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I had a craving for some old fashioned home made chicken noodle soup the way my mother made it. She would bake a chicken and use the dripping with canned chicken stock and add root veggies and celery salt. Cook up some yolk free egg noodles and we have our selves a winner.
I decided to alter the recipe by making the chicken broth from scratch. I had so much success with vegetable and beef stocks I figured chicken couldnt be much harder. Turns out it was easier than either as the directions say to only boil everything for 2 hours and there doesnt seem to be a lot of fat at the surface to skim.
After I baked my chicken I put the carcass in with two quartered yellow or brown onions (dont peel ! the outside peel deepens the broth color), some celery (tops are okay), carrots (also dont peel), some flat Italian parsley (half the bunch cause I love parsley flavor) and then a bay leaf, a few whole pepper corns, some dried mushrooms and two quartered Roma tomatoes. The last two aren't typical stock ingredients but I find it will richen the flavor. My book tells me to only cook the stock 2 hours max. I was surprised at how dark it was after two hours so I figured I'd follow the directions and stop there. I froze most of it for later uses. So far I have to say it looks richer than my other stocks so much so that I added water to it when I made the soup. It is also the tastiest !
For the soup I sautéed some sliced thin onions and then a few bulk pieces of carrots and celery along with a few thin slices of turnip. Well I hope it was turnip cause it was labeled rutabaga at the store but somebody told me they are pretty much the same thing. It did kind look like turnips but with a slightly different color than I remember. After the onions were soft enough I added generous amounts of celery salt. The homemade stock is very much unsalty so you will almost always have to add salt to a soup made with your own stock. I prefer to be in charge of how much salt I add anyway. The stock went in next with some water and after adding some pepper and letting it simmer I added the large chunks of the cooked chicken.
In a separate pot I boiled the noodles and drained then when done. Yolk free egg noodles cook up pretty quick so its good to keep an eye on them. After the noodles were done I put some in a bowl and ladled the soup on top. I also store the noodles in a different container as they can get mushy/ break apart if actually left in the soup. The nice thing is as you reheat the broth it cooks down more making it more yummy. The noodles can be put in a bowl cold and they will warm up once the hot broth is ladled on.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Here are some salads ive been enjoying of late.
From a personal blog post from September 8th 2009
I got these from Mark Bittman's blog over at the NYTimes, 101 Salads entry a little while ago. This is the guy who writes for NY Times food section called The Minimalist and also wrote How To Cook Anything as well as Kitchen Express:
*Chop or slice radishes (or jicama or kohlrabi) and peaches (or mango) and mix coconut milk, lime juice & mint (also good if you add curry powder but I didnt).
*Dice cucumbers (if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first) and toss with cubes of avocado, a little honey and rice vinegar.
*Cube watermelon and combine with roughly chopped mint, crumbled feta, sliced red onion and chopped Kalamata olives. Dress lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Despite saltiness of feta and olives, this may need salt.
Here are some more I plan to try:
*Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice.
*Roughly chop avacado and toss with black beans, queso fresco, cilantro, chopped tomatillos and lime juice.
*Combine chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, red onion, chilies and cilantro, then toss with corn tortilla strips, toasted in a 350-degree oven until crisp (or yes, use packaged chips; why not?). Dust with chili powder and lots of lime juice.
*Roast fresh corn kernels in a pan with a little oil; toss with cayenne or minced chilis, lime juice and a little queso fresco. Cherry tomatoes are optional
*Trim crusts if necessary from day-or-two-old bread (or even three-day-old bread), cube and marinate in black olive tapenade thinned with more olive oil. Add chopped capers and toss with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. (Anchovies optional.)
*Chop hard-boiled eggs and mix with just enough mayonnaise to bind; spoon into endive leaves. Top each with a small canned sardine and drizzle with a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice and mustard.
*Combine shredded cabbage or lettuce with bits of good turkey, Swiss cheese and rye croutons. Top with good old Russian dressing.
*What happens when your Chicago hot dog falls apart!: Toss together tomato wedges, chopped pickles, hot peppers, shredded lettuce and a few slices of broiled or grilled hot dog. Dress with a vinaigrette made with mustard and celery salt.
*Mix cooked couscous or quinoa with orange zest and juice, olive oil, maybe honey, sliced oranges, raisins or dried cranberries, chopped red onion and chopped almonds. Serve over greens, or not.
I got these from Mark Bittman's blog over at the NYTimes, 101 Salads entry a little while ago. This is the guy who writes for NY Times food section called The Minimalist and also wrote How To Cook Anything as well as Kitchen Express:
*Chop or slice radishes (or jicama or kohlrabi) and peaches (or mango) and mix coconut milk, lime juice & mint (also good if you add curry powder but I didnt).
*Dice cucumbers (if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first) and toss with cubes of avocado, a little honey and rice vinegar.
*Cube watermelon and combine with roughly chopped mint, crumbled feta, sliced red onion and chopped Kalamata olives. Dress lightly with olive oil and lemon juice. Despite saltiness of feta and olives, this may need salt.
Here are some more I plan to try:
*Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice.
*Roughly chop avacado and toss with black beans, queso fresco, cilantro, chopped tomatillos and lime juice.
*Combine chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, red onion, chilies and cilantro, then toss with corn tortilla strips, toasted in a 350-degree oven until crisp (or yes, use packaged chips; why not?). Dust with chili powder and lots of lime juice.
*Roast fresh corn kernels in a pan with a little oil; toss with cayenne or minced chilis, lime juice and a little queso fresco. Cherry tomatoes are optional
*Trim crusts if necessary from day-or-two-old bread (or even three-day-old bread), cube and marinate in black olive tapenade thinned with more olive oil. Add chopped capers and toss with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. (Anchovies optional.)
*Chop hard-boiled eggs and mix with just enough mayonnaise to bind; spoon into endive leaves. Top each with a small canned sardine and drizzle with a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice and mustard.
*Combine shredded cabbage or lettuce with bits of good turkey, Swiss cheese and rye croutons. Top with good old Russian dressing.
*What happens when your Chicago hot dog falls apart!: Toss together tomato wedges, chopped pickles, hot peppers, shredded lettuce and a few slices of broiled or grilled hot dog. Dress with a vinaigrette made with mustard and celery salt.
*Mix cooked couscous or quinoa with orange zest and juice, olive oil, maybe honey, sliced oranges, raisins or dried cranberries, chopped red onion and chopped almonds. Serve over greens, or not.
My new Blog...
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I started getting into cooking at home this summer and after some toil I think I managed to graduate from basics enough to feel I am capable of writing a blog. I am at the very least capable of following enough written instructions in these cookbooks to make be believe so!. I got started in this because I wanted to save some money, do something interesting with food, and try to be a bit healthier or at least know whats going into the food I eat. There is a local farmer's market on Sundays but I generally shop at my local grocery store for all my non fruits and vegetables.
To start us off I found some old post in my personal blog about my cooking foray's:
Saturday, July 20th, I started off by making a from scratch vegetable stock and a beef stock. The beef took like 4 hours and I think it will make a decent french onion soup eventually (it really really turned out well ) and I have some ideas about how make it a bit richer next time. The vegetable stock came out really well. I think adding the mushrooms and tomatoes in addition to all the normal stuff made it just tasty. I used it to make a generic Ratatouille like stew and a south beach diet recipe zucchini soup. I think both came out really well. I was surprised at how easy it was really. You only have to roughly chop up the vegetables so it took less time to prepare than normal food makings and it just simmered for like 2 hours while I watched French Kiss (love that movie ! While cooking I also had Sound of Music and The Saint on at some point). Next time im going to make an absolute ton of the stock and freeze it. I also made zucchini bread from a reciepe of Charles' grandma. I think I might reduce the amount of oil for next time as aparently his nana made lots of oily food/baked goods and I dont think there should be a layer of oil sitting on top of the bread when I go to put it in the oven, even if eventually it all soaks in. Still very tasty !
Sunday I got up early and put together this quick easy baked pears thing. The sauce had grated ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream and of course sugar. I just baked it in the oven for a bit and it was done. I think it came out really well.
Later in the day I decided to tackle a goat cheese souflee. I ve wanted to see how hard it might be to do the souflee bit because beating egg whites into foamy stuff is called for in a lot neat tasty reciepes but Id never done it. It turned out well but I forgot to sprinkle in the parmesan so I think it was lacking that bit of salt that parmesan would have give it. Otherwise not too bad and not too hard to make.
I also prepared a pear and sage stuffing for dinner. It uses sweet italien sausage as the bit of meat portion. I dont usually care for stuffing but this came out pretty well. I think there might have been too much parsley and not enough sage. Im also thinking more other kinds of spices (perhaps adding dried sage would work or maybe some thyme as well) to richen the flavor. Also maybe switch out half the chicken broth for white wine!
Next I think Id really like to do the bacon wraped pheasent in a port reduction but id have to get port, red current jelly and find somewhere that actually sells pheasent. I could use cornish game hens but Ive only ever found them frozen and they have so little meat on them. I really need to get away from my french cookbook and get back to the south beach diet ones as my waistline will not forgive me! Id like to do more from my new Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman that im still reading through. I will have to try the korean bbq pork sometime soon!
Saturday, July 20th, I started off by making a from scratch vegetable stock and a beef stock. The beef took like 4 hours and I think it will make a decent french onion soup eventually (it really really turned out well ) and I have some ideas about how make it a bit richer next time. The vegetable stock came out really well. I think adding the mushrooms and tomatoes in addition to all the normal stuff made it just tasty. I used it to make a generic Ratatouille like stew and a south beach diet recipe zucchini soup. I think both came out really well. I was surprised at how easy it was really. You only have to roughly chop up the vegetables so it took less time to prepare than normal food makings and it just simmered for like 2 hours while I watched French Kiss (love that movie ! While cooking I also had Sound of Music and The Saint on at some point). Next time im going to make an absolute ton of the stock and freeze it. I also made zucchini bread from a reciepe of Charles' grandma. I think I might reduce the amount of oil for next time as aparently his nana made lots of oily food/baked goods and I dont think there should be a layer of oil sitting on top of the bread when I go to put it in the oven, even if eventually it all soaks in. Still very tasty !
Sunday I got up early and put together this quick easy baked pears thing. The sauce had grated ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream and of course sugar. I just baked it in the oven for a bit and it was done. I think it came out really well.
Later in the day I decided to tackle a goat cheese souflee. I ve wanted to see how hard it might be to do the souflee bit because beating egg whites into foamy stuff is called for in a lot neat tasty reciepes but Id never done it. It turned out well but I forgot to sprinkle in the parmesan so I think it was lacking that bit of salt that parmesan would have give it. Otherwise not too bad and not too hard to make.
I also prepared a pear and sage stuffing for dinner. It uses sweet italien sausage as the bit of meat portion. I dont usually care for stuffing but this came out pretty well. I think there might have been too much parsley and not enough sage. Im also thinking more other kinds of spices (perhaps adding dried sage would work or maybe some thyme as well) to richen the flavor. Also maybe switch out half the chicken broth for white wine!
Next I think Id really like to do the bacon wraped pheasent in a port reduction but id have to get port, red current jelly and find somewhere that actually sells pheasent. I could use cornish game hens but Ive only ever found them frozen and they have so little meat on them. I really need to get away from my french cookbook and get back to the south beach diet ones as my waistline will not forgive me! Id like to do more from my new Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman that im still reading through. I will have to try the korean bbq pork sometime soon!
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