Scallion and mushroom soup (p. 145)

Scallion and mushroom soup (p. 145) is a challenge to write about because it wasn't very interesting.

TI beat butter until it was fluffy and added scallions:

Seemed like a strange step

 I added salt and pepper and cooked it for about ten minutes (so, really, just cooking the scallions in a ton of butter):

I removed the pot from the heat and added flour and chicken stock:

It was simmered for about ten minutes:

I added thinly sliced mushrooms:

I used the immersion blender and blended the whole thing (sooooo much easier than using the sieve that TJOC recommends).  I also added some cream (making it a "cream of" soup).  The soup was not an attractive color:

I added some more of the thinly sliced mushrooms:

It was okay.  It required a TON of salt to bring out the flavors, and, even then, was pretty bland.  I like cream of mushroom soup quite a bit but button mushrooms are not the most delicious and scallions don't really add that much.  Maybe with more black pepper and salt and a ton of garlic, the soup could be improved.  Then again, it's possible that not everybody is as obsessive as I am about soup.  Has anyone else made this recipe?  How do you feel about cream soups?

Vegetable stock (p. 119)

I know from experience that whatever vegetables I leave in the refrigerator when I leave Josh for a couple weeks will be liquefied and disgusting by the time I get back. For some reason, it never occurs to him to look for vegetables and/or throw them out. I have accepted this about him and now try to use all vegetables before I leave. I thought that Vegetable stock (p. 119) would be a good use for the veggies I had on hand so I could use them before I left for Iowa.

I cooked onion, celery, carrots, turnips (I had turnips!), salt, bouquet garni, pepper, and red pepper in a little butter until softened (no parsnips, I used an extra carrot):

I added cold water to cover:

And cooked for a couple hours:

I strained out all the veggies and I had vegetable stock! It was really good. The stock had a nice, complex flavor and the sweetness of the carrots was nicely balanced by the turnips and onion. I particularly liked the mild spiciness that the pepper added. Of course, there isn't a whole lot to say about stock. So I will do what I do when I have almost nothing to say:

A vegetable stock haiku

Veggie-table stock

Sort of boring, control the salt

Great ingredient

Obviously, this recipe would be vegan if you used vegetable oil rather than butter.

Coddled eggs (p. 194) and Pumpkin soup (p. 129)

Coddled eggs (p. 194) have never looked that delicious to me. I'm not a big fan of eggs (straight eggs--I love eggs as a component) and I particularly don't like soft eggs, like coddled eggs.

I brought water to a boil over high heat:

I cracked an egg in to a little bowl:

And slowly poured the egg in the water:

I had leftover hash browns from Snooze, which I thought would be the perfect base for my coddled egg. If you ever happen to be in Fort Collins, Colorado, I really recommend getting breakfast at Snooze--it's absolutely delicious and one of my favorite places in town.

Josh ate the egg and said it was good. The yolk was runny and the white seemed more softthan it is with a fried egg (which makes sense, there is a big difference in how proteins cook in water or without it). Do people commonly eat coddled eggs? I've never known people to say they love coddled eggs but it hasn't really came up in conversation before.

I've been looking forward to knocking Pumpkin soup (p. 129) off the list for quite a while. I tried to make it several times but it turns out that pumpkin is a seasonal food and isn't sold before about October. I couldn't find it in my regular grocery store after Thanksgiving either! Fortunately, Whole Foods still had a big pyramid of cans.

I cooked onions and celery in butter until soft. I then added pumpkin, chicken stock, heavy cream, brown sugar, ginger, and salt and pepper and heated it through:

I was not impressed at all with this soup. For one thing, it seemed like it needed to be blended at the end (I did not like the little chunks of celery and onion). It also seemed overly thin, which I didn't like. I thought the flavor was very bland and I can't see bothering to make it again, especially when I really liked the butternut squash soup much better.

Matzo ball soup (p. 126) and Potato pancakes (p. 298)

Even though I'm not Jewish, I thought Hanukkah would be the perfect time to try my hand at Matzo ball soup (p. 126). Happy Hanukkah everybody!

Disclaimer: I have never eaten matzo or matzo balls and I had no idea how the recipe would turn out or how accurate it would be.

I beat eggs and salt for a minute:

I added dill, chives, and soda water (I used seltzer water--I'm not sure if that's right or wrong). I folded in matzo meal, black pepper, a bit of curry, and a pinch of ginger:

I covered the bowl and refrigerated it for a few hours, then formed balls of the mixture and dropped them into boiling water, cooking them for a half hour:

Eventually the matzo balls floated:

And I drained them.

I heated up some poultry stock, added a little salt and pepper, and popped the matzo balls in:

How was it? It's a hard one to judge. Matzo balls are one of the strangest things that I've ever eaten. They are like meatballs that don't contain any meat and are sort of spongy. The first bite, I thought "Man, this is really strange, I don't like it". The next bite, I liked it better. By the third bite, I thought they were pretty good. I ended up eating two bowls of the salt--I particularly liked all the dill and pepper. I can't judge it well, though, because I have never had matzo ball soup before. I'm really glad I used homemade stock, since it was such a major player in the dish.

I looked for a latkes recipe in TJOC and the closest I got was Potato pancakes (p. 298) which I think are essentially the same thing.

I learned my lesson with the hash browns that turned black due to air exposure, so I decided to get my mise en place all set up before I started grating the potatoes. I combined eggs, flour, a bit of grated onion, and some salt:

I then quickly grated two cups of potatoes and combined them with the egg mixture (I figured that would stop the potatoes from getting overly oxidized):

I fried them in vegetable oil (a quarter inch of butter seemed delicious but like a LOT of butter). I waited until one side was browned and then flipped. They were really wet, so I hoped they would still work:

Eventually they were done (and were plenty greasy):

I ate them with some sour cream and they were DELICIOUS. Honestly, this is going in to the best of TJOC pile too. They were crispy and moist and perfect. In fact, simply writing this blog post makes me hungry.

So, more knowledgeable TJOTJOC readers, do my results seem about right?

Wontons (p. 342) and Wonton soup (p. 126)

Sometimes I have reasons why I make a particular recipe on a particular day and sometimes I don't. I was in the mood to make filled noodles and decided to make Wontons (p. 342). This was odd for a couple reasons. I don't like wontons, never order wonton soup at restaurants, am actively annoyed if wonton soup is my only choice, and like other filled pastas like pierogis and ravioli. I think the lone mark in the wonton's favor was that I can easily buy wonton wrappers at the grocery store.

I took pork and mixed in cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, salt, and black pepper.



I went digging for the water chestnuts I was completly positive we had. I even remembered the day I got them on discount at the grocery store. After searching, I realized we had bamboo shoots, not water chestnuts. And I was unwilling to run to the store for eight water chesnuts (not cans, eight individual water chestnuts). So my wontons had bamboo shoots. I added my bamboo shoots, along with scallions, and ginger.



I laid out my (bought) wonton wrappers, brushed each wrapper with egg wash, and placed a bit of filling in the middle:



I folded the wonton wrapper and pinched the edges:



And folded the sides in:



WONTONS!

Wontons for Wonton soup (p. 126)!

Once you have the wontons, the wonton soup is simple. I heated up some chicken stock, dumped the wontons in, added a bit of soup, and was finished.



I was pleased with this recipe. My wontons looked professional and I was proud of them. I wasn't sure if they were pinched tight enough but the shrunk during cooking so it wasn't a problem. I was also afraid the pork wouldn't cook in such a short time but it did.

The wontons tasted exactly like every meat wonton I've ever eaten--they were savory with a slight heat (I assume from the chili oil). I think they would have been even better if they were half pork and half shrimp. The recipe was super easy, and, terrifically, on my RGL.

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Blender borscht (p. 149)

I have been invigorated by the new randomly generated list!

::hangs head::

That's actually a lie. I was depressed and developed my new RGL. I noticed that two pages that I had cooked something from but not yet blogged about were included. I decided to backdate the RGL to the beginning of the month (which makes more sense anyway).

I was hungry, I had all the ingredients for Blender borscht (p. 149), and I have a very fancy blender (a Vita-Mix!). The perfect combination.

There is just something about the quick soups in TJOC that turn me off. They remind me of Sandra Lee and "Semi-Homemade Cooking". Granted, she did develop the wonder of the Kwanzaa Cake (Google it) but I like to stay away from anything that could potentially merit a "tablescape". I don't want to mix three cans of soup. I want to make stuff! One can of soup, fine. Two, maybe. Three, no way.

And that is literally what this recipe is. I combined a can of beets, a can of consomme, and a can of cream of chicken soup, with some garlic.

It went from this:




To this:



I tried to gussy it up with some sour cream:



What did it taste like? A can of consomme mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup, some beets, and a lot of garlic. Nobody with taste buds would have thought this was homemade. I did not think it was acceptable. In fact, I would go so far as to call it "gross". I'm really hoping the other three borscht recipes are a lot tastier than this one.

Egg drop soup (p. 124) and Grilled or roasted corn I (p. 271)

I can't say that Egg drop soup (p. 124) is something I regularly order at Chinese restaurants. When I was a little kid, I loved egg drop soup, but as I grew I started liking the much more flavorful hot and sour soup a lot more. I don't think I've had egg drop soup at a restaurant in years. It always seems so bland.

The recipe is incredibly simple (and I doubled it). I beat an egg in a bowl and boiled some chicken stock:



I added the egg to the broth slowly and drew wide circles until the egg cooked in long strands:



I was actually pretty impressed with this recipe. It looked exactly like professional egg drop soup. It was quite good and amazingly easy. Even so, it was pretty bland. To me, egg drop soup is the ginger ale of soups--perfect for when you are sick but too bland for other uses.

Josh and I don't utilize the grill for anything but meat, so Rachel keeps talking about grilled vegetables and they sounded really good. We only had sweet corn and zucchini on hand (the sweet corn in Colorado isn't a fraction as good as it is in Iowa). I decided to make Grilled or roasted corn I (p. 271).

We soaked the corn in water for a few hours:



And the corn were thrown onto the grill:



They cooked pretty fast:



The corn was really good (other than the aforementioned flavor issue), especially after being coated with butter, salt, and pepper. I think it was more tasty than my typical boiling method. What other vegetables are good on the grill? I really liked the zucchini but would like some variety.

Green pea soup (p. 130) and Lentil soup with greens (p. 134)

I really like making soup but Josh doesn't love it nearly as much as I do. If I had to pick one type of food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be soup. I really don't like split-pea soup so I didn't have high hopes for Green pea soup (p. 130).

Boston lettuce was one of the required items and I had no idea what it was. Apparently it's a type of butterhead lettuce, like Bibb, and actually was readily available at the grocery store. I sauteed the lettuce (I've never sauteed lettuce before!), an onion, celery, and parsley:



It was go green! I added frozen peas, chicken stock, and a handful of sugar snap peas (mine were from the farmer's market but it would be a perfect use for your garden veggies).



I smashed some of the peas and then added a little more chicken stock and some salt and it was done. This soup is amazing! It was so fresh and healthy tasting! I had never had a pea soup that was made out of fresh peas and it was such a good experience. This would be an absolutely perfect recipe for someone with a lot of peas in their garden. If you like peas, this is the soup for you. Make sure to add plenty of salt, it really enhances the flavor.

Josh doesn't like lentils (and I don't particularly love them either) so I decided to make Lentil soup with greens (p. 134) for mom. Lentil soup with sausage and potato was good and filling, so I was optimistic about this variation.

Essentially, it's exactly like the linked version, except instead of sausage and potato, I added spinach.



It was good! There are a lot more lentils in the dish than the picture would suggest (they all sunk to the bottom). This is a main dish soup and was amazingly cheap to make, so it's perfect for those on a budget. It's also could easily be vegan if you didn't add the bacon (I, of course, added the delicious bacon).

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the "Stocks and Soups" chapter! Unfortunately, I have chosen not to make most of the soups that are left for various reasons. Either I don't have the equipment (ovenproof bowls for french onion or roasted garlic soups), am not excited about the main ingredient (cream of chestnut soup), or it's a seafood soup (Colorado does not have cheap, quality seafood). Even so, I'm probably at 50%! I'm pretty excited about that. I imagine this will be the first chapter that I actually finish.

Chicken, avocado, and tomato soup (p. 135) and Cold avocado soup (p. 146)

For some mysterious reason, I went through a month of not wanting to cook at all. I honestly don't know what my problem was. I went home to Iowa for a few weeks but that usually makes me cook more--mom will happily eat foods that neither Josh nor I like. But I just couldn't motivate myself.

Until mom came home with a pile of avocados that she found on the sale shelf at Dahl's. Josh HATES avocados, which I don't understand. I decided to make Chicken, avocado, and tomato soup (p. 135). The recipe was simple--I boiled some homemade chicken stock and then added diced chicken, a diced avocado, some tomatoes, and some onion.



Nothing attractive about the picture but the soup was delicious! It was one of those mixtures of ingredients that just melds really well. The crisp onion, creamy avocado, and tangy tomato mix amazingly well--it was almost like a deconstructed guacamole with chicken in soup form. I really recommend this soup as another use for leftover rotisserie chicken.

I thought this would be the perfect time to make Cold avocado soup (p. 146). I don't think I like cold soups--I just don't like the idea.

I processed two avocados and a garlic clove in mom's tiny food processor.



I then added buttermilk, lemon juice (rather than lime juice--I didn't think it would matter), salt, and a bit of red pepper. It all fit in the food processor--just barely.



The recipe says to cool it in the fridge but it was already cold so mom and I just ate it. The slightly sour taste of buttermilk was extremely well complimented by the creamy avocado. It was pretty damn good and would be terrific on a hot, humid summer day.

Well I was eating this soup I realized a few things:

1. I had never actually eaten cold soup. I just didn't like the idea of it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I still prefer my soup hot.

2. Cold soup is reminiscent of dip. I felt like I should be dipping chips in it.

3. I may need to add avocados to my allergy list (which already includes my nemesis kiwi, along with papaya, pineapple, and mango). I felt the tell-tale tingling that precedes the burning, swelling, and bleeding that eventually shows up. NOT AVOCADOS! I LOVE AVOCADOS!