One thing every chef should know is how to make is a basic soup. A good start is to learn to make a mirepoux, a mixture of vegetables sauteed in butter or other oil in the soup pan to which you add the other basic soup ingredients.
Mirepoux is made by chopping carrots, onions and celery and sauteing them. Just for the record to sautee something means to fry in a little oil vs. frying something which means frying in a lot of oil.
I like to use lots of onions, quite a few carrots and try to be careful with the celery since it has a strong flavor that can overwhelm certain things. It all depends on the soup you are cooking. Lot's of soups I make are enhanced by adding garlic to my sautee.
One of my favorites is Navy Bean Racoon In The Night Soup.
My brother and I were camping near Woodbine in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana. Beautiful area on the Stillwater River and nice hike to Mystic Lake. You can walk that trail to Yellowstone National Park too. I did that one year...rode my bicycle from my home town about 40 miles away and then hiked up to Cooke City in the park. I saw grizzly tracks on the higher part of the trail (it rises to about 10,000 feet). That was my theory anyway it was either a griz or a black bear with really long toenails.
The soup though...
I was in a Navy Bean Soup groove back then. I made a big pot, we stuck it on a fire and let it cook slowly through the day as we hiked and fished. We had some left over and covered the pan and left it on the table. Now that I'm older and wiser I know that wasn't the best idea...since although bears are unlikely down that low it wouldn't be impossible for one to smell some good soup. A black bear would be a nuisance a grizzly could be a disaster. I was always a lot more careful about storing food as I got into the more remote areas where bear encounters would be more likely.
Middle of the night I hear something banging around. I think bear? Heart starts to beat a little faster...more noise. Get out the flashlight and theres a dang raccoon eating my soup.
Here's the recipe
Soak a package of white beans over night
Make that miripoux (sautee carrots, onions and a bit of celery...garlic if you like in your soup pot)
Get a ham bone or ham hocks
Cut as much of the fat/meat off the bone and sautee with the miripoux
Drain the beans and add them to the onion/carrot/celery/garlic/ham/bone mixture with enough water to more than cover.
Let them simmer for some hours...I like to stir them once in awhile. Beans will burn if you don't keep the heat under control.
This soup like a lot of things is better if you cook it a long time, let it cool and then reheat. That gives the starch a chance to thicken up. I don't like watery bean soup.
Serve with bread and butter and good coffee.
Yum. When I have a chance I'll put down my recipe for a couple of other good soups; poor man's potato and green hat black bean. Maybe lentil too since that's a quicky.
Happy Friday
