What could be more satisfying on a cold winter day than a hot steaming bowl of soup?
I’ve been trying out some of the soup recipes in a new cookbook, Favourites from the Class of ’61, which I received last year. I knew before I started that they would be good recipes because they were the favourites of my classmates, submitted for our reunion project.
Sauerkraut and meatball soup
This recipe was submitted by Betty Hart, a classmate who co-hosted the reunion in Edmonton last June.
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1 pound lean ground beef 500 g
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt 5 mL
1 tablespoon oil 15 mL
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter 15 mL
1 can (10 oz) beef broth 284 mL
31/4 cups water 810 mL
1 can (28 oz.) tomatoes 796 mL
1 can (14 oz.) sauerkraut 398 mL
1 package onion soup mix
11/2 cups carrots, diced 375 mL
1/2 cup chopped celery tops 125 mL
1 bay leaf
1-2 teaspoons sugar 5-10 mL
salt and pepper, to taste
Mix ground beef, egg and salt. Form meat mixture into small, 3/4 inch (two cm) meatballs. Brown meatballs in oil and set aside. Add butter to pan and cook diced onion until soft.
Place onions and meatballs in a large kettle or Dutch oven. Add beef broth, water, tomatoes, sauerkraut, onion soup mix, carrots, celery tops and bay leaf, making sure to add one cup (250 mL) of the water to skillet to remove all browned bits. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender. Add sugar and salt and pepper, to taste. Freezes well.
Yield: 12-13 cups (3-3.25 L), about eight servings.
If you don’t want to make the meatballs, simply omit the egg and brown the salted hamburger in the oil, set aside and proceed
as above.
Seafood chowder
A tasty soup, submitted to the reunion cookbook by Janice Shields, the other gal who hosted our reunion.
8 slices of bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
6 cups potatoes, chopped 1.5 L
1 carrot, chopped
3 cups chicken stock 750 mL
3 cans (10 oz.) baby clams 284 mL
2 cans (7 1/2 oz.) salmon, 220 mL
drained
21/2 cups light cream or 2% 625 mL
canned milk
11/2 cups milk 375 mL
4 tablespoons flour 60 mL
1 teaspoon salt 5 mL
1 teaspoon thyme 5 mL
1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 mL
In a Dutch oven, sauté bacon until browned. Remove bacon and then sauté onions and celery until onions are soft. Return sautéed bacon to the Dutch oven. Add potatoes, carrot and chicken
stock. Cook 15 minutes.
Add clams with juice, drained salmon, cream and one cup (250 mL) of the milk. Heat 10 minutes.
Combine flour and 1/2 cup (125 mL) of milk and add to chowder. Stir and cook until thick. Add salt, thyme and pepper. Cook five minutes longer. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. If too thick, add extra chicken stock.
Serves 10 to 12.
Shelling eggs
Dear TEAM: I would like to make pickled eggs. I have a couple of good recipes. My problem is that when peeling the hard-boiled eggs I am losing a lot of the white. The eggs I am using are from my own chickens. I have tried boiling with vinegar, starting with cold water and peeling under cold water. What am I doing wrong? – J. W., e-mail.
Dear J. W.: The Canadian Egg Marketing Agency has the following suggestion that should help when shelling hard-cooked eggs.
The fresher the egg, the more difficult it is to peel. For hard cooking, use eggs that have been in your refrigerator longest. Chill eggs thoroughly in cold water as soon as cooking is completed. To peel, crackle shell by tapping all over. Roll eggs between hands to loosen shell. Begin peeling at the large end where the air cell is located. Hold egg under cold running water or dip in a bowl of water to help ease off shell.
The agency also has the following recipe for making hard-cooked eggs. Place cold eggs in a single layer in a saucepan. Add at least one inch (2.5 cm) cold water to cover the eggs. Cover saucepan and bring quickly to a boil over high heat. Immediately remove pan from heat to stop boiling. Let eggs stand in water for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain water and immediately run cold water over eggs until cooled.
For purchased eggs, if they have been kept refrigerated, they can be eaten for a short time after the best before date. However, keep in mind that the best before date (28-42 days from the packaging date) indicates the length of time the eggs will maintain their Grade A quality. After the best before date, eggs should be cooked thoroughly for use in baking or hard cooking.
Microwave cooking and nutrient
Dear TEAM: I am an avid reader of your column in the Western Producer. I would really like to know if cooking vegetables in the microwave oven destroys most of the nutrients in the vegetables.
– L.M., e-mail.
Dear L.M.: No matter what the cooking method (microwaving, conventional ovens, stove-top cooking or grilling), cooking can be both detrimental and beneficial to the nutrient content of food.
Beneficial effects of cooking include converting some nutrients into a form that would otherwise not be used by our bodies. Starchy foods such as potatoes, corn, beans and lentils are made more digestible by cooking. The nutritive value of the protein in legumes such as soybeans, lima beans, lentils and chickpeas is also improved by cooking.
Heating these foods destroys substances that would otherwise interfere with the digestibility of the protein.
Other substances in soybeans, kidney beans and lentils can produce toxic effects unless cooked before eating. Egg whites and some fish, unless cooked, are not an effective source of some vitamins. Heating flour during baking increases the amount of niacin that can be used by the body.
The detrimental effects of cooking are that some heat-sensitive vitamins, like vitamin C, will be lost. When you cook vegetables in water, some of the water-soluble vitamins and phytochemicals they contain can leak away but you can save them if you use the vegetable cooking water for baking or making soup. Losses of protein and carbohydrates during cooking are generally small. The amount of fat in food may be either reduced or increased depending on the method of cooking.
Health Canada tells us that microwave cooking tends to be less harsh on nutrients than conventional cooking methods because the cooking times are shorter and less water is used. The microwaves preferentially heat the water in food so that the cooking process is essentially similar to that of steam cooking.
With vegetables, the vitamin C in microwave-cooked food is similar to that achieved by cooking with steam or using a small amount of water in a tightly covered saucepan.
More nutrients will be lost if you overcook the food. To help preserve nutrients when microwaving food, use techniques that promote the even distribution of heat. This will help prevent the formation of hot spots where portions of the food could be overcooked.
Use little water (one tablespoon/15 mL), and your nutrient losses are thought to be minimal. One tip is to rinse your vegetables right in the microwave container and tip it over with the cover (many microwave veggie cookers have lids with drain holes) to allow water to drain out. Whatever water droplets remain should be plenty to cook vegetables.
There’s no need to rinse or add any water when using frozen vegetables. They have enough frozen moisture in them already. Just pop them straight into a microwave-safe container.
Vitamin loss in sliced fruit
You don’t need to worry about vitamin loss in sliced fruit as long as it is in a container and refrigerated. That was the conclusion of a study of sliced pineapples, mangoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, strawberries and kiwi done by researchers in Spain and at the University of California, Davis. Nutrients last equally long in sliced and whole fruit kept under refrigeration. In general, fresh-cut fruit won’t lose significant amounts of nutrients until it looks spoiled.
Protect yourself from sun
Clear glass does filter out ultraviolet B radiation (UVB, the kind most responsible for sunburn and tanning), but does not block ultraviolet A (UVA, the kind that causes skin aging). Both kinds cause skin cancer.
While windshields are made of shatterproof laminated glass that blocks most UVA, most side and back windows in vehicles do not. If you ride in a car for long hours in the sun, wear long sleeves and/or sunscreen, especially if you burn easily, or if you hang an arm out the window. You can have all the windows professionally treated to block almost 100 percent of UV rays.
At home or at work, don’t sit in direct sunlight from window or skylights, unless the glass has been UV treated.
Alma Copeland is a home economist from Elrose, Sask., and one of four columnists comprising Team Resources. Send correspondence in care of this newspaper, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or contact them at team@producer.com.
