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Phil the Groundhog was right. What the cute, furry beast did not tell us is we would need to brace for two big blizzards four days apart.
I’ve got the cooking-for-snowstorms strategy figured out. The pantry must be stocked — we cannot wait until the last minute to brave nature and go foraging for food. At the first hint of a snowflake, I shopped at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Reading Terminal Market and my local state store. I needed white wine for my baked Dover sole in a white wine, butter and parsley sauce.
Watching the snowflakes gently fall on the city is an indoor sport. For lunch on the Sunday of the 28.5 inches, I made a salade Nicoise using lettuce, baby spinach, arugula, radishes, tuna packed in olive oil, artichokes and feta. It made me think of summer in the south of France.
I roasted a chicken, made a pot of Bolognese and nibbled on smoked almonds and chunks of Morbier and Roquefort with a glass of Cotes du Rhone while watching — what else — “Groundhog Day.”
The second storm brought me to my cookbooks. While perusing “Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook” by Crescent Dragonwagon, I happened to fall upon this advice by Henry David Thoreau: “Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snow in the field and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”
I don’t live near Walden Pond and the closest thing to woods in my neck of is Rittenhouse Square. I’m neither cold nor weary, but I am hungry.
I glanced through Dragonwagon’s book and found easy recipes for baking and an unusual hot soup I usually serve cold during the summertime. Staples such as unbleached flour, organic sugar, cornmeal and the like are in my pantry. I always have several avocados ripening in my fruit basket. Although I’m not much of a baker, I am trying my hand at Popovers — the American cousin to Yorkshire pudding — and a hot avocado soup.
My friends Meredith Riley Stewart and Bert Stewart of South Philadelphia, who braved thigh-high snow to sup at the South Philadelphia Tap Room, got me hooked on Twitter. During the blizzard, people were preparing slow-roasted shoulder of pork, meatballs, chili or breakfasting on leftover Chinese food.
■ Avocado Consommé ■
Ingredients:
6-1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup of sherry
3 large Haas avocados, diced
1/4 cup of frozen peas, thawed, optional
1/2 cup of cooked long-grain rice, optional
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Unsweetened whipped cream, for garnish, optional
2 to 3 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish
6 to 8 small sprigs of fresh parsley, dill or basil, for garnish
Directions:
In a soup pot, combine the stock and sherry and bring to a boil.
Divide the avocados, peas and rice, if using, among eight heated serving cups.
Taste the stock and correct the seasoning. Ladle the broth into the cups, topping with the whipped cream, Parmesan and herbs, if desired.
Serves six to eight.
Note from Phyllis: If you do not have sherry on hand, substitute any dry white wine.
■ Popovers ■
Ingredients:
Vegetable cooking spray
1 cup of milk, brought to room temperature
1 tablespoon of butter, melted
1 cup of unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs, brought to room temperature
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Spray a muffin tin with deep cups or an extra-deep popover pan with the vegetable spray.
In a mixing bowl, whisk all of the ingredients, except the eggs, until smooth. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Do not overbeat. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, filling each cup about three-quarters.
Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake 20 minutes longer, less if the cups are small. Do not open the oven door until certain the popovers are done.
Serve immediately.
Makes about 10.
Note from Phyllis: The ingredients also can be mixed in a food processor.
Popovers should exhale a breath of steam when cut into. Serve them with softened butter or preserves.
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