Smokey Corn Chowder

I came across this recipe via the magazine Real Simple. It is a complete chick magazine but has good recipes and keeps me in touch with my feminine side.

Naturally this recipe is real simple but very tasty, Berdie gave it a big thumbs up and she's usually one of my toughest critics. I made a batch for dinner tonight and it turned out to be pretty filling. It was not as thick as I usually like my soups, especially chowders, but Berdie likes her soups (and now her hubbie) on the thinner side so she was a happy wife. Happy wife equals a happy life so I'm good.

I made two changes to the batch I made today. The first was the addition of the juice of 1/2 of a lemon. I have found myself adding lemon juice, lemon zest, or both to most of my soups when I'm just about finished and doing final tasting. The juice almost always adds just the right zing, I used to add salt to get that zing but I have switched to the lemon juice with better results. The second change was the addition of two cans of Trader Joe's Yellow Corn versus the 20 ounces of frozen corn called for in the original recipe. I've posted my ravings for TJ's canned yellow corn before but if you're new to my postings you will not believe how good their canned corn is. It is the crunchiest and freshest corn this side of a fresh cob. I used two cans but will use three the next time I make this recipe.

This recipe makes about 6 servings and about 40 minutes for prep and cooking.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces of bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
3 cans of Trader Joe's Yellow Corn
3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup of half-and-half
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

4 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal (Patterson Garden grown)

METHOD

1. Cook the bacon in a large soup pot over medium heat, about 6-8 minutes depending how crunchy you like your bacon.
2. Transfer the bacon bits to a paper towel lined plate, remove the pot from the heat.
3. Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease. Note: save the bacon grease you spoon off for use in other dishes like refried beans, we use a small olive jar with a wide mouth and refrigerate.
4. Return the pot to medium heat.
5. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 5-7 minutes, scraping up the fond left from the bacon.
6. Add the paprika, red pepper, and garlic and cook stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Do not let the garlic burn, be attentive at this point.
7. Stir in the broth, half-and-half, and corn.
8. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
9. Remove the pot from the heat.
10. If you have an immersion blender give the soup a quick jolt with the blender, but don't fully puree, we want it on the chunky side. If you don't have an immersion blender, transfer half of the soup to a blender and puree until smooth and return to the pot.
11. Serve the soup topped with the bacon bits and scallions.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

My birthday is this coming Wednesday, number 54 btw, and I want to celebrate it with two of my favorites soups. One of them is Hungarian Mushroom and the other is my Chicken Tortilla Soup.

The Chicken Tortilla is spicily delicious, hearty, and chock full of vegetables. But my favorite thing about this soup is the colors. It shouts "I'm Mexican!!!". The red of the tomatoes, El Pato, and chili powder, the yellow corn, the white hominy, the green chili peppers, black beans, the light color of the chicken chunks, finished off by the cilantro, avocado, and jack cheese results in a kaleidoscope of chromas. With homemade tortilla chips and cheese on top it is one of my favorites.

I often use a whole chicken that I boil and make use of the de-boned meat and the stock used to boil the chicken. I like using the different cuts of chicken so I'm not limited to the drier breast meat but get to use the moister thigh and leg meat along with tossing in a whole wing drumette or two. To flavor the stock I'll toss in a bay leaf or two along with some dried basil and oregano. Salt and fresh ground pepper is always included. The whole chicken approach is when I'm doubling the recipe below, if you need only 4-6 servings then the recipe below is the ticket. The whole chicken and homemade broth approach is detailed below the METHOD.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion chopped
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (7.75oz) can of El Pato Mexican Tomato Sauce
• 1 (10.5oz) can chicken broth
• 1.25 cups water
• 1 cup cooked whole corn kernels (Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup white hominy
• 1 (4oz) can chopped green chili peppers
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 boneless chicken breast halves (cooked and cut into bite sized pieces)
• crushed tortilla chips, sliced avocado
• shredded Jack cheese, chopped green onion

METHOD

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat and saute the onions for 10-15 minutes until tender. Add garlic and saute an additional 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, El Pato, broth and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the corn, hominy, chills, beans, cilantro and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Serve soup in bowls topped with tortilla chips, cheese, avocado and green onions.

When I make a large pot like the one from one of my crock pots I do two things differently 1) I double everything and 2) For the chicken and broth I use a whole chicken boiled in a stock pot large enough to hold the whole chicken and enough water to cover the chicken with water plus another inch over the bird. To the pot I add a couple of bay leaves, a tablespoon of dried basil, a tablespoon of dried oregano, salt and pepper. I boil the chicken for 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and put it aside on a plate or platter to cool. Use the broth as the soup broth in step 2 above but double the quantity. When the chicken has cooled enough to work with begin pulling the legs, thighs and wings off the bird. This should be pretty easy since it is fully cooked. Remove all the skin and discard. Debone the chicken by pulling all the meat from the bones. You can either leave the meat in larger pieces or dice smaller, I prefer larger pieces. Presto, you have your chicken called for in step 3 above. 

Curried Carrot with Tarragon Oil

I'm not a big fan of curry and most curry dishes, I don't have a huge dislike for curry but it is just not something I find myself ever craving.

That said, I found this recipe in the most recent edition of Food And Wine magazine very interesting and it read like a simple make with a reasonable number of ingredients with most already had on hand so I thought I'd take a run at it for a batch at home this weekend as a test to take to work next week.

Thumbs up, I really liked it. I put a bit too much pepper in my batch but even with that I really enjoyed the flavors and consistency. The curry does not overwhelm the soup at all but leaves a nice almost tangy aftertaste. It is all vegetables so it's good for a vegetarian diet. It was a simple preparation, the only dicing of note were the onion and carrots. This is a soup requiring pureeing and I always recommend the use of an immersion blender. The trouble and mess of transferring the soup to a blender and then back to the pot along with cleaning the blender is just not worth it. A good immersion blender is invaluable if you make a lot of soups. Mine is a Cuisinart with a food processor attachment that is pretty cool and easy to use.

I made two changes to the recipe. First, In addition to the lemon zest called or in the recipe I added 1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice and second I used cilantro instead of the flat parsley the F&W version called for. I often add lemon juice to my soups because I love the subtle tang it adds without really being distinguishable as lemon juice. If you've read other Cocina Caldo entries you know that I am an unapologetic cilantro shill and use it whenever flat leaf parsley is called for. I was a bit worried with this batch because my backyard grown cilantro is bursting in the garden and it usually is stronger than the store bought bunches but this worked out just fine using the called for portion.

Ingredient tip: for spices that I don't used very often I buy from the bulk spice section at my local Sprouts. Having even s small jar on hand is just a waste of money since their shelf life is just a few months before they lose their edge. I bought about a tablespoon and it cost me all of 11 cents.

INGREDIENTS
Soup
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of minced ginger root, peeled
2 teaspoons curry powder

1 1/2 pounds of carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 6 really large carrots)
7 cups of water
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice
Snipped chives for garnish
Drizzling Oil
2 bunches of fresh tarragon
1 cup of flat-leaf parsley leaves or cilantro
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

1. Cut up the onion, garlic, ginger and carrots
2. In a large soup pot (6-7 quart of larger) heat the 1/4 cup of olive oil
3. Add the onion to the pot and cook over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft, about 10 minutes
4. Add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder and cook, stirring until it gets fragrant, about 3 minutes
5. Add the carrots and cook for 8 minutes to allow the curry to be absorbed by the carrots
6. Add the water and sugar, salt and pepper to taste
7. Simmer over moderately low heat until the carrots are very tender but not mushy, check at 45 minutes

While the soup is simmering prep the tarragon oil:

1. Fill a small sauce pan with salty water and bring to a boil.
2. Fill a bowl with ice cubes and water for an ice bath.
3. Blanch the tarragon and parsley/cilantro in the small saucepan of boiling salty water. 
4. Transfer the herbs to the ice bath and then squeeze out the excess water.
5. What I ended up doing was use a large wire mesh stainer to hold the herbs and lowered the strainer into the boiling water for 30 seconds to blanch and then just took the strainer to the ice bath and did the same thing in the ice water. No transferring of the herbs or spooning them out of either the hot or ice water.
6. Transfer the herbs to a blender, a small one if you have one, since we're not talking about a large amount of herbs or oil.
7. Add 1/2 cup of olive oil
8. Puree until smooth
9. Pour back into the wire mesh strainer and let the oil drain into a separate bowl without pressing down on the solids.

Back to the soup now that's it's cooked.

1. Puree the soup with an immersion blender right in the pot or transfer to a blender to puree. Puree until smooth.
2. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice
3. Add Tabasco, salt, and pepper to taste
4. Serve in bowls and drizzle with the tarragon oil and garnish with chopped chives

Black Bean & Corned Beef

I got this recipe from Cooking.com and made a few changes to it. I'm on their emailing list and get an appealing recipe about 25% of the time.

This soup was real hit at work this week! It was pretty easy to make, about a 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most challenging. This is also a surprisingly light soup even with the corned beef. Maybe my favorite aspect of this soup is the beautiful colors! Black bean, Yellow corn, Red bell peppers, Green jalapenos and cilantro, and the Orange carrots makes it nearly a ROYGBIV in a bowl.

A couple of shopping and prep tips:

• When buying the corned beef be sure you buy from a service deli counter. Look for it to be sliced from a bottom round cut which will be leaner than if it is from a brisket. It should look like the piece pictured here. The brisket cut is what you see in the meat case around St. Patrick's Day. You want the leaner bottom round cut so the fat doesn't make the soup too heavy. Have your slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Be picky with your meat! I always have been.
• For a great way to slice up the bell pepper check out this tip http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/11/11/how-to-cut-a-bell-pepper-the-easy-way/. 
• When you prep the jalapeno be sure to wear rubber gloves and don't ever, no not ever, touch any body part before removing the gloves. 

• If you have a Trader Joe's in your area be sure you buy the canned yellow corn from there. It is the best canned corn you'll ever buy, I like it much better than any frozen corn I've had and it is darn near as good as fresh off the cob. I know it is just canned corn but I'm huge on this one. 
• When you drain and rinse the black beans be sure you do it in the sink, I made a black mess when I missed.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 1 onion, chopped, yellow, red, white, doesn't matter
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced diagonally, about 1/4 inch thick
• 2 celery stalks, sliced about 1/4 inch thick, up to and including the leaves, they add great flavor
• 1 red bell pepper, diced, see the note above for prep tip
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups of water
• 1 quart of chicken stock (Costco's house brand is good and a good value)
• 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained (15 or 19 ounces, doesn't matter)
• 1 can of Trader Joe's yellow corn if possible, if not available just make do with the big green guy or store brand
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, diced, seeds, rib and stem removed. See the note above before messing with the jalapeno
• 1/2 pound of deli sliced corned beef, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips. See note above about shopping for the corned beef
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of red or white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro. You can use Italian parsley if you don't care for cilantro, but I can't imagine why

METHOD

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, carrots, celery, bell pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, just until the onions begin to soften, no longer than 10 minutes.
4. Add the water, broth, and the remaining teaspoon of salt.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender but still firm, don't overcook!!! Nothing worse than mushy veggies. No longer than 8 minutes.
7. Stir in the beans, corn, and jalapeno.
8. Simmer for 5 more minutes.
9. Remove the pot from the heat and add the corned beef, vinegar and cilantro. Stir and allow the last 3 ingredients to warm, about 5 minutes
10. Serve.

If you make the soup ahead of time, wait to stir in the corned beef, vinegar, and cilantro until you're ready to serve. Otherwise, the corned beef will leach into the broth, the vinegar will lose its bite and the cilantro will turn brown, an ugly brown.

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.