Allll … most …. there …

The Soup and Bread Cookbook Kickstarter page has 50 backers, and pledges of just over $2,300! Only $700 to go and we’ll meet our goal.

This weekend I posted a mockup of the cover Sheila is working on. It is so cute it makes me weak in the knees.

The view from Videnovich Farms

A few weeks ago I took a field trip to Michigan. Destination: Videnovich Farms, the family land where my friend Vera raises chicken, sheep, and vegetables. Vera and I used to work together at the Reader, and for years she ran a small, Reader-only CSA program, which had her delivering bags of vegetables to the office once a week all summer and fall.   After she was laid off in 2007 she decided to try and make a go of farming full time.

After hanging out with her for an afternoon, all I can say is I don’t know how she does it. And those vegetables? They’re underpriced by any minimum wage standard.

She shares the land with two of her four brothers, one of whom raises peppers that he sells to the Serbian community.

The other raises soybeans and white Concord grapes, which he sells to Welch’s. When the grapes are ripe on the vine, the whole farm smells like a lunchroom full of first graders.

On her corner of the farm, Vera specializes in rare, Old World vegetable varieties that reflect her Serbian roots. Eggplant, okra, beans, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, and more peppers. Sadly, her tomato crop, like so many, was devastated this year by blight.  The carnage — rows of mangy, rotting, inedible fruit — was painful to see.

But on the day I visited the okra, though late in ripening, was bountiful. And, beautiful.

I helped her pick a row — down once side and back up another. After about two hours this is what we had. Also, I had a little sunburn.

When Vera’s out there, she sleeps on the sofa in the main house, which is otherwise uninhabitable. The bathroom is in the barn. And every square foot of the farm’s uncultivated land seems to be full of old cars and rusty farm equipment, which her brothers buy at auction and then sell on the scrap metal market.

But there is also a passel of brilliantly colored chickens.

And some seriously adorable sheep. In the off-season, Vera spins their wool into yarn and knits sweaters and other wooly goods to sell at craft fairs like this weekend’s Handmade Market at the Empty Bottle. (Next weekend, for all you yarn geeks, she and her portable spinning wheel will be at YarnCon at Pulaski Park.)

Vera sells at the Andersonville and Logan Square farmers’ markets, and distributes her CSA at the Hideout. After seeing first-hand how hard she was working, we decided to dedicate this week’s bingo proceeds to her. OK, it’s not exactly “urban agriculture,” but independent entrepreneurs like her are in the vanguard of the movement to find creative, small-scale ways to bring farm-fresh produce to the city. Today, she says she’s going to bring some ajvar — Serbian pepper relish — to donate to the prize pot. You don’t want to miss this stuff; it is DELISH.

So, see you tonight, with our guest callers David Kodeski and Diana Slickman, of BoyGirlBoyGirl and Theater Oobleck. That’s from 6 to 8 PM at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia. Bingo, beer, and hot dogs (and their veggie friends) — what more could you want?

I give up

And I join Twitter.

You can now follow Soup and Bread (and Bingo!) on Twitter.

@soupandbread

Sigh.

Squash Soup with a side of TIFs

On Wednesday I hugged an alderman.

I don’t know what prompted this breach of protocol. I can only plead that the infectious high spirits of the crowd got the better of me.

And, wow, what a crowd. Who knew so many people wanted to spend their happy hour talking about tax increment financing? Though, I suppose most municipal financing mechanisms do go down better with a pint or three of Bell’s.

In any case, it was SRO in the back room as Ben Joravsky, Daniel X. O’Neil, Scott Waguespack, and moderator Mark Bazer talked TIFs for a good hour and a half. We had the feed from the back piped through the speakers in the front, but honesty, I didn’t really follow much of what was going on, so if anyone out there happened to document it, please let me know. Did I mention it was really busy?

It was a race to the soup line all day, in fact. I woke to discover that not only had Anastasia come down with the flu, she had a house full of chicken pox and pinkeye to boot. So, no soup from her.

Luckily, I had picked up some soup fixings the night before. In honor of Helen’s squash ring, I settled on a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup out of Jessica Prentices’s Full Moon Feast, one of the ur-texts of the local, seasonal cooking movement. (And a great read full of a lot more folklore and digressive storytelling than actual recipes.)

By Prentice’s calendar, which divides the year by cycles of the moon, the end of April is the “Milk Moon.” But the Milk Moon chapter only yielded recipes for yogurt and kefir. So, contra the seasonal-eating ethic — but fully in the spirit of storing winter veg in the root cellar — I flipped back a few months to the Wolf Moon chapter and picked up the following recipe:

2 Tble butter or olive oil

2-3 leeks, sliced into rounds

1 fresh, seasonal butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

Chicken stock or filtered water to cover

1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, parsley, thyme,rosemary)

1/2 c cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt; or 1 cup buttermilk or half-and-half

Salt and pepper to taste

Creme fraiche or yogurt for garnish

Finely minced rosemary, thyme, sage, or parsley leaves (or a combination of these herbs); or a grating of nutmeg; or a grind of black pepper, for garnish

I multiplied this recipe by four, and used a total of 3 butternut and 3 acorn squash, roasting them the night before to bring out their sugar. Wednesday morning I chopped up the leeks and set them to saute with butter in the bottom of the soup pot. When they were soft I added the chopped, roasted squash, the bouquet garni, and covered with chicken stock.

Simmered that for about 40 minutes, then pureed in the blender in batches, adding a splash of buttermilk to each batch (went through a quart of buttermilk in all). Added salt and lots of pepper, recombined all into one big pot, and left on low heat till it was time to head to the bar. Served with a dollop of greek yogurt and some chopped parsley, thyme, and rosemary, it was, I have to say, pretty damn good.

I didn’t get a chance to try Celeste’s Spring Pea Soup with Creme Fraiche, but the Spinach-Pepper-Zucchini-Cheese Delite, which showed up from trusty Swim just as the other crocks ran dry, was crazy good. Very rich, but hearty thanks to heaps of rice and tangy thanks to …. pickles? Yes, pickles.

We raised $210 in additional donations for the Food Depository, for a grand total of $2,771. I’ll be sending the balance off today. 

And now, we really mean it. No more Soup and Bread till next winter! But watch this space for news of our exciting summer plans (currently in committee). It’s going to be good. And if we can persuade any more local politicos to come lend a hand, I promise to keep a respectful distance. Sorry, Alderman Waguespack!

Beef chili

  

From Julie Mueller/Entrees by You

[Editors note: Better late than never! This chili was served March 11 and it was freakin' delicious.]

Brown 2 pounds of ground beef (80/20) in a large skillet or saucepan. Drain and season with 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. red pepper flakes, and 1.5 tsp. salt.  Add 4 Tbls butter to skillet and saute:

1.5 cup diced fresh red pepper

1.5 cup diced fresh green pepper

2.5 cup diced fresh onions

4 cups celery 

Add to the skillet:

24 ounces diced tomatoes

15 ounce can of red beans

15 ounce can of kidney beans

15 ounce can of chili beans

15 ounce can of black beans

Simmer for 45 minutes.  The chili tastes better the next day. 

Chicken and Nettle Soup

From Vera Videnovich

[Says Vera: "Free-range chicken has more flavor and will create it's own stock. Serving suggestion: add a tablespoon of plain yogurt and squeeze of lemon juice to each bowl."]

Ingredients (all measurements are approximate)

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 onion, chopped

water (to fill stock pot)

2 bay leaves

4 potatoes, cubed

salt, pepper to taste

2 cups fresh nettles *

1 egg

Use a thick-bottomed stock pot, if available, for a one-pot process. A large crock pot will also do the job. 

Heat the pot then add the oil. When the oil is warm add carrots, celery, and onions cooking over a low heat until the onions soften. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add potatoes, bay leaves, and water to fill the pot. Cook at low heat until the meat is fully cooked and falls from the bones. Remove the chicken from the stock and when cool enough to handle discard the skin and bones. 

At this point you may cool the soup stock and skim the fat.

Shred the meat into bite-size pieces and return to the heated stock. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Add nettles and let them slowly cook for a minute or two. 

Beat the egg and slowly pour into the stock pot while stirring. The eggs will cook in the hot water creating “egg drops.”

Place lid on the pot and remove from heat and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving. 

* spinach, sorrel, or other spring greens may be substituted. 

Acorn and butternut squash soup

 

From Jack Newell

[Says Jack: This soup is a slight variation on a recipe from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's fantastic book, A Return to Cooking, which is half cookbook, half L.L. Bean magazine starring Eric Ripert doing different rustic, food-related things all the while looking fabulous.]

Serves 6

 

Ingredient List

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup sliced onions

2 cups peeled and diced acorn squash

2 cups peeled and diced butternut squash

Fine sea salt

Fresh ground white pepper (fresh and white is very important here)

5 cups chicken stock

1 cup heavy cream

3 thyme sprigs

3 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

1 tbs walnut oil

1 nutmeg – for grating

honey (optional)

cayenne (optional)

minced ginger (optional)

Special Equipment (all optional)

Cheesecloth

Kitchen string

Food processor

Melt 2 tbs of the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the acorn and butternut squash and saute until softened, about 10 minutes. Season w/ salt and pepper to taste.

Cover with the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until squash is tender, about 30 minutes.

Puree the soup until satiny-smooth. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any particulate. Return soup to pot. Add cream and the remaining 4 tbs of butter. Bring to a simmer.

Wrap the time in the cheesecloth and tie the package with the string. Add to the simmering soup and let infuse for 10 minutes. Remove the thyme. Add the cheese, grated nutmeg, honey, cayenne (if using). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Guest soup chefs, Feb 18

Coming up this week:

Hideout sound man/musician Pierce Doerr

Chicagoist food editor Chuck Sudo

Music writer/property inspector Joshua Westlund

The everfabulous Swim Café

And a very special guest,

32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack

with bread from

Fruit Slinger’s Daniel Shumski

Is that a lineup or what?

See you there!

You can do it!

I know — it’s snowing. And it’s 4 degrees outside, with a predicted windchill of -30 by tonight. And I know all you really want to do this evening is curl up in a ball and watch Top Chef.

All the more reason to zip yourself into your snowsuit and come to the Hideout for soup. Imagine the feeling of personal accomplishment! 

Plus, there’s free soup. And banana bread.

And hopefully no gas leak.

Big ups in advance to tonight’s guest soup chefs: Amy Lombardi, Heather Shouse, and the Handlebar.  I can’t wait to see what they’ve got cooking.