Brown Ale and Cheddar Soup

It's winter, and that means I want comfort foods. Soup is especially good, and while I love making it I often don't have an entire day to spend watching over it. This was not only amazing tasting, but it took barely over an hour to make... which in my world is unheard-of for soup!

The original recipe is not mine, it comes from From Away, but I did modify it a little bit to suit what I had on-hand without having to run to the store. It's soup. Who makes soup the same way twice anyway?

I really didn't do that much differently from how it was written, although I did end up adding some mozzarella cheese at the end I wasn't planning on so it's not in the picture. The only differences between what you see here and what it calls for are using low-fat evaporated milk instead of heavy cream, using a can of diced jalapenos (drained) instead of a fresh one, adding some diced green peppers (which I had left from another recipe), and using a local microbrew's ale rather than a popular brand. I've got nothing at all against Bass Ale, I just happened to own some Oval Beach Blonde from the Saugatuck Brewing Company.

First step is to chop and fry the bacon in a Dutch oven. I usually slice it in about 1/4- to 1/2-inch wide strips, then separate it as I toss it in the pan. I'm not sure I cooked it for the 8 minutes the recipe says as I was prepping other things at the same time. I let it get crisp, then removed it with a slotted spoon to some napkins to drain.

Don't pour out the bacon grease! Leave it in the pan and add the vegetables. As I mentioned, I also added some diced green pepper since I had some left along with the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. I didn't exactly measure the thyme, just stripped the leaves off until it looked like I had what seemed like about enough. It says to chop the thyme, but I never do since the leaves are pretty small anyway.

Once the vegetables are softened, add about half the beer and simmer it until it reduces by about half. The recipe says 5 minutes, and that could very well be how long I simmered. Again, I was doing other things and not exactly watching a clock.

After that, add your chicken broth/stock, and return the pot to a simmer. Again, not sure how long, and the recipe doesn't actually say. I just let it simmer while I made the roux.

This was hard for me. Not making roux, I could do that with one hand tied behind my back (and have done it while holding a baby on more than one occasion). But making a roux that wasn't a dark, rich brown like I do for gumbo. This wants to be a very light brown because otherwise it'll darken the finished soup too much, so you only need to cook and stir your butter and flour for a couple of minutes.

When you add the roux to the soup pot, make sure you are whisking every second or you'll end up with clumps of flour, and nobody likes eating a clump of flour. I used my slotted spoon instead of the whisk because the handle is longer, but whatever works for you. Just stir constantly until the roux is well incorporated into the soup base, or you won't get the best results.

Let that simmer for a few minutes (the recipe says 8, I think I went more like 10), and then stir in the rest of the beer, the cream, and the cheese. It'll almost immediately start to melt, and again stirring often is your friend. This is when it's very easy to scorch the soup and end up with burned bits on the bottom of your pan, and that's no good.

At this point, the recipe says to let it simmer, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. How it worked at my house, however, is that after I added the cheese I quite arbitrarily decided I wanted to serve soup with biscuits, so I had to preheat the oven and bake them for 15 minutes. The longer the soup simmered, the darker and thicker it got.

Here's a thing I forgot: A can of diced jalapenos is a lot more than you would get from a fresh one. I taste tested it and it was entirely too hot. So this is when I added about a cup of mozzarella cheese to try to tone down the heat. It worked like a charm!

Just before you're ready to serve, return the bacon to the soup and stir it in. Or do it earlier... I honestly noticed no difference in its texture from the original meal and when I reheated it two days later for lunch.

The recipe talks about garnishes, and I'm sure you can use them if you want. I never garnish because reality says I'm rarely making food for anyone other than my mother and myself, and we don't really care if it looks fancy as long as it fits into her dietary requirements and tastes good. Thus the decorative paper plate for the biscuit!

I have no idea how many people this is supposed to serve, so I'm totally making up a number of servings based on how many times we ate it. The nutrition information wasn't given with the recipe, so I figured it using the USDA database with my arbitrary number of servings and without any of the changes I made to the recipe. It's pretty close.

Brown Ale and Cheddar Soup

Serves 8

Ingredients:
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
1 large jalapeño, ribbed, seeded and chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
One 12-ounce bottle brown or pale ale
1 cup heavy cream
1 12-ounce package of thick-cut bacon, diced
About 2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
Additional sliced jalapeño, bacon, thyme, and/or diced tomato, to garnish

Again, not my recipe. I got this at From Away, and it is nothing short of amazing!

Serving Size: 349 g

Calories: 469

Calories from Fat: 338

Total Fat: 37.5 g

Saturated Fat: 19.8 g

Trans Fat: 0.0 g

Cholesterol: 110 mg

Sodium: 864 mg

Total Carbohydrates: 7.5 g

Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g

Sugars: 0.8 g

Protein: 22.9 g