Shrimp Bisque

Once in a while Elizabeth and I like to try a new recipe so we do what I call a "Buddy Cook" at her house and make it. Sometimes we come to my house but it's usually a holiday weekend and there are a lot of other people around and it can get hectic.  It's much more civilized at her house.   And, certainly if knives are involved you want the atmosphere as civilized as possible.

I have been watching a lot of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, on TV. She makes everything look so easy.  And, actually, this one is pretty easy.  Except for finding the Brandy and Dry Sherry. 

Since Texas has started allowing beer and wine to be sold at the supermarket the liquor stores are going out of business right and left.  I drove past three liquor stores that had been closed until I found one still open.  Even it was in the process of going through bankruptcy and the walls were almost bare.  The best I could find in Brandy was four of the little airplane sized bottles. Folks, you know I've quit drinking.  You're going to have to get in there and do your part to keep the liquor stores alive. There is nothing sadder than a half-stocked shelf in a liquor store.

The seafood stock was on the shelf at Whole Foods in the yuppie part of Dallas.  Later I found it in the soup aisle at my Walmart out here in the boondocks. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, shells reserved
• 4 cups seafood stock
• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (3 leeks)
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (3 cloves)
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup Cognac or brandy
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place the shrimp shells and seafood stock in a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and reserve the stock. Add enough water to make 3 3/4 cups.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the leeks and cook them for 10 minutes over medium-low heat, or until the leeks are tender but not browned. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Add the cayenne pepper and shrimp and cook over medium to low heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the Cognac and cook for 1 minute, then the sherry and cook for 3 minutes longer. Transfer the shrimp and leeks to a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until coarsely pureed.

In the same pot, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over medium-low heat for 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the half-and-half and cook, stirring with a whisk, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the pureed shrimp, the stock, tomato paste, salt, and pepper and heat gently until hot but not boiling. Season, to taste, and serve hot..

Serve it with baguettes of French Bread and some butter.  This should serve a whole lot of people. But if there's only the two of you then you don't have to share.  I especially liked sitting in Elizabeth's living room and watching an episode of Ina on TV and dipping chunks of buttered bread into the soup.   This recipe is a keeper. And I found the flavor got even better the next day after it sat a while.

Potato Soup

We've had two days of ice and temperatures in the teens.  Tomorrow will be the third day school has been closed.  Everybody I know is making soups and chili.  Time to share a few recipes and stories.

My brother used to make potato and broccoli soup every Sunday while he watched the Cowboy game.  It was one of those recipes you just learned by watching.  Not sure I could share it here unless you promise not to be mad if my measurements aren't precise.

Dice a couple of onions in a little olive oil or butter. Add some chicken broth.  Then dice two or three or four potatoes and cook them.  Add some cheese if you want.  If I'm feeling ambitious I like to take out about half of the potatoes and run them through a blender and put back into the pot to give the soup body.  Finally add some broccoli. Season throughout the process as you go along. Sometimes I add sour cream to give an extra zest. 

Doss would put the pot on and keep it cooking during the whole game.  Most people remember my brother as someone who just drank a lot of beer and the occasional jar of moonshine.  But I remember him for this soup.

Chili

We Texans are particular about our Chili.  For one thing, we capitalize it when we write it.  When my grandfather died and they opened his safe deposit box all they found in it was his Chili recipe.

We have one grand stipulation that you have to promise if you are to be entrusted with a Chili recipe:  our Chili does not contain beans.  Not a single one.  Am I clear?  Can you take the no-bean pledge before we proceed?

Granddaddy had a special little shack out in the back where he would go cook his chili.  I don't know of anything else he used this building for except Chili.  It never was clear whether the recipe was such a top secret that he had to cook it in seclusion or if Grandmother just didn't want the mess inside the house.

I was never entrusted with Granddaddy's recipe for Chili.  Maybe it had something to do with me being a girl.  Or maybe it was because people spend entire lifetimes making a Chili recipe seem exotic and if you ever saw how simple it is you might be disappointed. After a lifetime of searching for just a simple straightforward Chili recipe I found it at the church Chili cookoff.

When I asked Pat Tripp for his prize-winning recipe he was suspicious.  Assured that I wouldn't make fun of it or compete against him in a future contest he finally gave it to me. It is gloriously simple and has only one ingredient you could call exotic: cilantro.  And if you find cilantro a challenge then there's just no hope for you.

Pat Tripp's Chili
(actually his father's who may or may not have kept this in a safe deposit box)

3 lbs meat  (2 lbs ground meat and 1 of pork sausage)
1 large onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
brown the above

add:
2 oz Chili powder
1 teaspoon each:  cumin, black pepper, red pepper, salt
3  6 oz cans tomato paste
9   6 oz cans of water
1 bunch cilantro

bring to a boil and simmer two hours

eliminate the red pepper for children or yankees

Cream of Mushroom Soup

I got hungry for mushroom soup, checked out a few recipes and decided to chuck them all and wing it.  What I ended up with was really tasty.  My only hesitation in giving you the recipe is that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to measurements.  This is basically what I did.

Buy a small carton of mushrooms.  I don't know how else to describe it any other way.  I don't know the weight or whether it's a peck.  I'm sure it's not a bushel.  It's just one of those cartons they sell.  Not the big one, the small one.

Throw a half of a stick of butter into a big pot:  sliced about three onions really thin and cook them a bit on a low heat.

I think the onion part is important.  The onion flavor is a big part of this soup but it doesn’t sound like it since it’s , well..mushroom soup.

Get one of the lunch-box size bag of carrots and chop them up pretty small.  Cut the stems off the mushrooms and chop them.  Add the chopped stems to the pot. Later on you will slice the tops of the muchrooms.

After the veggies are soft add a couple of cups of chicken stock.  Then about ¼ cup of Sherry or Marsala wine. And a teaspoon of salt if you’re using homemade stock….a little less if you use canned broth.

After all that is incorporated and the vegetables are soft take it off the heat and let cool a bit.  Then run it all through the blender.  You’ll end up with a stock that has been naturally thickened.  I love that part.  No flour required.  None.

Pour this blended mixture back into the pot and add the sliced mushroom caps.  And about ½ cup of heavy cream.  Yes, cream.  Not milk.  It’s called Cream of Mushroom soup, not Milk of Mushroom soup.

Taste it and see what you would change the next time you make this.    You could buy a rosesserie chicken and cut up the meat to add to it.  They also have ready-made rice in the freezer section now.  That would be a good addition.