Not Your Average Chicken Soup

This soup was recommended for me by my teacher and it's soooooooooooo delicious!

INGREDIENTS

1 whole organic chicken
wild/brown rice
celery
carrot
onion
mushrooms (so far I think shiitake are the best)
parsnip
parsley
bay leaf
3 pieces dang gui tou (angelica sinensis root)
3 pieces bai shao yao (white peony root)
3 pieces bai zhu (white atractylodes root)
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

rinse and pat dry the chicken after removing the bag of organs. stuff the cavity of the chicken with the rice (rinsed or presoaked) to weigh it down.


chop the vegetables and add half of them to the pot to contribute to the broth. add all herbs setting aside some parsley for final garnish.


add water until the chicken is totally covered with enough extra that the pot can simmer for 3-4 hours without the chicken being exposed. Bring the pot to a boil then turn the heat way down so that it is only just simmering. You want to slow cook the chicken over 3 hours or so.

around 30-45 minutes before you want to serve the soup, add the remaining vegetables to the pot . after that 30-45 minutes prepare one large bowl and a smaller bowl -CAREFULLY remove the chicken from the pot - it will basically fall apart so be aware and place in the larger of the two bowls. remove all bones and anything else you aren't excited about eating - for me this is any skin and knuckles (even though I have heard these are some of the best parts) - and discard. You can add all the meat back into the soup or you can keep it separate. It's pretty much ready to go at this point! Check the salt and pepper levels and enjoy! garnish with parsley.

I don't have any pics after this point because I get so messy deboning the chicken I can't pick up the camera and then the soup is so good I forget to take any =)

Cobler Roll Completed

I took a stab at Jeff's cobler roll this weekend and it turned out great. Took me about two hours from start to mouth to complete. Tasted amazing!

Rolled Berry Cobbler

It is Winter, and it's raining...a lot. At least it is today. In this time of overarching wet, cold, and stay-at-homeyness one begins turning to thoughts of warm gooey goodness. Here's something to tide us over.

Fruit Cobbler Rolls

Ingredients:

Berry mix:
2 packages frozen berry mix (or about 4 cups fresh berries, or more, it's up to you)
I used 1 pack of frozen blackberries and 1 back of frozen blue berries this time round.
3/4 cup sugar (or less, or more, to taste)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
(If cinnamon and nutmeg with berries weirds you out...just skip 'em)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. all-purpose flour

Biscuits:
1 1/4 C. unbleached low protein flour (cake flour)
3/4 C. unbleached all-purpose flour
(or just use 2 C. all-purpose flour, the biscuits will be great either way)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 C. milk

Buttermilk Biscuit Variation: Substitute cultured buttermilk for the milk and add 1/4 tsp. to the dry ingredients.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix sugar, spices, 2 Tbs. flour, and 1/2 tsp. salt with the berries until the berries are covered and have moistened the flour and sugar. Spread half of this mix into a 2 quart baking dish and pop this in the oven while you make this biscuits.

To make biscuits: sift together the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter either using a stand-up mixer or a pair of hands (you can use your own or somebody else's, as long as they're ok with that kind of thing) until everything resembles coarse crumbles. Leave some pea sized chunks of butter scattered throughout, this will make the biscuits a little more flaky.

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk or milk all at once. Stir a few times to wet the dough, then let it all sit for about 10 minutes to rest. Turn the very sticky dough out onto a heavily floured surface and fold over on itself five or six times. Use plenty of extra flour if you need it to keep yourself from getting DOUGH-HANDS!! Uhh....disgusting.

Roll the dough out to about 3/4 inch thickness and pile on the other half of the berry mix. Roll it all jelly-roll style then pinch the edges so the berries can't escape. Now cut the roll into at least six sections sushi-wise and lay on top of the first half of the berry mix in the now hot baking dish.

Pop everything back into the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until the biscuits firm up and start to brown on the top. Be careful: make sure everything is cooked through. You don't want the bottoms of the biscuits to be all un-cooked and gooey...or do we?


Serve by itself, or with vanilla bean ice cream.

This is Sarah and our cat, Snickers. Both Sarah and I had had a bit of wine at this point and the cat is wondering why I'm in her face with the camera. You can see her thinking it. It's uncanny.