Wednesday, October 20, 2010

S my name is Soup on a Sunday

This is the last week of my Food Project CSA http://thefoodproject.org/. For 21 incredible weeks I've enjoyed fresh, local and varied vegetables. I'm trying mightily to revel in the joy the season brought rather than despair about what lies ahead -- the sameness of broccoli and string beans.

I'm remembering with fondness that it was 90 degrees in September. One luscious night when I went to pick up my vegetables I spied a yolk-colored moon lying heavy low in the sky. The sight made my heart ache a little. The night was of full of flying things and hopeful spiders -- I burst through many webs on my short walk. Crickets hummed the hairs on my arms to attention. The air smelled like earth and pungent, peppery basil.

More recently the nights have been chilly. Too cool to detect scents. Crawling and flying things are battening down the hatches. It's so silent. There's been an abundance of fat bottomed butternut squashes radiating in crates in the dark. I've resurrected a gravy spattered recipe from my cupboard for Curried Butternut Corn Chowder, Pam's favorite. I've made the soup three weekends in a row -- we eat three and I freeze one (in anticipation of the return to broccoli and string beans.

Last week the farmers gifted us with celeriac -- a strange alien root that I've come to love and associate with the dawn of autumn. Here's what my CSA newsletter editor, Celia, had to say about it:

It is believed that celeriac was introduced to Europe via Egypt and Alexandria. Now celeriac is a highly prized vegetable in France and other European countries where it is eaten both raw and cooked. Celeriac might look intimidating but once you try a warm bowl of celeriac puree you’ll see that beauty is clearly on the inside. While this ugly duckling of the vegetable world takes longer than average to grow, it is very hardy and will store for months making it a great winter root. Its beautiful crown of green stalks can be used as fresh celery. Once peeled celery root lends itself well to roasting, boiling, and marinating, as in coleslaw.

I found this lovely recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetable Soups cook book. The mise en place is the best part (after eating it, of course). There's nothing more grounding on a Sunday afternoon then meditatively chopping, dicing, slicing and mincing with a couple of good knives in hand and the Carolina Chocolate Drops on the iPod. "Snowden's Jig" is my new favorite. Take a listen, gentle reader: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFFIOVCfvBs, then try this at home:

White Bean and Black Kale Minestra

2 cups of white beans, soaked overnight

aromatics: 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed, a few sage leaves, a bay leaf, 4 branches of parsely

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup buckwheat, covered with cold water for at least one hour

2 - 4 tbs fruity olive oil

2 cups finely diced onion

4 mdm carrots

1 large head of celeriac

3/4 tsp oregano

3/4 tsp thyme

2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

1 tbs tomato paste

splash of red wine (and a glass to sip while you're chopping. only cook with wine you would drink!)

4 cups shredded kale

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

one 15-ounce diced tomatoes with their liquid

drain and rinse beans and put them in a pot with 10 cups of water and the aromatics. bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered for an hour. add 1 1/2 tsp slat and continue cooking until beans are tender (at least 30 minutes maybe more). pick out aromatics. drain the beans and reserve the liquid. listen to summer's prayers then say good night.

heat oil in a wide soup pot. add onion, carrot, celeriac, herbs, and garlic. cook over medium heat, giving the contents a stir every so often until softened. aromatic and golden about 15 minutes. stir in tomato paste and continue cooking for 5 minutes or until there's a glaze on the bottom of the pan then add a splash of wine. sip some too while reading a poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177231

add the kale, the buckwheat, 1 tsp salt and 1 cup water. after a few minutes, when the kale has wilted, add the tomatoes and the beans and their liquid. bring to a boil then reduce to low, cover pot and simmer slowly until the buckwheat is plump and tender, about 25 minutes. dance with a loved one.

taste for salt and serve with freshly ground pepper, a spoonful of good olive oil and a grating of pecorino romano and a shower of gigantor homemade croutons, if you wish. chow-dee-dow-dow-down, gentle reader.

WTF?
Celeriac - so ugly it's cute
Celeriac tamed
White Bean and Black Kale Minestra
Me celebrating with summer's harvest, an almost 1,700 lb pumpkin at the topsfield fair