Category Archives: Soups and Stews

Soups and stews and comfort food.

Soups and Stews

Pozole: Mexican Hominy Soup

Pozole is a pork, chicken, and hominy soup very typical of south central and western Mexico. In many places it is traditionally served on Thursday afternoons and evenings.  It is ladled into clay bowls and each person garnishes and seasons the soup at the table per individual taste.

Ingredients for Pozole: Mexican Hominy Soup

  • 1/2 lb. pork shank
  • 1/2 lb. spare ribs
  • 1 cut chicken
  • 1 pigs foot
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1 t. oregano
  • 4 quarts water
  • salt
  • 2-3 cups hominy
  • 3-5 guajillo chiles, soaked overnight

Preparation

Cut meat into pieces. Boil pork meat and chicken with onion, oregano, and salt. Skim as necessary. When meat is half-cooked, add hominy and whole chiles. Cook till hominy is tender and begins to pop open. Serve in clay bowls accompanied by any or all of the following garnishes and additions:

  • powdered or dried leaf oregano
  • quartered limes (squeeze juice into soup as desired)
  • red chile powder (chile piquin or cayenne)
  • sliced avocado
  • shredded lettuce
  • fried pork rinds (chicharrones)
  • queso fresco (Mexican fresh cheese)
  • sliced radishes
  • chopped serrano chiles

pozole


Soups and Stews

Hungarian Sauerkraut Soup

Loretta’s recipe.

  • 1 Ib. sauerkraut, washed
  • 1 Ib. ham hock or knackwurst
  • 1/2 tsp. peppercorns
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • 4 T mushrooms, dried
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 T flour
  • 1 t paprika
  • 1/2 t caraway
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 lb. chorizo or kielbasa
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • salt and vinegar to taste

Simmer sauerkraut, ham hock, peppercorns, bay leaf and mushrooms in water, covered, for 1 hour. Fry onion, stir in flour and cook 2 minutes without letting brown.

Take off heat. Add paprika, caraway. Return to heat. Mix with a little broth and then add to soup, Add chorizo and cook 15 minutes. Skim fat off. Add sour cream, salt and vinegar to taste.

Radishes by M. Angel Guerrero Garro
Radishes by M. Angel Guerrero Garro

 

Soups and Stews

Cabbage and Potato Soup

  • 1 medium onion, minced
  • 2 T butter
  • 3 cups shredded cabbage
  • 1/4 cup chopped cabbage
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 t salt
  • 2 cups diced potato
  • 8 oz. medium cream
  • Minced parsley
  • Dash of paprika

Cook onion slowly in butter until golden. Add cabbage, water, salt, and potato. Cook until tender (15-20 minutes). Add cream and reheat, but do not boil. Serve sprinkled with minced parsley and a dash of paprika.  Servings: 6

Soups and Stews

Borscht, Doukhobor Style

A thick, very rich version of Russian beet soup melded with potatoes and other vegetables, butter, and cream..

For years, various members of the family have lived in an area of British Columbia, Canada, into which many Doukhobors (a sect of Christian Russians who practice  what is called “radical pacifism”) settled after emigrating to Canada from Russia in the early 1900s to escape persecution. One of the mainstays of the Doukhobour diet, which is vegetarian, is their particular style of borscht, or beet soup, which is thick with potato starch and heavily laden with butter and cream. It is a full-course meal in itself.

  • 1-1/2 cups runny mashed potatoes
  • 1/2 medium cabbage, shredded
  • 1 beet, diced
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 lb. butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 can tomatoes
  • 1 t basil
  • salt and dill to taste
  • water as needed
  • 1/2 to 1 cup whipping cream

Prepare the mashed potatoes, reserving the water in which the potatoes were cooked. Set the mashed potatoes aside. Add 3/4 of the cabbage, the diced beet, carrot, and green pepper to the hot potato water in a large soup pot and cook for 15 minutes.

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the chopped onion and garlic and stir until transparent, and then add the rest of the cabbage. Fry to brown slightly.

Toss the fried cabbage in with the other vegetables in the potato broth. Empty the tomatoes into the skillet and add the basil. Heat well and throw into the soup pot. Add water as needed and continue simmering. Add the mashed potatoes and dill. Stir in cream (use as much as your taste buds dictate and your conscience will allow) and heat but do not boil. Season.

Serves 8.

Cats, by Rayna, Dec 2008


Soups and Stews

Green Bean Soup

Ingredients for Green Bean Soup

  • 2 cups green beans, diagonally sliced
  • 2-3 strips bacon or side pork
  • 2 T flour
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • pinch of cayenne
  • 1/2 t paprika
  • 1/4 t garlic powder
  • 1 T vinegar
  • 2 T sour cream

Preparing Green Bean Soup

Cook the green beans till tender. Fry the bacon until fairly crisp. Remove bacon from pan and add the flour to the grease and brown well, stirring constantly. Add a bit of bean juice to flour to moisten and make a smooth paste. Add flour mix to beans. Season.

Simmer till thickened. Add vinegar and cream just before serving. Servings: 4

Note: To convert this into a vegan soup:

  1. Omit the bacon or side pork and instead heat a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and add the flour to it and brown to make a roux, adding a pinch of smoked paprika to lend the soup a rich, smoky flavor.
  2. Substitute the sour cream with a simple cashew sour cream made by blending until smooth and creamy 1/4 cup soaked and drained raw cashews (soak for 1 to 3 hours), 1 T unsweetened almond milk or other plant-based milk substitute, 2 tsp lemon juice and/or apple cider vinegar, and salt to taste.
Soups and Stews

Potato Soup

  • 4 potatoes, cubed
  • 4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • water as needed
  • 4 cups milk
  • 8 slices bacon, crisp, crumbled
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 T parsley

Cover potatoes, celery and onion with water. Cook till tender. Add milk. Stir in bacon. Season. Serve with parsley. Servings: 4

Soups and Stews

Goulash Soup

A hearty Hungarian beef soup.

  • 1 lb. stewing beef, cubed
  • 6 cups beef broth
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 3 white potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 1 t paprika
  • salt and pepper

Brown beef well in oil. Add onion and cook until soft. Add paprika and stir for a minute to release fragrance, then throw in the preheated beef broth. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until beef is tender. Add potatoes and continue simmering until potatoes are tender.

Soups and Stews

Ashkenazic Chicken Soup

Ashkenazic Chicken Soup and Matzo Balls with Fresh Dill

  • 2 lb chicken wings or drumsticks
  • 9 cups cold water
  • 1 large onion, peeled
  • 1 large carrot, peeled
  • 1 small parsnip, peeled (opt)
  • 2 celery stalks, including leafy tops
  • 5 parsley sprigs
  • 3 dill sprigs
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 1 T snipped fresh dill

Matzo Balls

  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 T vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup Matzo meal
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 T water or chicken soup
  • 2 quarts salted water for simmering

Combine chicken wings, water, onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, parsley and dill sprigs, and pinch of salt to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Partly cover and simmer 2 hours, skimming occasionally. Skim off excess fat. (Chicken soup can be kept 3 days in refrigerator or can be frozen; reheat before serving.)

Make matzo balls: In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs with oil. Add matzo meal, salt and stir until smooth. Stir in water, then let mixture stand for 20 minutes so matzo meal absorbs liquid. Bring salted water to a boil. With wet hands, roll about 1 teaspoon of matzo ball mixture between your palms into a ball; mixture will be very soft. Set balls on a plate.

With a rubber spatula, carefully slide balls into boiling water. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or until firm. Cover and keep warm until ready to serve. (Matzo balls can be kept 2 days in their cooking liquid in a covered container in refrigerator; reheat gently in cooking liquid or in soup.)

To serve soup, remove chicken wings, onion, celery, parsnip, parsley and dill sprigs. Take meat off bones and add to soup; or reserve for other uses. Add pepper to soup, stir in snipped dill and taste soup for seasoning. Slice carrot and add a few slices to each bowl. With a slotted spoon, add a few matzo balls. Serve hot.

8 servings

Soups and Stews

Fish Soup

7 April, 2010

FOR ERIC CANTONA

Time: Don’t hurry. Don’t rush to heat ingredients quickly. This soup welcomes the concept of gentle simmering.

JayFishSoupEquipment:  A tureen. Not a big saucepan. A tureen. Capiche? Plus a good frying pan. And gas. Gas electric if possible.

Accompany with: Crusty heated rustic bread for dipping and mopping up. Not not garlic bread – this will overpower the soup’s flavours.

Serve with: A cold crisp white or at a push a rose; not beer but cider or perry. Alternatively elderflower or light compresses but not fruit juice.

INSTRUCTIONS

Any fool can make soup. The most important thing with this soup is to get the atmosphere right. This is not a quick and simple soup. This is a rich and sincere soup that needs  contemplation and consideration. It can’t take more than 90 minutes to make, eat some  and clear up.

Right : first take 4-6 large potatoes and cut them into half inch cubes and put to one side. Now cut up four white onions into small pieces and fry until soft – butter is best for this – and put to one side.

Next fry half a pound of good quality fatty lardons until crisp – if you can’t get hold of these just use a good quality rindless bacon cut up small. Once the lardons are cooked add the onions and stir for a minute. Put to one side where your potatoes also wait.

Make up 2-3 pints of fish stock : you can do this for real but most of our lives are too short and so fish stock cubes will do just fine. Don’t fuss about exactly how much you need – make enough to have plenty – you can always throw it away if you have too much stock – it costs almost nothing and this is cooking not chemistry anyway.

Put a couple of pints of your stock into the tureen. Add the potatoes and bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add the bacon and onions and simmer until all is well.

Next add a pound of smoked haddock or similar smoked fish – doesn’t really matter what kind but the smoked nature adds depth to the flavour; at the same time add an equivalent amount of any white fish you like or can get hold of – cod is my choice. The white and smoked fish need only to be roughly cubed into bit-sized pieces.

Keep the pot simmering until the fish is cooked – soft but not flaking. Add fish stock as necessary to keep it a soup not a stew and season now with salt and pepper to taste. Finally add large peeled fresh prawns and fresh scallops. They’ll only need a very few minutes in the mixture to cook – don’t overcook or they’ll go like leather.

Now the only vaguely tricky bit – add half to a pint of fresh cream as your taste dictates but keep the heat low and do not boil or do any more than simmer at a very low level or you’ll curdle the shit out of it. Once you have stirred and balanced it all out, add some paprika to taste and stir in.

Keep warm – do not let it cool before serving – and add fresh chopped parsley as a garnish if you’ve got guests you want to impress. Eat with big spoons in big bowls with hot bread.

 

Jay Green used to make this fish soup a lot between 1993 and 2004 when he lived in West London. He first made it in at 81 The Grove, Ealing and then afterwards refined it at 7 Sutton Court, Chiswick. The seafood was sourced locally at fishmongers on Turnham Green Road and the lardons at an Italian deli on the Chiswick High Road. He used to make it for eating while crucial football games were being televised that involved Manchester United. This is why the soup is dedicated to Eric Cantona.

 

Soups and Stews

Gumbo

Filé powder, also called gumbo filé, is a spicy herb made from the dried and ground leaves of the sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum), native to eastern North America. It is used in the making of some types of gumbo, a Creole and Cajun soup/stew often served over rice; other versions of gumbo use okra or roux as a thickener instead. Sprinkled sparingly over gumbo as a seasoning and a thickening agent, it adds a distinctive, earthy flavor and texture. Filé can provide thickening when okra is not in season. Filé translates to “string”, suggestive of the powder’s thickening ability.

Wikipedia contributors, “Filé powder,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fil%C3%A9_powder&oldid=440771200 (accessed December 28, 2011).
  • 6 slices bacon
  • 3 large onion, chopped fine
  • 2 large cans tomatoes
  • 1 cup diced ham
  • 2 cups okra
  • 2 T filé powder
  • 2 T flour
  • 1 can whole kernel corn
  • 1/2 cup rice
  • 1/2 lb. shrimp
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 2 small hot red peppers
  • salt to taste

Fry bacon until golden and crumble. Put in chopped onions and brown lightly. Add tomatoes and diced ham. In another pan heat a spoonful of lard. Add okra; add flour and stir until brown.

Combine the two mixtures in a large kettle, add corn, rice and shrimp. Add water until the pot is 2/3 full. Add salt and cloves and peppers tied in a bag. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

Remove spice bag. Thicken soup with a little flour and water. Turn off heat, let gumbo sit for 5 minutes, then add filé. Serve immediately with extra rice on the side. 10-12 servings