It was fall of 2010 and we had lived in our new home for six months. I had collected frames, printed pictures and was ready to hang. For some reason, I could not get three pictures – my attempt at making grape nuts, that didn’t work, but looked like perfectly rustic graham crackers; a pot of diced apples topped with cinnamon sticks and orange peel, meant to be apple butter; sesame topped brioche burger buns that were made for our Memorial Day barbecue that year – to stay in the frame. Every time I added the mat, the pictures fell, twisted, moved, just slightly askew.
Finally, I got them to stay. I admired the frame, proud of both the pictures about to hang in our kitchen, and of the food projects. That’s when I saw it. There, on the top picture, was a smudge. I tried to clean the glass, only to find that the smudge was on the inside. What was that? How had it happened? But, I just couldn’t. This picture frame had taken 50 minutes, about 45 minutes more than it should have and I was done. It would be fine.
Over the years, I’ve looked toward that frame many times. I have, kind of maybe, started to not see the smudge. Maybe. But last week, I looked at it and thought, those pictures have been up in our kitchen for over six years. I’ve cooked hundreds of things in this kitchen, but I’m still living in the past. So, I printed new pictures – Reeve eating and Easton cooking – for an update.
I had a moment of hesitation before pulling the frame off the wall – I remember so many things about making those grape nuts (my favorite cereal): how frustrated I was that the baked crackers were not turning into cereal, but dust, and how I eventually just kept them whole and deemed them grape nut crackers. But, they were pretty. The apple butter that I made, in my mom’s kitchen, following an epic apple picking session, when Larry was traveling. It never actually turned into apple butter, but the sauce was good eaten with a spoon. And those buns that I made one week after we bought our house, my first true cooking project in our new kitchen, which made my family laugh at my insistence on attempting everything from scratch.
But I pulled the frame down and one minute later, plucked the pictures from the mat. The bottom two came off. It was the first one that was stuck. I gave it another tug. The smudge. The **** smudge. This is a lesson, I told myself as I tried to yank a little harder, feeling the picture rip and knowing there was no way to go back now. The picture was off and ruined. The smudge, two inches in diameter, at least, was much worse than I had ever realized in the frame.
I scrubbed the glass with a rough sponge. Nothing. I used a wet wipe. Nothing. I pouted a little, which didn’t help either. I went into a drawer, in search of my Leatherman, and instead, pulled out the first sharp thing (which I later learned was the key used to tighten the baby gate in our kitchen). At first, I thought it was scratching the glass, but I realized it was just very slowly removing the picture residue. When it was mostly off, I used a wet paper towel, and then ended up running the entire thing under the faucet, carefully drying it and starting over with three pictures, more representative of my life today.
Why am I telling you this? Well, you know those recipes that make you wait 10 minutes, before you can go onto the next step, making you believe that time has actually stopped while you’re watching the clock? This is one.
But, I figured out how to turn a ten minute wait (adding the food to the blender and giving it a bit of time to cool down), into a thirty five minute wait. So, if you make this sweet potato chowder, and have the urge to bypass the 10 minutes of letting the soup cool down, here’s my suggestion: don’t. Instead, find yourself a “simple” project in your house and use the wait time to tackle it. I wish you better luck.
What you will not need luck for though, is actually making the sweet potato chowder. It requires little of you, short of chopping, simmering, a bit of measuring and blending. It can be made ahead of time, and even better yet, is made from all ingredient that can be prepped ahead of time. It’s thick and creamy, thanks to blended sweet potatoes and coconut milk. And it is rounded out with tahini and miso, one of my favorite flavor duos, which laces the entire dish with nutty umami. Depending on the miso used, it can be gluten-free. It’s vegan. It’s dairy-free. But, all of those are just bonuses.
If the soup posted last week is one you will make all through spring, this is one that plants you firmly in winter: it’s creamy and thick. A complete bowl scraper, worth the tiny wait, dirtying a blender and the optional home improvement project.
And, let’s just say that maybe you don’t love the results of your project. Maybe you love the idea behind it, but the execution is lacking: the pictures are a bit darker than you wanted and somehow there appears to be a fleck of black pepper on the mat, this time around. Here’s what you do: turn around, ladle out a bowl of chowder, eat it quietly, drowning out the self criticism and promise yourself you will fix it, before 2023.
This chowder definitely falls on the sweet side, thanks to the potatoes, wine and coconut. The little zing from the Aleppo pepper flakes, both at the base, and on top, plus the scallions (my favorite final ingredient), really helps take it in the other direction. I wouldn't skip either.
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon fine black pepper
- a couple pinches Aleppo pepper flakes
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large sweet potatoes (about 36 ounces total), peeled and chopped into ½-inch dice
- 1 cup white wine (I used a Sauvignon Blanc)
- 4-5 cups water
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) full-fat coconut milk
- ⅓ cup well-stirred tahini
- ⅓ cup white mellow miso
- 1½ cups frozen corn
- For serving Aleppo pepper flakes and sliced scallions
- In large stockpot (I used an 8 quart wide pot), over medium heat, melt coconut oil. When hot, add onions, salt, and black and Aleppo pepper flakes. Cook 12-15 minutes, or until softened and just started to turn golden. Add garlic and cook 1 minute, stirring often. Add sweet potatoes; stir to coat with onions and garlic and cook 2 minutes.
- Increase heat to high. Add white wine and cook 3-4 minutes, or until wine is mostly reduced and loosely glazes the vegetables. Pour in just enough water to cover the sweet potatoes (from the 4-5 cups listed in the ingredients); bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook uncovered 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
- Meanwhile, place coconut milk, tahini and miso into the container of the blender. When sweet potatoes are softened, transfer about three cups of the mixture (vegetables and cooking water) to the blender. Let sit 10 minutes. Place the lid on the blender. Using a dishtowel to hold down the blender top, and turn the blender on (to puree or medium speed, if you have the choice). Blend 1 minute, or until completely combined, stopping to scrape down the blender once, if necessary.
- Pour the contents of the blender back into the stockpot, stirring to combine. Add corn; cook 4-5 minutes uncovered, or until corn is hot and completely cooked through, making sure not to boil the soup (the properties of miso are destroyed by boiling).
- Divide amongst bowls and top with sliced scallions and Aleppo pepper flakes.
• To really get a jump on things, the coconut milk, tahini and miso can be measured into the blender, and stored in the fridge, one day ahead of time. When the sweet potatoes are ready, just proceed with the recipe.
• The soup can be made up until three days ahead of time. It will thicken considerable when cold, and thin down when hot. If it's still a bit thicker than you would prefer after heating, stir in a couple tablespoons of water.
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