WELL FED

CREAM OF CELERY SOUP WITH RUSTIC CROUTONS & CELERY LEAF SALSA VERDE

Last weekend I made another recipe from the Two Dudes, One Pan cookbook, a big pot of bolognese.  I was going to post it but something about it made me feel a little indifferent, despite the fact that three different people who devoured a bowl of it ladled over a tangle of linguine enthused that it was outstanding.  I need to think about it, maybe make it again.  Anyway, the recipe called for one stalk of celery.  I sort of hate when a recipe calls for a miniscule amount of something that you can only buy in bulk.  Am I right?  Who's with me?  Let's see some hands.  

Standing in the produce section at Bristol Farms I surveyed the heads of celery.  I so didn't want to buy a whole head.  I wondered if it was possible to break off one stalk and have them ring it up separately OR if they were so kind, they'd just give it to me for free.  I didn't even end up asking.  One head of celery only cost a dollar something so I ended up just going for it.  I figured I figure out what to do with the rest later.  But what?  What to do with so much celery?  Smear it with peanut butter and enjoy it as a healthy snack?  I think not.

The idea of soup came up early on, but it seemed sort of dull.  I mean celery, although hardworking in the kitchen, is kind of a dull vegetable and to turn it into soup?  It had the potential to be a big, steaming bowl of DULL.  But I decided to just go ahead and make it into soup.  I mean what else would I do with so much celery before it turns flaccid and I have to toss it in the garbage. 

I looked online for some inspiration and ended up combining three different recipes - one from Martha Stewart, one from Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger that I found on the Food Network website (although theirs calls for celery ROOT, which I'm sure would be fantastic).  The salsa verde recipe comes from the Zuni Cafe cookbook.  I've been wanting to make it forever but was unsure what to serve it with.  It turned out that this soup was the perfect marriage.  It also turned out this soup was far from dull.  Despite the fact that I had had no intention of posting this recipe and as such took no process photos, I felt I had to put it on the site.  Not that you need instructional photos for this.  Trust me, it's pretty much just chopping and stirring.

INGREDIENTS

(for the soup)

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup shallots, chopped

4 cups celery, chopped

1 medium russet potato, peeled and diced

Kosher salt

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon celery seed

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine

5 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

(for the croutons)

1 6-inch long piece of baguette

2 tablespoons olive oil

(for the salsa verde)

2 tablespoons tightly packed finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1/4 cup tightly packed chopped celery leaves

2 tablespoons finely diced, pale yellow inner celery stalks

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, pressed between paper towels and coarsely chopped

zest of 1 lemon equalling about 1 teaspoon, plus juice to taste

1 teaspoon finely diced red jalapeno

1 tablespoon fine diced red onion

2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped

About 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

Melt the butter in a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the shallots, celery, and potato, stirring to coat the vegetables with the melted butter.  Partially cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic, celery seed, and cayenne pepper and cook for 1 minute.  Add the vermouth, stir to combine and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated off.  Add the stock, cover the pot and turn the heat up to high, to bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally.

Puree the soup in batches in a blender until very smooth.  Pour through a fine sieve, pressing with the back of a ladle to extract as much of the liquid as possible.  Return the soup to the pot, stir and taste, adjusting the seasonings if need be.  It'll probably need salt.  Let the soup stay hot over low heat while you make the croutons and salsa verde.  Just before serving the soup, add the cream.

To make the croutons, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Tear the baguette into bite-size rough pieces and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  Drizzle with the olive oil, toss to coat and the place in the oven to bake until golden and crisp, about 8 minutes.  You might want to give them a stir about halfway through.

To make the salsa verde combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl.  Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt, pepper, or lemon juice if desired.  Set aside so the flavors can mingle.

To serve, ladle into shallow bowls.  Scatter in a few croutons and spoon over some of the salsa verde.  Grind over some black pepper and serve.

I was pleasantly surprised by this soup.  I guess I had low expectations.  I mean, the only cream of celery soup I'd been familiar with was Campbell's and more often than not, it was an ingredient in a casserole.  Well this is nothing like that.  The celery has a bright, clean, fresh flavor that is juxtaposed by the creamy richness of the soup.  It's all about balance and complimentary flavors and textures.  The velvety texture of the soup, let's be honest, can be a little plain on its own.  But the addition of the lightly crispy, ragged croutons and the salsa verde takes it to another level.  The salsa verde adds another layer of delicate celery flavor and texture, while the capers infuse it with a briny tang.

The soup is hearty enough for a meal, although I always tend to think of pureed soups as started courses, which is what I'm planning to do for the very first Thanksgiving dinner I'm hosting in the new house.  Excitement!  It would be a great precursor to poultry - a nice roast chicken or game hens (in keeping with the elegant feel).  Wine and a big salad would perfect round out the meal.

Serves 4 to 6

CHICKEN THIGHS WITH WHITE WINE, HERB & CARAMELIZED SHALLOT PAN SAUCE

This past Friday, Mark and I were killing time at Barnes and Noble before seeing Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist at the Landmark.  I was in the cookbook section (of course).  The selection is just what you'd expect from a big chain.  Very mainstream.  Lots of Ray Ray and Aunt Sandy.  Not a whole lot that was very interesting.  Strangely they had a lot of books on raw cooking and veganism.  I did come across one book that I had heard was out and was wanting to see.  It's called Two Dudes, One Pan and is written by a pair of local Los Angeles caterers/chefs named Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo.  You might remember them from a very short lived and ill-conceived show on Food Network called 2 Dudes Catering.  I never saw it and it would seem, no one else did either.  I have however been to parties that they've catered and recently they opened a restaurant in LA called Animal, which I LOVE and have written about before.  It's one of my favorite places right now.  Very rustic, local seasonal ingredients, lots of meat, perfect for carnivores and pig enthusiasts.  In fact they very cleverly find a way work bacon or one of it's derivatives into almost every dish.

Anyway, as one of their fans, I obviously had to have to cookbook.  The concept of the book is kind of good.  It's broken up into chapters based on cooking vessel, such as roasting pan, non-stick skillet, dutch oven, etc. and then features recipes that utilize said vessel.  All weekend long, in-between doing work on the house, I paged through the book trying to settle on a recipe to make.  Sunday was spent painting the dining room and as such, I wanted to do a recipe that wouldn't take all day or at least, wouldn't need to be marinated over night.  I settled on this, which according to the book, is a frequent family meal at the restaurant.  

INGREDIENTS

8 skin-on boneless chicken thighs

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons canola or grapeseed oil

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

2/3 cup dry white wine (such as pinot grigio or savignon blanc)

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh marjoram, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, finely chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

METHOD

First season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.  

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers and is almost smoking.  Gently lay half the chicken in the pan, skin side down and cook until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  

Flip the thighs and continue to cook for another 8 minutes until the other side is browned.  The chicken will be done when the juices run clear when pierced with a fork or the tip of a knife. 

Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate and set aside.  Repeat the above process with the remaining 4 thighs.

After the second round of thighs are done, add them to the plate with the others and then pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat left in the pan and discard.  Return the pan to the heat, add the shallots and cook, stirring often, until softened 2 to 3 minutes.  

Add the vinegar and simmer for 1 minute, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Add the wine and water and cook until the amount of liquid left in the pan is about 1/3 cup, 7 to 8 minutes.  I actually reduced mine a bit too much.  You want it to have body, but to still want it to be loose enough to pour.

Stir in the herbs, butter and season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  

To serve, mound something starchy on each plate, top with two pieces of chicken and spoon the sauce over.  

Chicken thighs have so much more flavor than the breast and it's much harder to over cook them and dry them out.  And then there's the skin, so crispy and salty.  It's kind of incredible how simply seasoning a piece of chicken with salt and pepper yields such intensely flavorful results.  The pan sauce, let's be honest, is pretty basic, classic.  However I love the combination of the parsley, thyme and marjoram.  The addition of the sherry vinegar adds another layer of tang that works well against the sweetness of the caramelized shallots.  Then the butter gives the sauce a silky richness.

I served the chicken with some olive oil mashed potatoes although you could also serve it with something equally starchy, like rice, couscous, or some other vegetable puree.  I wonder if it would be good with parsnip puree.  

This is one negative to this dish.  It's kind of a hellish mess to make.  As the chicken fries in the pan, oil splatters everywhere.  Seriously.  I had to mop afterward.  Before I make this again, I plan to get one of those mesh splatter screens, which my mother assures me, work very well.  I'd advice you to do the same.  But don't let that scare you off from making it.  The mess is worth it.

Serves 4

BONELESS PORK CHOPS WITH RADICCHIO SLAW

Okay, first a disclaimer.  I really dislike the above picture and normally I wouldn't use something so bad but I know I've not been posting many recipes lately so I just bit the bullet and did it anyway.  I have a myriad of excuses as to why the photo looks the way it does (the battery in my normal camera died so I had to use one that doesn't do well in low light, I'm trying to get used to the lighting in my new kitchen, etc.) but it's not very interesting and I don't feel like going into it.

Normally, on the thankfully rare occasions where I'm not pleased with my photography I'd just wait and make the dish again and redo the pictures, then post them.  But in this case, I had already made this dish twice in five days.  It was unlikely that I'd be making it again very soon.  Although I might.

Ok so anyway, my dad was in town from Missouri this past week.  He was here to help do a little work on the house, painting mostly.  Several weeks ago I suggested half jokingly that he should come out and paint the new kitchen cabinets and shelves we had built in the living room.  A few days went by and he called and expressed interest in doing it.  Soon he'd gotten a plane ticket, he packed his tarp and a few paint brushes, I borrowed an air mattress from Annie and Pierson (for me and Mark, not for him.  Don't worry) and the plan was set.

The first couple nights he was here, we took him out to eat.  But eventually, I wanted to make him a nice, home cooked meal.  As my work day was drawing to a close, I thought back to a recipe in Nancy Silverton's book A Twist of the Wrist.  From what I could recall, the ingredients list was minimal and would be quick and easy to find at any supermarket on my way home.  Mark and I swung by Ralph's and got what I needed and as soon as I got home, I dug Nancy's book out of a pile of chaos in our second bedroom and got to work.

INGREDIENTS

(for the pork chops)

4 6-ounce boneless pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)

2 teaspoons pork rub (I used a rub from Dean and Deluca made up of mustard seed, ginger, garlic, onion, corriander, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, cloves and cayenne pepper)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup canola oil

(for the slaw)

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup salt packed capers, rinsed and chopped

1 large shallot, finely chopped (about 1 heaping tablespoon or so)

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

juice of half a lemon

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 small head radicchio, shredded (about 4 cups)

METHOD

Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper then sprinkle over the pork rub, rubbing it into the chops.  Set aside.

To make the dressing for the slaw, combine the olive oil, balsamic, capers shallot, rosemary, and lemon juice.  Season with the salt and pepper.  

To cook the chops, heat the canola oil in a large skillet over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes until the oil is almost smoking.  Carefully add the chops to the pan and cook for 3 minutes until they are a rich brown.  Flip the chops, turn off the heat and let sit in the pan for 3 more minutes.  The pork will feel firm to the touch, but they should still be moist and juicy.  

Leave the chops in the pan while you finish the slaw.

Pour the dressing over the shredded radicchio and using a pair of tongs, gently toss to coat and combine.  

To serve, place a pork chop on each plate and top with a generous mound of the slaw.

The slaw is really interesting and unique and has a great contrast of flavors.  The radicchio has a slightly bitter flavor which is balanced out by the sweet balsamic.  The rosemary gives the dressing aromatic, woodsy notes and the capers a briney tang.  The lemon lightens the dressing and adds freshness.

Cooking the pork chops over high heat does a couple things.  First it gives the chops a nice crust and then the short cooking time makes overcooking the meat impossible.  It's very easy to overcook pork so be careful.  I have to confess, the second time I made this, I ended up overcooking them, although the meat was still very juicy.  So just be careful.  Note that the weight of each chop is less important that making sure that they all have the same 3/4 inch thickness.

Serves 4