Saturday and Sunday were two of the coldest weather days we have had in Kansas City in years. In fact, Sunday was the third coldest day of all-time for December 18th. I know that if you live in Minnesota our -6 degrees doesn't sound so bad, but that just doesn't happen here. I knew the cold weather was coming so I went out early Saturday morning, before it got too cold, and bought all of the ingredients for a couple kinds of soup. I have written about my love of homemade soup before, but when the weather gets really cold, soup is pretty tough to beat. The temperature started to drop about 10:00 AM Saturday morning and just kept getting worse all day and into Sunday. I spent most of Saturday afternoon making two kinds of soup. It was nice and warm in the kitchen and when you live in a condo someone else does the snow shoveling, so I was right where I wanted to be.
The first soup I made is called Plaza III Steak Soup. The recipe came from a cookbook called Kansas City Cuisine. The book was first published in 1990 and is a sampling of KC restaurants and their recipes. The authors are Shifra Stein and Karen Adler. The Plaza III is an old line steak house that is still in business in the same location as it was in 1990 and this is their recipe. This makes a very thick beefy soup that is quite rich and filling. I actually made a double recipe.
Plaza III Steak Soup
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
4 TBSP butter
1/4 Cup flour
2- 10 Oz. cans beef consomme'
1/4 Cup diced carrots
1/4 Cup diced celery
1/4 Cup diced onion
1/2 Cup chopped canned tomatoes
3/4 tsps Kitchen Bouquet
1 beef bouillon cube
1/4 tsps black pepper
5 Oz. frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 pound ground beef steak - browned and drained
Preparation:
Place butter in a soup pot over low heat and melt without allowing butter to brown. Add flour and stir to form a roux. Cook the mixture for three minutes over medium heat without browning, stirring constantly. Add consomme' to the roux and stir until smooth and slightly thickened. Bring to a full boil.
Add the fresh vegetables, tomatoes, and seasonings and allow to return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are just barely tender (20 to 30 minutes). Add frozen vegetables and the browned ground steak. Simmer an additional 15 to 20 minutes until everything is heated through and the flavors have blended.
My next soup was chicken noodle. I have never really had a recipe for chicken noodle soup, but I have been making it for a long time. This is what I do and it always turns out to be quite tasty. Sometimes I start with the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving or Boil a whole chicken, but lately I have been buying a roasted chicken and using the meat in the soup and the bones to make my broth. It is a pretty easy way to get a real tasty broth. Experiment a little and see what you like.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
For Stock
1- whole roasted chicken - I like the ones from Costco
1-large carrot- peeled and sliced thinly
1-stalk celery - diced
1/2 large onion - diced
several fresh sage leaves - chopped
leaves from several thyme sprigs - chopped
leaves from several tarragon sprigs - chopped
2-3 quarts water- enough to cover chicken bones in a pot
3 chicken bouillon cubes
For Soup
2 carrots peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery diced
1/2 large onion diced
1 TBSP chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 32Oz. boxes reduced salt chicken broth
1 lb. extra wide noodles
Preparation:
Remove skin from roast chicken and discard. Remove meat from bones and cut into 1/2" dice. Set meat aside. Place chicken bones, the first sliced carrot, celery and half onion in a 4 Qt. pot. Add two to three quarts water, the three bouillon cubes and the chopped sage, thyme and tarragon. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour. Pour contents of the pot through a strainer into a larger soup pot. Discard all of the contents of the strainer. You will have about two quarts of homemade stock in the bottom of your large soup pot. Add the 2 sliced carrots, the diced celery and diced onion to the pot, along with the parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Supplement your homemade stock with as much of the boxed chicken broth as you need to fill the large soup pot to about 2/3 full. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until vegetables are just beginning to get tender. Bring pot back to a boil and add roasted chicken pieces and as many noodles as you like. I like thick soup, so I use a whole pound of noodles in a large soup pot, but you may want to start with half a pound and see what you think. You can always add a few more. Cook noodles in the boiling soup per package directions for time. Don't overcook the noodles. Reduce heat to low and season soup with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. You can substitute rice for noodles if you prefer chicken rice soup. Feel free to add any other vegetables you desire too. I just happen to like the old standard trinity of carrot, onion and celery. If you want to freeze some of the soup, remove the amount you want to freeze from the pot before you add the noodles. Then when you thaw the soup to reheat, add the noodles. I think that works better than reheating frozen noodles. Experiment. It will be fun.
