Potato and Fish Soup with Cheese

This particular recipe came about as I was trying desperately to think of something to do with the last piece of fish in the freezer. Preferably something that would stretch it out for a few days, right? I did a search and found this recipe at Allrecipes. With a few modifications (like less fish, milk instead of cream and Parmesan instead of Muenster), this turned out pretty darn good.

• 4 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 small onion, chopped
• 4 cups water
• 10 potatoes, diced
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1/2 pound cod fillets, cubed
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Muenster cheese
• salt to taste

Directions
Melt the butter or margarine in a large saucepan, and add the paprika. Saute the onions in this mixture until they are soft. Add the water, bring it to the boil, and add the potatoes. Simmer gently until the potatoes are almost done. Depending on the size of the potatoes it may be necessary to add more water during cooking.

Add cream or milk and the fish; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until potatoes begin to fall apart. If they remain very firm, mash them gently in the pan with a masher or wooden spoon.
Add a little of the potato mixture to the beaten eggs, and then stir eggs into the soup. Remove from heat, and stir in the cheese. Correct the seasoning, and serve at once.

Corn and Vidalia Onion Soup

Here's another tasty recipe I whipped up after cleaning out the fridge. This was pretty darn good, even though my roommate talked me into going to Sweet Tomatoes that night. :p


Corn and Vidalia Onion Soup

1 Vidalia onion (or any sweet onion)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
6 ears of corn
1/2 gallon milk
Salt and pepper to taste


Chop onion finely and add to large pot. Saute over medium heat in vegetable oil and butter until translucent. Cut the kernels off the ears and add them as well. Pour in milk, add salt and pepper, and cook till corn and onions are tender (about 15-30 minutes). Milk level will have dropped, which is fine. Serve by itself or with sandwiches.

Oyster Soup

So I'd said something about being veggie for about a month, right? Well, that was before a dear friend gave me a copy of M.F.K. Fisher's "Art of Eating". One chapter is called "Consider the Oyster", which left me drooling for big, fat, fresh ones. So as soon as I got some money, I went to the store and bought a dozen for six bucks (an absolute steal, since a few years ago they were $1.50 each). I brought them home, and made the soup below. I'd forgotten that my roommate hates oysters, so she ended up with something else for dinner--and there was more for myself and my husband.


Oyster Soup


1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons flour

4 cups milk

one dozen oysters

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic flakes

1 tablespoon onion flakes



Shell the oysters over a bowl to catch the juices. Take a few of the smallest oysters and chop them up. Set the oysters and juice aside. Melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux. Add the milk slowly, then the garlic and onion. and stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly. Add the oysters, turn off the heat, and call everyone to dinner (by the time they're seated and ready to go, the oysters will be done. Otherwise, wait ten minutes.)Serve, if you can, with French bread and white wine, or throw some potatoes in after the milk is hot, cook them for 10 minutes, and drink the wine anyway.

Ham and Barley Soup

And what, pray tell, have we subsisted on over the past month? Leftovers and fast food. [:)] So yeah, not much in the original cooking department here. But now that it's after Christmas, I get to come up with new and excitiing recipes. This one is a variation on something I found online.


Ham and Barley Soup


1 ham bone (preferably with quite a bit of meat on it)

1 1/2 cups hulled barley

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dried garlic (or 2 cloves fresh)

1 bay leaf


Start boiling the ham bone on high heat in an 8 quart pot with the bay leaf. Saute the onion (and fresh garlic, if using) in a pan till the onion becomes translucent and fragrant. Add to the pot. (Add the dried garlic at this stage, if using.) Add the barley and continue to boil over medium heat until the meat falls off the ham bone, about 1 1/2 hours. Get rid of the bone, take out and chop up the meat, put it back in the pot, and serve. Serves four.

Zuppa Toscana

Last night, my boyfriend told me he needed to run to Salinas to pick up some paperwork. So we ate Zuppa Toscana, or Tuscan Soup, for dinner (since I, in my wisdom, had started dinner early). The original recipe can be found in "Top Secret Recipes," by Todd Wilbur, and it's a clone recipe of the soup you'll find at the Olive Garden. My version triples the recipe, adds more kale and uses less potatoes than the original.This is one of my boyfriend's favorite dishes, and I'm glad I made it. Remember that trip to Salinas I told you about? It was just a ruse to get me to Carmel--where he proposed. [:)]

If you were to make an "engagement" meal (as opposed to a Valentine's Day or birthday meal), what kind of stuff would you make?

Zuppa Toscana (hacked)



8 cups chicken stock or broth

2 lbs sweet Italian turkey sausage, either links or ground meat

2  medium russet potatoes

4 cups chopped kale

3/4 cup milk or cream

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


Brown the sausage in a large pot. Slice it up into 1/2 inch thick rounds (if you have links), and add that as well. Cut the unpeeled potato in half, then cut the halves into 1/2 inch slices, then cut those in half and add them to the pot along with the kale. Stir, and bring it to a boil. Then turn the heat down and let the soup simmer for an hour, or until a fork goes through the potatoes easily. Turn off the heat and stir in the milk right before serving. You can also do this with a crockpot. Serves up two as a dinner or four as an appetizer. Serves one hungry, love addled couple.

Semi Homemade Pho

Pho, pronounced "fuh", is a Vietnamese noodle soup dish. It usually is made up of a beef broth, meat, noodles, and spices. And unlike American soups, you don't have to eat all the broth; it's just there to help cook the meat and keep everything else warm. I have a wonderful Philipino friend who is married to an equally wonderful Vietnamese man. The two of them helped teach me how to make pho the easy way. Now, let me be clear--there is absolutely nothing wrong with making your own pho broth from scratch. Nothing, I say. But if you happen to be able to get your hands on some pho spices, and some beef broth, and maybe some ginger and onion to really improve the flavor...well, you can make a pretty good version. So when my boyfriend and I had a craving for pho, we knew what to do. And paired with a good beer (him) or a rum and gingerale cocktail (me), we had an awesome lunch.

What's your best version of a comfort food classic?

Semi Homemade Pho

4 cans beef broth

1 bag pho spices

1 whole sweet onion

1 large piece ginger

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 package instant noodles (Chapagetti is a good brand, as is Maruchan)

½ lb flank, London broil, sirloin or eye of round, raw

1 bag bean sprouts

1 bunch basil

2 limes, cut into wedges

Siracha sauce

Hoisin sauce

Jalapenos or other chile peppers (optional)

Cut the onion into ½ inch rings and the ginger into ½ inch slices lengthwise. Grill or lightly broil them until the edges brown and the onion is translucent. Pour the beef broth into a large pot. Add the pho spices, the fish sauce, and the onion and ginger, and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, cook the instant noodles and slice the meat thinly(partially freezing it makes this easier). When the broth is boiling, place the noodles in a bowl, pour broth over them, add a few slices of meat, then add basil and bean sprouts to taste. Mix well to make sure the broth cooks the meat thoroughly. Use the limes, siracha sauce and hoisin sauce to taste as well. Serves four.