Pop's Chop Suey

Growing up I had many home cooked meals. We didn't have regulars like "monday meatloaf" but we did have a few staples. One of my favorite dishes was chop suey. All of this time I never thought of making it myself - until recently. Something moved me and I finally decided to ask my dad for his recipe. Lucky me, he gave me the recipe with a fresh sample!

Chop Suey

Garnished with green onion and crispy chow mein noodles

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp salt

1lbs pork/beef/veal mix

1/3 cup vegi oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup celery, cut into large pieces

1 cup beef stock

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 Tbs molasses

1 can bean sprouts, drained

1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 tsp sesame oil

• Combine flour and salt in a plastic bag.
• Add meat and toss to coat.
• Put oil and coated meat in a large pot (preferably cast iron) and brown.
• Add onion and cook mixture until onions are soft.
• Stir in celery, beef stock, soy sauce, and molasses.
• Cover and cook for 30 min.
• Add bean sprouts and water chestnuts and cook for an additional 15 min. If needed, thicken with a flour and water mixture.
• Right before serving, add 1 tsp of sesame oil.
• Serve with rice and garnish.

This recipe is very simple but packs a lot of flavor. It's great for a quick dinner or reheated for lunch.

Farmer's market follow-up

Back in Nov, I posted a little blurb about the Milwaukee Winter Farmer's Market. Well, it took me until the final day (April 14th) to make my way to the market. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was pretty happy with the options.

View of about 1/2 of the market

There were only a couple of traditional farmer's market tables with a lot of root vegetables, greens, and mushrooms. There was also a lot of other food to choose from such as cheese, beef, fish, lamb, honey, wine, and soup as well as fresh flowers and even something for your dog! Overall, it was good and I would probably go back a few times next winter. The event is free, the parking is free, and it's small enough that you won't get lost.


We ended up buying a fish bundle from Rushing Waters, the mushroom medley and pickled mushrooms from River Valley Ranch, and a lamb loin chop from Pinn-Oak Ridge Farms. All of these items could make an amazing winter meal; however, I'm only going to share one of them with you for now :-)

Shiitake mushroom soup
via Betty Crocker

8oz dried Chinese noodles
3 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
3 oz fresh shitake mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup snap pea pods
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
1 tsp soy sauce

• Cook noodles
• In a separate saucepan, combine all remaining ingredients.
• Heat over medium until boiling. Boil for 3 min.
• Add noodles and reduce heat to simmer - for about 3 min.

A little behind the weather...

Over the winter I made few really great soups and I haven't had a chance to sit down and share them with you. I know it's not really soup season anymore, but since I do live in Wisconsin there's a very good chance we could still have a cold spell.

The first soup, baked potato, I decided to make because a girl at work was craving baked potato soup for lunch and we couldn't find any place near work that offered it. After talking about it so much I really wanted some too. So that weekend I went home and made it :-)It was hard to find a baked potato soup recipe because they are all very similar with just have few variations. I finally decided on a basic one and went from there.

Baked Potato Soup
From Yumsugar.com (adapted from Cooking Light magazine)



2 tbsp. butter
1/4 of a large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4 baking potatoes (about 2-1/2 lbs
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups milk
1 cup (4 oz) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Cracked black pepper (optional)

• Preheat oven to 400°F
• Pierce potatoes with a fork and place on oven rakes
• Bake for 1 hour or until tender
• Cool, peel, and coarsely mash potatoes
• In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat
• Add the onions and garlic and sauté until soft, about 8 minutes
• Add flour into the vegetables
• Gradually whisk in milk, stirring until blended
• Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly, about 8 minutes
• Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper
• Stir until cheese melts
• Remove from heat
• Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions
• Cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Do not boil.
• Ladle 1-1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls
• Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 tsp cheese, 1-1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tbsp. bacon
• Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired

The next recipe is the "losing" recipe from the Iron Chef competition we had a work. Though it didn't win, I think it's a great soup! I first made it with reuben sandwiches for St. Patty's day last year. Yum!!!

Guinness and Onion soup with Irish Cheddar Crouton
From Foodnetwork.com

Picture from foodnetwork.com

My picture from the Iron Chef competition

2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
5 cloves minced garlic
8 cups thinly sliced onions
Gray salt - I just used regular table salt
1 Tbs fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1 1/2 cups Guinness
6 cups beef stock
6 slices country bread cut 1/2-inch thick, toasted - I used croutons
1/2 pound Irish Cheddar, sliced thin - I used swiss



Make the soup

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat
• Add garlic and cook briefly
• Add onions, season with salt and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often
• Reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are golden brown
• Add the thyme, vinegar, and beer
• Reduce beer by half and add the beef stock
• Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 more minutes

Prepare to serve

• Preheat the broiler
• Transfer soup to an ovenproof serving dish or individual ovenproof soup bowls
• Top with toasted bread slices and sliced Cheddar
• Broil until cheese melts and starts to brown slightly
• Serve piping hot

Safety 3rd

About a year and a half ago a friend of mine gave me a really cool soup cookbook for a housewarming gift. It sat in my car for a while, and then it sat in the kitchen for a while.....until about a week ago.

I finally got the motivation to make some soup. And it was so good I made it two days in a row!
The first day, I made a pretty bad mistake (hence the title of this entry), but the second day we improvised...

Asparagus soup with Parmesan crisps
 
1/4 oz butter
1 lb 10oz fresh asparagus spears, finely chopped (this is about 1 bunch)
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup plain flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cream - I used heavy cream
3 1/2 oz fresh Parmesan cheese

• Heat butter in large, heavy-based pan
• Cook the asparagus and onion. Stirring over medium heat for about 5 min (until onion is soft)
• Sprinkle flour in pan and stir for 1 minute to combine
• Remove from heat and gradually add stock. Stirring until smooth
• Return to heat and bring to boil
• Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes (until asparagus is tender)
• Transfer soup, in batches, to blender. Allow to cool before handling*
• Pour blended soup in metal bowl for the meantime
• Once all the soup is blended, transfer back to original pot
• Stir in the cream
• Reheat soup on stove, without allowing it to boil

The next steps describe how to make a Parmesan crisp. But instead, I just grated a pile of fresh Parmesan cheese on top of my soup.
You might notice that this recipe is lacking seasoning. Normally, you would add "salt and pepper to taste" but my husband and I have different tastes. So what I started doing was not seasoning our food (particularly soups) while I made it. We now just season our own portions of food. For my servings I added sea salt and hot sauce, while my husband added a lot of freshly ground black pepper.

*So, I didn't fully understand the warning about letting the soup cool before you handle it in the blender. So, I went ahead and dumped boiling hot soup into a blender, sealed it off tight and hit "go". Within moments, the top of the blender blew off and I had boiling soup land on my skin and green soup covered the kitchen. While I immediately ran to the sink to cool off my arm, my dog got a head start on the clean up.

Besides letting the soup cool a bit, what we did the second time around was remove the little plastic center from the blender top (this lets air in and pressure out) and covered/held down the lid with a dish towel. I also realized my new found need for an immersion blender.