Sometimes I think that my favorite part of summer music festivals are the picnics that we share as part of the festivities. Summertime lends itself to cold foods, foods that are perfect for a picnic.
Well, perhaps soups aren’t always the perfect picnic food. They can be messy. For the most part the cold summer soups I favor tend to be smooth purees, perfect for serving in a glass or mug for drinking on the lawn. There are exceptions however, and our favorite summer soup is not a drinking type of soup. We have it every year during the Bard Music Festival, and a couple of other times as well. This soup is a meal in itself, with a glass of white wine it is almost a festival.
Chilled Tomato Soup with Endive Salad
This soup is not my creation but I am not sure of its source. Usually I am quite meticulous about authors and sources of recipes in my collection but this recipe either predates my record keeping or was lost along the way. I know I have been making it for at least 13 years, and I am pretty sure that the original recipe came from New York Magazine . They used to do a semi-annual issue with recipes from assorted New York restaurants. I am not sure if they still do, I haven’t read the magazine for years, the food issues alone weren’t worth keeping up the subscription. Anyway I have probably altered the recipe over time, but am not sure how extensively. It was originally an appetizer type soup and served 6 or 8 in the original version, but we make it for 4 and it is a filling meal.
The soup was originally written for fresh tomatoes, and I have made it as such, but the tomato season around here is sometimes quite short, so I converted it to canned tomatoes long ago. If using fresh tomatoes you would need to lengthen the simmering time for the soup to upwards of 2 1/2 to 3 hours in order to get the same rich melding of flavors.
I have been recently converting my recipes to metric weights simply for ease of figuring out nutritional information. It is just easier to make a calculation with a known quantity than with a vague "1 celery stalk". 1 ounce is about 28.35 grams, my scale does both but I have to push a button to convert to ounces and I often forget. As in all my recipes, amounts are relative.
CHILLED TOMATO SOUP WITH ENDIVE SALAD
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, 10 grams, peeled and minced
105 grams celery stalk, chopped
105 grams leek, chopped
200 grams red potato, chopped
32 ounces canned whole tomatoes. I use Redpack Italian Style Tomatoes with puree.
1 quart chicken stock
1/4 cup olive oil
55 grams shallots, minced
200 grams fresh shiitake mushroom caps, about 18 caps
2 large belgian endive, about 360 grams total
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
balsamic vinegar for drizzlng on soup, if desired.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, over medium heat, saute garlic, celery, leek and potato in 2 tablespoons olive oil for 5 minutes, until vegetables are softened and beginning to color. Add tomatoes with their juice and stir to combine. When tomatoes are starting to simmer, add chicken stock. Bring soup to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook for about an hour. Be sure the heat is low and only an occasional bubble breaks the surface of the soup, you want it to be just below a simmer.
Puree the soup, adding pepper to taste. I don’t usually add salt as I find the canned tomatoes are sufficiently salty. Depending on how well your blender purees the vegetable matter, you might need to strain the soup through a fine strainer to achieve a silky texture. Chill.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large saute pan. Add shallots and shiitake and season with salt and pepper. When shallots are soft and golden add vinegar and cook slowly over low heat until the shiitake are soft and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and allow the mushrooms ot cool.
In a bowl toss the endive and shiitake mushroom mixture. If you are not serving the soup right away, chill the salad.
Ladle soup into four bowls. Place salad on top of soup in the middle of each bowl. The soup is quite thick and rich and the salad will sit on the top for the most part. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar if desired.