cooking - cottage rolls, soup kits, & shortcuts

On Monday I made one of the cottage rolls I purchased for the larder. It was easy, I just placed it in a pot, covered with water, added an onion, some garlic cloves, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Then I just simmered it on medium for two-and-a-half hours. While that was going on, I prepped my vegetables: cauliflower and broccoli. In the last half hour I made risotto from a kit I bought on a super-sale; regular $11.49, down to $2.00. I also finished the vegetables at the end of the cottage roll's cooking time.

super-discount risotto

Dinner was awesome and there were leftovers for lunches or another supper. However, the best part is that the water used to boil the cottage roll is now a ham stock. Once it cooled down, I put the pot with the stock in the fridge overnight. I planned to use it the next day to make soup. I decided to use a soup kit I got on super-sale with the risotto. I picked up five or six of them because they were $1.00, down from $9.99. Except for soaking the beans overnight in the kit, I do not really follow the instructions any more.

the super-dealio soup kit

I originally bought the soup kits for camping, but have since been using them as a base for more elaborate soups. That is the beauty of soup kits. You do not need to follow the directions all too closely. The one I used yesterday was for a "fisherman's stew". Well, no fish came near the pot, except for the brass spoon rest on the stove.

the "fish"

The downside of the kits is that they are often expensive for what you get. I only buy them on sale. They are not usually a complete meal as some brands lead you to believe. Most want stock added, you can often just use water. Meat and veggies are also often required too. Some even ask for what would be considered exotic ingredients for a soup, such as avocado. However, as I said above, they are a good base for a really good soup.

So, for yesterday's soup, I started of with some red corn that I originally bought for popcorn, but it would not pop, so I was saving it to make a posolé type dish, but used for this soup instead. I let that simmer for the day with a chopped onion. (You can use canned, frozen, or fresh corn to save cooking time, but it will be a little different.) Then I had some leftover lamb, beef, and chicken from a fondue on the weekend which I cut up and tossed in to the pot. (I decided to save the rest of the cottage roll for something else, but that would have been great in the soup too.) At this point, I placed the contents of the soup kit in the pot. Generally, I find these dried ingredients need about an hour to hydrate properly, but they can cook for even longer or you can force it down to about 20-30 minutes. Then came the beans, followed by the carrots and celery, that I cut up the day before and had standing by. I also had some potato gnocchi that I broke up in to smaller pieces and threw in for the last 20-25 minutes of cooking time. I seasoned it variously with marjoram, fresh ground white pepper, garlic, paprika, and a touch of cayenne.

We put a baguette in the oven and had that with the soup. Nothing else, the soup was hearty enough to be the meal with a bit of fresh bread. The wife raved about it and put two portions aside immediately for lunches. It was pretty good. These kit soups are something akin to my "Garbage Can" soup, but with more forethought and planning. In the end, aside for the bowls and spoons, just one pot to wash up. Soup is awesome! blbbl

the directions of the soup kit that i do not follow