Soup

[Vidar]

I ate most of duck over the weekend, and used what was left of it to make my own stock, or soup base. I'm currently enjoying a very nice duck & veggie soup (duck stock, water, lots of assorted soup vegetables, a bit of soy sauce, a little bit of chili sauce).

I still have quote a bit of stock left, and I was wondering, what are your favorite soup recipes?


Bonus content: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMOBK0SE4ug
Warning, the above tool will piss you off, or make you piss your pants laughing at his 16th century outlook on women.

[Ryudo Lee]

A large can of tomato soup, some gumbo mix, and various spices to taste.  Makes for one heck of a tomato/vegetable soup.

[SquirrelWizard]

eh I make stew more than anything.

Cube up some beef, sear it in a frying pan with some seasonings, cut up some potatoes, celery, onions, and bell peppers. Dump all the contents into the pot, add seasonings, bring to a boil and let simmer. It can be a tad greasy due to the fact that I like to add the grease from the meat to the broth, but its still really good. The actual cooking process can vary some, but thats the general idea behind my stews.

I'm a big fan of chili though, and I've made my own recipe for cheese and jalapeno poppers.

[Cogidubnus]

Had me a bowl of wolf brand chili today. That was delicious!

[Tapewolf]

eh I make stew more than anything.

Now I'm reminded of a long, drawn-out and in places quite heated argument I witnessed at work once, about what the difference was between broth, casserole and stew.

[Turnsky]

eh I make stew more than anything.

Now I'm reminded of a long, drawn-out and in places quite heated argument I witnessed at work once, about what the difference was between broth, casserole and stew.

Traditionally a broth is a clear/opaque liquid that is primarily stock, which is either taken as-is, or used as a base for numerous things.
there's not too much difference between a Casserole and a Stew, aside from that casseroles are traditionally cooked in an oven, whereas a stew is cooked on a heat source like a stove.

[Mao]

Depending on where you live, the difference between a casserole and stew can actually be significant.  Around where I live, a stew is a just a thick and boiled down soup, where as a casserole generally is a solid food that is baked in the oven.  It usually starts out as a liquid base and as it bakes the items that are in it absorb the liquid in it's entirety (or very close to it).

[superluser]

No clue about duck-based stock, but I've been trying to figure out some recipes for kombu dashi.  It's a very flavorful stock, very umami, but aside from one recipe that may give me copious amounts of smoked tuna, I don't know what's good.

Also, a bit further afield, if anyone has any tips for steaming pulses (as much as that sounds like a Danielle Steele novel, I'm talking about dried beans), or even if it's just a stupid idea, I'd much appreciate them.

Now I'm reminded of a long, drawn-out and in places quite heated argument I witnessed at work once, about what the difference was between broth, casserole and stew.

I am reminded of the distinction between cakes and biscuits.

[Alondro]

I've made several gallons of minestrone twice this year.  I use a modified recipe for a vegetable minestrone I found in one of my mom's hundreds of cookbooks.  I add twice the amount of plum tomatoes for a richer tomato broth, and add a few other seasonings, plus two additional types of dried beans.   

Can't go into the recipe in full, it takes too long to explain (there are multiple steps of preparation) and I don't have it with me for the exact measurements.

[Gabi]

My own latest soup recipe contains:

1. Water.
2. Vegetable soup base.
3. Mi fen (rice noodles), or any kind of noodles, but preferrably thin.
4. Miso and/or shitake mushrooms and/or black fungus.
5. Nori and/or kombu seaweeds.
6. Pizza dressing (i.e. a mix of spices originally made for pizza).

OK, those are several recipes, but I've tried different combinations and I like them all.

There's also my oat soup, which is basically any soup base with oats and a little milk.

And my kombu soup, which I'm still perfecting but will inevitably contain kombu seaweed and black fungus because I like how they taste together.

I think those are all the soup recipes I've made from scratch. Others are just variations on pre-existing recipes such as adding cheese (goat cheese if available) to pumpkin soup, milk to corn soup, mushrooms to pre-made noodle soup etc.

I'm looking forward to learning the recipe of kneidalach soup, which my grandma has been promising to teach me.

[bradypodidae]

I have many favorite soups, none of which seem to involve duck, sorry.

Not sure what you will end up with if you replace the chicken broth and chicken with duck in the following recipe...

My sister's 5-minute Chicken Soup:

Medium course-chopped Onion
2 cans Chicken Broth
2 Cans Water
2 Cans Swanson Chicken in Water
1 Can Green Beans
1 can Corn
1 can drained Diced Tomato
Pepper

Saute the onions in olive oil. Add broth, water, canned chicken, canned vegetables, & pepper. Heat & serve w/ lime/lemon slices, olive oil, or sour cream to add.

The canned chicken can be replaced with any chicken of your choice. Use vegetables of your choice.

[Escher]

If you live near a Korean restaurant or hole-in-the-wall and like really spicy foods, try Kimchi-jjigae. It's a hotpot-style soup made with kimchi, veggies, tofu, and sometimes some sort of meat (it varies from restaurant to restaurant) that is a perennial Korean favorite during cold weather.

For seafood lovers, there's also Soondubu-jjigae, which is made from seafood, uncurdled tofu, veggies, and chili paste (and occasionally, while the soup is still boiling, they'll drop a raw egg into the broth -- it's hot enough to cook it).

[Gabi]

I've tried the Kimchi one, Escher. And I liked it a lot.

[Turnsky]

"irish stew" tends to blur the lines between stews and soups, the broth is really the best part, IMO... after the potatoes.

the glorious part about it? it's whatever's handy and in season.. traditionally it was just comprised of Lamb, potatoes, onions and carrot, but it's a true 'one pot wonder' and no two are alike. 

[Mao]

To which I respond with one word:  Gumbo.

[Gabi]

So the tales I'd heard about Irish stew are true after all!

[Cvstos]

A really easy broccoli soup recipe I got from a Gordon Ramsay vid on YouTube...

Get a pot of water on the boil, with some salt in the water. Take your broccoli, and cut off the florets. When the water is boiling, put the florets in all at once, and season with salt a bit again (on top of the broccoli). Then, lid on! Very important to put that lid on!

Four minutes later, strain the broccoli, reserving the water. Put the broccoli into the blender, along with about 1 1/4 cups of the reserved water (don't go beyond about a 1/3 of the way up the broccoli in the blender - you can always add water later). Blend to combine. If it's too thick, add some more of the reserved water.

Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste.

If you want, add a few walnuts and/or olive oil before blending, and blend it with them inside. It adds a nice new note to the soup.

[Turnsky]

To which I respond with one word:  Gumbo.

If it walks, swims or flies, and you can catch it, you can put it in a gumbo.

[Vidar]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Duck stock is pretty much interchangeable with chicken stock (it's just a bit more flavorful), so don't worry about not knowing any recipes with it. I'm sure my broth of boiled bird bones will end up in a nice dish.

Oh, I forgot to mention there was something else that the duck had: fat. I now also have about a cup's worth of duck fat in my fridge. If you ever find a recipe that tells you to throw it away, throw the recipe away. Duck fat is wonderful stuff for pan-frying veggies and potatoes. It has that extra bit of flavor that can lift an otherwise nice stir fry into something closer to culinary heaven.

[bradypodidae]

Oh, I forgot to mention there was something else that the duck had: fat. I now also have about a cup's worth of duck fat in my fridge. If you ever find a recipe that tells you to throw it away, throw the recipe away. Duck fat is wonderful stuff for pan-frying veggies and potatoes. It has that extra bit of flavor that can lift an otherwise nice stir fry into something closer to culinary heaven.

but... but... that's what my 8 1/2 pounds of saved bacon fat is for! 

[Ryudo Lee]

To which I respond with one word:  Gumbo.

Gumbo is the greatest food in the world (I may be a little biased though ).  It's also a great way to introduce someone to okra.

[Vidar]

Oh, I forgot to mention there was something else that the duck had: fat. I now also have about a cup's worth of duck fat in my fridge. If you ever find a recipe that tells you to throw it away, throw the recipe away. Duck fat is wonderful stuff for pan-frying veggies and potatoes. It has that extra bit of flavor that can lift an otherwise nice stir fry into something closer to culinary heaven.

but... but... that's what my 8 1/2 pounds of saved bacon fat is for! 

Variety is the spice of life, so don't be afraid to switch between your beloved bacon grease, and the sublime ducky subcutaneous white stuff.

[rabid_fox]

One time, I fried and ate a cigarette.

[superluser]

Oh, by the way, I've figured out the answer to my question above.

Steaming lentils.  They're not as flavorful as split peas, so I think I'll go back to cooking those on Saturday.