Amuse Bouche

12 hours in the Kitchen with Ali: Osso buco, Veal Stock, Split Pea Soup, Lancashire Hot Pot and an experiment

Ali was back home from the UK on another school break so I invited him over on friday for an all day cook-a-thon while my chimney guys came and repaired the flu for the living room chimney.  All week I plotted and planned to try and decide what we were going to cook. In the end it was rather a hodge podge of dishes, but braise and simmer seemed to be the keywords.

I started at 9:00 getting the bones ready to roast for the veal stock.  30 pounds of veal bones hit the oven to get nice and brown.

Once the bones hit the oven we started the split pea soup. Bernie, my half pig from Heritage Hill Farm had a few gorgeous smocked hocks and one of husband's favourites is split pea soup. I thawed a hock out and tipped that in a pot with some sweated carrot, celery, garlic and onion, tossed in a few bay leaves and 1 package of green split peas, 1 package of yellow split peas and a load of water and set the white pot on a diffuser plate on a back burner to simmer away.

Meanwhile Ali kept checking the stock to see if we needed to skim the scum.  

Next I had seen something over at Ideas in Food where they made perfect soft scrambled eggs using an Isi cream dispenser.  I forwarded the link off to Ali who is obsessed with all things related to molecular gastronomy or new cooking techniques.  I picked up a new Isi at Restaurant Depot on Thursday and set up the thermal immersion circulator on the counter.  Eggs, butter, salt, hot sauce and skim milk were mixed and then poured in the canister.  This sat in an 82C water bath for 1 hour. 

We let the canister rest and added to nitrous charges and shook, shook, shook the canister, but sadly in the end we had to scrape out the eggs.  82C is below eggs coagulation point of 180F so we aren't sure why it didn't work so we will test it again dropping it a degree or two and doing it for a little less time.

They tasted mighty fine though.

While the soup was simmering and the veal stock gently bubbling we started on the osso buco.  I'm not going to bother giving you the recipe because we loosely followed the one in Molly Stevens All About Braising and if you don't own that book yet I really don't know what you are waiting for.  Every damn idea in that book is delicious.  We started them on the stove and popped it in a low over to do it's work.

Here they are at the half point stage.

And here they are completed.  At this point I popped it in the fridge and then last night as the teenage trick-or-treaters were stealing all of the candy in my bowl in one fell swoop, I reheated it in a low oven with a bit more of that fresh veal stock and made the risotto bed. Need I say yum?

The last project was a surprise for husband.  I made him Lancashire hot pot and braised red cabbage. I'm sad that I don't have any pictures of this dish because it was gorgeous with a cap of perfectly placed potatoes in concentric circles on the top. I will definitely be repeating this one again. Lamb loin chops, dredged, browned and added to a ton of onions, carrot and swede (rutabaga or purple topped turnip to me and you), veal stock and a few other things simmered UNDER a crust of thinly sliced potatoes.  

Here's Ali prepping the cabbage for the braised red cabbage and in the foreground is the gratin dauphinoise he whipped up with the leftover thinly sliced potato from the hot pot.  He had just made one last week when he took the Teens Cook: Julia Child class and this one was spectacularly good!  Traditionally Lancashire hot pot is served with pickled cabbage but husband who professes to hate vinegar and all things pickled said he would have preferred having the pickled cabbage over the braised cabbage.  Who knew?  I can't keep up. Ali ate so much of the red cabbage raw his lips and entire mouth were stained deep purple when I eventually sent him home with his Dad. I also apologised profusely to his Dad since i introduced Ali to Ideas in Food, StudioKitchen, JB Prince, Le Sanctuaire and a few other dangerous places. He left as excited as a kid at Christmas since he finally found where to order an anti griddle and a pacojet.  I don't think he shall ever be the same. He left on Halloween morning to go back to school for another semester but he'll be back for a long break in December and I have to come up with some plans to keep him busy!

Thus ended our long day mucking about in the kitchen.  Yesterday morning I portioned and froze the soup and then strained and packaged up the veal stock, labeled it and divided it amongst the freezers for the long winter ahead.  And I just have one thing to say about that stock.

  Look at that gelatin baby!

New England Clam Chowder

Last week my friend and former culinary school cohort Brian wrote about some nasty, NASTY dehydrated clam, pot noodle concoction.  Many of us weighed in on not only how disgusting the thought of eating it was, but about other evil atrocities like clam chowder that includes tomatoes (no, just no! - have cioppino instead please) and noodles.  The horror of that Styrofoam contained monstrosity triggered my instincts to right the world's wrongs by making some clam chowder today for dinner.  I mean, what else does one think of when they live in New England and the landscape has been white since two weeks before Christmas, white snow, salt white roads and cars, white, white, WHITE, snowblindness.  Oh and did I mention that it was 2 degrees F when we awoke this morning?  Yea, chowder it is.

Oh look at the 6:00 PM heat wave!

Now I'm not writing this recipe to inform Brian on making good clam chowder.  He needs no help, not only has he been down the path of culinary lessons, but folks he's from Maine and there is an unspoken rule that you come out of the womb knowing how to make clam chowder and how to find a mean Whoopie pie.  I'm putting this recipe here because I really don't know why anyone would buy clam chowder in a can or frozen because really, if there is an easier soup to make I don't know what it is. 

I called my favourite local fishmonger Captain Marden's this morning to find out if they had fresh chopped chowder clams and of course they did. 

But really, there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with using clams in a can.  Nope there is NO shame there.  I also picked up some of their fish stock, fumet if your feeling all food snotty or French, sure I could make it myself by asking for some heads and frames of a non-oily fish and about 30 minutes of my time, but this is fish stock from a major fish store that wholesales to local restaurants, if their fish stock isn't good shame on them and i assure you, it IS good.

On my trail of errands I also picked up some bottled clam juice.  A pantry staple in this house that I use liberally whenever making fish based soups or steaming mussels, or making clams with linguine.  Cheap and so useful.  I recommend every cupboard have a bottle or two.  I'm not asking you to drink clamato here people, but you will find yourself using it far more often than you think.

Now another traditional aspect of clam chowder is salt pork.  Maybe it is just because I live here in New England, but I can always find salt pork in my local grocery store, generally somewhere near the bacon.  It keeps for a long time and if you check each package you can find one that has lots of streaks of meat and good chunks of fat.  As you would expect from the name it IS salty, but it adds a depth of flavour to clam chowder that is necessary.  Bacon, is an option that others have used as a substitute, but in my mind the smoked flavour of bacon is not right for this chowder.  You want the pork, the salt, but not the smoke or the often added flavourings that come along with bacon like maple or pepper.  If you do find salt pork, it will freeze well, so don't worry that you won't use the portion you find in the store, it keeps for a long time. Oh, and as an added bonus in these lean times, it is cheap as chips as they say.

I happened to have some guanciale in the fridge.  What, you don't have friends who buy you cured pork products as gifts?!?  My friend Renee bought me a full package of Niman Ranch guanciale (cured, salted pig jowls) for a Christmas present this year AND she wrapped it in a snazzy red box with a ribbon.  Doesn't everyone want a friend like her? 

There are a few heretical things I do with this recipe for purists.  First I use Yukon Gold potato since they hold together AND they allow me to freeze and reheat my chowder without them falling apart and turning to mush. 

Second, I add flour to my onions to thicken my chowder.  Yukons may retain their shape, but they are not as starchy as a Russet and I am not using the ancient tradition of thickening with crushed up hard tack crackers, so I use some flour to give it body.  I use the fish stock I mention above along with clam juice.  Some purists would only use the juice from steaming open the clams.  Whole clams that they steamed open, shucked and chopped themselves.  Is life not too short people?

Okay here is the recipe..simple and quick, what more could you want? And don't bitch about the cream, you aren't eating this every night for heavens sake!

New England Clam Chowdah (Chowder for you non native speakers)

2 ounces salt pork or guanciale, diced

2 cups Spanish onion minced fairly fine

4 TBS flour

4 cups fish stock

8 ounces bottled clam juice

1.5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced into chunks between 1/4 and 1/2-inch depending on your preference.

2 cups of chopped fresh chowder clams (or equivalent canned, drained with juice reserved and used as part of the toatl clam juice, fish stock amounts)

2 cups half and half OR 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk

Salt, to taste

In a large, heavy pot slowly render the guanciale or salt pork.

Remove the cracklings and set them aside, serve them sprinkled on top of your chowder, if you can resist eating them as you cook.

Slowly cook the diced onions in the fat for about 6 - 10 minutes, stirring frequently, you don't want colour here, more like a sweat, in fact for part of the time I cook them on very low heat with a lid on.

Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, for 2-3  minutes.

Add the fish stock and clam juice, stir or whisk to remove any lumps

Add the diced potatoes and then bring the liquid to a boil, turn it down a bit and then simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Lower the heat substantially and stir in the reserved clams and cream/milk mixture or half and half.

Allow this to come up to temperature very slowly being careful to not bring it to a boil.  Now taste and add some salt.  I think I ended up with 1 - 2 tsp in the end.  Don't panic people, again, look how much liquid we have here!  Add some, taste, let it simmer gently.  Taste, season again.  Heck, add some cracked black pepper if that's how you roll.  Just no tomatoes..PLEASE.

Oh...and I bought a new book today.  More details later.

An interlude with chicken stock

Perhaps if I tell you what I have eaten since last Thursday you shall have a little insight into my absence around here and how I have been spending my last week of summer vacation.

Thursday: Chicken stock, sweated scallion, cayenne pepper and pastina
Friday: Chicken Stock, sweated scallion, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, sesame oil, hot chile oil and a few pieces of peking Duck leftover with pastina
Saturday: Annie's mac and cheese, made for me by husband
Sunday: Chicken stock, Aleppo pepper, pastina, Parmigiano Reggiano
Monday: Hot Dog with sauerkraut - Hey it's labor day!
Tuesday: chicken soup with matzo balls (lunch - Jewish penicillin), chicken stock and tortellini (dinner - Italian penicillin) all supplemented with Amoxicillin and Robitussin with Codeine (yum!)

I long to have both my taste buds and the ability to swallow back soon!

Is it cold out? Then it must be a stew

Last week in Kitchen Basics I was working with my 11-13 year old crowd on moist heat cooking.  I already mentioned the Leek and Potato braise we made.  The other recipe was one that I adapted from the new Cook's Illustrated The Best 30-minute Recipes, Corn Maque Choux with Chicken and Kielbasa.  There are a few sources I always turn to when planning my classes for create a cook and Cook's Illustrated is one of them.  Why?  I never, never, never have to test the recipe first.  It always works first time out.

The kids all loved it and as I was tasting their dishes for seasonings i realized that with a few changes his majesty, the husband, might like it as well.
This dish can literally be on your table in about 30 minutes, depending of course on how quick you can prep everything.

Maque Choux (pronounced mock shoe) is a Cajun combination of corn, bell peppers, tomato and onion.  A little twist on the holy trinity (onions, celery and bell pepper) and a slight jiggle of New England Succotash (Corn, Lima beans and Tomato).  Both of these dishes owe a debt to the Native Americans introduction of corn into the cooking arena.  One thing I can't figure out is why many recipes call it Corn Maque Choux when it contains corn by default. 

When husband finally finished his plate, he deemed it better than Chicken and Chorizo and has requested this to be put in the rotation of dishes.  I can't disagree with him, it really was very good.

You'll need some boneless, skinless chicken breasts, some chorizo (Portuguese wet is okay for this, but Spanish dry would be good as well) cut into 1/2-inch half moons and some frozen corn, 1 pound of each. One onion and one red bell pepper(or green or yellow or orange), diced in 1/4 inch dice. 4 (or 6) cloves of garlic minced up fine together with some kosher salt and 2 - 3 tsps thyme leaves. 2 cups of decent chicken stock, of course homemade would be best, but use whatever stand by you stick by.

A heavy Dutch oven, some olive oil, medium-high heat.  Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and add them.  Brown them on both sides and remove to a bowl or plate.  You will be cooking them more later so colour is all you want here.  Once they have been removed, assess the level of oil in the pan and add more if required.  Toss in the onion, chorizo and bell pepper and saute until the onion gets soft and translucent.  While this is sauteing, puree in a blender the chicken stock and half the corn.  When the onion is ready, add the garlic-thyme mixture and stir it around until it is fragrant.  Now pour in the corn-stock mixture form the blender and stir.  Add back your chicken and any juices.
Stir well, pop the lid on and cook over low heat at a nice simmer for 10 - 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken.  Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out and either shred it using two forks or just roughly chop it up, add it back to the Dutch Oven, add the rest of the corn, stir and taste for seasonings.  Add salt and pepper as desired and cook until the corn is heated through.

Serve it with some nice biscuits or maybe over brown rice.

Smoky Corn Chowder

Ahhhhh corn season.  That time of the year for those of us living in an urban environ to wake early and race to the farmer's market as SOON as it opens lest we be left with the poor pickin's.
When I grew up my Grandma had a huge garden and I was always instructed to "not pick the corn until the water was boiling", but as we all know, unless you have 40 acres or a really good sunny yard with nary a raccoon in sight you too will have to get your corn the same way as the rest of us.
Frozen from the Green Giant, trucked in from Florida or Californian or from your local farm or farmer's market. 

When I arrived at the Waltham market at 10:00 on a gorgeous, breezy, and cool Saturday morning toting my grandmother's harvest basket and some green in my wallet, it was obvious that this was not a good year for corn.  There were barely two baskets worth on the table and people were standing like linebackers hunched over as much space as they could occupy, ripping each ear open and in most cases, discarding them to the side with a hearty huff or tssssk. I sidled alongside and began my single minded pursuit of obtaining 6 ears of corn. Hopefully not worm eaten, not with kernels the size of cow corn, and certainly not shucked on site and shoved in a bag.  I quickly tore down the husk an inch or two on a few ears and noticed that the top inch of most of this corn hadn't formed any kernels or perhaps a few scattered on the top, but these certainly weren't stellar examples.  This Spring must have done a real number on corn farmers.  I know of many whose first planting simply rotted in the ground and they had to waste time waiting for the ground to dry out before they could plant a second round.  This meant a shorter growing season.  Perhaps more glorious corn is to come a little later, but for now I laid 6 of the most perfect ears that I could find in my basket.  I stopped at a few more stands and picked up some green beans and fingerlings for later in the week.

As I wandered back to my truck I started debating what I would make tonight.  Husband would be having his version of tuna salad which is more like a composed variation of a Nicoise with no dressing, not even a drop of lemon juice or extra virgin, no thanks. While on my other errands I gathered two poblano chilies and some crema from the Spanish markets.  Each time I got back in the truck the smell of the corn would taunt me so I decided than and there that I would make some sort of corn chowder.

In the end I lit the grill and started the poblano roasting.  Then I took each ear of corn, tore the husk down, but not off, cleaned out the silk and pulled the husk back up and dabbed some butter on each ear.  I laid these on the grill, with the poblano and a few slices of vidalia onion, and kept turning them as the husks roasted and imparted a smoky smell and the corn heated inside.  I pulled them off the heat, let them cool and sliced the kernels off each cob, going back over the cob a second time with the back of my knife to let out the milk on each cob.  I peeled and seeded the poblano and sliced it into strips and then across into small chunks.

During my journey, I had stopped at John Dewar and picked up a gorgeous chunk of pancetta.  I chopped the pancetta into chunks and rendered it in a pan.  When they were crisp I pulled them to a paper towel and tossed in the grilled vidalia, a few cloves of pan roasted garlic and sauteed it until it was translucent, then I sprinkled on 2 TBS of flour and stirred it for a minute.  In another pan I had heated some cream, some milk and a little chicken stock.  This was poured over the roux in the pan and stirred scraping up any bits.  Once this got thick I tossed in the grilled corn and the roasted poblano and stirred until it became thick. Some smoked salt and some pepper.  It cooked for maybe 5 more minutes and then into a bowl it went, topped with a scoop of crema (to guild the lily), sprinkled with some reserved corn and the crisp pancetta.

That was some seriously good chowder.  The corn had picked up some smoky flavour and the poblano gave it the right kick of heat, the corn was so sweet and so fresh everything stood out on its own, but worked so well together.  Next time I may even replace the pancetta with chorizo to make it even more Mexican. However it happens, this chowder will be a definite repeat.

Choucroute

When winter comes and threatens to dump inches upon inches accumulating into feet and feet of snow upon the ground with no chance of a rising temperature to melt it away my thoughts turn to comfort food.  To me comfort food generally involves something that cooks slow in a Dutch oven.  Have I told you how much I adore my Le Creuset Dutch oven?  Any excuse to lift it out of the cupboard and arm curl it once or twice for a good bicep workout is a good one. Since husband was away I knew I could make a few dishes that he normally wouldn't wish to eat. I woke in the morning and perused my new Les Halles cookbook and ran into one of my winter favourites. Choucroute.  I took James Beard off the shelf and looked at his suggestions, then Lutece, Julia and Larousse all had varying opinions on how to cook the sauerkraut and also on the garnie.

Tom Ka Gai - Thai Chicken soup

Updated Feb 24, 2007 and again August 15, 2011

This soup is one of the recipes that lands people here the most, second only to stuffed pork tenderloin...go figure.  I wanted to update this recipe because I made it again for dinner last night and I realised how horrible the picture was.  I also wanted to correct my title which was previously Gai Tom Ka and it should be as reflected, Tom Ka Gai. 

I haven't changed the recipe for this soup at all and it is still so, so, so amazingly good. And I'm updating the recipe because I've adapted it over the year's to suit our taste mainly more chili paste and onion. I will encourage you to seek out Galangal and Fresh lemongrass.  Whole Foods tends to carry Lemongrass these days, galangal you may need to work a little harder to find.

Today I took a ride of to Brighton to see the famous Super 88 store.  And what a store it is!!! The whole impetus to my trip was to find some Galangal to make gai tom ka.  I really, really need to find someone who understands some of the finer points of  Asian cooking to come with me.  I saw things that  blew me away.  Big sheets of dried sea snail, a tiny bottle of something that claimed to be 'essence of giant water bug', Durian fruit whole for .99 cents per pound, rooster testicles, chicken and pigs feet, pig heart, lamb tongue, whole cow tongue, literally every single part of the animal was packaged and for sale.  Fresh!  An enormous seafood counter , now I know where to go finally to get fish heads to make stock.  There were tanks with live lobster sharing space with catfish, moon fish and eels, perch and one called simply, 'big head fish', and it was. 
There were aisles of condiments from every corner of Asia, rows of oils and nam pla and rice wine.  An entire aisle of canned vegetable and fruits.  Things like lychee and jelled pineapple and durian fruit.  Spices for every type of Asian dish you could wish to prepare, jars of seasoning for rice with dried fish flakes and seaweed, sesame seeds, salt and dried egg all in a shaker jar. 
I finally found some things I had been looking for like fresh galangal, scallion pancakes, baby bok choy (they had two kinds and I couldn't find anyone to speak English to explain the difference between the green and white bok choy), and soft sesame candy.

This is such a great soup, slightly hot from red curry,bright from galangal, lemongrass and lime juice, soothing with coconut milk, crunchy with sliced spring onion on top.  It's everything in one bowl.  this soup is the soup to cure what ails you.  Trust me.

This soup is easy to make and can be made partially ahead and kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.  Adapted from a jean-georges vongerichten recipe in the Barbara Kafka book 'Soup a way of life'.

 

Corn and cheddar soup

It's a cold weeknight and husband is having one of his Brit things for dinner like sardines on toast or beans on toast or some sort of mushy thing on toast so what's a girl to do?  Make soup of course!  I started out intending to make Cheddar and beer soup which is one of my all time faves, but I decided to vary things instead.  I found this recipe on Epicurious for Cheddar and corn chowder it looked warming and cheesy and quite lovely so I gave it a whirl.
I loved it and it will become a definite part of the repetoire.  in fact next time, some of the liquid shall be replaced with some lovely Ale me thinks.  Mmmmmmm.  So good for the cold weather.

Poor Man's Cassoulet

It was a Sunday morning and I hadn't a clue what I was going to make for dinner.  I picked up my new cookbook on Greece, flick, flick, flick.  Naw.  Picked up Slow Mediterranean, flick, click, flick.  Mmmmm mmm.  I wouldn't have all day to cook today, we had projects that needed to be done.  Picked up Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte.  Straight to the index.  Chicken....hmmmm, as part of Component Stew.  I love stews, especially on a Sunday, particularly on a mizzly and gray and cold Sunday.  There is nothing like making the entire house smell like a stew and fire in the fireplace to make it a home.

I checked the ingredients list.  Chicken thighs, sausage, duck confit, cipollini onions and leeks, Great Northern or cannellini beans. 

Hey! 

This was a poor mans cassoulet, available at your table in about 2 hours.  Not only that but I had bought a package of cipollini onions on Friday with a vague idea of braising them and glazing them with balsamic.  That would have to wait.  And since I have the best brother in law in the world who sent me an entire basket of duck products from France a few Christmases ago I happened to have a tin of Duck Confit in the larder.  All I needed was a leek and some sausage.

I made this early as she suggested and then shut it off and let it rest for about an hour so the flavours could mingle.  What is nice about it is if you don't have one type of bean, use another.  No Leeks?  Who cares, use shallot or an onion thinly sliced.  It's very forgiving.  The one thing I would not miss out is the duck confit, it makes the dish.

I halved her recipe and will post it with my changes, if you want the original, buy the book, you won't regret a single penny of it.  Every recipe is good.

2 TBS olive oil

2 links of Italian Sausage cut into inch and a half pieces

2 cups thickly sliced mushrooms, crimini, chanterelle mixed

1 fat leek, cleaned well, cut lengthwise in thirds and then into 1 inch lengths

8 - 10 cipollini onion, peeled

3 chicken thighs (boneless and skinless), salted and peppered on both sides

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 cup of chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1 confited duck leg, meat cut from the bone, trimmed of fat and slivered

1 15 oz can of butter beans, rinsed well

2 TBS Manzanilla sherry

2 slices of hearty bread toasted

Pour 1 TBS olive oil into a large dutch oven, place over medium-low heat. Drop in the sausage and brown it on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels.

Add the mushrooms to the pan and brown.

Remove to a bowl The pan will now be dry so either add 1 TBS more of olive oil, or if you are feeling decadent, use some of that duck fat that was surrounding the confit. Place the leeks and cipollini around the pan and increase the heat a bit. You just want to brown the onions, maybe 5 minutes. Remove them to the same bowl as the mushrooms.

Place the thighs in the pan over medium-high heat. Brown it well and then flip it over and brown the other side. Approx. 4 minutes per side. If there is excess fat remove the chicken to a plate and drain off, since the thighs were skinless, this may not be necessary. With the chicken in the pan add the broth. Add the bay leaf. Adjust heat to low and cover the pan. Check to make sure that it is bubbling very, gently. You are looking to braise here, not boil. After 20 minutes spread the sausage, mushrooms, leeks, cipollini, the slivered duck meat and the beans around the thighs. Using a spoon, push everything down into the braising liquid.

This is where I shut it off and let it rest for about an hour. You could put it in the fridge at this point and serve it the next day. This will improve with age. When you are ready, reheat and allow to cook long enough for the ingredients to be heated through and check a thigh to be sure it is done. When everything is heated through, remove the meat to a warmed bowl leaving just the juices behind. Turn heat up high, add sherry, allow to boil for a minute or so. Adjust seasonings. Put this liquid into a gray boat. Toast the bread. Place a slice of bread in the bottom of a shallow bowl, scoop meat on and pass the gravy to pour on.

Jane's Lame-o soup

Lest you come here to Amuse bouche and assume every meal is feast, every dish a multi task event I would clearly like to absolve you of that thought right now.  Occasionally even those of us who love to cook enjoy what I call a Lame-o meal.  You know the one. That deep, dark secret you harbor down in your foodie psyche.  The ice cream that comes in a brick instead of an expensive pint, the grilled cheese sandwiches on Wonder bread from your childhood, the government issue 5 pound tin of peanut butter my friend Teddy the chef used to covet like it was a fine scotch.

Well fair reader, my sordid tale is a soup and pasta creation first introduced to me by one of the infamous Bonica's mentioned below in the Famous Bonica Carrot Cake recipe.  This soup was Jane's territory.  I was the Italian cooking snob, she who would never, ever consider eating tomato soup out of *sniff* a tin *turns up nose*. 

Jane would make this often for her lunch and little by little I became sold on the elixir.  Now when I seek comfort food for lunch with minimal fuss and dare I say frugal thoughts this is what I make.  It can be easily altered to your hearts content, but really I just like to keep it simple.

Jane Bonica's Tomato soup and Orzo

1 tin of Campbell's Healthy Request Tomato Soup

Refill the soup can with milk

1/2 cup of Orzo

Salt, pepper, chopped chive

1TBS creme fraiche

Cook orzo in a pot of rapidly boiling well salted water.  When done strain and return pan to the heat.  Add the tin of tomato soup, fill the empty tin with milk and add to the pan.  Season with salt, pepper, add chopped chive if you have some on hand.  Drop in cooked Orzo.  Stir to heat.  Pour in bowl.  Place in a dollop of creme fraiche if you have it.  Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan, or not.  Simple, cheap and oh so good.  Or is that Mmmmm Mmmmm Good?