Good Soup into Great, Good Truck into Great

Woah. It's been, like, a month since I last posted... eek!
The short of it?

• The soupscription service has grown from 5 customers to 22 in six weeks.
• The truck has gone from a lard encrusted fry machine to a shiny stainless steel kitchen with custom plumbing and gorgeous details (photos to come in a full on photo post of the construction!)
• The truck is totally stylin'. It's ubercute. Wait for the reveal... I know you are :-)
• My brother Les is a genius to have built/organized/styled up the truck.
• I open soon, but have no actual date. I do think this fact alone may be responsible for the throbby vein in at the base of my skull.
• Suppliers are all coming together/have come together, including Funny Duck Farms and an organic supplier who has organic Quebec leeks! Yippee!
• I have great help on board with Clare, who is going to be working with me in the teeny space- and is patient with the opening date fiasco.

So, the truck is really being done with loads of love- my bro Les, his buddy Shanger, contractor Sean and my buddy Jer are, despite my get-'er-done desires, taking care of details I never even knew existed. It's taking time, but it's beautiful.  It's definitely gone from good to great- due to the attention and love (and line of credit).

This week saw two interviews- one with Ontario's Own, where Jodi Lastman and I talked about waste and how to avoid it, and the other with Shawna Wagman at Ottawa Magazine.  It's really interesting how keen people are on this idea. It seems it's time has come... Shawna asked me how to turn good soup into great, and after some thought, here's what I came up with.

You need to start with good stock. It's really key to have a solid base to work from- and preferably one that incorporates the flavours in your soup. For example, a basic vegetable stock (onions, carrots, celery, leeks and herbs in water with salt) can be augmented with lemongrass and some chili for a Thai soup, which increases the depth of flavour. Japanese dashi kombu adds a beautiful depth to vegetable stocks as well- and adds some of the umami flavour that can be missing from many vegetable broths.

Balancing your acid, salt and sweetness is always really key as well. Having wine, some type of vinegar, lime or lemon juice (or a combination!) to deglaze your pan and then to finish the soup with creates a layer of flavour that you just can't get any other way. A smidgen of sweetness complements many soups (but not all!).  I often use balsamic, honey, maple syrup or mirin (which is a Japanese rice based sweet vinegar) when I am finishing the seasoning of my soups. Enough salt is also key.  There's a fine line there- especially with so many people being conscious of their sodium intake.

The third part of a great soup is time- although this isn't true for all soups, it's certainly true for stocks. Time to simmer to allow the flavours to marry, time for everything to get together. Beef stock takes at least twelve hours to cook, then there's the skimming and the actual cooking of the soup- which can take another three or four hours as well.  Lots of time also allows you to put in lots of love- and that is always pretty key for making anything great!

Changing Gears

There's this fantastic Yo La Tengo song I get in my head sometimes when I'm driving called Little Honda-I think it's a Beach Boys tune (sorry for my ignorance, Dave).  The chorus goes like this:

First gear, it's all right. Second gear, hang on tight.
Third gear, ain't I right. Faster, it's all right.

It's been in my head since last Friday, when it was rainy and really cold and I was very much in first gear. It didn't feel all right. Then I realized it was time to change gears. The cold is going to be too much. There's this whole water freezing thing that happens in the winter, and it was never part of my plan to run the truck into November as I've worked outdoors in the winter and everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much, plus the hands start to hurt. A lot. And as much as people might want soup in the winter, they won't walk through slush to get it.  And then stand in slush to eat it. My soup's amazing and all, but people are in some ways, totally sane.

Second gear, hang on tight.

Plan B is about to come into play, and come into play quick. I gotta start serving some soup. I gotta cook or I'm gonna lose it. So, I'm looking to rent a commercial kitchen space while finishing the truck. I've got a couple of leads and am gonna check them out Thursday...
Third gear's gonna be some mad juggling as I get the truck ready and put a cooking and distribution plan into play- fast!

It's all right.


Lots of awesome stuff is happening, though.  See? Lots of hours down at the paint and printing shop this week so far.  But it's gonna look cool. Or hot. Or warm limey green. 

Painter to paint seller, after asking about drying times, "Well, SHE seems to like it."

And I'm definitely getting some buzz, like an email from Ottawa Magazine, which is cool. Which I'm not ready for, but is pushing me to have more momentum.

Faster, it's all right.

I'm in discussions with Winterlude, and though that'll be cold, I'll be cooking in the commercial kitchen and using the truck as a sales space with floor insulation and some extra heat. Just gotta get me a kitchen and some minions child labour employees. And some sales!

The Days are Just Packed

Well.  It has been a while...  What the heck has happened to the first half of August, you may ask, what the heck?
The first week on the month was spent at the  Dharma Center, cooking for around twenty meditators, who, considering they were mostly doing a lot of sitting (plus very slow walking and some standing) were remarkably hungry. I tenderly referred to them as my hungry ghosts and my little flock of locusts, as there never seemed to be any leftovers!  As is often the case at the DC, everyone but me and the teachers were in silence, so I got some lovely quiet time to reconnect with my spirit and the deeper reasons I love to cook. It really makes a difference in supporting people, and I do think that we are so frequently disconnected from our food that we are disconnected from our bodies.  This idea needs a whole post to explore, and I will do that soon...
  It was a joy to use a lot of the produce from the land to feed the people meditating on the land. There really can't be anything bad in that...  I made three of these Swiss Chard Tarts, based loosely on a Canadian Living Recipe.  

I also got to work with a whole lot of green beans, and came up with this blanched green bean, tomato and almond salad in a straightforward lemon honey mustard vinagrette.  It looked as though someone had licked the bowl at the end of the service.  Everything that had just come out of the garden was devoured. 

When I've been asked about how the cooking went, though, I generally refer to these little pillows of joy... One of my greatest cooking joys is always to make something I've never even imagined making before, and I made 48 of these babies- 24 spelt and 24 whole wheat, based on this recipe and the extensive comments.  They were gorgeous.  I was proud.   

They really had pockets.  The next time I go, one of the young woman who goes there regularly is going to volunteer with me in the kitchen to learn how to cook- this makes me very happy, as I so love to teach and I feel like I will be spreading a bit of my knowledge.  

Home last week, and the work on the truck began.  Suffice it to say, I will never, ever eat at a chip truck again without a quick walkabout and a very thorough peer through the window and an inquiry about lard.  It was pretty gross.  Thanks be that my little bro was there with me, cleaning and removing stuff, opening doors and scraping grease, or I would have been a mess of tears and degreaser.   We think it can work, but it is going to be tight, I tells ya... The truck goes.  It doesn't stop, but it goes.  


Here are actual pics of the truck.  The real truck.  It's still near Cornwall.  It still needs a ton of work.  But it's coming closer to being here.  They're from the still-rocking-my-world iPhone. 

 Another little catering gig on Friday, and then a party this weekend and my birthday (which was absolutely lovely- thank you Denise, Dave, Maggie, Mom, Wes and everyone who helped me celebrate).  I am weeks behind in returning social phone calls, and have to finish getting the website up today, but am feeling really positive after a two days without actual working.  The work begins again this week, with getting the truck here and really working to find a spot and getting it set up so I can get permits and get cooking... Going to try to network my way to a spot, and I just know it will work out. Well.  I just desperately hope it will work out.  And work on it.  Off to finish the website!