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SOUPS
There is nothing quite as loveable as a homemade soup, whether it's on a rainy day or a cold winter night - there is nothing quite like a
house that smells like soup and fresh baked bisquits.
Soups are made with love and patience. The ingredients don't have to be expensive, just fresh and in come cases colorful. Soups might be the ulitmate
comfort food, so much so that I had to give it a catagory of it's own.
There are some soups that I make all the time -- Chicken Soup being one of them, Avgolemono, a Greek chicken/orzo/lemon soup, being another. There is
a medicinal quality to chicken soup, possibly because it does take a lot of patience to make a really good chicken soup (as you'll see in the recipe).
Some soups don't take a lot of time - some do and it's the ones that 'do' that I just love.
Another thing I personally love about soups is that you do all your prep and put everything in the pot and clean up the kitchen. When you eat the soup,
all you have are bowls and silverware to clean... and no messy kitchen after the meal.
Of course you realize that all of these recipes are just 'suggestions' on how to make the soups. I would encourage you to use your imagination and use
whatever ingredients are fresh, handy or on sale.
Stocks and Broths
Stocks and broths both start off the same way: various kitchen scraps of vegetable, meat, and bone are slowly simmered to extract as much flavor as
possible. For stock, it stops there — this is an unseasoned liquid that doesn't taste all too great on its own, but makes a fantastic neutral base
for soups, sauces, and other kitchen creations.
Broths, on the other hand, get some seasoning. We add salt, some other spices like black pepper, perhaps a splash of wine — all for the purpose of
making this neutral stock taste delicious on its own. A more technical definition for broth wuld actually be "seasoned stock." Now that the salt
and other seasonings are added in, broth is tasty and satisfying.
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