Tomato, Potato, Carrot Soup - for winter

I have loved this thick-without-dairy tomato soup since 1972 when a colleague introduced it to me as the sophisticated Tomato Soup Parmentier from The Gourmet Cookbook, Volume 1 (Gourmet Distributing Corporation, NY, 1965, p. 123). My Useful Kitchen Tool Collection began when when I bought a food mill to make it correctly.

Busy people need recipes that are based on pantry items, and with potatoes and carrots on hand, you are ready to go. The technique is simple: saute some aromatics and vegetables for the caramelization that deepens flavor, add liquid, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer until you (and the soup) are ready.

Like so many of my favorite recipes, after the three main ingredients, the ingredient list is infinitely flexible. Mushrooms? Chili? Fresh or canned tomato? Your choice. If you loathe thick and smooth soups, serve this as broth-with-vegetables. Although tarragon has a particular affinity for the three main ingredients, You Are The Boss of Your Pantry, and you may omit it. This is, by the way, virtually fat-free.

Although I have owned the cookbook since the early 1970s and the recipe is imprinted on my brain, I had forgotten its name. In the lexicon of my friends and family, it is "Tomato, Potato, Carrot Soup."

Tomato, Potato, Carrot Soup, adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, Volume 1.

2 T butter or oil (to be dairy-free)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
4 oz button (or other) mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 to 1 t crushed red peppers (or to taste)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1# baking potatoes, coarsely chopped (I like Yukon Gold)
1# carrots, coarsely chopped
1/2 t salt
1 t fresh ground pepper
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 t dried tarragon
1 t dried basil
1T sugar
salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat the butter or oil in a large soup pot with a lid. On medium heat, saute the onions, mushrooms and crushed red peppers for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are golden. Add the garlic, and saute until you can smell it (1-2 minutes). Do not let it burn.
2. Add the potatoes, carrots, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, for about 5 minutes. The goal is to get some caramelization onto the vegetables.
3. Add the tomatoes and their juice, tarragon, basil and sugar. Add enough additional water to barely cover the vegetables.
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 25-35 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft enough to go through the coarse disk of a food mill. Add additional water if you prefer a thin soup. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

OPTIONS, VARIATIONS and NOTES

1. For broth-with-vegetables, decide when the vegetables are soft enough for you, add salt and pepper and serve.
2. If your original vegetable cuts are small, your soup will cook faster.
3. In the summer, use two pounds of peeled, seeded and chopped fresh tomatoes instead of canned.
4. Combine the leftovers with Split Pea Soup to make an interesting version of Puree Mongole, J. Edgar Hoover's favorite.
   
5. Make fish or vegetable cakes with the leftovers.
6. If your soup is particularly thick, use it as topping for Shepperd's Pie. Although I love Shepperd's Pie, I have never made it. A quick check of the web shows a dizzying array of versions that make me long for an Irish Grandmother to set the record straight. The pies' bases range from complex mutton, lamb or beef and vegetable stews to ground beef and canned vegetable soup. The one consistent characteristic is that they are all topped with mashed potatoes.
7. The 1965 edition of The Gourmet Cookbook Volume 1 is very old-fashioned in that it has a lot of text and few photographs. Most of the recipes have fewer than three paragraphs, but they are densely packed with directions. I can't wait to try Brandied Dates, Tipsy Pudding (each serving is topped with 2 tablespoons of rum and some shaved coconut), and most of the 22 sandwich fillings look that they should be rolled into phyllo and baked into tasty appetizers.

First snow = pea soup

It snowed last night in St. Paul -- October 10 is early even for Minnesota. It's odd that I connect the first snow and the first pot of pea soup -- I grew up in the Washington DC suburbs, and the season's first snow was not particularly predictable. Perhaps this is a fantasy memory...

In any event -- my Mother's Spit Pea Soup was wonderful. She vaguely followed the directions on the bag of split peas, and, when we added Hebrew National Hot Dogs at the end -- it was heaven in a bowl. I also loved to mix leftover pea soup with Campbell's Tomato Soup to make our version of Puree Mongole (from the back of the long-ago soup cans, and, apparently no longer claimed by Campbell).

My pea soup recipe slightly less vague than my Mother's, and it has more ingredients, included dried and frozen peas, and roasted, peeled and seeded jalapeno peppers. It is a very thick pea soup -- not a broth. You -- on the other hand -- can put anything you want into your pea soup.

MY PEA SOUP

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 pound beef short ribs
1/2 cup cut up Kosher hot dogs or beef summer sausage (small dice)
2 cups onions, roughly chopped (3/4 inch pieces)
2 cups carrots, roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 pound dried split peas (rinsed and picked over for pebbles -- you never know)
1 pound frozen tiny peas
6 to 8 cups of hot water
1 tsp good quality garlic powder
2 roasted, peeled and seeded jalapeno peppers (optional)
salt and pepper

1. In a large soup or stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Brown the short ribs on all sides. Don't hurry this -- go for the caramelization that makes good flavor. Add the hot dog or sausage pieces when the short ribs are almost all browned.
2. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 to 5 minutes. You are looking for some color, not completely browned onions.
3. Add the carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 3 to 5 minutes to get some brown color onto the carrots (that's where the flavor is.)
4. Add the dried and frozen peas and hot water. Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer and cook, partially covered for about 20 minutes.
5. Skim the scum that will float to the top. Really. Get rid of the gunk.
6. Add the garlic powder. Taste the soup before you add salt and pepper. The hot dog or sausage gives the soup a salty and smokey flavor, but you may want to be more generous with salt that you would otherwise expect. Continue to cook partially covered on very low heat for another hour or until the dried peas are soft. Stir occasionally. Add more water if it begins to stick.
7. Before serving, pull out the short ribs -- or what's left of them. Dice the meat and return to the pot; discard the bones. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE:
1. This really tastes better on the second day.
2. Grill or broil hot dogs and cut them into bite sized pieces before serving.
3. Apparently, Puree Mongole was J. Edgar Hoover's favorite soup.
4. Now that Nathan's Hot Dogs are widely available, I wouldn't hesitate to put them into my soup, especially because my parents grew up near Coney Island.
5. You can freeze pea soup.
6. A note about garlic powder: that odorless, powdery stuff at the back of your pantry is not "good quality garlic powder." My favorite source: Penzeys.