Bok Choi and Wonton Soup

I had a great, long spring break which I spent in San Francisco and at home. Chris was gallivanting around California. It was fun.

Then Chris got sick. He blames changing weather and too much time on airplanes. He's been miserable all week and he hasn't had much of an appetite. I figured it was about time I learned to make soup. Carpe Diem and all that.

I've got 2 main internet sources for recipes: foodtv.com and epicurious.com. FoodTV is the website of the Food Network, and it has all the recipes from the programs it shows, as well as viewer submitted recipes and some stuff from their test kitchens. Epicurious is the home of Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, so it has all of those recipes, as well as reader submitted stuff.

Both of these have a few very important features: reader reviews, photos, and test kitchens. It's very comforting to know that some of the recipes have been tested and tweaked by people who know what they're doing. The photos are useful reference points for how things are supposed to look, and the reader reviews save me the trouble of making bad recipes. Usually, readers will offer some very good tweaks of their own, and more importantly, if there's a mistake in the recipe, readers will generally catch it and add corrections in the comments section.

I generally use FoodTV the way I use Joy of Cooking. I'll find a recipe to use as a base, and I can be confident that it will turn out fairly well, although it won't be spectacular without a bit of experimentation.

Epicurious recipes are usually a bit more complicated with more ingredients and frills and I've found that they take longer, but I don't have to be too creative.

My soup recipe came from a combination of both this time. The stock and bok choi instructions started out here, and I used this pot sticker recipe as a base for my wontons. Both recipes were heavily modified, so the end result bears only slim resemblance to the original. I had no patience for an 8 hour stock, and I had the pot stickers on hand already. The trick with the pot stickers is that 1 recipe will make 40 or 50 dumplings and they freeze well. So some can be dumplings and some can be wontons and it all works out really conveniently.

Ingredients:

6 cups reduced sodium stock (I used chicken, but I think you could use just about anything)
6 cups water
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
soy sauce to taste
1 head bok choi, cleaned and chopped
30 pot stickers (henceforth known as wontons in this recipe)

Simmer the stock, water, garlic, scallions, ginger, and soy sauce for about an hour. Use this time to prepare the bok choy. Add the bok choy and let boil for 3 to 4 minutes, until "crisp tender". Add the pot stickers and let cook for another 3 minutes, until filling is done. Cut a wonton open and check, especially if using frozen wontons.

Serve hot.

Soup!

I don't have a photo for this one, which is a shame because it was amazing. But even if I did, you wouldn't be able to smell it so it's a moot point.

Until now, I've always done grocery shopping in a very planned and methodical way. I'd figure out what I wanted to eat for the week, and then I'd buy exactly those components I needed. Generally, I didn't have anything left over, which was ok because chances were it wouldn't get used.

This philosophy does not work with potatoes. They come in 5 lb bags, and who in their right mind is going to use 5 pounds of potatoes in one meal? Or even in a week? That's a lot of potatoes.

I had a few left over and it was cold last night, and I wanted soup. I really love potato soup. It's one of my favorite soups, but I've never made it. I started looking up recipes, and mostly I found potato leek soup. I'm sure it's incredible, but I didn't have any leeks. I had scallions though. And cheese. And garlic.

Ingredients
2-3 potatoes thinly sliced (not baking potatoes and not new potatoes. The ones that fall in the middle of those)
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 tbsp butter
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 - 3/4c shredded cheddar cheese
salt to taste
ground pepper to taste
2/3c heavy cream, half and half, or something lighter (I used heavy cream because I had some lying around)
3c of some combination of water and low sodium chicken broth. I used 2 1/3 c water, and 2/3c chicken broth. More broth means less salt later, so adjust accordingly.

Over very low heat, melt the butter and saute the garlic until it just starts to brown. Add the chicken broth, water, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until tender. Joy of Cooking says this should be about 30 minutes, but mine were ready to go after 15.

Puree the soup in a blender. Do not over blend, or you will have glue. If you want a chunkier soup, you could probably hand mash the potatoes here. Return soup to a low heat. Add scallions, cheese, and cream. Stir until the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Advanced: Fry up some bacon and garnish with bacon chunks.