AwesomeBites

Category: Soup Kitchen

  • Creamy Mushroom Soup

    Creamy Mushroom Soup

    4 T Butter
    2 cups yellow onions
    2 T Finely chopped garlic
    4 pounds sliced mushrooms (Get a mixture. I used 2 pounds baby bellas, 1 pound shitaki, 1 pound chanterelles)
    4 cups Chicken Stock
    1 cup white wine, or you can use 1/4 cup of vinegar.
    4 tsp dried thyme
    3 T Smoked Paprika – you can use spicy if you like spicy.
    1 cup heavy cream
    In a heavy sauce pan, saute onions and garlic add 1 to 2 cups of chicken stock and use your blender to make smooth.Next saute and carmelize the mushrooms in butter along with your spices. Get some carmelization on the mushrooms. This builds flavor.
    In your blender with the onions, garlic and chicken stock, add 1/2 of you sauted mushrooms.
    Poor mixture into a soup pot along with your sliced mushrooms. Add the remainder of the stock and bring to simmer.
    Add your cream. Adjust your seasonings. Perhaps a bit more acid? Add a vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.

  • Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, Carrot Soup

    Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, Carrot Soup

    PumpkinButternutCarrotSoup

    It is nearing Halloween and with all the great pumpkins and squash and carrots, it has to be the beginning of soup!

    I love soup and give me bread and I am happy. I blame it all on my mother and at the same time thank my mother for being a wonderfully awesome soup chef! When she worked as a Chef/Cook for the San Joaquin County Hospital, all the doctors and nurses would seek her out to find out what kind of soup was going to be available that day.

    It tickled her to have her very own fan club and an equivalent of a facebook thumbs up would be their return in the line the next day!

    While I am making this soup for my office to feed 25-30 people, my mother would make soup for 300 people!

    Olive oil 1/4 cup
    Carrot 1 Quart
    Pumpkin 1 Quart
    Butternut squash 1Quart
    1 head of Roasted Garlic
    Cayenne 1 tsp
    Ginger 2 tsp
    Coriander 2 tsp
    Ham bone with ham bits
    Salt and pepper to taste
    Chicken stock 3 Quarts
    add water as needed

    Roast garlic(wrap in foil), pumpkin, carrots and squash for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Chop onions into a rough dice and saute in the bottom of a large soup pot with a little oil. Add Roasted vegetables, and 3 Quarts of Chicken Stock and ham bone to pot. Bring to boil and add spices. Let simmer slowly for 1 hour.

    Shut off and allow to cool so you can remove the ham bone. Shred the meat and set aside. Using a handblender to the soup until you get a creamy consistency, add water as needed to maintain consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste and adjust your spices to your liking. Careful with the Cayenne Pepper. Add the ham back into the creamy mixture.

    Serve with a drizzle of Pure Maple Syrup, or a spoon of sour cream, or cinnamon croutons for some fun!
    Serve with freshly made bread!

    Another awesome bite.

  • Tomato, Sweet Pepper and Garbanzo Soup with Rosemary

    Tomato, Sweet Pepper and Garbanzo Soup with Rosemary

    Roasted Tomato and Sweet Peppers with Garbanzo Beans and Rosemary
    Ingredients:
    32 oz of Clamato Juice
    4 cups of chicken broth – may need to add more as you go
    4 12.5-ounce can of garbanzo beans, drained
    3 Tablespoons Cumin
    1 Tablespoon Paprika
    2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
    4 chopped celery stems
    6 cups fresh tomatoes, oven roasted, roughly chopped
    3 cups sweet red peppers, oven roasted
    Drizzle of olive oil, enough to coat the tomatoes and peppers
    Salt and Pepper to taste
    7 sprigs of Rosemary for garnish, fried in olive oil

    Serving suggestion: Side of Pita Bread, or French bread
    Directions:
    1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place tomatoes and peppers on a baking sheet. Drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes.
    2. In a large-sized soup pot or Dutch oven sauté chopped onions and celery until tender. Add Clamato juice and chicken broth and all ingredients except the garbanzo beans and rosemary and bring to simmer.
    3. After 30 minutes add the tomatoes and peppers that are roasted.
    4. Process the hot soup in a blender to smooth consistency and put back into soup pot.

    5. Add garbanzo beans to the soup pot, sea salt and pepper to taste and ½ the rosemary. Cover and let simmer 20 minutes. minutes.

    To serve: Ladle into bowls and top with fried rosemary sprigs for garnish.

  • Gazpacho Avocado & Cucumber

    Gazpacho Avocado & Cucumber

    Hmmm Hmm Good!

    1 small onion roughly chopped
    4 cucumbers
    2 avocados
    Juice from 2 limes
    1 clove garlic
    Salt and Pepper to taste
    Tabasco or Jalapeno to your taste.
    Chopped Cilantro – for garnish

    Take all the ingredients and using a blender, cream them.
    Add the salt and pepper to taste.
    Place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or overnight. Allow the flavors to blend. Re-season as needed.

    Serve with Cheese Pizza or Garlic Bread

  • Broccoli Cheddar Beer Soup

    Broccoli Cheddar Beer Soup

    Most of us know the pleasures of cooking with wine — and not just sipping a glass of something while standing at the stove, if you like to do this you might also want to check this freestanding wine cooler uk seller so you can properly store your wines at home. We know adding a good glug of cabernet to bolognaise will make it beaut, or that a splash of sauv will make seafood sing. We’re comfortable with using liqueurs in dessert and sherry in soup and grabbing a bottle of something good to use in a stew.
    Why cook with beer?
    Beer can add richness to savoury dishes, or a nutty sweetness to desserts. As the range of beer styles is so broad, so, too, are the types of dishes it can be used as an ingredient, you can contact draft beer system installers to learn how to manage and brew beer.

    Taste.com.au beer writer Mike Gribble says beer can make for a surprising ingredient that can be substituted where water is called for in many recipes. “But, like cooking with wine, you should use the beer you like to drink because it’s all about building up flavour,” Mike says.

    Rob Kabboord, from Merricote restaurant in Northcote, has long been using beer in his cooking.

    “Beer is not just for drinking, its application can be used in all things we eat, from bread, a hearty stew, lager with chicken, even used as a ‘ripple’ through ice cream,” Rob says.

    “However, beer is much underused as an ingredient in Australian kitchens. This hasn’t stopped a good number of local chefs from using beer in cooking. At Merricote, we regularly cook with beer — not just in bread but also in ice cream, custard and gels.”

    What is not to like!

    2 large onions
    4 cups beef stock
    2 cups broccoli heads
    1 cup shredded cheddar
    1/2 cup smoked gouda or swiss
    1 bottle of fat tire beer or your favorite
    4 ounces oil
    1/4 cup flour
    salt and pepper to taste
    2 cups whole milk

    Saute onions until carmelized, add beer and beef broth. Using stick blender, blend ingredients until smooth. Make a rue using another frying pan by frying flour in the oil. Careful not to burn. I like a light golden color. Add this to the soup base. Add milk and cheeses. In a separate container, steam broccoli, chop and then add to the cheddar soup.
    Simmer for 10 minutes.
    Serve with garlic croutons or bacon bits.

  • Chicken Tortilla Soup

    Chicken Tortilla Soup

    3 large chicken breast
    28 oz canned green enchilada sauce
    2 8oz cans Mexican Hot Sauce Style Tomato Sauce
    2 14 oz cans tomato sauce
    1/8 cup taco seasoning
    2 tsp cumin
    2 tsp chili powder
    3 tsp dried cilantro
    1 cup chopped carrots
    Fill crockpot with water or chicken stock
    Pour all in a crockpot and cook on high for 4-6 hours. I pull the chicken breast directly from the freezer and so the prep time is minimal.
    Remove chicken and using forks, pull the chicken. Add back to soup.

    2 cans corn
    2 cans black beans
    1 can salsa
    1 small can green chilis diced

    Serve with corn tortilla chips, diced avocado, diced onions, chopped cilantro, sour cream and grated pepper jack cheese or mexican cheese blend and a squeeze of lime juice.

    Chicken Tortilla Soup with everything! Awesome!
  • Lobster Bisque almost as good as Jon Minken’s!

    Lobster Bisque almost as good as Jon Minken’s!

    Lobster Bisque
    Hmmm Good!

    A big shout out thanks to sons James and Jon for running out to Santa Cruz Island for a little night diving to bring home some fresh live lobster as the season just opened. To make sure the lobsters cook thoroughly you should make sure you have enough water, if you need a reliable supply of water then contact water delivery service.

    I was lucky enough to get 4 of 7 of the bounty caught! I did negotiate to get the shells and bodies of all, but I had to promise bisque.
    I made good on my promise three days later. My office reaped the rewards at our Wednesday lunch meeting. Not one drop left!

    The best bisque in town locally here in Ventura is at Cafe Fiore’s. The best lobster bisque I have had is made by Jon Minken, my nephew-in-law.
    Sorry Jon, mine is pretty good. Okay, enough humble pie, some have called it the best soup they have ever had!

    Ingredients
    2-4 live lobster
    1 pint of heavy cream (more if you are going to use as garnish)
    3 sticks of celery
    3 chopped carrots
    1/3 of a cup of chopped onions
    1 14 oz can of tomato sauce
    3 bayT leaves
    1 tsp saffron
    1 tsp Smoked paprika
    2 tsp of salt
    1 of Worcestershire sauce
    1/4 -1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
    1 tsp of black pepper
    1/4 cup dry sherry

    Method
    Pour 5 quarts of cold water into a large pot. Once the water has reached a fierce boil, carefully add the live lobster, placing it head first into the boiling water.
    Cover the pot with the lid, return to the boil and then start timing. Cook the lobster for 12 minutes on a reduced heat.
    Once the lobster shell has turned bright red after the 12 minutes, remove the lobster from the stock and place it in a dish to cool and so that the juices are caught and can be added to the liquid.
    Continue to simmer the broth, leaving the pot uncovered.
    Once the lobster has cooled, remove the meat from the shell, chop it up into pieces and keep it to one side.
    Place the shell and lobster parts (not the meat) into a 400 degree oven and roast for 40 minutes. In a separate roasting pan, add olive oil, chopped onion, celery and carrots for 40 minutes.

    After roasting the lobster parts and shells, break up and add to simmering broth.
    Simmer for 30 minutes until reduced by 1/3.
    Strain the broth to remove the shells.
    Pour broth back into the pot and continue to simmer, add roasted vegetables, saffron, bay leaves, salt and pepper to taste. Allow to simmer continuing to reduced by half. Remove bay leaves.
    Then, add the tomato sauce and mix together. Cook for another minute.
    Use a stick blender until broth is smooth. Reduce the heat.
    Add the cayenne pepper, salt, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and mix together and then simmer for a further 10 minutes, making sure that you stir the broth occasionally.
    Slowly stir in the heavy cream and slightly turn up the cooking temperature. Add 1/4 cup dry sherry.
    Add any extra seasoning if required and then add the reserved chopped lobster meat to the soup. Cook for a further few minutes, then serve hot.

    Garnish with warm cream, bits of lobster, smoked paprika.
    Serve with fresh french bread, or croutons.

    If you want to serve fancy for a small dinner party, prepare the bisque except without the cream the day ahead. The day of the party, finish the bisque, ladle into bowls and top with puff pastry.

    Ingredients for 5 servings
    – 4 cups Lobster bisque (see above)
    – 10 small medallions of lobster
    – 9 oz. green asparagus tips
    – 250 g (9 oz.) puff pastry
    – 1 beaten egg

    Pour into ovenproof bowls; place 2 lobster medallions on each serving; divide the asparagus among the bowls;
    on a floured work surface, roll out the puff pastry; form 5 discs, each 10 cm (4”) in diameter, or slightly larger than the diameter of the bowl.
    Cover each bowl with a pastry disc; brush with beaten egg yolk and press the pastry onto the side of the bowl; if you wish, you can decorate the top with pastry cut-outs from the trimmings. Dip them into egg yolk first so they will stick to the puff pastry lid.
    Place into a preheated 425° F oven for about 12 minutes or until the pastry is nicely golden; serve immediately.

  • Pumpkin Thai Curry Soup with Shrimp

    Pumpkin Thai Curry Soup with Shrimp

    Serving the office "Soup of the Day!"

    2 Cans Pumpkin
    2 Cans water (measure using the pumpkin cans)or Chicken Broth
    2 Cans unsweetened Coconut Milk
    1 Can Carrots and Onions pickled with jalapenos
    2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
    1 tsp black pepper
    1 tsp salt
    Using a stick blender, puree ingredients.

    Serve with the following garnishes:
    1 Tablespoon of Coconut Milk
    Chopped Green Onions or Thai Basil
    2-3 Deveined, Cooked Shrimp with the Tails on
    Wedge of Lime
    1 tsp Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce

    Garneshing the Soup

    Very good soup. I made for the office and they loved it!
    I know it seems like a bunch of garnishes, but they are all worth it.

  • Firehouse Clam Chowder

    Firehouse Clam Chowder

    It was a relaxing day, I waved goodbye to son Jon and his friends as they headed off to Anacapa Island for a bit of diving. James and Denny were going diving also, but on the Rapture accompanying my nephews that were getting their open water dive certifications (check this resource).
    It pleases me that the kids are quite comfortable when it comes to water and I remember their first swim lessons with a smile.

    The plan is for me to make Chowder, and if Jon has any luck with his fishin’ pole, we may have fish chowder. In such situations, having a beer can crusher can be of great help. it is adviced to have a beer can crusher, I won’t know until they return late in the afternoon. So, I start my soup base in hopes of some additions.

    Ingredients:
    4-6 Potatoes peeled and diced
    48 ounces Chicken Stock
    Boil potatoes until fork tender in chicken stock. Add water to cover the potatoes as necessary.

    1/2 cup Celery, diced
    1 large Onion, diced small
    4-6 strips of bacon, chopped (Optional. You can serve as a garnish in case some are not bacon lovers.)
    In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crisp drain on a paper towel.
    Then add celery and onion to the bacon grease and saute until tender. Add the celery and onions to the simmering potatos.

    Add nutmeg, salt and pepper (about 1 tsp each) to taste. Keep the water over the potatoes adding more as necessary.

    Add 2 bottles of clam juice and
    3 cans of clams
    1 cup of cream

    I turn off the stove at this point as I want to take a bath and wash the dog. I leave the soup on the stove, with the fire off. We will wait for the catch of the day.

    I love taking baths, Lily my doggy tolerates bath day. I typically have to drag her from under my bed and into my bathroom. Tolerates means she complies but just as a teenager would…dragging her feet and becoming dead weight. Funny!

    I thought, this time while she would be in the bath, I would use that moment to take a small sample of her saliva for a DNA test, I read this DNA test review and realized that there are a slew of complications that can be easily tested for. Anyway, I soap her up and never am able to wait the required time for the flea shampoo, but I coax her into waiting a couple of minutes and then put her in my used bath water. I scrub her ears and face, all the while telling her how much I love her. After rinsing her, I towel dry her. She will allow me to dry her as much as I can, and then upon removing the towel ask her to shake. She gives one big shake, and she is ready to lay in the sun. She is a few shades lighter, blonder. Then tub – I give it a quick rinse and follow Lily downstairs to finish my soup.

    James rings my phone, I answer brightly and he informs me, one of the tenants has called and the fire department is at the office building and there is some sort of water leak. Hmmm, emergency. I am in my dog washing clothes…They will have to do. I slip on my sneakers and head out the door. I am a sight, my hair is wet and I look like…well, like I just washed the dog. I sooth my ego as I drive the 10 minutes to the building I now wish I did not own. Oh, the pleasures of ownership.

    I choose the freeway thinking it will get me there quicker, but Sunday afternoon traffic is always slow heading toward Los Angeles. I tell myself to stay calm, breath and remind myself to gather information and assess the situation. As I pull up to the building, I see the fire department. There are hoses pumping water out of the building and there seems to be a new “water feature” pouring out the front door. There is mud and water all over the parking lot.

    I abandon my car on the private road next to the parking lot and decide to walk in verses drive in. I see the tenants and they seem to be trying to make the best of the water. I introduce myself to the firemen working with their machines that are sucking water and mud from the carpet. They are saying how lucky the tenant is that their books are on shelves that are on wheels and one of the firemen introduces himself as Matt. He informs me what he believes has happened. A water main, the fire water feeding the office fire sprinklers has broken outside the building. The water from the outside pushed its way into the building taking the dirt, now mud into the building. It has flooded about 1/2 the building. There is a valve to shut off the sprinkler water and they have that off.

    As I take it all in, and it is quite overwhelming, it appears to me that water is still gushing from the “wound”. I ask Matt if it appears normal, and ask if there are other valves that need to be shut off?
    James, son, back on land, arrives at the scene. I ask him to shut the water off to the landscaping sprinklers and the other valve that feeds the sinks and toilets in the building. He returns and we watch the hole that has been excavated by the broken pipe, but is continues to bubble. Matt decides that perhaps the sprinkler pipes in the ceiling are still “charged”, he goes inside and a few minutes later a big gush of water discharges and we look for signs the water has stopped. I ask James to find a shovel, and then a fireman overhearing the comment, steps up with a shovel and tells his boss that he is going to shovel a small ditch so the water coming up from the planter will spill away from the buiding into the parking lot directly. He shovels two or three mud filled spades and that small amount of dirt removal relieves the pressure of the water and you can tell the water stops entering the building.
    The firemen start to talk and now decide the Post Indicator Valve has failed in addition to the broken pipe.

    I ask how to shut off the water to the Post Indictor Valve and they point in the direction of the big valves in the corner of the property. The only thing I know about these valves is that they have to be checked every year for backflow prevention. The fire department have retreated and I am handed a “NOV”, better known as a Notice of Violation to have the problem repaired and restore the fire protection to the building.
    Matt the fire department spokes person has informed me that I need a special plumber that is certified in fire protection to do the repair. He also informs me that plumber will be able to shut off the water that continues to leak. I remember someone saying the fire water main coming in from the street could be 8 or 10 inches. That is alot of water feeding my leak.

    I have been making a few calls during my assessment, trying to call my insurance guy, Pat. No answer, but I have called State Farm and have a claim number. I call the person I used last time to inspect the fire protection systems. It seems Ron has moved out of the area, but he gives me two names of companies that are local. I ask my nephew Ryan to call and see if he can get them here.1

    I call the plumbers that check the backflow devices each year and their on call plummer has arrived, but he doesn’t work on commercial systems. That specialist is on his way. The water continues to flow into the parking area. I am hoping the fire water main is not metered, otherwise my water bill is going to be sky high. At last the specialist shows up as my husband and the rest of the calvary arrive and the main fire water is temporarily shut off for repairs.
    The water is finally off. It is nearly 6:00pm. State Farm Insurance has called Service Masters and James agrees to wait for them and help them in sucking the water out of the building, set up fans, dehumidifiers, etc…

    I leave the scene, having set an appointment with the plumber for the morning. My soup is on the stove, I reheat and serve myself.
    Wow, what a day!

    **** 1 Day later *****

    Service masters has classified this leak as a Category 3 intrusion and want to remove part of the drywall along the walls so everything will dry out. Oh my, I decide to call State Farm, my claims agent to see if they want me to do that. The agent assigned to my case is not available, but someone else looks thru my policy and tells me, yes. Let Service Master do what they do, we are covered for all they do.
    I call back Service Master and tell them to go ahead.

    ***** 3 Days Later ****
    I have gotten help for the tenant to remove her personal items so the carpets can be removed by Service Master. We have more fans and dehumidifiers going, practically every other foot of floor space is covered. They now want to remove the carpet from the back room where my tenant is insisting she needs “her library” since all the kids are picking up their books. It is the busiest time of year for her.

    Late in the day, my regular claims agent calls and tells me we are not really covered for the incident. What, I say? It was a submerged pipe and there for it is excluded from your policy. That being said, since we already told you we are going to cover it, we probably won’t change our minds.
    Now, that concerns me. “Why are you even telling me this then?” Joyce from State Farm just wants me to know for the future that this type of water damage is not covered.
    Well, that is nice to know.

    **** Day 4 ****
    I make a decision to ask service master to step down, they are like cockroaches, continuing to remove and remove more and more of the building. They resist telling me they are the experts, but I need to keep my tenant happy.

    **** Day 5 ****
    Meet with service Master they are removing their equipment. I will finish with a crew of less agressive people.

    **** Day 6 ****
    I receive a bid from a contractor for the cost to rebuild/repair. Replace the drywall sections, carpet, paint. About $31,000.00, but that is just their first “draft”. Wow, that actual repair of the valve and pipe that leaked is about $3,000 dollars and my husband happened to have the valve that needed replaced.
    This is an expensive crisis!

    I have been asking Service Master for their cost breakdown, and finally it has arrived today. Their distruction cost is close to $25,000. Hmmm, somehow that just doesn’t make sense. I mean you when factor in having to purchase materials in order to re-construct, you would think that amount would be greater than the removal of wet carpet, drywall, and renting fans.

    NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT HIRE SERVICE MASTER AGAIN. There is a more cost effective method, there has to be. It feels like I am being taken advantage of and I don’t like it, even if the insurance company is going to pay for it.

    I will remove the rest of the carpet that needs replaced with a different crew of people. I will hire a drywall contractor, a painter and a local carpet company. Service Master has recommended a contractor they work with, but I believe I will stay away from that outfit all together.

    What a wild week!
    I think I will have a comforting bowl of soup.

  • Albondigas (Meatball) Soup

    Albondigas (Meatball) Soup

    Abby makes excellent meatball soup. My kids crave it when they are not feeling well because she used to make it for them. When I told my boys that I made soup like Abby’s, they rolled their eyes. “Mom, you can’t make soup like Abby”. For the record, James ate 3 bowls of my soup.

    1 onion finely chopped (1/2 for meatballs, 1/2 for broth)
    4 stalks of celery (1/2 for meatballs, 1/2 for broth)
    10 small carrots
    Saute above ingredients and use (1/2 for meatballs, 1/2 for broth)

    32 ounces chicken broth
    1 small can Hot Tomato Sauce – mexican style
    1/4 cup cilantro
    1-2 tsp cumin
    Salt
    Pepper

    Meatballs:
    1 pound hamburger
    1/2 pound of sausage or chorizo or hot dogs ground finely
    mustard
    catsup
    1 tsp cumin
    2 tsp oregano
    2 tsp cilantro
    2 eggs
    1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
    Combine the ingredients and form the meatballs and bake for 12 minutes.
    Add to soup. Allow the soup to set for a couple of hours. Reheat and serve. The soup and meatballs will be so good.
    Serve with fresh french bread. Yummy.