GeezerGourmet

Here is one of the three soups from last week’s cooking demonstration at the McLean Community Center.  In the process of preparing this dish, we came upon a couple of improvements.  Bacon really helps the taste of the soup, but removing cut pieces was a hassle, so use whole strips to facilitate pulling them out of the pot at Step 5.  We didn’t see the need for adding diced potatoes, which was called for in my recipe, so, they’re out. Grilling the corn?  Indeed!  We used fresh corn from Florida, grilled it and placed it unhusked in the fridge the day before the demo.

GRILLED CORN CHOWDER
Yield: about 1 quart, 4 servings
See Abbreviations, if needed
•   10       corn on the cob, with husks
•   3         strips  bacon, uncut
•   1         large onion, diced
•   1         celery stalk, diced
•   1         leek, diced, white part only
•   1         red pepper, finely diced
•   2         garlic cloves, pureed
•   BG      sachet of bay leaf, thyme leaves, parsley stems and pepper corns
•   3C      chicken stock
•   1C      half and half
•   2t        hot sauce (Tennessee Sunshine)
•   1T      Worcestershire sauce
•   ¼ C    fresh chopped parsley
•   ¼C     crème fraîche (optional)
•              S/P

The corn:
1.  Pull back husks, clean, butter and salt the corncob and rehusk
2.  Grill the corn over medium heat for about 20 minutes, turning once
3.  Remove the corn to a sheet pan and, when cool enough to handle,
cut the kernels from the cob. Scrape any pulp remaining on the cobs
with the back of your chef’s knife
4.  Add half the kernels to the pulp and puree with a blender. Set
pureed corn and kernels aside, separately
The soup base:
5.  In a heavy pot, sweat bacon strips and finely chopped onions, celery, leeks and pepper
Add the pureed corn.  Add BG and garlic. Cook over medium heat for
about 10 minutes
6.  Add stock, BTB, remove the bacon strips and then simmer another 10 minutes
The chowder:
7.  Add the corn kernels
8.  Simmer another 5 minutes.  Taste for salt and pepper
9.  Remove from heat and add hot sauce and Worcestershire.  Taste again
10.  Warm half and half, add to the chowder. Taste once more
11.  Adjust thickness with half and half or with water.  If this step is necessary,
bring the soup back to boil for a minute or less
12.  Serve hot.  Garnish with a dusting of chopped parsley and
a dollop of crème fraîche

Two weeks ago, we had vichyssoise, this week the offering is gazpacho.  Easier to make, just as good and, if strained, quite elegant.  This uncooked soup is really a puréed mixture of fresh veggies that are seasoned nicely.  It “cooks” in the fridge overnight!

Remember some of the points made in the previous cold soup recipe:
·   Cold soups should have a thinner consistency than hot soups.
·   Cold soups require more seasoning than hot soups because cold dulls the sense
of taste.  It follows, that seasoning should be adjusted only after the soup has
been chilled.
·   Always serve cold soups very cold.  Chill the bowls!

This recipe takes a bit of this and that from the little woman, school and the French Laundry Cookbook.  The balsamic reduction glaze is Chef Killer’s idea.

GAZPACHO
Yield:  about 8 cups unstrained, 5 cups strained
See Abbreviations, if needed

·    2          chopped red onion
·    2          chopped green pepper
·    1          cucumber, seeded, chopped
·    3          peeled, chopped medium size tomato
·    2          garlic clove, chopped
·    2 t        kosher salt
·    pinch    cayenne, to taste
·    1 T       RWV
·    ¼ C     EVOO
·    1          juice of small lemon
·    3 C      tomato sauce
·    2 t        thyme
·    2 T       chopped cilantro
·    3          radishes, chopped
·    1 C      tomato juice, as needed to thin the soup
·    S/P      to taste
·               croutons and balsamic reduction glaze

1.  Dice veggies and place in SSB
2.  Add all other ingredients except garnishes
3.  Puree with a stick blender or in a food processor
4.  If chunky thick, add the tomato juice
5.  Chill in fridge overnight
6.  On order, remove from fridge
o   Adjust seasoning
o   As desired, strain ½ to ¾ of the gazpacho, working the pulp through the strainer
with a plunger or spoon.  This will remove about 2 to 3 cups of pulp
7.  Recombine strained and unstrained gazpacho
8.  Serve ice cold with garnishes
Note:  To make a balsamic reduction glaze, place a half cup of balsamic vinegar in a
non reactive heavy pan, bring to simmer and reduce slowly until it clings to a spoon.
Dabble a few drops on the soup, along with the croutons, at serving time.

Eggplant is never better than in mid-summer, locally grown.  So here’s a classic dish with a few innovations.  First, eggplant is soggy if just sliced, doused with EVOO and baked.  It only gets soggier when it is combined with sauce and cheeses and then baked again as a casserole, which is what we have in mind.  Second, according to The Little Woman, a robust Italian tomato sauce must have some ground beef in it.  Third, mild Italian sausage plays off admirably against the sauce, cheeses and the crispy eggplant.
So here we have:

EGGPLANT PARMIGIANO
See abbreviations, if needed

2          eggplants, sliced ¼ inch thick
1T        coarse salt
1C        AP flour
4           eggs, beaten
8oz       Panko or other bread crumbs
1C        grated Parmigiano Reggiano
3           medium spicy Italian sausage links
2T        EVOO
1          red or green pepper, diced
2          cloves garlic, pureed
1          red onion, diced
½ Lb   ground beef
30oz    canned diced tomatoes
6oz      canned tomato sauce
1T       Italian herb blend (oragano, basil, marjoram, thyme, rosemary)
6oz     diced mozzarella

FOR THE EGGPLANT:
1.  Toss eggplant slices and salt until combined, than transfer to large colander
Let stand 30 to 45 minutes. Then pat dry, brush off salt residue and set aside
2.  Set up an “English Breading Station”:  (three pie plates: a, b, and c)
a.  flour and S/P
b.  egg wash
c.  Panko and a little of the Parmigiano Reggiano
3.  One at a time: Flour an eggplant slice, then transfer it to the egg wash plate, then coat it
thoroughly in the Panko plate
4.  Place all slices on a sheet pan with parchment paper.  Or on a sheet pan greased with EVOO
5.  Bake the eggplant in a preheated 425F oven for 30 minutes, turning the pieces at 15 minutes,
and then remove the crispy eggplant but leave the oven on

FOR THE SAUCE:
6.  Place sausages in pan of water and BTB, cool, peel and slice into bite sized pieces
7.  In a large evaseé like pan, sauté diced onion, pepper and garlic in EVOO,
to translucent and then hold
8.  In a frying pan, sauté ground beef in EVOO, drain and transfer to evaseé
9.  To the evaseé, add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, S/P, Italian herbs and then
BTB, add sausages, then reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes

TO ASSEMBLE:
10.   Spread some tomato sauce in the bottom of large buttered baking dish
11.  Layer in half of the eggplant slices
12.  Add more sauce over the eggplant, then sprinkle with half of the mozzarella
13.  Layer in remaining eggplant and some more sauce but don’t drown this top layer
14.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmagiano Reggiano and the mozzarella
15.  Bake at 425F until bubbling, about 15 minutes
16.  Brown top under broiler
NOTE:  The crispy eggplant takes a little more time, but it’s worth it.

Baked beans go great with outdoor grilled meats.  James Beard, in his classic Treasury of Outdoor Cooking, included seven recipes, all with lots of aggressive seasonings such as onions, garlic, mustard, ham hocks or sausage and cognac or bourbon.  Reason: beans absorb it all and deliver complex hints of whatever you put in the pot.  However, to achieve this end requires cooking time.

Over the past three weeks, TLW made two pots of beans–one in the oven and the second on the stove top.  If your Dutch oven is made of heavy cast iron or enameled cast iron, firing the pot either way will produce the same excellent results.  She prefers using the stove top.  It’s faster.  Here’s the recipe as it evolved, initially inspired by an ingredients list in a recent issue of Fine Cooking.

Dutch Oven Pinto Beans
Yield:  12-15
See Abbreviations, if needed

1 lb        pinto beans, soaked in cold water overnight
3T          unsalted butter
1            onion, diced
2            gloves garlic, diced
1T          mild ancho chile powder
1T          medium chipotle chile powder
1T          cumin, ground
1/2t        allspice, ground
8            grinds of peppercorn
1            ham hock or 1C of smoked ham pieces
4C         beef broth
1C         coffee, brewed
1/3C      molasses
1/3C      ketchup
1T         Worchester sauce
4           dashes of Tennessee Sunshine or other hot sauce–not Tabasco
2T         bourbon

1.  Drain the beans and set aside
2.  In a large Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the onions to transparent and then
add the garlic–don’t burn
3.  Over low heat, add the spices to the onion mix, stir and sauté to aromatic
4.  Add the beef broth, BTB and then reduce to simmer
5.  Add the ham and the beans and bring the pot to simmer on the stove top and cook, covered, until the
beans are bitable but clearly not done, about 45-60 minutes (or about 60-75 minutes in a
preheated 300F oven)–but be sure they are cooked to bitable at this step
6.  Remove the pot from the heat, uncover, cut the ham meat off the bone, remove the bone
and any ham fat and then gently stir in the coffee, molasses, ketchup, Worchester and hot sauce
7.  Return the pot to the stove top and simmer, uncovered, until the beans are soft to the bite but
still give some resistance, about 45 minutes (or 60+ minutes in the oven) or a little longer–but
don’t cook them until the beans start to fall apart
8.  About half way through Step 7, taste the sauce and adjust for salt (remember, beef broth and ham
are salty)
9.  Add the bourbon and hold at this step, or …
10. Serve ladled into heated bowls or, with a slotted spoon, onto heated plates with the entrée