Monday, April 16, 2007

Sopa del Dia

Cream of carrot soup.......
Ned likes soup so I make soup with some regularity. Seldom ever follow a recipe....and that is what is fun about making soup. You can use most anything. Fortunately I had some chicken stock in the freezer from cooking a chicken earlier. I had some carrots. Chopped up an onion sauteed it, added the chicken stock and carrots, a little seasoning from here and there. Then threw it all in the blender for a cream soup. I have to admit that I forgot to add 1/4 cup of rice which I always do when I'm making a cream soup. It is a technique that really reduces the amount of fat in a cream soup. After going through the blender the rice gives the soup body and smoothness. Then I can add just a tablespoon or two of crema to give the soup a silky finish. But this time I had to add a little more crema. I had some herbed salad croutons to garnish it. Actually I prefer making croutons from rye bread but I didn't have rye bread and the salad croutons were a okay substitute. It was pretty good Sopa del Dia.

This entry ties in with Steve Durbin's entry on Art and Perception about How Artists Cook. Since I read his blog entry, I've been thinking about all the photographers I know who are wonderful and creative cooks. I really think that the active creative part of our brains carries over to many of our activities.

2 comments:

Nancy said...

Is it the same or different that great chefs ARE artists?

Billie Mercer said...

Nancy, in my opinion great chefs have a some special sense and they are definitely creative. One of my sons is an amazing chef. He had a knowledge of food even as a child. When he made his sandwich as a little kid, it was cut and arranged on his plate. As he got older he would taste what I was cooking and say, Mom, it needs ..... and it wasn't salt but some other seasoning most of the time. He never went to a culinary school but he just "knows" food. His food is creative but it passes the taste test. I don't know about all chefs, but my son is an artist. And that artistry spills over to the rest of his life in the way he dresses, the things he buys and the way he decorates his home.