BINGO IS BACK!

Veggie Bingo is back at the Hideout! We start up tonight (7/11) at 5:30 — so come on out!

We’ll be calling games and grilling dogs at the Hideout to support Chicago’s community gardens. Co-sponsored by NeighborSpace, Hideout Veggie Bingo features a grand prize of fresh produce from Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks and a cornucopia of other prizes drawn from local artisanal food producers, farmers, and gardeners – plus FREE HOT DOGS donated by Hot Doug’s. Bingo cards are $2 each, or 3 for $5; all proceeds benefit local gardens.

Our callers July 11 are photographer Jim Newberry and recording engineer Stan Wood; stay tuned as we announce additional celebrity guests. Kids welcome as long as they’re with a responsible grownup.

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Tadashi Ramen: Pork, Beef and Chicken Dashi, Pork Belly Sous Vide, Pickled Shiitake Mushrooms

From Hugh Amano

Serves roughly 10

The dashi found in last year’s Pork Dumpling Gang has been developed and enriched here with the addition of roasted beef and pork neck bones, chicken feet and pig trotters. The broth gets a huge bolt of smokiness from bacon ends from Benton’s in Tennessee, but a standard bacon can be used–the smokier the better. The pork belly is cooked sous-vide, meaning it is sealed in an airtight bag, which is placed in water and cooked low and slow, essentially braising in its own juices. There’s more at Hugh’s blog, Food on the Dole.

For the dashi:

Ingredients

2 pounds beef neck bones
2 pounds pork neck bones
2 large pieces of Kombu
1 pound chicken backs or bones
1 pound chicken feet
2 pig trotters
1 pound smoky bacon, the smokiest you can get
2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms
2 onions, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 bunch scallions, sliced
2 star anise
1/2 cup cane vinegar, or to taste
1/2 cup soy sauce, or to taste

Preparation
Heat oven to 400°. Put beef and pork neck bones on sheet pan and roast in oven for 30 minutes. Flip bones and roast for an additional 15-30 minutes, until bones are deeply roasted.

While bones are roasting, put kombu in large stock pot and cover with 20 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Let steep for 10 minutes. Remove kombu and discard or save for another use.

Put raw chicken backs or bones, chicken feet, pig trotters and bacon into the kombu water and return to the stove over medium heat.

When the beef and pork bones are done roasting, pour off any melted fat and save for another use. Add roasted bones to the water. Put roasting pan over a high flame and pour a cup or so of water into the pan to deglaze it. Scrape the pan with a spoon or spatula to remove any flavorful bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour all of this goodness into the stockpot with the bones. Be sure bones are submerged. If more water is required to submerge bones, add whatever it takes.

Bring stock just to a simmer, and allow to simmer slowly (a bubble or two every couple of seconds) overnight, occasionally skimming any scum that forms on top. Naturally, water will evaporate from the pot, so take note of the liquid’s starting level and replenish every hour or so as necessary.

Add mushrooms, onions, carrots, scallions and star anise. Simmer for one more hour.

Remove from heat and let fully cool under refrigeration or, if it is winter in Chicago, on a porch/stoop/fire escape. When cooled, the stock will be separated into solid fat at the top and gelatin beneath the fat. Scrape solidified fat from the top of the stock and discard, or save for another use, then reheat the stock until it is liquid again. Strain the stock through the finest strainer available. Reserve mushrooms for the pickled shiitake mushrooms and discard everything else.

Taste stock and add cane vinegar and soy sauce. Stir stock completely and taste again. Adjust flavor using additional amounts of these two seasoning agents. This broth should last about seven days.

For the pork belly:

Ingredients
2 pounds boneless pork belly, skin off
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 star anise
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Place all ingredients in plastic bag designed to be vacuum sealed, evenly spacing ingredients. Vacuum seal bag, then place in an immersion circulator set around 142 degrees and cook for 12 hours. Let pork belly cool, then place in a pan, still in the bag. Cover with another pan, then weigh this pan down with heavy cans and refrigerate overnight. The idea is to compress the pork belly into a compact “block”. After pressing, remove belly from its bag. When ready to serve, sear pork belly on a hot cast iron pan over medium high heat, 3 minutes per side. Let cool slightly, then cut into thin slices.

For the pickled shiitake mushrooms:

Ingredients
Reserved shiitake mushrooms from dashi, sliced thin
1/4 cup dashi
1/2 cup cane vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sambal (chile paste)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

Preparation
Bring all ingredients but the mushrooms to a boil. Pour over mushrooms and let cool. Cover and keep refrigerated. This’ll keep for about a week.

To assemble dish:
Good quality packaged or homemade ramen noodles (available in most Asian markets)
pork, beef and chicken dashi
pork belly sous vide
pickled shiitake mushrooms
scallions, sliced
radish Sprouts
nori

Simmer noodles until cooked, then rinse in a bowl of very hot water. Drain, then place in a bowl. Add a few slices of pork belly and a few pickled shiitake mushrooms, arranging in an attractive manner. Sprinkle scallions and radish sprouts in bowl. Place a piece of nori in the bowl. Present to your guests. At the table, ladle hot dashi into each bowl. Serve with chopsticks.

Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons

From Sarah Steedman

Sarah picked this soup because she wanted to make something seasonal, and while not a lot is in season in March, you may well have some onions lurking in your root cellar — if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s adapted from a recipe in the March 2010 issue of Bon Appetit.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, divided
24 cups thinly sliced onions (about 5 3/4 pounds)
8 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 cups multigrain bread, cut into ½” cubes
3/4 cups coarsely grated gruyere cheese
3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons (or more) white wine vinegar

Preparation

Melt six tablespoons butter in an extra-large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until onions begin to soften, 15 to 18 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and sauté until onions are very tender, stirring often and adjusting heat as needed, one hour longer.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss bread cubes with cheese, one tablespoon thyme and two tablespoons melted butter, season with salt and pepper and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cheese has melted and bread is lightly crisp, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Add eight cups broth to onions in pot and bring to boil.  Add two tablespoons thyme.  Reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes to blend flavors. Cool slightly.  Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to same pot and add more broth by 1/4 cupfuls to thin soup to desired consistency.  Season soup to taste with vinegar, salt and pepper.

Divide warm soup among eight bowls. Sprinkle each serving with croutons.

White Bean, Tomato and Basil Soup

From Monica and Laura Fox

Serves 12

Laura and her mother Monica teamed up for this fresh and hearty (if dark) variation on tomato-basil soup.

Ingredients
4 15-ounce cans of cannellini (white) beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
10 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 sprig parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 pound new potatoes, peeled and diced
1 pound can of Contadina diced tomatoes with the liquid (don’t drain!)
2 medium zucchinis sliced, or a bunch of green beans or spinach
3 tablespoons fresh basil

Make a bouquet garni from the bay leaf, parsley and thyme. I wrap these into a coffee filter with a rubber band or twist tie around it. Sweat the onion and half the garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Add the white beans, water, chicken broth, bouquet garni and diced potatoes and simmer for one hour.

Add remaining garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and thyme and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in vegetable and a dash of pepper and simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir in fresh basil and you’re done.

Leek and Potato Soup with Chicken Stock

From Todd and Julia McDonald

Todd and Julia McDonald run Peasants’ Plot, a 20-acre plot of land just 50 miles south of downtown Chicago where they grow organic vegetables for their CSA.  They will be dropping vegetables off at the Hideout every Thursday this year from June to October for CSA members. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got to taste their soup – but, hey, it sure looks good.

Ingredients

2 pounds leeks
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon thyme
1 bay leaf
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
6 cups chicken stock
salt to taste
pepper to taste
fresh parsley or chives

Preparation

Trim root ends and upper green tops of leeks.  Dice, and then wash in a large basin of cold water.  Once the dirt has settled, scoop the diced leeks out with a sieve or strainer.  Drain and set aside.

Heat a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.  Add the butter, followed by the leeks, thyme and bay leaf. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the leeks are tender, about 10 minutes.  Add the potatoes to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes.  Pour in the chicken stock, season with salt, and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to maintain a low simmer and continue cooking until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart.  Taste for salt and adjust as needed.  Let the soup cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight or for several hours.

Before serving, remove the bay leaf and reheat the soup over medium heat and taste again for salt. Finish with black pepper and parsley or chives.

Thai Carrot Soup

From Gillian McLennan

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola (rapeseed) oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 inch knob ginger, grated or minced
1 pound carrots, about 6 large carrots or 10 medium, sliced thin
1 potato, diced
3-4 cups vegetable stock (maybe more)
1 cup coconut milk, plus extra for serving
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons orange juice (juice of 1/2 orange)
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
snipped mint leaves, coriander, or chives

Preparation
Heat the oil in a soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the curry powder and turmeric, then stir in the onion and sauté over medium heat. After five minutes, add the ginger, potato and carrot. Stir.

Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium, and cook about 20-25 minutes or until the carrots are soft. You may have to add more stock or water – make sure the carrots are covered and don’t dry out. (But don’t drown them in liquid, either—enough to cover is fine.)

When the carrots are soft enough to break easily with a wooden spoon, remove the pan from heat and stir in the peanut butter. Let cool for 5 minutes. Pour the carrots into a food processor or blender and whiz until smooth (at high speed for several minutes). Add the coconut milk, lime juice, and orange juice, and whiz again. If the mixture is too thick, add more stock or orange juice or a combination of the two.

If necessary, heat the mixture in the same pan briefly before serving. Pour a stream of the extra coconut milk into the top of the soup after filling bowls. Garnish with mint leaves, or coriander (cilantro) or chives, depending on your taste.

Broccoli-Beer Soup

From Gary Marx, Executive Chef, Pike Brewing Company

Pike Brewing office manager Patti Roeder arrived at the Funhouse last sunday with a GIANT potful of this creamy soup. Thanks so much Patti!

Ingredients

2 pounds diced onions
1/2 pound butter
1 tablespoon granulated onion
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
10 ounces flour (by weight)
2 gallons water
2 ounces mushroom base
3 cups Pike Pale Ale
2 pounds broccoli
2 pounds Beecher’s white cheddar
2 pounds Tillamook white cheddar
2 quarts half and half
water—flour slurry: 2 cups water/1 cup flour

Preparation

Add butter, onions, granulated onion, granulated garlic and sauté for 3 minutes. Add flour and cook an additional 3 minutes.
Add water, mushroom base, Pike Pale Ale, and broccoli then simmer for 20-30 minutes. When broccoli is cooked well, puree until smooth with an immersion blender, or decant into standing blender then return to pot. Add cheeses and half & half and simmer for 30 minutes. Add slurry to thicken; stir, and remove from heat.

Wayward Catholic Chicken Soup

From Kerri Harrop

The first of our Seattle recipes! More to come. As for this one, sad to say I got not even a spoonful. So I’ll just have to go with Kerri’s description. To wit: “Little old Jewish ladies get all the props for good chicken soup, but I grew up eating bowls of my Nana’s Irish Catholic version, which gets its designation by the omission of matzoh balls and the addition of crackers. Very Body of Christ, but without all the Latin. I am not a very good Catholic AT ALL, but I think it helps the process if you say, ‘Jaysus, Mary and Joseph, that shit is delicious,’ when you taste it.”

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
Homemade chicken stock (see below)
1 sweet onion
4 or 5 stalks of celery
4 or 5 nice looking carrots
1 clove of garlic
coarse sea salt
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
noodles
saltine crackers

Preparation

First, you gotta roast a chicken for dinner, one or two days before you make soup. I like to rub the bird with olive oil and a secret blend of herbs and spices, stick a lemon (halved) in its cavity, and stuff garlic under its skin. After you have dinner, put the leftovers in the fridge, including all the bones.

The next day, you need to remove the meat from the bird’s cold carcass. I think it is easier when it is cold, plus you probably don’t want to do it after dinner because you are full and just wanna watch a movie or something.

Wrap up the meat and put it back in the fridge. Take all of the bones and whatever potentially gross things are left (skin, wings, bits of fat) and throw it all in a stock pot. Some people say you should throw away the skin and fat, but that is bullshit. You are gonna skim it, anyway.

Cover this mess with water and get it boiling. You should add in some onion, and whatever vegetables you wanna get rid of. You are not eating the veggies, so it can be stuff that is kind of dodgy. You definitely wanna throw in a couple of carrots and some celery. Parlsey, too. Chopped up, obviously.

Once it hits boiling, drop the heat to a low simmer and let it cook for as long as you possibly can. Like, all day. The longer it cooks, the better it will be. Throw in some salt, some pepper, and whatever else tickles your fancy. Just don’t get too weird.

When you have had enough of that stock simmering away, skim the surface and then strain through a colander. Be careful, it is hot. Now you have chicken stock!

OK, so make some soup. Chop the onion up nicely, and sauté it in some olive oil. The pot you are using to cook it is your soup pot so make sure it is big enough. Once the onion is getting soft and pretty, throw in a clove or two of minced garlic. Don’t let it get too brown.

While this is going on, you should have been getting your chicken ready. How you do that is up to you. If you like it shredded, go for it. If you like chunks, get chopping. Mix it up with both ways if you want, I don’t care.

Add the chicken to your onion and garlic, and give it a little stir. It should smell super. The chicken is already cooked, so don’t overdo it. Once everything has gotten to know each other, throw in your chicken stock. If you don’t have enough, you can use some store-bought. Just make sure it isn’t gross. Spend the extra money.

Reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Now, chop up your celery and carrots. Again, how you do this is up to you. It’s a free country!

Throw that veg in the pot. Do you like other stuff in your chicken soup? Go ahead and add it. Sometimes fresh green beans are lovely, or maybe some English peas. Have a tomato that is about to go south? It can go in the pot, no big whoop.

Add salt and pepper. Don’t be stingy. Now, just let it simmer all day. Hopefully you have a baguette on hand, so you can dunk it in and taste the soup when the smell is just driving you crazy with hunger.

There are a few schools of thought when it comes to adding noodles. Me, I wait until the last half hour or so. The longer those noodles are in the soup, the more they will soak up the broth. They will expand, and that is not a bad thing but I like them a little more controlled.

Whatever you do, make sure you boil the noodles in a separate pot. If you just throw in dry noodles, the soup will be too starchy. I think classic egg noodles are best, plus they kind of fuck with the whole chicken and egg idea. But you can use whatever.

Don’t like noodles? Try rice! Want your soup to be more like a stew? Use potatoes! Feeling weird? Throw in a yam, or some squash. Just make sure you boil all this stuff to at least al dente before you add it. Again: starch city.

Starving? Have a bowl of soup. Crumble up some saltines on top, it is delicious. If you are feeling fancy, you can sprinkle some chopped parsley on top. Use the Italian version — it is way better. Drink some red wine with it. Almost everything is better with red wine. My Nana would agree.

English Onion Soup (Because who needs the French?)

From Robin Linn

Serves 6

What makes this English? Well, Robin used beer, rather than wine, and garnished her soup with extrasharp Cheddar, rather than Gruyere. And, of course, a dash of Worcestershire sauce makes everything veddy proper. Says Robin: “I adapted this from a few different recipes, including those by two of my favorite gents – Jamie Oliver and Chris Kimball. Getting the maximum onion flavor takes a few hours, but it’s worth it.”

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
olive oil
4 lbs of assorted onions, peeled and sliced (I used yellow, red, white, shallots, leeks)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
½ cup English beer
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
6 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
ground black pepper
salt

sage, extrasharp Cheddar, Worcestershire sauce (all optional)

Preparation

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly coat the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed, oven-proof pot or Dutch oven with olive oil. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume).

Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 ½ to 1 ¾ hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot halfway through.

Remove pot from oven and place on stove over medium-high heat. Continue to cook the onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)

Stir in ¼ cup water, scraping the pot to loosen crust, and cook until the water evaporates and another dark crust has formed on the bottom of the pot, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing a couple more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the beer and cook, stirring frequently, until it evaporates, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and ½ teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.

Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

Top with croutons and Cheddar cheese, then broil (or just crumble cheese on top). Add fried sage leaves and a hit of Worcestershire sauce. Serve.

Soup & Bread 2011 is on — are you in?

 

Soup & Bread starts Wednesday, January 5 and runs every Wednesday through April 13, from 5:30 to 7:30, at the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia. Each week we’ll offer up six or more delicious soups made by professional and amateur cooks, as well as bread donated from local bakeries and the pastry class at the Illinois Institute of Art Culinary School. There is never a cover charge, and it’s always family friendly. And, as ever, we’ll be collecting donations for different local food pantries and hunger relief organizations to keep the soup hot all over town. On January 5 our donations benefit the Casa Catalina Food Pantry in Back of the Yards.

And … what’s that you say? You want to share your grandma’s chicken noodle soup with the world? You’ve been experimenting with pork-belly broths? You’re perfecting your vegan chowder? You want, in other words, to take on the awesome responsibility of being a Soup & Bread cook? You’re on. Email Martha at soupnbread10 [at] gmail [dot] com to get on the schedule. As a bonus, your tasty soup recipe could be included in one of 2011’s Soupscription packs of recipe cards.* Oh, the fame!

More on our soup cooks as we line them up, plus extra special bonus kickoff night programming — both culinary and otherwise — coming soon.

Stay warm,

xo Soup & Bread

* You can come check out the cards, the 2009 cookbook, and the rest of our sweet new merchandise at the Hideout Holiday Sale, 6-9 p.m.  Tuesday December 14 and 21, at, der, the Hideout.