I married a woman who can’t cook. I knew; I’ve know it for more than 10 years. I must confess, it’s made me a better chef. She keeps me grounded. For our anniversary, I make her favorite: meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
Let’s just say that I was quite surprised one day when she came home, bag full of groceries in her arm, announcing that she was going to make cream of broccoli soup. Her mom gave her a recipe, she said.
Well, I waited, I was looking forward to eating something in my house that I didn’t make.
And a week went by. And the fresh broccoli started getting a little dry. The milk sat unopened in the fridge. One night, over a week later, I cut most of the top off the broccoli and used it in a stir fry. I used half the milk in a modified Carbonara.
So now I had these huge broccoli stems and a bit more than a quart of milk going bad in my fridge (we’re not milk drinkers). Not to mention several cans of canned chicken broth (those that know me know I swear by ‘bases’ for making stock if I can’t do it myself).
I figured, if I want some cream of broccoli, I was going to have to make it myself. And since I was making it, I’ll make the King of Cream Soup, Broccoli and Cheddar.
So here we go, the first, and most obvious things you need are Broccoli and Cheddar cheese. Find fresh broccoli with big stems, you’ll need about 2 ½ lbs total weight. You want the whole bunch, with the long, trunk-like stem still attached, not just heads or florets. Pick healthy looking broccoli, it should be firm and dry, no brown or yellowing.
When it comes to cheddar, I am an extra-sharp kind of guy, but for this soup, a sharp or medium will work best, extra’s tend to be a little too dry to melt well, and milds just don’t have enough flavor to stand up. I strongly recommend you avoid any kind of ‘pasteurized’ or ‘processed cheese food’ products, they will not perform well in this recipe. As far as color goes, white or orange, its not important.
OK, here’s what else you’ll need. A can (about 2 cups) of chicken broth. You can use bullion cubes or paste to make the broth as well. Some whole milk (whole is best, but any variety will do). Some all purpose flour, a stick of butter, a carrot, a stalk of celery, a garlic clove, a yellow onion, some white pepper, salt and a little tarragon (fresh or dry).
Making soup is one of my favorite things to do. There is a basic procedure and basically its that you begin by building the ‘fonde’ or base (where your flavor comes from) and then you add liquid and finish. We’re going to start by getting some serious broccoli flavor going on.
Take the broccoli and wash it in warm water. Be sure the rub the stems down with a damp towel.
Cut the heart of the stems off the head of the broccoli stalks, right where all the branches come together. Now trim that ugly brown piece off the bottom of each ‘trunk’. Cut these ‘trunks’ into several large pieces. Wash your carrot, but don’t peel it. Cut the carrot and celery into large pieces, crush the clove of garlic and peel it, cut the onion in half, peel one half and cut it into large chunks, save the onion skin.
In a large soup pot (more than 3 quarts) over a high heat, heat some butter, about 2 tablespoons, until it melts completely, add the celery, carrot, onion (including skin), tarragon and broccoli stems, with a teaspoon of salt.
Stir this mixture for a little, try to get the veggies to brown a little on all sides. When the veggies are nicely browned (this is called ‘caramelized’ which means you’ve begun to brown the natural sugars in the vegetables) pour in the chicken broth and about a quart of water. Bring this to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered for a while (a while? Yes, a while. Maybe and hour or so, I’ll tell you a little later how to know when the broth is ready). What we’re doing now, is making a vegetable stock of sorts, heavy on the broccoli flavor to form the base of our soup.
As the stock cooks (its like making tea) cut up the head of the broccoli into small florets, bite size is best and shred your cheddar cheese. A medium grate will be fine. Check on the stock, you’ll want to reduce it by about 1/3, that is too say, when about 1/3 of the liquid has evaporated, you should be ready to go. Reducing the volume of liquid in this way helps to concentrate the flavors. By this time, the chunks of broccoli stem should also be fairly soft, pull a few stems out of the liquid, and using an immersion blender (the coolest kitchen tool ever!) or a food processor, puree the stems until you have about 1 cup of puree.
Strain and reserve the vegetable stock, toss out the cooked vegetables (except, of course, the puree). Return the stock to the pot, keep it off the heat for the moment, add the milk, the puree, remaining salt, and white pepper. Return this to a moderate heat, try not to let it get to a rolling boil.
Now for the hard part (its not really that hard). The thickening, and that’s not Stephen King’s latest novel. We’re going to make a roux. Roux is basically the combination of flour and fat, which is then mixed into a liquid to give it body and thickness. So we melt the rest of our butter (about 3 tablespoons) with the vegetable oil. Once this mixture is heated, add in the flour, mix it well with a fork or whisk. It should be the consistency of wet sand or thick concrete. If its too dry to stir or mix well, add a little oil, if its too wet, add a little flour. Now, over a medium heat, add the shredded cheddar to the flour-oil mixture. Do this in stages, making sure to mix the cheese in well as it melts. Once it’s all mixed and smooth, remove it from the heat and let it rest a moment.
Now we will temper the roux. It is important that we mix a little of the hot soup (milk and stock) to the roux and not add the roux directly to the soup. If we add it to the hot soup, some of it will cook before we can whisk it in and we will have little roux dumplings floating in our soup (that’s how your grandma got lumps in her gravy). So, in a suitable bowl, mix the roux with about half its volume of soup, it will be hard to mix and become very thick and pasty. Now transfer all of this into the soup pot, mixing vigorously with a whisk. Add about 1/2 the roux at first, whisk it in good and then reduce the heat and stir occasionally, adding the rest of the roux in stages, as the soup comes back to a boil it will thicken, you may not need all the roux to get the consistency you want. Once the soup starts to bubble, its ready to EAT! At this point, I will add in all the broccoli florets and heat until they are bright green but still a little crunchy as serve. You can do this, or reserve some of the florets for times when you reheat the soup, this will keep them from getting too soggy.
ENJOY!
Ingredient list:
Broccoli 3 large stalks or about 2 lbs (you need the long stems)
milk 1 quart
flour a little more than a 1/4 lb
butter 1/4 lb or about 6 tablespoons
cheddar cheese (sharp or medium) 5 oz (weight)
vegetable or olive oil 3 tablespoons
celery 1 stalk
carrot 1 carrot
yellow onion 1 onion
tarragon (fresh if possible) 2 teaspoons fresh or 3 teaspoon dry
Fresh garlic 1 clove
Salt 1 tablespoon
white pepper 2 teaspoons
Chicken broth 2 cups
