The Soup Topic (2005–2006)

[maggiethecat]

My rough list of resolutions is a screed of the usual guilt and fears: Stop smoking. Make more time for friends. A thousand words a day, day in and day out. Start shopping around the six pieces I've finished this year, that are sitting in a neat stack on the bookshelf. Regain my lifetime record of fifty military pushups. Never let unfolded laundry stack up on the dryer. Pedicures every two weeks.

A fine list, but I can cross off half: it ain't gonna happen.

But I've been thinking about soup. I don't make it often enough -- maybe once a month. Soup, in its infinite variety (52 varieties in this exercise,) is the perfect stroll through history, geography, gastromomy, botany and biology. It has the added value of being cheap, nutritious and seasonal.

I usually have stock in my freezer, thanks to Barbara Kafka and Jacques Pepin. Jacques for telling us that he puts his meat and veg scraps in a washed out milk carton in the freezer, to be transformed into a delicious and essentially free Bastard Broth. (My name.) And Kafka for urging us to make stock in the microwave ---a third the time and no scum.

Did onion soup last week, split pea in November. I am perhaps the only person on earth who hasn't made squash/pumpkin soup, so that will be this week's soupe de semaine. I'm liking Mark Bittman's recipe from The Minimalist Cooks at Home but I'd love your suggestions, and your experience.

And if you add your favorite suggestions -- Asian, Latin American, Lithuanian or Hungarian, vegan or carnivore -- I'll try to make them all. Just nothing that requires reading the date on a dime in the depths of the stockpot, caviar garnish or liver.

Off to do pushups. Please tell me if my spine isn't straight.

[Jaymes]

Applause, Maggie.

I absolutely love soups. Especially Mexican.

But here's one I've recently enjoyed. It's from Senegal. Thanks to Suzilightning for sharing it with me.

Senegalese Chicken Soup

2 T finely diced onion

2 T butter

2 t curry powder

1 T flour

4 C chicken stock

4 egg yolks

2 C heavy cream

1/4 finely-diced chicken

Handful toasted coconut to garnish

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, saute onion in butter until translucent. Add curry and flour and simmer for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, stirring until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and cook for one minute more. Press through a fine sieve.

Serve hot, with toasted coconut to garnish. If serving cold as appetizer, chill until serving time and garnish with toasted coconut.

Edited January 1, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[Jaymes]

So I've been thinking this over a little more.

Every country where I've ever lived or visited has at least one great soup that they are so proud of. And of course, most countries and cultures, have many more than one.

I used to think it'd be fun to do a sort of 'Round the World in Soup' project. I actually started it once. I did the famous Greek chicken lemon soup....Avgolemono to start.

For some reason, kids and real life kept intruding upon my plans.

But your project has reminded me how fun and intriguing the subject is.

[fifi]

Ah, Maggie, I hear you on the resolutions. Mine are . . . Build house, cook more soup. I love soup and it goes so wonderfully into the freezer for easy meals. I tend to freeze it in freezer zip lock baggies so that I can thaw a portion, put it into a big mug for a lunch meal. If I didn't have those, I might starve to death on working days. Alas, as of the end of March I may not have any working days due to retirement (Whoo Hoo!). Now I can have time to make all the stock I want and many other cooking adventures. Anyway . . . One of my favorite really rich soups is the mushroom soup I invented many years ago. I will copy below. The other is the Onion Soup recipe from Emeril's Louisiana Real and Rustic. Any other recipes are usually based on what I have available.

Mushroom Soup

4 Tbs butter

1 cup minced shallots

4 large garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs. mushrooms, sliced

1 Tbs flour (Wondra works well to prevent lumps but you can use all purpose)

4 tsp chicken base (Knorr is good)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

Several dashes Maggi (that little brown bottle of stuff)

2 cups milk

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces grated cheese (smoked gouda is the favorite, gouda or jack will also work)

In a heavy pot, sauté shallots in the butter until soft. Add garlic and sauté for 2 or 3 minutes longer.

Put the mushrooms in the pot. Stir around to distribute shallots and garlic. Cover and cook on low heat until mushrooms are tender and juices are released.

Sprinkle flour over the mushrooms and stir to distribute to prevent lumping. Add remaining ingredients and simmer gently 10 to 15 minutes until cheese is melted. Do not boil and stir frequently.

Notes:

This is a rich soup and is best served with salad and good bread for a “light” meal.

Feel free to vary the herbs to your taste.

I typically make it with the common button mushrooms but you can substitute others to your taste. Since you need 2 pounds, using all “exotic” mushrooms would be pretty pricey and probably not worth it. Do get fresh mushrooms that have not developed dark gills. I did that once with mushrooms that were on sale because they had started to open their caps and develop the spores. It tasted fine but had an ugly brownish purple color. Stay away from Portobellos for the same reason.

If you buy the Maggi seasoning just for this recipe, don’t shove it to the back of your spice shelf. Use it up adding a few dashes to a simple vinaigrette. Surprising but smashing. You can also add it to other soups and stews. Who would guess that this stuff is very common in traditional Mexican cooking?

[maggiethecat]

Jaymes -- and Suzy--awesome. I especially love soups that are good hot and cold.

Thanks for handing me my first interesting recipe, tested by Jaymes and Suzy, no less. I'm really excited about this project.

[Priscilla]

MtheC, this is a terrific wonderful great idea, not LEAST because soup is my favorite food. It just is.

Your (admirable) project(s) sent me running to Yahoo to nail down a distant Miss Manners memory. I thought Judith Martin was a funny smart writer, in addition to her etiquette righteousness.

She wrote (in a column long ago):

"Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?" -- Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

[maggiethecat]

fifi:

I love mushroom soup, and I love your recipe. I also love soups that can be made with plain old button mushrooms, not cepes or dried porcini. In other words, mushrooms I can buy anywhere. I think the button mushroom is seriously underrated, but that's another thread!

Jaymes: I love the "Round the World with Soup" idea, and it could be the subtext here. In the half hour since I posted this topic I've been thinking soup --the simplicity, the complexity, the whole World Order of soup. What a lovely, impossible idea: World peace and understanding through soup.

[maggiethecat]

Priscilla and Miss Manners: What a winning ticket that would be in four years!

"You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?" My new sig line.

[Priscilla]

OK, the madrilene with beet juice from The Nero Wolfe Cookbook -- I love love love it. One of the best ever, so fortifying and elegant all at the onct.

Recently I made a borscht with shrimp that eGullet's HelenaS put me onto, too, which recipe I will locate and post if you're interested MtheC.

[purplewiz]

Some suggestions off the top of my head:

Hot and Sour Soup

Egg Drop (the trick for me is getting the egg to make proper strands)

Avgolemono

Beef Barley

Cold Cucumber soup (so good in the summer)

Sausage kale soup

Clam Chowder

French onion soup

Cream of Cashew soup (from December's Bon Appetit, hopefully will be online sometime soon)

The Les Halles Mushroom Soup Recipe

Tom Kha Gai

Any of a gazillion potato soups out there

Curried carrot soup (this is SO good, and I don't like carrots!)

Tortilla soup

Roasted Garlic Soup

Chilled Shrimp Buttermilk Soup (another good one for summer)

And don't forget about good ol' chicken noodle .

I've made all these soups at one time or another and liked them a lot. I've given links (I hope they're ok!) for the recipes I got elsewhere on the net.

Marcia.

[maggiethecat]

OK, the madrilene with beet juice from The Nero Wolfe Cookbook -- I love love love it.  One of the best ever, so fortifying and elegant all at the onct.

Recently I made a borscht with shrimp that eGullet's HelenaS put me onto, too, which recipe I will locate and post if you're interested MtheC.

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Wow. I'm interested! Please hook me up with that recipe.

And purplewiz What a great list. Methinks I may be making soup twice a week -- and that's all good.

And, dear purple, I was thinking about carrot soup about five minutes ago -- I love carrots.

[purplewiz]

And, dear purple, I was thinking about carrot soup about five minutes ago -- I love carrots.

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La Boheme has a fixed menu every night, and one night when I was dining there this was the soup. I had a lot of misgivings, but I took one bite and absolutely loved it. And I truly LOATHE carrots if they taste anything at all like carrot. I can imagine that a carrot lover would really appreciate it :-).

Marcia.

[SobaAddict70]

Are fruit soups fair game?

I have a watermelon-mango-ginger soup somewhere I can dig up. (for summer.)

Soba

[Jaymes]

Are fruit soups fair game?

I have a watermelon-mango-ginger soup somewhere I can dig up.  (for summer.)

Soba

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Ah yes the cold soups of summer. That will be wonderful, too.

Gazpacho

Cold Cherry Soup

Cold Avocado Soup

This is going to be one of my favorite threads.

Maggie, what an absolutely fabulous idea.

[Abra]

Me too, another soup lover! Maybe this could grow into a soupathon group grope. Would it be fun if as many of us as possible tried the same soup each week, each with our own reported-upon variations?

[JAZ]

I made carrot soup to start our Christmas dinner, which had a vaguely Middle Eastern theme. It was easy, cheap, low calorie and good. I'll give an approximation:

Peel and cut into chunks about 8 large carrots. Saute one small or half a very large onion, sliced, in some olive oil. Add a large can of chicken broth and about a cup of water and the carrots and cook until carrots are falling apart soft. Also add about a teaspoon each of salt and cayenne and a tablespoon of ground cumin. If you toast cumin seeds and grind them, you can add less because it's more powerfully pungent. Cool slightly (or not) and puree in small batches in the blender (small batches, because we all know what happens when you try to puree too much hot soup in your blender, don't we?).

Reheat when you're ready to serve and taste for seasoning. Garnish with a big drizzle of yogurt and some chopped fresh mint.

[EdS]

I made a carrot soup the other night using basmati as a thickener and some homemade brown chicken stock. It was my first test of my new Mouli food mill and I was very pleased with the result. Food mills should be more common! I swirled in a little heavy cream (next time is creme fraiche). Heaven! The basmati gave the soup a slight nut flavor that I found to be a nice change from using potatoes.

[Jaymes]

Me too, another soup lover!  Maybe this could grow into a soupathon group grope.  Would it be fun if as many of us as possible tried the same soup each week, each with our own reported-upon variations?

Up to Maggie, since it was her idea.... but I think it'd be fun. I'd do it.

A soupathon group grope, eh?

[Dana]

I'm in!! This is going to be a hoot!!! Don't forget about Gumbo and Vegetable Beef, and broccoli cheese, and cauliflower and....

Happy New Year, everybody

[Richard Kilgore]

I love soups, too. And a new one each week is a great idea, Maggie.

[EdS]

...

A soupathon group grope, eh? 

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Everyone into the hot tub...

...of soup.

[suzilightning]

maggie - when do your tomatoes come in? late august/september? i'm currently testing a recipe for a tomato rice soup i hope to have worked out to submit to a contest here in nj. i'll post or pm it to you to make with the best of the summer fruit.

what kind of squash soup are you interested in? i have several for pumpkin or butternut squash. i also have a recipe for hot and sour soup with shrimp from ming tsai that i've played around with. will pop that off to you if you're interested.

interesting because at work all fall/winter we take turns making soup or chili and bring it to work for lunch one day during the week. a fellow worker saved me her ham bone from christmas and i'll be making pea soup with it in two weeks. i'm toying with combining split peas and frozen added at the last minute for an interesting texture contrast. will serve this with country rye bread and cheddar beer cheese.

[Marlene]

.  I am perhaps the only person on earth who hasn't made squash/pumpkin soup, .

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No you're not

If you're going to make French Onion Soup, make onion confit first

Love that spine Miss M. This sounds like a great idea. Have fun!

[Carolyn Tillie]

Another Soup Junkie here. Part of me does it out of the necessity of laziness. Especially during the colder months, I make a huge vat of soup every Sunday that will ultimately feed Shawn and I for the week.

If I have an especially busy week, it is easier for both he and I to have said soup for lunch throughout the week and oftentimes dinner as well. Some of my stalwarts include:

Creamy Potato Leek

Borscht

Jeff Smith's Minestrone

Provencal Soup (Winter root vegetables with sausages and sauce verte)

Herby Turkey Mushroom (the leftover soup made after a Turkey)

Gingered Duck with Sweet Potatoes

Buddha Soup (Oriental chicken broth with fresh veggies)

Hillbilly Bean

Moroccan Chickpea

But you guys are all giving me ideas for other soups I keep forgetting to make! Can I join the club?

[beccaboo]

In the winter, farro-bean-and-kale soup is nice (you can throw in some pumpkin chunks, too, to add color), and borscht (has no one mentioned borscht?). For a summer cold soup, try ajo blanco!