My Old NYC and Lentil-Chili Soup with Divine Orange Sherry Cream

 Jefferson Market Courthouse – a little before my time!

Very soon after I came to New York City, I moved to the West Village.

                                                        

11^th street between 5^th and 6^th.  It was a great neighborhood with fabulous caring neighbors and a great inclusive spirit. My first cooking experiments started in that 11^th Street kitchen (oh yes, Renaissance Veal Pie – ICK, puff paste glue – YUK, coq au vin -- AHHH) that had a giant window overlooking the gardens of 10^th and 11^th Street. I did my first renovation (very grown up!) on that kitchen and Pierre, the craftsman that did the unorthodox counters with copper and deep-blue-sea tile, became a great friend.

My dining table was in front of another giant window that looked out over what must have been the inspiration for Hitchcock’s Rear Window .  I can’t tell you how much fun we had watching our neighbors… especially one couple that cavorted between the living room and the bedroom, often en déshabillé.  We took to waving but they didn’t seem to care.  It made for very amusing dinner parties and made up for some of the food disasters that came from my reach exceeding my grasp in the kitchen. My friends were very good sports. It also helped that the meals were lubricated by a stock of spectacular wines that the local merchant had discovered in his cellar when he bought the place. He was charmed that I was interested and shared them with me for a song. We often had old Lafite, Latour, Haut Brion, Margaux, Petrus and Yquem from the 1950’s to wash down the food experiments.  What a world.

Jefferson Market in the 40's (still before my time)

Jefferson after it moved across the street

I shopped at Jefferson Market – on the west side of 6th Avenue, between 10^th and 11^th Street. The store (with a lovely crew that included owner Angelo and my favorite – very Irish Frank) had a policy that is inconceivable today, they shopped for you (you told them what you wanted and they gathered it for you) when I started going there!  One day before a dinner when I forgot my checkbook, they just said not to worry…I could pay next time… can you imagine??  It was a great store.

When I moved to a loft in the yet-to-be-named NOHO in the 80’s, I was inconsolable.  It was barren and forlorn. Ok, the loft itself was a bohemian dream and 2500 sq feet with the best windows in NYC but there were no people… the neighbors were sequestered, doing their arty things (one made jewelry for Madonna) and I never saw them since we all kept odd hours (only 5 years before there had been an eccentric brothel on the top floor). It was a real artist’s building then.  Leo Castelli and Andy Warhol risked their lives taking our 100-year old elevator (after riding with Warhol I grumbled “there goes the neighborhood”, boy, was I right) on their way to the artist lofts above.  The neighborhood is now crawling with people and all the artists are gone to the outer boroughs.  The lofts now sell for millions and rent for the 10’s of thousands!

Former Hairy Guy Greasy Spoon – now posh shop 

I so missed Jefferson Market.  The only thing around us then was a really pathetic greasy spoon with smelly sandwich meat and an owner with dense black hair exploding exuberantly from every possible place save the top of his shiny bald head… he didn’t look any cleaner than his display cases and leered every time I entered (as well as trying to look down my shirt whenever possible).  His gag-making aftershave couldn’t mask his mighty B.O.  I decided I’d rather starve and at first, went back to my old neighborhood to shop.

 

Then I found Dean & Deluca just a few blocks away.  Back then it was  on Prince Street, (much, much smaller than the giant that’s on Broadway now) and there was a Whole Foods next door (not related to the giant food chain at all –it started as a funky artist/ hippy health-food store).  By the time I got there they were already trendy and not as warm as my beloved Jefferson, but between the 2 --  I could get what I wanted.

I missed the familiar faces and intensely personal service.  At Jefferson people worked there for decades… it felt like family and like the old Cheers TV show, everybody knew your name and what you liked (“Deana, those little artichokes are coming in next week!!”).

I think that’s one of those things I miss with mega stores.  Minimum wage jobs don’t encourage long-term commitments.  Everyone is on their way somewhere else or depressed that they have to be working there.  Once upon a time when someone worked at a place like Jefferson, they could afford houses and cars… they were taken care of and they had enormous pride in their work (like well paid waiters in great restaurants – coincidence??).  Now they are commodities.  It is the cost we pay for saving money, or in D&D’s case, the cost for high quality… lots gets thrown away and high priced employees would make the quality unaffordable (their prices are already extremely high … but when I have to do food for a film, I load up there because everything is PERFECT).  

When they came out with the Dean & Deluca Cookbook in the mid-90s it became a favorite of mine.  David Rosengarten   did a bang up job.  As a self-taught food writer, his voice is unique and nuanced.  You will love the book especially if you entertain frequently. I can’t tell you how many times I used it for parties.

One of my absolute favorite soups comes from this book.  It is a lentil soup that can be totally vegetarian or not… it is crazy good with orange and chili and sherry (that I added to the recipe years ago) giving it richness and warmth -- perfect for these last gasps of winter and that cream will rock your world.  If soup can be sexy… this is one voluptuous bowl of red.

Aftelier Petitgrain

I really recommend getting the petitgrain… it is a very special orange so it takes the cream from good to great… well sublime, actually. I had used orange for years and loved it but the petitgrain blew it out of the water—no contest. Mandy Aftel, the sorceress behind the magic says “Usually petitgrain includes the leaves and the twigs of the bitter orange tree but this is special and included some flowers too so resembles a neroli – floral but restrained – a very sophisticated orange with floral notes.”  Since you only use a drop or 2 it is affordable elegance.  It goes together with the deeply flavored Pedro Ximenez sherry like a perfect love affair. Like the petitgrain above orange juice, Pedro Ximenez stands heads above cream or amontillado sherry. I found it thanks to Manuela's Portuguese blog, Tertúlia de Sabores.   Don't get me wrong... it is delicious with orange and sweet sherry... but best with these additions.

You can only get Aftelier products online!

I like the cream best made the day before.  It allows the 2 elements to refine their duet before the performance at the table.

 

Creamy Lentil & Ancho Chili Soup based on a recipe in the Dean & Deluca Cookbook

Serves 4-6

4 ancho chilies

1 cup hot water

½ t ground allspice

pinch of ground cloves

½ t dry rosemary

 ½ t black pepper

1 T tomato paste

1 large onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c chopped chorizo (optional for vegetarians)

1 T vegetable oil

½ Lb green lentils

6 c water

grated zest &  juice of 1 orange

1 bay leaf

salt to taste (Chorizo is salty so add salt after everything else)

Sherry Orange Cream

1-3 T Sherry (I like Pedro Jimenez , but a cream sherry will do)

1 cup sour cream

drop of Aftelier Petitgrain  or 1-2 T orange juice

6 T fresh cilantro, minced

Toast chilies in a 200º oven for 5 minutes.  Discard seeds and stems.  Place in a bowl with the hot water for 15 minutes.

Remove the chilies, reserving the water.  Add the chilies to the herbs, spices and salt in a food processor with tomato paste and reserved liquid to blend. 

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil till the onion is soft… 10 minutes.  Add the chili mixture and chorizo and fry for 2 minutes.  Add the lentils, water and orange juice and zest and any remaining reserved chili water.  Cook partially covered for 1 hour.

Remove from heat and cool somewhat… If you wish, puree some of it (or all of it) with a few pulses of the food processor or leave it rough.

Take the sour cream and stir in a little bergamot essence or orange juice and enough sherry to make it spoonable… this will vary with the thickness of the sour cream. Warning, this stuff is really delicious.  Do not eat it all before you finish the soup!

Pour the soup in a bowl and swirl the sour cream on top… sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since I am on a lentil roll… I thought I’d also share a dish that captured my imagination when I read the description a few weeks ago.  It’s from Guy Savoy in Paris… lentils with sweetbreads and truffles that I read about on a Luxeat,  a blog that takes you to the best restaurants in the world (what does this person do to have such a life, I wonder?). I mixed it up a little with truffle oil (don’t scrimp on this… bad truffle oil has no truffles and is a completely chemical reproduction of the scent without the flavor) since truffles are out of season.  Because I loved that lentil chestnut soup I made a few weeks ago, I wanted to add nuts to the soup somehow.  I was still thinking of Barry Wine’s idea of sweetbreads with a hazelnut crust so I put the 2 together… lentils and hazelnuts are a marriage made in heaven.  If you don’t like sweetbreads, it would be great with salmon too! Sometimes it’s fun to put a recipe together from a description… gives you lots of room to be creative.

Lentils with Hazelnut Crusted Sweetbreads (or Salmon) and Truffle Oil

1 leek, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

3 mushrooms

2 T duck fat

1 cup lentils (either French green or simple brown)

4 cups chicken stock

1 t fresh thyme

1 t fresh marjoram

1-2 T sherry vinegar

2 T Armagnac or cognac

Pinch chipotle powder

2 T hazelnut ‘flour’

1 cup hazelnuts, made into flour*

½ lb sweetbreads, cleaned and prepped* OR  Salmon

1 egg white mixed with equal part water

3 T flour

1 t each thyme and marjoram

¼ c duck fat

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1 T hazelnut oil

Good quality white truffle oil 

Saute the vegetables in the duck fat until soft.  Add the lentils, herbs and stock and cook for 30 minutes or so until the lentils are soft.  Add the vinegar and armagnac at the end and cool. Season to taste with salt and pepper and chipotle powder

Take the hazelnuts and grind them in a coffee grinder or food processor… a nice mix of powder and small bits is the best and add the s & p, herbs. Dip the sweetbread pieces into flour.  Dunk them in the egg white mixture and then roll the pieces of sweetbreads or salmon  (3-4 pieces per bowl would be good) in the hazelnuts to coat.  The coating will stick better if you refrigerate them for an hour after this. Fry them in the duck fat till golden and crisp.

Place the soup in bowls and lay the sweetbreads (or salmon) on top.  Drizzle with truffle oil and hazelnut oil and serve.

*see HERE  for instructions on how to do the sweetbreads if they are new to you.

** toast the hazelnuts in a 350º oven for 7 minutes.  Allow to cool a little and rub their skins off in a towel.  The skins are slightly bitter so you want to remove as much as possible.

PS If you want to make this vegetarian, just put the ground hazelnuts in the soup as it cooks, it will add a delicious flavor.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting FOODIE FRIDAY