Cream of Tomato Soup

I received a fabulous Christmas gift and have been using it a lot. The New Best Recipe Cookbook is my new favorite toy. It is 1000+ pages of recipe goodness, but it goes beyond the recipe---they do all the testing for you and explain why they use particular methods, which brands worked out best and how to shortcut without sacrificing flavor and texture. It's like Alton Brown in text and without all the goofy themes and gadgets.

This cookbook has become my go-to for anything! You'll be seeing lots of recipes based off this book (I still change things, slightly...it's my nature).

Cream of Tomato Soup
Serves 8

4 (28oz) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice (NOT in puree), drained, 6 cups juice reserved
3 tablespoons brown sugar
8 tablespoon (1 stick) butter
5 large shallots, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
pinch ground allspice
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
salt, to taste

1. Heat oven to 450. Prepare tomatoes for roasting. With your fingers, carefully open the whole tomatoes over a strainer set in a bowl and push out the seeds, allowing juices to fall through the strainer into the bowl. Arrange seeded tomatoes in a single layer on two foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.

NOTE: The foil is essential; it keeps the tomatoes from scorching and sticking to the baking sheet.

2. Once seeded tomatoes are on the foil-lined baking sheets, sprinkle evenly with brown sugar. Bake until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color, about 30 minutes. Let the tomatoes cool slightly, then peel them off the foil.

3. Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat until foaming. Add the shallots, tomato paste and allspice. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until shallots are softened, 7-10 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Whisking constantly, gradually add chicken broth; stir in reserved tomato juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to medium, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Strain the mixture into a bowl, reserving the liquid and putting solids and about 1 cup of liquid back in the pot. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Add remaining strained liquid back to the pot and combine. Add the cream and warm over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

May be refrigerator for up to 2 days, warm over low hear until hot, do not boil.

Original recipe called for:

(1) 3.5 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of reserved tomato juice. I happen to have 3 cups of chicken stock on hand and did not want to open another can for only 1/2 cup. So when my tomato juice measured out at 6 3/4 cups I just threw it all in. I would say use 2 (14 oz) cans of chicken stock for ease of use.

(2) dark brown sugar, but I had light brown sugar on hand...no biggie.

(3) cayenne pepper was optional, as you probably know, my family doesn't do spice so I left this out. Kick it up however you'd like. I add fresh ground black pepper to my bowl so that I'm not contaminating the entire pot.

(4) 4 tablespoons Brandy or dry sherry was to be added after adding cream and removing from heat. I don't cook with these so I omitted.

(5) 8 shallots were called for, but after chopping up 5 large shallots, I was done! 5 was more than enough, unless you really enjoy mincing up these little eyeball burners.

Potato and Ham soup

I'm back on a roll! I am cooking again and it feels so good. Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls and yeast rolls from the beauty of bread post and then made a lovely potato soup with the ham bone from Thanksgiving.

Usually if I have a ham bone then I make a pot of beans but since the baby and I are usually the only ones to eat them, I thought I would try something different with the ham bone. This turned out great.

1 ham bone
water
5 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 medium onions, chopped into large sections
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream

olive oil

salt and pepper

ground nutmeg

In a large pot I placed the ham bone, about 2 tbs olive oil, chopped onions and salt. I sauteed the onions and ham to get some of those nice brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Once the onions became translucent I added 12 cups of water, brought to a boil and then simmered for 2 hours.

Remove the ham bone, pull off any meat and chop into bite-size pieces. Discard ham bone and add ham back to pot. Add celery, carrots, potatoes, salt (remember the ham will be salty so don't over salt) and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 40 minutes.

Mix flour and 1/4 cup water then slowly pour into the soup while constantly stirring soup. Cook for another 5 minutes, add cream then remove from heat. Sprinkle a little nutmeg on each serving.

This was a thin potato soup so in the future I would consider removing some potatoes, mashing them and then returning them to the pot. However, I would also like to add some cut up cabbage that would serve as a filler and my husband added some shredded cheddar which also thickened it a bit. I think for personal taste I would add some thyme and maybe even some coriander, you know how I love the combination of these two!

Slow Roasted Tomato Soup

We have an abundance of fresh tomatoes popping up in our garden. My large heirloom tomatoes are not doing well, but the cherry tomatoes are sort of like weeds, they're everywhere! With bowls upon bowls of cherry tomatoes, I decided to make a roasted tomato soup. I found this recipe at Alexandra's Kitchen. She has gorgeous pictures of this soup and a new website if you would like to see what she is currently working on. This is simple, delicious and easily tweaked for your own tastes.

Ingredients
Tomatoes - large or small
onion, cut into quarters or eighths
head of garlic, broken and peeled
baby carrots
olive oil
salt (I prefer kosher)
black pepper
dried thyme
chicken stock or broth
coriander
loaf of french bread


Directions
If using cherry tomatoes you may leave whole but quarter your large tomatoes. Remove as many seeds as you can, as the seeds are bitter. With cherry tomatoes, you can cut a small hole in the top of the tomato and gently push on the bottom of the tomato to remove seeds easily.

The ingredient quantities are based on your supply and personal tastes. Spread tomatoes on sheet pan (I had enough tomatoes to fill two sheet pans). Add onion cut into quarters or eighths and cloves of garlics. Add a handful of baby carrots to each pan of tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat everything in oil.

Roast veggies in the oven at 300 degrees for 3 hours until everything is brown and caramelly. Dump contents of the sheet pan into a large pot, add about 2 cups of chicken broth or stock, approximately 2-3 tsp of coriander and 2-3 slices of dried french bread broken into small pieces (you can slice it and dry it on the counter or for quicker drying you can lightly toast it in the oven or in a toaster).

Using an immersion blender, blend everything together. Taste and adjust for your personal preference. Add salt, more coriander, black pepper, fresh basil, etc. You can leave a little chunky or make it smooth.

Last night, I served this with a spoonful of sour cream and a piece of toasted french bread. However, I like it with a bit of basil pesto stirred in, as well. My husband enjoys a little heavy cream in his to mellow the tomato flavor. And what isn't enhanced by some shaved Parmesan?

Once I purchase a new camera, I'll take pictures of the process to show you how easy this is and how delicious it looks!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I love chicken noodle soup, but do not like it made with chicken broth so I take the time to make chicken stock so my chicken noodle soup is rich and delicious. This is time consuming, but worth the effort in my opinion.

For Stock

5 pounds chicken pieces, wings, backs and necks. (If you purchase whole chickens to cut up for a recipe, you can always remove these parts and freeze them until you have enough to make stock.)
4 quarts cold water
2 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks

For Sachet:
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of fresh parsley
12 whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

Place the chicken pieces and vegetables in a sturdy roasting pan. You may want to apply a thin layer of oil or spray Pam to the surface to prevent sticking. Roast the chicken and vegetables until the chicken pieces are brown. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a large stock pot.
If there is a lot of fat floating on the surface of the roasting pan, remove it with a spoon but leave the wonderful caramelized juices that are a result of roasting the ingredients. Put the roasting pan on your stove top and add 1 quart of the water. The pan is already hot so be careful and be sure to use your oven mitts.

Using a wooden spoon, scrape any brown bits of chicken or vegetables that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan and mix them into the rest of the liquids. Pour the combined water and juices over the chicken and vegetables in the stock pot.

Add the rest of the water to the stock pot and bring the heat up to high. You want to watch this closely at this point because as soon as the water comes to a boil, you want to reduce the heat to a nice gentle simmer. You will find impurities floating to the top in the form of fat or foam. Remove it with a spoon.

Make your sachet and add it to the pot

Gently simmer for 3 to 4 hours removing any impurities as they form on the surface. When done, remove the sachet and strain the stock through a fine meshed strainer. Let the stock cool and then transfer it to airtight containers and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. You may find a thin layer of fat that has congealed on the surface of the stock after you have refrigerated it. Just scrape it off with a spoon. You can also freeze your brown chicken stock up to 3 months.
You now have a rich, flavorful, important ingredient that you can use to make all sorts of soups and stews.

If your chicken stock does not taste as rich as you would like, put back in to a pot and reduce until you get the delicious flavor you're looking for. And don't add salt!!! If you are saving your stock for use in multiple recipes then you can add and adjust salt with each recipe rather than in the stock.

Now for the chicken soup:

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lbs chicken cut into one inch cubes (skinless dark or white meat)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 lbs carrots, chopped
2-3 leeks, sliced into 1/2 inch rings
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt to taste
approx. 4 cups chicken stock
12 oz package egg noodles

In a large pot add olive oil and heat over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces sprinkle with salt. Cook chicken until brown on all sides, add garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, thyme, poultry seasoning, peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves. Continue to cook for 3-5 minutes stirring often. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil then cover and cook for 90 minutes. Check level of liquid, you need enough liquid to add your egg noodles. If you do not have enough liquid, add more stock or water if the liquid is very concentrated. Add egg noodles, cook for 5-10 minutes (depending on size of your noodles).

Taco Soup

1 lb. hamburger
1 med. onion- chopped
1 can of Pinto Beans (Do not drain)
1 can of Kidney Beans " "
1 can of Hominy " "
2 cans diced tomatoes " "
1 can Rotel tomatoes " " (we use mild, but feel free to go with hot)
1 dry pack of Taco Mix
1 dry pack of Ranch dressing
1 tsp. chili powder
1 cup water (if needed)


Brown Meat with onions

Mix all ingredients together in a slow cooker (yes everything is already cooked, this just helps the flavors meld)

Add hambuger mixture and stir well

When this has had time (at least 2 hours on low) to meld; serve with Fritos cornchips in the bottom of bowl and top with your favorite cheese. (sour cream is a good addendum to the cheese).