Black Bean Soup in Five Minutes

This is our new favorite soup.  I got the idea from another food blog, and made it mine.  One of the lovely things about the soup besides it's amazing flavor and texture is that if you pick the right salsa, you know exactly what you are eating.  For two people, make the recipe below and serve with a salad and some bread or tortilla chips (my mom suggested quesadillas on the side, which is a great idea).  Or double the recipe, have just a big bowl of soup each, leaving one serving for someone for lunch the next day.

Our preferred salsa is Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, the Roasted Chile kind.  You can identify all the ingredients, there is nothing that isn't real food in GMG Salsa.  We love it, and with the beans it is great.

You can use vegetable broth, chicken broth, or even water.  Whatever you have around.  I would use water only in a pinch, because you want the liquid to add flavor to the soup.  I used homemade vegetable broth when I made it the other night, and will again tomorrow when I make this for company.  (Yes!  This soup is so delicious and pretty, it is company-worthy, and fun by putting out different garnishes to choose from.)

The garnishes are optional, and you have lots of options.  I would do at least one garnish, even if it is just some cilantro, but none are necessary, this is a super flavorful soup.

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 3/4 to 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Optional Garnishes

• Shredded cheese (sharp cheddar is great)
• Cilantro
• Diced avocado
• 0% Greek yogurt
• Crushed tortilla chips

Directions

• Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender, start with 3/4 cup broth and add more if needed to reach desired soup consistency
• Blend until smooth
• Pour into pot and heat over medium heat
• Eat

Pollo al Vin Cotto aka Winey Chicken

For Thanksgiving I intended to roast a lovely capon.  However, my butcher didn't come through and so I had to quickly rethink my plan within 48 hours.  Luckily, the recipe I landed on was amazingly delicious, comforting, and somehow elegant and rustic simultaneously.  I found the recipe for Pollo al Vin Cotto in a Mario Batali cookbook, and although I stayed mostly true to the ingredient list, I found Batali's instructions lacking, and so using the ingredients and basic method, I changed things up a bit.  Also, I adapted the recipe to make it good for leftovers, and easy to prepare ahead.  Instead of using a single cut up chicken as the original recipe called for, I used all chicken thighs, for we prefer dark meat and I happened to have a bunch in the freezer.  This recipe served 5 people as part of a multi-course holiday meal, with leftovers for dinner for 2.  This certainly isn't a quick weeknight dinner, and in the ingredient list may seem daunting, but for a special Sunday or holiday dinner, totally worth it.  To make it easier, this is certainly a dish to do all of your prep in advance and have everything lined up and ready to go.  As for making good leftovers, the sauce of course became more complex after a couple days.

Ingredients for vin cotto:

• 4 1/2 cups red wine (use something basic, but definitely drinkable)
• 1/2 cup honey 
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 cloves

To make vin cotto:

• Combine ingredients in your big pot.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer.  Stir occasionally until liquid is reduced to one cup.  This will take over an hour of simmering.  You can do this the day before to save time.

Ingredients for chicken and sauce:

• 3 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup vin cotto
• olive oil
• 1 large onion, large dice
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1/2 cup green olives, chopped (large ones, packed in brine only)
• 3 generous TBS golden raisins
• 1 TBS capers, well rinsed, dried
• 1 generous TBS pine nuts, toasted
• 1 generous TBS almonds, blanched and toasted
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar

To make chicken and sauce:

• In your big pot (heavy-bottomed, such as a dutch oven), heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
• In batches, so as not to crowd the pan, brown the chicken thighs on both sides, do the skin-side first.
• Put browned chicken aside.
• Lower heat to low and add onion and carrot to pan.  Cook, stirring regularly, until onion and carrot is caramelized, and browned all over.
• Add 1/2 cup of the vin cotto and use it to deglaze the pan. 
• Return to chicken to the pot, nestled into the vin cotto, and cover pot.  Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, until chicken thighs are cooked through.  Then remove chicken again and set aside.
• Add remaining vin cotto, raise heat, and reduce liquid by half.
• Add olives, raisins, capers, pine nuts, and almonds.  Stir to coat.
• Dissolve sugar into the red wine vinegar, then add to sauce.
• Raise heat and simmer hard to reduce sauce to a glaze.
• Add lots of freshly ground black pepper, and taste sauce for balance, add salt if necessary, although it shouldn't be thanks to the capers and olives.
• Remove skin from cooked chicken and place onto a baking sheet
• Return skinless chicken to pot, covering each piece with glaze to coat and cover pot to keep warm.

Ingredients for finishing chicken:

• cooked, buttered orzo (cooked from 10 oz. dry orzo)
• chopped parsley
• high quality extra virgin olive oil
• red pepper flake

To finish the chicken for service:

• In a 400 degree oven, roast chicken skin until crisp (about 5 or 10 minutes).  Roughly chop, place in a small bowl to serve alongside chicken.
• Spread buttered orzo on a large platter.  Place chicken atop orzo.
• Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with parsley and red pepper flake.

To prepare ahead:

• After removing chicken skin, refrigerate.
• After coating chicken thoroughly in glaze, pack tightly in an air-tight container.
• Scrape glaze in a separate air-tight container.
• When ready to serve, heat glaze and chicken together over very low heat, perhaps adding a TBS or so of water to rehydrate glaze.  
• Proceed with service preparation.

Roasted Squash, Spicy Chicken and Caramelized Onion Risotto

I know the picture isn't beautiful, but I'm not a photographer, and risotto isn't exactly photogenic.  But trust me, this is a powerhouse of taste!  Sometimes piecing together a meal from the pantry and fridge is good enough, and although perhaps tasty, not going to be called back to the show again anytime soon.  And then there are dishes that after a long day of working hard (me at work, Matt showing the yard and leaves who's boss), come together in such a way as to boggle the mind.  This dish has just enough (but not too much) spicy heat to warm up on a fall day, the creamy comfort of risotto and the sweetness of roasted squash and caramelized onions.

I used a medium delicata squash for this, but use whatever squash you have and like.  You can easily double or triple this dish of course, but as usual, my proportions are for two people.  I'm going to presume, for purposes of efficiency, that you already know the process of making a basic risotto.  If not, please see my Green Apple and Bacon Risotto for instructions.

Take your delicata squash and halve it lengthewise.  Drizzle with oil, generously grind on black pepper, sprinkle on some kosher salt and generously sprinkle with dried thyme.  Roast in a 425 oven for 20 minutes, or until tender.  When cool enough to touch, remove skin and chop into 1/4" chunks

Take a 1/4 pound of boneless skinless chicken thighs and trim off any excess fat (this should be about two thighs of medium size).  Season generously with Northwoods Fire Seasoning (or your personal favorite blend of hot peppers and herbs and salt).  Pan cook over medium heat in a nonstick pan (don't bother adding any oil) until cooked through, about 10 minutes.  When cool enough to touch, chop into 1/4" chunks.

I used more onion than usual in proportion to rice to increase the flavor presence of the onions.  I used a medium onion (the size of a baseball), finely chopped to 2/3 cup of rice.

Start your risotto normally, melting butter and olive oil together, but instead of just sweating the onions until translucent, caramelize them.  Do this slowly, you want golden brown onions, not black or burnt.  When about half of the onions have a caramel color, proceed with toasting the rice, adding the white wine and cooking off, then adding chicken stock incrementally and stirring regularly.  When the risotto is tender and creamy, turn off the heat and stir in the squash, the chicken and a 1/2 cup of grated grana padano cheese or parmigiano.  For this risotto, due to the oil on the squash and the unctuousness of the chicken, I do not add butter at the end, only the cheese.

Sausage and Squash

I got the idea for this from an article on Salon, that involved butternut squash.  I had a beautiful delicata squash from my mother's garden, and a couple hot Italian sausages I took out of the freezer last night for today's lunch.  This is insanely simply, and a perfect fall lunch for two (multiply appropriately for more!).

Ingredients:

• 2 large sausages
• olive oil
• 1 Delicata Squash, cut in half lengthwise, seeds and pulp removed, then cut into 1 1/2" slices, do not peel squash
• pepper
• kosher salt

Directions

• Set oven to 425.  
• Put olive oil in an oven-proof pan and heat over medium low heat.  
• Prick sausages all over with a fork.
• Slowly brown the sausages on all sides, letting the fat ooze out into the pan.
• Remove sausages from pan, set aside.
• Put squash pieces into pan, and cook over medium low heat a few minutes per side.
• Grind a generous amount of fresh pepper over pieces, and a slight sprinkle of kosher salt.
• Place sausages back in pan.
• Put pan into oven for 15-20 minutes
• Half way through cooking, flip squash and sausages, but if you forget, no big deal.

Serve with some high quality crusty bread.

Ginger Lemon Scones

I have been making these scones for about ten years.  When I was in my last two years of college I lived with my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Tilman, and in addition to recipes for parmesan broiled fennel, spicy tomato-stewed cod, and the phenomona of eggy-brekky (on Uncle Tilman's mother Hanna's fine china on Sundays and birthdays), one of the best recipes I acquired was my Aunt Lisa's variation on a Gourmet magazine recipe for scones.  I have since added my own variations, making everything from tropical fruit scones to cranberry almond and so on.  If you've lived with me or near me, worked with me, or otherwise endeared yourself to me before mid-morning, you've likely had these scones.


Today we're having a broker open house to help sell our condo, and I thought I'd make these scones to help make the place smell yummy and otherwise charm potential buyer-agents.  I got up earlier than expected, so I had time to jot this down while the scones cool. I once set about to make these and didn't have a lemon, but did have a lime, and those turned out quite nicely as well.  You can use any sort of candied ginger, but the best is freshly candied slices of ginger you can dice up yourself.  But that can sometimes be hard to find (checking an Asian grocery is usually helpful), but I have had acceptable results with supermarket pre-diced candied ginger.  Just buy only what you need and if it feels like rock candy, don't use it.  The key to the tenderness in these scones is minimal handling.  This is a pastry, not bread.  Be careful to not overknead.  
The scones are moist and tender enough to serve on their own, but if you want to gild the lily, serve with jam or butter (I put out some cherry preserves with these).


Ingredients:
For scones:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup finely diced candied ginger
• zest of one lemon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup milk (don't use skim, but 1% works just great, but whole milk makes a decadent scone, and if you have it, use it)

For glaze:

• juice of lemon
• 2 TBS sugar

Instructions:

• Mix together flour, baking powder and salt with a fork in a big bowl
• Using fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture, making the mixture crumbly
• Toss in candied ginger, lemon zest and sugar
• Pour in milk and mix gently with fork/hands until just incorporated into a single ball
• Turn out onto a board
• Cut dough into two and gently pat each section into a six-inch diameter circle
• Cut each circle into 8 wedges
• Place wedges about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet
• Dissolve the 2 TBS sugar into the lemon juice, and brush atop scones
• Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes, until golden, but not brown.
• Remove from pan immediately and place on a cooling rack under a tea towel for 15 minutes before serving