Usually called the doctor. Or the caretaker.

Some butter
A shallot, chopped
Sweet curry powder
Coriander
Allspice
Cayenne pepper
A can of pumpkin puree
About 2 cups of homemade vegetable stock
Milk (about half a cup, I think. just until it is enough.)
Salt and pepper
A handful of turbinado sugar
Plain yogurt to garnish
Some naan

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and put in the chopped shallot. Frizzle the shallot and add the spices, stirring around. For amounts, I started with a little over a teaspoon of curry powder, about a half teaspoon of powdered coriander, about a quarter teaspoon of allspice, and a good all over dusting of cayenne and then adjusted from there. Also salt and pepper, of course. Add the can of pumpkin and stir around. Let it cook for a bit and then add the stock. Let it cook for a bit, add the milk, bring it just to a boil, taste, and adjust the spicing. Add about a handful of turbinado sugar last and cook until you're too hungry to stare at it for one more second.

Serve it with a dollop of plain yogurt and some naan, which you happen to have on hand from your birthday party, toasted until crisp and cut into wedges.

It might have been nice with a squeeze of lemon, but I'm not sure.

Also, plenty of nice cold water, because it's pretty spicy.

EDIT: It needed brandy!

Tomato-butter sauce, link from greyhame. Haven't made it yet, but it looks lovely.

Dinner tonight is in progress.

1 leek, chopped (about 2 c?)
2 ribs celery, sliced (also about 2 c?)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
half a dozen mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
half a dozen small potatoes, washed and cut into spoon-size pieces
generous drizzle of olive oil
salt
black pepper
4 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs oregano
2 c duck stock
2 c water

That's it so far...put the olive oil in the pan, when it's warm add the garlic then the leek. Stir around a lot, give the leek a head start and then add the celery, salt, pepper, and herbs. Let it cook for a while and then add the mushrooms, the stock and water, and then the potatoes. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, and let it simmer till the potatoes are tender and it's reduced some (but not too far--keep a lid on it most of the time).

The plan is to taste it in a bit and adjust the seasoning if necessary, and then add some milk and cook it some more. Then I'll serve it with a sprinkle of grated cheddar and some bread.

Original here.

This time, I added about half a cup of leeks, and I used homemade beef stock instead of duck. I feel that beef gave an inferior soup, at least compared to duck. I think that probably duck stock is the ideal, and vegetable stock is probably an acceptable substitute. The beef has a bit too much presence--it distracts from the spicing, the creaminess, and the spiciness of the chorizo. Chicken would probably work for those of you who can eat chicken.

I also used coffee cream instead of whipping cream, because that was what I had, and it worked just fine.

All else was the same.

It turned out beautifully, though. I'm excited to see how it develops after a night in the fridge.

Next time: definitely duck stock again. There was no comparison. I think it needs a touch of fresh rosemary, as well. Any kind of cream seems to work as well as any other kind.

Start with this recipe and decide that it needs some modification, for a couple of reasons, one of which being that you don't feel like chasing all over town after andouille on an empty stomach.

First of all, decrease the recipe by 2/3rds, because you do not have four stomachs and you don't want to eat soup for the next five weeks.

So, you will need:

1 TBS butter
1/2 small onion
2 ribs celery
2-3 cloves garlic
1 link chorizo
1 TBS flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 green onions
enough Penzey's Italian Herb blend
200 mL of homemade stock (I used duck)
enough water
1 pound small red potatoes
enough allspice (1/4 tsp? 1/2? surely not more)
enough cream (less than half a cup, use heavy cream)
1 capful of good brandy

You will also need a cutting board, a good knife, a saucepan, a fork, and a spoon. And maybe some bowls to put the ingredients in; I like to do that. Keeps things tidier.

First, chop the half an onion, the celery, and the garlic, and peel (if you can) and dice the chorizo. (I sliced it and then cut the slices into quarters, which is pretty much perfect.) Also cut up the green onion and set aside.

Melt the butter in the saucepan and then add the celery, onions, garlic, chorizo, and salt and pepper. Stir it around periodically until the veggies are done. While this is happening, wash the potatoes and dice them, SKIN ON WHAT ARE YOU, A PANTS-WEARING BARBARIAN?, into spoon-size polygons. When the veggies are done, sprinkle the flour on the resulting mess and stir until it's smoothish. At this point, add the stock, the green onions, and the herbs, and stir. Put the potatoes in, and if the stock doesn't mostly cover, add water till it does, but not too much. Now bring it to a boil, turn it down, and simmer it with a cover on for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked but not falling apart.

When you have burnt your mouth discovering that the potatoes are perfect, add the allspice, stir very gently so as not to break up the potatoes, and then add the cream until the colour is right. You'll know. At this point taste; it may need a hint more salt. Absolutely last, add a capful of nice brandy and again gently stir.

This is probably enough for 3-4 people for dinner, if there's also baguette and maybe salad, or cheese beforehand.

It is delicious.

Beef stew:

500g beef shank
4 small yellow potatoes
1/2 medium yellow onion
3 ribs celery
3 medium carrots
double handful small white mushrooms
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 leaves dried sage
3 cloves garlic
salt, pepper, worcestershire
450ml beef broth
enough water
a little olive oil
(you could also add wine, though I don't for obvious reasons)

Chop onion and garlic and saute in olive oil until transparent and browning. Add beef shanks and brown a bit on both sides. Deglaze pan with broth, add water. Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer. While this is happening, scrub (but don't peel!) and dice potatoes into spoon-size pieces and chop celery and carrots; add to pot. Wash and stem mushrooms; add caps to pot. Chop stems and add to pot. Crumble leaves of sage and add. Drop in stems of thyme. Add salt, generous drizzle of worcestershire, pepper. You could probably add a bay leaf or allspice or something here, but I didn't. You will probably have to add a bit more water; this is a very crowded stew.

Let it boil for a while, stirring and tasting. Adjust spices if necessary.

At the appropriate time, pull the beef shanks (or all the bits if they've already fallen to pieces) out, swish them gingerly to free them of veggies, and put them on your cutting board. Pull apart and dice the meat, pushing all the gristley and fatty bits to one side. Be sure to poke the marrow out of the shank bones if it hasn't already fallen out. Add all the meat back to the stew. Reserve the fat and gristle (washed!) to give to your or a friend's dog. Pop the shinbones off the shanks and give the shanks to someone with a tiny dog. Discard the shinbone bits; they'll choke a dog. (And don't give shank sections to a big dog unless they are big shank sections! No choking of dogs allowed!)

Serve with sourdough bread.

(If you are making this without shanks, potatoes, and mushrooms--I think it takes all three to actually thicken the broth without flour--you'll need to thicken the broth with a flour/water mixture or with cornstarch or arrowroot or some such to keep it from being too watery.)

maybe 200 grams/half a pound of button mushrooms (or anything else that strikes your fancy)
a shallot
salt (some)
sufficient butter (3-4 TBS?)
allspice (some)
flour (enough)
beef stock (300 mL?)
coffee cream (200 mL? or so?)
black pepper
brandy (2 splashes)

A bunch of little bowls for the shallot and the shroomies, a knife, a cutting board, a couple of spoons, a big fork, and a saucepan (lid optional).

Dice the shallot. Put it in a bowl. Wipe the mushrooms down, stem them, and mince the stems. Put the result in a little bowl. Pick the smallest caps and slice them. Put the sliced caps in a separate little bowl. Make a determination in whatever way pleases you about the rest of the caps and either slice and add them to the slice bowl, or cut them a bit finer (I sliced one way across the cap then turned them and sliced the other way, making them long skinny pieces) and put them in yet a third bowl.

Now you're ready. Put the saucepan on the stove on medium high heat and put the butter and salt in the saucepan. Slosh it briskly several times like you do. When the butter is hot and foamy but not browning, put the shallots in. Slosh it briskly and let it cook till the shallots are at the proper stage of doneness. Add the stems and slosh. Now would be a good time to add the allspice, though I forgot till the last minute and it was still nice. Add the skinny bits of mushroom. At this point you will need to start stirring. It will look like you are shy on butter. DON'T ADD MORE. Everything will be fine. Go drink some orange juice. Come back and add the slices. Stir. Still refrain from panicking about the lack of liquid. All shall be revealed (and dampened) in the fulness of time. Stir everything around some until you are happy.

Sprinkle the flour into the mushroom-shallot-butter goo. Stir briskly with the fork to avoid lumps. You should have already taken the top or whatever off your stock so you can just pour it in at the right moment. Pour the stock in in several long glugs, stirring between. Your soup looks like chunky wallpaper paste, but you should not worry. Now would be a good time to turn the heat down a bit. Drink more orange juice and let it cook for a few minutes.

Add the cream and stir. Let it simmer and add the pepper and a few splashes of brandy. Stir. You have created soup.

Cut a few slices of rosemary-olive-oil bread and a generous chunk of brie, pour the soup into a soup bowl or a big wide mug and put the bread and brie around the matching plate. Eat it while listening to Ra Ra Riot. It is nice paired with OJ with a splash of brandy, but what wouldn't be?

This will serve one hearty eater or two people with my appetite. Decreasing would be difficult, but soups increase nicely, so invite lots of people over and go nuts.

My first attempt at minestrone.

3 cloves garlic
1 shallot

Finely dice and frizzle in olive oil with salt and pepper. While this is happening, slice 3 ribs celery and one medium carrot. Cut a zucchini (about 8 inches) in half, then slice in half lengthwise and slice into thin half-moons. Put all this in with the garlic, shallots, and olive oil.

Add about 400-450 mL beef broth, a large can of diced tomatoes and the liquid, and one can of mixed beans. Strip and dice a scant handful of fresh oregano and add. Salt and pepper to taste, adding a dash of sugar.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer. Add 3 handfuls dried pasta (I am using penne) and continue simmering until done.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tasty Tuesday, the May edition, featured:
( Bread, soup, lemon cake, failcakes, brownies )

I made black bean soup the other day, and did it a little differently than usual. It turned out really nicely, so I thought I'd preserve it for posterity.

A little butter in the bottom of a saucepan
Half a carrot, sliced
garlic
some onion if you like (I didn't have any)

Saute it till the carrot is bright (and probably till the onion is translucent), then add

450 mL of beef broth
a can of black beans
chili powder (a palmful)
cumin (a palmful)
salt and pepper
Worcestershire sauce

Cook it for a while, and then blend it with your immersion blender till it's smooth and let it simmer a bit before serving.