Notes from a Food Diva: Talk Soup

I'm not a stockpot person. We didn’t use stockpots at home when I was growing up or in the food courses I took in college. But I am a soup pot person.

I heard tales of grandmother making a lot of soup when her family was growing up. In fact, she served it every night.

I didn’t serve soup often until a year or two ago and now we have it for lunch, breaking up the routine with an occasional variation on the omelet, a salad or a sandwich.

Now, a soup pot - not a stockpot - is always in my refrigerator. And like all chefs, vegetable parings and bits and pieces go into it.

Food editor Helen McCulley, of McCalls, amazed me years ago by always making soup from the leftovers in her salad bowl. Now, I do too and I go one better. I always rinse the salad bowl and empty bottles of salad dressing, mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup into the soup pot.

The same goes for the roasting pan, skillet and Dutch oven drippings. Be sure to scrape the tidbits on the bottom of the pan, especially when making bacon and scrambled eggs, for added flavor.

I add any bit of water left in the saucepan when cooking vegetables. The slivered - by knife or scissors -skin of a baked white or sweet potato is added. Or the roast chicken or crisp skin - minus the fat - of roast pork.

Married right out of college, I put my newly acquired knowledge of nutrition to work and served the outer stalks of cauliflower slivered and cooked, buttered and seasoned. My husband, Emil, looked at it and said, “Dear, if you need more money in the food budget, let me know.” Although Emil was then an accountant, and later a CPA, we abandoned budgets of any kind, shortly thereafter.

And now, not only do I add cauliflower stalks, but also the ends of Romaine leaves. When preparing asparagus, breaking them close to the end, I slice the tender part of the discard and add it to another vegetable or toss it into the soup pot.

After breaking off the cauliflowerets or removing all the lettuce leaves, the core, thinly sliced, is used. Peeled broccoli stems can be cut into sticks, cooked and marinated in Italian salad dressing to use as an appetizer or even as a salad at dinner.

In checking the location of ’s home in Connecticut in his autobiography, “The Apprentice-My Life in the Kitchen,” I chanced upon a recipe in which the chef used parsley stems in his stockpot. I started doing that about a year ago and then read that Ruth Reichl, upon returning from a culinary journey of Southeast Asia, was holding the ends of a bunch of parsley in her hand. I wondered, “Why am I throwing them away?”

 That goes for watercress and coriander too.  Snip them into the pot.

It only makes sense to add a bit of water to an empty bottled barbecue, mustard and mayonnaise jar.  You get the idea - rinse, shake, add.

At lunchtime, I take out my soup pot and there’s usually enough in it for two sizable servings. If not, a can, of kernel corn, chickpeas, kidney or pinto beans usually extends it.

Now I taste and see in which in direction to go. And day after day, the soup is different and very good. Does it need a bit of thickening? If so, additions make each lunch a bit of an adventure. Grandma liked a sprinkling of farina. I keep mashed potatoes on-hand for thickening instead of flour and I also utilize cornmeal, lentils, barely, pearl couscous, Bulgar and even tortillas cut into strips.

And pasta.

These days, instead of collecting decorated egg for the breakfront, I collect pasta for its shape. Long ago, I put on my list of the things I like least to do is bringing water to a boil. Therefore, pasta was not an all-time favorite. However, I love to take a handful and toss it into a bubbling soup. It works beautifully and cooks in just a few minutes if you stay away from the big, thick ones.

I've collected so many different shapes, including orecchiette, that I recently vowed, “No more pasta this year.”

So, what did I do then? I bought Barilla’s mezze penne, tried it the very next day and bought angel hair shortly thereafter.

 Be sure to add bits of leftover meat and juices to your soup pot. Bones go in after a roast and if you have a fish dinner, add the scrapings and rinse the skillet. You’ll be surprised how good that can be. Don’t be afraid to marry them. Breakfast sausages, Vienna sausages (Armor’s smoked is respectable) and even a frankfurter can be added. In oriental cuisine, surf and turf is often combined in the same dish. Take a cue from tortilla soup and pass diced or slivered cheese at the table.

Seasoning is the key to serving a great soup pot. After tasting your “stock,” add soy and rice noodles or use the seasoning from a box of Ramen noodles and even the noodles themselves right from the package.

A fish dinner lends itself beautifully to a chowder with milk and kernel corn added. And a bit of pasta sauce with a sprinkling of Parmesan can give a vegetable soup pot an Italian twist. If I have a stockpot red with beets, I’ll boil a potato and set it in the center of the plate of soup.

Consider what goes on top. Snip flat Italian parsley or coriander, chives, scallions or celery tops over it.  Float two or three small pretzels or one big one on a creamy soup. Or crumble in some cocktail crackers or matzoth. Croutons are great. And remember, they can be the small quarter-inch size or the near-marshmallow size. Parmesan, grated cheddar or a slice of cheddar are appealing, especially now that the days are getting brisk.

Style in serving adds to the pleasure when you serve soup. I vary it from broad brimmed white soup plates to colorful open soup bowls and, on occasion, bowls that we use for cereal. I’ve even brought a pan or bowl to the table and ladled it out. This adds a bit of pizzazz.

The longest it takes for me to get soup on the table with my pot is 10 to 15 minutes. And I don’t plan ahead. Whatever is in the refrigerator or on the shelf often ends up being served from my soup pot.

By the time summer rolls around, you may be so indoctrinated with the concept of the soup pot. Pepin said at a recent James Beard Foundation session, “Sometimes my freezer is filled with more stock pot packages than meats, fish and vegetables.”