Ginger Chicken Soup

During and after college, I often made chicken packets. Chicken was cheap and it just took a few inexpensive ingredients to create a tasty meal. By the time my mid/late twenties hit, I chickened out. No more chicken! Interestingly enough, I found comfort in my arch nemesis, the turkey.

Recently, I've been craving chicken (no mom, I am not pregnant). I remembered how much I used to enjoy chicken packets and decided to create a more grown-up version.

My husband was so excited that chicken was allowed back into the house. He went on and on about he used to watch his mom chop the head off of chickens and pluck the feathers from their goose-fleshy body. Amazingly enough, I still wanted to eat chicken!

I apologize about the formating of the recipe. Blogger is having issues, apparently.

Ginger Chicken Soup

2 chicken breast halves, bone in and skin on

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

6 green onions, thinly sliced.

2 bird's eye chili, thinly sliced

1 cup snow peas, sliced

Juice of half a lemon

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

Cilantro, for garnish

Rice noodles, cooked according to instructions

1. Fill a large pot with 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the water and let cool. Remove the skin from the meat and the breast from the bone. Add the skin and bones to the pot of water and simmer until reduced by half. Remove from heat. After 10 minutes, skim off the fat.

2. Set the chicken breast on a large piece of heavy-duty foil. Slice the breasts into four or five pieces.

3. In a bowl, mix the lemon juice, soy sauce, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Spread the ginger and half the green onion and chili slices between the chicken pieces. Pour the sauce on top.

4. Gather the sides together and fold over to form a tightly wrapped packet. BBQ over indirect heat (325 F) for 20 minutes, gently flipping every five minutes.

5. While the chicken cooks, prepare the rice noodles. When still a bit al dente, remove from water, drain, and run cold water over them to prevent sticking.

6. Heat the stock and add the nam pla, snow peas, and the remaining green onion and chili slices. Simmer for three minutes.

7. Divide the noodles into two bowls and add the broth. Unwrap the chicken and divide the meat and juices between the bowls and serve. Garnish with cilantro.

Pho Gah! - Another Installment of "What Not to Cook"

When my husband and I first met six years ago, he was eating pho up to five times a week. Our third date was to his favorite pho restaurant. While I avoided the the tendon and tripe version, I didn't shy away from much else. I loved it!

Once we had been dating for awhile, he let me in on a secret. It hadn't been a date...It was a test. If I didn't appreciate his favorite food, I was wrong for him. A willingness to eat pho, he said, showed a sense of adventure and a general acceptance of things that are "different".

A willingness to make pho, on the other had, shows that you've got a case of the crazies.

Not adventurous enough to boil ox tail and beef marrow, I took a short cut and used a pho base. It's basically large tea bag thingies that contain all of the broth flavoring: animal parts, cardamom, clove, sugar, etc.

I figured that taking this shortcut still required a lot of other work, so I set forth charring onion and ginger to add to the simmering base. With no directions on the back other than a picture of the tea bag going into a pot of water, I decided to let it simmer for 40 minutes. When it was done, we tossed in some leftover shredded chicken. The smell was to die for. I felt like I was at my favorite pho joint, minus the Buddha shrine and the little old man serving the statue coffee, tea, and cigarettes.

I soaked some rice noodles in cold water before putting them in the bottom of two bowls. Broth was spooned over it. Soon, we were drooling as we loaded our bowls up with the usual: mung bean sprouts, Thai basil, that long thing related to cilantro, jalapenos, Siracha, Hoisen sauce, red chili sauce, and a smoky chili paste.

With success on my mind, I dug in. The first bite? Disgusting. The second? Worse. It had barely passed my lips before being spit into the garbage can. This pho seriously tested my "two taste minimum" policy.

I'm pretty sure that this would have come out better had I done it the long way, but still don't think I'd have a hit. Frankly, for $4.99 a bowl at the corner pho shop, trying to make it at home is not worth my time or money.

Support your local pho restaurant!

Banana Flower Soup with Fresh Crab

Dun dun dun dun! "Soup"er Craaab!

My favorite blogger, Loving Rice, offered to dish up a recipe of anything I wanted. Fantasizing about the Andaman sea, I asked her to do something with crab. Her recipe, Banana Flower Soup with Fresh Crab, went above and beyond.

At the Asian store, I'm the foreigner. My cart is always scrutinized and discussed in various languages. The regulars have seemed to notice it isn't filled with the regular rice and soy sauce load of the other "foreigner" carts.

While going through check-out with my weekly supplies (bird's eye, kaffir lime, tamarind, lemongrass and so forth), a giant dungeness crab and a banana flower, the usual discussion began. The woman behind me started pointing to things and talking to the man behind her. She then started speaking to the cashier who turned to me and said, "She wants to know if you cook Thai food".

My husband and I smiled. "Yes! Almost every night!". The little old woman started chatting up a storm..."Banana flower! Only Thai use banana flower. So much lemongrass, lime, and chili. I'm Thai. You like Thai?" We said yes, we love Thailand and professed our excitement to explore more of Southeast Asia this year.

Soon, everyone was telling us where they were from: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China. They asked what we liked to cook, what we were going to do with the banana flower. I showed the big crab to them and received "oohs" and "ahhs" in return. No longer am I the market foreigner.

When I told my mother about the crab, she asked how I could kill such a thing. I responded, "Easy. I'm going to turn it on its back, lift up it's flap, and drive a knife through it."

"You're so not my daughter!" she exclaimed before walking away.

Loving Rice couldn't have answered my request any better. I loved her idea of caramelizing the onion in the coconut milk. Oh, and how cool is the inside of a banana flower?

The recipe made enough for the two of us to eat it for both lunch and dinner. It's very much like a Thai version of chowder with the banana flower taking on a potato-like texture. I understand why it's considered by some to be a Thai comfort food.

If you have success at finding a banana flower, be sure to make this delicious recipe.

Tom Yum Pla - Hot and Sour Fish Soup

Recently, my husband came home from work looking like death warmed over. He collapsed onto the chaise, cough drops and box of tissues in hand.

"What would you like for dinner?" I asked. "Nothing", he responded between coughing fits. After thinking a moment he added, "Unless you're making something tasty."

Tom yum pla fit the bill (more like tom yum yum!)...with good protein, leafy greens, and a nice spice, I hoped to feed his cold and kick the nasty virus out of his body.

This recipe is fast and easy. You can even shorten the broth simmering time to 10 minutes if you need to.

Broth Ingredients and Directions:

2 cups fish stock
2 cups water
4 kaffir lime leaves, torn (use zest of one lime if no lime leaves are available)
4 bird's eye chilies, stem removed and cut in half lengthwise
3 pieces of dried galangal
3 stalks of lemongrass, halved lengthwise
2 shallots, chopped

1. Put all ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Strain the broth through a sieve into a saucepan.

Soup Ingredients and Directions:
12 ounces of fish (white fish like halibut, sole, etc), skinned and filleted
1 lb green leafy vegetable, chopped (ex. water spinach, baby spinach, baby bok choy)
1 package beech mushrooms
1 package straw mushrooms
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs lime juice
Cilantro, a handful, chopped

1. Bring the broth to a boil.
2. Add the fish and the mushrooms to a pot. Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 4 minutes.
3. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer for one or two minutes, just long enough for the greens to wilt or soften.
4. Divide into bowls and serve.

Dinner Snapshot - Root Vegetable Chowder with Smoked Cheddar

Mike and Kristin sent us a new cookbook book filled with recipes from their home state of Vermont. It’s filled with tasty items but as soon as I saw this recipe, I knew that it would be the first one made. I reserved it for a very cold day and was presented with the opportunity to make it yesterday. While the wind howled, the temperatures hovered around 10, and snow piled up, we filled our bellies with a hearty, in-season soup to get us through the cold winter night.

Ingredients:

½ lb bacon strips
12 thyme stems
6 rosemary stems
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 parsnips, peeled and diced
2 small turnips, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
½ lb fingerling potatoes, sliced
1 ¼ cup flour
3 quarts vegetable stock, heated
8 ounces smoked cheddar, shredded
1 cup cream
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot over a medium-high flame, cook the bacon until crisp.
2. Tie fresh herbs together with kitchen twine (or placed dried ones in a piece of cheesecloth, wrapped up and tied with twine).
3. Reduce the flame under the bacon to medium and add the butter, onions, parsnips, turnips, carrots, potatoes, and herbs. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add the flour and cook for another 5 minutes over a medium-low flame.
5. Slowly stir in the vegetable stock and bring the chowder to a simmer over a medium flame. Whisk frequently. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
6. Remove herbs and discard.
7. Slowly stir in the cheese and whisk in the cream. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Dinner Snapshot - New Year's Day Black-Eyed Pea Soup

New Year's Day always calls for black-eyed peas. It's our way to wish for good luck throughout the upcoming year and also happens to be a good excuse to use vegetables that are looking a bit sad. This time, however, all the vegetables in our refrigerator looked like they had gone through a terrible vegetable massacre. This is, no doubt, due to us succumbing to a week and a half of eating pretty much nothing but junk food. Anyway, onto the recipe.

Ingredients:

Black Eyed Peas -roughly a 1/2 lb

3 carrots, thinly sliced into rounds

3 red potatoes, cut into small cubes

1 leek, white and light green parts, thinly sliced into rounds

1 large onion, medium chop

2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock

6 bay leaves

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

1. Throw everything into a crock pot and stir. Make sure that the peas are covered with stock.

2. Cook on high for 6 hours or until peas are soft but mixture isn't mushy.

3. Serve. It's that easy.

David says that the ingredients for this recipe should say nothing more than "pure yumminess". I thought that was a bit hard to interpret.

Lunch Snapshot - Miso Soup with Shrimp

This meal came from standing in front of the cupboards one day, trying to create lunch out of cupboards that weren't cooperating. I saw some wilted spinach, instant miso, and a pack of soba noodles. 15 minutes later, I had lunch.

Miso Soup with Shrimp

9 peeled shrimp, defrosted (can be done quickly by running under cold water)
1 handful spinach
1 tbs soy sauce
2 cups water
handful of soba or udon noddles
pinch of grated ginger (it's always good to have grated ginger on hand)
pinch of sugar
package of instant miso (I use the kind that has the actual miso paste packet)

1. Boil noodles as directed.
2. While noodles are boiling, put spinach in soup bowl. Set aside.
3. In a saucepan combine water, soy sauce, sugar, and ginger. Bring to a gentle boil.
4. Stir in the miso paste.
5. Add the shrimp to the miso mixture. Boil until cooked, about 2 minutes.
6. Toss in miso dry seasoning packet (to avoid the sodium, toss in some crumbled up dry seaweed and some green onion slices instead) and cook 1 additional minute.
7. Pour soup over spinach and serve.

Last night, I tried my hand at chowda. I've never made chowder before and made a nice, low fat one using cod, leeks, potato, wild fish stock, and skim milk. David kept declaring his love for the chowder, something that made me extremely happy as he had spent almost the entire day cursing at the faucet he was installing. He deserved a nice warm meal for all of his efforts. We now have running water in the downstairs bathroom!

I, on the other hand, spent my day declaring my love for the new washer and dryer. It's so low on lint, takes very little detergent, the dryer is done way before the washer, and our clothes smell better. David said that it was like our old machine wasn't really cleaning anything. When I wasn't doing laundry, I was running various household errands including my umpteenth time to Lowe's in the course of three days.

We finished up our weekend by building a fire, sitting down with our espresso and the New York Times, and just being.

Dinner Snapshot - Mussel and Chorizo Soup

David and I love to cook. We try to make wholesome, organic, preservative free food every night.
(You might find us slumming at Carl's Jr., but that's a whole other addiction. This post is about our addiction to cooking.)

He went snowboarding yesterday so I decided to make a warm, hearty soup for him to come home to.

Mussel and Chorizo Soup

1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon finely minced shallots
3 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
5 ounces dry chorizo, finely diced (about 3/4 cup)
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 medium leeks, white and tender greens parts only, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large plum tomato, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
3 cups low-sodium fish stock, clam juice or chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon chopped thyme

Directions
1. In a large, heavy pot, bring the wine with the shallots to a boil.

2. Add the mussels, cover and cook over high heat until they open, about 5 minutes. Strain the cooking liquid into a large bowl and reserve. Remove the mussels from their shells, reserving some unshelled for garnish, if desired.
3. In the large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the chorizo, carrots, leeks and onion; cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes.

4. Spoon off all but 3 tablespoons of the fat. Add the garlic, diced tomato and saffron and cook over moderate heat until fragrant, about 4 minutes.

5. Add the fish stock and reserved mussel cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Simmer the soup over low heat for 30 minutes.
6. Add the cream to the soup and simmer over moderately high heat for 3 minutes

7. Season with salt and pepper. Add the mussels and the thyme and simmer just until the mussels are heated through, about 1 minute.

8Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with the mussel shells and serve hot.

This meal is definitely going into our regular rotation.

* Recipe from March 2008 Food and Wine