Author Archives: Lee White

A la Carte: A Soup for Snow? Try This Intriguing Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup

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Lee White

What do you do on a Sunday when there is nearly three feet of snow on your front door? Obviously, the meteorologists were right this time …

Is there enough food in my house to keep me a day or two from starvation?

Sure, there is.

But what would I be in the mood for?

Yes, my friends, I had stocked up on produce with what I wanted to cook: three different soups. I also made tiramisu on Sunday, just because I happened to have mascarpone in the refrigerator and, while milk chocolate was not in any supermarket, I have some Ghirardelli cocoa mix in the pantry, too.

Amid all the produce, I bought a sweet potato bigger than my shoe size, a seven. Tonight, I am making a soup to finish up the coconut milk I used yesterday. You may, as I did, forget the parsley relish, since I am out of fresh parsley.

Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup with Spice Relish

Adapted from a recipe by Bobby Flay in September 12, 2010 issue of Parade magazine
Yield: 4 to 6 portions

Spicy Relish
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
pinch of red-pepper flakes
½ small sweet potato, peeled and cut into a small dice
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Sweet Potato-Coconut Soup
1 ½ tablespoons canola oil
1 small red onion, chopped
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated (ginger gums up your Microplane; cut in tiny dice instead)
pinch of red-pepper flakes
3 cups homemade chicken stock (out of my own, I used the store-bought, low-sodium broth)
½ cup water
1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice
1 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon honey
large pinch of ground cinnamon

For relish, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add red-pepper flakes; heat for 10 seconds. Add diced sweet potato, salt and pepper to taste. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until softened, 15 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to high and cook until diced potatoes are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in parsley.

For soup, heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and ginger; cook until soft, 5 minutes. Add red-pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds. Add stock and water, bring to a boil. Add sweet potatoes, bring to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are soft, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer mixture to a blender and process until smooth. Return to saucepan; simmer over low heat. Whisk in coconut milk, honey and cinnamon. Cook until thickened and warmed through. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls, top with a spoonful of a spicy relish.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Winter Vegetable Soup for a Wintry Day

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Lee White

Over the years, I learned a lot about buying cookbooks. Never mind the first one I ever had: it was a cookbook that was part of the first (and only) encyclopedia we order for our daughter. I bet no one under fifty years old has ever bought one.

My second was Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. It was one hell of a cookbook and still is. I learned to cook from that one. I began to buy chefs’ cookbooks. Like a kid, I loved the pictures. One, the French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, was gorgeous, but I never cooked a single recipe from it.  The recipes looked easy, just eight or seven ingredients, but embedded were words like “see page this or see page that.” To finish the entrée or dessert I would have had to make two or three different recipes first.

Today I buy cookbooks written by the brilliant Jacques Pepin and television star Ina Garten; I own books from the Moosewood Collective along with Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. These people are cooks, teachers and recipe writers, rarely restaurant chefs.

Jacques buys most of his ingredients from farmers’ markets or Stop and Shop. Ina Garten shops in the Hamptons. They both have their own gardens. Sheila Lukins cooked for her own little shop called The Silver Palate. New Haven’s own Claire Criscuolo’s Claire’s Corner Copia books are treasures.

So here’s the deal: in the recipe below, there are 18 ingredients, but nine are veggies, a bunch, literally, are herbs and there is some liquid. Most of them are probably in your own kitchen. The soup will feed eight to 10 people and cost you maybe $15. And I found that recipe  from Yankee magazine, which couldn’t be more New England-ish.

This soup is delicious.

Roasted Winter Vegetable and White Bean Chowder
From In the Thick of It by Nadine Nelson (Yankee, January-February, 2022)

2 ½ cups diced butternut squash
2 ½ cups sliced carrots
2 cups diced russet potatoes
1 cup diced parsnips
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 tablespoons plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
3 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
5 fresh thyme sprigs
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons flour (all-purpose or gluten-free)
8 cups vegetable stock (chicken stock if you are not a vegetarian)
2 14-ounce cans cooked white beans, drained
2 cups sliced mushrooms, any kind
2 cups milk of your choice (2 percent is fine)
Fresh thyme sprigs and ground paprika or smoked for garnish

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss five veggies in 2 tablespoons olive and and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Divide vegetables between two large rimmed baking sheets and roast until tender and browned, about 40 minutes, turning them a few times while roasting.

While vegetables are roasting, prepare the soup base: heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat, then add onions, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, black remaining and 1 teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 6 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add stock and beans.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and milk, bring to a simmer, and stir in roasted vegetables.

Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if desired.

Serve hot, garnished with fresh thyme and a sprinkle or paprika. 

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee

A la Carte: Count on Chicken Chili on a Cold Day!

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I have four definites before I give you a recipe:

  1. I have made the recipe and it was good
  2. Someone I knew had made this recipe and gave me the recipe and I understood the intranets and trusted them
  3. The ingredients were available or that a substitute would work for you
  4. I tinkered with the recipe and felt the tinkering made the recipe even better.

This was not the case with the tourtière you read last week.

I had not made a tourtière, or French-Canadian meat pie, in decades because my husband really didn’t like the cinnamon-blend so I never made it again. But my husband is gone and I love the spice blend (like the sauce the Olney, R.I. diners serve with hot dogs in the Ocean State), so I decided to make a tourtière from a recipe on the Internet. I sent the column before I made the tourtière.

I was gob-smacked. Either my palate had changed (which can happen  to anyone) or the spice blend sucked or my taste memory was faulty.

I drove down to my friend Rich Swanson’s house. He didn’t think the pie wasn’t bad (was he just being kind?), but he gave me an individual spiced lamb pie he’d made that might give me something I’d remember. That day I thawed the pie and had it for dinner with some broccoli, and there was that tourtière-flavor I remembered. 

“Will you give me that recipe?”  I begged over the phone.

“Yes,” he said, but it might take him some time to make the right amount of seasoning for a full-sized pie. “Take your time, Rich,” I said.

Unless you are a kid and it is Christmas morning, waiting for something wonderful is easy.

So, today, I am giving you a  recipe for chicken chili that I have made many times. Because it serves 12, you can halve the ingredients for six people; whether it is for six or 12, it freezes well.

Chicken Chili

Adapted from Ina Garten’s  “Barefoot Contessa Parties!” (Clarkson Potter, New York, 2001)
Serves 12

If you call this recipe a stew, make it a day or two earlier and refrigerate, warm it up and serve over rice, everyone will love it.

8 cups chopped onions (6 onions)
One-quarter cup good olive oil, plus extra for chicken
One-quarter cup minced garlic (8 cloves)
4 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and large-diced
4 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and large-diced
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½  teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
4 teaspoons salt, plus more for chicken
4 28-ounce can whole peeled plum tomatoes in puree, undrained  (I used Muir Glen diced tomatoes)
½  cup minced fresh basil leaves
8 or more split breast chicken, bone in, skin on (thighs or a combination would be fine, too)

For serving: chopped onions, corn chips, grated cheddar cheese, sour cram

Cook onions in the oil over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne and salt. Cook for 1 minute.

Crush tomatoes by hand or in batches in a food processor fitted with a steel blade (pulse 6 to 8 times). Add to the pot with the basil. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the meantime, rub the chicken with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle generally with salt and pepper. Roast chicken for 35 to 40 minutes, until just cooked. Let cool slightly.

Separate the meat from the bones and skin, and cut into three-quarter chunks. Add to the chili and simmer, uncovered, for another 20 minutes. Serve with toppings, or refrigerate and reheat gently before serving.

Lee White

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: For Lee, Winter and Widowhood Mean it’s Time for Tourtière

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Lee White

Before the holiday season, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, a wonderful cookbook writer who lives mostly in Maine and visits Italy often, talked about the French-Canadian tourtière. 

I made it a few times for my husband but he really didn’t like the seasoning. He said the same when I made Cincinnati Five-Way Chili (chili with beans, onions, seasoning, spaghetti and cheese). Doug had pretty good catholic (small “C”) food preferences and so, after the tourtière discussion (and all the time, really), I just made food he enjoyed.

In any case, I love all those spices and I adore savory pies like chicken and beef pot pies.

But now it is winter and widowhood, so I can cook anything I like and share the bounty with friends.

The recipe looks long, but if you use a pre-made crust (preferable Oronoco frozen pie crusts), this recipe is a snap. As for the spice blend, quadruple or quintuple it and save in a tight-lidded jar for tourtière or Cincinnati Five-Way Chili for next time!

Tourtière (French-Canadian Meat Pie)
Adapted from Chef John on allrecipes.com 

Photo by Rebecca Matthews on Unsplash.

2 pre-made frozen pie crusts, thawed
Spice blend
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground thyme
½ teaspoon ground sage
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Filling
1 large russet potato, peeled and quartered
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 pinch salt
4 cloves garlic, crushed
½ cup finely diced celery
1 pound each ground pork and beef
1 cup potato cooking water, plus more as needed

Egg wash
1 large egg and 1 tablespoon water, stirred

Place potato quarters in a saucepan, cover with cold water. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat. Simmer until cooked through. Remove potato and mash; save water.

Melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and salt and stir until onions turn golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in garlic, celery and spice blend and stir until onions coated with spices, 30 seconds. Add meat and ladle ¾ cup of potato water into skillet. Cook until meat is browned and has an almost paste-like texture. Continue, stirring, until meat is tender and most liquid is evaporated, 45 minutes. Stir in potatoes and remove from heat. Bring to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Fill bottom crust with meat mixture and smooth out. Brush edges of bottom crust with egg wash, then place top crust on the pie and press lightly around edges to seal. Trim excess dough from crust. Crimp edges of the crust and brush entire surface of pie with egg wash. Place in preheated oven. Bake until well brown, about 1 hour. Let cool to almost room temperature before serving.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

A la Carte: Two New (and Lucky) Soups for the New Year

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Lee White

Luck can be two different sides of a coin. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, I lost one very good friend, and another very good friend lost his mother.

Just three days after that, I went to a birthday party for Jacques Pepin, who is now 86. It was a small party of maybe 14 people. Most of us have known each other for 20 or more years. 

Jacques’ beautiful wife, Gloria, died just a year ago, while Marty Travis’ husband died less than a decade ago.  My husband died 12 years ago. While all three of us terribly miss our spouses, all 14 feel lucky to be together, pretty healthy, tripled vaxxed … and even smarter than when we were in college!

We also never talked about politics.

Now it is 2022 and I am hoping all my readers and friends (many are both), my children and their children, and all of yours too, have great luck, superb health and enough prosperity to share with others.

Below are two good luck soups. Both are delicious. 

Good Luck Lentil Soup

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Adapted from Italian Holiday Cooking by Michele Scicolone (William Morrow, New York, 2001)
Yield: serves 8

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, chopped*
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 small dried pepperoncini (I use a pinch of crushed red pepper instead)
1 pound lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
½ cup dried tomatoes, cut into strips (I use a 28-ounce can of Muir Glen diced tomatoes, instead)
Salt to taste
Extra-virgin olive oil

In a large pot, combine oil, pancetta, onion, garlic and pepperoncino (or crushed pepper) over medium heat until the onion is wilted and golden.

Add lentils then stir in the peppers and tomatoes. If using dried tomatoes, add 6 cups of water; if using canned tomatoes, add 2 to 3 cups water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes, until lentils are almost tender.

Add salt to taste and simmer until lentils are cooked.

Serve hot or at room temperature with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. 

*Pancetta is unsmoked Italian bacon. Rolled into a sausage shape, pancetta is used to flavor bean dishes and sauces. Most supermarkets have it in the deli department.

Friendship Soup Mix

From Vange Chatis of Somers, Connecticut
Yield: 4 quarts

1 pound ground beef
3 quarts water
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
½ cup dry split peas
¼ cup pearl barley
¼ cup dried minced onion
½ cup uncooked long-grain rice
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
½ cup dry lentils
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
½ cup alphabet macaroni or other small macaroni

In a very large stockpot, brown beef, then drain. Add water, tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients except for the macaroni. Stir together and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Add macaroni, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until everything is tender.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.