Kalofagas - Greek Food & Beyond » Soup

Homemade Chicken or Turkey Stock

Peter Minakis — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:35:14 +0000

The basis for any good soup is a good stock and that’s especially important for getting the most flavour. When I make a stock, I buy the carcasses (three) from a chicken (you can use one whole chicken) or the leftover carcass of a roasted turkey and place them in a pot with a carrot, onion, celery, parsley stems, handful of peppercorns along with some salt (1 Tbsp) and enough water to cover the pot (12-14 cups). Bring to a boil, simmer for 90-120 minutes and allow to cool. Remove the vegetables and carcasses and place the stock in the fridge to chill. The next day the fat will have risen to the top and coagulate. Simply skim the fat and discard and now you’re left with a clear, flavourful stock. Use the stock for a base for any soup, to make sauces or freeze in containers for future use.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

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© 2011, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

Mushroom & Wild Rice Soup

Peter Minakis — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:14:54 +0000

This recipe combines some of my favourite flavours: earthy mushrooms and nutty, smoky wild rice which really isn’t a rice! Wild rice is the seed of an aquatic rice that’s been consumed by Native Indians. Here in Canada, wild rice is grown in shallow lakes in rivers in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and north-western Ontario.

Native Indians used to harvest wild rice by hand then roast it over open fires. Today, the harvest is conducted with air-propeller boats then dry roasted before reaching market. Beyond wild rice’s nutty (and mildly smoky) flavour, it’s high in fibre, easy to digest and if it matters to you – it’s gluten-free.

My calendar is getting colder day by day and that means more soups in my diet. I love salads and soups truly make Winters bearable for me here in Canada. They are a great way for incorporating vegetables in your diet and one of those vegetables are mushrooms.

I love mushrooms, have always loved mushrooms and they are available here winter or summer with the help of indoor cultivation and dried mushrooms. Drying fruits and vegetables is an old method used to preserve ingredients at their height/prime. Dried mushrooms figure prominently in this dish, mushroom soup.

This is a riff on my stand-by mushroom soup but with the addition of wild rice and dried mushrooms – funghi lovers will adore this soup. There are many varieties of dried mushrooms available out there but I wouldn’t use the more exotic (and expensive) ones. I used dried Shitakis with were re-hydrated in boiling water which also transforms into an earthy, rich mushroom stock.

The mushroom stock, the fresh mushrooms, onions, bay and thyme along with some vegetable or chicken stock make this soup a rich in flavour and by far one of my fave soups. The soup is creamy not to the point of being like a chowder in consistency. I used evaporated milk instead of cream – you choice here and you may add as much as you desire – depending on how thick (or thin) you like your soup.

Sometimes mushroom have some dirt on them – wipe them with a wet towel or quickly scrub under running cold water. Either way, dirt and grit with your mushrooms is not included in this recipe and I don’t think you want it in yours. I’m using regular white or button mushrooms for the base of the as I don’t want it to be too dark and then some sautéed sliced Cremini mushrooms are added for more depth and to stand out when the soup is served. Soup is on!

Mushroom & Wild Rice Soup

(inspired by Canadian Living recipe)

(serves 6)

1/2 cup of wild rice (cooked)

1/3 cup of dried mushrooms

2 cups hot water

1 1/2 cup of sliced Cremini mushrooms (rinsed)

1/4 cup of unsalted butter or olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

1 lb. of white or button mushrooms, rinsed and sliced

1 bay leaf

6-8 sprigs of thyme leaves

1 shot of Metaxa brandy

4-5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1/2 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk

salt and pepper to taste

Place your wild rice in a small pot with about 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add some salt and simmer for approx. 30 minutes or until the rice splits (should be able to bite into it). Remove from the heat and strain, reserve.
cooked wild rice
In the meantime, Boil about 2 cups of water and then place in a bowl with your dried mushrooms and tightly cover for 30 minutes. The mushrooms should be re-hydrated and soft and the water will have turned into a mushroom stock. Strain the stock (remove any grit) and sliced the mushrooms and reserve.
In a large pot, add the butter or olive oil over medium heat and add the onions, celery, bay leaf, thyme and sliced white mushrooms and a pinch of salt and some ground pepper. Stir and cover and allow to sweat for 5-7 minutes. Add the brandy and reduce for 2 minutes then add the reserved mushroom stock and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes uncovered and check and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
In the meantime, add some olive oil to a small pan and add your sliced Cremini mushrooms along with some salt and pepper and saute until just browned. Remove from the heat and reserve.
Back to the soup, remove from the heat and take out the bay leaf and any sprigs of thyme floating around and discard. Puree your soup in with a hand blender then place back on your stovetop along with the reserved cooked wild rice and browned sliced Cremini mushrooms and bring simmer over medium-low heat. Add up to 1/2 cup of cream, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and simmer for minutes and take off the heat. Serve as part of your lunch with your favourite sandwich or as part of a dinner course.

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Hearty Winter Vegetable Soup

Peter Minakis — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:50:25 +0000

Although we’ve had a pretty mild winter by Canadian standards, we do still get the abrupt reminder that we (Canadians) live in the Great White North (Canada) and that yes, winters here are a long and cold. Last week we had temperatures that only warmed up to -8 Celcius in the day time and dipped to -20C at night. That was the weather here in Toronto and surely much of Canada can boast (complain) of colder temps.

One of the best ways that I cope with the cold winters is with a big pot of soup to comfort and warm me and the family. Oh sure, one could just open a can of soup, warm it up and serve with a sandwich but you don’t come this blog for express meals do you? Like any good soup, the base starts with a good homemade stock and the rest is up to your imagination.

Today’s soup is mostly made of winter vegetables (the red peppers likely came on a truck from Mexico) and pantry items that most of you will have: cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, broccoli, Romaine lettuce, red peppers for sweetness and colour and a good handful of pasta. Other than whip-up a hearty winter soup, I also wanted to clean-out some odds & ends in my fridge…I added a grated sweet potato into the mix and I must say – the soup satisfied the soul and belly!

Hearty Winter Vegetable Soup (Χειμωνιατικη Σουπα απο Λαχανικα)

1/4 extra-virgin olive oil

1 large leek (or large onion), thinly sliced (or diced)

5-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

3 bay leaves

3 sprigs of thyme

1 sweet potato, peeled and passed through a box grater

9-10 cups of of hot vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup of pasta of your choice (I used homemade egg noodles)

1 cup of shredded white cabbage

1 cup of broccoli florets

1 cup of cauliflower florets

2 cups of Romaine lettuce, rinsed and chopped

sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Place a large pot on your stove-top over medium heat and add your olive oil, leeks (or onions), garlic, bay leaves, thyme, carrots, celery and red peppers and stir to coat. Season lightly with some salt and pepper and cover…allow the vegetables to sweat down for another 10 minutes.
Uncover and grate the sweet potato into the pot and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli and stir in. Now add your hot stock and bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook slightly covered for 35-40 minutes. At about the 20 minute mark, add your pasta and Romaine lettuce, continue to simmer until the pasta has cooked. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, remove bay leaves and thyme spigs. Serve hot with good crusty bread.

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Italian Wedding Soup

Peter Minakis — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:16:00 +0000

Recipe update from October 2007: I love this soup kitchen classic and I make it at least once a year during soup season. It’s winter and we have soup season! I don’t tinker much with this Rocco DiSpirito recipe other than to use what leafy greens are available in the market. It could be escarole, could be kale or it could be curly green lettuce…all good in Italian Wedding Soup.

The basis for any good soup is a good stock and that’s especially important for this soup. When I make a stock, I buy the carcasses (three) from a chicken (you can use one whole chicken) and place them in a pot with a carrot, onion and celery along with some salt (1 Tbsp) and enough water to cover the pot (12-14 cups). Bring to a boil, simmer for 90-120 minutes and allow to cool. Remove the vegetables and carcasses and place the stock in the fridge to chill. The next day the fat will have risen to the top and coagulate. Simply skim the fat and discard and now you’re left with a clear, flavourful stock.

I’ve been to many weddings (including Italian weddings) but I’ve never been served this soup. I usually see Italian Wedding Soup at a soup & sandwich counter.

For those not familiar with this soup, it’s a brothy soup with little bite-sized meatballs, lots of chopped pieces of greens and little pasta called Acini de Pepe (peppercorns).

When I’m out and I have to eat lunch on the go, I always see what the “soup of the day” is and then I’ll choose my sandwich pairing.

When I see Italian Wedding Soup as the “soup de jour”, I smile and order a ham & cheese, egg salad or Club House to accompany this earthy soup.

When I first made this soup, I used Rocco DiSpirito’s version and I was very pleased with the end result as it tasted like the soup at the sandwich counter.

The one glaring omission in his recipe was the absence of the Acini de Pepe. It can be found amongst the other pastas and if you cannot find it, substitute it with another fine, small pasta. Don’t overlook this little pasta, it’s half the soup! Add it to your broth along with the meatballs.

The only substitute I made was that I used kale instead of escarole and just remember to trim the stems of kale as they can be too earthy in flavour.

Finally, using just ground beef (omitting pork) is perfectly okay and the same good, comforting flavours will come out. Chalk this soup as an easy, comforting soup to try this winter.

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© 2010, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

Leek and Potato Soup

Peter Minakis — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 01:31:38 +0000

This soup can be a base for many other cold weather or winter soups. I used this base to make a cream of asparagus soup and it can be adapted to many other “creamy” soups. Of note is that I’ve greatly reduced the use of cream to make the soup…well, creamy. I like using grated potatoes to thicken the soup.

Like many soups, the use of leeks will ensure you a superior soup and using a homemade stock is a must. I wish I could have salads all year ’round but I live in Canada and alas, tomatoes and other summer vegetables are bland at best in winter. I can wait until next summer for sweet, garden ripe tomatoes. In the meantime, it’s soup season.

Leek and Potato Soup

1/4 cup olive oil

3 leeks (white parts), rinsed well of any dirt and grit and finely chopped

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

3 Russet (starchy) potatoes, peeled

8-9 cups of chicken (or vegetable) stock

1/2 cup of cream (or evaporated milk)

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add your olive oil over medium heat and add the chopped leeks, bay leaves and thyme and simmer while occasionally stirring for about 10-15 minutes or until the leeks have softened. Now grate your potatoes through the large holes of your box grater and stir in with the leeks. Simmer for about five minutes. If the mixture gets dry and gluey, add some water or stock.
Add your stock and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30-40 minutes.
When your soup is ready, remove the bay leaves and puree the soup with a hand blender. Add the cream (add as much or as little cream as you wish) and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Top with some chopped chives or a a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and a crisp slice of garlic as garnish. Serve hot.

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