Rosie Makes Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

With the Outer Banks weather hovering in the mid- to low-seventies,

it's time for soup!

Since my peppers are maturing and turning red now,

I'm taking advantage of those sweet, ripe peppers

and making a roasted red pepper soup with Italian sausage.

Now, about those red peppers.

The bell pepper plants (Capsicum annuum) in my garden are now producing the best and sweetest peppers of their growing season – the mature, fully ripened red peppers.  All peppers, whether sweet or hot, start out green, and then they go through the spectrum of colors and flavors, from the grassy and slightly bitter green pepper, to yellow then orange, gradually sweetening, and finally to the nutrient-rich, mellow, and almost fruity, red pepper.  By staying on the plant longer, the red pepper has had time to develop additional flavor characteristics and nutritional qualities, making it an excellent source of antioxidants, beta carotene, Vitamin C, and fiber.  Longer vine-time, while making the red pepper sweeter than its predecessors, also makes it more expensive, due to the required use of extra resources demanded by the longer harvest.  All this is moot if you’re growing your own, in which case, good things come to those who wait.

I’m taking the fully mature red peppers and charring them over an open flame which concentrates the sugars, making them even sweeter, and then showcasing them in a smoky, velvety, roasted red pepper soup.  It’s perfect for this time of year.

 First, let's get the peppers roasted,

then I'll give you the "recipe."

It helps to slice the peppers.

Keep turning to roast evenly.
Skin side to flame.

You want to blacken the skin.

If you don't have an open flame,

blacken the peppers under your broiler.

When the peppers are blackened,

immediately immerse in ice water.

Use your fingers to rub off the blackened skin.

Place on cutting board and slice out ribs and remove seeds.

And your peppers are ready.

Here's what I threw together for a nice, hearty fall soup.

Rosie's Roasted Red Pepper Soup

2 red peppers, roasted and chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

6 oz. or so hot Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled

1 TB olive oil

1 TB unsalted butter

1 garlic clove, minced

1 heaping TB flour

2 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup cream

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

fresh thyme

Cook the sausage until browned, drain, and hold for later.

Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat

 until butter is foamy.

Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes.

Add chopped, roasted red peppers and garlic

and sauté for a minute.

Add in flour and cook for another minute

to cook out the raw taste.

Slowly pour in stock, stirring.

Bring to simmer and thicken a bit.

Immersion blend the mixture.

If you don't have an immersion blender,

pour 1/2 cup at a time into a blender/processor

and blend/process away until smooth.

(Don't pour the entire amount in the blender at once,

else you'll have a hot mess.  Literally.)

Stir in the cream and heat through.

Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Ladle into bowls and add crumbled sausage and fresh thyme.

The amounts I give are merely guidelines.

Use as much sausage as you like.

The more, the better.

Cook the sausage until nicely browned.

Drain it and save it.

Chop the onion and peppers.

Sauté the onions in oil and butter for a couple of minutes.

Add in the red pepper and ...

... the minced garlic.

Cook, stirring.

Medium heat.

Add the flour.

Stir and cook it to get out the raw taste.

Slowly add in the stock, stirring, to thicken.

Add in some cream.

Immersion blend.

And season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

I happened to have some lovely parmesan/garlic knots

I'd already made.

Heat 'em up.

Butter and toast 'em.

However you want 'em. 

They're great for dipping, dunking, and sopping up every last drop.

And here's how to make them:  Bread Knots.

They went perfectly with the soup.

Enjoy!

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!