Chicken Soup, Thai-Style

It's that time of year in New England. We want to hunker down, stay in, have a big bowl of soup, and go to bed early. We're in wool most days and we're shoveling out as often as not.

Still, there's something gorgeous about this time of year. The beech and birch trees, like bare white or gray poles, extend to the robin's egg sky. The crystal white snow is never dirty in the country, like that city slush of grime and God knows what, but instead is a pure canvas, brilliant and eye-popping. Even the chill is a morning pick-up. My first deep breath when I let the dog out is the moment I know I'm really awake. It's better than coffee!

Here's a six-serving soup I made for Bruce on a recent cold evening. Leftovers were terrific the next day! It's not an authentic Thai preparation but a good, old-fashioned, American soup, renovated with Thai flavors. It's one of the many soups in COOKING KNOW-HOW. It's sure to become a winter favorite at your house.

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Moroccan-Inspired Bean Soup

Dante was right. The center of hell has no fire. It's a lake of ice.

I don't know how it is where you are; but here in New England, we've descended into the deep freeze. It's cold. Really cold. We haven't made it above freezing in a couple of weeks.

Which is fine for Christmas and New Year's. Sort of makes the season. And Dreydl seems very happy, chasing his tire in the snow. But I've got my fingers crossed that come the second of January, we'll be in the mid-70s. I washed my bathing suit this morning. Or was I being too hopeful?

With the chill, we've been having great comfort food--like this bean soup I concocted the other night while Bruce was out teaching knitting. I used the template for Bean Soup in COOKING KNOW-HOW. If you haven't heard me say so about a zillion times already, that's the book that won the best-in-the-world award at the Paris Book Show. Quite the little tome we wrote--which you can find here.

The spice mixture I used is a rather classic Moroccan blend. But my soup was inspired by Moroccan flavors. As you'll see, there's a significant deviation. Significant.

So let's get to it. You'll make six to eight servings worth.

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Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

The world is starting to look like this. At least in my backyard. I'm sure it's spring somewhere. A land called Oz, I think. But from my deck, this is how I see things: in red and oranges. Chilly, too. A front blew in this afternoon. Going down near freezing tonight. Almost time to start my garden clean-up for the year. (And no, that's not brown grass on the ground. Those are leaves. Gobzillions of them. And look how many are yet to fall. There's a price to be paid for living on a very rural set of acres in New England. Besides the snow, I mean.)

About this time of year, Bruce drags out the slow cooker and starts making wonderful, real-food meals on the counter. In the food business, these sorts of meals are called "dump-and-stirs." And they're sometimes disparaged for reasons that escape me--because if I can toss everything in a slow cooker, put the lid on, go off to my work, and come back to a hearty, real-food dinner, I can't imagine anything wrong with the whole thing.

By the way, if you've never had split peas from a slow cooker, you're in for a treat. They don't turn soft and paste-like. They stay almost whole, tender but with a little tooth. It's a revelation, to be honest--more texture with just as much flavor.

This soup is made in a 6-quart slow cooker--and you'll get at least eight servings out of it. That's a lot of food for not much effort. And not much money, to boot.

So here goes. . . .

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Beef Barley Soup

Sorry if I've been absent the past couple days. I've been locked away finishing off the first-ever goat book. Which is done. Done. Done. Let me write it again. Done. I pressed "send" this afternoon. And now the wait. Because it won't be out until March of 2011--or thereabouts. Books take time. They move in glacial epochs.

Which is one of the reasons why I'm all about these ribs tonight. Beef ribs, the slow-moving of all the beef cuts. They need a long time over the heat--and add up to big comfort food.

And economical meals, too. Because people pay top dollar for the quick-cookers like strip steaks. But the long-cookers, the pieces like these ribs that I adore? They're less expensive.

People don't know what they're missing. Let's get to it.

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Curried Pumpkin Soup

My world looks like this:

Yes, that's a collie next to one of the snow mounds in front of the garage. A seventy-pound collie. Happy as can be. Fur coat and all.

Me? Not so much. Oh, I'm not too bad. Yet. Winter is what it is. It's like your crazy great aunt, the one with the Wurlitzer. It's a cold day and you can't go out to play so she demands you play a concert while she vacuums. (Perhaps I had an odd childhood.) Anyway, winter won't be denied.

But it can be combatted. You can crank out show tunes on the organ when she wants hymns. Or you can make a curried soup. Your choice really. But a winter vegetarian chaser seems just the thing for these chilly days. And without going over the top, it's a pretty fine meal all around.

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Pumpkin Chili

It's that time of year when those little pie pumpkins are in the farmers' markets. They're gorgeous--and tasty, too. So it's about time for a good chili, a pot of delicious decadence to keep you warm on a fall evening. Well, that and some ass bacon in the mix. But we'll get to that in a minute.

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Chilled Arugula Soup With Preserved Lemon

I made this one up on the fly. Well, Bruce and I make up all our recipes. No copying in this house. But I made it up and served it to people without first testing it. So I was nervous. Listen, I love chilled soups. Like the plum version in the post below. But a chilled arugula soup? I thought it would be perfect between the courses, a real palate cleanser. But maybe. . . .

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Chilled Plum Soup

Recipes are hard to predict. I don't mean the results. Maybe that, too. I mean something about predicting the recipes that'll take, that people will take to. Bruce and I develop our recipes in our own kitchen. Sure, they get sent out to testers occasionally. But mostly, we're making food we think tastes good. And taste is just a tad subjective.

What's more, no fire is as hot as public opinion. We get a book finished, take it out on the road--and then discover what people really think.

Apparently, they really like this chilled plum soup from COOKING KNOW-HOW. We've made it at several demos now. I caught one guy at Delia, the Viking cooking school in Wallingford, Connecticut, trying to lick his bowl when he thought no one was looking.

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Cold Carrot Ginger Soup

When I met Bruce, I, the Texan, was the world traveler. I couldn't wait to crush myself into an airline seat, fly anywhere, and run up my credit cards, all to travel, tromp--and mostly eat. I just couldn't get enough.

Bruce? Not so much. He believed the world ran on an axis of Manhattan and the Hamptons with an unfortunate stretch of interstate between.

Naturally, I construed myself the well-heeled food sophisticate. With a few telling lapses. Like cold soup. I just couldn't do it. It violated the Texas prairie boy in me. Soup is hot. Period. If it's cold, it means you didn't get your butt to the table fast enough.

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