Chicken ad Rice Soup (Broth Soups)

Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe

Chicken and rice soup is one of my favorite comfort foods. Each time we would drive down to see my Grandmother, she would have chicken soup waiting for us. There was nothing better than sitting down to eat with her and chat about everything new that had happened since we saw each other.

Now, her chicken and rice soup was very basic; it was chicken, rice, and broth and that was about it. But I loved eating it with a few pieces of Italian bread, sloshing up the left over broth after I had eaten all of the chicken and rice.

The recipe that I’ve given here is a bit heartier; I’ve added some lots of root vegetables and herbs to the mix. It is a wonderful broth soup and it is really nice to have on a brisk day, or during a winter storm.

However, this is no difficult recipe. You probably would have thought up something very similar on your own. But what I wanted to show you was how to begin a hearty and delicious broth. From there, you can practically make any broth soup that you wish to make, whether it is chicken noodle to wanton to minestrone to Italian wedding.

You have three basic ingredients that will be your base; chicken or beef stock, tomato paste, and garlic. I have yet to find a broth soup that isn’t perfected with these three ingredients, even if traditionally the soup you are making does not typically start with them. Beef or chicken stock is essential. I particularly like to use a beef broth for a chicken soup and vice versa. I think it gives it an extra level of meatiness and I have yet to find where the flavor complete with each other.

Now I am not a huge garlic fan; sure I like it, but I don’t feel a need to use have a bulb in all of my dishes, as I find some people do. Garlic adds amazing flavor, but it packs a lot of punch. Two minced or pressed (or minced and pressed) cloves of garlic is plenty for any recipe, in my opinion.

Now the kicker is the tomato paste. You don’t typically think of the tomato paste in traditional broth soups, especially simple American soups like chicken noodle or chicken and rice. But I guarantee it is what will take it from a drab soup to an amazing meal. One can of tomato paste is perfect in any situation.

Now, the one thing that I add to all of my soups, that I think is essential to creating the perfect flavor, is some bone marrow. I always have a container full of marrow, since I make my broth with marrow bones. Marrow adds to the meatiness and rounds out that full-bodied flavor of the broth. While it is not essential, I really encourage you to add it to your broths. I add about two tablespoons of marrow to the mix.

You can put all of your ingredients in right at the beginning (the exception being mushrooms – see below). Just throw everything in as I show you in the video. If you do this before you head off to work and put the pot on low heat, your meal will be ready for you when you get home. If you need a faster prep time, put it on high and cook for at least three hours (or until the chicken or other meat is cooked through).

A note on the allspice…I haven’t found a broth recipe yet that isn’t somehow made bed with allspice. Take it or leave it as you like, but I think you will like the results.

If you are home, add the mushrooms about an hour before you serve, as well as a final flavoring of salt and pepper to adjust for taste. If you are hitting home just before you eat, have some mushrooms that you have cooked the night before ready and add it about 5 minutes before you serve. If you add mushrooms at the beginning, they will turn rubbery and the flavor will be gone.

Finally, be creative with your soups. Remember that as long as you keep those base three (or four – I always use the marrow) ingredients you can make any soup you would like. Make it your own and come up with your own new favorite soup recipes, or enjoy the wonderful chicken and rice soup that I demonstrate!

Enjoy!

Grocery List for Tomorrow's Chicken & Rice Soup Recipe

Tomorrow I will be posting a very easy recipe for a perfect crock-pot chicken and rice soup. It is so simple and perfect for a cold day. Grocery list is below.

Chicken & Rice Soup Grocery List.pdf

Chicken & Rice Soup Grocery List.xls

Poached Eggs and Croque Madames

Properly Poaching and Egg Method

Croque Madame Recipe

There really is nothing like a poached egg. That oozy yellow yolk that tastes like the most wonderful cheese sauce you have ever had!!!.... well, its just fantastic.

I grew up eating scrambled eggs. There was the occasional hard-boiled or over-easy egg, but it was mostly the drudgery of scrambled eggs. And then one day, I decided I was going to try poaching an egg…

…okay, I wanted to make eggs benedict and that was the only thing I did not know how to do.

I was not successful on the first try…to put it mildly. I went through many a hard-boiled egg or barely cooked egg. But eventually, I got the hang of it and managed to get the process down pat. I’ve demonstrated how I make them, so it should diminish the number of attempts you will need, but don’t be upset if it doesn’t work the first time.

When you are determining how long you are going to cook your poached egg, you have to decide how thick of a yolk you want. I like the very exterior of the yolk to be just slightly coagulated and the rest of the yolk to be the consistency of thick syrup. My timing in the recipe and video is based on this preference (cooked medium). If you want a runnier yolk (cooked soft), reduce your cooking time by about 30-45 seconds.

When you pull the egg out of the pan with a slotted spoon, place it on a plate that has one or two paper towels on it. This will allow the moisture to run off. When plating your egg, use the spoon to “trim” the thin edges off of the egg. This should give it that nice finished oval or round appearance.

For the most part, you are going to have poached eggs in the morning. I like to have mine with some Greek seasoning and a little bit of thyme. I also like to put some Tabasco on them, if I’m feeling like a bit more flavor. Serve with a bit of toast and it is the perfect breakfast.

But poached eggs also make a wonderful additional to meals...

Comfort food is great, but it can get old very quickly. While I love nothing more than a classic grilled cheese with gooey American slices, it can get…dull…

So I wanted to show you how to make Croque Madame. A Croque Madame is a grilled cheese with lipstick and a dress! And thank goodness for it! If you are a cheese lover, you will love this meal, and it can be a great brunch, lunch, or dinner.

I have left out giving you a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich. Any college student can show you how to do those if you have somehow made it by living under a rock. However, when you are doing your Croque Madame, try something other than American cheese. I like Muenster because it melts well and has a nice soft and sweet flavor. Swiss or Gruyere is also nice, but any melting cheese will do.

When choosing a ham, I recommend spending the money and buying a high quality deli ham. I strongly advise making choices that avoid the nitrates that you find in so many deli or packaged hams. Who needs all those chemicals?!?

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, I recommend getting your ham from Tails and Trotters:

http://www.tailsandtrotters.com/

Their hazelnut-finished ham is silky, flavorful and perfect for the Croque.

For bread, I use a whole-wheat sourdough or a rustic white. But you can use whatever you like.

Béchamel Sauce is really just a fantastic and easy sauce to use on for many recipes. It is particularly good on this sandwich, but it’s also great to add to risotto, to top steaks, to cover vegetables, or even to add to a homemade macaroni and cheese. It is robust but mild enough to compliment, not take over, the flavor of its companion. (I  particularly like béchamel as the top layer of a steak that has a disc of foie gras melting on it…Delicious!)

If you want to cut down on the fat of the béchamel, using a poultry or beef stock is perfectly acceptable. I just happen to like the gooeyness of the milk based sauce. I use Swiss (or emmantel) and Parmesan for my béchamel. I’ve used other melting cheeses, but I think these produce the perfect flavor.

Be creative when you are putting your sandwich together. In the video, I prop up one side of the sandwich and put some asparagus in between the two halves of the sandwich. I think it gives it a nice presentation. I also serve with a bit of whole-berry cranberry sauce. It adds some sweetness to the sandwich and the color compliments it well. I used canned cranberry sauce for speed, but you can also make your own cranberry sauce.

I made this meal for seven and it took me only half an hour. It’s a great meal, it looks gourmet, and it’s easy to do!

Enjoy!

Next Week - Poached Eggs and Croque Madames

I'm going to fancy up a grilled cheese sandwich next week, and not just by giving it a French name. You are going to love this cheesy, gooey french snack so much you will never eat a grilled cheese the old way again!

I'm also going to show you how to properly poach an egg. I love how a poached egg tastes with its lovely, cheesy yolk. I can't eat eggs any other way!

Grocery List - Poached Eggs and Croque Madames.xls

Grocery List - Poached Eggs and Croque Madames.pdf

Beef Broth and Mushrooms

Beef Broth Recipe

Properly Preparing Mushrooms

Beef Broth

This first entry is a bit of a conundrum. The point of this blog is to help you make things quickly, but there is no way (that I have found) make broth faster. But it is easy to do and a necessary part of cooking. So set aside some time on the weekend to do this, and you will be set. 

…it takes a good six hours…

Beef broth is an essential ingredient in many recipes, especially stews and soups, so its a good first recipe to learn.  Canned broth doesn’t quite contribute the flavor that you find in the sumptuous sauces we will be making in the future. You can make a very large batch of broth and it will last your for a couple months if you freeze it correctly.

I recommend using marrowbones that have had the marrow removed. Do this yourself, and you can save the marrow to use it in making roasts, or flavoring a sauce. Use a small knife and cut along the edges and work out the marrow (do this after you have defrosted the bones). Its okay if you can’t quite get all of the marrow out; it will add to the taste of the broth.

Aromatics (root vegetables and herbs) are a wonderful addition to broth and give it robustness. I prefer to use very light tasting root vegetables, especially carrots and celery (warning – don’t use celery root!). Onions, shallots, parsnips, and turnips are also good choices. These provide a nice body without overpowering the meatiness of the broth. I also add parsley and thyme, which I feel compliment the beef flavor incredibly well. Sage, rosemary or dry Herb Provence are also acceptable herbs.

I very much recommend AGAINST using garlic. Garlic is far too pungent and will take over the flavor of the broth. Even with just a little, the flavor over-powers the beef. The same is true for ginger, tarragon, and caraway.

Be sure you taste your broth each hour. This is very important the first time you make your broth so that you learn the development of the broth over the cooking time and how it should taste at each stage. This will help you gauge for the future, especially if you modify the time when you add aromatics.

DO NOT STIR THE POT. EVER. Just let the process happen. It doesn’t need your help.

For storing the broth, a large plastic container is fine. I buy mine at the local Dollar store and they work perfectly. Mason jars are also a good choice. Be sure you allow the beef broth to cool in the refrigerator BEFORE you put in the freezer. If you skip this step, the broth will get cloudy and the broth will be uneven as you use it.

Many people are so used to beef broth being brown, and the yellow broth you end up with in this recipes makes some feel like they didn’t do it correctly. The yellowing is the result of the aromatics and marrow and is not a bad thing. If you prefer a clearer broth, be sure you use a very fine sieve on that second filtering, or simply do not use aromatics. I added liquid smoke once to see if that brought about the desired color, which it did, but it changed the flavor far too much, so I don’t recommend it.

Poultry broths are made the same way as noted above, but typically take about an hour less. For bones, I just use the carcass of a bird I have used in a meal. For vegetable broth, cut the time down to four hours and just use aromatics. If you are doing a vegetable broth, you can add some of the stronger flavors like celery root (don’t use too much!), ginger, caraway or tarragon. But I still wouldn’t use garlic…

Properly Cooking Mushrooms

For me, nothing kills a meal more than rubbery, tasteless mushrooms; it ruins otherwise perfect meals. For years, I wouldn’t eat mushrooms because that was the only way they were cooked. Mushrooms provide a lovely mix of buttery-ness and nuttiness that is both unique and wonderful, but they must be cooked correctly.

For everyday cooking, I very much recommend only using the brown crimini mushrooms. White mushrooms don’t take in the fat as well and its hard not to have a rubbery taste to them. More fancy varieties of mushroom are acceptable, but can be hard to find and expensive.

I’m not a huge fan of slicing mushrooms. It doesn’t ruin anything, but I think a quartered mushroom tastes and looks better. Plus, there is more mushroom to take in the fat and flavor of the rest of the meal.

Never add more than a single layer of mushrooms to your skillet. Overcrowded mushrooms sweat and the moisture sticks to them instead of evaporating away. And if there is water on the mushrooms, the fat can’t get in or escape.

Move the mushrooms around regularly as you cook them. I usually just shake the pot over the heat a few times, or simply move them with a wood spoon.

The fat should be absorbed very quickly and a large amount of steam will come off of the mushrooms right after that. Then, the mushrooms will begin to shrink as they release the remaining moisture. As that happens, the fat that has been absorbed slowly starts to ooze out of the mushrooms and the mushrooms take on that lovely golden/light brown look.

Look for these three signs to indicate that its time to remove the mushrooms from the skillet: there should be little or no moisture evaporating away; the mushrooms are a lovely gold/light brown color; the smell of the mushrooms becomes very intense.

Remove the mushrooms to a bowl or plate to use in your meal, or store in a bit of plasticware and use in a day or two. I almost always cook my mushrooms first in preparing any meal so that they aren’t taking in any other flavors and I can add them at the appropriate time.

My Video Skills will get better...

Going to apologize now for these first two videos. They are a little choppy. I'll get better for video #3 next week. Videos will be up in about an hour. Thanks!

Next Week: Beef Broth and Mushrooms

Good Evening Everyone!

Depending on the snow storm and whether or not I get my tripod, I should be posting the first recipe on Wednesday!

There are two ingredients that you will use in a number of recipes; beef broth and mushrooms. To start our video blog, I am going to show you how to make your own beef broth and how to properly cook mushrooms.

I look forward to cooking with you!

Jed


Grocery List - Beef Broth & Mushrooms.xls
Grocery List - Beef Broth & Mushrooms.pdf