Luci's Tasty Adventures

After our wonderful trip to Napa I came home and was inspired to make Thomas Keller's Potato Leek Soup.  This soup recipe caught my eye because it required leeks, shallots, yellow onions, and chives.  I love onions, Aaron says I tend to onionize my food.  Yes I am the onionizer!! Watch out!

This soup has very simple ingredients, for me what makes this soup special is the stock.   I'm sure it tastes fine with store purchased stock, but making your own stock will take this from soup to a symphony in your mouth.  I keep my chicken stock in the freezer, I make large batches so that when I want to make soup or need to make a sauce I am good to go. 

The funny part is I used the last of my chicken stock on this recipe.  So I was out of stock Monday morning, and Monday night Aaron went in for emergency surgery.  He had an appendectomy at 6:30 pm.  He is doing much better now but we are both still out of sorts.  The surgery went well and I was able to bring him home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon.  I got him home and into bed, and of course I made more chicken stock to make him some chicken noodle soup.  Nothing says I'm taking care of you more than homemade soup.  Trust me.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs Leeks, about three
• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• ½ cup shallots, sliced
• 1/3 cup onion, sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly grated black pepper
• ½ pound russet potato (about one large), peeled
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 8 thyme sprigs
• 2 Italian parsley sprigs
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ tsp pepper corns
• cheese cloth
• 5 ½ cups chicken stock
• ¾ cup heavy cream, warmed
• ½ cup minced chives
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Make a Sachet with the cheese cloth, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and pepper corn.  Set aside.














Prepare the leeks by cutting away the dark green portion, and the bottom root part.  Slice the leek in half and clean well under running water.  Place the leeks cut side down on the cutting board and chop them into ¼ inch slices.

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium-low heat, add the leeks, shallots, onions, and season with salt and pepper.  Turn the heat to medium and sweat the vegetables, stirring every 3-5 minutes.  The vegetables will get soft, but should not brown.
















In the mean time chop the potato into ¼ inch think slices.  Add the garlic to the vegetables and cook for about a minute.  Add the sachet and potatoes and cook for 4 minutes.












Add 5 ½ cups chicken stock and test for seasoning.
















Bring to a simmer and then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Remove the soup from the heat and let cook for 15 minutes.

Transfer soup to blender and puree, start on a low speed to release the remaining heat in the soup.  For a refined soup strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer.














 

Rinse out the stock pot and return the soup and heat up over medium heat.  Bring the soup to a simmer and add the cream, simmer for 5 minutes.  To serve the soup, remove it from the burner and stir in the chives, save some for garnish.
















Ladle the soup into the serving bowls and garnish them with extra virgin olive oil and chives.  Enjoy, serves 6-8

This recipe was inspired from 1 Stock, 100 Soups, by Linda Doeser.  Caldo Verde soup is traditionally made made with Kale and Linguica sausage.  I decided to use Chicken Andouille Sausage and Napa Cabbage.  I went with the cabbage because I had it left over from another recipe, and decided to use chicken andouille sausage over linguica because it is much healthier.

The end result gives you a very rustic hearty soup that will kick the chill out of any winter rainy day, and its easy on your pocket book.  The cabbage is briefly cooked right before service so it is tender and still a little crispy, and the spiciness of the sausage adds the right about of zing.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 large potatoes, diced
• 6 ½ cups vegetable stock
• 12 ounces chicken andouille sausage, thinly sliced
• 4 cups napa cabbage, finely chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped for garnish
• kosher salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat large stockpot over medium heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil.  Place the sausage slices in the pot, do not overcrowd the pan; work in batches.  Let sausages cook for a few minutes till the develop a small crust, then flip them over and cook for another minute or two.  Removed sausage from stock pot.  There should not be much oil left behind in the pan, only the drippings from the sausage, this is the nice part about working with the chicken sausage.














Turn heat down to low and add 2 tbsp olive oil, onions and garlic to stock pot, with a tsp of kosher salt.  Cook them till they are softened; about five minutes.  Add chopped potatoes and stir; cook for three minutes.  Increase heat to medium and add vegetable stock.  Bring soup to boil then turn heat down to low; cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or till potatoes are tender.

Remove stockpot from heat and mash potatoes using a potato masher.  Taste soup and add salt and pepper to taste.  Add cabbage and sausage to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes.  Serve immediately; garnish with green onions and drizzle of olive oil.  

Serves 6

This soup is just delicious, I made it as the starter to my fabulous Christmas dinner feast.  You could easily freeze left overs of this soup for easy lunches.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 leeks, white part only, washed well and chopped
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 2 small potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 (8-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and chopped
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp chopped chives, for garnish

Heat oil over medium heat in a large stock pot.  Add Leeks, garlic saute for two minutes.  Add the potatoes and saute for 7 minutes.   Add the artichokes, chicken stock, cream cheese, salt, and pepper; cook over medium low heat for about 40 minutes till every thing is nice and tender. 

Blend soup using a hand held immersion blender, or work in small batches in a blender.  Taste and season soup and add salt and pepper to taste.  Add lemon juice to the soup right before server, garnish bowls of soup with freshly chopped chives.  Enjoy
Serves 8

The past few days have been so cold in the Bay Area.  Time for some more soup!  This recipe is pretty simple, and you can you chicken legs or thighs if you prefer them over breasts.  I used breasts cause they are a staple item in my freezer.  Enjoy!

• 
  
• 3 boneless skinless cooked chicken breast, cubed
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 oz egg noodles
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• salt and fresh grated pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Heat olive oil in a stock pot over medium heat, add onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.  Saute till tender about 7 minutes. 

Add stock and bay leaf to pot and bring to a small boil.  Add egg noodles and cook for about 8 minutes.  Fold in chicken, remove bay leaf, add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve each bowl with fresh chopped parsley.

Serves 5

 I found myself with lots of turkey left over from thanksgiving and thought.. hmmm soup.. and then the soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld was on, so that sealed the deal!  This is my take on Mulligatawny soup, Enjoy!

• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 boneless, skinless turkey breast half cut into cubes
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 Tbsp. curry powder
• 1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• ½ cup cream
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

Method

Take a large stockpot over medium heat and melt down butter.  Add chopped turkey browning on all sides, after browned transfer to a bowl.













Add onion, celery, carrots, and garlic to stock pot saute for about 7 minutes.  Stir in curry powder and cayenne pepper, saute for another 2 minutes.














Add broth and browned turkey to stock pot, bring to a simmer.  Add the rice and cook for about 30 minutes.  Stir in yogurt and cream, and lemon juice.  Cook for another 10 minutes and serve with minced cilantro.



Servers 5

This soup is similar to my mothers recipe, I made some changes and added bacon... everyone loves bacon!

1.5 lb of white beans - Canellini or Great Northern
4 quarts of water
2-3 lbs of ham shanks
1 lb center cut bacon, chopped up
2 cup of diced onions
2 cup chopped celery
1 1/3 cup chopped carrots
4 cloves garlic, diced
Salt and pepper
Herbes de Provence
Fresh parsley

Method

Soak the beans in at least 3 quarts of cold water for about 2 hrs. Drain the water.

Put the ham shank pieces in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for about an hour. Add the chopped vegetables and beans. Cook for another 2 hours, until the vegetables are soft and the ham meat easily pulls away from the bone.

Remove ham hocks from pot, and discard.  Your beans should be soft at this point, if they are not you need to let them cook longer. 

Heat a large skillet on medium heat and cook bacon till crispy.  Drain bacon on paper towels until beans are soft.  Once the beans are soft, break up the bacon into small pieces and mix into the soup.  Cook for about 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add a pinch of herbes de provence, and server with fresh chopped parsley.

Serves a lot.