January | 2017 | CaksCountry Kitchen

Disclaimer: I have already posted a recipe for Vegetable Beef Soup, but because I made it differently this time around, and because I want to be more active with my blog, today I am bring back this especially-good-in-winter soup. The photo of the ingredients in the pics above is correct, but for the recipe in today’s bubbling soup pot, I added more vegetables (corn and lima beans). In my opinion, a good soup recipe is one that is versatile and allows the freedom to add or subtract ingredients according to what the cook has on hand, so here is the recipe, revised, below.

One thing that doesn’t change is that I always make this soup after I have cooked a beef roast and have meat left over. I knew I would be cooking up this particular pot of soup after hosting our annual “Class of ’67 and Friends” party at my house this month. I buy a roast large enough to feed the dozen of us around the table (the roast featured in French Dip Sandwiches on party night) and one I know is also sufficient for a large pot of Vegetable Beef Soup. You can’t go wrong that way as several meals result from one six pound roast. What could be easier?

Today is a perfect day to enjoy this soup here in our corner of southern Missouri. It is sunny and bright outside, but, oh-so-cold. Check your freezer for any leftover roast (or get to the store if you must), and bubble up this delicious rich soup, filled with the vegetables of your choice, and laden with chunks of your leftover roast. Use the saved broth in which the roast cooked if you have it for even more savory spoonfuls; your taste buds will thank you! The featured pic is of today’s recipe variation. Warm Soup, Warm Heart!

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients

1 T. vegetable oil
3/4 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, cut 1/2” cubes
3 cups V8 100% Vegetable Juice
1-3/4 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup potato, cut into cubes
1/2 cup carrot
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced thick
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup canned or frozen lima beans
Shredded cabbage, to taste

Directions Heat the oil in a 4-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it is well-browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat. Stir the vegetable juice, broth, Italian seasonings, pepper, potato, carrot, onion, celery, corn and lima beans into the saucepot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and meat are tender. If you want a thinner broth, add water as soup cooks. Adjust seasonings to taste.

It is so definitely time to return to posting on this blog again. It would be ideal, of course, if I could say that I haven’t posted because of some YUGE thing that has gone on these past (many) months, but it is truthfully more honest to just say what is true: there is no one reason why I haven’t been active on the blog. Busier than ever now that I have joined the ranks of ‘retired people everywhere’, I just haven’t gotten here to get the job done.

I do intend to change this pattern of neglect, however. It is a new year, 2017, and tapioca is something I seem to crave always as a new year begins. I cannot think of any valid reason for feeling that way, but I do know it is true. Please don’t feel that cooking tapioca on the stove is too difficult; as long as you have a double-boiler, you’re all set. I used Reece’s brand of pearl tapioca and it does need to soak overnight. That isn’t any big deal, so you can start there. Gather all your ingredients, use your double-boiler, and get going on it the next day, after soaking. If all else fails, you can find a crockpot recipe.

There is a tapioca debate in our family (and maybe yours). Some folks like it well-chilled and other prefer it warm. THAT choice is up to you and your personal taste. I am a “really cold” tapioca person myself but I am just as happy to enjoy it warm if that is how it is served. Another family quirk, for me, is that I remember mama serving peaches with tapioca and that is the way I best enjoy it. There is something perfect in the way the juice from the peaches coats those transparent tapioca bubbles. It’s good enough to become a traditional New Year’s resolution: Make Tapioca Before The Week Is Out! Follow the directions on the package and be mindful that LOW HEAT means just that! Don’t allow the mixture to boil at all while cooking. Once cooked, I sat the mixing bowl on the front porch and just let it chill! Happy New Year, dear ones!

Stovetop Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

1/2 cup Reese small pearl tapioca
2-1/2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

In a bowl, soak tapioca in 2 cups of room temperature water overnight. Drain water.

In double-boiler, heat milk just until no longer cold. Add salt and tapioca. Continue heating until small bubbles appear at sides of pan. Cover, turn heat to very low and cook for one hour. Make sure that mix mixture does not simmer or boil.

Separate egg whites from yolks. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until light yellow in color. Add a little of the hot mixture to the egg yolks and blend thoroughly then add the egg yolk mixture to the saucepan, stirring constantly. Place the double-boiler over medium heat and cook until the tapioca mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly fold the egg whites into the hot tapioca mixture. Stir in vanilla. Serve warm or chilled. Serves 8.

CaksCountry Kitchen

Monthly Archives: January 2017

Cold Weather Vegetable Beef Soup

Stovetop Tapioca

A kitchen notebook