It’s full-on Central Valley soup weather now—near-freezing nights, foggy mornings, afternoons just warm enough for lunch in the yard.
This fennel-Delicata squash soup is adapted from one made with Kabocha in Sunday Suppers at Lucques (recipe copied here.) It’s my favorite winter squash soup, with roasted fennel bulbs and toasted fennel seeds, sherry and onions, and sweet-spicy pepitas.
Also on the scene: cardoons. We don’t see enough of cardoons, kin to artichokes but grown for their stalks, which look like celery. Back in Arkansas, they were consolation for our puny artichoke crop. Here in California, where thistles thrive, we take our artichokes for granted. But each fall a few raggedy bunches of cardoons make it to the market, and I scoop them up for a creamy gratin or a cold vinaigrette.
Here, snappy with anchovy and chiles de árbol, crunchy with buttered bread crumbs.
Monday I made our house turnip soup, for lunch with my dear friend S.
I’ve been making this simple soup since Arkansas too, where I grew and tasted Japanese turnips for the first time. Hakurei, the variety I know best, are creamy white, crisp, and sweet. You can eat them like apples, no peeling needed.
For the soup I slice and sauté them in butter with leeks and thyme, then simmer in water and purée, sometimes with a shot of cream.
Parmesan frico on top, and the grain salad is wild rice and wheatberries, with pistachios and apricots, parsley, walnut oil, and cubes of honey-roasted Acorn squash.
I’m used to quinces coloring to salmon pink in their poaching liquid, but this batch turned a deep poinsettia red.
Baked in pistachio cream, for an early Christmas APB.
And caramel nut tarts, for when the freezer is crammed with bags and jars of leftover roasted almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pecans, macadamias…
Nuts, caramel, buttery crust, like a candy bar.
And candy bars need chocolate.
(This from C: Never trust a man who doesn’t love dogs and sweets. Yup.)
Caramel and mixed nut tartlets
Makes 6-4″ tartlets
6 fully baked 4″ sweet tart shells (recipe here)
2 1/2 cups mixed whole nuts
580 g (2 1/2 cups) heavy cream
2 T unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
750 g (3 3/4 cup) sugar
Preheat the oven to 375.
Toast the nuts on a baking sheet until they’re golden brown, about 8-10 minutes.
Put the cream, butter, and salt in a saucepan and heat until the butter is melted.
Put the sugar in another saucepan and stir in 1 and 1/2 cup water. Cook the mixture over medium heat until golden brown (don’t stir, just swirl the pan occasionally.)
Remove the saucepan with the caramel from the heat and whisk in the warm cream mixture until smooth.
Stir the nuts in the caramel and ladle the mixture into each tartlet.
Refrigerate for an hour or two until the caramel is soft and chewy, like a candy bar.
looks great as usual!
Thanks Donnie!
Looks delicious. Would love for you to share your pictures with us over at foodepix.com.
I live by own expression that is akin to yours… “Never trust a woman who doesn’t like spicy food or have a library card.”
Excellent rule!
I meant “I live by my own” expression…
Oh, Elizabeth. You are amazing! I wish I lived close enough to come over for lunch and afternoon pastry breaks in the yard.
Angie, thank you! I wish you lived here too! I miss our pastry collaboration.
I was just reading about this culinary archive in your neck of the woods–sounds like an amazing collection. http://www.clements.umich.edu/longone-archive.php
Quince tart for all the ginataan you can eat. And a bowl of squash soup for one of sinigang na Baboy…
Deal, M, bring on the Pinoy goodness.
Love the quince tarts that look like red roses. I’m interested in how you poach the fruit (in wine?) and make the pistachio cream, if you would care to share the recipe. Thanks!
Thank you, John P. I just poach the quinces in water, sugar, and a vanilla bean to preserve their delicate floral flavor. The filling is like frangipane with pistachios instead of almonds.
And what a terrific lunch it was! This is the first I’ve heard of cardoons… spoiled by the local artichoke crop, I suppose, in the land of the thriving thistle. Also, your rose-shaped tartlets are tied for prettiest with the most beautiful things you’ve ever photographed.
Thanks Sara! Did you have Queijo de Nisa in Portugal? I learned about it in Cheese Sci–coagulated with cardoon.