garlic chicken soup

garlic chicken soup

Holy ice bats it’s been a rough winter this year. We’re still in the middle of the season, but already we’ve had a blizzard, a snow storm, an ice storm, and below freezing temperatures. My pipes have frozen and my heat has been testy, and to top it all off, I didn’t get to make a snow man. Shame. So, I think it is fair to say that this has been a rough winter for many New Yorkers. And when the temperature drops and there are mini ice pellets falling from the sky, the thing you want to do most is just curl up on the couch with your roommate’s fleece throw (er…thanks roomie) turn on some bad tv and just sip some chicken soup.

Chicken soup. It’s like the ultimate comfort food for anyone. Something about the clean broth and the great chicken flavor that makes everyone happy and warm. My brother has an awesome recipe that involves the standard carrots and celery but then he spices it up with other stuff like mushrooms and ginger. It’s pretty awesome. Maybe one day I will ask him to post it on here. Maybe. I’m craving another soup,which requires less work and less ingredients: my Mom’s Garlic Chicken Soup.

This soup is amazingly simple. From start to finish, including prep time, you’re looking at 2 hours minimum. On top of the ease and quickness of the soup, the ingredients list is only six ingredients including the water and salt. Amazing. The best part of this soup is that all the ingredients seem to shine on its own and work beautifully together at the same time. Because of the slow and low cooking process, the garlic develops its sugars and adds a hint of earthy flavor to the broth. This mixed with the sweet Chinese soy pickling liquid gives it an amazing subtle flavor. For the pickles, I used to use the 6 oz. cans. However, after accidentally putting a whole 13 oz. jar of pickles in the soup during a recent party (one too many beers maybe?), I’ve discovered a better flavor that really brings a richness to the soup. Also, I didn’t have to add more salt to the soup because their was enough sodium in the liquid already. One less ingredient.

I like to make this soup because, unlike other soups, there is no planning required. I have cooked this dish by putting a completely frozen chicken in the pot as well as a thawed one. Both work fine. Being able to use a frozen bird helps when you want to make something quick. My mom would cook this in a slow cooker. She would set it in the morning, turn it on and go to work. Soup would be done when she gets home and the house would be filled with an amazing aroma that I don’t even want to attempt to describe. I wouldn’t do it any justice. I opt to go for a less hazardous cooking method that doesn’t risk the house burning down and still achieves almost the same result. If you do use a slow cooker, just put it on low for at least 4 hours. Obviously if you cook it longer the flavor will be so much better. I defer to my friends to help me describe the favors of this soup.

To all the fire marshals out there, mom doesn’t cook with the slow cooker unless someone is home now so don’t be knocking on her door.

~stuff

1 large cornish game hen (1¾ to 2 lb.)

1 13 oz. jar Chinese soy pickled cucumber, w/ juice (hua gua)

9 cloves of garlic, whole

8 cups of water (enough to cover chicken)

salt to taste

~steps

place game hen, Chinese pickles, and garlic in a large dutch oven or slow cooker

pour water over chicken until it just covers the chicken

cook chicken on low heat for two hours or until chicken is fully cooked and tender [should fall off the bone]

-serves 6 to 8-

zaru noodles -Japanese cold noodles-

zaru noodles Tom Selleck would be proud of

Hot weather reminds of Mr. Baseball.  You know, that 1992 Tom Selleck movie where a white American moves to Japan and learns the ways of the people.  While at the same time, saving the baseball team from being destroyed.  It’s kind of like The Last Samurai but with baseballs, comedy, and a whole lot of mustache.  There’s one scene in the film that has Tom Selleck’s character eating cold noodles with his Japanese love interest and her family.  They where eating Zaru Soba, or Udon, but none the less it seemed like the family, and Tom Selleck, where wonderfully cooled and refreshed during that meal.  If you’ve never heard or had Zaru noodles, go and watch Mr. Baseball and feel the icy coolness just consume you.  Or warm hotness if you’re into Tom Selleck’s mustache.

My brother and cousin introduced me to this dish.  Both made it for me after their studies in Japan. I was completely sold on it.  Not only was it easier than Kraft Mac and Cheese for after school meals, but it was also healthier.  Because, you know-as a 9 year old, I was really concerned with my health.  It was simple because you could buy the bottle, cook some noodles, cut some scallions and then you had a great meal.  I would make it almost every day when it got really hot outside.

I’ve been trying to challenge myself in my culinary adventures.  Also the heat has made me really nostalgic for cold dishes because, well, I hate heat and humidity.  So, I’ve been really excited to eat this dish.  I went to the local Asian store and grabbed a bottle of the zaru udon/soba dipping sauce.  I read the ingredients and was like “Hey! I can make that!”  So I bought what was listed on the ingredients and went home to try to make the sauce.

It’s easy and requires no oil.  It’s also quick to cook.  The wait is a somewhat painful though.  Because it’s meant as a cold dish, the cooling time to get the dipping sauce to ice cold takes a while.  Unless you have access to the Iron Chef America Kitchen Stadium or have a blast chiller at home, then I would give the sauce some time to cook.  You can actually make it in advanced and it will keep for 4-5 days.

There are a lot of ingredient descriptions and notes.  Click on the ingredients to be directed to the “things to know” section to learn more info about it.

This is perfect for the random heat wave that is hitting the world.  Icy cold noodles in icy cold dipping sauce for icy cold goodness [and Tom Selleck].

~stuff

6 1 inch pieces dried kombu

4 cups water

1 tsp hon dashi

1 tsp mirin

4 tsp soy sauce

¼ cup katsuoboshi

1 tsp rice vinegar

4 servings dried udon noodles

1 tsp grated ginger

4 tsp grated daikon, optional

4 tsp minced scallion

chopped toasted nori, optional

wasabi, optional

~steps

combine the first seven ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to simmer on medium heat for 15 – 30 minutes.

remove broth from heat and chill completely for 2 hours

boil a large pot of water for noodles

cook noodles according to package instructions and blanch in ice cold water

strain broth to remove bonito flakes and kombu and discard

serve broth in small container beside strained noodles.

provide ¼ tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp of daikon and scallion, and some wasabi on side to allow person to add as much or little as they like.

-serves 4-

winter melon soup with clams

winter melon soup with clams

It’s starting to get colder and colder in New York.  This means less going out for meals, and more staying in to cook.  It’s a great money saver in that the heat from cooking usually helps warm the house, plus it’s a bonus for the readers because it means frequent posts.  The weather is cool and crisp, or as my roommate would describe it, “brrr, yuck, ouch, ahh, splat!”  [not sure what splat is….but ok].  Regardless if I don’t know what splat is describing, this weather is for sure good for some soup.  It’s one of my favorite things for the winter season.  Cooking up a soup on the stove and eating it with my meal, is not only warming but also brings me back to family dinners.  No matter how hot the Southern California weather was, my Mom was sure to cook a pot of soup every meal.  While kids across America where drinking soda or juice with their meal, I was drinking soup.

Most of the soup I had growing up was meat based, but there were 2 soups that my mom would deviate from beef, pork, or chicken: miso soup and winter melon soup.  They were all good, but the winter melon soup had a ginger base so it was spicy and gave off an internal heat that heated you from the inside out.  It’s an extremely easy soup and only has four ingredients: winter melon, ginger, clam, and water.  How hard is that?  Winter melon is tough to describe.  It’s a large squash that is green and slightly waxy on the outside but produces a spongy, white flesh.  It grows primarily in warm and sunny weather, but lasts a long time when uncut.  I think that’s why it’s called winter melon.  People would grow it in the summer, and then keep it until the winter to ensure fresh produce for the cold season.  It’s like the super endurance melon.  The superman of melons.  Some melons can stay fresh for up to seven or eight months, some up to a year.  However, once cut, you should use the flesh as soon as possible.  The kryptonite of the melon.  A knife.  Winter melon is a pretty amazing melon.

This soup is crisp, clean, and produces a delicious broth.  Most of the cooking time is to soften the melon and let the flavor of the melon and ginger release into the water and create a broth.  The last 30 minutes of cooking is really to add the clams, cook them, and let the little shellfish release the juices to add a hint of ocean to the broth.  It adds an umami flavor to the brother to really help balance it out.   The end result is a slightly sweet, savory, and spicy broth that does nothing but warm your body and make you smile.  So, head to the nearest Asian market and pick up a winter melon, ginger, and clams and make this crisp and refreshing broth.

~stuff

17 cubes of winter melon, about 1-2 inches

12 small clams, i.e. little neck

¼ cup ginger, julienne

5 cups cold water

2 tsp salt

~steps

fill large soup pot with winter melon and ginger

pour 4 cups of cold water until water barely covers the top

heat till boiling on high

turn down heat to medium and simmer for 45 minutes

add remaining water and clams

simmer for 30 minutes

discard any unopened clams

serve with ground white pepper (optional)

-serves 6-

Mom’s Noodle Soup

mom's noodle soup

This post is dedicated to my mom.  Thanks for being my chef, my teacher, and my care-taker.  I love you mom

I’m home sick today.  I’ve actually been home sick for the past two days.  Being surrounded by tissues, bad daytime tv, soft comfortable pillows, and lots of liquids, I didn’t really feel in the mood for cooking something extravagant.  I decided that I needed some of mom’s treatment for any sickness.  A nice bowl of hot noodle soup.  Yum.

This noodle soup is easy and always evokes comfort and warmth for me.  Whenever I would be sick, it was always a great day if I didn’t focus on all the mucus, aches, and pains.  Hey, I at least got to stay home and watch tv and drink lots of sprite or 7 up.  Although my mom said that the tv can only be on Sesame Street when I was home sick, I still found a way to sneak in some other shows.  The best thing however, besides the massive amount of tv I watched, was that I knew my Mom would make this noodle soup for me when she got home.

The concept is simple, and standard.  But start with chicken broth, add in noodles, put in some protein and put vegetables in it.  I changed some things from my Mom’s recipe to make it my own.  I started by browning some onion in a little canola oil with some coriander, chili pepper, and sesame seeds.  Just to help add a layer of flavor to the canned chicken broth.  We usually have bok choy in the house, but I wasn’t feeling like cleaning and prepping vegetables.  I was sick.  The same thing with the noodles.  I didn’t feel like having an extra pot out to cook noodles, so I opted for the easy rice noodles.  So if you can’t tell, this dish is for your imagination.  Do what you want, add last nights’ chicken or roast duck.  Throw in some tofu.  Finish it of with some Sriracha.  Top it with some Lechon.  Regardless of what you choose, own it and make it your own.

Oh,and my mom had this weird idea that because sprite was lemon flavored, it had vitamin C.  That’s why we where allowed to drink it when my brother and I where sick.

~stuff

1 tbs canola oil

1/4 cup sliced onion

1/4 tsp sesame seed

1/4 tsp red chili flake

1/8 tsp ground coriander

2 cups of chicken stock

4 large re-hydrated shitake mushroom sliced

2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 large egg beaten

1 scallion stalk minced (optional)

handful of leafy greens (I used frozen spinach and just cut half a box)

# cooked noodles

~steps

heat canola oil over high heat.

sautee onion, sesame seeds, chili flakes, and coriander to onion begins to soften

pour chicken stock and bring to a boil

add toppings except for egg and scallion (mushroom, vegetables, lechon, etc…)

turn down heat to low and slowly drizzle scramble egg into broth while slowly stirring the soup to create ribbons (voila, egg drop soup)

pour finished soup over bowl of cooked noodles

garnish with hot sauce and scallions

-serves 2-