Your favorite soups and stews

[Chris Amirault]

Though I'd never had it before meeting my partner, Andrea, who is Mexican-American, I now believe I'd say that pozole, or hominy soup, is my choice. It's very simple: you brown some salted and peppered chunks of pork in olive oil, take them out and saute onion and some garilc, toss in a large drained can of diced tomatoes, a large can of drained pozole, and 8-10 cups of chicken or beef stock, add the pork back in, season with ancho, cumin, chipotle, cayenne, black pepper, Mexican oregano, and salt to taste, simmer for an hour or two, and serve with tortillas. Something magical happens to the hominy; it infuses the broth and is infused by it. Wonderful.

[nessa]

Nothing says comfort like a bowl of soup.

Number one on my list would be lamb stew. Number two would be chicken and dumplings. Third would be a hearty lentil soup. Oh, and 15 bean soup. Side of jalepeno cornbread and I'm a happy camper. Soup is just fun to make! Its almost more therapeutic for me to make it, than eat it.

[Jaymes]

Mexico is justifiably famous for their soups and stews. I'd have to say they're my favorites.

[fifi]

Thanks for the split pea recipe, Chufi. That is a favorite rif on a traditional recipe that I like to do from time to time . . . taking one of the ingredients and going outlandish. In this case, it is the pork. I would have never thought of using pork ribs. That is just brilliant. I have never used celeriac, either. I am definitely going to try this. Ummmm . . . I love split pea soup.

One question about the salt pork, do you dice it? Do you rinse it to remove some of the salt?

Thanks for the pictures. They are lovely.

[fifi]

Mexico is justifiably famous for their soups and stews.  I'd have to say they're my favorites.

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Jaymes, you have reminded me of one of my favorites. I have copied it here. When RecipeGullet comes back up, it is captured there.

Barbeque Posole

This is one of those recipes that is definitely more than the sum of its parts. I had something very like this in a restaurant in Queretaro in central Mexico and went nuts. They use up the barbecue from the day before to make this. With my lousy Spanish, I got what I could out of the cook and tried it. This is damn close. Posole as a general term is a Mexican stew made with hominy. This one makes great use of left over barbecue, whatever kind as long as it is good smoked stuff. (Beef brisket and pork are the favorites.) This recipe is really the basics. You can add whatever you like, more and different kinds of peppers or other seasonings to your taste. I suggest you start with the basic and add from there. The amounts are approximate. No need to get too serious about this. I don’t think you can mess it up. It is really amazingly delicious and great on a cold night.

2 T lard, bacon fat or cooking oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

4 c coarsely chopped or shredded barbeque meat

4 c beer, broth or water - enough to cover the meat

2 14 oz cans hominy, drained but not rinsed

2 4.5 oz cans diced green chiles

1 tsp dried Mexican oregano, or more to taste

Heat oil and saute onions until they just start to brown. Add garlic and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the meat. Add liquid until well covered. Simmer slowly for about 30 minutes. Add the hominy and green chiles. Add the oregano, crushing between your fingers. (The cook seemed to think that the oregano was VERY important.) Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. It is important that you don’t add salt and pepper until this point as it depends on what the barbecue has on it. Best to taste first. Simmer about another 15 minutes.

Serve with some or all of the following condiments for the diner to add as desired: fresh lime wedges for spritzing, chopped radish, chopped white onion, chopped fresh chiles, shredded cheese, crumbled queso fresca, sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded cabbage.

I have served this over traditional frying pan corn bread (not sweet) and gotten rave reviews.

A crisp salad with orange or mango is a great side dish.

[Chris Amirault]

2  14 oz cans hominy, drained but not rinsed

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Fifi, can you say why you don't rinse the pozole/hominy? Thx!

[Jaymes]

Fifi - yum.

Did they use cabrito?

Not that I often have cabrito leftovers around the house. But I'm curious.

[hathor]

Excellent thread! Kudos to whoever resurrected it!

Soupe de poisson: one of my all time favorites, and I still say its a lot of work, but worth it. Especially when there is left over aioli. This would be the dish to take on a desert island.

Congee: oh, you need to be born eating this...otherwise its just the devil's runny earwax

Spiced butternut squash and apple soup: a veritable symphony of flavors

Roasted cauliflower soup is being made for tommorow night. Cauliflower was on sale and I actually bought more than we can eat at one time.

Stews deserve their own thread. And braised things. And anything you can cook in a clay pot. I LOVE cold weather food!

[ellencho]

In no particular order

Boeuf bourguignon using the Cooking with Julia and Jacques recipe

Pho

Jun Bok Jook - Korean rice porridge made with abalone ( I know, not exactly a soup/stew)

Matzo ball soup - made with floaters, not sinkers

Korean Oxtail soup

[fifi]

2  14 oz cans hominy, drained but not rinsed

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Fifi, can you say why you don't rinse the pozole/hominy? Thx!

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The residual starch adds some thickening.

Fifi - yum.

Did they use cabrito? 

Not that I often have cabrito leftovers around the house.  But I'm curious.

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When I had it at the restaurant, it was beef from the brisket left over from the day before. I have done it with chicken as well. I have never had it with cabrito but I would think that would be just as good.

[Chufi]

One question about the salt pork, do you dice it? Do you rinse it to remove some of the salt?

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our salt pork is not very salty, so I don't soak it. (I find that when it comes to meat, it is sometimes difficult to translate recipes. Butchers do very different kind of things with meat in different countries!) I take a little bit of the white fat of and put the whole thing in the soup. After a couple of hours I take it out, get rid of the fatty layers, and put the lean meaty bits back into the soup. That way the flavor of the fat is in the soup, but you don't have to chew on it.

(I'm glad you like my pics fifi. I'm afraid taking pictures of my food is becoming my new obsession...)

Edited December 5, 2004 by Chufi (log)

[M. Lucia]

I am a soup fiend, and have it for lunch most days. For my very first dinner party in college I made vichysoisse and to this day I think it is the only my roomate learned how to cook. Usually I have a vege puree soup (spinach and sweet pea, butternutsquash, carrot ginger, asparagus). Other favorites include white bean and sausage, black bean maybe with corn and tomatoes, light corn chowder, ribollita.

On my list to try is a broccoli and mimolette soup and a chestnut soup.

I just wanted to add that I was looking through Larousse and I noticed their Dubarry puree (cauliflower soup) is just like slkinsey's method, which must be why it's so good- time tested and true.

[jrt]

...

This veal ragout has become a family favorite. We often substitute pork. Veal is impossible to find here with any regularity.

...

I love this kind of cooking.

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I haven't made a stew in at least a year. This thread raised my eyebrows, but the recipe you pointed to got me off of my rear. I went down to the Pike Place Market (here in Seattle), picked up a few ingredients I was missing, and put together something somewhat like the destintation that the recipe predicts. Here in downtown Seattle we only have two butchers at the Market -- my regular is closed on Sundays -- so I ended up substituting beef shoulder for the veal.

Normally, I wince when I hear about cinnamon-spiced red meats. I figured it wouldn't kill me, though, and it's turned out surprisingly well. I went a bit off the tracks, as far as the recipe is concerned... had to throw in pimenton (sp?) and gave it a killer viognier... anyway... I'm talking with the later wine's voice now...

It'll make a great lunch over the next few days.

Went well with the O'Reilly's pinot noir.

Thanks for the link, Fifi.

The beef:

Just before adding it:

The final product:

...oh, and what I picked at while watching some football games and making this meal

(Mimolette breaks my heart.) Obviously, there's quite a bit of cheese leftover. The wine, on the other hand, is gone.

[pkenna]

All of this is making me drool over the thought of soup......

My current favorite is a butternut squash soup with diced up duck breast.

It has a creamy, almost chowder-like consistancy. Great for pretending it is cold in houston

-parker

[pam claughton]

An experiment that worked. Boneless chicken stew.

This is my new favorite comfort stew. It's made with floured 1" pieces of breast meat. Brown them and then set aside. Add 2 medium or 1 large onion, sliced thin and saute that in the drippings. Cook for about 20 minutes or so, almost until carmelized. Then add a half cup or so of white wine, and cook about five minutes, then add browned chicken, 2 cups good chicken broth, some small new potatoes, parsnips, carrots and mushrooms. A bay leaf and sprig of rosemary and thyme, or whatever spices you feel like using go in, then cover and pop in oven at 350 for about 1.5 hours.

So good, and better the next day. Good without the wine too, as the parsnips add a sweet flavor.

[dahlsk]

I love soup for how is can change so easily with the seasons. Some favorites for each time of year:

pureed spring pea soup (perhaps with asparagus, mint, a squeeze of lemon...)

pappa al pomodoro (love to use up old bread like others have mentioned)

carrot soup with leeks, thyme, etc. or other orange soups like squash, pumpkin...

potato leek, or other hearty leeky soups with chickpeas, beef stews as well

There's are great restaurant in St. Paul called Zander Cafe and they serve a 3 soup mosaic with 3 complimentary pureed soups in one bowl that you can swirl together. It's marvelous!

dahlsk

[ruthcooks]

Sometimes I need to eat something quick...or don't feel like cooking...or want something hot to warm me up. Often a cold sandwich or salad or skimpy leftovers need just a cup of soup to make a meal. A freezer stocked with soup in individual servings is just the ticket.

I prefer thick and/or creamy soups to brothy ones. Right now on hand are lamb and barley soup/stew, broccoli and cheddar, asparagus and mascarpone, roasted squash-tomato-garlic, and chili.

Others I make frequently are corn and celery chowder (my favorite, but it doesn't freeze), French onion with homemade croutons and grated Parmesan, white bean with lots of ham (a garnish of herb butter puts this over the top), several kinds of potato or tomato.

In summer there's orange gazpacho, the orange referring to fresh oranges and juice, not the color.

[suzilightning]

we have two new ones to add to our lists here in nw nj.

made a sweet potato stew with red beans - sweet potatoes, red beans, onions, cumin, fresh grated ginger, tomatoes, vegetable stock, shallots and finished with peanut butter dissolved in the broth.

the second was a stew made with venison shoulder, wine, beef stock, onions, garlic, shallots, mushrooms, cumin and allspice. served with garlic mashed potatoes to take some of the gravy.

[Mooshmouse]

I'm a soup and stewaholic. If I listed all my favourites, I'd likely be typing until Christmastime. Tortilla soup with sour cream and lots of extra avocados. Mediterranean Beef Stew with garlic stuffed and kalamata olives. And Italian Tomato Soupstew... basically everything except the kitchen sink. It includes tortellini, italian sausage, loads of fresh veggies, and dill pickles of all things. Sounds bizarre but it's absolutely amazing.

Congee: oh, you need to be born eating this...otherwise its just the devil's runny earwax 

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hathor, this is one of the funniest damn things I've ever read! I was just discussing congee with someone the other day. Some people order it at dim sum or eat it on a rainy night. Me, I can only consume the stuff when I'm sick -- that's when my Mom used to make it for me as a kid. Otherwise, you nailed it: the devil's runny earwax. I might just have to use this for a future sigline!

An experiment that worked. Boneless chicken stew.

This is my new favorite comfort stew. It's made with floured 1" pieces of breast meat. Brown them and then set aside. Add 2 medium or 1 large onion, sliced thin and saute that in the drippings. Cook for about 20 minutes or so, almost until carmelized. Then add a half cup or so of white wine, and cook about five minutes, then add browned chicken, 2 cups good chicken broth, some small new potatoes, parsnips, carrots and mushrooms. A bay leaf and sprig of rosemary and thyme, or whatever spices you feel like using go in, then cover and pop in oven at 350 for about 1.5 hours.

So good, and better the next day. Good without the wine too, as the parsnips add a sweet flavor.

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Thanks for sharing this pam. I've been looking for a good chicken stew recipe for quite sometime now and I'll be sure to give this a try!

[fierydrunk]

I have been craving a superior Hungarian Mushroom Soup--anyone have any killer recipes???

[stephenc]

I love tomato soup, especially papa pomodoro.

[Basilgirl]

Mediterranean Beef Stew with garlic stuffed and kalamata olives.  And Italian Tomato Soupstew... basically everything except the kitchen sink.  It includes tortellini, italian sausage, loads of fresh veggies, and dill pickles of all things.  Sounds bizarre but it's absolutely amazing.

[

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Moosh:

Please share recipes?!

[nessa]

Jaymes is right, Mexico has great soups. Add Pozole and tortilla soup to my favorites list. Imagine my dissapointment after reading this thread, craving pozole, and finding out someone beat me to the last batch in the freezer

[hathor]

hathor, this is one of the funniest damn things I've ever read! I was just discussing congee with someone the other day. Some people order it at dim sum or eat it on a rainy night. Me, I can only consume the stuff when I'm sick -- that's when my Mom used to make it for me as a kid. Otherwise, you nailed it: the devil's runny earwax. I might just have to use this for a future sigline!

I must give credit, where credit is due!! "Devil's earwax" was a line penned by Jinmyo...I think in reference to Rose's Lime Juice...and Jinmyo was a congee fan upthread. But, I stand by my opinion. Somethings you just need to be born eating....

[Ms. Agrodolce]

Has anyone else tried the black bean soup recipe from Douglas Rodriguez? Its in the Barbara Kafka book "Soup: A Way of Life", as well as in his books.

Its super simple to make: black beans, onions, garlic, olive oil, and I think cumin. Lots of garlic and olive oil--I thought it was kind of unusual. Makes an incredibly rich, velvety soup. Good enough for company, and takes to all sorts of garnishes, so you can really "dress it up."