First off, thanks to Jenna for making two soups, cocktails, and art. It’s been really nice having friends make soups too. I still get to see everyone (including new people) and eat delicious homemade soup, except I get to take a break. Jenna did her soup as her “thing a day” and blogged about it so this is mostly her content from here forward, too.
Tonight was my contribution to soupruary. I made Gumbo and Thai Mushroom Soup. The cocktail of the night was an interpretation of a drink I had at the modern about a year ago. The original drink used hanger one spiced pear vodka, but I finished off my bottle months ago. So, instead, I used: lime juice, pear juice (since I was missing the hangar one), ginger beer, plain vodka and serrano chilies.
Location:
Jenna’s Apartment
Attendees:
Jenna, John, Yang, Betty, Bryan, Tim, and me
Menu:
Pear, Ginger, and Hot Pepper Cocktails
Oddly sliced bread (Aron note: they gave me a knife and I didn’t have to cook, so I got creative)
Langostino tail and Andouille Sausage Gumbo with rice
Thai Mushroom Soup
Eclairs
Entertainment:
For entertainment we drew a few things on my craft robo pro. Aron asked for a drawing about the Watson Jeopardy games we’d watched at an earlier Soupruary. We ended up going with Jenning’s Final Jeopardy response, praising our new overlords. (Aron notes: I found it ironic that we were having Jenna’s robot make us Jeopardy themed art. I hope it didn’t think we were taunting it. I don’t want to get on the machines’ bad sides before their takeover. It was nice that the robot said “HI” to us as we made it toil. We also got to hear Tim’s Cajun gumbo commentary, video included.)
The Soups:
Clearly, the theme of the night was spice. The gumbo turned out quite well. My hour of near constant stirring clearly paid off. Also, Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice works surprisingly well. The Thai soup, while flavorful, came out overly spicy. The chilies that the recipe called for were nowhere to be found, and the ones I substituted ended up being substantially spicier. We also had bread and chocolate eclairs for dessert. In retrospect, I should have dusted the eclairs with chili powder. They were decidedly un-spicy.
Langostino and Andouille Gumbo
from epicurious.com
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 small cup onion, minced (about ½ cup)
1 small green bell pepper, minced (about ½ cup)
2 stalks celery, minced (about ½ cup)
1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 bay leaves
½ pound shrimp (or langostino tails), peeled, deveined, and cut into ½-inch dice
¼ pound andouille sausage, cut into ½-inch-thick rounds
½ pound fresh okra, trimmed and cut into ½-inch-thick rounds
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups cooked white rice
In 4-quart heavy stock pot over moderately high heat, heat oil. Reduce heat to moderately low and whisk in flour. Cook, stirring frequently with wooden spoon or heatproof silicone spatula, until mixture becomes dark brown and has intensely nutty aroma, 10 to 15 minutes.
Stir in onion, pepper, and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables soften, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in stock. Raise heat to moderate and bring to simmer, then reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently, until mixture has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.
Add bay leaves, shrimp, sausage, and okra and simmer, uncovered, until okra is tender, about 15 minutes. Discard bay leaves and stir in salt, cayenne, and black pepper.
Divide rice among 4 large bowls. Ladle gumbo over, and serve with hot sauce and filé powder for sprinkling on top.
Thai Mushroom Soup
from epicurious.com
600 ml (1 pint/2 cups) Vegetable Stock
3 medium shallots, quartered and crushed
3 tbsp julienned galangal
3 tbsp finely diagonally sliced lemongrass
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
3 bird’s eye chiles, pressed
90 g (3 ¼ oz) oyster mushrooms, sliced
90 g (3 ¼ oz) straw mushrooms, trimmed and halved
60 g (2 ¼ oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
4 tbsp miso paste
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp apple concentrate or honey
In a saucepan, bring vegetable stock, shallots, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and chiles to a boil. Continue to boil for 4-5 minutes. Add oyster and straw mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Once cooked remove from heat and season with miso paste, lime juice and apple concentrate
More pictures after the break
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