Thirty-second Post ~ "And on the eighth day, He created chicken soup."

It happens. The cold weather hits our bodies just the right way, and we wake up feeling ... sick. My mother has always been a firm believer in the healing powers of chicken soup. The past two weeks spent home recuperating from chicken pox (yes, at age 26) were well-accompanied by a big pot of my mama's golden, savory, healing chicken soup. She passed the recipe on to me, so that I too can wield this ageless power of common vegetables, herbs and meat.

I pass it on to you, so that you also may know its strength in your times of weakness!

Chicken Soup
A Curative Concoction for the Common Cold

Here's what you'll need.

~ Chicken Legs (4-6 legs; 4-5 lbs)
~ Celery
~ 1 Spanish onion (or 2 small yellow)
~ Chicken bullion
~ Carrots
~ Uncle Ben's long grain wild rice (fast cook recipe or microwavable pouch)
~ 1-2 bay leaves
~ Salt and pepper

And now, clear-cut, easy-to-follow-even-through-haze-of-cold-medicine directions:

In large pot or Dutch oven place chicken legs with enough water to cover plus 2 inches. Start boiling.

Add 1-2 bay leaves, 10-12 bullion cubes, salt and pepper to taste.

Chop celery - enough equal to 3 stalks. Add to pot.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, cut leafy top part off and add the stalks to pot, plus or minus a few leaves.

Chop carrots - one good handful. Add to pot.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, use baby carrots.

Chop onion - 1/4 inch slice from center of Spanish, or two golf ball sized yellow onions. Add to pot. A small piece of bread held in the mouth will prevent eyes from stinging while slicing onion.
¨ If not well, don't bother chopping, put slice of Spanish in whole.

Cover and boil all until meat starts falling off the bones (40-50 minutes).

Take meat out and cover on plate to cool (about 30 minutes). Continue boiling mixture on high heat (and watch it so it doesn't scorch!).

De-bone and skin chicken and dice. Put back into boiled down mixture.

Add Uncle Ben’s wild rice. Easiest to use the pre-cooked packages, but also can cook rice separately and add.
¨ If not well, just use the pre-cooked microwavable rice – don’t bother microwaving, just pour it in the pot.

::PAUSE::

Customarily, this family recipe calls for egg noodles. I, however, prefer grains in soup, such as barley and wild rice. Therefore, rice is used in this recipe, but if the idea of chicken rice soup is blasphemous to you, noodles can easily be substituted!

::UNPAUSE::

Repeatedly taste and boil until soup reaches desired strength.

Optional - draw out broth with ladle, let sit in clear container, and use turkey baster to pull out settled broth from bottom of container and place back in pot to boil (leaving separated fat in container to be disposed of).
¨ If not well, just wait until later when soup is chilled, then remove the hardened fat from the top of the pot with a spoon and dispose.

So there you have it. If you're truly sick, you may find that this pot becomes your sole sustenance, morning, noon and night. There's nothing wrong with that - it's one heck of a hearty, healthful soup - stew, really - that will have you back on your feet in no time!

Yours in the love of the restorative powers of food,
AL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Tenth Post: Salmon that Rests on its Laurels with Garlic Snap Peas

To me, salmon is the king of fish. Sure, your snapper is fresh and light, your tilapia is melt-in-your-mouth delicate, but salmon, well, it's the fish that eats like a sirloin steak.
.
I went back and forth for a while with the patient fellow at the Wegman's fish counter over the best deal for the smallest salmon fillet available. Well, the best deal meant a lot of de-boning, and I just wasn't in the market for that this evening. The farm-raised was priced by the cut, so I ended up with a piece of fresh-caught salmon priced per pound. I got probably the tiniest fillet in the display, so the damage was just over $2.50. Not bad for a fish that spent its life gliding through glacial waters off of the shores of Alaska. And I might add that I may be ruined for salmon forever...
.
Anyway. I also purchased some fresh rosemary to see if there was that enormous of a difference between fresh and dried. Let's conclude that I shall be purchasing a rosemary plant to befriend my basil one in the near future.
.
Here's what you'll need to make tonight's meal:
.
~ 1 salmon fillet (Take my advice; go for the best price. It'll always taste better if you know you haven't spent your week's grocery money on one meal)
~ lemon juice
~ salt and pepper to taste
~ olive oil (again, I heart EVOO)
.
For the side:
.
~ Sugar snap peas (take a couple right out of the bag and eat them raw - they're like the candy of the vegetable world)
~ 2 small garlic cloves
~ salt and pepper to taste
~ olive oil
.
About two hours before you're ready to eat, open the package of salmon and tuck two sprigs of rosemary on either side of it, or sprinkle the whole thing with dried rosemary. Now squeeze some lemon juice on it, and add a dash of salt and pepper. Close the package back up, and go learn about the muscles in the face, or whatever else you have to study for the next two hours.
.
Before you start cooking, mince your garlic cloves. Mincing, I've discovered, is a little nicer than pressing, and leaves some of the punch of the garlic for your actual mouthful, rather than in the pan.
.
Get out one medium and one small pan. Put about 1.5 tablespoons of EVOO in each. Start the larger one heating. When the oil is just starting to release vapours, carefully place the salmon and rosemary (hopefully looking cozily like one unit) into the pan. It'll sizzle happily. When you see it turning opaque about one quarter the way up, turn it carefully (I used two forks). The rosemary may have to be re-tucked along the sides.
.
Around this time, turn on the burner under your smaller pan. Place your snap peas in the pan and salt and pepper them to taste. Sautee them for about 3 minutes or so. Add the garlic, toss, and immediately remove from heat.
.
Around this time, you'll want to turn your salmon again. This particular cut was tricky because the middle was quite plump, and I didn't want to overcook the outsides while undercooking the middle. I actually turned off the heat before the middle was fully cooked, and the heat of the pan and the fish finished off the middle while I got the snap peas onto my plate and the wine poured. I then transferred the salmon to the plate, keeping the rosemary to add a bit of it here or there to a bite.
.
I paired tonight's dinner with a Cabernet Sauvignon from Medoza, Argentina from Bodega Norton vineyards. It was, in my opinion, a perfect pair. The fruitiness and tannic balance of this Argentine Cab served to keep the salmon from ever tasting "fishy" - rather, it gave the whole meal a sense of completeness in softening any harshness in the natural taste of salmon, enhancing the rosemary essence, and providing a strong counterpart to the garlic in the snap peas.
.
All in all, a delightful meal. Interestingly enough, the whole meal (sans EVOO, salt/pepper and other seasonings, which can be considered cupboard-staples) ran about $4.00. Add one glass of this wine, which I got in a sale cart at a small, off-the-beaten-path plaza wine shop (you can find some serious gems in the non-franchised stores!), and you're up to $5.00. Try doing that at an upscale seafood restaurant! Plus, I got my salmon cooked just the way I like it!
.
Yours in the love of food and wine and their harmonious balance,
.
AL
.
P.S. And for those of you who aren't ancient Greece and Rome geeks - the title of this post is in reference to the laurel crown given in the past to Greek victors either athletic or poetic. I thought the rosemary on either side of the salmon resembled it, and it seemed fitting for the King of Fish.
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.