The Soup Topic (2005–2006)

[Marlene]

Yes Miss. M. I'm allergic to shrooms

[Pam R]

Though I've been looking in on you all for a couple of months now, I only came across this thread tonight - it's great!

I've been making my living off soups lately, and people keep asking me what my favorite is - and my favorite keeps changing. But for now I've narrowed it down to two:

Carrot Dill - the easiest soup I make. It's completely vegan but tastes rich and buttery. (Olive oil, onion/shallot, carrots, s&p, stock and lots of fresh dill - puree it all and serve.

Pear Soup with Feta, Pecans and Balsamic Reduction.

And how about soup for dessert? Chocolate soup and Strawberry Sambuca are two of my favorites.

[Anna N]

...

And how about soup for dessert?  Chocolate soup and Strawberry Sambuca are two of my favorites.

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Wow! I'd like to know more about that Strawberry Sambuca dessert soup. Care to share?

[maggiethecat]

Welcome to eGullet, Pam. Please contribute further, because your post made me add at least two soups to my list!

How does one make a living off soup?

I've been making my living off soups lately, and people keep asking me what my favorite is - and my favorite keeps changing.  But for now I've narrowed it down to two:

Carrot Dill - the easiest soup I make.  It's completely vegan but tastes rich and buttery. (Olive oil, onion/shallot, carrots, s&p, stock and lots of fresh dill - puree it all and serve.

Pear Soup with Feta, Pecans and Balsamic Reduction. 

And how about soup for dessert?  Chocolate soup and Strawberry Sambuca are two of my favorites.

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[NulloModo]

So tasting of the 'Stag and Suds' got put off longer than I expected. I long simmered it a while the first day, then just wasn't hungry that night, so it went into the fridge. I took it out to simmer back to warm it up the next night, but got distracted by some friends visiting, so, alas it got put back into the fridge again before I could eat any. Not being able to wait any longer I had some for breakfast this morning.

The verdict?

The flavor was very nice, full, rich, warming, tasty. The long simmering really seemed to help all of the flavors leach into each other, and on a whim halfway through the bowl I swirled in some sour cream and horseradish, these made it even better. My only complaint is that some of the venison was a bit tough. It may hav ebeen overcooked, or just because venison is so lean it might not do well in long-cooked stews. Still, this will be one I keep around in the recipe file.

[fifi]

Nullo Modo, you inadvertently did what Paula Wolfert is trying to talk us into doing with braises here. If I were you, I would ditch the rest of the story and just say that you learned it here.

[purplewiz]

Soup for dinner tonight - Hot and Sour. When I make it as a main dish, it's more like Hot and Sour stew - I add more tofu, pork, and other goodies than I would if I were to make it as an appetizer.

Tonight I did something different: I usually make it with just chicken stock, but tonight I did it half and half chicken and beef stocks. I liked it a great deal - it added a richness that just chicken doesn't have, without making the liquid too heavy as to overshadow the ingredients.

I also realized halfway into the cooking that I was out of chili oil, so I used sriracha for the heat. It worked admirably to the point where I may just use that all the time.

This is what I love about soup - it's so flexible :-).

There's at least one more soup on the menu this week - I guess I'm just in a soup kind of mood.

Marcia.

[fifi]

I now have a true mystery. Up-thread a bit I mentioned that I was going to use the liquid from the paprika turkey thighs to make a small pot of soup. I had about two cups of onions and liquid. I added some diced russet potato and frozen small peas. (I was in a pea mood.) That should be pretty straight forward and the paprika turkey thighs were such a success (especially for someone that doesn't particularly like turkey) that I figured I couldn't go wrong. Luckily, I tasted before adding the last scraps of turkey meat. Not bad but not good either. It tasted like canned soup! What's up with that? I used the last of the turkey in a quesadilla.

[Pam R]

...

And how about soup for dessert?  Chocolate soup and Strawberry Sambuca are two of my favorites.

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Wow! I'd like to know more about that Strawberry Sambuca dessert soup. Care to share?

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My publishers would kill me if I gave the recipe!! (don't tell!)

3 lb. / 1.5 kg fresh strawberries -- hulled and sliced into 1/4" (5 mm) slices

4 oz. / 125 mL sugar

1 cup / 250 mL water

½ tsp. / 2 mL black pepper

3 Tbsp. / 45 mL Anisette -- or Sambuca

Place the strawberries, sugar, water and black pepper in a covered soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the strawberries have softened. Use a hand blender, blender or food processor to puree the soup. Do it in small batches and be very careful. Put a towel over the top of the food processor or blender , to prevent any of the hot soup from spraying out. Chill.

So simple, but so good. I like simple but good.

You can sub frozen berries if you can't get good fresh ones - but not the ones in syrop. If your strawberries are really ripe and sweet, you can leave out some of the sugar.

[ScorchedPalate]

What will the next soup be, Maggie?

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Bourdain's Mushroom Soup from the Les Halles Cookbook. He says it's easy, and it is. And I just happen to every ingredient. And I want mushroom soup!

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On the way home tonight, we stopped at the grocery store for one missing dinner ingredient, and I thought "oh, I should get stuff for this week's mushroom soup. I wonder what Bourdain's recipe has in it?" So, on a hunch, I picked up tarragon, cream, fancy mushrooms, shallots... none of which I need! Fortunately I already have everything that I -do- need on hand, so I will get to find something fun to make with the other stuff. I am thinking Julia Child's tarragon chicken may be in my future.

~Anita

Edited January 18, 2005 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[Pam R]

Welcome to eGullet, Pam.  Please contribute further, because your post made me add at least two soups to my list!

How does one make a living off soup?

I've been making my living off soups lately, and people keep asking me what my favorite is - and my favorite keeps changing.  But for now I've narrowed it down to two:

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By writing a whole cookbook about soups... at least you try to make a living And I sell a lot of soup at work... my family has a catering company and we sell kosher ingredients and prepared foods... and winter in Canada means we sell a lot of soup!

[hazardnc]

Chicken and corn chowder with addition of habanero and a little pimenton.

On epicurious, Jan and Micael Stern list their picks for top ten soups in America best eats: soup

[Varmint]

I made potato and cheddar soup last night. I wish it had some smoked sausage in it, but alas, Mrs. Varmint doesn't care for the stuff!

[maggiethecat]

The best mushroom soup I've ever eaten. To be fair, I haven't eaten a lot of shroom soup, because of a childhood aversion to Campbell's Cream of, but Bourdain's recipe made me a convert.

[On the way home tonight, we stopped at the grocery store for one missing dinner ingredient, and I thought "oh, I should get stuff for this week's mushroom soup. I wonder what Bourdain's recipe has in it?" So, on a hunch, I picked up tarragon, cream, fancy mushrooms, shallots... none of which I need! 

~Anita

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That's part of the charm. Who knew that an onion, 12 ounces of button mushrooms, four cups of stock and some salt and pepper could make something so magnificently earthy-smelling and intensely mushroomy? Talk about easy: Sweat a small onion in butter. Add some more butter and sweat the shrooms for awhile. This is the place where I hade to check the cookbook three times. No slicing or chopping required. Just dump them in whole. Ease bordering on langour, and I'm all for that.

Add the stock. Simmer for an hour. Puree in a blender. Splash in a little sherry and plate. I forgot the garnish, but don't forget the sherry. I'll try to have some in the house at all times, for this recipe alone, to say nothing of the glass for the cook.

[GordonCooks]

Maggie,

Best of luck in your New Year's endeavors

here's a quick and easy soup I love in Winter

Rice Cake Soup (Duk Kook)

64 oz of beef broth

3-4 Oxtails

3 scallions

1 pkg frozen sliced rice cakes (about 3 cups)

soy sauce to taste

Japanese pepper

Defrost the rice cakes and set aside

Pan fry the oxtails and set aside. Warm the beef broth (Keep in mind this soup can be made with wonton soup base as well) submerge the oxtails for about 20-30 mins.Add rice cakes and cook over medium heat until they are tender and have thickened the soup. A couple shots of soy sauce and japanese pepper complete. Garnish with scallion, lemon grass, bean sprouts, etc. etc

[suzilightning]

maggie - that does sound dead easy. hmmmmm guess i'll have to do that next week when johnnybird is out of town on business. some nice rye bread with lurpak...

beef vegetable barley soup on the stove as i type. some for work as well as dinner tonight. we're going to need it ambient temps at 0F and hopefully the wind will die down. though it does make chilling a bottle of wine quite easy

[ScorchedPalate]

I just finished making and eating Bourdain's soup, and it is *such* a winner. I actually made it last night, pureed it with a stick blender, and then reheated it, adjusted seasonings, and added the sherry tonight. We'll definitely be adding this to the regular repetoire.

~Anita

... who's looking forward to next week's selection

That's part of the charm.  Who knew that an onion, 12 ounces of button mushrooms, four cups of stock and some salt and pepper could make something so magnificently earthy-smelling and intensely mushroomy?

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[Rachel Perlow]

I made split pea soup yesterday. I even used a smoked ham hock, which I've never done before. However, the hock didn't contribute as much smoky flavor as I was expecting. What am I saying, it contributed NO smoky flavor. I had to resort to adding smoked paprika to get some smoky taste in there, not that there's anything wrong with that. ;)

Anyway, after an hour, I took the hock out and broke it up in to smaller pieces to facilitate collagen breakdown. After another 90 minutes, I took those pieces out and cut out the meat (very little meat, maybe 2-3 Tbs meat after it was diced small) and discarded the bones, puree soup, add back diced ham. I had simmered the soup to this point with the lid on the (LeCruiset) pot. It was a little thin, so I gave it one more half hour with the lid off. It was very very good.

I mostly did the recipe on the back of the bag of kosher peas (which obviously didn't include ham), although I bought Goya peas as they were cheaper. Here's the ingredients I used:

• 1 tsp oil
  1 carrot, diced (1/2 cup)
  2 celery stalks, diced (1 cup)
  1/2 med onion, diced (1/2 cup)
  2 quarts water
  16 oz Split Green Peas
  1 smoked ham hock
  1 bay leaf
  1/4 tsp dried thyme
  2 tsp salt
  1/2 tsp pepper
  1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  Sweat veg for 5 minutes (lid on), add water, peas, ham hock & herbs (either put the bay in a tea ball or if it has a stem, tie it to some twine, it was very hard to find and fish out before blending). Simmer about three hours, mostly with lid on. Remove and process ham hock, blend to puree soup (I use an immersion blender to leave a few pieces of veg unblended), then add the meat back. Add salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. Yields about 10 cups of soup, 6-7 portions.
  

[Dana]

This week's soup for me was a sort of bean type, probably one the best soups I've ever made. First, I cooked a pound of navy beans, according to the Russ Parsons oven method. While that was baking, I browned a pound of venison pan sausage with some garlic, onion and celery. I added some shredded carrots, a can of stewed tomatoes, and some chicken stock and a rind of Parmesan, s & p. I let that cook for just a few minutes, added a couple big handfuls of spinach, the beans and some fresh oregano (mine is as big as a Volkswagon!) and rosemary. I can't believe how much the Parm added. I've always heard about doing that, but never had.

[Rachel Perlow]

I added ... a rind of Parmesan.... I can't believe how much the Parm added. I've always heard about doing that, but never had.

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:smacks forehead: THAT'S what I should have added to my pasta fagiole! I have a baggie of rinds in my fridge too!

[SobaAddict70]

So...is minestrone next up?

Natural use of beans and Parm rinds, among other things.

I've been thinking of ribolitta for a while now, as well.

Soba

[Jensen]

More on the bean soup theme...

Cranberry beans with sui choy and arugula

[bloviatrix]

I made a pot of Curried Coconut Squash soup on friday. It's got lots of "warm" spices -- curry powder, cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, cloves, and ginger which is perfect for a cold winter night.

[Anna N]

...

And how about soup for dessert?  Chocolate soup and Strawberry Sambuca are two of my favorites.

←

Wow! I'd like to know more about that Strawberry Sambuca dessert soup. Care to share?

←

My publishers would kill me if I gave the recipe!! (don't tell!)

3 lb. / 1.5 kg fresh strawberries -- hulled and sliced into 1/4" (5 mm) slices

4 oz. / 125 mL sugar

1 cup / 250 mL water

½ tsp. / 2 mL black pepper

3 Tbsp. / 45 mL Anisette -- or Sambuca

Place the strawberries, sugar, water and black pepper in a covered soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the strawberries have softened. Use a hand blender, blender or food processor to puree the soup. Do it in small batches and be very careful. Put a towel over the top of the food processor or blender , to prevent any of the hot soup from spraying out. Chill.

So simple, but so good. I like simple but good.

You can sub frozen berries if you can't get good fresh ones - but not the ones in syrop. If your strawberries are really ripe and sweet, you can leave out some of the sugar.

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Many, many thanks. I promise not to tell!

[fifi]

I also made split pea soup last week and am munching on the remains. I went to the deli counter of my grocery and got a slab of the smokiest ham that they had to offer. Echoing Rachel's lament, it wasn't smoky enough for my taste. I think I need to fire up the smoker and do some chickens. I will then make some smoked chicken stock for use in such situations.