I have eaten Potato soup made in many different variations by my family since I can barely even remember. I was reminded by my friend Cliffina of its allure.
The basic ingredients of potatoes, onions, celery, milk, butter, salt, pepper and little dumplings made from egg and flour have changed little in the 40 years I've been eating and making it. It's a simple recipe handed down by poor German immigrant farmers who would likely have had most of these staples in their root cellars, from the chicken coop and from the cow kept handy for the family's dairy needs. The later generations have taken this simple soup and changed it into things beyond what would have been in the farm pantry. Adding cheese, bacon, scallions and sour cream to make Loaded potato soup. My aunt browns sausage and adds that to the finished soup. I have used this recipe and added clam juice, chopped clams, wine and a healthy amount of freshly chopped parsley to make delicious clam chowder. Adding Leeks or Garlic also change up the composition.
Potato Soup Recipe
4 Stalks of Celery, Diced
1 Medium Onion, Peeled and Diced
3-4 Medium Potatoes, Peeled and Cut in chunks the size of dice
6 Tablespoons Butter
Water
1 Egg
1/2 cup or so All Purpose Flour
1/4t celery salt
2 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cornstarch
Put butter in a pot suitable for making soup and turn heat on low. While butter is melting, chop and add celery, onion and potatoes. Add some salt and peppr and give a good stir to coat all the vegetables and allow to cook on low for another 5 to 7 minutes making sure not to brown. Next cover the vegetables with water by about 1 inch and turn up heat to medium. While the water and vegetables are warming, combine egg, flour and celery salt in small bowl. Mix with fork until it forms a fairly wet dough. Begin adding the dough mixture in pieces about the size of a pea to the soup mixture using two forks. (dipping the forks in the warm soup mixture will help the dough bits fall right off!) Allow soup to simmer on medium heat until the potatoes are softened somewhat. Lower heat and add two cups of milk and check seasoning of soup. Add salt and pepper as necessary and then allow soup to cook on low for another 15 minutes. Mix about two Tablespoons of corn starch with half cup water in a coffee cup until smooth. Add to soup mixture while stirring to thicken soup slightly. Check soup again for seasoning (It takes ALOT of salt to make this soup not taste bland!) Serve up plain or add your favorite potato toppings
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Pizza Dough for Eagan....
It has recently come to the attention of the Food & Wino guy that a young man with a blossoming interest in cooking is having some difficulty with tackling the intricate nuances of pizza dough. The Food & Wino guy is happy to help.
So, Eagan. Let's discuss a couple of things about Flour, liquid and mechanical action (also known as stirring or kneading). There is something very VERY important called gluten, the development of which is a key component in making good pizza dough. Gluten is formed when liquid is added to flour and then stirred, kneaded, beaten, etc. Gluten is what gives dough it's elasticity. Since pizza dough is a pretty "tough" and robust dough based on the job it's being given, the dough will need a LOT of gluten, which means the dough will need to be kneaded quite a bit. Probably more than what you were ever thinking if your dough has been too wet and sticky.
Next, we need to discuss flour. Different types of flour are essentially harder or softer than their counterparts which mean they have the ability to develop more or less gluten based on your use. All purpose flour generally is just that, All Purpose. Cake Flour is much softer and less capable of developing gluten, which is something you don't want in a cake or cookies. Nobody likes a tough cookie, right? Bread flour is harder than All Purpose flour and Semolina flour is harder still and something ideal for making pasta or supplementing a pizza dough.
Another important thing to keep your eye on when making your dough is how much water you use. A good recipe still can not tell you exactly how much water is the right amount, since the temperature and humidity in your kitchen WILL change how much water is already in your flour from the atmosphere. This is the part of making dough which requires you to be very observant and willing to learn from your mistakes. Go easy when adding the water. If your dough has come together and it's smooth and elastic then stop adding water. (You can tell if you dough is smooth because, well....It will be smooth. You can tell your dough is elastic by pushing on it with you finger. Very little or no dough should stick to your finger and it should bounce back somewhat when you poke it. Another good way to know if your dough is too wet is how it looks in the bowl. Once you begin kneading the dough, it should form a ball fairly quickly with none of the dough touching the sides of the bowl AT ALL. If you have a big sticky mess going on after a few minutes of kneading, then your dough is WAY TOO WET. Add some flour and remember not to do it again next time.
Okay. Now for the pizza dough recipe. It's a pretty big recipe, so you could easily cut it in half, but it can also be wrapped and frozen or kept as a science project BLOB in your fridge.
Pizza Dough
Yield: Approx 6lbs of dough (6 pies!)
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons Dry Active Yeast
1 1/4 Cups Warm Water
11 Cups Bread Flour (yes, eleven!)
3/4 Cup Semolina Flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons Salt (Kosher or Sea, please!)
1 Cup Olive Oil
3 Cups Water (give or take!)
To Prepare the Dough:
Combine the All Purpose flour, the first portion of water and the dry yeast into a large mixing bowl to make a sponge (mix together, leave alone.) Let is sit for 1/2 hour to ferment.
After half hour, place the bowl with the sponge on a mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the bread flour, semolina flour and the sale into the sponge. Mix on low just to begin to combine. With the mixer on low, add all of the olive oil and enough of the second portion of water to make a nice, smooth, elastic dough. Increase the speed on the mixer to medium and knead for 12 (yes, twelve!) minutes. Divide the dough into 1Lb. balls and allow to double, turning the dough once after about half hour or so. Roll out the dough balls on a lightly floured surface and transfer to a pizza peel or cutting board dusted with corn meal. Bake in a hot oven (450 to 475) on a stone, if possible.
Good Luck Eagan. Let me know how it goes for you.
All the Best,
The Food and Wino Guy.....
So, Eagan. Let's discuss a couple of things about Flour, liquid and mechanical action (also known as stirring or kneading). There is something very VERY important called gluten, the development of which is a key component in making good pizza dough. Gluten is formed when liquid is added to flour and then stirred, kneaded, beaten, etc. Gluten is what gives dough it's elasticity. Since pizza dough is a pretty "tough" and robust dough based on the job it's being given, the dough will need a LOT of gluten, which means the dough will need to be kneaded quite a bit. Probably more than what you were ever thinking if your dough has been too wet and sticky.
Next, we need to discuss flour. Different types of flour are essentially harder or softer than their counterparts which mean they have the ability to develop more or less gluten based on your use. All purpose flour generally is just that, All Purpose. Cake Flour is much softer and less capable of developing gluten, which is something you don't want in a cake or cookies. Nobody likes a tough cookie, right? Bread flour is harder than All Purpose flour and Semolina flour is harder still and something ideal for making pasta or supplementing a pizza dough.
Another important thing to keep your eye on when making your dough is how much water you use. A good recipe still can not tell you exactly how much water is the right amount, since the temperature and humidity in your kitchen WILL change how much water is already in your flour from the atmosphere. This is the part of making dough which requires you to be very observant and willing to learn from your mistakes. Go easy when adding the water. If your dough has come together and it's smooth and elastic then stop adding water. (You can tell if you dough is smooth because, well....It will be smooth. You can tell your dough is elastic by pushing on it with you finger. Very little or no dough should stick to your finger and it should bounce back somewhat when you poke it. Another good way to know if your dough is too wet is how it looks in the bowl. Once you begin kneading the dough, it should form a ball fairly quickly with none of the dough touching the sides of the bowl AT ALL. If you have a big sticky mess going on after a few minutes of kneading, then your dough is WAY TOO WET. Add some flour and remember not to do it again next time.
Okay. Now for the pizza dough recipe. It's a pretty big recipe, so you could easily cut it in half, but it can also be wrapped and frozen or kept as a science project BLOB in your fridge.
Pizza Dough
Yield: Approx 6lbs of dough (6 pies!)
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons Dry Active Yeast
1 1/4 Cups Warm Water
11 Cups Bread Flour (yes, eleven!)
3/4 Cup Semolina Flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons Salt (Kosher or Sea, please!)
1 Cup Olive Oil
3 Cups Water (give or take!)
To Prepare the Dough:
Combine the All Purpose flour, the first portion of water and the dry yeast into a large mixing bowl to make a sponge (mix together, leave alone.) Let is sit for 1/2 hour to ferment.
After half hour, place the bowl with the sponge on a mixer fitted with a dough hook and add the bread flour, semolina flour and the sale into the sponge. Mix on low just to begin to combine. With the mixer on low, add all of the olive oil and enough of the second portion of water to make a nice, smooth, elastic dough. Increase the speed on the mixer to medium and knead for 12 (yes, twelve!) minutes. Divide the dough into 1Lb. balls and allow to double, turning the dough once after about half hour or so. Roll out the dough balls on a lightly floured surface and transfer to a pizza peel or cutting board dusted with corn meal. Bake in a hot oven (450 to 475) on a stone, if possible.
Good Luck Eagan. Let me know how it goes for you.
All the Best,
The Food and Wino Guy.....
Thursday, January 10, 2008
A Culinary Union: Marry Your Food And Wine!
I know that many of you may not have considered yourselves the marrying kind. Maybe this is because you aren't ordained, or maybe like me, there are lots of "sanctity" laws prohibiting marriage to the intended person. While there might be laws prohibiting me from marrying who I choose, they couldn't keep me from getting ordained ( go to and get ordained for FREE! http://www.spiritualhumanism.org/ ), but you don't have to be a card carrying member of the clergy like me to perform the kind of marriage I am talking about here. (BTW, I still haven't married anyone and would really like to if anyone is looking, but I digress.....)
Many novice gourmands tend to worry needlessly that the wine they serve won't match with the food they have prepared. While there are lots of more advanced considerations in the whole realm of pairing food with wine, let's just set those aside for this rant and focus on one fairly simple thing which will go a long LONG way in assuring that your food and wine make nice and please the palette. You guessed it! You need to MARRY your food to your wine! (Or your wine to your food depending on who's the bride and who's the groom, etc....but I digress!) The simplest, most sure-fire way to match your food and wine at the table is to use the same wine you are planning on drinking in the preparation of the dish. You need to marry the flavors together to form an unstoppable friendly bond. How do I do this you ask??
If you are planning on grilling meat, use your dinner wine as part of the marinade. You can always warm up that marinade on the stove later to kill all the germs and use that as a glaze to brush on your meat while you are grilling it too. If you are making a soup or stew or braising meat, use a healthy amount of your wine as the cooking liquid. Another great way to marry your food and wine is by making your accompanying sauce with the same wine. A good rule of thumb is to pair your wine with the sauce more than with the meat or fish, so also keep that in mind if you are going to try something bold like red wine with chicken or white wine with beef. It can be done successfully. Performing yourself a culinary Marriage is one way to assure you accomplish that successfully. Ordain yourself as masters of this culinary domain. You may kiss the bride!
Bah Dee Bah Dee Bah Dee..... That's All Folks!
Many novice gourmands tend to worry needlessly that the wine they serve won't match with the food they have prepared. While there are lots of more advanced considerations in the whole realm of pairing food with wine, let's just set those aside for this rant and focus on one fairly simple thing which will go a long LONG way in assuring that your food and wine make nice and please the palette. You guessed it! You need to MARRY your food to your wine! (Or your wine to your food depending on who's the bride and who's the groom, etc....but I digress!) The simplest, most sure-fire way to match your food and wine at the table is to use the same wine you are planning on drinking in the preparation of the dish. You need to marry the flavors together to form an unstoppable friendly bond. How do I do this you ask??
If you are planning on grilling meat, use your dinner wine as part of the marinade. You can always warm up that marinade on the stove later to kill all the germs and use that as a glaze to brush on your meat while you are grilling it too. If you are making a soup or stew or braising meat, use a healthy amount of your wine as the cooking liquid. Another great way to marry your food and wine is by making your accompanying sauce with the same wine. A good rule of thumb is to pair your wine with the sauce more than with the meat or fish, so also keep that in mind if you are going to try something bold like red wine with chicken or white wine with beef. It can be done successfully. Performing yourself a culinary Marriage is one way to assure you accomplish that successfully. Ordain yourself as masters of this culinary domain. You may kiss the bride!
Bah Dee Bah Dee Bah Dee..... That's All Folks!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Food & Wino Guy Already Under Pressure to Reveal His Preferred Cheap Tasty Wine Secrets.....
The Food & Wino Guy (that would still be me....) is already being pressured by his hordes of readers to reveal what he knows about yummy cheap drinkable wine. See the letter from a reader in Atlanta (in Blue) below.....
Food and Wino guy
Food and Wino guy
You mention in your article you have some 'preferred cheap wines' that inevitably become hard to find or expensive... Give us a nugget. We promise not to buy so much we impact your supply.
Thanks
Dave in Atlanta
Well, let me just tell you Dave in Atlanta..... The Food and Wino Guy has heard the old "Give us a nugget" line before. It's actually not too far below the old "It's only a cold sore" lie... Shame shame on you.... I don't care if you are my brother or if you sent me that big American Express Gift Card for Christmas (thanks for that, by the way!) but you are going to have to wait for the wine tips like everyone else. It'll be when I get tipsy and "spill the wine" so to speak.
The fact of the matter is that sharing wine tips isn't nearly as much fun as just sharing a bottle of wine. Maybe I'll do that now. But first I'll offer a tiny tiny nugget.
Went to dinner last night at Collina's. (online at www.collinas.com ) It's a nothing fancy Italian restaurant/pizzeria here in Houston with one of my favorite restaurant features -- It's BYOB!
Their food is also fresh and fairly consistent and very VERY well priced for what you get.
Anyhoo.... We stopped off at Whole Foods and picked up a bottle of Spanish White. It was a delicious Albarino from the Rias Baixas D.O. (D.O. stands for Denominacion de Origen and has to do with legally recognized growing areas, but we'll discuss that later or you can look it up online.)
Our very expensively priced bottle ($9.99) was made by Pazo Serantellos and had a vintage of 2006. It was light, crisp and really handled the variety of food we ordered very well. I'm doubting this wine is on Robert Parker's radar, but for the price I would certainly buy it again and recommend you try doing the same.
You can also visit a great website at www.winesfromspain.com for more information about Spanish wine than you ever EVER wanted to know.
I'm out.....
Well, let me just tell you Dave in Atlanta..... The Food and Wino Guy has heard the old "Give us a nugget" line before. It's actually not too far below the old "It's only a cold sore" lie... Shame shame on you.... I don't care if you are my brother or if you sent me that big American Express Gift Card for Christmas (thanks for that, by the way!) but you are going to have to wait for the wine tips like everyone else. It'll be when I get tipsy and "spill the wine" so to speak.
The fact of the matter is that sharing wine tips isn't nearly as much fun as just sharing a bottle of wine. Maybe I'll do that now. But first I'll offer a tiny tiny nugget.
Went to dinner last night at Collina's. (online at www.collinas.com ) It's a nothing fancy Italian restaurant/pizzeria here in Houston with one of my favorite restaurant features -- It's BYOB!
Their food is also fresh and fairly consistent and very VERY well priced for what you get.
Anyhoo.... We stopped off at Whole Foods and picked up a bottle of Spanish White. It was a delicious Albarino from the Rias Baixas D.O. (D.O. stands for Denominacion de Origen and has to do with legally recognized growing areas, but we'll discuss that later or you can look it up online.)
Our very expensively priced bottle ($9.99) was made by Pazo Serantellos and had a vintage of 2006. It was light, crisp and really handled the variety of food we ordered very well. I'm doubting this wine is on Robert Parker's radar, but for the price I would certainly buy it again and recommend you try doing the same.
You can also visit a great website at www.winesfromspain.com for more information about Spanish wine than you ever EVER wanted to know.
I'm out.....
Friday, January 4, 2008
Butterscotch Blondie Recipe For Sona aka Cookie Marie
Happy Friday to All....
Today I'm going to post a recipe for Butterscotch Blondie Bars for my friend Sona (aka Cookie Marie!). I made them yesterday and they are really QUITE tasty.... I'm thinking these babies served warm with some cinnamon or vanilla bean ice cream would be something else. All by themselves they are simple, crumby and sublime.
I thought I would share this recipe with you all so you can enjoy them for yourself. Very easy to make and bake. Even easier to eat....
Butterscotch Blondie Bars (From CL)
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 1/2 Cups Packed Light Brown Sugar
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Stick and 2 Tablespoons (10 total) Unsalted Butter
4 Large Eggs Beaten (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
METHOD
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
Sift flour, baking powder and sea salt into a large bowl. Add Brown Sugar. Set Aside.
Put butter into small sauce pan or skillet and heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally until butter is lightly browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes. (Be careful not to overbrown or burn the butter, but it needs to be browned or you won't have the butterscotch flavor!) Break eggs into small bowl and whisk. Add cooled butter and whisk until well combined. Pour the butter/egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. (Don't overmix or they'll be tough. Nothing worse than a tough cookie!) Spread batter into a greased or cooking sprayed 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool, cut and keep in airtight container or freeze.
Bon Apetit!
Today I'm going to post a recipe for Butterscotch Blondie Bars for my friend Sona (aka Cookie Marie!). I made them yesterday and they are really QUITE tasty.... I'm thinking these babies served warm with some cinnamon or vanilla bean ice cream would be something else. All by themselves they are simple, crumby and sublime.
I thought I would share this recipe with you all so you can enjoy them for yourself. Very easy to make and bake. Even easier to eat....
Butterscotch Blondie Bars (From CL)
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 1/2 Cups Packed Light Brown Sugar
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Stick and 2 Tablespoons (10 total) Unsalted Butter
4 Large Eggs Beaten (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)
METHOD
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
Sift flour, baking powder and sea salt into a large bowl. Add Brown Sugar. Set Aside.
Put butter into small sauce pan or skillet and heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally until butter is lightly browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes. (Be careful not to overbrown or burn the butter, but it needs to be browned or you won't have the butterscotch flavor!) Break eggs into small bowl and whisk. Add cooled butter and whisk until well combined. Pour the butter/egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. (Don't overmix or they'll be tough. Nothing worse than a tough cookie!) Spread batter into a greased or cooking sprayed 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool, cut and keep in airtight container or freeze.
Bon Apetit!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Meet The Food & Wino Guy
Hello and Welcome to Food & Wino. I'm Dean and I'd be the foodie and the wino! The truth of the matter is that I spend an enormous amount of my time thinking about food (and wine too!). Don't get me wrong, because I'm not complaining or lamenting the fact. It's more along the lines of making a confession. I admit it. My mental landscape is dominated by visions of yummy chow and tasty wine. What could I do with those? I wonder if I poached these if they would go with that? Why does a good bottle of Burgundy have to cost so much cashola? What am I going to do when people catch on to my preferred cheap wine and it becomes hard to find or suddenly expensive? (This has happened frequently, so I consider these thoughts more apocalyptic than paranoid!)
This being the New Year and the depths of Winter, I was naturally delighted today to receive my first seed catalog. Todays arrival from Johnny's Selected Seeds (online at www.johnnyseeds.com) couldn't have made me happier. It's their 35th Anniversary catalog and is chock full of great stuff I wish I had the dirt to grow. I always take the post Holiday arrival of the seed catalogs as some sort of pagan sign of hope. Just the pictures of the ripe fruit and vegetables along with their fact filled descriptions and apparent ease to grow offer hope of a different season more full of light and bounty. Through enough experience, I KNOW that producing vegetables that look as tasty as those in the catalog takes more than just putting a seed into the ground. It takes hard work and a kind eye from Mother Nature herself. Get yourself some seed catalogs. They make great reading while you do some fertilizing of your own. I need to look into finding a community garden plot here in Houston. Keeping my hands in the dirt helps keep me out of the mischief (and the bottles of wine!)
More Soon....
Merry Happy HannaChrisQwaNewYear!!
This being the New Year and the depths of Winter, I was naturally delighted today to receive my first seed catalog. Todays arrival from Johnny's Selected Seeds (online at www.johnnyseeds.com) couldn't have made me happier. It's their 35th Anniversary catalog and is chock full of great stuff I wish I had the dirt to grow. I always take the post Holiday arrival of the seed catalogs as some sort of pagan sign of hope. Just the pictures of the ripe fruit and vegetables along with their fact filled descriptions and apparent ease to grow offer hope of a different season more full of light and bounty. Through enough experience, I KNOW that producing vegetables that look as tasty as those in the catalog takes more than just putting a seed into the ground. It takes hard work and a kind eye from Mother Nature herself. Get yourself some seed catalogs. They make great reading while you do some fertilizing of your own. I need to look into finding a community garden plot here in Houston. Keeping my hands in the dirt helps keep me out of the mischief (and the bottles of wine!)
More Soon....
Merry Happy HannaChrisQwaNewYear!!
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