We've been live on the internet for a week now and we've only just got to our first soup-or-stew Sunday post? Impossible. This week's entry is a recipe out of my 1970s era Moosewood cookbook, with only a few minor changes.
1 medium onion
1medium potato
2 carrots
1 stalk broccoli
cauliflower (not in the original recipe, but we had some left over, so why not?)
1/2 lb. mushrooms
1 stalk celery
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
Saute vegetables together in 1/4 cup butter. We added the vegetables in shifts, starting from the top of the list and working down so that the onion, potato, and carrot would have sufficient cooking time. Add seasonings with the vegetables; we used salt, black pepper, white pepper (because Heather was co-cook), basil, and thyme. Our vegetables took about 30 minutes to cook, test for tenderness by poking a knife through an unsuspecting carrot. I added about a 1/4 cup of water midway through cooking to help build more steam to get to the vegetables cooked.
When vegetables are cooked add:
1/2 pint heavy cream
milk (We used a little less than 2 cups, far less that the quart of milk called for the in recipe.)
Heat carefully over low heat, stirring constantly so the milk and cream don't burn on the bottom. I took my cookbook's advice and had the milk and cream at room temperature before adding to the soup; this will reduce cooking time, thus reducing the chance that your soup will curdle (gross). I added more salt and lots more pepper. Cook just until heated through, less than 10 minutes. Soup is best served in front of The Amazing Race.
Very good soup! We added lots of pepper (both black and white) so ours was nice and spicy. The vegetables are a good assortment of colors, making this a very attractive soup. I haven't tried any left overs yet, but I'd wager that this is one soup that will taste much better on the day it is made than it does reheated. This was the first chowder we've done so far. I'd be interested in using the basis of the recipe again, adding in whatever vegetables are in season. Spring's almost here, right? Is it time for asparagus yet?
This soup was the sweetest soup we've made so far. I wasn't part of the cooking process this time, and I would have guessed the recipe called for some sort of sugar. Very different from other soups we've made, and very good.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn mentioned asparagus, so I feel like I have to make a comment about it. I think asparagus is way better out of soup than in it. Almost inevitably, it'll overcook and turn nasty light green. Even if you don't overcook it, asparagus isn't really a soup flavor. The pieces lose their taste in the broth, but that taste just evaporates rather than mingling with other flavors.
People, fry your asparagus in a little oil or grill it with plenty of heat. Salt, cracked pepper, that's all you need. That's the way to eat asparagus.