Dark Chocolate Orange Soup

The first of the lost soupisodes is here: Last Valentine's Day I had a lovely dinner with my friend Kelly, and she wrote most of what's below. Through a sad series of events that I'm even sadder than usual about today, I never ended up posting this blog at the time, but it's nice to reminisce on times full of fun and mouths full of chocolate. I can't find the recipe I used, so there's none included. I know I used really good chocolate, and fresh orange juice, and Grand Marnier, and cream-- can't really go wrong, I must say! Hope you've all had a happy Valentine's Day. Much, much love.

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Dark Chocolate Orange Soup. Listen, this isn't the most flattering photo I've ever put up here. But it's DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE SOUP with adorable little English muffin mascarpone and honey grilled cheese.

 What else is there to say?

SO GOOD.

JK there's totally plenty more to say. But for once, I'm gonna shut up and let my dinner date tell you about it! Change of pace! Trying new things! USA!

My Valentine's Day date was my dear friend Kelly, and we really did it up right. We danced, we talked, we laughed, we ate so much, and somehow neither of us cried!

Here's our evening, in Kelly's words (love you, Kelly! Thanks for writing!):

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When someone you’ve only met a few months prior comes up to you at a New Year’s Eve party and declares that she thinks the two of you should become best friends, then marches you over to the bar to buy you a glass of bourbon, you become best friends with that person.

And many years later, when you know that person is in the midst of her annual month-long soup-a-thon, you have no qualms about texting her to let her know that, should she decide to make a dessert soup, you’d be happy to enjoy a bowl. And when that sly self invite turns into an actual invite for a Valentine’s Day lady date, aka a GALentine’s Day date, in which a bowl of “alcoholic chocolate soup” will be served, you reply to that invitation in all caps with multiple exclamation points, even if you believe the use of multiple exclamation points is a horrible disease that has overtaken the planetary population.

Of course, she is Corrie, the Soupruary blogatrix. And you are me. And I am Kelly. And we are all made of stars.

Once we had decided to celebrate our friend-love on the day I traditionally spend alone on my couch watching terrible romantic comedies while eating an entire box of Russell Stover’s chocolates, telling myself that Valentine’s day is stupid while simultaneously wishing a handsome man would send me flowers, we set about planning our menu. As much as I would’ve enjoyed a meal solely comprised of chocolate soup and alcohol, Corrie thought we should have a “healthy” dinner first. This is where I inform you that Corrie’s refrigerator is usually full of fresh vegetables and delicious organic foods and mine is usually stocked with wine, cottage cheese, lunchmeat and about 150 bottles of nail polish.

Because we both love a good themed meal, especially if it’s the same theme as a Top Chef challenge, we decided our Galentine’s menu should have a “Saints and Sinners” theme. I declared I would contribute a cocktail (because of course I did) and a veggie-based appetizer. And Corrie said that, in addition to the already settled upon soup of chocolate, she would create a main dish of fish. And we would enjoy it in a house with a mouse while watching kittens try to put on mittens.

I set about deciding what my cocktail and appetizer should be and, after reading several recipes, I found two that required very few ingredients, all of which were not hard to find at my local Kroger, and were easy to assemble.

My contributions to the menu were:

The cocktail: The Queen of Hearts

The appetizer: Feta and Radish Toasts

The first thing I did upon arriving at Corrie’s, after taking off my coat and hugging the hostess, was to get the booze going. After delighting Corrie with a dramatic reading of the brilliant copywriting on the side of the tiny bottle of St. George Botanivore gin I brought (there were a lot of metaphors about a symphony orchestra), I got things shaking. The cocktail turned out to be quite delicious: It was a little bit sweet, a little bit floral, a little bit dry (just like us! HEYOOOO.) Now that I’ve discovered the joy of wine-infused simple syrup (you make it like you would a regular simple syrup, just swap out the water for wine, Jesus-style), I have decided to have it on hand at all times, maybe even to add to my iced tea in the summer.

Cocktails prepared, it was time to get the food show on the road. Corrie began preparation of the main course, which was halibut with Brussels sprouts and celery root purée. I’m not going to even try to pretend to explain anything about how she prepped that dish because I wasn’t paying attention. I was too busy trying to prepare my appetizer whilst already being a little drunk after one cocktail (I swear it was because I hadn’t eaten all day.).

So, this appetizer: I chose it because I remembered Corrie once mentioning she had a fondness for radishes. Also, the recipe has only one instruction, which is basically to toast the bread then put all the things on top of it, and that seemed like something I could handle after two cocktails. Because I’m lazy, I bought a loaf of pre-sliced bread from the grocery store bakery. I just slathered several slices with olive oil, put them on a cookie sheet and bunged them in the oven (“Bung” and its variations are commonly used by Nigella Lawson and I like to sometimes pretend I’m her when I’m cooking. Often, I even speak in a British accent.). The recipe tells you to grill the bread using a cast-iron grill pan, but we decided that was a pain in the ass and toasting in the oven requires only that we don’t forget about it and burn it to croutons.

While the bread was toasting, I sliced up the radishes with one of Corrie’s fancy knives (and by “fancy,” I mean “sharp”) and we continued drinking and telling each other how glad we were to be spending the evening together (I do believe I declared us “sisters from another mother” multiple times). Oh, and there was dancing. I introduced Corrie to my new favorite artist, Lizzo, a Minneapolis-based rapper whom I saw at First Ave & 7th Street Entry last fall during a vacation to the Twin Cities. I highly recommend you check her out. Here’s a great place to start.

Once the bread was ready, the rest was easy: Layer of crumbled feta, layer of arugula (the supermarket didn’t have watercress, so I subbed and it was perfectly fine), layer of radishes, sprinkle of salt and pepper, drizzle of olive oil. And it was delightful. Simple but full of bright, fresh flavor. The saltiness of the feta matched perfectly with the bitter radishes and the peppery arugula. I made eight servings and we devoured all of them (not at once, though, because we are ladies).

Then it was time for the main course. And let me tell you, Corrie can prepare a meal of solid food just as well as she can a bowl of soup. The fish was perfectly cooked, the Brussels sprouts had just the right amount of seasoning and bite and the purée was a little bit of heaven. While we ate, we watched a couple of episodes of one of our favorite shows, the brilliantly funny Broad City (if you haven’t started watching that show yet, you need to re-evaluate your life choices) and admired each other’s footwear choices for the evening. It was probably one of the most enjoyable dinners I’ve had in a long time.

(Our footwear game was seriously on point. En pointe? Whatever.)

After cleaning up our plates and finishing off our cocktails, we determined it was time for dessert soup. We opened a bottle of red wine (we ran out of gin and champagne, so no more fancy cocktails) and I proceeded to talk and distract Corrie the entire time she was trying to make the chocolate booze soup. Sorry, not sorry.

Despite having a chatterbox in her kitchen, Corrie managed to finish the soup (which was absolutely divine--chocolate, Grand Marnier, sliced oranges. I wanted to go take a bath in it, but I figured that might get me disinvited from future Soupruary high jinks) and we settled back on the couch with it, our wine and a movie. Because we had decided to extend the “Saints and Sinners” theme to what we watched while we ate, we watched one horror movie (I am trying to ease Corrie into the world of horror, a genre of which she’s not the biggest fan) and one romantic comedy (a genre of which Corrie is a huge fan). Our horror choice was the holiday-appropriate My Bloody Valentine (the O.G. ‘80s version, not the crappy remake from a few years ago). This is one of my favorite ‘80s slasher movies and it was super fun to watch with someone who’s never seen it before, discovering new ridiculous elements of which to make fun. Mostly, though, our commentary focused on the amazing early-’80s fashion, hair and make-up.

(We both decided we would absolutely wear the entire outfit of the girl on the far left.)

Soup and horror movie eventually both ended, so then we had a crucial decision to make: Stay in and watch our chosen romantic comedy (Music & Lyrics, starring our boyfriend, Hugh Grant) or go out to the bar up the street. Corrie was tired and thought going out might wake her up. I was not in the mood to deal with a crowded bar and other people, so I voted we stay in. I won. Corrie did, however, eventually fall asleep. Hugh Grant is still mad at her. I, however, am not.