Scallions Ginger Chicken & Egg-Drop Soup

I came across this recipe on epicurious.com. I took this soup to work as part of a pot-luck our department had on Tuesday. This soup is very light and has a real nice flavor from the ginger, a nice enough tang that I didn't need to add any lemon zest or juice. I was concerned that the amount ginger the recipe called for would be overpowering but that was not the case. As you'll see this is a very simple, straightforward recipe with a small number of ingredients. The recipe called for chicken breast but I used thighs instead because I find thigh meat has better flavor and remains moist for a longer time if you re-heat the soup once or twice.

Oh, almost forgot about the Egg-Drop part of the recipe. I have tried a few different ways to get the egg to result in nice silky threads like the better Chinese restaurants and my success has been minimal. The only time it worked was when I very slowly poured the eggs through the tines of a fork while my son stirred the broth. This approach broke the egg mixture up through the tines and resulted in very nice threads of egg. Unfortunately I didn't figure out that this should be the very, very last step in the cooking process and done just before serving otherwise the longer the soup remains heated the more the egg threads congeal and it doesn't look anywhere as nice but still tastes good. A co-worker suggested I should record this process and put it on YouTube, hmmm, means a new video recorder in needed.

INGREDIENTS


6 scallions (green onions for us simple folk) with some of the green tops cut off
2 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
1 (2 inch) piece of ginger, peeled and sliced thin
2 skinless and boneless chicken thighs
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon of white pepper

METHOD

1. In a soup pot mix the water, broth, ginger and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.
2. Smash 3 of the scallions with the back of a large wooden spoon and cut into 2 inch pieces.
3. Drop the smashed & cut scallions into the soup pot and bring the mixture to a simmer.
4. Place the chicken and poach at a bare simmer, uncovered, until just barely cooked through, 10-12 minutes.
5. Remove the pot from the heat and transfer the chicken to a cutting board.
6. Let the broth steep covered for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, chop the remaining 3 scallions into random pieces 1/2 inch to 2 inches and shred the chicken.
8. Remove the scallions and ginger from the broth and discard. 
9. Turn off the heat.
10. Add the beaten eggs by pouring very slowly through the tines of a fork while your third hand stirs the broth while the egg is added.
11. Stir in the chopped scallions, shredded chicken and white pepper.

You can provide sesame oil for drizzling on the soup but I don't because most people use too much and the soup becomes overwhelmed.

Cheddar Cheese & Jalapeno Soup

I was supposed to make this soup last week to bring in on Friday. But had a terrible night Thursday and didn't get more than an hour of sleep so I stayed home Friday. Whatever was causing me problems was gone by Friday afternoon so I was good to go for the weekend and got this soup made Sunday night. So we've got Soup On Monday!

This is a really great tasting soup. This was one that I could have just kept eating and then licked the bowl clean. I found this recipe on a website called copycat.com. This site specializes in providing recipes of dishes from well known restaurants. I've tried several of them and have had success with all of them. Check them out and let us know what you think. This recipe is formally titled "Gallagher's Cheddar Cheese Soup", I'm not familiar with who the Gallagher is or if it is a restaurant somewhere. I don't recall Googling it when I first found the recipe, if anyone knows anything please comment.

This recipe was very easy to make, so easy I felt guilty not doing more. The surprising thing in this recipe is that it uses cheese spread, the jarred stuff, rather than real cheddar cheese. I may try it with real cheddar the next time I make it but it tastes so good with the cheese spread I question the wisdom of changing but who knows it may be better with real cheddar. Hey maybe Velveeta!

The flavors that really stood out for me were the mustard and cayenne pepper. The mustard was very subtle but added a great zing and the cayenne really added a good bite and had a little delayed impact. 

INGREDIENTS for 8 servings

2 cups of water

1/3 cup each of finely chopped carrots and celery

1 cup of finely chopped green onions

1/2 cup of butter

1/4 cup of flour

1 medium size white onion, chopped

4 cups of milk

4 cups of chicken broth

1 15 oz jar of pasteurized process cheese spread

Add salt and black pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

1 8 oz can of diced pickled jalapenos

METHOD

1. In a soup pot over high heat combine the water, carrots, green onions and celery. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Set aside but do not drain.
2. In a large stockpot melt the butter over medium heat and add the onion. Saute for 1 minute then add the flour blending well.
3. In a large saucepan bring the milk and broth to a boil.
4. Whisk the milk-broth mixture into the flour-onion mixture in the large stockpot with a wire whisk.
5. Stir in the cheese, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mustard and the cooked veggies including the water in which they were cooked.
6. Bring to a boil and serve immediately.

This soup was not as thick as I thought it would be so don't be surprised if it comes out that way for you too.

Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos

With a hectic couple of weeks I have not brought soup for almost two weeks. The last was a White Bean and Ham Hock recipe that I have yet to blog so I'm behind in my work. Anyhoo, this week got to Thursday and I wanted to bring in something so I settled on a good, tasty and pretty easy recipe, Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos. 

As I've mentioned before when a recipe calls for chicken and chicken stock I boil a whole fryer in a tall pot and de-bone the chicken for the meat and use the stock as called for in the recipe instead of store bought. To the chicken pot I add a couple of cut-up carrots and stalks of celery along with an onion, a couple of bay leaves, dried oregano and dried basil. I strain the stock and have plenty for the recipe and usually some leftover to freeze.

Here's the recipe for 8 servings using store bought stock. For the large quantity I bring to Wednesday Soup At Work I double the recipe and use the boiled chicken I note above:

1 pound of tomatillos

6 cups of chicken stock

2 cups of chopped onion

3 pounds of shredded chicken

4 chopped garlic cloves

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and julienned

1 can of white hominy (30 oz), drained

juice from 1/2 of a lime

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup sour cream

8 lime wedges

Remove the husks and stems from the tomatillos and boil them until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the water and process the tomatillos until they are smooth. An immersion blender is the best tool for this but using a standard blender is fine.

Meanwhile, into the stock add the onion, chicken, garlic, jalapeno and hominy. Bring the mix to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove the chicken from the bones shred and set aside. Stir in the pureed tomatillos, the lime juice and salt to taste. Cook the stock mixture for 5 minutes until heated. Stir in the chicken and heat the entire mix.

Serve with the cilantro, sour cream and lime wedges.

Lamb & Lemon

I got this recipe from the little book I bought at Cost Plus World Market. Titled "1 Stock, 100 Soups" written by Linda Doeser. It was a really good find as far as cook books go, it was written and published in the UK so the measurements are in both metric and standard measures so that's kind of fun. The premise of the book is that all 100 soups use a vegetable stock described at the beginning of the book. It is a pretty involved stock recipe with a large number of ingredients including onions, leeks, celery, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and parsley. I'll post the full recipe soon. This is not the first time I've used a recipe from this book but it is the first time I've used the vegetable stock.

I love lamb in just about any form. Braised lamb shanks and grilled chops are my favorites. The lamb and lemon soup was a pretty easy recipe with just a few ingredients. Cooking time was about 1.5-2 hours which is longer than most of the soups I've made but the lamb needed to be stewed, probably not 1.5-2 hours so I shortened mine to about 1 hour because the lamb didn't need to be cooked that long to be tender.



I really liked the flavor of this soup. The lamb gave it a heartiness that was just right and I usually add some lemon juice to many soups because of the nice tang it gives so this one was right up my alley. If you try it let me know what you think.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup of flour
1.5 lbs of boneless lamb cut into cubes
3 tablespoons of olive oil
5 cups of vegetable stock
2 carrots cut into chunks
2 onions cut into quarters
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice
salt and pepper

METHOD

1. Put the flour into a plastic bag and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the cubes of lamb and shake to coat.
2. Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the lamb after shaking of the excess flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned all over.
3. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add the carrots, onions, and cayenne pepper, season with salt and pepper and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour until the meat is tender.
5. Beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice in a bowl. Remove the pan from the heat and heat and whisk a ladleful of the hot soup into the egg mixture, then add it to the pan.
6. Return the pan to very low heat and heat through, gently stirring, do not let the soup boil.

Backyard Gardens Are Fun!

Our garden is getting into summer shape. We've got four tomato plants doing real well. Two of them are growing through our wire box cover! Bertie's tomatillos, she has four of them going, look like they are going to be real bountiful. That means lots of red salsa this summer, good thing we've been saving jars. Our lettuce and spinach have lasted longer than we expected, probably because it hasn't gotten real hot yet.

There is a great sense of satisfaction in harvesting baskets of three different types of lettuce for a week's worth of salads. I also get a big kick out of snipping leaves of lettuce for Tommy's sandwich wraps for his lunches during the week.

Having herbs is also great. You can spend $2-$4 for a few leaves of basil, dill or oregano at the store. We've got peppermint, rosemary, thyme, basil, dill and fennel going so far. For dinner tonight I made some pesto with our basil. Two cups of basil, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, 3 garlic cloves, 7 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan, salt and pepper. You roast the garlic cloves unpeeled for about 5 minutes and then add the pine nuts for just under 2 minutes. Remove the garlic and nuts from the pan. Let the garlic cool th and then unpeel them. Add all the ingredients to your food processor and run into a paste. You're done. How cool to go out and snip off a couple of cups of basil and have it on your table for dinner!

Speaking of pine nuts! Holy crap, I'm going to be a pine nut farmer! $35 a pound for cripes sake.

If you've got a garden going let us know what you have going on.

Easiest Soup I've Made - Sauerkraut & Sausage

I found this recipe in a little book I bought at Cost Plus - World Market. The book is titled "1 Stock, 100 Soups". It was written in the UK so the measures and some terminology are quirky but there are quite a few good soups. The one stock is vegetable and all 100 soups are based on it. The recipe for the vegetable stock has an extensive list of ingredients and yields 4 cups. For the Sauerkraut & Sausage soup I used a boxed vegetable stock to save some time but look forward to making the vegetable stock soon.

I made this soup for Bertie and Tommy a few weeks ago and it was really good. I ate sauerkraut quite a bit growing up because of my Mom's German heritage. I always ate it but wasn't a huge fan so I was surprised at how much I liked this soup. My wife, Bertie, also loved the soup which was surprising because she had never had sauerkraut before so I was encouraged about the soup's potential for popularity. Last week I ran a poll for what soup to make and I included this soup in the list of candidates. Surprisingly this soup finished second in the polling. With that vote of confidence I decided to bring it in this week.

This makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
32 ounces of sauerkraut, drained
1 pound of kielbasa or other cooked sausages, sliced into 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 quart of vegetable stock, more if you prefer to thin the soup
2/3 cup of sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Melt the butter in a large pan over low heat
2. Add the flour and paprika and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes
3. Turn off the heat
4. Gradually stir in the vegetable stock a little at a time until fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth
5. Bring the flour and stock mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly
6. Add the drained sauerkraut and sausage pieces
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste
8. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer low for 30 minutes
9. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the sour cream right before serving

Creamy Southwestern Onion

Funny story with this soup, I'll get there in a bit...

I found this recipe on a website called copykat.com. This site specializes in providing recipes from famous restaurants. I believe I was looking online for a soup I tasted at Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation but I don't recall which soup. Anyway this site is a good resource for all kinds of recipes.

I love French Onion Soup so I thought this Southwestern version would be fun to try. Here's the funny story part. I made an error with the chipotle chilies when I made this soup. The recipe calls for 3 Oaxaca chilies or canned chipotle chilies if you can't find Oaxaca. I misread that line as 3 cans of chipotle chilies not 3 chipotle chilies from a can. Needless to say the soup was way too spicy so I kept cutting the soup until I ended up with almost three batches instead of one. It was still a bit too spicy but went over well at work anyway. It is times like these that you wonder how you manage to stay out of your own way!

This recipe makes 6 plentiful servings.

INGREDIENTS
2 large yellow onions, halved, sliced thinly
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of cooking sherry
1/4 cup of flour
1 quart of chicken stock
3 Oaxaca chilies (substitute 3 chipotle chilies, drained, from a can with adobo sauce if you can't find Oaxaca chilies)
1 cup of heavy cream
6 ounces of white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 roasted poblano pepper, stem and seeds removed

METHOD
Sauté the onions in the butter until tender
Add garlic and sherry
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute
Add the chicken stock and 3 Oaxaca or Chipotle chilies
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes
Remove and discard the chilies
Add the cream and diced poblano chilies
Simmer for 5 minutes
Salt to taste

Summer Garden Taking Shape!

No soup posting this time but a backyard veggie garden installment instead. This is the second summer we've had a couple of 4' x 8' wooden garden boxes and have had great success so far so we've expanded to a third box and used a corner of our backyard for a raised garden that can accommodate sprawling plants like squash and melons.

If you've followed CocinaCaldo from the beginning then you know the story of the boxes. A recap for newbies just because I'm a giver. I used a design from Sunset magazine which is my favorite magazine for gardening and cooking. Sunset has regional editions and their Southwest edition features Arizona and in particular Tucson on a very regular basis. April's edition has a nice article on Tohono Chul Park. Back to the garden box design, one of the reasons I liked this design is the simplicity and ease of building. Sunset's design uses 8 foot long 2"x6" boards and 4"x4" posts. Some clear stain/sealer and a bunch of lag screws and washers and you're done. The magazines design is for a 1 foot deep box but I double the height to two feet to make it easier to work in by minimizing the length you need to bend down to get to the bed. I just doubled everything: the number of 2"x6" boards, the length of the 4"x4" posts and the number of lag screws.

For the soil I purchased bulk potting soil from a local building materials supply store. Each box took 2 cubic yards of soil at $35/yard. I can haul one yard in my Nissan Frontier pickup so each box took two trips. Tommy and I enjoyed to time together back and forth in addition to the wheelbarrowing of the soil from the truck to the boxes in the backyard. I built a ramp up to the lip of the boxes and we got real good at maneuvering the wheelbarrow on a 2"x6" board with a full load of soil and tipping it in.

I used a poor man's approach to irrigation. I don't have a water connection in close proximity to the beds so I attached a split valve to the bib with one half devoted to the beds and ran a garden hose to the beds where a 4 valve manifold distributes to each bed. I have four sprinklers called Noodleheads that we bought a couple of years ago at the L.A. County Fair. I like them because they don't just soak but also spray the leaves for cooling which is helpful here in So. Arizona.

So that's the setup of the boxes and irrigation. Things were pretty simple the first couple of winters and last summer but got complicated this winter when the squirrel population discovered our gardens. Our winter lettuce and spinach plants were getting eaten by something that we thought were rabbits but in fact were squirrels. So our nice clean and simple garden boxes had to have enclosures built to keep out the friggin' squirrels. I've got two different designs as you'll see from the pictures. One design used Sunset's original box designs use of 1/2 inch PVC for an arching shade cover which we never found the need to use for shade anyway. So I adapted the 1/2 inch PVC to a chicken wire cover that opens from both sides while being anchored at the peak of the arch. 1"x2" boards are used as the outside anchors. You unhook the 1"x2" boards and flip them up on top of the arch and you've got access. The second design is more complicated and expensive but it looks cool when you open it up like a clam shell. The clam shell design uses 1.5" PVC and chicken wire. The two halves are anchored at the 4 foot ends of the boxes and you lift from the middle and rest each half on the ground for full access from both sides.

Now for the contents of the garden itself. In the winter we have lettuce, spinach and chard along with a year long supply of herbs like rosemary, thyme, peppermint and dill. Summertime brings as many warm weather lettuces as we can find along with tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, basil, zucchini, yellow squash, summer squash, watermelons and Bertie's absolute favorite, tomatillos. We found last summer that you get to know your neighbors really quickly when you visit them with baskets of homegrown veggies on a regular basis. We also found that we don't like eggplant all that much but the plants are prolific producers.

This year we've got four different tomatoes including an heirloom one called Tlacolula Ribbed we picked up from the Oro Valley Farmer's Market to day from Aravaipa Heirlooms, check out their website for great local stuff. In addition to the tomatoes we have summer lettuces that are still hanging in there along with spinach and green chard. We planted a stevia plant this spring and it seems to be doing well, not sure what we're gonna do with it since we don't own a processing plant to use to get sweetener but what the heck. I've got two fennel plants and one dill going strong having survived the extended freeze we had here in January. Our herbs are rosemary, thyme, peppermint, basil and cilantro. My experience with cilantro here in the desert has not yielded much because it is just too hot even in full shade. This summer we have dedicated the new third box to nothing but tomatillos. Last summer not knowing how large the plants get we made the mistake of planting two in close proximity to each other and they took over the whole box and we had to machete' our way to the eggplant and pepper plants. So we've got an entire box for tomatillostomatillos because she is convinced she's channeling her Mom and feels closer to her when she's doing it. Personally I love the secret salsa we have in abundance all summer and the smiles of the folks at work that get jars of the stuff because I'm a giver.

So here are some pictures of this summer's garden boxes which are just about fully planted at this point.

The first picture is garden #1 with fennel and thyme in the front, dill just behind the fennel on the left. Lettuce is mid-left with spinach mid-right. The two taller plants in the back are green chard.

The second picture is garden #2 with rosemary and peppermint on the right, a new tomato on the left, two purple lettuces in the middle and two tomato plant on the mid and back right.

 This is garden #3, the tomatillos.

This corner is where we'll be planting the squash and melons. Tommy is in the middle of re-stacking the firewood so it will be a day or two before we plant the three plants we picked up today the the Farmer's Market from our favorite plant purveyor, Victory Gardens and Brian Catts. Our challenge for this corner will be an enclosure to keep the squirrels out and still have easy access for maintenance. Friggin' squirrels.

 Here's a broader view of the corner of our backyard we are using for our gardens. This view is looking to the northeast and you can see it gets a full day's worth of sun. We water a couple of times a day during the summer and have had good luck so far.  More to come soon from Patterson's Veggies.

Italian Sausage & Tortellini

This week's recipe came from Epicurious.com. I chose it for a couple of reasons, one, it read like an easy, straightforward make and two, it had a good mix of vegetables. It was a really good soup and was gone in less than 10 minutes at work which is usually a good indicator. But, the verbal feedback wasn't over the top this time so either people weren't feeling effusive on Wednesday or the soup was really good but not over the top like the Hungarian Mushroom a couple of weeks ago. I did feel much better about the Sausage & Tortellini than I did about the Asian Mushroom and Noodle from the week prior. I had some leftover Asian soup and it confirmed my feelings about that one which weren't very positive. So noted.

One thing I am going to do this next week is take soup to other workplaces not just mine. A friend from my fitness boot camp, Helen, has been enthusiastic about my postings and the soups. She works at the church that our bootcamp uses during the winter months and she's convinced I could sell my soup to her coworkers there. So, I told her I'll bring in a crockpot full next week and see what happens. It's a chance to get more feedback and this will be from people I don't know. I'll write about what I learn.

The recipe below yields 6 servings. I should pay closer attention to prep time and cooking time but I'm always talking to Bertie and watching something on TV while I'm cooking so it is hard to judge the time. Some recipes include that information along with the number of servings but this one did not. The recipe below reflects a couple of changes I made to the original you'll find at Epicurious. I used a mix of sweet Italian and hot Italian sausage not just sweet. It made the soup almost too hot, almost. So if you're not a big fan of a spicy-hot soup, stick with all sweet Italian sausage. I used a mix of cheese and spinach tortellini that I picked up from this great Italian market here in Tucson, Roma Imports. Roma Imports is located amongst a bunch of industrial yards near the University of Arizona. I usually pick up a dish of lasagna to take home to bake for dinner and it is the best! Their stuffed olives are wonderful, I especially love the gorgonzola ones and the anchovy stuffed. The other change I made was the addition of butter to the sauteing of the onions and garlic. The original recipe calls for adding the onions and garlic to the drippings left from cooking the sausage after pouring off all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings. I must have gotten some very lean sausage because there was not enough drippings left in the pot to properly saute anything. I added a couple of tablespoons of butter to help things along. One other thing, I could have done without the bell pepper. I didn't like the bitter taste the bell pepper added.

I just realized as I was writing below I forgot to include the basil and oregano in Wednesday's soup! Geez, sometimes I wonder... Don't tell anyone from work please.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound of Italian sausage, a mix of sweet and hot, casings removed
1 cup of chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, sliced thin
5 cups of beef stock (Costco is now selling Kirkland soup stocks, pretty good too)
2 cups of chopped fresh tomatoes, about 3/4 of a pound (whatever is on sale and looks good)
1 8oz can of tomato sauce (I prefer Muir Glen)
1 large zucchini, sliced (can't wait 'til summer when we have our own in the backyard)
1 large carrot, thinly sliced (coming this summer from our backyard)
1 medium-sized green bell pepper, diced with the the seeds and membrane removed
1/2 cup of dry red wine
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
8 to 10 ounces of fresh cheese tortellini
Freshly grated Parmesan

METHOD

1. Saute' the sausage in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat until cooked through, be careful not to overcook because some cooking in the soup will occur. Crumble the sausage as it cooks with your wooden spoon. Should be 8-10 minutes
2. Transfer the sausage to a bowl
3. Add the onion and garlic to the pot, adding butter if the sausage drippings are not enough to properly saute' the onions and garlic. Saute' until translucent, about 5 minutes
4. Return the sausage to the pot
5. Add the stock, tomatoes, tomato sauce, zucchini, carrot, bell pepper, wine, basil and oregano
6. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes
7. Add the tortellini and cook until tender, about 8 minutes
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper
9. Serve with Parmesan sprinkled on top

Hungarian Mushroom

Yikes, I'm a couple of weeks behind in posting.

Last week's (2 March) soup was Hungarian Mushroom. One of my older brothers, Michael, sent me the recipe link from AllRecipes.com. Michael loves to cook as does my other older brother Richard. Of the four boys my parents had, three of us love to cook and I figure we got that from our parents, somehow.

I love mushroom soups so I was sure to try this Hungarian version. It was an

easy one to make and was a huge hit at work and at home! I got lots of "Best Ever" compliments with this one. What a great feeling!! I was talking with an acquaintance about why I get so much out of making these soups and before I knew it I had responded "Because the compliments and wonderful reactions at work make me feel so good". I had never said it out loud before but that's really what it comes down to. No question I enjoy finding recipes and imagining the process and how they'll taste. I also enjoy shopping for the ingredients and the actual preparation of the soups, measuring, cutting, stirring, seasoning, tasting, it's all good stuff and I get lost in it. But having people really enjoy the soups and how they look forward to "Soup At Work Wednesday" is the payoff.

For my version of the recipe below I made some adjustments to the recipe you'll find on AllRecipes.com. As usual I doubled the recipe to get a 7 quart result for "Soup At Work Wednesday". The recipe below yields about 6 servings or about 3-3.5 quarts. The original recipe doesn't specify a type of mushroom so I used a mix of portabella, button and shitake. I also added extra mushrooms, 'cuz I love 'em. Instead of milk I used half & half. Instead of parsley I always use cilantro. I love the sharp tanginess of cilantro much better than parsley. That's it for my tweaks. Onto the recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of chopped onions (red, yellow or white)
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, any type, sliced
• 2 teaspoons of dried dill weed
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup of half & half
• 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Ground black pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 cup of sour cream

METHOD

1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions in the butter for 5 minutes or until slightly transparent
2. Add the mushrooms and saute for 5 more minutes.
3. Stir in the dill, paprika, soy sauce and broth.
4. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the half & half and flour together.
6. Pour this into the soup and stir well to blend.
7. Cover and simmer for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Add the salt, pepper, lemon juice, cilantro and sour cream.
9. Mix together and allow to heat through over low heat for 3-5 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!
10. Serve.

Bertha's Chile Verde

This is another not-quite-a-soup entry. My department at work had a chili tasting contest at our last expanded staff meeting. My entry for the contest was my wife Bertie's Chili Verde. It is actually a recipe handed down from her mom Maria so technically it is Maria's Chili Verde but Bertha is such a cool name I had to go with that.

Back in the 70's and 80's when we were first seeing each other and early in our marriage Bertie and I, along with our daughter Shawna, would go to Maria's house on Saturdays as would Bertie's 6 brothers and sisters along with a host of kids. Shawna loved getting to see and play with her cousins, Bertie got to visit with her sisters and I got to use my Spanish. I didn't let on for several weeks that I could speak enough Spanish to understand much of what was being said around the house which was fun since I was the only white guy in the family and several years younger than Bertie, some of the conversations were hilarious. But the best part of these weekly visits was Maria's cooking. Her menudo was the best I've ever had, still. Her posole' was wonderful, her beef soup with cow's feet was delicious, her carne asada was excellent. She made her carne seca by hanging thinly sliced flank steak on her clothesline in the back yard. I loved spending time with her in the kitchen because she always made sure my plate was full. I wish I had made a point of watching her prepare these dishes and writing everything down because none of her daughters know all of the recipes and Maria had them all in her head. I did get a chance to make my Albondigas for Maria before she died so that was really nice. I'm sure I was her favorite son-in-law.

Now on to Bertha's Chile Verde. This recipe will feed about 4-5 people, the batch we made for the chili contest was about 3 times this one. By the way, Bertha's Chile Verde won first prize in the contest's open voting and 3rd prize in the executive voting. We got $100 in gift cards which was really great. I haven't seen them since I brought them home.

INGREDIENTS

• 4-5 Country Style Pork Ribs (boneless or bone-in, doesn't matter)
• 5 medium size yellow chiles (if they have an orangish tint to them you'll find these to be quite a bit hotter.
• 5 medium to large tomatoes with the core removed
• 1 tsp of minced garlic
• 3 green chiles sliced in long thin strips (best if you roast your own or canned will work)
• Salt

METHOD

1. Cut the pork into 1/2 inch cubes. If you're using bone-in ribs you can keep one or two of the bones and put into the skillet while browning the pork for a little added flavor. You can remove some of the fat while cutting up the pork but be careful not to lean it out too much or you'll lose flavor and end up with dry pork
2. Brown the pork in a large skillet with 1 level tablespoon of salt. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. If there is any fat to drain when done, do so. Leave the pork in the skillet and put aside.
3. Meanwhile, place the tomatoes and chiles in a pot for boiling. Cover them with water and boil for 20 minutes until the chiles are soft.
4. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and place into a holding bowl to cool.
5. Remove the chiles from the pot, remove and discard the stems. Place the chiles into the same bowl as the tomatoes to cool. Be sure you let the tomatoes and chiles cool because if you puree them while hot pressure in the blender builds quickly and explosions have been known to occur.
6. Reserve the water.
7. After cooling, place the tomatoes and chiles into a blender along with 1 tablespoon of minced garlic and two teaspoons of salt.
8. Blend until the mixture is pureed with no chunks remaining.
9. Taste the salsa, if it is spicier than desired use some of the reserved cooking water bring to a more desired level.
10. Pour the salsa over the browned pork in the skillet, add the sliced green chiles, heat for serving. Salt to taste

Southwest Seafood Chowder

It's been a couple of weeks since soup. I was afraid I had lost the mojo for weekly soup, but maybe I just needed a couple week break. We'll see.

This week's soup came from a recipe in Food and Wine magazine's most recent issue. This issue was chock full o' recipes, especially soup recipes. Rather than print them out from their

website I spent about an hour cutting them all out and putting them in my ever expanding 3 ring binder of recipes. I realized that I'm going to have to create a binder just for the soup recipes since they are taking up a majority of the space in the current one.

I chose to make this soup for a couple of reasons. One was my love of anything close to Mexican food. The second reason was the occasion at work. My department was having an extended lunch meeting with the full extended staff attending. We do this once a quarter. The department was providing lunch which was Make-Your-Own Taco Salads. I took this as a sign that the Southwest Seafood Chowder was the soup to make.

I have found that seafood can be a polarizing item when it comes to food. It is not quite to the point of people either loving it or hating it but it is certainly less universally liked than chicken or beef. There are also quite a few people that have allergies to seafood items, especially shell fish. Knowing this and knowing that one of my favorite people at work has a shellfish allergy I don't often bring seafood based soups but like I said before, there was a sign and I had to go with it.

I made a few deviations from the Food and Wine (F&W) recipe for convenience and necessity. The magazine's recipe stated that 8 servings could be had from this recipe so I doubled it to accommodate the group at work. It turned out that I didn't need to do that. I usually make soups in 7-8 quart batches but doubling this recipe yielded about 12-13 quarts so I ended up cooking in two pots and had a good portion to leave at home. So the recipe below will yield about 7 quarts which is the size of the larger crock pots. The second change was from Ancho Chiles to Green Chiles. I couldn't find any Anchos so I looked up a good substitute

while at the store and choose Green Chiles (love smart phones). I bought a 24oz can and froze the left overs for chile rellenos this weekend. Anchos are usually sold dry, are heart shaped and look like the picture on the right. Two other deviations I took were the halibut and clams. The F&W recipe calls for halibut but the three stores I went to were all short on halibut so I used Cod instead. Well, Sprouts had some halibut but the guy behind the counter was being a dick and told me to wait a few minutes while he finished wrapping a couple trays of meat. Really? That stuff is more important than me? A guy looking to spend $20 on a couple of pounds of halibut? See ya. I talked to the store manager on the way out so I felt a little better. I do love shopping at Sprouts so I'll be back. One of the many things I like about Sprouts is being able to buy spices by the measure. This keeps you from buying ounces of a little used spice when all you need is a teaspoon or two. I also used a can of clams I had in the pantry instead of the cherrystone clams the recipe called for. If you've read me before you also know that I always use Spice World garlic. It comes jarred and can be found in the produce sections of grocery stores. The last change I made was using Trader Joe's Canned Yellow Corn instead of frozen as the recipe called for. I've mentioned before how much I love TJ's Canned Corn. It is the freshest, best tasting corn not on the cob. As I've also mentioned before I find my immersible blender to be one of the best tools available, especially for soups. This was another recipe where it gets used. It is so much better than having to schlep the soup into a blender in batches. So, that's it for the deviations, here's the rest of the story.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup of canola oil, divided

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

5 garlic cloves, smashed (Spice World)

2 large Ancho Chiles, seeded and torn into large pieces

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (Sprouts)

1 cup of dry white wine

One 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

1 cup of 2-percent milk (oops, another deviation I took was to use half and half)

Half of a big ass can of clams from Costco including the clam juice

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound of Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 celery rib, finely chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely chopped

1 can of TJ's yellow corn

1.5 teaspoons of smoked sweet paprika

1 pound of skinless halibut fillet cut into 1.5 inch cubes

1 pound of shelled and deveined medium shrimp

Oyster crackers or crusty bread for serving

METHOD

1. In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the yellow onion, garlic, ancho chiles, and fennel seeds, cook over moderate heat. Stirring frequently, cook until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes.
2. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes
3. Add the crushed tomatoes and 4 cups of water, bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes.
4. Stir in the milk or half and half
5. Puree the soup with your immersible blender or your counter top blender powered by a little under-counter dinosaur if you are Wilma Flinstone.
6. In a separate large pot or pan add the remaining oil and heat until shimmering. Add the potatoes and cook over moderately high heat stirring occasionally until lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes.
7. Stir in the red onions, celery, chopped fennel, and corn. Add the paprika, and cook over moderate heat, stirring until the celery is crisp tender, about 7 minutes.
8. Add the cooked potato and vegetable mix to the pureed soup and bring to a boil.
9. Add the fish, shrimp, clams and clam juice to the soup. Simmer until the halibut is white and the shrimp is pink, about 5 minutes.
10. Serve!

Eat Your Brussels Sprouts!

Growing up our Mom fed us (6 kids and Dad) a wide variety of vegetables and I don't recall turning my nose up at many of them. One that I recall eating frequently was Brussels Sprouts. I remember being fascinated by the heads of cabbage in miniature. I don't have any specific recollections of how Mom prepared them so I'm always looking for different methods especially since Bertie and Tommy are not big fans of them.

On our last trip to Costco I came across a 2 pound bag of Brussels Sprouts for a very reasonable price while making a very quick trip through that huge refrigerated produce walk-in room. So before they went bad sitting in our fridge I looked for another recipe on a new app I loaded on the iPad, AllRecipes. I use their website frequently and it is one of my favorites for recipes. I found about 5 recipes that I'll try in the future for Brussels Sprouts. The one I chose for tonight is called Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts. It is a really to prepare dish using stuff most people have in their pantry. They turned out great! Even Bertie was a fan, Tommy not so much.

Note: I couldn't find any unsalted cashews at the store so I used macadamia nuts instead and forgot to roast them. This was Bertie's favorite ingredient it turns out.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound of Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and cut in half length-wise
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of cashew pieces, toasted in a 350 degree oven until golden brown
Salt & Pepper to taste

METHOD

1. In a medium saucepan, cook the Brussels Sprouts in 2/3 cup of boiling water until crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and put the Brussels Sprouts in a medium bowl, discard the water.
2. In another medium bowl combine the olive oil, syrup, vinegar and mustard, whisk until blended. Pour the blended sauce over the still steaming Brussels Sprouts along with the nuts and salt & pepper to taste. Toss gently to get all Brussels Sprouts covered and serve.

Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos

This was an odd week. I was sick with a cold this Tuesday and Wednesday so Soup At Work Wednesday didn't come off at all. I do not get colds or the flu very often so I was caught off guard this week. With my wife Bertie laid up with her left foot in a cast up to her mid-calf we were a sorry pair this week at home trying to help each other. Bertie had her left ankle fused together three weeks ago to alleviate pain due to arthritis. The surgeon removed the ends of a couple of ankle bones to remove the arthritic areas and then put in four pretty long screws to hold the joint together. She'll be in a cast for another 3 weeks and then probably a walking boot. We really hope this helps with her pain while walking.

I was going to pass on making soup this week because of these circumstances but on the drive home from work today it occurred to me that with it being so cold here in Tucson hot soup would be the perfect thing to bring to work on Friday. All I had to do was decide which one to make. I usually try to bring in a new recipe because I like trying new dishes and I'm afraid folks will get tired of repeats. Since it was pretty late by the time I was going to get home I had to choose a pretty easy one. Also with it being so cold I wanted to bring in a hearty and comforting soup. Chicken noodle was a possibility but I wanted something more tangy so the Posole with Tomatillos came to mind. I pulled up the recipe on my laptop real quick in the Fry's parking lot and jotted down the ingredients I didn't have at home and ran into the store for a quick run-through.

The full recipe can be found in the September 8 entry last year. I made one change this time by roasting the tomatillos instead of boiling them. This was 2 pounds of tomatillos this time so removing the husks took a few minutes while the chicken was boiling (homemade stock and shredded chicken in the making). After washing the remaining shreds of husks off the tomatillos I sliced them in half lengthwise and spread them cut side up on a large cookie sheet. After sprinkling them with olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper I roasted them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until they softened. From this point the recipe is pretty much the same. I pureed the tomatillos with my oft-mentioned immersion blender along with about a 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.

I'm thinking seriously about putting some egg noodles into the soup in the morning, Bertie says I should go for it so we'll see how I'm feeling about it in the morning.

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo

This is not a soup but it is one of my favorite side dishes. I made some Saturday night for a pot-luck on Sunday afternoon for our fitness boot camp monthly recognition event. The recognition is an important part of the group dynamic of Brown's Boot Camp and one of the components making it special to me.

This recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa and Food Network. I saw her making this on one of her shows almost two years ago and have made it several times for potlucks and at home. I find the mixture of tastes very unusual and delicious. I love shrimp in any form so that sure helps. The first time I made it I did not know what Orzo was and looked for it on the rice aisle because the picture I found on the Internet showed what looked like rice. So you don't make the same mistake, I'll let you know that it is a pasta and that's where you'll find it. Here we go...

Some changes I made to the original recipe: 1) I used one pound of orzo not the 3/4 pound called for because the orzo comes in one pound packages and what are you going to do with a quarter pound of the stuff? 2) I always substitute cilantro for parsley in most recipes because I love the taste of cilantro. 3) When the final mixing is done be sure you limit your salt and pepper to your taste. The original recipe calls for 2 additional teaspoons of salt and 1 of pepper when doing the final mixing, this is a bit too much salt considering the shrimp and lemon mixture is already salted and the cheese also has some. If I think it's salty then it is really salty with the additional salt at the end.

INGREDIENTS

• Kosher salt
• Olive Oil
• 1 pound of orzo pasta
• 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (2-3 lemons) note: I used a citrus squeezer I got at World Market, it makes the juicing much easier and only costs about $10. It is a 2 piece device with a bowl at the end of a handle and a matching piece that is hinged so you place a half of a lemon with the cut side down and you bring the top piece down and squeeze. It's a great tool.
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 pounds (16-18 count) uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup of minced green onions, white and green parts
• 1 cup of chopped fresh dill (about 2 of the little packages they sell in produce with all the other fresh herbs)
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded and medium diced (slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then slice each half into fourths lengthwise and dice about 1/4 inch thick)
• 1/2 cup of red onion diced into small pieces
• 3/4 pound of crumbled feta cheese (the crumbled cheese usually comes in 6 ounce packages so you'll need two of them)

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

1. Fill a large pot with water, add one tablespoon of salt and a splash of olive oil. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Add the orzo and simmer 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally, until it's cooked al dente.
3. Drain and pour the orzo into an oversize large bowl (be sure to use the largest bowl you can so you can mix well without spilling over).
4. Whisk together the lemon juice, 1/2 cup of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.
5. Pour the lemon mixture over the warm orzo and stir well.
6. While the orzo is cooking place the shrimp on a large sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
7. Toss the shrimp on the pan by hand to mix the seasoning and spread out in a single layer.
8. Roast for 5-6 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through, BE SURE YOU DON'T OVERCOOK!!! Tough shrimp is terrible.
9. Add the shrimp to the orzo and then add the green onions, dill, cilantro, cucumber, red onion, salt and pepper to taste VERY carefully.
10. Toss well.
11. Add the feta cheese and stir carefully so you don't mash up all the cheese.

Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend or refrigerate overnight.
If refrigerating be sure you bring the dish to room to room temperature before serving.

Italian Chicken Sausage & Artichoke

I have not brought soup to work for two weeks now due to being away from work. So, hopefully the enthusiasm is still there for Soup At Work Wednesdays.

This week's soup is one I got out of the January 2011 edition of Sunset magazine. I grew up with Sunset magazine. I remember looking at the great scenic pictures when I was very young and then reading the western travel and the home improvement articles when I was older. If you're not familiar with Sunset it is a lifestyle magazine that is focused on the western United States. There are different regional editions such as Southern California, Northern California, the Northwest, and the Southwest which covers Arizona. Some of the articles are common to all editions but there are unique ones to each region. There are usually very good and straightforward recipes and their gardening articles have really increased the last few years. I got the design for our wooden garden boxes from Sunset.

Anyhoo, I was getting caught up on my magazines the other night and came across this recipe which was part of a larger article titled "Chicken Soup For Every Occasion". Of course any article addressing soups always catch my eye. The Italian Chicken Sausage & Artichoke Soup recipe is extremely easy to make with only 5 ingredients and two steps to the preparation. The fennel in the sausage lends a great flavor and artichoke hearts are not a common ingredient in soups and I love artichokes so this one had to get made.

The recipe below results in about 6 quarts. My changes to the Sunset recipe were to use two Hot Italian Sausages just to spice things up, two 32 ounce containers of chicken broth (Sprouts had them on sale for $1.99 a quart) and three 14 ounce cans of Trader Joe's Artichoke Hearts rather than frozen ones. I use the TJ's Artichoke Hearts regularly on salads so I had a few cans in the pantry. These artichoke hearts are not marinated but rather packed in water. I used Red Swiss Chard because of the great color it adds. If you're going to use the Parmesan Cheese as a garnish I recommend getting the Parmesan/Romano blend from Trader Joe's. It comes in a 12 ounce container and is really good. I eat it by the spoonful it is so tasty. Let's go...

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs Italian chicken sausage, casings removed and meat broken up. This will be about 5-6 sausages depending on how large they are. I substituted 2 hot Italian chicken sausages for 2 of the regular ones just to spice things up.
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 32 oz containers of chicken broth
• 3 14 oz containers of Trader Joe's Artichoke Hearts (packed in water, not marinated)
• 2 bunches of red Swiss chard, stemmed and chopped

Garnish

• Grated Parmesan/Romano cheese
• Warm ciabatta bread

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil in a large (at least 7 quarts) soup pot over medium-high heat. Cook the sausage until browned, stirring often. This should take about 10 minutes. Add the broth, artichoke hearts and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Use your spoon to get any fond off of the bottom of the pot
2. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chard and cook, covered, until the chard is wilted, about 3 minutes. If you're making the soup ahead of serving, hold off on adding the chard until the soup has been reheated in order to maintain the crispiness of the chard.

Serve with grated cheese and warm bread

Las Brisas Black Bean

The Swedish Meatballs were a big hit at work last Wednesday. The whole 5 quarts were gone in less than 5 minutes!. Lots of great feedback from folks too. They're really very tasty, give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.

I'm working on a really good Black Bean Soup for a special reason. A colleague at work asked about the Black Bean Soup I had brought in a few months ago. He was wondering if I was planning on bringing it in next week, not because he liked it because he actually doesn't, but because his wife loved it. He took some home to her and she is still talking about it. It turns out that she's going through a very rough time and not feeling well and he thought that some of that soup would pick her up a bit. Well, I can't think of a better reason to break out the pots and knives.

I found this recipe through the LA Times Food Section. The Times has a running series that responds to readers' requests to provide recipes for dishes from restaurants from all over the LA area. The Black Bean Soup is from Las Brisas in Laguna Beach. If you ever get a chance to visit Laguna Beach be sure you take advantage of it. It is a beautiful place. We spent a lot of time theregrowing up. I've never been to Las Brisas but I'll make a point when we're in Orange County again.

This is a simple soup to make with the ingredient prep time being pretty minimal. It does take a couple of hours for the beans to cook so be sure you plan for that. There are no exotic ingredients either so shopping is pretty easy also. You should be able to get about 12-16 servings depending on serving size. There's lots of protein and fiber in this soup along with being very tasty.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds of dried black beans, picked over and rinsed (I've yet to find anything but beans but picking through the beans is relaxing)
• 4 quarts of water (you might use more depending on how thick you want thesoup when you're done)
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 4 ounces of salt pork, rind discarded and cut into 1/4 inch pieces (most salt pork comes in 8 or 12 ounce packages so I end up using the whole thing. I don't use salt pork in many other dishes so it would just go to waste)
• 1 3/4 pounds of ham hocks, about 3 pieces
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I've mentioned before that I use Spice World prepared garlic found in the produce section)
• 2 teaspoons white pepper, more to taste (a little goes a long way with white pepper so be careful)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons of salt, more to taste
• For Garnish:
• 1/4 cup of minced cilantro
• 2 fresh serrano chiles, seeded and minced (wear rubber gloves when working with chiles because your skin will burn and heaven help you if you touch your eyes or nose while working with chiles)
• 4 slices of bacon cooked crisp an crumbled
• 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (I always use the Romano-Parmesan mix from Trader Joe's, it's great, I can eat it by the spoonful)
• 1/4 minced Bermuda onion

METHOD

1. In a soup pot that's at least 6 quarts but preferably eight, combine the beans, water, onion, carrots, celery, salt pork an ham hocks. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered for 15 minutes.
2. Stir in the garlic, white pepper, cumin, oregano and salt. Continue to simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally until the beans are very tender and the soup is reduced to about 4 quarts after the ham hocks are removed. This should take about 1 1/2- 2 hours.
3. Discard the ham hocks and puree the soup. If you've taken my recommendation andasked Santa for an immersion blender than this is where you'll fall in love with it if you haven't already.
4. Adjust the consistency with additional water if needed. Season with additional salt and white pepper as needed.
5. Serve with all the garnishes.

A Swedish Meatball Soup for The New Year

For the year's first Soup At Work Wednesday I'm trying out my Swedish Meatballs. Doesn't sound like a soup you say? Well the broth will be less thick for this batch to give it more of a soup feel and I'll make the meatballs a little smaller than usual.

This is one of the most delicious dishes I've had in a while. This is lick the bowl, turn it upside down and put it on your head kind of good. I posted this recipe a few weeks ago if you're really curious now but I'll also post it again Thursday or Friday after getting reactions from the folks at work. My friend Sam O made these over the holiday break and she loved them. She had some great ideas on quickening the prep process too. Thanks Sam!