Fall in San Francisco isn't like any other city. When everyone else is waiting for frost we wait for Indian summer. And more often than not this city doesn't fail! It was during one of these great fall days in San Francisco when I decided to take a walk to the SF Ferry Building farmer's market.
Tuesday at the farmers market is a bit different than Saturday. Thursday you find many of the bridge and tunnel crowd, the young business type who would never be at the market on a Saturday because they are still recouping from that after work binge that won't allow them out of bed. This is a good day to go if you want to avoid too many people and still enjoy the wonderful seasonal morsels of goodness the farmers have to offer.
It was on this day when I walked past a stand where there were piles upon piles of the most beautiful celery I have every seen. I know you are saying how boring, celery. But this was like no other. It was cut fresh that morning, the green was very vibrant, the leaves were those of a small bush and the scent of celery overpowered all the other produce around it. I had to buy it, and at $2 a bunch it was cheaper than Whole Foods or the crappy little celery I would find in Bell Market my local supermarket.
Most of us think of celery as just something we add to mirepoix or stuff with peanut butter, cream cheese or put on a crudité platter. But celery is under appreciated in my opinion. I knew immediately I was going to make some variation of soup with my recent purchase. I recently saw in cold celery soup (http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/a-chefs-first-thanksgiving) created by my favorite chef from Boston, Barbara Lynch, who owns No.9 Park (www.no9park.com). As fabulous as her soup sounded, I knew I could come up with something on my own.
In my 20 minute walk from the ferry building to my office I came up with the following concept:
Celery Bisque with a swirl of cayenne creamy fraiche topped with black pepper croutons and a chiffonade of celery leaves.
I am still trying out the recipe and will post my complete results another time. So getting back to my main purpose for this entry.
When arriving back to my office my coworkers wondered what plant I had in my bag only to find out I bought a beautiful specimen of a celery stalk.
Then the question was posed "What are you going to do with this celery?" I told them about my celery bisque. That then begged the question "What is the difference between a celery bisque and a cream of celery soup?"
I was embarrassed to say that I could not come up with the perfect answer. I attended culinary school over three years ago and was very sure I should know this difference but quite honestly I could not come up with the answer.
That evening I was so frustrated with myself for not knowing so I had to do some investigation. Here is what I found:
Bisque: Typically is a pureed food but the thickener is some sort of starch such as a potato or bread and can be finished off with cream.
Cream Soup: Also can be a priority food but the thickener is a béchamel sauce.
So there you have it folks the first cooking 101 lesson from "A Day in the life of a Kitchen Bitch"
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