chicken soup & ham quiche

for a change, a soup... what can i say, we like soup, and eat a lot of it. this time i had a vision (how grand!) of a clear chicken soup with lots of veggies. as usual, i used what i had in the fridge. except for the chicken (4 breast fillets) which i got specifically soup in mind.

started by poaching the fillets in 4 cups of water, 2 bayleaves, one shallot (quartered) and some peppercorns, this took approx 10 min. then took the chicken out and strained the poaching liquid into a clean pot







veggies then, i used what was left of the napa cabbage, one carrot, one parsnip, one mild spanish chilli, 100 gr piece of celeriac, green onions, ginger and a few celery stalks, and fresh coriander (cilantro) as garnish







the wrist isn't too happy about me chopping this and that here and there (although i do find the chopping quite meditative...) anyways, i do have gadgets to do all kinds of motorized actions with various food items. took out my bamix that came with a small army of accessories, like a grater







1 minute and the carrot, parsnip and celeriac were done (why do i even bother with the knife...)







this soup is so good for you, almost zero fat ('cause i trimmed whatever was on the fillets) and uber low-sodium ('cause i didn't add any salt). brought the poaching liquid to a boil, added 2 cups of boiling water, the carrot, parsnip, celeriac, ginger (that i minced with knife), celery stalks (sliced quite thinly), hard parts of cabbage (chopped to 1 cm pieces), simmered that for 10 mins before adding the chicken and cooking for 5 more minutes. then poured in all the rest (green onions sliced, coriander and cabbage leaves chopped, chilli minced), turned off the heat and left the pot on stove for 5 more mins.

sure, no salt is an aquired taste, but with the ginger, coriander and green onions going on, i did not miss salt







as usual, there was plenty to take to work, and for certain someone to feed himself (though, i'm not sure he always bothers to heat his food...) while i'm gone







the soup happened yesterday. i had decided to bake scones this morning, but felt kinda lazy... scones became ham quiche instead, go figure.

i have no idea how this happens, but there seems to be an endless supply of frozen pie doughs in the freezer. i've told myself not buy any but they keep showing up. so that's what i used as crust

thought that i still had some leeks in the fridge, but no, so instead used one shallot, minced and sauteed. that's another spanish chilli in the background, minced. (bear with me, there are still 3 more chillies in the fridge)







this quiche is another "what i had in the fidge" thing happening. forgot why i got the ham in the first place (another soup maybe?) but it made it's way into the oven on a pie crust







hmm, the dog then. he seems to have a nose for items dropping onto the floor... he came to the kitchen the second i opened the package of ham. as i was chopping it away, a piece fell from cutting board, the dog had it in his mouth before the piece hit the floor






after the ham incident i paid more attention to the cheeses ('cause the dog loves cheese). had some gouda and gruyere hiding in the fridge, grated them (don't you just love the microplane graters!)







ham, sauteed shallot and chilli with black pepper, plenty of black pepper







for the filling went 2 eggs, 3 tbsp sour cream ('cause i had some left) and 2 dl of cooking cream (so not diet food)







cheeses went on before the whole beauty went into the lower part of 225 C oven for 30 mins







slightly cooled, this made lunch with cherry tomatoes. we ate half of the quiche right away, but will take some to work tomorrow







when will i get to the scones!?