Tomato Bisque

Soup. I have always thought that soups were relatively difficult to make from scratch, complex things with many flavors. As a result, I avoided them like the plague.

However, as the weather has been turning to cold (finally!), I have been looking for more seasonal influences to what I want to cook up. While I am not a fan of tomato soup of any kind, I had a request from Ashley to make her favorite soup: tomato bisque.

For those of you who do not know the difference between a tomato soup and a bisque, the answer is simply cream. The cream cuts the tomato flavor while making the soup thicker. I put a little too much cream into mine so the recipe below cuts the amount in half from what I actually used. It still tasted great but a smidgen too much of the tomato flavor was masked.


Process

I decided that I did not want to use store-bought, out of the can tomatoes. What's the fun with working by scratch if it's not all by scratch? I picked up four pounds of off the vine ripe tomatoes to use for this soup. Before you start, preheat your oven to 350°F.

First I began by seeding and chopping the tomatoes in half. Some recipes call to take off the skin, I decided not too and it made little difference in the end result. Place the tomatoes into a foil-covered pan with walls (so the juices don't leak). For seasoning, I drizzled olive oil, followed by generous amounts of ground pepper, oregano, and thyme. I then popped them into the oven for about 30 minutes. The time will vary, mainly you want them to look shriveled but yummy (very objective and precise criteria as you can see).

As the tomatoes are cooking (about half-way), you can start on the broth. Begin by melting the butter in a large sauce pan. Chop the onion and toss it into the butter. Let it cook until tender but not caramelized! This should take about five to seven minutes. Afterwards, sprinkle in the flour and stir until a foamy mixture forms.

To the pan, add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Make sure the broth has a vigorous boil before you move on. During this entire process, make sure you pay attention to the tomatoes as you want them roasted enough, but not charred.

Once the tomatoes are done, take them out of the oven and place into the boiling chicken broth. Make sure you include everything, juices and all. Add in the brown sugar and cloves and stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes uncovered.

Once the soup has simmered it is time to puree it. As you know by now, I do not have a food processor, so I pulled out my handy-dandy blender. To ensure that there was still some gusto to my soup, I only put the tomatoes in at first and pulsed until fine. Only then did I add the broth and blended slowly to ensure thorough mixing.

I had to do this in two batches to accommodate the amount of soup I had. It makes no difference, just make sure you stir at the end to ensure similar consistency in the bisque.

Lastly, I added the cream and increased the temperature slightly below boiling and let it thicken for about 10 minutes. At this point, salt and pepper to taste. The soup didn't need any salt but did need a significant amount of pepper.


Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

4 lbs vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded
3 T butter, unsalted
1 onion, chopped
2 T flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 T brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 T cloves, ground
1 T oregano
1 T thyme
3 T pepper
1 T olive oil
salt to taste

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Seed and halve the tomatoes and place into a high-walled pan. Drizzle with olive oil, pepper, oregano, and thyme and roast for about 30 minutes.
2. While the tomatoes are roasting, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Chop the onions and cook in the butter until tender (5 to 7 minutes). Add in the flour until a foamy paste forms.
3. Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Mix in tomatoes, cloves, and brown sugar. Lower the heat and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered.
4. Using a food processor, puree the tomatoes separately (batches are okay) and then blend with the broth.
5. Transfer back to the saucepan and add the cream. Heat up to slightly less than boiling and let the soup thicken for ~10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.