soup

Good bean soup begins with a baked ham dinner. This is predicated on the assumption that you don't buy canned hams, though I suppose some folks do. Buy the butt portion of a ham when it's on sale. It costs a little more than the shank, but you get more meat. At the same time, buy two pounds of navy beans (2 bags).

After the ham dinner, a breakfast of ham and eggs and maybe a couple of ham sandwiches, the ham is ready for the soup pot. Next to chicken, at $10 to $12 ham goes a long way and is one of the most economical and versatile meats.

2 pounds of navy beans	Water to cover
1 ham butt	4 bay leaves
1 quart chicken stock	½ cup chopped fresh parsley
3 carrots	Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion

The night before soak the beans in a pot of water. Next day rinse and sort the beans; discard any dead ones. Put in soup pot with chicken broth; add water to cover by about 1 inch and bring to boil. Medium dice the onion about the size of your little finger nail and add to the pot. If by chance you nip your finger nail while dicing, add it to the pot as well. Finger nails are very high in gelatin. Tear bay leaves in half, fine chop parsley and add to pot. Add the leftover ham to the soup pot and reduce to simmer.

Fine dice carrots; put into separate pot, cover with just enough water and boil until tender. Allow to cool, then purée with a hand blender or food processor. Add to pot. When beans start to become tender, or after 3 hours, remove ham and reserve. When ham has cooled to a manageable temperature, remove meat from the bone and chop to a ½-inch dice. Return diced ham to the pot.

Continue to simmer until beans are done, then add the salt and freshly ground pepper. Reduce to desired consistency and optimum flavor. If a thicker soup is desired, remove some of the beans and puree in a food processor. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

Variations: Dried lima, great northern, pinto beans, or a combination can be substituted for navy beans.

The only place I've seen clam stew on the menu is the Jersey Shore, and it's not all that common there. It's not difficult to make. The hardest part is finding Trenton Crackers. Once common on the Jersey Cape, the supermarkets stopped carrying this Jersey original. Be sure not to allow the milk to boil when heating or after it has been transferred. This is a winter soup that goes down real well on cold days

2 dozen chowder clams	1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups milk	Paprika
4 tablespoons butter	Salt and pepper
	Trenton Crackers

Steam clams to open in ½ cup of water. Reserve broth. Open clams over a bowl to catch the broth. Chop clams no larger than little fingernail and discard bellies. Pour clam broth into another container, stopping when sand and mud are about to go into the second container. Discard the sand and mud, wash original container and repeat process until all sediment is removed.

Bring broth to a boil, skim off scum, add chopped clams, and reduce to a simmer. In a second pot, heat milk and butter. DO NOT ALLOW MILK TO BOIL. When milk is hot, pour into the pot containing the clams and broth; add Worcestershire Sauce, paprika, salt and pepper. Taste, adjust seasoning, and add more hot milk if the clam flavor is too strong. Serve immediately with Trenton Crackers.

Among all the soups, crab bisque is our favorite. The only affordable way to enjoy it, however, is at home. You won't find it in most restaurants. What you will find is cream chipped beef substituting backfin crab meat for dried beef. It's a thick mess that's a delight to those who savor the taste of paste. In those few places that prepare it properly, expect to pay $8 to $12 dollars for a cup.

Actually she-crab soup is a more appropriate name for this dish. It was created on the Eastern Shore along with he-crab soup, a spicy, tomato based crab meat soup, which has its own advocates. Bisque, which was created in France, is not at all like what Americans have come to expect when they see bisque on the menu. We've never tried the French version, which is much more involved and difficult to make. Someday – maybe.

1 pound JUMBO LUMP crab meat	4 tablespoons butter
1 pint light cream	3 tablespoons flour or 2 teaspoons arrowroot
1 pint heavy cream	White pepper and salt to taste
Dry sherry	Flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Carefully pick over the crab meat to remove all bits of shell. Sauté the crab meat briefly in two tablespoons of butter. Remove skillet from stove and reserve. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a two-quart pot, add the flour to make a roux. Slowly add the light cream to make a light velouté. While constantly monitoring the sauce, simmer it for 20 minutes to cook the flour. Don't let it burn on the bottom. Should that happen, start again.

Transfer to a bain-marie (double boiler) and add crab meat; when hot, slowly begin adding the heavy cream. Next add some dry sherry, white pepper and salt to taste. Don't overdue the final adjustment; just bring it close. Each person can add more sherry, salt, or pepper at the table to their taste. Allow to simmer in the double boiler for an hour. Adjust the sherry, white pepper and salt. Serve hot; garnish with a little fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley. Provide a cruet of sherry at the table. Return to the Inn's main page.

Notes: Lobster, shrimp, fish, or a combination of different seafood can be substituted for crab. For people who, for health or religious reasons, do not want alcohol, try to get the amount of sherry correct while it is on the stove so the alcohol can evaporate.

Good French onion soup is difficult to find at most South Jersey restaurants. All too many use a tinny tasting commercial base, some slice the onion instead of chopping it and very few season it with mustard or wine. The most offensive are Italian restaurants that top the soup with mozzarella or provolone and season it with oregano. That's fine if the chef wants to make Italian onion soup. In which case it would be much better if they used the more expensive Fontina, which is a great melting cheese from northern Italy.

Traditionally veal stock is used for French onion soup, but unless you own a large restaurant, it's not likely you'll have any. And if you don't have chicken or beef stock, substitute College Inn low-sodium stock. The French use either Madeira or port wine and no mustard. The below Roadkill Inn version is not true French onion soup, which is why we qualified it. It was adapted from a recipe we found in Esquire in the late 70s. The only major change we made we made was the optional paprika and the cheese; the Esquire recipe called for Monterey Jack.

1 large Bermuda or Vidallia onion	1 teaspoon Grey Poupon mustard
1½ pints beef stock	French or Italian bread, ½ inch slices
1½ pints chicken stock	2 tablespoons sweet Marsala wine or to taste
Muenster or Fontina cheese	Salt and pepper to taste
4 ounces butter	Paprika, optional

Chop the onion coarsely and sauté in butter until translucent in a 3-quart stock pot. Add the beef and chicken stock and bring slowly to a boil; simmer until the stock is reduced by about 20 percent. Add the mustard and Marsala. Taste and adjust mustard and wine. Taste again and add salt and pepper as needed.

While stock is reducing, dry 4 slices of bread in the oven at low heat. After the soup has been seasoned, ladle the onions and broth into four oven-proof 2-cup soup tureens, filling to within ½ inch of the top. Trim the bread to fit snuggly in the tureen; cover the bread with thinly sliced cheese and bake in a 350° oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Finish under broiler to brown the cheese. If paprika is used, it should be sifted lightly over the cheese. Serve hot.

2 dozen chowder clams and broth	3 ounces tomato paste
water to taste	3 tablespoons butter
2 large potatoes, ½-inch dice	fresh-ground pepper to taste
4 tomatoes (large plum if available)	2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 stalks celery, ¼-inch dice	2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce	2 bay leaves
1 large onion	Trenton Crackers

Prepare the clams as in New England clam chowder (next recipe). Boil enough water to cover the tomatoes. Place tomatoes in water for 3 minutes; remove to cold water for about a minute. Skin to tomatoes, remove the seeds and chop into bite-size pieces and reserve. Dice the potatoes and boil in a separate pot with just enough water to cover until not quite done. Reserve with water, then repeat same process with the celery. Dice the onion and sauté in the butter; reserve.

Slowly bring the clams and broth to a hard boil. As scum forms skim off until no more rises. Add tomatoes, potatoes, celery and onion and reduce to a simmer. Add the Worcestershire, tomato paste, thyme, parsley and bay leaves. Simmer for about an hour. Add black pepper to taste. Serve hot with Trenton Crackers.

Restaurants have changed a stable centuries-old soup into wallpaper paste. During the past 20-years or so, all too many chefs just can't keep their hands out of the flour canister when they make soup. The only thickening in the original New England clam chowder came from the potatoes, and that wasn't much.

Below is how New England clam chowder was originally prepared before thicker is better became trendy.

2 dozen chowder clams and broth	1 cup heavy cream
½ cup water	Butter
2 large potatoes	Salt and pepper to taste
2 ounces salt pork, ¼ inch dice
Milk equal in volume to broth	Trenton Crackers

Prepare clams and broth as for clam stew. Dice salt pork and simmer until golden and crisp and fat is rendered. Set pork aside on paper towels. Sauté onions in pork fat until translucent; turn off heat and set aside. Cook diced potatoes in just enough water to cover until almost done; reserve with water.

Add clam broth, which has had the sediment removed, to soup pot, bring to rolling boil, and remove scum. Lower heat, add potatoes and water, onions and half the reserved salt-pork pieces. Simmer until potatoes are done, then add chopped clams. Heat milk and cream in separate pot, but do not let boil. When warm, add to soup pot, taste for flavor. Add salt, pepper, and more milk or cream if needed. Remove from heat; serve with Trenton Crackers, a tablespoon of butter in each bowl, and the crisp salt pork pieces on the side.

Note: Trenton Crackers were not and are not used in the New England states. They're made in Trenton, New Jersey and are indigenous to Philadelphia and Jersey Shore fish houses. Anyway Trenton Crackers are much better than those wimpy oyster crackers that are used in New England.

Oyster stew is much more common than clam stew. Like clam stew, oyster stew is best served during the cooler months. Remember the old adage: Only eat fresh oysters in months with an R in them, i.e. September through April. It's best when it's very hot, but be careful not to allow the milk and cream to come to a boil either when warming or after they have been added to the stew.

1 pint shucked stewing oysters	Pinch of Cayenne pepper
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)	Dash of white pepper
1 quart warm milk	Salt to taste
1 pint heavy cream	Paprika
½ teaspoon Worcestershire	4 tablespoons butter

Melt a stick of butter in a heavy sauce pan. Warm milk and cream in a separate pot. DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL. Add oysters, liquor, Worcestershire sauce and Cayenne to heavy pot. Simmer until the edges of the oysters begin to curl, then slowly stir in the warmed milk and cream.

Heat carefully until hot. Just before the stew is about to boil, remove from stove and ladle into 4 bowls. Top each serving with a tablespoon of butter and sprinkle top with paprika. Serve with Trenton crackers and a good micro-brewed beer.

2 cups dried white cannellini (pinto) beans (1 pound bag)	2 cloves garlic
Small slice of salt pork	8 ounces of imported pasta, small-size shells
About 10 cups cold water	¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium potato	1 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes
1 medium-size red onion	2 tablespoons diced fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste	grated Parmigiana cheese, preferably Reggiano

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. The next day, cook the salt pork in boiling water for 2 minutes, then rinse well under cold running water and reserve. Peel the potato and cut into small ½-inch dice.

Dice the salt pork into ¼-inch dice and sauté until it begins to get crisp, then add the olive oil. Rough dice the onion and garlic and add them to the soup pot. Sauté gently until translucent; add the beans, diced potato, cold water and tomatoes. Raise the heat and bring slowly to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer very slowly for at least 2 hours. Taste for salt and pepper. When the beans are tender add the pasta to the pot and cook until al dente. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle Parmigiana and freshly ground black pepper over each bowl.

Notes: For better control, consider cooking the pasta in a separate pot and add to soup pot at last minute. Also, if some of the soup is to be frozen, it's better to freeze it without the pasta. The pasta will become overcooked when the soup is reheated.

Half or all the water can be replaced with chicken or white stock for a richer soup. If chicken stock is not available, College Inn chicken broth or a couple of Knorr's chicken bouillon cubes can be substituted. If canned broth or bouillon cubes are used, be careful with the salt.

If available, use fresh plum tomatoes after removing the skin and seeds. Using shells for the pasta is not engraved in stone. Any small pasta can be used. Serve hot with a small bowl of Parmigiana on the side.

Soup