The Occasional Seasonal Sinner

I confess. On occasion I do buy asparagus in mid summer, buy shrimp when it is winter and eat apples all year round. I do not buy canned asparagus, or that stuff that grows in a pond in Thailand. Yes, I am the occasional seasonal sinner..

Late summer means one thing in upstate NY: Produce…finally real, local, and fresh produce. For a place where winter lasts about ten and a half months, ripe produce is big news.

This recipe is a celebration of that produce, namely red peppers.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

8-10 red bell peppers

2 large yellow onions, coarsely diced

4 stalks of celery, coarsely diced

4-6 cloves garlic, whole

4 cups vegetable stock

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup dry white wine

Salt

Pepper

This simple recipe celebrates the flavor and vibrant color of fresh red bell peppers.

In a large stockpot, sweat all vegetables except for the peppers. Add the wine and vegetable stock, but do not season the pot.

Break down the peppers Pre-heat the oven to high broil. Cut off the tops of the peppers and then cut them lengthwise into strips. Remove the inner ribs. The strips should be cut in a manner so that they lay down flat, skin side up when they are being roasted. Cut the peppers as widely as possible, but without too much curve across that width. You want as much of the peppers’ surfaces as possible to directly face the heat of the oven coils. Place the peppers skin side up, on a roasting pan or a rimmed cookie sheet, on the center rack, in the oven. Be careful to watch the peppers. After several minutes, the skin will begin to blister. The skin can brown, but try not to let it burn. When pieces become well blistered, remove the finished pieces to a cutting board, leaving the rest. Move the remaining pieces to a more centered position, and fill the void with your remaining raw pepper strips. Continue until all the pieces have been roasted.

Skinning the peppers - If they are well roasted the skins will come off easily. Be careful to remove as much skin as possible. The more attention you pay now the easier you work is later on.

Once you have pealed them, roughly dice the peppers and add then to the stockpot. Gently cook the stock over medium heat for about an hour.

Puree the vegetables - Next we puree the stock. I pour some of the stock into a tall and narrow plastic pitcher, and use a stick blender, but a regular blender or food processor works just as well. As the ingredients become well pureed, begin to pour them through a course sieve into a bowl. There will be a lot of pulp, skins, and seeds, left in the sieve. Stir the mixture enough to coax what you can through the sieve. Take what is left over each time and put it back in the pitcher as you blend more of the stock. (These remnants will be blended into the next batch of stock.) When you are done with this process you will have two things: a sieve full of waste, which you will discard, and a bowl of smooth vegetable puree.

What you have in the bowl is pretty good as is. It will have a little texture, and it will make a beautiful soup.

Purists will choose to take the contents of the bowl and sieve it again using a fine-meshed chinoise. This will make a beautiful, silky, smooth, and yes, sexy soup.

Final Preparations – Pour the cleaned soup into a fresh pot and bring up to heat. Once it has been heated, add the cream, and season it with the salt and pepper. I feel that this soup is best as-is. You may consider adding fresh finely chopped basil or parsley.

A fine drizzle of cream swirled into the surface will add an interesting contrast to the bright red color of this soup.