hot tomato soup, creamy and cheesy — ideas from the Bloomingdale Farmers Market

From: Robin Shuster

Sent: Saturday, September 8, 2018 2:11 AM
Subject: Fwd: Hot Tomato Soup, creamy and cheesy— ideas fm bfm

Hi BFM Fans!

Have you thought about making a HOT TOMATO SOUP this weekend? 

I think late summer is taking off this weekend so we can indulge our desires for Fall comfort foods. Like homemade tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.  

Saute some onion and garlic and some freshly ground fennel seeds.  If I have fennel, I dice and add some as well.  While the aromatics are sauteing on a lowish flame for 10 minutes (but don't brown them) , I chop a pound or two of ripe tomatoes, salt them so the juices start to run and add both toms and juice to the heat softened aromatics.  Cover and let the tomatoes cook down for a few minutes.  Then add a cup or two  or three of stock, chicken or vegetable.  How much depends on how many tomatoes you are using.  You want to end up with a soup, not a thick sauce.  And you can add a little water or stock after you blend if it seems too thick. Cook for at least 5 minutes and then puree with an immersion blender for at least 2 minutes.  That is the simplest version. 

 I also like to chop and add a variety of herbs for a minute before I attack with the immersion blender  (or a good standing blender).  Lately, I am using parsley, small leafed basil and my secret ingredient, lemon verbena.  OR you can serve a bowl strewn with your favorite herbs, a drizzle of olive oil and a big pinch of grated cheese.  OR mix in a spoon of my beloved Keswick yogurt.  (Jeff would insist on a grilled Keswick cheese sandwich to go with it and I would add a dollop of kimchi to that sandwich.)
KESWICK CREAMERY: GRILLED Cheese, anyone, this weekend?  I think the cooler, wet weather wants to be met with your favorite melted Keswick cheeses. in comfort food.  Serve grilled cheese sandwiches with that tomato soup above or if you want French comfort food, slowly cook down and caramelize 3-5 pounds of sliced onions and make French Onion Soup topped with a raft of Panorama bread and Sarah's suggestion for the melted cheese.  You can do the onions in a slow cooker or instapot or the oven, although I like stirring them on a low flame if you need a little kitchen meditation. The key to this soup is the mass of sweetly caramelized, golden brown onions and a good stock. It does NOT have to be beef stock. I like a good mushroom stock with it and I often use chicken stock. Here is a very good tutorial on how to make this very simple soup its best self.

NUMBER 1 SONS pickles and various krauts, kimchi, salsas and kombuchas. 9 different pickles including New York Style Half Sours and Sours, two vinegar pickles made with a local apple cider vinegar (think Ginger Bread & Butter pickles). 

• Bye Bye Kicky Koshers - This week will be the last week of Kicky Koshers. Next week welcomes a spicier sour pickle our customers have been requesting;
• HOT SOURS. We're refreshing our spicy sour pickle to use a spicier heat source. 
• Dilly Beans! -Get them will they are freshly packed and crispy! Dilly Beans are fermented in our barrels for a few weeks with our spice blend including plenty of garlic, fresh dill and red chili flake.
• Salsa So Verde - Our fermented green salsa made from tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapeño is at all markets! Delicious on top of eggs. We also mix it with avocado for a creamy guac. Or, with yogurt for a crema to top tacos grilled veggies!
• Peach Kombucha - is our seasonal variety this week. We aren't saying bye to summer just yet! Cool and refreshing, as it's been a crowd favorite this season. 

TRUCK PATCH: This might be a good weekend to oven roast  or braise some pork or sausages  or to make a hearty beet soup, sometimes known as borscht.  Tomatoes!!!  Come check out their many heirloom varieties, plus roma, market reds, and cherry tomatoes.  Other veggies include cucumbers, okra, peppers, kale, beets, various herbs, spinach, and spring mix.

CUCINA AL VOLO PASTAS, SAUCES: Our pasta chefs are ready to warm you up this rainy weekend with homemade pastas that cook up in, oh, 3 minutes in simmering, salted water.  Matteo and Daniele are from Florence and their pastas are home made with eggs and flour, colored with paprika, spinach, beets. Matteo makes the burrata himself before he stuff it in the ravioli he also made himself.  Burrata ravioli, Rainbow Swiss Chard ravioli, Red beets and goat cheese ravioli, Beef brisket ravioli. Spinach Fusili.  Beets rigatoni. Mushroom ragu, Eggplant Norma Sauces, Nonna's Bolognese, Lasagne.

These are the SAME pastas and sauces they make for their restaurants that get such good reviews. 

REID: Blackberries, seedless grapes, white and yellow peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots. Apples include Honeycrisp, Gala, Swiss Gourmet, McIntosh, Early Fuji and some special antique apples that you hardly find anywhere else.  Heirloom tomatoes too. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW ORGANICS: Fresh Baby ginger is back! garlic, Padron and Shishito peppers.  Lots of hot peppers. Shiny, thin, long Japanese eggplants. New potatoes, in rainbow colors including g fingerlings.  Carrots with greens, sakurei salad turnips and greens,  Swiss Chard, baby boy choy, summer squash. Tomatoes. Spicy mix salad greens, arugula, dragon tongue beans, kale,  herbs.

WHISKED: In pie news, Jenna says: nothing warms up a cold day like this late Summer peach pie made with ripe peaches, an oat crumble crust and notes of warm honey.  It is the perfect host(ess) gift for your next dinner or to enjoy alone on the porch or terrace or rooftop with a glass of wine.  Available in large and mini sizes--only at farmers markets. Nice heated up, too.  And if you want a quick hot entree, Whisked weekly selection of three different seasonal quiches are wonderful.  Hot soup followed by hot quiche, anyone?  (Or maybe you just want to nosh on one of her superb cookies? Another great host gift)

PANORAMA: Baguettes and croissants, breakfast pastries and lots of breads, classic French sourdough boules, multigrains etc,. Breton specialties like Kouign Amann 

GARNER: FIGS may start this week but come early --and so do sweet potatoes and butternut squash just in time for a cool , wet weekend and before summer returns next week. Bicolor Corn, Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, seedless and seeded watermelons, cantaloupes, green and yellow purple peppers. Cukes. Lots of eggplants in colors and many shapes and sizes. Beans --green and yellow. Red, white and yellow spuds. Squash and zucchini. Green tomatoes. A lot of hot peppers. Sweet candy onion, okra, lime beans ( treat them like American edamame) Herbs.  They have gazpacho too.

See you Sunday, RAIN OR SHINE or Storms or winds.  The producers are in the fields, harvesting and the market will be there so put on a raincoat and grab an umbrella...

Robin and the Teds

PS.  HOPE the rain stops long enough for our BIKE HOUSE friends to help us fix our bikes and for our Musician at Market to play for us.