Whit's Blog / 1000 Recordings

My "Recipe" for Fierce Opportunistic Soup

One of Joe's teachers has heard of the soups we make here Chez Dad, and asked for the recipe. I admitted it would be difficult. I have been making soups with varying degrees of success since 1990, and I admit now and to anyone listening that it was definitely a mistake, for example, the time I made soup from a recipe that called for a chicken to be simmered for hours. That part was fine; it was when I got to the end -- "Discard the chicken" -- that I should have averted my eyes.

But my soup-making has taken a more fervid turn since I took a cooking class near Lyon, when I learned that soup is to be made over days. The chef explained a variety of things: Any vegetable can be part of the stock, as long as it's not too starchy; any poultry or meat can be a part of the stock, as long as it's not gone bad; you can and should cook the stock for many, many hours, and probably days.

What I learned in the class, most of all, was: Don't be afraid of your soup.

This was good advice.

Following that, my friend in Cancale, France, explained that she keeps a "soup box" in her freezer, into which she tosses the trimmings and extras of her vegetables. I do the same thing, now -- I have a plastic tub into which I drop the peels from carrots, onion peels, celery ends, cores from Brussels sprouts, and so forth. It fills up faster than you would think. In essence, you are always thinking soup, and also, obviously, total use of the vegetables you're eating. The Sioux used all the bison; the soup box lets you use every scrap of vegetable that gets cut. I drop in meat trimmings, too, even the fatty bits, because I skim most of the fat off, eventually. Depending on how secret your cooking process is, you can even drop in table scraps from people's plates, because everything is going to get boiled, and those bones and bits are precious. If I ran into a bison out on Maple Avenue, and it was looking poorly, I would use all of it in soup.

(And nobody has to eat pemmican. Everybody wins.)

OK, so, now you have the context for my soup. It's time now to look at the recipe, such as it is. It continues after the jump. (That means click to see the rest of this entry.)

Feeder school

Joe has an idea for a recipe -- he decides he wants to make "knight's bread." He lays out what it's going to be.

White bread, he says, with midnight blue icing and little white sugar stars and yellow sugar stars. He's looking forward to this. Tomorrow, I say, we'll make knight's bread. And the day comes. At lunch, I say, we can make it.

We have the white bread. I get some white icing, and we mix it with blue food coloring. We add a fair amount, and it goes dark blue. We sort out some yellow and white stars from a shaker jar of them. I show him how to use a rubber spatula. We smear the icing on comprehensively. He dots it with stars.

It is just how he imagined it would be.

He takes a bite. He chews.

"Daah! Daah! Thif if awfuh! Thif if difguftin!" And he leans over like a dog that has licked a poorly selected toad, and half-chewed food falls on the floor.

"Take it to the bathroom!" I say. "In the sink! In the toilet! NOT ON THE CARPET!"

He runs to the bathroom. Some appears in the sink. More on the tile floor. He looks up, blue pouring down his chin like some ravening beast that has slain. A lion and its stilled gazelle; Voldemort and the unicorn; Britney Spears and her career.

"Dad," he says, "That is SO DISGUSTING."

"Happens," I said. "Even the great chefs..."

"Dad," he interrupts, "do you think Mom would like some?"

I am a changeling adult

I made soup. I sauteed leeks in butter, then fried balls of risotto mixed with fresh bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and egg in the same pan. Then I ladled in strong broth, let it heat through (checked the temperature of the rice balls with an instant-read thermometer, as I fear salmonella irrationally), and put it in front of Joe.

He said it was not appealing. The rice, he said, was "too greasy." And later, my mother said it didn't sound like something she would eat, either.

I ate his bowl, my bowl and an extra bowl. Wonder why I've put on weight?

Flour Hour

• Semolina - Practically Edible
  Straight up, this is fantastic information and why the good Lord made the Web.
  (tags: semolina flour semolinaflour)
• SAF Recipes | sun-Dried Tomato Bread
  Good one. I overdid the semolina and so of course it is too dense. Will try again tomorrow.
  (tags: SunDriedTomatoes Bread recipes semolina)
• Welcome to SAF Yeast | Signature Recipes
  Bread recipes.
  (tags: bread recipes)

Shortbread, redux

In putting together the semolina shortbread, I had to do a few Googles to the right and to the left to figure out proper proportions. In the States, we don't use weight for most dry ingredients (which is a shame -- I certainly see the benefit, sifting being an unpredictable exercise). So, Delia's excellent shortbread looks like this in terms of proportions in U.S. measurements:

6 ounces of butter (that we do use weight for)
A scant 1/2 c. of caster sugar
1 1/3 c. of flour
2/3 c. of semolina flour

I do recommend the shortbread. I didn't have caster sugar on hand, so I went with the ordinary granulated stuff. I will say I thought I could detect the difference, but a blind taste test might have proved me to be just wishing to be a foodie.

Shortbread

• Delia Smith`s Home-Made Scottish Butter Shortbread Recipe
  Uses semolina flour. Very good; definitely should have superfine or caster sugar. Can taste the grains.
  (tags: shortbread cookies deliasmith semolina)

The First Bite is With the Eye

Funny (also, food)

• Questionable Content: How do you tick off an indie rock snob?
  Now THAT'S funny.
  (tags: questionablecontent comics music)
• Recipes, Pancakes (Walnut/Cinnamon Waffles) - Bed & Breakfast Inns ONLINE
  Someday, when the waffle iron has been replaced by a waffle iron that does not smell bad, not set off the smoke alarm, nor be so ugly that people line up to gawk at it through the window, I will make this.
  (tags: waffles recipes)

• Cat and Girl - 100 Daily Dreads
  World class. Worthy of Binky and Bunny, Akbar and Jeff.
  (tags: CatAndGirl Comics quotidian)

Mostly funnies

• Questionable Content: OCD Girl
  Snappy, snappy dialogue. My parents used to call it the kind of movie where people say what you wish you could be quick enough to say.
  (tags: questionablecontent comics scrabble)
• But I Am Made of Poison!
  Wigu will go monthly. This is like finding out that Zippy the Pinhead will go Flash. It might be good, but it really might stink. Will there be ads for X-Ray Spectacles? You KNOW there will.
  (tags: wigu overcompensating comics)
• Extratasty Get Your Booze On!
  Post responsibly. Don't drink and click.
  (tags: extratasty drinks cocktails)
• cityofsound: New Musical Experiences
  Someday I will read this, and be self-actualized.
  (tags: music toread)

Mmmm. Cookie.

• MSN Search: chocolate crinkles
  'tis the season. I republished mine (a bit down) a few weeks ago and MSN users hit it four times in the last 24 hours. EAT. EAT. What's the matter with you, you don't like chocolate?
  (tags: cookies chocolatecrinkles)
• Toothpaste For Dinner -- a Cautionary Tale
  If only someone had taken me aside and shown me such love.
  (tags: spiderman punkcomics comics)
• PartiallyClips - Soft drink humor
  My mother wept when they changed the flavor of Coke. Really -- she wept. I hoarded a case. We still buy it in small bottles when she comes. And kosher when we can!
  (tags: comics PartiallyClips cocacola pepsi soda softdrink)