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1. Cooking Class....So the soup you made was really good except the potatoes fell apart...continued

would add the celery first and add the corn towards the end of the process.

The second system, is to prepare each item according to its cooking times. An example would be cutting potatoes for potato leek soup small and thin so as to cook in the same amount of time.

Some of the sure fire ways to "get it right" is to precook those little items that always throw your timing off. Rice, pasta, beans, or barley are excellent examples of items that are high on the exasperation list. So just precook them, unless they are an intergral part of the thickening process. An example of this would be adding the potatoes early in a chowder to make it extra thick.

Of the two types of controls mentioned, adding vegetables in stages, beginning with those that take the longest to cook is an easier approach. When you are dealing with a lot of different vegetables, the cooking times are bound to vary. Therefore, prepare the slow cooking vegetables first...get them started... and while they are cooking, you can prepare the faster cooking items. This way you are not sitting around watching a "pot boil" most of the time. And while we are at it, as a general rule: If you are cooking with wine, dry wines are added early to the pot and sweet wines are added last. Sweet wines, such as Sherry, have a tendency to lose their kick after a short time. So inorder to take advantage of their flavor, they need to be added at the end of the process.

2. Try Thickening Naturally....continued

or taking advantage of the starch in the ingredients to do the job. Here's a recipe that gives us a look at how that works.

Chef Tip: Notice there is no flour in this soup fo thickening. The make this soup thick, we took advantage of the starch in the potatoes. Any starchy vegetabls, ( potatoes, beans, rice, peas, etc.) when pureed in a blender or food processor will thicken the mixture. You can puree some or all of the soup for the consistency you desire.

Saftey Note: To achieve a smooth texture, the ingredients should be hot. This can be dangerous in a blender. Only fill the blender 1/2 full and cover the lid with a towel. Only blend on the slowest speed. This will prevent you from being burned or also from having pureed "whatever" all over your kitchen.

Shawn's Cream of Chicken Soup...Serves 4
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. canola oil
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
4 medium-size potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups water, 4 tsp. Chicken Redibase
1/2 lb. fresh spinach
1 cup low-fat milk
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Directions: Cut each breast into 1/4 inch cubes. Saute the chicken in butter until opaque. Remove from pan. Add oil and saute onion. Saute 2 minutes and add potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. While potatoes are cooking, remove stems from spinach, was carefully; and chop. Puree half the potato mixture in a blender or food processor just until smooth. Return puree to soup pot. Add spinach and simmer 3 or 4 minutes until spinach is tender. Stir in chicken, milk, and pepper. Heat to serving temperature.

How to Cook Shrimp, continued...

To charcoal Broil: Select large shrimp and shell and devein. Use a moderately hot fire. Thread shrimp on skewers. Brush with butter or marinade and broil 4 inches from coals about 4 minutes on a side until pink and delicately browned.

To Pan-fry (Sauté): Shell and devein shrimp. Sauté in butter or cooking oil. Stir briskly, 3-5 minutes over moderate heat, just until pink.

Chef note: Shrimp is one of the easiest foods to over cook. If some of the times in our recipes seem short it is because we don't want you to dry out a dish that you spent a lot of money on to prepare.

Like most seafood, shrimp is about 78% water by weight. They contain about 18% protein and less than 1% fat. But watch out for the cholesterol.

Cooked, peeled shrimp look a lot alike--nicely pink--no matter what the color of their shells or the waters of their origin.

Shrimp is sold in numbered or sized counts per pound; ideally, all shrimps in a court are identical in size. Our work shrimp comes from the German "schrumpfen", which means "to shrivel". This is what the enemy is supposed to do when we call him a "little shrimp".

Counting Shrimp, Continued...

Chef tip: If you start with two pounds of raw, headless, unpeeled warm-water shrimp, cook them, peel them, and devein them, you'll end up with about one pound of edible meat.

To Shell and Devein Shrimp, continued...

...length of tail. Rinse away any broken bits of vein under cool running water.

Chef note: Not every shrimp will have a dark vein, but clean it anyway.

To Butterfly Shrimp: This is most often done when shrimp are to be dipped in batter and deep fried. Make incision deepeer when deveining, cutting almost to the underside. Spread shrimp as flat as possible and pat dry.

What is that smell?, continued...

...thoroughly under cold running water before cooking. Large brown shrimp often taste of iodine, which is present in the plankton they feed on. But if little shrimp sold in the market smell of iodine, keep on walking.