6$ soup to feed six

The skies are darkening, the trees are shedding, and Torontonians have elected Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto. Now, I don’t want to alarm you by screaming that the sky is falling, but it may just be the apocalypse. It’s time to withdraw all your money from the bank, hoard it under your mattress, and start fortifying your apartment against the inevitable onslaught of zombies. Or, you could just curl up with a big homemade bowl of tomato soup, a grilled cheese sandwich, and accept that winter’s on its way.

TOE-MAY-TOE/TOE-MAH-TOW SOUP

INGRIDIENTS

• 1 large yellow onion (30¢)
• 1 garlic clove (20¢)
• 10 medium sized tomatoes (Just grab a one dollar bag from the discount vegetable section of your supermarket. It doesn’t matter if they are wrinkly or dappled, they’ll taste fine, I promise.) (1.75$)
• 3 cubes of bouillon (vegetable or chicken, to your taste) (75¢)
• 5 cups of water
• 1 bunch of fresh basil (Herbs are one place where splurging is totally kosher.) (1.50$)
• parmesan cheese for garnish (1.50$)
  

STEP 1 : peeling tomatoes

• Bring a pot, large enough to totally submerge all your tomatoes, of water to boil. Submerge all your tomatoes in the water. Let stand for 3 minutes.
• While your tomatoes are boiling prepare a cold-water bath for your tomatoes. Place the cold-water bath in the sink, under the tap.
• With a slotted spoon gather your tomatoes and submerge them in the cold water bath. To ensure the water stays cold leave the tap open on low.
• The tomato skin should now be easy to peel.
• Time to peel and core your tomatoes!
• Reserve on the side

STEP 2: Don’t cry!

• Coarsely chop your onion.
• Press your garlic.

STEP 3: Playing with fire

• In your biggest pot bring 2 tbs of olive oil to frying temperature.
• Add your onion and garlic and sauté until translucent.
• Add tomatoes, water, & bouillon.
• Turn stove top down to a simmer, and let simmer for thirty minutes.

STEP 4: Get your soup on!

• Get out your hand blender and puree to texture that pleases you. I like mine very homogenous.
• Add the basil, finely chopped.
• If you are inclined, feel free to add some milk or cream to taste, but this is not necessary.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Serve into bowls and garnish with parmesan.

No more tears!

There’s enough to cry about in this life, like spilt milk, but you don’t need to cry over onions. Here are a couple techniques to avoid the saline task of peeling and cutting onions.

• Freeze your onion for 25 minutes prior to cutting.
• Soak your onion in cold water, and peel while submerged, let the onion soak in the water for half an hour, dry and chop. Some people like to cut the onion under water, I do not suggest this method—you might cut yourself rather than the onion.
• Hold a piece of wheat bread in your mouth while chopping. Change the bread if it begins to get soggy.
• Wear a mask and snorkel.

cuss this custard

yves had a box of fresh ontario peaches that were slowly giving up the ghost at the back of his fridge. so, tascha came over to help create a dying fruit pie. this was also the baking adventure that produced the ‘last leg blueberry pie’. i don’t think i’ll publish the recipe, since i think it still needs to be refined. i will, however, say three things.

1. if you want to peel peaches easily– submerge them in boiling water for about 3 minutes. remove the peaches and place them in an ice water bath. as quickly as your little bourgeoisie fingers will allow– peel off that peach pelt and revel with the glory of those naked beauties.

2. this is possibly the worst custard recipe ever. the result was more similar to a pudding than any custard i have ever encountered. funnily enough, when the pie was finished, it both looked and tasted like a pumpkin pie due to colouring and spicing.

3. trying to bake pastry in this humidity is an incredibly daunting task. the air was so oppressive yesterday that i developed a southern accent. it was too laborious to enunciate every consonant, and the vowels, like the butter, melted too quickly and became unwieldy.