…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen How you doin’? French onion soup is such a classic dish that most folks tend to reserve it for restaurant outings—I do. It’s a must have at Hanks Fine Steaks and Martini’s at the Green Valley Casino in Henderson, Nevada. But if you think about it, this rich, savory soup made from buttery caramelized sweet onions, dry white wine, sherry and savory cooked beef broth is perfect for cozy winter nights. It is one of the ultimate comfort foods. This is a one dish soup as the crusty French bread is built right in. Simply float a lightly toasted baguette slice over the soup, then top with nutty Gruyère cheese. To finish it off, place it under a broiler until the bread is golden brown and crispy, the cheese is melted and bubbly and beginning to brown. The soup essentially becomes a brothy dip for your cheese toast. I always make a little extra cheese toast for slurping up any remaining soup in the bottom of the bowl. French onion soup’s depth of flavor lies in the caramelizing of the onions, which if done right, is a bit time consuming—45 minutes. Stir the onions occasionally to make the onions nice and golden. It’s really quite simple… it’s just a bit of stirring, simmering and ladling. Real basic stuff! I know you can do it. You’re not just sweating the onions; you are caramelizing them turning the sugars to a golden buttery brown. French onion soup is a light lunch or dinner and great for a first course for entertaining. It’s the perfect starter for a Hank’s steak dinner. Plus, you can cook the soup ahead of time, and then slide everything under the broiler right before serving. That way the Gruyère is still bubbling when the bowls come to the table. Prep time: 25 minutes Cook time: 1 hour Yield: 4 to 6 servings Ingredients 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 pounds large sweet yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste 6 cups beef stock (homemade or store bought) 1 cup dry white wine 2 teaspoons dry sherry 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste 1 baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices 1-1/2 cups grated Gruyère cheese 1 tablespoon chopped chives for garnish Directions
ChefSecret: Use chives only—do not use the large spring green onions—they are not as sweet and flavorful as chives. Quip of the Day: An apple a day keeps the doctors away... an onion a day keeps everyone away. ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Do you want to share a favorite recipe or pictures with our readers? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America, Tunnel to Towers, Union Rescue Mission and/or American Red Cross. #Soup #FrenchOnionSoup #HanksFineSteaks #CaramelizedOnions #YellowOnions #FrenchBread #2024 #T2T #URM #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2024
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…from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? Fall into winter is soup season. Actually, any time is a good time for soups—even chilled soups are hearty and fulfilling during warmer months. A cozy, warm bowl of soup is exactly what many of us need during these cold days of winter. Joan’s favorite soup is minestrone… Italians have been enjoying it for centuries. But how did this hearty soup make its way from Italy to our tables here in America? It’s all due to the popularity of the soup and its versatile recipe. Minestrone is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine and may even be more widely dispersed and enjoyed throughout Italy than pasta. The soup was initially made from small things leftover from previous meals, combined so as not to waste perfectly good food. Sounds perfect for today’s waste reduction focused population. Gradually, the standard minestrone recipe changed, and by the 18th century, the word “minestrone” no longer implied a soup made from leftovers, and instead indicated the soup recipe we are now familiar with, which is made for its own sake. Additionally in America, the soup is now often a starter dish instead of the main course. Minestrone is a thick pasta- and vegetable-based soup. You can add any number of veggies and carbs you choose to make this soup even heartier. The core ingredients, however, are most often celery, onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, olive oil and pasta. It is often topped with shredded parmesan. I created my minestrone soup for T.R.’s Restaurants in Wichita as a way to utilize unused veggies. If you love Minestrone and don’t want to ingest the excess sodium and lack of veggies in the canned varieties, then take an hour out of the day and make T.R.’s Minestrone Soup. Serve with hearty, crusty bread, romaine salad and a nice merlot. Prep time: 35 minutes Cook time: 45 minutes Yield: 4 to 6 servings Ingredients 3 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped 2 onions, chopped 2 cups chopped celery 5 carrots, sliced 4 cups tomato sauce 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 1/2 cup red wine 2 large pieces of Parmesan cheese rinds (see ChefSecret below) 3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced 2 cups baby spinach, rinsed 1 (15 ounce) can green beans, drained (or fresh if you have them) 1 cup canned kidney beans, drained 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup small sea shell or elbow pasta 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese for topping 1 tablespoon olive oil Directions
ChefSecret: I like to throw in a couple of leftover Parmesan cheese rinds when I start to simmer the soup. The soup also gets topped with shredded Parmesan when serving, but adding the rind to the pot while the soup is simmering gives it additional depth and a nutty flavor that takes the already-excellent soup up a notch. Plus, it’s a way to get a little more use out of expensive Parmesan cheese that you might have otherwise discarded. As Parmesan cheese ages, the outside of the wheel naturally hardens more than the inside and becomes what we call the rind. It’s still cheese. It’s still edible, but it’s not too enjoyable to eat in its hardened cured form. Instead of tossing them, keep them in a freezer zip-top storage bag in your freezer until you’re making a soup, stew, risotto, pasta sauce or another dish that could benefit from some extra depth of flavor. Remove the Parmesan rind before serving the soup. It will be soft and mushy. You could brush olive oil and garlic on slices of baguette or Italian bread, toast it up, and spread the softened rinds on the slices of bread to eat. Quip of the Day: What do the ducks have for dinner? They have Quackers and soup, of course! ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Do you want to share a favorite recipe or pictures with our readers? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Entrees #Soup #Minestrone #TRsMinestrone #ItalianSoup #VegetableSoup #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 …from the Perspectives’ Kitchen How you doin’? My cousin Monroe was the mayor of Ojai, a small town near Ventura, California. While Monroe was a well-known optometrist, he had a knack for growing some simple plants in an open field near the house. There was nothing better than going out to field to collect some corn and immediately boil the ears in milk. Winifred, Monroe’s wife, was a “holiday” lady and she would celebrate the arrival of fall with wonderful seasonal foods. One year Monroe decided to grow pumpkins. I think he was trying for a world record size and weight. Winnie’s hope was for a great looking and tasting pumpkin for her Halloween pumpkin soup. I was just a kid, and my memory may be a little faint, but this is how I remember Winnie would cook up the soup. By the way the fun part was, she served it in a hollowed-out pumpkin, too. All of us looked forward to it every year. You can dress it up with homemade croutons and lacy Parmesan cheese webs. I love soup in general but this soup, in particular, is my favorite. I don’t know any short cuts for making this recipe where you can get the same results. Soup Prep time: 1 hour Soup Cook time: 1-1/2 hours Soup Yield: 6 to 8 servings (about 2-1/2 quarts) Ingredients 1 pumpkin, about 8 to 10 inches in diameter 1 stick unsalted butter 1 medium onion, diced 2/3 cup dry white wine 2 small white turnips, peeled and sliced 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced 1 large potato, peeled and sliced 6 cups chicken stock or more as needed 1 large traditional French-style baguette, thinly sliced (I prefer La Brea Bakery) 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I prefer Penzy’s) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper 1/4 cup shelled, toasted and salted pumpkin seeds for garnish (see recipe below) Directions
ChefSecret: If you don’t have a stick blender, remove the soup from the kettle and allow to cool until it is no longer steaming, then purée in a food processor or blender. Return soup to a clean pot and reheat gently before serving. Decorate your pumpkin with a “Sharpie” design. To Roast the Pumpkin Seeds Prep time: 30 minutes Bake time: 1 hour Ingredients 2 cups fresh pumpkin seeds, or whatever you scoop from 1 pumpkin 3 tablespoons butter, melted, or an equal amount of your favorite cooking oil 1 teaspoon salt or other seasonings 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, optional Directions
Quip of the Day: Q. Where do pumpkins like to live? A. In the seedy part of town! ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide . ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Soups #JackOLanternSoup #PumpkinSoup #Halloween #Pumpkins #RoastPumpkinSeeds #2023Recipes #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 …from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? There is potato soup and then there is BAKED potato soup! I love baked potatoes. That flavor is quite versatile… baked potatoes, potato salad, potato skins and, of course, Baked Potato Soup. When I was in charge of the test kitchens at TGI Fridays I found that we had a ton of potato “innards” left over from scooping out bakers for the world famous potato skins. I don’t know about you, but it drives me crazy to throw out any good foods and baked potato “scoopings” definitely fall into that category. This is kind of like the best baker you’ve ever eaten. This recipe takes a little work but is well worth the time and effort. This is a recipe I make for special guests in my restaurants and at home. It is a real treat, but not for those people counting calories. Have you ever wondered where potato skins originated? Depending on who you ask, three different restaurants are credited with giving birth to the appetizer back in the early '70s: the Prime Rib Restaurant in Washington, DC; R.J. Grunts in Chicago; and mass-market land of frozen mudslides and Jack Daniels ribs, TGI Fridays. Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes Yield: 8 servings Ingredients 1 pound bacon, chopped 1 cup diced celery 1/2 cup chopped green onion bottoms 5 tablespoons minced garlic 8 baked potatoes scooped inners (save the skins for potato skins, to be enjoyed later) 4 cups chicken stock, or enough to cover potatoes 5 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper Directions
ChefSecret: For those who do not wish to use bacon, substitute 1/4 cup melted butter instead of the bacon grease. Quip of the Day: “I was told the other day I was in good shape. Unfortunately, I’m shaped like a potato-- so not so good." ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide . ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Soups #BakedPotatoSoup #BakedPotato&BaconSoup #Bacon #BakedPotato #TGIFridays #RJGrunts #PotatoSkins #SpicyKoreanFriedChicken #Mash4077 #KoreanFriedChicken #2023Recipes #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 …from the Perspectives’ KitchenHow you doin’? Cold soup is a very tricky thing, and it is the rare chef that can carry it off well. More often than not, the dinner guests are left with the impression that had they only arrived a little earlier they could have enjoyed it while it was still hot. You’ve heard the old saying, “never wear white after Labor Day and never serve soup in the summer (or something like that). Not true! We whirled up fresh, green batches of gazpacho over the years and even included them on my restaurant menus. I make the green one at home when I have more overly ripe avocado than I know what to do with. I’ve been told that my green gazpacho converted many summer cold-soup skeptics into full-blown fanatics of the stuff. So, what do you do when you have more out-of-the-garden tomatoes and summer harvest, garden grown vegetables than you can use? We go to the other side of the color wheel and see red. My Summer’s End Chilled Gazpacho is made with a lightly acidified broth, made with puréed tomatoes and a wheel barrel of fresh harvest diced vegetables—Vidalia onions, punchy garlic, sweet red bell pepper, spicy red jalapeño and crunchy cucumber. If you’ve got some extra summer corn toss it in. All those veggies make this gazpacho a bit heartier than a straight purée, but it’s still wonderfully refreshing. You’ll love the combination of the cool, delicate broth with the fresh, crisp, vegetable textures. Serve with warm crusty sourdough bread and a bottle of Mondavi Fume Blanc. Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 30 seconds Chill time: 2 hours Yield: 6 servings Ingredients 6 to 8 large ripe red tomatoes, cored 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup diced Vidalia onion 2 tablespoon minced cloves 1-1/2 cups diced red or orange bell pepper 1 diced jalapeño pepper, seeds and seams removed 1 diced English cucumber, seeds removed 1/2 cup fresh corn off the cob (optional) 1-1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/4 bunch fresh cilantro leaves with stems Directions 1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. 2. Fill a large bowl of water with half ice and half water to shock the cooked tomatoes. 3. Cut an “x” on the bottom of each cored tomato (this makes it easier to peel) and, using a slotted spoon, gently place them into the boiling water for about 30 seconds. 4. Remove the tomatoes with the slotted spoon and transfer them immediately to the bowl of ice water. 5. Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel off the skin and cut them into quarters. Using a strainer over an empty bowl, squeeze out the seeds and reserve 1 cup of the tomato juice. Discard the seeds. 6. Transfer the squeezed, seeded tomatoes to a blender. Add the reserved 1 cup tomato juice and the extra virgin olive oil, and pulse until the tomatoes are completely puréed. 7. Pour the purée into a large bowl and add the diced Vidalia onions, garlic, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, English cucumbers, corn (if you’re using it), rice and balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, and black pepper; stir to incorporate all ingredients well. Note: Reserve some of the chopped vegetables to garnish the soup. 8. Refrigerate the soup for at least 2 hours, allowing the flavors to blossom. 9. Serve in chilled bowls and garnish with fresh cilantro and reserved veggies, if applicable. ChefSecret: This soup can be made a day or two in advance and stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Planning ahead, makes life a little easier by preparing this gazpacho a day or so in advance. The flavors only get more intense the longer you let the soup’s ingredients blossom in the refrigerator. Quip of the Day: “Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day and awakens and refines the appetite." — Auguste Escoffier ------------------------------------------- Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. ------------------------------------------- To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross. #Entree #Soup #SummerSoup #Gazpacho #ChilledGazpacho #MondaviFumeBlanc #Vegan #Vegetarian #2023Recipes #Covid19 #QuarantineKitchen #FeedingAmerica #RedCross #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023 |
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