Thought I would share some recipes on here and as I am making chicken soup for our lunch here is the first one.
Ingredients
Home made chicken stock (just a chicken carcass simmered with onions carrots celery and a split chili for 2/3 hours) let it cool and scrape the fat off the top. This is also the biz for using in a risotto recipe for which I will do another time. Never throw a chicken carcasses away – if I can’t make immediate use of mine I just bung it in the freezer til I am ready.
Bits of chicken (stripped from the aforementioned carcass)
Vegetables (at least onions carrots and celery, the holy trinity of stocks, but anything else you have to hand, I used a green pepper and some tomatoes in this one.
I like a chili and ginger hit in my soup so those too. I use a jar of ready grated ginger but if you are virtuous you can peel and grate some fresh.
A handful of rice if you want to. Or pearl barley which is what I am using today.
Here we are
Method
Chop very finely the carrot onion celery and any other veg that need ‘frying’ – I have put a green pepper and garlic in this for example but I am saving the tomatoes for later.
Gently fry the mix until it goes soft but try not to let it go brown.
When it is getting soft add a couple of spoon of ginger and a chili. Depending on how hot your chili is you can either chop it up seeds and all ( say a jalapeño) but these little blighters we’ve grown are HOT so one of these split will do.
Kiss someone you love – ok not cooking but still a good idea
Remove your puppy from the vicinity of the chicken. Likewise.
Ok so now add tomatoes if you are using them – let them soften and give up their juices. If I was doing this for posh I’d peel them first but hey life’s too short. Put the lid on the pot as the steam will help. Leave them for about 15 minutes then mush them up a bit.
Now add your lovely gloopy gelatinous chicken stock (fat scraped off the top) bring to a slow simmer.
Add your rice and 5 minutes before the rice is cooked season the whole thing with about a half a teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Taste it to check. Add the chicken bits. Wait 5 mins.
Serve to your adoring loved ones or scoff the lot yourself.
It freezes well.
Ruby&Ruch 