Resplendidly Rebar

Our turn to host my mum and dad for Sunday dinner. I was flipping through my Rebar cookbook and noticed I’m only 10 recipes away from making all 28 of their soup recipes. They’ve got a few with ingredients specific to summer’s bounty so I’ll definitely pick off another soup recipe to get me to single digits in my quest to cook my way through all their soups.

It’s hard to forget its summer when it’s this hot out, so I’ll go with a summer ingredient inspired main course also from Rebar. In typical Rebar fashion there is a lot of chopping involved – don’t expect to get a lot of other things accomplished if you’re making this for dinner.

I’m taking a little artistic license with the name of the entrée dish and swapped out an ingredient to make it work. I also used half and half instead of heavy cream as both recipes call for below partly because I put on 4 pounds during the 7 weeks I couldn’t run because of a broken toe, and partly because my husband is fat phobic and would have preferred I use skim milk all the way. I find the compromise of half and half is a happy medium. Check ‘my notes’ under each recipe for further advice.

Both are delicious and earned rave reviews at the dinner table tonight despite the fact my husband couldn’t believe I was serving a hot soup on the hottest day of the year.

(image from Flickr)

Summer Harvest Chowder
(recipe from Rebar cookbook)
8 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil, or butter 1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 teaspoons salt
6 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ cup chopped basil
4 small red potatoes, diced
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
2 red peppers, diced
4 cups corn, fresh or frozen
1 cup heavy cream
3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Fresh lime juice to taste

Heat the vegetable stock and keep it warm while preparing the soup. If using fresh corn in the soup (highly recommended!), add the stripped cobs to the stock and remove before using).

Heat olive oil or butter in a soup pot and sauté onion with 1 teaspoon salt, until soft and golden. Add garlic, black pepper, oregano and half of the basil; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in potatoes, jalapenos, red pepper, corn and remaining salt. Saute briefly, then add warm stock to cover and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Stir in cream and return the soup to a light simmer. Add tomatoes, remaining basil and cilantro. Heat through, season to taste and serve.

My note: I use half and half instead of heavy cream (to save my marriage) and I think it’s imperative to use fresh corn. I find the best technique for removing corn from the cob is to repurpose a bundt pan and stand the ear of corn up so the point is in the middle (hole) of the bundt pan and you hold on to the stalk end. Then run your knife down the length of the cob and the kernels will fall into the pan instead of all over the countertop.

(Image from Flickr)

“Summer” Fettucine
(recipe from Rebar cookbook with slight modifications)
1 lb. green beans
2 tablespoons butter
2 leeks, mostly whites, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup vodka
1-12/ teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
1-12/ cups heavy cream
¼ lb. cold smoked salmon, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons capers
1 large bunch spinach, stemmed, and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons minced dill
2 tablespoons minced chives
1 lb. fettucine
Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Cut the ends off the green beans and cut them into approximately 1-1/2” lengths. Salt the pasta water and use the boiling water to blanch the green beans for 1-2 minutes, or until bright green and just barely tender. Shock in ice water, drain and set aside.

Melt butter in a large heated skilled. Saute leeks and garlic until leeks are tender. Add vodka, lemon zest, salt and pepper and simmer until the vodka is reduced by half. Add cream and simmer until slightly thickened. Add asparagus, salmon, capers, spinach and half of the chopped herbs. Cook until the spinach wilts and everything else is heated through. Season to taste.

While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta, drain and toss lightly with olive oil. Serve immediately, topped or tossed with the sauce. Garnish with reserved herbs, cracked pepper and shaved or grated Parmesan.

My note: Again, half and half is the reduced-fat option in my house. I took the liberty of calling this “summer” fettucine instead of the “spring” fettucine referred to in the cookbook. The original “spring” recipe calls for asparagus and I’ve substituted with green beans for my “summer” adaptation. I’d also suggest using more than ¼ lb. of smoked salmon in this dish – I must say I felt slightly ripped off by the small portion of salmon on my plate.