RECIPE ReDo: The Chicken is Out of the Pot---NOW WHAT?

It is hard to let the subject of chicken stock go.  The possibilities are endless and,if you make stock with each of your chicken carcasses like I do, you will always have stock in your refrigerator to use in a variety of ways.  I shouldn't have to say to freeze the stock if you aren't going to use it within a few days, but I would feel remiss if I didn't. (Ziplock freezer bags work nicely because they will lie flat and take up less space than a container.)

Sunday, I made a wonderfully easy chicken stew from America's Test Kitchen SLOW COOKER REVOLUTION Volume 2 (Provencal-Style Chicken Stew pp 64-65) and a broth bowl.  They don't go well together but that wasn't the point.  The stew is better after it rests a day and the broth bowl was Sunday's dinner.

I pulled the original recipe for the broth bowl from Pinterest and this blog http: http://www.sweetloveandginger.com/paneras-soba-noodle-broth-bowl-wi/. It's a "copycat" version of the Soba Noodle Broth Bowl served at Panera and it's pretty close. Follow it exactly and you will be fine. I wanted to try something different (much as my mother would have) so I used the recipe as a guide.  Here is what I did.

• Omitted the chicken breast.  Not necessary if you don't feel like having meat.
• Used shiitake mushrooms because I like the flavor and texture of shiitakes.
• Used Red Miso because it has a more robust flavor than either White or Yellow.  If you are unfamiliar with Miso, you will find it in the refrigerator section of specialty grocery stores like A Dong Supermarket in West Hartford, CT.  
• Omitted the cabbage outlined in the recipe and substituted Bok Choy. Bok Choy is in the cabbage family and if you can find baby Bok Choy, all the better.
• Omitted spinach. The Bok Choy seemed green enough.
• Substituted UDON noodles for Soba because I like Udon better.  
• My chicken stock is so rich, I used 2 cups stock and 6 cups water.  If you didn't happen to reduce your stock as much as I, then follow the recipe as directed

What do I mean by rich stock? As you "quietly simmer" your stock, the liquid evaporates.  You can choose to add more water and continue simmering or let it reduce to a deep rich color.  Another way to know if your stock is rich, is if it is gelatinous once it has been refrigerated.  Sounds unappealing but this jelly-like condition is a good thing! Just add water and heat and you will have a wonderful soup base. 

Works Cited

America's Test Kitchen, ed. Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2: Smart New Techniques, Even Less Prep, 200 Amazing New Recipes. 1st ed. 2 Vol. , 2013. Print. 

Jessica. "Panera's Soba Noodle Broth Bowl Recipe." Sweet Love and Ginger. Web. March 22, 2016 <http://www.sweetloveandginger.com/paneras-soba-noodle-broth-bowl-wi/>.

"What’s the Scoop on Bone Soup?" Harvard Women's Health Watch 23.2 (2015): 6-. Web. March 22, 2016.

Secrets in my Mother's Cook Book

I never saw the cover of my mother's cookbook until she died and I removed its protective sleeve.   She had more than one cookbook but this was most likely her first and the one I remember most.  It was published in 1946 and I like to think she bought it before getting married in 1948. Maybe she received it as a gift?  I never asked her.  I took the book for granted and used it only to make homemade pancakes,crepes,and cornstarch pudding.

When I look through it now, I sense the years behind it: life's transitions hidden in its pages. Taped inside the front cover is a newspaper clipping advising Heloise's readers to grease the bottom of cake pans with shortening rather than oil before sprinkling with flour so cakes won't stick. Sandwiched between pages, is a flattened cornstarch box with additional recipes for custard and pudding and cherry pie.  My mother advises decreasing the quantity of sugar in the custard recipe from 3/4 cup to a 1/2.  I believe her.  But why does she have the page on corn-meal mush marked? And when did she mark it?  Did she even LIKE corn-meal mush?  

One of my favorites is a clipping from February 28, 1958 highlighting "Barbara's" champion cherry pie.  (We don't know Barbara's last name and we don't know what she won because my mother only saved the recipe, not the article.)  And even though this was champion level pie, my mother commented "more cornstarch or flour" in the margin. My mother made a helluva cherry pie so, I'm going with Margie's recommendation.  

The pie chapter is clearly worn: pages thin and stained by hands that turned them and jotted reminders for future pie preparation.   
Reminders like this written in her beautiful, perfect hand and found on the back of a full-page halftone plate: 

Pie Crust + other pastry can be made more flakey if 1/2 teasp. of vinegar or lemon juice + 1/4 teasp. of olive oil are added to the cold water in mixing --- When making pie crust a little added baking powder helps to keep the crust rich + tender.

My mother didn't keep a journal, but the part of her life she enjoyed most can be found inside Woman's Home Companion Cook Book.  She had a lot to say.

Works Cited

Woman's Home Companion Cook Book, with Introduction by Dorothy Kirk. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City pub. co, 1946. NDL-OPAC. Web.

More Julia and a Chicken in Every Pot

My mother ALWAYS saved the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving to make soup. I thought it was because she grew up in the depression and felt compelled to extract every bit of nutritional life from her foodstuff.  There was no waste.  In the last half of the 20th century, this kind of thinking was considered old fashioned and down right embarrassing.  Besides which, I hate turkey soup.  But that brings me to the chicken carcass. 

For years I struggled with chicken soup.  Why couldn't I get it to taste rich, full,chicken-y?  Recipe after recipe and countless calls to my mother did not completely solve the problem.  My stock was good but it wasn't quite there.  And then there was Julia.  The mystery was solved on pages 106-109 in MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING.  It turns out, it was no mystery at all.  It was what my mother had been doing all along with turkey carcasses.  It was what women have been doing for generations...before Swanson's Chick Broth was available in every grocery and 7-11 in America...before Campbell's concentrated the basis of every meal into a 10 3/4 oz can. We "quietly simmered" chicken bones and meat scraps over several hours in partially covered soup pots until we were left with deeply colored deliciousness.  Deliciousness to which Swanson's and Campbell's could never begin to aspire. 

Bone soup is "all the rage" in 2016.  It's health benefits are extolled in every women's magazine on the newsstand making it feel like the concept of simmering meat bones is new.  It's not new it's just GOOD and all you have to do to get it right, is follow Julia's directions and, perhaps, listen to your 84 year old mother. 

TIPS from MTAOFC:
1. Never allow the liquid to boil; fat and scum incorporate themselves into the stock and will make it cloudy.
2. Cooking may be stopped at any time, and connoted later.
3. Never cover the kettle airtight unless its contents have cooled completely, to the stock will sour.  

Works Cited

Child, Julia, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 40. anniversary ed. ed. New York: Knopf, 2001. Web.

    

JULIE AND JULIA: Listen to the Mushroom

"Don't crowd the mushrooms!" Implored Julie Powell!

And she was right.  She and I had been sautéing mushrooms incorrectly since our first sauté.  That is,  until we met Julia Child;  Julie, through her blog and self-imposed goal of getting through MASTERING THE ART of FRENCH COOKING,  and I through Nora Ephron's adaptation of Julie Powell's blog.

The simplicity of Julia's technique speaks to its brilliance.  Butter, oil, mushrooms.  That's it.  The key is the method. The butter and oil are heated and when the foam subsides, the mushrooms are added.  Through the workings and mysteries of science, they absorb the fat and when they are ready...they release it....It is a beautiful thing.  Trust it. They are not watery.  They are not steamed.  They are only delicious.

There is much more to say about Julia Child, the people she knew, the places she lived, the letters she wrote; but for now, let's leave it with Champignons Sautés Au Beurre on page 513 of MASTERING THE ART of FRENCH COOKING.

Works Cited

Child, Julia, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 40. anniversary ed. ed. New York: Knopf, 2001. Web. 

Julie & Julia. Dir. Ephron, Nora. Perf. Streep, Meryl, and Amy Adams. Sony Pictures, 2009. Wide Screen.

Powell, Julia. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2006. Web. March 19, 2016.