Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Soup: You Know You Want It.

Best soup book ever.

As the chilly winter nights creep up there is nothing better than a bowl of homemade soup. This is my favourite.

Then again, you can't go wrong with this.

I also love minestrone and cream of mushroom.

And if soup is not enough...try these wonderful cheese scones as an accompaniment. I usually just roll out the dough and cut out large biscuit rounds rather than shape and cut as specified in the recipe. This recipe is also easily halved.

21 comments:

  1. Fay, thanks.

    Neither my wife nor I are particularly into cooking - I 'spose we're "compatible" that way - and we've realized lately we eat way too much cold food.

    Soup is great, you can make it now, heat it later, and it warms up the rest of the stuff you eat. Must go cook soup.

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  2. Wait... srsly... Fay did you read lady red's comment here and go mmmm... soouup...

    Fess up!

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  3. I make lots of soup and stews as well, tonight we had one with sweet potato, swiss chard, leek and cannellini beans. I don't often make the richer soups with cream for the obvious reasons but I think I'll try your favorite, Fay.

    I make your banana bread recipe all the time, it's the best EVAH!

    Matt is a lucky man :-)

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  4. Mmm, soup! You read my mind Fay ;;). I've been thinking about making some soup because it's getting a tad colder here, and I've just taken out my duvet to air it, so that I can use it tonight for the first time since, um, April I think. Or was it May? Of course what I mean by colder is not necessarily cold by your standards - nights down to about 18°C, that's about 65-68°F but that is almost freezing by our standards. :)).

    My favourite soup is pumpkin soup (or "orange soup" as we call it). I fry a couple of onions and carrots, then add a couple of large chunks of pumpkin cut into manageable pieces, add a sweet potato, summer squash (it's orange, is that what it is called?), cover with water, add half a glass of white wine (yum!), a couple of spoons of onion soup powder, sesaon to taste (salt or soy sauce). Then mush the whole lot up with a hand-held blender, and Bon Appetit!

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  5. Oops - correction. It's not summer squash but butternut squash. Sorry. I had to look it up in a Hebrew-Englsih dictionary. I never knew these weird vegetables in England, I only got to know them In Israel so I only know them by their Hebrew names. 8-}

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  6. That sounds yummy, annie!

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  7. Your recipes look delicious Fay! I'm intrigued by the ginger carrot soup, and by annie's pumpkin soup...anything orange is a crowd pleaser around here. :)

    I make a lot of soup and stews in the late fall and winter. Mine are generally of the simple, down-home variety. Mmm mmm good!

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  8. Ooh florrie that soup sounds great! As for the Banana Bread, so happy I could share that recipe with you :)

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  9. annie, your soup sound great too (apart from the pumpkin part...me no likey pumpkins!) But....where is the chicken soup recipe woman?

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  10. lady red, the carrot ginger soup is yum yum delish. The ginger adds a really fresh, spicy quality to what could be a bland soup.

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  11. One chicken soup recipe coming right up, special delivery for Miz Fay. :)

    It's really a broth rather than a thick soup but here goes:

    I use chicken or turkey necks, wings, bones, any part really. Or you can use a whole chicken. For the size of my pot I use about 3 lbs chicken and/or turkey. To that I add about 4 carrots cut into chunks, 1 large onion, a leek, parsley, a few stalks of celery, and any other root vegetables you find: turnip, root, celeriac. The more the better but the basics are carrot, onion and celery. I add a small chunk of pumpkin (sorry Fay...) - it gives a lovely slightly sweet flavour to the soup.

    My sister adds zucchini and potato to the soup too.

    I season it with salt, sometimes I add a couple of spoons of chicken soup powder to add flavour, especially if I don't think I have enough chicken or veg.

    I fill the pot (it's a big one) with water, bring to the boil, skim off the icky scum, and let it simmer for at least 2 hours. You can shorten the cooking time by using a pressure cooker, but I like the richer flavour from cooking slowly over a long period.

    When it's done I strain the soup because my family likes clear soup. I then add back the chunks of carrots. I mush up the other vegetables for baby food for my grandchildren if they're coming. My mum mushes up the carrots and pumpkin and puts them back in the soup but removes the other cooked vegetables. And my daughter leaves all the vegetables in.

    You can't really go wrong with this soup. The more you chuck in, the better it tastes.

    It's a version of 2 Jews, 3 opinions. This is one recipe, 3 or more versions. ;))

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  12. Oh, forgot the most important bit. When it's cooked, let the soup cool down overnight in the fridge. The fat will rise to the top, which you can then skim off with a spoon, or remove by carefully placing a paper kitchn towel on top of teh soup. The fat will stick to it. Lift it up carefully and voila!

    (What a shame we can't put ourselves in the fridge to skim off the fat.. :)) )

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  13. annie, my organic chicken broth in a box is feeling utterly inadequate. Thank you for inspiring me to do better!

    I have to ask, though - no spices? I add tons of turmeric, some cumin, a little cardamom and coriander, and as much ginger as I can handle.

    (Note, I consume chicken soup mostly as medicine when I've got a cold!)

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  14. Hi Lewy, no I don't add any spices. There is just the taste of the chicken and vegetables.

    I'll add turmeric and cumin to rice, pea or bean soup, and ginger to cooked carrots or even a tiny bit to my pumpkin soup, but not to chicken soup.

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  15. And here I thought annie's world-famous chicken soup was virtual.

    img:"http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y117/floranista/duck.gif"

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  16. Thanks annie! That's pretty much how I make mine as well but I throw out all the veggies and add fresh ones.

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  17. I tend to cheat when making broths, and use a lot of bouillion in order to get by with less solids for the stock.

    Knorr is the best brand, by far, and they also have the biggest range, including not only chicken & beef, but vegetable, onion, garlic and even chipotle pepper (use with caution).

    Of course, you do not add any other salt if using bouillion, except when you come to the last step, 'season to taste'.

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  18. I should add my favorite soup base here: Minors Soup Base. I use most of them now and then, along with meat and veggie solids, as well as the "Dry Roux" mix for thickening. I've found none better. Try it, you'll like it.

    Sometimes you can find them in the refrigerated section of markets, or you can order direct from the website.

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  19. Fay ... I also toss the cooked out soggy veggies and meat and add fresh pieces of both, usually diced, in the last hour of cooking over low to medium heat.

    Yep, I use a large spaghetti cooking pot to make soups ... it is easier to pull out the mushy stuff by just lifting the strainer pot from inside the broth. Then I add the fresh pieces.

    Call me lazy :D

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  20. Lazy? Sounds like a great way of doing it to me. We just don't have a spaghetti cooking pot.

    I made a great cream of turkey soup after Thanksgiving. Fay had made some turkey soup and we still had some of the base left over. I am a sucker for a great cream of turkey and cream of chicken soup -- it is just hard to find them. I don't know why, it's couldn't be that there is anything unhealthy about them, could it?

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