Tag Archives: NYT cooking

Green Goddess Chilled Soup

Most of the year I live a fairly hermit-like existence. Don’t feel badly for me, I like it that way. Sometimes it’s all about JOMO (the Joy Of Missing Out). But come summer, I try to cram in as much socializing as is possible. I am fortunate to be able to spend most of the summer on the lake, at our cottage. We have family and friends almost every weekend.

Although I love cooking, I don’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen, so I try to keep things simple. All my guests know that when they ask what they can bring, I ask them to be responsible for one meal. My friends and family are very skilled in the kitchen so it’s really nice to spend the afternoon on the hammock and be called to the deck for aperitivo and dinner.

I spend a day in the kitchen during the week doing meal prep, washing and chopping vegetables, making salad dressings and dips and baking some cookies or squares and stashing them in the freezer. That way, when the weekend rolls around I just have to thaw, assemble and grill.

Each summer I try to find a few new dishes that are big on flavour, look pretty and are able to be made in advance. Then I make them every weekend. The guests change and don’t realize it was served last weekend. This works until my husband and I are sick of eating it. That usually sets in by mid-August.

This chilled Green Goddess Soup is going on the summer rotation. I love it because everything is buzzed in the blender and it keeps in the fridge for 2 days. As the summer progresses you can garnish it with sweet corn niblets and diced vine ripened tomatoes. For now, some fresh herbs and cucumber ribbons look really fancy.

This soup was inspired by Melissa Clark’s Chilled Cucumber Soup over at NYT Cooking. I decided to play with the flavours of Green Goddess dressing and added an avocado to the mix for added richness. Cucumber is fairly bland, so it needs help from lots of herbs, a touch of garlic and a secret flavour bomb of an ingredient, anchovy paste. The soup will not taste fishy, but it adds a wonderful rich and deep flavour note.

I used basil, mint, Italian parsley and dill. For the liquid, I used Greek yogurt, thinned with a bit of water. A squeeze of lemon and a splash of sherry vinegar add a hit of acidic freshness.

Click here to print recipe for Green Goddess Chilled Soup.

Tuscan White Bean and Farro Soup

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We’re not really a big game-playing family. The one and only time I ever played a board game with my husband was early on in our relationship. We were on the same team for a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. The category was sports and leisure and it was a baseball question, the only sport I know anything about. I got so excited that I knew the answer, I shouted it out. Unfortunately, it was the other team’s question. My husband declared a moratorium on game playing with me after that.

But, on a visit to see us in December, my youngest son started a game of tag, and it’s still going on. Sadly, he was playing tag with a wicked cold. He caught it first, passed it on to my husband, and now I am “it”, sneezing and coughing my way through January. Normally, when I’m sick, I lose my appetite, so I sort of got excited about being sick at the beginning of January. I figured this would be the perfect way to lose my December cookie weight. But this cold left me feeling ravenous. I couldn’t seem to eat enough to make me feel satisfied. I was craving carbs.Soup seemed like the perfect remedy. Hot enough to soothe my sore throat and packed with lots of starchy things to make me feel full. This is my take on the classic Tuscan soup, Minestra di Faro Lucchese. (Farro soup in the style of Lucca). I used Mark Bittman’s New York Times recipe as my starting point and adapted slightly from there. I added a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste to the sauteed onions and celery, to really deepen the flavour of this soup. I also slipped in a big pinch of red pepper flakes. While spicy heat is not a typical addition to the classic recipe, my tastebuds were so dulled by my cold that I wanted the soup to really pack a punch of flavour. Plus, spicy food makes my nose run, so I figured that the soup would work to cleanse my sinuses. The final adaptation I made was the addition of a rind of Parmesan cheese to the simmering soup. I always save my rinds and keep them in the freezer in a zip-loc bag to add to soups and stews. This soup does not fall under the “fast food” category. You need to soak the beans the night before. You could use canned beans, but I think that the texture would not be the same. The original recipe called for adding the farro and beans at the same time. I found that the beans needed at least 90 minutes of simmering to get tender, so I added the farro during the last 30 minutes of cooking, so that it would still retain some chew, the way I like it. I also waited and added the carrots at the end of the cooking time, rather than at the beginning with the celery and onions, so that they would not be too mushy.

Serve with lots of chopped Italian parsley and fresh basil for a hit of verdant freshness. Don’t forget the Parmesan cheese.

Click here to print recipe for Tuscan White Bean and Farro Soup.

Oven Roasted Chicken Shawarma

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I live in Ottawa, while my mom, brother and four sisters all live in Toronto. I don’t get to see them nearly as much as I would like to. Admittedly, we have become a little lazy about communicating with each other. These days, it’s mostly emails and texts and very few phone calls.

Last week I got an email from my brother. The subject line read, “Mom passed!!” My heart stopped. Logically I knew that my brother would never tell me that mom died in an email. But in the heat of the moment, I got nervous, and for good reason. My family and I have a bit of a sketchy history when it comes to communicating about death.

When I was in University, I came home one weekend for a visit. I asked my sister where Heidi, our dog, was. Apparently, my parents had put her down a month ago, and no one remembered to tell me. I was also the very last one of my siblings to know that my dad died, although to be fair, the signs were there.

You will be relieved to know that mom did not die. The body of the text read: “Mom passed her drivers test today. 2 more yrs of driving at least. Wish her Mazel Tov!” My mom is 82 years old. In Ontario, after the age of 80, you must take a test every 2 years to ensure that you are still fit to drive. I fired off an email to my brother with the subject line, “Don’t send an email with the heading “Mom passed”. It could be misinterpreted.” Then I promptly called my mom to say congrats and I love you. For the record, all my sisters had momentary heart failure and my brother properly apologized.

The recipe for this chicken shawarma came to my attention via a text from my baby sister. She is always sending me links to different recipes she thinks I would like. She said she’d never read a recipe with so many positive reviews.

Recipes are like rumours. You must always consider the source. This recipe is from an impeccable source, Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times. If you don’t already subscribe to cooking.nytimes.com, get on it right away! It is one of the best food websites. Their Mobile App is fantastic. Not only can you save and categorize their database of over 18,000 recipes, you can also save non-NYT recipes to your recipe box. I finally have a way to save all the online recipes I am inspired by, in one place. Genius! Subscribing to their daily newsletter is free, but they charge $5 US per month for the App.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs are bathed in a highly flavourful marinade.Let the thighs marinate for up to 12 hours in the fridge. If you’re short on time, even an hour will still produce spectacular results. Add a quartered red onion to the sheet pan and bake the whole thing off for 30-40 minutes. If you have time, mix up some great sides to go with the shawarma. I made an Israeli salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro and dressed it simply with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I doctored up some store-bought hummus with a sprinkle of smoked paprika, toasted pine nuts and a drizzle of good olive oil. I thinned some tahini with lemon juice and hot water for a drizzling sauce. I also added some charred corn slaw that I had leftover from last night’s dinner. Sour dills and hot sauce are more than welcome to join this party. Stuff everything into a pita pocket or lay it flat and roll it up. Whichever way you choose to go, make sure you have plenty of napkins to catch all the drips. This is messy eating at its finest.

Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen