The Soup Topic (2007–2012)

[nliedel]

Last Wednesday evening after dinner I made Cream of Butternut Soup to serve to my bridge group at noon on Thursday.  Last fall I had printed out a recipe from Taste of Home and finally tried it.  My primary adjustment to the recipe was to use buttermilk, rather than the 1% milk called for in the recipe.  Besides getting those two butternut squash off the counter, it tasted really good.

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What? Buttermilk? Why the heck didn't I think of that? What a neat idea. I have two acorn squash and they're being made into soup tonight. I think the buttermilk is a brilliant idea.

[paulraphael]

This has been a big winter for me and soup. I can have soup for dinner every night when it's cold, and it's the perfect comfort food to freeze for my girlfriend, who works 80 hour weeks as an indentured servant (a.k.a. medical resident), in a neighborhood where the best local food comes from the hospital cafeteria.

I've been making 7 and 8 quart batches of hearty peasant soups; the kind that could pass for stew. Most of my recipes are variations on ones by James Peterson in his Splendid Soups book. My favorite is a moroccan lamb soup with tomatoes and dried apricots, served with cous cous. I've made variations with chicken, with and without tomato, and with beef. Also great are a chicken soup with apples and leeks, and a soup based on Hungarian goulash (paprikash).

No photographs yet ... been too busy eating.

[suzilightning]

yesterday...rain...cold wind...Alternate Minimum Tax form... the perfect day to make onion soup.

Just adding the chicken and beef broths

about an hour later with crackers and boursin

i tried the Cook's Illustrated version made in the oven. probably one of the best versions i have ever made.

[nakji]

Every time I walk by my local vegetable stand, I can't resist buying another bag of tomatoes. I've been watching them grow and ripen on the vine since the patch owner put them out - gosh, was it in May? I've been mentally rubbing my hands and say, "soon, my pretties, mwahaha".

Is there anything better than getting garden fresh tomatoes without all the work and heartbreak that goes into growing them yourself? And for 100 yen a bag, you can't go wrong.

Today I put several large ripe ones into my blender, along with some stale bread, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and sherry vinegar. Chilled, with a dollop of corn jumble salad, I had a great soup - in the style of gazpacho.

[petite tête de chou]

I love and even adore some the ingredients for gazpacho and similar chilled soups but I'm always reminded of salsa and that just *maybe* I should be looking for chips to eat it with instead of a spoon! I'm obviously in need of need schooling. Are there recommendations for a chilled soup that doesn't recall memories of a better-with-chips salsa, fruit topping or melon soup?

Edited July 29, 2008 by petite tête de chou (log)

[nakji]

Isn't vichyssoise a cold soup? I've never made it, but it's got potato, leek and onion, so it sounds quite good.

I always steer away from melon soup, too, since I don't really like melons.

I didn't really want to call my soup as gazpacho, since I don't think a real gazpacho has corn in it. It would have gone nicely with corn chips, though, now that you mention it - I don't see what would be wrong with that!

I fell in love with a cold soup in Korea called mul naeng myeon. It's a light beef broth that's been semi-frozen. Cold, chewy buckwheat noodles are nested in the middle, and garnished with julienned cucumber and nashi pear. It's topped off with a cold hard boiled egg and thin slices of boiled brisket. They bring it to your table with mustard and vinegar to season the broth, sesame seeds, and scissors to cut the noodles.

Once again, I lament the absence of a drool emoticon.

[Rover]

Thank you all so much for your savvy. recommendations, and bright ideas.  Pam, that's chicken soup just the way I like it. And fifi, I too, looked at my limited freezer space, now a wall of of stock and leftover soup and vowed: I can make less soup. I can cut that recipe in half.  I don't have a tableful of rosy-cheeked bairns and ancient grandfolk waiting to hear those lovely words: "Soup's on.!"  (I don't even own a tureen, but I want one now, barely a month and a half into my soup cycle.)

I am so delighted that I didn't decide to cut back on quantity before I made Nero's One of Each Soup -- for recipe read upthread.  It's name is way too simple and Midwestern; this is, far and away, the best recipe I've made so far -- and I've enjoyed all of them, and they were from some high toque dudes. It needs a name that implies a whiff of it's simplicity and exoticism: Potage a la Mode de Kalamazoo? Soupe Nero?

It is dead easy: Rough chop the fruits and veggies, simmer in stock till tender.  Puree (I used an immersion blender) add a little curry and salt and pepper. Enrich with cream. And you get a soup so fresh, so mysterious (I can taste the banana just because I know it's there) and so , well, unlike anything I've eaten before.

Notes: I did a stupid thing: I used a quart of stock instead of a pint of stock, so I had to simmer it down after I pureed it.  It was still probably not as thick as the correct version, so I added, maybe, half the cream.  And as we ate it we thought the same thing: Chilled, this might be the best cold soup ever imagined.

So I didn't freeze the leftovers.  I came home from work, pulled out the container, and found a spoon.  It might have been even better cold than hot.  I adore Vichyssoise and all the chilled tomato- based summer soups, but they don't come close. Really.  I think a little garnish of diced avocado would be pretty against the pale gold of the soup.

OK, this is a rave, but the Tuscan I live with tried it cold from the fridge tonight and said:"Absolutely delicious!"  He doesn't throw around superlatives.

Nero, I'll get you the Chimay pork recipe. Promise.

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Maggie - does one celery heart mean the inner, more tender stalks of celery from a bunch? or is it just one tender stalk? I've been dying to try this recipe and now have all ingredients in hand and don't want to screw it up.

Thanks

Rover

[jmbrightman]

Does anyone have Holly Moore's Snert recipe? I cut it out of the City Paper about 15 years ago. and now can't find my copy.

[prasantrin]

Does anyone have Holly Moore's Snert recipe?  I cut it out of the City Paper about 15 years ago. and now can't find my copy.

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He's a member of eG. Maybe you could PM him and beg him for it...

[pam claughton]

I made a simple tomato soup with red onions and cilantro stems, courtesy of Orangette's blog, and it's a keeper. It's so easy and delicious, and was even better the next day when I slipped some leftover haddock into a bowl of it, and then day after that, some shrimp. It comes together quickly and is light and fresh and if you double the jalapenos like I did, it has a nice little kick to it.

[dockhl]

Does anyone have Holly Moore's Snert recipe?  I cut it out of the City Paper about 15 years ago. and now can't find my copy.

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Don't have the recipe but the reference is here

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=611232

Post it when you get it?

[kayswv]

Does anyone have Holly Moore's Snert recipe?  I cut it out of the City Paper about 15 years ago. and now can't find my copy.

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Believe this is what you are looking for:

QUOTE(Holly Moore @ Nov 14 2008, 05:00 PM)

Here's the recipe from a 1991 column for the Philadelphia City Paper.

QUOTE

Melt some butter in a heavy stock pot, add two diced onions, two chopped celery stalks and four minced cloves of garlic. Saute until soft, about five minutes, and toss in the split peas. Cook for another five minutes. Then add a pound of smoked ham hocks, 6 cups of water and 2 cups of chicken broth along with a few bay leaves, salt and a hearty sprinkling of coarsely ground pepper, lots of pepper.

Simmer away, covered, for a couple of hours. Then remove the ham hocks and salvage the ham from the bones.

Now comes the fun part. Shun your Cuisinart or blender in favor of a wire mesh sieve. Pour some of the soup into the sieve and using the back of a spoon and a spatula, force it through the wire mesh into a bowl. Keep going until it's all pureed. Repeat the process a second time - much quicker and easier - from the bowl back into the soup kettle. If you insist, you can use a food processor or blender - works just as well and is much easier. Too mechanically soulless for me, though.

Add the meat from the ham hocks, to the pot. Bring everything back to a simmer.

For some inane reason, in the City Paper column recipe, I added sliced kielbasa along with the ham hocks to the finished soup, topped the bowls of snert off with grated aged cheddar and served it with horseradish on the side. I think the kielbasa was in homage to my mother's lentil soup which was packed with sliced frankfurters, but I haven't done that lately. No idea where the cheddar or horseradish came from.

Nowadays I add a couple of sliced carrots to the onions and celery stalks sauté and guiltlessly use a Cuisinart. I'll probably toss in some kielbasa to this weekend's batch. Sounds kinda good.

It was on another thread in the cooking section.

Hope that helps,

Kay

[KatieLoeb]

Inspired by a segment of Mario Batali on Martha Stewart I caught a fleeting glimpse of last week, I decided to look up and make his version of Sopa de Ajo, or stale bread and garlic soup. Oh my, this is the most delicious and simple thing to achieve. The perfect antidote for a chilly winter's day. Great way to use up the stale bread (although I confess I purchased a bag of four day old baguettes at the market specifically for this purpose). The bread might have not been quite stale enough, as it did crumb up a bit as I removed the crusts. No matter - I put the cubes in a 250 degree oven for about 15 minutes and tossed them a few times to dry them out a bit and that seemed to do the trick. The whole house smells like garlic soup now, but it's a tasty smell and I don't mind it. I did serve the soup with a poached egg in it just like in the video segment, although Ms. Stewart makes the egg poaching look so effortless. Mine weren't quite as pretty, but still fulfilled their function admirably.

This may be my favorite new soup recipe. Sooooo easy. So yummy.

[Shel_B]

GRANDMA BESSIE'S WINTER VEGETABLE SOUP WITH DILL

2 1/2 TBS unsalted butter

2 medium leeks, trimmed and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)

2 medium kohlrabi, trimmed, peeled and coarsely diced (about 4 cups)

dice and reserve any small, tender leaves.

1 small turnip, well trimmed, peeled and coarsely diced (about 3/4 cup)

1 small carrot, quartered and diced

2 1/2 TBS all purpose flour

5 cups rich, home made chicken stock

1 small - med shallot clove, peeled and diced (optional)

1/4 cup chopped, fresh dill

3/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 medium potato, peeled and diced (about 1 1/4 cups)

2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature

fresh dill sprigs

Additional sour cream

Melt butter in 3 - 4 qt saucepan over medium high heat. Add leaks and

optional shallot and saute~ until leeks are limp, 4 - 5 minutes. DO NOT

BROWN. Add kohlrabi and turnip, reduce heat to med-low, and cook 1 minute

stirring constantly. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and mix thoroughly.

Gradually blend in chicken stock. Stir in chopped dill, salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer 10 - 12 minutes. Add potato and carrot to soup. Cover and

simmer until vegetables are tender, about 10 - 12 minutes.

Combine sour cream with about 1/2 cup of soup broth in a small bowl, blend

until smooth. Gradually add sour cream mixture back to soup, stirring

constantly. Do not let soup return to boil. Add salt if desired (I don't

use any salt in this recipe). Serve by ladling soup into heated bowls.

Garnish with dill and sour cream.

[nakji]

I kicked this year off with some potato leek soup, using some potatoes and leeks I rescued from the remainder bin at my supermarket. I sweated the leeks in a couple of tablespoons of butter - which probably cost more than the vegetables themselves, but in times of economy, the smallest luxuries go a long way. Then I threw in four small potatoes, scrubbed and cubed, but not peeled. I like the flavour from the skins, it reminds me of potato chips, a delicacy I rarely have anymore. They sauteed briefly in the slippery leeks for a brief minute with some salt and pepper, then I threw in three cups of water and a tablespoon of chicken stock powder. One of these days, when I find a whole chicken for sale, I'll make real stock. Until then: powder. Simmered until soft, then pureed and enriched with a little cream, another small luxury.

My husband wandered by the pot at one point and asked, "What's with the soup in non-industrial quantities?" I usually make a huge pot to freeze, but I don't like the way potatoes thaw.

What soup are you making?

[JAZ]

I just made broccoli soup last night in the pressure cooker; I had some broccoli that I'd forgotten about, so soup was the only option. I started with an onion sauteed in some butter, then added the broccoli and some white wine and cooked that until most of the wine evaporated. Then I added four cups of stock and cooked it under pressure for 15 minutes. I pureed it and added a couple tablespoons of cream. It tasted great, looked not so good. Is there any cure for olive-gray vegetable soups?

[Priscilla]

As I keep saying, soup is my favorite food. I'm glad you started this year's topic, Erin.

And, I happen to like that very cooked color, Janet... really telegraphs the good flavor of such soup to me. However I am not a good control for such things, or other things.

I suppose one brightener might be to go for a contrasting bit of garni, what's the opposite of grey-green on the color wheel? Or a swirl of creme fraiche or Mexican crema or even regular sour cream, whatever happens to be in the fridge.

My most recent soup was black-eyed pea, from the New Year's Day black-eyed peas that didn't go into the semi-trad Texas caviar on the day. Had a little end of the exquisite double-smoked bacon from the German sausage maker to use and this was a worthy application.

This soup is a favorite of my sister's and I took her a quart on the weekend -- we'll have it for dinner at our house tonight or tomorrow, a moat surrounding a rice turret.

[Emily_R]

I just made broccoli soup last night in the pressure cooker; I had some broccoli that I'd forgotten about, so soup was the only option. I started with an onion sauteed in some butter, then added the broccoli and some white wine and cooked that until most of the wine evaporated. Then I added four cups of stock and cooked it under pressure for 15 minutes. I pureed it and added a couple tablespoons of cream. It tasted great, looked not so good. Is there any cure for olive-gray vegetable soups?

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Not sure, but I'd imagine some of the olive gray would be the pressure cooking -- I'm not sure I understand why you pressure cooked it, as if the broccoli is chopped I don't find that broccoli soup takes much more than 15 minutes of cooking *without* pressure...

[lperry]

Is there any cure for olive-gray vegetable soups?

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I've been making 16 bean soup that turns out pretty gray. To fix it I use about a tablespoon of dark Indian paprika. Reddish looks so much more appetizing, although I guess it could lead to confusion about the flavor profile.

[Chufi]

Mmmm, soup.

I made a pretty good soup just this afternoon: pumpkin and barley. The liquid is a light vegetable stock from a cube, and besides pumpkin and barley there´s a handful of chopped spring onions and a handful of bokchoy greens I found in the vegetable drawer.

Edited January 6, 2009 by Chufi (log)

[judiu]

As I keep saying, soup is my favorite food. I'm glad you started this year's topic, Erin.

And, I happen to like that very cooked color, Janet... really telegraphs the good flavor of such soup to me. However I am not a good control for such things, or other things.

I suppose one brightener might be to go for a contrasting bit of garni, what's the opposite of grey-green on the color wheel? Or a swirl of creme fraiche or Mexican crema or even regular sour cream, whatever happens to be in the fridge.

My most recent soup was black-eyed pea, from the New Year's Day black-eyed peas that didn't go into the semi-trad Texas caviar on the day. Had a little end of the exquisite double-smoked bacon from the German sausage maker to use and this was a worthy application.

This soup is a favorite of my sister's and I took her a quart on the weekend -- we'll have it for dinner at our house tonight or tomorrow, a moat surrounding a rice turret.

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I imagine a swirl of red pepper rouille would brighten up the plate and the taste, alone or enhanced with a swirl of crema throught it, just to surprise the eye.

[scubadoo97]

Nakji and Chufi, wonderful looking soups

To start off the new year I made a black eye pea and mustard green soup. We were heading out on a cruise new years day so I threw this together so we could eat when we got back. I had recently made smoke chickens so used the carcasses in a pressure cooker to make the stock. What a nice smokey stock that had great color and gelled very well. I cooked the peas and greens in the stock and added extra aromatics.

[jackal10]

Last of the turkey broth with ravioli from the last of the turkey confit

[sadistick]

I recently made a few nice soups

- Carrot/Yam/Ginger/Goat cheese soup

- Smoked chicken/corn/root veggies soup

Both equally delish.

[JAZ]

I just made broccoli soup last night in the pressure cooker; I had some broccoli that I'd forgotten about, so soup was the only option. I started with an onion sauteed in some butter, then added the broccoli and some white wine and cooked that until most of the wine evaporated. Then I added four cups of stock and cooked it under pressure for 15 minutes. I pureed it and added a couple tablespoons of cream. It tasted great, looked not so good. Is there any cure for olive-gray vegetable soups?

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Not sure, but I'd imagine some of the olive gray would be the pressure cooking -- I'm not sure I understand why you pressure cooked it, as if the broccoli is chopped I don't find that broccoli soup takes much more than 15 minutes of cooking *without* pressure...

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The olive color comes from cooking pretty much any green vegetable in a closed system (i.e, steamed or blanched or boiled in a covered pot, not just a pressure cooker) for longer than about 10 minutes. Actually, I think the acids in the vegetables start to break down the chlorophyll in something like seven minutes, but of course they don't change color completely right away.

As to why I cooked it in the pressure cooker: as I mentioned, this was very old broccoli, so I thought that pureeing the soup completely would be the best way to go. Given the fibrous nature of the stems, I wanted to make sure it was pretty mushy to begin with. As it was, after the 15 minutes in the pressure cooker, the soup blended to a silky smooth puree without even straining it. The texture was fabulous, so I guess it was a good trade off.