Curry Chicken Rice Soup

This soup is loosely based on a scrumptious recipe I have for Mulligatawny.

I have no apple. And to me, apple is the yummy part.

My soup today:
- one chicken breast chopped into chunks and cooked on low in the cast iron skillet, with a 1/2 teaspoon four color pepper, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt, and once the meat is 95% done about 1.5 cups water.

In the soup pot combine
- 48 ounces chicken broth
- 8 ounces water
- 1-2 cups leftover brown rice
- three diced carrots
- one tomato from the garden, diced
- 2 leaves basil, from the garden
- 4-6 leaves oregano from the garden

Now, when you're ready to combine the chicken pot into the soup pot, first you need to add your "thickener." The original recipe called for 1/4 cup flour and two teaspoons curry powder mixed into the soup.

Instead, I took a tea cup and a very small whisk... I used about 1/8 cup corn starch (it was more readily at hand than the flour) and the curry powder in the bottom of the teacup. Filled the teacup 3/4 full with water and whisked until smooth.

I took the chicken skillet off the burner and stirred the cornstarch liquid into the cooled chicken/liquid and then poured that into the soup. I slowly increased temperature from low to medium, stirring occasionally, and then brought it to a boil on medium. After some stirring, I reduced it to a simmer. Covered. And left it on the stove.

Chicken, shrimp and broccoli

Today, forgetting I still have half a broccoli cheese pot pie in the fridge, I embarked on chicken and broccoli for lunch.

So, I preheated the oven to 350 and set the Le Creuset skillet on the front burner on low with 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon butter, and 1 teaspoon four color peppercorn.

I took two slightly thawed chicken breasts and about two cups shrimp and dropped them in the skillet. I sprinkled garlic powder and paprika (lightly) on everything. Ten minutes each side, but about halfway I did turn the heat up to almost medium.

I added as much broccoli as I could get in the skillet (fresh) and then added one cup chicken broth. and one more teaspoon butter distributed in chunks. I also got out two cups of wegmans thai vegetable stock. I thawed both of these broths in the microwave must still had an icy chunk for each so I set one on top of each chicken breast thinking it could baste as it melts.

Into the oven it goes. Husband home for lunch in 45 minutes.

*This is the last of our shrimp.*

Chicken with cornflake sludge

This is one of those meals that did not do what I intended.

Ah, well. Win some, lose some.

I started with a hint of butter and an equal amount of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and a teaspoon of fresh rosemary snipped into tiny pieces.

I took some chicken, sliced into tenders, and had my daughter grind some four-color peppercorns and some McCormick garlic salt (packed in France, go figure). Added the chicken and some chicken broth. I cooked the chicken about four minutes on each side, then I coated with eggs, and "breaded" with crushed cornflakes, made more 50/50 lemon butter sauce and added some olive oil for a "frying" effect and returned everything to the Le Creuset skillet.

The cornflakes fell off.

I added a whole bunch of steamed baby carrots from the freezer, thawed in the microwave, added a few dollops of butter and some more chicken broth and placed the entire skillet in the oven.

Meanwhile, my husband is making cheapo mac and cheese from a box for a second side.

keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to need it.

The result: FABULOUS!!!

Chicken and mashed taters

Tonight for dinner I'm making chicken in lemon-butter sauce (française) and roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a side salad, and Vouvray.

Except my husband grabbed the Bordeaux instead of the Vouvray.

For the mashed potatoes:

• about 1/2-3/4 cup chicken broth/olive oil/chicken "juices" from frying pan skillet
  
• probably 3 lbs of potatoes, mostly peeled
• About 15 cloves roasted garlic
• About 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons butter
• About 1/4 cup sour cream

For the salad:

• greens
• shredded carrots
• raisins
• cashews
• zesty sprouts
• Ranch for him and child, red wine mist for her

And finally the chicken:

• About 1.25 pounds boneless, skinless chicken tenderloin (from the discount pile: $3)
• lemon juice
• extra virgin olive oil
• butter
• unbleached white flour
• four color organic peppercorns
• chicken broth

Place about one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil in skillet. Preheat skillet and oven (to about 250, will be used to keep the chicken warm while we make the sauce). Lightly dredge the chicken, sprinkle with pepper. Add to pan with one tablespoon butter. Cook about five minutes, flip. Cook about five more minutes. Add about 3/4 cup chicken broth. Cook until finished. Move chicken to oven.

Reserve juice in skillet into cooked potatoes for the mashed.

In the skillet, add about three tablespoons butter and about the same amount of lemon juice. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring often. Pour oven chicken and serve.

This looks to be a good guide on mashed potatoes:
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/mashed.htm

Roasting garlic

Normally when you roast garlic, you roast the whole bulb, papery shell and all in a bath of broth and spices/herbs of your choice.

When it gets done, the roasted cloves will pop from the shell with ease, and they'll be soft, mild, and delicious. Perfect for blending with butter or cream cheese.

My sister-in-law received a ridiculous amount of peeled garlic cloves from her elderly landlord as a thank you for shoveling the snow during the blizzard. She passed about 30 cloves on to me.

I put them all in a pfaltzgraf bowl (because it's shallow and small enough that I can use just enough liquid) and pulled some chicken broth from the freezer. I have them baking in the oven at 350, with just enough broth so each clove is very wet, but not submerged. Every ten minutes or so I go out and "baste" by shaking the bowl.

This process should take about an hour, and I don't know if it will work this way, but we'll see.

Cornbread and sausages

Tonight I'm planning cornbread and spinach-asiago chicken sausages. I had planned to make Eileen Bresslin's vegan cornbread recipe but I ran out of soy milk.

Eileen's recipe:

Preheat oven to 350. These muffins, or cornbread, need to go in a hot oven as soon as they're mixed.

• 1.5 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1.5 cups soy milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients. In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Pour liquid into dry, mix until just combined. Bake 30-40 minutes. Note: You may not need quite that much oil.

I added parsley and flax seed to mine tonight.

Now for the sausage... I decided to try and make a sauce. In the bottom of the pan I started with:

• About 1/4 cup apple juice
• About 1/4 cup chicken broth
• About one teaspoon cornstarch

Whisk as bring to a boil to reduce and thicken. It smelled sweet, so I added:

• About 1/2 teaspoon four color peppercorns
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic pepper
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic
• About 1/8 teaspoon curry

After it seriously thickened, I added:

• three spinach asiago chicken sausages, sliced
• about 1 cup French cut green beans, frozen and thawed in the microwave

Then I served with the cornbread, using some of the excess sauce as gravy.

(Note: These are the same sausages I got at the warehouse club a few weeks ago and had in the freezer. We've eaten them in pasta sauce, and as sausage sandwiches, and now this funky recipe.)

Mulligutawny (II)

I've made Mulligutawny before, but today I'm revising slightly for the use of leftovers... I will place in crock pot on low...

• About 1.5 cups shredded turkey
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 teaspoon garlic pepper

Sauté in skillet.

Add:

• one can petit diced tomatoes, drained

Cook about 30 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. While that cooks, in crock pot combine:

• about 20-25 ounces Thai broth
• 14 ounces low salt chicken broth
• about 3/4 cup brown rice (I used instant)

Then put everything in the crock pot on low...

The original post on this soup:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/02/mulligatawny.html

Chicken Rice Soup

I'm not good at soups. So my attempt to try and make a soup out of the chicken leftovers is a feat. I poured the leftover Thai chicken in broth with brown rice and peas into the crockpot. I added some basil and some garlic powder. Then I tossed in the last of the mixed Italian vegetables with the green beans, lima beans, zucchini and such. I added a glass of water. And the crock pot didn't look very full. I added a can of chicken broth. I really wish I had an apple... I think that would give it a superb flavor... but I don't have an apple...

Last night for dinner we had spaghetti and vegetarian sausage.

Update: 11 a.m. Soup smells incredible and the broth tastes fantastic.

Chicken Sauteed in Ginger and Basil

Well, as usual, my dinner didn't end up anything like the picture in the cookbook. In this case, it's because I was translating an Asian-style recipe from my French cookbook, Venez Dîner C'est Prêt by Dominique Malet. The cookbook was a souvenir from France from my friend Jessica.

This recipe was Poulet Sauté au Gingembre et au basilic. (Chicken Sauteed in ginger and basil)

Please, please understand that while this turned out delicious, I relied on my own brain for the translation and I may not have read the recipe correctly.

Ingredients
Four chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, cut into stir fry pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped (I'm going to up this next time)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated fine (I may double this next time)
One 15-ounce can chicken broth*
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use low sodium)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (weird, eh?)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 handfuls basil leaves (I used a lot and I shredded mine by hand, next time I may double)
Sesame seeds for decoration

*The original recipe called for three tablespoons bouillon, prepared, but I have no idea how much that would be so I just used a can and made extra sauce to cook broccoli and pour on the rice. Maybe that's why mine tasted mild. And I ended up cooking the meat in juice, as opposed to stir-frying it in a wok. My wok is too small for all that chicken.

Gather ingredients so they are easily at hand for cooking.
Heat oil in pan. (on high)
Add garlic and ginger. Cook for several seconds. Add chicken and cook for two minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add sugar, soy sauce and then the broth. Cook five more minutes. (I cooked longer, my chicken chunks were on the thick side.) At the end of five minutes, add sesame oil and basil leaves.
Serve immediately with rice. Garnish with basil leaves and/or sesame seeds. I also poured a Vouvray, though the book recommended a meursault (bourgogne).

I pulled all the chicken out of the juice and then cooked some fresh broccoli in it. I also put a fresh baguette on the table.