Week 2: 4 Awesome Soups

4 Awesome soups ... both in taste and cooking.... Loved the experience.

1. New England Clam Chowder:

Surprise was in the ingredients. It has salted pork, I would never have guessed that they add pork to the clam chowder. Also the other thing is I now understand why there is never enough clams in a clam chowder! I started out with 1.5lbs of clams and after deshelling the clams there was no more than 0.25lbs left of actual clam meat!

Again had to buy more than I need of these exotic ingredients.... I wonder why they don't write cookbooks based on common ingredients? So I bought more than I need of Salted Pork, and half and half (well I ended up not using this... no courage... used whole milk instead). The actual cooking time and effort is relatively easy. It took me about 1.5hr to cook and prep work was relatively easy.

Regarding the taste I think I screwed up a bit... I did 2 things wrong --- 1. Suateed the onions for a little too long... so the soup has a brownish tinge instead of being white (well that could also be due to the fact I used milk instead of half & half) & 2. I added a little too much salt. None of these recipes specify the amount of salt to be added... just says add salt to taste... I wish they just say approx how much. So it tasted too salty...

So bottom line... I like this soup a lot... so I will have to revisit this soup again... will update then (definitely before I finish the book)

2. Tuscan Tomato Soup:

Yummm... Yummm... Excellent soup. Both me and my wife swallowed every last drop of this soup. The best soup yet...

Prep work is a little involved. Especially the tomatoes... but it is worth it. Also it is a very healthy soup. No butter or cream. Just chicken stock and tomatoes... the only "unhealthy" part is probably the toasted french bread.

It took me about 2hrs to prepare this soup. But boy was it worth it... This soup will definitely be made again :-)

3. Lentil Soup:

Another excellent soup, a very easy one to make, no exotic ingredients and very hearty. It took me about an 1hr to make. Prep work was also easy. I used the pink lentils.

Good tasting soup. I made is little too lemony as I like the lemon taste. Overall very satisfying. If you are an Indian then this tastes like a lemony variation of Daal Fry.

4. Shrimp Bisque:

Well we loved the soup but it is a very hearty soup and a very rich soup (Butter, heavy cream). Prep time is not too long but it is involved. It took me about 1.5hr to make it but I was totally busy during the entire time.

Ingredients are not exotic... so not a major issue. But it does take a long time for the prep. For example I first needed to add the shrimp shells into the soup and the having to pick them out. I am sure there is a smarter way of doing this.

Overall the soup was good. This soup was so hearty though that for the first time since we start this soup expt we didnot have dinner as the soup was very filling!

So that brings me to the end of Week 2. Really enjoyed Week 2 better than Week 1. My wife asked me rate Week 2 soups, I would rate it as follows: Tuscan Tomato, Lentil, Shrimp Bisque/Clam Chowder.

Also this brings me to the end of the Classic Soup Section (I didnot cook the Beef Soup). I will be taking a weeks break next week. So I will start with the Simple Soup section during the week Jun 1st. So till then goodbye.

1st Week: 3 Soups with 1 surprise

Well this week I tried out the first 3 soups in this book. They are under the Classic Soup section.

1. Chicken Noodle Soup:

Surprisingly easy to try out. Only thing is some of the ingredients like egg noodles, I ended up having to buy more than I will ever need... so now I have a 3/4th packet of egg noodles lying in our pantry. It took me about 1.5hr to prepare the soup

Not very impressed by the taste though. Only advantage is I know the ingredients that go in and it is not that loaded with salt ... compared to a canned soup.... no preservatives.

2. French Onion Soup:

Requires some work. I would never have tried this soup out were it not for this exercise. Again some of the ingredients like the Gruyere Cheese are exclusive to this soup and I ended up buying more than I will ever need (how I wish they sell smaller quantities of these exotic ingredients (exotic to me :-))). Lot more cooking involved than the chicken noodle soup but had fun prepping for this. I used chicken broth instead of the beef stock (beef stock is traditionally used for French Onion Soup). It took me about 2hrs to cook this soup.

I was pleasantly suprised by the taste of the soup. I really liked the soup. But this soup should be eaten as soon as it is cooked ... no refridgeration... I will definitely try this recipe again.

3. Split Pea Soup:

Ingredients for this soup are pretty standard. So I was glad I didnot have to buy anything exotic. It took me about 1hr to cook this soup. Nothing major required. Only thing I should have added more of the chicken broth as the soup turned out drier than I desired. (I halved the recommended qty... as I was making only 2 servings instead of the 4 serving per the recipe... I should have reduced it by 30-40% instead).

Nothing great from taste standpoint. The soup is hearty though and very filling. If you are not a fan of split pea soup, I doubt if you will change your mind after having this soup. But the bacon does add a bit of flavor to the soup.

Cheers till next week..

The Start of the Cooking Adventure

Inspired by Julie&Julia Movie I have decided to try out cook books cover to cover (with a few exceptions). We typically buy cook books and then only try out 1 or 2 recipes and then the book collects dust. So I thought it is a good idea to start trying the cook books we have at home.

I intend to make brief comments on the experience... both the cooking experience as well as the taste. My first foray into this will be Williams Sonoma's Book on Soup.