In our southern hemisphere is winter starting again. We had the first few days the heater going and we have strong appetite for heavy food. Many years we started the winter-food season with pea soup, original German Erbsensuppe. See my post „Pea Soup and More“ released in May 2016. Just click on and enjoy !
Yeah, first fire in winter 2018, time for a hot soup !
Party Soup.
This time we start the winter season with our party soup. The origins are unknown to me. We use this recipe for over 50 years now and always a bit modified. I introduce you to our basic variant and you can do whatever you like to do with it.
Why „Party Soup“ ? Easy to answer. In our early years of marriage we had not much money to celebrate expensive party food (steaks on BBQ etc.) and we mostly had around 10 people attending us. Solution was a hearty soup, delicious, tummy filling and perfect companion for a lot of drinking. Friends always were keen to know: „when do you make your party soup again ?“. Very often we made this soup for other party’s also.
Queso Crema we use here in Uruguay, the the cheese we used in Germany and Italy and finally the one we used in Australia, the US and Panama. One also can use the well known brands like Boursin or Philadelphia. Telling the truth, I love my self made , fresh herb cheese.
Its easy to make, the ingredients are almost everywhere available, not to expensive and one can make portions as many as one likes to do. I mostly make the soup for around 10 hungry people. For ourselves, I do the same amount and then freeze portions for later.
Fry well the minced meat.
Ingredients.
2kg minced meat (see tips)
6 large stems of leek, complete white and green
3 large yellow onions, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
500g cream cheese
250g herb-cream cheese (see tips)
fresh herbs (see tips) very fine chopped
1,8 liter vegetable stock, cubes are fine
4 large fresh sweet corn flasks, corn removed
(that’s about 4 cups of corn) or same amount
4cups of sliced champignons (from the can will do)
2 large red chilli’s, very fine chopped
to season:
salt, black pepper, paprika powder, herb mixture,
fresh double cream and Cognac or Tequila (see tips)
Poach leek and chilli’s well.
How to do.
Fry the meat well, then set aside.
Poach the leeks and chilli’s well and set aside.
Fry onions and garlic likewise, till golden brown and set aside.
Then give the leeks into a large pot and heat up with vegetable stock.
Don’t cook yet, just heat up.
Now mix in the meat and the onion/garlic mixture.
Mix in other ingredients.
Next stir in champignons or corn or whatever you use.
Then mix in the cheese, stir slowly then the cheese can melt in well.
Then heat up high the soup and cook for about 6-10 minutes.
During the cooking stir frequently and stir in all other ingredients, except the cream.
During cooking and stirring season the soup to your taste.
It is important that you cook all spices and herbs within the soup.
Now its ready to serve. Just before serving stir in cream or decorate with a big glob of fresh cream and a bit of chives every plate.
Stirring in the cheese very slow.
Tips.
For the minced meat use good quality, I use 90%-10% (90 lean meat – 10 fat), because we cook it. For burgers on the BBQ I would suggest 75/80%-25/20% meat variety, because for grilling one wants to have more flavor from the fat.
If you can get it, I suggest 1kg beef mince and 1 kg pork mince. In Germany you can directly by half and half. Here in Uruguay we just use beef mince.
Finally season during cooking with all spices.
In Uruguay I use 750g of „Queso Crema – Talarcrem blue“ (2 containers) and make about 2 cups of fresh minced herbs by myself, like Rosemary Leaves, Basil, Chervil, Parsley, Oregano, Tarragon etc. Whatever you can get, this time I also used Rucola between other herbs. I never use Cilantro, it is to overpowering and never Rosemary, because it sticks between your teeth.
If you cook the whole amount for one meal (10 persons) then you would need about 400g of fresh cream and 6 shot glasses of Cognac or Tequila. If you freeze portions use parts of cream and Cognac only. Both ingredient should be added just before serving. Of course one will be careful with alcohol if you serve kids etc.
What a delicious heart warming soup. Click on pics.
When we use a frozen portion later on, we often adjust some more ingredients to our daily taste, means some more corn or some fresh baked champignon slices or even chickpeas.
Serve this soup with baguette, pizza-bread or bruschetta, a cool beer or a strong red wine ! Now enjoy this wonderful soup !
