Soup Jan 28th

The other day when it was 10* and raining, I thought winter was over and making soup was not on peoples radar anymore.
I was wrong.
Thanks to Mother Nature, Thursday ended up to be perfect soup weather. Blowing wind, snow and frigid temperatures didn't keep away our brave customers though. They battled the elements to sip down some hot soup, at the same time learn different soup making techniques.

The book tonight was called Soup by the editors of DK Publishing. There are many reasons I enjoyed not only cooking out of this book, but reading it as well. First off, as most people lie to see, it is beautifully illustrated with great pictures that seem like they are saying "Hey, you can cook me". Second, and one of my favorites, is the fully illustrated technique chapter. A picture by picture walk through of simple preparation and cooking. I really think this is great for people who don't have a whole lot of cooking experience. Reading through the first bit of this book teaches you how to cut up your vegetables, make a proper roux, or strain out a stock.
Thirdly, the recipes are laid out so in a very simple manner with concise explanations and easy to to read text. It's un-intimidating.

Lets get on with the food.
The life-blood to any soup (or cooking in general) is a properly made stock. Now I take great pride in making stock. It's a challenge for me to make it better and better every time. Tonight we prepared four different types. From left to right, Brown veal stock, chicken, fish, and vegetable. Making good stock is an art form. It takes time. Brown stock can take you up to 8 hours, chicken at least 2, and fish and vegetable 30-60 minutes. But there is no substitution to a good homemade stock. There is no store bought stock that can even come close to the purity of flavour that you can make on your own.
I do have to admit, I didn't use the recipes from the book to make stock. I used my own. But the base technique and ingredients are the same.
I started the veal and chicken stocks in the morning, allowing them to gently simmer all day. It filled the store with the smell we all love, cooking.
Once everyone arrived, we chatted about stocks and the importance of. Then we got right into it. Here is the menu:

Maple-Roasted Carrot and Ginger Soup
~
Cabbage and Tomato Soup with Meatballs
~
Creamy Smoked Trout Soup
~
Sausage and Bean Soup

To start, we tossed a whole lot of chopped up carrots, along with some ginger, onion, garlic, and maple syrup together in a large bowl. I realized as i was pouring the maple syrup over the carrots, i didn't have enough to cover the recipe. So I supplemented with equal part local honey. did the trick. That went into the oven, 425*, for 45 minutes, until the carrots were well caramelized in parts. After 45 minutes, i scraped the roasted veg into a large pot and added enough vegetable stock to cover and pureed with my immersion blender. Simple enough. You don't even need a recipe for a soup like this.
It was garnished with a dollop of Creme Fraiche and some chopped chives. Nice and smooth, balanced in sweet, salty and spice from the ginger.
After a few spoonfuls of this, you would feel pretty healthy. The colour alone screamed "I'm healthy, drink me down!!". My grandmother would have called it "Medicine Soup". And when I say medicine, i don't mean Buckley's cough syrup.

Next was the Cabbage and Tomato Soup.
I had made the meatballs earlier in the afternoon because the recipe says to let them sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before cooking them. This is a great idea when making meatballs or hamburgers. When you work ground beef with your hands, mold it, then try to cook it, it's more likely to fall apart. If you chill it after you mold it, the meat firms up and is less likely to crumble when cooking.
Anyways, the meatball recipe was pretty straight forward. Onion, garlic, hot smoked paprika, cumin, thyme, breadcrumbs, egg, and the secret ingredient, lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Molded into walnut sized balls, i placed it into the fridge to chill.
Meanwhile, in a large pot i started preparing the base. Onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil. Then shredded savoy cabbage, and a can of whole tomatoes.
In a large saute pan I started to brown the meatballs. The recipe called to dredge them in flour. Initially I wasn't going to do this because, well, i didn't think it needed it. But for the sake of following the recipe, i did it. Adding them to a pan with some olive oil, I fried them until they were nicely browned. The good thing about dredging them in flour is that you get a nice crust on the outside of the meatball. Also, after putting them into the pot with the cabbage and adding in some of the brown veal stock, the flour helped lightly thicken up the soup. It gave it a slight, glossy look which was very nice. I added in just enough stock to cover and allowed to simmer about 10 minutes. The cabbage was well cooked. Still with a bit of texture but not overcooked. The meatballs were tender and juice. We served it with some grated Parmesan cheese and voila.

Next was the Creamy Smoked Trout Soup.

To make this soup right, we made fish stock. In order to make fish stock, you need white fish bones. Apparently, they are harder to find than I had hoped. Maybe it was because I went shopping later in the day. But I went to La Mer, no go, surprisingly. Then i went to Poisonerie Sherbrooke and he Costa didn't have any either. I was getting a bit worried. I didn't want to buy a whole fish just for the bones. Costa did have a fish head though. Now, I'm not really into making fish stock out of fish heads. In fact, in culinary school, they tell you fish heads are not good for stock. Something about it becoming bitter. But for lack of any other options and running out of time, i opted for the fish head. I got Costa to chop it in half. I brought it back to the store, cleaned it up, and made stock. While making it, i had flashbacks of a kid watching Much Music and waiting for that Barnes and Barnes song "Fish Heads" to come on. Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Eat them up. Yum!
I digress.
To start, i made a roux with butter and flour. Whisked in my hot fish stock and and allowed the flour to cook out for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile i added in some heavy cream, Worcestershire, and a bit of lemon juice. When the soup was smooth and creamy, I added in the smoked fish.
It's pretty impossible to find smoked trout around here. So I bought some hot smoked salmon and smoked haddock. When I saw the smoked haddock, I immediately thought of Gordon Ramsay and in all his British-ness, always convincing restaurants to make Smoked Haddock Chowder in Kitchen Nightmares.
The recipe didn't call for anything other than smoked fish in the soup. I had some fingerling potatoes that i par boiled and added them into the soup which complimented everything nicely. Finishing off with some chopped chives, the soup came out very smooth, rich, and smokey.

Last soup.
To start, the recipe called to lightly roast the cherry tomatoes in the oven. 350* for 30 minutes with a bit of olive oil and seasoning. When taken out, it's drizzled with some balsamic vinegar. Easy enough.
While the tomatoes were cooking, I prepared the base. Onions and garlic sauteed. The recipe called for a pork sausage i think, but I thought i would mix it up and buy some merguez sausage meat. At Atwater Market, you can sometimes buy sausage meat not in the casing. So that's what I did.
Once the onions were soft, i adding in the merguez and sauteed until browned. I added in a can of white beans, the tomatoes, and chicken stock to cover. It simmered for about ten minutes.
I carefully scooped out some of the tomatoes and beans and pureed them and added them back into the soup. So this soup was partially pureed and mostly chunky. I think it was my favorite of the night. A touch spice, and the lamb sausage really gave it something different. This soup was amazingly easy to whip together. I think it took less than 30 minutes to make. As similar in looks as it was to the first soup, the taste could not have been any more different. This last one, with the pureed beans and spice, was a lot more rich in flavour and texture. It was the perfect soup to finish off with. Everyone was warm enough to battle to dropping temperatures outside.


Hopefully winter will be over soon. But with the -30* outside, it doesn't look that way. It'll be a good weekend to stay home, make some stock and prepare a big pot of homemade soup.
Might I even recommend picking up Soup from the editors of DK Publishing?
This is going to be my go-to soup book from now on.


Next Class : Pure and Simple Homemade Indian Vegetarian