Flay One…Green Pea and Chile Soup
January 31, 2008
Jacquie has quite the affinity for book stores, which is awesome because it’s much cheaper than shoe stores and I have something to do while she’s browsing. A few weekends ago she allowed me to tag along on her cookbook shopping “spree” at Borders. We probably sat there for a good hour opening up cookbooks and reading them in order to find the perfect ones for her collection. This included The Bread Bible, Molto Mario by our guru, Thomas Keller’s Bouchon and even something for me, the Mesa cookbook.
When we got home, I read mine cover to cover (there’s some good info in there about spices and drinks too, it’s not all recipes) and decided that the first thing I’d try out is a soup. And I did the following night when I made his Green Pea & Green Chile Soup with Serrano Ham and Mint-Cumin Crema (page 44).
Firstly, most soups are fairly easy to make. If you want to make a carrot based soup all you do is boil the carrots until their soft, blend them up, and add little of the soup stock to thin it out. Same thing goes for a cucumber soup or a zucchini soup. In this case, it was peas for me. One interesting point to note is that homemade stocks hold a distinct advantage over store bought stocks for the simple reason that store bought isn’t necessarily made with chicken bones. Using bones in the stock like Jacquie does means your stock will have a much richer flavor. It’s not imperative, but if you can make homemade I’d recommend it. (We buy most of our food fresh and items rarely go into the freezer. We save the leftover parts of veggies and we buy whole chickens instead of just the breasts and legs. It’s like a vicious cycle. Our freezer is already full with ice, ready chicken stock in ice cube trays, an ice cream maker bowl, and chicken bones and vegetable remnants for the aforementioned stock, leaving little room for TV dinners of frozen veggies)
This first recipe actually turned out to be a perfect example of how I utilize cookbooks or recipes. I think of them more as a guideline or framework because if you really wanted Bobby Flay’s soup you’d actually go to Mesa Grill, not come over to my apartment. If you’re visiting me, you want good food and good drinks. Thus, in this recipe I made a few substitutions and a few additions (tasting the soup along the way), either for necessity or by choice. We didn’t have Serrano ham within arm’s length, but we always have some prosciutto in the fridge so we used that instead. Prosciutto worked just fine, though I would suggest having a HOT pan when crisping ham because my first batch was kind of soggy
The next substitution I used was sour cream for the suggested crème fraiche. To be honest, I have zero idea what crème fraiche tastes like so I can’t tell you if it changed the flavor dramatically. What I can tell you is that not too much is used in the soup itself, and just a little bit more is used in the crema, so I’d guess the difference isn’t too dramatic.
My final addition was a little chile en adobo sauce. Once we finished making the soup, which was comprised of 95% sweet peas with the other 5% being sour cream, honey and roasted poblanos, it was pretty sweet. Therefore, I used the adobo and chipotle to offset the sweetness with a little bit of smokey goodness. Honestly, it was good the way it was but it was more of a crowd pleaser with the last minute addition.
So that’s that, my first Flay foray. I would suggest adding some fresh cracked black pepper right before you serve it. Oh yes, to get the crema to look cool I actually messed up the first few bowls practicing (I made seven of these things). After a couple I realized that I should just drizzle it on the soup in a straight line, then use the back of the spoon to create the effects. Without further adieu, here’s the pic of the final product. Enjoy~
Jason
Just desserts!
January 4, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I think that Christmas should be a time to feel guiltless if you want to act gluttonous and eat whatever you want. Then again, some people with more willpower than me only allow themselves the holiday season to indulge and I certainly can’t imagine that. You shouldn’t either. It’s too scary.
It stands to reason that a staggering amount of sugar is a large percentage of the holiday eat-fest allowance. This year, there were two desserts on the Hembrey Christmas dinner table: our traditional pretzel salad and a new addition, coconut carrot cake.
If you’ve never had pretzel salad before there’s a chance that you’ll turn your nose up at this recipe. You’d be missing out big time. It is definitely one of those “sum is greater than its parts” recipes so I encourage you to keep an open mind and try this easy, yet super tasty, recipe.
The recipe that my second mom has used for the last 20 or so years comes from an old cookbook, which is a collection of recipes that were contributed by people somehow connected to the Derby. If you need to ask what Derby I’m referring to, you clearly do not know my husband.
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Mom’s Pretzel Salad
20 oz frozen strawberries, at room temperature
2 cups pineapple juice
1 6-oz package of wild strawberry jello
2 cups thin pretzels, crushed (not pulverized)
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 8 oz package of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 cups Cool Whip (I think that you could use homemade whip cream if you’re averse to Cool Whip and/or you have an extra thousand calories to spare)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the pineapple juice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the juice boils, mix in the jello powder. Add the frozen strawberries along with their juices and stir to combine. Pour jello mixture into a bowl/pan large enough to hold it all and refrigerate.
Combine pretzels, 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a 9×13 baking dish that has been lightly oiled either with Pam or butter. Bake for 10 minutes and then remove to cool.
While the pretzel mixture is cooling slightly, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then fold in the Cool Whip about 1/3 at a time so the mixture remains fluffy and light. Spread this over the slightly cooled pretzel crust.
When the jello in the fridge is slightly set (i.e.; if you shake the pan, it should shake versus slosh), lightly spread it evenly over the cream.
Refrigerate for a few hours to let the jello fully set. Cut and serve!
I didn’t take a picture of ours but for the sake of thoroughness, here’s a picture I found on the internet of a slice.
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The carrot cake recipe is from one of dad’s coworkers. Dad proclaimed it the best he ever had, so naturally mom and I had to make it better. 
To make it extra special (better), we covered the iced cake with coconut flakes that we toasted in the oven at 350 degrees.
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Coconut Carrot Cake
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups carrots, shredded (about 3 medium sized carrots)
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup golden raisin
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup toasted coconut
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 8-inch cake pans (9×13 sheet pan is fine). Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a food processor, combine eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Run machine for a couple of minutes until the eggs get frothy and pale in color. Slowly drizzle in the oil to create an emulsion, like making dressing. Mix for about 20 seconds.
Pour dry ingredients into food processor and pulse 4 or 5 times until just combined.
Pour mixture into a medium bowl and fold in the ingredients from carrots to raisins.
Pour into pans (2 cups in each pan if using the cake pans) and bake for 30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean and sides pull away from pan. It needs about 50 minutes to an hour if baked in a 9×13 baking dish.
To make the frosting, beat the cheese, butter, and vanillla at high speed until fluffy. At medium speed, beat in sugar and cinnamon. Use 1/2 cup on top of all 3 layers; spread a thin layer around the sides. Coat the cake with toasted coconut.
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We baked our coconut cake in a 9×13 dish and cut it in half to make a two layer cake. I also cut the frosting down to use only 2 package of cream cheese and 6 tablespoons of butter. The ingredients list looks a bit long but once everything was measured out, it took literally 5 minutes to make the batter.
Both desserts were very delicious and hopefully mom and my version of the carrot cake has taken first place in dad’s heart! 
If I had one wish…
January 2, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/dining/02mark.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Do you know that I love food markets? I really love them. No matter what city Jason and I visit, no matter how long the trip is for, a trip to the local food market is inevitable. It is a top priority for us and we can’t get enough of them.
Unfortunately, there isn’t something like that in our own backyard. I think the farmer’s markets in Union Square and Grand Army Plaza are the closest thing to it but they don’t hold a candle to the markets in a bunch of other cities around the world that are less gastronomically famous than New York.
So if I had one semi-frivolous wish for this year (other than world peace of course), it would be that something like this opens up in NYC, or better yet, Queens!
Thanks to my new reader J.P. for bringing this article to my attention!