AAAHHHHHH!!!!! Trying to get this post done has been interesting to say the least. Trying to work the 9-5, catering on the side, writing a bit......... It's all a bit much, but, if I didn't want it, I wouldn't have asked for it.
Oh, and just as a bit of an update: No one has contacted me about making this blog into a movie. Liv Tyler has said nothing about wanting to do the flick either. We'll get Part Three out of the way and start calling her agent or something. Kind of hard to imagine why she would want to do a movie about soup but.........
As promised, this episode finds our intrepid hero explaining the fun of Roux based soups. As you probably already know, a Roux is equal parts flour and fat (oil, butter, bacon fat....yeah.....bacon fat) heated to cook the raw flavor out of the flour and then used as a thickening agent when liquid is added. Its a long story about starches and gluten exploding and, to be honest, if you want all the gobble-dee-gook that goes along with the scientific angle of that, email me or watch Alton Brown on the Food Channel that's more of Reality TV than an actual channel...but I digress.
Without the scientific prose, there are a few things that you need to know about a roux. The first was mentioned above in that you need to cook it for at least a minute or two to take the raw flavor out of the flour. Feel free to try it without it and you will find that your cooking times increase and you will use alot of salt trying to cover the flavor which is a combination of bland and plain with a touch of nothing on the side. The next thing to keep on mind is the longer you cook the roux, the less thickening power it has. Keep this in mind as you watch the colors of the roux change. There will be a better explanation of this in Part Three, so stay tuned. For our current purposes we will stick to white or blonde roux's. Lastly, except for garlic, I prefer to put my spices in the roux as it cooks. I think we all know about garlic and what happens when it burns but the flavor of the spices have a chance to "bloom" and are in full effect when your soups come together.
A good ratio to start with is 1:1:2. 1 part flour, one part fat, two parts liquid. You will have to play with this to get the consistency you want from your soups but this is a good place to start. Once you have this together with the aromatics below (garlic, onions, and celery), it's just a matter of figuring out what type of soup you want. Lets start with......
Basic Potato Soup
1/2 pound bacon
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp bacon fat
6 cups milk
2 cups light chicken broth
1/2-3/4 cups white onion, finely diced
1-2 stalks celery
1 clove garlic, finely diced
2-3 cups potatoes, medium diced (about 3/4" cubes)
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
Green onions sliced thin
Salt and Pepper to taste.
This goes fast and for good reason: This is NOT rocket science. Fry the bacon and finely chop, measure out required fat and mix with flour, salt, and pepper. Over medium high heat, cook flour and fat mixture until the color just starts to darken a bit. Make sure you keep stirring it. If the flour burns even a slight bit, it will leave a burnt flavor.
With the flour and fat still over medium-high heat add milk and chicken stock then whisk well making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pot very well to eliminate clumps.
Saute the onions, garlic, and celery then add to the roux, drop in the bay leaf and sprig of rosemary and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Depending on my mood, I'll remove the bay leaf and rosemary, add a couple of tablespoons of the bacon then blast it with the immersion blender. Add the potatoes and let simmer until cooked through. As an interesting little twist, I like to fry the potatoes until golden brown, let them cool a tad, and them add those to the soup. Top with bacon and green onions and have at it.
Taking the roux recipe above (roux, onion, garlic, and herbs) you have the base for a variety of soups.
Shrimp and Corn Chowder
Roux recipe from above exchanging vegetable broth for chicken broth
1 16oz. can whole corn
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
Very simply, saute corn over high heat in a bit of butter, salt, and pepper until the edges get slightly brown. Near the end, add shrimp for about one minute then add both to the roux Add to roux and let simmer for 20 minutes. Without the shrimp this recipe can be vegetarian but to make it vegan, use soy milk instead of dairy. The soy milk adds a great nutty flavor to the soup which is really tasty. I know this recipe sounds very simple but that's its intention. Just a simple, flavorful comfort food.
Smoked Chicken Chowder
I had gotten bored on a Sunday and made a potato soup and in the absence of bacon, I used smoked chicken. After a while, I added more and more chicken, threw a bit of the skin in to get more smoky flavor (remove it later). Add potatoes and, if you like, corn and enjoy.
Tomato Bisque
In our little town we have a small pizza joint that is part of a smaller, Southern chain. On a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon the family and I stopped in and decided to chill out with the college hippies that work there and have a bite. Knowing full well that one of the all time top comfort foods is Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup, I immediately gravitated toward the Tomato Bisque on the menu and.....Holy Cow! It was a cross between good, old fashioned Tomato Soup and Pizza Soup. The following weekend I got a few things together and this is what I came up with.
Roux from above (again, including onions and garlic)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 12oz can tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1/4 cup fried bacon
10-12 slices of pepperoni, lightly sauteed
Add the heavy cream to the roux simmering of to the side, break tomatoes up in a bowl trying to eliminate as many seeds as possible. Add tomatoes, the liquid from the tomatoes, tomato paste, and the rest of the ingredients. Let simmer for just a bit and give it a whiz with the immersion blender until smooth.
This stands out as one of the best pots of soup I have ever made. It's perfect for rainy days or crisp fall afternoons on the back porch. Feel free to play with the herbs and, by all means, this soup can take more garlic and onions if you like...and I do.
With the roux as a solid base, the amount of soups and chowders that can be thought up are almost endless. Play with different broths and vegetables, try seafood, go completely vegetarian with it. Once you have the foundation, thick and hearty soups are at your disposal.
Next week, this Trilogy comes to a close. I will focus on one "Soup" and one alone: Gumbo. There are so many styles and types that I am sure to get a ton of email telling me how far off base I am. As I mentioned in part one, the good thing about Gumbo is, there's no real way to get it wrong. If it's what you like, then you nailed it. More next week.
Enjoy,
Rob
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