Rosie Makes A Roasted Red Pepper Soup With Crab Meat.

With both temperatures and humidity in the 90's,
 Rosie decided she needed a nice fortifying soup.
After all, I need to be strong for the mosquitoes these days.
 Mr. Hawthorne stopped at the Tar Heel Too
 produce stand in Seagate North shopping center yesterday
 and bought 2 red peppers for $1.00.
 (They're $2.99 a piece at the Teeter.)
 Good neighbor Zippy stopped by the other night
 with a 34-quart cooler of crabs,
so I'm combining red peppers and crab meat for our meal today.

First, I roasted the peppers,
which imparts a phenomenal flavor,
 then I made the soup
 and accented it with fresh, just-picked crab meat.
I added a few bits of mozzarella cheese,
 freshly cracked black pepper,
and fresh thyme to amp it up a bit.

Mr. Hawthorne and I picked the cooked crabs.
 Not a fun undertaking and
 if you didn't know what you're doing,
you could starve before you get the meat out.
I hates pickin's de crabs.
Rosie's Roasted Red Pepper Soup With Crab Meat
 2-3 TB olive oil
2 red peppers, roasted
 1 medium onion, chopped
 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
 1 large garlic clove, minced
 4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
(A heaping teaspoon of leaves.)
 2 cups turkey stock
 I had turkey stock I'd thawed out
 for another soup I recently made, so I used that.

Check out Beer and Cheese Soup,
 courtesy of Kelly at Evil Shenanigans.

 You could substitute
 a low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth.

 1 medium potato, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
sea salt and pepper, freshly ground
 1/2 cup+ crab meat
 3 TB butter
 squirt of lemon juice
 toasted baguette slices
Mozzarella cheese
 more fresh thyme

 Heat olive oil in deep pot over medium-high heat.
Add onions, carrots, and thyme
 and saute about 4 minutes -
until onions are translucent.
Add in garlic, potatoes, roasted peppers,
 wine, broth, and sugar.
Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low.
Partially cover and simmer
 until potatoes are very tender, 20-30 minutes,
depending on the size of your chop.
 Cool slightly.
 I used an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth.
 If you don't have an immersion blender,
 you could use a regular blender and puree in batches.
Always be careful when blending hot liquids.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 Drizzle olive oil onto baguette slices
and toast until crisp and golden brown.
 Melt butter, add in crab meat,
 give it a squirt of lemon juice to taste,
and keep warm.
 Ladle soup into bowls,
add in a few pieces of Mozzarella,
 spoon crab meat mixture in center,
 sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and fresh thyme
 and serve with toasted baguette.

If you don't have fresh red peppers,
you could substitute a jar of roasted peppers
 preserved in water and drained,
 but I prefer the real deal.
Big difference in flavor.
 Also, for roasting peppers,
try to find smooth, round ones,
without deep curves like these peppers.
For 50 cents a piece though, I'm not complaining.

Roast over a flame or under a broiler
until thoroughly blackened.
There are two schools for pepper-roasting.
 One says to secure them in a paper bag for 5 - 10 minutes
 and let the steam force the skin off.
The other is much easier and quicker and I got the idea from Julia Child.

After blackening, I immediately submerge them in a bowl of ice water.

Rub with thumb and forefinger
 and the skin comes right off.
 For those stubborn spots,
 use a paper towel to rub the skin off.
And you don't have to get every speck of black off.

Here are my chopped carrot and onion,
 minced garlic, and sprigs of thyme.
 I waited to peel and chop the potato
 until I was ready to put it in the pot
since I didn't want it to turn brown.

Over medium-high heat 2-3 TB of olive oil in the pan
and add in the carrots ...

... the onions ...

... and the thyme.

Saute about 4-5 minutes until onions are translucent.

Next, add in the garlic ...

... the potatoes ...

... and the chopped roasted peppers.

Add in the sugar.

The wine.

And the stock.
 Heat to a simmer, then reduce heat to low,
 partially cover, and cook until potatoes are very tender.

While the soup was cooking,
 I drizzled olive oil over my baguette slices
and popped them under the broiler.

Melt the butter and add the crab meat and lemon to taste.
 Heat through.

When the potatoes were tender,
 I used my immersion blender to puree.
 If you don't have an immersion blender,
 you can use your mixer.
But exercise caution:
 Only mix in small batches.
We wouldn't want a painful kitchen mishap here.

I added in 1/4 cup heavy cream for a little extra richness.

Whir away.

Serve with bits of mozzarella,
 the crab meat mixture, extra freshly ground black pepper,
a few more thyme leaves, and a toasted baguette.

Creamy, rich, roasted pepper soup
with buttery sweet crab meat
and accented with fresh thyme.
 This is wonderful all by itself
without the crab meat, but the crab meat takes it to a whole new level.
 

Bon appetit!