Soup has new meaning to me now that I have homemade chicken stock. I've always felt slightly disappointed when I had to resort to the paste, powder, or canned stuff to make soup...but no more!
Last week I made a Thai Coconut Chicken soup that turned out very tasty. Luckily, it is hard to go wrong with coconut milk, fresh cilantro, homemade stock as well as a few items from the local Asian market.
The first time I prepared fresh lemongrass I was surprised at how little you actually use. It is just the bottom, mostly white part, stripped of leaves. You have to mince it or pound it into a paste because it is quite tough. The leaves make good tea when steeped in hot water.
I've also discovered that a microplane grater works well for shredding ginger - I sometimes grate it with the peel on when I'm in a hurry. I haven't noticed a flavor difference.
Enjoy the soup - the recipe follows!
Thai Coconut Chicken Soup
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 to 2 stalks lemongrass, outer sheath removed, bottom 3 inches trimmed and minced (3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (a microplane-type shredder works great for this)
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 to 3 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
6 cups chicken stock 3 tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce 1 tablespoon sugar 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk 1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 12 ounces), cut into 1 by ¼-inch strips 1 (15-ounce) can straw mushrooms, drained and rinsed 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice Salt ½ cup loosely packed whole fresh cilantro leaves 3 scallions, greens only, sliced thin on an angle (optional) 1. Heat oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. 2. Add the lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until aromatic, 30 to 60 seconds. 3. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. 4. Add ½ cup chicken stock to the pot and stir to dissolve the curry paste. 5. Add remaining stock, fish sauce, and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. 6. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and simmer to blend flavors, about 20 minutes. 7. Stir in the coconut milk, chicken, mushrooms, and lime juice. Bring back to a simmer and cook until the stock is hot and the chicken is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. 8. Taste for seasoning and add salt if desired. 9. Serve immediately, garnishing each bowl with cilantro and scallions.
While volunteering for a local pasture-raised chicken rancher/farmer/wild-chick, I was introduced to the idea of chicken feet as food. Sarah (the wild-chick) told me that people use to make stock with chicken feet. She didn't have a recipe, but I figured I'd get a bag full of feet and consult Google. One of the first hits was a foodie blog with a recipe.
It is pretty easy to do if you can get over the initial gross factor (I'm the 4 year old kid who picked the eyes out of the fish my Dad caught...I'm drawn to this). It isn't rocket science and I've made it a bit different each time. All variations make great soup! It does take a good chunk of time though - count on 6 hours.
The Recipe and Method
For 2 lbs of chicken feet you'll need a couple celery ribs, an onion, a bay leaf, about 10 peppercorns. You could also add some thyme sprigs, parsley stems and a couple carrots if you'd like. You'll need a big soup pot, a sharp knife, a colandar, a Fleco #2 hand pruner (optional - but really nice) and cheese cloth.
1. This first part is to clean-up the feet and get them ready for stock making. Rinse the feet and place in a pot large enough to hold the feet. Add enough water to cover. Heat uncovered until boiling and simmer for about 5 minutes. Skim the foam that forms on the surface and occasionally push feet at the surface to the bottom (making sure all the feet get blanched). Drain the water (don't save the liquid) and dump feet into a colander to drain more and cool. When feet are cool enough to handle, cut the tips of the toes off, right at the first joint...seriously. This is where the hand pruners become very useful, but a knife works well too. Next, cut off any dark calluses on the foot pad (sharp hand pruners do this well too). Rinse again. At this point you can refrigerate the feet until you're ready to continue.
2. Place feet into a clean pot, cover with water, bring to a boil. Immediately turn down heat to a simmer, and simmer s-l-o-w-l-y for 3 hours. Keep skimming the foam and occasionally stirring the feet so that they all cook.
3. Cut celery, onions (peeled) and carrots (if using) into big chunks (each one into about 3-4 pieces). Add to pot and continue simmering for another hour.
4. Add herbs and spices and simmer everything together for the last hour. In total, the feet will simmer for 5 hours.
5. Drain the stock through a colander lined with cheesecloth (saving the liquid this time!). Cool the liquid quickly (I fill a gallon sized Zip-Loc with ice and swirl it around), then refrigerate. When stock is cold, it will be jelly-like. I scrape the thin layer of fat and 'skin' off the surface. Next, I'll re-melt the stock (heat slowly, not for long, until just melted) and pour it into quart sized containers to freeze. Simple, but time consuming.
Don't throw those feet away after making stock - they make great dog treats!
I did some recipe testing this week and loved this one so much that I decided to offer for the May 1st dinner. It is called Balsamic Chicken. Mostly it is a braise - meaning that the chicken cooks in a flavorful broth of tomatoes, onions, red wine, and a few other herbs, spices and pastes. Toward the end one adds a bunch of chard and cooks it until it wilted. Polenta was a great side and I'll make up a fresh batch for Thursday's dinner too. Are you hungry yet?
The menu for May 1, 2008:
*Balsamic Chicken or Tofu* - Slightly sweet and tangy sauce with chard, onions and tomatoes. Choose from either organic chicken or locally produced tofu
*Polenta* - Organic polenta cooked with a bit of milk & Parmesan cheese until creamy
*Pan au Levain* - from Brio Breadworks
*Seasonal Salad* - organic greens, fresh-made dressing
*New York-Style Crumb Cake* - have you ever had the Entenmann’s crumb cake in the white box??? Well- this isn’t it. This is way better – a buttery yellow cake with a soft, cinnamon-crumb topping
Bread
Friday was a day well spent in the kitchen. I decided to try a new recipe out of my latest baking book, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I was very excited to try out his whole grain Swedish Limpa Rye. I had tasted my first limpa rye about 20 years ago and have never forgotten how wonderful it was. Limpa rye is a light rye (less than 30% rye) flavored with anise and fennel seeds, cardamom, orange peel and molasses. I was able to use my sourdough starter and grind some fresh rye for this batch. The dough was quite tender and I had pretty good success kneading the dough using the French technique of stretching and folding (it really is more like slamming and folding because you grab one end of the dough with two hands, swinging it above your shoulder like your holding an axe, slam it to the counter top so that it stretches into a long piece and then fold it over onto itself. My teacher said that when he was learning this technique and practicing at home he knocked out a couple tiles from his counter top!) The bread was quite easy to shape and it smelled heavenly as it baked...I couldn't wait to cut into it. We tried thin slices with a smoked tofu spread, hummus, and Cypress Grove's Purple Haze Chevre. The bread was heartier than what I remembered, probably because it was whole grain while what I tasted 20 years ago was white bread. I liked the goat cheese best, Jack liked the smoked Tofu. Two days later I'm still enjoying it toasted with Fig-Ginger jam.
Limoncello
A friend traded me a big box of fresh lemons for a credit towards dinner. I had been wishing for a windfall of lemons after reading my friend anthrogrrl blog about making limoncello. I found the the recipe that she tried on another Vox blog (limoncello post) and started peeling lemons. It is pretty simple - just lemon peels, vodka and simple syrup. I bought one of those big bottles of vodka from Costco and used up most of it for this first batch. I only made it through part of the top layer of lemons in my box so I guess I'm heading back to Costco for more vodka. I'm going to let my mixture infuse for at least a month before I try it out. I'll keep ya'll posted.
Oatmeal Cookies
I also made a double batch of thin & cripsy oatmeal cookies. The recipe is from Cooks Illustrated. I love the variation with coarse salt on top...sweet & salty, thin & crispy oatmeal cookies!
Thursday's dinner was grilled! My friend Pete offered to staff the grill for me and did a fantastic job. He also saved me a couple hours of work by grilling all the tofu and the pork chops while I finished up everything else. I had the brined & spice rubbed chops and marinaded tofu ready for him when he arrived. One of the tricks for getting great tasting tofu is to press out the water. I do this by placing a brick of extra firm tofu between two plates and then weighing it down with a couple pounds of whatever is closest at hand. Often it is a bunch of bananas or a bag of beans. After 10 minutes you will have a small pool of water to pour off. I'll pour off water once or twice before I'm ready to marinade. I slice the tofu brick into 10 or 12 slices and place them in a container with a tight fitting lid. I use a rubbermaid tub that is big enough to hold all my slices in one layer and I pour the marinade over them. My favorite marinade for grilling tofu is the following recipe:
Vanessa's* Grilled Tofu Marinade
2 Tablespoons peanut oil (canola oil works fine too)
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (I use tamari)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (light, dark, golden...all work)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Mix to combine and pour over tofu slices and let sit for at least 30 minutes. Turn the tofu at least once to get marinade on both sides. This makes enough marinade for about 1 pound of pressed tofu.
*Vanessa was a housemate's friend who just whipped this up one day and it has been a favorite ever since!
Most folks wanted pork chops this week. I purchased these thick-cut Beeler pork chops from the Arcata Co-op. They were brined for about 1 hour in a sugar, salt and water solution, dried, then rubbed with a spice mixture of fresh ground fennel, cumin, coriander, cloves, yellow mustard as well as already ground cinnamon, cardamom and a bit of brown sugar. I also made rice pilaf, roasted beets, and braised chard.
Dessert was a mango galette...I spread some almond cream on a tart dough and topped it with mangoes tossed with a bit of sugar. I baked them for about 30 minutes until they were bubbly and golden brown. I can't wait for plums, peaches, figs, apples & pears!
On Saturday, Jack and I joined the local mushroom club for a morel hunt in a recently burned area in Trinity County. Morels frequently come up in disturbed areas with fire being one of the "best" disturbances. A few years back, we had new wood chip mulch sprout morels in our own yard (I stepped on half of them before I realized how big the patch really was...I decided to harvest the smashed ones too and just chop them for ravioli...best darn ravioli ever!)
We brought a big basket anticipating a large harvest. Unfortunately, everyone came up with empty baskets as far as morels were concerned. We did see 100s of pale yellow Fawn Lilies as well as poppies, larkspurs, and other Penstemons.
The trail we were following was along the New River. A beautiful, prestine, and mind numbing cold river.
A couple people did find mushrooms. Our friend Terran found these ones. No one in our group was able to positively identify them. Our initial guess was "Hawk's Wing" or "Turkey Tail"
April 20th - The mushrooms were identified as Polyporus tuberaster (a.k.a. Stone Fungus). They actually fruit from an underground "tuber". Both the mushroom (fruit) and the "tuber" are edible according to Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora.
Here is a photo of the undersides. Notice that these mushrooms don't have gills, they have pores instead.
I made this birthday cake for my sweetie today. It was really a glorified strawberry shortcake. It was a yellow sponge cake with a strawberry-Kirsch filling and cream cheese whipped cream...Jack was happy. The strawberries were crunchy, but it was still quite good. I can't wait to make it again when our garden strawberries are ready. I might try a chocolate or poppy-seed sponge cake next time...doesn't that sound good?
I also made bread today. It was a really good formula from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. This was the second time I've made this tasty bread. It is a 100% whole wheat sandwich bread, he calls it the Master Formula. I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour both times with good results. The technique uses a separate soaker and a biga that sit overnight to develop great flavor. It might seem like a hassle to mix up pre-doughs the night before, but it goes really quickly and ends up saving you a bunch of time the next day because you hardly have to do anything - just mix the predoughs together and knead it a couple minutes. Let it rise, shape it and rise again in the pan, then bake..and voila...fresh bread! As you can see, the bread bakes up beautifully and slices without tearing apart. I think this method would work well for production baking. I can't wait to try out more recipes from this book!
On my morning walks I've been noticing some new flowers. I really enjoy this time of year in the redwoods!
This salad was the start of a very lovely and tasty dinner. It was made with organic mixed greens and butter lettuce, sliced honey tangerines, blood oranges, & kumquats, topped with chopped toasted pistachios. The dressing was tangerine zest, tangerine, blood orange, & navel orange juices, agave nectar, rice vinegar, canola & olive oils. It sounds like it could be too sweet, but it wasn't...it was light, fresh and slighty sweet. To find creative seasonal salads, I often turn to Annie Somerville. This recipe is from Everyday Greens. This cookbook was a lucky find at the local used book store.
For the center of the plate entree, I wanted to make something festive and capture the season. These filo purses fit the bill. They are filled with roasted asparagus & cremini mushrooms, caramelized red onions & leeks, fresh garden thyme & parsley, Asiago & Parmesan cheeses, and a couple fresh eggs with a tiny bit of cream. Once the filling is made the purses come together rather easily. A whole tray of these coming out of the oven is gorgeous! They didn't taste too shabby either!
I've been a frustrated home baker...especially after seeing what a professional bread oven can do for artisan-style breads. While looking for dessert recipes a couple weeks ago, I stumbled across a simple technique in Cooks Illustrated (Jan/Feb 2008). They suggested baking the bread in a preheated covered dutch oven. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the oven spring was and how crispy and thin the crust turned out. My friend Sunni loaned me her beautiful and well-loved Le Creuset dutch oven for this loaf. This bread uses a levain culture that I got from the San Fransisco Baking Institute. The recipe is Vermont Sourdough from Bread: a Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman (a great book for both professionals and home bakers alike)
Dessert...my favorite part of the meal
I made a lemon cheesecake. It had three distinct layers. The crust was made with Barnum Animal Crackers (I find great comfort that they still come in those little boxes with a string handle), butter and sugar. The filling was cream cheese, cream, eggs, sugar, lemon zest & juice, vanilla and salt. The topping was a tart layer of lemon curd. I modified the curd recipe by steeping fresh rose geranium leaves with the lemon juice. It added a slight floral nuance. The flower is rose geranium.
Next week's dinner
Tuscan White Bean Soup - A rustic soup made with three different beans and a tomato-garlic-rosemary-wine broth. I make it a day ahead because it actually develops better character as the flavors have time to mingle and marry.
Seasonal Salad - romaine and mixed greens, sun-dried tomatoes, Hard-cooked eggs, olives, sourdough croutons and red wine vinaigrette
Artisan-style Bread - Brio's Pan au Levain
Fresh made Rose-Geranium Ice cream and Buttery Shortbread - oh boy...this is an experiment...let's see if we can keep the ice cream cold enough! I suggest that you bring an ice pack when you pick-up or just rush home quickly and eat the ice cream while the soup is warming on your stove!
Yummy! This was Thursday's (March 6 2008) dinner. My friend Saremy invited me to join her for dinner after I finished my deliveries. I packed a box for us so that we could eat together when I got to her house. It was a lot of food and we couldn't eat it all! Starting with the green plate and moving clockwise...Indian-style coleslaw with a fresh turmeric & lime dressing, Trader Joe's naan, stewed black-eyed peas with tomatoes and Indian spices (freshly toasted and ground), baked carrot halvah, and basmati rice pilaf with cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon. Not pictured...Lemon-Drop...a wonderful mixed drink that Saremy had ready for me when I arrived...it was really good and worthy of its own blog entry.
My friend Yvonne scored this week...two of her referrals ordered dinner for Thursday. So- she got two dozen of these wonderful oatmeal cookies. These are some of the best cookies I've ever had...I might even say better than chocolate chip cookies. If your referral orders a dinner I'll give you a dozen cookies too!
Dinner next week is special...my friend said it was her husband's birthday and that she wanted to treat him to a nice meal. So we came up with the following menu...
Tom's Birthday Menu:
Spring Filo Triangles - these are filled with roasted organic asparagus, leeks & onions, mushrooms, Asiago cheese, and some fresh garden herbs.
Cedar Hill Sourdough - this bread is made with a mild sourdough culture that originally came from the San Francisco Baking Institute. I'm pretty sure that the local yeasts up here on the hill between Blue Lake and Arcata have taken up residence in the bubbly brew. This artisan-style bread has a touch of rye and a bit whole wheat flour.
Salad of Mixed Greens and fresh made dressing - let's see what we can find at the local markets this week to make a good seasonal salad.
Lemon Cheesecake - lemons are still plentiful and my hens have been providing an abundance of eggs! This cheesecake has a cookie-crumb crust, a rich and creamy filling, with a layer of tangy lemon curd on top...perfect for a birthday treat!
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Help Me Rhonda said:
I've been tempted to gnaw on a foot...but my dog seems to like it way more! I'm happy with just... read more
on Making Chicken Stock -
anthrogrrl said:
It's been a long time since you posted anything, I was wondering what happened to you! *smile* I don't like... read more
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anthrogrrl said:
[this is good]Two of my married professors brought their 2-year-old son into the field with them for 2 years of research with... read more
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Help Me Rhonda said:
Bummer - we won't be making it to Folk Life (again) this year. We really have to plan ahead on... read more
on Balsamic Chicken and Polenta
It looks very appetizing on countertop read more
on Thai Coconut Chicken Soup