Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
How Tempting the Carrot Can Be
10/5/11: Cream of Carrot Soup
There's been lots of tempting fruits and veggies on the farm the last month or so. Lots of great baking apples, sweet potatoes, sugar pie pumpkins, and winter squash. These are the type of veggies I like: ones that take a long time to bake but end up sweet and comforting. And they warm up the house to boot!
Another vegetable that has been on my mind is the carrot. We planted numerous rows of these this year (500 feet long rows, I should add), and we've been harvesting bushel after bushel ever since August.
Up to a couple days ago, I only roasted carrots in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and s&p. Carrots, plain and simple. But during the last part of September I was looking for a different recipe, and I found one via one of our good customers at the farm stand: Suzanne.
She gave me a recipe card for a Cream of Carrot Soup. Ah, very intriguing, don't you think? (She gave my sister and I a couple more cards which we will be giving a try soon!)
Suzanne was telling me that she came across this recipe when she was visiting the Fernwood Nature Center in Niles, MI. There she tried this soup for the first time and thought it was really delicious.
Before I get to my carrot soup experience, let me write out the recipe for you as Suzanne wrote it:
Cream of Carrot Soup
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
- 1 ham bone
- 6 cups water
- 1-1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and diced
- 4 stalks celey, cubed
- 4 medium red potatoes, cubed
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups half and half
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Place ham bone and water in large pot. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum, then add carrots, celery, potatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, or til vegetables are soft. Strain mixture and save water. Discard bay leaves. Puree vegetables using some reserved cooking water in blender, food processor, or using stick blender. Remove any ham from bone and puree if desired, (I would chop up and add unless you desire a very smooth soup). Add remainder of cooking water you saved, then re-heat to simmer. Add half-and-half and salt and pepper. Serve HOT!
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I planned on making this soup for two weeks but just couldn't find 2-1/2 hours of time to make it happen. But when last Wednesday rolled around and I needed to stay home to freeze some green beans, I thought I could work on the soup at the same time.
I am very pleased to say that I followed the recipe precisely--I even had the ham bone, bay leaves, and half-and-half. Let me tell you, that doesn't happen too often for yours truly!
So the soup turned out to be wonderful; I could taste the carrot and it had a smooth texture because of the potatoes. And the ham bone gave it full-body, rich flavor similar to that of split pea soup. Since it was so good and simple to do, I think the humble carrot has found a new place to put up his feet. ;)
Mary's Potato and Cheese Soup
4/27/11: Potato and Cheese Soup
My recipe searching usually ventures down one of three roads: internet, magazine, or cookbook. AllRecipes.com, sure. TastyKitchen.com, been there. Cook's Country magazine, yep. And we mustn't forget our dear Betty Crocker cookbook.
So where did the Potato and Cheese Soup recipe come from? I am happy to report that it didn't come via the sources above. It came from Mary H. from California (the Quilting Bibliophagist), who is my sewing/quilting buddy. Whenever either of us have a sewing or quilting related question, we email each other for advice. One of my emails strayed off into the realm of cooking and I asked her if she had any good, easy, and quick recipes she could share. And that is how the Potato and Cheese Soup was found! Here it is:
Potato Cheese Soup
- 8 cups of peeled and sliced potatoes
- 4 cups water
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 10 sprigs parsley
- 3 cups milk
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 to 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1/4 teaspoons pepper (or to taste)
- 2 pinches of garlic powder
Be careful. Do not fill the blender more than half full at a time. You must also use a blender which has a glass container, not a plastic one, to puree the hot soup. If you run out of cooking water while pureeing your batches of soup, just add a little of the pre-measured milk. If you do not have a blender, you will need to chop the onions instead of just slicing them, and you will need to finely chop the parsley and either mash the potatoes or run them through a food mill. This all takes more time which is why I love using the blender.
Return the potato puree to the pot. Add milk, pepper, garlic powder, and butter. Stir. Add cheese. Heat and stir over a very low flame just until the cheese melts. Caution: High heat will cause the cheese to become a rubbery mass. Check the seasonings and adjust if necessary. (A thick pan is ideal for soups like this. I have a soup pot that is made of porcelain covered cast iron which I love. It's also great for rice or beans.)
If you need to prepare this soup very quickly, wash your parsley and slice your onions the night before and store them in the refrigerator in a tightly-covered container or zip lock bag. Peel and slice your potatoes and store them in the 'fridge covered with the water so they don't turn grey.
I like to serve this with cornbread or whole wheat Irish Soda Bread. Or just regular whole wheat bread. Adding a salad to the meal makes a little more well rounded nutritionally, though my husband was perfectly happy just with soup and bread. And potatoes are very nutritious anyway. Serves 5-7.
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I tried to stay true the recipe as well as I could. The only thing I changed was using dried parsley instead of fresh. So this is how the kitchen time unfolded:
I cleaned the potatoes:
Peeled them:
Measured the amount of potatoes by using my large, 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. No home should be without it. :)
Placed the potatoes into our 6 quart pot. (Oh, by the way, I doubled the recipe. That's the reason for all the potatoes! I had freezing leftovers in mind.)
While the potatoes were coming to a boil, I sliced the onions thin:
Pureed everything together and then added the milk, cheese, and seasonings:
The end result was a creamy, flavorful bowl of soup that everyone loved--even the soup haters. Yay!
And because bread and soup is like Astaire and Rogers, I made some biscuits using my tried and true recipe.
What about you? What is your favorite potato recipe of all time? How about soup? Send some recipes to me at herlittleway at gmail dot com.
Falling for the Fall Harvest
10/11/09: Butternut Squash Soup with Herb Roasted Potatoes
Meal Details: The main course consisted of soup made with butternut squash and as a side, I roasted red potatoes and Kennebec potatoes with sage and other flavorings.
Defining moments: This is the first time that a squash soup entered my family's meal lineup and it is the first ever Martha Stewart recipe I did. I never thought in a million years that I would be doing something from Martha!
This is also the first time that we have used Kennebec potatoes and first time to cook with fresh sage.
Recipe sources: The butternut squash soup came from the October 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living. (The original recipe was titled "Roasted Pumpkin Soup" but I substituted the pumpkin with butternut squash.) The Herb Roasted Potatoes came from the Food Network website and was thus chosen for this week because Anne Burrell is the recipe creator. I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page.
What I learned: First and foremost I learned that this soup is probably the least expensive soup you can ever make. With only four medium sized butternut squash you can make FIVE whole quarts of soup. And if you take a look at the recipe ingredient list you can see you don't have to load the shopping cart with many items!
I also learned that there is no need to use an immersion blender to blend the soup, just take out your electric beater and whisk away!
And instead of roasting the squash on a cookie sheet like we usually do I think it is better to use the large roasting tray that is meant for the turkey. It allows for me to quickly toss them so they can bake evenly.
And the potato recipe? I learned that the Kennebec potatoes have a very thin skin and can be easily washed.
Any modifications? Yes, only to the soup recipe. I took out the shiitake mushrooms that were called for and I peeled the squash with a potato peeler before I cubed them. I thought peeling them prior to baking would be a whole lot easier.
How it tasted? Both dishes were warm, rich, and full of flavor. They went exceptionally well together! The squash soup was smooth (it did have an occasional lump here and there but I didn't mind) and bright as a sunset. The potatoes, especially the Kennebec, had wonderful garlic flavor and those that had the sage (I only did half a tray with sage, as a test), were really good, too. The Kennebec are longish in shape so they are perfect for oven fries.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, absolutely. And I would like to pair these two recipes again, since they worked so well together.
Thank you, Anne with an "E", for the great potato recipe!
Meal Details: The main course consisted of soup made with butternut squash and as a side, I roasted red potatoes and Kennebec potatoes with sage and other flavorings.
Defining moments: This is the first time that a squash soup entered my family's meal lineup and it is the first ever Martha Stewart recipe I did. I never thought in a million years that I would be doing something from Martha!
This is also the first time that we have used Kennebec potatoes and first time to cook with fresh sage.
Recipe sources: The butternut squash soup came from the October 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living. (The original recipe was titled "Roasted Pumpkin Soup" but I substituted the pumpkin with butternut squash.) The Herb Roasted Potatoes came from the Food Network website and was thus chosen for this week because Anne Burrell is the recipe creator. I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page.
What I learned: First and foremost I learned that this soup is probably the least expensive soup you can ever make. With only four medium sized butternut squash you can make FIVE whole quarts of soup. And if you take a look at the recipe ingredient list you can see you don't have to load the shopping cart with many items!
I also learned that there is no need to use an immersion blender to blend the soup, just take out your electric beater and whisk away!
And instead of roasting the squash on a cookie sheet like we usually do I think it is better to use the large roasting tray that is meant for the turkey. It allows for me to quickly toss them so they can bake evenly.
And the potato recipe? I learned that the Kennebec potatoes have a very thin skin and can be easily washed.
Any modifications? Yes, only to the soup recipe. I took out the shiitake mushrooms that were called for and I peeled the squash with a potato peeler before I cubed them. I thought peeling them prior to baking would be a whole lot easier.
How it tasted? Both dishes were warm, rich, and full of flavor. They went exceptionally well together! The squash soup was smooth (it did have an occasional lump here and there but I didn't mind) and bright as a sunset. The potatoes, especially the Kennebec, had wonderful garlic flavor and those that had the sage (I only did half a tray with sage, as a test), were really good, too. The Kennebec are longish in shape so they are perfect for oven fries.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, absolutely. And I would like to pair these two recipes again, since they worked so well together.
Thank you, Anne with an "E", for the great potato recipe!
Freezing Tomato Soup
10/06/09: Freezing Tomato Soup
The tomato soup that was made last Sunday was so well liked that my family wanted some frozen so we can enjoy it during the winter months; along with Alton Brown's biscuits of course! I made a very large batch using our stainless steel stock pot--you should have seen the amount of roux I had to make! I used the exact same recipe from the Sunday before but I had to times it by 9.
When everything was done I managed to make 13 quarts of tomato soup.
The tomato soup that was made last Sunday was so well liked that my family wanted some frozen so we can enjoy it during the winter months; along with Alton Brown's biscuits of course! I made a very large batch using our stainless steel stock pot--you should have seen the amount of roux I had to make! I used the exact same recipe from the Sunday before but I had to times it by 9.
When everything was done I managed to make 13 quarts of tomato soup.
Not a Can Opener in Sight
10/04/09: Homemade Tomato Soup with Southern Biscuits
Meal Details: For the main course I made homemade tomato soup and for a side I made southern biscuits. I thought we absolutely needed something for dunking, that's how the biscuits came into the picture!
Defining moments: I made biscuits. Wow! They seem like such an everyday sort of thing, but I feel that baking these biscuits was a monumental achievement! I heard about so many black bottom biscuits before, maybe that was why I was scared to death about trying them out.
Recipe sources: The tomato soup recipe came from allrecipes.com and can be viewed here. The biscuit recipe is from the cooking show Good Eats and was specifically chosen because I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page. You can view the recipe here. And the YouTube video of the original show here.
What I learned: Let me first discuss the tomato soup. At first I was planning on using Roma tomatoes because I thought their meatiness would make for a velvety soup, but I went with the regular slicing instead. I'm glad I did because I later realized that the soup benefits from all the tomato juice and velvety texture is achieved by way of the roux.
Now on to the biscuits! For those who would like to try out Alton Brown's recipe I highly recommend that you look at both the recipe and the YouTube video, because Alton and his grandmother give very helpful tips in the video that are not included in the written format. The following tips are very important: 1) use 1/2 all-purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour, 2) touch the top of each cut-out-biscuit with your finger to prevent the biscuit from forming a dome while baking, 3) preheat oven to 450 degrees F, not 400 like the recipe states, and 4) have the biscuits touch each other when you place them on the baking sheet, but don't have them too close.
And my tips for the biscuits is such: bake them on the Baker's Secret cookie sheet, the biscuits bake splendidly on it. I tried my first batch in a 13x9 Pyrex pan and they didn't rise as high as those on the Baker's Secret.
I don't know if there is any truth behind it but I think if I let the dough sit for a couple minutes (like 10) I think I will get higher biscuits. I say this because when my first batch was baking in the oven I left my dough sit on the counter for that amount of time. So when the second batch came out of the oven they were twice as high as my first. I will have to test my theory when I bake these again.
Any modifications? Actually, no. Quite amazing for me!
How it tasted? Both were exceptional. My whole family said that the soup is better than Campbell's. That's definitely good to hear. And the biscuits were tender, moist, and delicious. I don't quite remember having biscuits before (yeah, weird huh?) so I don't have anything to compare to. But Annemarie said that they were the best biscuits she has ever had. I'm blushing now.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, for both.
Mmm Mmm Good!
Sorry had to do it!
Meal Details: For the main course I made homemade tomato soup and for a side I made southern biscuits. I thought we absolutely needed something for dunking, that's how the biscuits came into the picture!
Defining moments: I made biscuits. Wow! They seem like such an everyday sort of thing, but I feel that baking these biscuits was a monumental achievement! I heard about so many black bottom biscuits before, maybe that was why I was scared to death about trying them out.
Recipe sources: The tomato soup recipe came from allrecipes.com and can be viewed here. The biscuit recipe is from the cooking show Good Eats and was specifically chosen because I am part of the Food Network Challenge that is being hosted by the writer of the I Blame My Mother blog. Learn more about this fun challenge by visiting this page. You can view the recipe here. And the YouTube video of the original show here.
What I learned: Let me first discuss the tomato soup. At first I was planning on using Roma tomatoes because I thought their meatiness would make for a velvety soup, but I went with the regular slicing instead. I'm glad I did because I later realized that the soup benefits from all the tomato juice and velvety texture is achieved by way of the roux.
Now on to the biscuits! For those who would like to try out Alton Brown's recipe I highly recommend that you look at both the recipe and the YouTube video, because Alton and his grandmother give very helpful tips in the video that are not included in the written format. The following tips are very important: 1) use 1/2 all-purpose flour and 1/2 cake flour, 2) touch the top of each cut-out-biscuit with your finger to prevent the biscuit from forming a dome while baking, 3) preheat oven to 450 degrees F, not 400 like the recipe states, and 4) have the biscuits touch each other when you place them on the baking sheet, but don't have them too close.
And my tips for the biscuits is such: bake them on the Baker's Secret cookie sheet, the biscuits bake splendidly on it. I tried my first batch in a 13x9 Pyrex pan and they didn't rise as high as those on the Baker's Secret.
I don't know if there is any truth behind it but I think if I let the dough sit for a couple minutes (like 10) I think I will get higher biscuits. I say this because when my first batch was baking in the oven I left my dough sit on the counter for that amount of time. So when the second batch came out of the oven they were twice as high as my first. I will have to test my theory when I bake these again.
Any modifications? Actually, no. Quite amazing for me!
How it tasted? Both were exceptional. My whole family said that the soup is better than Campbell's. That's definitely good to hear. And the biscuits were tender, moist, and delicious. I don't quite remember having biscuits before (yeah, weird huh?) so I don't have anything to compare to. But Annemarie said that they were the best biscuits she has ever had. I'm blushing now.
How about a 2nd time? Yes, for both.
Mmm Mmm Good!
Sorry had to do it!
M'm! M'm!. . . Homemade!
2/22/09: Chicken, Corn, and Potato Chowder and St. Joseph's Day Bread
- Sources: Recipelink.com for chowder and March 2009 issue of Saint Maria's Messenger magazine.
- Defining moments: First time I ever made soup from scratch. (If I was talking canned soup this would probably be my 100th time.)
- What I learned: I learned that you should never have soup without bread accompanying it! I also discovered that the second time you do a recipe everything seems to flow so nicely. I had zero trouble with the St. Joseph's Day bread this time.
- How it tasted: It was the best chicken soup I ever tried and my brothers really liked it as well. My sisters looked more fondly at the bread than the soup, which I don't mind in the least!
- How about a 2nd time? The bread, definitely. The soup. . .If I could have it my way I would have this soup, cabbage soup, and split pea soup every month! These three are my favorites. And split pea soup may be coming soon, the ham bone is waiting patiently in the freezer as I speak.
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