Home Made Tomato Soup

Home Made Tomato soup by Michael Chirello

(adapted)

Ingredients
2 (14-ounce) cans chopped tomatoes
1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil (divided into 1/4 measurements)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 stalks celery, chopped carrots, diced
1 1/2 yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken stock or broth
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves or,( 1/2 teaspoon if using dried basil)
2 cups half n half, or heavy cream

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a stock pan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add half-n-half and basil, if using.

Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth. Or pour into a blender small portions at a time, and blend until smooth.

Serves 4-6

*I cut the fat, significantly in this recipe. The original calls for 3/4 cup of Olive Oil & the use of heavy cream all for the original serving size of four! Wow that's a lot of fat, that I just thought was unnecessary. I also increased the amount of stock which adds flavor without fat.
I'd love to hear your feed back on this.
P.S. I topped it with home made sourdough croutons. Oh my this is good soup!
--Michele

Ming Tsai's fried rice, and Take One of my show

Ming Tsai's Mandarin fried rice
(adapted)

Ingredients
Canola oil
3 eggs
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 bunch chopped scallions, green and white separated
1 lapchang, diced (Chinese sausage), can substitute with 4 strips of cooked bacon (I used 1 1/2 cups left over ham.)
8 cups cooked, day-old long grain rice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Salt
Directions
In a wok, add 2 tablespoons of oil and quickly soft-scramble the eggs. Remove the eggs. In the same wok, coat with oil and stir-fry garlic and ginger. Add white scallions and lapchang. Add rice and mix thoroughly. Add soy sauce, white pepper and scrambled eggs. Check for seasoning. Serve immediately.



I used the entire green onion, because it's all good to me.
I also left out the salt and pepper. I feel there's more than enough salt. But this is a taste preference of mine.

Please view my video's and leave me some feed back. I'd love to answer questions or take a challenge of making something tasty from your pantry pictures.