Feel-Good Soup

On March 20, 2018December 1, 2019 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Topic, Using2 Comments

Soup is the ultimate comfort food. It warms you from head to toe, even reaching fingertips wrapped around a warm bowl or mug. It can be pleasantly light or satisfyingly filling. You can load it with your favorite ingredients and flavors, and it makes brilliant leftovers. What’s not to love about homemade soup?

Some days, the answer is, “That I have to make it.” When you’re sick, soup can make you feel better, but not if you have to get out of bed, gather and chop the ingredients, and monitor the pot. When I’ve got a bug, I crave hot and sour soup. But one of my favorite recipes, Padma Lakshmi’s Hot and Sour Tomato Broth with Shrimp from Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet, requires specialty ingredients and effort. So I’ve developed a version can be frozen as a broth base. The essential work can happen long before you want the soup. When you’re under the weather, you can simply defrost and mix it into homemade stock. On healthy days, you can fill it out to create a full meal for everyone at the table.
Learn to make Hot and Sour Broth Base and Soup

Winding Down the Year

On December 27, 2016December 26, 2017 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Other1 Comment

What a fabulous first Twice as Tasty year! As 2016 ends, I want to briefly look back at what’s been done since the blog’s launch last June and even share a few of the things to come.

This is the 37th post on the blog. Twice as Tasty now includes nearly 60 recipes and some additional 20-plus pages that apply a range of techniques to preparing, storing, and eating well all year. These have been going out each Tuesday to more than 150 email subscribers and Facebook followers. The 40-plus members of the companion Facebook group have been busy asking questions about and sharing the results of their food adventures.

Offline, Twice as Tasty has been feeding concertgoers and yogis, participating in food swaps, trying new recipes and techniques, and taste-testing with friends and family. I am grateful for everyone’s support and participation. And I’m so excited to share more in the coming year. Read more about what’s in store for 2017

Broccoli

On November 1, 2016December 1, 2019 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Ingredient, UsingLeave a comment

One of the few vegetables I always blanch is broccoli. For years I skipped blanching before freezing altogether. As I mention elsewhere on this blog, blanching affects food quality rather than food safety, and I wasn’t really tasting the difference with most vegetables. Besides, I grill corn, onions, eggplant, and most other veg before freezing, which makes a blanch step redundant.

Broccoli, I’ve learned, is a big exception. Frozen raw, it ends up tasting bitter and woody, even when you add cheese and stock to make a soup. I opt to place the chopped stems and florets in a steamer basket instead of plunging them into the boiling water. Hervé This explains in Kitchen Mysteries that hydrogen ions ultimately are responsible for cooked vegetables appearing brown instead of green. Putting vegetables directly into water only increases their contact with hydrogen. Learn to steam-blanch broccoli and make Broccoli Cheese Soup

Chowders

On October 25, 2016December 1, 2019 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Grilling, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

I’m a fan of thick, hearty soups. Although I make miso or hot and sour soup when I’m down with a bug, I gravitate toward soups that you know are filling just by looking in the pot.

Last week, I mentioned a range of thickeners that can be added to the pot. My favorites are flour-and-butter roux, as in 30-Minute Cherry Tomato Soup. and potatoes. Potatoes have the advantage of acting as both main ingredient and thickener and can be the prominent—or even the primary—ingredient; they can be added to the pot precooked or raw. Like tomatoes, potatoes are mostly water, but the portion that is solid is almost entirely starch. As you heat potatoes, the starch softens, expands, and gels, making the soup more viscous. Keep this in mind when you’re preparing a potato-thickened soup: Potato starch gels at a lower temperature than flour. The result is a far thicker soup. Learn to make Hearty Corn Chowder and Boozy Potato Chowder