When the weather outside is frightful, let your dinner be delightful. Winter made itself known last week, with snow, rain and wind all across the country, and it seems like everyone is coming down with something. But there is nothing more successful at combating the cold than a bowl of hot and hearty soup. We’ve gathered an assortment of ChefsLine chefs’ soup recipes here that promise to warm your tummy and your heart this holiday season. And we’ve also put together a list of soup basics that will help you make the most out of your soup recipes. Stay warm, stay healthy, and have fun cooking!

The Classics:
Vichisoisse
A Parisian staple, the leeks and potatoes are certain to satisfy the palate as well as bolster your immune system.
Escarole and White Bean Soup
This is a soup born in the Tuscan tradition, featuring white cannellini beans that are packed with proteins and hardy greens loaded with vital vitamins and minerals.
The Ultimate Chicken Soup with Perfect Knaidlach
Nourishing chicken soup from scratch never tasted (or made you feel) so good as when you add much-loved matzoh balls to the mix.
Maryland Crab Vegetable Soup
Crabs are big in Maryland, and this recipe has such a loyal following you know it has to be good.

Use What’s In Season:
Buttercup Maple Squash Soup
Winter squash makes for great soup, and this recipe really represents the flavors of the holiday season.
Cauliflower Squash Bisque
Another elegant use of squash and other vegetables. Healthy eaters never had a better reason to rejoice.
Thai Pumpkin Soup with Chile and Lemongrass
This soup is a fusion of the flavors of winter with the powers of peppers, ginger and garlic to fight off colds that so many people simply swear by.
Winter Vegetable Soup with Barley
Loaded with all the good stuff, and if you like you can add a meat of your choice to make it even more hearty.

The Basics:
Instant Miso Soup
Miso is an effortless but nutritious treat. Add tofu for extra protein.
Chicken Stock
When you start from scratch, you’ll be happy to have this one in your repertoire.
Vegetable Stock
Of course, you don’t need meat to make great soup.

Tips:
1. Take your time with soups (and sauces), if you have it to spare. If you are at a high altitude (2000 feet above sea level or higher), you may want to take even more time to let the soup cook, since water boils at lower temperatures. In fact, you will actually get a better soup if you make it ahead of time (a day or two), since the flavors become richer. It’s also a great opportunity to remove fat from the soup, since once it’s refrigerated the fat coagulates, rises to the top, and is easy to scrape off.
2. Although great soups begin with homemade stock, it’s not always practical, and if we only had soup from scratch we wouldn’t have soup very often. Broth from a carton or can as well as bouillons are perfectly good options when planning soups. Sometimes fresh ingredients are unavailable or inconvenient, so keep in mind that canned and frozen veggies are still pretty high quality, namely peas, beans, corn, artichokes, etc.
3. Serving soups in warmed bowls will keep it hot while you sip it.
4. Wine and beer make good soup ingredients, but a little generally goes a long way.
5. Use caution when adding spices and salt, because you can always add more but it’s difficult to remove the flavor elements after they’re in there. Most of your intense flavor components can be added toward the end of the cooking time. If you do over-spice the soup, you can simmer raw potatoes in it to absorb some of the excess flavor.
6. When preparing stocks and consommes for clear soups, keep in mind that almost as important as richness in flavor is its transparency. Don’t stir the stock, and keep the heat low. To further clarify it for consomme the next day, you can make a clearmeat mixture of lean low-fat meat, egg whites and mirepoix (finely chopped carrots, celery and onions) and heat the cold stock back up gently with that. The clear meat mixture will float, and will act like a magnet for particles that cause a clear soup to become cloudy. Remove and discard the clear meat mixture.

Vickey from Ohio just chatted with us today with questions about how to make pumpkin pie using her three fresh baking pumpkins. Baking pumpkins, sometimes called sugar pumpkins, are smaller, smoother and less watery than pumpkins. Pumpkin pies made with fresh pumpkin taste, well, fresher and more interesting than those made with canned. The key to a great pie will be to use baked pumpkin that is well drained and to not overdo your pie spices. First, select some great pumpkins which will be heavy with no blemishes on the rind. Vickey’s three baking pumpkins will yield about 4 or 5 cups of baked mashed pumpkin – enough for more than two pies. Any leftover baked, drained, and mashed pumpkin can be stored in the freezer and used for more pie! soups, bread, etc.

Equipment you will need:
Baking tray
Serrated knife large
Metal Spoon
Colander
Food Processor
Pie dishes

Prepare the pumpkin:
1. Wash the pumpkin in warm water, do not use soap. Cut the pumpkin in half width-wise using the serrated knife. Scoop out the insides, seeds and stringy parts.

2. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place pumpkin on a baking sheet face down / pumpkin rind up. Bake pumpkin until the rind turns a nice golden brown.

3. To check to see if the pumpkin is done, the rind should slip right off the meat of the pumpkin and pumpkin meat can be easily removed with your fingers. Take all the meat and place in a colander to drain any excess liquid. For best results: line your colander with cheesecloth, thick paper towels, or even coffee filters and press down on pumpkin to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Do ahead tip: Bake your pumpkin a day ahead of pie-making and drain in the colander (wrapper and stored in the refrigerator) overnight.

4. Once cooled and drained, blend in a food process so it becomes a nice smooth consistency.

Prepare pie dough:
Chef Adam has a great recipe and method, use this link: Simple Pie Dough. Keep cover and chilled until use.

Bake your pie:
Recipe is below. Save this to your ChefsLine Recipe Box > >

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups of cooked pumpkins, mashed*
1 1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg or allspice
1/8 tsp. cloves
2 eggs, beaten slightly

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking pan with pastry dough. In mixing bowl, mix 2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin with remaining ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake pie for another 45 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Allow to cool. Serve with whipped cream or by itself.

Does marzipan go off? I found some marzipan sweets in the cupboard and wondered if they are still safe to eat.

Hamburgers aside, there are two key types of beef suitable for grilling: most of the tender cuts and a few of the tough cuts.

The tender cuts great for grilling are the loin steaks: rib eye, T-bone, Porter House, New York Strip, Sirloin, and Filet Mignon. These cuts are naturally tender and should be well-marbled with fat. In general, all steaks should be grilled over medium heat. For a ribeye, Chef Erika recommends seasoning with salt & pepper or a rub if you like. Cook for 5-6 minutes each side. Your final internal temperature will be 130-135 for medium rare and 140-145 for medium. Be sure to rest for no less than 5 minutes before serving.

Instead of fat, the tough cuts suitable for grilling have lots of striated connective tissue in them: Flank steak, Hanger steak, and Flat Iron steak. The trick to these latter cuts is to cook them very quickly on the outside, serve them no more than medium rare, and slice them very thinly across the grain. The odd beast in this menagerie is the tri-tip.

Tri-tips are actually a small roast and originated as a cut in Texas, but didn’t find popularity until reaching Santa Rosa, California where it became hugely popular. It gains its name from its triangular shape and that results from being cut from the end of two different muscles. It can be tough, so look for plenty of marbling, but is packed with beefy flavor.

We hear more and more about the merits of grass-fed versus grain-fed beef. This is literally “a matter of taste.” Grass-fed beef usually has a deeper, richer flavor than grain-fed beef and is higher in good fats and lower in bad fats, but it’s usually not as well-marbled and not as tender (the breed of cattle can make a big difference here: Angus and Hereford are the best choices for grass-fed beef). La Cense is one well established brand of grass-fed beef that ships directly to consumers. Grain-fed beef is uniformly more tender, partially because the cattle are kept in small lots and can’t exercise, but also milder in flavor. The best beef in world – Kobe and Wagyu from Japan – graze on grass but are also fed some grain.

Welcome us to your backyard!

Chef Rod Woodley is ChefsLine’s resident grill master. Subscribers to ChefsLine’s premium membership can book live phone or webcam consultations with him to learn the finer points of charcoal and gas grilling techniques. Rod also hosts a Fish and Seafood Grilling class that you can purchase and experience – it’s just $15.95!

Chef Jackie offers a cooking class on Homemade Oils, Rubs, and Marinades – that is a great way to explore adding flavor to a whole host of cuts of beef for grilling.

Grilling season doesn’t have to be about burgers, ribs and steaks. Almost anything can be cooked outdoors, so jump on the opportunity to cook outside again, especially since the weather ought to be getting better and better as summer progresses. Cooking outdoors is fun, and is extremely easy when you are prepared.

And one of the very easiest foods to grill is, believe it or not, whole fish. Whether the fish comes from the fishmonger or the end of your fishing pole, follow a couple of simple preparatory suggestions and you’ll be grilling whole fish anytime the sun comes out. So get ready to put a fresh fish twist on the old 4th of July cookout.

If you’re not too comfortable with a boning knife, have no fear. Grilling whole fish requires minimal carving.

My favorite fish to grill include trout, snapper, bass, sea bream, just about any medium-sized whitefish will do, as well as some smaller fish like mullet, bluefish, mackerel, and butterfish.

Salmon is also a great choice.Avoid flounder, sole, fluke, cod and similar fishes because they can be too delicate.

When selecting your dinner, select a fish with clear eyes, shiny scales and a non-fishy smell. Once you’ve got your hands on a fresh whole fish, here are the 10 easy steps to grill it:

1. Clean the fish: de-scale it by scraping the dull side of a knife against the grain of the scales until it’s smooth. Cut off the fins with a pair of kitchen shears and discard. Then cut along the entire bottom of the fish, remove the guts and discard. Rinse the fish clean.
2. Score the fish with 1/2 inch-deep cuts on both sides, about 1-2 inches apart. This helps the flavors of the marinade (and smoke if applicable) to better penetrate the meat of the fish.
3. Marinate the fish for 1-3 hours in your choice of marinade. If you are using a marinade that is acidic (i.e. with lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) only marinade for 1 hour to avoid “cooking” the fish (as in ceviche).
4. Preheat the grill, or let charcoal ember to flame-less white briquettes.
5. Brush the clean grill and fish with a thin layer of canola oil, peanut oil or any other neutral-flavored oil with a high smoke point, to prevent the fish from sticking.
6. Remove the fish from the marinade and wipe it clean to prevent the fish from sticking (save the marinade). Salt and pepper both sides. Optionally, you can stuff the inner cavity of the fish with herbs and pieces of lemon).
7. Grill the fish for 7-12 minutes (depending on the size) in the hottest part of the grill (unless serving salmon rare – 4-5 minutes). Optionally, you can also dip some rosemary or dill sprigs in oil and use them as a bed to grill the fish on if sticking is a concern.
8. Turn the fish over gently with one or two large spatulas. Optionally, you can turn it over onto a large piece of aluminum foil and then slide it onto the grill.
9. Baste the fish with the leftover marinade, and let it grill about as long as the first side.
10. Carefully remove the fish from the grill and place it onto a serving platter. Serve with grilled lemon and enjoy!

Once the fish is cooked it will flake easily away from the spine (again, rare salmon is a special case), and it should be simple enough to avoid any of the smaller bones. You can run a knife along either side of the spine, and then you should be able to slide the knife under the cooked fillets with no problem.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact one of us on the cooking hotline!

Have fun grilling!