Creamy Asparagus

At last a spring soup! This week was cloudy and cool, giving me the perfect motivation to cook up my own take on a soup from the spring chapter of Rosbottom's Sunday Soup. Saturday I stumbled by a roadside farm stand out in Howard County and picked up a bunch of locally grown asparagus. Sunday I cooked and blended the base of the soup. I found that rice was the secret ingredient, cooked right in the chicken broth as the veggies softened, and helpful in thickening the consistency. On Monday, I sauteed some asparagus I had set aside with a little olive oil and toasted almonds before serving. The garnish was my own invention and made for a pretty picture and a little CRUNCH!

Maryland Crab Soup

This week I decided to really take a leap, throw in some hometown spirit and make a traditional Maryland Crab Soup. I grew up eating the tomato based counterpart of the more common cream of crab soup. Grandma's Maryland Country Club had the most memorable crab soup of my childhood. Not having access to their recipe, I searched the world wide web and turned up a decent Baltimore recipe which I modified slightly.

The biggest struggle was deciding where and which crab meat would be appropriate. After more talk then necessary I headed to my local Safeway and grabbed 2 80z cans of Phillip's claw meat at about 7 bucks each. I decided to go brand name because crab just seems worth it but I did hold back on the $12/can backfin. I'll splurge once I have a special occasion and have perfected the recipe! Picking through the smelly gooey crab meat I found myself fondly remembering folding tables covered with crab carcases and old bay covered beer cans.

Roasted Potato Leek Soup

This soup was incredibly rich and according to Ina Garten's original recipe, "when you eat this luxurious soup, it's hard not to imagine yourself instantly transported to the Hamptons". I broke out the new candle sticks and served up four bowls with crispy shallots and grated Parmesan cheese for a nice presentation. I found the recipe a little salty but no one else seemed to mind.

Corn Chowder

This recipe was found in a soup cook book at my parents house. I carefully recorded the recipe, went shopping for ingredients, and then lost the recipe before I made the soup the next day. The soup became half improvised, which is always best, and had a ton of ingredients. Don't let the corn title distract you because it was so much more!

A selection of the ingredients before cooking.

The blending experience is always a fun one!

I have already had many a close call with the always possible blender explosion. This is particularly dangerous when you are impatient and decide to blend the soup while it is still hot. Don't overfill the blender and make sure there is a satisfactory liquid to solid ratio. My fancy Cuisinart blend (a gift) was partially ruined a few years back by some roommates who thought it could handle processing chick peas for hummus.

The final presentation (excuse the poor lighting).

This chowder was served with a spinach salad and a homemade mulled wine. It was followed by a delish rice pudding which I am tempted to post cause it was such a hit (but this is a soup blog after all)! All in all it made for a wonderful birthday dinner.

Tomato Dill and White Cheddar Soup

Diced tomatoes, leeks, fresh dill, sour cream, and white cheddar to top.  This soup came out well, with a nice texture and color. I added 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper instead of the 1/4 tsp the recipe called for in what turned out to be a happy mistake. I balanced it out with extra sour cream but the soup still had a kick. 

New Year's Resolution

Last year I developed an interest in cooking soups from scratch. After receiving a "Sunday Soup" cook book for Christmas I made a resolution to cook at least one soup a month. In this cookbook Betty Rosbottom organizes the soups by season, so I naturally started cooking winter soups. I even braved the cold weather and made it to the farmer's market to buy some of the ingredients. I started off strong, cooking three of the recipes during January:

1. Cold Weather Potato Chowder with Cheese
2. Tuscan Minestrone
3. Celery Bisque

I grew attached to leeks and made a veggie stock. I also decided these soups should be documented through pictures and words. A reflective soup practice must be developed.