More Ham

I have Mom's ham soup recipe.  It's really good.  It just has an unwieldy name.

Cabbage-Apple-Ham-Dumpling Soup

1 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. sliced celery
2 Tbsp. oil
2 lbs. (8 cups) shredded cabbage
2 lrg. red apples, diced
3 c. julienne ham
4 c. chicken broth (I always want more.)
1 c. water
5 Tbsp. cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sage

In a large soup pot saute onion and celery in oil until tender.  Add cabbage, cook and stir 5 min.  Add remaining ingredients, except ham.  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, 45 min.  Add ham and dumplings (see below).  Cover and cook 15 min.

Dumplings
1 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
2 Tbsp. oil

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a mixing bowl.  Combine milk and oil.  Add all at once to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

Drop from tablespoon atop soup or stew.  Cover tightly; let mixture return to boiling.  Reduce heat (don't lift cover).  Simmer 12-15 minutes.  Makes 10 dumplings.

More Soups from Soup Week

Emily wanted this recipe from Soup Week.  I love it at this time of year, because I can make it at lunch time and come home after a cold soccer game to a warm meal.  It's a recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  I modified it for the crock pot.  I like it better that way.  The beans are creamier.  Yum!

White Bean and Garlic Soup

1 lb white beans (The recipe calls for cannellini beans, but I've always used great northern beans.)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
1 small head garlic, top third and loose papery skins removed and discarded
6 cups chicken broth
salt
1 sprig rosemary, or 1 tsp dried
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried

1.  Soak the beans by either bringing the beans and 6 cups water to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let soak for 1 hour.  Or you can put the beans in a big pot the night before you want to make this, cover them with water and let them soak until you are ready to make the soup.  Drain the beans and put them in your crock pot.
2.  Cook the bacon in the same pot you used to soak the beans in over medium heat until crisp.  Transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate, leaving the rendered fat behind in the pot.  Add the onion and cook until softened.  Stir in the garlic head and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Transfer the onion and garlic to the crock pot.  Add the broth and 1 tsp. salt (If you are using the dried herbs, add them now).  Turn on the crock pot to low and cook for 6 hours.
4. Add the fresh herbs, if you are using them now.  Remove the garlic head and squeeze out the softened cloves.  Mince the softened garlic and return it to the soup.  Discard the fresh rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve, garnishing with bacon.

Serves 8

Don't be scared by the whole garlic head.  It roasts in the soup and turns nutty and mild.

Recipes from Soup Week

As promised here are the requested soup recipes from our soup week. (As a side note, when I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner this week, Sophie said, "Egg Drop Soup," and everyone groaned. I guess we're still recovering.)

This first recipe is for Hilary. I got it off the Martha Stewart website.

Seared Beef and Noodle Soup

1/2 lb rice noodles (You can also substitute angel hair pasta.)

1 1/4 lbs beef sirloin (about 1 inch thick)

salt and pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

10 oz white mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 c. beef stock

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp. rice wine vinegar

2 carrots, cut into thin strips

1/2 Napa cabbage, shredded (I used regular cabbage.)

2 scallions, including green parts, thinly sliced

1 c. bean sprouts (I left these out and put in peas instead.)

1. Place rice noodles in a large heatproof bowl; pour boiling water over noodles. Let sit until translucent but still slightly chewy, 5-10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Season beef with 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper and rub with 1 Tbsp oil. Sear beef in pan until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Sear other side, 3 to 4 minutes more. Remove beef.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining Tbsp of oil, mushrooms, and garlic; cook, scraping up any browned bits, until mushrooms are tender, 3-5 minutes.

4. Add stock, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2 c. water to the pan (I thought the water made the soup weak, so used more stock instead.); bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat; stir in carrots cabbage, scallions, and bean sprouts. (I like my veggies less crunchy, so I simmered them until I thought they were done.)

5. Cut beef diagonally into very thin slices. Ladle the broth and veggies into serving bowls, and place the noodles and sliced beef on top.

Serves 4-6

This next soup is for Tammy. It's a recipe Aaron got in Germany on his mission.

Allgauer Kase Soupe

2 Tbsp butter

2 pieces of bread, cut into cubes

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp flour

4 c. chicken stock, hot

125 g. (or so) soft, spreadable cheese

(We like Boursin, but Alluette is nice too. It should have garlic and herbs in it. This is the flavoring of this soup, so get something nice. You can find this kind of cheese in the specialty cheese section of most grocery stores.)

salt and pepper to taste

dash or two nutmeg

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1. Make the croutons. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the cubes, toss and saute until golden brown. Set aside. (When I make this, I cut up a piece of bread for each person who will be eating-8 for our family-then I melt the butter (4-6 Tbsp. for my family) in the microwave and toss with the bread. Then I spread the bread on a cookie sheet and broil it in the oven until it is golden brown. Toss the croutons and brown on the other side.)

2. Make the soup. Melt the butter in the soup pot. Add the flour and stir and cook for a little bit. You want to make sure it doesn't taste like flour. Whisk in the hot broth until there are no lumps. Cook at a simmer for 7 minutes.

3. Cut the cheese into chunks. Stir the cheese into the soup until it melts. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley. Bring to a simmer.

4. Serve with the croutons on top. Or if you're a purist, with them on the side, you don't want your food to touch.

Serves 4 (I double this for my family and there's usually just one serving left over, which Aaron and I fight about for lunch the next day.)

Soup Week

I always have my kids tell me what they want to eat for the week. It puts some of the meal planning stress off of me. The other week everyone wanted soups. So we decided to have soup week. That's right--a whole week with soup every night for dinner. It was kind of fun and we took pictures of all the delicious soups we ate.

We started out on Friday night with delicious White Bean and Garlic soup. This one was my choice.

It's a great soup because you can make it in the crock pot. The garlic is lovely and mild because it's roasted along with the beans. You also add rosemary. Plus I absolutely adore bean soups and there's bacon. What could be better?

Saturday night was St. Patrick's day so we had Hilary's Irish soup and Brennan's soda bread. I also bought sausage. One time Johnsonville made an Irish sausage. It was lovely, but I haven't been able to find it since. We had bratwurst instead.

The kids loved the bread and the soup. They kept saying how good it was. I used both a leek and cabbage. I really don't like pureed soups, so I only pureed a portion of it.

Sunday night was Cream of Vegetable Soup. I had a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots left over from a fondue dinner we had had earlier in the week and it needed to get used up. I looked up veggie soup recipes and found one that had all three in it. It also had a hint of curry which was a revelation. It made the soup so good. I pureed some of this soup too, but the broccoli didn't puree well and made the soup grainy.

Still, it was a good soup and I served it with cheese.

Monday night I killed three birds with one stone. Hannah wanted grilled cheese--that means tomato soup. Maggie wanted clam chowder and Caleb wanted chicken noodle. I always serve another soup when I make tomato soup because half the kids don't like tomatoes. Good old Campbell's makes the meal do-able.

I had to come up with my own tomato soup recipe when I couldn't find good tomato soup in the canned soup aisle (It was all gone). I also wanted it to be tomato basil soup and somehow could never find the recipe. On a different note, one evening we were eating chicken noodle soup at my mom's house, who really makes the best chicken noodle soup on the face of the planet, and Caleb says, "This is okay, but my mom makes the best chicken noodle soup." I laughed and laughed because the chicken noodle soup I "make" is right out of the can. The clam chowder we had is out of the can too. Aaron was disappointed.

Tuesday night was Aaron's request--Allgauer Kase Soupe.

I burned the croutons. It's a family curse. We always burn the garlic bread. Bread in the oven is tricky. But the soup is totally delicious--creamy and herby with a crunch from the croutons--yum!

Wednesday night was Sophie's night. A little while ago I had watched too many Asian cooking shows and wanted to make a noodle bowl. After a little research, I found a promising recipe on Martha Stewart. Sophie LOVED it. She has requested it many times since. If it weren't for the scarcity of steak in our diet, I'm sure we would have had it more often.

It really looks beautiful in the bowl. The steak is rare and then the hot broth cooks it as you eat. I ate it with a spoon, but really you need chopsticks. Sophie ate all the leftovers the next day--slurping and "mmm"ing all the way through.

Thursday was a soup Caleb wanted, I wrote it down, and then he changed his mind to Chicken Noodle, then when we got to this night, he told me that this was the soup he wanted all along. Funny boy. It was Potato Soup.

I love this soup because it has bacon and sour cream in it. It's super yummy.

So, that was our week of soup. The kids were glad when we were done, proving once again that too much of a good thing isn't so good. Also, we had a hard time keeping spoons and bowls clean. It seems like we spent the whole week wondering where the clean spoons were. And finally, as Aaron pointed out, the problem with soup every night for dinner is that then the next day you have soup leftovers for lunch and then soup for dinner again. It was an interesting experience anyway. If you want me to post any of the recipes for the soups we had, let me know.

Irish Dinner

We had crock pot corned beef with potatoes, carrots and cabbage a few days before St. Patrick's Day because I knew we'd be too busy getting ready for the Pinewood Derby for such a big meal. But then I still wanted to make something green and Irish on Thursday, and I wanted to make some kind of soup with the leftover crock pot vegetables. I googled Irish soups and found a very yummy one called Fresh Vegetable Soup from a lady in Ireland.

I looked up Irish soda bread on allrecipes, and of course I had to choose the one called Brennan's Irish Soda bread. It's even spelled right:) It was the quickest, easiest, yummiest bread. Seriously, there is no yeast, no rising, very little kneading, and it only took 30 minutes to bake. It was so good.


The soup was fabulous, and I even had some fresh chives that survived the winter to put on top.

And every holiday is a good excuse to make Ethel's sugar cookies.
...................................................................................................
Fresh Vegetable Soup From the kitchen of Mary LydonDunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland
2 tablespoons butter (I doubled everything except the butter, oil and onion)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 leek (I used lots of extra cabbage instead)
1 carrot (I used more)
1 potato (I used more)
1 onion
2 stalks celery
1 tablespoon frozen peas
3-3/4 cups chicken stock
1 bouquet garni *
salt and pepper to taste
Several of my soup recipes call for bouquet garni, which is a bundle of herbs tied with string that is removed before serving. I prefer to tie it up in cheesecloth so I have no stray herbs in my finished product.
Wash, peel and chop vegetables. Heat butter and oil on medium heat. Add vegetables and saute for 5 minutes (do not brown).
Add stock, seasonings and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer gently for 30 minutes until vegetables are soft.
Remove bouquet garni and puree with blender or electric mixer (don't overfill the blender, and hold the lid down tight. Mine exploded all over the kitchen). Serve in warmed soup bowls. Garnish with chopped chives or parsley if desired. Yield: 4 servings.
*Bouquet Garni: 1 bay leaf, 3 sprigs of thyme, 4 large sprigs of parsley (including stalks), one 4 inch piece of celery stalk with leaves, two 4 inch pieces of leek (green part) and 5 whole peppercorns.
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Brennan's Irish Soda Bread
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Stir the milk and vinegar together, and allow to stand until curdled, about 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually stir the soured milk into the flour mixture until the dough just comes together, and turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Knead a few times, and shape into a round. Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut an X shape into the top of the dough to release steam and help the bread keep its round shape.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 30-45 minutes. (I baked it in a cast iron skillet with a lid. I preheated it in the oven and took off the lid for the last few minutes so it could brown on top. Yum!!)

Sweet Potato Soup

The other day I somehow went over-board making Baked Chicken on Roasted Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes. I used the left-over chicken for chicken quesadillas (of course), but what to do with all that left-over potato/sweet potato? The sweet potatoes were cooked almost to the point of falling apart, which to my mind suggested "soup." So here's my on-the-fly recipe for potato/sweet potato soup.

First make Baked Chicken on Roasted Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes

--Peel and cut several baking potatoes and sweet potatoes in a 2" dice
--Rough chop one onion
--In a roasting pan, toss diced potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onion with 1/2 envelope of onion soup mix (no oil--the chicken will provide plenty of fat)
--Remove skin from chicken drumsticks and bone-in thighs (from all the pieces, or just some of them, depending on how much/little fat you want). Season chicken pieces with salt, pepper, garlic powder (don't over-do it), and "Herbs de Provence"--ie. basil, rosemary, marjoram, sage, savory, thyme, lavender (I didn't even know lavender was edible, but it's listed on this herb blend I used). Let sit about 20 minutes for seasonings to permeate the chicken.
--Arrange chicken parts on top of diced potatoes/sweet potatoes.
--Cook chicken and potatoes at 375 deg. F. for 45 minutes until chicken reaches at least 165 deg internal temperature and the vegetabels are soft.

I turn the chicken after 30 minutes so that it browns on both sides and sometimes even turn on the broiler for just a couple minutes at the end so that the chicken looks good and browned. People in this house seem to have a thing against pale chicken.

Also the sweet potatoes will be noticably softer than the baking potatoes, but other than adding the sweet potatoes after 10 minutes of baking--which would mean taking off the chicken, mixing in the sweet potatoes, and replacing the chicken--I don't see how to avoid that.

--Once your family has had its fill of the chicken and potatoes, season the left-over roasted vegetables with a little tarragon and thyme, and salt and pepper if needed.
--Add chicken broth and fat-free half-and-half (or other choice of cream/milk) in a ratio of 2 parts broth to one part cream. Actual amounts depend on how much vegetables you have and how thick or thin you want the soup to be (for 4 servings of fairly thick soup I used 1 cup broth and 1/2 cup half-and-half).
--Blend the vegetables with the liquids to a smooth, creamy consistency.
--In a sauce pan, gently heat through.

Uche said it was "okay"--maybe he was put off by the orange color--but I quite enjoyed it. I wonder how it would be with roasted apple or pears, maybe topped with toasted pecans.

Egg Drop Soup

The orinigal recipe appears in Joy of Cooking, page 105, but we have made a few changes. It goes great with stir fry.

Combine in a large saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes:

8 cups chicken broth
4 large slices fresh ginger
4 large cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

Discard the ginger and garlic. Stir together in a small bowl:
4 Tbsp cornstarch
4 Tbsp water

Bring the soup to a low simmer and add the cornstarch mixture. Stir until the soup is slightly thickened. Add 1/4 tsp pepper. Whisk together thoroughly in a small bowl:
2 large egg s
2 tsp vegetable oil.

Bring the soup to a very low simmer and slowly stir the soup in a big circle while at the same time pouring the egg mixture slowly into the soup in a thin stream. This will help the eggs form a long line. Once the eggs are set, ladle into warm cups and top with sliced scallions or chives, optional.