Today's lunch.  Inspired by a great similar soup I had at Jines last week and have been craving ever since.

Soup seems to me one of the absolute easiest things to make.  Sure, you can take it to esoteric levels if you want to, but with the exception a few complicated French classics, it takes almost no skill to pull off a delicious product.  Yet, getting crappy soup at restaurants is such a common occurance that one begins to suspect some type of global conspiracy.  A rouge agency is sneaking around kitchens and pouring cups full of salt into stockpots and pounds of cornstarch into every cream soup they can find.  I just don't understand where these people are getting the idea that their clam chowder isn't thick enough until you could mold it into a scale replica of the Matterhorn. 

Oh well.  This soup was decidedly not crappy.  And it took about a half hour start to finish (cleanup and all).  I based it roughly on this recipe, supplementing the curry powder with some freshly toasted and ground cumin and coriander seeds.  And I used chicken stock instead of water. 

...with grilled zucchini, leftover potato salad, and chipotle tomato roasted pepper sauce.

I'm constantly astounded by how little I know.

For example, what goes into a Bratwurst?  Ok, granted, nobody knows what really goes into the shrink wrapped, prettily packaged, bratwurst in the supermarket, but I'm talking about the real deal like these that I bought at Swan Market.

Normally, I'd just look it up, wax poetic about the sausage making process here, and feign absolute authority on the subject, because it's my food blog damnit!  But it's introspective Friday, so I thought I'd graciously share the fact that I know nothing about food.  (oooh, an introspective blogger.  The novelty!) 

So, ahem, I usually use this recipe when making my smoked bratwurst:

90 pounds pork trim (70 percent lean)
3 quarts water
3 cups salt
1 to 1¹/₃ cups sugar
6 tablespoons cure
¾ cup white pepper
¼ cup cayenne
2 tablespoons nutmeg
2 tablespoons thyme
2 tablespoons ginger
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon mace

Coarse-grind meat trimmings. Add water, salt, sugar, cure and spices. Mix thoroughly. Regrind through ¼-inch diameter plate. Stuff into pork casings. Smoke product to desired color and heat to an internal temperature of 141 °F. Product must be cooked before serving.

This is actually a recipe from a very informative paper I found at North Dakota State University.

The best I can determine from other sources is that it's usually pork based and sometimes includes veal.  Ginger and nutmeg are common denominators as far as the seasoning.  And you can buy it uncooked, cooked, or smoked.  (this I actually knew from my trip to the butcher).

This sausage page from the The Food Lover's Companion is a good overview and cross-references many types of sausage.

Well, I'm really hungry again now, and I didn't even have time to tell you how I made the chipotle tomato bell pepper sauce for the bratwurst.  Ok, but I'll make it quick.  1 chipotle pepper in adobo, a few tablespoons of the adobo sauce, 1 plum tomato, half a roasted bell pepper, tarragon, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup chopped red onion, Food processor, simmer, strain, boil, arrowroot slurry, done.  Not perfect, but worth tinkering with some more.

People who have read this blog for the last half-year (I guess that would include myself and my mom) know that about once a month a few people have a little theme cook-off at my workplace.  Well, it started off as a cook-off, but any pretense of competition has waned in favor of it just being an excuse to have an indulgent lunch.  We've done French Onion soups, New England clam chowders, pates, desserts, etc...  Tomorrow is "Summer Salads".   The picture shows my contribution, a sweet and russet potato salad.  I've given up on trying to develop a "great" recipe for these things, and now just make something that's likely to be significantly different from others. 

The basis for this salad is this recipe.  With the addition of the hot sauce marinated, grilled, red onions that I've been so fond of lately.

The recipe includes a significant bit of crumbled bacon, which was actually a bit of a disincentive.  I've been trying to avoid cooking with bacon, cream, sour cream, massive amounts of butter and the like lately.  Not because of the health factor at all, but because all that stuff has just started to seem very cliche to me.  They seem like cheating.  They seem boring.  Well, tonight I'm here to say, bacon may cliche, it may in fact be cheating, but even when exerting an effort to be at my most jaded I could not say with a straight face that bacon is boring.  Rest assured my children, as much as we're all sick of Emeril, pork fat still rules.

"One of the World's Truly Great Mixtures; & All Bound Round with Lovely Memories of New Orleans.

It is a sad and shocking fact that more people who should know more know less about this truly remarkable drink than is reasonable--heaven alone knows why.  The Sazarac Bar-Chief, who has been building 'em for 40 years, showed us his way.  As did the mixers at several Clubs, the old St. Charles; to say nothing about places like our friend Roy Aciatore's Antoine's Restaurant, Arnaud's, Gabriel Galatoire's, Broussard, and others.  The best drinks produced in New Orleans stick to the ancient, simple formula--and please, please, never try to vary it; for if you do you'll not be drinking a true Sazerac--just some liquid abortion fit only to pour down drains.

First thing is to get a Sazarac glass; a great big thick-bottomed thing which is nothing more nor less than an Old Fashioned glass blown up to twice normal size!  Reason:  thick bottom and thick walls keep the strong mixed liquor cold; and warm strong mixed liquor is like a chemical in the nostrils and throat, of course.  These big crystal affairs are buyable at first-class glass stores; but may take time to order in.  If none at hand use your brandy sniffers as substitute. ... Routine is simple and inviolate:  Frappe (pre-chill) glass and liquor.  For each drink pour 2 ounces of the best rye whiskey you can find in a shaker, lash it with 3 or 4 good squirts of Peychaud's bitters.  Shake hard and long with big ice.  Then strain into your glass, which must be previously coated inside with 3 or 4 good squirts (use a bar0man's quill top bottle stopper for this) of absinthe or 120-proof Pernod;  and turned or spun between the palms to make this said coating even and thorough.  Strain drink in glass, and twist a long curl of thin-cut yellow lemon peel on top, for oil and aroma.  Hold under nose, inhale the fragrant blend of scents, sip and relax....This, then, my dear children, is just how little Sazaracs are born!  Mark well..."

exerpt from "The Gentleman's Companion:  Volume II Exotic Drink Book" by Charles H. Baker Jr. 1939

Tonight I did mark well, and produced one of these beauties for myself almost exactly as directed (minus the fine crystal).  The consumption of which whisks me to a bygone era when the world was just as insane, but at least folks like Mr. Baker existed.  People who saw the cocktail craft as a science and the consumption as an art.  People who scroured the world pursuing the height of imbibement.  People who used very silly language. 

The language in the remainder of this tome is just as remarkable and an utter pleasure to read.  You can probably find an early two volume set on Ebay.  For some equally poetic, but more modern language try Chuck Taggart's excellent Gumbo Pages piece on the subject. 

Now, my dear children, please, please, put down your bloody sour apple martini and try a real cocktail.

Cheers.

Life is good. 

I'm talkin' Ribeye Steak good.

I'm talkin' Roasted Rosemary Potatoes good.

I'm talkin' 80 degrees of floral scented al fresco good.

I'm talkin' running The Boilermaker much faster than your goal and celebrating with your lover good.

I'm talkin' cats just can't resist good.