The Soup Topic (2005–2006)

[s'kat]

Worrying about the local flu epidemic hitting too close to home, I ended up having larb soup last night- an old batch of frozen laarb, and old batch of clear mushroom soup..... hey, at least I'm not sick today!

After that little exercise, I followed it up with a mighty batch of chicken with matzoh. I intend to be thoroughly innoculated.

JGM, good luck on making it through. Soup IS good food.

Maggie, just last night I noticed a bag of lentils sitting in my cupboard. If the weather drops again (ha ha- we're stupidly still in the high 60s), I'm following your lead on the lentil soup. Great thread, and great way to make sure you stick to your resolution this time around!

[ScorchedPalate]

I made lentil soup the night before last from the Staff Meals at Chanterelle cookbook. It's drizzled with garlic vinaigrette at the end, which was tasty.

So, Maggie, what's next week's soup?

Edited January 7, 2005 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[Ladybug]

I made the most fantastic red beans (meant to go over rice) the other day that is sort of like soup. It was so freakishly easy and amazing - one large ham bone, 1 lb. of kidney beans, water, and sofrito, cooked in a crockpot all day. The sofrito, as taught to me by a lovely 83 year old Puerto Rican friend, is just 2 med. peeled quartered onions, one bunch of cilantro, 2 halved, seeded green bell peppers, and one head of peeled garlic whizzed in a blender with about 1/2 cup of water until it's all pureed. I only used a cup or so of sofrito in the pot and froze the rest, which is what my friend does. I've tried making this before with other recipes, but nothing turned out anything close to as good as this was. Wow! When I find a recipe that turns out to be delicious and easy to prepare I get so excited!

[Jaymes]

The sofrito, as taught to me by a lovely 83 year old Puerto Rican friend, is just 2 med. peeled quartered onions, one bunch of cilantro, 2 halved, seeded green bell peppers, and one head of peeled garlic whizzed in a blender with about 1/2 cup of water until it's all pureed.  I only used a cup or so of sofrito in the pot and froze the rest, which is what my friend does.

This is really a great idea. Thanks. I'm going to be whizzing up some today.

[suzilightning]

last night was vegetable soup.

on the menu in the next two weeks will be scotch broth(when john is away since he can't abide the smell of lamb), split pea and vegetable beef. the last two are for our soup daze at work. i'm making two kinds since one of the people i work with won't eat "green soup" and i really do like her

[maggiethecat]

So, Maggie, what's next week's soup?

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Well, I was going to crack open our Christmas copy of Pepin's Fast Food My Way and try his "Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Walnuts," beacuse I have all the ingredients, including a leftover can of pumpkin from Thanksgiving. I can't buy a pumpkin locally, I can't count the times I've almost amputated a hand trying to cut open a pumpkin or hard squash. Seriously. (The best solution seems to be to embed the cleaver in the squash and whack it with my trusty kitchen rubber mallet.)

But I find myself in snowangel's situation: the headcold from hell. It feels as if people are moving furniture in my sinuses and I can't taste much, so I might go with something hot and spicy. Or then again, if I feel better tomorrow (Please, Lord!) it might be Pumpkin Soup St. Jacques.

Thank you all for such a wealth of terrific ideas and inspiration.

and suzilightning: Workplace Soup Daze? Do tell.

[suzilightning]

beginning usually in october/november we take turns making soup and bringing it into work. and then pig out on it for lunch.since i was hawkwatching till the end of november i was off the hook until now so january 19 i'll be bringing in soups for all and bread.

somebody last year(our assistant director/marketing person) coined the phrase and so far this year there has been a lentil, chicken and rice, bacon and potato, harvest vegetable, chili, minestrone and a few others i don't remember.

this is what you get for being a librarian - we tend to be very food friendly

Edited January 8, 2005 by suzilightning (log)

[fifi]

. . . . . I can't count the times  I've almost amputated a hand trying to cut open a pumpkin or hard squash. Seriously.  (The best solution seems to be to embed the cleaver in the squash and whack it with my trusty kitchen rubber mallet.)

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I quit trying to do this some time ago. I now pierce a pumpkin or winter squash with an ice pick to prevent explosion and nuke the darn thing until it is soft enough to cut without industrial tools.

[Jaymes]

. . . . . I can't count the times  I've almost amputated a hand trying to cut open a pumpkin or hard squash. Seriously.  (The best solution seems to be to embed the cleaver in the squash and whack it with my trusty kitchen rubber mallet.)

I quit trying to do this some time ago. I now pierce a pumpkin or winter squash with an ice pick to prevent explosion and nuke the darn thing until it is soft enough to cut without industrial tools.

Great idea, fifi! I'd been one of the ones with the embedded knife and wacking hammer. Your idea is much better.

[fifi]

Oh . . . this is a soup thread. Duh! I completely forgot about what I did with leftovers from Christmas dinner. I was at my son's house and we did the pork roast and related recipes from here and the squash from here. We had some leftovers from the squash and I made a small pot of soup. I just pureed the squash in the pan with a little added chicken broth to adjust the texture and some heavy cream (my kids say that I consider this one of the major food groups). I did end up adding some more of the Latin Seasoning to taste. It was spectacular.

[NulloModo]

on the menu in the next two weeks will be scotch broth(when john is away since he can't abide the smell of lamb)

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I read this, and got really excited, then I read that part about lamb, and was less so.

I am imagining then that Scotch Broth is not actually a soup based on Scotch (the liquor) but instead something Scottish? I wonder how a Scotch based soup would be...

[Priscilla]

. . . . . I can't count the times  I've almost amputated a hand trying to cut open a pumpkin or hard squash. Seriously.  (The best solution seems to be to embed the cleaver in the squash and whack it with my trusty kitchen rubber mallet.)

I quit trying to do this some time ago. I now pierce a pumpkin or winter squash with an ice pick to prevent explosion and nuke the darn thing until it is soft enough to cut without industrial tools.

Great idea, fifi! I'd been one of the ones with the embedded knife and wacking hammer. Your idea is much better.

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Me too, I cook hard squash first. Our pumpkins, having fulfilled their decorative destiny and destined for compost, get enthusiastically hacked up by the 13-year-old wielding the garden machete and wearing appropriate safety gear, of course.

Remember Ma Ingalls taking an axe to a big Hubbard squash in one of the Little House books?

I'm usually using kabocha, the green Japanese pumpkin, when I want winter squash, and I pierce it with the tip of a knife several times and put it in the oven on a foil-covered pan until it's cooked.

Then, easy to cut! Also, seeds easily offloaded onto the foil, flesh scooped out for intended use, shell & seeds & foil discarded.

Plus, the roasty flavor development is only good.

[Anna N]

Wanted something light and easy for dinner tonight so: my interpretation of wonton soup. Home made wontons and chicken stock, and leftover steak instead of chinese BBQ pork. It was tasty and just filling enough:

[Mabelline]

Boy, have I hit on heaven! Great thread, especially here right now, it's 15* degrees and snowing. I've been doing a braised meat with vegetables, then making a soup with it the next day or so. On New Year's Day, we had beef and barley because it's SO's favorite,and I had a big beautiful 7-bone roast, and an extra batch of roasted carrots, onions, and potatoes.

Two days ago I made a "by guess and by golly" cream of potato with extra onions, grilled slices of bratwurst, and an entire head of garlic.

I had some beautiful ham hocks that I used totally differently yesterday. Instead of beans or greens, I boiled the meat down, then used the meat and stock as a base for garbanzos, bottled pimentos, onion slices, and coarsely chopped cabbage. Cooked it down at a simmer, then served it over some basmati rice. It was a keeper.

I am thawing out some chicken quarters for tomorrow.But I need to make a vegetable run in the morning. Now I have all night to drive myself nuts with what to make from the chicken. There are some brilliant ideas here. I'm kicking around the idea of making paprika chicken ala fifi et al for a start, then using that for a base for a Mexican sopa seca. Hmmm.

Knock on wood that no one else gets sick or snowed in. This has certainly been the year of wild weather. It's not very often that Montana's snowstorms come from California

[fifi]

. . . . . I'm kicking around the idea of making paprika chicken ala fifi et al for a start, then using that for a base for a Mexican sopa seca. Hmmm. . . . . .

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Now there is a stroke of genius. I just tried the paprika chicken technique with four turkey thighs. I had bought them with the intention of trying the turkey confit again. I got busy and needed to do something with them before they died of old age and I wasn't in the mood to fiddle with the confit. First I will report that the turkey paprika was excellent. I have a well known dislike of turkey and this recipe almost fixes it. I was just wondering with what else to do with it other than tacos as it will take me eons to eat all of that.

Do you have a sopa seca recipe in mind? I would like to use up the onions and liquid as well.

[Mabelline]

Not any one in particular, fifi, I am thinking that the side goodies would work as a flavor additive to whatever I use as my starchy ingredient. I'm going to check out my beans, I have some of the palomino ones that cook up real tender. Start them with stock, maybe, then as they soften, add in the liquid and onions from the paprika chicken, I have some nice green chiles I think I'll roast with the chicken. And I have to have some nice brown roasted potatoes in a sopa seca--I know this is not exactly Atkins' type food, but we are mostly over that, aren't we?And SO is very happy to see potatoes in any shape or form when it's cold. I'll run over to mamasita's and get some fresh corn tortillas while I'm at it. Whooee! I love experimenting!

[suzilightning]

I read this, and got really excited, then I read that part about lamb, and was less so.

I am imagining then that Scotch Broth is not actually a soup based on Scotch (the liquor) but instead something Scottish? I wonder how a Scotch based soup would be...

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[bloviatrix]

The best part about making soup is the left overs you keep in your freezer. Last night we had celeriac-pear soup that was made right after thanksgiving. Yummy.

(I'm still trying to perfect the recipe. The basic outline is saute some onion. Add diced celeriac and 1 diced pear and a bay leaf plus a combination of vegetable broth and pear juice. Bring to boil then simmer. Puree.)

[Mabelline]

Now that sounds like a really tasty soup! We both love celeriac, and I've always got both pears and grapes on hand for the rabbit. I can just see it now, steal...oops, borrowing fruit from the rabbit to make soup with. It may be a longer winter than I'd figured for.

[Dave the Cook]

To get back to Maggie's original lentil soup, here's my report.

I had a half-rack of roasted baby-back ribs, so pork it was. I also had some pork fat that I had rendered from something else, so I used it to sweat onion, carrot and garlic. I added fennel seed, bay, oregano, a touch of thyme, and lots of black pepper. Three cups of chicken stock, a cup of beef broth, two cups of water, and the lentils. I simmered it until the lentils were soft almost all the way through, then added some chopped red and yellow tomato to warm while I fished out the bones and stripped the meat to put back in the pot.

I bypassed the vinegar, or any other finish, and this was a mistake. Despite the stock, the aromatics and the seasoning, it was bland. More salt helped, but the broth lacked depth. I'm open to suggestions, but I'm beginning to think that dried beans really need some smoke -- sausage, ham, bacon, smoked shoulder. Am I right, or have I been spoiled by the richness of red beans and rice, split pea and Navy bean soup?

[Mabelline]

Whenever I've made something that comes out inexplicably bland, I'll slip in a drop or two of Colgin Liquid Smoke. I have these little teeny bottles of pecan, hickory, and mesquite. Maggi works too. Or Kitchen Bouquet. They've saved many a dish; you just need to be real judicious with them.

[snowangel]

To get back to Maggie's original lentil soup, here's my report.

I had a half-rack of roasted baby-back ribs, so pork it was. I also had some pork fat that I had rendered from something else, so I used it to sweat onion, carrot and garlic. I added fennel seed, bay, oregano, a touch of thyme, and lots of black pepper. Three cups of chicken stock, a cup of beef broth, two cups of water, and the lentils. I simmered it until the lentils were soft almost all the way through, then added some chopped red and yellow tomato to warm while I fished out the bones and stripped the meat to put back in the pot.

I bypassed the vinegar, or any other finish, and this was a mistake. Despite the stock, the aromatics and the seasoning, it was bland. More salt helped, but the broth lacked depth. I'm open to suggestions, but I'm beginning to think that dried beans really need some smoke -- sausage, ham, bacon, smoked shoulder. Am I right, or have I been spoiled by the richness of red beans and rice, split pea and Navy bean soup?

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Edited to add my reply:

To your ast two questions. Yes and yes. Lentils need more. Smoke or spice. How wrong can you go with some nice smokey bacon or ham or butt?

Edited January 9, 2005 by snowangel (log)

[crinoidgirl]

Maggie, I've set a few of my favorite soup recipes into HTML and posted them (modifed and with suggestions) here:

Tana....am eager to see your recipes, but can't get this link to work.

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Also am eager, but the link seems to be broken

[JAZ]

I made split pea soup. I wasn't planning to; I was planning to make chicken stock for soup tomorrow. But the butcher's shop was out of chicken backs, out of legs, out of whole chickens -- in fact, out of any poultry pieces with bones. They did have wonderful looking Nieman Ranch smoked ham hocks, though, so I picked one up. I thought about navy beans, but that would have taken too long, so split pea it was.

My resolution is to use my pressure cooker more often, so I cobbled together a recipe out of my various pressure cooker cookbooks and gave it a try. I've never made split pea soup before, with or without a pressure cooker. I think it turned out rather well, especially considering it only took about 40 minutes, including the time spent chopping the vegetables.

[helenjp]

Thanks for starting this thread Maggie! I love soup!

When I moved away from home, my Dad used to drop by whenever he had a meeting in town. He would bring me a bunch of flowers from Mum and Dad's garden, but would never hand it over until I'd promised not to make soup out of it...