Soups, Stocks + Sauces – Page 3 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry Soup

My mother handed me a butternut squash the last time I visited my parents’ apartment. I don’t usually get hand-me-down vegetables from people, but I was grateful for this one and immediately thought of butternut squash soup for dinner. Before cooking though, I opened my freezer to, er, re-arrange the vodka bottles in there and noticed the frozen leftover coconut milk tucked behind all the stock I’ve also stored. Something curry-ish came to mind and then something butternut squash soup-y curry-ish materialized from that.

I puréed the squash-coconut mixture towards the end of the recipe using my food processor. Do this in batches if you have a smaller food processor or else your kitchen counter will be squash-yellow by the time you have to eat. If you have a hand blender, even better! Feel free to add more stock to reach the desired soup consistency. I like mine a little bit chunky, so sometimes I even skip the entire step of pureéing it.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized butternut squash
oil
salt
pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp cumin, grounded
1 tsp coriander seeds, grounded
1 tsp curry powder
dash of cinnamon powder
2 cups vegetable stock
1 can coconut milk
chile flakes
parsley, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. Slice into quarters. Drizzle the squash meat with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place squash cut side down on a lined roasting tray. Roast for about 30 minutes, or until flesh feels soft when prodded. Remove from the oven and let cool. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Roughly chop into smaller pieces.
2. In a Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic until brown and then onions until soft and translucent. Add the tomatoes and all the spices and keep sautéing until tomatoes are broken.
3. Add the vegetable stock and let simmer. Add the roasted squash, then add the coconut milk and continue to simmer. When bubbling, aid the softening of the squash by crushing them using the back of a large spoon against the inside of the pot. Season with chile flakes for a bit of spiciness and salt and pepper as necessary.
4. When everything is well incorporated, scoop the squash-coconut mixture into a food processor, toss in parsley leaves, and do a quick blitz.

Gamjatang, Korean Rib Soup

After a harrowing ten-hour trip from Chicago, the Dr. was craving kalbi-tang, or Korean short beef rib soup, the next day. We had stopped by Joong Boo Market on Belmont Avenue before we continued to the airport and among our purchase was a package of fresh perilla leaves. I thought of gamja-tang, pork rib soup, because it’s what I always order when I’m in Hanbat in Koreatown. I ended up buying short beef ribs and beef neck bones and then using a pork-rib recipe. I think combining the two soups in this one recipe was a pretty good compromise even though Maangchi may slap my hand if she ever reads this.

If we knew we were to spend all afternoon and all night trying to fly back to New York City–our flight was cancelled without any notification and all 180 passengers were vying for the next three flights to La Guardia–we would have bought the soups from the market’s deli and enjoyed them at the airport.

Finally home and caught up on sleep the next night, I searched for online recipes for both soups. All of them require boiling the bones and then rinsing them before boiling again. This step removes all the impurities and the fat from the boiled bones, but it’s sacrilege if you’re Filipino because it’s the fat that makes my people’s soups whole. Sometimes though, I do what I’m told even if the order comes from an older Korean lady. To keep my stubborn streak however, I skipped an extra rinsing step so at least some of the fat is preserved in the broth.

Needless to say, I scared the crap out of the Dr. who was impressed with how the soup turned out: he had two full large bowls for dinner while the negative aspect of our Chicago trip dissolved in pieces.

Ingredients:
5 short beef ribs, rinsed
4 beef neck bones, rinsed
5 perilla leaves, chopped in 1-inch pieces
1 napa cabbage, sliced into 4 pieces
2 potatoes, peeled, sliced
1 bunch of scallions, chopped
4 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms
1 large knob of ginger, peeled, chopped
1 yellow onion, quartered
2 tbsps soy bean paste

Sauce:
5 perilla leaves, chiffonade
6 cloves of garlic, minced
a dash of hot pepper flakes
2 tbsps hot pepper paste
4 tbsps cooking wine
3 tbsps fish sauce

1. In a large Dutch oven, boil some water. Add the beef ribs and neck bones. Lower the heat and let impurities rise to the top. Using a strainer, remove the impurities and discard. Simmer beef for a total of an hour before rinsing them out with cold water.
2. In the same washed Dutch oven, return the beef with some more water. Add ginger, onion, soy bean paste and mushrooms. Simmer for another hour.
3. In the meantime, in a separate pot, boil some water and blanch the cabbage for a minute. Remove from the pot, squeeze out the water and set aside.
4. Make the sauce as well while you’re boiling the beef. Combine all sauce ingredients and mix thoroughly. Set aside until needed.
5. When the beef is done, remove the mushrooms and let cool. Slice them and return to the pot with the rest of the vegetables. Cook for another 30 minutes in low-medium fire to make sure most of the meat is falling off the bones and the potatoes are cooked.

Pork Tomatillo Soup

As much as I would like to take credit for this very satisfying soup, I’m unable to because I recreated it from memory after the Dr. made it this winter. I remember walking in his apartment and saying that his place smelled like Taco Mix, the taco stand in his neighborhood. Apparently, it was the best compliment I could have given because he was trying to make a Mexican soup he saw in Anthony Bourdain’s latest Mexico City episode. He replayed the show for me and all he could figure out was that the soup they were served for breakfast was green. The Dr. imagined a whole pork carnitas taco in soup form, so he went to work and boiled down pork with tomatillos, cilantro and lime juice. The finished product was so good, I could not help but ask for a third serving. When we came back from Colombia and I was lamenting about the cold weather, I made it myself. Funny how sometimes a snapshot from a TV show is enough to inspire you to cook.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized pork picnic
12 tomatillos, peeled from husks and quartered
2 bunches cilantro, thoroughly washed
2 Scotch bonnet peppers, halved, seeds removed
1 red onion, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, minced
juice from 4 limes
salt

1. In a large stockpot, boil the pork picnic in enough water to keep it submerged. Add a generous amount of salt. When impurities float to the top, remove and discard. Lower the heat down to medium-low.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Using a ladle strainer, try to get as much of the solids and transfer to a food processor. Purée and transfer back to the pot.
3. Cook for another hour or until pork is falling apart. Season with salt and lime juice to taste. It should be a good balance of saltiness and sourness. Serve with rice.

Ham Hock and Apple Soup

Who ever said pork and apples make a good combination? Maybe it’s because the tartiness of the fruit cuts through the pork’s fat and the sweetness of a good piece of pork complements the apples. I’ve used the pairing several times before but nothing beats this soup from April Bloomfield, chef of the Spotted Pig.

Our mouths watered when we saw a short clip of this soup from the chef’s cooking class. The Dr. and I raced to see who would cook it first. I won, but only because I stayed in all Sunday afternoon to spend five hours of prep and cooking time. Time well spent, I say, as it yielded six servings for two days.

Ingredients:
For ham hock and stock:
3 pieces brined ham hocks
half a gallon apple cider
1 bay leaf
4 peppercorns

For soup:
5 medium carrots, diced
2 medium parsnips, diced
8 pieces of small potatoes, chopped
1 apple, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps whole grain mustard
oil, salt, pepper

1. Prepare the ham hock and stock. In large stockpot, combine ham hock and stock ingredients, plus enough water to cover. Simmer for about 3 hours or until meat is falling off bone.
2. Remove ham hock and reserve the broth. Pick meat off the bones with two forks. The meat should come off easily. Set the meat aside. Discard bones.
3. When ready to make the soup, heat some oil in a large Dutch oven. Add garlic, onions, carrots and parsnips and cook under medium-low fire until golden brown and soft, about 40 minutes, to concentrate the flavor.
4. Add salt, potatoes and apples. Cook until potatoes are soft. Add ham hock meat and reserved broth and cook for 20 minutes on low until vegetables are broken down. This will help thicken the soup. Ladle in bowls and top with a dollop of mustard to serve.

Asian-Style Duck Soup

The waiter looked at me funny when I asked for the duck carcass at Peking Duck House during dinner last week. I think he was surprised only because I wasn’t one of his regular customers asking for it. I’m sure they use the duck excess to make other dishes, but the way I see it, I should be able to take the carcass home myself if I paid $40 for their Peking duck.

At home, I was able to salvage a lot of meat from the carcass. I spent the rest of the rainy weekend making stock out of the bones. I made a very hearty soup out of the entire thing using rice vermicelli noodles, but feel free to use udon or soba; just cook according to package instructions. I was able to make several servings of soup with this recipe. I added smoked tofu in one, carrot tops and dried mushrooms in the other and homemade meatballs another time. It was the soup that kept on giving.

Ingredients:
For the duck stock:
1 duck carcass from your Peking Duck order, chopped in pieces so they fit in your pot
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
1 bay leaf
salt

For the duck soup:
rice vermicelli
leftover duck meat
baby bok choy, chopped
1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
half a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, grated
fish sauce
light soy sauce
lime juice

1. Make duck stock like you make any stock. Store in plastic containers in the freezer until ready to use. Before eating the duck soup, heat the duck stock in a small pot. Add garlic, cilantro and ginger and let boil to absorb the flavors. Stir in the meat and the baby bok choy for a couple of minutes until the greens wilt.
2. Separately, boil some water to cook the noodles. If using rice vermicelli noodles, you only need to cook them for 15 seconds. Remove from boiling water and add to individual soup bowls before serving.
3. Ladle in flavored duck broth to bowls with noodles. Top with scallions. Drizzle with some soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice to taste.