Recipes

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Souper Soup- The Joy of Soup

The Joy of Soup

http://suzette.typepad.com/the_joy_of_soup/

This Joy of Soup blog, I fear, has progressed into the blog netherworld, with no further updates to be had…  The last post was in 2007.  While the updates have potentially ceased, the site remains a solid resource for soup recipes and other resources.

Soup is the food category I feel the most at home in making.  It’s simple and comforting; a steaming bowl of soup is hard to beat on a cold day.  Soup is adaptable to ingredients on hand and difficult to wreck.  Here’s to soup!!

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Happy Thanksgiving (belated)!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers, even those not in the U.S.!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’ve made a veritable smorgasbord of updates! (new categories, new links, and extra posts!)

Thanksgiving Dinner

What to do with all that Thanksgiving goodness: using up those leftovers

 

I tried a new recipe this year- Cranberry Couscous (cold).  It turned out very tasty and would make an excellent vegetarian substitute for stuffing (if so desired- though we had both). I doubled the recipe and that caused no problems.  I made the couscous according to the package directions (water/couscous ratio, which I believe was 3/4 c water to couscous).  I also substituted pure cranberry juice for the water, to imbue more cranberry flavor.  This was a direction in the alternate, hot recipe listed below.  A suggestion on the original recipe called for vegetable stock instead of water.  Another suggested making the recipe a day in advance, which I did, to allow the flavors to balance.  The balance was good for the day after, but the balsamic vinegar dominated a little another day later.  Perhaps a little more cranberry juice sprinkled over would help re-balance the flavors? I chopped the vegetables very fine and used baby carrots.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked couscous
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped seeded cucumber
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
Directions:
1. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from the heat; cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Cool for 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, combine the couscous, cranberries, carrots, cucumber and green onions. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar, oil, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour over couscous mixture; mix well. Cover and refrigerate. Just before serving, stir in almonds.

Original Recipe Link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Couscous-Salad/Detail.aspx

Hot Cranberry Couscous: http://www.cranberries.org/cranberries/recipes_couscous2008.html

 

Image Source: Photo showing some of the aspects of a traditional US
Thanksgiving day dinner:  November 2002 by Ben Franske.
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Daikon (giant white radish) rice soup recipe

Daikon

Daikon*


I made Daikon Rice Soup tonight.  This was a second attempt.  Though the first try was successful, I made some slight modifications.  (I’m not done tinkering yet!  I never am!)

I used more mushrooms and daikon than called for. (The daikon I had were 2-3 times larger than those in the picture!!)  I wasn’t able to find seaweed for purchase anywhere, so that was left out.   I based it on chicken stock previously, but this time I tried vegetable.  Both were pretty tasty.  I omitted the extra salt since the soy and bouillon add enough of that.  My extra add-ins were chives, pepper, and some minced almonds.

The last time I made this, there were some hard daikon pieces that were nearly inedible, so I tried not adding the core portions of the daikon this time (the texture of the core seems different).

For next time?  Perhaps some sesame oil or seeds or some rice wine to the stock… Edit: I forgot about adding shiso/perilla.  I grew some in the garden this year and dried some to save.

Reposted recipe from link below:

Rice Stew with Daikon (Daikon Zosui)
Serves 5

2 ½ cups cooked short-grain rice*
¾ cup shiitake mushrooms*
1 ½ cups daikon (about a four-inch-long chunk), sliced as directed*
¼ cup carrots, sliced as directed*
½ cup Wakame, soaked five minutes in cold water to cover, then chopped into one-inch long pieces (discard soaking water)
5 cups fish stock (if unavailable, use chicken or vegetable stock)*
1 teaspoon salt*
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce*

Peel the daikon and carrot, and slice into two-inch-long by one-half-inch wide ribbons that are no more than one-eighth-inch thick. Thinly slice the shiitake mushrooms also. Heat the stock in a soup pan with the daikon and carrot, and cook until the vegetables have softened, around 10 minutes. Add the cooked rice, mushrooms and wakame, and bring to the boil again, stirring occasionally. Stir in salt and soy sauce. Eat hot. Partners well with Daikon Pickles. (Note: Be careful not to cook the rice too long; otherwise, it will end up the unappetizing consistency of glue.)

http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/daikon.html

*This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daikon.Japan.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license.