Morocco I

We had decided on a winter trip to Morocco. Bought a guidebook and skimmed through it. I read, “If you can see only one city in Morocco, make it Marrakesh.” and so we did. We had to fly through Madrid (and even overnight there on the way back). I notified the credit card company. “Where is Morocco?” she asked. It’s North Africa, Muslim. But stable and north of the Ebola outbreak in western Africa. “Are you going anywhere else?” “Yes, we will spend the night in Madrid.” “Is that in Morocco?” So much for well-traveled credit card agents!

Marrakesh is a walled city on a desert plain north of the snow covered High Atlas Mountains. We decamped in the Palmeraie---a palm studded oasis outside the city. We were welcomed in the lounge by the hostess with a pot of mint tea, the national drink of Morocco. The à la menthe is offered for, with, and following breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We were tired but had a light lunch in the garden of lamb and brazed fennel, and starting with local olives and Moroccan bread as all our meals would be. We truly loved the olives. They were different from what we get here in the stores. We had a glass of wine. Asked about a Merlot but were offered a local red from Meknes---Saharri. An appropriate name as we were on the edge of the Sahara Desert, the third largest desert in the world (after the Artic and the Antarctic) and about the size of the United States. We rested before dinner and then got a good night’s sleep.

We headed out the next morning for the medina, the old walled city. I was impressed with the still extant city walls (begun in the 12^th century) neatly landscaped outside, and teaming with houses and alleys inside. We entered by one of the many still open gates and headed to the Djemâa el Fna, the carnivalesque market right at the center of the medina. It was designated by UNESCO in 2001 as a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.’ There are food stalls, fresh orange juice stands with the mounds of seasonal oranges awaiting squeezing, women offering henna tattoos, young men displaying Barbary apes on chains, water sellers in colorful lampshade-like hats, storytellers, magicians, jugglers, snake charmers, musicians, singers, gymnasts, and peddlers of everything. We then wended our way into the souks. There is no map. You will get lost. We just wandered and wondered. Mid-morning we stopped at a small café that spilled out into the street. We had mint tea and watched the people, motorcycles, donkey carts and all stream by. Quite a show! For lunch we went into a restaurant that the hotel had recommended and had lunch in the courtyard. We decided to have a bowl of the hearty harira (chickpea, lentil and meat) soup.

The recipe comes from ‘La Maison Arabe Moroccan Cooking---Our Dadas’ (typical Moroccan cooks) Recipes’

Harira

Soup base

½lb. lamb meat, diced

2 onions (finely chopped)

½ lb. dried legumes

3.5 ounces dried chick peas (soaked overnight) 3.5 ounces celery (chopped)

A small bouquet of fresh flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, and celery leaves

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

Tomato sauce:

3 medium sized tomatoes, peeled and pureed

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon ground ginger

Thickening sauce:

1 cup all-purpose flour

Water

Other: ¼ cup Italian vermicelli

Place all the “Soup Base Ingredients” except the water in a pressure cooker. Mix well. Cook on medium for 5 minutes.

Add 8 ½ cups of hot water. Close the pressure cooker and cook, over high heat, until pressure is achieved. Reduce the heat and cook for 30 minutes.

Check that the beans and chick peas are cooked. They should be tender. If not, add more water and cook 15 more minutes.

In a large bowl, mix all the “Tomato Sauce ingredients”.

Add the tomato sauce to the soup base. Stir well. Cover and cook over high heat until pressure is achieved. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes more.

Release the pressure and add the Italian vermicelli to the soup. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 5 minutes or until the vermicelli are plumb and soft.

To create the thickening sauce, mix the cup of flour with enough water to get a smooth paste. Make sure that all the flour is dissolved.

Finally, add the thickening sauce to the soup and stir constantly until completely mixed. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. The soup will start thickening. Taste and adjust seasoning. If it should become too thick add more water.

Serve the harira hot is soup bowls. You can add lemon juice to the soup for a tangy taste. In Morocco, harira is served with dates, figs, and Moroccan honey pastries.

 

We bought a teapot, tray and typical Moroccan glasses for tea and hope to use them for some mint tea back home. The Moroccans use Chinese green tea brewed with a handful of mint leaves and liberally loaded up with sugar. We had the tea poured from about 3 feet from the pot to our glasses or served in larger glasses filled with fresh mint. Fresh mint is essential. In the souk the tea came with 3 cubes of sugar. I thought one was just about right. Tea was introduced to Morocco in the mid-19^th century when blockaded British merchants unloaded ample quantities of tea at major ports. The tradition has now become such a symbol of Moroccan hospitality that not drinking three small glasses of tea when your host offers it is nearly a declaration of hostilities.

Another edible treat I had one day was a cactus fruit. I had never eaten one before. These are the pod left on the opuntia cactus pad after flowering. The vendor had a stack on his tray and served these by pealing with one slice around the center then handing the red interior to us on a toothpick. It had a sweet-tart taste with the consistency of something like a Kiwi. More next week!

Oysters '15

I was in New Orleans over the weekend and saw a line of people outside the Acme Oyster House. I had noticed that it was voted one of the 10 best oyster houses in the south. It is also the host of the World Oyster Eating Championship. (Record is 47 dozen in 8 minutes.) That is impressive! I have never eaten there but will put it on my list of things to do. Just across the street is Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar which was also in the top 10.

This week I did try two new oyster recipes and they are worthy of your trying them. It is oyster season now, so get out and get some oysters and try these recipes.

Taken from January 2015 ‘Southern Living’ magazine.

Classic Oyster Stew

Makes 4-6 servings

1 pt. shucked fresh oysters, undrained

2 cups milk

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup butter

1 shallot, minced

1 small garlic clove, minced

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 cup half-and-half

2 Tbsp. sherry

½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp. celery salt

Fresh lemon juice

Dash of hot sauce (such as Tabasco)

Oyster crackers, saltine crackers, or buttered toast

Drain oysters, reserving oyster liquor (about 1 cup). Heat milk and oyster liquor in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking occasionally to prevent scorching, 3 to 4 minutes or until mixture just begins to steam. Add oysters, and season with desired amount of salt and pepper. Cook 4-5 minutes or until the edges of the oysters just begin to curl. Remove pan from heat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer oysters to a plate to prevent from overcooking.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-heat. Add shallot and garlic, and cook, stirring often, 4 minutes or until tender. Sprinkle flour over shallot mixture, and cook, whisking constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until completely incorporated and bubbly. Gradually whisk in half-and-half and next 3 ingredients. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Gradually stir in reserved milk mixture and oysters. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, just until warmed through. Season to taste with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and hot sauce. Serve with crackers.

 

This next one is an impressive presentation and delicious also.

Oyster-Bacon Pot Pie

1 qt. shucked fresh oysters, undrained

4 thick slices bacon, diced

3 Tbsp. butter

8 oz. fresh button mushrooms, thinly sliced

6 green onions, sliced

1 celery rib, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

¼ cup dry white wine

2/3 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup heavy cream

¼ tsp. table salt

¼ tsp. ground red pepper

¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning

½  (17.3-oz.) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

1 large egg

Place an oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 400°. Drain oysters, reserving 1 ½ cups oyster liquor. Cook bacon in Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels; reserve 3 Tbsp. drippings in Dutch oven.

Add butter and next four ingredients to Dutch oven; sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic and lemon juice; cook 1 minute. Add wine, and cook 2 minutes. Sprinkle with flour; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Stir in cream, next 4 ingredients, and reserved oyster liquor; bring to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, 2 minutes.

Remove from heat; stir in oysters and bacon. Spoon mixture into 6 lightly greased 12-oz. ramekins. Cut pastry sheets into circles slightly larger than ramekins, and place 1 on top of filling in each ramekin. Whisk together egg and 1 Tbsp. water; brush mixture over pastry.

Bake at 400° on lower oven rack 30-35 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

 

Jerusalem Artichokes

Every winter my husband brings in a basketful of those gnarly ugly looking Jerusalem artichokes. What to do with all of them? The interesting thing is that the Jerusalem artichoke is neither from Jerusalem  nor related to the artichoke---which most likely explains why food marketers changed its name to sunchoke in the 1960s after centuries of consumption in the United States. Despite its ugly appearance it remains a delicious staple ingredient in the South’s best restaurant kitchens.

The nutty and slightly sweet flavor makes it really versatile and a great match for warm, seasonal comfort dishes. You can cut them into chunks---leaving the skin intact---and toss them with garlic and olive oil before roasting and they are delicious. The secret is to keep the seasoning mild so that their delicate flavor comes through. This root vegetable can be used like a water chestnut when sliced thin on a mandolin and served raw in salads or as crudités.

Although technically in season in the South from early fall through spring, this tuber reaches its peak flavor in the winter. Choose firm sunchokes with no blemishes, sprouts, or soft spots, and store them on the counter for a week, or in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Give them a much needed cleaning with a vegetable scrubber. Then use these recipes to discover the beauty of this unassuming kitchen star.

They are easy to grow and when you dig them you rarely get all the tubers so they come back the next year. They have a nice yellow daisy-like flower in the early fall.

 

From “Garden and Gun” February/March 2015.

Make a Soup: I did this soup and it took less than 30 minutes and it was delicious. It is all you need for a first course for an elegant dinner or it will be plenty filling for a lunch entrée.

Sauté 2 tsp. chopped garlic and 2 tsp. ground pepper in 2 Tbsp. olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add 2 cups peeled and chopped sunchokes, two cups heavy cream, and 1 cup chicken broth, and reduce until smooth. Top with 1 tsp. crème fraîche, season with salt and pepper, and garnish with chervil, parsley, or your favorite herb.

 

Roast this Root:

Roughly chop 2 cups rainbow carrots (I used regular carrots) and 2 cups sunchokes. Toss with 1 cup olive oil, 1 tsp. julienned fresh sage, up to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper, 2 tsp. each finely chopped ginger and garlic, ½ cup soy sauce, and ½ cup sweet chili sauce. Spread the seasoned vegetables evenly on sheet pan and bake at 375°F until caramelized, about 15 to 20 minutes.

 

Bake a Quiche: The perfect comfort food for a lazy Sunday morning. You can use what you have in your fridge to swap out some of these ingredients.

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups chopped sunchokes, ½ cup Swiss cheese cubes, 1 tsp. minced garlic, 1 tsp. nutmeg, and 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme. Spread evenly over a store-bought pie shell. Whisk together

2 whole eggs, 1 cup cream, and salt and pepper to taste, then pour into pie shell. Bake at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until firm.

 

In my latest issue of “Saveur” magazine, there was a wonderful recipe for using sunchokes in pastry. I had never thought of this. These pies or pastries were originally made for miners---they could hold the pies’ thick edging with dirty hands and discard it after eating. You can eat these with clean hands and not throw away anything. This is a great pick up food.

Jerusalem Artichoke and Comté Pasties

Makes 6

 12 oz. Jerusalem artichokes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and thinly sliced

12 oz. Comté cheese, thinly sliced (can be found at Whole Foods)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Flour, for dusting

1 17-oz. box frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed

1 egg, lightly beaten

Heat oven to 325°. Line the inside of a 9”x13” baking dish with parchment paper. Arrange artichokes and cheese together in two layers in dish, seasoning with salt and pepper between layers. Bake until artichokes are tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 30 minutes. Let filling cool.

Increase oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll puff pastry sheets until ¼” thick. Using a 6” round cutter, cut out 6 circles, reusing scraps as needed. Divide filling between centers of circles. Fold circles in half, pinch edges to seal. Transfer pasties to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush with egg; bake until golden and crisp, about 35 minutes.

 

Simple Italian Cooking

On a trip to Italy 15 years ago, Nancy Silverton discovered the Umbrian hilltop town of Panicale, on the outskirts of Perugla. The medieval village was so charming she bought a house there. Nancy Silverton is a chef in Los Angeles, and has three restaurants there, and doesn’t spend much time in her home kitchen. But when she is in Panicale, she says, “I’m not just inspired to cook; I’m inspired to cook simply.”

I really like the idea of cooking simply so the article in the January 2015 issue of ‘Food and Wine’ intrigued me. What fun it would be to return to Italy year after year and cook like the locals!! In Umbria the food is simple and all the menus are the same. But according to Silverton, “Everyone does not cook well.” Mostly women do the cooking in this place and are very guarded as to who gets into their kitchen. Silverton was allowed to get into the kitchen at Restaurant Mascolino, her favorite local restaurant in Umbria and the three women who run the restaurant showed her some of their secrets. She knew little Italian but she could figure out olio and rosmarino.

I tried some of the recipes given by Silverton and was so pleased at how delicious everything tasted. Everything was simply prepared so any one could do these.

These onions are flavorful and are baked until they fall apart.

Taken from January 2015 ‘Food and Wine’ magazine.

Baked Onions with Fennel Bread Crumbs

Serves 4-6

3 medium onions, peeled and halved lengthwise, root ends left intact

2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing

Kosher salt

½ cup chicken stock

6 bay leaves, preferably fresh

1 tsp. fennel seeds

¼ cup panko

1 ½ tsp. minced sage

Preheat the oven to 425°. Brush the onion halved with olive oil; season with salt and arrange cut side down in an ovenproof medium skillet. Add the chicken stock and scatter the bay leaves around the onions. Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 1 ½ hours; until the onions are very tender.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, toast the fennel seeds over moderate heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a work surface and let cool, then coarsely crush the seeds. Transfer to a small bowl, add the panko, sage and the two tablespoons of olive oil and toss. Season with salt.

Carefully turn the onions cut side up in the skillet. Spoon the fennel bread crumbs on top and bake for about 15 minutes longer, until the crumbs are lightly browned and crisp. Discard the bay leaves and serve the onions hot or warm.

In every little restaurant in Umbria, there are sautéed greens on the menu. In this recipe the spinach is blanched and sautéed in a garlic spiked oil. Yum!

Sautéed Spinach with Lemon-and-Garlic Olive Oil

Serves 4-6

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

10 garlic cloves, thickly sliced lengthwise

2 dried chiles de árbol, broken in half

Kosher salt

Thick strips of zest from 1 lemon

2 ½ lbs. spinach, cleaned, thick stems discarded

Freshly ground pepper

In a small saucepan, stir together the olive oil, garlic, chiles and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir in the lemon zest. Bring the oil to a gentle simmer over low heat and cook until the garlic begins to brown slightly, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the oil infuse for 1 hour. Discard the chiles and lemon zest and reserve the garlic.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the spinach until bright green, 15 seconds. Using tongs transfer the spinach to a bowl of ice water and let cool for 10 seconds. Drain the spinach in a colander, pressing down to remove all the water. Pat dry with paper towels.

Heat a large skillet. Add the spinach and cook over moderately high heat until beginning to sizzle. Add the garlic oil and toss until the spinach is hot, about 2 minutes. Transfer the spinach and reserved garlic to a colander set over a bowl to drain. Mound the spinach on a platter, season with salt and pepper and serve.

 

 

Ranch Dressing

I found myself doing recipes that had Ranch in the title and wondered where Ranch dressing got its name. The creators of Ranch dressing are Gayle and Steve Henson from a dude ranch outside Santa Barbara, California. The name of that ranch was Hidden Valley Ranch. The Henson’s opened the ranch in 1954 and visitors came to enjoy horseback riding and taking in the scenery. However, the more memorable experience of these trips was generally the taste of the homemade salad dressing served at the ranch. On the menu of the dude ranch was a special salad dressing made of buttermilk, mayonnaise and a dry mix of herbs and spices. The dressing became known as Ranch and soon was the only salad dressing served.

The rest is history. More and more guests liked the dressing and Steve Henson knew he had a success on his hands. The problem in the beginning was the powered packets needed users to have on hand the buttermilk and mayonnaise and many households did not keep buttermilk on hand. Steve Henson sold his brand in 1972 to the Clorox Company for $8 million, and the company decided to make it easier for customers. So the age of bottled salad dressing began and with the addition of preservatives, it did not have to be refrigerated. It could last 150 days.

Ranch dressing is very popular, and Ranch really grew when restaurants began using it in their recipes. Ranch became a dipping sauce on burgers, sandwiches and chips. Hidden Valley Ranch is the original Ranch dressing but many other companies have their own versions. The dressing is now in more than 30 countries.

These recipes just seem appropriate for the Super Bowl tomorrow, but I found the chili delicious for any time. So get some mayonnaise or buttermilk and work on the Ranch dressing with a few new twists in these recipes.

Taken from January/February 2015 ‘Food Network Magazine’

Chili with Ranch Sour Cream

Serves 6-8

For the chili:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 red pepper, finely chopped

2 red jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped

3 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 pounds ground beef chuck, (I used grass fed, of course!)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes

2 15-ounce cans kidney beans (do not drain)

1 bay leaf

For the Ranch Sour-Cream:

1 ½ cups sour cream

1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (Ours self-seeds and we have plenty but you can buy it or you can use parsley.)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Canned fried onions, for topping (I left out)

Make the chili. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and jalapeños and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chipotle, chili powder, cumin, coriander and oregano. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are well coated, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons water if the mixture gets to dry, about 3 minutes.

Add the beef, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, beans, bay leaf, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup water. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to a medium low. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 40-45 minutes. Remove the bay leaf; season the chili with salt.

Meanwhile, make the ranch sour cream: Combine the sour cream, vinegar, cilantro, chives and scallions in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper; whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ladle the chili into bowls; top with the ranch sour cream and onions.

Hot Ranch Crab Dip

Serves 8

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce

¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 clove garlic, finely grated

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling

Kosher salt

3 scallions, thinly slices

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, plus more for topping

1 pound lump crabmeat, picked through

Paprika, for topping

Toasted bread or crackers, for dipping

Preheat the oven to 375°. Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk and flour in a large bowl. Add the Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, lemon zest, garlic, parmesan and 1 teaspoon salt; beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the scallions, chives and crabmeat and continue beating until combined.

Transfer the mixture to a shallow 1-quart baking dish; sprinkle with more parmesan and bake until lightly golden and heated through, 25-30 minutes. Top with paprika and more chives. Serve with bread or crackers.

 

Celery

Most of us think of celery as a crunchy, low-cal vegetable or perhaps one of the ingredients in your Thanksgiving dressing. It may be time to rethink this vegetable and consider it a key part of your health support system.

In addition to well-known antioxidants like vitamin C and flavonoids, scientists have now identified at least a dozen other types of antioxidant nutrients in celery. The antioxidant support we get from celery is largely due to its phenolic nutrients that have been shown to help protect us against unwanted oxygen damage to our cells, blood vessels, and organ systems. If you steam your celery instead of boiling or blanching, you can retain 83-99% of these antioxidants.

As far as refrigeration of celery, a period of 5-7 days is recommended as a window of time for consuming fresh celery. Refrigerated for longer periods reduce the benefits of celery. It is also recommended that you chop your celery just before adding it to a salad, rather than chopping it up the night before.

Celery seems to give digestive tract support. Celery has a pectin-based polysaccharides including apiuman. This appears to have special importance in producing anti-inflammatory benefits which help with the integrity of the stomach lining, decrease risk of stomach ulcer, and better controls the levels of stomach secretions.

Regardless of what type of celery you buy or grow, there are nutrient benefits to be found in all parts of the plant, including the leaves, stalks, roots, and seeds. “Celery hearts” usually refers to the innermost stalks of Pascal celery. These stalks are the most tender.

A cup of raw celery is only 16 calories. But most people do not seek it out unless to use as a vegetable for a dip or in a tuna salad perhaps. The secret is to find recipes that make it tastier such as in a soup. Since we need more “green” in our diet I am always looking for ways to include green vegetables in my meals. I found a really good celery soup (my husband really liked it) and it is flavored with some bacon on top which makes is tastier. You could leave the bacon out of the soup and it is still very good. So go and get some celery and feel good about it! It certainly needs to be added to your list of good vegetables.

Taken from ‘Food and Wine Magazine’ 2015.

Celery Soup with Bacon Croutons

Serves 8

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter

3 medium leeks, halved and thinly sliced

2 medium onions, finely chopped

3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Kosher salt and pepper

12 large celery ribs (2 lbs.), trimmed and thinly sliced

4 oz. bacon, finely diced

Three ½-inch-thick slices of country bread, cut into ½-inch dice

½ cup crème fraîche or sour cream (I used sour cream)

Lemon olive oil, for drizzling (I used regular olive oil)

In a large saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the leeks, onions, garlic and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until softened but not browned, about 12 minutes. Add the celery and cook, stirring, until just starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Add 8 cups of water and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to moderate. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very tender, 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until browned and crisp, 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to half of a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the bacon fat. Add the bread and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until browned and crisp, 8 minutes. Transfer to the other side of the prepared baking sheet; season with salt and pepper.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return the soup to the saucepan, whisk in the crème fraîche or sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, topped with the bacon, croutons and a drizzle of olive oil.

Toast

I told my husband I was doing an article on toast! He said, “What can you say about toast?” Actually a lot I believe! My new cooking magazines all had something about toast…the latest thing to put on toast, so I began wondering how we got toast anyway. First of course there was bread!

In the beginning there was no grocery store, baker, fridge, or freezer, so a lot of bread became stale. Probably at some point, somebody got fed up and tossed a piece in the fire, or at least meant to. Instead, it landed near, and only got browned.

The Egyptians generally get credit for leavened bread; the British Museum houses 5,000 year old Egyptian loaves, and King Tut was buried with a stalk of wheat, the symbol of royalty. But Romans usually get the credit for toast. Whether they actually discovered that fire plus bread equals an entirely different savory golden-brown treat, or whether they just liked the idea and popularized it, is uncertain, but either way they took charge of the branding. “Tostum” is Latin for scorched, and toast was made by putting stale bread on a stone near fire, and later on a wire frame over fire.

For the next several hundred years, toast and bread were in a way, a hot button issue. While his subjects toasted brown bread in abundance, Caesar made the serving of brown bread to a Roman elite a crime punishable by prison time. Years went by, empires rose and fell, the toasting fork was invented, and bread remained central to Western culture. Passion for bread mixed with politics produced the French revolution; tired of coarse rye and barley they were forced to buy, the peasants demanded the soft wheat of the aristocrats. Throughout the 18^th century there were riots, until a bread shortage led to massive protests. Bread was not the only food that the French peasants had to eat, and it was not just hunger that drove the bread riots. It was also a desire for what good bread represented: pleasure, comfort, and leisure---all luxuries unavailable to peasants.

A look through patent records gives the impression that the toasting fork was the iPhone App of the Victorian Age: everyone wanted to invent the next best one. There were three-pronged and two-pronged forks, forks with small trays below the prongs to keep the toast from falling in the fire, and forks with racks instead of prongs so that more than one piece of toast could be made at once. With all this interest in toast forks, it is not surprising that the toaster was the first household electrical appliance to appear once electricity was invented, second only to the lamp. The first toaster, introduced in 1893 by the British Crompton and Company, wasn’t very good. It was a dangerous appliance with all its wiring on the outside and it only toasted one piece of bread at a time.

But improvements came fast, in a slew of new patents, and by 1920 the first pop-up toaster with a timer was introduced by a Minnesotan named Charles Strite, who had long been bemoaning the burnt toast in his company cafeteria. Sliced bread followed shortly after, in 1928, and toaster sales boomed.

Europeans love of toast had taken root and flourished even as stale bread became an easily preventable issue. In Britain it was integral to both tea time and breakfast. Though they did not adopt tea time, the necessity of toast at breakfast was a preference that the first British in America did bring with them, and today egg dishes at restaurants across the country still invariably come with toast. There are endless variations: toast with butter, toast with jam, beans on toast, peanut butter toast, cheese toast, Texas toast, egg and soldiers, toad-in-a-hole.

Today, seventy-five million Americans eat toast every day. Toast is no longer a sign of unattainable privilege; in fact it’s generally the cheapest of edible indulgences. So why this continued obsession? Perhaps, as Margaret Atwood wrote in Oryx and Crake, “toast cannot be explained by any rational means;” so few of our obsessions can.

After all that, here are some new things to put on your toast:

Avocado toast is taking over. Especially on social media. If you want to make some, smash up one avocado, add some lemon and salt, spread on toasted bread and drizzle with olive oil. Add a few red pepper flakes for a kick. There has been some news this week that an avocado a day will help your heart. I had this for breakfast all last week. Cut in bite sized pieces it would also do well as a pick up at your next party.

Ricotta, kale and mushroom toast is easy to make. Toast some bread (any kind) and spread with ricotta, plus sautéed mushrooms and kale with garlic and chili plus some white wine vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Toast some whole grain bread with softened butter seasoned with salt and pepper. Add a sliced pear plus some bee pollen (I used some honey) and add more salt and pepper.

The most interesting use of toast came in the January 2015 issue of ‘Saveur’ magazine. The idea is to burn your toast and make a powder out of the burnt toast. Supposedly, the fragrant charcoal-like dust lends a nutty, smoky element to spice mixes and sauces, chicken and roasted vegetables.  Now the kicker is that it was used as a mixture to put over vanilla ice cream. So here is a recipe for Burnt-Bread Powder. Try it over ice cream and see how it goes. I have not tried this yet! My husband just rolls his eyes.

Burnt-Bread Powder

Slice 4oz. bread, preferably yeast-risen with a heavy crust, about ¼ “ thick. Using a grill or broiler, toast bread, turning as needed, until evenly burnt, 4-6 minutes. Transfer bread to a baking sheet fitted with a rack; let it sit overnight until completely dried out. Chop bread into ½ “ pieces. Working in batches, grind into a powder using a spice grinder. Makes about 1/3 cup.