EclecticCook.com » Fall

Chicken Noodle Soup Remedy

Karen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:15:33 +0000

My day didn’t go exactly as planned, yesterday. Which isn’t all that uncommon for me since that fateful day a little over eleven years ago when I gave birth to my first child.

Over the years I have discovered and mastered a key parental survival skill; the ability to change course and speed on a dime and without a grumble; at least not where the children can overhear you. Which is why I dropped (gently) what I was doing at work, got in the car, and drove for a half an hour to my daughter’s school when the nurse called to inform me that my little rug-monkey had a fever, a sore throat and needed her mommy to pick her up as soon as possible.

My mother’s prescription for whatever ailed me was a steaming-hot bowl of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, with salted-top saltine crackers coarsly crumbled and added in while it was still bubbling on the stove. This step was extremely important, as the crackers would soften up and become the pseudo-dumplings that made everything right with the world.

In keeping with family tradition, it is required that I make chicken noodle soup whenever one of my girls is sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching has a stuffy head or fever. Unlike mom, I have always made my soup from scratch.

That may have been a mistake.

You see I’ve painted myself into a corner. If a daughter gets sick and I suggest a nice, easy-to-open can of Campbell’s soup, I get pouted at.

“But the last time was sick, she got real soup.”

Oh dear…

“How come she gets real soup and I don’t?”

Here it comes…

“Don’t you love ME as much as you love HER?”

I really can’t win.

So I’ll just be in the kitchen. Cooking soup.

I won’t lie to you; this isn’t a 30 minute meal. But if you start making it just after onset of symptoms, it’s usually ready to eat by the time the Tylenol kicks in, the fever breaks, and the patient is starting to feel just the teeniest bit hungry.

You will get a nice big bowl of chicken meat from your bird, and a really ugly carcass with leftover meat bits clinging to it. This is the best part. Honest. Throw that sucker back into the pot with your aromatics, and let it simmer away until you finally remember you have something cooking on the stove.

After that things get a little ugly . Strain all of the cooked bits out of your rich, chickeny stock. You can use cheesecloth, but I use a clean cotton kitchen towel. I rinse it before use to get rid of any residual detergent. Soapy soup is not what I’m going for here.

FYI: This is the same recipe I use when I have chicken scraps to use up and it makes a darn fine chicken stock.

Chop up some fresh carrots and celery.

Any noodle will do ya, but I love a thick and substantial egg noodle. If the patient is complaining of a sore throat, I might use a smaller, easier-to-swallow soup noodle. Maybe. If I felt like it.

Then you will need to corral your youngest daughter when she gets home from school and have her pose with the exceedingly sharp knife so that you can get a picture of real hands cutting real food, so that people don’t think that your ingredients magically chop themselves. Then you must quickly remove said knife from said little hands before they magically become a finger shorter.

Chicken. Chopped. Sort of self explanitory, really.

What all of this boils down to is a warm, rich and hearty soup that I’ve been told makes the sniffles just a bit more bearable and the aches just a little less achy. And if consumed in sufficient quantities, it can even make a pouty, sick girl smile, just a little.

So tell me, what food do you make that helps someone you love feel better when they’re sick? What makes you feel better when you’re sick?

Chicken Noodle Soup

For the stock:
4-5 lb whole chicken
1 medium onion, skin removed and halved
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ tsp whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 or 3 whole allspice berries (optional)
1 carrot, quartered
1 celery stalk, quartered
2 sprigs parsley
2 tsp kosher salt
3 quarts (or more) water

For the soup:
8 oz egg or other soup noodles
4 cups chicken, diced, reserved from making stock
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 batch chicken stock (see above)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Place all of the stock ingredients in a Dutch over or other heavy pot. Add water to completely cover the chicken, about 3 quarts. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and remove chicken from pot. Leave the vegetables in the stock. Allow chicken to cool until you can handle it easily. Remove the chicken meat from the carcass and set it aside. Return the carcass to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 ½ hours. Allow stock to cool slightly, then strain through a double layer of cheesecloth or a cotton towel set over a strainer. Return stock to the pot and add diced chicken, fresh carrots and celery. Bring to a boil and add the egg noodles. Cook until noodles are tender (according to package directions). Remove from heat adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper, and add the fresh parsley. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toChicken Noodle Soup Remedy | 28 comments |

Roman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella

Karen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:10:06 +0000

Me and Italian food, we go way, way back; all the way back to the dusty, faded, Polaroid-tinted memories of my early youth in the 70’s. I spent my single digit years in one of Montreal’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Park Extension, or Park Ex to those who have more pressing matters to attend to and don’t have time for three syllables.

Park Extension has always been a gateway neighborhood for new immigrants to Canada, and in the 70’s, the cultural landscape was largely made up of people from Greece, Italy and other Mediterranean countries. It was and still is a lower income working-class neighborhood, poor of means, but still rich in tradition and a strong a sense of community.

Both Dad and Mom worked outside the home, which wasn’t all that common in those days. There were no school buses to take me to and from school, no after school programs, and I walked home for lunch every day because the school didn’t have the staff or the facilities for the children to eat there.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, we had electricity, yes, there was indoor plumbing, and no, we did not use clay tablets to write on.

I do remember one extra special day, a day when there was a solar eclipse schedule to happen right at the time we went home for lunch. Apparently the school believed that if young children were caught out on the street during the eclipse, they would succumb to the urge to look at the sun, and their eyeballs would melt right out of their heads, or something to that effect. So for that one day only, I was allowed to eat lunch in my classroom with all the other antsy, excited children and one slightly bemused and frazzled teacher. This was undoubtedly the most thrilling thing to happen to me in my young life up to that point. Unless you count getting my first goldfish, may he rest in peace. My second goldfish followed a few months later, after I had learned a few things about feeding, tank cleaning, and goldfish carcass disposal.

Sorry, the mind just wanders when you get to be as old as me. Right, so where was I?

With Mom working days and Dad working the hours a fireman works, I needed safe harbor after school and at lunch when they weren’t home. Mr. and Mrs. Ciaramellano and their two children lived next door to us. Literally next door, since we shared the same front balcony. I was instructed by my mother to head directly to their house at lunch time and after school. I did this unerringly and without question, because I was a good little girl, and because I greatly valued the hide that my Father would flay off my backside if I didn’t. Mrs. Ciaramellano didn’t speak English very well, but that was ok, because I didn’t speak Italian very well either. She sure knew how to cook though, and that’s what was really important to a hungry six year old. After the walk home from school, I barely had the chance to knock before she would be opening the door to usher me in, always with the prerequisite kiss to each cheek. I would then follow her and her white apron to the kitchen from which the most wonderful aromas always escaped. Sometimes she would let me help make the pasta or gnocchi for that night’s dinner, and I remember the joyful sense of accomplishment I felt the first time I rolled a piece of gnocchi off the tines of a fork and it looked just like the ones she had made, and not like an albino garden slug. She tended a vegetable garden on her postage stamp sized piece of cultivatable land, and grew herbs and even fruit trees in pots she would haul back into the house every winter. I can still smell and taste the deceptively simple sauce she would cook from her garden tomatoes and herbs. Served over a bed of freshly made pasta, it was a bowl full of the earthy-fresh flavors of a well loved summer garden.

This stracciatella soup is another one of those simple yet soul-warming dishes that are at the heart of Italian cooking. Eggs and parmesan cheese are whisked into the rich broth of slow cooked bollito di manzo to make a soup that will warm you up from the tip of your nose to the tips of your toes.

And to you, Mrs. Ciaramellano, wherever you are, I say thank you; for your generosity of spirit, and for teaching me to love and cherish good, simple food.

If you have the time and the inclination, take a peak at this wonderful series of pictures on Flickr of Park Extension today from urbanphoto.net.

Roman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella
Adapted from Livia Tistarelli via Gourmet

4 large eggs
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
8 cups of broth from bollito di manzo

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, cheese, nutmeg, pepper and 1 cup of the cold broth. Bring the remainder of the broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour in the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute, continuing to whisk. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with additional parmesan on the side, if desired.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toRoman Egg-drop Soup – Stracciatella | 12 comments |

Bollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce

Karen — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:38:03 +0000

I’ve learned eleven really important things over the past few weeks:

Just because this is Kansas does not mean that that it can’t get cold enough outside to freeze my eyelashes together.
Sometimes, snow will stay on the ground for way more than a day in Kansas.
I need winter boots. With a soft, fluffy lining.
I fully and completely understand the term “wind chill”.
The warmest part of my dog is her belly.
My dog squeals like a stuck pig when cold feet contact warm belly.
Braising meat on the stove for a good long time will really warm up my kitchen.
The condensation from all that braising liquid will freeze my patio door shut, and my dog will invariably need to go to the bathroom at that exact moment.
When my dog really needs to go to the bathroom, she will use her cold nose as a weapon to get me up off the couch.
It’s a long, cold walk through the unheated garage to the other backyard door.
I really need to make sure the children are out of earshot before grumpily threatening to sell the family dog on eBay.

If you’ve been dying for a recipe good enough to freeze your patio door closed, look no further! If you haven’t, or if you are one of those extremely annoying people who live someplace where the thermometers don’t even have temperatures below 32°F marked on them, I suggest you stick around anyway. I promise you, it’ll be worth it. This recipe will take care of dinner on the first night, and make a great soup for lunch or dinner the next day.

You’ll need some beef, beef bones, various vegetables and a broiler.

A little time under the broiler makes the magic happen.

Boil for a ridiculously long time and you will be well rewarded. Check out that broth. Yes, it really was as rich and beefy as it looks.

Bollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef
Adapted from Livia Tistarelli

2 lb beef chuck roast or brisket
2 lb beef soup bones
3 quarts water
1 large onion, Quartered
2 large carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 cup canned, diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh basil (1 tsp dried)

Place the beef, beef bones, onion, carrots, celery and garlic on a roasting pan or rimmed cookie sheet. With oven rack about 6 inches from broiler, broil the beef and vegetables for about 5 minutes per side, flipping once. The meat and vegetables should be nicely browned, but not cooked through. Place the roasted meat and vegetables, and the remaining ingredients in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered for about 3 hours or until meat is pull-apart tender. Remove the meat and slice thin or chop. Strain remaining the stock through a fine sieve or double layered cheesecloth, I use a cotton cloth. Discard the vegetables and beef bones. Reserve one cup of broth and store the remainder in the refrigerator to make stracciatella soup (Recipe coming soon to a blog post near you).

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The boiled beef is traditionally served with various condiments such as salsa verde. But since I’m about as traditional as burgers and fries on Thanksgiving, I decided to do things my way, as usual. Sometimes this works out wonderfully. Sometimes – not so much. Just ask my husband.

If you Really, REALLY feel the need to do things the old fashioned way, this recipe for salsa verde from Whole Foods is really quite good.

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous, scroll down for my Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce recipe. It also has crushed red pepper flakes which are absolutely essential, since they help to defrost the windows. I served this over Polenta, but you could also serve it with a penne or tagliatelle pasta, if you really want to go there.

The essentials. Without them the sauce is nothing. Less than nothing. Like, negative even.

If you really like the salty, fishy taste of anchovies, feel free to use 2 or (gasp!) 3 fillets. Mince ‘em up fine.

Ditto for the capers.

If you are feeling especially daring -and you don’t have children that hate them with a passion only a preteen can muster- you might want to add in some black olives.

Italian Boiled Beef with Tomatoes, Anchovies and Capers

2 tbsp olive oil
1 med onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, chopped
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 cup broth from bollito di manzo
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste
Boiled beef from bollito di manzo recipe, coarsely chopped

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed skillet. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add the remainder of the ingredients, except for the boiled beef. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the boiled beef and simmer until heated through. Taste for seasoning and serve over polenta or pasta.

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©EclecticCook.com, 2010. | Permalink toBollito Di Manzo – Italian Boiled Beef with Tomato, Anchovy and Caper Sauce | 12 comments |

Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

Karen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:57:04 +0000

I have a bit of a problem. I don’t think it requires a twelve step intervention, but still, it complicates my life sometimes. I really can’t pass up a good sale at the supermarket. Laugh, giggle and find general amusement at my predicament all you like, but don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile with my grocery cart and have 4 butternut and 6 acorn squash in your refrigerator.

This penchant for purchasing well priced produce doesn’t seem to extend to other areas of my life as a consumer. I love a good sale on bathroom tissue as much as the next person (especially since my family seems to go through bathroom tissue faster than a calf goes through milk), but I don’t have 10 cases I bought on sale sitting around waiting to be called to a higher purpose.

But if I see a sale on something edible, I tend to buy first and think later. Sometimes this produces great results, like the key lime pie I made when key limes were on sale. But it also led to the sausage crisis in my freezer that I’m still digging my way out of, and I have 2 jars each of roasted red peppers and tahini in my pantry that are languishing away after I had a roasted red pepper and tahini mental creativity block and gave up trying to find ways to cook with them.

Now about those squash….

I firmly believe that inspiration for a great recipe can come from absolutely anywhere, and since I’m almost always right, you can pretty much take my word for that. But if you need some convincing, I offer you the story of the Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup recipe.

Once upon a time last weekend, I was busily searching for some kind of recipe or inspiration for the abundance of squash I have impulsively saddled myself with, when my children decided that they absolutely had to sit next to me and play the “Ask mommy 10,000 questions we don’t really care about the answers to because we are bored and it’s raining” game. So I sent them on a Google mission to find me a fun recipe for butternut squash. After the veggie in question was produced for their inspection and familiarization, off they went, and all was again peaceful in my house. For about 3 minutes.

“Mommy, how ‘bout this recipe?” my eldest daughter shouted from the basement. “Well, I can’t really see it from up here, honey.” I replied. “Mama! I found a recipe!” my youngest bellowed, “Can I show you?” My youngest daughter calls me Mama. I don’t know why, and I haven’t been brave enough to ask her. “Ok girls, bring me your recipes” I said, closing my laptop, magazines and cookbooks, determined to get back to my hunt for the perfect squash recipe just as soon as it stopped raining and I could kick the kids out have the children play outside and get some fresh air.

And so they brought up the reams of paper they had printed out, and I dutifully ooo’d and ahhh’d as required by my mommy contract. Then I found a hidden treasure, a recipe for Thai-Style Butternut Squash Soup from an unlikely source: Walt Disney. To be more specific, it was on the Disney Family.com website, in the food section. Go figure.

After a recipe revamp and a trip to the Asian market, I cooked up this rich and creamy, mildly spicy, slightly sweet and tart butternut squash soup. I probably could have eaten the whole pot, but I had to save some for the pictures, and maybe a bowl or two for the children. They did find the recipe after all. It was only fair.

Thai Curry and Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
Adapted from Disney Family.com

1 large butternut squash, about 2 pounds
1 tbsp oil, I use grapeseed
¼ cup onion, minced
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tsp Thai Red Curry paste, more if you like it hotter
6 kaffir lime leaves, middle vein removed and torn into pieces
4 cups chicken broth
1 13-14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
Toasted coconut for garnish (optional)

Preheat over to 400°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Brush the cut sides of the squash with oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until very tender. The squash should have a creamy texture. Once the squash has cooled enough to handle, scoop the flesh out of the peel using a spoon.

In an heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger and garlic and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook for a few more minutes. The curry will start to give off a wonderful aroma. Stir in the chicken broth, coconut milk, salt, squash and shredded lime leaves. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Puree soup with a hand mixer or in a blender. Serve garnished with unsweetened coconut toasted at 400°F for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Pork and Apple Stew

Karen — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:44:14 +0000

If I were Dorothy and I just blew back home from my trip to Oz, I’d be wondering if I took a wrong turn on the yellow brick road and ended up in Michigan, not Kansas. It’s farkin’ cold in Wichita this fall. Combine the chilly weather with pubescent growth spurts in both of my girls over the summer, and I’m heading out to buy two entire wardrobes of new winter clothes a month early this year. I may have to consider selling a kidney to pay for it all. Alas, nudity is frowned upon in public schools, so I really do need to pony up the cash and restock the closets.

On the bright side, we are heading back to the kind of weather that gives me an excuse to cook the meals I love best. Soups, stews, roasts and other slow cooking oven dishes, food that fills the house with warm, comforting aromas that smell even better when sniffed with noses still cold from the weather outside.

Pork and Apple Stew

This pork and apple stew is the epitome of fall comfort food. Simmering away slowly, the sweet apple pieces and licorice scented fennel melt together to make a delicious hearty broth for the tender pieces of pork. A big, rustic loaf of bread fresh out of the oven is a must to sop up the juices.

3 lbs pork butt, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 tbsp canola or grapeseed oil
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 medium onions, diced
½ small head of green cabbage, chopped
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup apple cider
3 cups chicken broth
3 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
2 bay leaves
2 whole sprigs fresh rosemary or 1 tbsp dry
2 sprigs flat leafed parsley
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a Dutch oven or heavy bottom pot. Season the pork with salt and pepper. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, brown the pork pieces on all sides. Remove the pork, reduce the head to medium, and add the fennel, onions and cabbage to the pot. Sauté the veggies in the pork dripping for about 5 minutes. Add the wine to deglaze, scraping up any brown bits off the bottom of the pot. Cook for a few minutes more. Return the pork pieces to the pot along with the apple cider, chicken broth, apples, bay leaves, rosemary and parsley. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally. Remove the rosemary, bay leaves, and parsley springs before serving.

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