Month: March 2010 (Page 1 of 3)

Chef Susan Thomas’ Wild Fire Lane Tortilla Soup

March 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Our Executive Producer is a connoisseur of Tortilla Soup and he says this is the best he has ever had. The fact that it comes from his sister notwithstanding, it is pretty awesome.

Ingredients

  • 2 TBSP Olive Oil
  • 1 Medium Onion, chopped
  • *2 Pablano Peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
  • *1 Jalapeno, seeded,small dice
  • *2 Cups (approx) crumbled tortilla chips
  • (2) 14oz Fire Roasted, Organic Diced Tomatoes with juice
  • 1 tsp each: dried thyme, ground coriander, ground cumin
  • 1/2 bottle of Tecate Beer (or your favorite Mexican beer, of equal intensity)
  • 4 cups Good Chicken Stock
  • Salt and Pepper as needed.
 
Method:
  • Heat Olive oil over medium high heat.
  • Add onion, peppers, and saute until soft, starting to caramelize.
  • Add tortilla chips, continue to saute until soft and fragrent… toasty corn smell.
  • Add tomatoes and spices and cook for 5 minutes
  • Add 1/2 bottle of beer, deglazing and reducing until alcohol is cooked out.
  • Add Chicken Stock,  bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 30 minutes
  • Turn heat off and using a hand blender (or full sized blender) combine until smooth consistency
  • Add S& P as needed
 
*Tips:
  • Secret Weapon… Use Roasted Hatch Chilis when in season.  Be careful… depending on wet or dry growth seasons, hatch chilis can swing in heat level.  Add or eliminate jalapeno based on personal taste.
  • I save up the tiny pits from the bottom of the bag of tortilla chips and use for soup.  Waste not want not… salt content will depend on brand of chips, or if you make your own… that is why I season the soup later, instead of my normal routine of seasoning as I go.
 
Granish Options:
  • Sliced Radishes
  • Green Onion, white and green parts
  • Mexican Crema, or Sour Cream, Greek Yogurt
  • Monterey Jack Cheese, grated
  • Fresh Chopped Cilantro
  • Diced Avocado
  • Lime Wedges
  • Tortilla Chips or Crispy Julienned tortilla strips
 
Protein Garnish Options:
  • Lime Roasted (16×20) Shrimp
  • Shredded poached Chichen Breast

Serves 8

 Click Here for More Soups of the Week

About Chef Susan Thomas

Chef Susan Thomas lives in Frisco, Texas with her husband Andrew and her daughter Caroline who just started kindergarten. Susan is enjoying her new job as Regional Director of Operations for Morrison Health Care Food Service.

Capistrano’s Bakery Featured Bread: Sourdough

March 27, 2010 / / 0 Comments

by David Lee

By many accounts, sourdough dates back to ancient Egypt when the art of leavening bread was invented. Though the name implies bread with a sour taste, sourdough actually refers to a method of growing yeast and keeping it alive for long periods of time.

Sourdough starter, lavain, is a culture of bacteria and yeast. The primary flavor comes from lactobacilli present in symbiosis within “wild” yeast that is captured from the air. The mixture will “sour” during fermentation and will give off alcohol and carbon dioxide which will cause the bread to rise. Cultures can be passed on from loaf to loaf. The most famous culture is the San Francisco culture.

True sourdough lovers are pretty picky folks and can identify the signature taste that comes with an artisanal loaf.  You need to know your stuff when making sour dough and the bakers at Capistrano’s Bakery have it down to an art. 

So, if you need a ‘real’ sourdough fix, Capistrano’s breads are available for order wholesale by calling (480) 968-0468 ext.1001 or visit their website here

Visit Capistrano’s Wholesale Bakery online by clicking here.

Click Here to read more Breakin’ Bread Features

Or, in Arizona, Capistrano’s artisan breads are available at Vincent’s Saturday Market on Camelback when it is open, at Holsum Outlets, and now at Luci’s Healthy Marketplace. Here are the locations.

  • Apache Junction – 10107 E. Apache Trail
  • Casa Grande – 823 N. Pinal
  • Chandler – 7275 W. Detroit
  • Peoria – 9210 W. Peoria
  • Tucson – 2801 S. 4th Avenue
  • Luci’s Healthy Marketplace -1590 East Bethany Home Road, Phoenix

 

The Hotwire Hotel Hedge

March 24, 2010 / / 0 Comments

By Robert Cole

Believe it or not, Summer is around the corner. I suspect some folks are looking to book their vacation travel and getting the best hotel rate is a great way to kick off summer vacation. But, it is hard to know where to buy. The best rates are online, but which website is the best? The questions just keep coming.

The answer is, “It depends on how you play it.” I am here to help guide through the mayhem. Let’s start with one of the websites that appears quite risky but really isn’t if you know how to hedge your bet.

Hotwire (www.hotwire.com) is a personal favorite when it comes to booking hotel rooms from online travel sites. Their widely advertised claim is Four-star hotels at two-star prices. That’s a pretty good deal, but not good enough for me.

I love a good deal, but I am always in search of a better deal – the BEST deal.  Not the cheapest price mind you, but the best value: the highest quality at the lowest possible price. To capture the best deal, I don’t cheat, but I will take every advantage every tool available at my disposal to “bend” the rules in my favor.

Hotwire is the online travel equivalent of the generic store brand at the supermarket – lose the brand name and save a buck.  On Hotwire, one only knows the general neighborhood and hotel category, not the exact hotel name, before making a purchase.

However, enlightened consumers willing to do some easy research can frequently figure out which hotel is being offered at the discounted price.  I personally love reducing my risk while maximizing my reward (No, I have NOT perfected this approach for the stock market, so don’t bother asking…)

The secret is that Hotwire is owned by Expedia and is a sister site to TripAdvisor. In the interest of corporate consistency, hints on the Hotwire site can be cross-referenced on TripAdvisor.

Here are the simple steps, I will use my most recent weekend trip to Chicago as the example:

  1. I selected a four-star hotel in the centrally located Magnificent Mile area of Chicago. The rate was $79/night.
  2. Note the list of amenities. Look for unique features. In this case, Hotwire indicates the hotel’s guest rooms are smoke-free and has a swimming pool.
  3. Click on the CONTINUE button below the price. More detailed information is provided. It shows a TripAdvisor customer rating of 3.5 stars
  4. Now go to the TripAdvisor website and filter your selections accordingly. You should be able to get a short list of 4-star hotels with swimming pools in the Magnificent Mile zone (there were 5). Upon further inspection, only two, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers and the W Chicago Lakeshore had 3.5 customer ratings. We are getting close.
  5. There is no reason to even open the Expedia site, clicking on the Amenities link for each hotel listed on TripAdvisor opens the associated page on Expedia – what could be easier?  It is then simple to note that only the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers is a smoke-free hotel. Bingo.
  6. Finally, TripAdvisor will also search multiple websites (Sheraton, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity, etc.) to find the lowest rate. All the sites listed $109 as the lowest price.

This is not a perplexing decision. Take the risk of pre-paying $79 on Hotwire for two nights when the exact name of the hotel is not known or paying $30 more per night to be sure it was the Sheraton?

I booked,  it was the Sheraton.

Low risk, relatively high reward ($60 for under 10 minutes of effort) with no cheating involved. It may not always work out this easily, but I will tell you that for three out of my last four hotel bookings on Hotwire, I knew the property before I confirmed the booking. The only exception was in Berlin where I narrowed the choice to 5 properties, but since I was saving over $150/night, I really didn’t care to research any further.

Travel Well,

Robert

 

 

About Robert Cole

The Founder of Rock Cheetah LLC, Robert’s role in the travel industry is to help companies bridge the chasms separating marketing, technology and operations to create best practices and process improvements that benefit the consumer and drive profit. Robert has worked at the VP of Destination Experience for Mark Travel; VP of Hotel & Car for Cendant Corporation; VP of Business Development and Marketing Services for Anasazi Inc.; Director of Electronic Distribution for Budget Group; and Director of Hotel Distribution for Sabre Holdings. Robert is also active in many Travel Industry groups including the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association, the Hospitality Technology & Financial Professionals, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and the Open Travel Alliance. Follow Robert on Twitter at @RobertKCole and for total travel industry geeks he also author the Views from a Corner Suite blog where he talks shop for industry insiders. Click here to read.

Savory Creations

March 22, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Into the Soup is pleased to have Savory Creations as a Friend & Partner of our website. For a company focused on soup, we take stock very seriously. Heidi worked with their Savory Choice line of products for two months before deciding that they were the best alternative to home made stocks that she has found. We will be working with them in several ways in the future be sure to check them out yourself at you local grocery store or buy online by click here.

Chef Carlton Brook’s Corn Chowder

March 22, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Chef Carlton Brooks is the chapter President for the American Culinary Federation of Arizona (ACFAZ), an inspiring teacher and mentor for the kids at the East Valley Technical Institute in Mesa, and a dear friend of Into the Soup. Try out his Corn Chowder.

Ingredients

  • 3 bacon slices, diced
  • 1/2 onion, medium, diced
  • 1 celeray stalk, small diced
  • 1/4 cup leeks, small diced
  • 1 potato large, medium diced
  • 4 cup chicken veloute (make a bechemel but substitute stock for the milk – fish, beef, or chicken)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 1/4 cups corn
  1. In a saucepan, saute the bacon until almost crisp. Turn the heat down low and sweat the onions, celery and leeks until soft, about 10 minutes.
  2. Do not brown the vegetables.
  3. Add veloute and the potatoes.
  4. Simmer until potatoes are tender.
  5. Add the thyme, corn and cream. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Add the chopped parsley and mix.

 Click Here for More Soups of the Week

Who’s Cookin’ Now: Faith Wipperman Interview

March 18, 2010 / / 0 Comments

by Heidi Lee, March 2010

If you’ve never been to Lon’s at The Hermosa Inn in Paradise Valley, you’re really missing out.  It’s one of the premier dining experiences in Phoenix and a small step back in time should you take the time to look around. They’ve got several new attractions, one of which is Faith Wipperman. I popped in one morning and it seemed as if the entire staff was happy to help me locate her. In fact, they went looking with big, fat smiles on their faces. Faith makes people happy.

Not only is her optimism contagious, she embodies it for all the right reasons. “I choose to get up every day and be thankful and smile,” says Wipperman. “I work better when I’m happy and that helps a lot, especially in a restaurant kitchen.”

Faith graduated with Honors from Raymond S. Kellis High School and took her C-CAP scholarship to the Arizona Culinary Institute where she excelled.  From there she went onto to Lon’s for her externship and was recently promoted to Saute and Entrementier. Wipperman works like a horse, is passionately dedicated to her profession and has a vocabulary that rivals that of Ben Stein. Did I mention that she’s just 18 years old? Surprise!

 “I’m not a Food Network Star wanna’ be,” says Wipperman. “I just want to do whatever it takes to stay in the kitchen.”

After sampling her fare I want her to stay in the kitchen too – delicious.  She’s a self-proclaimed food science geek who adores Alton Brown and is “just dipping her toes” into the pool of advanced flavor pairings. As we all know, it’s those wonderful and glorious discoveries help to keep us Chefs entranced with the world of food. Says Faith,”Once I started really cooking with duck, I found an entirely new plane of joy.” See what I mean?

Faith admits that her life hasn’t always been easy. “There were good times and bad. I’ve had a lot of challenges and changes in my life and those things are part of me.” Just as she chooses to rise each morning with that signature grin, she’s made informed choices, set a course and stuck to it. Now, she is reaping the benefits of her spirit. When many her age are still trying to figure out on which side of the fence to sit, Faith built her own fence and added a gate.

She’s forthright and confident and a little disquieting if you’re not prepared for her sincerity, intelligence and poise. She’s got a great handshake and looks you in the eye when she talks with you. That’s a big deal with someone who just recently earned the right to vote.  

After a quick tour of the kitchen and the gardens, we took a table in the dining room and were served some Wipperman especialities: Duck Soup with Warm Beet Salad; Pan Seared Scallops over Rissotto with a Vermouth Butter Sauce; and White Truffles filled with Crème Brulee and Raspberries.  Perfection!

With all that she’s overcome and accomplished in her young life, I wondered where the girl was. Eighteen years of age, running Saute at a serious, high end restaurant, graduating with a 4.3 from High School at age 16, completing ACI with aplomb and winning the ACFAZ 2009 Student Chef of the Year; I asked who she strived to please – her mom and dad.  Well, whatta’ ya know? 

When asked her goals and plans for the future, she stepped right up and said, “I’m holding those cards close to my chest for now, thank you.

” Whatever she decides to do with her life, rest assured that it will be her decision, well planned, passionate and executed with a smile. Atta’ Girl!!

 

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