Cooking Cream Soups with Chef Debbie Squires

Well, hello and welcome to At Home today. We’re so glad that you’re here. We hope that on this cold winter day, that our program today will warm up your innards, as they used to say. Warm up the innards, because today is soup day and Debbie Squires, who was here several weeks ago, at Thanksgiving is back today to make some delicious soups. And she works at Fontana. She’s a head cook there, and that’s in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. So if you’re in the Pittsburgh area, you wanna go to a great restaurant, check out Fontana’s, it’s great, easy to get to. And all the information about Fontana’s will be in our newsletter. So if you’re getting the newsletter, you’ll know exactly how to call, get directions, or get reservations. But anyway, today she’s making chili, and I say, oh, Arlene, we all know how to. She’s making white chili. White chili, okay. No red in it at all. No red tomato. She’s making corn chowder, and she’s making a cream of crab soup. Each one of those in itself could really warm up your insides. If there something about taking a cup of soup when it’s so hot out, just feels good. Get your hands nice and warm. Well, today we’re gonna warm up outside, inside, and all around the town because Debbie Squires is getting started. In fact, I can hear already at the stove stirring some stuff. We come back from the Hint. She will be here to get us cooking soups today, here at the At Home kitchen. We’ll see you in a minute. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. For an easy treat when making soups or stews, take a stack of tortillas and cut into long thin pieces and add to the soup during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Corn tortillas are lower in fat than flour tortillas. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d like to hear from you, send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Well, here we are in the kitchen again. Nice to see you Deb.

Nice to see you too.

Yeah, of course.

Thank you for having me back.

We had such fun the last time you were here, we thought we’d ask you to come back again.

Oh, thank you.

I know that you make a lot of soups at Fontana’s, right?

Yes, I do, and I make a lot of quantity of soup.

Like big vats almost.

Oh yes.

Okay, so today, like I said, we’re making three different kinds. What are you starting out with?

Okay, now I’m gonna start off with what I call the white chili. Now, this variation you could do with any kind of poultry you could do it with wild game. Anything such as that. Now in this pot, I have a half a stalk of celery mulched up in a food processor. I have a one carrot. I have one green pepper and-

Onion.

Onion also. Almost-

So you do that on that with a blade or just down in the bottom with a big blade?

With the big blade. I just mulch it like so puree.

So it’s real, real thin, right?

Because I’ve learned over the years that people don’t like to crunch into celery, but if you mulch it up-

We need the flavor too.

They don’t know what’s in there and they eat it.

[Arlene] Exactly.

And it hides a lot of things.

All right, now-

So in here I sweated this down with one stick of butter and it’s sweated down. Then I added one quarter of heavy cream and I will put water into this mixture also.

[Arlene] Just one quart of heavy cream.

One quart of heavy cream. And I will put water in this also, and chicken stock.

Okay, so you gonna let that cook for just a little bit then, right?

Right, I will put this chicken base, but this is gonna go for a minute. Back here to the corn chowder

We have pots everywhere on the stove today and we’re all cooking soup, okay.

We rough cut this-

This is a deep.

[Debbie] This is a hand cut.

[Arlene] So you didn’t use the food processor?

No, I did not. I use bigger pieces. There’s celery.

Resembles of corn, huh?

Exactly.

Same size.

Sort of like a confetti corn, if anyone is known what that is, there’s green pepper. There’s celery, there’s onion. There is red pepper in there. Usually-

That’s frozen corn?

Right, frozen corn, fresh, whatever you have to work with. It is one of the easiest soups around ’cause it’s a dump recipe.

I love chowder, corn chowder.

Now, this is sweated down pretty well. We’re gonna add a quart of heavy cream to this.

Wait, wait, wait. What she means about sweated down, I mean, she just got, these onions aren’t fried, these vegetables aren’t fried. But if you look at the onion, you can see it’s like translucent. Which means that it’s very clear, but it’s not brown. You’re not frying it, right?

Right.

Okay, so you’ve done that with all the corn and everything going in there.

Right now in here, I’m gonna put quart of heavy cream.

[Arlene] Could you use half and half?

You could, but do you need to temper it. ’cause sometimes it will curdle on you.

It will cuddle. Well, I wonder why that is. I guess it’s the milky way.

It’s the amount of cream.

Yeah.

It’s the amount of cream that’s in it.

Okay.

And I’m also gonna put water in this also. Think that there’s heavy cream. You need to dilute it down with water that gives you some kind of substance. Now in this pot right here, Arlene, will you please put this chicken stock?

I will.

Black pepper.

All of this?

Huh, I have fresh parsley. And this is a Cajun seasoning.

Oh boy.

Including the potatoes. You can put everything in that pot.

Are these cooked potatoes?

Those are cooked cube potatoes.

And cubed. Alright, I’m gonna start first then with this chicken stock now. You can get bouillon cubes and dissolve them if you have.

[Debbie] Right, but they’re very, very salty.

They are.

I’m adding water to this white chili. It’ll dilute it down a little bit. And I’m also gonna add water-

Go ahead.

To the corn chowder.

That’s fine. Like how much water?

Usually about quart. Quart the heavy cream fill the container with water.

Okay, there goes the parsley, there goes the black pepper, right?

No salt here, huh?

No, no salt because they’re salt in the base. I’m sorry.

That’s right, and also the Cajun maybe has some salt.

A little bit.

Little bit.

Not too much.

Now, what’s this for? Is this for me too?

[Debbie] That is gonna be for that dish also.

This is granulated.

No, no, that’s chopped garlic.

Oh, chopped, okay.

[Debbie] Chopped, fresh garlic that goes-

[Arlene] That’s about a tablespoon

[Debbie] Yep, that goes right in there. Now, like I said, you dump it in. It’s a dump recipe.

[Arlene] Now we go in there.

Now the only difference between a chowder and a cream soup is if you used to see the word chowder, that means there is chunks of potato in it.

Oh, that’s what makes it a chowder.

That’s all it is.

Okay, that’s good to know. ‘Cause sometimes you see it on a menu and you don’t know what they mean by chowder.

Now, this is ready to go. It just needs to be cooked on. Now, we’re gonna go over here to this crab.

Right, wait, wait, wait, lemme ask you a few questions. You’re real fast here today. What about if I didn’t have cooked potatoes? Could I put raw potatoes in there?

Yes you could. But you need to add a little bit extra water because of the starch.

What if I put the water in before I put the cream in?

You could do that too.

‘Cause I think they would cook quicker in the water than they would in the cream.

Right, right.

So you would just reverse your liquids a little bit.

Right, right, a little bit more. But I was just thinking if you wanted to dump and you didn’t have the potatoes or maybe have a couple leftover potatoes, why couldn’t you do it that way, right?

You could, like I said, you could put it all in cold actually and just boil it. But I like the flavor of the sauteed vegetables first.

And you do one after you’ve added all those seasonings and stuff, you want that time to cook into everything.

To cook down.

To cook through, okay.

Now these vegetables here were sweating. This is gonna be for the crab soup. Now, over here, don’t put the crab in.

Not in yet.

We put that in at the very end. That is crab base. Put about half of that in, it’s about two tablespoons.

Okay.

Two tablespoons of fresh parsley.

[Arlene] Okay, now this is same thing like his chicken base.

It’s chicken base.

[Arlene] But tell us about the place where you like to get base.

[Debbie] Now, I like my base coming from this company right here is called R.L. Schreiber. And they do have a website.

Go online.

You do have the numbers-

The address.

In the newsletter.

It’s gonna be in the newsletter for this company. And of course they sell it like this.

Every base, yes. That’s a two pound They have every base imaginable. But now if you don’t cook a lot, see if you can get a friend to go in on it with you, especially on a holidays, you’ll use the chicken base.

You have to keep that in the fridge.

Once it’s open.

Once it’s open, okay.

Once it’s open. Now, you put.

What’s this?

That is old bay.

Old bay seasoning and you associate that always with seafood.

[Debbie] Right, you put that in there.

[Arlene] That’s a nice combination.

[Debbie] You put that pepper in there.

Black pepper.

Okay. Now you’re gonna put that quart of heavy cream in now this.

This is a joy of my life to use this heavy cream.

Cooled of heavy cream.

Oh yeah.

Now I’m gonna flip while she’s doing that. I’m gonna flip over to the back to the white chili.

All right.

We put in one pound of Land O Lakes American. It has to be Land O Lakes. If you don’t use Land O Lakes, I’m not responsible for your product.

Okay. You know what? While she’s putting the cheese and we’re gonna take a break and we come back, we’re gonna finish all these soups. So stay with us. Well, if you are just joining us, my friend, Debbie Squires from, yeah, that’s right. My newest friend from Fontana’s restaurant in North Huntingdon has just give us the basis for a white chili. This over here is corn chowder, and this is cream of crab soup. And I’ll tell you any of these and you know, take a day with a friend and say, let’s make soup and make a bunch of pots of soup. Put them in quart containers, throw them in the freezer. You need something quick for supper. Bring it out in the morning, let it thaw, put a sandwich together with that, or nice big salad. You have dinner. Don’t you think?

Exactly, I agree. 100%.

You make a lot of the soup at the restaurant, and you have people that come in and-

They buy quarts of it.

Exactly.

Yes, everything freezes very well. If you just listen to the directions I tell you, I’ll give everybody the right direction.

Okay.

All right.

Wait, let’s tell me now what you’re adding here and how did you cook it?

This is cubed cooked white chicken. Now, you could use, like I said, wild game. You could use turkey. You could use ground turkey. Any kind of poultry will work.

Okay.

The main thing is that I just put it on a cookie sheet. I season it with onion, pepper, garlic, salt, and garlic pepper, I’m sorry. Onion, pepper, garlic, pepper and a little bit of salt. Bake it in the oven, and when it’s done, cube it up and it’s good to go.

Okay, so you’re adding that to the white chili, right?

Right, to the white chili. This cuts a step down. Now you could put it in raw of course, and cook in here.

It’s longer.

But for the essence of time, we’re trying to get everything done on sure, right moments here.

Now, we also wanna tell you that when you’re making soups, particularly cream soups, the heavy pots are better, aren’t they?

Right, they won’t stick on you. You tend, you have to watch, especially the white chili because of the cheese. It will tend to stick. As you notice, I am stirring this pot constantly.

[Arlene] And I am stirring this one too.

I put the white, the chicken in here. Now, I’m gonna add the beans. I have Northern beans. Let me back up a minute. I wanna put a little bit of black pepper in here.

[Arlene] Black pepper, okay.

[Debbie] Some fresh parsley.

[Arlene] Couple tablespoons maybe.

Yeah, we’ll save a little bit top. I wanna put a little bit of this garlic in here.

Okay. See, she didn’t overpower it with the garlic because some people don’t like the garlic.

You can always add to-

That’s exactly, right.

What you want, you can’t take away. You can always add, you can’t take away.

All right, now, what are we adding here?

Now, we are using, these are white Northern beans are they’re called. They sell them in a jar, in a grocery store or sometimes in a can. I suggest you buy the ones in a jar. They tend to be a little better.

[Arlene] Oh, okay.

[Debbie] I like to see what I’m getting.

[Arlene] Let me ask you, is that the juice that they came in?

[Debbie] This is the juice they’re in and, and you see-

You pour everything in, juice and all?

I pour everything in. I’m just whoops, trying not to splatter.

[Arlene] Okay, so no draining the, good.

And I have some extra beans here, so I’m not gonna put all of these in here. So that’s purely a white chili because there’s no red beans, no red tomato.

It’s all white. You have the white meat of the chicken. You have the white of the beans. You have of the cheeses. Now I suggest that you try different cheeses.

Yeah, whatever you like.

Just go with. I told you to use pepper jack and Land O Lakes American. Experiment with different types of cheese, because there was some, there’s a gruyere cheese out there, which is a very expensive Swiss, but it is so creamy and so mild. It’s perfect for white sauces and anything with like fondues. Now, I noticed for the white chili, it is exceptional. See what, the white chili it’s out of this world.

[Arlene] And if it’s expensive and you can’t do it, why not make it like this? And then when you serve it, put some of that on top of it.

[Debbie] Exactly, exactly, yes. Would that be nice for garnish even.

Now let see the slurry here.

Tell them about the slurry.

What a slurry is, is just corn starch, dissolved in cold water. But you have to thicken it, but you have to dissolve it very good. And this has been sitting, so it tends to go to the bottom.

[Arlene] Yeah, but it stirs right back together.

[Debbie] So yeah, exactly.

[Arlene] Now, what are you gonna thicken? All of them?

I’m gonna thicken every one of them with a slurry.

Now the thing is this. You have to keep it moving. It has to be boiling when you do this too, right? Go ahead. And you’ll feel instantly a resistance with the spoon.

Instantly, yes.

Yeah. And as it cooks, it will thicken. Now see, look at this. I can feel this already.

Wow, this is dump that in there.

I need four more hands.

[Debbie] You got that?

I’m stirring two pots at one time. This is wonderful.

Lemme do this one for you.

[Arlene] Isn’t that thick, huh?

[Debbie] Yeah.

[Arlene] Now if they get too thick, how do you thin them down?

[Debbie] Well, just a little bit of water-

[Arlene] Some water thins it, that water.

[Debbie] Or some chicken stock.

[Arlene] ‘Cause I’ve had that happen to me.

[Debbie] And it does happen from time to time.

Yeah, you might need some up here too. You better check it and see I’ll do this one.

[Debbie] Turn that one up.

[Arlene] Yeah.

[Debbie] No, this one’s good.

[Arlene] Is that good?

Yeah.

Okay, oh the smell. Now we have something else that goes in this cream of crab, right?

A crab, but we’re gonna put that in at the very, very end right before you serve it.

But let’s talk crab.

Yes, let’s talk crab. I hear you.

That may be crabby, okay.

Crab meat comes in different grades, of course, in different sizes. This is what is called a special lump or it’s called a super lump. or it’s called a back fin lump.

[Arlene] Back fin lump.

[Debbie] It depends what brands you buy. Now, as you notice the sizes.

[Arlene] Yeah, there are some chunks in here.

[Debbie] Yeah, they’re bigger sizes. You don’t wanna break it up too much.

[Arlene] You’d be gentle when you’re cleaning this, right?

That’s why, exactly right. And you really don’t have to clean it too much. You just have to pick any of the shells out that are in it and drain it.

This is probably a little more expensive than some of the cheaper.

It is, but you get averages about $12 to $13 a pound. But if you want jumbo lump or super jumbo lump-

You’re gonna pay.

You’re talking 20, $24. But it depends how-

But not for soup because your stern-

Is your family.

Exactly.

Once in a blue moon, you know what splurge.

But you know what? I’d rather buy that super, and make crab cakes or something. You see those big chunks, right. Because you know what, as you started, this is gonna break up anyway. Probably, right?

Exactly.

You might wanna turn this one down a little bit. Do you think.

I wanna, okay. It’s not sticking or not, is it?

You got a little crab or something? There you go.

[Arlene] Okay, excuse me. That’s right. This is sticking just a little bit maybe.

Let me see.

Not quite look at this. This is like the three pots of porridge.

Yeah.

I’m loving it, okay.

These porridge.

Okay, now I’m gonna put some slurry in here.

Oh, you put in there too?

Right.

Okay.

Correct.

There we go.

And I probably need a little bit more slurry, but we may get lucky with that.

[Arlene] Yeah.

[Debbie] Does it come to a boil a little bit more.

[Arlene] Yeah, boy, these are. I wish you could be here to smell this. It’s incredible. I’m telling you now we’re gonna serve this with some crostinis, like, that’s just take baguette, cut ’em down and thin slices. Put some garlic and some oil on and pop them in the oven until they get crusty. And we’re gonna put them with this soup. Won’t that be good?

That’s fantastic.

My mouth is watering so bad.

It’s like, this is definitely a meal.

I’m telling you. These are hearty soups that are a meal.

They really, really are your very filling and as far as the corn goes are pretty inexpensive. The most expensive soup is gonna be your crab, of course. It’s gonna be your white chili, Corn chowder’s pennies on a dollar. You have leftovers.

Yeah, but I’m telling you when I make regular chili, it costs, I mean, it really does. There’s a lot of stuff in that, a lot of stuff. Okay, we’re gonna take a break. When we come back, we’ll be in the dining room tasting all these delicious soups. Stay with us. Now, I want you to be sure to get the recipes from today’s program because I know you’re gonna wanna do these soups and they’re so easy. They’re not difficult. And Debbie’s made them so easy. So please be sure to write for, or if you have a subscription, www.ctvn.org, you can go on there and subscribe for the newsletter. It would be great. You get them right to your email address every month. You don’t have to send for anything or you can send through the mail and we make it easy for you. So please be sure you get them. We wanna welcome Deb. You’re not only your here, but the boss is here, because she was checking them out today.

[Both] The big dog.

The big boss, Nancy, we’re so glad that you are here, and thank you for joining us at the table. And thank you because this has been-

You’re more than welcome.

The director said, “These soups all kind of look the same color,” they look, and they do because they’re creamed soup. When you start out with the basics similarities, then you know that the cream in there is gonna make it look creamy. So we’ll start here. Look at that. That’s the white chili and it’s a chicken. Look at that. Look at that. Nice and hot chunks of white chili chicken in there with those wonderful vegetables.

[Nancy] That’s very cheesy.

Cheesy, lots of cheese in this. If you like a cheesy soup, you’re gonna love this one. And that’s the corn chowder, right? Corn, look at that one. Oh my goodness. Don’t you just love it and see how soups really hold the heat too. That’s a fabulous thing in the wintertime when you’re so cold and you just want something to warm you up, and that’s very inexpensive, isn’t it?

[Debbie] Oh yes, very.

I mean really? There’s no meat in that at all. That’s a great vegetarian dish except for what the chicken flavor would be something.

[Debbie] Right.

But I mean you could, it would be okay. It wouldn’t be bad at all.

[Debbie] Excuse me.

Okay, so that’s wonderful. And back here, this is the cream of the crop, or the cream of the crab. Okay, look at that one.

[Nancy] Creamy chunks of crab.

Now you didn’t put the crab in that one until the very end

Til the very end.

[Arlene] Okay, and that was because.

It’ll break off the crab meat. You want chunks of crab?

Sure.

You’re gonna be able to taste that. Not just all like somebody pulverized it, and that’s why you do it at the very end or else you could buy the cheaper crab that really doesn’t. I don’t think it tastes as good. And I would rather go this route, but any of these would be great for a supper. What do we do around the bottom of that?

I made a crostini.

Yeah.

That’s you just kind ’em on the bias smear a little bit of garlic on there and toast them off. That’s perfect for the corn chowder, and smaller one, I have just a smaller, like a toast set.

Yeah, and then we have some crackers. These got some butter crackers now really to compliment any of these, a nice salad because these are hearty soups. These are hearty. They’re not like a brothy soup. These have a base to them, and you’re gonna get good, good nourishment ’cause there’s lots of vegetables, lots of flavor. And again, if this, you say Arlene, I could never use all that soup. Have it for dinner one night, put it in container, put in the freezer mark it when you made it and how much it, there’s a quart, there’s a half a quart, whatever. And then you have a quick and easy put together supper, grilled cheese sandwich with this.

That’s right.

An open face.

The chili, all you need that is bread and butter.

Right, do you have these soups at the Fontana, at the restaurant?

Yes, I have them quite often. The white chili I run every other week and it has quite a following.

Oh, I’m telling you, I’ve never seen a white chili. This looks absolutely fabulous. And I just, I want to tell you if you’re in the Pittsburgh area, if you live in the Irwin area, hey, if you wanna drive, take a nice drive, go out to Fontana’s. And again, the information, the phone number will be with our newsletter, and you will be in for treat besides I have a personal interest because my Josh works there and he does a fine job. And I know you guys all love him there because he’s just that kind of a guy. And it’s a great place. Your ribeye steak is awesome. Paul had that. He was everything but licking the plate. But anyway, we’re really glad. We’re glad when the family drops by, we’re always so thankful that you feel like you want to be a part of this program by watching it. If you didn’t watch, there’d be no sense for us to make programs. I say that often, because that’s really the truth because you’re a part of the family because you watch and when the family gets together, it’s always fun ’cause you never know what’s gonna happen. Like you never know when Debbie’s in the kitchen, it’s fun. You never know. But we are thankful that you do drop by. And can I just make a suggestion? How about dropping in a church this Sunday? You’ll feel good all week long. If you take that time, separate it to the Lord, you will definitely feel a whole lot better. So that’s my advice this time. And until the next time I tell you get ready because we’re gonna have a lot more good recipes coming up for a whole lot more good food. And we’re always glad when you’re there. So until the next time be sure to join us. It just wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then.

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