Soups, Stocks + Sauces – Page 5 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pasta E Fagioli, Italian Pasta and Beans Soup

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring,…
Are you kidding me? Whoever the author was wasn’t in my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. It’s definitely not quiet in ours right now: my mother is vacuuming, my father is moving stuff around and I’m simultaneously getting the leg of lamb and pork roast ready for our noche buena, clanging around the kitchen.

I’m not a regular churchgoer, but you can count on me to attend Christmas Eve mass even if it’s cold outside and boring inside. Because it’s also the eve of my birthday, I’ve always found mass quite comforting before I turn a year older. Wherever I am, I make it a point to attend mass for my birthday. After mass, we dive in for dinner and eat until a little after midnight–Christmas Day itself is just recovering from the night before.

This pasta e fagioli recipe, or “pasta and beans” in Italian, is a hearty (and affordable!) filler to keep the hunger pangs away at least until after church, but not too heavy that you would want to skip the main attraction on the dining table. I used Goya pinto beans here because one package was on sale for 99 cents and substituted the Parmesan cheese for Manchego.

Ingredients:
1 cup pinto beans, soaked overnight in water
2 cups mini penne pasta
4 slices bacon, chopped
3 large beefsteak tomatoes, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
Manchego cheese
salt, pepper

1. Drain the water from the soaking beans. In a large saucepan, add 3 cups of water and bring the beans to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for an hour, or until tender. When done, transfer beans and water to a large container and set aside.
2. Using the same saucepan, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the garlic and sauté until light brown. Add the onions and sauté until translucent. Add the herbs, carrots, celery and tomatoes and stir to combine. Cook until carrots are tender.
3. Return the beans and the water to the saucepan and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add more water if you want more soup. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Add the macaroni and simmer for another 10 minutes, or just enough to cook the pasta. Stir occasionally. Ladle into bowls and grate cheese on top before serving.

Ham Hock Xiao Long Bao with Butternut Burst

I wanted to accomplish two things with this version of the Shanghainese xiao long bao, or soup dumplings: make my own dumpling wrap from scratch and put a spin to it by using butternut squash soup for October’s Supper with Strangers instead of the traditional stock made from pork skin and chicken broth. Although I was proud at making my first edibles ones without trying too hard, the soup didn’t burst as much as I would have liked. But now that I know that I’m capable of making them, I’ll take some other time to make the traditional version and make my Chinese friends proud.

Allow yourself some extra time to make the butternut squash soup and the ham hock filling first and save the dumpling-making a couple of hours before serving. (I made a whole batch of soup and only used 2 cups for the xiao long bao.) For my first try, I kneaded the dough by hand, but for our Supper, I found a pasta maker extremely helpful in making the dough as thin and pliable as I needed it to be. A small 2-layer bamboo steamer in Chinatown is $10 and it can fit about ten xiao long baos.

Ingredients:
For the roasted butternut squash soup:
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, sliced in half
1 carrot, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
fresh thyme
1 tbsp powdered gelatin
oil, salt, pepper

1. Make the butternut squash soup. Drizzle some oil on squash and season with thyme, salt and pepper. Roast squash in oven until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the squash meat to a bowl.
2. Combine carrot, celery and onion in a large stockpot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Simmer until carrot is soft. Add the squash meat. Season with thyme, salt and pepper. Cook and stir occasionally while mashing some of the vegetables with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Start with a small batch of the squash mixture and purée in food processor. Return each batch to another stockpot and simmer again. Add more water to make a soup consistency. Season to taste.
4. Transfer 2 cups of the soup to a small saucepan for the xiao long bao. Add powdered gelatin and let sit for 2 minutes. Stir bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into a small ice cube tray and refrigerate until ready to make the xiao long baos. Serve the rest as a soup starter another day.

For the ham hock:
3 smoked ham hocks, soaked in water overnight, then drained when ready to use
1 carrot, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Make the ham hock filling. Combine ham hocks, carrot, celery, onion and bay leaves in a large stockpot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Remove the impurities that rise to the top using a slotted spoon. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours or until the ham hocks are tender. When cooked, set the ham hocks aside and let cool. Discard the rest.
2. When cool enough to handle, remove the ham hock meat from the bones and roughly chop. In a small bowl, combine meat with ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil. Refrigerate until ready to make the xiao long baos.

For the xiao long bao wrappers:
2 cups of flour, and more for your work surface
1/3 cup of hot water
2/3 cup of room temperature water
5 leaves of napa cabbage

1. Make the xiao long baos wrappers. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the hot water and incorporate with your hands. Add the other 2/3 cup of water and mix to make dough. On a floured surface, use your hands to knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it becomes soft, smooth and bounces back slowly when you poke with your finger. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 3 portions. Using one portion at a time while rest of the dough is covered in plastic wrap, roll into a snake. Chop the snaked dough in 1-inch pieces. Feed each inch into a pasta maker and roll out, using thickest setting first and moving on to the 2nd and then the 3rd, until the dough is thin but pliable enough. I made one wrapper and assembled a xiao long bao one at a time to keep the dough from drying up.
3. Assemble the xiao long baos. Fill each wrapper with 1 tbsp of ham hock filling and a cube of butternut squash soup gelatin. Pinch and pleat the edges of the wrapper and twist to seal. Set assembled ones in a large bowl covered with a wet paper towel to keep moist until ready to steam.
4. Boil a large pot of water. Line each layer of the bamboo steamer with napa cabbage leaves. Place a few xiao long baos on each layer, cover and put on top of the pot of boiling water to steam for 10 to 15 minutes. They are cooked when translucent and moist.

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Most vegetable soups are thin and clean. I wanted to add some texture to this so I added rice to the carrot-ginger batch before puréeing it in the blender. The final result felt like oatmeal in my mouth and a flavorful soup that was heartier than usual.

Ingredients:
2 large carrots, peeled, chopped in large chunks
1 small- to medium-sized ginger, peeled, chopped
1/4 cup of rice
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, roughly chopped
6 sprigs of thyme
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped
3 bay leaves
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a stockpot, heat some olive oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic until slightly brown. Add onions and cook until soft, but do not brown. Add ginger, parsley, thyme and bay leaves and cook until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add carrots, rice and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until carrots are exceedingly tender, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to help cook the rice. Turn off heat and set aside to cool.
3. When cool, remove bay and discard bay leaves. Purée soup in blender in batches. Season with salt and pepper.

Vegetable and Dduk Chungol, Korean Hotpot

Have you seen that Anthony Bourdain episode shot in Seoul? I caught a rerun over the weekend and I salivated during the part when they ate a hot spicy soup with noodles after arriving in the country all jet-lagged and grouchy. He said it immediately made him feel better.

After two weeks of drinking almost everyday, I needed to recuperate, too. The Dr. said I made a chigae, or a soup, but because of all the vegetables I happily tossed in, I made a chungol or a hotpot with noodles. I’m sure his mother won’t approve that I bastardize a soup she can make with her eyes closed, but I liked how my hearty version turned out. It immediately made me feel better.

When reheating leftovers–oh, there will be plenty–add a small amount of water and another tablespoon of kochujang sauce.

Ingredients:
a handful of Korean dduk
a fistful of glass noodles
1 green bell pepper, seeded, chopped
2 eggplants, chopped in thick rounds only before adding to the pot
2 small potatoes, peeled, chopped
1 bunch of scallions, chopped in 1/2-inch pieces
4 tbsps kochujang, or Korean red pepper paste
ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp peanut oil
salt

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat the peanut oil. Add the ginger-garlic paste and scallions. Sauté and avoid burning the paste. Add the chopped eggplants and bell pepper. Toss and cook until they are half-cooked.
2. In the meantime, bowl some water in a small pot and cook the dduk for 7 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Back to the large pot of vegetables, add 3 cups of water and stir in the kochujang. Add the dduk and the potatoes. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt.
4. Remove pot from heat and stir in the noodles. The noodles will cook in the soup’s remaining heat. Serve immediately with rice.

Kalbi Tang, Korean Beef Rib Soup

I hurried home on Sunday afternoon because I was in the mood to spend the rest of my weekend cooking. The Dr. bought fresh perilla leaves from Koreatown before we left for Montauk in preparation for all the sashimi that we were going to eat after a planned fishing trip for striped bass. We didn’t catch any fish that weekend (neither did anyone on the entire boat), so he saved the leaves to use it for something else. His kalbi tang, or Korean beef rib soup, last Tuesday was so comforting that I badly wanted to recreate it at home.

It reminded me of the Filipino bulalo, or bone marrow soup, only less fatty. Browning the short ribs made the stock beefier and toastier. The perilla leaves added an interesting kick to it–I don’t know how else to describe the taste but medicinal. And really, after a pot of this soup with some warm white rice and kimchi, you’d feel a hundred per cent better already.

Ingredients:
6 pieces of beef short ribs
1 napa cabbage, chopped
10 pieces perilla leaves
2 tbsps soy bean paste
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, add some oil and brown all sides of the beef ribs. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the used oil. Try to get the darkest bits out from the oil. In the remaining oil, sauté the garlic until light brown and the onions until soft. Add the soy bean paste and stir.
3. Return the browned beef ribs in the pot and add 5 to 6 cups of water. Cover and simmer for about 2 to 3 hours. Check after 20 minutes to remove the impurities that float to the top. It’s okay if you discard some of the onions.
4. When the meat is almost falling off the bone, add cabbage and perilla leaves. Cook for another 10 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Season with some more soy bean paste if it needs extra salt.