Well the weather has taken a turn. The rain has set in for the winter which means it's time for some good warm food to bring a little pep back to our lives! To me that means soups and braises. Let's start with soup.
One of our favorite soups is tomato soup. When we have a pureed soup we always need crackers! So we got to thinking......And we came up with smoked tomato soup with smoked cheddar and cage aged gruyere crackers. We really enjoyed it so we thought why not share! (remember to keep the smoke mild, it should just add a nice compliment to the soup, not be the main attraction!)
Crackers
1 C Old Cheddar
1 C Gruyere (the better the quality of cheese the better the cracker will be!)
Smoke cheese with a mild wood (We used maple....temps about 100 degrees or under, smoke for an hour) We do all of our smoking on a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker but any smoker will do!
- Grate cheese, mix with 1.5 cups Flour (Use a low protein flour), and a couple tablespoons of herbs (I used freeze dried chives).
- Mix with 1 cup of buter
- form into balls and squish on cookie sheet (We covered it with silplat)
- Sprinkle a coarse sea salt and smoked paprika on top
- Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or so
One of our favorite soups is tomato soup. When we have a pureed soup we always need crackers! So we got to thinking......And we came up with smoked tomato soup with smoked cheddar and cage aged gruyere crackers. We really enjoyed it so we thought why not share! (remember to keep the smoke mild, it should just add a nice compliment to the soup, not be the main attraction!)
Crackers
1 C Old Cheddar
1 C Gruyere (the better the quality of cheese the better the cracker will be!)
Smoke cheese with a mild wood (We used maple....temps about 100 degrees or under, smoke for an hour) We do all of our smoking on a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker but any smoker will do!
- Grate cheese, mix with 1.5 cups Flour (Use a low protein flour), and a couple tablespoons of herbs (I used freeze dried chives).
- Mix with 1 cup of buter
- form into balls and squish on cookie sheet (We covered it with silplat)
- Sprinkle a coarse sea salt and smoked paprika on top
- Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or so
Tomato Soup
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3 onions
Dice onions and sweat on med heat with butter
- 6 cloves garlic
Add finely diced garlic for about a minute
- 2 Liters of homemade chicken stock (or a good store bought), or vegetable stock if you are looking for a vegetarian soup.
- 10 smoked roma tomato's (I smoke these at the same time as the cheese. The night before I cut them in half and soak in olive oil. I often add herbs to the marinade but not for the soup. In this case I added 1 C of fresh parmasean. I smoke them for one hour the same as the cheese)
- t Allspice
- Pinch sugar
- T red chili flakes
Put the tomato's with the chicken stock and spices in with the onion and garlic mixture, bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Take off heat and add:
- 1/2 Cup fresh Thyme (mediteranean, less if using french)
- Salt and pepper
Mix with an immersion blender till a fine puree
Top each bowl with a cracker and serve
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