What’s your favorite soup or other comfort food, when the temperatures are going to record lows?
(and Mr. Beam and Mr. Daniels don’t count ;-)
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking ping list, please send a private response.)
=JT
Chicken soup is the best, but almost any hot soup will do. It helps keep me warm.
Just made soup tonight: homemade chicken stock, cannolini beans and spinach (onions, carrots, celery and two bay leaves). Utterly delicious with a torn piece of Italian bread.
/johnny
Not in the soup category, but in the comfort food category, Hubby makes a mean barbeque pulled pork meatloaf. He made one earlier this week. It was SO good!
Chicken and dumplings.
I cheat and use a rotisserie bird from the store. Boil the bird, pull off the meat and set aside. Sautee onions, celery and garlic and add to broth then add carrots.
I add lots of aromatic spices:
Tarragon leaves are thin and delicate, with a strong aniseed smell and tastes a little of lemon.
Bay leaves for their bouquet.
Rosemary whose strong flavor offers slightly salty virtues.
Sage leaves
Thyme which has a lemony, spicy taste.
Dill, which is tangy, Basil which brightens the stock and taste a little bitter. Chives, which is from the same family as garlic.
Oregano, with its very marked scent and finally Parsley, which is fairly tasteless, but brings freshness and vitamins.
Salt and pepper (I prefer white) and don’t worry about getting them all just mix and match, fresh or dried. I don’t really have a recipe I just add stuff I have. A couple of pinches then simmer awhile.
Add the meat back in and for the dumplings you can cheat some more and use Pop’n Fresh biscuits pulled into little pieces, rolled up and tossed in near the time you will serve it up. Feel free to cheat more, if you need bouillon, add it.
Makes the house smell good too.
Near record highs in the Tucson area; around 80 degrees, I think. Sat in my arroyo patio and cursed the coyotes while the sun set.
We’re having a sticky Asian roasted chicken thighs. I always have the ingredients around. If you don’t have lemon grass, I would just throw in minced garlic. I serve it with garlan (a green vegetable like kale) and rice. I’ve made it for years because it requires no skill and taste wonderful.
Try it you will love it.
Sticky Roasted Chicken
8 x bone-in chicken thigh fillets, skin on
2 tablespoons finely chopped lemongrass (white part only)
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
¼ cup (45g) brown sugar
¼ cup (60ml) fish sauce
¼ cup (60ml) soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger
Preheat oven to (400°F). Place the chicken, lemongrass, chilli flakes, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and ginger in a bowl and toss to coat. Place the chicken in a roasting dish lined with non-stick baking paper and roast, turning occasionally, for 20–25 minutes or until golden, sticky and cooked through. Serve the chicken with rice and greens and pour over any remaining pan juices. Serves 4.
A local deli makes a great cream of potato soup. I don’t even want to know how many calories or how bad it is for me.
Just made some spinach soup last week. Boiled some meat I had in the freezer with some beef stock, cut the meat into chunks added some barley, celery, carrots. Added a whole lot of spinach (chopped). It came out to @10 quarts. My brother willingly took some.
There’s only 3 of us....my mom lives with us....but I cook for an Army! The freezer always has soup especially chicken soup.
1 cup diced potatoes
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1.5 cups frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1 Tbsp parsley
Chicken stock, or water and bullion
1/2 tsp low-sodium salt (the potassium kind)
Simmer the potatoes and carrots until tender. Puree peas and sunflower seeds in a blender until smooth, using the cooking liquid from the vegetables as needed. Return everything to the saucepan and simmer gently until the color changes, stirring frequently so it doesn't stick.
Ok, anybody reading that is thinking this looks weird, so let me explain. I've been playing with nutritional spreadsheets for almost a year now, trying to find ways to get all the necessary macro- and micro-nutrients from food, because I can't take supplements and I've had serious trouble with deficiencies in various things. This soup is just one of the recipes I came up with. If you also add an egg and a couple glasses of milk, and an ounce or two of meat, plus the soup above it will give you 100% of everything needed. Admittedly, I usually have something different for dinner just because of the logistics of family life, but by having my egg and milk for breakfast and a bowl of this soup for lunch, I'm at least getting close.
Oh, and I like using frozen peas instead of dried because I think it tastes better that way, and it's faster to make. You can use fresh, frozen, canned, or dried, whichever you choose.
Butternut Squash and Sundried Tomato soup is wonderful. I’ve been laid up with a concussion so my husband is taking care of meals...no homemade broth for soup or homemade anything right now. I’m breaking the rules just being on the computer!
I have a question about soup pots.
We have one of those Lodge cast iron pots with the enameled insides. Once, I tried making no-knead bread in it, and the enameling in the bottom started eroding a little.
We’ve continued to use it, but I noticed today that it has eroded even more.
Is it safe to use this pot? I’m assuming the enameling is ‘food safe’, but not sure that’s the case when it starts to go. Or should I just ditch it and get one of the Lodge pre-seasoned pots, without the enamel?
Thanks,
JT