soup « blog @ mrsbeth.com

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Crockpot Pastina

Today’s dreary forecast of a rain/snow mix was the perfect day to complete this month’s Garden Gourmet Challenge. February’s challenge was crock pot soup or stew, and having a soup recipe in my family that has to be cooked all day long provides the perfect opportunity to alter it slightly in order to let it simmer all day in the crock pot while we work. It seems like a lot of work, but it is in fact quite simple.

This soup has been in my family for as long as I can remember. My great grandmother used to make it when we visited in the winter (and sometimes summer too!). It is the ultimate comfort food and I always got beyond excited when my dad announced that was what was simmering on the stove. Every time I eat Pastina it brings back so many great memories from my childhood.

When choosing a roast for this recipe, you want a Chuck roast that has marbling similar to that of a sirloin steak. The end result will be shredded beef that is just perfect for this soup. Don’t be scared of the fat–it provides tons of flavor. You need about 1 pound of roast, so get a larger one and cut it in half or thirds to get a 1 pound chunk.

Another important part of this soup is the pasta. Barilla makes a pasta called Pastina (which is why we call this soup Pastina) but it’s a bit hard to find. I ended up buying a pasta made by De Cecco called Acini di pepe. If you cannot find either, you want a very small pasta (but not couscous). We have used alphabet letters and stars before due to not being able to find the correct pasta. I suppose it doesn’t really matter what kind it is, but large pastas will definitely make a difference. So find the small stuff. Pastina are small round bb-like pieces of pasta.

You’ll need:

1 pound boneless Chuck roast
½ head celery
1 pound carrots
2 boxes low sodium chicken broth
8oz can tomato sauce
½ of a 1 pound box Pastina or Acini di pepe pasta
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
salt & pepper (to season roast before searing)
Parmesan cheese

Preheat skillet and crock pot to high heat. Season both sides of your roast with salt and pepper, and place in preheated skillet. Sear both sides (don’t do the short edges–you want some of the flavor to be able to escape) until each are golden brown. Place seared roast in the bottom of your crock pot. Reduce heat to low.

Cut the celery (use the entire head–leaves and all) and the carrots into 2 inch pieces, halving larger pieces long-ways so everything cooks evenly. Add the celery and carrots to the crock pot. Add the tomato sauce, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and add enough chicken broth to fill your crock pot to about half an inch from the top. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Turn the crock pot on high and cook the pasta as directed on the stove (it’s best to cook it al dente so that it doesn’t get too mushy in the soup). Remove the roast from the crock pot and shred it with two forks, then remove the vegetables (we usually just put our roast and veggies on a plate together). Add enough hot water to the crock pot to fill it back up to ½ inch from the top. Dish the meat and vegetables into bowls, spoon pasta over it, then cover with the broth in the crock pot. Top with Parmesan.

I will admit, Matt and I nearly polished off the entire pot of soup (because it is just that good), but this could easily feed 4 people.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Crab & Corn Chowder

If you haven’t figured out yet, I rarely use measuring utensils when I cook. I have about 3 sets of each measuring spoons and cups, but could probably count on one hand the number of times I have used them while cooking in the last 5 years. So, that information should be taken into account when you make one of my recipes. Especially a soup recipe. If something doesn’t taste right, add what you think is missing. You wont hurt my feelings.

Generally when I’m sick I crave hearty soups and foods that are warm and fill me up well. So, for the past few days I have been craving a hearty thick soup. But, since I don’t feel good, I don’t want to spend an hour at the grocery store trying to figure out what ingredients to get and throw together for a great soup. So I went shopping at home. Turns out I had just the right ingredients for a crab and corn chowder.

Crab and Corn Chowder
Matt got ahold of the camera.

You’ll need:

1 medium onion, diced
3-4 medium carrots, diced (or 20 baby carrots, coined)
3 ribs celery, diced
1 16-ounce bag frozen corn
10 ounces imitation crab
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 box chicken or vegetable broth
2 10oz cans cream of potato soup
2 cups milk
parsley
salt & pepper
garlic powder
hot sauce
soy sauce
corn starch
olive oil

Drizzle olive oil in a large pot on medium high heat. Dump in diced onion, carrots and celery, and sauté until onion and celery become translucent. Pour in broth and two cans of potato soup. Cover and simmer on medium for 10-15 minutes or until carrots have softened.

Add corn and crab to pot, and slowly pour in 2 cups of milk. Add Parmesan cheese, a few dashes of each: parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Add hot sauce to taste (We added about 1/4 of a cup but we like our stuff spicy around here–plus I needed to clear my sinuses.). Mix chowder well, and simmer on a low boil for 5-10 minutes or until all of the Parmesan has melted into the liquid. Mix corn starch with water in a separate bowl, making sure there are no lumps, and pour it into the chowder. Mix well and turn off heat. Serve when chowder has thickened.

If you don’t like some of the veggies you could always substitute for something else. A recipe for crab and corn chowder I ran across a few days ago called for red bell peppers, but I don’t like them so I used carrots instead. Just throw in whatever you like.

I added a bit too much hot sauce so if you do the same, just add a pinch of sugar to balance it out. We ate ours with biscuits warm out of the oven.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Chicken Noodle Soup

The last several days have been frighteningly cold here, with temperatures not expected to go up any time soon. The perfect meal on chilly days like these is home made chicken noodle soup. But I work until 6pm daily and have a 25-35 minute drive home (if I’m lucky) so I don’t have all afternoon for a pot of soup on the stove. I whipped this up tonight pretty quickly and it hit the spot.

You can kind of wing your ingredients, but tonight’s pot was by far the best I have ever made–so I’m going to give you the instructions to make it exactly like I did.

You’ll need:
3 boxes low sodium, fat free chicken stock
3/4 head celery, chopped–I used all but 3-4 stalks and the yellow center part
1 medium bag baby carrots, chopped
1-2 roasted chicken breasts, shredded–I used probably a cup and a half of chicken
1 regular sized bag egg noodles of choice
Salt, pepper, and parsley to taste

Pour all of the chicken broth into a large pot (I use a small stock pot) with the carrots and celery. Let it come to a rolling boil with the lid on, cooking the carrots and celery until mostly soft–this will probably take 15-20 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and stir. Add a pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of each pepper and parsley. Add the egg noodles, stirring to mix vegetables and chicken evenly with noodles (I ended up adding another 2 cups of water and a couple chicken bullion cubes here because I forgot to cover the pot and a lot of the stock boiled off, you can do this too if necessary). Cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This should serve at least 4 people with some left over. Add a grilled cheese sandwich and you have died and gone to heaven.