Vegetarian Kapstunica (Slovak Christmas soup)

I make this soup recipe twice a year: for my family on traditional Christmas eve, and on December 6 when I throw a Slovak Christmas party for my friends back in Vancouver. It's a traditional Slovak Christmas soup—though made a little non-traditionally, given that there's no meat in it. Its base should have a nice big pork hock for flavour, but given that I'm a vegetarian, I've learned how to substitute that out.

The recipe comes from my Aunt Olga, who learned from my Babka (though I'm curious how Campbell's tomato soup became part of the base—I'm certain it wasn't always). For the first few years I made it I would call her on the 24th in a panic to get a recap of how it all comes together, but I've pretty much got it down now. All of the amounts are rough estimates—like most soups, it's pretty flexible. So feel free to up or down the volumes if you like a little more potato, a little less oregano, etc. It makes A LOT, like, enough to serve an army for a week a lot, but if you want to feed even more people, up the potatoes. Easy peasy.

Slovak Christmas Soup Recipe, vegetarian-style

Ingredients

3 cans Campbell's tomato soup
1 jar good-quality sauerkraut (buy from a Polish deli)
1/2 cabbage
4 potatoes, peeled and diced
10-12 prunes, diced
2 medium onions
1/3 cup butter or margerine
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp dry basil
1 tbsp dry oregano
1/4 cup brown sugar
salt to taste
sour cream

Instructions

In a small pot, cover potatoes and one onion with water and bring to a boil. Add 1 tsp salt. Cook until just fork-tender, about 7 minutes.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, combine tomato soup with three cans of water, sauerkraut, cabbage, one onion, prunes, butter, caraway, peppercorns, basil and oregano.

If soup is too thick, add more water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

When potatoes are ready, empty the whole pot—water, onions and all—into the soup pot. (Parboiling the potatoes is key: potatoes won't cook in tomato-based dishes).

Simmer the soup for at least two hours, until the fresh cabbage is soft. (You may have to continue adding water if soup gets too thick.) Add brown sugar (because sauerkraut brands vary in acidity, you might want to adjust the amounts up or down) and salt to taste. Serve with a dollop of sour cream in each bowl.

This soup is often even better on the second day!

My First Christmas Dinner

Yes, I am too old to have never been head chef for Christmas dinner, but I've been spoiled by a talented mother. This year when she gently wondered if we should all go out for dinner Christmas Day, I made my move.

I knew it would be tough, as I am not a carnivore so I'd be bypassing the traditional turkey and instantly placing myself as the "unpopular" new chef. Mom helped out by saying she'd take care of the turkey portion by getting a simple-to-prepare turkey breast. Meat, check. I was now free to plan as I liked. But could I create a menu that satisfied the traditional palate AND my urge for culinary experimentation? Yes, I could, and I did.

We started with a yummy appetizer (alas, forgot to photograph) by baking halves of red peppers and filling them with a simple greek rice --we did not use carrot and added quite a bit of feta cheese. It was good and looked very Christmas-y.

Thanks to this very blog, I found the PERFECT stuffing (thanks Thomas and Orianne!) and enjoyed eating the leftovers all week. Man, that stuff is serious delicious.

Mom's colleague had given her a fresh spaghetti squash from her own garden, so of course I couldn't resist throwing that into the mix...cutting it in half, gutting it, baking it face-down in the oven for an hour, then adding butter and salt. Easy.

Also featured was one of my favourites--bocconcini and tomato salad. For those who need the basics on this one, the ingredients are:

-- 15 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

--Bocconcini mozzarella balls

--arugula or spring mix

--fresh basil to taste

--balsamic and olive oil vinagrette (just mix these two together and add a bit of salt and pepper)

...and this salad has the added bonus of the red, green and white colours.

The "main course" was a creative veggie pot pie I found on epicurious.com. The roasted vegetables made it quite delicious. The polenta crust meant it was pretty easy. I had to leave out the mushrooms (replaced with broccoli instead) because my brother would have sung an aria of utter disgust if I had included them. We aim to please.

My Mom prepared dessert...a family favourite "Log" which is chocolate wafers layered with whipped cream. This gem needs to spend the night in the fridge to unleash all the soft yummyness.

That said, I of course have to give brother Dave kudos as my "voluntold" assistant for dinner. That man has fun slicing, dicing and the compulsory drinking wine during preparations, which made it fun for me too. Doesn't he look thrilled?!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Summer Tart & BBQ

I'm delighted to say I cooked tonight! Yay, finally. It's been so long.

The theme for tonight's dinner was simplicity, but it goes without saying that deliciousness is also a requirement. I decided put my own spin on a couple of Epicurious recipes, which sounded nice: Grilled Vegetables with Mixed Greens and Blue Cheese Dressing and Savory Summer Tarts.


I decided that I needed the veggies to be even simpler. I cut out the blue cheese dressing all together, and seasoned simply with salt and olive oil. I used:

• Carrots
• Fennel
• Bok choy
• Beets
• Zucchini
• Asparagus

For the tarts, I kept things simple again. I used my tried-and-true vodka crust recipe from Cook's Illustrated. Essentially, you substitute half the water for vodka and add a bit more liquid that you would ordinarily. The vodka lets the dough get wetter without the risking toughness. It's really quite genius. The result is flaky, light, and delicious.

Instead of filling the tarts with several options, I kept to something basic: grape tomatoes, basil from my herb garden, and goat's cheese. The results was delicious.



And we washed the whole meal down with a lovely New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which I would definitely buy again. It was about $25, and its veggie, grassy notes were the perfect complement to our herbivore's feast.

I hope you try this combo for yourselves sometime. Yum.

Soup, glorious soup

Thanks to my dear friend Claire, I'm totally hooked on my Bon Appetit subscription. And I was particularly excited about their superspecial feature on kale this month (Feb 09). Only, I got to the market, ready to buy everything for Kale and White Bean Stew--no kale. None. Enter, spinach.

Now that I've subbed out the main ingredent, that leave me free to sub out whatever I want, I figure. Market was out of fresh thyme and chives: enter, dried tarragon, basil and fines herbes. I misread the Sherry wine vinegar to read straight-up Sherry.



But, pas de problème! C'est delicieuse anyways! Yum spinach and white beans.

One last thing: this calls for a full cup of shallots. I find those wee delicious little buggers to be killer on the eyes, so lately I've been using my swim goggles. One of these days, I'll splurge on a set of onion goggles from Gourmet Warehouse. In the meantime, I'm lookin' fine.

Summer Salad

Alright, then. Let's get this thing underway. Tonight, I was craving something fresh and wholesome. A quick flip through my Bon Appetit magazines (thanks again, Anicka) unearthed this delightful salad: baby potatoes, green beans, goat cheese rounds, and many other delicious things.

I'm sure you could throw just about anything in there, but here, for the record, is what went into the one I made tonight:

Goat Cheese Rounds

• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2.5 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• ground pepper
• kosher sald
• goat cheese rounds

Mix the coating ingredients together in a bowl and then chuck your rounds in there. Pretty simple.

(Cristina taught me to slice goat cheese with dental floss. It's a truly awesome technique. Try it.)

Vinaigrette

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt

Whisk the first four ingredients, then drizzle in the olive oil. Whisking all the while. It should thicken. I think.

Rest of the Salad
The rest is pretty straightforward. I steamed the potatoes for 15 minutes, the beans for 5. The greens are tossed with a bit of dressing, then you pile on the goodies: potatoes, beans, cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil leaves. Pour on a bit more dressing, add the goat cheese rounds, and season with salt and pepper.

Voila! Post numero uno complete.