Category Archives: soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Feb 15 4 comments
soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Truffled Mushroom Grits

I mentioned last year that while we don’t do much for Valentines Day, we do a little something.  I like to cook dinner and surprise Dan with a fun dessert.  Nothing big, it’s mostly sentimental because our first Valentines Day as a couple was the first time I got the courage to tell Dan (in writing) that I wanted to spend my life with him.  It was a big deal, complete with out of season sunflowers that he spent a fortune on and a nice dinner.  I like to keep the tradition going (sans expensive flowers), so this year we dined on red wine braised short ribs, truffle infused mushroom grits, and a creme brulee (my first, a check off the life list).  It was lovely, romantic, and totally delicious.

I decided I wanted to do short ribs pretty early on because I think that food is its sexiest when it is fall off the bone good.  Flavor that is rich and deep and makes you close your eyes while you enjoy it is way more appealing than any number of the things that I’ve seen served on this most “romantic” of holidays.  The last time I made these short ribs I served them with my potatoes au gratin but we’ve been a little potatoed out lately, so I thought I’d go towards another member of the starch family, the grit.  I opted for mushrooms because I use them with the ribs and because they give a great woody, earthy flavor to the grits.

I hate writing about food in the context of romance because everything you say about really intense food also makes for innuendo, double entendre, and overall gutter brain.  Which may be why so many television food personalities make me uncomfortable.  It’s hard to talk about how good food can be without it coming off a little naughty (I’m looking at you Giada.  And you too Ina).  To be fair to the dish though, there is something sensual about a good meal.  The way it warms you up, makes you feel like it’s hugging you?  In my mind there are the kinds of good foods that you say wow! this is delicious, I love taco night and the kinds of good foods that make you close your eyes, tilt your head back, and groan.  For the sake of keeping it PG you should bug your eyes out like Paula Deen does every time she tries something good.

Anyway, this post is quickly making me uncomfortable so I’ll cut it short by saying this- these grits are awesome, you should try them.  And now that Valentine’s Day is past, you can make these anytime.  Grits are for lovers, but also for weeknights.  And I hope you had a happy Anna Howard Shaw Day.  And that you’re enjoying the snow, if you’ve been getting it.  Unless this apocalyptic weather has you freaking out, in which case totally call me because DUDE ME TOO.  I think I need to buy snow pants.  And boots.  And a shovel.  And plane tickets to Costa Rica.

Truffled Mushroom Grits

2 cups water

2 cups milk

1 cup grits

2 tbsp butter

4 pieces of bacon

1 cup button mushrooms

3 tbsp white truffle oil

1 tsp salt

1 lemon, juiced

Bring water and milk to a boil.  Stir in butter and salt.  Stir in grits, cover, and drop to a simmer.  Cook on a simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick.

Cook your bacon, and set it aside.  Reserve 1 tbsp grease.  Combine with 1 tbsp truffle oil and set the pan over medium heat.  Saute mushrooms until brown.  Stir the  mushrooms, their juices, and the remaining truffle oil into the grits.  Stir in the lemon juice.  Serve.

Dec 11 0 comments
captain james cooks, seafood, soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Seafood Stew


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One of the things I learned at art school was that I’m not special.  That sounds a little harsh.  I mean, specifically, that my life story, the things that have happened to me and the challenges that I’ve faced, aren’t unique.  When I was growing up I was one of the few people I knew that had divorced parents.  But every one of my close friends from college (save Dan) are the products of divorce.  For the first time since I was eleven I had a group of friends that totally got what I was going through, who knew what it was like.  Some of them have parents who still have a friendly relationship, others (like me) have parents whose relationship is rough, at best.  Swapping war stories with them was healing, made me feel like people beyond my  brothers understood what I was going through.

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This Thanksgiving was a demonstration of how things can play out in a funny way.  My parents live just a few miles from each other in Durham, which makes visiting both of them around the holidays easy since we can toggle back and forth from their houses.  This year, my dad and stepmom were supposed to be in Northern Virginia for Thanksgiving, so we made plans to spend the holiday with my mom.  Then we were invited to my Aunt Lori and Uncle Kevin’s house, my father’s brother and his family.   Just before Thanksgiving my dad and stepmom cancelled their trip, which meant they spent the holiday with her family while we spent it with my mom and my dad’s family.  Complicated.

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My dad has a section on b&s called “The Captain Cooks.”  So I was only mildly surprised to get a text (he just got an iPhone and started texting) from him on Thanksgiving morning inviting me to come over and take pictures of him frying a turkey.  Unfortunately we were due at our dinner, so I offered to document his meal for the Friday night dinner we’d be attending, a seafood stew.  I will, however, absolutely have to share his turkey recipe with you soon, because it was delicious.

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My dad does soups and stews really well.  Brunswick stew, chili, seafood boils, they are rich and full of flavor.  I used to love when he would make a few gallons; my sisters and I would just curl up in bed with a big bowl and allow ourselves to be filled with its warmth.  This stew was no different.  Full of flavor, perfect for a big family dinner over a family game of dice.  The biggest conflict on that Black Friday?  The difference between soup and stew.  Thoughts?

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Seafood Stew
Source: Captain James Rosemond

1 pound sausage

1 pound cod

1 pound shrimp

1 onion

2 cups carrots

4 potatoes

2 16 oz cans crushed tomatoes

1 4 oz can tomato paste

1 cup celery

2 16 oz cans green beans, canned

1 bottle V-8

Cayenne pepper

Salt & pepper

2 small cans clams (with juice)

2 small cans oysters (with juice)

4 tbsp olive oil

Chop celery, carrots, onion, and potatoes.  Set aside.  Parboil potatoes.  Drain.

Heat oil in a large stock pot.  Saute sausage until brown.  Add celery and cook 5 minutes.  Add carrots, onions, and potatoes, one at a time.  Stir in the juice from the clams and oysters, but not the fish itself.  Cook 5 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, green beans, and V-8.  Add salt and pepper and cayenne.

Simmer for 2-4 hours.  30 minutes before you’d like to serve, bring heat back up and add seafood.  Cook for half an hour, stirring occasionally, and serve.

Oct 28 0 comments
soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Chicken Stock


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I promised you a really long time ago that I would share my chicken stock recipe, but then I never did.  Because I’m a jerk.  Instead I just stuck my chicken carcass in the freezer and forgot about it.  Then, this weekend, when I was putting together my list of recipes for November for both b&s and iVillage (did I mention that starting November 9th I’ll be writing a weekly food column for iVillage?), and I realized that it was finally perfect timing to make chicken stock and share the recipe.

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Chicken stock is really water that has been infused with the nutrients, flavor, and essence of chicken, vegetable, and spices.  You combine the spices and vegetables with chicken scraps, bones, and leftovers and simmer for 6-8 hours with water.  It’s a great way to repurpose left over chicken from fried, roasted, or broiled chicken.  The stock can then be used in soups, stews, braises, etc.

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Why make it yourself, you may ask, when it’s only a few dollars at the grocery store?  Well, for a few reasons.  For one, you’re recycling your leftover chickens, and you can throw in whatever vegetable scraps you have.  Secondly, it’s better for you.  You can control the amount of salt, and there are no preservatives.  Also, you can make a lot in one sitting and freeze it.  Some people choose to freeze their stock in 10 little containers, but my freezer isn’t big enough for that, so I freeze it in 1/2 gallon batches.

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Another benefit is that if you’re making stock for one particular dish, you can flavor it so that it is as complimentary as possible.  For instance, when I made this stock I was going to use the first batch of it to braise short ribs.  I was braising the ribs in red wine with cremini mushrooms, with a flavor profile that included all spice, rosemary, and bay leaves.  So by including these ingredients in the stock, when I used the stock in the braise the flavors echoed beautifully.

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Homemade Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass

2 cups baby carrots

1/2 white onion, sliced

5 garlic cloves

Fresh rosemary

1 tbsp whole peppercorns

1 tsp allspice

2 bay leaves

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1 tbsp kosher salt

1/2 tbsp pepper

8 cups cold water (plus more, as needed)

Combine everything but the water in a large stockpot.  Cover with the large steamer basket.  Pour water in, so that the ingredients are completely covered with water.

Bring to a boil.

Cover, lower temperature to a simmer, and cook 6-8 hours.  Every 30 minutes or so skim fat from the top, and add water as needed.  Make sure that vegetables and chicken stay covered completely.

Strain and freeze the stock for future use!

Sep 04 1 comments
soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Peach Soup


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When Dan and I first started dating, after three years of friendship, I was in my last semester at the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Dan had already graduated, and since he was in Philadelphia much of our first few months together were long distance.  For those of you who have ever been in long distance relationships, you’ll understand that the majority of your time is spent on the phone, reading emails, writing emails, ichatting, video chatting, and of course, sending handmade letterpressed cards to each other.  Okay, that last one might be a geeky art school thing.

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My point is that when you’re spending hours of the day talking to another person (because at the beginning of a relationship you can literally talk for hours), you have to scramble to come up with new and interesting things to talk about.  Shortly after we started dating Dan and I started playing a story telling game.  Essentially, we would tell each other little made up stories about our hypothetical future.  The stories were serious and whimsical, funny and emotional.  I think it started as a way to admit to one another that our intentions were genuine, and it became an easy outlet to talk about hot button relationship issues like marriage, kids, and whether or not to get a dog.  Dan will ultimately win that last one.

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It’s been a long time since those long distance days, and a lot of our stories have come true.  However, since we’re still urban apartment dwellers, the one big dream of ours that has yet to be realized is a garden.  And let me tell you do we have big garden plans. Our first apartment in D.C. didn’t have air conditioning, and when we moved in our potted herbs took up most of the dining room.  And they flourished!  Unfortunately, that apartment was satan’s playground (read: bedbugs) and we were moved out by early fall.  Our current apartment also has good light, in addition to heat/air conditioning units.  Once again our plants were happy, as they spent the winter sitting on top of the heater.  To them, it was as good as summer.  And then real summer came.  And with it came the harsh realization that the only windows were also where the air conditioner sat.  All of our beautiful, delicious, fabulous herbs and vegetable plants suffered as D.C. got hotter and our apartment got colder.

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Fortunately I was able to steal one of our baby tomato plants away from our chilly apartment and plant it in full sun at work.  Dan harvested the seeds from a farmer’s market heirloom tomato last summer and this week we got to eat the first fruit of our labor.  Because so much went into the creation of this tomato and because we are experiencing so much angst about our dead indoor garden, we wanted the full flavor experience.  That meant not cooking it, but eating it raw- in all of it’s juicy heirloom glory.  A few weeks ago we had dinner at my brother & sister in-law (to be)’s house, and they served us prosciutto, mozzarella, and tomato sandwiches with peach soup.  It was so good that we decided to copy it.

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The Turcottes are aficionados of the fruit gazpacho.  They told us that this soup, the peach soup, was mostly  just peaches, yogurt, and some almond extract.  So that’s basically what I did.  Instead of toasted slivered almonds (which I forgot to get), I topped the soup with toasted pine nuts, and I think it turned out almost as well as theirs.  It was a great compliment to the main attraction- the bacon, avocado, mozzarella, and tomato sandwich.  One of the best tomatoes I’ve ever had.  Made even better by the fact that we made that tomato.  WE MADE IT.  (If at this point you’re going “that post was not even kind of about peach soup” please just let it go.  Because I’m still sick and it’s impacting my ability to do anything but whine and watch Top Chef.)

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Peach Soup
Source: Intellectual Property of Megan & John Turcotte

3 peaches

1/3 cup yogurt

1 tsp almond extract

2 tbsp pine nuts/slivered almonds

Salt & pepper

Peel and dice your peaches.  Blend them in a food processor until smooth.  Add in extract, yogurt, and salt & pepper.  Blend again.  Chill in refrigerator 1 hour.  Toast nuts and sprinkle over soup.

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Serves 2.

Jun 19 1 comments
soups, grits, stews, and meat pies

Blueberry Soup

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During the warm summer months, I love gazpacho.  I love soups year round, and cold soup in the summer makes perfect sense.  I especially love fruit gazpachos, because I feel like the flavors can be so wonderful and unexpected.  I’ve been waiting all winter for the arrival of delicious, local, organic fresh fruits and vegetables and I’ve been so happy the past few weeks to be finally able to include berries in everything I make.

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Another great thing about the arrival of summer is that I can FINALLY experiment with some of the recipes in all of the recipe books I’ve accumulated over the winter.  This recipe is another one from the owner of Crook’s Corner, a delicious restaurant in Chapel Hill.  Bill Smith’s Seasoned in the South is a great book with stories, recipes, and a lot of advice.  I really appreciate that in a recipe book- anecdotes, suggestions, and good food.  That’s probably why I love food blogs so much- I love the big pictures and the step-by-step instructions.

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This soup is flavored mostly by the blueberries and red wine, but there are also the subtle flavors of peppercorn and bay leaves.  The soup is meant to be served chilled, so there’s a fair amount of preparation involved.  Last weekend we had Dan’s sister Megan, her husband John, and their daughter Meredith over for dinner, so I served this along with homemade pesto pizza and an arugula salad (not to mention the honeysuckle sorbet).  I really enjoyed the soup, and from what I can tell everyone else did too.  It’s not sweet, which I liked.  The blueberries flavor is strongly complimented by the wine, and the overall effect is unexpected and delicious.

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Blueberry Soup
Source: Seasoned in the South by Bill Smith

2 pints fresh blueberries

3 cups red wine

2 tbsp whole peppercorns

Cheesecloth

3 bay leaves

1/4 cup heavy cream

The first thing that you’re going to do is blanch the berries in red wine.  With the berries you want to have the bay leaves and the peppercorn in the pot.  The peppercorn should either be wrapped in cheese cloth, or if you don’t have cheesecloth, in a tea strainer or something similar.  Bring the berries and wine to an almost boil, and then remove from heat.  Allow to cool completely.

Remove the peppercorn and bay leaves, and pour the wine and berries into a food processor.  Blend until smooth.  Stir in heavy cream and chill.

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