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Plan some fun with a cooking class at Kitchen Window! We have an incredible line-up of topics, menus and instructors. With hundreds of choices, a Kitchen Window cooking class makes a great outing with friends and family, as well as a wonderful date night. 
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As the weather chills, make a bowl of homemade soup a daily habit!
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Newsletter - Text Version “Simple Soups for Supper” A great soup meets all the criteria for a satisfying meal at an economical price. It’s nourishing, tasty, and a great way to boost your nutrition by including all types of local, seasonal vegetables. IN THIS ISSUE, we renew our love of hot soups with a focus on healthy, smooth soups that are filling and fulfilling any day of the week. You’ll find soup basics, tips for making better soup, three soups for you to try, and new ways for accessorizing your soup for super supper. Soup for Supper! A pot of soup cooks without too much tending, and is rather forgiving if dinner is late, or destined to be eaten in shifts. Pair a bowl of soup with a salad, a crust of bread, and maybe a glass of wine for a perfect cool weather supper. Any leftovers make a perfect lunch or may be frozen for a ready meal in the future. RECIPE: Purée Crécy (Carrot Soup) Savory and satisfying, this carrot soup packs plenty of vegetable goodness while avoiding an overly sweet flavor that plagues many carrot soups. At the root of this soup is a sauté of carrots, onions and leeks, while rice lends some heft and heartiness. It’s a creamy soup without any cream, and a perfect way to get your Vitamin A! Recipes from The Best Soups of the World by Clifford A. Wright. Copyright © 2010. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission the publisher. All rights reserved. Recipe Notes: Speed It Up: Packages of baby carrots, easily found everywhere, can hit the soup pot directly after a quick rinse. This eliminates the peeling and dicing step. How to Clean a Leek – Looking like a giant scallion, leeks are part of the Allium family along with onions, garlic, shallots, and scallions. Their flavor is milder and sweeter than most alliums. The manner in which a leek grows, captures sand between the cylindrical layers. It’s imperative to wash a leek well before using. Soup Basics Forget canned or boxed soups – you can do better for a lot less money, and with much better results! Homemade soups are easy to make a standard part of your kitchen repertoire and a great place to practice your improvisational skills. Understanding soup’s two base layers will get you started. Aromatics – The first layer of many soups is comprised of sautéed aromatic vegetables. Onions, shallots, garlic, or the classic mirepoix combination, 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot, and 1 part celery, are diced and sautéed in butter or olive oil. How to Say “mirepoix” Stock – Obviously, the liquid portion of the soup is mostly water, but much of “soup magic” lies with the key flavors extracted from vegetables and meats. Simmer beef bones, or a chicken carcass along with onions, carrots, and celery for several hours. Season with salt, pepper, and desired herbs and spices. Skim off any foam that develops, strain the broth before using. The stock may be cooled to remove any surface fat. Many flavors of stock are readily available. Concentrated soup bases provide another starting point. Demi-glace concentrates or umami pastes also create “instant soup stock.” Miso or soy sauce added to water can also be the basis of a quick stock. Super Soup Tips: Too thin? Too thick? Add more water or stock. Adjust seasonings accordingly. Too oily? Take advantage of the fact that oils rise to the top of a soup pot. Chill the soup allowing the fat to harden, then spoon off. For a more immediate solution, place several ice cubes in the soup pot, the fat will congeal around the ice cube; scoop out both the ice cube and the fat. Too salty? Peel and quarter a potato. Allow the potato to cook in the soup; it will absorb the salt. Remove the potato and reserve for another use. Too bland? Salt and freshly ground pepper are always a good start for amping up the flavor of a soup. From there, fling open the spice cabinet! We often find ourselves reaching for cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. Use lemon juice or a splash of an herbed vinegar, instead of salt to brighten the flavors of a soup, (though not in cream soups where curdling might occur). Too spicy? Thin out the intensity with extra vegetables. Dairy products counteract spicy heat in most foods; add yogurt or milk to the soup if complementary to the soup. Too caloric? Choose soups that are vegetable-based. Reduce the amount of oil or butter used in the initial sautéing steps. Substitute whole milk for cream, or better yet, substitute pureed potatoes, rice, or white beans for the cream or milk; they make a soup creamy without the cream. Tuscan White Bean Soup So often underrated, beans are an ideal food – nutritionally packed, filling, and inexpensive. This puree of white beans, onion, celery, and carrot is augmented by the unique flavor of a fennel bulb. The result is a deliciously smooth soup that could easily become a weekly habit. Recipes from The Best Soups of the World by Clifford A. Wright. Copyright © 2010. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission the publisher. All rights reserved. Recipe Notes: Cooking Beans: Rinse dried beans to remove any surface dust. Look the beans over and remove any bad beans, or small stones that may be present. Cook beans in plain water; salt only after the beans become tender. Salt can toughen the outer skin of the bean elongating cooking times and changing the texture. Speed It Up: Canned beans are fast in a pinch, and makes this recipe a 20-minutes soup. Drain the beans and substitute stock for the cooking water called for in the recipe. Garnishes – Beyond Crackers It’s amazing how a complementary garnish can transform a plain bowl of soup into a feast for the eyes, shift the flavors, and bring some textural interest. Raid your pantry or refrigerator -- get creative! Crispy Peas Make Your Own Fresh Croutons – “taste the difference!” (1) Dice day-old bread; Freeze fresh bread for easier dicing, and allow to dry out for an hour or two prior to sautéing. Curious Chef: Oyster Crackers Immersion (Hand) Blenders – a very, very versatile tool! Puree - For smooth soups (and fresh smoothies), nothing works better than an immersion blender! A small, sharp, rotating blade is housed in a unit with the motor on top. This allows the lower portion of the appliance to be immersed in liquids when operating and easily removed from the top motor for cleaning. An immersion blender eliminates the step of transferring hot soup to blender or food processor in batches – the soup is transformed to a delicious puree right in the cooking pot in just a minute. Chop – For quick chopping jobs, the immersion blender’s motor can be attached to a blade mechanism and small canister – perfect for salsa-making, bread crumbs, baby food, grating hard cheeses, creamy dips and dressings, homemade mayonnaise, mincing garlic, chopping herbs, dicing onions, making nut butters, and much more. Whip – The whisk attachment turns the hand blender into a tool for beating egg whites, whipping cream, scrambling eggs for omelets, and the many occasions when a “power” whisk makes quick work of the task. Tips for Using an Immersion Blender: (2) To efficiently blend foods, gently lift the hand blender up and down while moving the blender around the soup pot. Take care not to mar the bottom of the pot with the blender. (3) Rinse the lower blade assembly immediately after using for easy clean-up. (4) Immerse the blender in liquid to no more than one inch below where the motor assembly attaches. RECIPE: Purée of Swiss Chard and Romaine Soup Leafy green vegetables are often restricted to the salad plate. This recipe puts all kinds of green into the soup bowl making it a powerhouse of nutritional goodness. A few potatoes and the classic aromatics give this soup its heartiness. Minced tarragon imparts a distinctive flavor. Green never tasted so good – it’s an appetizing warmth! Recipes from The Best Soups of the World by Clifford A. Wright. Copyright © 2010. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reprinted with permission the publisher. All rights reserved. Recipe Notes: Speed It Up: When out of season, frozen leafy greens may be used in this soup. Spinach is an easy substitute for chard in this soup. How to Clean Swiss Chard – The puckered leaves naturally hold sand and dirt from the field. Wash the leaves well. Remove the larger, fibrous stems; small stems and the leaves’ little red veins will cook to tenderness. Manners for Soup Formal Soup Etiquette - At a formal meal where soup is one of several courses, the bowls, sometimes known as soup plates, are most likely to be shallow in shape. Since soup is often served as a first course, the soup spoon is placed to the right of the plate at the outermost position. Using the soup spoon, skim the soup from the bowl away from you toward the far edge of the bowl. When finished, place your spoon on the plate underneath the soup bowl. DO’s and DON’Ts No slurping of soup from the spoon. No blowing on the soup, or the filled spoon, to make it cooler. You may tip your bowl to facilitate getting the last bit of soup, but always tip the bowl away from yourself. The Soup Spoon - Soup spoons are generally broader and deeper than their teaspoon counterparts. The larger diameter and depth are intended to accommodate both chunky and broth-based soups. Eat broth soups or smooth, pureed soups by sipping from the side edge of the spoon. Eat chunky soups from the front of spoon. Cookbook Review: The Best Soups of the World by Clifford A. Wright. Copyright © 2010. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Mr. Wright “goes global” in this recent cookbook devoted entirely to soups. In doing so, he successfully expands our horizons to the taste and flavor possibilities held in the soup bowl. Gathering from many rich traditions, Mr. Wright refines and documents the offerings of world cuisines and makes them accessible to the Western cook. He divides his explorations into fourteen chapters ranging from chunky to smooth, vegetable to meat, hot to cold, broth to cream. If you’re in a soup rut and finding yourself with the same selections over and over again, this book will definitely get you into some new, delicious territory quickly and easily. As the weather chills, make a bowl of homemade soup a daily habit.
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