William Penn Life, 2012 (47. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2012-01-01 / 1. szám
íhe YáVOpmV) Rftchßß» with Főszakács Béla FÁRADJON BE A MAGYAR KONYHÁBA! Happy New Year 2012 to all. Finally, the cold weather has hit New Hampshire, along with the snow. While there are many activities to keep you busy outside during the winter, they all share a common theme. Skiing, skating, ice fishing, sledding, tobogganing and snowshoeing all make you hungry. The perfect meal after a cold day outside is something hot and nutritious inside, namely soup or stew. Whether using a crock pot or a stockpot, you can produce a savory entrée your family and friends will enjoy. Compliment the meal with a crusty artisan bread, and you have the perfect meal. There are not many dishes that can bring forth a sense of warmth and well-being like a soup or stew. Before we continue into the kitchen, here is your trivia question of the month. What civilization was the first to make soup and when ? Your answer awaits in the stockpot at the end of the kitchen. Soups and stews are very similar as both are versatile and can be created from almost any foods. The ingredients for either simmer in some kind of liquid until tender enough to eat. There is one main difference between soups and stews, but its value deals with the esthetics of a meal. Depending on your culture or ethnic background, a soup can be an appetizer and/or a meal while a stew is always a meal and never an appetizer. A second difference is physical appearance. A stew has less liquid than a soup, and it is usually thicker. Both a soup and a stew may have a thick liquid base, depending on what you're making. It also would depend on what is available. Historians tracing the origin of foods have found many modifications to the same recipe. Not everyone in the world has the same ingredients to make the same soup or stew. An excellent example is chowder, which most people associate with some form of seafood. In New England, that seafood might consist of clams, fish, lobster or any mollusk from the sea. This seafood is then cooked with some form of dairy product (milk or heavy cream), seasoned with spices, salt and pepper and cooked in a pot or cauldron called a chaudiere. And now you know how the word "chowder" came to describe this culinary favorite we enjoy all year long in New Hampshire. To make a good soup or stew, you need a good base or stock. Here are some tips for making the best base for your soup or stew. 1. Try not to use commercial or store bought bases as they tend to be very salty. You can always add more salt but cannot take it out of a product that's overly salted. 2. Use a steel pot or crock pot—not aluminum-to make your stock. Aluminum usually has a reaction to certain ingredients and will leave a metallic taste in your final product. 3. Use cold water to start your stock or soup. Warm or hot water will seal the meat and bones, trapping flavor inside. Cold water lets the proteins gradually blend into the water and create a flavorful broth. 4. If your using chicken, make sure to rinse in cold water and drain before putting into the pot. The impurities you wash off the meat will keep your stock from turning cloudy. 5. Once the stock starts to boil, turn it down to a simmer and let it cook until reduced by one quarter. Or, taste the stock and decide if it is flavorful enough. You will taste the flavor of the proteins in your stock but do not add salt or pepper. Seasoning is done when the stock is to be finished as a soup or stew. 6. If you want additional flavor from any bones, roast them with a mixture of carrots, celery and onions until they are dark golden in color. When the pan comes out of the oven, add cold water and stir the contents, loosening all the ingredients from the roasting pan. This will give you a darker, intense stock to make a heartier entrée. 7. The last item you need when making a soup or stew is patience. You cannot rush the natural process of converting bones and raw vegetables into a meal. If you throw things into a pot and stir them up, that's just what it will taste like, something carelessly thrown together with haphazard flavor, if any at all. 8. After making a stock, use it in your favorite recipe in place of the liquid, usually water. Remember, if you want your food to be gourmet instead of okay, add flavor wherever you can in the recipe. Using stock instead of water is more flavorful. The recipes this month include basic stocks you can make with a medium degree of difficulty. I have included my favorite Hungarian soup and stew recipes for your eating pleasure. One final note: you eat soup, not drink it. Since soup may be an appetizer or a meal, it is eaten, just as you would any appetizer or meal. Drinking is the process of consuming liquids. Have a great month and enjoy your stock making! Jo IttHtypa-t fösza^Áos ß^°-The Hungarian Kitchen is a trademark of William S. Vasvary. Photo © A41 cats/Dreamstime.com 8 0 January 2012 0 William Penn Life Hearty soups & stews
