Indian Chicken Soup

This is a delicious spicy soup that my family never gets tired of eating.  

Ingredients

 6 chicken drumsticks

or 2 chicken breast split (with bones and skin)

1 medium onion chopped 

4 celery sticks chopped

1 jalapeño pepper (medium hot) chopped

1 small carrot chopped

1 tomato chopped

Half a teaspoon grated ginger root

A spoonful of lemon juice (or more, to taste)

1 teaspoon tomato paste

2 curry leaves

cilantro (coriander) leaves

Spices: 

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon methi (fenugreek) leaves

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

10-12 crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon salt (leveled)

Recipe:

Pour 3 liters of water into a 4 liter pressure cooker. Add the chicken, onion, tomato, jalapeño pepper, ginger, curry leaves, methi leaves, and spices (including salt). Boil for half an hour. Cool off until lid can be removed safely, then add celery and carrot. Return to boil with the lid on for another 5 minutes or so. Add chopped cilantro leaves, lemon juice, and tomato paste at the end and continue cooking for another 2 minutes or so without the lid, stirring occasionally. 

When the soup is ready, remove the chicken with a slotted spoon, let it cool, and remove the meat which should be returned to the soup.

(You can use any pot with a lid to cook the soup, simply extend the boiling time for the chicken accordingly, at least 40-50 minutes.)

You're sure to enjoy this. Let me know if it becomes one of your favorite recipes the way it has for me. I had a soup like this at an Indian restaurant but this is my own adaptation based on what they served. 

Squash soup

Ingredients

2 pounds of squash cut in squares 

2 big potatoes

1 carrot

4 celery sticks  

1 red, or orange pepper

1 medium onion

Half a teaspoon crushed hot red pepper/chili 

1 small bay leaf 

8-10 medium basil leaves or 1/2 tsp of dry basil

Fresh parsley to garnish

Salt and pepper 

2 liters of water

8 oz (225 g) heavy whipping cream 

Instructions

This is not a Romanian recipes, but it can be adapted to Romanian squashes (what we call dovleacel). I discovered this wonderful kind of soup in the United States, and not long after I learned just how many delicious varieties of winter squash there are in this country, each with their own distinctive characteristics that make it hard to choose just one favorite. But that actually makes winter squash soup all the more delightful - you can choose a different variety of squash each time and never get bored!

Take the squash (in this case I used butternut, but turban and other varieties of winter squash also work well), cut it in half, and remove the seeds and stringy parts from inside, discarding them. Cut the rest into squares (roughly 5"x5") and cook them in the microwave (in mine it is 6 minutes per square of squash, but different microwaves will require different cooking times). If you have room, you can cook the two potatoes at the same time.

If you do not have a microwave, you can do this step in a regular oven at high temperature for an hour or so.

Chop the vegetables, then combine all the rest of the ingredients except for the cream and fresh herbs in a pot with a capacity of at least 4 liters. Boil them. I use a pressure cooker because it is faster - this step can be done in 5-10 minutes including cooling time. 

When the squash and potatoes are cooked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool off. Scoop out the soft parts, leaving the peels behind, and mash them with a potato masher or similar utensil. 

When the vegetable stock is finished cooking, put it in the blender to turn it into a cream. Then combine the creamy stock and the mashed squash and potato back in the large pot. Add the cream and the fresh basil and parsley (chopped).

Tomato soup

On a cold wintry day, nothing can make a better choice for lunch than a nice hot tomato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches. 

For tomato soup you need 4 cups of of chicken and vegetable stock. (You can use store-bought chicken stock or simply make your own, as I do. I use a pressure cooker since it is a time saver and excellent for making soups. Together with 6 cups of water, add to the pot 1 pound of chicken on the bone [any part of the chicken may be used], 4 celery sticks, 1 medium carrot, and 1 medium onion cut in half. Add a teaspoon salt. Boil them for 20 minutes. Cool it off and strain the liquid. This is your stock. The boiled vegetables and chicken can be used for making salad - I will give you that recipe another day.)

1 can 6 oz (170 g) of tomato paste 

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/2 teaspoon of salt (more or less)

2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

Parsley

Pour the oil into a big frying pan and turn the heat on medium high. Put the flour and stir until all is mixed with olive oil. Add the tomato paste little by little and stir continually. When it looks like a thick paste, pour the stock in small portions until it reaches the thickness you like. When it is ready, turn off the heat. In the meantime, heat up another pan for making the grilled cheese sandwiches.

For every sandwich you need 1 oz of butter and 2 oz of cheddar cheese. Put the butter on the heated pan, and one piece of bread or half of a bread roll. Add the cheddar cheese slices and cover it with the other half of bread. Turn the sandwich over with the second half downward, to toast for 1-2 minutes. When ready, place it on a hot plate and keep it warm until you finish all the sandwiches you want to make.

Makes about 4 portions - although it is so good you can easily share it between three people and not have any leftovers!

Chicken Soup with Rice and Vegetables

This is a Romanian recipe, in fact it was passed down from my mother. It is really simple to make it, though getting the final taste to be just perfect it is quite hard to accomplish, and it has taken me years to get it just the way my mom used to make it. 

In Romania there are two kinds of soups. One type, called supa, is clear and typically has noodles or dumplings in it. The second type, called ciorba, is a sour soup because it features whey (the watery part that separates out from homemade yogurt), sour cream, lemon juice, and/or what Romanians call "borsch" (made from fermented bran), any or all of which give the soup a slight tangy taste that makes it quite distinct from the other kind of soup in terms of its flavor. Indeed, this distinctive element of Romanian soups earned them a mention in a book on the best soups in the world.

The soup in the picture is the latter kind, you'll be pleased to hear, and you can make it without needed to ferment bran. Lots of Romanian cooks nowadays opt for alternatives to the really old-fashioned way of doing this. But my recipe will get you as close to that traditional Romanian flavor as it is possible to get while still using readily available ingredients. 

Ingredients (for about 6 servings): 

1 lb split chicken breast (on the bone)

2 small carrots (or 1 large carrot)

4 celery sticks 

1 small onion

1 Tbs. salt 

2 Tbs. of rice

2-3 Tbs. lemon juice

2-3 Tbs. sauerkraut juice

6-7 cups (1 1/2 -2 l) of water

Parsley, finely chopped

Take the skin off from the chicken breast and place the chicken in a big pot. Pour the water and the salt over the chicken. Turn the heat on high. Separately chop the onion, celery and the carrots with the food processor and put them into the pot when the water is boiling. Add the rice too and stir. Cover the pot and let it simmer for about an hour. Add more water if it is necessary, to keep it at roughly the same level during the time when it is boiling. You can use a pressure cooker if you have one and let it boil for only 20 minutes. When the soup is cooked, take the lid off, take the chicken out (try and get it out in one piece if you can), then add the sauerkraut juice, lemon juice, and parsley, and let it boil one more minute. When the chicken is cold enough, take it from the bones and put it back in the soup in small, bite-sized pieces. Serve it with a dollop of sour cream in it. 

Makes about 6 servings. The soup can safely be kept in the fridge for several days.

The recipe for the bread roll in the photo can also be found on this blog.