Hot and Sour Soup

Who knew it would be so easy to make hot and sour soup.  It is one of my favorites.  Something I don't get very often as all of our favorite chines restaurants have closed up shop.  I had some leftover pork chop so I decided to try and make soup. 

1 32 ounce box of chicken stock
2 T rice wine vinegar
1/4 + tsp chili garlic paste (to taste)
1/4 tsp garlic powder

3 mushrooms sliced very thin
leftover meat sliced thin

Bring all these ingredients to a strong simmer.

Mix about 2 T cornstarch with about 4 T soy sauce
Slowly stir into soup and let thicken.  (Mine didn't get very thick but that was OK with me.)

One egg beaten.

Slowly.  Very slowly, just barely moving.  Stir the soup in one direction.  Pour the beaten egg in in a slow stream.  pause to let it cook a bit and add some more.  If you stir too much or in multiple directions you don't get the nice sheets of eggs.  You get a more mush-like soup.

Add sliced green onions.  Adjust to taste with salt, chili paste, garlic, soy sauce.

Serve and enjoy.

This was a 10 minute soup that was perfect for this cold winter day.  

Gradaute to Garbage (Garbanzo) Stew

Image from Graphics Fairy*

I was 19  and in my first year of college when my Dad earned his Ph.D. 

I was 29 when I earned Ph.D.  My brother earned his the year before.

I was 32 when I got my first full time faculty position.  My office was one floor down from Dad and across campus from my brother.  My dad liked to use the phone even less than I do (which is saying a lot).  However, I think it amused him the most to ask "which one?" when the caller asked for Dr W

We  had a parties for each occasion.  But the first was Dad's!  My sister and I baked the cake.  Ask her how to spell CoNGrAtuLaTiONs (Filling in the top row of a periodic table).  I am sure it wasn't my fault!   Mom found the recipe for Garbanzo Stew and made a giant pot for the party.  It was in an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine or recipe card.  She, and I, have been making it ever since. Some one called it Garbage Stew.  We have called it that ever since. 

It is just as well I can't find the original recipe.  If followed precisely, it makes for a pretty thin gruel.  When I looked at it, I realized how much we have modified it.  What follows, as is customary for me, is a general guideline.  Soup is a very forgiving food to prepare.  Unlike baking, measurements do not need to be precise.  That makes it pretty simple to use what you have on hand.  The trade off for that simplicity is that you need to season it to suit the particular brand of ingredients and your personal taste.

Good quality smoked sausage sliced
1 package bacon, diced
Stew Beef cubed
Ham bone or cubed ham
Garbanzo Beans
Potatoes peeled and diced (about the size of the cubes of meat)
Chicken stock
garlic
Onion
pepper

Fry the bacon in a large stock pot with a lid.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Pour off fat.  Fry sausage in same pot until browned.  Remove to plate with bacon.  Cool and refrigerate bacon and sausage. 

Sear beef cubes in same stock pot in a bit of the fat from the sausage.   If using fresh garlic, add one or two crushed cloves for the last minute of searing.  Drain fat.  Add ham, approximately 1 tsp granulated garlic (if not using fresh) and cover with water.   Add at least on can or better one box of chicken stock.  Cover completely with water.  Bring to a simmer.  Cover pan with lid and allow to simmer on low for several hours until beef is tender.  (Alternately you can braise it in the oven or you could transfer to your crock pot.) 

Once beef is tender, add drained canned garbanzo beans, and cubed potatoes.  Bring to a rolling simmer and cook until potatoes are tender.  Add in sausage and bacon.  Heat through.  Skim fat from surface. 

Now is the time to adjust the seasonings.  Add more garlic.  This soup should be very garlicky.  Add lots of cracked fresh black pepper.  Add parsley if you like  If you need more liquid add more chicken stock.  Season slowly and taste as you go.  You will know when you get to a rich, slightly salty, hearty soup.

Serve with salad, bread or in a mug as you greet your holiday or celebratory guests.

*I don't have any digital copies of pictures from Dad's graduation party.  This image from Graphics Fairy, absolutely cracked me up.  It actually looks a bit like my dad (except for the too big suit).  More importantly, the cartoon style is very similar to the cartoons he always drew. 

Jambalaya

Spud one has a friend who is a regular visitor at dinner time.  I enjoy having him join us because he enjoys food and always tells me he likes it!  Tonight we made a quick pot of jambalaya.  He wants the recipe so he can make it himself.  The following is an approximate guide to making jambalaya soup.

1 - 2 packages Eckrich all beef smoked sausage.

slice thinly and fry in the bottom of you soup kettle.  Remove to drain on paper towels.  Reserve 1 Tbls of drippings in the bottom of the kettle.

1 - 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or whatever you have)  cut into bite-sized cubes

Saute in kettle until no longer pink.

1- 3 sm onions chopped
Add to kettle halfway through cooking.

Cook until the chicken is slightly browned and onions are pleasantly soft.

1 cup chopped red pepper

Add to kettle during the last minute of sauteing chicken.

1 large can crushed tomatoes
2 quarts chicken stock
garlic to taste
cayenne pepper to taste

Add to kettle.  Bring to a simmer.  Add sausage and adjust seasoning.  Use bullion to add salt if needed.  Let simmer at least 15 minutes or all day.

Serve over rice in soup bowls.  Store left over rice and soup separately. 

This makes a soup rather than the more traditional jambalaya that is mixed with rice and served on a plate.  The rice is added to bowl at serving time.

Pork Roast Soup

Today is cold. Not really cold in a subzero freeze your face off sort of way. But cold like it was almost 70 a couple days ago and I was wearing shorts and now it is only in the twenties and I am cold. It is the kind of day you want comfort food. A nice bowl of soup! The recipe I'm posting today is one I made up to use up leftovers. I think it has been posted, but the original blog has gone dark and I can't find the link. It is for Pork Roast Soup.

Day 1: Roast pork. Soak dried garbanzo beans. Eat some of pork roast. Save pan dripping for soup.

Day 2. Cook beans slowly for several hours until almost tender. Sauté carrots, onions and celery (all chopped to the approximately the size of beans) until soft. I use on onion, a handful of baby carrots, and a couple ribs of celery because they’re usually isn’t that much roast leftover. Add beans and cooking liquid, about 2 cups of chicken stock or reduced sodium broth and pork pan drippings. Skim fat or use one of these handy things. Add in diced pork (the same size as the beans). Simmer until beans are cooked through. Adjust the seasonings. (Go with whatever seasoning you used on the pork. If you used a rub or seasoning mix on the roast you may just want to add a bit more to the soup. We always use this one from Stonewall Kitchens. Add and taste often. That is the only way to get soup to taste the way you want it. Go easy on the salt and pepper until the very end. Serve with a nice crusty bread and a salad. Mmmm.

Day 3: Eat leftovers for lunch if there are any. Walk the long way round from the microwave to make sure the yummy smells permeate the office.

Make Mine Monday Soup: Cheesy Potato Soup

No picture today and not much of a recipe but a quick road map to cheesy potato soup.

Even though it is still pretty warm around here and it was a bright sunny day, the wind was whipping the leaves around like it was clearing a path for the first snow. It made me want to sit down with a thick bowl of soup and dip in some crusty bread.

Of course it was also a day for working and playing at muckety mucking. I stitched head bands and badges all day until it was time to go to the swanky reception at the post old money club. Yeah, they let me through the doors once a year for a reception. If you weren't invited and given a map there is no way you would ever know the place even existed. It is a gorgeous old barn that has been polished and shined and upgraded to a very posh place for a reception.

I wasn't really in the mood for a soiree. I did my schmoozing, traded business cards, made connections and bailed out. By the time I got home I just wanted my soup. Of course there was no such soup awaiting. I had to make it up... So here is what I did.

Fried a handfull of pre-cooked bacon pieces (for salads) in the bottom of the soup kettle. (Burned the first batch and started over.) Added a small amount of chopped onion to the new batch in the clean kettle and sauteed until the onion was soft. Allowed the bacon and onions to drain on a plate.

Added a box of chicken stock to the kettle. Added a bunch of cleaned and cubed redskin potatoes. I added then until the stock in the kettle was pretty much full of potatoes. Brought it to a boil and cooked for about 15 minutes until the potatoes were soft. Added the bacon and onions back in. Took about 2 cups of shredded cheddar. Mixed in about 2 tablespoons of flour and stirred it all together until the cheese was coated with flour. Added the cheese flour mixture to the boiling (should have been simmering) soup stirring until each batch was melted and mixed in.

Went to the fridge to find the sharp cheddar I just bought. Dropped the big tub of yogurt I just bought onto the floor where it proceeded to open and spray me and everything else in sight with COLD yogurt. Trust me, cold yogurt from knee to toe is not fun. Called the spuds to help clean up the mess while I cleaned up me. Caught the soup just before it burned because no one was stirring it or remembered to turn down the burner while cleaning up the mess. Added some of the finally found sharper cheddar. Probably about 1/2 cup shredded. Stirred it in. Stirred in about 1/2 cup heavy cream. Added pepper. Allowed to simmer while setting table. Sliced bread and ate. A surprising yummy soup for a day better left behind.

Eyeball Soup

Reposted here as part of my on-going effort to grasp the wisps and straws of my recipes from across the blogosphere and collect them all in one place.

Yup it is that season when we start to figure out how best to gross out neighbors and friends. Why scary and gross are essential elements of Halloween is not entirely clear to me. I always associated it with storybook characters and princesses [yeah right --ed] But now that my house is dominated by tweens and teens gross reigns supreme. So this year on the menu for our annual Halloween party will be buttered brains and eyeball soup.

The idea for Eyeball soup is straight out of Martha Stewart. In fact her recipe can be found here. But that version just sounds disgusting and I really don’t like cream of tomato soup so here is the version stewing in my cauldron this year.

About 1/4 cup diced carrots
About 1/4 cup diced celery
About 3/4 cup diced onion

Saute in a tiny bit of olive oil until soft and translucent but not browned.

Add garlic to taste
1 or 2 cans vegetable broth
1-2 cans water
2 big cans crushed tomatoes

Simmer. Season with black pepper, additional garlic, salt and basil.

Taste. Here is the key part. Every can of tomatoes seems to have a different level of acidity. Likewise with the carrots and onions. Sweet carrots and sweet onions can offset the acidity of the tomatoes. But… They may not be sweet enough. You may have to adjust with a TINY amount of brown sugar. You are not trying to get sweet soup. You want to reduce the acidity. Go slow. Add a bit and taste. Add again if needed. I usually end up adding 1-2 Tablespoons of brown sugar but sometimes I need more and sometimes less.

Once you get the taste right put the soup through a food mill in small batches. Be careful if you are working with it hot. Food mills are not as stable as they should be. You can use a processor, stick blender or blender but I like the smooth texture I get from the food mill.

At this point the soup is done and can elegantly served with croutons made of toasted French bread brushed with garlic and olive oil with a little gruyere cheese melted on top. (Or melt in a dab of butter as one relative does.)

However… since this is gross-out time we need eyeballs. A couple handfuls of pearl onions should do nicely. Heat through. Serve with fingers. (Above gruyere croutons cut into finger-like strips.)

Oughtta be gruesome enough for the ghouls around here.

Update 10/24/2005: This was submitted for the Carnival of the Recipes. The schedule for upcoming Carnivals is posted here.

I went searching for an image to post with this recipe and discovered that there are about a bajillion ways to make or fake eyeball soup. Who knew?