Chicken Soups

[Suvir Saran]

But Country Captain is not soup.

Is Country Captain not a thick, Anglo-Indian curry-like chicken stew traditionally served over rice or sometimes noodles???

Yes honey bunches, sugar pie, it is a thick curry. But not a soup.

And yes Country Captain is served with rice.

It also has sweet peppers in it.

Edited November 20, 2002 by Suvir Saran (log)

[Suvir Saran]

For some reason, I associate this dish with the U.S. South.  Most of the cooks that I know prepare it often are Southern, including the one who first gave me my recipe.

Additional Edit:  It is true that your thread was about Chicken soups and in my mind, I expanded that to include stews as well.  Perhaps I should not have done that.

Jaymes if you are including Stews... Country Captain would be a great one to have. And yes my own recipes for Country Captain come from Southern chefs.

And I have at least 3 different versions.

The Indian disarray made its way to the deep South as well.

Share your recipe now Jaymes... Please honey bunches, sugar pie.

Edited November 20, 2002 by Suvir Saran (log)

[Suvir Saran]

BLACK PEPPER RASAM WITH TAMARIND

You can use chicken broth instead of water in this recipe. And get what would have been closest to an authentic Malaga Tanni. It is lost in India as well. Maybe this thread can revive that old recipe.

Serves 4 to 6

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons canola oil

2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons toor dal

1 teaspoon urad dal

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

4 whole dried red chilies or 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon asafoetida

2 teaspoons tamarind liquid (tamco)

2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a small frying pan or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of the mustard seeds, the coriander seeds, the dals, black peppercorns, cumin, red chilies or red pepper flakes, and the asafoetida and cook, stirring, until the urad dal turns a light golden brown and the mixture is fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and let the spice mixture cool to room temperature. Then grind to a powder in a spice grinder.

2. Dissolve the tamarind in 1/2 cup warm water and set aside.

3. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon mustard seeds and cook until they begin to pop.

4. Add the tamarind water, 3 1/2 cups water, the spice powder and the salt. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro, and serve.

Mix with rice and eat! It can be preserved for a week if a little more oil is used.

[Six-pack-to-go]

Ah, a Much like the soup in the original post with which 6-pack started this thread, but with chicken chunks (on the bone) and hominy as well

Posole??? With Hominy huh? Is it popular in Mexico? Now see that is something that I would not normally associate with Mexican and being from the north do not usually see grits either much less hominy. In fact, however the only place I have really ever seen hominy up north for sale was at Mexican eatery/import shop! And it was in a can already prepared. If you can follow my twisted reasoning of making sense of things. Which brings me to the question of why would anybody want to add lye to grits? Now that is a digression...

EDIT: jus to make a little more sense...

Edited November 20, 2002 by Six-pack-to-go (log)

[sladeums]

Posole???  With Hominy huh? Is it popular in Mexico?  Now see that is something that I would not normally associate with Mexican and being from the north do not usually see grits either much less hominy.  In fact, however the only place I have really ever seen hominy up north for sale was at Mexican eatery/import shop!  And it was in a can already prepared.  If you can follow my twisted reasoning of making sense of things.  Which brings me to the question of why would anybody want to add lye to grits?  Now that is a digression...

EDIT: jus to make a little more sense...

Posole is a quite common dish in Mexico.

Made with stock, chiles, onion, garlic, herbs, chunks of pork, sometimes chicken, and whole hominy. Tomatillos can be added to make a Posole Verde.

Ideally the pedicel at the base of the corn kernel (hominy) is removed so the corn 'flowers' as it cooks.

Posole is usually served with several garnishes alongside for the diner to add as they see fit. Some common garnishes would be: cabbage or lettuce, limes, chiles, diced onion, oregano or whatever you enjoy.

Most posole I've encountered has more of a pork than chicken character to me...but it is still a wonderful soup, great for cold weather days, sick days and a wonderful post-hangover breakfast.

Lye is added to whole corn kernels to remove the tough outer husk, resulting in hominy...which I think is the initial steps to making grits.

[Six-pack-to-go]

Lye is added to whole corn kernels to remove the tough outer husk, resulting in hominy...which I think is the initial steps to making grits.

hmmmm... see I have always been told that grits are grits and that hominy is grits soaked in lye. Could be wrong. You sound like you know what your talking about. But I digress...

[Suzanne F]

Ah, a Much like the soup in the original post with which 6-pack started this thread, but with chicken chunks (on the bone) and hominy as well

Posole??? With Hominy huh? Is it popular in Mexico? Now see that is something that I would not normally associate with Mexican and being from the north do not usually see grits either much less hominy. In fact, however the only place I have really ever seen hominy up north for sale was at Mexican eatery/import shop! And it was in a can already prepared. If you can follow my twisted reasoning of making sense of things. Which brings me to the question of why would anybody want to add lye to grits? Now that is a digression...

EDIT: jus to make a little more sense...

When I worked for a manufacturer that had about 95% Mexican staff, they always brought a big pot to the Xmas party.

Hominy is just processed corn. I used to always hear the term "hominy grits" (not sure why I ever heard it at all, since I grew up in Flushing, NY, not exactly a hotbed of south-of-the-border cuisines back then).

If you can find it, there was a really good article in Food Arts magazine a few months ago about hominy that is being grown by an Indian tribe in upstate NY (I think).

BTW: my pot of posole smells terrific -- but since I use canned hominy, I haven't added it yet. Will do just before I serve it tomorrow.

Edited November 20, 2002 by Suzanne F (log)

[suzilightning]

Anyone knows of  any northern African or Middle Eastern chicken soups/stews.  How about Indian?  Russian or eastern European?  This may sound dopey but I do really find chicken soups world wide fascinating.  It seems to be the one food all civilizations have in common.

at the restaurant i used to work in we made senegalese soup: onions, butter, flour, curry powder, chicken stock, egg yolks, light cream, shredded chicken and toasted coconut.

my husband still prefers a chicken vegetable noodle soup but i put garlic in both the stock and the finished product

[steverino]

I have yet to try to make Avgolemono.  It is one on my list list of soups to try and make.  Any difficulties you may have had to eliminate or any fine tuning you can suggest?

6 Pack T Go - here's a quick recipe for avgolemeno -

6 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups white rice

1 egg

3 egg yolks

juice of 2 lemons

1.heat broth, add rice and simmer for about 20 minutes, until rice is tender

2.combine egg and yolks in medium sized bowl, beat in lemon juice slowly

3.temper eggs by very slowly beating in 1 cup or so of stock

4.slowly beat tempered egg mixture back into pot

5. salt and pepper to taste, serve promptly.

"Possible difficulty" elimination:

add enough stock SLOWLY to egg/lemon to get close to stock temperature.

DO NOT bring soup to boil, or you'll have scrambled eggs in your soup.

I've made this soup with homemade stock, as well as canned broth (low sodium). I've also used bottled lemon juice (gasp!) in a pinch.

While the results are better with homemade, you can pull this soup together in 30 -45 minutes with canned broth, and it still is quite delicious. As a matter of fact, I told my family I was making this this coming Monday (with stock I'll make on Sunday), and my 16 year-old informed his younger sister and brother that he would be "eating all of it, you better figure out what you'll be eating."

Ahh, 16 year-old boys, they run the world.

And eat enough that you'd think they could eat it, too.

[plax]

My favorite chicken soup is one from Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking. She's one of my favorite authors (love her fiction as well as her recipes) and the soup is just delicious, with a little lemon juice (there's that citrus again), a beaten egg, asparagus and tiny pasta. Yum!

Neil

[Six-pack-to-go]

Oh my, I am jus going have to raid the ole freezer this weekend and hope for enough bones to make some stock. If I have to I will cheat and go to the butcher two and get some raw breast bones, although I do not believe they have as much depth as previous roasted bones. I guess I could always jus throw them into the oven for 20 minutes or so before I start the stock.

So many gooood sounding recipes, I do not know where to start. I think maybe avgolemeno, I have been meaning to try it at home for some time now. I jus love the velvety texture that the eggs add. However those Aisin style soups sound great too and I got a bunch of lemon grass taking up room in my freezer. However, I am a sucker for creamy chicken and that Senegalese soup sounds irresistible. So many choices, I am overwhelmed!!!

Maybe I'll jus crack open a can of chicken and stars... hehehe... Not!