Easy Peasy Split Pea Soup

Soups are a good way to use leftovers and prevent waste.

 Coincidentally, Tara Parker-Pope in The New York Times writes about wasting food just as I'm on a kick to use up leftovers instead of forgetting them.

Now that we have a preschool tuition to pay that we didn't last year, I've had to be much more conscious of our expenses, including groceries. It's easy to underestimate the cost of food, especially if you buy a little here and there throughout the week without keeping track. When you're paying attention, you realize how much the costs add up.

It isn't as though I suddenly realized wasting food was ... well, wasteful. I always peel and eat broccoli stalks, use celery leaves in a soup or stew, and cook beet greens and other veggie parts that some people throw away. I'm the only one in the house who'll eat toast made from the heel of a loaf, so I turn the ends into homemade breadcrumbs, which go into meatloaf that also incorporates leftover chopped spinach. Leftover sausage gets cut into small pieces and tossed with pasta, olive oil and broccoli rabe or beet greens. Even so, all too often I rediscover — too late — a forgotten container or a bunch of leeks in the vegetable drawer that have mushified. (Yes, I know it's not a real word, but it's a real problem.) It's easy to grab bunches of things that look amazing at the farmers market and then have no time that week to get to it all.

And that was usually my problem. I had no plan for many of my food purchases, and once they got stored at home — in the produce drawer, the pantry, etc. — it was "out of sight, out of mind." For the past couple weeks, I've been working harder on changing my habits, making sure to plan ahead what I'd prepare during the week and write my shopping list accordingly. If something I hadn't planned to buy was irresistible, I made sure to think what I'd make with it and when to do so. If something tempted me, but I couldn't think of what to make or when during the week I'd have time to get to it, then I resisted the urge to take it home.

Along those lines, I made a pea soup this past week, partly because the weather turned cold and partly because I had impulsively (old habits die hard) bought big bags of organic carrots and potatoes. Hey, they were on sale. I started out pretty well by prepping and roasting the potatoes and carrots the day I got them home. For me half the battle is not putting them in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator and losing track of them. That evening we had the veggies with roast chicken for dinner.

The next day we ate some of the leftover veggies. A couple days after that, I noticed the container of potatoes and carrots starting to migrate farther back into the fridge, getting ready to disappear behind a wall of yogurt containers.

Extra veggies can go into almost anything. I like to use them in pasta, omelets and quiches, and soups. A couple soups that take little effort and time are pumpkin-red lentil soup (to use up extra pureed pumpkin or other cooked squash) and split pea soup (to finish off potatoes, carrots and ham, if you eat meat).

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup
Serves 8

INGREDIENTS
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped (about half to three-quarters of a cup)
2 small cloves or 1 large clove garlic, chopped (about a Tablespoon)
pinch of salt
1 bag dried split peas (1 pound, or about 2 cups)
2 quarts (8 cups) vegetable stock*
leftover cooked carrots (I had about a cup, but more or less doesn't matter)
leftover roasted potatoes (again, as much as you have or want)
salt

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium (about 4 quart) pot over medium heat, stir together oil, onion, garlic and pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion turns translucent. Lower heat if it starts to brown or burn.

2. Inspect peas, discarding any stones or bad-looking peas. Put peas and broth into the pot of onion, bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat and continue to simmer until peas break down and become soft, about 45 minutes.** Add carrots and potatoes, and heat about 5 minutes more. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.***
 
NOTES:
* Normally I'd use water and simmer the soup with a ham hock or pieces of leftover ham, but when I don't have ham or just want a vegetarian version, I like to use vegetable stock or broth for the flavor. Use vegetable scraps to make broth and freeze ahead of time. I also keep on hand vegetable bouillon cubes. Chicken broth makes a good substitute if you aren't vegetarian or vegan.
** I think most recipes call for half or all the soup to be blended with an immersion (stick) blender or in a traditional blender. I like my soups to have some texture, so usually I don't blend.
*** Other seasonings you could use include a teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme leaves added with the carrots and potatoes, or a bay leaf added with the broth, or a teaspoon of curry powder added to the onions about a minute before the broth and peas are added. Experiment with what you like. My roasted carrots often are tossed with lemon zest and a lemon vinaigrette after coming out of the oven. If I were using plain carrots, I'd probably also add a little lemon to the soup.

One Potato, Two Potato ...

Potato latkes, the edges still shatteringly crisp.

 I was making a gratin Dauphinois and realized I had cleaned and peeled too many potatoes. I couldn't just slice and pile them into the baking dish; that would make the gratin too deep.

What to do if you have too many potatoes? Or should I say, what not to do with extra spuds? Celery root and potato mash? Fries? Wedges? Gnocchi? Potato leek soup? Lemon bacon potato salad?

This time I wanted latkes. I love the light crisp edges that shatter as you bite into them. This version of latkes does not use flour, so it's great for anyone with wheat allergies or gluten intolerance. If you don't want to eat them right away, you can cool them and freeze them until you need them. They're great as an appetizer with sour cream and applesauce (or even better, creme fraiche and smoked salmon or caviar), as a side dish with eggs for brunch or dinner, or as a midnight snack.

Potato Latkes
makes 6 potato pancakes

INGREDIENTS
3 medium-large yukon gold potatos or 2 smaller russets*
1 shallot
2 (3-inch) sprigs thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, beaten
canola oil (enough to pour 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch deep in a skillet)

DIRECTIONS
1. Peel and grate potatoes into a bowl or quart-size measuring cup of cold water (to prevent discoloration).

A little shredded carrot added to the mix.

2. While potato sits in water, finely chop shallot and place in a larger (2- or 3-quart) bowl.

3. Remove leaves from thyme stems and put into bowl with shallots.

4. Drain potato and place in a clean, dry kitchen towel. Roll and squeeze as much moisture** out of potato as possible. Place potato into the large bowl with the shallot, thyme, salt and pepper, then mix with just enough of the egg to coat the potato shreds.

5. Heat about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet until it gets hot (not smoking) and place a forkful of the potato mixture into the oil and gently flatten to make a roughly 3-inch pancake. You can cook just one smaller latke to test the oil before making the rest, if you want. Cook until the edges are deep golden brown, then turn over the latke and cook the other side. If the edges turn dark or black too fast, lower the heat a bit.

6. Remove latke to a rack and sprinkle lightly with salt.
Serve immediately, or cool the latkes, then freeze them, separated by parchment paper, in an airtight container. They can be reheated in a 400 degree oven on a cooling rack set on a baking sheet.

NOTES: * Variations include mixing grated carrot or sweet potato together with the potato. You could also incorporate another vegetable such as shredded zucchini; just make sure to lightly salt and drain it and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. In place of the shallot, you can add leek chiffonade, grated onion or chopped scallion.
** If you have a salad spinner (I don't), then you can try using that to take out excess moisture. If more liquid collects at the bottom of the bowl while you're cooking, scrape the remaining potato mixture out of the puddle and up onto the sides of the bowl.

A Guillotine for Veggies (and Fingers If You're Not Careful)

We're going to my brother-in-law's house for Turkey Day, and I'll be bringing the gratin Dauphinois I made last Thanksgiving. Everybody loved it, and his wife's parents couldn't get enough, so I figure I'll make everyone happy while making something super easy.

I've loved potato gratin even before I spent a semester studying passersby on the Cours Mirabeau literature in Aix-en-Provence.

I don't always talk about my kitchen tools but sometimes you come across something that makes life/work easier. In this case making the gratin used to take some work because I was a stickler for slicing my potatoes evenly. However, a little red piece of plastic with a white blade (like a guillotine) caught my eye at a local gourmet and gift store in the past year.
I hesitated to buy it (what? it does only one thing?), but I'm evolving into a person who is happy to let tools do more of the work.

Before I got my electric mixer, I used to whip egg whites with a hand-held whisk -- I KNOW! I must have been a masochist.


Just beware. The slicer may look like a toy, but I almost needed stitches after it mistook my finger for Marie Antoinette.
(After that, I found and now use a protective glove for dummies who don't feel like using the included hand guard.)

I use the 3.0 mm (thickest) setting for my scalloped potatoes, and there are four settings, down to 0.5 mm, which is great for paper-thin sweet-potato chips. I have no idea if the store still carries these paddle slicers, but I imagine you could find something similar in many forms/brands in various housewares or kitchen stores.
The point is that the gratin is such an easy classic and elegant dish to prepare.

Gratin Dauphinois with Leek

copyright Cynthia Ohms © 

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1 Tbs butter, to butter gratin or other shallow baking dish (I use a 13-inch-square Corningware dish)
1 clove garlic,peeled and smashed
8 medium yellow or gold potatoes (or 4 russet potatoes)
Heavy cream (enough to drizzle coat over the potato slices)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1 small leek, thinly sliced across (untraditional but tasty)

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, with rack in middle.

1. Butter a baking dish large enough so that potatoes can be layered no more than 3/4 inch deep, and rub bottom with the smashed garlic. Discard garlic.

2. Slice potatoes thin and cover the bottom of the baking dish in a single layer of potato. Drizzle with cream to coat the slices. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper (and some leek, if you're like me). Repeat layers until potatoes are used. (I like flaky sea salt, but any salt will do.)

3. Cover the baking dish with a tight fitting lid or securely wrap the top in foil and bake until done. (Check after 45 minutes to see if fork pierces potato easily. When fully cooked, uncover and let brown lightly.)

Notes:

* You can use milk instead of cream, if you had to, but I find that the milk is more likely to break (solids separate) a bit.

* A classic Dauphinois does not contain leeks, I think, but I love the combination of potatoes and leeks. Just do what you love. Cheese isn't traditionally in a gratin Dauphinois either, but if you really want it, then go ahead and doctor the recipe with some shredded __________ (you fill in the blank).

* Another variation on a gratin for Thanksgiving is to make it out of sliced sweet potato. Normally I don't love sweet potato casseroles for Thanksgiving. They're usually too sweet. But a French-style gratin of sweet potato, with leeks or maybe sauteed shallots and crumbled bacon --- I'm there.

* Avoid potatoes that are turning green. Although many of us have survived the occasional green potato chip, just be aware that green tint in a potato signals the presence of a toxin, solanine, that you don't want anyone, especially children, to eat.