Slurp

Out of a can or home-made, soups really are mmm-mmm-good!! :))))

Happy New Year to all my blog readers – I hope you had a safe, fun holiday with family and friends. My wish to you in the New Year is that you prosper in health and wealth, grounded in your faith and love of your families.  Over the holidays I was able to really enjoy some wonderful soups (and chili).  When the mercury dropped below zero, I was the first at the table with spoon in hand to lap up some of Jackie’s creations.  As a “foodie” (my definition is “eat everything”), soup and hearty sandwich on a blustery day is at the top of my list.  (who doesn’t dip your sandwich in the soup?) And when you are feeling down, there’s NOTHING like a bowl of steamy chicken noodle soup.  I know every family has “their” recipe and way of making it – as chicken soup is undeniable the dish that has souped its way into the hearts of people throughout the world and has become a staple ‘rainy day’/’sick day’ comfort meal. Here’s a little history, some recipes to try, and a great production video on how soup is made for my production buds out there.  If you have a “to die for” family recipe, please email it to me at skowalski@khtheat.com and I’ll ask Jackie to give it a try.  Thanks to Wikipedia, The Oxford Student, You Tube and the recipe folks for the info – ENJOY! (and don’t forget the crackers – saltines or oyster or wheat or Ritz or … perhaps another blog topic 😊.

Makin’ Soup

Chicken soup is a soup made from chicken, simmered in water, usually with various other ingredients. The classic chicken soup consists of a clear chicken broth, often with pieces of chicken or vegetables; common additions are pasta, noodles, dumplings, or grains such as rice and barley. Chicken soup has acquired the reputation of a folk remedy for colds and influenza, and in many countries is considered a comfort food.

Chicken soup has been with us for a long, long time, and there its fame has made its history so easy to find. People have obsessed over chicken soup since the domestication of fowl around 7,000 to 10,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. The Ancient Greeks also had their own version of chicken broth and believed the soup to have healing properties much like today.

Variations on the flavor are gained by adding root vegetables such as parsnip, potato, sweet potato and celery root; herbs such as bay leaves, parsley and dill; other vegetables such as zucchini, whole garlic cloves, lettuce, or tomatoes; and black pepper. Saffron or turmeric are sometimes added as a yellow colorant.

Chicken soup is the undoubtable symbol of Jewish cuisine. But the hot broth — made of scarce and expensive fresh meat — was not always readily available in every Eastern European community.  There was one day a year when every family, rich or poor, prepared the soup: Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  “At night, the people of the village [Cycow in Poland] would wave fluttering chickens above their heads for the atonement ceremony called kapparot, and right after the ceremony people marched in droves to the slaughterhouse,” recalled Shmil Holand in his book “Schmaltz.” A few hours later, the village was filled with the aroma of fresh chicken soup, which was then served before the Yom Kippur fast.

While every chef has their own approach, some terms to keep in mind when creating your base:

• Chicken broth is the liquid part of chicken soup. Broth can be served as is, or used as stock, or served as soup with noodles. Chicken bouillon or bouillon de poulet is the French term for chicken broth.
• Chicken consommé is a more refined chicken broth. It is usually strained to perfect clarity and reduced to concentrate it.
• Chicken stock is a liquid in which chicken bones and vegetables have been simmered for the purpose of serving as an ingredient in more complex dishes.
• Chicken stew is a more substantial dish with a higher ratio of solids to broth. The broth may also be thickened toward a gravy-like consistency with a roux or by adding flour-based dumplings

Some ingredient variations to try from around the world include: 

• China ginger, scallions, black pepper, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil.
• Colombia includes maize, three types of potatoes, avocado, capers, and a herb called guascas, and is served with a dollop of cream.
• Denmark uses suppehøner (“soup-hens”) celeriac, carrots, onions and leek are usually added and typical flavourings are thyme, laurels and white pepper.
• France serves chicken-based forms of bouillon and consommé with bay leaves, fresh thyme, dry white wine and garlic. Germany uses chicken broth, vegetables, such as carrots, spices and herbs and small noodles. For the broth, a large hen, called a Suppenhuhn (lit.: “soup hen”), may be boiled.
• Ghana chicken soup, also known as Chicken Light soup is made by cooking the chicken in a blended mixture of tomatoes, onions, pepper and other spices and sometimes garden eggs and is served primarily with fufu or on its own.
• Greece In Greece, chicken soup is most commonly made in the avgolemono (“egg-lemon”) fashion, wherein beaten eggs mixed with lemon are added to a broth slowly so that the mixture heats up without curdling, also adding rice or pasta like kritharáki (“little barley;” orzo), resulting in a thicker texture.
• Hungary is a clear soup, a consommé, called Újházi chicken soup. A consommé with entire pieces of chicken, chicken liver and heart, with chunky vegetables and spices like whole black peppercorn, bay leaves, salt and ground black pepper.
• Indonesia sayur sop, vegetable and chicken broth soup that contains chicken pieces, potato, green beans, carrot, celery, and fried shallot.
• Italy often served with pasta, in such dishes as cappelletti in brodo, tortellini in brodo and passatelli. Even when served on its own, the meat and any vegetables used are usually removed from the broth and served as a second dish.
• Japan torijiru starts with dashi, which is made from boiling konbu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna flakes), and not by boiling the chicken (whole chicken is not typically available in Japanese supermarkets). After the dashi is prepared, pieces of boneless chicken thigh meat are usually used and combined with vegetables.
• Jewish (Ashkenazi) The Russian and Polish Jewish communities use a relatively high proportion of chicken stock for their soup, made mostly from the bones. The soup is prepared with herbs like parsley and fresh dill or thyme, and is often served with knaidlach (matzah balls), kreplach (dumplings), lokshen (flat egg noodles), or mandlen (Shkedei Marak in Israel) (soup “almonds”). A traditional garnish was eyerlekh (little eggs). These unlaid chicken eggs were taken from a hen and boiled in the soup.
• Mexico Caldo de pollo, is a common Latin-American soup made with whole chicken pieces instead of chopped or shredded chicken, and large cuts of vegetables, such as half-slices of potatoes and whole leaves of cabbage.
• Pakistan most famous one is Chicken Corn Soup served as a popular street food in the winter. White vinegar with green chilli slices, soy sauce, and red chilli sauce are condiments often served alongside chicken soup.
• Polish (Yeah!) The Polish chicken soup is called rosół. It is commonly served with fine noodles, boiled carrots and parsley every Sunday. The broth is served separate from chicken meat. There are many types of rosół, as: Rosół Królewski (royal rosół), made of three meats: beef or veal, white poultry (hen, turkey or chicken) and dark poultry as duck, goose (crop only The cooking must take at least six hours of sensitive boiling over a small fire. At the end, softly burnt onion is added to the soup. Rosół myśliwski (The hunter’s rosół) is made of a variety of wild birds as well as pheasant, capercaillie, wood grouse, black grouse, or grey partridge, with a small addition of roe deer meat, a couple of wild mushrooms, and 2–3 juniper fruits.

If you are brave enough to veer from tradition, here are a few recipes to try:
>>THIS ONE
>>THIS ONE
>>AND THIS ONE

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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