Halloween Horror Soup

I very, very much dislike Halloween. Maybe it's because I'm not creative and can't ever think of a good costume, maybe it's because I have nightmares from seeming innocuous movies like the first Nightmare on Elm Street or maybe it's because I'm mildly afraid of teenagers and they always seem to start trouble on Halloween. Who knows. The one thing I do love about Halloween is the candy. My oh my do I love candy. I especially love "holidays" that are focused on candy because the day after said "holiday" all the candy goes on sale, and one of the few inanimate things I love more than candy is a good sale. So I pretty much only like the day after Halloween, except that fact that it's All Saints Day and if I were the good Catholic my grandparents wanted me to be I'd be busy at Mass not busy buying all the candy. Anywho, I digress. Onto the soup. Why is this a horror, you may wonder. Well, two of the ingredients may invoke fear in some people, specifically the mushrooms and parsnips as I get the feeling society thinks those veggies are grossies, when in fact they are not.

For this Halloween Horror or Chicken and parsnip soup, you'll need: 1 chicken breast, 3 fresh sage leaves, 1 small sprig of rosemary, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 shallot, 3 parsnips, 8 oz of cremini mushrooms, a small bit of parsley, 1 can of chickpeas, some broth and hot sauce of your choosing.  Also, in the pursuit of full disclosure, this recipe is in the November 2010 issue of Cooking Light.

First, get the chicken boiling in some water.  I seasoned the water with some salt, pepper, sage leaves and rosemary sprig.  We'll be using the water later, so it seasoning now is a perfectly good idea.

Next, mince the garlic and finely slice the shallots.

Then, slice the parsnips on a diagonal. I was lazy and didn't peel mine, but you could if you'd like.

I opted to chop my mushrooms despite the fact that they were pre-sliced.  I find the pre-sliced pieces are just too large for soup and like them smaller. This is totally optional.

Lastly, finely chop the parsley.  You could skip this too if you'd like. I don't love parsley so for me to tolerate it at all, it needs to be in small pieces.

I chopped all my veggies super fast so my chicken wasn't yet cooked. Never to waste a minute, I got the puppy dressed in his Halloween best. He's the butler, you can call him Wadsworth. Yeah, I know it's gross that my butler doesn't wear pants.

Still had some time to kill, so I got the Halloween candy ready. Yes, handing out candy is in direct conflict with my dislike of Halloween, but I can't let down the children.

More time to kill. Goodness I am fast at chores.  Well, the natural thing to so is start drinking, right? How about some bourbon and apple cider? Yes, I think I will.

Finally, the chicken was cooked. Remove it from the water, but save the water.  Then shred or chop it into small pieces.  Mine was still a tad bit raw, but that's okay because it finished cooking in the soup.

Now, get to cooking. Heat a soup pot over medium heat and add a bit of olive oil.  Once it's hot, add all the veggies.  Stir them up and cook for about 5 minutes.

Next, add the chicken and rinsed and drained chick peas.

Now, add the broth, both the saved chicken-cooking water and additional broth of your choosing.  I added about 5 cups total.

Lastly, add some hot sauce and any salt or pepper you'd like.  Bring this to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the parsnips are cooked through.

To serve, top with a bit of the chopped parsley.  If you've already made a cup of bourbon-cider or have a giant bowl of candy nearby, those too make excellent friends for this soup. Enjoy!

I've had a bad day chicken soup

The past 24 hours of my life have been particularly frustrating/maddening/annoying.  Whether this is because I perpetually allow the actions of persons who may or may not give two hoots about my well being upset me, or for some other reason, I really cannot tell.  I'll spare the details since I have no idea who actually reads this blog and just move onto the soup.  There are a few things in life that always make bad days better for me. In no particular order and not an exhaustive list: Brian (usually futilely) attempting to cheer me up, walking the puppy, cupcakes, lizards running on my back patio, and chicken soup. 

For this I've had a bad day chicken soup, you'll need: 2 carrots, 1 parsnip, 1/2 an onion, 3 stalks of celery, 1 turnip, 1 potato (mine is purple. PURPLE!), 3 cloves of garlic, 1 chicken breast, 1/4 cup pesto, 2 cups of spinach, 1/4 cup pastina pasta and chicken broth.

First, get the chicken breast in some water and boil it.  I only used one chicken breast since I didn't want to make more than a few servings of soup.

Next, work on the vegetables.  I peeled the carrots, parsnip and turnip. Then diced them and the onion, celery and potato.  As per usual, the garlic was minced. If your day has been bad enough to necessitate tears and you cry when chopping onions, this veggie prep time is an excellent time to get a good cry in as well.  If you ♥ the color purple as much as I do, you may find yourself cheered up by the potato. 

By the time you finish with the veggies, the chicken should be done. Remove it from the pot, but reserve the water.  Allow the chicken to cool then shred or chop into bite sized pieces. If you're pressed for time, or just like efficiency, shred the chicken while the veggies are cooking during the next step.

Now, for cooking.  Heat a bit of oil over medium heat in whatever pot you'd like.  Once it's hot, add all the veggies at once, cooking for about 8 minutes. Next, add the reserved chicken cooking water, more broth and the cooked chicken. I added about 2 cups of broth.

Stir in the pesto.  My pesto was homemade compliments of an unexpectedly large crop of basil.  Brian made it for last week's Sunday supper entree of pesto crusted pork loin, and (in usual Brian fashion) doctored it up with some gorganzola cheese.  If you don't live with a top notch chef and don't have a fridge full of inventive left-overs, store bought pesto is a-ok.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Lastly, add the spinach and pastina and cook for 5 minutes.  I really like pastina because it's little star pasta and reminds me that I'm a super star even when others try to convince me that I'm not.

To serve, you could top with a little cheese, since cheese makes everything better (provided you aren't lactose intolerant). I didn't add cheese since I had extra special cheesey pesto. Enjoy!

Ribollita

This lovely rustic Italian soup is inspired by two things: 1) mine and Brian's anniversary was on Sunday and I first had this soup while sitting in a cafe in Sienna, splitting a half litre of wine over lunch; and 2) Columbus Day was Monday.  Now, you can talk to me until you're blue in the face about what a terrible Italian Christopher Columbus was, about how he was kicked out of Italy and his travel to the New World was funded by Spanish, and how he wasn't the first European to set foot in the Americas, but I do not care. Where I come from Christoper Columbus is a hero. An Italian hero of whom all good Italians are very proud. As a good Italian, I took my honeymoon in Italy and just one year later am making this delicious soup to remember the fun of said honeymoon.

For this tasty treat, you'll need: about 2 ounces of pancetta, 2 garlic cloves, 2 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 1 onion, 3 medium potatoes, 2 large ripe tomatoes, a bunch of kale, 2 cans of Great Northern (or cannellini) beans, 6 cups of broth, 2 sprigs of rosemary, a parmesan rind and some hot dried peppers.

First, dice the pancetta.  I shopped at the el-cheapo Kroger for my ingredients, so I couldn't get the giant pancetta chunk straight from the deli that I like to purchase.  This thinly sliced, pre-packaged pancetta did okay.  Kindly notice the adorable little white prep cup. It's from the Le Creuset outlet (my new favorite store) and it's made of silicon so it' squishy. Awesome. 

Next, mince the garlic and dice the onion, celery and carrots.  I had to peel my carrots because I couldn't get them to look clean therefore I assumed they were dirty. Peeling, obviously not necessary, especially if you like the taste of dirt.

Then, dice the potatoes.  You could probably get away with using just 2 potatoes since these three turned into more than I bargained for. But I ♥ potatoes.

Now, seed and dice the tomatoes.  Please do not judge the fact that these tomatoes are far from ripe. They were all that was available. How quickly garden tomato season has gone away.

Finally, shred the kale into roughly one inch strips.  If you've never cooked kale, the important step is to get the thick rib out of each leaf. That piece is not tasty. As with nearly all greens, this looks like a giant pile of roughage, but it cooks down nicely.

Now, for the beans. A truly good Italian would have used dry beans, let them soak overnight and followed all those steps for cooking dry beans. Or, if I were more like my Nonnie or my Auntie, I would have used the pressure cooker. I did neither of those things. I used canned beans like a true American.  Rinse and drain both cans of beans.  Using a food processor, pulse half of the beans into a paste. I seasoned the bean paste with some rosemary and salt and threw in a little bit of olive oil.  Reserve the other half of the beans.

Now, it's cook time. Heat a big stock pot over medium heat and throw in just a splash of olive oil.  Throw in the pancetta and cook until the fat has rendered and the pancetta pieces are a bit crispy, about 5-8 minutes.  Also, if you're adding any dried hot peppers, throw them in with the pancetta.

Next, add the carrots, celery, onion and garlic to the pot.  Cook these for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.

Throw in the potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.

Then stir in  the tomatoes.

Now, add the beans.  First the bean paste (which looks terribly unappetizing) then the whole beans.

Dump in 6 cups of stock.  Yes, an entire 6 cups. This makes a lot of soup. Stir the whole thing up really well.

Okay, almost done with adding things. Drop in all the kale.  Stir the soup very well. You want to try to get the kale submerged in broth, but this is pretty impossible without adding more broth and making even more soup. Just do the best you can.

Lastly, toss in the rosemary sprigs and parmesan rind.  I left the rosemary whole since I knew it would fall apart during simmering. If you don't have any parmesan rind, don't worry, you just may need to season with more salt.

Increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer.  Cover and simmer for 2 hours.  Yes, 2 hours. About an hour into simmering, give it a taste and throw in any seasoning it may need. I had to add a bit of salt, ground black pepper and red pepper flake.  This will smell delectable. Before serving, be sure to remove the rosemary sprigs. You can remove the parmesan rind, but I like to leave it in and have a parsmean surprise when eating the soup.

Serve with a hunk of hearty bread. If you want to go all out, rub the bread with a fresh clove of garlic and toast.  Feed this to your sister-in-law who just arrived from Chile via Charlotte and walked into your house asking if the soup was ready yet. Enjoy!