The Bitten Word

Cover to Cover 2013: Soups!

If you'll allow us to quote a certain dog-show mockumentary, "We both love soup. And we love ... talking, and not talking.... We could not talk or talk forever, and still find things to not talk about."

This seems like one of those times when it's best for us to not talk.

Instead, let's hear what today's group of Cover to Cover cooks thought about their soup dishes. We've got a Creamy White Onion Soup and two Asian soup dishes: a Thai chicken coconut soup and a Shoyu Ramen. We thought the ramen would be a particularly challenging dish in terms of  ingredient sourcing and prep. But Team Ramen totally rose to the challenge!

We do want to note one comment from one of today's reader-chefs that really made us chuckle, mostly because it sounds exactly like something we would do ourselves. Judi, one of the cooks who tried the White Onion Soup, wrote that the dish had "elegant flavors mixed perfectly to create a sophisticated, rich taste sensation. ... And we immediately went to the restaurant's website to see what they charged for this dish."

Atta girl, Judi.

 

SOUPS:

Creamy White Onion Soup

Shoyu Ramen

Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Soup)

 

Chilled Fennel and Cucumber Soup

Fine Cooking (June/July 2013)

Chilled soups are a rite of summer. Or at least a rite of summer issues of food magazines. They show up every June, just as predictable as daylilies.  

We're fans. We love the idea of a cold soup as a refreshing way to start a summer meal.

The problem is flavor. Served piping hot, soups are a swirl of heady flavors -- aromas of vegetables, meat and spices rising seductively from the bowl. But cold soups have a, well, chilling effect on flavor. It's just harder to pack flavor into a cold bowl of soup.

Could this Chilled Fennel and Cucumber Soup from Fine Cooking pass the flavor test?

Piquant Radish Soup with Crème Fraîche

Vegetarian Times (May 2013)

"Radish soup sounds like something Miss Hannigan would serve Little Orphan Annie."

These words were uttered in our kitchen halfway through making this Piquant Radish Soup with Crème Fraîche. 

It's true, right? Doesn't it sound a bit sad? Like something your grandparents had to eat during the depression? (Though we expect our grannies would have ditched the crème fraîche for a big ol' dollop of full fat sour cream.) 

Still, we were eager to try the recipe. After reading our first issue of Vegetarian Times, the first recipe we tried -- Miso-Glazed Cauliflower and Kale Salad -- was a huge success in our book. For the next recipe, we went for something a bit more unique. 

And radish soup sounded like just the kind of unique we wanted. Radishes are plentiful right now in our area, with nearly every vendor at the farmers market offering some variety of radishes. And though we've roasted radishes and used them all varieties of salads, we have not yet tried them in liquid form. 

So we purchased a few bunches of radishes, broke out the food processor and got to work. 

Moroccan Vegetable Soup

Martha Stewart Living (January 2013)

We're just back from California, where we ate everything in sight in San Francisco. More on that trip within the week, but in the meantime, it's time for us to get back to a bit of sane eating. 

Sanity, in this case, begins with a Moroccan Vegetable Soup. 

It's quick and surprisingly flavorful, just the sort of thing for a cold winter day.  

Chilled Sweet Corn Soup

A Bitten Word Recipe 

Sunday was Clay's birthday, and when we went to the Farmers Market that morning, there was a special treat: Fresh sweet corn made its first appearance of the year. Because really, who doesn't want corn for their birthday? 

We were excited to see the corn, not only because we love to eat it, but also because we'd been waiting to share this recipe with you. Months ago, we developed this recipe for Chilled Sweet Corn Soup for Spenser Magazine, an online food publication that had reached out to us. In the most recent issue, they ran a Q&A with us that was accompanied by this recipe. 

We're also very excited to share with you what's coming up in Spenser, which is a feature story we wrote about a rather adventurous weekend we had a little more than a month ago. That's all we'll say for now, but we'll leave you with this corn soup.

We rarely tire of just eating corn straight off the cob, but when we do, we make a simple corn soup just like this one that not only helps beat the summer heat, but also showcases the flavor of the corn itself. 

Summer corn is a fleeting pleasure -- enjoy it while you can!

Chicken-Matzo Ball Soup

Cooking Light (March 2012) 

This probably won't be a shock to you, coming from two boys reared in the South. But until this week, we've never had matzo ball soup. 

We've seen it on menus countless times, in delis and restaurants in D.C. and New York. But for us it's been one of those dishes relegated to pop culture (Carrie Bradshaw ducking into a deli to order a bowl, after getting caught in a downpour) and appearances in food writing that we like (in one of our all-time favorite Frank Bruni reviews in the New York Times, he went to eat matzo ball soup at the Second Avenue Deli with Nora Ephron, Ed Koch, and Laura Shapiro). 

And Chicken-Matzo Ball Soup is a staple of food magazines this time of year. In March, Cooking Light features this recipe, while in April Bon Appétit touts a take on the dish using matzo gnocchi. And in breaking matzo news, today's New York Times has a big Passover seder feature that includes matzo ball soup.

We've seen recipes like these for years, but we'd always passed them up. It's high time that we get our matzo on, don't you agree?

Curried Red-Lentil Soup with Dried Cherries and Cilantro

Martha Stewart Living (March 2012)

We've had a crush on red lentils for a few months.

It all started innocently enough. On kind of whim, we bought a variety of lentils from the bulk section of the organic market up the street from our house. (Yes, purchasing bulk lentils at an organic market qualifies as a "whim" Chez Bitten.)

While we enjoyed all the lentil we sampled, it was the red lentils that had us hooked. We can't tell you how many times this winter we ate cooked red lentils with some fresh basil (well, fresh-frozen basil) stirred in. It's a plain but very satisfying lunch -- and a very healthy one. 

But that's where our lentil project plateaued. We had grand plans to make other lentil dishes, but we got stuck in Red-Lentils-with-Basil Land, and we never left. 

So we were very happy to see this Curried Red-Lentil Soup with Dried Cherries and Cilantro from Martha Stewart Living.

Chicken and Walnut Stew (Khoresht-e Fesenjan)

Saveur (March 2012)

We tweeted about this when it arrived in our mailbox, but we are really loving the March issue of Saveur. It's extremely enjoyable cover-to-cover, from a decadent feature on Southern layer cakes (including a touching coming-out story by the author, Ben Mims), to a delectable tour of Venetian bar bites (called cicheti), to a very cool story on the food of Transylvania (insert blood joke here).

Oh, and on p. 18, there's a screenshot of our very own The Bitten Word, encouraging readers to nominate blogs for Saveur's annual Best Food Blog Awards, one of which we won last year.

But it was the issue's feature on the food of Iran, titled "The Land of Bread and Spice," that drew our eye. It includes a host of wonderful, exotic dishes -- a noodle soup, herb meatballs in a tomato-plum sauce, a dish of lima beans with eggs and dill.

More than anything, though, we wanted to make this Chicken and Walnut Stew. With its mix of walnuts and pomegranate molasses, and the promise of "sweet, sour and bitter notes," it sounded unlike anything we'd ever tried before.

Quick New England Fish Chowder

Cook's Illustrated (January/February 2012)

New England fish chowder. Just the mention of it evokes blustery winter evenings, salty sea air, crackling fireplaces and nubby wool sweaters.

And while it's barely dipped below 45 degrees here all winter, we thought the idea of a big steaming bowl of fish chowder sounded extremely comforting and tasty for the beginning of February.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens

Martha Stewart Living (January 2012)

We're on a bit of a cauliflower kick right now.

Last week we made that yummy Radicchio and Cauliflower Salad with Toasted Breadcrumbs, and now here we are with this cauliflower soup.

Cauliflower abounds in the January issues of food magazines. In fact, two magazines -- Everyday Food and Bon Appétit -- are currently featuring recipes for cauliflower steaks. (Do two make a trend?) 

There are plenty of reasons why the food mags turn to cauliflower in January. It's seasonal, affordable, healthful and hearty. And, oh yeah, it's extremely versatile and it tastes great.

Nothing showcases all those accolades more than this Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens.