Light a fire in the evening and eat soup all night long
By Scott Mason, Owner/Chef of Ketchum Grill where autumnal dishes are being served nightly
Autumn is by far my favorite time of the year in the Sun Valley area. Yes, autumn, with her crisp, clear mountain days and nights flirting with winter’s extremes. So robust and so graceful, with her hues of golds, reds and greens, creating the transition from summer to winter. The first scent of a neighbors pine fire and a child’s excitement at a trip to the pumpkin patch are part of the autumn season which I love. The sounds of mallards winging near and the autumn feeling inside that the work of summer needs only to be canned and put away. I know, when a hearty dark porter satisfies as sublime reward following a long afternoon ride that autumn is here.
Autumn more than any other time of year helps to keep me centered on the good and simple things in the kitchen; Both in taste and technique. The desire to create becomes almost overwhelming for me in autumn. Yet still, I return and taste for the things of past autumns. First to memory, the hearty white bean and ham soup that my father used to make on Sundays after hunting and the corn bread with honey my mom made to accompany. An earthly lentil and sausage soup embodies all that is autumn to me, evoking thoughts of a warm fire, a wool blanket, Malbec, and a log home with the first snow falling on the shivering aspens. You may ask how I get all that from a bowl of lentil soup? Make a bowl, light a fire, and enjoy the best time of the year and you may see too.
An entire meal can be made around this soup by adding a crusty Big Wood sour dough bread, red wine and a fresh green salad as accompaniments.
Ingredients: serves 6
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 spicy, smoked sausage, sliced
2 cups lentils
1 bay leaf
1-teaspoon thyme
2 cloves chopped garlic
1-tablespoon paprika
1/2-teaspoon anise seed
1/2-cup tomato paste
8 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Heat olive oil in heavy bottomed soup pot. Add onion, pepper, garlic and sausage, sauté briefly over medium heat. Add lentils, bay leaf, thyme, paprika, and anise and tomato paste. Stir until mixed, and add chicken stock. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook covered until lentils are tender (about an hour). Check and salt to taste. Serve Hot.
If you have questions about this dish or other autumn dishes, ask them below. In between cooking up those dishes myself, I’ll answer them.
About Scott Mason:
Scott and his wife Ann Mason have owned and operated the Ketchum Grill since 1991 and that little place in the mountains called the Ketchum Grill has pulled in more celebrities, foodies and mostly just regular folks than you‘d care shake your stick near. “I’m not sure why they come… I just cook it and they do” And it’s no wonder why. An award winning wine list, food tasty enough to eat every night and reasonable enough for an average Joe to play big spender. Snow Country Magazine chose Ketchum Grill as 1 of the “8 best Ski town restaurants” with “food rivaling Manhattan’s best.” Book reservations online or call 208-726-4660. For directions, click here.
And The American Dairy Counsel chose Scott to be one of their Premiere Chefs of America 1997 spokes people . “I love to cook, I love to eat. What more can I say”
As a simple analogy Scott relates trends in food and taste to trends in music… “Mozart and good wine here to stay…the Beatles and Organic Produce staying too…. Back Street Boys and Snail Caviar… only time will tell.”
Read more about Scott, Ann and the Ketchum Grill here.
