If you have nothing but tail ends, what better to make than soup–especially when there’s snow on the ground? If you have, say, about 3 1/2 quarts of rich, gelatinous, homemade beef stock left, apply what I call the “what would taste good?” principle–but remember, most of the ingredients you must have on hand. Here’s an example.
You ask yourself what soup you could make with that stock that would taste good, and for some reason, you think of cheese tortellini. Ask yourself what you don’t have, and you come up with two things: Beef and tortellini. (If the list of things you don’t have is longer than the list of things you have, you’re cheating, so think of something else–and yes, you could leave out the beef, but your stock won’t be quite so rich.)
Run to the store and get a small package of stew beef and cheese tortellini. When you get home, you’re ready to throw it together, along with whatever else you may have at home.
First, get the stock out of the refrigerator and pop it into the microwave, and set it to nuke for seven minutes, long enough to melt all the grease and get the stock hot. While the stock is being nuked, cut the beef into smaller cubes (they’re always too big for soup) and toss them into the bottom of a pot. Measure a quart of the stock into a glass degreaser (you know, with the spout rising from the bottom), and let it sit for a minute, until all the fat rises to the top. Pour the degreased stock into the pot with the beef, and the fat back into the remaining stock and stick it back in the refrigerator. Open a can of diced tomatoes (canned tomatoes in the three essential forms–sauce, diced, and crushed–should be a permanent part of your pantry) and toss it in with the juice, then add some basil and some oregano. Bring it to a boil, then simmer it until the beef is tender.
So what do you have lurking in the freezer? The tail end of a bag of frozen sweet corn, and the tail end of a bag of frozen peas. What’s that, you have diced prosciutto and roasted red peppers in the refrigerator? Great. Add the tortellini, the peas and the corn, dice some roasted red peppers and add them, along with some prosciutto (just not too much–it can easily overpower everything else). Simmer just until the pasta is done, add salt and pepper to taste, and there you have it. Memorable soup from what you had left!
joubertconlon says:
That’s how I got started cooking. I was allowed to use leftovers and bits and pieces to experiment with as a kid. Enjoy your snow and soup. We’ve got bone-in rib-eyes on the barbie.
April 8, 2007, 8:48 pm