Monsieur Bocuse, Bringing Me Back To The Kitchen

Guess who's back? Me! You might not even have noticed, but over the holidays I took an extended break from writing, and cooking. Many of you can relate, but the holiday season is often just TOO crazy for me to manage everything in our schedules and this year was no different. That's all in the rear view mirror now and it's time to get back at it. A number of things have come up since taking a break. I received an invitation to attend the 2018 Iowa Pork Taste of Elegance competition again. Restaurants have open and closed here in Des Moines. New chef friends have come into my life. One of the culinary world's great Master Chefs has passed away. I've added to my collection of Mouli food shredder/slicers. I've become obsessed with china tea sets. Numerous cookbooks have been added to my collection. Lots to talk about, and lots to cook. 

One of the most impactful events for me is the passing of Chef Paul Bocuse on January 20, 2018. I was so saddened to hear this news. Originally from Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, France, Chef Bocuse is widely known as the creator of nouvelle cuisine, and helped shape generations of new chefs, through his incredible Michelin star restaurants. Many of his students have gone on to earn Michelin stars of their own. Many organizations created awards in Chef Bocuse's honor, including the prestigious Bocuse d'Or, a biennial chef competition held in Lyon and is probably the most prestigious competition in the world. Bocuse received a number of honors and awards of his own over the years including the medal as Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 

His most regarded restaurant is L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges near Lyon in France. Bocuse's accomplishments and culinary triumphs are numerous indeed, and include preparing the meals for the maiden flight of the Concorde in 1969 and the world famous soupe aux truffles he served at a Presidential Dinner at the Elysee Palace in 1975. This soup, known as Soup VGE, remains a mainstay in his restaurant today. 

Once I'd heard Chef Bocuse had passed away I immediately hit the cookbook shelves, pulled out some classics, and began reading. I knew this was the kick in the pants I needed to get back to cooking and hit the laptop to share. The vast majority of my cookbooks are newer with contemporary chefs but I do have a few gems in the collection, especially vintage cookbooks and European chefs. This is where the real influence lies for me. Not the current television cooking personality, but in the old time chefs who didn't have time for celebrity instead focusing on classic preparations, the Mother sauces, the roots of cooking. I can lose myself for days in these kinds of cookbooks, almost like textbooks to me.

As soon as the cool weather in October hit, I became obsessed with autumn cooking, and got my heart set on osso buco, so Found myself again looking for this classic recipe in those old books. Authentic osso buco is made with veal shanks. I set off on my quest to track down some veal shanks locally. That's when the whole plan went awry. No luck. So the search went to online sources. What a kick in the reality check- the best price I could find for two, yes only two, pieces of the veal shank was $59.99. Now we love food, we love GOOD food and we will pay the money for something truly exceptional when we want it, but I really had trouble plunking down $30.00 each for a couple pieces of veal shank, so I started to research alternative cuts. The results were interesting. Other chefs were using everything from pork shanks, to venison cuts to pieces of beef chuck roast. Right away I knew I wasn't going to go with pork. That just didn't have the right flavor or consistency of tender veal. Venison? We love venison but for this dish, I had to pass. Beef chuck, however, is easy to come by and much much less expensive, so chuck it is. Once I had all my ingredients purchased, I set about making this slow-braised dish that fills the house with delicious aromas and is perfect for a cold and blustery autumn day. I chose a Cabernet Sauvignon for my red wine. You want a dry red that you would also drink, so don't go with a super cheap wine or "cooking wine"- might as well throw your money away.

Osso Buco

2-4 sections veal shank*

salt and pepper

2 carrots, chopped into 1/4 inch dice

1 large onion, chopped fine

1 stalks celery, chopped into 1/4 inch dice

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bottle dry red wine

4 cups beef broth

olive oil

* Unable to locate veal shanks locally, I used similar sized pieces of beef chuck roast.

Season the meat all over liberally with the salt and pepper. Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat and add a couple swirls of olive oil. Sear the meat on both sides. Remove and set aside.

Add a little more oil to the pot and add the carrot and celery. Cook, occasionally until starting to caramelize. Add the onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and saute a minute or two. Add the tomato paste, stirring to coat the vegetables.

Add the wine and broth to the pot. Bring to boil stirring to loosen any browned bits from the pot. Add the meat back to the pot, reduce the heat and simmer for one hour. Watch and add a little water if necessary. You want the sauce to cook to a rich and thick consistency.

While the osso buco is cooking, prepare the polenta for four servings. Mix Parmesan cheese to taste into the polenta. Serve the polenta in shallow bowls with the meat and sauce on top.

Let It Snow, I'm Making Soup

I have always been a winter lover. Snow bunny. Ice queen. Call me whatever you like I have always been in love with the winter season. Maybe it's in my DNA, being a Minnesota girl by birth. Every year I looked forward to that first snow, the first time I get to shovel, and hoping and praying for a BIG snowstorm and a snow day. A lot of my friends called me crazy for shoveling snow. I have never even considered owning a snowblower, instead preferring the quiet solitude of time spent outside with the newly fallen snow and my shovel. Not a sound around me, just the crystal white sparkling snow and peace and quiet. Now that I'm older I don't get to shovel like that anymore, and while I still love the beautiful snowfall, the cold weather is a little harder to enjoy.

These days instead of bundling up in a heavy coat, boots, gloves and hat and heading out into the cold, I like snuggling up with a blanket and a warm cat, throwing the curtains wide open and watching the wind whip the flakes of frozen beauty all around. These days it's The Chef who is out there manning the shovel and I concentrate on cooking up some of my favorite winter foods.

Winter foods.....what a wonderful category of recipes. Stews, baked pastas, roasts. I don't know about you, but I tend to think of soup as a winter food. There is something so warming and comforting about a big bowl of chili, or chicken noodle soup, or beef and vegetable soup. Homemade bread baking away while the soup simmers, warming the home and filling the air with amazing scents. It's my favorite time of year. 

Ok, so let's talk about this soup for a minute. It's easy, and I mean kindergarten easy. The hardest skill needed is the ability to crumble up and cook some hamburger. The rest takes care of itself. Probably the most bizarre part of this recipe is in the ingredients- I actually used fake cheese. You know what fake cheese is- it's a weird yellow rubbery loaf of cheese flavored....something, and normally I am a cheese snob extraordinaire, but in this case I needed something that would melt easily and not break down. So the old bechamel and cheddar cheese just wouldn't do it. I also cheated with store bought shredded frozen hash browns and packaged chicken broth. Sometimes, especially work days, a girl just has to cheat, and that's perfectly ok!

Easy Cheeseburger Soup

1 pound hamburger

1 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

small handfull fresh parsley, chopped

32 oz. carton chicken broth

2 lb chunk Velveeta, cut up

1 bag frozen shredded hash browns

assorted toppings (see below)

Place the hamburger, onion and garlic in a stockpot. Cook until hamburger is cooked through and onions are softened. Drain off fat. Sprinkle the Worcestershire sauce over the meat.

Add the chicken broth, hash browns, and chopped parsley. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add cheese. Simmer over low heat at least 45 minutes. 

This recipe is great in a crockpot too- just brown the meat, and add everything but the toppings. Cook over low heat about 8 hours.

What to top this creamy yummy soup with? Think cheeseburgers! Crumble some crisply cooked bacon over each serving, or chopped pickles and fresh onions. Oyster crackers are great, croutons even better and so is a chunk of garlic toast. Chopped tomato is great too, or a sprinkle of shredded cheese. A couple shakes of hot sauce kicks up the heat a bit.

Yes.........this soup is definitely going to be a regular in my "winter foods" lineup of dinners. Right after I finish watching him shovel........

It's cold out there!! Warm up with some soup!

It's my favorite time of year. Soup season. I mean come on, what could possibly be better on a cold winter day than a warm bowl of soup, some fuzzy slippers, and a warm kitty on your lap? Not much folks, not much.

Now that I am back in the city and working a sort of weird work schedule, getting home after 6 pm every night, cooking a full meal is often an overwhelming proposition. That is where soup comes in. With the right ingredients in the pantry I can come up with a bowl of wonderful that tastes like I've been cooking all day. I have been trying to expand my cooking horizons as much as possible and trying new things and squash soup is one of those expansions. There are so many wonderful flavors that go with squash I can't wait to try as many as I can.

Lately I have seen a growing trend of ready-made meal recipes for canning, like stews and soups, something people can just heat and eat. I have never been that kind of canner. I enjoy cooking too much and prefer to can the ingredients for a meal and spend time creating. This soup is going to make great use of something I canned an excess of- winter squash. Silly me, besides the normal pumpkin, acorn and butternut squashes I got for putting up, on a visit to an apple orchard one day I fell in love with a Blue Hubbard. If you have never seen a Hubbard squash these things are massive- weighing as much as 40-50 pounds even. I guess I learned my lesson the hard way- dozens of jars of canned squash chunks later I had way more than a family of two can reasonably use. 

I didn't learn my lesson when it came to apples either. When a couple friends offered apple trees for free picking, as much as we wanted, we picked about 25 grocery bags full. Cases of jars of apple butter, applesauce (we don't really like), apple pie jam and loads of pies I still had more apples. Time to can some apple slices to use in something else! 

I was browsing Saveur's website and came across a recipe for a winter squash soup that looked really delicious, and used a couple things I have more than enough of- squash and apples. So by switching up a few ingredients to utilize what I had on hand I was able to create a warm and filling soup, perfect for a cool autumn night. With cooler weather in the forecast it's time to bake some homemade bread and cook up a pot of soup!

Little Lake House Winter Squash and Apple Soup

adapted from www.saveur.com 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
• 3 cups mashed Hubbard squash (2 quart jars of cubes)*
• 1 1/2 cups sliced apples (2 pint jars)*
• salt and pepper
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• homemade garlic croutons

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add ginger and garlic. Cook and stir for one more minute. Add spices and stir a minute, then add remaining ingredients (except butter, mint and paprika).

Allow to simmer for about 15-20 minutes to meld the flavors. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Puree using an immersion blender or food processor. Return to pot, heat through.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the mint and paprika. Remove from heat and allow to steep. Make the croutons using crusty bread and garlic olive oil.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls, drizzle with a bit of the mint butter and top with croutons.

Being a home canner I also had plenty of chicken stock on hand for this recipe, but store bought is just as good. You definitely want to make the croutons too. Get a good crusty French baguette, cut into nice size cubes and toss with melted butter and olive oil and toast them up in a cast iron skillet instead of in the oven. They retain a chewy texture that is just perfect for this creamy soup. Paired with a fall salad of mixed greens, toasted pecans and chopped fresh pears you have a delicious dinner in no time.

*You can also substitute 3 cups canned squash or pumpkin puree from the grocery store, and a little less than 1 1/2 cups of applesauce if you have it on hand- you're going to puree the soup anyway right? If you use fresh sliced apples you will want to simmer the soup until the apples are tender, which may be a bit longer.