Since we don't use ready made products the first step is the broth. Here we need various kinds of meat. Here we have a nice slice of beef shank (bone marrow is essential for taste),l chicken legs, smoked ham, cured and smoked pork shoulder blade and cured and smoked pork spare ribs.
Of course we also need vegetables. Leek, celery, celeriac, dry toasted onions (with peel for better color), carrots and parsley root.
A bit of fresh thyme, bay leaves, all spice, pepper and coarse sea salt (not too much, the meat already is salty enough). Now, when I prepare a pure fond, i.e. when I’m just after the liquid, I never use salt. Salt kind of blocks part of the osmotic process and less flavor will get out of the meat /vegetables and into the liquid. In this case however I want the liquid and still use the meat/vegetables, so not all flavor has to ooze into the soup.
All goes into a big pot and covered with cold water. You could of course cut the vegetables in smaller cubes (more surface = more contact with liquid = more flavor) but as British chef Mike Robinson would say, “It’s a rustic dish so don’t be too chef-ish about it.”
Here we can see the whole thing gently simmering.
[RANT]There are lot of kitchen myths out there. Some are unbelievably persistent. One of them is that you have to skim the foam when things start to cook in order to get a clear soup/stock. I never do that. Why? Because whatever you take out of your soup also takes away some taste. If you don’t skim off the foam it will eventually get solid and sink to the ground. The soup kind of clears itself.
Some people clear their soups with egg whites (stirring them in to bind all suspendend particles and then give it through a sieve. But why add additional protein when the foam that naturally arises during the cooking process already is protein and has the same effect? To me that doesn’t make any sense at all so I don’t skim soups or stocks. I just leave them alone and let them gently simmer.[/RANT]
After an hour I removed meat and vegetables and gave the soup through a hair sieve lined with a paper towel. At this point it is okay to remove all residue. Those particles have already added to the taste and helped to clear the soup. Removing them now will also prevent the soup from getting bitter.
As you can see it’s pretty clear now. Most of the fat has been filtered out as well, but there is still enough left for taste.
Here’s the meat cut in mouth sized chunks.
Some more vegetables to be cooked in the broth now: peas, beans, small potatoes and some more carrots.
Ready to serve. The Vadress likes here soup with wiener bits.
To me it's important that the vegetables are still al dente. Actually this soup is my version of a typical German dish that usually looks like this: kochpla.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bohnensuppe.jpg. Cooked to death and mushy beyond belief. It's a relict from the old the days when you put the soup on the stove in the morning then went to work in the fields and came home in the evening to eat. Talking about nutritional value. Packet soup later became the alternative. The good ol' days weren't always that golden.
