IT’S NOT AT ALL SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS, AND YET IT IS ALWAYS SOUP SEASON, MOTHERFUCKERS
My viral soup post hasn’t gotten reblogged in a while and needed to be updated, and @redheadmystic asked me about it today, so here’s a brand-new master post of soups, including most of the ones that were on the list before, as well as some newer favorites. I’ve made many more soups than just this list over the past year, but these selections are my very tip-top, most enthusiastically-recommended picks.
Victoria Granof’s Pasta con Ceci (sometimes I like it thick, more like a pasta dish, and sometimes I add more water and loosen it up because I want it brothier, like a soup)
Smitten Kitchen’s 44-Clove Garlic Soup (don’t be afraid of the number; it’s surprisingly refined and understated)
Yvette Van Boven’s Daube Provençal (stew beef marinated in, then simmered with orange, olives, and a whole bottle of Côtes du Rhône)
BA’s Poached Cod with Tomato & Saffron (note: I double all the ingredients but the fish, and add olives and capers, to make this more like a stew than a poach)
America’s Test Kitchen’s brilliant Creamy Cauliflower Soup (nearly dairy free, but super creamy)
my own recipe for Vichyssoise, adapted from a 1962 recipe in Gourmet
Elaine Louie’s completely brilliant Miso French Onion Soup (vegan if you leave out the melted cheese at the end)
Adding these newly discovered favorites to the list:
Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Canh. Shrimp, onion, ginger, fish sauce, mustard greens: very simple, clean flavors, takes just a few minutes, and absolutely lovely with some glass noodles in it, plus a little sriracha and/or hoisin.
Urvashi Pitre’s Instant Pot Tom Kha Soup. This comes the closest of any soup I’ve ever made to my favorite restaurant version of coconut shrimp soup. Do leave the shrimp tails on, if you can: it gives the broth more flavor and makes it come out absolutely bewitching and addictive. I usually throw in half a block of cubed tofu at the end, as well.
Marcella Hazan’s Broccoli and Potato Soup. Aesthetically, this is a homely soup, but it is so comforting and delicious, especially served with a spoonful of crème fraîche swirled into the bowl at the end. This soup benefits from using homemade rather than boxed or bouillon broth.
Pat Tanumiharja’s Instant Pot Soto Ayam. This Indonesian soup is amazing and richly aromatic and chickeny, but all the garnishes/fixings take it right over the top into the sublime. I always use all of the ones suggested in the recipe.
J. Kenji López-Alt’s 30-Minute Pressure Cooker Pho Ga. This soup changed our life this year. The amount of flavor you can get out of the aromatics and chicken in just a half-hour in the instant pot is nothing short of mind-blowing. I’ve learned to be sure and get a good, deep char on the onion and ginger before proceeding to the other ingredients.
Spicy Kimchi Miso Soup. This vegetarian one helped get us through a long, cold winter. I usually serve this with a scoop of rice.
Instant Pot Kimchi Beef Stew (Kimchi Jigae). This one is similar, but it’s much heartier from the beef. I also learned from firsthand experience that it freezes and reheats very well.
Carla Lalli Music’s Hammy Chickpea Soup. I normally soak the chickpeas overnight (even though the recipe doesn’t call for it) to make sure they cook evenly the next day. This soup is genius: all the carrot, garlic, and onion that cook in the soup with the legumes get fished out and put into a bowl with some of the broth, plus a scoop of the chickpeas, and pureed into a vegetal thickener for the soup. This stuff is out of this world. I forgot to add the red pepper flakes the first time I made this, and now I skip them on purpose because I actually prefer the soup mild.
Pressure Cooker Miso Chicken Ramen with Bok Choy. Makes a great (and easy) base for ramen, and all that’s involved is throwing everything into the instant pot – no searing or sautéing or extra steps – so it’s great for a weeknight.
Hot or Cold Creamy Lettuce Soup. So, this never comes out as pretty color-wise or as smooth as in the photo, but it is so delicious. I love it hot or cold, especially with a few drops of truffle oil on top.
Molly Baz’s Coconut Cod Chowder with Seasoned Oyster Crackers. The warm broth and spices – coconut, ginger, coriander, turmeric, cardamom – transform the leek, potato, and cod. This was a revelation, such an inspired combination of flavors: thick, rich, bright, fragrant, slightly spicy. And those seasoned oyster crackers are genius.
Hi everyone! I haven’t done a soup masterpost in a while, so here’s an updated list of favorites/discoveries from the past year or so.
the Hogwarts teachers were my favourite part of the books remember in CoS when they were so sick of Lockhart that they chased him out of the staffroom by reminding him he’d said he could kill Slytherin’s monster in seconds, remember in OotP when they couldn’t tell Harry they approved of his interview so they did wildly extravagant favours for him, like giving him twenty house points for passing a watering can, or bursting into tears and announcing that he’d live a long and happy life? on that note remember how much McGonagall disliked Trelawney and all her little digs, and remember how she ran forward to brace Trelawney as she was being kicked out by Umbridge? remember how McGonagall ran out to defend Hagrid from trained Aurors with nothing but her words and took four Stunning Spells to the chest? remember when she told Peeves how to unscrew the chandelier? i could go on about McGonagall especially for days but i love all of them so much
i wonder who first discovered the power of poetry in driving away love? i thought that poetry was the food of love. of a fine, stout love, it may, but if it is only a vague inclination, i am convinced one poor sonnet will kill it stone dead. so what do you recommend to encourage affection? dancing. even if oneβs partner is barely tolerable.
every culture has their ethnic donut and every culture has their ethnic dumpling⦠humans be frying dough
Every culture also makes a sword. If they got metal they make a sword, if they donβt have metal they take obsidian or shark teeth or whatever it is that theyβve got and they make that into a sword.
Coincidence? I think not.
2 constants in all civilizations:
Tasty Fried Food
Danger Murder Sticks
World building tip: the bare bones of all civilizations are fried dough and sharp things.
Also: dramatic and ornate hats.
as soon as people have the resources to do so they will put gaudy brightly-coloured things on their heads, so help them
Fried dough, murder sticks, and ostentatious headwear. I like it.
for one of my classes we’re creating illustrations for a hypothetical book based on old folklore/fairytales and i picked the little mermaid! these are the drawings for the assignment, a book cover, a chapter header, and an interior illustration. i quite like how they turned out
funny story, there was actually a third illustration to this assignment that i forgot about until the critique started on the day it was due. i panicked as i realized that and managed to churn this out fast enough to turn in at the end of class and i’m pretty proud of how it turned out all things considered
This is my fave Noel fielding story ever in the world
I don’t even know who this is but he’s fabulous
[ID: Series of gifs of Noel Fielding on a late night show recounting a story. Noel is a white man with dark hair cut in a straight shag with bangs. He is wearing black eyeliner and a big red fluffy coat over a blue stripe t-shirt. The story is as follows. “On tour, I disappeared for two days and when they found me I was working in a vintage clothes store. Basically, I got wasted in a group of people and this girl said, ‘I’ve got to open a shop at nine in the morning.’ We said ‘We’ll all come with you.’ and one by one, everyone sort of peeled off and it was just me and this girl. So we opened the shop and she passed out on the floor. I didn’t know what to do so I just started working in the shop. I had to move her behind the desk because it looked like I murdered her. I sold a bag and two ponchos. I did quite well. I wanted to stay there forever, but then our tour bus turned up. The tour manager went, ‘Where have you been?!?!” … Working in a shop, obviously.“ End ID]
The story behind how March of the Gladiators actually became associated with clowns is actually kind of amazing. So when circuses were becoming a thing the performers needed a way to keep in contact and keep organized. So the bands would have certain songs that they would perform that meant different things that the cast knew but the audience didn’t. IIRC March of The Gladiators was a signal that there was an issue that needed to be resolved before the next act could go on and for the Clowns to come out and do some improvisational bits in order to keep the audience entertained.
That is fascinating, on par with the thing about sailors going to work in the theater, and whistling to each other like they did on the ships – which led to the superstition about not whistling on stage or else you might get a sandbag dropped on your head.
I love learning the answers to questions I never thought to ask.
While we’re on the subject, the song Stars and Stripes Forever is circus code for “it’s an emergency; get the patrons out NOW.”
