Southwestern Squash Soup with Spiced Pepitas and Tofu Crema

Southwestern Squash Soup with Spiced Pepitas and Tofu Crema

Serves 10

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves,minced

3 tbsp olive oil

1 celery , diced

1 carrot,diced

2  tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

1/2 tsp Spanish smoked paprika

1/4 tsp white pepper

2 tbsp lime

1 can coconut milk

6 cups diced butternut squash, tossed in EVOO, s&p and roasted (about 4 lbs of squash)

8 cups veg stock

Spiced Pepitas (recipe to follow)

Tofu crema (recipe to follow) or sour cream

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until transclucent. Add celery and carrot and continue sautéing until tender. Add spices and mix well and sauté until spices are fragrant.

Add roasted squash and broth and simmer for 15 minutes.

Let cool a bit and process in a blender until smooth. Add lime, coconut milk, salt and white pepper to taste. Add extra broth if needed to thin. Heat gently and serve with spiced pepitas and tofu crema or sour cream.

Spiced Pepitas

10 servings (on soup)

1 cup raw pepitas

1 tbsp sea salt/ 

½ tbsp ancho chile powder

½ tbsp smoked paprika

½ tbsp cumin

½ tbsp chipotle powder

2 tbsp canola oil

Preheat oven to 350. Toss pepitas in oil; mix spices together and then coat the nuts. 


Put on baking pan and toast 7-10 minutes. 


Remove from pan and cool. Sprinkle on soup to finish. 

Tofu Sour Cream

Yield:  1 1/2 cups or 24 tbsp

Serving Size: 1tbsp

4 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp lime juice

1 pound firm tofu, drained

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp canola or safflower oil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1. Crumble tofu and transfer to blender.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

3. Add salt and white pepper, to taste

Friday Night Dinner at The Natural Gourmet Institute: TONIGHT!

Tonight is the dinner that Kiki and I are doing at the Natural Gourmet.  We are working with an excellent crew of students so its going to be excellent! Come join us!

There is one 6:30pm seating. Its a three course meal and its BYOB so its the best deal in town for $40. There is still a few reservations available  so call 212-645-5170 (ext 0) to reserve a spot. Visa, Master Card, and American Express are accepted

Southwestern Butternut Squash Soup with Tofu Crema and Spiced Pepitas   

Grilled Orange-Ancho Glazed Portobello Mushrooms over Pinto Bean, Roasted Poblano, Spinach Ragout 

with Cilantro-Infused Quinoa and Jicama-Red Cabbage Slaw 

  

Spicy Dark Chocolate Pudding with Nut Crème and Sweet Cinnamon Tortilla Crisp

Heirloom Apple, Green Chile, and Roasted Pinon Nut Relish

Heirloom Apple, Green Chile, and Roasted Pinon Nut Relish

(yields 8 pint sized mason jars)

Good as an accompaniment to roasted chicken or pork. Also good in a quesadilla with gruyere or swiss cheese.

1 large red onion, diced neatly

8 medium sized red skinned heirloom apples, diced neatly and tossed with 1/2 cup of the apple cider vinegar

2 T. olive oil

1 cup apple cider vinegar, divided

4 cups roasted, peeled, and diced hot NM green chile and sweet red chile

2 cups whole pinon nuts, toasted until golden

6 cups reduced heirloom apple cider

1 Tblsp kosher salt

Quickly saute the diced red onion in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until crisp-tender and deglaze with 1/2 cup of the apple cider vinegar. Stir the onions quickly then remove them to a small stainless steel pot.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of live oil then quickly saute the diced apples, also to crisp-tender.

Add the sauteed apples and all the remaining ingredients to the pot wit the onions and stir well. Taste the relish for salt and adjust if necessary.

The relish can be cooled and refrigerated and used witin one week or canned according to the canning directions on the Mason Jar package.

Concord Grape Mousse Parfaits

The CSA I belong to provides many opportunities for creative culinary thinking. This summer my challenge was green beans and squash and how to use them in different ways each week when tons arrived so that I didn't get sick to death of them. I mean, really, a pound of green beans each week? Oy.

This fall, my challenge is concord grapes and pears. I'll highlight
some of the recipes that were my favorites on my blog this fall.

Coming up, Pear and Pecan Bread...yum.

I was inspired by Deborah Madison to find an interesting way to use these grapes. They have so many seeds that I don't enjoy eating them raw so I wanted to find something to do with them.  Deborah made an amazing concord grape pie as part of the Santa Fe Culinary Tour lunch that was delicious but very time-consuming. I was looking for more simplicity and her Local Flavors cookbook had just the solution with this mousse. The colors are striking and it tastes surprisingly light and fresh. Adding the nuts gives it a bit of a PB&J-like flavor but I personally think that's a good thing....

Concord Grape Mousse Parfaits
Serves 4

1 quart container of concord grapes, de-stemmed
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon
2 tablespoons agar agar (or one envelope of gelatin)
2 egg whites

1 pint of whipped cream
Mint sprigs (optional)
1/4 cup crushed cashews (optional)

Rinse grapes and put in saucepan with water, sugar and lemon. Simmer on
medium heat until grapes break down and become soft, about 6-10 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a chinois or fine-mesh strainer, over a mixing bowl
and mash the grapes to remove all of the juices.

Put juice back into saucepan and add agar or gelatin and simmer and stir until dissolved. Pour
into a container to cool and then cover and refrigerate until set firmly.

Scoop jelled juice into food processor and whip until smooth. Beat two egg
whites until you get soft peaks and then fold into whipped grape mixture
completely. Whip cream until light and fluffy.

Put alternating layers of grape mousse and whipped cream into parfait
glasses. Cover and chill about 2 hours. Top with crushed cashews and mint
to serve.

Upcoming Chef's Tasting Dinner at The Natural Gourmet

I wanted to let you all know that I will be making a Southwestern meal as a guest chef at the Natural Gourmet Culinary Institiute, as part of their Friday Night Dinner programs. 

The date is Friday, November 6th and there is one 6:30pm seating. Its a three course meal and its BYOB so its the best deal in town for $40. Reservations are REQUIRED so call 212-645-5170 (ext 0) to reserve a spot. Visa, Master Card, and American Express are accepted

Southwestern Butternut Squash Soup with Tofu Crema and Spiced Pepitas    

Grilled Orange-Ancho Glazed Portobello Mushrooms over Pinto Bean, Roasted Poblano, Spinach Ragout 

with Cilantro-Infused Quinoa and Jicama-Red Cabbage Slaw 

   

Spicy Dark Chocolate Pudding with Nut Crème and Sweet Cinnamon Tortilla Crisp

A New Mexican Fall Lunch with Deborah Madison

Its not often that a person gets to meet their professional idol, let alone dine in their home, so I count myself very lucky indeed that I had the chance to work with Deborah Madison, famed chef and cookbook author, to organize a very special lunch for this tour.

For many years, my primary go-to cookbook was Deborah's tome, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I still pull it out frequently when I'm trying to find something interesting to do with a little-used vegetable or I want an impressive meatless entree. She has a real talent for coaxing really terrific tastes out of very simple, seasonal fare. I have never been disappointed with a recipe of hers. When I discovered that she had moved from the Bay area, where she opened Greens restaurant and had worked at Chez Panisse, to 

Galisteo, New Mexico, I was hopeful that she would be interested in being a part of my culinary tour.

 

After an introduction from my friend, the culinary goddess and Santa Fe Caterer Marja Martin, Deborah was very enthusiastic about the idea of bringing foodies to Northern New Mexico to enchant them with all the delicious food coming from the region. She created this meal to highlight some of her most favorite October produce and a very special meat grower in Galisteo, Talus Wind. I noticed that their meats were on many very respectable menus, including Amavi and Cafe Pasqual. Everyone who knows food was raving about how good their stuff is. I am hoping to make them a stop on next year's tour.

Deborah started our afternoon with a tour of her garden, which
was still flourishing even after the first frost. We had Gruet Sparkling
Brut and Shisito peppers as we strolled around her apple trees and the garden and got to know each other a bit.  The lunch was served in her sunlit dining room, an elaborate feast that unified classic New Mexican ingredients and flavors with elements from the Middle East and Europe. I've listed the menu below to get a sense of what she served. Each course was a delight.

A New Mexican Fall Lunch

Sweet and Salty New Mexican pecans with red chile

Sauteed Shishito peppers

Gruet sparkling wine

Posole with winter squash and red chile

Slow-roasted spice-covered lamb from Talus Wind Ranch

Vegetable ragout from the farmers market

Smoked Emmer wheat from Ayer's Creek Farm with rice

Yogurt sauce

Whole wheat tortillas

Gruet pinot noir

A selection of goat cheese from South Mountain Dairy

Salad from Deborah's garden-lettuce and herbs

Concord Grape Tart

Coffee, Tea

Chocolate bark with red chile

An Apple Extravaganza in Tesuque, New Mexico

Our adventure today was an afternoon just north of Santa Fe in Tesuque, at the magnificent orchard of Paula and Michael called Three Dog Trees. They were hosting a group of twelve of us for an afternoon of apple-picking, cider-making and an fall lunch on their portal overlooking the orchard.

The orchard dates back to the 1950's but most of the 62 heirloom apple, plum and peach trees were planted in the mid-70's. Paula and Michael have lived there since then and they manage the orchard without any chemical insecticides or fungicides. Instead, they use "bread clips" on the trees that are a pheromone mating disruptant that minimizes coddling moth damage. These wires flood the orchard with the pheromone male coddling moths use to find females during mating, thereby minimizing mating success. Perhaps torture to the moths, but kind to the trees....

The gang of us, foodies from all walks of life, were given baskets when we arrived and Michael showed us around the orchard and we picked apples of many colors, sizes and shapes from the trees, each unique from one another. To make the festive event more so, Marja brought us all one of Paula's famous Orchard Cocktails. Ellen is holding one in the picture above. I have a whole new respect for the potential of apple cider now....

Orchard Cocktail

4 servings

3/4 cup gold tequila

2/3 cup apple cider

2 Tblsp lemon juice

2 Tblsp creme de cassis

Mix in pitcher and pour over ice. 

Based on original recipe from Rancho de Chimayo

Paula is a fantastic cook and crafted a very special menu for us, highlighting the goods from the orchard, ranging from the eggs from her chickens to the caramelized apple cider cake from her apples. There were so many exquisite hand-crafted touches like her fresh-baked French baguette (she's quite a Francophile) to the hand-lettered menus.  The meal was rich and delicious and the table was alive with sparkling conversation all around.

Lunch at Three Dog Trees

October 3, 2009

Heirloom apple crisps with Orchard

Cocktails

Appetizer:

Roasted Figs with Proscuitto and Chevre

Main course:

Green Chile and Bacon Quiche made with farm eggs from Three Dog Trees

Butternut squash salad with mache, arugula, pecans, cider vinaigrette

Fresh baguette and a Parisian loaf (after Lionel Poilane)

Dessert:

Caramelized apple cider cake with whipped cream

After lunch, we all really needed to move around a bit so making apple cider in Michael's small-batch press was great because it required some energy expenditure. In the beginning, Paula and Michael were making cider in a juicer, but the tree's yields were too much for the little juicer. They now use a hand-made press a small producer no longer in business. The apples get shredded and then that apple goo gets pressed and the juice is filtered. It makes the most delicious cider. Ours was made with Bramley, Newton Pippen, Lady Sweet, Mother, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious and 3 apples of unknown provenance.

We left Paula and Michael's with the apples we picked, some fresh apple cider, little jar's of Marja's apple, green chile, and pine nut relish, and very full hearts and tummies. Many thanks to them for a memorable afternoon of luscious food, interesting people, and lots and lots of laughter.

Amavi

Our Friday night was slated to be a very memorable Chef’s Tasting Event at Amavi, one of Santa Fe’s best restaurants. David Sellers, the talented chef, crafted a special tasting menu for us that highlighted the Spanish roots of Santa Fe cuisine.  He created an amazing meal that he paired with extraordinary and unusual wines that were perfectly matched to each succulent course.

Heather, David’s gorgeous wife, met us at the door of Amavi and led us to our table in one of the cozy, candlelit adobe rooms. The thick, plaster walls are graced with pieces of art and photography from local artists.

The evening started with Spanish Cava, one of my favorite ways to start a good night of imbibing. With this beginning, the feasting began and then moved onward through one delicious course after the other:

First Course

Seared Diver Scallop with Pimenton and Saffron Rice

Juve y Camps Grand Reserve 2004

Tapas

Rare Seared Yellowfin Tuna with Garlic, Capers, and Manzanilla Olives and

Marinated Spaish White Anchovies with Escalavida and Preserved Lemon

Javier Sanz “Villa Narcisa” Verdejo 2006, Rueda Spain

Second Course

Grilled “Bavette” Steak  with Patata Viudas, Piquillo Peppers, Salsa Verde, and Aioli

Coto de Imaz Reserva 2001, Rioja

Dessert

Crema Catalana with Apricot Galletas

Costa Diva Guiterrez de la Vega

Cosecha Miel Muscat, Spain 2005

Abdul the Spice Guy and Chile Class

We had a late morning start today so it allowed us all to sleep in a little and explore downtown Santa Fe a bit. The temperature was crisp but the sun burned bright to start warming up the day. The sky was clear and stunningly blue.

Our first stop was the Tesuque Pueblo Market, a market 15 minutes north of town that has vendors that sell everything from rugs, Native American jewelry, apples and art. We met up with Abdul, an Egyptian man who specialized in organic quality spices from both "East and West" to quote his philosophy. He loves a crowd and after a quick greeting, was immediately on, talking a million miles a minute to describe his wares. He carries a number of different red chile spices, from a hot Ancho powder from Hatch to a medium-hot red chile powder and a flake from Chimayo. I always come back for his green chile powder (also from Hatch) and his smoked chipotle and I ration them when I get home. He hand-assembles a layered "chef's blend" with his many spices, made to your preferred heat level. It includes red and green chile powder, Mexican oregano, tumeric (!), Zataar, chile flakes, and smoked chipotle. We grabbed a quick lunch at the food vendors there and, laden with new cowboy boots, rug, and beads, we started the fifteen minute drive back to town for our chile cooking class at the Santa Fe Cooking School.

Rocky Durham, the entertaining and chatty culinary director of the Santa Fe Cooking School, taught our "Chile Amor!" class that day. I had met Rocky, a native New Mexican, on my last trip and was struck by his passion for local food in general, and New Mexican foods especially. He talked to us about the essential NM ingredients: corn, beans, peppers, squash, potato, tomatoes, chocolate, and vanilla; some of which are native and some were brought by the Spanish.  (I bet you can guess which.) He showed us how to grind dry corn with a mocajete (a hefty morter and pestle), and make the masa, or corn flour, into tortillas. We got to press them ourselves and toast them on griddle or "plancha".  We also hand roasted the green chiles, in perfect season now, until the skins charred. We then steamed them in sealed plastic bags, which allowed us to scrape the tender skins off easily. WE did this with gloves on, however, so as not to scald our fingers. Although Rocky did it with his bare hands, of course. We also learned how to make both red and green chile sauce. The class concluded with local wine all around and each table got to nibble on fresh tortilla, local South Mountain goat cheese, and red and green chile sauce.

Delish....

Arrival in Santa Fe and Lights Out

The wide blue sky and piercing sunlight welcomed me back to Santa Fe today. It was a busy day of arranging the last minute details for the tour....a visit to the Goat Cheese farm where the frisky female goats welcomed me by trying to hug me on their hind legs and a drive up to Paula and Michael's stunning Tesuque apple orchard. The long breathtaking drive through the Turquoise Trail was perfect for readjusting my racing New York City brain to a much calmer Santa Fe frame of mind.

Everyone arrived safely from their travels from New York and Virginia and we celebrated our arrival at a quintessential Santa Fe gathering hole, The Cowgirl. There were margaritas, BBQ, and green chiles all around. Sleep deprivation, tequila, and the altitude combined to make us all loquacious and giddy. The grand finale of the night was the black out just as we finished dinner. We walked the short distance back to the hotel in darkness, illuminated only by Ellen's cellphone and the occasional car lights. The lights went out in all of Santa Fe and stayed out for about an hour. It was the perfect amount of time to allow us to take in the bright night sky and all the stars from the hot tub.

We are off to a good start....