The Zen of Soup

As I was digging into a hearty bowl of "whatever happens to be in the fridge from the garden" soup I thought it might a good time to expound on the art of soup making. If your in the habit of trolling the internet for recipes (that's why your here, right?), stop looking at soup recipes. A soup recipe is an oxymoron when it comes to home cooking. There are of course, classic recipes, and the various signature recipes of renowned chefs and restaurants. In professional cooking such recipes ensure a consistent product over the course of time which is essential in the restaurant business. The goal of the home cook is entirely different. In the home kitchen we're more concerned with nutrition and frugality as well as flavor and appearance. Prep time is also a concern and this means not having to run to the store for a particular ingredient because we're tied to a specific recipe. What you need instead is to develop a palate of soup techniques that have wide application. The most important is the art of stock making. Pay attention to leftovers from meat prep, every roast fowl carcass and meat bone is a future soup. One of best sources for stock that most cooks overlook are raw shrimp shells and heads. Basically all you do is stick something in a pot and boil it until you get all the flavor out and then reduce the liquid to concentrate it. If you want clear stock strain it through cheese cloth. That's it! If your buying stock in a can your wasting both money and flavor. Keep some basic ingredients always at hand such as carrots, onion, celery, and canned tomatoes. These are the basis for literally hundreds of soup variations. Learn the basic art of the chowder, the stew, broth soups and then vary the ingredients. Learn the basics of herbs. Your main guide should be vegetables in season and affordable cuts of meat. Most of all be creative and be willing to take risks. There will be disasters but I assure you they will be rare. I found out the hard way that certain shellfish and green beans have an unfortunate chemical interaction. The odor was nothing short of indescribable. That said, in the roughly 40 years I've been cooking, I can count the bad soup batches on one hand. So get in there and boil something. It really is hard to go wrong. Look for future posts on more basic techniques and maybe even a few of my signature soup recipes.