Carrot Soup

Friends and family tell me I'm a pretty good cook. Sometimes I take stock in this, other times I just think they are fluffing my ego. I've subjected guests to some pretty vial stuff in my time.

The love of cooking came from my mom. She and my aunt's community service consisted of being a cookbook tester for Junior League when in my formative years. It wasn't unheard of for her to spend hours making a meal and then for the family to only give it 4/10. Some meals weren't even fit to give the dog and we ended up having pizza for dinner or going to the country club one awful night of cheese soup that smelled like diarrhea. Others became part of our repertoire. I can honestly say I didn't know the difference between meatloaf and pot roast until I was in graduate school only because we didn't have things like this at our house. You were much more likely to find Mom carefully adding spices to a northern Italian dish or diligently chopping veggies for Hekka (the Hawaiian form of Sukiyaki).

My husband grew up with more American mainstream fare. (Read: plain, simple, pedestrian.) This isn't bad; it just isn't what I was used to. Casseroles, baked meat, plain rice. Wasabi wasn't included in their spice rack. That's all I'm sayin'.

When my father began his exit of corporate America, he would often come home with recipes from the newly encountered Internet. I think he started this just to pass the time in his banal role, underutilizing his talents. He began to take over the chef role and my mom let him have it. Years later, they've found a comfortable rhythm and dance in the kitchen.

Cooking has always appealed to my family. My mom could tell you stories of her grandmother who could turn simple pantry items into a feast. I aspired to be this woman. The meal is central to the time where family joins and shares their day's experiences. Both my brother and I have selected mates who also have this very important value and who also hold their own (exceptionally well, may I add) in the kitchen.

There have been times when I improvise in the kitchen; stray from recipes, prescribed measurements, and stagnant directives. Mostly this happens with sauces and soups. I turn to the kitchen as a creative release. Once I made a soup on a winter afternoon in my art deco apartment in the avenues. I was entertaining a house guest (he was watching sports on tv) and I was trying to suppress Sybil (my alternate personality who only comes out with a vengeance when I'm hungry.) I began to design a cream of tomato bisque, which he gobbled up enthusiastically. Years later he recalled that soup and I was inspired enough to dust off the cobwebs to try and recreate my original design and finally write it down.

This week, Indiana has vacillated between windy temps in the 60's only to be marred back to reality of the -8 wind chill. In my opinion, perfect soup weather. On Monday I finished my day at the hospital and came home to a comatose post call husband. I glanced about our staples and decided I could actually attempt to create something without venturing out to the store. I'll try to make a carrot soup. The results were actually delicious and I thought I would share my creation.

Ingredients:
Butter (about 2 Tbsp)
Fresh Ginger, minced (about an inch or so of root, peeled)
1 sweet onion, chopped

Heat the butter and sauté the onion and ginger (simple enough, right?). Onion should be soft before you add in:

5-6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into coins
1 36 oz of chicken broth

Bring to a boil then cover and let simmer about 30 min. Puree the hell out of the sucker. I use my immersion blender wand (God's gift) or you could do the tedious batches in a food processor or blender. Either way, puree it, by George. By now it should not look like baby food. If it does (and you know that consistency) add more chicken broth. I found I didn't need any more.

Add 1/4 cup of OJ (resist the temptation to add more as you will just have warm oj at this point...el grosso)
A Pinch of Cayenne
A Pinch of Nutmeg
Two dollops of sour cream (I know my measurements are rough at best. Go with what you think would work)

Combine, heat, then season with salt and pepper to taste. I found I only needed a pinch of salt, as the chix broth was enough for me.

Serve.

How easy is that?