Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Chicken Paprikas Soup

It's fall again, and with the chill in the air, you should be planning a soup. If you're not, well . . . that's just sad. But, no worries, I have a recipe for you!

What type of soup to make is a point of contention between me and The Physicist. Most soups have a base of carrots and celery, which are two vegetables he will NOT eat. I, myself, am not fond of bean soups, so between the two of us, we eliminate most soup recipes. But, I like to think of myself as resourceful, so I picked the recipe of one of his favorite meals, and turned it into soup. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, Chicken Paprikas Soup!

There are two steps to this, and you should do step one either a day ahead, or at least a few hours ahead. Soup is a lengthy process. So worth it, though.

Step 1:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cleaned and trimmed

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. paprika*

1/2 cup chicken broth

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken breasts in an 8x8 baking dish, and season with salt and paprika*. Pour chicken broth over breasts, and bake until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees, about 45 minutes. Let cool to room temp. At this point, put the chicken breast into a sealed container, and refrigerate until ready to use.


Step 2:

1/2 large onion, chopped

2 Tbsp. butter

2 jars of roasted red peppers (12 oz., packed in water)

1 Tbsp. paprika*

7 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 cup flour

1 egg

1/4 tsp. salt

1 - 2 Tbsp. water

3 cooked paprika seasoned chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

In a 5 quart stock pot, saute the onions in the butter, on medium low heat, until they are translucent and just beginning to brown, about 15 minutes.

While the onions are cooking, drain the 2 jars of roasted red peppers, and puree the peppers in a blender, until smooth.

When the onions are done (see picture), stir in the paprika* and cook for another 30 seconds. Then add the pepper puree and chicken broth. Stir, bring broth to a boil, and then let simmer 15 minutes, uncovered, while you make the dumplings.






In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, egg, salt, by hand, slowly adding the water as needed. It should be a pretty dry dough, though elastic, and should form a ball (see picture).








Taking one third of the dough at a time, pinch off small, flat pieces and drop directly into the simmering broth (see picture).










Avoid rolling the dumplings into balls (it creates hard dumplings) or pinching off large sections (unless you're lazy or like gigantic dumplings). The size should be a pinch (see picture).

The dumplings, as they cook, should rise to the surface of the soup. Stir the soup every once and awhile, while making the dumplings, to make sure none are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once the dough is all gone, and the soup is simmering, shred your chicken breasts, and add them to your broth.


Add the heavy cream while stirring, and let simmer another 5 minutes.


Serve hot in bowls, and enjoy!

*Paprika is a hot spice. This is a spicy soup. The Physicist likes his food spicy, so I make the soup spicy. If your palate is more tame, I recommend using half as much paprika.


Another side note: Paprikas is pronounced "paprikaSH", because the s in Hungarian is a "sh" sound.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Bollyfood


This week, we've been exploring one of my favorite cuisines: Indian. There are some ulterior motives for this week, one of them being that learning how to make my favorite Indian recipes will hopefully save us moolah with my Indian food addiction. This is Quick Chicken Korma. Now, putting "quick" on the front of a korma recipe is kind of an oxymoron, but this recipe was excellent for a weeknight. Chicken korma is chicken in a mildly spiced, creamy sauce, with nuts. This one used cashews (so delicious!). If you have never tried Indian cuisine, this is an excellent beginner's dish, because it's not too spicy, and the chicken, nuts, cream, and yogurt are familiar ingredients. This recipe, though not the same as my favorite Indian restaurant's, was excellent, and easy to throw together. Serve it over some basmati rice, and you have found your new favorite comfort food.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Kapusta. To co będzie na obiad.


Tonight was the first night of Eastern European week featuring the foods of countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain (Hungary, Poland, Russia, etc.) Being the resident Hungarian and better pleased with the meal than The Girl, I have been elected to make this evening's post. Yesterday, The Girl made a ton of homemade pierogies (following this guide, by a friend of ours) with an awesome roasted garlic, caramelized onion, cheddar, and dill filling. We heated them up again tonight to go along with haluski and kielbasi. I thought the pierogies were delicious, but The Girl was less than thrilled with her filling. I'm chalking that up to high expectations based on the enormous amount of work that went into rolling the dough out and then filling and sealing each one. The kielbasi was definitely the low point of the meal, but I guess that's what happens sometimes when buying an untried sausage at Whole Foods. The haluski, however, was amazing! Buttery with a subtle cabbage flavor that took me right back to childhood family reunions and church fish fries. Perfect!