As a cooking teacher, I'm often asked for a chicken-soup recipe that "tastes like bubbe's."
So, let's proceed with "Chicken Soup 101":
· Buy the best quality chicken you can find. Bubbe's chickens were raised differently than today's chickens, which have a lot of fat and little flavor. Use lots of extra wings and backs to give body to the soup. (I like Aarons Organic Kosher Chickens, available at Trader Joe's.)
· Use pristine, earthy vegetables. Don't use this as an opportunity to clean out your vegetable bin! Leave the skins on the onions for a golden color.
· Use just enough water to cover the contents of your stock pot by 2 inches. Too much water will result in a watery stock.
· Long, slow cooking will help extract flavor from all the ingredients. Cook for at least 3 hours.
· Remove fat and skin from the chicken and peel vegetables.
· While stock is cooking, be sure to skim off the grayish foam several times until it's permanently gone. This foam will make your soup bitter and unattractive.
· Try not to allow the stock to boil; the bubbles can trap fat. Just let it simmer gently, observing tiny bubbles around the perimeter of the stock.
Chicken Stock
(Meat)
2 lbs. mixed chicken parts, such as necks, wings and backs
1 medium chicken, cut up, fat and skin removed
2 onions, with skins, quartered
leek, thoroughly washed and sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic (optional)
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs parsley
In a large stockpot, combine all ingredients and cover with cold water by no more than 2 inches.
Bring to a gentle simmer and skim grayish foam that forms on surface. Continue to skim until this foam no longer forms.
Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 3 to 4 hours.
Strain into storage containers, let cool and refrigerate. Remove solidified fat from surface.
Makes about 8 cups.
Chicken–Black Bean Chowder
(Meat)
3 Tbsps. vegetable oil
6 scallions, trimmed and chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded, deveined, and cut into thin strips
1 Anaheim pepper, seeded, deveined, and cut into thin strips
8 cups chicken stock
3 cups peeled and cubed (1-inch) winter squash, such as acorn, pumpkin, delicata, hubbard, butternut, etc.
2 cups cooked black beans
4 oz. angel-hair pasta, broken into 2-inch lengths
salt and pepper
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
In a large heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Cook scallions and chili peppers until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add stock and squash; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
Add beans and pasta; cook another 8 minutes.
Taste for salt and pepper.
Sprinkle with cilantro.
Serves 10.
Lentil-Chard Soup With Chicken Dumplings
(Meat)
For Dumplings:
1/2 lb. boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut up
2 Tbsps. oil
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup fresh (not dried) bread crumbs
1 egg, plus 1 egg white
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
For Soup:
2 Tbsps. oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lb. chard
11/2 cups lentils
8 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
To Make Dumplings: Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until puréed. Chill mixture about 1 hour.
With wet hands, form into balls, using about 1 tablespoon of mixture for each. Drop into a large pot of boiling salted water.
Reduce heat and simmer until dumplings float to surface, about 12 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
To Make Soup: In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat and sauté onion until soft, about 5 minutes.
Separate stems from leaves of chard and cut stems into 2-inch pieces. Add to onion and cook another 2 minutes.
Stir in lentils and stock; bring to a boil. Simmer until lentils are tender about 25 minutes.
Cut chard leaves into thin strips and add to soup. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Purée about 1 cup of soup mixture and stir into remaining soup.
Taste for salt and pepper.
Place 4 or 5 dumplings in each soup plate. Ladle soup over top.
Serves 8.
Spinach, Rice and Carrot Soup
(Meat)
1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and diced
7 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup long-grain rice
salt and pepper
1/2 lb. spinach, stemmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chicken, diced (optional)
In a large saucepan, combine carrots and stock. Bring to a boil and stir in rice, salt and pepper.
When mixture comes to a boil, stir in spinach and simmer about 30 minutes, or until rice and carrots are tender.
Stir in garlic, chicken if using, and taste for salt and pepper.
Serves 4 to 6.
Louise Fiszer is a California cooking teacher and food writer. Among the six books she's co-authored is Jewish Holiday Feasts.