The Corner Room’s Potato Parmesan soup.
Yields approx 3 gallons
3 pounds of Potatoes (peeled and boiled until fork tender)
1 pound onions (medium dice)
1 pound celery (medium dice)
1 small carrot (medium dice)
Thyme
Minced garlic
Rosemary
Minced parsley
Bay leaves
White pepper
Black pepper
Chicken stock
Sugar
Salt to taste
White wine
Rendered Bacon fat Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
Half and half
Fresh chives
4 gallons water
Place rendered bacon fat in a hot heavy stock pot. Medium-Hi heat. Place vegetables and all of the herbs and spices except chives in the pot. Caramelize vegetables. Once caramelized, deglaze the pot with wine. Take out bay leaves and save for later. Add potatoes and water and let come to just boiling. Add chicken stock to the pot and puree until smooth. Once smooth, add saved bay leaves and simmer for 20mins. Incorporate half and half and fresh Parmesan cheese. And garnish bowl of soup with more fresh Parmesan and fresh chives.
The Deli’s Wild Mushroom w/arugula & bacon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive, pomace oil
1 lb cremini mushrooms sliced
1 lb shiitake mushrooms sliced
1 lb fresh small 10# mushrooms sliced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper, ground black 18oz spice
1/2 lb thinly sliced Spanish onion
12 eaches coarse chopped cremini mushrooms
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
6 cups chicken – prep stock
1 tbl porcini, powder mushrooms
Heat 3 tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large stockpot over high heat. Add the wild mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are golden brown and their liquid has evaporated, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl. Heat 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add the cremini mushrooms and cook until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes. Add the stock and porcini powder and cook for 20 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Strain the stock through a strainer into the stockpot that you sautéed the wild mushrooms in and discard the onion and mushrooms. Cook stock over medium heat until thickened slightly and then stir in the sautéed wild mushrooms and cook for 15 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. While the soup is cooking, heat sauté pan over high heat. Carefully add the bacon, in batches, and cook until crispy, about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels. Ladle the soup into bowls, add a handful of arugula, top with a slice of the crispy ham, and drizzle with a teaspoon of white truffle oil.
Elk Creek Café’s Cheesy Broccoli soup
3-4 heads broccoli (peeled stems separated from the florets)
small handful of flour
2 Tbs. butter
2/3-1 cup Riesling
0.5lb sharp cheddar
0.5lb smooth melting cheese
Begin by sautéing just the broccoli stems until tender. Add your milk, heat, then blend until smooth (reserve this). In a clean pot make a roux with the flour and butter. Once this starts to smell biscuity, gradually add the reserved smooth broccoli milk mixture. When heated through, gradually add the cheese until smooth and bubbly. At this point add you broccoli florets and Riesling. The acidity and floral flavors of the Riesling help to tame the savoriness. Cook until the broccoli florets are tender and a little bit of the Riesling has cooked off. You want the soup to have an almost fondue consistency. Pour in your bowl and have some sort of bread to swab it up.
Kelly’s Farmhouse Chicken & Ham
1 lbs. + 4 oz Yellow Onions (diced 1/4”)
1 lbs. + 4 oz Carrots (diced ¼”)
1 lbs. + 4 oz Celery (diced ¼”)
1 lbs. Ham (diced 1/2”)
1/4 cup canola Oil
1 gallon Chicken Stock
2 oz. Chicken Base
2 lbs. Chicken (Diced ½”)
1 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper (coarse ground)
2 cups Half&Half
12 oz. wt Butter
12 oz. wt Flour
Mix the chicken stock and base together and heat to 170 degrees. Place the oil a large soup stock pot over med. high heat, heat the oil then add the onions, carrots and celery, turn heat down to med. and cook until vegetables are slightly tender. Then add the pepper, ham and chicken, let cook until chicken is cooked through. Meanwhile place the butter into a large stock pot over med. heat, melt the butter then add the flour and cook into a roux, stir constantly and let cook for 2-3 minutes, don’t brown. Slowly add the hot chicken stock to the roux and mix well until it is smooth and thick. Let simmer for 5-7 minutes. Next add the thickened stock to the vegetable mix. Cook for 15-20 minutes until soup thickens and is well mixed. Add the half and half. Heat for 5 minutes cool, transfer and hold refrigerated.
Zola’s Seafood Chowder
Serves 2
8-10 mussels
6 littleneck clams
¼ pound bay scallops
1/3 cup cooked potatoes-diced
1 Tbs. diced pancetta or bacon
1 Tbs. minced shallot and garlic
¼ cup white wine
½ cup heavy cream
Hot sauce
Salt
Pepper
Parsley
Heat a sauté pan and add pancetta. Cook until crispy. Add garlic and shallots, and stir for less than a minute. Add the white wine and reduce by half. Add clams, mussels, bay scallops, cream and potatoes. Cover pan and cook until the clams open. Add hot sauce to taste. Season with salt and pepper. Plate it in your favorite bowl and garnish with parley.
Harrison’s Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque
Makes about ¾ of a gallon or 12-16 cups of soup
1 large butternut squash
4 cloves garlic (medium size cloves)
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
3 stalks celery (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
2 small carrots (chopped)
½ cup honey
¼ cup sugar
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
To taste salt and white pepper
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
To prepare the squash: First cut in half, peel, and remove seeds. Slice long-ways into 2-inch flat pieces. Pre-oil grill and then roast squash over a medium flame 2-3 minutes each side. Roast squash in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until soft. Process the prepared squash until smooth in food processor or blender. Roast garlic cloves in the oven at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until soft. Garlic can be roasted in skin or peeled, but skin should be removed before putting in soup. To prepare roux: melt butter and slowly whisk in flour until think and a little browned. Hold for final step. Combine garlic, onion, celery, carrots in food processor and process until smooth. Heat vegetable stock over medium high heat and add squash, stir to incorporate. Add garlic/veggie mixture, stir to incorporate. Add honey and sugar, and then season with approximately 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Bring to simmer, reduce heat and slowly stir cream and milk. Bring to a simmer and stir in ¾ of prepared roux, stirring and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until soup has thickened. Add additional roux only if needed. Further blending makes this soup more velvety, a stick blender works best. Add any additional salt and pepper as needed.
Herwig’s Sauerkraut
Canned Sauerkraut
Cracklings (beef fat)
Juniper berries
Caraway seeds
Lots of chopped onions
Cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper.
Beer
First, we wash the sauerkraut with hot water. We start out with a little bit of vegetable oil in a big pot. Add cracklings, juniper berries, caraway seeds, chopped onions, cloves of garlic, salt, and pepper. The only liquid we use is beer. We cook it for about 8 hours stirring it all the time and adding water when it is almost done, we put very little roux in there, so it gets a little creamy.
