Rainy Day Supper, Hamburger Soup

Yesterday was rainy, windy, and cool, a perfect day to have homemade soup. We went from days with high twenty temperatures and even two days over thirty down to eleven yesterday. Hamburger soup is something I have made for years. The first time I made it was from a cookbook recipe, it was good but I modified it the next time. The recipe reminded me of Scotch Broth which is a soup I totally enjoy, but never make. I have a love hate thing with lamb. I like eating lamb and will have it in a restaurant, cooking it is another story. The smell of lamb cooking does not have a good effect on my stomach. The effect goes just making me feel nauseous to a very bad result. So I just avoid cooking lamb. The modification I made was to make the hamburger soup taste more like Scotch Broth.

I admit I add some strange things to recipes just to get the taste profile I want. This is most likely the strangest thing to add to a soup to make it taste like Scotch Broth. To get the little funky taste of lamb broth I used anchovy paste. It was just a goofy thought the second time I made it and it worked. I buy the toothpaste tube anchovy paste but fillets will work also. Beef broth, it takes a good brand, the store brands don’t have much flavour. This is a very simple soup to make and tastes great. I judge whether something is just good or very good by how often my wife asks me to make it. Hamburger Soup she asks for often, admit I like it too (it’s not chicken).

1 pound ground beef browned well and drained for at least a half an hour. Salt and pepper it while you’re browning it.

1 large onion diced

2 ribs celery chopped

2 carrots cut in half moons

2 cloves garlic minced

3 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 and 1/2 inch anchovy paste, or 2 or 3 fillets depending on size

1 teaspoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon butter

2 litres beef broth

3/4 cup of pearl barley

1 teaspoon Kitchen Banquet

Preheat a soup pot on medium heat with the butter. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes stirring often. Add salt, pepper, thyme, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and anchovy paste. Cook for 1 minute stirring often. Add ground beef, beef broth, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, kitchen banquet and bring to a boil. Stir in the pearl barley, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 1 and 1/2 hours. Serve with good buns or bread, for me it goes best with my little open faced sandwich things, post is little things that have no name.