This is a little more 50's-housewife than I normally do, but it was in Louisa's recipe file, so there. This soup is incredibly easy and also incredibly cheap. I spent $15 in all-organic ingredients and ended up with at least 4 quarts of soup.
Pea Soup
1 lb split peas
3 qt water
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, grated
3 carrots, grated
1 ham bone or 2 smoked pork hocks or 1 small daisy ham (2 lbs or less)
Rinse peas. Place in pot with rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil and let simmer uncovered for 2 1/2 hours, adding water as necessary to cover other ingredients. Pull out the big hunk o' pork, remove meat, cut into medium pieces, and replace meat (if you have a bone, don't put it back in). Simmer for about another 1/2 hour. Salt and pepper to taste.
Family secret: add a teaspoon of white vinegar to the bowl when serving.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Escarole Soup With Mini-Meatballs
This is a somewhat time-intensive but simple recipe from Grandma Louisa. Escarole is in season in the fall, and I haven't been able to find it here in January, so I've been making this soup from chard instead and it's still delicious. My mom remembers my great grandmother gathering dandelion greens to cook with, and they may or may not have gone into this soup, so that's worth a try too.
We had to reconstruct this from memory, since apparently no one wrote it down. I don't know if I got it quite right, but it tastes good. Unless you put way too much pepper in. Don't do that.
Soup:
4 quarts chicken broth
2 heads escarole, or 2 bunches of chard
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
Meatballs:
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
2 slices sandwich bread, crumbled (use a grater or food processor) (can be omitted for gluten-free version)
1 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic granules or minced garlic, optional
Mix all meatball ingredients in a bowl. With your hands, if you're not too grossed out by the idea. Squeezing and squishing the meat will get it all to stick together. Put the broth in a pot on the stove to boil while forming the meatballs. Meatballs should be 1/2" to 3/4" across.
Slide meatballs into the boiling broth and simmer while chopping greens. Cut greens in 1" strips, removing thick parts of the stem if using chard. Add greens to soup and simmer until just softened (this is 15-20 minutes for chard, less for escarole). Salt and pepper to taste.
Top with grated Parmesan to serve.
Solet (Hungarian Bean Soup)
Soup week! I've used up all the soup-appropriate containers in the house and I have at least a gallon in the freezer, so I guess it's time to take a break from soup making.
I don't remember Marie making this soup, but it's delicious. Exactly what should go in Solet, and whether Solet (Hungarian) and Cholet (Jewish) are varieties of the same thing or have nothing to do with each other, is a topic of debate online. So I'll just present my grandmother's recipe.
You do need either an oven-safe pot and oven or crock pot for this recipe. I recommend making late in the evening and cooking over night.
Solet
10 oz beans (kidney beans, pinto beans, or soup mix all work)
1/2 lb corned beef, cut in 1" pieces
5 oz fatty stew meat, cut in 1" pieces
1 marrow bone
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp flour
Place beans, meat, and onion in a large pot. In one cup water, mix salt, paprika, and flour, and add to pot. Fill pot with water to cover ingredients. Cook on high, covered, for 45 minutes, stirring frequently at the beginning to prevent burning. Place in low oven for 12 hours, or transfer to crock pot and cook on low for 12 hours. Add more water before leaving overnight to make sure the top doesn't dry out.
Notes: I never have half a pound of corned beef, so I've made this with bacon and with smoked turkey. Pretty much any meat will do, although it's traditional to used smoked meat. If your meat is pre-cooked, add it when you transfer to the low heat.
This recipe doesn't call for pre-soaking the beans. I always cook for the full 12 hours and have never had a problem. The early cooking time on high heat plus the slow cooking accomplishes the toxin reduction that soaking is for. I've used mixed soup beans, which give a more interesting texture and color, and white kidney beans, which look boring but taste fine.
I don't remember Marie making this soup, but it's delicious. Exactly what should go in Solet, and whether Solet (Hungarian) and Cholet (Jewish) are varieties of the same thing or have nothing to do with each other, is a topic of debate online. So I'll just present my grandmother's recipe.
You do need either an oven-safe pot and oven or crock pot for this recipe. I recommend making late in the evening and cooking over night.
Solet
10 oz beans (kidney beans, pinto beans, or soup mix all work)
1/2 lb corned beef, cut in 1" pieces
5 oz fatty stew meat, cut in 1" pieces
1 marrow bone
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp flour
Place beans, meat, and onion in a large pot. In one cup water, mix salt, paprika, and flour, and add to pot. Fill pot with water to cover ingredients. Cook on high, covered, for 45 minutes, stirring frequently at the beginning to prevent burning. Place in low oven for 12 hours, or transfer to crock pot and cook on low for 12 hours. Add more water before leaving overnight to make sure the top doesn't dry out.
Notes: I never have half a pound of corned beef, so I've made this with bacon and with smoked turkey. Pretty much any meat will do, although it's traditional to used smoked meat. If your meat is pre-cooked, add it when you transfer to the low heat.
This recipe doesn't call for pre-soaking the beans. I always cook for the full 12 hours and have never had a problem. The early cooking time on high heat plus the slow cooking accomplishes the toxin reduction that soaking is for. I've used mixed soup beans, which give a more interesting texture and color, and white kidney beans, which look boring but taste fine.
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