15-Minute Pantry Tomato Soup

 20 December 2020

Recipe from The Food Lab, W. W. Norton, 2015, p. 208

I started reading this huge book recently and when I was thinking of making some tomato soup I skipped ahead and found the recipe. It was advertised to be quick and not require any special ingredients, so well worth trying. I have tried several other tomato soup recipes and am curious how this one will compare.

A finely diced onion was cooked in butter in a sauce pan to soften the onion. Red pepper flakes (about 1⁄16 of a teaspoon) and dried oregano were added and cooked until fragrant. Flour was added and cooked followed by canned whole tomatoes with their juice, and milk. This was brought to a boil then simmered for just 3 minutes. The tomatoes were mashed roughly with a potato masher and an immersion blender was used to purée the soup. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and enhanced with the addition of some bourbon. Total time was about 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, doing a side-by-side comparison of soups made using different recipes is not practical, so I can't say with any confidence if this soup was better or worse than others I have made. My impression is that it was okay but not a great soup. Nonetheless I would like to make it again, using better quality tomatoes (I used a store-brand organic tomato) and the blender to purée instead of the immersion blender. I'm not totally sold on the bourbon, an optional ingredient, but perhaps it adds some complexity that I would miss. I also am interested in knowing how well the soup that is still in the freezer has fared.

Turkey Breast en Cocotte with Pan Gravy

 2 December 2020

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen

Turkey has been hard to find at the supermarket the last few years, except at Thanksgiving. So after getting home from our (safe) Thanksgiving trip we bought a half breast even though we just had several turkey meals. It was less than $1 a pound, so expectations were not high. Normally we'd look for something higher quality but it was a pretty good deal. And I had a Test Kitchen recipe for turkey breast from a 2018 episode of the TV show that I wanted to try. Its focus is on moist meat and gravy rather than magazine-cover good looks and crispy skin.

The recipe calls for a 6-7 pound whole, bone-in turkey breast; the half breast that we bough was from a larger bird, weighing 4.3 pounds. The ribs were cut off along with excess fat and skin. The breast was seasoned with salt and pepper then put into a Dutch oven with hot vegetable oil. To this was added chopped onion, celery, and carrot with crushed garlic cloves, fresh thyme, and bay. This was cooked, stirring the vegetables and turning the turkey, until all were well browned. A sheet of foil was put on the pot and this was covered with the lid. It went into a 250° oven until the turkey reached 160°. While the turkey rested the juices and vegetables were simmered until almost all of the liquid was gone. Flour was stirred in and cooked then a mixture of chicken and turkey broth (from concentrate) was added. This was cooked until the gravy was thickened and then was strained. Total time was 3¼ hours with over half of this being hands off while the turkey cooked in the oven.

As expected, the turkey was not great to look but the gravy was really good. The meat itself was dry and tough. I blame this mostly on the bargain turkey that we purchased rather than the recipe. The half breast barely fit into the Dutch oven making it a bit of a challenge to brown the vegetables and meat. This is a convenient, easy way to cook turkey breast for two and I would do it again, albeit with better quality meat and a smaller breast to start with. I would also skip the turkey stock and just use chicken as listed in the recipe. While the meat was dry and tough it was still good for leftovers where we could compensate for its shortcomings.