Sopa de Ajo a la Castellana (Garlic Soup)

This recipe is based on our first use of Penelope Casas' recipe from ¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain. It sounds like the flavor might be scary, but the garlic is cooked so long that it loses its vehemence. It's a very traditional soup here in Barcelona, especially around Christmastime.

She claims the secret is "the order in which the ingredients were combined" but I found it needlessly complex so I'm simplifying it here. I don't see any reason to create the water-garlic broth separately from adding the beef stock. Heating bowls of stock with the eggs in a hot oven to cook the eggs is a time/energy-waste and makes the bowls too hot to touch. I doubt it's critical to use 4.5 Cup of water but 4.0 Cup of stock, so I'm rounding to convenient metric units. Maybe it makes sense in the restaurant kitchen where she got the recipe, but it's unnecessary work for a home cook.

I also question whether we need water and stock: why not just use all stock for more flavor? Perhaps it would have too much mouth feel and get sticky with a good-quality homemade beef stock. I used a good Spanish boxed chicken stock because it's what I had, and I've seen many other recipes (including other Casas books) that use chicken stock. 

Overview: make a garlic broth, toast the bread in garlic-infused oil to make croutons, serve in bowls filled with an egg, ham, broth, and croutons. There's a lot of broth so make sure your pot can hold 2 Liters.

Servings: 6; with the egg, ham, and croutons, it's a filling lunch.
Duration: 1 hour.

 15 ml      1 Tbs     Olive Oil

  4 cloves  4 cloves  Garlic, lightly crushed and peeled

  3 g       1   tsp   Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)

                      Pepper

  1 L       4   C     Stock, beef or chicken

  1 L       4.5 C     Water

                      Salt

 75 ml      5 Tbs     Olive Oil

  4 cloves  4 cloves  Garlic, minced

  1 L       4.5 C     stale/dry Bread, sliced/torn into crouton sizes

  3 g       1 tsp     Pimenton dulce (sweet smoked paprika)

  6         6         Eggs

 30 g       6 Tbs     Jamon Serrano, cut small for a spoon

In a large pot, add the Oil and crushed Garlic. Sauté slowly until lightly browned and beginning to soften.
Add the Pimenton and Pepper to bloom briefly, then the Stock and Water.
Simmer slowly, covered, for 45 minutes to extract the Garlic flavor.
Taste and add Salt as needed.

Meanwhile, put the Oil and minced Garlic in a large wide skillet and slowly cook until the Garlic begin to take on just a little color; don't darken too much as you'll be heating it more with the bread. 
Add the Bread pieces and sauté until they are crisp and golden, about 15 minutes; stop if the Garlic is getting too dark and acrid.
Remove from heat and add the Pimenton, stir to coat and bloom flavor.

To serve, crack an egg and slide whole into each bowl.
Top with Jamon.
Bring Broth to vigorous boil and pour over Egg and Jamon; the Egg should poach a little.
Top with Garlic Croutons.
Serve.

Lentejas con Chorizo (Lentils with Chorizo)

This Spanish lentil and chorizo dish is simple, warming, and hearty -- a classic. Recipes range from soupy to stewy; I lean toward a thicker consistency for dinner but don't want to overcook the lentils to the point of being mushy. For this dish, I'm taking cues from Spanish Sabores and Spain on a Fork.

I used brown lentils, but you can use black or green. In this rendition, I had a string of little chorizo balls, so I cut them into attractive hemispheres. We had some vegetable stock in the freezer which Irene simmered with some pork bones that we'd collected to give it some body. We've got rosemary, thyme, and bay growing on the terrace so we've used all three, but you can use any combination of aromatics that you like. The pickled Guindilla chilis just a little spicy, their acidity adds balance to the richness; our Catalan supermarket calls the Bixtos and they're also known as Piparras. If you can't find the Ñora or Choricero, use some Pimenton (Spanish smoked Paprika); the Ñora has a richness of tomato paste combined with the rich tobacco/leather notes of Ancho or Poblano chilis.

Total time about 1 hour; serves two:

125 g       Lentils, dried
600 ml      Stock (pork, beef, chicken, or vegetable)
    taste   Black Pepper, fresh ground
  1 stalk   Celery, whole
  1 sprig   Rosemary, whole for removal later
  1 bunch   Thyme, leave on stem for removal later
  1 whole   Bay Leaf
150 g       Chorizo, sliced into rounds
 15 ml      Olive Oil (a generous glug to prevent fat from burning)
  1 large   Onion, diced
  2 large   Carrots, large slice or dice
1/2         Red Bell Pepper, medium, large dice (72 g here)
  4 clove   Garlic, sliced thin
  1 medium  Tomato, crushed
 20 g       Ñora Pepper paste
2-4         Guindilla Chilis packed in vinegar

I'd suggest doing a mise en place -- measuring your ingredients and chopping your vegetables ahead of time -- so you don't risk overcooking the Lentils.

Rinse the Lentils and check for debris.

Add the Lentils to a pot with the Black Pepper, Celery, and whole aromatic herbs, and cover with Stock, then bring to a low simmer. These take the longest time to cook so give them a head start while you prepare the sofrito.

In a skillet, sear the Chorizo on all sides to render a little fat; continuing to sauté so the sausage cooks through.

In the skillet with the Chorizo fat, add the Oil and sauté the Onions and Carrots until the onions start to brown, then add Garlic and Pepper for a couple minutes, then the Tomatoes. Cover and cook over medium heat until reduced to a paste -- a sofrito -- about 10 minutes.

Add the sofrito and Ñora paste to the Lentil pot and simmer on low until the flavors have combined. Don't let it cook so much that the Lentils get mushy; if there's too much liquid, boost the heat but stir constantly so the lentils at the bottom don't burn. If it starts drying out, add more Stock or water and lower the heat. Taste and adjust Salt. Remove Celery and aromatic herbs.

Serve with the seared Chorizo, and top with some pickled Guindilla Chili peppers; slicing them makes it easier to eat without a knife. A hearty red wine works well with this rich dish.

SER's Beet Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Foam and White Anchovies (Boquerones)

At a recent dinner at SER, we had a beet gazpacho topped with Cabrales cheese foam, garnished with white anchovies. We've re-created it here, using goat cheese, and it turned out wonderfully -- earthy, rich, not too beet-y, and the cheese foam and anchovies elevate it to restaurant level. For the gazpacho, you'll need a powerful blender for a smooth texture, and for the foam, you'll need an iSi whip cream siphon. We got a large tub of Boquerones from a restaurant supply store. 

Make the gazpacho and foam, and chill both. Plate the gazpacho then top with foam and boquerones; garnish with grind of black pepper.

Beet Gazpacho

I started with recipes from the New York Times and Washington Post.  The quantities below don't need to be exact, but these (barely) fit in our vintage Vitamix blender. We normally sieve our tomato gazpacho but didn't feel the need for that here.  Pre-cooked and peeled beets made this very quick, and we used canned tomatoes because it's now after tomato season; you could cook and peel fresh beets and use fresh tomatoes, of course.

500 g        1 pound   cooked and peeled Beets, roughly chopped

400 g     14.5 ounce   canned crushed Tomatoes, unflavored

225 g      1/2 pound   English Cucumber, skinned, sliced

1/4                    Red Onion, sliced

1/2                    Red Bell Pepper,  sliced

  4 cloves             Garlic

 60 ml     1/4 C       Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 30 ml       2 Tbs     Sherry Vinegar (to taste)

 10 g      1/2 Tbs     Kosher Salt (to taste)

Add the Beets and Tomatoes to the blender and blend, adding the other ingredients one by one. 

Blend until very smooth.

Taste and adjust Salt and Vinegar.

Chill for at least 2 hours.

Goat Cheese Foam

I used this recipe, cutting it in half for a few servings, but you'll need to double the below quantities to provide for the amount of gazpacho above.  We have a little 0.25 L iSi, which is fine for this amount, but you'll probably need the 0.5 L model for a double batch. If you have any flecks in your ingredients (pepper flakes or herbs in the cheese) you will need to sieve it to prevent clogging the iSi, but our cheese was plain so we didn't need to. Here too, the quantities don't need to be exact. The small amount above was too little volume for our Vitamix so I used a stick blender; a food processor might work, but might also be too large for this amount.

125 g     4.4 ounce  soft Goat Cheese

 65 g     2.2 ounce Sour Cream

 11 ml   0.75 Tbs  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

  5 g     3/4 tsp Kosher Salt

 65 g     2.2 ounce Heavy Cream

Blend the Goat Cheese, Sour Cream, Olive Oil, and Salt until smooth.

Add the Heavy Cream and blend briefly to combine (you don't want to whip the cream yet) or stir in thoroughly.

Load it into the iSi Whipper: I filled a ziptop bag then snipped off the corner and used it like a pastry bag to get the thick cream mixture into the whipper.

Add the lid, and charge with 1 Nitrous Oxide cartridge (2 for a 1 L whipper).

Chill for at least an hour

Thai Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup (Gaeng Dom Yam Gai)

This is a great combination of flavors: richness from the coconut milk, brightness from lime juice, and funk from fish sauce. Some foodie friends compared it favorably to the one at their favorite Thai place in DC. It's easy to make but requires some specialized ingredients; it won't be at all the same without the fish sauce!

The recipe is based on Jennifer Brennan's The Original Thai Cookbook, and I've been making it since 1989. I've modified the original recipe to avoid the chicken bones and fat from skin in the finished soup -- they distract from the rich coconut and bright lime flavors. Proportions here are pretty flexible. You can use all white meat, or all dark, or a combination; be careful not to overcook the white meat. You can use frozen chopped lemongrass instead of fresh stalks. Galangal is similar to ginger but has a more exotic aroma.

Chaokoh from Thailand is a brand I frequently buy.  Bon Preu's Crema de Coca is 17% fat which is too thin to be diluted 1:1, probably better with half a can of water.

Serves 4

3 C      Coconut Milk, Thai/Vietnamese(2 13.5 fl oz cans)
3 C      Water
1 pound  Chicken, skin removed, deboned, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 stalks Lemon Grass, bruised and cut into 1 inch lengths
1 thumb  Galangal, sliced thin
3        Green Onions, finely sliced
2 Tbs    Coriander Leaves, chopped (1 large bunch)
3        Serrano chilis, fresh, seeded, chopped (to taste)
3 Tbs    Fish Sauce (Nam Pla)
4 Tbs    Lime Juice (from 2 limes)

In a sauce pan, thin Coconut Milk with Water and bring to low boil.

Add Chicken pieces, Lemon Grass, and Galangal. (If you find the woody chunks of Lemon Grass and fresh Galangal annoying in the finished soup, you could wrap them in a cheesecloth bag).

Reduce heat and simmer until Chicken is tender, about 5 minutes. Do not cover as this will tend to curdle the Coconut Milk.

When Chicken is tender, add Green Onions, Coriander Leaves, Chilis.

Bring heat up just below boiling, briefly.
Remove pan from heat, stir in Fish Sauce and Lime Juice.

Serve in heated bowls.
An off-dry Riesling wouldn't be unwelcome.

Tichi's Gazpacho, chef Jose Andres

When the farmers markets and our garden have fresh, heirloom tomatoes, we make gazpacho. Heirloom varieties have intense flavors that make this cool soup stand out. I prefer the tart varieties, but the acidity is adjusted with sherry vinegar, so any flavorful variety will do. Don't bother with store-bought varieties, they only taste like wet red cardboard.

This recipe is from chef Jose Andres' book, "Tapas: a Taste of Spain in America", which is fun, imaginative, and tasty -- authentic while using ingredients available in America.  This gazpacho is excellent and easy.  We halved the quantities to fit in our conventional home blender, and reduced the oil because the original seemed a bit heavy.

We've used various peppers from our garden including Spanish padrons -- I like the hint of heat they provide, but suggest you remove the seeds to keep it in check. It's easy to seed the cucumber: cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and gel with a spoon. Use a tasty Olive Oil, you'll really notice it in the finished product.

1 pound Tomatoes, cored, cut coarse (red, yellow, heirloom, cherry)
4 ounces Cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut coarse
1 1/2 ounces Green Bell Pepper, seeded, cut coarse (red, or spicy work too)
1/2 clove Garlic, peeled
1 Tbs Sherry Vinegar
1/4 cup Water (or 4 Ice Cubes to help it chill faster)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Kosher Salt

Turn on the blender and add ingredients individually so they liquefy instead of sitting in a mass above the blade.

Add Tomatoes chunks, one at a time, then Cucumber chunks, the Pepper, then Garlic, Vinegar, Water (or Ice Cubes), and finally Oil. The order's not really that important, but this reduces the chance you'll have to poke things down in the blender.

Make sure you let it run a while with the Oil -- creating an emulsion gives you the big mouthfeel.

Taste and adjust Vinegar and Salt for balance. If you want more richness, add more Olive Oil and blend again.

Run the soup through a fine strainer (not a Chinois, it's too fine) to remove seeds and any bits of skin. This makes for a much more elegant presentation.

Straining the soup

Seeds and skin removed, less distraction, more elegant

Chill for at least an hour.

Serves 4, about 3 Cups

Lazy Bouillabaisse

This is a quick, weekday night take on the Mediterranean tomato-based fish stews. I started with Kate Rentschler’s Bouillabaisse from Cook’s Illustrated September 2001, then streamlined per Roberta Donna’s Zuppa di Pesce, memories of San Francisco Cioppino, and now improvise using the flavor profiles I’m looking for -- and tasting all the time. The texture’s thinner than a stew but thicker than a soup. The flavors I really enjoy here are saffron, orange, and anise.

We can tomatoes from the farmers market at the end of the season, but store-bought canned tomatoes are fine, too. You want the skins removed. All proportions are approximate, and use fish that’s fresh. You want some firm fish and some flakey fish for interesting texture; some shellfish is fine too.

Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as a starter

¼ tsp Saffron threads

3 Tbs Pernod, Absinthe or other anise liquor

¼ Cup Olive Oil

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 quart Tomatoes, skinned (we can our own, canned chopped are fine)

to taste Chili pepper flakes

to taste Salt

1 tsp Orange Zest (from about ½ an orange)

¼ pound Firm fish, cut into spoon-friendly chunks

¼ pound Flakey fish, cut into chunks

Crumble the Saffron threads into a cup with the Pernod and let flavors dissolve.

In skillet, cook Garlic until soft.

Add Tomatoes and their juice, and crush with a potato masher until chunky but small enough to eat gracefully from a spoon.

Bring it to a good boil, you want to emulsify the oil and tomato mixture to give it body.

Add Chili flakes and Salt.

Taste for body and add more oil if it feels thin and without luxury.

Turn down heat and add Orange Zest, Saffron and Pernod.

Cook gently to marry flavors and taste, adjusting seasonings and oil.

Add the fish, starting with the firmest, and simmer until just barely cooked.

Adjust seasonings once more.

Serve in pre-warmed bowls.

Extra credit if you top with a crouton and rouille.

Hot and Sour Soup

Our college friends, Jerry and Cindi, taught this to us in 1982.

2 large Dried Black Mushrooms
6 Tree Ear Mushrooms
4 Dried Tiger Lilly Stems
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
1/2 Cup Pork, finely shredded (about 1/4 pound)
1 Tbs Light Soy Sauce
? ? Bok Choy, sliced
1/2 Cup Shredded Bamboo Shoots
5 Cup Chicken Broth
2-3 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbs Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Cornstarch
3 Tbs Water
1 1/2 pad Tofu, firm
2 whole Eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1-2 tsp White Pepper
2 tsp Scallions with green part
Fresh Coriander, chopped for garnish
2 Tbs Hot Bean Paste (to taste)

Soak Mushrooms, Tree Ears, Tiger Lilly Stems in hot or boiling water and let stand 15-30 minutes to rehydrate; drain.

Discard stems of Mushrooms and hard part of Tree Ears, cut into thin slices

Stir Pork in hot Oil and add Light Soy Sauce along with Mushrooms, Tree Ears, Tiger Lilly Stems, Bamboo Shoots.

Add Bok Choy.

Stir 1 minute and add Chicken Broth and Salt.

Stir in Vinegar and Dark Soy. 

Add Scallions.

Mix Cornstarch and Water then stir into soup to thicken.

When thickened, add Tofu.

Bring to boil and turn off heat

Add Sesame Oil, Pepper, Bean Paste and stir.

While stirring, add beaten Eggs.

Sprinkle with Coriander.