The Soup Topic (2007–2012)

[phatj]

I would like suggestions for a duck soup.

I'm doing a "Duck Three Ways" dinner and intend one of the ways to be soup, utilizing meat picked from the carcass after I've removed the legs and the breasts. The rest of the meal will feature potstickers with confited leg meat, shiitakes & scallions, and seared breast over green salad with an orange-balsamic dressing, and also potatoes roasted in duck fat. So I'd a soup where the duck shines, but isn't too similar to something else.

I'm leaning towards a cream of duck type thing, but am open to other ideas.

[heidih]

I would like suggestions for a duck soup.

I'm doing a "Duck Three Ways" dinner and intend one of the ways to be soup, utilizing meat picked from the carcass after I've removed the legs and the breasts. The rest of the meal will feature potstickers with confited leg meat, shiitakes & scallions, and seared breast over green salad with an orange-balsamic dressing, and also potatoes roasted in duck fat. So I'd a soup where the duck shines, but isn't too similar to something else.

I'm leaning towards a cream of duck type thing, but am open to other ideas.

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Years ago when I used to do a similar thing, I found that a simple intense consomme was really nice. Using the carcass and additional duck wings if needed for the liquid. The only add-in were very thinly cut fresh egg noodles (dropped in hot water just for a minute or so before adding to the serving dish & then liquid poured over), plus a sprinkle of minced herb of choice just as served. The aroma fills your nose as you start the meal and makes you hungry for more of that duckiness.

[phatj]

Heidi, I think that's the sort of thing I would target if I could, but I've had trouble getting my duck stock intense enough, at least without reducing it so much there isn't enough for soup.

I'm leaning now towards an adaptation of this recipe for Roasted Tomato & Garlic Bisque, using a little highly-reduced stock in place of some of the wine, and serving with browned bits of duck floated and also duck cracklings sprinkled on top.

Thoughts?

[heidih]

Heidi, I think that's the sort of thing I would target if I could, but I've had trouble getting my duck stock intense enough, at least without reducing it so much there isn't enough for soup.

I'm leaning now towards an adaptation of this recipe for Roasted Tomato & Garlic Bisque, using a little highly-reduced stock in place of some of the wine, and serving with browned bits of duck floated and also duck cracklings sprinkled on top.

Thoughts?

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It sounds like it would taste good, but it would not necessarily be "ducky". Like the duck would get lost. Have you considered roasting the duck parts before making stock to get a more tasty base as well as using extra parts from an Asian market (they always have duck wings). I just love the simple deep consomme and I guess I want you to enjoy it too.

[phatj]

Heidi, I think that's the sort of thing I would target if I could, but I've had trouble getting my duck stock intense enough, at least without reducing it so much there isn't enough for soup.

I'm leaning now towards an adaptation of this recipe for Roasted Tomato & Garlic Bisque, using a little highly-reduced stock in place of some of the wine, and serving with browned bits of duck floated and also duck cracklings sprinkled on top.

Thoughts?

←

It sounds like it would taste good, but it would not necessarily be "ducky". Like the duck would get lost. Have you considered roasting the duck parts before making stock to get a more tasty base as well as using extra parts from an Asian market (they always have duck wings). I just love the simple deep consomme and I guess I want you to enjoy it too.

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Thanks again, Heidi. Roasting the carcass sounds like a good idea, but I'd rather avoid buying extra duck parts, both because of cost and because I like the idea that all the duck for this meal comes from a single bird.

Also, I really think I want a cream-based soup, as the rest of the meal is on the light side. Maybe if I omit the tomato and just do a roasted garlic bisque it wouldn't overwhelm the duck?

[suzilightning]

snow...and ice storm this last thursday. johnnybird made it home by about 4 pm.

sweet potato soup (onion, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, garlic, olive oil, homemade chicken stock, salt and pepper, savory and marjoram) topped with crisped andouille sausage and a dusting of smoked paprika.

Edited December 15, 2007 by suzilightning (log)

[phatj]

I did a test run of the bisque I described upthread, substituting chicken for duck, figuring that if the roasted tomato and garlic didn't overwhelm the chicken, then the more assertive flavor of duck would come through loud and clear.

It wasn't super chickeny, but really, really tasty. I should note that I didn't have time to reduce the chicken stock as much as I would have liked, which obviously would have boosted the flavor.

All in all I'm pretty pleased. I have documented my recipe here. Unfortunately, I took no pictures.

[Pontormo]

Last year, I resolved to walk more and in the spirit of the original Pontormo, keep track of everything I ate for the sake of losing weight. I did and I did.

While I'd rather listen to organ music than diet, I followed some advice for losing weight, including a recommendation to fill up on soup. Here's the resulting inventory:

SOUPS OF 2007

• Lentil minestrone w rice and chard

• Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Mirepoix, butternut squash, red lentils, paprika,

pimenton and stock; half puréed.

• Cappelletti en brodo with Parmesan

• Escarole soup made w leftovers including chicken & angel hair pasta

• Black bean soup w dab light sour cream

• Carrot-fennel soup w dill (onions, turnip, red lentils, broth, white wine…)

• Miso soup w soba, tofu, shitake, gingerroot, scallions, asparagus & carrots

• Parsnip soup w leeks, cannellini & arugula; drizzle of EVOO

• Lemongrass chicken soup w ginger

Fish sauce, lemon, red chili, rice noodles, asparagus, garlic,

kaffir leaves, carrot & shitake

• Snert (Dutch split pea soup)

• Apple-rutabaga soup (based on Patrick O'Connell's recipe)

• Beef and mushroom-barley soup (leftover stew)

• Pho w Tai flavors

• Tomato-beet soup w Indian spices & swirl light sour cream

• Caldo verde w Mexican chorizo

• Ginger chicken soup w bok choy

• Boiled Kale (Zuni Cookbook)

With poached egg & garlic-rubbed toast. Half of liquid chicken broth (vs. water), extra onion,

roasted pepper garnish & Pecorino

• Vegetarian chili w pinto beans and tomatoes

• Soup w leftover Venetian meatballs, reduced sauce, egg, scallion, lemongrass & rice

• Asparagus soup (purée but no cream)

• Chicken soup w artichoke, mushrooms & asparagus (leftover fricassee plus)

• Carrot-red lentil soup

• Soup of Romano beans, brown rice, collards, Italian plum tomatoes, etc.

• Paula Wolfert's soup from Le Marche w barley, arugula, prosciutto & kohlrabi

• Mushroom barley soup w fennel (and other vegetarian variations later in year)

• Mushroom soup w lentils, collard greens, grated Romano

• Celery & rice soup

• Chowder w cod, bacon, etc. (Mark Bittman)

• Stockpot dinner of chicken shreds, carrots & onion w Fleur de sel & lots of pepper

• Sunchoke soup

• Curried sweet potato soup w ginger & lime

• Asparagus soup w rice & pancetta from Zuni Café Cookbook

• Scotch Broth (made from leftover Calabrese lamb shoulder chops)

• Risi e bisi using leftover broth from mussels

• Chilled green gazpacho

Cucumber, baguette, maro, spring onions, red & Jalapeño chilies,

yogurt, chicken broth, EVOO, champagne vinegar

• Lamb soup w lentils, onion, greens, parsley, lemon, rice & cooked tomato paste

• Black bean chili w red onion, scallion, cilantro, cheese & sour cream

• Corn chowder w bacon & red bell peppers

• Taratour—cucumber yogurt soup w mint and walnut-garlic pesto w T EVOO

• Spicy Mexican chicken soup w summer vegetables

Rick Bayless recipe w roasted chicken thighs marinated w green chilies, lime & EVOO.

Roasted corn, tomatoes, more lime, potato, patty-pan squash & carrot

• Tomato soup w rice & roasted peppers (Based on Local Flavors)

• Cucumber-yogurt soup w chives

• Roasted beet soup w lime (dreadful improv)

• Breese's mushroom soup (Greens, modified)

• Cauliflower soup w leeks

• French lentil soup

Lulu's w tons of garlic, modified w Parmesan rind, smoked bacon, arugula,

balsamic vinegar

and grated Romano—thin & glorious

• Flageolet soup w cannellini, onions, braised fennel and Parmesan

• Chicken soup w arugula, garlic & potato

• Cardi in brodo: cardoons in Christmas soup from Abruzzo w tiny meatballs

• Kaboucha soup w ginger and lime

• Kaboucha soup w cider, sage & stock (better)

• Double Celery Soup (adapted Greens recipe)

• Chickpea-farro soup

W 'ncapriata (dried fava purée), plum tomatoes

& vegetarian stocks

• Pumpkin red-lentil soup with onion relish (Nigel Slater)

• Minestrone w borlotti, farro and chard

• Turnip soup w thyme

[divalasvegas]

Last year, I resolved to walk more and in the spirit of the original Pontormo, keep track of everything I ate for the sake of losing weight.  I did and I did. 

While I'd rather listen to organ music than diet, I followed some advice for losing weight, including a recommendation to fill up on soup.  Here's the resulting inventory:

SOUPS OF 2007

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Thanks Pontormo for documenting all of your adventures in soup for 2007. Your list gives me some great ideas. I love soup and as you say it's a great dieter's aid. Any guidance on getting out of the habit/rut of making huge quantities of soup and perfecting small batch soup making is appreciated, especially now since I recently moved back to Arlington (thank God), I'm house sharing and refrigerator space is tight.

[Chufi]

wow you had some good soup! this list is giving me some great ideas for flavor combos and ofcourse I'm especially thrilled to see this one

• Snert (Dutch split pea soup)

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one that's really speaking to me is apple rutabaga. Might give that a try later this week!

Edited January 2, 2008 by Chufi (log)

[Pille]

That's a great and inspirational list of soups, Pontormo! Thank you!

Not sure if it's still ok to post soup ideas here, or whether we should start a Soup Time 2008 thread, but last night we enjoyed Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish for dinner:

[mizducky]

That's a truly awesome list, Pontormo.

I hereby confess that the easily-amused four-year-old in me is giggling over the sound of the word "snert." From what I see in Google, it looks like a lovely soup too. I was craving some pea soup recently, so I may well try my hand at a little snerting.

[Chufi]

That's a truly awesome list, Pontormo.

I hereby confess that the easily-amused four-year-old in me is giggling over the sound of the word "snert."  From what I see in Google, it looks like a lovely soup too. I was craving some pea soup recently, so I may well try my hand at a little snerting.

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mizducky - this is a good recipe, if I say so myself Dutch split pea soup

Oh and the 'e' in snert is pronounced like the 'e' in when... I hope that still amused the 4-year-old in you!

and I think we should start a new soupthread for 2008!

[monavano]

Here's a soup I made which had a New Year's theme, combining lentils with sausage- themed after cotechino con lentichhie. I used Polish kielbasa instead. The soup maintained it's texture I think due to the addition of tomatoes (read that somewhere).

Lentil Soup with Kielbasa

[hummingbirdkiss]

We had a monumental tragedy strike us in November ... I have not cooked anything much it two months ..we are run down, put on some weight and feel like crap ..time to pull us out of this ...our situation in life is not going to go away we have to learn to live in a different world now but healing has begun .and with that I have been inching my way back into my kitchen and trying to cook some ...life must go on I guess and the quality of it has to do with how we approach it ...

so...

yesterday I woke up to a beautiful rainbow and felt the best I have felt in what seems like ages!

Caldo De Res was the most comforting, healthy, soulful, thumb sucking hair twirling dish I could think of to make for my frist really big meal

and with that the help of a friend who coached me through this (thank you Chef) ....made a huge pot of soup... this in turn gave me the idea that perhaps folks should actually come over and help us eat this labor of love...company is nice when you make food

Caldo De Res my recipe/method

there are tons of great recipes for this soup/stew but I just work with what is fresh and available ..my list of ingredients are as follows ..quantities not specific mix and match as you go for sure

The Meat

a large chuck roast cut into huge pieces

beef short ribs

The Vegetables

Carrots

Celery

Onions

Garlic

red bell peppers

corn on the cob

potatoes

yuca

green bananas

tomatoes ( I used to large cans one of Cento whole plum and one of diced)

the seasonings

cumin seed

coriander seed

pepper corns whole and coarsely cracked

dried chipotle

bay leaves

DC Kosher salt

1-2 pkts of Sazon con cilantro y achiote

3 cubes of Knorr Caldo De Res

local Merlot

the method

I cut the vegetables I make three piles

Pile 1

the sofrito it is tiny diced tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, red bell pepper slow cooked the most essential part of a good Caldo ..I cook everything down slowly in lots of olive oil ..until it can go through the food mill then I cook it and cook it and cook it until it is more oil then paste ..this is how it should look for this soup ...

Pile 2

larger cut vegetables (reserve the bananas, potatoes and yuca then they go into the soup pot at the end)

I roast the vegetables with the spices and meat (about 475) until meat is browned ..stir around once or twice... take the meat out put it in the strained simmering stock ....add the corn on the cob slices to the roasting pan and roast again until the corn is a little scorched ..(roasting it is a good way of making frozen corn perk up for this dish it also keeps the identity of all the vegetables intact)

Pile 3

trimmings for the stock pot ..since it takes most of the morning to make a perfect sofrito from scratch might as well use all the extras for the stock at the same time and waste nothing ...strain your stock when the meat is browned

in the stock pot you can add whatever you like I used the trimmings, bay leaves ...a spoon of the spices used for roasting,... couple of cups of Merlot and a couple of cubs of Knorr Caldo De Res cubs..the packet of Sazon

so your sofrito is done and your broth is strained he meat is simmering until almost completely tender ..now you add the roasted vegetables, the potatoes, bananas, yuca. and the sofrito into the soup pot..do not boil this just bring it up to a high simmer and cook for about another 20 min or so until the potatoes/yuca are tender ..skim the fat off ..not all of it this soup needs the fatty goodness

serve with warmed corn tortillas, sliced limes, dried oregano, crushed dried red and chile pequin

this was not only great food ..wonderful company ....but the emotional healing was there as well ...hope you make this some day and thank you

Edited January 6, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Chufi]

hummingbirdkiss... thank you for sharing that with us.. I can really see how cooking something like that, can be part of a healing process. All that chopping, frying, simmering, and it must make the house smell wonderfull too!

[monavano]

Over the weekend I put together a quicky phake-out pho (sounds like a RRism). Chicken stock, star anise, ginger, miso, noodles, shitake mushrooms, lime and cilantro. Lots of cilantro-I like to graze on my pho

Edited January 8, 2008 by monavano (log)

[Anna N]

Today I made this pork and noodle soup and was amazed at how flavourful it was.

The recipe appealed to me for all the wrong reasons:

It was quick and dirty,

I had all the ingredients on hand,

I had some mystery pork in the freezer which I had labelled "pork ribs of some kind"!

So I simply bunged the still-frozen mystery pork in a pot, added the other ingredients, simmered the lot for a couple of hours while I did some housework and put the broth and pork in the 'fridge while I visited with a friend.

When I got home at lunch, I scooped the fat off the broth, returned it to a simmer, added the shredded pork and some noodles and had a quick and very tasty lunch.

I used Kikkoman's Premium Soy and a dry sherry as I did not have enough of the Chinese rice wine.

Sorry - no photos - I had not expected anything half as good as this turned out to be.

[ludja]

...

...

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Thanks for sharing your recipe for Caldo de Res, hummingbirdkiss! It sounds and looks wonderful. It sounds like a great January dish to make. Hope your days are a bit brighter as well; I'm sure your food will help the whole household.

[Norman Walsh]

I once cooked chicken soup and stuffed dumplings from a recipe on EG and now I cannot find it.

It also had a pictorial guide of the whole proccess. If I remember correctly the dumplings were stuffed with a mixture of chicken and potatoes.

I would be very grateful if anyone could point me to that menu.

Norm

[petite tête de chou]

I once cooked chicken soup and stuffed dumplings from a recipe on EG and now I cannot find it.

It  also had a pictorial guide of the whole proccess. If I remember correctly the dumplings were stuffed with a mixture of chicken and potatoes.

I would be very grateful if anyone could point me to that menu.

Norm

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Are these the links you're looking for?

eGCI Demo: Chicken Soup

eGCI Demo: Meat Kreplach

[suzilightning]

how i used the bones from our New Year's roast: make broth!

saute the aromatics and add herbs

add the stock back and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

add drained and rinsed white beans, zucchini, precooked macaronis and kale

top with some shaved asiago and some hot sauce

[Norman Walsh]

Thanks Meat Kreplach was the one.

Norm

[C. sapidus]

Inspired by everyone's lovely and varied creations, we rekindled our search for good soup that can be made start to finish on a weeknight. Tonight, we added one to our (very short) list: pureed hearts of palm soup, from Zarela’s Veracruz.

This was simple to make and very popular with the family. We chopped and sauteed garlic, canned hearts of palm, and three bunches worth of scallion whites, and then pureed everything in a blender. We mixed the puree with chicken stock (we added a bay leaf), warmed everything through, and adjusted seasoning. Before serving, we stirred in three bunches of chopped scallion greens. Leftover rice and small pasta shells were available to be mixed in as desired.

Pureed hearts of palm soup (crema de palmitos)

[monavano]

Thai carrot soup with peanuts and cilantro.