The Culinary Works

As the end of the summer nears, we start thinking of the winter meals ahead. My personal favorite is a hot bowl of soup, or even a nice stew on a cold winter’s night. Soups and stews are comfort foods at their very best, and like many other dishes, they are very easy to prepare as long as you know some of the basic guidelines and techniques.

What is the difference between a soup and a stew? The simplest difference is that soups are ‘traditionally’ thinner than stews. In truth, almost any soup can be made into a stew. Cut your ingredients small, it's the start of the soup, make your chunks a bit bigger your heading for a stew. So let's not worry about the minor details, and call them all soups for now.

The advantage of creating your own soups at home is that you control the ingredients and nutrition value. Fresh ingredients are key. Your soup is not a disposal pot for the remnants of your vegetable bin.

Take stock in your soup

Every good soup starts with a good base stock. Your stock is a foundation from which all the flavors and your soup build. A well made stock will also add to the body and mouth feel of your soup. There is often some confusion over the difference between a stock and a broth. A stock is purely a simmered reduction made from vegetables, herbs and often meat. If you add seasonings to a stock; for example salt, pepper, basil, or garlic, it is considered a broth. Many broths are clarified and can be readily substituted in place of a stock.

Although there is nothing like a homemade stock, a store-bought stock will make a respectable soup. Preparing homemade stock is easy, but beyond the scope of this article.

For more information on making your own stocks, check out the Procedures section on the site.

Remember to always match the stock to the kind of soup you are making. A chicken stock goes with chicken noodle. Beef stock goes with minestrone and vegetable stock will work well with almost any recipe.

If you're using a store-bought stock, give it a taste before you start. If you find it has good body but is still a little bland, let’s take a little time to enhance it before it becomes the base of your soup. All we needed to do is simmer the stock for about 20 to 30 minutes with some rough chopped onions, carrots, and celery. The standard kitchen ratio is 3-2-1. That is, three-parts onion, two-parts carrot and one-part celery. Don’t use the leafy part of the celery, because it's very bitter. You may also add a few herbs to simmer with your vegetables. The traditional choices are parsley, thyme and dried bay leaf but you can be imaginative.

Gearing Up The Ingredients

Since we are starting with a good stock, we don’t need to simmer our soup all day. We will want to employ a few tricks to get ahead of the game.

First, we can save a great deal of preparation time, by blanching our vegetables before we add them to our stock. For a step by step guide to blanching vegetables, check out the Pantry section at www.budgetsavvymag.com.

You can enhance the flavor of meats and many vegetables with a quick sauté before they go into the pot. Sauté in butter or oil until the surface starts to brown and then move them right into our soup pot. You can do the same with most of your meats, except for fish: that should go directly into the stock.

Souper Fixes

It is a good practice to let the soup simmer awhile before we add the final seasonings. I find that most soups need nothing more than salt and a little pepper. How much? The standard is “to taste”. Add a little and let it simmer for a while and taste. If you like it, you are done.

If you discover your soup is too sweet, balance the flavors by adding a little rice vinegar. The reverse is also true; adding a little sugar will balance the sour flavors. If there is too much salt, add a peeled whole potato and let it cook with the soup for 10 or 15 minutes, then remove it. The potato will absorb extra salt, and can be stored for the next kitchen project.

Floating a couple of ice cubes in the finished soup will make is easier to skim any extra fat; chilling over night lets you get it all in one easy scoop.

Finishing Touches

If you want to add flare to your soup, consider adding a garnish just before serving. Remember that your garnish should complement your soup, but it need not be one of the ingredients. Keep it simple, but select a garnish that is attractive in itself. Pick a garnish that is flavorful but does not overwhelm.

A few examples are:

• fresh herbs like parsley, dill, basil, cilantro or even lavender
• sliced almonds, cashew, pine or other nuts
• chopped egg for hearty soups
• fresh vegetables like shaved onion and red pepper, chopped scallions or watercress
• grated cheese
• croutons
• crumbled bacon
• dry spices like cinnamon, cumin or paprika.