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Archive for the ‘Soups and Stews’ Category
Okay, so I decided to not write about vegetable oil or raw milk. I’m going to pick on canned chicken broth instead.
I was big on canned chicken broths for years, until I realized that MSG gives me headaches and makes my ears ring. So, I started looking for canned/boxed broths that have no MSG – and that’s damn hard to find, because even if a label claims it is MSG free (Swanson’s, for example), it still has MSG in it. If a list of ingredients says “autolyzed yeast extract” or “yeast extract” or “natural flavors” it contains MSG, and the USDA labeling standards allows the manufacturer to claim their product is “MSG free.”
Don’t you love it.
In fact, pick up a can of chicken broth and read the label – you’ll very likely see an ingredient list that looks like this:
Chicken broth, salt, monosodium glutamate, dextrose, flavoring, hydrolyzed soy protein, carrots, hydrolyzed corn protein, celery, onion, chicken fat, sugar, disodium guanylate, autolyzed yeast extract.
Mmm, mmm – what a tasty way to get your daily allowance of chemicals and genetically modified food organisms.
Making your own chicken broth is not hard at all, although it is a tad time-consuming. But what you’ll have when you’re done is a pot of wonderful, healthy chicken stock that is so tasty you’ll wonder why you ever bought the stuff in a can or box (I know I do). It is every bit as convenient, too. because you can freeze it in different amounts so you’ll have exactly as much as you need. Just need a little? Freeze some in ice cube trays and bag the cubes – the average ice cube is about 2 tablespoons, so two chicken stock cubes would be fine for a recipe calling for 1/4 cup of chicken broth.
Along with a good-sized stock pot you’ll need cheesecloth, but that’s inexpensive easy to find – it’s one of the few things I still buy at the grocery store.
Note: You can use the carcass of a chicken you’ve roasted or use a whole chicken, which is what this recipe calls for. Reserve the meat for recipes that call for cooked chicken.
Chicken Stock
Chicken Stock
1 two to three pound chicken, or bone-in chicken parts with skin
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
2 onions
2 tablespoons peppercorns, cracked
4 bay leaves
2 teaspoons sea salt
Water to cover
Thoroughly wash carrots, celery and onions – you don’t need to peel them, but you may want to trim the ends. Cut them in half (quarter the onions); they’ll be easier fit into the stock pot.
Rinse the chicken well with cold water and remove any giblets, if necessary.
Combine chicken, carrots, celery, onions, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot. Add enough water to cover; bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for two hours.
Remove the chicken from the pot; carefully pull the meat off of the bones and return the carcass and skin to the stock. Continue simmering for another hour; taste. If the stock is not rich enough, continue to simmer, tasting every 15 minutes.
When stock has reached desired richness and flavor, turn off the heat and allow to cool for one hour. Strain the stock through the cheesecloth into storage containers, label with the date and freeze.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
Posted in participation of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday
I spent $40 at the grocery store this week. Basically because Beloved demanded suggested I cook all of the stuff in our freezer after being smacked in the head by a box of sugar-free Popsicles noticing how full of food it is. So, this week I’m cooking out of my freezer and pantry.
I refuse to be held responsible for what comes out of my kitchen over the next 7 days.
Seriously, though, if everything I cook from the freezer-burned mess that’s in my freezer is as good as this recipe, I’ll be very happy. So will Beloved and The Young One – Beloved requested that I make it again, and The Young One actually ate it.
Only a picture of the finished product, though – I had no idea I’d be writing this up today. Also, since I was cooking out of the freezer, fridge and pantry, I added what I had on hand to the stew – you can use any combination of vegetables you like.
Tonight should be interesting – after rummaging through the freezer, I found a package of ground veal and a package of ground buffalo. What do you call meatloaf made out of a mixture of veal and buffalo? Veaffalo Loaf?
Beef Stew with Dumplings
serves 6 generously
2 pound bottom round roast, trimmed of fat and cut into 2″ cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups beef stock or broth (low sodium if using canned)
15 oz. can tomato sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 pound peeled baby carrots
14.5 oz. can of green beans, drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely minced
In a large Dutch oven with a lid, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Brown the meat well on all sides; lower the heat and add the onion. Cook until the onion is soft and just beginning to brown, then stir in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
Add the beef stock, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, thyme and basil. Stir well, bring to a simmer and cover and cook over low heat until the beef is almost fork tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Add hot water if necessary to cover, stir in the carrots and cover again.
Immediately after adding the carrots to the pot, make the dumplings by stirring together the flour, salt, baking powder, butter, milk and parsley in a large mixing bowl just until a soft, sticky dough forms – do not overmix.
Uncover the stew and stir in the drained green beans.
Drop the dumpling dough by heaping teaspoonfuls into the simmering stew, then cover again and cook for another 15 minutes. Do not uncover the pan while the dumplings are cooking! They must steam, not boil, or they will come out heavy and chewy instead of light and fluffy.
Ladle into bowls or soup plates and serve immediately.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
Tuesday evening Beloved was in the living room watching something on television (probably either Cops or America’s Dumbest Criminals Trying to Flee the Authorities and Failing Miserably), The Young One was in the kitchen looking for something to eat (30 minutes after dinner) and I was sitting in front of my laptop, playing a game (and using my earphones so I didn’t have to listen to the drivel on the television), when Beloved said, “What’s that sound?”
“What sound?” The Young One and I both chimed in. I didn’t notice anything, what with the earphones and all, and I doubt The Young One could hear anything at all over the sound of all that chewing.
“Well, it’s stopped now,” he said. But after awhile, he was asking again, “What’s that sound?”
This time we heard it too – sort of a soft humming, clicking sound. We wandered dutifully around the house, but couldn’t locate it; then it stopped again. So, we went to bed. Around 4 a.m., I woke up to a very loud, steady humming sound coming from the heating grate in the baseboards, located next to my side of the bed.
Uh-oh.
It stopped, and I tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn’t to be – the sound happened again a little bit later, then stopped all together. I finally dragged my butt out of bed around 5:15 and realized I was freezing – I should have been, it was all of 55 degrees in the main part of the house, which was warmer by far than our bedroom. When Beloved got up at about an hour later, he wandered over to the thermostat and asked, “Why is it so damn cold in here?”
“The furnace went out last night,” I said.
To make a long story a little shorter (like Jen, I don’t tell short stories, something that charms Beloved but drove The Ex bugshit) our furnace, which is as old as our house (which is 30 years old), up and died on us. What’s more, our hot water heater, also on its last legs, had developed a leak (the things you find when you go poking around in the dark corners of your basement, something I try never to do). So, we called the furnace people who sent a service guy to our house who told us that our furnace had gone to The Big Boiler Room in the Sky and our hot water heater wasn’t far behind it.
Oh. The joys of home ownership.
You don’t even want to know how much this is costing us – let’s just suffice to say we’re spending so much money on one of those ultra-super-duper energy efficient furnaces (with a humidifier! Can you gimme a hallelujah????) and a new water heater that they are going to throw in a new air-conditioning unit (which is apparently as old as the furnace) FOR FREE .
Yeah.
Anyhoo, the new furnace won’t be here until today, so we were still stoking the fire in the fireplace last night, as well as keeping the oven running non-stop come dinner time last night (whose bright idea was it to buy such a damn big house in the first place? Oh, yeah…mine)(Hey, we needed it at the time). To top everything else off, we had an extremely busy and stressful workday and Beloved still had to get ready to go out of town on business today, so our plans to go out to dinner went out the window and I ended up making this very good, very comforting and very warming soup.
I used half a batch of homemade egg noodles (about 6 ounces) in it, but if you wish to substitute some cubed Yukon Gold potatoes, this would make a dynamite chicken corn chowder. Ideally, you should boil a cut-up whole chicken for the broth, but I didn’t have the time so I used canned, low-sodium chicken broth and cubed boneless, skinless chicken breasts. And it was absolutely delicious, but make sure you don’t over-cook the chicken or it will get rubbery.
Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
6 generous servings
4 tablespoons butter
2 large stalks celery, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, shredded (about 1 cup)
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
6 cups chicken stock or 3 cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed into 1-inch pieces
6 ounces egg noodles, either fresh or dried
Melt the butter in a large, heavy pot (I used my smaller stockpot) over medium heat. Add the celery, onion and carrots and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is tender, about 7 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables, then stir to combine well; cook for another 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Slowly add the chicken stock, stirring constantly, and bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the corn. After another 5 minutes, stir in the half and half and add the chicken; simmer until cooked through, about 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
While the chicken is cooking, cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente (just tender, but still firm to the bite). Drain the noodles and add to the soup; simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.