Carrot Soup with Ginger & Caraway

This week my cooking was inspired by a Food&Wine 'what to cook next' article. What caught my eye was a recipe for pressure cooker pork carnitas which promised tender pork shoulder in 35 minutes. I happened to have had just such a shoulder roast in my freezer.

On Tuesday I shared the carnitas dinner with my dad and family. Everyone was impressed with the tenderness of the pork in such little time. Magical Pressure Cooker indeed!

Later in the week I re-read the Food&Wine article concentrating more on the subject of the article: Nathan Myhrvold the author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. And then my eye caught the carmelized carrot soup recipe.

Last weekend at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market we bought a bounty of produce that really needed to be used and soon! My refrigerator was bursting with:
• Tiny White Potatoes
• Huge Parsnips
• Heirloom Carrots
• Hearty Asparagus Spears
• Blood Oranges
But I wanted to use up the wilting fennel bulb and lonely single leek both lurking at the bottom of my produce drawer. They were begging for soup. Using the article as a guideline I created my own recipe:

Pressure Cooker
Carrot Soup with Ginger & Carraway
Six First Course Servings
Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons Butter
1 lb. Heirloom variety carrots*
1 small fennel bulb
1 leek
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda** optional
2 Cups Carrot Juice
2 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon caraway seeds
Method:
Peel the carrots and cut into ¾” slices. Trim the fennel bulb removing any wilted edges and removing the tough core. Slice into ¾” pieces. Use only the white and light green of the leek. Slice lengthwise and then into ¾” slices. Put the carrots, fennel & leek into the pressure cooker.
Add the butter cut into chunks. Cook uncovered until the butter melts. Mix well. Add the salt & baking soda if using. Cover and bring to 15 psi using your pressure cooker’s manufacturer’s instructions. Cook for 10 minutes at 15 psi. Cool quickly in your sink using cool water.

Return the uncovered pressure cooker to the stove. Add the carrot juice, ginger & caraway seeds. Stir well to combine. Bring to a simmer. Cook for an additional 5 minutes on low heat. Taste for salt.
Puree and strain the soup using either a blender or submersion blender & then a food mill or cheesecloth & metal strainer.
Serve hot.

*Heirloom Carrots I used a variety of carrots using up what I had as well as adding a few heirlooms for color. Note that some heirloom carrots have a VERY fibrous core. The red variety with a bright yellow core was so fibrous my Wustof chef’s knife would not go through it. These red carrots were the true reason the soup needed to be strained! Without straining, it was inedible, chewy soup.

**Baking Soda The original recipe was for “Caramelized Carrot Soup” and the baking soda is added to speed up the caramelization. I didn’t get any caramelization in my soup, but perhaps the baking soda helps break down the vegetables quicker, so I listed it here, add if you wish.

It's Come To This

I've been using email consistently since the 1980's. I was working at an Internet research institute when the World Wide Web (which is what those three little w's stand for kiddies!) was first created. Before the first Internet browser was created I was logging into Usenet groups to swap recipes and download free cookbooks. So, let's just say, I'm a bit tech savvy.

Two years ago I created this blog so that I'd have a creative outlet for my food writing. Last year I discovered Facebook and found it to be a fun and easy way to keep in touch with many friends. Last month I created a twitter account and have thoroughly enjoyed tweeting daily about my culinary life. But now I find that my writing time has diminished. I'm working at the Farmer's Market on Sunday's. I'm taking care of my kids, husband and our life during the rest of the week. I'm tweeting, facebooking, blogging... and I believe the blog gets the short end of things. It's much easier to tweet and update your status than it is to write a decent article.

So, it's come to this, I'm recycling writing I've been doing for The Heritage Kitchen, and posting it here on my blog. The following recipe comes from our August newsletter. We've been publishing a monthly one-pager since February which contains a feature article, product highlight, Back To The Future rant and a seasonal recipe. Stop by our booth on Sundays,at the Pacific Palisades Farmer's Market between the hours of 8am - 1pm and you can pick up a copy. Sample some cheese while you are there!

V





Market Fresh Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Fresh black-eyed peas are an August special at the Farmer’s market. Cooked for four hours on high in a slow cooker, they become a hearty ingredient ready to use in soups, salads, or with rice for a nutritious meal.


Ingredients:
1 lb cooked—fresh black eyed peas
4 ears fresh corn
3 small zucchini diced
3 small yellow squash diced
6 Roma tomatoes, cored, diced
8 green onions, sliced
1/4 Cup Sherry vinegar
1/2 Cup Plain yogurt
1/2 Cup Extra-virgin Olive Oil
1 bunch Italian parsley, coarsely chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste







Method:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add two tablespoons of salt to the water. Shuck the ears of corn and put in the pot to cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove cobs from the water, drain and let cool. Cut the corn from the cobs and place in a large bowl. Add the zucchini, squash, tomatoes, green onions and cooled black eyed peas.
Pour the vinegar into a medium bowl and whisk in the yogurt, and a little salt and pepper. Continue to whisk as you slowly pour in the olive oil creating an emulsion. Taste the dressing for salt and pepper, adding more to taste. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and combine gently. Sprinkle the parsley over the top.


Serves 8 as a main, 12 as a side dish.

My Favorite $20

The Rose guy has returned to the Farmer's Market. Each year he brings these absolutely gorgeous roses in large bouquets. He arrives in May, just in time for Mother's Day. The crowds have thinned out at his booth since last month...and I was able to get a bargain at the end of the day as they are usually $25 per bunch. This was the best $20 I spent all week...

Pic of the cheese

We introduced the Angelo and Franco Mozzarella and Ricotta this weekend. It sold out. We're so happy our customers can appreciate the fine craft of making fresh Italian cheese.

Cheese Report - Robert Downey Jr.

I worked at the market today. I've been working at the Pacific Palisades Farmer's Market at the Heritage Kitchen booth since January. I work with Edythe Preet selling vintage linens, homemade jams, jellies, pickles, chow-chows and chutneys, fresh baked goods, and CHEESE! I love cheese. I really enjoy spending each Sunday morning displaying, sampling and selling fine artisan made cheeses. What's not to like?
Today I looked up to hand out a sample I had just sliced from the Carr Valley Mobay. It's a sheep and goat cheese with a fine layer of grape vine ash in between the two which creates a beutifully layered wedge when cut. The goat cheese is a pure beautiful white and the sheep half is a buttery yellow. As you can see, I like CHEESE! But I digress. I was sampling the Mobay and as I reached out with the little bit of cheese on a waxed paper square I looked into the eyes of Robert Downey Jr. I stayed calm and sliced more samples and kept handing them out. He asked us which three cheeses we would pick and we steered him to our favorites: Three Sister's Serena and Carr Valley's Snow White Goat Cheddar (which won Best in Show at the 2008 American Cheese Society's annual competition) and Black Truffled Sheep. He sought out our Honeyed Goat Cheese with Blueberries and also picked up some fresh Dinosaur Plum Preserves. He wanted to know what made the Plums Dinosaurs. Edythe, a food historian, explained that Dinosaur Plums are a spotted heirloom variety. He paid for his products and was off. He seemed nice enough. He certainly knew what he wanted... CHEESE!

Cranberry Bean Recipe - from the Italian Vacation

After filling the house with necessities we were eager to supplement our pantry to include some of the great produce we knew was growing in nearby farms. We had read through the document which came with the rental house and found a list of local farmer's markets. The soonest and closest weekly market was on Monday, in Marschiano.
It was a quick drive with only one little mishap when I turned into a farm entrance instead of making the next right turn. No harm though, we turned around and arrived in Marschiano finding it bustling with activity. We found parking as best we could (Is it legal to park at the top of a T-Junction in Italy? Others were doing it, so we did too!)
The market was actually mostly clothes and house wares. More of a swap meet than Farmer's market. But then we turned a corner and found the food. We first discovered a few catering trucks and they were all serving the same thing - roasted whole pig. They cut large slabs of the meat and served them as tortas on a bread roll or simply flat on a plate. There must be high demand for such a meal or there wouldn't have been three trucks!
Then, the produce. It was beautiful!
The apricots, peaches and nectarines were large and cheap. We loaded up. I was actually happy NOT to see pluots and other such newfangled breeds. No, thank you!
All the tomatoes practially glowed with ripeness. The Roma tomatoes were amazing. These were quite different from the ones in the U.S. These were quite long (4-6"), skinny (1.5" across) and pointy at the end. We had to have some of them.
We also purchased lovely tiny tender french green beans (haricot vert).
We were hoping for some fresh beans and I turned a corner and found them. They were cranberry beans which have a white and red swirly color on both the pod and bean. I grabbed a bunch of them in hopes of doing something special.
On our way out of the market we found a truck with meats and cheeses. The woman working there spoke English quite well and helped us pick a large cut of Romano cheese as well as a few sausages.
So, what did we do with the beans?

I shelled them right away. I couldn't keep my hands off them. They were so fresh and moist and plump. I loved popping them out of their pods.
Two days later we had them with dinner. I made a sausage and bean ragout (or stew), which was great, flavorful and chunky. The beans were the star of the dish.

Cranberry Bean Ragout

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
2 small mild Italian sausages, casings removed
1 lb fresh cranberry beans
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Method
In a large pot, heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook for a few minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add the garlic and the sausage. Break up the sausage into tiny bits as it browns. Continue to cook, breaking up the sausage until it is cooked thoroughly. If there is lots of oil in the pan, pour off the excess.
Add the beans, bay leaf and enough water (or even better, chicken stock!), to cover the beans by about 1/2".
Bring to a boil. Simmer over medium low heat until the beans are cooked completely (about 20-30 minutes). Add water if they seem too dry.
Add salt and pepper at the end, to taste. They should need quite a bit of salt (1-2 tsp).
Enjoy with a salad and some crusty bread.