Not to hijack (might be useful to the OP), but does anyone have the recipe for artichoke-green chile soup? We had this at a little restaurant in Pescadero, CA, and it was heavenly. It was a cream-type soup. I Googled for it and came up empty-handed.
Beadalin,
Can’t cook? Don’t fret. Neither can I. But I’ve put this artless concoction together for dinner parties, and fooled everyone into thinking that I can. It’s just “homemade”- appearing and “ethnic”-seeming enough to make people think you did it from scratch.
This makes four cups of soup. Multiply as necessary.
CHEATER’S BORSHTCH
1 one-lb. can of whole beets
1 13-oz. can of beef broth
3 carrots, sliced into thin “coins” (1/2 cup)
1/2 small yellow onion, sliced
I cup shredded cabbage
2 tsps. cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
Sour cream
Parsley, chopped
Drain the liquid from the beet can into a large saucepan.
Stir in beef broth.
Add carrots and onions.
Boil, then immediately reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Coarsely dice beets and add to the soup.
Add shredded cabbage.
Add vinegar.
Add salt and pepper to taste (you probably won’t need much) and heat soup through.
Serve the borshtch garnished abundantly with sour cream and chopped parsley, with Russian rye or a similar coarse black bread on the side.
Allow me:
Use the basic roux and reduced chicken stock recipe found in my above recipe. Have some trimmed, whole, pre-steamed* and acidulated artichokes at the ready. Roast a few green Anaheim chiles while the butter and flour roux cooks off. After the roasted chiles’ skins are blackened and begin to bubble, bag them so they’ll steam themselves while the roux rests.
After waiting ten minutes, peel, seed and core the cooled chile peppers. Scrape the artichokes’ thickest leaves into a mass. Expose the heart and denude the ‘chokes’ from the centers. Pulp or puree the peeled artichoke stem, heart and leaf scrapings along with the roasted chiles. For a super high-end soup, carefully strain the gathered mass and pulp. Otherwise, blend the chiles, artichoke pulp and puree together. Slowly add the cream, white pepper and any other spices after the reduced stock has been tempered into the roux.
Thicken the stock and roux mixture at a lightly rolling simmer then, (cautiously) salt to taste. Add a hint of precooked or roasted garlic puree and bring the liquid up to serving temperature. Cook off the combined ingredients with some fine ground white pepper, then garnish the finished dish with paper thin slices of ripe, butter fried, rind-on lemon. Sprinkle shredded sprigs of basil or a chiffonade of Italian parsley over the soup’s surface. Crumble thin sliced and crispy fried pancetta onto the surface and serve immediately. Decorating the dish with translucent shavings of Parmesan Reggiano is permitted.
Note: *When steaming the artichokes, first cut off one or two inches of the thistle’s top. This forcibly opens the flower so it cooks more quickly and evenly. If you have particularly large specimens, peel the stems before preparation. Acidulate the cooked artichokes by squeezing lemon juice into the fresh, cold storage water being used to hold them after their preparation.
Diogenes the Cynic’s mom’s authentic chicken gumbo:
One whole chicken cut up
1/2 pound andouille sausage (or other smoked sausage of choice) finely diced
4 stalks celery chopped
2 onions chopped
2 bell peppers chopped
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup all purpose flour
water
about ten cups cooked white rice
Cajun seasoning mix
2 tsp each of:
salt
garlic powder
onion powder
white pepper
black pepper
cayenne pepper
oregano
thyme
Brown chicken pieces in 1/4 cup of oil in large pot. When skin is browned on all sides, cover chicken with water and bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer to make stock (about 2 hours). add more water as needed. when stock is finished and the meat is falling off the chicken, remove stock from heat. Remove chivken pieces from stock and skim fat. Reserve stock. Remove chicken meat from bones and reserve.
Get a new pot throw in 1/2 cup of oil, 1/4 butter and 2/3 cup flour. Constantly stir over medium low heat to make roux. do not quit stirring, do not leave roux unattended. After about 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour, roux will become a chocolate brown color and acquire a nutty aroma.
Now add chopped celery, onions, peppers and sausage. Saute in roux until everything gets chocolately brown and aromatic (the aroma is unbelievable at this point)
Pour in chicken stock and raise heat to medium high. Stir soup and stock will acquire the brown color of the roux.
add reserved chicken meat
add cajun seasoning to taste (for extra heat, add extra cayenne)
Heat through and serve over rice.
delicious.
Qadgop’s bean soup:
16 oz. mixed beans
12 cups liquid, low salt chicken or vegetable broth best, water ok
1 lb. smoked sausage, skin removed and chopped
2-4 chicken breasts, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 tbsp liquid smoke
1 tsp msg (if desired)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp vegemite
2 cups tomato sauce or spicy V-8
2 tbsp lemon juice
soak beans overnight, or boil for 3 minutes, soak for an hour
discard soak water
mix beans with all the above ingredients.
bring to boil
simmer for 3 hours
serve then, or let set overnight to maximize flavor blending
serve over rice, with hot sauce of choice added as desired
Have I got soup recipes!
Thanks Zenster! I’ll give that a shot as soon as the new green chile crop starts coming out of Hatch. Mmmmm…
DMark and others–
Intrigued by the simplicity of the recipe, I made “Ming Dynasty” soup according to DMark’s instructions-- and all I have to say is
Yumyumyumyumyumyum . . . (repeat four thousand times) !
Easiest, most delicious soup ever. No one would ever guess how it’s done.
Sorry; away from the board for a while. I will post recipes for these shortly.
You guys are the BEST! I am now most definitely going to sign up to bring soup for a few more weeks! This is a wonderful selection, and I can’t wait to try them. Thank you, thank you, thank you.