worthy bread Archives - Good Food St. Louis

There are two kinds of pea soup. The smooth, puree kind, that you find at Straub’s deli bar or in a Campbell’s soup can. Then there’s the chunky, robust variety dished up by Ina Garten, that includes hefty bits of carrot, ham and even potatoes. Since I’m a pea soup person, I like them both. But this week I decided to go with my old recipe that’s a cross between Ina’s and one I found on the back of a split pea package 40 years ago.

Cooking Times May Vary

I found it strange that the peas I used recently had no recipe printed on the package. It didn’t even have accurate instructions for making soup. I usually soak split peas overnight or, at least, boil them and a while before adding the other ingredients. But the package said no need; they’d cook in 60-90 minutes. Wrong! I cooked those rascals 4 hours before they ever became mushy!

I prefer a ham bone for split pea soup, but settled for a ham hock. More on this homemade soup here.

Next time I’m going to soak the peas overnight, regardless of what the instructions say.

I later read the lengthy cooking times occur when your dried peas are old. Well, they shouldn’t have been. I had just made a special trip to fetch them from the grocery shelf. No matter. All’s well that end with a delicious bowl of superb soup. What’s more, having cooked all that time they lent a homey aroma to my entire condo unit.

A crusty loaf of sourdough from Ken Alford’s Worthy Bread in Rolla goes is a great accompaniment to homemade soup.

From Peasants to Palaces

It’s worth noting that this old legume has some impressive creds. The traditional peasant food was sold in the street stall of ancient Athens and Rome. Later it was refined enough to be served to Louis XIV of France, whose court at Saint Germain gave it’s name to the unscaled, fresh pea version: Potage Saint-Germain.

Dried peas inspired some culinary lyrics, too, and were immortalized in the Mother Goose rhyme: “Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot nine days old. Some like ’em hot; some like ’em cold. Some like ’em in the pot nine days old.”

Be a Souper-Hero

Even one of my picky soup eaters (whose-name-will-not-be-mentioned-but-you-know-who-you-are) yummied up a bowl. As it turned out, the farm was a virtual soup kitchen with the inclusion of two other soups as well. Robin made lentil with spinach and carrots and a venison chili.

Warming up a cozy bowl of soup for our late evening arrival at the farm made for a easy, satisfying meal. Warm soup; sweet dreams.

When life gives you lemons, use your jadeite juicer 🙂

I must confess that I paid too much for this lemon juicer. But I fell in love with it. The jadeite glass is a copy of the glassware produced in the 30s and 40s and one I remember my mother using regularly to make orange juice. This past weekend it was perfect for juicing lemons for Lemon Chicken, that I served at the farm.

When I prepare this dish, I recall the re-runs of Everyone Loves Raymond, where Debra makes the recipe on her first date with Raymond, causing him to think she’s a great cook. As it turns out, it’s the only thing she can cook.

Lemon Chicken

I have never seen a recipe for Debra’s Lemon Chicken. This past weekend I used Ina Garten’s recipe, though I gave a serious look at Marcella Hazan’s Roasted Chicken with Lemons, that uses a whole chicken. Ina simply covers the chicken pieces with lemon sauce and oven bakes. I used both breasts and thighs; the thighs with skin-on were far more flavorful than the skinless breasts.

Ideally, the chicken should be served with rice, but my rice eaters are few, so I just roasted four different vegetables.

Roasted Vegetables color up the dinner buffet. I also included the Triple Walnut Salad that I blogged about earlier.

A Toast to Home Baked Bread

“A book of verse underneath the bough, a jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou beside me singing in the wilderness; oh, wilderness were paradise enow.” ~The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyan

A friend brought two loaves of freshly baked bread to dinner: a round white and a sourdough baguette. It was the handiwork of a former neighbor, Ken Alford, who took up bread baking, first as a hobby, and now, more seriously, as a home business called Worthy Bread. His baked goods are available at the Rolla Farmers’ Market, though I am told he sometimes makes home deliveries.

Before I got the food on the table, my guests had cut into the loaves, slathered the slices with butter, and were enjoying a pre-dinner treat. My bread donor suggested saving some for toast at breakfast. So we did, convincing me that a well-baked loaf works for any meal or snack.

Oh, la, la. . . A French Apple Cake!

Marie-Hélène’s French Apple Cake

Ah, the dessert was the piece de resistance! This French Apple Cake was included among Dorie Greenspan’s favorites in her cookbook, Around My French Table. She named the recipe for the friend Marie-Hélène, who introduced her to the exquisite cake. But Dori never got an exact recipe, since Marie-Hélène never followed a written recipe. Everything was in her head. She cooked au pif—by the nose—as the French would say. Thank heavens, Dorie managed to decipher the cake’s ingredients, rewarding us with this superb tasting cake.

Dori says it all begins with “the pleasure of using diverse apples.”

Marie-Hélène’s French Apple Cake has a bumpy batter made up of four varieties of apples.

The original recipe was served with a dollop of cinnamon ice cream, but I just sprinkled a bit of cinnamon atop vanilla ice cream. Interestingly, the cake has no cinnamon or nutmeg, but it does have vanilla extract, rum, and four apples, each a different variety. Fun to make; divine to eat.

Thus went the weekend and the ancient ceremony of breaking bread with family and friends.