Learning By Osmosis?

Well, I'm still no expert, but I have to say, I've had a couple of "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" cooking sessions lately and they both turned out great! And, some old classics that I was never good at have started to suddenly come out right. I'm thinking maybe all that watching of the Food Network has left some random knowledge in my brain.

So my latest exciting experiment that TOTALLY worked out was soup. Yes, soup - seems easy - seems boring - but it's NOT. It's always been an enigma to me. I'm just not a soup maker. I did make that tomato basil bisque a few months ago, but that was strictly following a recipe. And I think of bisque more like it's own category - as opposed to soup. I think of soup as liquid, vegetables, maybe some kind of grain or beans or something, and maybe some protein. I have never made soup, for whatever reason. It turned out SOOOO yummy - I was totally surprised, since I really didn't have any idea what I was doing. It was hot and savory, thick and chunky with veggies, and with a little parmesan grated over the top, it was DELICIOSO!



It all started because I had all these vegetables that I wanted to use up before they went bad - and I also had an opened container of chicken broth, which also needed to be used up. I didn't have onions, which would have been nice, but I did have garlic (always easy to keep around the house, because it lasts forever). So here's what I did ... mind you, I can hardly call it a true "recipe", since there aren't amounts, but consider it a guide.



Vegetable Soup with Orzo (all amounts are really approximate):



Into a large soup pot, I put 2 VERY large cloves of crushed garlic (probably the equvalent of at least 4 regular sized cloves). I added 3 Tbsp butter and melted it over very low heat, stirring constantly (garlic burns so easily). I added about 3 Tbsp (maybe a little more) of all purpose flour and stirred the mixture constantly while still over a low flame. Even though the flame was low, the mixture was sizzling pretty good the whole time (probably because the pot I used is fairly thin-bottomed. After about 3 minutes, I started adding the chicken broth (NOTE: I really don't have any idea how much chicken broth I used, but it doesn't really matter anyway. It depends on how chunky or liquidy or prefer your soup to be). So, I added the broth a little at a time, and mixing it in with the roux (FYI - roux is the flour/butter (and in this case, also garlic) mixture)). Once the mixture is all liquid, just pour the rest of the broth in.



Now for the veggies. I added what veggies I had (any number of veggies would work). I added 2 large carrots (sliced medium thick), celery (sliced pretty chunky - and you can also add the celery leaves...they add flavor), and a crown of brocolli (cut up into large bites). At this point, you should turn the heat up to high to heat up the liquid. I decided at this point that I should add some sort of grain or pasta, so I poured in a little orzo (about 1/3 cup, I think). Remember, orzo is pasta and it expands, so you don't need a ton of it. You're not making an "orzo dish". You just want a bit of pasta in your soup to add texture and substance. I also didn't feel like I had enough liquid in the pot, so I added about 2 or 3 cups of water. Stir as needed to mix up all the ingredients. You should be over high heat at this point to get the liquids hot again.



Flavoring - it's totally up to your taste, but I added some garlic salt, the crumbs on the bottom of my "Bay Leaf" spice jar, dried parsley, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, and a tiny bit of Worchestershire sauce (random, I know - it just struck me as tasty). And, I had some fresh cilantro that I wanted to use up as well, so I threw in about 20 to 30 whole cilantro leaves. Once the mixture boiled, I turned the heat back down to low and put a lid on the pot. I let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes.

To serve, you can grate fresh parmesan or other cheese over the top. I also threw some of the fresh cilantro on top. Yummm!