Italian Tomato Bread Soup and the joys of shopping at Mi Tienda in Houston.

 Written sometime last year. 

Today there was a good report from my fave Ear Nose and Throat doctor.  It was a good report nothing new, nothing strange, nothing unusual; they did the nose scope, and saw no nasty looking little bumps or lumps.  Nose scopes are not the funnest thing, as this entails tube being fed up my nose and then down my throat.  The win is I can see it all in real-time, and ENT discusses what he sees, explains it, and describes why it looks good.  I like my ENT. 

This doctor trip always necessitates a little stop into Mi Tienda on the way home.  For those of you who do not live in Texas, this is a grocery store of the most fantastic foreign exotic, Hispanic, Mexican, Spanish, Central American food proportions.  Mi Tienda is reasonably new to us here in Houston.   The first time I ever stopped there I thought I had time traveled into a Mexico City food market.   It is much more than just an HEB on Hispanic steroids, it is so much more.  The music is louder than it should be, it’s that noisy it makes you want to dance that special ‘biddy biddy bomba’ Mexican style dance while pushing the cart.   The store lighting is not clinically bright white like the gringo grocery stores, Mi Tienda has those cuts of meat that you just don’t find in suburban grocery stores.  Many years ago, before Kroger’s carried tongue and calf liver, cuts of lamb, or even ox-tail, I could always find them in Fiesta the granddaddy of Hispanic food shops.  Thirty-five years ago when I first discovered Fiesta, the original big chain Mexican grocery store in Houston, I could find Cadbury’s chocolate from England, Milo from Jamaica, Marmite from England, good ginger ale from the Caribbean, even Lyle’s Golden Syrup: all of those ex-pat staples which our stomachs and souls longed for; and none of which, at that time, were available except at Liebman’s on the other side of Houston.   Today I can find them pretty much in most stores, or order online - a luxury we did not have so many decades ago. 

Mi Tienda – a relatively new shop on the block is a fun place to shop, the experience is so different, and I always find little treasures like the coconut cookies that very closely resemble tennis biscuits.  The bakery with all the self-serve sweetbreads that entice and welcome my carbo taste buds that are still functioning.  Tomatoes were a mere .49c a pound in Mi Tienda, I picked up a few pounds.  All the way home that tomato bread soup was calling my name.   This requires good baked bread, the kind that is scored and makes a  crusty noise when you tap it, there is no sound from the squishy sliced kind of bread.  I grabbed some Bolilo’s, of course, they were still hot; shamelessly that shop plays to the heart of a breadoholic.   

As this is Diary of a Dysphasic I fess up to each meal not being a perfect nutritional package, but other meals during the day can/may make up for it.  My latest excitement about food was Italian Tomato Bread soup I saw on a Cooking Channel show, I think it may have been Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Food.  

No recipe this is going to be by feel.  Cooking for one is not fun, so often I will use the base product for other things or freeze for a later evolution.  A good vegetable base for this soup makes it easy to store for other meals while adding a nutritional layer of virtue.   A couple of carrots, medium size, onion chopped and sautéed I use olive oil and butter, and let the onion cook low and slow till it turns nice softy see-through.  Midway, about 5 minutes in I add chopped carrot (any chop makes no difference as we gonna smash it all up) let the carrot and onion get happy, and then add some garlic to taste. I like playing with food so of course, it is going to be a fresh clove or two of roughly chopped garlic.  While these are gently cooking I do a quick garden walk and grab some fresh herbs.  Basil a hand full of leaves, oregano, a handful of parsley, rinse and throw in with the four rough chopped tomatoes.  Posh recipes will blanch and discard skins, but again, as dysphasiacs, we are going blend the whole thing so just wash well and chop a bit, and in they go.  Let them get warmed up, sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of salt, a bit of black pepper, I added a pinch of sugar just to compensate for the acidity of tomato, but just a smidge.    Add a couple of cups of stock, chicken, beef, veg whatever, and heresy of all if none available just add water! 

This can cook as long or short as you want.  If you wish to go uptown add a tablespoon of tomato puree. Here I must confess this recipe is only for those whose radiation and chemo were long long ago, once you have overcome the everything burn.    Usually, I have left-over tomato puree in a zip lock baggie in the freezer.   While all this is doing its magic, gently simmering, slice bread or rolls into ¼ inch slices, butter both sides, warm a thick bottomed pan and I add a wee bit of olive oil and butter, together they just make the toasty bread unctuously good!  Toast bread on both sides letting all the oily butter soak in as it gently toasts the bread and smells oh so good!

This is smelling seriously good.  Once the bready bits are lightly toasted on both sides, remove from heat, break or cut into small pieces (to make them blender friendly.)

Now, here is where one must use good judgment.  There happened to be a tiny ¼ wedge of parmesan.  The perfect solution to use that puppy up!  All in, why bother to exclude the skin?  Dump it in.    Let it cook for a couple of minutes. In a perfect world, it could simmer for up to half an hour. So maybe a good ten minutes gently simmering, allows a quick clean up, pack the dishwasher, wipe counters and set the table in the time that this tightens up.  As my soup is to be blended I remove the chunk of Parmesan as I did not want it to overpower the tomato.  By now our little toasties are cooled so dump em in the pot, they are going to suck up all the delicious lycopene goodness, carrots and tomato, onions, herbs, omg it is smelling heavenly. 

So blend time now.  DISCLAIMER … it is hot, do not burn yourself, hot bits will fly out if you are not careful with your blending hot liquid.  I would suggest that you scoop with a soup ladle into the correct blending container, only half fill a reasonably tall container.  I have a collection of extra-large plastic beer cups from the ballpark.  They are perfect for my stick blender.  Deep enough that there is never a hot spill out.  Blend it to your consistency.  Disclaimer: use good judgment as blending hot soup in a blender may cause it to pop up and mess and burn you.  Read the instructions for the blender and know that you cannot dump hot liquid into a blender.

I have to drink from a mug, soup spoons don’t really work well;  so pour into your serving dish of preference, add a swirl of olive oil,  salt and pepper, cream, grated parmesan, or not,  and sit down to your perfect viscosity and made to order fresh Italian Tomato and Bread Soup.  Thank you Cooking Channel.

I think I am going to be sad when it is finished as it is everything I wanted it to be, utterly divine.   I made enough to refrigerate, but it may end up being used as something else if I get bored with bready tomato goop.   Possibly I may cook up an aubergine (eggplant,) zucchini, and some celery to create a sort of ratatouille with the rest of it for a slightly different incantation tomorrow. 

Yaay for MI Tienda. Not only do I get good news from my ENT/Oncology visit, but the pleasure bump of a great shopping adventure, and then fresh homemade soup – pretty good day I think.

 OO I saw a show on Irish Beer Cheese Soup – potatoes, beer and cheese – what is not to like?  Mmm wonder how you get leftover beer? Like leftover wine– what a silly concept.