Ultimate Cream of Tomato Soup

October 2024

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, November 1999

I have made tomato soup using several different recipes and have written about some of them here.  Unfortunately it is not practical to compare the several recipes and my memory is not good enough to do a comparison that is not side-by-side. But I can try the recipe and write about the results so I have something to go by the next time I want to make, in this case, tomato soup.

I made just two changes to the ingredients, omitting both the brandy and the cayenne pepper. The key ingredient is two cans of whole tomatoes packed in juice. The tomatoes were drained, retaining the juice, and seeded. They were sprinkled with brown sugar and roasted to bring out their flavor. While the tomatoes roasted and cooled, the remaining ingredients were prepared. Then, diced shallots, tomato paste, and allspice were cooked in a large saucepan. Flour was added and cooked. Chicken stock, reserved tomato juice, and roasted tomatoes were stirred in and simmered to blend flavors. The mixture was strained and the solids were blended with 1 cup of the liquids until smooth. The pureed mixture, strained liquids, and cream were stirred together in a cleaned saucepan and cooked over low heat. Salt was added to finish the dish. Total time was 1 hour, 40 minutes.

We liked the soup and were impressed with its sweet and strong tomato flavor. The texture was just right for tomato soup. Diane commented that it was better than recipes that used bread as a thickener. The recipe made enough soup for 3-4 dinners for two. 

Double-Glazed Salmon

 10 June 2023

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2022, p. 8

I've been wanting to increase the amount of fish that we eat, for various reasons. Over the last few years, Whole Foods has started stocking portioned, frozen fillets of various varieties of fish. (For example, these farm-raised Atlantic salmon.) These are very convenient! They sit in the freezer so they are always available. They are pre-portioned and individually wrapped so there is no waste as we always have an appropriate amount to use for dinner for two.  Coming from Whole Foods I trust that the fish are harvested from a sustainable population. We started with haddock and cod and have slowly added to our selection, primarily salmon with both farm-raised and wild varieties available. A recent Cook's Illustrated recipe for glazed salmon was very timely, providing a quick, easy way to cook salmon. This is really three recipes in one as it includes directions for three different glazes: gingery cider glaze, lemony thyme glaze, and smoky maple glaze. 

The salmon was brined in a solution of salt and sugar for 15 minutes. During this time the glaze was prepared. (These are simple glazes which require little more than combining the ingredients in a small sauce pan on the stove, bringing them to a simmer, and cooking until thickened.) The fillet(s) were patted dry with paper towels then cooked in a small amount of oil in a skillet, flesh side down, until well browned. The fillet was flipped, brushed with glaze, and transferred to a 300° oven, and cooked to an internal temperature of 125°.  The remaining glaze was brushed onto the fish. Total time was about 45 minutes.

We've enjoyed this recipe and all three of the glazes, it is now my go-to way for preparing salmon. The primary challenge is not overcooking these thin pieces of fish. After the browning step the fish is almost done so the time in the oven can be short. The smoky maple glaze is our favorite but more because we always have the ingredients on hand, unlike the other two,  than because we prefer its taste.  We have enjoyed the other two glazes, too.

Fruit Hand Pies

 23 May 2023

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2022

I have been interested in making fruit hand pies for some time, but I have never gotten around to it. The small size is appealing when there are just two of us to eat them as is the convenience of being able to eat them by hand with no need for utensils. So when a recipe appeared in CI last year I made a note of it. It finally made it to the top of the list.

Directions were provided for several fillings using different fruits, though they were very similar. I used the peach filling recipe but substituted frozen mixed berries (blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry) which we had on hand. The only change I made was to omit lemon zest. Sugar, salt, and thawed berries were combined in a sauce pan and one-third of them were mashed with a potato masher. The mixture was cooked to dissolve the sugar. Lemon juice and cornstarch were mixed together in a small bowl then added to the berry mixture and simmered until thickened. The fruit mixture was transferred to a bowl and set aside in the refrigerator.

Creation of the dough had some unique aspects. AP flour, sugar, and salt were placed in a 1-gallon zipper-lock bag and shaken to combine. Unsalted butter that had been cut into thin planks was added to the bag which was sealed and shaken. (The recipe said cut sticks of butter in half lengthwise. Our butter sticks are shorter and thicker so I cut them into thirds lengthwise.) A rolling pin was used to flatten the butter into large flakes. The bag was shaken and rolled again until most of the flour was incorporated into the flour mixture. This was emptied into a large bowl and ice water was mixed into the dough until combined. This was rolled into a 15x10-inch rectangle then folded into thirds. The dough was again rolled out and folded into thirds. The dough was divided in half and refrigerated for 90 minutes. It was then rolled into a 17x9-inch rectangle and lines were painted on using egg wash. The fruit filling was added to the squares made with the egg wash and the dough was folded over the fruit, like ravioli, using the egg wash as glue to close each of the raw hand pies. These were trimmed with a pizza cutter, coated with egg wash, and baked. Some were sprinkled with turbinado sugar

We enjoyed these little pies. A few times we each ate a whole pie but we eventually decided that sharing one made more sense for us. When they were fresh the crust was very flaky and crispy. The filling was good, my substitutions worked well. These pies have more crust for the amount of filling than a traditional pie. The crust in particular does not keep well as it loses its crispiness and flakiness; this was not a surprise.  I enjoyed making them, partly for their novelty. I don't know if I will make them again instead of a regular pie, time will tell. 

Deluxe Blueberry Pancakes

 2 October 2022

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, July 2022

For us, having breakfast for dinner usually means eggs, bacon or sausage, and hash browns. But once in a while we will have French toast, waffles, or pancakes, also served with bacon or sausage. And a mimosa, a staple when having breakfast for dinner. French toast, waffles, and pancake leftovers can be frozen and had for my breakfast as a break from cereal. It had been a while since we had pancakes (French toast and waffles are both better as leftovers) so the appearance of this recipe provided a good reason to have some pancakes, especially since they incorporated fresh blueberries.

The pancakes were easy to make. The dry ingredients—AP flour, malted milk powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—were whisked together in a bowl. The liquid ingredients—buttermilk, egg, and melted butter—were whisked together in a separate bowl or measuring cup. The liquid ingredients were next whisked into the dry ingredients until just combined and fresh blueberries were folded into the batter. Pancakes were cooked in a griddle that had been coated with butter. They were portioned using a #16 scoop. The electric griddle was set to 325° as specified in the recipe but this turned out to be too cool and eventually it was set to 425°. Total time to make a dozen pancakes was one hour.

These were very good pancakes, though the best part was the fresh blueberries. They were light and fluffy with good flavor. The leftovers, which were frozen and then reheated for breakfast, were not as light and fluffy as when fresh but they still taste good and still have the sweet pops of flavor provided by the blueberries. Diane suggested adding more berries to the recipe; this would be easy to do as the recipe calls for just under 1 pint, it would be easy to use a whole pint. I can't compare these pancakes with those made from scratch with other recipes. But I can say they are much better than pancakes made from a mix as I had some at a community event within a few days of having some made with this recipe.