More Soup

I've never  succeeded at making a creamy soup before. Sometimes I can get away with using soy cream cheese to replicate some of the cream taste, but it's never quite right. but this 'creamy' chicken soup turned out very very tasty! I adapted one of the recipes from the Julia Child cookbook where she uses pureed cooked rice to thicken the soup base. I precooked the carrots in the microwave, which prevented them from turning mushy and shortened the overall soup cooking time. I had frozen puff pastry sheets so I just covered an oven proof dish filled with soup with the pastry and it was great. I liked the crisp on the outside but a little popover type doughiness (should be a word, anyway) of the finished crust.

Creamy Chicken Soup (milk free) for Chicken Pot Pie

Dice, and sauté in 2-3 tbl butter or margarine until limp: ( I put it all in my largest sauce pan.)
    1/2 sweet onion, (about 2 cups diced) 2-3  ribs of celery, (about 1 ½ cups)
Meanwhile, cook 1 ½ cups diced or bite size julienne sliced carrots in 2 cups chicken broth in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes or until just starting to soften. Reserve the carrots.
Combine in the large saucepan with the onion mixture~
    ½ cup raw white rice, the chicken broth without the carrots, plus 4-5 cups
    additional liquid- more broth (vegetable, chicken) or water
    ½ cup dry white wine
    1 tsp dried thyme, 2 chicken bouillon cubes, 1 lg bay leaf
Cook until the rice is very tender about 30 minutes.  Add 2tbls soy (or real) cream cheese. Puree the mixture until smooth and creamy. (I put it in the food processor- remove the bay leaf)
Return to the saucepan, over med low heat and add:
2 boned and skinned chicken breast halves cut into 4 pieces
The reserved carrots
 Simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken can be shredded. Shred the chicken into bite size, but hearty chunks. Return to pot and add:
    Salt and pepper to taste
    1 cup sliced or diced raw mushrooms
    3 green onions diced
    1 cup frozen peas
    fresh or dried parsley to taste
Simmer for another 5-15 minutes or until mushrooms soften.
Serve as  a yummy soup OR ladle into an oven proof high sided soufflé dish or other casserole type bowl. Lay one thawed square of Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry Dough sheets (available in the freezer section of most big box grocery stores) over the top of the dish and arrange and crimp the dough to form a generous pleated if need be ‘lid’ to the pie. Brush with one beaten egg wash. Cook until puffed and browned in a 425 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Jane and Julia and Potato Leek Soup

I've been reading Jane's copy of The Way to Cook by Julia Child. She didn't make notes in it as she did with some of the recipe books that she gave to me as gifts, but I know how much she admired Julia Child and enjoyed her joy of life. Some of the pages are soiled with the fruits of her labors and there are clippings stuck in here and there of fancy french newspaper recipes like "Daube d'agneau aux artichauts" So, I'm enjoying the spirit of the book on many levels. I'm also learning quite a bit.
Did you know that if you dry off chicken fillets before you try to saute them, they will brown more evenly? Or that a tiny bit of soy sauce, ketchup, or mushrooms added to many dishes can intensify the flavor without lending their own particular tastes to it?  The first section is on soups, and as it happens, I've been playing around with some soup recipes lately.  so here's an easy one- adapted from the internet and my friend Ani's advice.

Potato Leek Soup

Easy and really good.

Dice, and sauté until limp in 2-3 tbls of butter or margarine in a lg sauce pan:
    1 /2 sweet onion, 3 ribs of celery, 3 leeks, 2 cloves garlic
Combine with~
6 -8 small Yukon Gold potatoes, washed, cut into uniform size pieces
5 cups chicken broth
    ½ to 1 cup dry white wine
    1-3 bay leaves, salt, pepper, 1 tsp thyme leaves

 Simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are very soft. Remove bay leaves.
Puree mixture until smooth and creamy. Add ¼ cup fresh parsley (optional)

Serve warm or serve chilled and call it Vichyssoise.

Salsa Chicken Soup

I made this to contribute to our night before Thanksgiving dinner. Folks had started to arrive from out of town and we were gathering at our Daughter's home. It was a nice and easy meal. We had guacamole and chips and spicy persimmon salad with the soup- felt very decadent to have such pretty and fun side dishes. (Both recipes are posted)
The first time I had a soup like this was in college at our good friends' house in Mexico. We were sunburned and tired after a great beach day and pretty much just opened cans and mixed things together. We added canned black olives that day,and I think the salsa and canned tomatoes were the only other vegetables- good though.
Salsa Chicken Soup

Dice, peel if desired, and sauté until limp:
1 sweet onion, 4-5 carrots, 4-5 ribs of celery, 1 green pepper
Combine in large saucepan with~
6 ½ chicken breasts (boneless, skinless -cut in thirds)
1 can diced green chili, 1 can diced tomatoes with liquid, 1/2cup tequila,
½ cup mild salsa, 1 qt. chicken broth, 1 whole lemon- seeded cut in half
Season with- 1-2tbl smoked paprika, 5 crushed cloves garlic, chopped fresh
Cilantro (1/4 cup or so) 2 tsp cumin or to taste-2 tsp dried oregano, 2 bay
leaves. You might want to add more liquid as needed.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1 hour or until carrots are softened and chicken can be shredded. Can be frozen. Add 1 can black beans before reheating.


Serves about 8- with leftovers.