The Food Thread

Evo

But you said that you make the stock and strain it first, which is traditional. Or are you saying that just boiling the chicken in water is not how you grew up?

turbo

You roast the chicken first. Then strip off the the meat and skin. Boil off the skin and bones after reserving the meat. Strain out the bones and waste, and that fluid is your stock. Make your soup out of that stock.

Evo

Ok, we agree.

lisab

Oh I want to talk about roux!

My favorite: equal parts flour and peanut oil. Cook on medium heat until it's the color of peanut butter, about 40 minutes, stirring constantly once it's hot (yes, 40 minutes!).

Result: roast-nut tasting roux. Really yummy in a gumbo.

Much faster roux can be made with butter or drippings from bacon, etc.

Anyone cook much with roux?

Moonbear

It is made JUST LIKE STOCK, I just don't WASTE PERFECTLY GOOD CHICKEN by throwing it away! And, YOUR way does not neccessarily equate the CORRECT way! You always get such a snobby attitude about the way YOU make something. You've never had MY soup, so you have NO RIGHT saying it is bland. Everyone else here is capable of sharing recipes and ideas without declaring their way the only right way or passing judgement on other people's cooking when they have never tasted that dish. Try being a little less judgemental just once in your life!

Evo

I said "if you like it without stock, that's ok". I also said people have different tastes. I said it was "my preference" to make soup with stock. I've had chicken soup made without stock, and it is too bland for my taste. Am I supposed to lie about what I like? And it is traditional to make soup with stock.

WhoWee

I'm going to try that as a substitute for peanuts in a stir-fry.

Monique

Fortunately, I'm not making soup tonight but a rainbow terrine. To cheer up the thread:

Jimmy Snyder

The spaghetti was a success. That's two and a half meals this week that my wife didn't have to cook. I'm going for five next week. She can still cook on the weekends and usually we eat out then anyway. For instance, tomorrow we're going to a newly opened authentic Taiwanese restaurant. They make a kind of bread sandwich call saubin-yotiau. I ate this in Taiwan for breakfast and liked it immensely so I'm looking forward to the Americanized version. Also oyster pancakes.

Tonight I treat myself to my weekly beer. I always eat a snack when I drink so I won't get intoxicated. I got a kind of cheese I never saw before. It's a brie, but with blue cheese mold in it. I snuck a taste and it's pretty good.

turbo

Good, Jimmy! Keep up the good work.

Evo

Congrats!! A budding cook.

Please explain, I love pancakes and I love oysters.

Sounds interesting, what's the name?

Jimmy Snyder

Oysters, rice flour, eggs, and spinach or other veggie. The cheese is called Saga Classic Blue Brie by a company called Arla Foods from the French Quarter of Basking Ridge, NJ.

Evo

Jimmy, is this like what you are referring to?

http://www.chezpei.com/2007/01/taiwa...r-pancake.html

Jimmy Snyder

Yes, that's it.

netgypsy

this sounds interesting. I love Vietnamese pancakes. Have to try to find a recipe for them.

turbo

OK, time to put Chicken Soup in a single post (with details) so that people can try it out. first off, my wife and I prefer dark meat, so she usually looks for deals on thighs or legs, but this will work well for whole chickens, too. Rub your chicken/chicken parts with powdered sage, smoked paprika, ground black pepper, and salt. Place the chicken in a metal pan coated with olive oil, cover the pan with aluminum foil, and put that pan into a preheated oven at about 350 deg. When the chicken is nearly done (use a meat thermometer) take off the foil and cook for a while longer (this is when I activate the convection feature on our oven) to brown the skin.

After enjoying your supper of roast chicken, it's time to make soup. Put a bit of water in your roasting pan and heat it on the range to lift the juices, fats, bits of skin, etc, and dump the contents into your stock pot. Strip off all the skin from the remaining chicken and throw that in the stock pot. Strip all the meat from the bones and reserve the meat. Clip the large bones with poultry shears and put all the bones in the stock pot. Now is a good time to look ahead to vegetables and use those, too. Chop off the bases and tops of celery stalks, the tips and tops of carrots, etc, and throw those into the stock pot. Bring to a boil and simmer all of that for a few hours. Your house should smell really good, especially if it's winter and you've had to shovel snow or some other onerous chore.

After a couple of hours, it's time to get ready to make soup. Take the reserved chicken meat and chop it up and put it into a large bowl. Get out at least a couple of cloves of fresh garlic and crush that into the bowl. Get out some fresh onions (I prefer yellow onions) and chop those and add them to the bowl. Grab the celery and carrots that you trimmed earlier, chop them, and add those to the bowl. Time to chop a a potato or two (depending on the potential size of the soup) and add that to the bowl, too.

Put a colander into a large pot in your sink and pour the contents of the stock pot into it. This lets you separate the skin, bones, and vegetable scraps from the tasty stock quickly. Take the large pot (with the stock) out of the sink, and put it on the range and heat it gently and immediately add all the contents of the bowl (diced chicken, vegetables, etc) cover and simmer. In a couple of hours, you'll have the best chicken soup you have ever tasted. There is some time involved, but the time is mostly in roasting, simmering, and simmering the final product, so it's not like you are tied up all day.

Evo

Wow, that puts my chicken soup to shame, I've got to try your recipe, sounds much more savory than what i've been making. I think you've nailed it. If it's as good as it sounds, I'm stealing your recipe and entering a cooking contest. I'm all for savory. Hopefully I can make that tomorrow during chat. I agree on the dark meat. I've noticed that after all of these years of cooks touting boneless, skinless chicken breasts, that they switched to touting dark meat for flavor and moisture.