Humble Soup, Fancy Salad

Split pea and bacon soup; Blood orange, fennel, blue cheese, radicchio and Castelvetrano olive salad

First of all, a HUGE thank you to everyone has read and supported my little newsletter this year. This week marks the one year anniversary of Still Life With Lemon, the newsletter I started to get all of the mental chatter I have about food, OUT of my head. It’s almost hard to believe because I feel like there are still so many things to share!

I still have not said a word about eggs (aside from the frittata recipe), which feels crazy given that my entire cooking career essentially centered around an egg sandwich, for better or worse. This elephant in the room is on my to-do hit list before spring, I promise.

For now, I am in the throws of soup and stew season. I have decided that I could write an entire book about chicken soup and all of its many possibilities. Today for lunch, I made a pot of buttery turmeric rice and threw on some left-over roast chicken and a ladle of chicken broth that is simmering on the stove. A squeeze of lime and a few chopped scallions and it felt like the best thing I have ever eaten- perfect for my slightly-under-the-weather-because-everyone-has-been-sick-and-now-it’s-my-turn day.

Last week was rise e bisi, the Italian rice and green pea soup which is almost risotto except it has almost as many peas as rice and there is no pressure to stand and stir it for 30 minutes, or worry too much about the final texture. Again, I had a pot of chicken broth going from a left over rotisserie chicken and rather than having to faff about with straining the stock (which in my opinion is the worst part of making stock), I simply ladled it all in over my sautéed onion, celery and garlic as soon as I had stirred the rice through the buttery vegetables. A whole bag of frozen peas in at the end, 10 minutes before you are done (or longer, but I prefer the vibrant color of a less-cooked pea), more stock if you need to make it soupier and finish with a good shaving of parm and some fresh mint if you have it. So good. It’s also excellent, with a bit of super creamy tangy cheese such as Merideth Dairy sheep and goat cheese or French or Danish feta.

Earlier this week I had a hankering for pea and ham soup, one of the most comforting of all the soups in my opinion. I do, however, have a difficult time finding a ham hock these days. I decided to make it with bacon instead, adding a little smoked paprika to help with some extra oomph that the ham hock would otherwise provide. When I DO have a ham hock, I follow Stephanie Alexander’s recipe and just throw everything into the pot together, not even bothering to sauté the vegetables and allow to cook slowly for a couple of hours- allowing time to take the place of technique.

I served the split pea and bacon soup with a rather extravagant salad, uplifting, rather than betraying, the humble nature of the soup. I think they went very well together! This salad is a mash up of a couple of my favourite combinations- fennel, orange and olive as well as blue cheese, radicchio and celery (to which I would also add dates or thin slices of pear). It seems fussy, but is really just a matter of slicing everything up and then assembly is easy.

Split Pea and Bacon Soup

You can use stock in this, but I just use water and plenty of salt. If you don’t have bay, it will still be good.

olive oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 carrot, finely diced

3 sticks celery, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, finely diced

5 or 6 rashers or bacon, chopped into small pieces

1/2-1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika (I used sweet, but hot is also good)

1 1/2 cups green split peas

2 small potatoes, peeled and diced

1 or 2 bay leaves

to serve:

Any or all of the following: sour cream, parsley, mint, olive oil, extra smoked paprika, black pepper, BUTTERY TOAST

• Heat your favourite soup pot over medium high heat and add a nice lug of olive oil. Add the onion, carrot and celery to the pan with a generous pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes, making sure the vegetables don’t colour- turn the heat down slightly if they do. Add the bacon and continue to cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft and translucent and the bacon is starting to caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and stir for 2 minutes, then add the paprika and stir for 30 seconds. Add the peas and potatoes and cover with water by a couple of inches. Add a couple of good pinches of salt and the bay leaves. Allow to come to the boil and then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for at least an hour until the peas are completely soft and broken down- you may need to add a little more water. Be sure to stir occasionally, especially as it nears the end of cooking as it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan.

  Check for seasoning and add more salt to taste. Ladle into bowls and adorn with your choice of toppings.

Fancy Salad

Salads like this are my favourite. I say fancy probably because its not just mindlessly thrown in a bowl, though it could be! This is a dream salad to serve with a pissaladiere (aka caramelized onion, olive and anchovy tart) in the winter!!

1 bulb of fennel

2 sticks of celery

2 oranges- I used 1 each of blood and navel oranges

6-8 Castelvetrano olives, pits removed- I do this by pressing on them with a glass

1/4 head of radicchio, washed, dried and torn into pieces.

A small handful of Italian parsley, leaves only (optional)

a small chunk of blue cheese- I used point Reyes blue which is fairly light and tangy

flakey salt and black pepper

Dressing:

a tsp seeded mustard (or dijon)

1 clove of garlic, grated

a good squeeze of lemon juice

a whisper of maple syrup or honey

a few tablespoons of good olive oil

salt and black pepper

• Shave the fennel and celery very thin, ideally using a mandolin, it will make your life much easier, otherwise as finely as you can with a knife. Set aside.

• Remove the skin from the oranges: start by taking the ends off so you have a flat top and bottom. Sit the orange on its new flat bottom, and going from top to bottom in strips, cut the peel away. Try to cut off as much pith as possible while leaving as much flesh intact as possible! Now turn the orange on its side and cut into thin cross-sections. Set aside.

• Crumble or slice the blue cheese (I love it sliced but it rarely wants to co-operate with me). Halve the olives.

• For the dressing: combine everything in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake, season to taste. Alternately, whisk everything but the oil together in a bowl, wait a few minutes and then whisk in the oil. Season to taste, and adjust as needed.

• To Assemble: Lay down half of the celery and fennel on a plate, followed by half of the radicchio, parsley if using, orange slices, olives and cheese. Drizzle over half of the dressing and season with some flakey salt. Repeat with a second layer on top, finishing with a little more salt and some black pepper.