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.

Summer Rolls

These summer rolls are a hybrid of the ones Caroline taught me how to make in Houghton and the ones people can buy in Hawaii at Down to Earth ... but better of course!


Ingredients

spring roll wrappers (made of rice or tapioca - banh trang)
bean threads - 2 bundles
tempeh/tofu/whatever protein you prefer
avocado - 2
cucumber - 1
sprouts
carrot (optional) - 1
fresh mint
fresh basil
fresh lime juice

Peanut Sauce - best to make the night before so the flavors can mix well
raw peanut butter
sesame oil
braggs/soy sauce
garlic
lime juice


Directions - This made roughly 6 rolls

The bean threads need to be cooked/softened first - this can be done by boiling them like regular noodles or you can just submerge them in hot water and let them sit until they are chewy all the way through - it's important not to strain them completely because they will dry out.
While the noodles are doing their thing, prepare all the other veggies. I like to seed the cukes and then grate the cucumber (also works to slice, but it gets tricky when it's time to wrap) and carrot (if you're using them), the avocado can be mashed or sliced but I add some salt to it either way.
The tempeh should be cut into strips that are roughly 2.5-3" long, 3/4" wide, and not more than a 1/4" thick if possible. The herbs should be washed and ready to go.
When the noodles are ready, I strain out 3/4 or so of the water and then squish them in my hands to brek them into smaller pieces. I've tried doing this a less 'hands on' way, but the noodles are so slippery and have such a strange texture that cutting htem up with a knife doesn't really work. I suppose you could cut them with scissors, but that kinda takes the wind out of my sails because it's not nearly as fun!

See?!

Once you have all the ingredients ready to go, prepare a frying pan with salty water - the diameter has to accommodate the diameter of the wraps you bought. heat the water until it's hot enough that you can't keep your fingers in the water for more than a few seconds without it being too hot - so just on the borderline of too hot. The wraps are very delicate once they're ready so it's important to be careful if you haven't worked with them before - they rip very easily.
Inspect the wrap for holes before putting it into the hot water. If the holes are on the outer edge of the wrap it's still usable. Start to feel the wrap when the outer edges curl up. You want to gently feel for stiff areas and let thos areas cook longer while not over cooking the rest of the wrap. When the wrap is ready spread it out on a plate - best to let a good amount of the dripping water on the plate.

Building the Roll
1. noodles
2. tempeh/tofu/etc
3. avocado for padding (if using something like tempeh - the side of the wrap can get a hold poked in it)
4. pile the rest on however you want. More mint and basil the better! peanut sauce can be on the inside or outside or both/
5. I roll it up like an eggroll - starting with the bottom (tighten), fold over each short side, then roll it over to finish! (I'm going to try and make a good instructional video of me doing this, but there's one of Angelica at the bottom of this post)

For dessert we enjoyed oranges and merlot sauce! It was cinnamony redwine orange deliciousness!

Dad's Kitchen: Merlot Sauce

I'm not exactly sure where my dad got this recipe, but it's pretty delicious!

Ingredients

1 bottle merlot (Dad uses yellow tail - I used fetzer because it was on sale at don quixote for the same price as the yellow tail and I thought it'd be interesting to note any differences)
1 cup sugar (I used the Maui turbinado sugar, but I'd like to try honey or agave)
3-6 cinnamon sticks
orange zest

I quadrupuled this recipe.

Directions

Add wine, sugar, and cinnamon sticks together and bring to a boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. MEASURE the depth of the wine and then boil it down until the volume is reduced by 1/2. I should have timed it, but I think this process took about 2 hours for my 4 bottles.

When the wine is close to finishing it's reduction, zest the oranges and put ~1tsp. in each of the containers you're going to store it in. In my case they are 8oz. mason jelly jars - perfect! You may want to increase the amount of zest if you're using a large container.


Fill the jars (or whatever glass container you're using) and seal them. The mason jars were nice because they self sealed because the wine sauce was so hot when I put the lids on, so I didn't have to worry that they'd leak all over the place when I biked them to work!

The original recipe calls for the sauce to be poured over cut up orange sections. This is delicious! After trying the sauce with the oranges I think it's easier to imagine other foods to combine the sauce with.

Thanks Dad!