Minestrone

Today, I checked out my itemized list of food to prepare and saw that I needed to make a soup to be served within two hours. (Among other things with the same deadline.) That didn't give me a lot of time to think. To make matters worse, the miscellaneous shelf was nearly empty. There were some roasted red peppers and some tomato paste. But that's it. Why might this make things worse for me? I'm sure most cooks would easily make their favorite soup, since there were no mandatory ingredients to incorporate. I, on the other hand, get more and more confused the more choices I have. For those of you who know me, you know I have a hard time making decisions. I think this is a minor form of O.C.D. I just don't want to make the "wrong choice." Whatever that might be. I throw my hands up in the air and decide to make a big vegetable hodgepodge soup. Then it occurs to me: A "big soup" is what some Italians might call a minestrone. However, the word originated from "Minestra" which means to dish up or serve. Minestrone is rarely made the same way and is more or less the Chop Suey of soup.

I start grabbing veggies. Everything from Asparagus to Zuccini will be going into this pot. But first...you guessed it..the mirepoix. I go Frenchy with this part...you know: 25% carrots, 25% celery, 50% onion. But this time I use both red and white onion. While I let that mixture cook in some olive oil, I cut the other veggies and grab my spices. Which spices? Gotta make this thing Italian, don't I? So I go with oregano, basil, and rosemary. (And plenty of garlic.) The oregano and basil are dried, but the rosemary is fresh. Which is a good thing, because dried rosemary can feel like you're eating little sticks. I'm in a bit of a rush, so I just drop the whole stem of rosemary into the pot and let the savory leaves cook themselves off. Veggies? Check. Spices? Check. Broth?

I did not want to make the soup heavy with a beef base, nor did I want to make it to light and salty with a vegetable base. So I combined a vegetable base with a chicken base. I'm using the word "base" because that's what we use, a condensed broth. Now, for the edification of this blog:

Broth vs. Stock

There is some dispute on the differences between these two. I shall explore these differences and state my own opinion on the matter. First, let's look at the similarities. Both are made from boiling things in water. Both can be made with vegetables, spices, and fish. Can both be made with other meats? Some say "yes" and some say "no." One source states that the difference between the two is literally the meat of the issue and make no bones about it. Meaning that a stock is not made from meat, but merely the bones, vegetables, and spices. Others insist that the stock is the unstrained liquid and the broth is the strained liquid which can be served as is.

It can be surely said that the major distinction is that stocks are used to make other dishes such as soups and sauces. I think that, since gelatin comes from boiling meatless bones, that a full-bodied liquid with gelatin isn't really servable by itself, and since broths are servable as is, then stocks are made with merely bones and broths are made with meat included. Fish and vegetable broths are made from the same basic ingredients as fish and vegetable stocks, so the difference between them is really one of intended end use and word choice.

How to make a broth-stock-thingy? I recommend putting everything into a pasta cooker. That a kind of pot with a strainer that fits right inside. That way, when you're all done boiling away, you can just lift the strainer out of the pot and what is left is pure ambrosia. Some like to encase herbs in cheesecloth, but I think that a metal tea ball is better, since they are reusable. Or you could invest in a chinois ("shin-wa"). Which is a fine-mesh strainer, sure to only let liquid pass through its wiry filter. If you're film-o-phobic, then I would advise you to refrain from adding the vegies and spices until you've simmered the meat for an hour or so and then removed the film on top. (Which is sometimes referred to as a "raft.") Or you could even place a paper towel on top of the liquid to absorb most of the fatty-oily-scummy film. You may find that when making a broth, you end up with a lot of liquid that you won't need....unless you're feeding an army soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I take my excess broth and pour it into either ice cube trays or muffin-tins and freeze it. Then, when I want to make some soup, I can take out as much broth as I need. Maybe one muffin-sized block for a day when I need some chicken noodle soup, or perhaps a whole ice cube tray to feed some unexpected guests.

Minestrone Continued:

I decided to make this soup with no pasta nor rice. But I did include both green beans and garbanzo beans to make it hearty and to add a little protein. I tend to get garlic-happy when cooking. Fortunately, for you vampires out there, the powerful pungent perfume of garlic can be toned down by filling a tea ball with parsley and allowing it to simmer in your broth until the garlic detection level lowers to your standards. A little tomato paste to thicken it and some roasted red peppers to give it that unique touch and it was ready to go.

The garnish was created by me, but the seed for the idea was planted by the pastry chef. I took some puff-pastry. You can buy that in frozen sheets at the grocery store. I poked holes in it with a fork to prevent it from rising too much on me. Then I cut it into strips about 1/2 inch wide and 4 inches long, brushed them with melted butter, dusted them with a mixture of Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, paprika, oregano, and basil, twisted each one like a cheese doodle and baked them until golden brown. I ended up with light, flaky, garlic bread-like sticks, striped to look like some kind of savory peppermint stick.

I don't know if the Italians are the best cooks in the world. But they definitely have the best ingredients to cook with. Buon appetito!