EATFREAK

This is a recipe that grew out of an old Tyler Florence recipe, actually.  How lame is that?  Really lame.  Really lame indeed.  This is something that I pull out about once a year when fall rolls around.  It’s very different, and warm, and fall-ish, and awesome.  Um.  It can get pretty complicated depending on how from-scratchy you want to get.  The recipe calls for a “smoked chicken stock”.  This can be achieved in a number of ways.  I’ll go into detail later.  You can simplify the process in a lot of places, but this is not one of the recipes that I would call super easy and simple.  Here goes.

2 quarts (ish)  Smoked Chicken Stock
1 Pumpkin – smaller pie pumpkin is best – gutted and sliced into thin wedges like a melon (i leave the stem on ’cause i think it looks cool)
2 small Napa Cabbages OR 1 medium Savoy Cabbage – sliced super thin
1  onion – Chopped
2 tbs Sage – diced  Also save some Sage leaves for later
Nutmeg – A dash … maybe a little more than a dash
1/4 c.  Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic – finely diced
1 medium/large Jalapeno – sliced, seeded, and toasted (just roast ‘em for a bit until they barely start to blacken) use more if you want it spicier.  if you don’t like spicy … we’ll deal with you later.
1 c.  or so tiny diced Pancetta ( you can use a bit more if you want)
A bunch of Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

So there’s all your stuff.  I bought all of that plus all the stuff to make the stock from scratch, a country white sourdough loaf,  and the kick ass Cider that I enjoyed with it all for a little more than $30 bucks – so there.

Here’s what you do with it.

OK – about the stock.  I’m not always a fresh stock Nazi – sometimes boxed or canned broth can totally work for a recipe – soup or otherwise.  This is not one of those recipes.  You really should make the smoked chicken stock.  Here’s a few ways to make it.

A..  Make chicken stock however you normally make it but smoke the chicken first instead of roasting it….duh.

B.  Option 2 is what I did last night and it requires a piece of gear which I will review soon.

If you don’t recognize what the contraption above is – it’s an industrial portable food smoker.  If you do recognize what it really is …. it’s exactly what you think it is.  So.  I used the “industrial portable food smoker” to infuse a smokey hickory flavor with the chicken going into my stock at a number of points.  When it was chopped up and raw.  Once I had cooked it before boiling the stock.  Then I smoked the Stock itself a bit at the end.  You just tightly cover the chicken or stock, blow smoke in there and then cover tightly for a while to let the smoke set in.

C.  If you ABSOLUTELY MUST use a canned broth or stock – you can use the above contraption and just smoke it before using it.  But that will pretty much blow.

So Now you have your smoked Chicken Stock – Let’s make the soup.

1.  Preheat your oven to 345 degrees.  Toss the Pumpkin slices in a big bowl with the Olive Oil, Nutmeg, Diced Sage, some Salt, and A Lot of Pepper – go crazy with the pepper.  Toss it all around to coat the Pumpkin slices.  Lay the slices out on a Baking Sheet.  Chuck it in the oven for about 45 minutes.  You want the meat to be mushy and the skin to be blackening (doesn’t have to be black – but it looks cool if it is).

2.  While that’s roasting ….  Heat up a medium or large sauce pan or Stock pot to medium-ish heat.  Throw in your pancetta and cook that stuff until it’s all stinky and all the juicy stuff is all over the pan.  I kinda overcook it  on purpose for this recipe – it adds to the the smokiness.  (maybe 5-10 minutes)

3.  You might need to add a little olive oil at this point – you might not if the Pancetta has spat out enough fat and juice.  Anyway – Throw in the Onion and let that get awesome and translucent.  Add the garlic – let that get equally awesome for like 2 minutes.  Stirring pretty consistently.  Now add The Cabbage and some Sage leaves (like 6).  Stir this stuff all around until it’s all wilted and smells really amazing (maybe 5 minutes).  Do I have to remind you  to be seasoning all this stuff along the way?  Once you’ve added the onion you need to be seasoning everything with Salt and Pepper occasionally.

4.  Once everything is sweaty and cooking – Add The Stock.  Do it.  Bring that puppy to a boil.  Lower to a simmer and add the Jalapeno slices*.

5.  When the pumpkin is done – Ladle bowls full of the broth and add a slice or two of Pumpkin – try to use the ones with the stem on – it’s just fucking cool that way – period.

NOW EAT!!

I served the soup with a slice of La Brea Bakery country white sourdough, which was rad.  I also enjoyed a glass of Hard Apple Cider, which was super rad.  Cider is highly underrated and underused.  There are a number of more sophisticated Ciders out there that don’t taste like sweet ass apple candy.  They have very complex earthy flavors and a very biting hearty feel to them – they’re awesome and I’ll be talking more about them later.  But last night I enjoyed a very basic, cheap, sweet, candy ass cider from Trader Joes, and it was Bad Ass.  Hornsby’s Amber Draft is comparable and easier to find if you want to check it out.  If you’re on the east coast, go for Cider Jack (it’s actually better than the other two i mentioned and the same price)

I think this’ll serve about 4 people – it’s perfect for 2 – then you can have kick ass left overs – if you keep the pumpkin and broth separate, you can do all kinds of different things with that pumpkin.  My wife will pull out single wedges and snack on them throughout the following week.  Like I said, kick ass.

*for those of you who don’t dig spicy – don’t add all of the Jalapeno slices – and you can just avoid actually eating the peppers themselves in the soup.  But, to those of you who don’t dig spicy ……….  dig spicy.  Spicy is awesome.  It doesn’t last forever.  It might come back to bite you in the ass later (literally) – but even that goes away.  1 Jalapeno costs 16 cents – what a great cheap way to remind yourself that you’re alive.  You can go way overboard and sweat and cry and explode into your bowl of soup – it’ll hurt like hell – and you’ll feel amazing when it all goes away.  Seriously.  Eat Spicy Food.  It’s actually really good for you.

So there.  If you make the soup, let me know how it goes – even if it sucks – I’d love to know.

It was raining yesterday in Los Angeles – which is our equivalent of a bright shiny 72 degree day for the rest of you in the country.  We get rain like 3 days out of the year and it’s freaking glorious.  It was the perfect day to cook something steamy and warm and awesome like this.  Give it a try – knock yourself out.

While I cooked this I was listening to the eponymous debut album from “Dead Man’s Bones”.  It’s a freaking incredible album.  Go get it on itunes or whatever.  If you find it too weird, get over it, it’s not, it’s incredible.  good fall music, good to cook too.

ok bye.

p.s.  oh yeah, hey, Save the seeds from the pumpkin guts and do something cool with them.  ok i’m really going now.