In an effort to keep up with the produce (sometimes an uphill battle for me) I took my mom’s advice and recipe and made some tomato bisque. Soup is her thing, and she’s my mom, so I believed her that this would be excellent. She said she’s made it w/fresh or canned tomatoes, with very little discernible difference in outcome. It was surprisingly sweet, even with a relatively small amount of sugar. I knew right away I had to make it again, but I also wanted to get a little creative with it, so when we got two ginormous tomatoes in last week’s share, I went to work in my LaBORatory and made it a second time, south of the border style.
A couple important notes about this recipe. First of all, I transcribed it over the phone with my mom, so I’m leaving the ingredients listed as is. However, I am re-writing the instructions in my own words because 1) I do not have the orignal, and 2) I figured out what worked best for me after making it twice in a short period. Second, I never used a drop of light cream in making this soup, and my mom said she never did either. The first time, I subbed 2% for the cream*, and skim for the 1 cup of milk**. For version 2, I did the opposite–1 cup 2% and 2 cups skim. While I’m sure the cream makes it a much richer soup, to me it’s of little consequence so I will continue to save calories & fat with these adjustments in the future. I’m not sure about going with ALL skim, though, and what that would do to the body of the soup. But maybe.
Tomato Bisque
from the Colorado Cache Cookbook
- 2 lbs tomatoes OR 2 15oz cans chopped tomatoes
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 1 Tbls butter
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh basil OR 1 tsp dry basil
- 2 whole cloves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
-
1pt light cream* (=2 cups)
- 1 cup milk**
- 6 large buttered croutons (optional)
- 2 T chopped chives (optional)
1. (if you are using canned tomatoes, skip this entire step) Choose a saucepan big enough to hold the largest tomato, and boil enough water in it to cover that tomato. Cut an X on the non-stem side of the tomato. When the water has come to a boil, put tomatoes in the pan one for apx 1 min each (I do them one at a time, because that’s how my mom instructed me via phone. She also said hold them with a fork but my obedience only goes so far). When the tomatoes are cooled, peel the skin, remove seeds, and & chop. (The tomato pieces don’t have to be diced or very small because they will go in the blender in step 4)
2. Slice the onion. This is a good thing to start while the water is boiling if you’re going the fresh tomato route. Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan and & saute the onions until translucent. Add chopped tomatoes.
3. Add bay leaf, sugar, clove, salt, pepper and basil. Simmer 25 min, then remove bay leaf and cloves.
4. Pour mixture into food process or blender & blend until smooth. The recipe suggests straining at this time if desired, but I do not desire. Gradually add milk (and cream). (The soup might be a little pinkish. This is normal.)
5. Pour blended mixture into saucepan. (Save a dish! Use the same one you boiled the tomatoes in!) Heat but not to boiling (about 10 min). Serve w/ croutons & chive garnish (optional. I omitted the chives & subbed bagel chips for the croutons).
South of the Border Style
Again, this is basically the same soup, but with a twist. Instead of butter I used olive oil, however, this was because we ran out of butter. I kind of think they are interchangeable for both versions of this recipe. I used white sugar for this one, too. I chose to use up this giant red chili pepper we had (pictured above), and worried that it would be too spicy, especially after my hands got all itchy after I cut it up. Fortunately, I was wrong, and it just added a nice flavor. If you don’t have a giant red chili pepper, I have a feeling a red pepper would be just fine. I attempted to boil & skin the pepper like I did the tomatoes, but that didn’t go so well, so I just cut it up, skin and all, figuring it would get chopped to oblivion in the blender anyway. Possibly roasting & skinning the pepper would have been an even better idea. For spices, I eliminated bay leaf, clove and basil, and instead used
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp chicken taco seasoning (because I realized I lacked the paprika and other spices to recreate taco seasoning on my own)
- If you wanted to sub a couple tablespoons for all of the above, it would probably work just as well.
Anyway, because of the spiciness fear, I did not include any chili powder, but knowing now that this particular pepper was not scary, I might have included a teaspoon. Again with the spiciness fear, once it was heating in the saucepan, I added 1/2 cup cheddar, thinking this would mellow it out. Instead of croutons, I recommend crushed tortilla chips. I imagine the addition of shredded cooked chicken would make this sort of enchilada-soup-like. And as Martha might say, that’s a good thing.
