Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Soup is good for soul

When I was in grade school I got to leave at noon-time and walk home to have lunch with my mom.  She would make me a big bowl of Campbells something or other, (usually bean with bacon) and I'd get to eat lunch with her and watch the Banana Splits. Then she'd drive me back to school when the hour was up.  I think about this time and know life was easy as a 2nd grader in Indiana.  And so began a love of soup.

Although my mom's soup was generally (always) from a can-- as an adult, I've started to really love my soups.  Today, its Cream of Tomato!  

There was a great recipe in the month's Saveur magazine.  I think it was a special issue of the Top 100 recipes.  I'm going to provide it below. 

I made it in my Le Creuset pot and it was divine.  It only took about 45 minutes   Unfortunately, I didn't have any house-made croutons or sour cream for a dallop, but notwithstanding i finished two giant bowls.  Now I'm feeling that cozy yummy sit by the fire (and watch the debate) and do a little blogging.

Here we go.  Start with 4 slices of bacon and cook them up till the fat is all rendered and they're good and brown.   Then add two T. of butter and let it melt down, one diced carrot, one diced yellow onion, and 4 cloves of garlic sliced.  Stir around until everything is good and soft, scraping up the bottom of the pot then add 3 T. tomato PASTE.  Cook about 3 min more til it's caramelized.  Add 1 T. of flour and cook for 1 minute more.  Now add a big can of whole tomatoes, two cans of chicken broth (4 cups?) two bay leaves, and a good sprinkle of ground thyme.  Let it boil and turn down and simmer for 20 minutes or so. 

Now the challenging part is making it creamy.  You need to either use a submersible blender, or put it in your food processor.  (small batches at a time b/c you don't want any splashing.)  Once all the clumpy lumps are gone but it back in the pot and add about a cup of light cream.

If you don't like this, maybe you are an alien.  Or just have a soul made of coal....or rotten tomatoes....or something.



3 comments:

  1. Today is gonna be a perfect day for me to make this for din din tonight. Gonna be cold and rainy with winds of 25mph.
    I too got to go home from Solon and eat with Mom we watched Bozo. Loved that time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OH BOZO.....yes I thought of him too....WGN right?
    Once they pulled my name out of that giant spinning drum for the grand prize game. The girl only got to bucket number 3 though. (Remember the suspense when the child would be tossing the ball into the bucket...it was nail biting!) Ok, so back to soup. Make sure you let me know how it goes. It was yummy delicious here in Massachusetts. Tell me if you make any changes too, I'm quite versatile.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i do remember the grand prize game tension.. we have played it several times at parties.
    yes, i did sprinkle a bit of sugar on the carrots and added crushed red pepper. Delicious!!! i was asked several times for the recipe from the guests we served it to so you know it was good. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete