fat cats soup kitchen

[Bay Bud]

i would like to open a restaurant that only served soups, chilies and stews. oh, plus cocktails and beer. but that's it. no burgers. no salads. and definitely no fucking quiches.

there would be sports on the one television in the bar area. the only exception to sports would be mythbusters, modern marvels and walker, texas ranger. music would play in the dining area, and would match the soup of the day. if it was tortilla soup, some sort of latin mix. texas chili would of course include texas music. a good ol' fashion stew would require irish music, from u2 to traditional celtic. you get the picture.

the joint would also have some poker machines meaning nobody under 21 allowed. no, you can't bring your kid with you just because your babysitter canceled. sorry, it's the law.

vegetable broth
got to start somewhere, and this is about as basic as it gets. just liquid mirepoix. i use this for my base in a lot of stuff, from soups to sauces. it's also good to add to your water when cooking pasta or rice.

you can make veggie broth from any and all veggies, just that some of them really lend a strong flavor you may not want to have in some soups, and some of them certainly don't mix well with each other in a broth. i remember seeing one of my grandmothers always save her carrot and potato peelings, onion tops and ends, the bottom inch or so of a celery bunch, just about any vegetable scrap to boil, strain and then use in her beans. she always had beans going.

then again, my grandmothers raised families through the depression and rationing of the second world war, so they knew how to stretch a budget and still put great food on the table.

4 tblspn. olive oil
1 onion, peeled & rough chop
1 lb. carrots, washed but not peeled and rough chop
1 stalk celery, same as the carrots
2 limes (juice & zest)
3 bay leaves
1 tblspn. whole black peppercorns
11 cups water

start with a 10 qt. pot, add the olive oil plus the onion, carrots and celery. stir while sweating this mix on a medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. add lime juice and zest. add water and bay leaves. bring to an easy boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to an hour. i generally go 45 minutes, then turn the heat off and let it stand for 30-45 minutes to cool down a little.

strain, throw the leftover solid bits into your compost. yields about 10 cups, maybe a bit less. that's it. no, i didn't forget to mention the salt. i don't use salt in any base broths.

 

[Bay Bud]

714

chicken broth
even simpler than vegetable broth. Two dozen chicken wing tips, eight cups of water, black peppercorns and a bay leaf. Or a whole fryer (quartered), 4-5 quarts of water, the peppercorns and a few bay leaves. if you go the whole fryer route, you obviously have chicken to use in the follow-up soup.

beef broth
start with mirepoix and add beef. take the time to roast the bones for 20-30 minutes at 400F, then add the carrot/onion/celery in the same pan for another 15-20 minutes. A crock pot works best for the long cooking process.

3 lbs beef with bones (shank or soup bones with fair amount of meat left on them, if regular beef ribs are on sale, go that way)
1 lb. carrots, washed & rough chop
1 stalk celery, same as carrots
1 onion, peeled & rough chop
1 tblspn. black peppercorns
1 tblspn. brown sugar
1 tblspn. balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
3 quarts water

after roasting the bones and then the veggies, add all of that to pot. add sugar, peppercorns and then the water. finish with the vinegar and bay leaf. Cover, simmer for 5-6 hours; or, crock pot on low-medium for 6-7 hours.

superbroth
take the recipe for the veggie broth, add 24 chicken wing tips and six more cups of water. you can survive on this elixir. that's assuming you also have plenty of beer and liquor.

homemade broths are the way to go and will be the standards for fat cats soup kitchen as i add recipes in the future.

 

[stevek173]

i would like to eat at said restaurant

 

[MrMonkey]

Sounds yummy BB, but what part of the country you opening this joint up in? Soup IMO doesn't go over big in 100 degree temps! Or does it down there in Texas?

 

[Bay Bud]

if people don't want to come because it's too hot to eat soup, chili or stew, fuck 'em. either that or we'll be open from mid-september to mid-may. then i'll grow veggies, herbs and we'll just sell beer, drinks and watch baseball/hockey & nba playoffs/world cup/mythbusters/modern marvels/chuck norris films during the non-soup months.

 

[MrMonkey]

Calm down BB! Ok, what ever you say! Could you at least give some thought to the waitresses clad in daisy dukes!

 

[Bay Bud]

listed on the menu as the #45, also known as 'the bread'

black bean soup
do beans count as a soup? or are they just beans? know any good fart jokes?

at fat cats soup kitchen, beans not only count as soup, but some sort of bean soup will be served each and every single damn day. you got that?! and black bean soup shall be the first on the menu. they'll be served with corn tortillas. if you want flour tortillas instead, tough shit.

i love beans, and eat them as often as possible despite their proclivity for giving me gas. anything i eat at my age seems to give me gas. i can eat a popsicle and get gas. why fight it?

this is a totally vegan soup, dude. so like, don't ask me why i don't put chunks of meat in it. it's hearty enough, trust me. any latin music would work, but black beans are really more of a caribbean or south american thing. recommended music would be compay segundo, naturally, plus ibrahim ferrer, roberto carlos, sergio mendes, heitor villa-lobos and just about all sambas.

it's also a very easy recipe to turn from a soup into a thick chowder or bisque. i like sliced avocados, crumbled/shredded queso fresco, some chopped green onions and cilantro on the top of my bowl. maybe even squeeze a little fresh lime juice.

1 lb. dried black beans
1 white onion, chopped small
2-3 serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
5 large cloves garlic, pressed
1 tblspn. cumin
6-8 cups homemade veggie broth
2-4 cups water
more water, salt, pepper, olive oil

sort through the beans removing any foreign matter and retarded beans (wrinkled, split). rinse the beans and put in a 10-qt pot. add water to about a half-inch above the beans, little sea salt, bring to quick boil, cover and remove from heat. let this stand 20-30 minutes while you're chopping the other stuff.

at the end of this soup, i don't like seeing anything but the broth and beans, that's why i chop the onions/pepper fine and press the garlic. if you're going to turn this into more of a chowder or creamy bisque, it doesn't matter how small you chop the other stuff.

in a saucepan on a med-high heat, add some olive oil, the garlic, onions and peppers. stir and cook until garlic begins to brown or the onions go clear (depending how small you've cut them).

when you remove the lid on the bean pot after about 30 minutes, the water should be pretty much all gone and absorbed into the beans. toss in the onion/garlic/pepper mix and stir. add salt and fine black pepper. stir a little more. add your veggie broth and water. you want to start with at least 11 cups of liquid total, just under 3 quarts. when you do this, note where the pot fills to on the inside; with the displacement from the beans and all, you should be about halfway full in a 10-quart pot. don't let it get down more than a half-inch or so below that mark during the first two hours of cooking.

yes, i said the first two hours. bring all of this to a low boil, reduce heat to low-med and slow boil for at least three hours. check the fluid level in the pot every 30 minutes or so and add warm water as needed. those little black beans will absorb a ton of liquid. if you start with 11 cups, you may add 5-8 more during the process.

if you want a broth-style soup, you're done when the beans are soft. probably 3 hours total, maybe a tad more. you can thicken it up a little, remove a little broth and run a hand blender through the pot for a while.

you can go the full creamy-bisque style as well. take out maybe two cups of the liquid, had back a -cup of half & half or full cream, and use your hand blender until you have it fully mushed up. add the liquid you pulled out as needed until you get the consistency you want. save leftover liquid in case you plan to freeze any of this or just keep the last serving or two in the fridge for a day or two. add some of the soupy liquid to the tupperware you store the leftovers in so you'll have some good juice to loosen it up when you eventually reheat.

mmm, nothing better than good juice, reheating and loosening up.

 

[Saulty]

Any recipes for cold soups BayBud? Can't eat soup here in Atlanta unless is 30 degrees which doesn't happen often.

 

[Archie]

good stuff

we've been on a big vegetable soup kick for the past 6 months. made a roast in the crock pot last night, eating some now...

only gets 4.5 matty rains though

 

[kato]

i like this thread

this thread needs jello

i will post a pho recipe here

 

[MrMonkey]

Italian wedding soup with tiny meatballs!

 

[rito]

excellent thread, im gonna make those beans this week

 

[Bay Bud]

excellent thread, im gonna make those beans this week

add the cumin with the salt and pepper, left out that step.

 

[roguejuror]

that looks good right about now mister monkey

 

[MrMonkey]

that looks good right about now mister monkey

It is! Trust me!

 

[Enigma]

not many places show tv that's not sports

 

[MrMonkey]

Baccala soup

Baccala is salted dried codfish. It needs to be soaked in water for two days to remove the salt and to reconstitute the fish. The flavor is distinct and is served every Christmas Eve in Italian households! Portuguese people eat alot of cod!

My mom-in-law cooked it every holiday and I'm not into tomato soups but this had such a great spicey flavor! Hard crusted bread dips well in this! People in Texas would go nuts over this!

 

[Bay Bud]

enigma, please go wait in the bar and watch some walker, texas ranger until your table is ready.