"When dawn spreads its paintbrush on the plain, spilling purple... ," Sons of the Pioneers theme for TV show "Wagon Train." Dawn on the mythic Santa Fe Trail, New Mexico, looking toward Raton from Cimarron. -- Clarkphoto. A curmudgeon artist's musings melding metaphors and journalism, for readers in more than 150 countries.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Soup's on! And cornbread...

Homemade soup?

My "Little" Grandmother, Cuba John Miller Clark Reasor,  used to make the best chicken and dumplings, swimming in broth and with lots of pepper. Forget the chicken, the dumplins and soup were fantastic.

And there is nothing like homemade stew with lots of chuck roast, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, beans and more--as long as you have cornbread so warm the butter melts.

Real potato soup, nice and thick and creamy with chunks of potatoes a a little corn and perhaps some green onions and cheese on top. Also with cornbread.

Come to think of it, what doesn't go well with cornbread?

And though it's not a soup, it's kin--homemade chili, with The Clark's secret imported ingredient--which he has to go get some more of soon in New Mexico.

Favorite soups in local restaurants:
  • Lobster Bisque at Bravo Cucina Italiana in OKC or Bodean's in Tulsa--so good you want to bathe in it, as my friend the late Walt Radmilovich said, when he introduced me and Harry Heath to it years ago..
  • Mushroom Soup at Paseo Grill in OKC....mmmmmmmmmmm, a signature dish. Everybody's talking about it. All you need is an appetizer, the soup and some red wine.
  • Tortilla soup at Alvarado's in Edmond....you can make an entire meal out of this. Recipe--good soup with chicken it it, then as you eat it, you keep adding tortillas, drinking water or margaritas, which helps the tortillas to swell inside your stomach till you're full. Best time to eat, on a cold, rainy day, looking out the windows toward UCO, reading a book or the NY Times. Warms you all the way to the soul.
  • McAlister's has a good baked potato soup.
  • Wife says best tomato basil soup is at Saturn Grill. The Clark doesn't eat tomato basil soup.
Other nominations?

5 comments:

  1. We bathed in Paseo Grill's mushroom soup last night. Hands down my favorite soup is the brisket and flank steak pho at Pho Hoa on 23rd St.

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  2. I love Paseo Grill's Gazpacho in the summer. They serve it with a jumbo shrimp. Yum!

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  3. I'm always looking for a good hot and sour soup. Haven't been able to find any in okc that compares to this place I used to go to in sf.

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  4. ...and the Cioppino from Vito's on 63rd and May, also can't forget the "Sopas de Camarones" from San Marcos on 40th and May.

    Kory: Try Sala Thai on 23rd or Grand House on 23rd and Classen for good hot and sour soup.

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  5. Both my grandmother, Ivah White, and my mother, Helen Irwin, made soul-satisfying soups and stews that were so powerful they could cure everything from the common cold to a major depression. Mamaw's speciality was the chili beans she cooked on washdays (1920-30s). Mom's stew recipe reflected the more affluent times of the 1950s. It was a beef stew with onions, carrot, celery, potatoes, corn, green beans, peas and tomatoes simmered together with elbow macaroni added in the last 10 minutes to cook in the tomato beef stock. Nothing fancy but both were heavenly with cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet and dripping with butter. Reason enough to look forward to fall and winter.

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