Soup & Bread 2/20/13: All Things Cow-nsidered

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that our “All Things Cow-nsidered” soup night — a celebration of one mighty animal — didn’t yield much in the way of vegetarian-friendly soups. We tried, honest. I encouraged cooks to think in the direction of cheese and cream as well as beef, hoping that even though there was no way to make this work for the vegans we might at least have something for the lacto-ovo set. But it didn’t happen. Sorry vegetarians. We’ll make it up to you next week!

What we did have were five stellar beef-based soups and one creamy corn chowder made with chicken stock. And, assuming beef is your bag, the results were pretty great. Mark Smrecek set the presentation bar high with his BBQ beef ramen loaded with barbecued beef, soy-pickled shiitakes, scallions, noodles, dill pickles, and smoked meringue (???). It’s all pictured, pre-plating, above, and he details its genesis on his blog, here.

Elsewhere on the table were Great American Cheese Collection’s Suzanne Owen and Evan Higgins’s super-savory mushroom-barley soup with braised short-rib consomme; Perry Kim’s spin on a traditional Korean yukgaejang, or spicy beef and vegetable soup; writer and Huffington Post Chicago editor Kim Bellware‘s suprisingly delicate red lentil and coconut curry beef stew; Rich Kinczyk — I think our first-ever soup cook to have trod the corridors of City Hall — produced a tasty version of sweet and sour cabbage soup (with beef), from a recipe by iconic Chicago restaurateur Mel Markon; and when Bonnie Tawse realized her crema d’elote recipe was going to yield about two cups of soup, she improvised and used it instead as the base for a great creamy corn chowder. We hope to have all their recipes up and available for your adoption soon.

Coming up next week: Our theme is NYC vs. LA … a theme that perhaps better than most indicates the cocktail napkin genesis of this idea we cooked up late one night in Madison over the cocktails that came with that napkin. What WERE we thinking? Who knows — but the possibilities are endless. Bagel vs. taco soup? Subway vs. freeway? Density vs. sprawl? The Ramones vs. the Germs? We have a small crew of brave volunteers for this one, and as of this writing are still seeking a few more. Who’s willing to join Niall Munnelly, Andrea Lee, Diane Soubly, Smoque BBQ co-owner Mike McDermott, Swim Cafe, and the Sugar Beet Co-op‘s Cheryl Munoz? Bread is donated as ever by Publican Quality Meats and La Farine; our DJ is Mary Nisi. This week only, for a suggested donation of $10 you can eat from and take home a handmade ceramic bowl, donated by Association House, whose food pantry is the beneficiary of this week’s donations. See you then!