Bob's Sunday go to Meetin' Potato Soup
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forget about fat content, pretend they don't exist. :-)

• 1 large sweet onion
• 1/2 stick of butter (Not margarine, but butter.)
• Louisiana Tobasco Sauce
• 1/4 tsp Salt.
• 2 tbls of sugar
• 1 1/2 pint of whipping cream. (You can use half and half)
• 12 medium potatoes peeled and diced.
• 1 grated carrot
• parsley flakes

After washing, peeling, and dicing your potatoes, start them cooking in another pot. Slice the onion, just like you would slice for onion rings, and separate. In a large pot, add the onions, 1/2 stick of butter, and sugar. Carmalize the onions, 1/2 stick of butter, and sugar. (To carmalize simply means let them turn brown, the onions should be cooked until very tender) Add carrot and parsley. When the onions are tender remove from heat. When the potatoes are done, drain, and pour into the onions. Stir in the cream. Add 1-2 tsps of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Let simmer for about 10 minutes for extra thickness. Depending on your taste, you can add water to the soup if you don't care for a thick potato soup.

On this soup, I play with it simply due to the number I prepare it for... it may be 2 or 30. I never know. The secret is to carmalize the onions, with butter and sugar. To lower your fat content you may want to use margarine, and you may want to use half and half and water. Cream or half & half is a must with this soup. If you reduce the cream content, be sure to reduce the Louisiana Hot Sauce. Cream has a tendency to neutralize hot sauce. If you like the spicy taste in potato soup, you may want to add more hot sauce.

With the carrots and parsley, this makes a "pretty" soup. Served with your favorite crackers or bread, it is a meal within itself. The colder the weather outside, the better the soup!

This is from the top of my head, and the first time I have ever written a recipe for this soup. I learned the carmalizing the onions from a French chef, for his French Onion Soup. I just added the technique to potato soup, along with the cream and hot sauce.

BOB

August 24, 1996

Dear Spoonerati:

You didn't ask for this. But my family does!

Feyna is crazy over sweet and sour beet borscht. So is her mother. So is her Grandmother and her great Grandmother before her. Borscht is something that means different things depending upon your ancestry or current location. In Russia, "Borscht", I think, though I'm not sure, and I don't have the proper dictionary, means: soup.

But this is a particularly Jewish/Russian rendition. My people came from around Vilna in Lithuania which belonged to a different country every morning. Those borders were always being rewritten. We were in Russia. We were in Lithuania. We were in Poland. We were in Russia. We were....... but it didn't make much of a difference to us because for the Jews in the Shtetl, it was just trading one anti-semitic tyrant for another.

We were poor. And the "cuisine", if you MUST call it that, was reflective of an impoverished people. We used every scrap of everything, including the tiny crumbs left over from a loaf of bread. All those crumbs were collected and recycled back into a dough and made into another loaf of bread, and the crumbs left over from that loaf of bread were saved and soaked and folded into another dough and made into yet another loaf of bread. Eventually, what emerged was what I kvell and faint just thinking about, but can never find in any store any more. . . . Russian BLACK BREAD. Not Russian Rye. Not Russian Pumpernickel, Not anything else but Russian Black Bread. This was thick and tasty and peasanty and substantive. This was like a dense cake full of flavours. Sometimes this was all we had. Sometimes that was lucky.

So, naturally, what was valued most was the symbol of wealth and status: white bread.

It is Russian Black Bread that would go best with Sweet and Sour Beet Borscht. But heck, with Sweet and Sour Beet Borscht, ANYTHING would go well. Do not, however, insult it with saltines, chowder fish, wonderbread or Pez.

SWEET AND SOUR BEET BORSCHT

Ingredients:

• 9 - 12 medium to large red beets
• Big Cauldron of boiling water, enough to cover all the beets
• about 5 medium yellow onions (hard like a rock)
  (Ratio of Beets to Onions, about 3 to 2 to 3 to 1)
• white vinegar ample amounts
• sugar, ample amounts
• salt
• pepper
• water &/or ice
  
• Sour Cream.

This is a recipe where ratio matters more than measurements. What I've listed above is the necessary ingredients to prepare a VAT of Borscht. Not everyone cooks by the VAT. However, if you want to be authentic about Borscht, you will need to assume the basic tenet of Jewish cooking, which is:

It is always better to cook three times as much as you need than just two times as much as you need.

Here's how you do this.

Chop off the greens and the skinny straggly tail on each beet. Now dump all of them into the cauldron of boiling water. When the water comes back up to the boil, you may turn down the heat some, making sure it is still simmering actively, and cover the pot.

Let it simmer (or boil at full throttle) for 20 -- 25 minutes, or until the skins of the beets are easily rubbed off with your thumbs. It's sort of fun and contemplative, standing there with the cold water running, holding a beet under the flow and removing the skin with your magic thumbs, watching that sumptuous colour swirl down the drain.

If the skin does not just peel off as you push your thumb along the surface of the beets, then they need more time cooking. If you overcook them, the flavour will suffer some fading, and the texture will be mushy rather than "al dente".

Here's a good question:

Do you have a cuisinart?

If you do, this becomes a bit easier, but if you don't, well, we didn't have them in the old country either. Nearly everything can be done with your bare hands and the right appliance.

What you want to do is to slice the onions thin, into arcs. Best way (Gosh I sure would love to be able to reach right up onto this dumb screne and DRAW a PICTURE for you!) is to cut off the ends of the onion, then peel it (easiest: slice a vertical shallow gash (one onion layer deep) from the top to the bottom of the onion and then separate the layers there, to peel it. Then continue on that thought and slice through the onion, halving it across the grain (you should be able to tell how old the onion is now, by counting the rings!) At this point, you either force the onion halves through the cuisinart with the 2mm blade, or you perform the task by hand with a good vegetable cleaver. All the arcs of onion get thrown into a large vat (the cooking vat)

The beets, on the other hand, need to be julienned. There is a terrific cuisinart blade, the 6X6 which will do that "french fries", or "shoe string" cut to the beets. But a very coarse grater will serve, or your own excellent carving into 1/4" square strips.

Put the beet strips (or grated beets) and onions into the vat together.

NOW THE FUN BEGINS!!!!!

Grind some fresh coarse pepper on top, enough to guarantee that it will be tasted but will not blow you out of your chair. We are looking to give it that characteristic peppery "snap". Now pour enough water in so that it can just reach the top of the mountain of ingredients. Remember that we want this soup to be dense, rich with beets , so too much water and it becomes a cheap little pink puddle without an ounce of hospitality.

Turn on the flame to high and bring it up to a boil. Then turn the heat down a bit and let it simmer. We shall keep cooking it until the onions are the same colour as the beets: a deeply gorgeous magenta. But while we are simmering, we have more work to do:

Now we throw in the sugar and the vinegar.

There are two ways to achieve the proper flavor of the Borscht, and that is, in the end, subjective, of course. (Any of you who think I've just rhymed are WRONG and need to curry your tongues for the pronunciation of the "scht", which mixes the SH, with the CH and throws a T on the end).

You can do this by adjusting for the Palette

or by adjusting for the Palate

What we want to create is a strong sweet and sour taste, and when it is the right balance, the colour of the soup will be a dense and luscious magenta.

Too much vinegar will make the soup redder. You may counteract this by adding more sugar.

Roughly speaking, start with about a cup of sugar and about a cup of white vinegar, and this is very very rough, because I have never measured it and prefer to sip it while adding first some sugar and then some vinegar, then a little more vinegar, then a bunch of sugar, then a little more sugar and ....... magenta! It will seem that you are putting an awful lot of sugar and an awful lot of vinegar in the borscht. There will, in fact, be enough sugar in it to very slightly thicken the liquid, and enough vinegar to satisfy Franz Lizst (he died, so legend goes, because of vanity---drank too much vinegar to make his skin nice and white and his face ghostly and pale. It was all the rage!)

Borscht is definitely a matter of individual tastes. Some like the soup mildly sweet and mildly sour, very watery, with little or no pepper. Some like it very sour and very sweet, a strong potent mix with more than a pinch of pepper to give it kick.

I tend to like it STRONG, and fairly evenly sweet and sour. My hubband prefers it on the sweeter side. You are going to have to "sugar and vinegar" to taste, which means acquiring a taste for it. All I can say is that if you make it very strong, even too strong for some of the tamer folks, they can always add water to dilute the intensity.

Another decision:

Borscht is good hot.

Borscht is good cold.

Terrific for dinner on a hot day. Cold Beet Borscht and salad.

If you want to make it cold very fast I have a shortcut. Don't add much water and when the onions are the same colour as the beets, turn off the heat, and dump a LOT of ice cubes into the vat. Stir it until the ice melts and the soup is cold (or colder, anyway.)

Add salt to taste.

Serve Borscht ALWAYS with a generous volcanic island of thick sour cream floating in the middle. Stir it in, or erode it with each mouthful.

When the cossacks were running through the shtetl killing us, and we determined to escape to the golden land of opportunity (g.l.o. = u.s.a.), we left in a hurry with only the clothes on our backs and whatever we could carry in our hands. If we dropped a shoe, we kept running.

But this recipe, we smuggled out with us.

By the way, one of the things I saved from the fire was a video that one of Alex's friends made. It was an impromptu interview of the Shapiro-Nygren house chef (caught unaware). He marched up to me in the kitchen and asked:

"Could you show our audience how to make Borscht?"

I answered, "Certainly."

What ensued was about a minute and a half of the most hilarious mishigas in the anals of cooking documentaries.

If there is ever a Spoon soiree, retreat, advance, whatever, I'll bring it along.

I have more recipes, but do you have more space?

I shall bless you with ommissions.

Yours, caught magenta handed,

Tobieskinoff

Tobie Helene Shapiro
Berkeley, California USA
tobie@quake.net

Fellow cutlery:

It strikes me that it's about time I fixed dinner for everyone. All the wonderful messages I got yesterday and today about how to talk to my friend whose Dad comitted suicide reminded me just what a nice place this is. Full of nice people, too. So, despite the fact that I got a message saying I'd been unsubscribed, I'm getting up, putting on my apron, and heading for the kitchen...

Pull up a chair. Or a piece of floor. Grab a spoon, dig in to that steaming bowl of Kate's Unusual Vegetable Soup...

• one medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium carrots,
• 2 medium corgettes (zucchini),
• one large cooking apple (peeled),
• 1/4 lemon (with peel)
• chicken or vegetable stock, enough to cover vegetables, about 1 1/2 pts
• Kate's Not-Very-Secret Thai Style Sauce

heat some olive oil in a heavy saucepan, cook the onion until brown and tender. Chop the carrots, corgettes, apple and lemon and add to the onions. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often so they don't burn. Add the stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for about 45 minutes- 1 hour until everything is really mushy. Stir in 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of Thai Sauce (or to taste). Puree until smooth. Return to heat and simmer for a few more minutes to make sure it's hot throughout. Serve. You can sprinkle it with fresh coriander if you have any. But you don't have to.

notes:

1. I know that apples and lemons aren't vegetables, but calling it Unusual Mostly-Vegetable-With-Some-Fruit Soup sounded silly and was too hard to type.
2. Use a cooking apple. Or a granny smith. Or any other tart apple. If the apple isn't ultra-tart, I'd use the peel, too.
3. I have this Thai type sauce that I make in large amounts and keep in the fridge. If you don't, you can add the ingredients individually, but the sauce is a great all purpose sauce, and I'd recommend using it for other things, too. It goes like this:

   blend together: (this makes about 1 1/4 cups)

   • 2 tbsp peanut butter
   • 1 tbsp tahini
   • 1/3 cup oil (I like mostly peanut with a bit of sesame)
   • 1/3 cup vinegar (red wine is best)
   • 1/3 cup soy sauce
   • 1 tsp chopped chilis (I use the kind in a jar)
   • 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
   • 1-2 tsp fresh chopped ginger
   • 1 tsp each dried coriander, cumin

   I think that every time I make the Sauce, the proportions of spices are slightly different. As with all the best recipes, it doesn't matter!

4. This recipe makes about 4 servings as a starter or two as a main. We (the two of us) had it with 2 small baked potatoes each and were full after, but then we're pigs when it comes to food...

When you've finished your soup (and don't forget to wipe up the very last bits with a slice of my Rhode Island Cornmeal Bread), I'll bring out some Overstuffed Corgettes...

happy eating

kate

I raise my befuddled head to see my fedora lying on the floor. In the hullabaloo of voices and food preparations it musta been jostled.

Aw... what the hay....

If there's going to be a Thankgiving Fete around here, I'll slip in the kitchen and make my favorite soup. I've heard some references to Germany now and then. This is an old German recipe. It's good. Give it a try if you're of age. What? Well my my!!

If it isn't Jim Sim!

I do indeed need to wake my sorry brain up and get up from this table and stretch my legs. The J&J sounds like a wonderful place. I've visited with each J separately. I imagine together those ladies make a powerful force of goodness. And I'll tell ya a secret. Shhh... They hang out here at the Spoon when they're not at the J&J. I've been asleep, but I can hear.

You know, C'mon with me and mine. Let's slip out the door to Tillman's Corner.

Ofcourse that's where we ate in Oak Cliff. On Saturday night.

I first met Jim in Durango. I've since seen him a couple of times last spring. We shared a few beers between performances. Jim's very quiet. He's also a big man with a big heart. When he arrived at the house, Kelsi was working on a puzzle. Earlier when I explained who was coming she asked, "Is Jenni coming too?"

That's my daughter's fondest memory of Durango. Any mention of the shared fire evokes images in her mind of a bigger girl to look up to, and now a regret at killing a rainbow trout. "Daddy, it was fun catching that fish... I just wish they hadn't killed it."

I certainly noted the conspiracy theory in operation. I reminded her that putting a hook in the water with something tasty for fish attached was the reason for the fish dying. The fact that some KOA guy did the actual killing was secondary. She digested that news with a slight frown. And I stepped out for a smoke. It was a warm Saturday evening. Arctic air was poised above, but it was still the Gulf of Mexico's ball game. Jim arrived, and I watched as he got out of his rented car.

"Hey there Jim! How ya doin'?" I said.

"Pretty good," he replied.

Kelsi worked on her puzzle. Heather sat on the couch. We soon motored over to Tillman's Corner.

I was tired. Friday night poker for the first time in ages had ended with a few rounds of "takillya". I should know better. The food at Tillman's was good. The decor absolutely the best. My favorite new item was the faucet suspended in mid air pouring margarita's. Jim couldn't figure it out either. We strolled around the quiet new Bishop's Art District. Jim bought some garlic concoction in a bottle. It looked good.

We toured a few of the regions that make Oak Cliff a cliff. Jim said, "I don't know where I would say I was. But, I wouldn't say Dallas."

We closed out the evening early. He had a plane the next day, and we had a child to get to bed. Kelsi was upset when we passed a carnival at the Fiesta store on Jefferson Street. But something told me not to stop. (We had previously ofcourse driven by the new Texas Theater now an unidentified but known sight as the capture of Lee Harvey Oswald.)

So we bade adieu to Jim as lightning and thunder rumbled. The next day arose icy cold. I opened my door and stared at old man winter's ugly but interesting face.

Here's my offering for the Thanksgiving Spoon Gala event:

Hot Beer Soup

The following serves four. Double or triple at your own risk.

• 3 bottles of light beer.
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pour beer and sugar into a heavy 4 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat once boiling and sugar dissolve has taken place. Now, in a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk or fork. Beat in the sour cream slowly. Stir about a 1/4 cup of the hot beer into this mixture. Pour from small bowl into saucepan whisking all together. Add cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste. Return the pan to a low heat and cook stirring constantly until the soup thickens slightly. Do Not let it boil again or it may curdle. Once the soup has thickened slightly, it's ready to serve. Eat immediately.

Guten Appetit. After all as the monks of Munich once said,

"Bier ist Brot. Und Brot ist Bier."

Rejnald

And ofcourse,

Though Rejnald is the correct pronunciation,
My name is:
Reginald Terry Hinely jr.
And I answer to Terry.