Soup

Let me start by saying that I am not a chef.  My last culinary training was eighth-grade home ec, and   I'm pretty sure that my home ec teacher hated me.  I couldn't make biscuits or poach an egg, and forget about cleaning the sink.  Over the years, though, as I find new foods that I enjoy, I try and learn to make them.  Mashed potatoes, feijoada, red beans and rice, gumbo, pot roast, etouffee, tamales...you get the idea.  I look up recipes and cooking techniques and start trying things.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a good cook, and I certainly don't do anything fancy, but no one in my house is going to starve.  I've finally gotten to where I can throw together random foods that I have around and make something edible.  And I've learned that I enjoy cooking.  Something about the magic of starting out with a whole bunch of individual, separate ingredients and winding up with a result that is somehow more than the sum of its parts appeals to me.  And there's a visceral satisfaction in feeding people.

I was asked not too long ago if I had a blog.  No, I didn't have one.  I didn't know what I could possibly write about.  And then a friend of mine asked today about beginner's soup and stew cookbooks.  I've been kind of getting into soup lately, so I feel like I have a couple of things to share on the subject.  And voila, now I have a blog.  Let me say again, I don't purport to be an expert.  If you have a better way of doing things, by all means, let me know.  But I can tell you a little bit.

So, here's what I know about Soup...

First, you'll need some stock.  The type of stock you're going to want will depend on what you're going to put in the soup.  Veggie stock if you're a vegetarian, chicken or turkey if you're making soup with poultry, ham for ham, potatoes, or beans.  Do not use canned broth or boullion.  It's much more salty than it needs to be, and it's kind of expensive.

For chicken or turkey stock, first cook the bird.  Roast it using whatever seasonings you like.  You can't go wrong with thyme, sage, and rosemary, in my humble opinion.  Fresh herbs taste better than dried, but either will certainly work.  I like to coat the outside of it with softened butter.  Once you've cooked it, let it cool, then remove the meat from the bones.  Put it in a ziploc, or other airtight container, and refrigerate it.  Preheat the oven to 400.  Once it's heated up, put the carcass in a roasting pan and roast it for about 35 minutes.  Four hundred degrees is really hot, but this does work, and it greatly improves the flavor of the stock.  Just pull the carcass out of the oven when it smells like it might be about to burn.

Get a really big stock pot.  The biggest one you can find.  You're going to want to make as much of this stuff as possible, more than you're going to use for one pot of soup.  That way, you can freeze the extra and use it later.  Put the carcass in the stock pot.  Cover with water.  Quarter an onion or two and throw them in.  Cut three or so carrots into thirds, remove the tops, and add them.  Same thing with three or so stalks of celery.  Throw in the celery leaves, too, if you have them.  If you like garlic, add three or four cloves, peeled and crushed.  Salt and whole peppercorns, too, and 2 or 3 bay leaves.  I use not too much salt and a bunch of pepper.  I don't measure.  Once you've got all the veggies and seasonings in, fill up the pot with water.

Now, if you use just the items listed above, you'll have a perfectly acceptable stock.  But you can add more to your stock pot and get a more complex flavor.  A friend of mine was kind enough to share The Gumbo Pages with me - Thanks LBD!  They've got a great stock recipe that I love at http://www.gumbopages.com/food/stocks/turk-stock.html.

Whatever you're adding to the stock pot, once it's in there, get it started cooking.  Bring it to a simmer, and let it keep simmering as long as you can.  The recipe above says 2 hours.  I usually cook mine for about 5 or so before I have to run off and do something else.  I think some folks will let theirs simmer all day.  I believe that you get more flavor the longer you simmer the stock.

Once you're done cooking the stock, you're going to need to strain it.  I use tongs to get the carcass out and a slotted spoon for the veggies.  Toss out the carcass at this point.  If you're inclined to save the veggies, you can use them for other things.  If you put them in a blender or food processor, for example, you can get them mashed up real good til they're about the consistency of hummus.  This makes an interesting dip.

Let the stock cool off some before you go to strain it.  To strain your broth, you're going to want a big colander or strainer and some cheesecloth.  Line the colander with a couple of layers of cheesecloth.  I put the lined colander in a second big pot.  You're going to need to put it on top of something in the pot so that the stock can flow through it.  Just make sure it's stable.  I use a big tamalera.  A tamalera has a "shelf" in it.  You put water under it and stack the tamales on top to steam them.  So it works well for me for the stock straining, too.  Once you've got the whole pot of stock strained, strain it again for a good measure.  Rinse out the cheese cloth before you start straining it for a second time.

If you're making ham stock, it's a similar process.  Get a ham bone (or you could use ham hocks).  Do not roast the bone, just put it in the stock pot with your veggies (same as above) and whatever seasonings you choose and simmer for a few hours.  I don't have a recipe to refer to for this, but the only seasonings I add to mine are salt and pepper.  Strain it when you're done simmering.

A quick note regarding cheese cloth - I think most grocery stores have this in small packages with the cooking utensils.  I've heard that it's cheaper to get it at Home Depot, where I believe it would be with the paint supplies.  Either way, cheese cloth is the way to go.  I've tried using coffee filters for this, but it didn't work out too well.  Ahem.

So, now that you've got the stock, figure out what all you're going to put in the soup.  If you just cooked a chicken or a turkey, you can certainly use some or all of that meat.  Just keep in mind that it's already cooked, so you won't want to put it in the pot til the soup is almost done.

Now, if you're looking for good combinations of veggies to put in a soup, I'd recommend searching the internet.  You can take a look at what you have on hand and then do a search for recipes that call for those items.  Something like, "onion, chicken, squash soup recipe" will yield tons of results which you can then read through to get ideas.  Soup doesn't have to be complicated or fancy or follow any particular recipe, though.  If you've got a good stock, you can throw in all kinds of stuff and it will be wonderful. 

Whatever you decide, I generally start with onions and garlic.  I chop the onion and cook it on medium heat in the same pot I'm going to use to cook the soup.  I use butter, because I like it.  Yeah, maybe it's not healthy, but two tablespoons of butter in an entire pot of soup isn't likely to kill you.  I cook the onions til they're soft.  Keep them moving, not constantly, but every few seconds or so, just enough so that they don't burn.  While they're cooking, peel and mince your garlic, if you're going to use it.  Once the onion has gotten soft, add the garlic to the pan and cook for a few more minutes, still keeping it moving.

Once the onions and garlic are ready to go, I add some stock to the pot.  Fill it up about halfway, and leave the heat at about medium or so.

If you're going to make a chicken or turkey soup, you can always use the standard chopped carrots and celery.  I'd chop them fairly finely.  Add them to the soup pot.  If you're inclined to add other veggies in, go for it.  I've tried okra, tomatoes, mushrooms, yellow squash, zucchini...just whatever you feel like having.  Your veggies will be soft after about 30 minutes of simmering.  You can also add cooked noodles or rice to give it a little more substance.  Once you've gotten all the solids in the pot that are going in, excluding the already-cooked meat, fill the pot til it's close to the top with more stock.  Add any basic seasonings you're going to use at this point.

I'm not good with any but the most basic seasonings, so I usually turn to the internet for ideas here.  Once I've figured out what meat and vegetables are going into the soup, I do another search like the one outlined above and then browse the recipes that come up for seasoning ideas.  So, season your soup, and taste it.  If it needs more of one thing or another, add it, a little bit at a time.

Simmer for about 30 minutes.  While this is happening, you can chop up the chicken or turkey that you cooked so that it's in bite-sized pieces.  If you're using uncooked sausage instead of the cooked poultry, throw it into the soup pot whole and let it simmer for the 30 minutes with the veggies.

You can also package up the rest of your stock and put it in the freezer while the soup is simmering.  I put mine in rectangular plastic containers and label them with the contents and date.

After the 30 minutes, add your poultry.  If you used sausage, pull it out of the soup, slice it into bite-sized pieces, and throw it back in.  Taste the soup and see if you think it needs more seasoning of one sort or another.  From this point, just cook it long enough to heat up the cold poultry that you just threw in.

Remember, there are tons of resources out there to help you determine what goes well with what.  Use the internet, cookbooks, talk with your friends. 

Enjoy.