COOL AND REFRESHING
Cold soup. Hard sell?
"People like them, but I think they're a little afraid of them," said Joe Romano, corporate executive chef for Golden Gaming. "When you think of soup, you think of hot, you think of filling, you think of a cold day."
And since Southern Nevadans in August can only dream about cold days ahead -- way, way ahead, it sometimes seems -- the hot-and-filling thing doesn't sound so tempting. So consider a cold soup.
"It's refreshing; it's something different," said Eric Klein, executive chef at Spago at The Forum Shops at Caesars.
"In all actuality, they're really an incredible starter to a meal, especially in hot weather," Romano said.
Mark LoRusso, executive chef of Tableau at Wynn Las Vegas, said his restaurant has an avocado soup on its vegetarian menu, and also serves it as an appetizer. As is the case with most soups, the proportions of ingredients are somewhat flexible, easily adjusted to personal taste. LoRusso said he combines vegetable stock with celery, carrots, onions, a little bit of tomato, fennel, leeks, herbs and water, cooks for about an hour, then strains and chills.
"Then we'll take avocados, put them in the blender with a little bit of lime juice and just puree it," LoRusso said. "Then we'll take that, put it in the bowl and whisk in the stock to make a soup consistency."
It's finished with a little creme frâiche (unless a vegan is ordering) and some lime juice and poured into the bowl. The garnish includes diced cucumber and extra-virgin olive oil, with a little stack of diced avocado, basil, cilantro, finely diced tomato and red onion in the center.
"People really like it, the freshness of it," LoRusso said. "It tastes really clean. It's a good dish for summer."
Asparagus is another good choice for a cold soup, he said, following the same method.
While LoRusso said he's not a big fan of chilled soups -- "to have a full-sized bowl of cold soup, it's a lot of it in the mouth; I think the texture gets a little boring" -- but does like them in smaller quantities, such as the "espresso shot" of gazpacho Tableau serves as an intermezzo with a bit of aged cheddar grilled cheese.
"We've done some gazpachos that are really refreshing," LoRusso said. He suggests following a recipe for gazpacho but using melon and garnishing it with prosciutto.
"Chilled tomato soup's good," he said. "It's a nice way to show off a product, especially in the summer. You have great tomatoes; you're showcasing those."
"My goal when you have cold soups is variety and understanding the season and using the best ingredients you have," Klein agreed.
He, too, said there are lots of interpretations of gazpacho; "everybody has a twist to it," extending to cold seafood.
Romano uses seafood, too, but in a cold pea soup.
"You add a little riesling and then you can add anything to that -- poached shrimp, lobster, crab meat," he said.
For the opening of the new Sierra Gold in Henderson, he created a chilled soup oyster shooter based on a tomato gazpacho.
"Instead of chopping and pureeing, we diced everything to a really fine brunoise," Romano said, using carrots, onions, celery, cucumber, tomato and dill. A shucked Kumamoto oyster was placed in the shotglass, topped by the vegetable mixture and some tomato water and a splash of chipotle Tabasco.
Klein said Spago occasionally serves a chilled soup with a clam base, tomato and cucumber, and has gazpacho on the menu.
For the occasional tough sell, he'll sometimes send out a sample. When the guest tastes it, "Wow, this is something I would never expect" is a common reaction.
"When people know it, it's the first thing that sells," he said.
Romano pointed out that cold soups generally aren't -- well -- cold.
"People think it's ice-cold," he said. "Really, a cold soup should be maybe just a little cooler than room temperature, because you have to remember room temperature is really when everything's at its maximum flavor. If you eat something super-hot, you're not getting the true flavor. A good comparison would be wine."
And Klein said it's easy to create a cold soup.
"When you have scraps, like peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, put everything in the blender and grind it up and pour some tomato juice on top and you have a gazpacho," he said. "It's simple."
"There are," Romano said, "a ton of different soups out there."
VICHYSSOISE
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 medium leeks, chopped
1 1/4 pounds all-purpose potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock or broth, or water
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream, or a combination of milk and cream
Salt and white or black pepper, to taste
Chives for garnish
Melt butter in a soup pot over low heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring, until tender but not browned, about 20 minutes.
Stir in potatoes and stock or broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes. Puree until smooth. For a finer texture, push through a sieve.
Add cream and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat gently or chill and serve cold.
Garnish with snipped chives.
Makes 7 1/2 cups.
-- Recipe adapted from "Joy of Cooking"
COLD TOMATO AND SOUR CREAM SOUP
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled and quartered
2 to 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped scallion greens
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of dried thyme, crumbled
Pinch of dried marjoram, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup sour cream
Fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Purée tomatoes in batches in a blender until smooth, then force purée through a sieve into a large bowl, discarding seeds. Stir in lemon juice to taste, scallion, zest, sugar, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper.
Chill soup until cold, about 1 hour.
Ladle soup into bowls and top with dollops of sour cream.
Serves 6.
-- Recipe from Gourmet magazine
COLD AVOCADO SOUP
4 medium avocados, pitted, quartered, peeled
2 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
2/3 cup whole milk
2 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Salt and pepper
Sour cream
Chopped fresh chives
Working in batches, blend avocados, chicken broth, milk, shallots, sherry and hot pepper sauce in blender until mixture is smooth. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until cold. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
Ladle soup into bowls. Spoon dollop of sour cream atop soup. Garnish with chives and serve.
Serves 6.
-- Recipe from Bon Appétit magazine
COLD CURRIED CARROT AND COCONUT MILK SOUP
3/4 cup finely chopped scallion (about 1 bunch)
1 small onion, chopped (about 2/3 cup)
1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced thin (about 4 cups)
2 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 to 1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice plus additional to taste
Ice water for thinning soup
Trimmed scallions for garnish
In a large heavy saucepan cook chopped scallion, onion and ginger root in butter with curry powder and salt and pepper to taste over moderately low heat until softened, and add carrots and broth. Simmer mixture, covered, 20 minutes, or until carrots are very soft.
In a blender purée mixture in batches with coconut milk until very smooth, transferring as puréed to a bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon lime juice and chill soup at least 6 hours or overnight.
Thin soup with ice water and season with additional lime juice and salt and pepper.
Garnish soup with trimmed scallions.
Makes about 6 1/2 cups.
-- Recipe from Gourmet magazine
GAZPACHO
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 medium green pepper, cored, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup packed parsley leaves
2 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 cup tomato juice
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced, or a dash of hot pepper sauce (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
Finely chop, but do not puree, the cucumber and pepper in a food processor or blender. Remove to a large bowl. Finely chop in the processor the onion and parsley. Remove to the bowl. Add to the processor and finely chop the tomatoes. Remove to the bowl. Add the tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, hot pepper if using and salt. Stir well. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve in chilled bowls.
Makes 6 cups.
-- Recipe adapted from "Joy of Cooking"
WHITE GAZPACHO
2 pounds seedless green grapes
1 European hothouse (seedless) cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
4 scallions, chopped
2 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
2 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup snipped dill
Salt and white pepper or ground red pepper
Chopped toasted almonds
Snipped chives
Process the grapes, cucumber, scallions, half and half, yogurt, cream cheese, vinegar and oil in a food processor in batches, if necessary, until smooth.
Remove to a bowl. Season with dill and pepper. Cover and chill.
Serve garnished with almonds and chives.
Makes 9 cups.
-- Recipe adapted from "Joy of Cooking"
