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Monday
Jul192010
Soup night
July 19, 2010
To be perfectly honest, on any given day I go through about a hundred different emotions. I'm like some five-year-old girl with outfits. Now the pink dress! Now the leggings with the tinselly t-shirt! Now the overalls!
Except for me it's Melancholy! Melancholy with a slice of nostalgia! Anger! Self-pity! Overwhelming joy!
It's exhausting. And, in exhaustion, it's wise to turn to Matzo Ball Farmer's Market soup. I once blogged about clean out your fridge soup. Tonight I'm going to tell you what was on our table this evening.
I'm not going to lie. The Farmer's Market can be expensive for us. But to sum up what I feel about food these days, I'm going to quote Alice Waters in the introduction to her book, The Art of Simple Food. (I've just started reading it and I love it.)
We have a lot of poorly produced food available to us at very low prices. And that is a tempting thing. But one small thing I've learned while in India is that self-denial can be a huge key to appreciation. So if we eat less meat and ice cream and more beans and so are able to afford locally grown vegetables, that little bit of self-denial allows us to support small farmers. And take care of our waistlines, which will thank us for less meat and ice cream. And we then appreciate meat day when it comes around, that much more.
Anyhow. One lesson I've learned about Farmer's Market is that there are a wide variety of costs presented. There are exquisite chocolates and divine honey. Those are treats... oh my word, the honey is good. But if you're going on a budget, well 80 cents a bunch for kale is not a bad price at all. Kale, summer squash, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes... you can find really good prices from excellent farms.
Tonight I made Matzo ball soup with leftover chicken bones and an armful of farmer's market summer vegetables. It was divine. I didn't measure anything or take photos of the process, but here is the general idea:
I started off by simmering the chicken bones in water for a long time. A few hours, and then straining the bones out of the broth.
My players for simple food (food that is perhaps influenced by European cooking but doesn't necessarily ascribe to any particular country) are:
Onions
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs
No surprises there. What makes soup fantastic, in my mind, is sautéing everything first. Onions, garlic, vegetables, spices. Tonight I started with the onions and sautéed them until they were soft, added the garlic and cooked it for a minute or so more. I then added the following vegetables, one by one, stirring and cooking in between:
3 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 yellow zucchini
1 large fresh tomato
1 stalk of broccoli
and added salt and pepper. When the vegetables were firm but cooked, I added them to the broth and undertook the task of getting the tiny bits of chicken that were still left off of the bones and into the pot. This is really annoying. I hate that part.
I opened the pack of Matzo ball mix and thanked God once again for his People and the gift of Matzo balls. Putting together the mix was super easy, just eggs and oil and the mix, left to stand for fifteen minutes. While it was standing, I chopped a bunch of kale and added it to the soup, as well as making a chiffonade of a few basil leaves (the herb of the day) from my plant. I turned the soup up and let it really boil for dropping the matzo balls in.
Done! Beautiful, delicious, affordable, delicious, and delicious! But these players can be used with any vegetables you find to make a really good soup. Maybe you use green zucchini, maybe you throw purple cabbage in, maybe you use fresh thyme instead of basil.
I can't wait to make it again.
P.S. Here's a post that I wrote at around this time last year.
Except for me it's Melancholy! Melancholy with a slice of nostalgia! Anger! Self-pity! Overwhelming joy!
It's exhausting. And, in exhaustion, it's wise to turn to Matzo Ball Farmer's Market soup. I once blogged about clean out your fridge soup. Tonight I'm going to tell you what was on our table this evening.
I'm not going to lie. The Farmer's Market can be expensive for us. But to sum up what I feel about food these days, I'm going to quote Alice Waters in the introduction to her book, The Art of Simple Food. (I've just started reading it and I love it.)
"Good food can only come from good ingredients. Its proper price includes the cost of preserving the environment and paying fairly for the labor of the people who produce it. Food should never be taken for granted."
We have a lot of poorly produced food available to us at very low prices. And that is a tempting thing. But one small thing I've learned while in India is that self-denial can be a huge key to appreciation. So if we eat less meat and ice cream and more beans and so are able to afford locally grown vegetables, that little bit of self-denial allows us to support small farmers. And take care of our waistlines, which will thank us for less meat and ice cream. And we then appreciate meat day when it comes around, that much more.
Anyhow. One lesson I've learned about Farmer's Market is that there are a wide variety of costs presented. There are exquisite chocolates and divine honey. Those are treats... oh my word, the honey is good. But if you're going on a budget, well 80 cents a bunch for kale is not a bad price at all. Kale, summer squash, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes... you can find really good prices from excellent farms.
Tonight I made Matzo ball soup with leftover chicken bones and an armful of farmer's market summer vegetables. It was divine. I didn't measure anything or take photos of the process, but here is the general idea:
I started off by simmering the chicken bones in water for a long time. A few hours, and then straining the bones out of the broth.
My players for simple food (food that is perhaps influenced by European cooking but doesn't necessarily ascribe to any particular country) are:
Onions
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs
No surprises there. What makes soup fantastic, in my mind, is sautéing everything first. Onions, garlic, vegetables, spices. Tonight I started with the onions and sautéed them until they were soft, added the garlic and cooked it for a minute or so more. I then added the following vegetables, one by one, stirring and cooking in between:
3 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 yellow zucchini
1 large fresh tomato
1 stalk of broccoli
and added salt and pepper. When the vegetables were firm but cooked, I added them to the broth and undertook the task of getting the tiny bits of chicken that were still left off of the bones and into the pot. This is really annoying. I hate that part.
I opened the pack of Matzo ball mix and thanked God once again for his People and the gift of Matzo balls. Putting together the mix was super easy, just eggs and oil and the mix, left to stand for fifteen minutes. While it was standing, I chopped a bunch of kale and added it to the soup, as well as making a chiffonade of a few basil leaves (the herb of the day) from my plant. I turned the soup up and let it really boil for dropping the matzo balls in.
Done! Beautiful, delicious, affordable, delicious, and delicious! But these players can be used with any vegetables you find to make a really good soup. Maybe you use green zucchini, maybe you throw purple cabbage in, maybe you use fresh thyme instead of basil.
I can't wait to make it again.
P.S. Here's a post that I wrote at around this time last year.
in Food
Food 
Reader Comments (18)
And I am hungry! BTW: what is the going rate for Farmer's Market potatoes. I am taking mine to market this week.
You are right Ms. Rae, about the meat and Ice Cream thing. I don't eat meat (fish sometimes) but I do Love Ice Cream! I would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snack!
That looks so delicious! I truly wish I had a bowl for breakfast this morning. I have been inspired - off to the market today. Thanks, Rae.
Although I cannot fathom the idea of soup right now (it's so hot adn humid ...) I must admit it looks AND sounds delish.
hi Rachel,
I have been reading and lurking for quite a while. I also have four children of similar ages to yours (three boys ages 7, 5 and almost 4, and a girl, a year and a half). So finally I am coming out of hiding to ask a question that has been fluttering around the edges of my mind whenever I read your food posts: How do you cook all these amazing meals with 4 young children around? I love to cook, and used to do a fair amount before I had children, but I find it hard to do anything that involves more than 3 ingredients while also taking care of the kids.
But you did inspire me to go out and buy some matzo ball soup mix and throw in some carrots and onions - I can do that!
Beth, All I can think of is that I cook with a lot of interruptions. It's not always (or often) the blissful and peaceful experience that I would love. I think about what I'm going to make way ahead of time and try to put as much prep in as possible. I try to stagger meals so that I make something time consuming one night and simple the next night. And I'm a really fast chopper. :)
But the reality is that I have to stop often, to settle a dispute, to calm down a toddler... it takes a while.
It's funny, people have mentioned the fact that soup is a cold weather food, and I think it just didn't occur to me! It's not terribly hot here right now, but also I think it comes from living in India where all dishes are hot (and spicy) no matter how hot the weather is. I'm used to cooking at mosquito hour, when all our windows are closed, sweat pouring down my face. So that fact that I'm not completely soaked with sweat while cooking here is a bonus!
The soup looks soooo good....I make soup in the summer even when it is steamy outside. Nothing fills your belly and soothes your soul like soup.
.80 cents for a bunch of Kale! That is a bargain! Do you know that Dark leafy greens is the most nutritious of all foods and kale is the most nutritious of all the dark leafy greens? I put kale in almost everything: soup, stir fries, purees, raw kale salad with garlicky lemon nutritional yeast dressing.
Please please please pick up Jonathan Safran Foer's newest book "Eating Animals"--it's amazing! If you don't I'm going to hand deliver it to you in India in october. :)
Oh mmmm. that sounds and looks so good. And I also ascribe to the "good ingredients" school of cooking.
Soup can be a cold weather or a warm weather food. There are some soups you really can only make in the summer because the right ingredients just aren't available at any other time--such as fresh tomato soup or summer vegetable soup with fresh veggies.
Rose, yes! I didn't think of that. How can you have that lovely fresh summer squash and kale in soup if you don't eat soup in the summer?
Sounds good! I'll have to check for the Matzo ball mix somewhere. Where did you buy it - a the Farmers market?
I'm giggling at the matzo ball line, and at the idea that your readers all over the world are now rushing to find the mix. Of course, the number rule for using the matzo ball mix is to hide the box and tell everyone you made them from scratch. That's MY matzo ball line anyway ;-)
Number ONE rule...oops
Thanks for your take on healthy food and supporting local farms! :)
This is a question regarding your blog of July 15...could you please tell me where you purchased the small sleeping tent. Perfect for the grandbaby...can be used while she is here and then put away taking up no space at all. Thank you!!
Adding matzo balls is GENIUS! Our 'pantry is bare' soup is just carrots, red lentils and onions in stock. If you slow cook the onions for long enough it tastes wonderful and you'd never guess that it cost so little to prepare. I'll definitely have to add matzo balls next time I make it. That will probably be soon as I have a few head of brocolli, some haloumi, tomatoes and lettuce in the fridge at the moment. I'll have to wave my wand to bring all that together tonight :-)