Please explain your favorite recipe for soup?

Question

Ingredients?

Methods, procedure?

How do YOU make the best soup, ever?

Answer 1

To prepare the chicken stock for braising shark fin's soup is complicated and time consumming. But it is really worth to do it, everytime I cook this food, I have "love" in my mind going through the cooking process.

It take 2 to 3 days to prepare the shark fin soup, the chicken stock takes 18 to 24 hours of preparation and cooking time. ok.. Let me share my method wtih you, hope you would like it.

First of all, we need to have a big pot that have room for 2 chickens, 1kg pork spare ribs, 4 dried scallops, 50g ginger, 100g chinese ham, 6 dried loongun, 6 dried dates, 3 dried fig and some dried shitake mushrooms (soak overnight or tilll soft) and water that would cover all ingredients even it would be boiled for 8 to 10 hours.

1) Heat big pot of water, put 2 skinless chickens into the boiling water to boil for 3 minutes, then put them under running tap water to wash away all the blood and dirts, drain well, set aside,
2) Ditto but put the pork spare ribs into the hot water to boil for 3 minutes, wash under tap water till you don't see blood coming out. drain well and set aside
3) Heat up a big pot of water, bring to boil, put 2 chickens, pork spare ribs, dried scallops, ginger, Chinese ham, dried loongun, dried dates dried figs all into the pot, heat on high heat to boil for 20 minutes, skimmer the bubbles that floating on the liquid, to make soup clear.
4) Turn down the heat to medium/low , simmer for 8 hours, stir occassionally. Finally, the chickens would be melted.
5) As for the shark fin, you can buy the frozen ready for cooking ones in Chinese grocery shop, this would help you save up 1 day of work.
1) Deforst the shark fin, slightly wash it, put it in a hot pot of water to soak for 1 hour or so, drain well.
2) cut 4 salks of green onions to 2 inches in length,
3) 5 big slices of ginger, crushed
4) Heat up a Chinese wok, add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, when oil is hot enough, stir fry ginger and green onion with the shark's fin, stir fry for 3 minites, sprinkle 3 tablespoon of cooking wine into the pot, stir fry for 1 minute, then pour 1.5 cup of chicken stock into the wok, bring to boil and cook till the shark's fin is soft and no more fisihy smell. Find a big clay pot or soup tureen with a cover.
5) Put a new skinless hen (hot water bathed & washed) into the clay pot or soup tureen, add 50g chinese ham (1 inch cubes), and shark's fin layer on top, fill up the pot with chicken stock, Cover the pot and seal the cover with wet cooking paper, put the pot into a big steamer to steam for 3 hours, add hot water to the steamer to keep the water level & temperture.
6) When done, add salt to taste (if desired) serve hot with red vinegar.

Here is a photo of Steamed Shark's fin soup
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimages%26imgsz%3Dall%26vf%3Dphoto%26va%3Dshark%2Bfin%2Bsoup%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3DFP-pull-web-t%26b%3D41&w=400&h=300&imgurl=img202.exs.cx%2Fimg202%2F7595%2Fsharkfinsoup3gn.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fksn83.blogspot.com%2F2005_04_01_ksn83_archive.html&size=51.5kB&name=sharkfinsoup3gn.jpg&p=shark+fin+soup&type=jpeg&no=50&tt=305&oid=03b47c32e2d7bef2&ei=UTF-8

The left over chicken stock is good for anything, to make wonton soup, and can be frozen.

Answer 2

You did ask for the "best soup, ever" correct? I've been making this recipe since 1979 and it is a winner. Everyone loves this soup and it is something different and it is the "best soup, ever". Enjoy. Be sure and put a generous helping of mash potatoes directly into the soup, and do not mix it in.

Cabbage Patch Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
½ c. celery, sliced
2 c. stewed tomatoes, do not drain
2 c. water
2 c. kidney beans
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. chili powder
2 c. cabbage, chopped
4 large potatoes, cooked and mashed

Boil potatoes until tender, drain and make mashed potatoes. This will be used to top the soup when ready to eat. Brown ground beef, onion and celery until done. Combine tomatoes, water, beans, salt, pepper and chili powder in large pot. Add beef mixture and cabbage; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Answer 3

Like Kelly, I also love making creamy soups especially in winter time. Or otherwise I make chicken stock by simply boiling a chicken carcass + beef bones (which I can easily get from my butcher). So I put everything into a large stock pot, and add the following:

- stalk of celery
- 1 carrot
- 1 potato
- 1 teaspoon of tomato paste
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt
- small bunch of flat leaf parsley
- 1 onion pierced with cloves

The bones should be completely covered by the water. When it starts boiling, make sure to turn down the heat and let it go vert slowly for a couple of hours. Or if you have a pressure cooker, let it go for 3 quarters of an hour.

When it's ready, I let it cool down completely, sieve it and then put it into the fridge for a day. In that way you'll be able to get rid of any fat which may have formed. Don't panic if your stock becomes like jelly when it's in the fridge, it will melt once it's heated up. I cook short pasta in this stock - or I use it for lovely Asian style noodle soup.

Answer 4

Try a "Chicken Tikka with Basmati Rice" For the Tikka you will need - 1 x chicken breast for each person 1 fresh pineapple ( you can use tinned slices for convenience) 1 coconut 250ml of fresh double cream Tikka Curry Powder (saves having to purchase all the individual spices) 1/4 litre of Pineapple juice 150ml Passata (seived tomato) To prepare - slice the pineapple and cut two thick slices (15 to 20mm thick) into chunks (or cut two tinned pineapple slices into chunks) and put aside Puncture the coconut and drain the milk into a glass and put aside break open the coconut and shell about 1/3 of it. Grate the coconut onto a plate and put aside cut the chicken breasts into cubes and put aside. Take a good sized pan and put the passata and the pineapple juice into it. Put the pan on a medium to high heat, to bring to a high temperature but not boiling. Next, add a couple of tablespoons of the Tikka Curry Powder and stir it all in. Now, add the chicken, the coconut milk and the pineapple chunks. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to allow it to simmer. after five (5) minutes, add the grated coconut and the double cream. Let it simmer, stirring ocassionally, for around 10 minutes. Whilst the Tikka is cooking, put one (1) handfull of Basmati Rice per person into a large pan. Add salt and a knob of butter. Boil a kettle and pour enough boiling water to cover the rice, into the pan. Bring to boil and keep the heat high (boiling) for 10 minutes. After five (5) minutes, you can add a bit of Saffron to the rice. When the Tikka has been simmering for 10 minutes, turn off the heat but leave the pan on the stove. Boil some more water in a kettle. Remove the rice from the stove and empty it into a strainer (small collander). Pour the boiling water over the rice to rinse the starch out. The rice should now be nice and fluffy in texture. Put a large portion of rice on each plate and make a large circle around the edge of the plate. Now put a good sized portion of the Chicken Tikka inside the rings of rice. Hints - you can use "Wild Basmatti Rice" if you can get it, the flavour is much stronger. During cooking, you can taste the Tikka and add more Tikka Curry Powder to suit your taste.

Answer 5

I make a wonderful Pumpkin Curry Soup.

Ingredients:
Fresh pumpkin
Onions
Butter
Curry
Cream
Chicken broth

Cook the onions, curry and butter together until the onions are soft.
Then mix in chicken broth, simmer for a little bit.
Put mixture in blender and blender until smooth.
Add cooked pumpkin (about 1 cup or so) and blender that as well.
Put the mixture back in a pot and simmer. Add more chicken broth and some cream. Cook alittle bit longer.

Tasty

Answer 6

My favorite is definately Broccoli and Stilton. Here is an excellent recipe for it:

http://www.gourmet-food-revolution.com/broccoli-soup-recipe.html

Enjoy!

Answer 7

I prefer to eat soup from the can.