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Oct. 2008 - In this Issue: |
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Soup's On! |
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 It’s a no brainer! A great soup meets all the criteria for a satisfying meal at an economical price. It’s filling, tasty, colorful to the eye, and a great way to boost your nutrition by including a variety of vegetables. A pot of soup cooks without too much tending, and is rather forgiving if dinner is late, or destined to be eaten in shifts. Pair a bowl of soup with a salad, some crusty bread, and maybe a glass of wine for a perfect cool weather supper. Any leftovers make for the perfect lunch. Forget canned or boxed soups – you can do better for a lot less money, and with much better results! In this issue, we’ll offer some tips and techniques for homemade goodness including three great recipes for renewing your love of a comforting bowl of soup!
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Store Information |
Store Hours:
Monday - Saturday
10 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Sunday
11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Calhoun Square
3001 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis
(612) 824-4417
(888) 824-4417
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Kitchen Window Services |
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Espresso Advantage |
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• Working demo units
• Hands on training
• Certified Sales Associates
• After purchase support
• Full 1 year warranty
• Free loaner machines
• Discounted service labor
• Free espresso seminar
• Locally owned business
see sales associate
for program details
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Espresso Repair |
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• Tune-ups and repair
• Certified technicians
• $37.50 diagnostic fee
• Factory certified repair
Kitchen Window services the following brands:
Baratza, Breville, Gaggia, laPavoni, Pasquini, Rancilio, Saeco, Solis & Spidem
More info
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Seeking Secret Shoppers |
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 Our secret shoppers provide valuable input on everything from customer service to product selection and more.
If you’re interested in becoming a Kitchen Window Secret Shopper, contact Melissa via email for more information.
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 Plan some fun with a cooking class at Kitchen Window! We have an incredible line-up of topics, menus, and instructors. There are, literally, dozens of choices to choose from. Our classes make a great outing with friends, visiting relatives and a wonderful date night.
How to Host a Wine Tasting - #2634 - Friday, November 7, 6:30 p.m.
Espresso 101 - #2636 - Sunday, November 9, 9:00 a.m.
Decadent Holiday Desserts - #2639 - Saturday, November 15, 10:00 a.m.
Candy and Chocolate Truffles - #2649 - Saturday, November 29, 10:00 a.m.
Hidden Gems Tour - #2650 - Saturday, November 29, 10:00 a.m.
View All Cooking Classes You may register for any of our classes any time of day!
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 It’s Coffee Fest Time
Join us on Saturday, November 22 for the 19th Annual Coffee Fest at Calhoun Square. This year, proceeds from this event will benefit Second Harvest Heartland, the Upper Midwest’s largest hunger-relief organization. Your $9 admission fee gets you a specially designed Coffee Fest mug and access to dozens of vendors sampling everything from coffee and tea to breads, desserts and other tasty surprises. You can also participate in a variety of educational seminars, with topics like coffee roasting, coffee cupping, latte art and more. There will be drawings and special offers from participating vendors. Kitchen Window will sample great food and showcase our huge selection of coffee-related products. They’ll be great discounts on all brewing equipment as well.
more info
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THE COFFEE IS ON US!
Bring in this coupon and get a FREE pound of coffee
with any $10.00 purchase at Kitchen Window
{THIS COUPON IS VOID}
Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive our next coupon
Limit one pound per person. Offer expires November 21, 2008
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 Book Your Holiday Party Now
Kitchen Window’s Cooking School and Event Center is the perfect place to host your company holiday party – but call soon, dates are filling up fast! Let us take care of all the details so you can relax and enjoy your party. Each interactive gourmet event is designed to provide a unique experience for you and your guests. Select on of our three-course lunches, four-course dinners or interactive appetizer menus. For more information, call 612-824-4417, ext. 105, or e-mail events@kitchenwindow.com.
 Find Us on Fox9
Look for Kitchen Window’s own Doug Huemoeller on Stay Fit with Fox9, focusing on healthy lifestyles. Doug shares easy, delicious and nutritious recipes like Latin Stuffed Pork Loin and Asian Lettuce Wraps. The most recent segment features quick, healthy food that kids can prepare themselves, like chicken wraps, brown fried rice and chicken enchiladas. Watch the Fox9 Morning Show on Saturday and Monday for our segments. You can find all the recipes from this series on our website.
View Recipes
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Cool days, cooler evenings -- a hot bowl of soup is the perfect warm-up! To make your soup days easy and ready at a moment's notice, these tools will become indispensable in your cold weather kitchen!
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Kitchen Window's Relocation & Expansion Update |
 Calhoun Square Update
Construction is underway at Calhoun Square, and we’re looking forward to moving into an expanded store and cooking school space in Spring 2009. In addition to our new location in the former Border’s location, the Calhoun Square redevelopment includes an additional two levels on the parking ramp, renovation of the mall’s interior, creation of a pedestrian plaza on Girard Avenue and the addition of many new retail shops and services within Calhoun Square.
Demolition has begun on the former Border’s space, and the parking ramp is due to be completed in time for holiday shopping. In the meantime, the ramp has been converted to a valet system while it is under construction, but the parking rates have not changed. If you are stopping in after 5 p.m. to quickly pick up an item, let the valet know you are quickly running into Kitchen Window and the valet will waive the fixed priced fee and leave your car off to the side. If you return in 15 minutes or less, you will not be charged. If you know what you need, call ahead and we are happy to run your purchase out to you on Girard Avenue, directly behind Calhoun Square. There are a couple of parking meters behind Famous Dave’s where we can meet you.
Please excuse the dust and other renovation issues as Calhoun Square and Kitchen Window gear up for an exciting new chapter. We know in the end the result will be worth it, and we can’t wait to show you our new look. We’ll be posting construction updates on our website to keep you posted on our progress, or come in to see for yourself.
Parking Update - Please use the Girard Ave. parking ramp enterance (visit the link below to view map). The 31st Ave. parking ramp enterance is currently closed due to construction.
View Construction Updates
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 A hearty soup doesn’t necessarily mean calorie-laden or fat-rich; it means a soup with enough body to be the centerpiece of a satisfying meal. And, contrary to canned or restaurant choices, with your own homemade versions you can control the salt and fat according to your taste and dietary goals.
Practice your improvisation skills with these hearty choices:
Bean-based – We instantly think of red kidney beans in chili when contemplating soup and beans, but this world is much larger. If you’re in a hurry or need to stock options in your pantry, use canned beans. But the economy of beans comes with cooking beans from their dried state. Presoak most beans for an hour or overnight. Simmer gently for another hour or until tender. Alternatively, let your slow cooker handle it all with less than 60 seconds of set-up time. Lentils are a great choice for soups since they do not require presoaking and cook more quickly than most beans.
Meaty and Mighty – If you live with a carnivore who doesn’t consider it a meal unless there’s meat, begin your soup with meats that have been cooked or seared. Cut meat into bite-sized pieces prior cooking. Drain any fat from the meat prior to adding it to the soup base, but do remember to deglaze the pan to gather up any flavorful brown bits – they’re soup magic! Soup generously accommodates less expensive cuts of meat – think ground pork sausage, chuck, or chicken thighs.
Creamy without Cream – A creamy soup with real cream is a treat, no doubt! But, if you want to enjoy creamy flavors and textures more often than your diet might allow, you can deploy a few techniques to trick your palate: (1) Use whole milk for finishing the soup instead of cream, (2) Include a dry or semi-dry glass of wine or sherry in your stock to replicate the classic flavors of many cream soups, (3) Puree a few cooked potatoes to thicken and to create an opaque look, and (4) Use a roux of flour and a little butter to create thickness in the soup.
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 A friend of ours when hearing that a new child is on the way, frequently comments, ‘"Time to add a little more water to the soup!" She hit upon one of the tricks of soup – it is easily extensible and quickly scalable by adding a little more of this and that. There are many other tricks and techniques with soup worth knowing:
- In bean soups, also add a grain such as, rice, quinoa, or barley. The pairing of legumes and grains provides all of the essential amino acids for building proteins in your body. This magic combo replaces the need for meat as a protein source.
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Reduce the use of salt in your soup by using an acidic component that will brighten the flavors. Try lemon, an herbed vinegar, or even just a splash of olive or pickle brine.
- If your soup features pasta of some form or shape, consider cooking the pasta separately from your soup until just undercooked, then add it to the soup. If you’re making a double batch of soup with the intention of having leftovers, remove the leftovers, (“beforeovers?”), of the soup’s liquid portion and the separately cooked pasta, and store them separately. This keeps the pasta from turning into mush and the leftovers into a congealed mass.
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Cook one meal with plans to turn it into a second and third soup meal, just like Mom did. A few favorite strategies include: (1) Roasting a whole chicken along with potatoes, carrots, and sliced onions. Turn the carcass, the leftover meat and vegetables into a hefty chicken vegetable soup along with your favorite noodles. (2) Take Sunday’s pot roast and the season’s root vegetables such as, turnips, parsnips and potatoes, and reprise it as a Beef and Barley Stew.
- Create flavor depth by employing Deborah Madison’s suggestion to roast vegetables as the first step in soup making. The roasting process concentrates the vegetable’s flavor by removing water. In the oven, caramelization of the vegetable’s sugars occurs lending fantastic flavor to the end result.
- Get creative in garnishing soup bowls and add additional layers of flavor in the process. Choose toasted, herbed croutons, a drizzle of fire oil, a dollop of sour cream, a spritz of truffle oil, a streak of pesto, or a fine dice of one of the soup’s ingredients. A thread of a favorite nut oil along with a few coarsely chopped and roasted nuts is a great accompaniment to a fall soup.
- Use a blender, food processor, or an immersion blender to accomplish the final pureeing step found with many soup recipes. Experiment with pureeing only a portion of the soup leaving a thick, yet chunky hearty bowl.
- No time to make a homemade stock? Generate immediate depth in a soup’s liquid component by using miso or soy sauce to flavor water. Substitute beer or ale for a portion of the liquid for an immediate flavor hit.
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Soup Traditions to Pass Along |
Each of us has something in our kitchen that originated in a previous generation. It might be a set of dishes, a bread pan, or a cast iron skillet. The piece evokes all kinds of memories and traditions that family kitchens are so famous for. Perhaps you’ve inherited your mother or grandmother’s cookware; if not, it’s a great time to initiate a tradition with a great soup pot. The choices available for a pass-it-along soup pot have never been more varied and colorful. You can’t go wrong with any one of these choices that are not only great for soup, but extend their versatility throughout your culinary repertoire.
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Le Creuset’s Enameled Cast Iron Pots – A super soup pot! Available in many styles, sizes and colors, any one of them will become your favorite for making soup. They feature:
• A cast iron core enameled for a naturally non-stick surface
• A unique casting for a one-of-a-kind pot
• Construction that conducts heat efficiently, and retains the heat for off-the-stove warmth
• A versatility perfect for all soup steps: braising, sautéing, and simmering
• Style that moves from stovetop, to oven, to table.
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Emile Henry’s Ceramic Pots – The new innovative offering of Emile Henry’s Flame Series suits many purposes – soup is just one of them! Emile Henry has perfected the magic of turning clay into gorgeous ceramic vessels. They feature:
• A naturally insulating character
• Sturdy, scratch-resistant glaze that provides a naturally non-stick surface
• Rich, deep colors that grace both stove and table
• Highly versatile character that transfers from freezer, to microwave, to stovetop, to oven, to table.
Stainless Steel Pots – Whether a large saucepan or a Dutch oven, stainless steel pots are stovetop workhorses. They feature:
• Non-reactive surfaces perfect for acidic, tomato-based soups
• Efficient heat transfer through multi-ply cores
• Distributed heat mechanisms that avoid “hot spots” and scorched bottoms
Slow Cookers – A quick prep in the morning and supper is ready! Great for soups, slow cookers gradually heat and gather flavors over several hours. They feature:
• Maintenance of a consistent, low temperature – no scorching
• Energy efficiency, simple operation, no monitoring required
• Removable inserts allowing for easy cleaning, or in some cases, stovetop braising
• Programmable timers that shift to “"warm" mode
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 Need to feed a crowd? Consider hosting a booya party. Booya is a type of stew usually prepared in large quantities, and it is a great way to feed a lot of hungry guests. There are probably as many booya recipes as there are booya cooks, but the dish generally involves beef, chicken and pork as well as a variety of vegetables including carrots, rutabagas, celery and potatoes. Don’t even get booya cooks started on the “correct” seasonings.
You can find the recipe for Kitchen Window’s Booya, which feeds 40 people, on our website; we'll even rent you a stock pot complete with burner that will be the centerpiece of your outdoor party.
And if you’re wondering where the name “booya” came from, no one seems to have a definitive answer. One popular explanation is that booya stems from a misinterpretation of the French word bouillon by a newspaper reporter. The story goes that a reporter doing a story on perhaps the original booya supper in the early 1900s asked the organizer what was being served and was told “bouillon” (spoken with the proper French pronunciation). The reporter wrote it down as he heard it, and it was printed as booya in the paper – and has been known as booya ever since.
more info
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Kitchen Window's Soup Tips |
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Tip #1: Thicken soups in any number of ways: add a flour roux, dissolved cornstarch, leftover mashed potatoes, some quick cooking oats, or even instant tapioca.
 Tip #2: Not really a soup tip, but now is a good time to spend a few minutes organizing your kitchen for the cool weather season. Just like you rotate items in your clothes closet by bringing out the sweaters and long pants and burying the short sleeves and sandals, rearrange your kitchen cabinets to make soup pots, baking pans, and winter cooking gear more accessible for everyday use.
Tip #3: Save the hard rinds of Parmesan-Reggiano cheese; add them to your soup stock for great flavor.
Tip #4: Use the inside basket of your stainless steel pot, typically used for cooking pasta or asparagus, to hold the vegetable scraps, meat bones and other stock-making ingredients. When the simmering and flavor gathering is completed, simply remove the insert. The remaining stock is ready to use or to store without further straining. |
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Q: What’s the best way to clean cooked on food from the bottom of a soup pot?
A: If you’ve monitored the temperature of your burner, most cleaning challenges can be avoided. But, for hard-to-clean situations where you’ve lost control, allow the pot to soak in warm, soapy water. Never use a scouring pad on enameled or ceramic surfaces. Should stains appear on enameled surfaces; soak the pan for a couple of hours with a weak bleach  solution (one teaspoon in two cups of water). Avoid stains by avoiding scratches on any pot surface; use wooden, plastic, or nylon utensils that will not damage the cooking surfaces.
Q: Why use a separate spoon when eating soup?
A: Soup spoons are generally broader and deeper than their teaspoon counterparts. The larger diameter and depth are intended to accommodate both chunky and broth-based soups. Eat liquid or smooth, pureed soups by sipping from the side edge of the spoon. Eat chunky soups from the front of spoon.
Q: What is the proper etiquette for soup when dining out or at a formal meal?
A: At a formal meal where soup is one of several courses, the bowls, sometimes known as soup plates, are most likely to be shallow in shape. Since soup is often served as a first course, the soup spoon is placed to the right of the plate at the outermost position. Using the soup spoon, skim the soup from the bowl away from you toward the far edge of the bowl. Do not slurp soup from the spoon, nor should you blow on it to make it cooler. You may tip your bowl to facilitate getting the last bit of soup, but always tip the bowl away from yourself. When finished, place your spoon on the plate underneath the soup bowl.
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Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen by Deborah Madison. Published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright 2006.
Beginning with the intimate, colorful cover, we were taken with this cookbook. It’s easy to see why it was nominated for the 2007 James Beard Cookbook Awards! Deborah Madison is a well-known, accomplished author in the world of vegetarian cooking. She has taken her skills and broad knowledge of vegetables and given us new flavor combinations and innovative twists on some traditional favorites. While we were looking for autumn and winter soups that have some heft, this cookbook covers all the seasons with a sensitivity to local, seasonal eating habits. The initial discussion divulges many secrets and hints for making homemade stock that made it all seem very easy. Additional chapters include: Hearty Bean Soups, Lentil and Pea Soups, Soups Based on Bread and Grains, Vegetable Soups for Spring, Summer Soups, Roasted Vegetable Soups for Fall, and Winter Vegetable Soups. The book includes both beautiful photography that illustrates how to showcase and present a good soup, and wine pairing suggestions for each recipe. We feel well prepared for the cool seasons ahead!
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Recipe excerpted from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen by Deborah Madison. Published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House. Copyright 2006. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
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Roasted Squash, Pear and Ginger Soup
If this soup doesn’t say autumn, we don’t know what does! This combination of squash, pears and ginger makes the most of local, seasonal produce. The soup uses Ms. Madison’s suggestion for roasting soup vegetables to deepen the flavors, and it works! We used one of the suggestions for finishing the soup with “pear croutons” – chunks of pears sautéed in a little butter and sugar. The results were stunning and more than satisfying!
View recipe
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Broccoli Rabe and White Bean Soup
Healthy and hearty, this soup rates high in our kitchen. The recipe lived up to its billing for being quick and easy. We substituted broccoli for broccoli rabe in our testing, but easily could have used chard, spinach or kale. The finishing steps of whole grain bread rubbed with garlic and shavings of Parmesan cheese hit just the right note. Top notch nutrition in just a few minutes!
View recipe
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Cream of Tomato Soup
with souffléed cheese toasts
This classic has been remodeled into something that exceeds all expectations for comfort and tradition. We’ll never go back to old “red & white” versions of Cream of Tomato soup – only forward with this incarnation that possesses deep tomato flavor. The soup is classically paired with grilled cheese, but a new version that melts and puffs until golden while sporting fresh scallions and a hint of mustard. An old classic, remodeled into a new tradition!
View recipe
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Share this email with a friend or invite someone to join you for a cooking class.
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Put some soup on!
From all of us at Kitchen Window
Kitchen Window
Calhoun Square - 3001 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-824-4417 / 888-824-4417
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