chicken soup a la cottage

as there was a lot of left-over, on purpose, of the roasted chicken, there was bound to be a chicken soup...







i had saved the scraps from the day before when preparing the veggies for roasting. made the stock by simmering the scraps, chicken bones and skins for about an hour. then strained the solids and skimmed some of the fat on top.

then added a fresh set of carrots, parsnips and celeriac and cooked for 10 mins







i don't usually go for white pasta, but this fresh fettucine was on sale at the local grocery store, and i thought it would be great in the chicken soup (it was).







after 10 mins i added the fettucine, chicken, a small tin of sweet corn and cubed celelry (3 stalks) and simmered for 5 more mins.

this batch served the 4 of us at the cottage two lunches. the next day i added a few drops of toasted sesame oil to my portion for a little asian kick...

oven roasted lemon chicken, sprouts...& eggnog

i had wanted to roast a chicken, and make chicken soup, for a while now. brought two fresh roasting chickens with me to the cottage. i end up cooking a lot more at the cottage as there are more people to feed. had these babies for dinner yesterday and they were delish!







started with these:
2 fresh roasting chickens
8 carrots
2 yellow onions
2 red onions
brussels sprouts
1 lemon
2 tsbp soft butter
salt (yes!), crushed black pepper







peeled the carrots, sliced the yellow onions to approx 1cm slices, placed the onion on the bottom of a roasting tin, then placed the carrots on top the of onions







then grated half of the lemon and squeezed some of lemon juice onto the butter, added generous amounts of salt and black pepper to butter, halved and then quartered the lemon halves, seasoned them with salt and black pepper.







stuffed the lemon chunks into chickens, mixed butter well and smeared it onto chicken before placing them in 200C oven for 1 hr.







close to when the chickens were done, i started the side dish. first rinsed and halved the sprouts, then sliced the red onions quite fine.







started by sauteeing the onions for a few minutes, removed them onto a plate and first sauteed the sprouts in 1 tbsp butter before adding some water (in two batches) to steam them. when the sprouts were almost done, i added the onions to the pan to warm them. just before serving poured some balsamico on top.

i did take a picture of my plate but i guess i was too hungry to pay attention to its quality...

there was plenty of chicken left over but that was intentional...that was for the chicken soup that i made today (but that is for tomorrow to post about)







certain someone had asked if there was a reason one couldn't have eggnog besides christmas...well, i guess there isn't. and as there were what was needed, and plenty of booze to choose from...







mom even found nutmeg...and vanilla







i made what one of the recipes called "one portion"...it made 8 glasses...mom and i both had one, the guys ended up drinking the rest, i think they might have spiked them up, a bit...

my first attemp at eggnog, not bad but overly sweet for my taste. certain someone seemed to develop an addiction...

grated soup

spending some time at the cottage visiting my parents with certain someone and the dog. lunch today was simple and very easy vegetable soup, here's certain someone's portion with a blob of spreadable cheese with tiny specks of smoked reindeer meat.







here is what went in:
2 medium size sweet potatoes
4 small carrots
2 parsnips
100 gr celeriac
1 white onion
2 tbsp ginger
1 cube buillion

i grated everything with a microplane grater (by now, you all must know how much i like mircoplanes...). if you're worried about your eye-makeup getting smudged, you might want to consider using a knife for mincing the onion...grating it will certainly make you cry (on the other hand, a goog cry never hurt anyone). and for those of you who might occasionally have the need to hide onion in any dish, grating it makes it dissappear...







placed all the grated goodness in a pot on the (wood burning) stove, added water to barely cover the veggies and let it simmer for 15 mins...







once everything was cooked i took the immersion blender and gave the soup a whirl before adding 1 dl creme fraiche and mixing well. no salt, except for dad who thought he soup tasted sweet...







added some crisp bread on my portion. the amount of ginger was spot on, i think i might have added some thyme if not for my dad...there is something about thyme that disagrees with him...or rather, the other way around.

my minestrone

there were some large white beans in the pantry that needed to be used. i figured that a minestrone soup would be a good place for them to drown...







others to join the beans were:

celeriac, 2 parsnips, 3 carrots, a tin of crushed tomatoes, white cabbage, whole wheat elbow macaroni, onion, garlic, parsley, vegetable stock, smoked ham (could easily be left out, still a tasty soup)







once chopped the veggies amounted about:

1 cup celeriac
1 cup carrots
½ cup parsnip
½ cup cabbage
½ cup onion, 2 cloves of garlic got just smashed







i have no idea why i had bought these beans. it says they are "ecological and organic" but come from the other side of the world, namely china, the mere distance making them not ecological. and, sorry china, i have hard time believing your farming methods are up to western standards of organic. i need to start reading the fine print in packages even more carefully! but yes, these were easy to use, just rinse and there you go...







as with any soup, i started by sauteeing the veggies first in 2 tbsp of rapeseed oil for a few minutes, until fragrant, in a hot pot. i like to use this particular pot as it has a non-stick surface. then added the crushed tomatoes and vegetable stock to barely cover the veggies and left to simmer on medium low for 20 mins







as usual, tied the parsley stems and sunk them in the mix for extra flavor







meanwhile...i minced the smoked ham. i think there was 200gr (or 300gr) in the package, but little goes a long way if you get good stuff with strong smokey flavor. but, like i mentioned, the ham can be omitted, i think i would add green beans, maybe, or some leafy greens, or nothing. there are plenty of flavors going on without the ham







as there really wasn't any other spices (no salt, no pepper) i thought some hot sauce / sriracha would be good. this was the amount i dared to put in...again, my tastebuds could have used more but my stomach was thankful for the tiny amount.







after 20 mins i added the minced ham, 1 cup of elbow macaroni, 2 cups of vegetable stock, and mixed well...







...before adding the beans. carefully mixed in the beans and simmered on medium heat for another 10 mins for the macaroni to cook.







to finish, i mixed in ½ cup minced parsley. this patch served certain someone and i for dinner and there will be 2 lunches for both of us to take to work. i'm sure this will taste even better when reheated.







certain someone got dessert, quark and strawberries from the freezer. stupid me, i got regular quark and i really need to eat just the low-lactose kind...

dry chicken enchiladas

dry enchiladas? yep, ended up not drowning them in tomato sauce, therefore dry. served with avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream with chili powder.







this was my attemp to make chicken enchiladas featured in the february issue of delicious magazine. or, perhaps i should say my version of their enchiladas. the recipe from the magazine isn't online yet, but here's one similar.

i used multigrain tortillas, bbq salsa, pineapple salsa, 500 gr chicken tenderloins, 3 stalks celery, one onion, parsley and gruyère (almost got aged cheddar from the store but decided that we had plenty of cheese in the fridge to use here)







first browned the tenderloins on a hot pan with some oil and placed them in a bowl to cool a bit before cutting them to 1 inch cubes.







sauteed the chopped onion and celery on the same pan (with the chicken juices and oil) until slightly wilted







added the celery/onion mix into the bowl with chicken, poured in the bbq salsa, half of the pineapple salsa and generous amount of parsley and mixed well







filled the tortillas and placed on an oven dish







poured rest of the pineapple salsa on top







there was some of the filling left so i just placed that on top as well before adding the grated cheese (about 1 cup)







i miss the cheddar here...







after 20 mins in 200C oven with fan on. my tastebuds would have liked more heat (chili/jalopenos), but my stomach was happy as was...serves 4.