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  • Fish Soup

    ingredients

    • 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 4 large leeks, sliced
    • 4 ribs celery, cut in thirds
    • 4 large close garlic, peeled
    • 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
    • 1 small bunch cilantro
    • 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
    • 1 head and 1 tail of a large salmon or any other large kosher fish, loosely but securely wrapped in cheesecloth
    • 4 cups canned crushed tomatoes
    • 2 large potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (or sub 1 medium celery root)
    • 1 cup dry white wine
    • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, or more to taste
    • Large pinch ground cloves
    • 3 bay leaves
    • 1 tbsp paprika
    • 2 large pinches saffron
    • Salt to taste
    • 2 1/2 quarts (10 cups) water
    • 2 tbsp anisette or arack (make sure liquor is KFP)
    • 3 lbs boneless, skinless kosher fish such as salmon, tile, or snapper cut into 1-inch cubes
    • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
    • A few small fresh fennel leaves to garnish (optional)

    Source: http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/3555034-Fish-Soup

  • Gourmet Broccoli Soup

    When we think of gourmet, we usually associate it with fine dining and classy restaurants. But you can make your own gourmet meals right at your own kitchen.

    Gourmet often speaks of a class in the culinary and food world. It creates a distinction between a regular food and fine dining foods, the latter, which are often prepared in a very classy manner. In restaurants, it is sometimes regarded as cuisine that is made of the highest quality of ingredients and plated in a very sophisticated style. Today, gourmet has been more than a standard in the industry, even in market products such as bread, coffee, wines. Chefs make it a point to offer gourmet meals from appetizers to desserts. Aside from a fresh veggie salad, a soup is a great appetizer, to warm up your bellies for the main dishes ahead. A bowl of hot soup is a good comfort food, most especially during the rainy season, or on any regular day. Gourmet makes a simple soup stand out. Soups in  gourmet style make the flavors of the soup really come out, soothe your palates, and give you that comfort in every sip.

    If you want to have little gourmet moment at home, create your gourmet soups once in a while. Indulge in a warm bowl of soup with these gourmet soup recipes that are perfect for your homes.

     

    Source: http://blog.friendseat.com/gourmet-soup-recipes/

  • What makes certain foods so expensive?

    Food costs are largely determined by the time and resources it takes to do all of the steps required to get the product from the farm or manufacturing facility to your local store. And like everything else on the market, supply and demand also plays a part. Here's the skinny on why some food items are so expensive.

     

    Brand names

    A more expensive price tag usually indicates higher quality, but this isn't always the case when it comes to food products. Brand name foods are often produced by the same manufacturer as generic or store brands, but the brand names cost significantly more. This is because brand names need to advertise and market their products, and these costs are built into the price of the food. Generic brands rarely advertise, so the savings are passed along to the customer. Advertising and marketing in the United States is a major expense -- a full page print ad in a national magazine can hit five figures. And production costs for a TV commercial usually runs hundreds of thousands of dollars, which doesn't even include the cost of air time.

    Organics

    Farmers that use agrochemicals have operations that are heavily subsidized by the government. Agrochemicals weren't developed with taste, nutrition or the environment in mind, but they help to produce abundant amounts of food by allowing farmers to grow fruits and vegetables faster and cheaper. Organic foods are grown without using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics, which is considerably more labor intensive than larger, non-organic farms, and organic farmers don't receive any subsidies from the government.

    Without the use of pesticides, hand weeding

    is necessary and paying labor costs is more expensive than paying for the pesticides. Organic farms use manure and compost, which is much heavier and costlier to ship than chemical fertilizers. The cost of organic certification is also a significant line item in the budget of an organic farmer. So all of these costs are passed on to the customer willing to pay for all-natural food products.

    Rare Foods

    Some foods cost more money because of the simple fact that they're hard to come by. Everybody knows that when the demand is greater than the supply for any product, the cost is going to go up. Many of these same foods require more human resources and labor to acquire or produce. Saffron is a spice famous for its distinctive taste and considerable expense, due to the staggering number of flowers it takes to produce a very small amount of the spice. Macadamia nuts are also on the pricey side for the same reason -- only trees that are at least seven years old can produce them. Truffles are extremely expensive because of the labor required to put them on your plate and the fact that they only exist in a few regions. Despite a lot of effort, these underground fungi have never been able to be artificially cultivated. Locating truffles is a very time consuming and labor intensive operation, which is why this delicacy can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per pound.

    Did you know? It requires 50,000 to 75,000 flowers to make one pound of saffron. That's enough flowers to fill a football field.

    Source: TLC Cooking