Charring vegetables is one way Woody Back, executive chef of Roswell’s Table & Main, likes to add flavor to his dishes. When he’s cooking, he’s looking for six components – fat, acid, salt, aromatic, sweet and bitter. The charring provides the bitter in this soup. He demonstrated these recipes at the Morningside Farmers Market and Peachtree Road Farmers Markets this year.
He likes garnishing the soup with crumbles of soft goat cheese, but croutons offer a way to add a little crunch. He’s adamant about his crouton preparation though. No toasting squares of bread in the oven. “That just dries out the bread and gives you something like a rock. Melt butter in a skillet and toast your croutons until the surfaces are golden.” One more tip for crouton making – no little cubes. Just tear small pieces of bread from the loaf for irregular pieces with lots of craggy surfaces to soak up butter and provide a satisfying crunch.
Ingredients:
3 pounds tomatoes, cored 1 yellow onion, diced 1 red pepper, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups vegetable stock 1 cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons unsalted butter Salt and pepper Eggplant Chow Chow, for garnish (see recipe) Goat cheese or croutons, for garnish Eggplant Chow Chow: All your eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice 3 cups vegetable stock 1 carrot, diced 1 rib celery, diced 1 small yellow onion, diced 1 large yellow onion, minced 1 red bell pepper, minced 1 green tomato, minced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup apple cider vinegar 1 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard 1 teaspoon celery seed 1 teaspoon turmeric 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Preparation:
Preheat a cast iron skillet over high heat.
Cut tomatoes in half. Arrange them cut side down in heated skillet. Cook until they have charred black and then turn the tomatoes. Cook about 2 minutes longer then remove from heat. Allow to cool until you can handle them and then pull off the skins.
While tomatoes are charring, in a large saucepan, cook the onion and red pepper over medium-high heat until they have released their liquid. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and vegetable stock and simmer 15 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree soup. Add cream and butter and puree again. Season to taste. Serve right away or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Eggplant Chow Chow:
In a large saucepan, cover eggplant with vegetable stock and add diced carrot, celery and onion. Cook until eggplant is tender.
In a large bowl, toss minced onion, bell pepper, green tomato and garlic. When eggplant is tender, drain and add to the onion-bell pepper mixture. Transfer mixture to canning jars.
In a large saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard, celery seed, turmeric, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then pour over eggplant mixture. Cover jars and allow to cool. Refrigerate and use within one month.