NationStates Jolt Archive

I think it's been a while since we last had a recipe thread (and hey, I love cooking. See my pics? That's why :D )

So, I just had some

Russian Onion Soup

Onions (about 1 big per person)
Stock (300 ml per person)
1 slice of white bread per person
Grated cheese
Curry powder (mild)
Butter

Chop the onions (not to fine), fry them in a saucepan with a little butter until they are soft, don't brown them but slightly yellow is ok. Pour on the stock, add curry powder, about one teaspoon per person. Let it simmer until the onions are really soft.
Pour soup into serving bowls, cover with one slice of white bread each. Top it with grated cheese, then put in the oven until the cheese is melted and browned.

It's great, especially in winter!

Now, any other great soup recipes out there?

I've used this. It's really good.

Using a whole tomato as the serving vehicle for a hot or cold soup is a fun way to present the soup. As you eat the soup, you can cut into the tomato as well. In this recipe, the fried leeks add just the right amount of texture and zip to the garlic soup.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
4 large red tomatoes
Crispy Fried Leeks (recipe follows)
Roasted Garlic Puree (recipe follows)
4 cups Chicken Stock (recipe follows)
Salt and pepper

METHOD Score the top of the tomatoes with a knife (creating an X), but do not core the tomatoes.

Place the tomatoes in boiling salted water and cook for 2 minutes. Remove and immediately shock the tomatoes in ice water. Carefully remove the skin, cut off the tops of the tomatoes, and hollow out the tomatoes.

Tip: Be careful not to make any holes in the sides or bottom of the tomatoes, or your soup will leak out. Discard the tops and the inner tomato pulp.

Puree the roasted garlic with the chicken stock and place in a medium saucepan. Warm over medium heat for 10 minutes or until hot, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the tomatoes on a sheet pan and roast at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until just hot.

Crispy Fried Leeks
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 cups
2 cups very finely julienned leeks
Salt and pepper
Canola oil for frying

Fry the julienned leeks in the canola oil for 2 to 3 minutes or until crispy. (Cook them in batches.) Remove from the oil, blot on paper towels, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chicken stock
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 4 hours and 45 minutes
Yield: 2 quarts
6 pounds chicken bones
3 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped leeks
1 tablespoon whole white peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Place all the ingredients in a large stockpot and cover three-fourths of the way with cold water (about 2 gallons).

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and slowly simmer for 4 hours, skimming every 30 minutes to remove the impurities that rise to the surface.

Strain and continue to cook over medium heat for 30 to 45 minutes or until reduced down to about 2 quarts.

Roasted Garlic Puree
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Yield: About 3/4 cup
4 garlic bulbs, tops cut off
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cups milk
Salt and pepper

Place the garlic in a small saucepan, cover with the milk, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Drain the milk and then place the garlic bulbs bottom-side down in an ovenproof pan. Add the olive oil and cover the pan with a lid or foil. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the garlic bulbs are soft.

Cool the garlic and oil, squeeze the soft garlic out of the skins, and place in a blender with the olive oil in which you baked the garlic. Puree the garlic and oil until smooth.

Assembly Place a tomato in the center of a shallow bowl or soup plate. Fill the tomato with the roasted garlic soup and sprinkle with the crispy fried leeks. (You should serve the tomato in a bowl so that you can eat it along with the soup.)

Alternative Assembly Dice the tomatoes and place them in the bowl. Pour the hot soup over the tomatoes and sprinkle with the crispy fried leeks.

tomato soup
get a sh-tload of fresh tomatoes
skin them
stew them in sh-tloads of cream
add some spices
voila! :p

I've used this. It's really good.

That sounds ... complicated...

That sounds ... complicated...

I agree, sounds very complicated...

All this talk of soup makes me think to my youth... My father used to put Barley in EVERYTHING..... we often joked that he would probably like some Barley mixed in with his ice cream.. It is quite good in soup however, especially a really meaty beef vegetable or even a stew..

Uh. Does boiling water and throwing in ramen qualify?

Zuppa Toscana

4 Links Turkey Sausage (Spicy or Mild)

1 Medium Onion, Finely Diced

3 Strips Of Bacon, Chopped

2 Garlic Cloves, Peeled And Minced

2 Medium Potatoes. Peeled And Cut Into Large Dice

2 to 3 Cups Of Chopped Grenns (Kale Is Usually Preferred)

Salt & Pepper To Taste

¼ Cup Heavy Cream

4 Cups Chicken Broth

Parmesan Cheese To Serve


Cook the bacon in a heavy pan until crisp. Remove to another dish, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the sausage links, and cook over medium heat until browned well on all sides. Add ½ cup of water, cover, and cook another 10 minutes over medium low heat or until completely cooked. Remove the sausages to a plate, and cook the onions in the same pan until translucent. Add the garlic, and cook another minute or two.

In a large soup or stockpot, add the chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium low. Cut the sausage links into ½ inch sklices, and then add these to the stockpot. Cook for 10 minutes and then add the kale and bacon. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer another 10 minutes.

Remove a little of the potato from the pot, and place it in a bowl. Mash the potato together with the cream, and then add this mixture to the pot, mixing well. Serve hot, offering a sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Friday night take all the leftovers out of the frig. Cube everything into bite size. Cover with enough water to last 6 meals. Throw in a few broth cubes. Boil.

You're covered for the whole week-end. If you're coming up short on Sunday, add more water and broth.

Take a chicken, a ham hock (a real meaty one) and a chunked up onion. Put them in your biggest kettle and cover them with water. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the meat is ready to fall off the bones. Remove the chicken and ham hock and toss in a pound of lentils. While the lentils are simmering, remove all the bones, gristle, fat and skin from the chicken and ham hock. Put the meat back in the kettle. Peel and chunk potatoes and carrots and put them in with the meat and lentils. While this is simmering, dice zucchini (summer squash) and coursely chop cabbage. Put the squash and cabbage in the kettle. Add salt, pepper, garlic (chopped extremely fine), oregano, sage, thyme and bay leaf to taste. Just before you're ready to serve throw in some frozen mixed vegetables. Serve with buttered sourdough, French or Italian bread. It sounds like too much, but my kids loved it and it's great on cold nights.

Add a little olive oil to a pan, and brown 2-3 pounds of Venescin (deer meat) in approximately 1 in chunks. Once browned, add 3 cans of beef broth, and some "Beef stew seasoning" a packet you can pick up at any supermarket. Heat that to a boil, as the Venescin has very little fat, and needs to simmer for a while to get soft. While this is cooking, cut your celery, carrots, about 6 normal baking size potatoes into cubes ( I like equal portions of celery, carrot, and potato), remove the corn kernels from 2-3 ears of corn (depending on preference) and add this to the meat mixture when it is starting to soften. After the vegetables start to soften, add a can of stewed tomatoes to the mixture, and salt and paper to taste. Very hearty meal, can also include barley if you do so desire. I add a bit of hot sauce, but your preference. Easily serves a group of hungry college aged guys.

Offhand, does anyone have a good recipe for broccoli-cheese soup (or Broccoili, Cauliflower, cheese soup) that you prefer?

I rarelymeasure when I cook, so bear with me:

Crawfish ball soup

crawfish balls

1 cup crawfish tails
1/2 cup shrimp meat
1/2 cup scallop
1-2 strips of bacon
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 green onions
dash of allspice
a few shots of tabasco
1 egg (or one egg plus one beaten egg white for a fluffier ball)
1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
salt pepper

chop everything and add to food processor. process until smooth. set aside to let chill in the fridge

the broth

in a medium saucepan

roughly chop
1 medium white, yellow or red onion.
3 ribs of celery
2 bell peppers (any color)
1-2 jalapenos (or other hot pepper of your choice)
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of mushroom
salt
pepper
2 tblsp of olive oil or 1 tblsp each of olive oil and butter

sweat the ingredients together on medium low heat until just soft and slightly translucent. Remove and set aside.

In the same saucepan, add 4 cups chicken stock, 4 cups water and 1/2 cup well balanced white wine (not too sweet, not too acidic, not too "hot",) and any seafood shells/bones one might have (left over from de-shelling the shrimp and/or crawfish.) let simmer for 30 minutes. For a stronger "sea" flavor, add 1/2 a sheet of Kombu seaweed to the mix before simmering. salt and pepper, of course, to taste

Strain. Add the sweated veggies back to the broth. Bring to very light boil. take the seafood paste mixture and spoon balls (using a teaspon to scoop and then another teaspoon to scrape,) into the hot liquid. simmer 3-4 minutes.

at the last moment (before serving) add in 1/2 cup fresh parsley, two chopped tomatoes and one bunch of hearty greens (mustard greens, spinach, chard, bak choi...whatever looks good.) Allow to wilt.

add a squeeze of lemon or a few drops of tabasco (or both) to make the soup a bit more zippy if that's what one likes.

I experimented with this a bit. Using crawfish tails alone made a too strongly flavored ball. The mildness of the shrimp and the sweetness of the scallops worked perfectly without taking away from the crawfish flavor. The bacon added just a touch of fat and smokiness to up the flavor nicely. Feel free to experiment though.

Vegetarianistica']tomato soup
get a sh-tload of fresh tomatoes
skin them
stew them in sh-tloads of cream
add some spices
voila! :p

That sounds easy enough for even me to do. ;)

That sounds easy enough for even me to do. ;)

Try roasting the tomatoes (until lightly caramelized) instead of stewing them.

Best soup I made was Split Pea and Gourd Soup.

A cup of split peas.
A cup of diced gourd.
One carrot.
2 cups of chicken broth.
2 cups of water.
A tablespoon of salt.
Bay leaf

This makes a condensed soup, so you'll need to add more water later, when it's re-heated.

Chop the gourd and the carrot very fine. Put all in the crockpot on high temperature for about 4 hours. Remove the bay leaf. Stir well, add more water if you want, and let it go for another hour or two. Yum.