My husband really likes a local restaurant's Cream of Red Pepper Soup, so I set about looking for a recipe. Having little luck in the now-usual ways, I fell back on an old standard: look it up in the encyclopedia. Joy of Cooking's recipe wasn't a "cream of," but it was close enough.
Scanning recipes right out of an in-print book crosses my copyright-violation threshhold, so I'll refer to what I did, which was fairly close but not exact.
First, olive-oil and roast 6 red peppers under the broiler. I call that "broiling," but "roasted red peppers" just sounds so much more appetizing.
It helps to have a sous-chef.
Broil -- er, roast until blistered and blackened. And I did, more than I meant to!
But the side that didn't get black was harder to pull the peel off from, so next time, I'll turn them so the whole pepper gets black. The insides were tender and sweet, perfect for a soup.
If there is a next time, that is. What a pain in the rear end to peel (even the black part) and slice! They're slippery and the seeds get everywhere. I went from congratulating myself on saving money buying my own fresh peppers at Safeway, to cursing myself for not shelling out for pre-roasted red peppers at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's (where even the economical TJs commands $2.99 for a jar with one roasted red pepper).
Saute chopped onions (2c), diced carrots (1c) and chopped fennel (1c).
Add chicken stock (5c), white wine (1c), rice (3T), chopped basil (2T fresh), chopped rosemary (1T), fennel seeds (1t). Boil, simmer 30 min, then puree.
I'm such a soup newbie that I don't know how to solve the problem of fitting all this soup in my blender. I tried my little Braun hand-blender in the soup pot, but it just wasn't doing the job. A food processor never fails to leak for a liquid. From my years of making baby food, I developed a great respect for blenders, but my blender's capacity isn't up to the typical soup recipe. Finally, I blended the soup in shifts, which almost matched the slicing of the roasted peppers on the PITA* scale.
A few drops of heavy cream added to the soup made for a nice presentation though. It was during this process that I discovered that my husband didn't realize that "Cream Of" soups actually have cream in them. He thought a "cream of" soup meant a pureed one, as opposed to a brothy soup like minestrone.
Actually, this one could have used some more cream. Or something to take out the bite from, I think, the fennel. I'm a huge fan of fresh fennel, but an even bigger enemy of celery, and I think the fennel seed was a bit much in this one.
On top of it, my husband's memory for "Cream of Red Pepper Soup" was at a local Italian restaurant that really did a nice job of it. I can't compete with that, especially not for one of my very first soups!
I froze the extra soup, with misgivings -- would it ever get used? I had guilt on my side the next weekend, and my husband didn't have the heart to say no when I suggested he try some frozen soup for lunch. Bingo -- the extra time, and the more favorable circumstances, made it a big hit this time. I liked it a lot better too, it was much mellower and bite of the fennel was gone.
But I'd rather find soups that are a little less effort!
* PITA: not bread, not animal rights, but Pain In The.....fill it in.
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