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Five years ago, when I was just a brand new co-op student who'd never had a job before, was when I made (attempted to make) my first soup. 17 years old, absolutely no knife skills, only a basic understanding of sanitation. "Let's leave Graeme in charge of the restaurant for the day. What could go wrong"? Sysco order doesn't show up on time, fantastic start. The other locations are almost completely out of food, excellent. Well at least we've got a soup of the day and we can use yesterday's feature because we didn't sell much. Oh wait. We should send those to the other locations... alright. Time goes by, it's 11:00, still no sysco order, which is usually already unloaded by the time we get there at 6:00. Well what do we have? Bacon, potatoes, cream, some cheese. Sweet, now how do you make a soup? Oh well, can't be hard, right? Cook some stuff in a pot, add some liquid, boil the potatoes, blitz it, add salt and pepper, done. Should be no problem. Everything was going great at first, it was smelling like soup. Kind of looked like it would become soup. Blitz it up, tastes like soup. Soup that needs some seasoning of course, but soup. Awesome. Just leave that there on the stove to stay hot for lunch. What's that burning smell? Apparently, if you leave super thick potato soup on high heat, the bottom burns... in a big way... who knew?! Three guesses who got to clean the full inch of burnt potato off of the bottom of that pot later.
Now five years later, it's time to write a blog about making soup. Of course, in that time, I've made plenty of soups and they've turned out a whole lot better than that first soup. A few disasters here and there. But all in all, significantly better than that first soup. But it wouldn't be any fun to blog about if there weren't a story to go with it. So loaded potato soup it is.
Come home from work and decide this is an excellent time to make this soup. Only problem, the grocery store nearest my house is closed. No bacon, no cheese. Maybe this isn't going to work. NAH! In the spirit of that first soup, I'm just gonna see what I have and we'll wing it. Salami, sure. Cream cheese, good enough for me. Girlfriend wants to put broccoli in, why not? And let's put some beer in it, because who doesn't like putting beer in their food at midnight.
Now five years later, it's time to write a blog about making soup. Of course, in that time, I've made plenty of soups and they've turned out a whole lot better than that first soup. A few disasters here and there. But all in all, significantly better than that first soup. But it wouldn't be any fun to blog about if there weren't a story to go with it. So loaded potato soup it is.
Come home from work and decide this is an excellent time to make this soup. Only problem, the grocery store nearest my house is closed. No bacon, no cheese. Maybe this isn't going to work. NAH! In the spirit of that first soup, I'm just gonna see what I have and we'll wing it. Salami, sure. Cream cheese, good enough for me. Girlfriend wants to put broccoli in, why not? And let's put some beer in it, because who doesn't like putting beer in their food at midnight.
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Recipe:
2 cups diced potatoes
1 head broccoli, diced
3 cups water
3 tbsp powdered chicken base
1/4 cup diced salami (I'm not sure what kind of salami this is)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup beer (I had PBR, because I'm classy like that)
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup 10% cream
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1. Heat oil in a pot. Add salami and cook on low until the grease renders out. Remove salami bits from pot but leave the grease in.
2. Add onions and sweat. Add garlic, cook for one minute.
3. Add beer, and cook until about half of the liquid has evaporated. Mix together water and chicken base.
4. Add broccoli, potatoes and "chicken stock". Cook until the potatoes are done.
2 cups diced potatoes
1 head broccoli, diced
3 cups water
3 tbsp powdered chicken base
1/4 cup diced salami (I'm not sure what kind of salami this is)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup beer (I had PBR, because I'm classy like that)
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup 10% cream
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1. Heat oil in a pot. Add salami and cook on low until the grease renders out. Remove salami bits from pot but leave the grease in.
2. Add onions and sweat. Add garlic, cook for one minute.
3. Add beer, and cook until about half of the liquid has evaporated. Mix together water and chicken base.
4. Add broccoli, potatoes and "chicken stock". Cook until the potatoes are done.
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5. Purée until smooth. Return to pot.
6. Add cream and cream cheese. Stir until cream cheese melts in. Add cooked salami.
7. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. I added red wine vinegar at this point because I really like red wine vinegar.
8.Don't leave the soup on the stove on high heat unless you love burnt potatoes.
Originally, I had only used two cups of water and 2 tbsp of chicken base and my soup came out like loose mashed potatoes, so I added the third of each.
6. Add cream and cream cheese. Stir until cream cheese melts in. Add cooked salami.
7. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. I added red wine vinegar at this point because I really like red wine vinegar.
8.Don't leave the soup on the stove on high heat unless you love burnt potatoes.
Originally, I had only used two cups of water and 2 tbsp of chicken base and my soup came out like loose mashed potatoes, so I added the third of each.
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Well it certainly is different from my first soup now but let's find out how it tastes. Smooth, and creamy texture. Can taste a little bit of the bitterness of the beer. Can obviously taste the earthiness of the potatoes, that's good. Can't really taste broccoli at all. The acidity from the red wine vinegar isn't overpowering but it's definitely there through all of the potato. Cream cheese was too mild of a flavour to really even be noticed, which is a shame. But the spice from cooking everything in the salami grease is noticeable, even more so when you eat one of the little salty, cured pieces of salami that are throughout the soup and get that big concentrated meatiness. All in all, it tastes a lot like you would expect a potato soup to taste. Thank god.
I should probably get my girlfriend to try it too, seeing as she contributed the broccoli to it and has been peeking over my shoulder all night while I make it. "It needs cheese," was the first thing out of her mouth. Which was kind of expected. Otherwise she really enjoys it too. She likes the beer in it and the red wine vinegar. And then she got a piece of salami. Now she's a little less focused on it needing cheese. I came home the next night from work and she'd eaten half of the soup with some cheese on top for dinner, so I'm going to take a wild guess that she liked it too.
What were some challenges involved?
The main challenge was that between late nights at work, and early mornings at school, I didn't give myself many chances to make the soup, so when I did finally go to make it, I didn't have half of the ingredients I wanted to put in. On the other hand, not having those ingredients made it so I had to improvise, which is one of my favourite things about making soup, especially at home. It's fun for me to go "well I've got some potatoes, what else do I need to use up," and have something to eat at the end of it that actually tastes great. I think the soup was a success though, especially in the sense that the story behind it was about me not having a clue what I was doing and trying to make it work anyways, which I got to do again with this (now with more cooking experience) and have it turn out completely differently. If I could do it differently, I don't think that I would.
What did you take away from this experience?
To be honest, I didn't really learn anything necessarily from making this particular soup. But making this soup caused me to reflect on how far I have come and how much I've learned in the last five years. It's easy when starting a new job with a new menu and a new way of doing things to feel like you're right back in that first kitchen, not having a clue what you're doing. But doing something which, in the past, was an absolute disaster, and having it turn out fantastically is a great reminder that making those mistakes and learning from them is a big part of this job. I think that reminder was important right now with the amount of information being thrown at me from every angle. It seems like a lot and it's a little overwhelming and I'm making plenty of mistakes, but I'm learning from them. And at the end of it, I'll be better because I've made them.
The main challenge was that between late nights at work, and early mornings at school, I didn't give myself many chances to make the soup, so when I did finally go to make it, I didn't have half of the ingredients I wanted to put in. On the other hand, not having those ingredients made it so I had to improvise, which is one of my favourite things about making soup, especially at home. It's fun for me to go "well I've got some potatoes, what else do I need to use up," and have something to eat at the end of it that actually tastes great. I think the soup was a success though, especially in the sense that the story behind it was about me not having a clue what I was doing and trying to make it work anyways, which I got to do again with this (now with more cooking experience) and have it turn out completely differently. If I could do it differently, I don't think that I would.
What did you take away from this experience?
To be honest, I didn't really learn anything necessarily from making this particular soup. But making this soup caused me to reflect on how far I have come and how much I've learned in the last five years. It's easy when starting a new job with a new menu and a new way of doing things to feel like you're right back in that first kitchen, not having a clue what you're doing. But doing something which, in the past, was an absolute disaster, and having it turn out fantastically is a great reminder that making those mistakes and learning from them is a big part of this job. I think that reminder was important right now with the amount of information being thrown at me from every angle. It seems like a lot and it's a little overwhelming and I'm making plenty of mistakes, but I'm learning from them. And at the end of it, I'll be better because I've made them.