For the Prof and Brian, who can actually cook.
Okay, so here's the recipe I used for the cream of artichoke soup. I'm not really much of a cook, so I'd appreciate any improvements you might make to the recipe. And before you give me any crap about it, yes I used some canned stuff, mostly from Costco. Like I said, I'm not much of a cook, I just muddle along. So mock me (gently) if you must, but it turned out pretty good. And yes, it's a huge amount of soup, but I kind of scaled it to the amounts I had on hand.
One large can (approx. 6 cups) Swanson's Chicken Broth
1/2 jar (approx. 32 oz.) Kirkland Signature marinated artichoke hearts (with marinade)
One medium onion, diced
Four tablespoons unsalted butter (Yes, Brian, I finally started using real butter)
Garlic (avert your eyes, cooks! I use Costco's bottled, chopped garlic, about a tablespoon, roughly equivalent to two wedges, I think)
One medium potato, peeled and sliced or chopped
Two cups whipping cream
White pepper
Oddly, no salt. I say oddly because I tend to overuse it but the marinade really made it unnecessary to add.
I put the broth and artichokes on early to simmer (not all of the broth, I reserved about 1/3 of it to refrigerate for later), then diced the onion and cooked it in butter until soft but not browned. Then I added the garlic and cooked briefly, then dumped it into the broth and let it simmer for a few hours.
About 1/2 hour before I wanted to pull it off the stove, I added the sliced potato. This probably could have gone in earlier without bad effect but I didn't think to add it earlier. You could actually make this without potato but it helps thicken the soup.
After the potato was cooked, I pulled the soup off the stove to cool for about 1/2 hour or so, then added the reserved, refrigerated broth. If you've ever tried to puree stuff just off the stove, you understand why I try to make it a habit to hold back some of the broth in the fridge to cool the soup before pureeing.
I pureed the soup and put it through a strainer. In the old days I'd have used the Osterizer but we got one of these a while back and it's really handy. As a side note, it's only been in the last year or two that I've learned to appreciate the value of pureeing soup. I used to just chop stuff very fine to avoid it, but it really makes a difference and it's worth the trouble.
I've made this basic recipe before but didn't strain it. Please do. No matter how well prepared, artichoke hearts always seem to have part of the choke hanging around and it's better to strain it out. Also, there always seems to be some potato or onion that doesn't get completely pureed the first time through the blender, so this time I put whatever didn't get well-pureed back into the blender. The soup was definitely smoother this time.
Soup went back on the stove to heat to just a bare simmer. Then I sprinkled it with white pepper and mixed it in, then added the cream. Two cups is probably much more cream than necessary but it's what I had on hand, and being a cheap bastard I used it all.
After heating for just a few more minutes I dished it up, and it was good.
If any of you, especially you people who can actually cook, can improve on the basic recipe, I'm all ears.
Iz out!
2 months ago
6 comments:
That sounds pretty damn yummy, with the exception of the canned garlic. It's easier, but it never has as much flavor.
Also, if you chuck in a bay leaf while you're cooking it, that might give it a little more oomph.
True on the garlic, so I usually add some extra. I tend not to use real garlic fast enough before it dries out, so I've kind of gotten lazy and use the canned.
I add bay to other cream of [fill in the veggie] soups but the marinade is pretty strong with the artichokes so I left it out. Probably could have left out the garlic too, it probably got overwhelmed by the marinade.
Eh, I use the jars of pre-minced gasrlic at home -- yeah, it takes a lot more of the stuff to get the amount of flavor I want, but home cooking has a different set of expectations thatn p[rofessional cooking -- the most prevalent being the need to spread your attention to things other than cooking -- the phone, the kids, etc. etc.... in some ways it's tougher to do, in others it's less demanding in terms of the end product expected.
At work, we use garlic that is pre-peeled but not pre-minced, and that's pretty common.
Funny you should mention artichokes. I was talking to someone today, a former pro who's now a home cook, who took some Reser's Artichoke Jalapeno dip and made it ino a cream soup. Maybe you might want to try taking a few canned halapeno and mincing them or pureeing them, and adding them to your recipe?
I have never lived near a Costco, but I understand it's more or less the same idea as Sam's Club.
I haven't been to a Sam's Club but yeah, that's pretty much the idea. They have LOTS of BIG STUFF at mostly reasonable prices. Usually this is fine but occasionally not (like only stocking heavy cream in half gallons).
I eat oyster artichoke soup at a couple of restaurants in New Orleans. Sounds like your soup is pretty much the same minus the oysters. I wouldn't hesitate to add oysters to it for some fine dining.
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