Cream of Roasted Red Pepper & Horseradish Soup

I found the basics of this one on the net somewhere, the first time I made it I knew it'd be a hit with the wife due to her love affair with horseradish. I once watched her polish off a vat big enough to feed two sumo wrestlers and a lumberjack. Damn I love a woman that knows how to eat!

SUPPLY LIST

VEGGIES
6 Red Bell Peppers
2 Shallots
1 jar of cream style prepared Horseradish

STOCK
2 cups Chicken or Veg Stock

DAIRY
1 qt. Heavy Cream

SPICES
Kosher Salt
White Pepper

PREP
Wash and dry your peppers and remove the stem and core, lightly oil them and place them on a baking sheet in a 450° oven until the skins turn black. Next, place them in a plastic bag for 30 minutes to allow the skin to sweat off.

While the peppers are sweating it out, finely chop your shallot and place it in your soup pot along with the chicken stock and simmer.

Once the peppers are ready, remove them from the plastic bag and pour the remaining liquid into your chicken stock and shallots and continue to simmer while you skin your peppers. Now that your peppers have had their skin peeled off them, chop them a bit and place them in a blender with your simmering broth and as much horseradish as you fancy, then blend until smooth.

Some versions of this recipe call for you to then strain the soup to remove the pepper pulp, but I like it in mine, so that's your call.

Now that the soup is back in the pot, increase the heat to medium high and add the heavy cream. Again this is your call on how much or how little you like. I like my ratio to be 1 part cream to 3 parts soup as to not make the finished product too heavy or over power the flavor of the peppers and shallots.

Once the soup is nearing a low boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and add your kosher slat and white pepper to taste.

This soup is an excellent accompaniment to a beef steak salad, roast beef, standing rib roast, etc.

French Onion Soup

This is the Wisconsin Hillbilly Boy version of the classic eighteenth century French Onion Soup. I don't feel bad stealing it, they stole it from the Romans anyway.

"What have the Romans ever done for us, really..."

FRESH PRODUCE
3 lbs of sweet yellow onions
4 nice shallots
½ clove garlic

DAIRY
1lb of Gruyère, Swiss, Provolone or Havarti cheese.

BAKERY
One loaf of a good sourdough bread.

SOUP ISLE
Beef bouillon*

SPICES / OILS
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
All Spice
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

BOOZE
6 bottles of lager or ale

* When it comes to bouillon please don’t get Wyler’s or Knorr brand, they are nothing more than beef or chicken scented bastard brine cubes. Spend a lil more money and get the good stuff or just make your own.

PREPARATION OF PRODUCE
Chop 2 lbs of the onions into ¼” pieces.
The remaining 1 lb should be cut in half from top to bottom and then sliced about ¼” thick in little half moon shapes. Now place each in their own bowl as you will be cooking these at separate times.

Coarsely chop the shallots.

Finally, finely chop the garlic.

Open 1 of the 6 beers and go sit outside and drink it until your eyes stop watering. If someone asks why you are crying I like to say weepily “This is a really good beer.”

When you beer is finished and your eyes are dry return to your kitchen and start the arduous process of caramelizing your 2 lbs of chopped onions. Personally for speed I use 3 large cast iron pans and add just enough onions to cover the bottom of the pan. Preheat your oil at medium-lowish and begin. Caramelizing onions can be tricky but basically its just sautéing the lil buggers to near death. It will take about 20 to 40 minutes per pan to get them to that deep golden reddish brown goodness. As the water starts to cook out of them they will start getting sticky, this is perfect. If the onions/oil starts to smoke, remove them from the heat immediately and lower the temp of your burner, you really don’t want little black flakes floating in your soup and the ‘scorched’ flavor ruins the finished product. Now when the onions in the pan are fully caramelized open another bottle of beer** and pour some in and cook off some of the water. This is called deglazing and it brings up all the flavor that is locked in the brown gluey sticky gunk that’s at the bottom of the pan. Repeat this ad infinitum until all the chopped onions are caramelized. Next sauté the remaining onions and garlic al dente. (slightly firm) The onion segregation is now complete and they can now peacefully cohabitate in the same stock pot. Open another beer and pour some in your mouth.


** If you don’t like beer, use a good red or white wine. The traditional recipe calls for wine, but being a native Wisconsinite I like beer.

Now mix up about 4 cups of beef bouillon and add it to the onions in the stock pot along with 2 bottles of beer, 2 cups of water, the chopped shallots, 1/4 teaspooon Allspice and some salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook uncovered for about 3 hours stirring frequently Now you should have 2 bottles of beer left, drink them, you deserve it. When it’s done simmering remove it from the burner and let it cool then refrigerate over night.

Before serving slowly heat the soup to a boil and simmer covered. Now thinly slice your sourdough and place them on a cookie sheet and toast them under your broiler. Slice your cheese thinly also.

Next you need bake safe serving bowls; I got mine at Wal-Mart for about $4.00 a piece, they are just small Corning Ware bake safe bowls. Now add the piping hot soup to the bowls, float some cheese on top and put under the broiler until the cheese starts to bubble. (About 6 to 8 inches from the element works best for me.) It doesn’t take long. CAREFULLY remove them from the oven and place on serving plates; a damp paper napkin on the plate keeps the bowl from sliding. Garnish with fresh ground black pepper; serve with the toasted sourdough either resting on the melted cheese or on the side, that’s up to you.

This soup is an excellent appetizer for a standing rib roast, pot roast or steaks and goes great with any wine.

A Fat Vat of Chilli

SUPPLY LIST

MEAT

• 3 lbs. of coarse ground beef

FRESH PRODUCE

• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 large bell pepper (green, red, yellow, orange)
• 3 jalapeño peppers
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 lime

CANNED

• 1 large can tomato puree
• 1 large can tomato pieces
• 1 large can tomato paste
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1 can light red kidney beans

DRIED SPICES

• Cumin seeds (NOT the powder)
• Chili powder
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Oregano

DAIRY

• 1 tub sour cream
• 1 bag of shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, pepper jack, etc)

BOOZE

• 2 bottles of a good lager beer (Michelob works well)

PREPERATION OF PRODUCE & SPICES

• Onion – diced
• Bell Pepper – diced
• Jalapeño – cut off stem & crown, slice lengthwise, using a spoon remove seeds and light colored ‘guts’ leaving only the dark green pepper flesh. This lessens the peppers heat. Then dice them.
  (WARNING: WEAR RUBBER GLOVES!! If you chop up these peppers without them and touch your eyes, nose or other sensitive skin you will get a nasty surprise even if you wash your hands thoroughly. Don’t learn the hard way like me and have to stand naked from the waist down under a cold shower while your wife stands in the doorway and giggles.)
  
• Cilantro – 2/3 coarsely chopped, save 1/3 unchopped for garnish.
• Garlic – minced
• Lime – juiced with lots of pulp.
• Cumin seeds – Grind about 5 tablespoons worth or more.

SAUTEING
Cover the bottom of a sauté pan with oil (olive oil being the best) and bring to medium high heat and add your onions and bell & jalapeño peppers, sauté for a few minutes until the onions just start to turn translucent, then add your garlic. Continue sautéing until the onions are al denté (slightly firm) now increase the heat to high and add ½ a bottle of beer to deglaze the pan. Simmer lightly to reduce some of the water then remove the contents to your stock pot.

BROWNING
Bring your sauté pan to med high heat and add your beef. Immediately add kosher salt & black pepper to taste, 2 tablespoons fresh ground cumin, 1 tablespoon cayenne and 6 tablespoons chili powder. When the beef is half way cooked add the sautéed onion, peppers and garlic from your stock pot and continue cooking. When it’s done add the remaining and one a half bottles of beer to deglaze. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer uncovered until the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and add to stock pot.

ASSEMBLING THE REST
In your large stock pot that should already contain your beef, onion, garlic and pepper mixture add all of your canned tomatoes and beans (Be sure to drain the kidney beans first) and stir.

Now to add your spices.

This is when it really comes to personal preference and tolerance for pain. I like a bowl of chili that makes me sweat like a thief in church but doesn’t burn my lips off my face. Just remember it is far easier to add more than it is to try and remove what is already in there.

This being said, I generally add 6 to 10 tablespoons of chili powder, 3 to 5 tablespoons of fresh ground cumin, 1 to 3 tablespoons of cayenne and 1 or 2 teaspoons of oregano to the sauce along with kosher salt and black pepper to taste.

Slowly bring this mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Do not let it burn at the bottom of the pot as this can ‘scorch’ the flavor of the chili.

When it has reached a good ‘glub glub glub’ boil reduce the heat to low and add your lime juice and cilantro. Stir them in and let simmer uncovered for a couple hours until you can stand a wooden spoon up in the center and have a thick consistency.

Now just heat it back up and serve with a dollop of sour cream and generously sprinkled with cheese and a nice sprig of fresh cilantro for garnish.