2. I probably deserve to have my imaginary home cooking license taking away because I made my own stock using a mixture of lamb bones and chicken bones. Thing is, I don't often eat meat (or poultry) on the bone, so if I stick either in the fridge to save until I have "enough" I might have been saving those lamb bones for 2 years before I had enough to make a meat stock. So, you know, I did them both together. I don't really think it made a very big flavour difference in the stock - it was as good as the last batch I made, which was only chicken bones.
3. When I decided to make this minestrone recipe, I reminded myself that I needed to pick up celery, a can of tomatoes, and some spinach. I forgot to get any of them. I made it anyway.
4. This is a take on a Rachael Ray recipe for Fall Minestrone from 365: No Repeats. Somehow, no matter how often I cook from that book, I always forget that her portion sizes are massive. That 4 serving recipe could feed me for six meals.
5. I may say that this is a Rachael Ray recipe (here is a link to the real thing), but I used chorizo instead of pancetta, skipped the celery, skipped the tomatoes, skipped the kale/chard (I'd have used spinach), used rehydrated "exotic" mushrooms instead of Portabella, used dried herbs rather than fresh (and added fresh parsley for colour), used kidney beans rather than cannellini, used the mushroom water instead of vegetable broth, and used about half as much pasta as recommended. It was very good anyway, but I really wish that I'd had tomatoes. It would have improved the soup by leaps and bounds.
6. The thing I hate most about making my own stock is that I can never skim off enough of the fat (for my tastes). The chorizo turned all the extra fat in this soup bright orange so it really stands out along the edge of the bowl. Ugh.
I personally love chorizo, I bet it gave the soup wonderful flavor.
ReplyDeleteIt was really tasty - it added a nice spiciness to the soup. I'd never had it before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
ReplyDelete