More than anything, this week has been accompanied by a strong feeling of being cheated! I'm in Houston for three months, and for all the hotter than hell months, I was promised that come winter, all those suckers in the east coast will be freezing and we here will enjoy a nice warm weather. And winter came, and it got colder here than it was in NY, now how is that fair?
But, well known optimist that I am ( ;) ) I decided to make lemonade from this lemon I was served, well, soup really! I'm a huge soup lover and was sad about not doing that much. So first I made a corn egg-drop soup that was yummy (mom is a genius, it's her interpretation of a dish they have at a Thai/Chinese restaurant there and it's great!). But really, the best soup is chicken and vegetable soup, so that was next!
If you've read my blog before you know my love of pressure cookers. But at soup season, it gets even more! man it makes life easy! Mine is Fagor 8L, which means I could make a ton of soup! and it really works great! best 100$ ever!
Now for the recipe!
Soup
Ingredients
2 lb chicken
(I prefer
drumsticks, but you can either use whole chicken or mainly red meat, I think
chicken breasts dry out when cooked in meals). This time I used whole chicken,
and it gives so much flavor, but such a mess to cut it. Who wants to teach me?
1 large onion, sliced or diced
5-6 carrots, cut large pieces
5-6 celery stalks , cut large pieces
1 beet, cut smaller
5-6 baby potatoes, whole
(you can use
regular potatoes cut to the same size as carrots. I cook to have leftovers, and
my experience has been that potatoes dry out and get a strange taste. My solution
has been to use baby potatoes who. The skin keeps it moist and good!)
3-4 sweet potatoes, large pieces
1 zucchini – large pieces
1 bunch parsley, chopped small
½ cup rice
1 stick cinnamon
1 lemon juiced
Unground/whole spices (5 allspice and pepper, 2 cardamom, bay
leaf)
(I use whole
spices in anything that I make stock. Nice trick is to use a tea infuser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infuser)
to put the spices in so you don’t have to fish them out at the end!)
Salt.
Preparation
One of the things I love most about making soup is that there
really are no real roles, you just do what you want, put what you want, and
there, lovely! So sometimes I’ll cut the veggies small, others I feel like
bigger chunks, and often I anyway cook them until they are all smooth (it’s one
of my vices, family trait really, we love our food well cooked!). The trick is
to know how things cook: sweet potatoes cooks really fast, so it ends up
melting and giving that beautiful color for me. Carrots, potatoes and celery
take much longer, and beets the longest. So make sure to cut them according to
cooking time, smallest for the longer cooking time.
1.
Brown the chicken.
o
Since I had a hard time cutting the chicken, it was big
chunks, so needed a bit more cooking.
2.
Add some mixed spices and the onions and let them cook for
a bit.
3.
Add the vegetables and cook for a bit
o
Here, I want to stress that you can really use any vegetables
you want. I tried so many things. If you go for broccoli, you have to steam it
and add it at the end. Cauliflower is very dominant and will take over the
taste. Cabbage could also be a good idea, but also not too much. Peas. Mushroom
(that you should sauté before for texture in my opinion). Celery root. Pumpkin.
Tomato . .. .
4.
Add water, cinnamon stick and whole spices, lemon juice and
salt.
o
The amount of water to use depends on whether you are using
a pressure-cooker or not. For pressure cooker, cover the everything and add a
bit more. For regular pot, probably double, but keep an eye and add water if
needed.
5.
Bring to boil and let cook.
o
If you are using a pressure cooker, once it comes to boil (making
loud noise) let cook for 15 min. Regular pot, cook for 45 min to an hour.
Depends on how you like your soup!
6.
Rice or Pasta; Don’t have to but you can make it a meal this way by adding starch:
o
If you used pressure cooker: add rice and let cook until
its cooked (or precook it and add it for speed, less good as it gets less of
the flavor).
o
If it’s a regular pot: add 15 minutes before it’s ready.
7.
Add parsley, stir and serve!
Enjoy!
God this makes me hungry... looks positively delicious!! And perfect for cold weather, which I agree is totally unfair in Texas (or anywhere except Canada, they deserve it).
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