Ale and cheddar soup it would be.
I had trepidations about this soup. It sounded really good, but it seems I always do horrible things to cheese soup. So I resolved to follow the directions closely to minimize my chances of screwing it up.
And then I read the recipe. Kind of.
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Doesn't it look good? |
I had a heck of a time picking out a beer when I went grocery shopping. I finally bought Mt. Carmel Brewing Company's amber ale. It's not a beer I've ever had, but I'm all for patronizing local businesses. And I KNOW I don't like India Pale Ales, so I avoided them. When I saw Mt. Carmel had an amber ale, I wondered if Amber Bock was an ale. No, it's a bock/lager, silly. And while it might have turned out just fine, I didn't want to take the chance.
I couldn't really do anything ahead of time, so I got home, put the bacon in the oven to bake (because I always burn myself frying it), and then took the trash out. I used about half good bacon (I had a coupon for a brand I don't remember now, but I think it was called something blue?) and half mediocre bacon. I mean, I like using the good stuff, although I don't care for the price, and I was putting it in soup. How much are you actually going to notice the difference?
Of course, I come back in and started cutting up vegetables, and then read the directions again.
I was supposed to cut up the bacon into 1-inch strips.
Which I didn't do.
So much for reading the recipe.
I kept cutting vegetables. I tried to get everything as small as I could so it would cook down to nearly nothing. I only used two jalapenos (which I seeded and de-ribbed) because I didn't want the soup too spicy.
I added everything in the correct order. I pulled the thyme leaves off the stems I had instead of shopping them up because who wants to eat stems? I eyeballed that amount. De-leafing a thyme stem is time consuming.
I took the slices of cooked bacon and cut them up into the required 1-inch pieces and added them when directed. So that part didn't turn out so bad, at least. And the bacon was really tasty.
I was worried about things sticking to the bottom of the pan despite the bacon grease I cooked the veggies in, so I just kept stirring.
I only used one bottle of the ale. And I kept stirring.
I used partially pre-grated cheese (because I had it) and partially cheese I grated myself (because that tastes better). And I kept stirring.
I added plenty of salt at the end because the soup actually tasted a little sweet. I have no idea how much salt, pepper or cayenne I added. It said to taste, so I tasted. And kept stirring.
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My soup, with the beer. |
Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of that heavy cream...
Conclusion: 12 ounces is probably enough ale. Next time, try white cheedar? And more bacon, less celery.
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