Food Science and Homemade Soup

Yesterday my class of 20 (we've had a few drop-outs) moved into our second three-week block: Food Science. The first two weeks cover nutrition and our final week will focus on sanitation and food safety. We're away from the stoves and into a typical college classroom, and our teacher is Mr. W., who wears a shirt and tie instead of whites. Though he's not a chef, he has a degree in hospitality and a career background in foodservice on the management side. He's funny and laid back and so far, he's making this class a lot less painfully boring than it could be.

These first two days have been pretty basic overviews of the food pyramid, the body's metabolic process, dietary preferences and restrictions of certain populations, etc. It was particularly amusing when Mr. W. spent about 20 minutes explaining the Jewish dietary laws to a thoroughly confused class. It was one of only a handful of times in my life when I actually felt like part of a minority--thank you, Montgomery County and Penn. Here in Atlanta, I was the only person in class who knew that milk and meat together and all shellfish are not kosher. Nevermind that I LOVE shellfish and have never kept kosher a day in my life. But my classmates were very interested and eager to learn the reasons behind all this, and thankfully Mr. W. was very knowledgeable on the subject--much more so than yours truly.

I really do miss the kitchen. Being in a classroom is kind of fun because I really feel like I'm back in school again, but I know that will get old fast. Last night I decided to get out the knife set and make some dinner for a few friends. It's finally starting to get a little chilly here(sad!), so Zack and I were both craving soup. I wanted to make a hearty one that could be a one-pot meal.

I settled upon chicken tortilla soup after finding a delicious-sounding recipe for one. Tortilla soup is one of Zack's favorites--he's particularly fond of the one at Houston's, a reliable chain that we've visited in numerous cities. Personally, though, I think my soup turned out even better, and it was certainly much healthier.

Once again, I kept drawing upon what I had learned from Chef M. and Chef L. as I was cooking. I really used the recipe as a starting point. I didn't make stock, but I used all chicken broth instead of chicken broth plus water as the recipe had called for. My chefs had stressed that adding more stock is always better than diluting the flavors with water. I also wanted a thicker soup than the broth-based one the recipe called for. Instead of making a roux or slurry, I pureed the tomatoes, zucchini, onions, and some tortilla strips in my new blender after they had softened in the soup pot. This gave the soup the great, hearty consistency I was after. We topped the bowls with various condiments, like chopped avocado, shredded cheese, scallions, cilantro, and the rest of the tortilla strips that I had baked in the oven. It's definitely a soup I'll make again and keep improving upon. Here's a picture of our friend Wagner's lovely bowl:



One batch of my improvised recipe made plenty of soup for five of us, plus leftovers. Tonight I stretched out the remainder by adding a can of black beans. In my opinion, this made it even better. Here's my tortilla soup, round 2: