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This three pepper soup has a great presentation and smooth creamy flavor combination. 

Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 Stalk celery
• 1Carrot chopped
• 4 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• ¼ cup chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 4 roasted bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
• ¼ cup butter room temp

Saute onions, celery, carrots and garlic until soft and translucent, over medium high heat. Then add tomatoes, tomato paste, and sauté for two minutes stirring constantly.

Add red bell peppers and their juice, chili powder, cumin, simmer 5 minutes.

Add 1 quart of water, bring to a boil, then simmer for 35 minutes.

Blend  in blender in batches adding butter in 1 tablespoon at a time.  Strain through medium strainer. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Yellow Pepper Soup

• 1 cup fresh corn kernels
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 celery stalk chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped
• ¼ cup of butter room temp
• 4 yellow bell peppers, roasted peeled, and seeded

Saute corn, onions, celery, carrots, and garlic until soft and translucent.

Add roasted yellow peppers and their juice, sauté 5 minutes, then add 1 quart of water.  Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Blend in blender in batches adding butter 1 tablespoon at a time.

Strain through medium strainer.

Poblano Soup

• 1 onion chopped
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 carrot chopped
• 4 poblanos roasted seeded, and peeled
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Saute onions, celery, and carrots until soft and translucent, add poblanos, sauté 5 more minutes. Add ¾ quart water. Simmer 30 minutes. Blend, streaming in oil until completely combined. Strain.

View The Blacksmith Restaurant videos on YouTube. Thanks to Hans at Bluescreen Video & Film for video production.

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The Smoked White Bean Hummus compliments the Corriander Cured Beef adding a subtle smokey flavor.

• 4 cups cooked white northern beans
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup 2% milk
• 5 cloves roasted garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup canola or grape seed oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Set up a quick smoker with a heavy bottom pot large enough for a strainer or colander to just set inside but still have good clearance from the bottom. Place a few wood chips in some foil ( to protect the bottom of your pot) and place in the bottom of the pot. Put over high flame until wood chips begin to smoke.

Place cooked beans in strainer or colander and insert into pot. Cover with foil, and smoke for about three minutes. The beans should just barely get a little color from the smoke.

Remove beans and allow to cool.

Combine beans and remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

View The Blacksmith Restaurant videos on YouTube. Thanks to Hans at Bluescreen Video & Film for video production.

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Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of salt
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium shallots
• 1/3 cup coriander seed
• 1/4 cup black peppercorns
• 2 New York strip steaks

Combine all ingredients except steaks in food processor until a coarse paste is formed.

Completely cover steaks in paste and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Place in a casserole dish side by side, and weight with heavy cans, or other weight.  Put in fridge overnight.  Next day; turn steaks over, and weight again for another 24 hours.  Remove from plastic wrap, and remove cure. 

Slice thinly to serve. 

View The Blacksmith Restaurant videos on YouTube. Thanks to Hans at Bluescreen Video & Film for video production.

I developed the idea for New Ranch Cuisine when I was working as a Sous Chef at Star Canyon Restaurant, under Stephan Pyles.  We focused on Southwestern Cuisine, which I love.  Still, I wanted to create a cuisine that was influenced less by Mexican cooking and more by the traditions, the heritage, the techniques and ingredients of dishes common to farming and ranching communities at the turn of the century.  In this way, New Ranch Cuisine is closer to New American than Southwestern Cuisine. 

It’s more subtle than “cowboy cooking,” concentrating on the flavors and techniques from these areas and showing them off in a simple and modern way.  The cooking at the turn of the century in these communities was very pure and practical.  They cooked seasonally, and found ways to inject a lot of flavor into ingredients with seasoning, smoke and, often, curing. 

New Ranch Cuisine encompasses these techniques, and it conjures the images and emotions of the West: bold flavors that reflect the beauty and diversity of the American Landscape.