Advertisement Sometimes my changes of mind are dictated by sheer whimsy and other times by the responses that come in during a given week. In this case, I have received a number of potato soup recipes for Donna Kramer and one for Tuscany Tomato Soup, for Betty M., so tapas have been moved to a back burner until next week, at which time we may have a summer salad or two as well. The tapas and summer salad requests came from Alice Svec of La Crosse.
On the menu today is a potato chowder from Diane Stoeckly of West Salem, Wis., who tells us that the recipe came from Country Woman magazine. She has been making it for years and her grandkids love it. A double batch makes a Dutch oven full.
Mary Watson is a lucky lady, who tells us, “I have seven good recipes for potato soup” and she was kind enough to share two of them with us. The first she found in a Milwaukee newspaper and the second came from the La Crosse Tribune. Rudy Thesing of
La Crosse’s recipe is somewhat unusual, calling for frozen hash brown potatoes, thus eliminating the need to peel and slice or dice the potatoes. That should significantly speed up the process, especially on those days when you are pressed for time to fix a meal for your family.
An anonymous friend from Sparta, Wis., shared a Tuscany Tomato Soup recipe with us, advising that it “doesn’t work well with fresh tomatoes because you have to cook down the tomatoes (to reduce water content) and then puree” which takes a lot of tomatoes and makes for a lot of work “peeling, cooking, reducing tomatoes and straining out seeds.”
Pris Anderson wrote to say, “I have the New Villa recipe booklet that was available several years ago. There is no coleslaw recipe in there.” So I guess we are on our own and hopefully someone out there has a different coleslaw recipe that will “hit the spot during the
summer months” for former Coulee Region resident Ellen McFadden.
We have yet to hear from anyone with paella recipes. Paella seems to be a very popular dish, so hopefully we’ll be hearing from someone out there with a recipe or two.
Send requests, recipes and/or cooking tips and techniques to Alice P. Clark at: Reader Exchange, c/o La Crosse Tribune, 401 N. Third St., La Crosse, WI 54601; e-mail: exchange@lacrossetribune.com or send a fax to (608) 782-9723.
Potato Bacon Chowder
8 slices bacon, cut up
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Fry bacon crisp; add onion and saute. Pour off fat; add potatoes and water. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Stir in soup and sour cream; add milk gradually. Heat to serving temperature — do not boil.
(Shared by Diane Stoeckly)
Karl Ratzsch’s Potato Soup
1 finely chopped onion
l finely chopped leek
1/2 gallon water
2 Maggi bouillon cubes (beef)
2 chicken bouillon cubes
6 large potatoes cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Accent
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
Salt and white pepper to taste
1/3 cup chives
2 cups cream
Saute onion and leek in butter until transparent. Add water, bouillon cubes and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are soft. Add remaining ingredients except chives and cream. Bring back to a boil. Take off the stove and add chives. Add cream. Adjust seasoning if necessary.
(Shared by Mary Watson)
Betty’s Potato Soup, from Ed Sullivan’s
4 cups peeled, diced potatoes
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter to make a roux
1/2 cup flour to make a roux
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound cooked ham or 1 to 2 pounds cooked bacon pieces
2 tablespoons ham base seasoning (optional)
Fill a 5-quart pan with water. Add potatoes, onions, celery and carrots. Cook until tender. Remove vegetables and drain all but 4 cups water. Add milk to water, bring to a boil. Combine butter and flour over low heat in a sauce pan to make a roux, mix until smooth. Add to soup mixture, boil slowly about 10 minutes. Add cooked vegetables, season to taste. Add ham or bacon pieces to mixture and simmer until hot.
Makes about 6 servings.
Note: This soup is best served the next day. If too thick, add more milk or potato water to thin. Reheat.
(From Ed Sullivan’s; shared by Mary Watson)
Hash Brown Potato Soup
2 pounds frozen hash browns, thawed
4 cups water
1 onion, chopped
3/4 cup celery, chopped
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 cans cream of chicken soup
3 (10-ounce) cans evaporated milk (or 1 quart powdered milk, prepared according to package directions)
2 cups cubed cooked ham
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
8 strips bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
In large kettle, combine hash browns, water, onion, celery, bouillon and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 20 minutes. Add soup and milk; stir until well-blended. Add ham and parsley; simmer 10 minutes. Add crumbled bacon to individual servings.
(Shared by Rudy Thesing, La Crosse)
Tuscany or Italian-Style Tomato Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil (or half vegetable and half olive oil)
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 fresh green pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
Hot pepper flakes to taste, optional
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Dash of red wine, optional
1 large can tomato juice
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce or tomato paste
1 cup small fresh basil leaves, optional
Wilt onion and garlic in olive oil; add green pepper, celery, hot pepper flakes and Italian seasoning. Cook for about 30 seconds; don’t brown. Add wine (optional), tomato juice, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce or paste; bring to a simmer. Adjust seasoning, keeping in mind that canned products contain lots of salt. Add basil leaves to simmering soup or use as garnish. To reduce sodium, omit tomato sauce or paste and thicken soup by dissolving 1 teaspoon cornstarch in an equal amount of water, adding it to a cup of tomato juice and then stirring it into the simmering soup. For thicker soup, use 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water.
(Shared by an anonymous friend)
