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Food Ventures

Winter Treats: Soup with Homemade Bread

By Ann Hattes
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Their book gives the essentials of bread dough, sections devoted to morning baking and evening baking divided by breads and pastries, and one hundred recipes for everything from baguettes to sourdough breads and savory and sweet pastries to crusts.

Welcome the days of the new year with a January meal of soup and homemade bread. Minimize waste and maximize flavor with homemade stock, soup, bisque, chowder, and more!

Making soup is far more than just following a recipe. Learn the art of making soups and stocks with The Soupmaker’s Kitchen (Quarry Books), and save money too. With author/chef Aliza Green as a guide, learn to use your ingredients optimally, from saving vegetable scraps for stock to tips on techniques, like soaking dried mushrooms to straining broth. Explore more than 50 soup recipes from all over the world and in every style of soup. Try Hungarian Woodlands Mushroom Soup with Sour Cream and Paprika, Senegalese Peanut and Yam Puree with Ginger (vegan), and Greek Lentil Soup (Faki).

For yummy bread to accompany your soups, consult Baking by Hand (Page Street Publishing). Create artisan loaves in the most traditional way, with your own two hands as nothing beats the intoxicating smell of freshly baked bread. Authors Andy and Jackie King, top bread makers in the Northeast, show home chefs their easy and remarkable 30-minute Four Fold kneading technique to make bread better without using a mixer. Their book gives the essentials of bread dough, sections devoted to morning baking and evening baking divided by breads and pastries, and one hundred recipes for everything from baguettes to sourdough breads and savory and sweet pastries to crusts.

Find more bread recipes in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (Thomas Dunne Books). The first book by the same authors, Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois, proved that people want to bake their own bread, provided they can do easily and quickly. They have revised and updated the book including a gluten-free chapter, more than thirty new recipes plus expanded “Tips and Techniques” and “Ingredients” sections.

 

Corncob Stock

(Courtesy of The Soupmaker’s Kitchen.) Makes about 1 gallon. Serves 8 – 12.

This sweet, golden broth can be used to add flavor to soups, risotto with corn, or any recipe calling for vegetable stock. You can also add tomato trimmings and/or basil sprigs and stems if desired.

12 corncobs, kernels cut off

2 teaspoons black and/or white peppercorns

A handful each of parsley, thyme, and/or tarragon stems

4 bay leaves

 

Combine corncobs and remaining ingredients in a large soup pot. Add about 1 gallon (4 L) cold water, or enough water to cover the cobs by about 3 inches. Bring to a boil, skimming as necessary. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and cook one hour or until the broth is full of corn flavor.

Pick out the cobs using tongs, a cook’s fork, or slotted spoon and discard. Strain the remainder of the stock. Discard the solids in a trash bag rather than a garbage disposal.

Pour the strained stock into smaller containers but always leave the last ½ cup or so of liquid behind and discard it, as this contains the dregs, the scum or impurities, which sink to the bottom.

Cool and then refrigerate or divide into quart or other containers and freeze until ready to use, up to three months.

 

Greek Lentil Soup (Faki)

(Courtesy of The Soupmaker’s Kitchen.) Makes 1 gallon, serving 8 – 12.

A traditionally vegan soup popular during the Lenten season, it’s simple to make and has full-bodied flavor and texture.

1 pound (2 cups) French green lentils (these firm lentils keep their shape and have a nutty flavor)

1 gallon vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

1 pound (about 1 large or 2 medium) onions, diced

½ pound (about 3) carrots, diced

¼ pound (about 3 ribs) celery, diced

1 pound (2 cups) chopped plum tomatoes, canned or fresh (if fresh, tomatoes should be peeled and seeded)

3 cloves garlic, chopped (about 1 tablespoon)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon crumbled oregano (preferably Greek)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Hot sauce optional

 

Place the lentils in a large soup pot with the vegetable stock and bay leaves and bring to a boil, skimming as necessary. Reduce the heat and simmer 30 minutes or until the lentils are half cooked.

Add the onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and oregano. Add salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender but still whole and the soup is slightly thickened. Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice.

Transfer the soup to a tureen or divide among individual soup bowls. If desired, serve with hot sauce. Store refrigerated up to 5 days or freeze.

 

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

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