Beef Soup - General Cooking Principles
Soups are an integral part of the table of many national cuisines, and for good reason! After all, they are very useful for our digestive tract. In addition, studies have proven: people who include soups in their daily diet, consume less calories due to rich broth, and, consequently, are less susceptible to obesity. An abundance of recipes for soups is simply impressive! What they just do not cook.
Surely, every hostess in the arsenal has at least a few recipes for making delicious, flavorful beef soups. This type of meat is deservedly attributed to the currently popular food products. Beef has good taste and nutritional properties, has a great aroma. It contains a wide range of valuable proteins and a large amount of iron, which is involved in oxygen synthesis. That is why beef soups must necessarily be present in the diet of each person.
Depending on the age category of the animal, beef can be as tender as veal, or tough due to the coarse muscle structure - this is an indicator of the animal’s advanced age. For soups, it is better to choose the “middle ground”, that is, the meat of large but rather young cattle. The most valuable is the meat of one-year-old, well-fed animals, which can be easily recognized by its bright, saturated red color. Too dark color, on the contrary, speaks about quite old age of cattle.
Our traditional cuisine welcomes a combination of beef soups with a variety of vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, spices, cheese, cereals and even fruit pieces. It should also be remembered that beef is a long-lasting product, but cooking time will largely depend on the “youth” and freshness of the meat. To prepare a rich soup, it should be dipped in cold water and boiled for about an hour and a half after boiling, and sliced into slices for about an hour.
Beef Soup - Food Preparation
As you know, beef is divided into 3 varieties: the highest (thoracic and dorsal, rump, fillet, rump, rump), the first (plow, shoulder and scapular areas) and the second (shank, cut). For soup, it is advisable to use the highest or first grade meat.
Having thawed meat in a microwave oven or in a basin at room temperature, it should be thoroughly rinsed under running cold water, cleaned of films, tendons, put into a pan and pour a minimum amount of cold water, so that a layer of liquid only covers the meat. Beef can also be cut into small pieces, although many cooks do not welcome this rule. It all depends on individual preferences.
Vegetables are prepared as follows: they are thoroughly washed, peeled and seeds are removed (if any), the top, spoiled leaves and stalk are removed from the cabbage. Herbal vegetables rinsed in running water. When cutting it should be borne in mind that the vegetables, cut into approximately equal pieces, look beautiful in the dish and almost simultaneously achieve readiness during the cooking process.
Beef Soup - Cooking
To cook the "right" beef soup, you must carefully choose the saucepan for it. In principle, like any other, meat soup should be cooked in earthenware, enamelled, refractory glass or stone dishes. In no case can not use metal pots without a protective coating. Dishes should be sufficiently thick-walled, chemically neutral and refractory. In addition, the beef should be boiled under a closed lid, which protects against excessive boiling and blocks the oxidation of fats in the product.
It is likely that in the process of cooking we will need to sauté or fry some ingredients, so stock up on a thick-walled form, designed for frying. It can be a cast iron, aluminum, Teflon-coated or any other frying pan adapted for this purpose. Beef Soup - Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Beef Soup with Mushrooms
The dish belongs to the category of so-called summer soups. Light, delicate, fragrant! For its preparation is best to take the highest grade mushrooms, for example, white. You can use mushrooms, boletus or boletus.
Ingredients (3.5 liter pot):
- Beef 600 gr.
- mushrooms (peeled) 500 gr.
- 4-6 potatoes
- carrots, onions - one by one
- 4-5 peppercorns
- Lavrushka, salt, greens
Cooking Method:
1. Clean the mushrooms (we take only caps from boletins). We cut the plates. Dip them in boiling salted water and boil about 5 minutes after boiling. Drain the water, rinse the mushrooms, throw in boiling water again and cook for about 15-20 minutes.
2. Cook the meat in the main pan (in which we will cook the soup), periodically removing the foam. Ready meat we get with skimmer, cool and cut into pieces.
3. Onions cut into half rings, carrots into straws or semi-circles, slightly passe in the pan. Peeled potatoes cut into strips, can be diced.
4. Pour the mushroom broth into the beef broth (along with the mushrooms), lay the potatoes, bring to a boil, then lay out the browned vegetables, meat, sweet pepper, pepper and salt. Cook everything until the potatoes are ready.
The finished dish should not be cleaned immediately, but give it a bit later with the cooker turned off. Sprinkle with chopped greens before serving. Season the soup spread out on plates with sour cream or butter.
Recipe 2: Beef with cheese
Exquisite soup, which will warm even in the most severe frosts! It belongs to the category of winter first courses, however, it is also able to give a great mood and vigor in summer evenings. By the way, any kind of meat will suit this recipe. Be it beef, beef, chicken or game.
Ingredients:
- Beef 500 gr.
- 4-5 medium potatoes
- a pair of onions
- carrots 1 piece
- a jar of white beans
- processed cheese 2 packs
- one pickled cucumber - salt, pepper and herbs to taste
Cooking Method:
1. Boil beef in a standard way, remove, cut into pieces.
2. We clean the potatoes, cut them into strips, dipped in broth (without meat).
3. Peel carrots, onions. We cut carrots on thin plastics (you can grate on a large grater), cucumber - in small pieces, and onions - in half rings.
4. Fry the vegetables: first onion until the lacquer crust, then add the carrots and cucumber, close the lid and fry. Do not forget to stir from time to time.
5. While the vegetables were fried, the potatoes boiled. Chop finely cheese. Spread frying in a pan, beans (without liquid), meat and cheese. All mix, salt, pepper to taste, close the soup lid and cook until potatoes are ready.
When the potatoes are cooked, turn off the stove and let the soup infuse and thoroughly soak, then sprinkle with herbs. The dish is ready!
Recipe 3: Beef Kharcho
Traditional Georgian Kharcho must necessarily include beef meat, tkemali and walnuts. But the options for cooking this dish is actually a lot. For example, it is permissible to replace tkemali with tomatoes or pomegranate, nuts can not be used. We will describe below the method of cooking kharcho with the replacement of some ingredients (as they are more accessible) - its converted version, but the same tasty and savory.
Ingredients:
- Beef (brisket) 500 gr.
- water 10 glasses
- 3-4 large onion heads
- rice for soups 4 table. l
- tomatoes 600-700 gr.
- bay leaf
- peppercorns 5-6 peas
- paprika to taste
- hop-suneli
- cilantro (greens) 3-4 branches
- parsley, dill 2 sprigs, garlic, salt
Cooking Method:
1. Beef brisket cut into pieces, pour water, cook until half cooked, constantly removing the foam.
2. Cut the onion finely, put it in the pan and simmer it on the fat removed from the broth for ten minutes.
3. Take out slices of meat with a skimmer from the broth and add them to the onion, close the lid, simmer for about 20 minutes. Then add pre-scalded and grated tomatoes without a skin (the peel is very easily removed from such tomatoes). Simmer another 15 minutes. 4. Next, pour beef broth into vegetables with meat. As soon as it boils, put the rice. Bring to a boil, after 10 minutes, add crushed garlic, pepper, all greens, hop-suneli, laurel and salt.
From the finished dish bay leaf must be removed. An excellent alternative to Georgian Kharcho is ready! Enjoy your meal!
Beef Soup - Tips & Tricks
In the preparation of most dishes, chefs-experts use elaborated techniques and subtleties that give the dishes an even richer taste and aroma. And beef soup in this regard is no exception! Here are some recommendations given to us by experienced chefs:
- Soups will be much tastier if you cook them in a small container. The smaller the pan - the soup becomes more rich;
- For all soups it is necessary to use only fresh products, thoroughly cleaned from foreign particles and smell, washed and dried;
- The laying of the ingredients must always be carried out in a strict order, so that none of the products are digested. To do this, each hostess must know the duration of cooking of a component. As a rule, this skill is developed over time;
- Salt the soup should be closer to the end of cooking (usually 3-7 minutes before full readiness), but so that all the ingredients have time to soak, and did not get tasteless;
And the last piece of advice: you should not allow the soup to boil too vigorously, it is better to torment it over low heat while boiling very slowly. Believe me, it will turn out much tastier!
