Cream of Broccoli Soup

shlomi on December 21, 2005

Backstory

I had all these ingredients and a soup sounded just peachy. I don’t usually splash around in the “cream of…” puddle, but I _did_ have this quart of half-and-half, so I mixed it in.

Sadness. Tragedy. Lactose intolerance.

So I froze most of it and brought it to work. A co-worker liked it so I gave her the whole 5-quart batch. It was gone in three days and no, they don’t have kids. (I hope they didn’t feed it to the dogs!)

So here it is. A solid, great for leftovers kind of soup. That I can’t eat. 🙁

Ingredients

  • 4 heads and stems broccoli
  • 3 large onions
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1/6C olive oil
  • 6 carrots
  • 4 baking or 8 yukon gold potatoes
  • 4 cups cooked elbow noodles
  • 3/4 to a whole leftover chicken, cooked however you liked it
  • Water
  • Paprika, pepper, salt, chili powder

Preparation

  1. Roughly chop onions, potatoes, brocholli and carrots and peel the brocholli stems and chop them too, and then toss everything into about 3Q water
  2. Mince garlic and add oil and spices. (I use only a drop of salt to help cook the veggies — about 1t.)
  3. Debone and skin the chicken and add it all in. Scrape off as much of the fat as possible, or, if you want it, skimp on the olive oil.
  4. When things soften up (about 45 minutes), bring down to a simmer and add 1/2Q of heavy cream or half-and-half. Let that rumble for about an hour. (No, I don’t think Silk(tm) will work the same way.)
  5. Pull out as much of the brocolli as you can, along with liquids to make about 1Q. Frappe it in your favorite bladed appliance, then pour it all back in. If you want it thicker, hunt for potatoes. Thinner, go for just liquids and some bigger chunks.)
  6. Add the cooked noodles and return it all to simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Yield: ~5 quarts

Timing

Prep time: 20 minutes Elapsed time: ~2 hours

Victoria’s Salsa Verde (TacoDeli’s Dona Sauce)

shlomi on November 14, 2005

Backstory

I’d found this wonderful creamy sauce in Austin’s TacoDeli, at the East end of Barton Skyway. Very powerful day one, it ages quickly and takes on brain-melting properties after just a few days. Yummmm… They (obviously) wouldn’t give out the recipe, but I serendipitously found it when visiting friends in El Paso who had a live-in cook. The recipe that follows is hers, with comments in brackets “[]” on my part.

In the name of full disclosure, I need to say I haven’t taken my batch down to the good folks out there: they might not let me leave without telling them how I cracked their code!

1/2/10 update: Modified recipe to address comments using a bold font. There are no additional ingredients, needed to make it, however the optional avocado would make for a creamy, instead of liquid, sauce.

Ingredients

  • 10 Serrano peppers [Try 7 Serrano and 6 Jalapeno]
  • 6 cloves garlic, sliced [2 bulbs instead, and crush the garlic to release more flavor (can you see where sweating might come in???)]
  • 1T oil (canola works, but I’d use olive oil — watch the temperature so it doesn’t get past the smoke point!)
  • 1/2C water
  • Optional: 1/4 Ettinger or  1/2 Haas or Fuerte avocado [This provides creaminess. Other commenters have suggested using sour cream.]
  • 1t salt [You might want to add more later]

Preparation

  1. Remove the stems from the chilis and perforate them all over with the tip of a knife
  2. Place chilis and garlic in a sauce pan with the oil
  3. Saute over a low flame (remember: olive oil has a low smoke point!) until the Serrano skins begin to peel off the chilis (about 6 minutes)
  4. Put the chilis (with their skins) and the garlic (and the optional avocado) in a blender with water and salt and blend thoroughly.
  5. Pour salsa back into the sauce pan with the oil and cook for 3 minutes or so, to blend the flavors

Yield:

About 3/4C sauce. Remember, the older the sauce, the more you sweat!

Timing

Prep time: 10 minutes Elapsed time: 20 minutes