Today we made three different soups ~ all very yummy! Thank you Chef for showing me how easy it is to make these soups.
Our first soup of the day is a mushroom soup. I've never made a mushroom soup and discovered that it was so easy that I will make this soup more often. I think I'll experiment using different types of mushrooms too. There are so many kinds available to us.
Soup usually starts off with sweating (cooking until the onions are clear) some chopped onions in a soup pot with oil making sure to season with salt and pepper. Celery is added next and before adding the mushrooms I deglaze with some white wine. The onion, celery and mushroom is cooked until the mushrooms have become soft. Water is added to cover the mushrooms plus some and set to simmer on the stove. As always Chef likes us to plate everything we make. While the soup is simmering away I prepare my garnish of mushrooms by sauteing them in a pan to be used later when I plate my soup. When the soup has developed and the liquid has reduced I buzz it with the immersion blender to get as smooth a texture as I can. My mushroom soup is a bit thick so I thin it out with some water. When I reach the right thickness for the soup, I add cream and continue seasoning until the right flavour is achieved. We get to taste Chef's soup and work to make our soup taste the same. Ready for plating I ladle the soup carefully in to a warm bowl and garnish with the sauteed mushrooms topped with broccoli sprouts.
Soup number two is a leek and potato soup. I've made this soup before but using chicken stock. For a vegetarian soup, I am using water for my liquid. For the leek and potato soup today, the leeks do not have very much white to them so we are adding a quarter of an onion (the onions are very large). The leeks are sliced thin, the onions and potato are cut/diced small to allow for quicker cooking. I start the soup off with onions and leeks sweating in a pot with oil ~ seasoned with salt and pepper. I deglaze with some white wine to loosen some of the bits on the pot. Diced potatoes are added and water to cover the potatoes and then some left to simmer on the stove. While the soup was simmering, I worked on my garnish. I made some fried leek rings, a few potato chips and a Parmesan tulle. When the potatoes were cooked through and the liquid reduced, I buzzed it with the immersion blender to get a nice smooth texture. It's a little thick so I add some water and then cream and served it up in a warm bowl garnished with my potato chips, Parmesan tulle and fried leek rings.
Our last soup of the day was a clam chowder. Chef gave us one large clam to use as a garnish. I was pretty big ~ I'm use to seeing and eating Boston clams which are much smaller. For the clam chowder we each used a can of clams in their juice. There are a number of ingredients for this soup ~ diced onion, minced garlic, diced celery, diced green pepper, diced red pepper, yellow corn, small slices of bacon and diced potato. As with the other soups, we start off by sweating some diced onions in a pot with oil and season with salt and pepper followed by garlic, celery, red pepper, green pepper. A splash of white wine is added to deglaze the pot. Bacon is added and cooked to render some of the fat out. We do not want a crisp bacon for this soup. To add some thickness to the soup, we need to make a roux. The roux is made with flour added to the ingredients that are already in the pot. You need to make sure you cook out the flour because you do not want a flour taste to your soup. The last items to add to the pot are the diced potatoes, milk and the large clam. The soup is left to simmer and when the clam opens the soup will be ready. Chef told us that it would take about five minutes for the clam to open up. I think it took about 10 minutes. I didn't season my soup too much more because there is salt in the bacon and salt in the water from the clams. For plating of the soup I placed the large clam on top and sprinkled some chopped chives and small diced red pepper on top and place a Parmesans tulle next to the clam with some chives.
It was a busy day of making soups. No homework for me tonight, I'm going to see a movie. I need some R and R after a hard day in the kitchen.
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