Archive for the Category » Soups «

Gumbo: Turkey Bone Gumbo

Hey! Got a few minutes to talk about Black Friday? Not shopping. Cooking. I know you’re busy finishing up your Thanksgiving menu, planning that inevitable last minute grocery run and cooking make-ahead sides and sauces. And the last thing on your mind is what’s for dinner on Friday. But this is important, especially if your Turkey Day celebration extends through the weekend like ours does. If you need to plan additional meals for visiting family and want to make the most of leftovers, then save that turkey carcass (or beg the hostess for it) [ ... ]

Oyster and Artichoke Soup

  This soup is tied to one of my earliest cooking disasters.  One day while I was in the seventh grade home alone and bored, I decided to make–or attempt to make–Oyster and Artichoke Soup.  I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t even think to ask for help or search for a recipe (which at that time would have been limited to my mom’s red accordion recipe file and a couple of regional cookbooks).  My only points of reference were a flavor memory I had banked from a local restaurant meal and the title of that menu item.  [ ... ]

Cooking with Susan Spicer: Cream of Garlic Soup

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a large cookbook collection.  My current index (yes, I alphabetize my addiction) stands at around 240, with 18 more waiting to be added.  The majority of those are regional recipe collections from New Orleans and South Louisiana that I frequently turn to for inspiration and research.  Coincidentally, I rarely cook straight from those books.  I have more fun when I borrow an idea from one recipe and pair it with another.  I also like using traditional ingredients in unconventional and fun ways.  Recently, though, I made a commitment to myself to make at least [ ... ]
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The Turtle Soup

I’m sharing a special love letter with you on this Valentine’s Day. This is not your typical mushy, make-you-blush kind of letter. No, the love letter I’m posting for all the world to see is actually my great-grandmother’s recipe for Turtle Soup as written by her son, my grandfather. I cherish this piece of paper like I would a love letter because it captures not only a special family recipe but a part of my Grandma Kirn who, more than anything, loved to feed us. It’s also the only item I have in my possession with [ ... ]

Zydeco Sweet Potato Crab Chowder

When you grow up in New Orleans, a city surrounded by and practically floating on water, you cut your teeth on fresh seafood.  I’m talking succulent shrimp, briny oysters, meaty blue crabs and subtle, sweet crawfish (not to mention a huge variety of fish, turtle, alligator and frog legs).  And when your dad’s a shrimper, like mine was, at a very young age you become intimately acquainted with the vast waterways that house those creatures … whether you like it or not! I actually liked the whole boating, shrimping thing.  During the summer months, I’d occasionally join my dad on a [ ... ]
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Sausage and Spinach Soup

It’s just my luck that I want to talk soup when, for the first time in over two months, the mercury’s rising close to 64 degrees.  But I’m dishing out this recipe anyway, because we all know winter’s far from over.  And if you’re like me, you’ll jump at the chance to prepare an easy and comforting pot of soup regardless of the temperature.  Besides being easy, this soup is also satisfying, hearty and healthy.  Its brothy base is enriched with plenty of turkey Italian sausage, spinach and tomatoes.  A dusting of Parmesan cheese at the end brings all of [ ... ]
Category: Main Dishes, Soups  Tags:  3 Comments

Spinach, Crabmeat and Brie Soup

Just the other day, I was flipping through an old cookbook when out fell a recipe from the food section of the Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ daily newspaper.  The clipping, which obviously had a few years on it, was a recipe for Crabmeat & Brie Soup from The Dakota, a suburban New Orleans restaurant.  I had a vague recollection of that recipe and a similar one involving brie from Flagons A Wine & Bar Bistro.  (Flagons was another great New Orleans restaurant that closed many years ago.)  I remember wanting to borrow a couple of ideas from these two recipes to [ ... ]