I received this email from Danielle asking how to thicken her soups to duplicate a “can soup” texture. Here is what she said:  

“I have recently been into making home made soups, the cooler weather I’m sure being a factor.  I’ve been experimenting with trying to thicken my soup.  I get it creamy by using a thickening agent like cornstarch, but I really enjoy a thick and heavy cream of mushroom or spinach soup.  Is there some way I can achieve that “can” soup texture, without the can? Thanks for your help.”  Danielle

I sent this question to Chef Ricco as part of my Ask A Chef feature and here’s what he told me:

“She wants to know if she can get the same texture as in a can of cream of mushroom soup. This is easy. A basic Béchamel Sauce will work. But if she doesn’t want all that dairy, she can puree boiled potatoes and add it to the soup. Believe it or not, cooked cauliflower can be pureed and used also. ”

Basic Béchamel Sauce

This is a very basic recipe for this simple white sauce using what professional chefs call a roux. It  can be used many ways besides thickening soup. There are lots of variations to this sauce and it often used as a starter to other classic sauces or by itself as a sauce for cooked vegetables.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sweet unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-cup milk
Salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated or ground nutmeg to taste

Optional Ingredients:
1 bay leaf
3 – 4 drops of Tabasco sauce
whole peppercorns
chopped shallots
1 stalk of celery

How to Make Béchamel Sauce at Home

Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, stir until smooth and cook for five minutes but be careful not to let the flour brown. You want the flour to end up a light, golden color.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, add the milk and bring it to a boil. As soon as the milk comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and pour it into the butter flour mixture and start whisking. This mixture will soon come to a boil and start bubbling. That’s ok, just be sure to keep whisking so the sauce doesn’t burn and the sauce stays smooth. The bubbling will stop but the sauce will continue to boil.

Keep cooking and whisking the sauce for 8 to 10 minutes until it thickens to the desired consistency. You may want to turn down the heat if it feels like it is cooking too fast.  At this point, remove the saucepan from the heat and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. You should end up with a creamy, smooth sauce.

It is now ready for your soup. However, if you are making béchamel for a sauce and need to keep it warm, just pour it into a small container, cover the surface with plastic wrap and place it in a water bath to keep warm until you are ready to use. Be sure to give it a good whisk before using.

Happy Valentine’s Day

This is great recipe for a romantic Valentine’s dinner tonight. Easy to prepare, lots of texture, flavor and great ingredients.  If you are not a veal eater, you can substitute boneless chicken breasts but be sure to get them thin enough.

I saw a version of this recipe on the Internet but wanted to see how my friend Chef Ricco would make it better so I sent him the original recipe and asked him to explain how he would prepare it.  He basically changed the whole cooking procedure, added thyme because it works so well with veal and added a few other tips.

Basically, this recipe is a simple sauté with a pan reduction sauce. We have been making these types of sauces for a while now.  Check out my page on pan sauces. The recipe also calls for aged balsamic vinegar. This is the traditional balsamic vinegar made in Modena, Italy. It is very expensive and is used in small quantities.

If you can’t find Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, substitute a Non Traditional Balsamic vinegar but remember the quality of this ingredient will change the finished flavor of the sauce. You can read more about the certifications of Traditional Balsamic vinegar at GatewayGourmet.com.
SERVINGS: 2

INGREDIENTS
 
½ -cup all-purpose flour
Salt & Pepper, to taste
6 oz thinly sliced veal cutlets, pounded 1/4- ½
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-cup button mushrooms
1 shallot, finely chopped
½ tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 cup whole artichokes, in water, well drained
¼ cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar, the older the better
2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Prep the Ingredients

Pound the veal cutlets to ¼ inch thickness. I use a meat pounder but you can use a small sauté pan to do the job.

Even if you do a good job draining the artichokes, carefully place the whole in the palm of your hand and give them a gentle squeeze to remove any extra water. We don’t want any water diluting the flavor of this dish. When done, cut the artichokes into quarters.

If the mushrooms need cleaning, just wipe them with a damp paper towel. Mushrooms are like sponges and if you wash them under the tap, they will absorb a lot of water that we will end up having to cook off. If the button mushrooms are small, you can just cut them in half but if they are large, I would slice them up.  Finely chop the shallots

How to Prepare at Home

Add the flour to a shallow soup bowl or baking pan and season it with salt and pepper. Dip each piece of veal cutlet into the flour being sure to remove any excess flour by hitting two pieces together or taping each piece with a fork, whatever works for you.

Important – if the veal cutlets turn out soggy or lumpy, it’s most likely because there is too much flour on them. We want a very light coating.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan large enough to hold all the veal pieces. If you don’t have one that big, work in batches. You never want to crowd the pan or have pieces touching or they won’t sauté properly and instead of browning, they will steam. Not good for texture or flavor.

When the oil is hot but not smoking, sauté the veal cutlets for about 2 minutes per side. When brown, remove and reserve to a plate. We are going to add the veal back to the pan in the end so don’t worry about keeping them warm.

Making a Pan Sauce for the Veal

Carefully add the wine to the pan to deglaze. I like to remove the pan from the heat to avoid flaming up.  Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, chopped shallots, artichokes and fresh thyme.

After the wine cooks down to an essence, that is until it is almost all gone, add the balsamic vinegar. Just before the balsamic vinegar comes to a boil, add the veal back to the pan and then whisk in the cold butter pieces one at a time. (Mount)

To mount butter is a technique where small pieces of cold, unsalted butter are whisked into a sauce just before serving.  The butter is what gives pan sauces that velvety texture, extra flavor, sheen and those extra but worthwhile calories.

Divide the veal pieces between two warmed plates and top with sauce and serve with your favorite side dishes.

What to do with leftover roasted chicken breasts?

I roasted a couple of chickens the other night and will write about roasting chickens another time.  I thought as long as I was roasting one whole chicken; I might as well roast two and use the meat from the second chicken for something else. And as long as I was going to roast chicken, I might as well roast a bunch of vegetables too.

We ate part of the first chicken one night with the vegetables and wanted to use the leftovers for another meal so I looked to see what I had in my refrigerator and pantry and decided to make a Penne with Chicken & Peas in a Cream Sauce. I basically had everything I needed in stock thus avoiding another trip to the supermarket.  Not that I don’t enjoy hanging out in the supermarket but two or three times a week is enough.

I put together a recipe and it was good but thought it needed a little more flavor help so I wrote to my friend Chef Ricco, who happens to be working in India right now starting a restaurant, and asked what I could have done to make this recipe better. The recipe below is a combination of what I came up with and Chef Ricco’s suggestions.

Roast Chicken Alternatives

If you don’t feel like roasting whole chickens, you can either buy already roasted chickens at the supermarket or use uncooked chicken breasts that you cook in the pan yourself. The advantage of cooking raw chicken is extra flavor you’ll get from sautéing the chicken (see fond on my Pan Sauces page).

I hope you enjoy it and please write and make your own suggestions or comments.

Penne with Chicken & Peas in a Cream Sauce
Serves 2

1/2 lb. penne pasta, cooked to al dente
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoons butter
2 thin slices from a large red onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced (Ricco suggested using roasted red peppers for more flavor and adding them toward the end of the recipe)
¼ cup white wine or brandy
1 chicken breast, cut up into pieces (cooked or uncooked)
1 cup half and half
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1 cup frozen peas
Grated cheese like Parmigiano or Romano or you could even try some crumbled Roquefort cheese.
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

How to Prepare at Home

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add the oil and butter. When hot but not smoking, add the onion and diced pepper. Sauté until the onion is translucent.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine or brandy and continue cooking until most of the wine has cooked off. This will add another layer of flavor.

Season the already cut up cooked chicken with some freshly ground pepper and add it to the pan to reheat for about one minute.

Add the half and half, nutmeg, parsley and peas being sure to mix together with a wooden spoon. Raise the heat to medium-high but as soon as the half and half comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium or medium-low and reduce the sauce to desired consistency (thickness).

When the sauce is just the way you like it, add some freshly grated cheese or try the crumbled up Roquefort. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta but reserve a few tablespoons of the pasta water to add to the sauce if the sauce appears to be too thick. This thins out the sauce while giving it a little flavor from the cooked pasta.

Add the pasta to the saucepan; toss well and serve.

Uncooked Chicken Method

If you are using uncooked chicken, you’ll start by sautéing the chicken first, before the onions and peppers. So cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces and sauté them in butter and olive oil.  Cook until almost done but not all the way. You can finish cooking the chicken when you return it to the pan otherwise you risk overcooking it.

Remove the chicken from the pan, add the onion and pepper and follow the rest of the recipe above.

An alternative would be to sauté the chicken breast whole, let it rest while you are making the sauce and cut it up just before adding it back to the pan. I don’t think it makes much difference but if you try it both ways, please let us know which you like better.