What's for dinner? BENT CAN SOUP, combined with WHATEVER IS IN THE FRIDGE
By Anita Sands HernandezBENT CAN SOUP is an INEXPENSIVE and FUN dish to serve to the family and you'll be smiling as it costs l0c a bowl it's practically no cost at all, but don't tell the family. It is made up of a combination of things: a.) the contents of those BENT CANS that are half price at the super market. B.) Whatever was just left in the dumpster at the local grocery, wrapped and clean of course, and on top, we never take stuff below, inside a dumpster. Just what was put there in the last few minutes. and C.) whatever's in the fridge, AND D.) whatever's growing and ripe out in the garden.
BENT CANS are found, (where else?) on the BENT CAN RACK at the big chain super market. You'll find cans of all sorts of vegetables, green beans, red beans, black beans, corn (whole and creamed,) also cans of soup concentrate. Same rack offers THINGS that work bigtime in soup, like dry soup mixes in pckgs, Soy Sauce. Dried noodles. All of these I'll pick up if they're priced low enough. I got four styles for soup. American, Chinese, Japanese and Mexican.
MY RECIPES include:
1.) American style GARDEN VEGETABLE SOUP. These are made of whatever's in the yard, usually chard or BROCCOLI. I'll use bent cans, maybe some pintos, red beans or BUTTER BEANs. The SOUP is part yard, part bent can. (Poverty does make you improvise!) First, simmer whatever veggies are around in the YARD, whatever's out there. Today I had one fresh floret broccoli, 2 small yellow crookneck squash, l sml, red potato. I always add a slice of onion and some cilantro or parsley to the water when I simmer. That's the nutritional stuff, but now let's do the secret ingredients which make it taste good:
While it's simmering which it will do for three min you get out a heavy SKILLET, an iron skillet, heat it well, then add the OLIVE OIL, Fry a few cloves of garlic, cut or minced and ONE Farmer John pork frank, (plain or spicy) or one or two MORNINGSTAR SAUSAGES. Or some pork meat if you want it. Fry in some cubed cooked or raw potato.
When cooked, remove meat. Drain on paper, then Wipe down pan with same paper towel if it was geniune pork. Or shake the cat kibble in the fat, serve. Wipe out or wash pan well. Now, heat pan again, add put 1 tsp. olive oil in that skillet, saute onions, garlic, and a LOT of old corn tortilla pieces,. l jalapeno chopped. If you're veggie, fry tofu with onions.
Hopefully, your pantry is filled with bent cans as that's smart. A national emergency will close down all food shipping and markets will be empty. The L.A. Riots gave us a city curfew and lines l00 long in supermarkets. Always keep five weeks worth of cans around
So now we are going to open one of those bent cans that the super market marks down to l5c, it can be beans in liquid, refried beans, butter beans, any of the BEAN FAMILY. Add your BEAN SOUP or fried beans, gauging how much liquid you must add, perhaps as skimmed broth or perhaps as some chopped tomatoes. Then add the broth and vegetables you cooked up,stir well, serve with parmesan cheese on top or gomasio. (Toasted sesame seeds with a little salt pulverized into it).
2.) MEXICAN SOUP. Down south they'd call it CHILAQUILES (a semi-dry soup,) Recipe requires a can of tomato soup for each 2 persons and one or two corn tortillas for every person. I get the kind with YELLOW CORN, no preservatives, no cellulose, (wood fiber,) avail at healthfood stores and real Mex markets. You check all labels to find one without preservatives. Mex don't like them and shun 'em. Americans don't seem to know the diff. All super market tortillas are mass produced with actual wood fiber and a ton of chemical preservatives. Have a can of either tomato soup on hand for each 2 persons. Mexicans save their dried stale tortillas precisely to make this great soup.
HEAT your OLIVE OIL in fry pan, thick bottomed, solid iron works best. Drop in chopped onions, garlic and tortilla pieces, a jalapeno (walls only, remove guts) chopped. Stir for a half minutes, then add the tomato soup, some water, cilantro, and if you want to kick up the protein, egg whites. I give yolks to kittens so I always have raw whites saved in a jar in fridge. This is a great use, it gives you a lot of protein and it's not noticeable in the finished soup. The corn tortilla pieces become noodle-like super tasty. STALE day old tortillas are used by Mexicans with this recipe. NOTE: If I have a zucchini, I'll grate one into the frying ingredients. And if I have parmesan cheese, grate or shake some on top. This soup ends up being unlike anything you've ever tasted, but because of the tortillas and jalapeno in creamy tomato base it totally duplicates Mexico's famous "Sopa de TORTILLA.".
Finish off with spices for a richer flavor than plain old mushroom soup or tomato soup can deliver (as there's no milk here) I add dash cayenne, As you serve it, add parmesan cheese or I might squeeze a little pc of
orange for its juice so a 1/4 tsp of juice gives it a fresh flavor without it being identifiable as orange. ALTHOUGH you could do this with lemon too. Or, you could make it a creamier soup with a cup of milk in it, or some half and half. But who has the money for cream these days? A dollop of Sour Cream if there's a coupon on it that week.3.) CHINESE EGGFLOWER ONION SOUP - I'm often on graveyard shift, a nite schedule. I wake and it's dark. I work all nite, am hungry and tired by dawn so today, there's nothing to eat in the fridge but a pal had just mailed me Vegie broth cubes. Well everybody's favorite soup is ONION! The FRENCH KNEW about that kind of early morning, empty tummy and invented ONION SOUP which is sold at five a.m. in Les Halles the big market in Paris where it comes thick with oil, slimy cheese melting all over its surface, crispy croutons that you know were fried in oil, the whole thing is a delicious OIL SPILL DISASTER. SO I think, maybe do a little healthier version, kick up the protein with eggwhites to make CHINESE EGG FLOWER. (again, I generally have fridged egg whites in a jar (saved after giving baby cats their supplment made of yolks in milk.) Everybody has a bouillon cube somewhere. I had the VEGIE boullion cube. SO I improvise.
METHOD: First, FORK THAT VEGE CUBE in water 'til it dissolves a little. OLIVE OIL's getting hot, in skillet, there's where you saute a half onion, costing a nickle, tad of garlic, (on sale now, 3 lbs for a buck!) jalapeno, one, nigh free, chop outside only --toss seeds. Mushrooms, two maybe 30c, cheap enuf..... Throw in the broth, then if no jalapeno, a pinch of cayenne to warm you (it's a vascular dilater,) a grated carrot, a dozen leaves of spinach or a few florets steamed broccoli, and maybe 1 or 2 egg whites per person or eggs even, whole. Some cilantro.. Tofu gets fried with this, or sauteed, like two servings or a third of the lb box, if you have some around. It's a staple you want to keep around, too, as on sale it's a buck an lb and you can hardly find meat at that price, but now the trick is add a cup of ramen, that's a plastic cup version but even the dime package of ramen works. Throw in some more broth or water as needed, cook a few min. put sesame chile oil drops on top, stir in -- If you have japanese sea weed, a great addition near the end. SUGGESTED TOPPINGS: Dot top with gomasio sprinkles (toasted sesame seeds,) LIME JUICE slashed on top last minute, . It's very filling. Hot, It's 5 am here. A good hot meal. And back to the ole keyboard, restored! This one pck ramen and the other items add up to two or three servings!
4.) HEALTHY JAPANESE SOUP - Fish and meat broth, broccoli, tofu, onions and soba noodles. I always have broth hanging around, left over from cooking cats up some cheap meats. I'll use some to wet down cats' kibble, some for my own soups. (Fridging broth allows me to lift off the HARD FAT on top to store in cans. I then advertise hard, fresh, ice cold fat on CRAIGS LIST free for soap makers. Get some pretty nice soap that way. )
INEXPENSIVE FISH, I can get PACIFIC POLLOCK fillets frozen in a bag of a dozen for 1.50$ an lb at Oriental supermarket. My Chain Market has the same FISH bagged also from China 8$ for 3 lbs, so double the cost. Get your SOBA (whole grain buckwheat) noodles at Oriental market on sale. A 3 lb package at 5$ will last you for months. Oriental markets have loss leader items each week, same as major chains. Look for goodies like sesame oil, dashi, rice seasoning (seaweed mixed with things) or plain big pckgs seaweed and shitake dried mushrooms. The BIG PCGK of SOBA has over a dozen smaller packets of SOBA inside. Pull one out each few days, keep rest in freezer as it's whole grain and has oils. DASHI is usually super expensive and has monosodium glutamate but I do love it. It's bonito flakes. Tastiest fish I guess. You could buy a few oz of real bonito at any oriental market though. Substitute it for pollock, both are very inexpensive.
METHOD: In saucepan cook your broccoli and soba noodles in either broth or water. If you soak dried shitake mushrooms, rserve that liquid afterwards. You'll use that liquid too in the final soup. Seaweed is optional.
Separately, fry your onions, garlic, eggplant, fresh mushrooms, fish and when they're cooked add cubed tofu and toss to flavor the tofu which soaks up flavor. Drain noodles, broccoli, throw in with the fish mix. Stir, season with sesame oil, chopped cilantro, gomasio, lime juice.
MAKING YOUR OWN GOMASIO: All soups require something on top. Toast sesame seeds in heavy skillet, cool. Then, with a fork, mash a dash or two of salt into the seeds.Store in tea tin in freezer, take out what you need that week to be in shaker.
TWO USES FOR CANNED CREAMED CORN OR WHOLE CORN CHOWDER or CORN Bread-
CORNBREAD: Drain, canned corn but if it's creamed corn throw it ALL in! Use Corn bread mix. Always add melted butter, eggs, milk, flour to the mix of course, baking powder. I found a lb of CORN MEAL from top mill, on sale, 50c, well, on the bent rack as somebody had punched in a corner of the box. Wasn't me, I swear! Minced jalapenos, onions, olives can be added to batter
CHOWDER- Fry bacon til crisp. Reserve. Papertowel out the pan. Throw slash of olive oil in pan, fry onion, garlic, sweet peppers, minced. Potatoes can go in with onions or if you have cooked leftover potatoes, crumble or chop them add to finished soup which is made by adding either clams in their liquid, creamed corn or both. Garnish wi. parsley, bacon. OPULENT DISH. All leftovers!
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OTHER DELICIOUS MEALS YOU CAN MAKE WITH ONE CAN OF SOMETHING