moment of cultural cross-pollination
Jan. 30th, 2009 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaToday I was feeling iffy, so I decided to make chicken soup with rice for dinner.
(Cora's standard chicken soup recipe for two: finely mince half an onion (or a couple of shallots, if you have shallots) and a couple of cloves of garlic. Thinly slice three carrots and two sticks of celery. (It's okay if the carrots and celery are beginning to look long in the metaphorical tooth, since you're going to cook the hell out of them anyway.) In a heavy-bottomed soup pot that has a lid, heat up a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil, or schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) if you have it.* Gently sweat (that is, cook at a low enough temperature that it doesn't quite sizzle) the vegetables in the fat (with about a teaspoon of salt) until they're soft and fragrant, 10-15 minutes. Pour in about a quart of chicken stock (homemade if you have it, low-sodium canned works too, boullion is probably too salty for this). If you're feeling ambitious, you can reduce a cup of white wine to 1/2 cup in a separate pan and add it; if you aren't, just the chicken stock is fine. Add a bay leaf, some ground black pepper, and more salt if the broth seems too flat. Then add two skinless chicken thighs on the bone to the liquid and bring to a boil. When it hits a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer and put the lid on. Cook until the chicken is cooked through (30-ish minutes, but make sure its juices are clear when you stab it with a knife; if they aren't, put it back and simmer longer). When the chicken is cook through, remove to a plate, and let cool until you can handle it, then shred it to bite-size pieces. Meanwhile, add rice or noodles and cook through. When the starch is cooked, return the shredded chicken to the pot, along with fresh sage or thyme or rosemary or parsley, whatever herbs you like,** and heat through. Ladle up and serve.)
Only -- I got to the point where I was simmering, and I asked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jmpava to give it a taste, to see if it needed more salt, or pepper, or whatever. (Sometimes when I'm tasting the soup frequently, I sort of lose my ability to judge whether it needs salt, for instance.)
Me: How was it?
Him: Fine. Maybe could use some... hm.
Me: What?
Him: ...Some herbs or something? Maybe?
Me: Yeah, I'm adding sage later.
Him: Yeah, that'd be good.
Him: ...
Him: ...
Him: You know what it tastes like?
Me: What?
Him: It tastes like it needs matzoh balls.
Me: Yeah?
Me: I can do matzoh balls.
Him: Really?
Me: Sure.
Him: That'd be yummy.
I hadn't realized until just now that matzoh ball soup (his childhood comfort food) and chicken soup with rice (my childhood comfort food) differed really only by starch. But there you go! That's kinda cool, really.
Me: It probably doesn't hurt that I started it with schmaltz.
Him: Heh.
* - Part of the reason that I buy whole chickens and cut them up is so that I can always arrange to have schmaltz, because omg, yum. Also, that ensures a steady supply of homemade chicken broth.
** - If you're looking for recommendations, I like thyme or sage best for chicken soup.
(Cora's standard chicken soup recipe for two: finely mince half an onion (or a couple of shallots, if you have shallots) and a couple of cloves of garlic. Thinly slice three carrots and two sticks of celery. (It's okay if the carrots and celery are beginning to look long in the metaphorical tooth, since you're going to cook the hell out of them anyway.) In a heavy-bottomed soup pot that has a lid, heat up a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil, or schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) if you have it.* Gently sweat (that is, cook at a low enough temperature that it doesn't quite sizzle) the vegetables in the fat (with about a teaspoon of salt) until they're soft and fragrant, 10-15 minutes. Pour in about a quart of chicken stock (homemade if you have it, low-sodium canned works too, boullion is probably too salty for this). If you're feeling ambitious, you can reduce a cup of white wine to 1/2 cup in a separate pan and add it; if you aren't, just the chicken stock is fine. Add a bay leaf, some ground black pepper, and more salt if the broth seems too flat. Then add two skinless chicken thighs on the bone to the liquid and bring to a boil. When it hits a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer and put the lid on. Cook until the chicken is cooked through (30-ish minutes, but make sure its juices are clear when you stab it with a knife; if they aren't, put it back and simmer longer). When the chicken is cook through, remove to a plate, and let cool until you can handle it, then shred it to bite-size pieces. Meanwhile, add rice or noodles and cook through. When the starch is cooked, return the shredded chicken to the pot, along with fresh sage or thyme or rosemary or parsley, whatever herbs you like,** and heat through. Ladle up and serve.)
Only -- I got to the point where I was simmering, and I asked
jmpava to give it a taste, to see if it needed more salt, or pepper, or whatever. (Sometimes when I'm tasting the soup frequently, I sort of lose my ability to judge whether it needs salt, for instance.)Me: How was it?
Him: Fine. Maybe could use some... hm.
Me: What?
Him: ...Some herbs or something? Maybe?
Me: Yeah, I'm adding sage later.
Him: Yeah, that'd be good.
Him: ...
Him: ...
Him: You know what it tastes like?
Me: What?
Him: It tastes like it needs matzoh balls.
Me: Yeah?
Me: I can do matzoh balls.
Him: Really?
Me: Sure.
Him: That'd be yummy.
I hadn't realized until just now that matzoh ball soup (his childhood comfort food) and chicken soup with rice (my childhood comfort food) differed really only by starch. But there you go! That's kinda cool, really.
Me: It probably doesn't hurt that I started it with schmaltz.
Him: Heh.
* - Part of the reason that I buy whole chickens and cut them up is so that I can always arrange to have schmaltz, because omg, yum. Also, that ensures a steady supply of homemade chicken broth.
** - If you're looking for recommendations, I like thyme or sage best for chicken soup.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-02 12:56 am (UTC)My chicken soup starts with something I call the 'bone bag'. Basically I save all the chicken bones from meals we have, even chicken wings, and keep them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. This might have a bit of a 'yuck' factor considering these are bones we have been eating off of, but since it's just for me and the hubby, and it's all boiled to death anyway, I don't think it matters too much. Chicken carcasses with bits of meat still on them also go in there. I usually save some fairly meaty ones so I won't need to buy separate chicken to make soup.
When I want to make soup, I take all the bones/carcass/meat I have accumulated out and put it in a stock pot with water, and basically simmer the crap out of it for at least three hours. Or sometimes I put all the bones in the crock pot overnight.
Once the stock looks like stock and tastes chickeny enough, I strain it, reserving the bones/meat in a strainer and pouring the stock back into the pot. I let the meat cool while I add veggies: shredded carrots and parsnips (the shredding really brings out flavour), celery, diced frozen turnip, potatoes and onions. Often I don't even need to add rice because I have so much veggie goodness.
Then I go through the meat, throwing out the bones and tearing up the meat bits and adding them back to the pot. Then I season with savory, sage, thyme, parsely and salt and pepper and let simmer for about another hour until the veggies are tender and the flavours have blended well.