What's On My Plate » Soups

Pork Dumpling Soup

Tonya — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:08:23 +0000

As a food lover, I’m always reading about food. Wednesdays are pure gold when the newspapers typically do their food sections but on a day-to-day basis it’s all about blogs. Truth be told, I rarely make things that I see on other blogs. Usually I just get inspired by what I see and either make it my way or find another recipe to riff off of. BUT every once in awhile something will catch my eye and I just HAVE TO MAKE it. Like this Pork Dumpling Soup that I spied over at The Kitchn. The recipe is from Bee at Rasa Malaysia who is a new-to-me blogger but is apparently super popular and has a great site.

During the winter months I’m all about making soup and I have an obsession with dim sum so dumplings are always top of mind with me. So how could I resist dumpling soup?

I had all sorts of grand plans of making the dumplings one night and then making the soup the following evening. But alas laziness kicked in and I was “forced” to make everything in the same evening… for dinner that night. Let’s just say that making 30+ dumplings from scratch on a Tuesday night was not one of my finest moments. It’s not that dumpling making is hard (especially when you buy the wrappers) it just takes time AND you can’t even snack because your hands are covered in raw pork. Needless to say every time I boiled up another batch I snatched one out to eat.

The dumplings themselves were a revelation. I’ve made dumplings before (maybe once or twice) and they turned out well but these dumplings had all sorts of touches that made them extra special. These were pork and shrimp dumplings but then you also add in wood ear mushrooms, water chestnuts, ginger and green onion. As for seasonings you get to add in sherry, chicken bouillon, fish sauce and other goodness. The flavor combination was so good and made the dumplings so official… they literally tasted like dumplings from a Chinese restaurant (and isn’t that the goal?). I’m totally inspired to start making dumplings all the time. Plus on a lazy, snowy (if we ever get snow) Sunday afternoon it’s the perfect activity. And you can make a bunch and freeze them.

The soup itself was super simple. We’re talking chicken broth and water. I had homemade broth in my freezer that I used and was perfect. The broth is almost a bit too simple, next time I’d consider throwing in a piece of ginger or something to give it another note. It wasn’t bad it just could’ve used a lil’ sumthin sumthin.

This soup is high on my list of things to make over and over and over again. It’s inexpensive and really not that hard to make. If you can rope someone into helping you with the dumplings it will go by in a flash.

Pork Dumpling Soup

Makes 12-20 dumplings or serves 4-6 as part of a multicourse meal

20 Siu Kow or wonton wrappers
4 cups (1 liter) water

Filling
1 small wood ear mushroom
6 oz (175 g) ground pork
4 oz (100 g) shelled and deveined raw shrimp, cut into small pieces
2 peeled fresh or canned water chestnuts, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped green onion (scallion)
1 tsp finely chopped ginger

Seasonings
1 1/2 teaspoons oil
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing) or sherry
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 dashes white pepper

Soup
1 3/4 cups (425 ml) Homemade Chicken Stock (page 00) or 1 can (14-oz/400-g) store-bought chicken broth
1 cup (250 ml) water
3 dashes white pepper
Salt, to taste
Garnishing
1 green onion (scallion), trimmed and cut into small rounds

1. Soak the wood ear mushroom in warm water until soft, about 15 minutes, and then cut into thin strips.

2. To make the filling, mix the mushrooms, ground pork, shrimp, water chestnuts, green onion, ginger, and all the Seasonings ingredients. Chill the filling in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. To assemble the dumplings, place a piece of the wrapper on your palm and spoon about 1 tablespoon filling onto the wrapper. Wet your index finger with water and circle around the outer edges of the dumpling wrapper. Fold the dumpling over and seal by pressing the edges with your thumb and index finger.Place the dumplings on a floured surface or baking sheet and cover with a damp towel so that they don’t dry out.

4. Bring a pot of water to a boil and slide the dumplings in. Cook until they float to the top, about 3 minutes. This may take several batches. Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon or spider and set aside.

5. Bring to boil the chicken broth and water in another pot. Add the white pepper and salt to taste.

6. To serve, put a few dumplings (4-5) in a bowl and ladle on some of the soup and garnish with green onions.

Tortilla Soup

Tonya — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:28:01 +0000

It’s officially winter in my neck of the woods but you wouldn’t know it taking a look at the temperatures and the general absence of snow. Trust me, I’m not mad at any of that. I like the idea of the seasons changing and the picturesque quality of freshly fallen snow, but when it comes down to it I’m happy to simply flirt with the idea or perhaps just watch snow on TV. I hate being cold. I hate slush. I hate wet toes. You would think that I wasn’t born and raised in Canada.

This year I decided to embrace winter early on. I bought new winter boots back in September or October and of course haven’t gotten a chance to wear them. I even decided to buy ice skates so that I would have a reason to frolic in winter’s bounty. I haven’t skated yet but I plan on it.

With that said, while we’re in “soup season” it really hasn’t been chilly enough to really relish in the joys of soup season. Sure, I’ve been making soup but I haven’t had to come home from a day out in –15C weather to a steaming bowl of goodness.

So I bring you a soup from the land of where it doesn’t get that cold, Mexico. Soups from warm weather climates always intrigue me. Jamaicans love to cook up a bunch of soup that is of course loaded with pepper. Hot liquid, hot pepper, hot climate… I’ll never quite understand it. Mexico apparently is on the same program.

I think I literally heard someone say the words tortilla soup the other day and I couldn’t get it out of my head and had to make a pot. I’ve never made tortilla soup before and to be honest, I probably haven’t eaten it that many times. Something about a spicy broth loaded with tender chicken, creamy avocado and crunchy tortillas just had me jonesing. Luckily I had this recipe from the NY Times Magazine from Mark Bittman in my arsenal that sounded great.

This soup is definitely on the simple side. You make broth using chicken thighs and legs and beef bones so that you get nice depth in flavour. The chicken that you use to make the stock gets taken off the bone and becomes the chicken in the soup. You also fry up some tortillas to be used as a topping for the soup and also as a thickener in the soup, a technique that I’ve never really used before but totally worked and was great.

I was totally amazed by my soup! You know when you eat something and it totally just hits the spot? That’s totally what happened with this soup. I’m such a fan of spicy, soupy goodness. One thing to note, the recipe calls for two tablespoons of canned chipotles in adobo. It doesn’t say anything about seeding the peppers. This is my gift to you: SEED THE PEPPERS. I like spicy but this was too spicy. Next time I’d probably seed the peppers and use about a tablespoon.

Tortilla Soup

2 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs or legs
1 pound beef bones, or a cut of beef with a lot of bone in it (like short ribs), optional
1 medium onion, quartered (leave the skin on)
1 head garlic, halved across the equator (leave the skin on)
1/4 cup vegetable oil, or more as needed
6 corn tortillas
Salt
2 tablespoons canned chipotle chilies in adobo, or to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 avocados, pitted, peeled and cubed
4 to 8 ounces plain melting cheese, like mozzarella (not fresh), Oaxaca or Jack, shredded or cubed
Lime wedges for serving, optional.

1. Put the chicken, the beef bones, 3 of the onion quarters and the garlic in a large pot. Cover with water (about 10 cups) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook skimming the foam off the surface. Cook until the chicken is tender, about 45 minutes to an hour.

2. While the broth simmers away, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot fry two tortillasuntil crisp and golden, flipping once. Cut the remaining tortillas into thin strips (these will be your garnish) and fry them until crisp and golden (they’ll need to be stirred). Drain all tortillas on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt while still warm.

3. When the chicken is ready, remove from the pot and shred when cool enough to handle, removing the skin and bones. If you used beef, discard it or save it for something else.

4. Strain the stock and discard any solids. Peel the rest of the onion and put it in a blender with the chipotle, 1/4 cup of the cilantro and a sprinkle of salt. Crumble in the two whole fried tortillas and add enough stock to fill the blender a little more than halfway. Purée until the mixture is as smooth as possible.

5. Pour the purée and stock back into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat so that the mixture bubbles gently and allow to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the chicken and add salt to taste.

6. To serve, divide the avocados, cheese and remaining cilantro between 4 to 6 bowls. Ladle the soup into the bowls and top with tortilla strips. Serve with lime wedges. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Recipe via New York Times Magazine

Corn Chowder

Tonya — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:44:09 +0000

Now that fall has really set in it is officially soup weather. I LOVE soup weather. Problem is, I also love summer. Le sigh. I feel like corn chowder solidly bridges that gap. I mean corn to me screams summer. Local corn starts showing up in the markets around the same time peaches and tomatoes are at their prime simultaneously signifying the peak of summer but also the impending fall. Clearly a corn soup is an easy way to ease into the next season.

Corn chowder isn’t something that I usually eat. When I lived in New York I’d often buy soup for lunch at either Whole Foods, Pax, or Cucina & Co. so I was constantly trying new soups. Now that I pack my lunch if I’m having soup it’s usually because I made it. Somehow corn chowder hasn’t made it into the rotation.

When I set out looking for a corn soup recipe I wasn’t quite sure what I’d come across. I knew that I wanted corn, potatoes and thick creamy goodness. Interestingly enough there were tons of variations with various types of meat, some that didn’t involve any cream (!) and many that felt more like soups. The recipe that I ultimately selected (this one from Gourmet) wasn’t going to deliver on the thickness, so I modified by puree half the soup, otherwise it would have been way too watery. I also threw in a habanero for some heat.

This soup definitely hit the spot. It felt like a warm hug of goodness. The addition of the habanero was a great move as it gave the soup one more note to enjoy. This soup will for sure be in my pot come this time next year, if not sooner.

Corn Chowder

1/2 cup diced (1/4-inch) slab bacon (2 oz; rind discarded if necessary)
2 cups diced (1/4-inch) sweet onion (14 oz) such as Vidalia
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
1 celery rib, cut into 1/4-inch dice (3/4 cup)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
1/2 lb yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold (2 small), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 lb sweet potato (1 medium), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (40 fl oz)
2 fresh thyme sprigs
3 cups corn (from about 6 ears)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 habanero pepper, whole with holes poked in it with a fork
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Cook bacon in a heavy soup pot until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pot with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Add the onion, carrots, celery and bell pepper to the bacon fat in the pot and cook for about 10 minutes, until the onion has softened.

Add the potatoes, broth, and thyme and simmer, covered, until potatoes are just tender. Add corn, cream and habanero and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Remove habanero pepper and puree half the soup in a blender or use your immersion blender. Add pureed soup back to the pot along with bacon and allow to simmer for another 10 minutes.

Recipe from Gourmet Magazine

Parker’s Beef Stew

Tonya — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:37:04 +0000

In Toronto, winter is finally making its way on out. Finally. We didn’t have such a terrible winter but there’s nothing like 5 or 6 months of cold and grayness to mess with your emotions. The days are getting longer and the sun is starting to shine a bit brighter. Summer, is around the corner folks!

But before we fully welcome in spring, here’s another winter-y recipe filled with goodness. I love a big bowl of stew but you really can only eat it when the weather is kind of miserable. With that said, this stew will brighten up a dreary day. I’m pretty sure that I first saw this on an episode of Barefoot Contessa back in the day but I also have the recipe in my Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics cookbook.

It’s a pretty traditional stew with beef, carrots, peas and potatoes. What makes it extra fab is the addition of a bottle of red wine and 6 oz of bacon. Um, red wine and bacon? HOLLA! The recipe also includes sun-dried tomatoes. Normally I would skip the sun-dried tomatoes because I think they’re lame but instead I decided to throw them in. While I can’t say that the tomatoes contributed that much, the bacon on the other hand was fabulous. I of course used my homemade bacon so it imparted a really great smoky flavour to the stew. Smoke coupled with the red wine was perfection.

I ate this stew with a loaf of great whole wheat bread from Brick Street Bakery. Such a great pairing. The way the weather has been, many of us probably have one last cold snap which means a last chance to make some stew!

Parker’s Beef Stew

Serves 6

2 1/2 pounds good-quality chuck beef, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes
1(750 ml bottle) good red wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon
3 whole garlic cloves, smashed
3 bay leaves
6 ounces bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
All-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Good olive oil
2 cups chopped yellow onions
2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch chunks
1 pound small potatoes, halved or quartered
1 (14 1/2 ounce can) beef stock
1 large (2 small) branch fresh rosemary
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and sliced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas (not petits pois)

1.?Put the beef, red wine, whole garlic, and bay leaves in a bowl. Marinate overnight in the fridge.

2.?The next day, preheat the oven to 300?F.

3.?Brown the bacon in a large (12-inch) sauté pan for 5 to 7 minutes, over medium-low heat. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a Dutch oven. Combine 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 tablespoon pepper. Lift the beef out of the marinade and discard the bay leaves and garlic, saving the marinade. In batches, dredge the cubes of beef in the flour mixture and then shake off the excess. In the sauté pan, brown half the beef over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Place the beef in the Dutch oven with the bacon and continue to brown the remaining beef, placing it all in the Dutch oven.

4.?Lower the heat to medium-low, add the onions to the sauté pan, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Place all the vegetables in the Dutch oven with the beef. Add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved marinade (discard the rest) to the sauté pan and cook over high heat to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the beef stock, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables in the Dutch oven and bring it to a simmer over medium heat on top of the stove. Cover the pot and place it in the oven for 2 hours, until the meat and vegetables are all tender, stirring once during cooking. If the stew is boiling rather than simmering, lower the heat to 250?F or 275?F.

5.?When the stew is done and the meat is tender, whisk 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of the sauce together and pour it back into the stew. Simmer for 3 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the frozen peas, season to taste, and serve hot.

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Tonya — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:32:41 +0000

Growing up I wasn’t picky about food but I knew what I liked and what I didn’t like. While other kids were eating Chef Boyardee and Spaghetti-Os I just couldn’t do it. Similarly I could never get excited over canned soups. One of the few canned soups I would eat (and is practically the case today) was Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. I’m not sure what it was about that soup but I could eat bowlfuls of the stuff with a stack of saltines.

For whatever reason I have never made my own cream of mushroom soup and I don’t have any memories of eating it from somewhere other than a can. It’s not that I find the can that satisfying, it had never occurred to me to make my own. My friend from high school Leesa sent me this recipe about a year ago for cream of mushroom soup and I finally decided to make it.

The actual recipe says to use all button mushrooms but that feels like a waste of flavour, doesn’t it? Why use only button mushrooms when the supermarket is filled with creminis, portobello, shitake, oyster and all sorts of other mushrooms. I used button, cremini and portobello mushrooms for my soup to give it a bit more depth.

What I loved about this soup was the wine flavour and the fact that it wasn’t sickeningly creamy. Sure, you use a cup of heavy cream but you also use 4 cups of broth and half a bottle of wine so the cream just adds a bit more body to it. Trust me when I say this soup is nothing like you’d expect out of a can – it’s on a totally different level. I’m absolutely in love with this soup. I served it with some crusty multigrain bread for a weeknight dinner and was thrilled.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 stick (4 ounces or 1/2 cup) of butter
2 pounds mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
3 onions, peeled and chopped
1/2 bottle Shiraz or other hearty red wine
4 cups rich chicken broth
1 cup 35% heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon or more of chopped fresh thyme
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper

1. Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add the butter, mushrooms and onions. Sauté until lightly browned. The mushrooms will initially release a lot of moisture, which will eventually evaporate allowing them to brown. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Add the Shiraz and bring to a simmer until it is reduced by half. Add the chicken broth and cream, stir well and bring to a simmer. Add the thyme and continue cooking for a few minutes. As the soup simmers stir the cornstarch into a ¼-cup of water. Add the mixture slowly to the simmering soup, stirring until it returns to the simmer and thickens slightly. If you prefer your soup a bit thicker feel free to add more cornstarch. Season to taste.

(Recipe via Food Network Canada)

Moosewood’s Potato Florentine Soup

Tonya — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 14:28:01 +0000

Soup is definitely key to my winter survival. It’s generally easy to make, makes A LOT and warms me up from the inside out. Plus soup is usually pretty inexpensive to make and is a good way to sneak in all sorts of veg.

One of my goals this winter is to make a pot of soup every week or so. Of course I make some of my fave tried and true soups like split-pea soup, butternut squash soup with roasted red peppers or Italian wedding soup, but I’m always on the lookout for “new-to-me” soups.

For years I’ve heard about various incarnations of potato soup but for whatever reason I’ve never tried it. Shocking, I know. I mean I loved potatoes, especially mashed potatoes and I like the typical add-ins to potato soup like leeks and cheddar cheese, so really potato soup is a natural fit for me. This time around when I set out to make soup I didn’t have a particular type in mind. While flipping through Moosewood Restaurant: New Classics and I came across the Potato Florentine Soup recipe. I liked the idea of a creamy potato soup with spinach and cheese and it seemed easy enough.

This soup is easy enough to make on a weeknight which is always a bonus. The only annoying past is that you have to take out some of the potatoes and throw them into a blender with a few other ingredients. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I just hate whipping out the blender (and cleaning it).

This soup was amazing. It was creamy, it was filled with potato and had a healthy dose of spinach throughout. Next time I would up the amount of cheese (I used cheddar) to have a stronger cheese taste. I made Cheddar Thyme Biscotti to go with the soup as my “dunkers”. Having fancy dunkers (normally I’d reach for saltines) really upped the awesomeness factor of my soup experience. I would also like to point out that I made both the biscotti and the soup on a weeknight with little fuss.

I’m definitely going to make this soup again before the winter’s up.

Potato Florentine Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
4 cups diced potatoes
1 tsp salt
4 cups water or vegetable stock
10 oz rinsed, stemmed, chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup Neufachatel or light cream cheese
1/2 cup grated fontina, Parmesan, or sharp Cheddar cheese
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp ground pepper

In a dutch oven or a soup pot over medium heat, saute the onions and rosemary together until the onions are translucent. Add the potatoes, salt, and water or stock, and bring to a low boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 10-15 minutes. With slotted spoon, take out about 2 cups of the cooked potatoes and set aside. Then, add the spinach, basil, and parsley to the soup pot, cover and cook for 1-2 minutes.

In a blender, add the potatoes, milk, neufchatel, grated cheese, and black pepper. Purée until smooth, then pour the mixture back into the soup pot, stirring to incorporate. Reheat for another minute or two, and serve.

(Recipe from Moosewood Restaurant: New Classics)

Ribollita Soup (Tuscan Bean Soup)

Tonya — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:41:13 +0000

I’m looking out the window and watching the snow and thinking that this would be the perfect time to talk soup. Soup is one of my favourite things to eat when the thermometer starts to head south. Soup is easy to make and rarely requires crazy ingredients. A bonus is that depending on the type of soup you can use it as an excuse to clean out your fridge.

For whatever reason the other day I had a crazy craving for Tuscan Bean Soup. I don’t even remember what prompted that craving but I just had to have the soup. My best memories of Tuscan Bean Soup are from when I interned at NBC. For almost two years I spent about 3 days at NBC during school semesters. This of course meant that I became intimate with the various lunch options in and around Rockefeller Centre.

One of my favourite lunch spots was Cucina & Co. in the basement of 30 Rock. Cucina is a sort of Mediterranean marketplace where you can grab lunch or sit down. I’d often go there for soup and these really good white chocolate and cherry cookies. I could be making up the white chocolate part but these cookies definitely had sour cherries in them. SO GOOD.

I don’t really have a flavour memory for the Cucina & Co. bean soup but I have a warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart about it. So I decided to try to make some Tuscan bean soup that would recreate that warm and fuzzy feeling. I started scouring my cookbooks looking for a recipe and settled on Mario Batali’s Ribollita recipe on the Food Network site and also in his book Molto Italiano.

The soup was easy enough to make although there was a fair amount of chopping involved. I used kale instead of black cabbage. The results were okay to good. I found the flavours a bit flat and the soup a bit thinner than I would’ve liked. This was easily remedied by finishing each bowl of soup with a splash of olive oil. Next time I’d probably start the soup with some sauteed bacon to add another layer of flavours. While generally good I think I’ll continue on my search for the perfect Tuscan Bean Soup.

This soup is definitely vegetarian and can be vegan if you omit the sprinkling of cheese.

Ribollita

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and drained
* 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced
* 1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
* 1 carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice
* 1 celery stalk, cut into 1/4-inch dice
* 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced, plus 1 whole garlic clove
* 2 sprigs fresh thyme
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 pound chopped cavolo nero (black cabbage), roughly chopped
* 1/2 pound chopped white cabbage, roughly chopped
* 2 scant tablespoons tomato paste
* 3 cups water
* 4 (1/2-inch) slices Italian peasant bread
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

Place the presoaked cannellini beans in a medium stockpot. Add water to just cover the beans and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and let the beans simmer until tender, about 1 hour.

In a 12-inch saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion, leek, carrot, celery, sliced garlic, and herbs. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the black and white cabbages and cook until the cabbage has softened and the flavors have blended, about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper, to taste. Remove the sprigs of rosemary and thyme and the bay leaf. Add the tomato paste, and stir until the tomato paste is well distributed throughout the vegetable mixture.

Preheat the grill or broiler.

Add the vegetable mixture to the pot with beans and water and let simmer until the flavors are well blended, about 30 minutes more. When the soup is close to being done, toast or grill the bread until both sides are browned. Cut the remaining garlic clove in half, and rub the toasted bread with the cut end of the garlic. Discard the garlic.

Serve the soup hot in 4 warmed bowls with the garlic bruschetta on the side. Garnish with a sprinkling of Parmigiano, to taste.

(Recipe via Food Network)

French Onion Soup

Tonya — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:31:12 +0000

For some reason I’ve been on a HUGE French food kick recently. If I had my way I would eat from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking every day. I’m not even kidding. Clearly my body just wants butter and cream.

The other day I was craving French onion soup so I decided to make it. This of course meant I had to acquire onion soup bowls, which of course is half the fun! When I decided to make the soup I knew the first (and only) stop would be Julia Child’s cookbook. Of course she had a few recipes/variations but I decided to make the basic version.

I had no idea the soup would be so easy. It takes some time because you have to caramelize the onions, but you aren’t using any fancy techniques or crazy ingredients. The wackiest ingredient in the list is Cognac which I happened to have. For the onion I used Vidalia’s which was probably a bit of a mistake because the onion flavour was too mild. You’d probably want to use a yellow or Spanish onion here to get the most oniony goodness out of the soup.

I free-styled a bit at the end and rather than putting the bread at the bottom of the bowl I used it to top the soup and sprinkled cheese on it and ran the whole thing under the broiler. SO GOOD. My favourite part of eating onion soup is dunking the cheesy bread into the whole mess.

Making French onion soup is going to be added to my regular rotation of things to make. It’s easy, inexpensive AND it really classes up dinner and makes a weeknight supper that much more special.

French Onion Soup

5 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 quarts beef stock, boiling
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons cognac
4-6 rounds of hard-toasted French bread
1-2 cups grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese

1) Cook the onions slowly in the butter and oil in a covered saucepan for 15 minutes. Uncover, raise heat to medium and stir in the salt and sugar. The sugar will help the onions to brown. Cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions have turned a deep golden brown.

2) Sprinkle in the flour and stir over heat for 3 minutes. Off heat, blend in the stock. Add the wine and season to taste. Simmer partially covered for another 30-40 minutes or more, skimming if needed. Correct seasonings.

3) Just before serving, stir in the cognac. Place rounds of bread in soup bowls or a tureen and pour soup on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and brown under a hot broiler until golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.

(From Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child)

Beef and Dark Beer Chili

Tonya — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:17:25 +0000

Chili is easily one of my favourite meals. Give me a big steamy bowl filled with meat and beans and maybe topped with cheese, sour cream and/or green onions and I’m a happy girl. Usually I don’t make chili with a recipe, I typically just brown some beef with garlic, onions and peppers and add spices, beans and tomatoes. It’s a no-brainer and always tastes delicious. Recently I’ve been curious about different chili recipes. Last year I made this labour-intensive recipe but this year I wanted something a bit different.

After some browsing on Epicurious I came across this recipe for chili made with beer. Chili AND beer? Sounds like a winner! I didn’t stray too far from the recipe other than to add a can of pinto beans along with the two cans of kidney beans. I also used a bit less meat than called for – not a big deal. The chili smelled amazing while it was simmering. I could definitely smell the beer as it cooked. The scent of beer combined with spiciness and meat is a pretty delicious scent.

The end product was really great. Really great as in from here on my chili will forever be made with beer. The chili had a wonderful smokiness from the chipotles and a nice depth to it thanks to the beer. I ate this with some bread on the side and it was a great meal. And since it makes so much it is the gift that keeps on giving as I have a few servings in the freezer for a rainy day. Pure joy.

Beef and Dark Beer Chili

Bon Appétit
February 2007
David Burke
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
5 pounds ground chuck
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 1/2 pounds onions, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 pounds red bell peppers, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 pounds yellow bell peppers, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large jalapeño chiles with seeds, chopped (about 1/3 cup)
7 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons (packed) minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes with added puree
2 15-ounce cans kidney beans, drained
1 12-ounce bottle dark beer (such as stout)
Sour cream
Chopped green onions
Coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Toast cumin and coriander in skillet over medium heat until darker and beginning to smoke, about 4 minutes. Cool.

Sauté beef in heavy large pot over medium-high heat until no longer pink, breaking up with spoon, about 8 minutes. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, all bell peppers, and jalapeños. Sauté until vegetables begin to soften, about 15 minutes. Add mixture to pot with meat. Mix in toasted spices, chili powder, and chipotle chiles. Add crushed tomatoes, beans, and beer. Bring chili to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Can be made ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated up to 2 days (or freeze up to 1 month). Rewarm over medium-low heat.

Ladle chili into bowls. Serve with sour cream, green onions, and cheese.

One Love Vegetarian : Corn Soup

Tonya — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:28:11 +0000

A few months ago I posted about my trip to One Love Vegetarian restaurant where I finally got to try their famous corn soup. It was delicious and I could totally eat that all the time.

Since corn has been so fantastic this summer I decided to make the soup at home using this recipe from the Food Network which comes from the folks at the restaurant.

The soup is a mix of corn, pumpkin (or squash), split peas, carrots and other vegetables. Nothing is too hard to track down although I used a blend of spices instead of Mrs. Dash. I also didn’t have frozen vegetable mix on hand and was going to use peas instead but then I realized that my peas were past their prime. Next time I’ll definitely get the frozen vegetables.

This turned out pretty good but not as good as a the restaurant. I think they definitely had put a few more dashes of love in their soup than I did. I also thought my soup was on the thin side and could haven used more body. I think some more split pea would have solved that and quickly blending them with an immersion blender would help more. Also using a starchier potato would be a nice touch. Overall it was delicious and a nice filling soup.

It’s important to note that this recipe is not only vegetarian but vegan and probably (correct me if I’m wrong) gluten-free. But of course can be modified to be none of those things

The recipe makes A LOT of soup. I just about halved it and still had to freeze some. When I froze the soup I removed the corn cobs (wasn’t sure how they would hold up) so I think when I defrost the soup I might throw in some shredded chicken and maybe a bit more coconut milk and maybe even a dash of curry. I’m getting hungry just thinking about this.

One Love Corn Soup

Ingredients

* 24 cups spring water
* 2 cups yellow split peas
* 1/2 cup coconut milk
* 3 vegetable bouillon, cubes
* 6 Yukon Gold or red medium potato, washed, peeled, and, quartered
* 2 cups Jamaican pumpkin or 2 cups butternut squash
* 2 cups frozen vegetable mix
* 3 cobs fresh corn
* 3 carrot, peeled, and, diced
* 1 scotch bonnet pepper, whole
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, preferably Jamaican Bird Pepper
* 1 clove fresh garlic, finely, minced
* seasoning salt, (Mrs. Dash), to taste
* 1 sprig fresh Jamaican thyme

Directions
In a large pot bring the water to a rolling boil. Add split peas and cook until soft. Add coconut milk and vegetable bouillon cubes. Allow liquid to boil again. Peel and cut pumpkin into large cubes. Put potatoes, pumpkin and frozen mixed vegetables in the pot. Cut up 2 cobs of corn into wheels and shave the kernels off of the remaining cob. Add the corn and diced carrots to the pot. Simmer soup on medium heat for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add Scotch bonnet pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, seasoning salt and thyme. Stir until seasoning is mixed through. Simmer for 5 more minutes to allow the flavour of the seasoning to be released into the soup.