Summer Harvest Soup with Rice

Another delicious soup that is made with fresh local ingredients. Only drawback, as is the case with most soups or stews, is that it requires a lot of slicing and chopping. After more than 30 years of owning original Cuisinart and for the last 3 years its small brother, the Mini-Chopper, I still hesitate in using machines for soup vegetables even though it would make the job of chopping 10 times faster. Still, I do have a certain knife skills and I like the uniformity of knife chopped vegetables so I just keep slicing, dicing and chopping.

In this version I used onions, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, parsley and thyme from my garden and from road-side farm stand I used corn and new small potatoes. Rice, oil and chicken stock came from my pantry.

Use any vegetable combination to suit your taste and have them chopped and ready. Heat oil in Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot. Sauté onions and garlic till garlic is fragrant and onions are translucent. Add rice and cook till lightly brown making sure that onions and garlic do not burn. Do not use more than a 1/4 cup of rice for 4 servings (rice triples in volume when cooked)! Add rest of vegetables and stock, bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with freshly ground pepper (I always use white), fresh or dried herbs and salt if needed. Serve and enjoy!

Pork Balls and Noodle Soup

Gung Hay Fat Choy - Happy New Year!

It is a year of a Dragon and I started it with a big bowl of pork balls and noodle soup with a lot of vegetables for breakfast. I bought Vietnamese Pork balls in Chinatown, even Vietnamese and Chinese don’t make these meat balls at home so neither did I. It is very simple to make. The noodles are cooked separately in a pot with salted water and placed in bottom of soup bowl. While the stock was simmering with the pork balls I chopped garlic and ginger and add it to soup, then I julienned carrots, sliced celery stalk, cut up some broccoli flowerets, sliced Napa cabbage leaves and chopped 2 green onions for garnish. All the vegetables were dropped into soup together, brought back to boil and ladled on top of noodles. The soup was seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and freshly ground white pepper. All done in under 20 minutes. For noodles I used Chinese dry egg noodles. When they are boiled thy stretch to about 18” long. This soup must be eaten with spoon and chopsticks.

Cream of Curried Broccoli and Asparagus Soup

This is one of my favorite “healthy” soups. Never mind the cream, the amount per serving is miniscule. I usually use only stems of asparagus, the spears go into omelet or other dishes even though I did use it as a garnish on occasion.

 Ingredients

1 onions, chopped

1/2 carrot, peeled and chopped

3 tablespoons butter

4 cups broccoli stems and flowers, chopped coarse

1/2 cup of asparagus stems, finely chopped

1 tsp. garlic, chopped

1 baking potato, peeled and chopped

6 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. curry powder

1/2 cup light cream 

Directions

Cook onions and carrots in butter over moderate heat, stirring, for 4 minutes.

Stir in curry powder and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

Add broccoli, asparagus, potatoes and stock and season to taste.

Simmer mixture, covered, for 30 minutes.

Puree mixture with immersion blender until very smooth.

Add cream and heat over low heat.

Serve in preheated soup bowls and garnish with broccoli flowerets and croutons or toasted baguette slices. For better taste rub garlic clove on toasted baguette slices.

Duck Soup with Wild Rice and Barley

This is a simplified version of Duck Soup that I have posted previously and in my opinion it is a better and cleaner tasting version than soup using roasted carcass of a duck. I have also simplified the way I cook barley and wild rice. Since barley cooks in about 40 minutes and wild rice 10 minutes longer I started with wild rice and 10 minutes later in went the barley into same pot. You just can’t cook barley and/or wild rice in the stock meant as a final product, it would be way too muddy. Vegetables were added in sequence to a clear stock. But first, the meat was removed from the bones and stock was degreased. I do not think that I will be making duck soup from roasted bones anytime soon.

 

Ingredients for stock

Carcass from 1 duck including wings and neck

1 carrot cut in half

2 stalks of celery cut in half

1 onion quartered

1/4 tsp. each of whole cloves and allspice

1 tsp. crushed black pepper corns

2 cloves garlic

Place the bones in stock pot and pour in enough water to cover the bones by 2 inches. Bring water to simmer and start skimming accumulated scum from the surface until stock is clear, about 15 minutes. Add vegetables and then spices. I always use steel mesh tee egg for herbs and spices, it is so much easier to remove after, but you can use piece of muslin tied into a bag instead. Simmer for 2 hours but never let the water get to rolling boil or stock will be cloudy. Slow simmer that barely brakes the surface is ideal for making clear stock, any stock. When done, remove all the solids with slotted spoon and strain stock through fine mesh strainer or colander lined with few layers of muslin cloth into another pot. While still warm remove duck meat from bones and reserve. Remove the fat floating on surface with spoon and kitchen paper strips or let the stock cool overnight and remove the solid fat from surface. Your stock is ready to become a soup.

Prepare the soup

1/3 cup pearled barley

1/2 cup wild rice

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1/3 cup diced turnip

1/3 cup diced celeriac or parsnip 

While the stock is slowly simmering, prepare the barley and wild rice and get all the vegetables and meat ready. Start with washing barley and wild rice in a strainer under running water, separately, of course. Place the wild rice in a pot with about 3 inches of lightly salted water to cover. Bring to slow boil and about 10 minutes later add the washed barley, cover and simmer for another 40 minutes. When barley and wild rice are soft strain and rinse under hot running water. While the grains are cooking peel and dice your vegetables and cut the duck meat. Start reheating the clarified stock, add diced vegetables and simmer until carrots and turnips are al dente then add washed barley and wild rice. Check and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Serve in individual bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Toasted and buttered baguette slices on a side make nice addition.

Sauerkraut Soup

Yes, you have read it right: this soup is made with sauerkraut as a main ingredient. As far as I can tell, it is of Slavic countries or Central Europe origin and there is no need to say that it is a comfort food. My version is more robust then simple soups that use just sauerkraut, potatoes and stock. Again, just use your imagination like I did.

I think that the key in making this soup taste great to unaccustomed taste buds is to soak, wash and drain the kraut in cold water. I dumped the whole jar of sauerkraut into large and deep bowl, filled with cold water and let sit for an hour. Then I drained it in strainer and washed it under running water for half a minute. I let it drain and run it in my lettuce spinner to remove as much water as possible. This was important step for me because I like to chop the long strands of sauerkraut into a size that will stay on the spoon and not hang over like spaghetti.

My soup was fortified with addition of carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, garlic and smoked kielbasa. For the base you can use any stock you have on hand. Ham stock would be ideal but I didn’t have any. Next time I’ll cook smoked Schweinshaxe or Eisbein (pork hock) I will keep this recipe in mind and keep some meat and skin (for me only) for the soup.

 Ingredients for my version of Sauerkraut Soup

2 cups of German wine sauerkraut

1/3 cup water

3 slices bacon, chopped

1 onion, sliced

1 tsp. caraway seeds

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp. hot Hungarian paprika

1 small carrot, chopped

1 small parsnip, diced

1 stalk of celery, chopped

2 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup diced smoked meat or sausage

3 cups stock

4 cups stock (ham, chicken or beef)

Soak the sauerkraut in cold water for about 1 hour. Drain, squeeze dry and roughly chop.

Crush caraway seeds with garlic in mortar, mini-chopper or chop with knife.

Mix 1/3 cup water with chopped bacon and place in a heavy bottomed soup pot or Dutch oven. Turn the heat on medium high and render the bacon fat. When bacon starts to get crispy and light brown add onions and garlic-caraway seed mixture and cook until onions start to have light color. Off the heat mix in paprika and stir till onions are coated.

Put back on heat and add carrots, parsnip, celery, potatoes and smoked meat or sausage. Mix for few seconds and then pour in stock. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add sauerkraut and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Soup is ready to be served as is but if you like soups with more body, run about half of the soup in blender, return to pot to reheat and serve. Another option is to liquefy the leftover soup in the blender, add some 35% cream and simmer for few minutes. Sinfully good!

Cream of Sauerkraut Soup

Mushroom and Vegetable Soup with Paprika

This goes under Comfort Food label, for sure. It is so substantial that I serve it with buttered rye bread as a supper. There is a nice mix of textures in this version of mushroom soup.

Yes, it does take some time to prepare because of all that chopping but it can be a lot faster if you have a small food processor or my favorite, the mini chopper. Just never put the machine on run or you will end up with a paste. Short pulses are all one needs.

When it comes to ingredients you can use pretty much any root vegetable that you have in your fridge. Here is what I have used and it tasted great.

Ingredients

1 Tbs. oil

1 Tbs. butter

3 shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 tsp. caraway seeds

1 Tbs. Hungarian paprika

3/4 cup carrots, finely chopped

3/4 cup celeriac, finely chopped

3/4 cup celery, finely chopped

2 Russet potatoes, cut into 1/4” cubes

2 Tbs. flour

6 cups chicken or beef stock, heated

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. marjoram

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped parsley for garnish

In a heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven heat the oil and butter.

When the foam from butter subsides add shallots and sauté till light gold, about 10 minutes.

Add mushrooms and caraway seeds and cook on medium high heat until mushrooms are lightly caramelised.

Add carrots, celeriac and celery and sauté until vegetables are soft.

Off the heat, sprinkle paprika over mushrooms and shallots and stir till mushrooms are coated with paprika.

Add potatoes and mix with rest of the vegetables.

Return to heat and sprinkle flour on top of potatoes, mushrooms and vegetables and keep stirring until flour is cooked and reached paste consistency. The flour will form lumps with vegetables.

Pour in hot stock and mix until al flour lumps are mixed in and soup feels smooth.

Lower the heat to medium low, bring to simmer and cook for 20 minutes scraping the bottom of pot with wood or bamboo spatula (my choice) to prevent flour from burning.

Remove about 1 cup of mushrooms and vegetables with slotted spoon and set aside.

With an immersion blender finely chop or liquefy (your call) rest of the solids. Put back reserved mushrooms and veggies and bring back to simmer.

Add marjoram and taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Cook for 5 more minutes.  

Serve in a bowls and garnish with parsley.

Serves 4 - 6

Chicken and Polenta Soup Balls

As I mentioned on my “Baked Pimento Pepper Halves” post, I made these dumplings using minced chicken and polenta instead of usual matzo meal or bread crumbs. It was an experiment that turned out better than I had expected. It started quite innocently with polenta experiment. I had an e-mail thread going with my favorite nephew Seb about cooking polenta. I wanted to know if it can be cooked in microwave. I took 1/2 cup of chicken stock and nuked it for 45 seconds on 100% power, then mixed in 1/4 cup fine ground corn and cooked another 45 seconds on 75% power, uncovered. And, what do you know; it had a decent texture and tasted cooked, it was actually pretty good even though it was on a dry side. I left it on my kitchen island and started to prepare new chicken-on-skewers recipe from Cooks Illustrated where chicken breast is kept moist by coating it with bacon paste made in mini-chopper. I made the paste with 2 cloves of garlic and then I changed my mind about the skewers, there just wasn’t enough meat for two people. Eureka! Chicken dumplings for a soup!
I cut up the breast into small pieces and then minced it in mini chopper together with 1 egg, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 2 Tbs. of chopped garlic chives, 1/2 tsp. marjoram, 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. of white pepper. Then I mixed in the polenta, formed it into 1-1/2” balls and slowly simmered in salted water for 15 minutes. They came out nice and fluffy (baking powder J).
These are now my favorite dumplings for a chicken noodle soup.

Tomato and Green Bean Soup

With Parmigiano Regiano.

I have big load of tomatoes and beans, chicken stock in my pantry and few pounds of real Parmesan cheese. When the hunger pang struck I knew what will chase them away! With chicken stock ready this soup takes just minutes to prepare but I wanted to dress it up a bit, so, out comes my cheese grater. It smelled and looked so great and kind of Summery. When the bowl was almost empty I noticed that now melted Parmesan was not only stuck to my spoon but on the bottom of the bowl as well and it was quite a job to clean the spoon (I use ceramic Chinese spoon only) and the bowl. I do love the taste of hot tomatoes, beans and Parmigiano but next time I will grate it on a baguette toast instead. This way no cheese will end up in the sink.

There isn’t much of a recipe, really: Put stock, chopped beans and tomatoes in sauce pan and boil till beans are soft to your liking and serve J.

Wonton Soup with Enokitake Mushrooms.

What a great soup this was. This was strictly do-once improvisation driven by available ingredients. I had a Vietnamese Pho stock, I had my own wontons and there was coriander and Enokitake mushrooms that I bought last Sunday on a trip to London (London, Ontario, that is). Since everything was on my mise-en-place table it took just 15 minutes from start to plating. Nothing wrong with this type of “cooking from scratch”, if you ask me. After all, I did make the stock, I did make the dough for wontons and I did make the filling. Not at the same time, but I did make it from scratch.

Oriental Enokitake Soup

After all the thick, seasonal comfort soups that I have prepared lately I just felt for something clear and light. Today we went shopping in Asia Chinese Supermart in London and among other stuff I bought pack of King Oyster mushrooms and 2 bunches of Enokitake mushrooms. The King Oyster has a texture and taste of meat when sautéed in butter till nicely caramelized.

For the soup I used chicken stock that was simmered with 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1” of crushed and julienned ginger and 1 chopped green onion. Just before serving I have added 2 thin slices of caramelized King Oyster mushrooms and about 2 dozens of Enokitake mushrooms. When served I garnished with additional chopped green onions and chopped coriander leaves. The texture of both of these mushrooms is amazing. This will be an excellent soup to finish barbecue meal in summer.

Broccoli Soup with Tomato

Actually, it is sort of cream of broccoli but without cream being added. I had a small head of broccoli and pot of ham stock on hand so it wasn’t hard to figure out what I will do with it.

Ingredients:

4 cups stock

1 head of broccoli, stalk and head chopped very fine

1 small or 1/2 large carrot, chopped very fine

1 small onion, chopped very fine

1 baking potato, peeled and chopped very fine

1 tsp. curry powder

2 ripe Italian tomatoes, coarsely chopped.

Bring stock with all vegetables to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 1 hour. Place pot into sink and liquefy with submersible blender or transfer to blender and liquefy.

Put soup back on burner, reheat and season with curry to your taste.

Pour into individual bowls and garnish with tomatoes.

Root Vegetable Soup with Ham

This soup is truly a full meal, especially if you use a lot of ham as I did. As is usual with any dish done from scratch the mise en place is a bit tedious because of all the chopping but after that it is a breeze.

Ingredients:

5 cups ham stock

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/3 cup each of chopped onions, carrots, parsnip, green beans

2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup cooked barley

1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

1/3 cup Acini de Pepe or other small shape pasta

1 Tbs. chopped parsley

1/ 2 tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs. chopped parsley for garnish

Direction:

Heat olive oil in heavy bottom pan and add onions and garlic, sauté till translucent. Add rest of vegetables except tomatoes and barley and sauté briefly.

Add hot stock, pasta and bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add ham, barley, tomatoes and parsley and simmer additional 5 minutes.

Check if pasta is cooked and serve garnished with chopped parsley and few drops of olive oil.

Cream of Corn and Avocado Soup

While I was putting Cannelloni in the freezer I have noticed a bag of corn kernels that we saved last summer. Out came the corn and since I have also spotted avocado in a basket on my kitchen island, recipe for a meal was born. Because this recipe is sort of Mexican in nature I have included lime and cilantro as well.

2 cups corn

1 avocado, pit and skin removed

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

Juice from 1 lime

Salt and white pepper to taste

Coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped avocado and roasted cashews for garnish

Put corn, avocado and chicken stock in a blender and liquefy for at least 2 minutes. Strain into a soup pot through medium mesh strainer pressing on solids to remove as much corn milk as possible. Of course, if skin from corn kernels doesn’t bother you, you can omit this step.

Place pot on medium heat and bring to slow simmer. Add cream and bring back to simmer, flavor with lime juice, salt and pepper. Serve in a bowl and garnished with cilantro, chopped avocado and cashews.

If you are using fresh corn, steam the corn for 10 minutes first.

This soup must be excellent in summer served cold.

Serves 2

Wonton Soup

Wonton soup is probably best known Chinese soup in North America. There are many versions of not only fillings but also shape of the dumplings. I usually make the simple traditional triangle wontons. If you have a stock and ground pork on hand it is very simple and fast comfort food to prepare and can be a whole meal in itself, just fill the soup bowl with wontons is all it takes.

Filling:

3/4 lb. lean ground pork

4 green onions, finely chopped

3 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. sake

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/4 tsp. white pepper

2 tsp. fresh grated ginger

2 tsp. crushed garlic

4 medium shitake mushrooms, soaked and chopped

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

wonton wrappers

Broth:

10 cups of chicken stock (canned or carton is fine)

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp. crushed garlic

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 green onions, chopped diagonally for garnish

Dumplings:

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.

Working on a flat work surface, lay out a few of the wontons. (Keep remaining wonton wrappers covered with plastic wrap.) Fill a small bowl partially with cool water and set aside. Using a teaspoon measure, place a heaping teaspoonful of the meat filling in the center of each wonton. Using your fingers or brush, lightly wet the edges of the wonton. Bring 2 opposite corners of the wonton together to form a triangle and enclose the filling, pressing edges firmly around the mound of filling to eliminate any air pockets and seal. Assemble the remaining wontons in the same manner. When the wontons are all assembled, set aside.
Soup:

In a sauce pan or soup pot bring stock, soy sauce, garlic and ginger to boil. Carefully drop wontons into soup and stir to separate them. After dumpling come to surface, simmer additional 5 minutes and serve with chopped green onions.

Ready for assembly.

Pres two oposing corners together...

and press around filling to squeeze out air.

Ready for a soup.

Liver Dumpling Soup

Yes, another dumpling recipe. This comfort soup is one of our favorite soups to go to when it is miserable outside. It is too bad that many people would never give a second look at anything that has a liver in it. I use very fresh calf or baby beef liver for these dumplings and you can’t detect any liver taste or smell at all. As is the case with most soups you can easily control how substantial the soup is just by modifying ratio of stock to solids, in this case number and size of dumplings and amount of egg noodles and vegetables.

For dumplings:

Baby beef or Calf liver, 1 slice

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. white pepper

1 tsp. salt

Garlic, 2 cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp. marjoram

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs mixed with 1 Tbs. flour/

Breadcrumbs, as required

Soup:

8 cups beef or chicken stock, carton or can is fine

1 large carrot

1/2 medium onion

1 stalk celery, all finely chopped

Marjoram

Garlic, finely chopped

Fine egg noodles
Parsley

Remove all traces of membrane on liver, roughly chop and then run through grinder or food processor to make a coarse paste. Remove to mixing bowl and add beaten egg, milk, salt, pepper, baking powder and marjoram and mix till well combined. You will now have fairly thin batter. Add 1/2 cup of bread crumbs with flour, mix well and let it rest for 10 minutes or so for bread crumbs to absorb moisture from liver mixture. Remix and add adjust with more bread crumbs or milk until you can form a ball. Form walnut size balls and set aside.
To make soup, pour stock  into a soup pot, drop in all chopped vegetables and bring to boil. Cook for 5 minutes, lower heat to simmer and drop in all liver dumplings, being careful not to splash hot stock. Gently lift dumplings with spatula from bottom so they don’t stick. When all of them are floating on top, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add fine noodles and stir to prevent noodles from sticking together. Cook additional 5 minutes, add marjoram, taste and  adjust seasoning. Serve with chopped parsley sprinkled on top.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

This is excellent way to serve leftover mushroom soup. Actually, it is so good that it is well worth it to make it from scratch. Since I have already posted recipe for mushroom soup I’ll just describe process of turning it into a cream.

If you are using leftover soup, warm it up in a deeper pot for easier no-mess blending. If you prefer cream of mushroom soup with some texture remove with slotted spoon (wider the slots the better) as much solids as you like and keep warm for serving. With immersion blender liquefy the soup for minute or two. Add cream, again as much as you like but no more then 1:4 ratio of cream/soup. Liquefy for another few minutes till smooth. Return to heat and when warm, serve in preheated bowl. Creamed soups are great with addition of little bit of curry. I use Malaysian (seafood) curry that is perfect match for these soups.

Mushroom Soup

Using Dried, Fresh and Canned Mushrooms

Not much to look at but so good!

I have always made mushroom soup with dried and fresh mushrooms but this time at a whim I added canned mushrooms for their very meaty texture. What a good move! I use can mushrooms on my pizza because fresh ones have a tendency to get leathery. Fresh mushrooms just don’t have the same bite as sliced button mushrooms from can. This change is permanent for my soup. Again, change the amounts to your taste. What follows is just a suggestion.

Ingredients

3 Shallots or 1 small onion, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 cups Cremini or button mushrooms, sliced

1 can mushrooms, chopped

1 or 2 potatoes, chopped

Dried mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

6 cups stock, chicken or beef

Soak dried mushrooms in hot water for at least 30 minutes. When fully reconstituted remove, squeeze and roughly chop. Strain the soaking liquid into another container using coffee filter or pouring it slowly leaving sand behind. Reserve.

Sauté onions and fresh mushrooms for 5 minutes or till soft.

Add dried mushrooms and garlic and sauté for another 3 minutes.

Add potatoes, carrots and celery, sweat for 3 minutes.

Pour in stock and reserved soaking liquid, bring to boil, lower temperature to simmer and cook, covered, for half an hour.

Serve as is or remove about ½ to ¾ solids with slotted spoon or small strainer, reserve and with immersion blender liquefy rest of solids till smooth then put back reserved solids and marjoram, reheat and serve. Of course, you can add 35% cream for a really rich taste and mouth feel if you want. I usually blend the leftover next day with addition of cream and dried potato flakes for cream of mushroom soup.

Note: Since I have picked wild mushrooms with my family since I was 5 years old I used mushrooms that I have picked and dried myself. Other option is to buy Cremini in bulk when they are on special, slice them thin including stems, I use mandolin, and dry them on a large tea towel or newspaper in 1 layer, turning over once a day until dry.

Minestra di Pane & Ribollita

Minestra di Pane is a fresh bean and vegetable soup and Ribollita is same soup reheated and slices of bread added. Actually, this is my take on this classical Tuscan peasant soup. Mind you, even in Tuscany they can’t agree what is a true Ribollita but one thing they do have in common is that it is best when reheated. I used whatever root vegetables I had on hand and since I was out of dry navy beans but had one can I run with that. Also, no Italian bread on hand except Ciabatta so decision was made to toast slices and rub both sides with garlic and serve along side instead in soup itself.

Minestra di Pane.

1 leak, light green and white parts, chopped

1 small onion, peeled and chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 small carrot, peeled and chopped

1/4 small Savoy cabbage, chopped

1 Russet or Yukon Gold potato

3 Roma tomatoes or small can chopped tomatoes

1 small parsnip, peeled and chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can white beans, drained and liquid reserved

6 cups chicken stock

2 Tbs. olive oil

Sprig of rosemary

In a heavy pan or Dutch oven sauté leak, onions, carrots, celery and parsnip in olive oil till soft but not discolored. Add stock and liquid from beans and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and garlic and simmer additional 15 minutes and then add beans and rosemary. Simmer to warm up the beans.  Now it is ready to be served as Minestra di Pane.

To serve as Ribollita add stale rustic Italian bread cut into cubes and place into serving bowls. Pour reheated Minestra di Pane on top and it is ready to serve. You can grate Parmigiano-Reggiano on top if you wish.

Duck Soup

Without doubt this must be most complicated version that I have ever came up with. This soup included 13 ingredients (in blue) and I have to count how many heat processes I’ve managed to use (roasting, simmering, boiling, sautéing). Let me count:

1)     I roasted the bones, necks and wings with root vegetables for 3 hours.

2)     I simmered the above for stock for another 3 hours and then I strained and degreased the stock and removed meat from necks, backs and wings.

3)     Boiled barley for 40 minutes and drained.

4)     Boiled wild rice at the same time in another pot for 55 minutes and drained.

5)     Sautéed sliced gizzards, hearts, shallots and cremini mushrooms in duck fat for 20 minutes.

6)     Returned the stock to simmer and added: Raw carrot, celeriac, leek, celery, garlic, wild rice, barley, sautéed shallots, gizzards, heart, mushrooms and duck meat.

So, it comes to six separate heat processes taking well over 7 hours over 2 days: 1 roasting, 2 simmers, 2 boils and 1 sauté.

What we ended up with was most incredible soup with every texture imaginable. Will do again next Christmas, for sure. It was well worth it.