Friday, October 2, 2009

Cooking: Tomato Bisque

[This is a photo of someone else's tomato bisque, as I didn't feel like taking a photo of my own.]

Work has been wearing my wife down a bit lately, so since I'm the stay-at-home person, I recently offered to handle more of the cooking (something she normally enjoys) so that she only has to cook on the weekend. Last night I baked some salmon with lemon and thyme, baked some potatoes, and made buttermilk dressing (with my daughter's assistance) for a salad with some cherry tomatoes from our garden.

So today I made a tomato bisque from scratch, using fresh tomatoes and herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley) from our own garden (along with some stuff like mushrooms, cream, and provolone cheese from the store). This is a recipe that Lisa has had for a long time, but I think this is the first time I've made it by myself. And we've never cooked it with primarily home-grown ingredients before.

It took a little more than two hours of cooking, a bit more than an hour of that involving hands on work in the kitchen: a lot of chopping, dicing, sauteeing, and crushing (the tomatoes). Then some blending to puree the results.

The result had really good flavor but was a little bit thinner than it is normally. Everyone seemed to like it. So some success.