Scratching the kitchen itch

Tonight I had a couple friends over for dinner, and used the excuse to take care of some recent cooking urges.

Cauliflower Apple Soup with sage & brown butter
Couple weeks back I went to visit my friend Jane in San Francisco, where she has just moved, and we dined at Spork, a fresh-local-ingredients hipster joint that took over a KFC location. On the menu they had a soup as described above, and it looked so interesting that we ordered it. But the execution was meh. It was too salty, and the promise of tart apple was drowned out by the pungence of the cauliflower. Still, the idea was fabulous. So I made a better version at home, as follows.

Sautee in a soup pot on medium low, in olive oil:
*1/2 onion, diced (or one li'l onion)
*a couple stalks of celery, diced
Stir every so often, for 5 minutes or so; you want the veg to be soft and translucent, but not browned. This is key.

Chop roughly and add to the pot:
*one head cauliflower (to make a colorful soup, I used orange cheddar cauliflower)
*same volume of peeled tart apples ( for a medium head of cauli, I used three little apples)
sautee that for a few minutes, stirring now and then. Again: no browning!

Add
*1/2 a quart-size carton of chicken or veggie stock, cover.
Once it boils, reduce heat to low, and let simmer 15 minutes or more. When veggies are super soft and liquid is reduced, remove from heat.

While the veggies are cooking, put
*2-3 Tablespoons salted butter
in a small skillet or pot over low heat and slowly, slowly brown.
While the butter is browning, mince
*2 teaspoons fresh sage
and add to bowned butter right as you take it off the heat. Sage should sizzle for a moment or two then settle down and make your nostrils happy. Set aside.

After you take the veggies off the heat, puree them. Blender, blending wand, potato masher, or old fashioned ricer. You want a smooth consistency. Return to heat.

Add:
*the other 1/2 of the stock carton
and cook over low heat for further flavor melding. After 15 minutes stir in:
the brown sage butter
and stir a few times so it's all swirly but not completely incorporated. Then when you ladle it into bowls it's still kinda swirly, and your friends will call you fancy.

This worked out well. The ratio of apples to cauliflower was right on. I avoided the bitterness of the cauliflower by sauteeing the veggies on lower heat, and the brown butter contained all the salt the soup needed. The chicken stock acted as a flavor bridge between the cauliflower & apple. And with the earthy sage, it tasted like autumn in a bowl. Serves 4. It's nice with steamed artichokes.

Featherlight Kale Chips
The collard version I made last week turned brown in spots, so I checked back with Mike at my favorite farm stand. He advised me to cook the greens longer over lower heat. So:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Wash & dry:
*one bunch of greens. (collards = good, and tonight's Lacinato or "Dino" kale was also a winner)
Cut the leaves lengthwise along either side of the spine. (You may want to save the spines back for veggie scrap broth.) If you like, cut the lengths of leaves in half crossways. Or whatever shape seems good.

Toss in a big bowl with:
*1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
*salt & pepper to taste

When the leaves are all coated, spread them over 2 cookie sheets and bake for 30 minutes.
Out of the oven, they will remain green but be much smaller, like veggie shrinkydinks. Slide into a bowl & serve as "mouth occupiers" for appetizer, card games, movie time, etc.

Variation on Meg Fries
My friend Meg makes the best fries. That is just The Facts, so there is no point in disputing it. Anything I do frieswise will necessarily be a tribute to her frites prowess.

How she does them:
-peel too many potatoes
-cut them into genrous fry-shaped chunks
-dry off the slices (KEY STEP FOR BROWNING)
-toss in olive oil, salt & pepper
-and toss with optional goodies: sliced garlic, rosemary.
-spread out in baking pans
-bake for a good long while, like an hour, at 350 or so.
-munch mightily and weep bitter tears when they are all gone.

The variation I tried:
-cut up some potatoes & prep as above. AND
-peel and cut some parsnips, too. (Add any veggie peels to the running scrap bag in your freezer, and make broth later.) The 'snips were drier than the potatoes, so didn't need to be hand-dried. Advantage!
-My old boss the farmer has a friend who swears that duck fat is the best thing to cook fries in. I had some schmaltz leftover from a chicken I cooked down for stock, so I tossed the fries in that along with the salt & pepper. The farmer's friend: "That is not a duck!!" Me: [shrug] Vegetarians: "!!?!"
-salt, pepper, baking pans, same time and temp.

Big hit at dinner tonight. I cooked the taters and snips together, and maybe oughtn't to have done so. The snips cooked quicker that the taters, and were a little tough. So sweet, though! Mmm. So next time I will cook them in separate pans, and take the 'snips out sooner.

Update: farmer Amy says she cooks em at 400 degrees 30 minutes or so. I tried that, and at just shy of 40 miutes (in my oven, anyway) they were perrrfect.