Compost Soup
I don’t fail at cooking very often, but when I do it tends to be rather impressive.
I am in charge of the lunch for the Grand Ithra this weekend. I am making 10 - 12 gallons of vegetarian minestrone soup to be served as part of the lunch, with the remaining to be served at the evening Social. This soup freezes very well, so my plans are to make it ahead and reheat on Saturday.
My stockpot only holds 4 gallons, making it necessary to do 3 batches. My plan is to freeze the soup in 1 gallon bags and mix them together on site to even out the seasoning and flavors. Batch One is made and in the freezer. Batch Two, is heading for the compost heap.
I put together Batch Two, simmered it a while, flipped the control dial to "off" and went to my office to work on my handout for the Ithra Class I am teaching on Sunday. My stove has a two-part large burner in the center that is just the right size for my stockpot. The control dial is set so that the left half controls the smaller section, the right half controls the entire burner. “Off” is the very top of the dial.
My workroom is as far from the kitchen as you can get on this floor of the house. I was concentrating very hard, when I noticed I could smell something toasty. I thought maybe I had splashed some soup on the stove and ignored it. Then the smell became very strong. Into the kitchen I ran - the soup was boiling so hard it was splashing out of the pot. The dial had stopped just short of “Off” and was on the highest setting for the full burner.
I tried to rescue the top part of the soup. I scooped it out into a large bowl, but the more it cooled, the stronger it smelled. DH thinks it tastes OK, but I can smell (and taste) the scorch, and I am sure that others would be able taste it also. So, off to the compost pile for Batch Two A.
The bottom of my pot had about ½ inch of scorched vegetables. I scraped off as much as I could and boiled it for a bit to loosen some more. Then I scrubbed it with the pot polish that came with my good pots, soaked it overnight and re-scrubbed it this morning. Thankfully, all the scorch has come out. (I really like this pot polish) I am re-seasoning the bottom with a bit of olive oil and will make Batch Two B this afternoon. I have a work assignment and can set up my laptop in the kitchen where I can watch the soup.
Fortunately, I need to go to the store today, so I will pick up supplies to replace the ones I ruined. Batch Three will be tomorrow.
I almost have all the smell out of the house. Thank the ghods that the weather is nice enough in the afternoons to open the doors. So far, I am not too far off my schedule for this week. I am only behind one batch of soup and most of my handout. At this point, I should be able to catch up if I don’t receive another large work assignment.
I am in charge of the lunch for the Grand Ithra this weekend. I am making 10 - 12 gallons of vegetarian minestrone soup to be served as part of the lunch, with the remaining to be served at the evening Social. This soup freezes very well, so my plans are to make it ahead and reheat on Saturday.
My stockpot only holds 4 gallons, making it necessary to do 3 batches. My plan is to freeze the soup in 1 gallon bags and mix them together on site to even out the seasoning and flavors. Batch One is made and in the freezer. Batch Two, is heading for the compost heap.
I put together Batch Two, simmered it a while, flipped the control dial to "off" and went to my office to work on my handout for the Ithra Class I am teaching on Sunday. My stove has a two-part large burner in the center that is just the right size for my stockpot. The control dial is set so that the left half controls the smaller section, the right half controls the entire burner. “Off” is the very top of the dial.
My workroom is as far from the kitchen as you can get on this floor of the house. I was concentrating very hard, when I noticed I could smell something toasty. I thought maybe I had splashed some soup on the stove and ignored it. Then the smell became very strong. Into the kitchen I ran - the soup was boiling so hard it was splashing out of the pot. The dial had stopped just short of “Off” and was on the highest setting for the full burner.
I tried to rescue the top part of the soup. I scooped it out into a large bowl, but the more it cooled, the stronger it smelled. DH thinks it tastes OK, but I can smell (and taste) the scorch, and I am sure that others would be able taste it also. So, off to the compost pile for Batch Two A.
The bottom of my pot had about ½ inch of scorched vegetables. I scraped off as much as I could and boiled it for a bit to loosen some more. Then I scrubbed it with the pot polish that came with my good pots, soaked it overnight and re-scrubbed it this morning. Thankfully, all the scorch has come out. (I really like this pot polish) I am re-seasoning the bottom with a bit of olive oil and will make Batch Two B this afternoon. I have a work assignment and can set up my laptop in the kitchen where I can watch the soup.
Fortunately, I need to go to the store today, so I will pick up supplies to replace the ones I ruined. Batch Three will be tomorrow.
I almost have all the smell out of the house. Thank the ghods that the weather is nice enough in the afternoons to open the doors. So far, I am not too far off my schedule for this week. I am only behind one batch of soup and most of my handout. At this point, I should be able to catch up if I don’t receive another large work assignment.