olive oil. The flavor is sublime!

I bought a new ristra at the farmer’s market so decides to use up my older one by making a red chile sauce to slow cook a pork shoulder I bought from a farmer at the market yesterday. You toast the chiles for a couple of minutes, seed them and then simmer in boiling water for 5 minutes. Puree with 1 cup of the simmering liquid and add a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander, s&p, and a bay leaf. I poured that  mixture over the pork shoulder and am roasting it at 350 for two hours!

Next up is fresh pico de gallo from the last of my harvest tomatoes!