Tag: soup

Vegetable Beef and Barley Soup

I used to say, “Cold days call for soup.” Now it’s “Today is a good day for soup.” A good soup makes a welcome addition to any meal. It’s hard to beat a cup of soup and a sandwich or salad for lunch, and a hearty soup like this one makes an excellent dinner all by itself for up to six people.

Just serve it with a salad, good fresh bread and plenty of butter. Refrigerate any leftover soup; it will taste even better when you warm it up in a day or two.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. beef
4 cups beef broth
4 cups water
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 small onion (1 1/2 – 2 inch diameter)
1 medium potato
1 cup diced fresh or canned tomatoes
1 T vegetable oil
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. dried crushed basil or 1 T chopped fresh basil
2 tsp. dried parsley flakes or 2 T chopped fresh parsley
1/2 to 3/4 cup pearl barley

PROCEDURE:

Trim excess fat from the meat and cut it into 3/4 inch cubes. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a soup pot and brown the meat. When the meat is browned, sprinkle the sugar over it and stir the meat briskly over medium heat to caramelize the sugar until the meat is dark brown. Add the broth, water and wine and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer covered for about thirty minutes.

While the meat is cooking, peel and chop the onion medium fine. Clean and chop the celery, carrots and potato into bite-sized pieces. Add the vegetables, salt and spices to the broth and simmer covered for another thirty minutes, stirring once or twice. Add the barley and continue simmering partially covered for 30 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

NOTES: The more barley you use, the thicker the soup will become. If you use more than 3/4 cup of barley, you should consider adding another cup of broth unless you prefer a very thick soup that resembles a stew.

If you have a Yukon gold or red potato or any other potato with a thin smooth skin, you don’t need to peel it. Just scrub it thoroughly before dicing.

Corn & Sausage Chowder

One of the advantages of growing up in northern Wisconsin was being able to take your prom date to a good supper club and have a cup of clam chowder before the steak appeared.  Although I discovered that I liked it, the chowder was first an act of rebellion:  My mother did not make clam chowder.

Chowder was made with clams, and they were slimy things unlike those delicious bass, bluegills, bullheads, northerns, walleyes and trout that she cleaned and cooked for us hundreds of times.

She did, however, make lots of soups and stews that probably should have been called chowders.  Chowders are thickened soups or stews usually made with milk or cream.  Traditional clam chowder is thickened with crushed crackers or ship’s biscuit.

I’ve never eaten ship’s biscuit, but I have eaten stewed tomatoes thickened with crackers to the consistency of a chowder.  Pretty tasty, especially if some green peppers and onion are simmered with the tomatoes.

There are vegetable chowders made with various combinations of corn, carrots, onions, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.  Over the years, Mom made versions of all of these.  Some of them were pretty good.

Besides clams, there are chowders made with cod, salmon, crab, shrimp and chicken, most with onions for flavor and potatoes to help with the thickening.  I haven’t found the recipe yet, but there is probably a Carnivore Chowder that omits all vegetables to emphasize the meat.

Here is a chowder that combines meat and vegetables.  It is one of my favorites because it is so easy to make and also lets me virtuously declare that I ate mostly vegetables for dinner.

INGREDIENTS:
3 large or 4 medium white potatoes
1 1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. dried marjoram
3 cups water
3/4 lb. pork sausage
1 small onion, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. chopped
1 15 oz. can whole kernel corn
1 15 oz. can creamed corn
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup water
2 T flour
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Hot sauce (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Peel and dice the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.  You want about six cups of the diced potatoes.  Peel and finely chop the onion.  You should have about 3/4 cup.

Combine the potatoes, salt, marjoram, and water in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Boil until the potatoes begin to get tender.  Remove the pot from the heat unless you are ready to assemble the chowder.  Do not drain the potatoes; the flavored potato water is the base of the broth.

While the potatoes are boiling, cook the sausage over medium heat in a skillet, breaking the meat into smaller pieces with a spatula or wooden spoon.  Add the chopped onion when the sausage is nearly done and continue cooking until the onion is translucent.

Do not brown the meat or onion.  If there is more than a tablespoon of fat in the pan, drain off the excess, add the meat and onions to the potatoes and return the pot to the heat.

Stir in both cans of corn and the half and half.  Mix the flour with the half cup of water and stir it into the soup.  Add the pepper, stir and bring the chowder to a simmer and cook gently for three or four minutes.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Add some hot sauce or more pepper if you like.  Serve with good bread and a salad.

NOTES:  This recipe makes six generous servings.  The chowder is excellent warmed up for lunch a day or two later.