H50’s Strawberry Champagne Soup, served with Champagne Ice, Pistachios and Mint

So earlier this week, I wrote about how I visited H50 for Portland Dining Month, where I loved their strawberry champagne soup. I know I just talked about a creamy but healthy watercress cauliflower soup because it got all rainy and sucky weather wise. But now I’m following that with this chilled fruit soup recipe which was shared by H50- the exact soup I had! This should be perfect as the weather is heating back up for this weekend (just this weekend… than back to more rain) so hurry up as the strawberries are ready for the picking at various U-Pick farms in the area.

H50 Bistro’s Chilled Strawberry Soup Recipe served with champagne ice, pistachios and mint

chilled strawberry soup served with champagne ice, pistachios and mint, H50 Bistro Bar, Hotel 50 restaurant, Portland, waterfront restaurant

Ingredients:

Strawberry Soup

  • 3 cups strawberries
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/3 cup champagne
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup toasted pistachios
  • A sprig of Fresh Mint

Champagne Ice

  • 1 and 1/2 cups champagne
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • Juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions:

  1. Juice the lemons- separate them because you are using 1 lemon for the soup, and 1/2 lemon for the champagne ice
  2. Now, for the Champagne Ice, take the 1 1/2 cups champagne, 3 tablespoons sugar, and that 1/2 of a lemon’s juice in mix and pour into a flat tray that can fit into your freezer. It should freeze to the consistency of sorbet.
  3. Meanwhile, chill all the rest of the ingredients in the refrigerator. Well, probably not the sugar. Chill the bowl(s) you are going to serve this in too.
  4. Ice, Ice baby… When your ice is ready, now let’s make the soup. In a blender place the juice of 1 lemon, the strawberries, 1/3 cup of champagne, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup orange juice, and puree. Since everything is already cold (right? You chilled it? Previous step and all) it is now up to you to adjust consistency and seasoning with the rest of the sugar, and if necessary, perhaps more orange juice.
  5. If it’s not cold enough to your liking… chill some more! When you are ready temperature wise with your Champagne Ice and Chilled Strawberry Soup, ladle the strawberry soup into a chilled bowl. Take out your sorbet freeze of Champagne Ice and “shave” into some chunks by running a tablespoon over it, and top your soup with these shavings. Garnish with crushed toasted pistachio and fresh mint. And now, what to do, what to do with that rest of the strawberries and champagne…

chilled strawberry soup served with champagne ice, pistachios and mint, H50 Bistro Bar, Hotel 50 restaurant, Portland, waterfront restaurant

AND/OR, head on over to H50 and just have the 3 course menu for $29 like I did!

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Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola

Soup sounds simple, but it is deceptively so. For me, it’s important that the soup have structure and depth of flavor- that it’s not just a liquified puree and/or a bunch of swollen vegetables and meat. The way each spoonful feels texturally in your mouth and the flavors that are briefly there as it passes on your tongue and lingers afterward need to combine to be memorable.

I think this soup meets those above criteria I have, and is worth the time to create rather than from the store pre-made in a container. I happened to make homemade mascarpone, but you can certainly just purchase it to save some of the prep work.

Ingredients (for 6 people):

  • 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cups of stock- I used vegetable stock
  • 1/2 cup of diced white onion
  • 1/4 cup of diced celery
  • 1/4 cup of diced carrots
  • 1/2 cup of an ale or you can also use hard cider. I used Sam Adams Dunkelweizen
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/4 tablespoon of ground coriander
  • 2 pounds of peeled, seeded, chopped butternut squash
  • 1/2 cup of Mascarpone cheese, or make your own using 2 cups of cream and 1/8 teaspoon of tartaric acid as I did. This will yield 2 cups of Mascarpone.
  • 1/2 cup of Cambozola
  • 1 cup of cream – you can also use sour cream or some of the yield of the homemade Mascarpone (I did the latter)
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups of whole almonds- they should be raw, not roasted
  • To Taste: salt, and pepper

Directions:

  1. If you are making homemade mascarpone, start with this step first the night before. Heat the 2 cups of cream in a saucepan to 180 degrees F over medium high heat, stirring and making sure it does not scorch. As soon it reaches 180 degrees F, remove from heat immediately and stir in the tartaric acid. You can find tartaric acid in the baking section of your grocery store, or you can go to a home brew or home wine store.
    Continue stirring for 1-2 minutes, and then transfer to a glass or plastic container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours so it can thicken. You can set a sieve over a bowl and line it with cheesecloth and pour in the mascarpone and let drain for an additional 10 hours in the refrigerator… This yields 2 cups of mascarpone cheese.
    making mascarpone recipe homemade making making homemade mascarpone
  2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, while in a large pot that is at least 2.5 quarts, you heat up the stock. In the saucepan, add in the mirepoix – aka the onion, celery, and carrots- and sweat them until they are soft
    mirepoix mirepoix
  3. Meanwhile, watch your pot with stock. Once the stock is boiling, turn down the heat to low and add the beer, cinnamon, and coriander and let it simmer to develop the flavor for about 5 minutes. Then add in the mirepoix and the squash and continue to cook, uncovered, for the next 25-30 minutes. The squash should start to get mushy and fall apart and incorporate into the liquid.
    For my ale, I chose to use Samuel Adams Dunkelweizen, which was one of the beers offered on one of their seasonal variety packs. I picked the Dunkelweizen because it is a dark wheat beer brewed with Bavarian yeast that has flavors and aromas of clove and nutmeg with a tiniest hint of citrus and finished with malted wheat, so sounded like it would be a good mix with the rest of the vegetables and seasonings.
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola
  4. Remove the pot from heat and remove the cinnamon stick and let the soup cool until it is warm. You don’t want it to be hot because you are about to puree everything!
  5. In the meantime, combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil and then add the almonds.
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola
  6. Cook and stir the almond/sugar water mixture until the liquid evaporates and leaves a syrup-like coating on the almonds. Pour the almonds onto a baking sheet lined with waxed paper and flatten to help the almonds cool. Cool for about 15 minutes- and it is totally ok to sneak a few warm nuts as a snack! This is more than you will need to garnish the soup, but it will probably be gone in just a day or so (a handful at a time- because you can’t just have a couple), so don’t hesitate to make this amount.
    I know right, super easy! This will smell so good too. I always want to get these whenever I smell those little carts selling paper cones of candied nuts and you can eat them warm if you’d like. Or, you can add them like I did to soup. or to salad, or mix it with pretzels and peanut butter chips or chex etc. for a snack mix. I used almonds, but you can use any nut you’d like. You can also add vanilla or chili/cayenne/hot sauce for additional seasonings instead of cinnamon.
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola
  7. Once the soup so far is cool enough, mix in a blender on high in batches to puree the soft vegetables until smooth.
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola
  8. Take out the mascarpone and the cambozola and let it warm to room temperature.  You will then mix the 1/2 cup of the mascarpone with 1/2 cup of the cambozola to make a cheese mixture
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola
  9. Warm the soup at low heat, stirring 1 cup of the mascarpone, until it is at a temperature to serve (definitely do not get to boiling). You can also just use another substitute to make the soup creamier in texture and taste, such as light sour cream or tofutti- I didn’t have another use for the rest of the mascarpone and decided to use it here but the soup definitely missed the cream. Instead, use the rest of the mascarpone to make tiramisu or with fruit or in other desserts, try to use it in a few days while it is fresh and has that subtle sweetness.
  10. When serving, sprinkle the candied almonds on top of the soup and garnish with the cheese mixture. How pretty and fancy!
    Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola Butternut Squash and Ale Soup with Candied Almonds and homemade Mascarpone with Cambozola

Making the candied almonds makes your place smell so festive with the cinnamon scent! The optional step of making homemade mascarpone is extra credit but also pays off as  you will taste how fresh and subtle the sweetness can be, and the garnish of the mascarpone cambozola cheese allows you to add just a touch of creaminess and cambozola is a nice mix of the richness combining the butteryness of a brie type cheese but with a bit of tangy punch akin to blue cheese. Using the squash makes this soup so seasonal too, and the ale gives you the ability to give this a depth of flavor beyond just the average butternut squash soup.

I started to get a cold (sore throat, sniffles, cough) a little bit after making this soup and having this for lunch was so comforting. Whether you are feeling sick or not, it’s a nourishing remedy for the dark cold days this time of year and a perfect holiday soup that is wonderful for all winter season.

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Soup, Salad, a Sandwich at Picnic House

It seems that it is suddenly autumn. A week or so ago, it was 90 degrees and humid, still summer. Now, the mornings are brisk and dewy cool so that you need a jacket and layers, and the dusk and darkness of night falls sooner and sooner. Crunchy leaves are littering the ground, and the geese are already here on their way to apparently California?

Since Picnic House has opened, it has become a regular stop every 2 weeks or so. Most of time on the way home, F will grab my favorite Nutty Brown Rice Salad, a mix of crunchy brown rice and roasted cauliflower, carrots, turnips & sweet peas in a roasted hazelnut vinaigrette, while he rotates through the salads himself depending on his mood. It’s a huge salad- enough for two meals on its own. After a stop at Benessere Oils and Vinegars store (where I cannot resist, even though I already know the specific flavor infused olive oil I want, to taste 4 other olive oils or balsamic vinegars), we met up to actually eat there among the charm.

With the cool breeze rustling the leaves around the South Park Blocks, soup and a sandwich sounded like just what we needed for some warm comfort. The summer corn and sweet pea soups have been replaced, although this being Oregon full of tall shady trees and rain making fungus plentiful all year ’round, the wild mushroom soup is still on the menu. He had the roasted tomato soup topped with basil cream and fresh oregano, not pictured. Meanwhile, I went with the spiced pumpkin soup, topped with cranberry cream and chipotle peppita seeds.

The dinner entree is listed as “Soup and Grilled Cheese” entree… but which bonus surprise! comes with a small salad too. The spiced pumpkin soup was very mild in terms of seasoning, presenting mostly soft creaminess as you would expect from any cousin squash soup. The cranberry cream and chipotle peppita seeds gave it some interesting depth of a bit of tart and crunch here or there. With the doughy melty grilled cheese, it was a little too much, so I had the soup and sandwich separately while taking bites of the arugula salad (along with gorgonzola bits and candied pecans) to cut through that richness. F had no problem dipping his grilled cheese into his roasted tomato soup though.

Picnic House, Soup, Salad, Sandwich

Picnic House, Soup, Salad, Sandwich Picnic House, Soup, Salad, Sandwich

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