Chicken soup

One more post about soup and I’m done. It’s enough, I know, but this last one is important so the soup trilogy will be completed.
In Brazil chicken soup is called “canja de galinha”. Besides the soup we also say something is “canja de galinha” when it is very easy to do. Ok, it’s easy, but a chicken soup has to be well done to be flavorful, light, fulfilling and restorative at the same time. The soup is commonly used to help people overcome colds and digestive problems. I always make myself a chicken soup when I’m not feeling very well and many times I woke up cured next morning. Of course chicken soup is a comfort food and we know they can make us feel better, but it is more than that…
According to food historians chicken soup was prescribed as a cure for the common cold in Ancient Egypt. Avicenna, the Persian physician who is considered by many the father of the modern medicine, referred to the curative powers of chicken soup in his writings and strongly recommended it as did the rabbi and Jewish doctor, Maimonides. Today, researches of the University of Nebraska suggest that there might be some scientific basis for the belief in the curative powers of chicken soup. The blend of nutrients and vitamins in traditional chicken soup can slow the activity of certain white blood cells, possibly producing an anti-inflammatory effect that can ease the symptoms of the illness. Also the simple fact that the soup is nutritious and easy to digest makes it very valuable for the convalescents, as they don’t have to spare more energy than necessary on digestion saving it to fight the disease. Some say that sipping warm soup can also clear the sinuses because of the steam ventilating into the nasal passages, serving as a natural decongestant which also relieves cold and flu symptoms.
When I do mine I don’t measure anything so no soup is like other and it’s impossible to write a recipe. But the ingredients are mostly the same every time: olive oil, chicken legs and thighs, carrots + celery + tomato + onion (all diced) garlic + ginger + scallion + cilantro + parsley (all minced). And what I do is sauté the chicken in the olive oil, add all the other ingredients but the herbs, sauté for a couple of minutes, add boiling water and let it cook until the chicken is cooked and falling apart from the bones. Then I add the fresh herbs, take the chicken out, shred the meat, put the pieces back in the soup and serve it very hot.

Famous Soups

The world is full of delicious soups, here are some information about eleven of them:

Bisque: Is made with shellfish, white wine, Cognac and enriched with cream. The word suggests a connection with the Spanish province of Vizscaya, which lends its name to the Bay of Biscay. But today the word is used imprecisely for several pink puréed soups.

Borsch: It’s a beet soup eaten hot or cold, popular in Ukraine, Russia and Poland and also an Ashkenazi Jewish dish. It’s traditionally served with sour cream.

Caldo Verde: Is a popular soup of Portuguese cuisine. The basic ingredients are potatoes, kale or collard greens, onions and garlic. Before serving, slices of Chorizo (a smoked pork sausage seasoned with paprika, crushed pepper, garlic and other spices) are also often added as well as olive oil. It is usually accompanied by slices of Broa (Portuguese bread made of a mixture of cornmeal and rye flour, and leavened with Yeast) on the side.

Chowder: Is enriched with pork fat and thickened with flour. Associated to the cuisine of New England, it can have different base ingredients, but the most famous is the clam chowder. It’s done with milk or cream in most places but in Manhattan it has tomatoes. Its name probably comes from the French word chaudière that means pan.

Chupe de camarones (shrimp): This a Peruvian dish that in fact stands between a soup and a stew. The preparation has, besides shrimp and its stock, onion, garlic, chillies, tomatoes, rice, potatoes, corn, egg, fish filets and cilantro, so it’s quite fullfilling.

Gazpacho: The Spanish soup is originally a labourers’ dish from Seville, made with bread and vegetables including cucumber, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, seasoned with garlic, olive oil and vinegar. It’s served ice cold and commonly with garnishes, such croutons, chopped cucumbers, hard-boiled egg and bell pepper. Its name, of Arabic origin, means soaked bread.

Matzo Balls Soup: Mazto balls are traditional jewish dumplings made from matzo meal, eggs and some sort of fat or oil. Some recipes may add a number of ingredients, such as stock and seasonings (for taste), seltzer or baking powder (for fluffiness). Traditionally, the fat used had been Schmaltz (chicken fat), which imparts a distinctive flavor, but it can be replaced by vegetable oil. The balls are shaped by hand and dropped into a pot of salted, boiling water or Chicken soup.

Minestrone: An Italian mixed vegetable soup containing pasta or rice. It is characterized by the variety of vegetables it contains, which vary from region to region. Minestrone originally was a very humble dish and was intended for everyday consumption, being filling and cheap, and would likely have been the main course of a meal. The word means a very substantial or large soup.

Miso Soup: A traditional Japanese Soup, consisting of a stock called Dashi into which is mixed softened Miso paste. Although the suspension of miso paste into dashi is the only characteristic that actually defines miso soup, many other ingredients are added depending on regional and seasonal recipes as well as personal preference.

Vichyssoise: A leek and potato soup thickened with cream and served cold, garnished with chives. The soup was created in the US by Louis Diat, a French chef who named it after his local town, Vichy.

Vietamese Pho: A beef noodle soup with a rich, clear broth achieved from hours upon hours of boiling meat and different herbs. There are many varieties of pho, with different selections of meats (most commonly beef and chicken) along with beef balls. Pho is typically served in bowls with spring onion, slices of semi cooked beef (to be cooked by the boiling hot broth), and then of course the broth itself. The use of vegetables and various herbs is common in the southern region.

“S” for Soup

Tomato soup
Originally uploaded by PaulaVB

The simple task of spelling a word and associate the letters to other words so the person who is listening can understand them, despite their sound similarities, is hard for me to do. I know there are certain codes and common sense uses, but I keep living in my own world and saying the first thing that comes to my mind. Often this thing is related to food. So I go on in life saying things like “b for broccolis and c for chicken”. I can feel the awkwardness from the other side, so I try to explain myself saying “oh, you know, I’m a chef” or “it’s almost lunch time and I’m getting really hungry”. Last time when I said “s for soup” I justified myself saying "Jewish Passover is coming and I’m already thinking about the matzo ball soup" (What?)! It’s embarrassing… I know… and the other person has nothing to do with it, but my justifications are true; in this case I was really thinking about soup and that’s why I also decided to write about it…
Did you know that the first Parisians restaurants didn’t serve food, only soup? It was believed that soup could raise the spirits and bring relief to respiratory indisposition. So going to restaurants was considered a restoring act; therefore its name.
Carême, who grew up at a time where the soup was the healthful food in vogue, affirmed that all meals would have to start obligatorily with it. For him, this was an issue of philosophy and medicine as well as it was of gastronomy. In his opinion soup was meant to renew the palate and to prepare the spirits of the dinners for the rest of the meal. Nowadays soups are not as important as they were. Sometimes they are even diminished and associated with illness and diet. Nonsense, when well done a soup can be delightful! Basically, they can be classified in two groups: clear (as consommé) and thick, that are subdivided according to the type of thickening used:
Puree soups: vegetables soups thickened with the starch contained in the pureed vegetables.
Bisques: made with shellfish and usually enriched with cream.
Cream soups: thickened with béchamel sauce or roux, enriched with cream and/or milk.
Velouté soups: thickened with egg yolks, butter and cream.
In addition to these, there are soups thickened with arrowroot, rice and tapioca. And I’ll continue to write about soup… So maybe I can take it out of my system and say something like “s for sierra” next time I have to spell a word!

Cereal Killer

I bought a box of chocolate cereal and it didn’t taste good; I wanted chocolate but instead I got fibers. Sometimes I miss being in the US for the multiple choices, in this case of cereals! When it comes to breakfast cereals I can relate to Jerry Seinfeld; I love them and care for diversity! I enjoyed going to the market to find shelves packed with all kinds of cereals... One day I could go healthy with honey, dried fruits and fibers; other times I could go indulgently with loads of sugar, chocolate, marshmallow … and nuts with so many options! (Check out this list of breakfast cereals!) But here in Brazil, besides not having many choices, now they’re screwing up with the few cereal boxes we have. I read that the current trend is to make cereal healthier by reducing the amount of sugar and adding whole grains. Thanks a lot cereal killers! I know it was first invented so people could have a healthier first meal but they started adding sugar, chocolate, other flavorings and cereal became also a treat we love. Now they can’t take that away from us! Check out the history of breakfast cereal and see how things evolved…
The American breakfast was composed of eggs, bacon, sausage and beef, with very little fiber. As a result, many people suffered painful and debilitating gastrointestinal disorders. That was the incentive to invent some kind of breakfast cereal. The first who did it (in 1863) was James Caleb Jackson, operator of the Jackson Sanitorium in Dansville, New York. His heavy bran nuggets that needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat, called Granula, never became popular. The next generation of breakfast cereals was considerably more convenient, and, combined with clever marketing, they finally managed to catch on. In 1877, John Harvey Kellogg the operator of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, in Michigan, invented a ground up, oat and corn meal biscuit for his patients suffering from bowel problems. The product was initially also named Granula, but changed to Granola after a lawsuit. His most famous contribution, however, was an accident. After leaving a batch of boiled wheat soaking overnight and rolling it out, Kellogg had created wheat flakes. His brother Will Kellogg later invented Corn flakes from a similar method, bought out his brother's share in their business, and went on to found the Kellogg Company in 1906.
A patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, Charles William Post, also made contributions to breakfast cereals. After his 1893 visit, he started his own sanitarium and developed his own coffee substitute, Postum. In 1897, Post invented Grape Nuts and, coupled with a nation-wide advertising campaign, became a leader in the cereal business.
By the 1930s, the first puffed cereal, Kix was on the market. Soon shredding was introduced, yielding Shredded Wheat. Starting after World War II the big breakfast cereal companies increasingly started to target children. Sugar was added, and the once-healthy breakfasts looked very different from their fiber-rich ancestors… but so delicious!

Erros

Com a competição cada vez mais acirrada em todos os aspectos de nossas vidas, parece que não podemos nos dar ao luxo de cometer erros... Admiti-los, então, virou uma raridade. Eu não gosto de errar, não! Quem gosta? Porém, com a maturidade, nós pobres errantes, eventualmente acabamos nos tornando mais sábios e filosóficos... Percebemos que errar é inevitável e que quando um erro acontece sempre podemos aprender uma lição ou até mesmo criar algo novo. A culinária tem ótimos exemplos de erros que acontecerem para o bem não só de quem os cometeu, como da humanidade!
O grande chef Jean-George Vongerichten cometeu um belo erro ao fazer 300 pequenos bolos de chocolate para uma festa sem a quantidade certa de farinha e assim criou o adorado petit gateau! As irmãs Tatin se distraíram ao fazer uma torta de maçã, tentaram dar um jeitinho assando a torta com a massa em cima das frutas e criaram a deliciosa tarte tatin! Ruth Wakefield preparava sua receita favorita de biscoitos e resolveu acrescentar pedacinhos de chocolate na massa, achando que derreteriam, errou, mas criou o delicioso chocolate chip cookie! Isso não acontece só na pâtisserie: o clássico molho francês beurre blanc foi criado em Nantes depois que o chef Clemence esqueceu de acrescentar ovos ao fazer um molho bearnaise.
Tá certo, que sabemos dessas estórias porque essas novas receitas ficaram ótimas. Não vamos ser ingênuos, imaginem também quantos erros com resultados ruins são cometidos todos os dias! Mas pelo menos, servem de lição para quem os faz. Como na primeira vez que fiz chessecake na escola e deixei o pobre cream cheese na batedeira, apanhando como um condenado enquanto eu fazia outras coisas. Resultado: muito ar na massa, crescimento ao ser cozido, desabamento e rachadura ao ser esfriado. Na hora foi duro! Mas agora sei que aquela aula não podia ter sido melhor, hoje faço um chessecake impecável!

Skewers

Skewers or "brochettes" in French and "espetinhos" in Portuguese always look good and are fun to eat. You can make them with vegetables, meet, chicken, seafood, hard cheese and fruits to be served as hors d’ouvre, appetizer, entrée, side dish or dessert. Everybody likes them and I even have seen kids eat and enjoy vegetables when they are presented like that. Another pro is that they are always easy to do. The important thing is to get the seasonings right when marinating before grilling and have a good sauce to serve the food with. For a complete meal on skewers I’d start with grilled broccolis, cauliflower, mushrooms and hard cheese, served with this sauce:

Asian sauce
· 1/2 cup mirim
· 1/2 cup sake
· 1/2 cup soy
· 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
· 1 tablespoon sugar
· 1 piece of ginger minced
· 3 scallions chopped

Combine all ingredients but scallions in a saucepan. Heat to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce is reduced by half and has a thick consistency. Add the scallions and serve.

For main course I suggest another skewer that people love when I do, which is a grilled shrimp marinated with olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and herbs like thyme, rosemary and parsley.
For dessert get inspired by the Swiss fondue and have fruits served with different popular sauces like chocolate and caramel.

Guacamole

Apesar de eu achar essa palavra pouco charmosa e a aparência dessa comida meio esquisita, eu adoro seu sabor! Em Nova York fui ao restaurante Rosa Mexicano especialmente para comer seu famoso guacamole. Veredicto: imperdível! Gostei tanto que fiquei com seu sabor na minha cabeça e um desejo incontrolável de prová-lo de novo. Claro que fui atrás de receitas e acabei aprendendo umas coisinhas a mais.
A palavra vem do espanhol mexicano Ahuacamolli, ahuacatl quer dizer avocado e molli, molho. Os Astecas já o preparavam, numa versão bem parecida da que encontramos hoje.
Seu principal ingrediente, o avocado, é original da América Central onde já era cultivado há mais de 7000 anos atrás.
A palavra asteca para avocado, ahuacatl, pode ser traduzida como testículo e foi escolhida por causa da forma das frutas e pelo fato delas nascerem em pares. Por isso os Astecas acreditavam que o avocado era afrodisíaco e também proibido para as moças virgens, que nem podiam sair de casa durante sua colheita por medo de se tornarem impuras.
O avocado tem alto teor de gordura, duas a três vezes mais proteínas que as outras frutas, muitas vitaminas, principalmente A e mais potássio do que a banana. É a fruta mais rica em beta-sistoterol, um componente que interfere na absorção do colesterol e possui Glutationa, que funciona como um poderoso antioxidante. O guacamole, então, faz muito bem a saúde pois contem ainda mais antioxidantes e vitaminas provenientes de seus outros ingredientes: tomate, alho, cebola, pimenta, limão e coentro!

Receita
1 avocado (tipo Haas)
1 colher de sopa de cebola bem picada
1 colher de café de alho bem picado
1 colher de chá de pimenta jalapeno bem picada, sem semente
1 e ½ colher de chá de coentro picado
2 colheres de tomate bem maduro picado
sal a gosto

Combine a cebola, o alho, a pimenta, o coentro e o sal no pilão (de preferência um molcajete, feito de pedra cinza vulcânica) e amasse os ingredientes até obter uma pasta. Amasse o avocado, grosseiramente, deixando alguns pedaços. Misture tudo, a pasta, o avocado e o tomate. Prove e adicione sal se precisar.

Cooking to impress

Valentine's Day is coming! On this day lovers express their feelings for each other sending greeting cards, giving candies and flowers, going out for dinner… And should definitely consider the option of cooking a great meal.
In the past young women needed to know how to cook and do other home tasks in order to find a good husband. That’s passé, but at the same time people are getting more and more passionate about food, so I wonder… Does the expression we have here in Brazil ‘grabbed by the stomach’ make sense nowadays? Is it still possible to make someone fall in love with you for your cooking? I believe so… Although, let’s make it clear, that’s not the reason why I went to cooking school! Women are not obligated to cook for their family anymore, but anyone who could have someone preparing delicious healthier food at home would definitely appreciate it, right? That’s why knowing how to cook became an extra quality that can make an extra good impression. And I can prove it with this true story!
I had a friend who was a very good student, got a great job and was building a beautiful career. Besides that she was learning 3 languages and spending a lot of time at the gym trying to stay fit. The last thing she thought about was food. Until the day she met a nice guy who loved to eat. They were dating for a couple of years and besides not sharing the passion for food everything else was fine. But she was in love and wanted more. The plan was to throw a dinner party for his birthday and surprise him and his friends with her cooking. The only problem: she couldn’t cook. That’s when I got involved. I did everything; planned the menu, bought the ingredients, cooked, set the table and taught her how to finish the dishes and plate them. I left just before the boyfriend and guests arrived, so she could say she did everything by herself. I was a personal ghost chef! On the following morning she called me saying everything went out great, the guests said they had never eaten so well and the boyfriend was happy, grateful and head over heels in love. Two weeks later I saw her at the gym and she came towards me, euphoric, showing her hands…yes, yes, yes!!!! She was engaged!

Chinese food

Some people say that Chinese cuisine is one of the 3 most important in the world, after French and Italian. Those cuisines founded the bases for the culinary arts we know today. It’s a shame that a lot of people wont believe it because they only had bad Chinese (usually fast) food. But things are changing, people are getting more interested in this cuisine, there are better Chinese restaurants opening everywhere and various good cookbooks about it.
Last year I learned a little more about it by taking an Asian cuisine course at CIA. On the first day of class we found very weird that our teacher was a big German guy! Soon we knew we couldn’t have a better teacher. He lived many years in China, married a Chinese girl, speaks Chinese, loves the food and knows everything about it. We learned that vegetables, noodles (made of wheat and rice) and pork are very common ingredients. Soy sauce, scallions, garlic, ginger and chilies are the basics seasonings and appear in many recipes. They also use several dried products such as: mushrooms, shrimp, scallops, oysters, bird’s nest and shark’s fin. The Chinese style of cooking is based on the philosophy of balancing yin and yang... harmony arises from the proper blend of opposites. Beautiful! Most Chinese dishes are based on five traditional flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and hot. And ingredients are paired to achieve rounder, more complex flavors. The meals are nutritiously well balanced: they have protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. They use their unique technique of stir-frying and the sensational Wok pan. There are four major Chinese cuisines: Beijing (Peking) in the Northern region, Shanghai (Eastern), Cantonese (Southern) and Szechwan (Western). In the Northern region (Beijing) the staple is wheat flour. They use wine stock and their cooking includes pungent sweet and sour dishes as well as subtler, delicately seasoned foods. In the eastern region (Shanghai) wheat flour is replaced by rice as a staple. They use more soy sauce and sugar. Vegetables are abundant and celebrated dishes include bird’s nest soup and a wide range of seafood. Southern (Cantonese) cooking is subtle and the least greasy of all. They do a lot of stir-frying and the familiar dishes of this region are dim sum. Western (Szechwan) is known for its fragrant peppercorns called fagara (or Szechwan pepper) and the characteristics of the food are its vigor and zest.
The recipe I'm writing down is one of the first we did in class. It's good and so simple... you should try! The only problem is that I don’t remember from which region it comes from... Would you guess?

Egg Fried Rice (for 2)

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
½ tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
2 oz lean bacon, finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 oz carrots, finally chopped
25oz long-grain rice, cooked and cooled

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, salt and soy sauce. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil, scallions and carrots. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the egg mixture, cook for 30 seconds, mixing with a spatula and breaking the egg up, like when doing omelet. Add the bacon and the rice, mixing aggressively to break up the rice into the eggs. Stir-fry for 3 minutes, turn the rice into the plates and serve.

Santa Luzia

Feriadão + calor + sol = paulistanos debandam para a praia. Como eu tinha trabalho, fiquei por aqui, muito contente, diga-se de passagem, ainda mais com a cidade mais calma e vazia. O que eu não esperava é que muitos dos paulistanos que ficaram resolveriam passear na Casa Santa Luzia e, para não perder o costume, enfrentariam trânsito... de carrinho de supermercado! Mas eu entendo o fascínio que a Luluzinha, para os íntimos, provoca nas pessoas que a conhecem. Frequento a casa desde pequena, mais especificamente desde os 7 anos, e por ela apanhei da minha mãe pela primeira e única vez, acredita?
Tínhamos uma cozinheira de mão cheia, a querida Zuleica, que naquele dia estava preparando um jantar especial para muitos convidados. Eu adorava esses dias, a casa ficava tão alegre, com movimento e cheiros maravilhosos. Eu rondava a cozinha tentando bisbilhotar, mas Zuleica não gostava e nunca me deixava participar. Certa hora minha mãe e ela me chamaram e falaram que eu poderia ajudar em alguma coisa. Fiquei animada, mesmo que a missão fosse simplesmente ir até a quitanda alguns metros acima para buscar um pote de creme de leite fresco e frizaram que só poderia ser o fresco. Animada chamei um amigo do prédio e partimos. Mas na quitanda não tinha o tal do fresco, só em lata. Não podia falhar na missão, perguntei onde poderia encontrar tal produto e soube que seria na Casa Santa Luzia, que ficava na Augusta. Sabia que era um pouco longe e estava ficando escuro, mas não podia falhar na missão. Saímos da quitanda perguntando pra quase todos que passavam como fazer para chegar lá e me divertia como se estivesse participando da minha bincadeira preferida: caça ao tesouro! Chegamos de volta em casa triufantes com a missão cumprida, mas minha mãe estava tão preocupada e estressada que reagiu gritando, me virando e dando um tapa na minha bunda! Nem imaginava que viraria cozinheira, mas a verdade é que eu já tinha algumas características fundamentais como: o respeito à comida, o apreço pelos melhores ingredientes, a atenção aos detalhes e o esforço para fazer as coisas da melhor maneira possível.

Bosn livros sobre comida

Além de fazer comida, pensar em comida e escrever sobre comida, claro que também leio a respeito! Aqui estão alguns livros que devorei: O Homem que Comeu de Tudo, de Jeffrey Steingarten, crítico gastronômico da revista Vogue, é muito interessante, bem escrito e divertido. Seu segundo livro: Foi Alguma Coisa que Comi , também é ótimo!
Na mesma linha, gostoso de ler: Alho e Safiras de Ruth Reichl, que foi crítica gastronômica do New York Times e agora é editora-chefe da revista Gourmet.
Carême, Cozinheiro dos Reis , de Ian Kelly, não é tão bem escrito, um pouco pesado, mas muito interessante, principalmente para banqueteiros!
Cartas a um Jovem Chef, de Laurent Suaudeau, é pequenininho, fácil e rápido de ler, bom pra quem pensa em seguir carreira no ramo culinário.
Nessa mesma linha, Becoming a Chef, de Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, é bem interessante, os autores enriqueceram seu texto entrevistando vários chefs famosos e falam das etapas pelas quais eles passam até chegarem lá! E o livro conta ainda com várias boas receitas.
Outro que não é novidade, mas deve ser sempre lembrado pois é repleto de receitas e uma delícia de ler é: Não é Sopa, de Nina Horta.
Cozinha Confidencial, de Anthony Bourdain, que também já virou um clássico, é bem divertido e polêmico!