Cooking in a Winter Wonderland: Annalena makes Martha's Root Vegetable Soup

Annalena has a long relationship with the cook and cookbook writer, Martha Rose Schulman.  When Annalena was a young vegetarian, Ms. Schulman's cookbooks were key to her development as a cook.  Later, and still today, her bread book has become core to what Annalena does in the kitchen with yeast.

Years take their toll. Neither Ms Schulman nor Annalena are as young as they used to be, and the days of blithely ignoring calories because 'IT'S VEGETARIAN!!!!"   are gone.  Both Ms. Schulman and Annalena now eat animal protein.  And they both worry about health and calories.  And, Ms. Schulman has an amazing column in the New York Times, called "recipe for health," which Annalena URGES all of you to read, because, let's face it, none of us are as young as we used to be, and we all have to be concerned about things like calories, nutrition, cholesterol, etc.

When Annalena saw this soup, she thought it was brilliant.  There are many root vegetable soup recipes out there; however, in Annalena's experience, most of them suffer from an issue endemic to the starting ingredients:  root vegetables are loaded with sugar.  There are very good reasons for this, which need not be addressed here (do some research), but the result, of course, is a sweet soup.  Not all of us care for that earthy sweetness that one gets with the root vegetables, when they are cooked.  Ms. Schulman's solution, a brilliant one, is to add leeks:

Leeks are undervalued, and overpriced in American cooking.  See those two bunches of organic leeks?  They cost Annalena 10.00.  Yup, 10.00.  Ultimately, for what else is going into this soup, it doesn't matter, as everything else is very inexpensive.  Around Europe, leeks are valued, and they are not nearly as expensive.  They are one of the features of every home garden (l'orto, as per Annalena's semi native tongue).  French women learn to make potato leek soup as their first dish.  And they are wonderful.  But... let us have a show of hands:  when was the last time any of you used leeks?  

Uh huh.  Well, you're going to use them now.  And you are going to be SO glad you did.   So, here we go.  

First, you need a pound and a half of the lovely vegetables.  This is approximate.  Unless you are going to make your own soup stock, or you have a compost pile,  you are going to lose those tough green leaves at the top.  We only want the white, and light green portions for this soup:

Now, for some more chopping.  Get ready.  This is like the all star roster of winter vegetables. You will need to dice about 3/4 pound of carrots (the big soup ones are ok),  a stalk of celery (or two), about 3/4 pounds of turnips, a pound of potatoes, which you should peel  (if you use the food mill option discussed below, don't bother with peeling them, but do dice them).   Finally,get a bay leaf and a few sprigs of thyme, and two cloves of garlic, chopped fine.  

This is what Annalena's "work station" looked like when all the veggies were done:

Now for the "hard part."  Think you can handle this?  Put them all in a big pot, with a couple teaspoons of salt (we'll come back to this), and a quart and a  half (six cups) of water:

Now,  bring this to a boil, and when it gets there, lower the heat, cover the pot, and go away for 45 minutes.  You want the veggies to be VERY soft.  If they do  not seem real soft, then go away for another 15 minutes:

These look much firmer than they really are.  You want to let this cool for about 15 minutes, maybe longer, before you go to the next step.   Now, you COULD eat this as it is (after you pull out the bay leaf), but it's so much nicer if we go forward.  You are going to need one of:  a food mill, an immersion blender, a blender, or a food processor.  If Annalena had her druthers, she'd pick the food mill first, the blender second, the food processor third, and the immersion blender last.    And if you are using anything BUT the mill, get out that bay leaf, and any thyme sprigs you can find.   This is important:  bay leaves cut, and the machines will essentially give you "leaf shrapnel."  So get them out.  

If you use the food mill, you don't have to worry about peeling the potatoes in the early steps, because the mill will hold back any skin.  For the others, you may want to do some kind of straining.  Up to you.  In any event, process these veggies, in small quantities. Remember that if you overload either the blender or the food processor, you are going to get a mess. Trust Annalena on this: you will essentially have a soup explosion.    And in terms of the creaminess of your final soup, the food mill will give you some texture.  The food processor, will give you less, and the mixer, even less.  Annalena used a food mill to give her this:

Taste this.  You will want to add salt and pepper.  And if you stop here, you have a vegan soup that is fat free.  Look back ragazzi:  we didn't saute' anything, did we?    But if you want to do the finishing touch which really does push this soup over the top, stir in anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of creme fraiche (or, heavy cream if you don't have the creme fraiche around).  You won't see much of a difference, but this is what you get:

And you will get 2.5 quarts of it.  Taste it again, after the dairy goes in, to see whether or not you need more salt.  You might.  

The leeks were worth it, weren't they?  After all, you really have all of these veggies in your house, or if you shop locally, these veggies are what you'll find.  You may even find some leeks from a local farmer,  who has them stored in his or her root cellar.  

Please make this soup.  How much better can it get

One potato, two potato: Sicilian saffron potatoes

Ragazzi, Annalena is still very much in a daze from her trip to Sicily.  It was truly like nothing she could have imagined, in so many ways.  She continues to play with Sicilian recipes, learning them,  making tweaks, and so on.


After her first trip to Italy, Annalena was stunned to see how many potatoes were eaten.  She had associated potatoes with gnocchi, but nothing else.  Something to know, ragazzi, about the way  Italians, and Sicilians eat:  if you go out to a restaurant, you will NOT be offered something that is deemed a home dish.  Hence, you will rarely see chicken offered, especially in Sicily.  Indeed, Annalena was dying for a taste of cucuzza soup while she was in Sicily.  Not to happen.  "We make that at home," is what she was told.  And so it is, even with things like the dish presented here. Again, it has all the hallmarks of basic home cooking:  simple ingredients, albeit one costly one (or at least potentially costly, as we will learn), and very satisfying.    It combines several ingredients, in ways Annalena would not have thought of:  potatoes and saffron, and then saffron and oregano.  But it works.  It works wonderfully, ragazzi.  Try it. You will be amazed at the flavor.

We start with 2 pounds of potatoes.  Use any type you like, but this one may actually work best with big, boiling potatoes, like red bliss, or something along those lines.  You're going to be cooking these potatoes for a while.    Peel them, and then cut them into big chunks.  No dicing like for our hash, carini, no no no.  Now put them aside, while you put two tablespoons of olive oil, in a BIG pot:

Ok, it's a pan, so whatever.  And now add, for two pounds of potatoes , half of a chopped red onion (Sicilians seem to favor red onions).  Put that into the hot olive oil, and saute' for just about two minutes

When that's done, add the potato chunks, and toss them in the oil

And now, the fun begins.  Cover these with ample salted  water, and combine it with a big, BIG pinch of saffron.  Now, saffron is VERY expensive.  But here's the thing:  with this one, you don't need the big fine strands that make it so dear.  There is always "saffron dust" during the processing of the crocuses used to make the stuff, so use the powder if you have it.  Don't break the bank.  Add it to the water, and cover the potatoes with a pot cover.  Lower your heat (this is important)

You need to lower the heat, because to make this dish correctly, you are balancing soft and firm.  The potatoes are, of course, going to cook from the outside in, and you want the outside nice and soft and creamy, while the inside should remain a bit "al dente."  Annalena's recipe said it would take 40 minutes.  It didn't.  It took about twenty.   Test after twenty with a soft knife: point it into a potato chunk:  is it the texture you want?  If it is, we move on.  If not, go to the next step.  

Let's assume they're ready.  So, now you drain them: 

See that beautiful yellow color?  These are not yukon golds, ragazzi. That color came from the saffron.  And it brought flavor with it too.  You also have those sauteed onions in here.  

After you've drained the stuff (and you can save the water if you like and use it again), dust these, with one of the characteristic features of Sicilian cooking:  dried oregano .  (To those of us who love oregano, the fresh and dried are two different herbs, and both useful.  Do not ask  Annalena to pick which one she likes better.  Ok, you win:  she likes the dried).

That's about a tablespoon of dried oregano, and it's not too much.  Just stir things together gently, so that the potatoes do not break apart, and ... you're there.  Have them with fish, or a grilled piece of meat, or just use them as they are. They are really, really good.

You'll be happy to have these in your repertoire, ragazzi.  And now, when someone asks you what they should give you as a gift, ask for saffron.   That's what Annalena does. 

One potato, two potato: Annalena is back, with two dishes involving our favorite vegetable: POTATOES

Ciao, ragazzi!  Annalena makes no apologies for her absence.  She's getting old.  It was the holiday season.  And she's busy.  Not just with cooking, but with so many other things.  She's decided to add French, or at least a little of it, to her  language repertoire, and her resolutions, well, let's not get into those.

So, to ease us all back , she's giving us two potato recipes.  Both easy, both delicious.  We need that, don't we?  And who does not like potatoes?      This is a recipe that she got from her CSA, and she calls out the wonderful folks at Rustic Roots, who helped by, well, providing the ingredients.

There are constant arguments about what constitutes "hash," as a dish.  If you feel this isn't hash, you can call it whatever you want.  Just make sure you make it, and eat it.  It's delicious.

Here's a picture of the ingredients:

Doesn't look like much, huh?  Indeed, what we have are a pound of potatoes (these are the blue ones, with their skins on), a chopped yellow onion, 3/4 teaspoon each of hot pepper and fennel seeds,  and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.  What you don't see, is the olive oil.  Or the salt.  Here we go.

First, add two tablespoons of olive oil to a wide pan.  Annalena used a non stick, and she recommends that here, because this is a dish that does have a tendency to stick (potatoes and onions are loaded with sugars, ragazzi, and browning is the formation of caramel.  Figure it out).  When the oil heats up, add the potatoes and the fennel seeds.  Lower your heat, and cover the pan.  Uncover it every 4-5 minutes and stir the stuff up, and let it cook for 15 minutes.  This is what Annalena's pan looked like at the end of that 15 minutes: 

You can see the brown bits, can't you?  What you can't see is that the chopped potatoes are softening.  That comes about, in large pot, from covering the pan.  The potatoes give up water, it can't all get away, and the potatoes steam in it.  Meanwhile, the surface touching the hot oil, browns.

Isn't that neat?  We get steaming and frying, in one pan.  

So what do we do next?  Now, we add the onions, and the hot pepper.  If you are adverse to hot pepper, cut back , but please do not leave it out completely.  The 3/4 teaspoon does not sound like a lot, but if you have good quality hot pepper, it is.  

This is what you get, after about four minutes of cooking.  Again, this is done with the pan covered, and the heat at medium.  After four minutes, uncover the pan, stir the stuff, and cook for another 6 minutes or so.  

Here's what we've got after 7 minutes.  At this point, taste a potato bit.  You may want to add some salt.  In fact, Annalena is CERTAIN you will want to add salt.  But don't yet.    Because after you cook this mix for   ten minutes, you're going to add that soy sauce, stir it all together, and let it cook for another 3 minutes.   Soy sauce has a ton of salt in it, so you want to taste this at the end of the soy sauce cookery.  You probably WILL want to add salt anyway.  And this is what you have after about 30 minutes of cooking:

Everytime Annalena checked the potatoes, she pressed them down onto the pan, using a  spatula.  This gives more crispiness, and who does not like that? 

Most likely, this dish would work without the fennel, and without the hot pepper,  with no seasoning at all.  But potatoes, ragazzi, are one of nature's great sponges, or canvases, or whatever you like.  So let your imagination run free, and use other things.  Use other forms of potato.  Annalena thinks this would work with sweet potatoes too, and indeed, may very well work, with any of the root veggies.  So, create your own starchy veggie hash.  You won't regret it.  Indeed, after you've made it, Annalena thinks you'll probably wish you made more.