Soup-lovers

[mccardey]

Originally Posted by SaraP

I make veggie soup almost every week and have never followed a recipe.

Fine for veggie soup, but if you do that with ribollita, you leave out the juniper. Which is where I was going wrong.

[mccardey]

I got a translation up for the recipe. I can't make it myself, till I'm back at home in my kitchen - but I think it should work.

If it doesn't, it's my fault, not Elena's. I'm going to learn Italian next year.... *blush*

[TedTheewen]

A few weeks ago I made the best split pea and leek soup I've ever made. It was seriously faboo.

I'm trying to get out of the habit of using smoked ham hocks because of the grease. Next time I'll try smoked neck bones in cheese cloth. But recently I found some ham base at the local Mennonite bulk foods store and I have to say, it worked well as an enhancer. I normally avoid the freeze-dried bases because of the salt but this one wasn't that bad. No label on it, sadly.

I love to use The Soup Book by Louis P. DeGouy. It has some great dumpling recipes, too. I recently made some chicken and dumplings but I used my grandmother's recipe.

[Silver King]

When I'm pressed for time or feeling too lazy to make chowder from scratch, I resort to a fast, simple recipe that is flavorful and satisfying. Below is an example using shrimp, which can be substituted for other types of fish and even cooked chicken or turkey if you have any on hand.

Ingredients:

1 medium, or half of a large, onion chopped

2 tablespoon butter

2 (10 3/4 oz) cans condensed cream of potato soup

3 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 lbs medium shrimp, frozen and thawed or fresh, peeled and de-veined and cut into halves.

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Preparation:

Saute the chopped onion in butter for a few minutes over medium heat until soft. While that's cooking, empty the cans of potato soup into a large bowl, then whisk in milk until smooth. Add the mixture and pepper to the onions and bring to a gentle boil. Stir in shrimp and reduce heat to barely a simmer. The shrimp should turn pink in color within three to four minutes, showing they are cooked through. Remove chowder from heat, stir in cheese and serve immediately with chopped parsley sprinkled on top.

Serves three to four.

Note I: Don't overcook the shrimp! Less time is better than too much in most fish recipes.

Note II: When your dinner guests compliment you on such a fine chowder, there's no need to tell them that it took you, from start to finish, about twenty minutes to make.

[Medievalist]

Originally Posted by Sarita

I was inspired and made Italian Wedding soup. Yum. Homemade meat balls, loads of spinach, it was soooo good. Thanks for the idea!

Recipe or it didn't happen!

(Please?)

[TedTheewen]

I dearly love a good Italian soup. The spicier the better!

[shakeysix]

I'm a pozole freak--anyone else? --s6

[TedTheewen]

Originally Posted by shakeysix

I'm a pozole freak--anyone else? --s6

I love pozole! I can't get it around here, though. Eventually I'm gonna have to venture on my own to make it. And it has to have fresh chopped Jalapenos on the side!

[L M Ashton]

I had tom yum soup. I'm sick. I have a cold. I've been eating nothing but soup for days.

[shakeysix]

Im lucky enough to live in an area where I can get my pozole fix in local restaurants. I first had it in Puebla while I was going to school there. I like the cabbage and lime add- ins best. We are in a blizzard today but when I get back to school I'll see if I can get an authentic recipe from one of my Mexican friends. I know it involves hominy and peppers, which is okay with me, but not sure how the pork comes into the soup.

They serve chicken soup at the local Mexican restaurants, too. I'm craving it on a day like today but I'd have to drive to get it. Not tortilla soup, which is good too, but huge chunks of chicken, peppers and avocados in a broth that varies from restaurant to restaurant.

I did make up a hamburger soup last night--fresh mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, frozen corn and peas. I found the recipe in Taste of Home years ago. The original recipe was for two servings--perfect when my dad was living with me. I stretched the recipe this time--this is the best soup for sitting out a blizzard and walk shoveling! -s6

[Sarita]

Originally Posted by Medievalist

Recipe or it didn't happen!

(Please?)

Absolutely! Give me until tonight and you'll have it.

[Sarita]

Originally Posted by Medievalist

Recipe or it didn't happen!

(Please?)

Ok, here we go. The recipe I used was adapted from this EDF magazine. But I'm never happy with a recipe as-is.

Meatballs:

1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Combine and roll into small meatballs. I actually doubled this so that I had an extra batch to toss in the freezer. I hate making (er, cleaning) the mess, so I try to make more than one meal at a time

For the Soup, I really went another direction:

Olive Oil for sauteing
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 Carrots, chopped
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
12 oz Baby Spinach (or Kale, I went 1/2 & 1/2)
8 Cups Chicken Stock (I used Wegman's Organic brand because I was out of my own)
1 Cup of Orzo Pasta
1 Sprig of Thyme, tied to the side of my pot


In a medium cast iron pot, saute onions for 3 minutes, then add the carrots and celery. Saute for another 4 minutes until onions are translucent. Add stock and thyme. Bring to a low boil and add the meatballs, one at a time, careful they don't stick. Once the heat comes back up, add the pasta and cook for 10-12 minutes. I added the greens just before serving because I like a little more crunch, but you could add them about 3-4 minutes before serving if you like them more wilted.

Top with Parm and serve. Yum.

[Jersey Chick]

Every time I roast a chicken (which is fairly often) I make stock from the leftover carcass, so I always have a TON of chicken stock in my freezer. The two soups I make most often are garlic soup and tomato fennel.

I love me a good soup.

[Sarita]

Originally Posted by Jersey Chick

Every time I roast a chicken (which is fairly often) I make stock from the leftover carcass, so I always have a TON of chicken stock in my freezer. The two soups I make most often are garlic soup and tomato fennel.

I love me a good soup.

Me, too. Only, I make so much soup and use it in many other applications, that I use it up really quickly. Home made stock is the bomb!

[Jersey Chick]

I go through almost as fast as I make it. When Hurricane Irene hit and we lost power, I lost all of what I had in the freezer and that upset me more than throwing out all the other food.

[Ketzel]

Ha! I can so relate. When the blizzard took out the power at my house a couple of weeks ago, the only things I bothered to pack into plastic bags and bury in the snow bank outside my kitchen window were the ice cube trays full of homemade chicken and fish stock.

[Stacia Kane]

Hee, I save my carcasses until I have too many to keep in the freezer, and then make a huge batch of stock, too.

Do you guys save the gizzards and stuff for the stock, too? I admit I always toss them. Apparently livers can make the stock taste "off." I do occasionally buy a few thighs or offcuts to simmer in there, too, though.

[Jersey Chick]

I throw out the gizzards and neck - ew. I can't make myself even touch the baggie - I use tongs. What a wuss I am.


Last Thanksgiving, I planned on saving the turkey carcass and making turkey stock, but I found out none of my knives (which suck on a good day. Dear Santa, please bring me new knives) were sharp enough to get through the bones and I don't have a stock pot big enough to stuff a 20lb turkey carcass in (Dear Santa, a BIG stock pot would be nice, too.)

[RedRajah]

We tried this Thai Butternut Soup a couple of nights ago. Not bad. Got to use up my homemade chicken stock for it.

I'm still trying to tweak my stock recipe. Last time out, I didn't use enough chicken feet for it, so it wasn't as rich as I usually like it. Likewise, I didn't roast my bones as I wanted to go for a lighter color.

[Silver King]

Originally Posted by Jersey Chick

...Last Thanksgiving, I planned on saving the turkey carcass and making turkey stock, but I found out none of my knives (which suck on a good day. Dear Santa, please bring me new knives) were sharp enough to get through the bones...

A good, sharp meat cleaver can be used to chop through bone more easily than most knives.

Also, if your knives are of decent quality, honing them often with a sharpening steel will help to keep them in top form almost indefinitely without the need to replace them.

The best quality kitchen knives I've ever purchased were for my daughter as one of her gifts when she was married. Within a year, all of them had been misused to the point where they couldn't cut through the crap of a conversation, let alone soft meat.

She blamed her husband for their sorry state, but either way, it was sad to see great cutlery abused and wasted in such a fashion.

[RedRajah]

Originally Posted by Silver King

A good, sharp meat cleaver can be used to chop through bone more easily than most knives.

Also, if your knives are of decent quality, honing them often with a sharpening steel will help to keep them in top form almost indefinitely without the need to replace them.

The best quality kitchen knives I've ever purchased were for my daughter as one of her gifts when she was married. Within a year, all of them had been misused to the point where they couldn't cut through the crap of a conversation, let alone soft meat.

She blamed her husband for their sorry state, but either way, it was sad to see great cutlery abused and wasted in such a fashion.

I keep trying to correct the husband as to which knife to use when, but the lesson has yet to stick. We've already lost the tip off of one of the steak knives (!) when he used it to cut up a raw onion.

[Haggis]

I don't do soups. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm not good at them. Except for lobster stew.

But I had this idea of a chicken stock based soup with leeks and celery, perhaps some cream, and then some added Stilton cheese. Can any of you soup makers help me here? Is this workable?

[TedTheewen]

Originally Posted by Haggis

I don't do soups. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm not good at them. Except for lobster stew.

But I had this idea of a chicken stock based soup with leeks and celery, perhaps some cream, and then some added Stilton cheese. Can any of you soup makers help me here? Is this workable?

I love Stilton! There is a wonderful cheese shop near me (of course) that gets Stilton imported from England. I'll look to see about a Stilton soup.

Are you looking for a cheese soup, similar to a cheddar soup? Or are you looking for perhaps a puffy cheese dumping to go with the soup?

Tonight I'm going to experiment with a new dumpling recipe that includes an egg. Normally I have avoided those but according to the book I mentioned previously in this thread adding an egg will make the dumpling more airy.

[Stacia Kane]

Originally Posted by TedTheewen

Are you looking for a cheese soup, similar to a cheddar soup? Or are you looking for perhaps a puffy cheese dumping to go with the soup?

This is my question, too. I'm not a fan of Stilton (or any blue cheese/really strong cheese) so can't say how well it might melt into a soup; I've never cooked with it. But my first thought was to do something like:

saute/sweat the leeks and celery in a bit of butter & olive oil. I'd suggest maybe Herbs de Provence here, too; I think they'd be nice. I'd also suggest some potatoes, maybe, if you're looking to add something to give it more substance?

Then add your stock, and simmer for a bit, then add cream and blend well, and simmer for a bit.

Again, I don't know if here you'd add cubes/crumbles of Stilton and let them melt in, or if you'd like to do something like a French Onion soup, where you pop croutons on the top, cover them with cheese, and stick it under the broiler to melt it? Or, yeah, like a cheesy dumpling?

Tonight I'm going to experiment with a new dumpling recipe that includes an egg. Normally I have avoided those but according to the book I mentioned previously in this thread adding an egg will make the dumpling more airy.

Eh. I tried a dumpling recipe once that included egg, and wasn't at all pleased with the result. They were pretty stodgy. An egg can really give bread richness and lift, though--I came up with a new bread recipe a few weeks ago and have been making it pretty obsessively since, and it includes an egg--so it may have just been the recipe I tried.

Do let us know how it turns out!

[Jersey Chick]

Originally Posted by Silver King

A good, sharp meat cleaver can be used to chop through bone more easily than most knives.

Also, if your knives are of decent quality, honing them often with a sharpening steel will help to keep them in top form almost indefinitely without the need to replace them.

The best quality kitchen knives I've ever purchased were for my daughter as one of her gifts when she was married. Within a year, all of them had been misused to the point where they couldn't cut through the crap of a conversation, let alone soft meat.

She blamed her husband for their sorry state, but either way, it was sad to see great cutlery abused and wasted in such a fashion.

They weren't great knives and I've had them almost 16 years (bridal shower gift) so I don't feel guilty about wanting new ones. They'll be a gift to me.

A cleaver is something I don't have. That will have to change, although I think the temptation to throw it at my husband might be too strong to resist at times.... just sayin'.