‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’ #42
“ The Countess’ Soup” – a rich, velvety Roasted Chicken and Molasses,
ginger and…soup.
Awoken in a haze, by the
determined ringtone of my mobile phone ,
it jumping up-and-down in vibrating-mode on the table, whilst I gathered my
f luey
self together to answer it, and to sound quite nonchalantly
sprightly and fine….
But ‘ The Countess Der Ehrenwerte Gräfin ’ knew better !
Being mother-of-four active
kids, and well-trained in medically maintaining 6 dogs, and a menagerie of
unexpected pets, from ‘ Goodness~Knows~Whats ’, to
her “Travelling
Chickens”…well egg-laying hens
to be precise. Hens that OWN ! their own ~Designer~ airfreight
travelling boxes……..hens that have regular weekend vacations…. hens that travel every weekend from The City
to her farm!
Yes, ‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’ just couldn’t fool
‘ The Countess ’ !
Obviously ‘Mavis’s chicken soup was NOT succeeding
in washing away those flu gremlins, and her chicken soup -
so I was told, “ would-do-the-trick
”.
The only snag was
that ‘ The Countess' ’ chicken soup was a l-e-n-g-t-h-y process…a 3-day procedure, culminating in
the most
amazing, gloriously, dark and velvety,
aromatic and flavourful very MORE-ish
elixir… but could I persuade my flu
to wait around till that elixir was ready?
“Ratt-a-tatt-tatt!!!”, is
that the doorbell……is someone at My door?
Oh
hell, just see what I LOOK LIKE! ….
I answer
to ‘ The Countess ’ standing on the threshold, My f lu still clinging to me like a chimp to it’s mother, and there it was !
‘The Countess ’ proffers in my direction , a thermos flask of Specially-Made-For-‘Mavis CHICKEN SOUP ! …prêt-à-mange!
…But NOT just ANY chicken soup…this is a Family heirloom , of
generations back, a labourious
labour-of-love. A heavenly rich, syrupy thick treacle-coloured
, twice-cooked, ROASTCHICKEN soup ……. flavoured with fresh ginger
& a chilli & lemon rind & molasses too...
It’s been a year
since ‘ The Countess Der Ehrenwerte Gräfin's ’ soup
tantalized My tastebuds, and I have been yearning for a huge potful, of my
very, very own. Finally, I made up my
mind, a 3-day process it be! I HAD TO
make ‘ The Countess’ ’ roast chicken soup!
My recipe is similar, as I DARE NOT divulge her family heirloom….
And so to recipes…..
The Countess’ Roast Chicken
Soup…
The Basics:
-You make a simple
chicken stock (see My blog #4 - “Jewish Chicken Soup” for the recipe) ….or you can use a good
readymade stock.
-You roast a
chicken, with a nice sweetish B-B-Q basting sauce,(not a smoky one!), together with sliced onions , carrots,
sweetpotatoes and celery stalk too. The skin of the roasted chicken must be a
nice dark golden colour.
-You use all those
things plus ALL the pan juices, together with a whole lot of fresh ginger, a
fresh chili-or-two, grated lemon rind , a bayleaf, molasses - oh well, I’ll give you my recipe and the
instructions now…just here, below this!....
Ingredients:
3 litres good
chicken stock – set aside to use later.
Then to roast:
1 whole roasting
chicken
B-b-q basting
sauce to marinate the chicken - ***(see my recipe below)
500g pack of
chicken necks
2 to 3 large
onions thickly sliced in rounds
3 large carrots
sliced
I used 1 large whole sweet potato (unpeeled and not
cut)
(or you can use ½
a butternut squash cut into pieces )
5 large cloves of
garlic - unpeeled
A drizzle of olive
oil over the veggies
Method:
1) Lightly oil a
large oven pan, and place the basted chicken onto a few sliced onions so it won’t
stick to the pan.
2) Spread the assortment
of cut veggies around the chicken, and drizzle with olive oil.
3) Roast,
uncovered, at 180*C for 90 minutes.
4) Remove from
oven .
5) When cool, remove
most of the meat off the carcass, and set that aside - reserving the carcass, all the skin and the
crisp wings for the soup.
To make the soup:
1) Into a large pot, put ALL the roasted
veggies, the roasted necks, the roast chicken carcass, plus all the chicken
skin, and all the juices from the pan. Then deglaze the pan with 2 cups boiling
water, and add this to the soup pot.
Add :
2 bay leaves
A good 3 cm knob
of fresh ginger sliced
2 to 3 fresh small
red chilies
5 large whole
cloves of fresh garlic cut in halves
4 tablespoons
molasses (can substitute Treacle)
Finely grated rind
of ½ a lemon
And the 3 litres
of ordinary chicken stock (that you set aside earlier)
2) Let this simmer
slowly with the lid on, on a low heat for at least 2½ hours.
3) Strain and let
cool.
4) When completely
cool put into the fridge overnight.
This soup when
chilled should become almost jelly-like in consistancy, with a thin layer of
oil…this is absorbed into the soup when heating it.
5) If you prefer,
you can remove the fat when chilled.
Heat gently, as
you don’t want the soup to boil away and evaporate!
* Small portions
are adequate, as this is very rich .
Yummmmmm….
***My Basting
sauce to roast the chicken:
4 tablespoons ketchup
4 tablespoons
chutney (can substitute apricot jam)
4 tablespoons soft
brown sugar
1 tablespoon
vegetable oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground
paprika
2 teaspoons
chopped fresh ginger (or ½ teaspoon ground ginger)
½ teaspoon chopped
garlic
Mix all
ingredients together, then coat the chicken and leave covered for at least ½
hour –(or leave overnight in the fridge)
before roasting. Be sure to coat the chicken with any spare sauce before
roasting.
(Bonus info : this sauce is super too, to marinade steaks or ribs
as well.)
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| Ohhhh...It's a dogs life! |
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| THE Gräfin's DOGS |
So as usual - ‘til next week,
‘COOKINGWITHMAVIS’
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