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SOUPS & STEWS |
A French lady once told me that when she was growing up, a girl learned about soup
before she learned about sex. She also said that while sex will attract a mate, good soup
will keep him. I suppose that is just another way of saying that sex is transitory but
soup is forever.
While most soups are made from scratch, one of the best sources of supply for ingredients
is hiding in the fridge in all those little plastic containers of leftovers. If you
enjoyed eating it once, you can enjoy it again as a good, hot soup.
CREAM OF LEFTOVER
My kids would have let out a resounding YUCK! if I had ever mentioned anything like this
to them but it is really good. Whiz half a cup of leftover broccoli, asparagus or
cauliflower for a few seconds and mix with a can of cream of potato for a great soup.
POSOLE CON PUERCO
Posole (po-SO-lay con POUR-co) is not really a Mexican food at all. The native Indians of
the Southwest developed it long before Columbus stumbled onto this part of the world.
Posole, or Hominy as we know it, is made from mature corn which has been soaked until it
swells and then the husks removed in a lye or soda ash solution. In the Southwest, one can
buy dried Posole mix at Indian trading posts and some larger markets stock it in their
ethnic food section. It isn't all that difficult to make from commonly available
ingredients- and is a great cold weather soup or stew.
2 Pounds Pork, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
1 Onion, coarse chopped
3 Carrots, sliced
1 Tsp. Salt
1 T. Chili Powder
1 4 Oz. Can Chopped Chills
1 29 Oz. White Can Hominy, drained
Cook pork with the salt and onions in Just enough water to cover until it is almost tender enough to eat, then add the carrots and complete cooking. Add the chili powder, chopped chilis and hominy. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes to develop the flavor. Serve with warm flour tortillas or corn chips. Mucho Gusto!
FIVE HOUR STEW
I know, you are already saying that I am violating my number one rule by suggesting a stew
which takes five hours to prepare. Actually, it takes only a few minutes to throw
together. It just takes 5 hours for it to cook properly.
2 Slices Bacon
2 Pounds Beef, cut Into 1" chunks
1 T. Mixed Herbs
1/2 Tsp. Pepper
1/4 Tsp. Garlic Powder or 3 Crushed Cloves
2 Onions, cut crosswise and then quartered
4 Blades of Celery, cut In 1" pieces
4 Carrots, cut in 1" pieces
3 Potatoes, cut in 1" chunks
1 16 Oz. Can of either V-8 or Tomato Juice
This stew can be made in a heavy pot with a lid in an oven or else in an electric slow cooker. Cut the slices of bacon and arrange to cover the bottom of the pot to keep stew from sticking as it cooks. Put the meat in first, then the seasoning. Next comes the layer of onions, topped with the celery and then the carrots. Finally, the potatoes go on top. Pour in the Juice (V-8 makes it taste much better). It won't be covered with liquid, but that's OK as more will come out as it cooks. Cooks in five hours covered in a 200 degree oven or the same amount of time in a crock pot.
CORN CHOWDER
4 Slices Bacon
1/2 Cup Minced Onion
1/2 Cup Minced Celery
1/2 Cup Minced Green Pepper
2 Tomatoes, diced small
1 Can Cream Style Corn
1 Can Whole Kernel Corn, drained
1 Can Cream of Potato Soup
1 Quart Milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
In a heavy pot, fry bacon till crisp and remove. Sauté onion, celery and green pepper in the bacon grease until tender. Crumble bacon and return to the pan with the vegetables. Add rest of ingredients and simmer for about 15 minutes. If the chowder needs to have more body, thicken with a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in a quarter cup of water.
FISH (GUMBO
1 Pound Fish Fillets, cut in chunks
1/2 Stick Butter
2 Onions1 chopped
2 Bell Peppers, chopped
2 Cans Tomatoes and Okra
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Bay Leaf
1/8 Tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 Cup Rice, cooked
Melt butter in sauce pan, add onions and peppers and cook until tender. Stir in tomatoes and okra, along with all the seasonings. Simmer for at least 15 minutes. Stir in fish and cooked rice, simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until fish flakes when tested with a fork. Serve immediately.
Use a pound of peeled raw shrimp instead of the fish and you will have shrimp gumbo. Either way, this makes a meal in a bowl.
Well known Cajun cook, Justin Wilson, claims that there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who like okra and those who don't know what good eating is all about. If you are one of the people who likes okra and can't find it in Mexico, then buy nopalitos. They are available both canned and fresh and can be substituted for okra in recipes. Nopalitos are the tender, first year growth on the nopal cactus and taste almost exactly like okra, except without the seeds. Nopals grow wild all over Mexico and any native can show you how to gather them and how to get them ready to cook.
ROCK SOUP
I grew up during the depression years and had heard my dad talk about seeing rock soup made in a place called Pie Town, New Mexico. I had never actually made any of it until I was camped at the south tip of Baja, at a place called "Shipwreck Cove". The place got its name from the hulk of a Japanese fishing trawler which is rusting away on the rocks. Seems that it had been illegally fishing in Mexican waters and the locals tricked it into crashing on the rocks, but that is another one of those BS (Baja Stories) for another time.
Anyway, it was one of those unusually chilly January days when low clouds were drifting in off the Pacific and the temperature hovered around 60. A bunch of campers were sitting around discussing whether it would be worthwhile to launch a boat and try to snag a Dorado for dinner or not when someone suggested, "This would be a great day for a big pot of soup."
After a considerable amount of discussion about what kind of soup would be best for a day like this, I decided to take the bull by the tail and stare the situation straight in the face, so to speak. I got out the Coleman stove and the pot which I use to boil lobsters. While waiting for the water came come to a boil, I scouted around for a smooth rock about the size of a hen egg.
When I returned, I began to tell about the fact that during the depression, people had actually made pots of soup, using nothing more than a good soup rock like the one that I had. After everyone had looked at the rock, I put it into the pot and moved it around as the water boiled.
"Sure is weak looking soup," someone remarked.
"I'll have to agree that it is a bit on the thin side right now," I replied as I dumped in an onion that I had cut up, "But I'm sure that this pot of rock soup would be a lot better if some of you happen to have some leftover meat of some find to add to it."
"I have a piece roast in the fridge," said one person.
"There are two hamburger patties in mine," said another.
"I have a small lobster tail," added a third.
"How about a few wieners?" asked another.
"Chop them up and toss it in the pot," I told them. "The rule about making rock soup is that nothing is refused and that anyone who puts something into the pot also gets to share in it."
By this time, several other people had stopped by to see what was going on. One of them had a few clams that he had dug up on the beach.
"You can join in on the soup pot if you'd like to add your clams, I told him.
"Sounds like a good idea," he said as the clams went in.
"It's beginning to smell like really good soup now," said a lady who arrived carrying a few fresh shrimp for the pot.
"If anyone else would like to get in on this pot, they can bring along a can of some sort of vegetables and their bowl and spoon," I announced as it began to simmer again.
"What kind of vegetables?" asked someone.
"Anything that's vegetable," I replied "Peas, potatoes, pork and beans, carrots, green beans, corn, tomatoes, hominy, whatever you have."
People scattered to search their rigs for something to add to the pot of rock soup.
"Should I drain off the liquid before I put it in?" asked a lady who had returned with a can of chopped chilis.
"Nope, it needs the extra liquid, just dump it in," I replied as I turned up the Coleman to bring it back to a boil as the various cans were poured in.
There must have been at least twenty people waiting with bowls in hand as I stirred the pot and waited for it to begin to bubble. I tasted the soup, added some salt and a good measure of chili powder.
"About the only thing that this soup needs now is something to give the liquid a bit of body," I said, pulling a couple envelopes of Brown Gravy Nix from my pocket and stirring it in.
The crowd filled their bowls with rock soup, once, twice and some even three times. There was even enough left to feed a couple who had just come in from a walk along the beach.
As the last of the soup was ladled out, leaving only the rock rolling around in the bottom of the pot, someone mentioned, "That was really a great rock you used, are you going to keep it for another pot?"
"Nope, once a rock is used, all of the good is gone out of it. I picked up a used rock by mistake one time and it didn't work worth a hoot," I replied.
So, if you try to make some rock soup and it turns out less successful than what you expected, it probably isn't your fault. You just got hold of a used rock.