The Last Exile

Since many of you are dealing with leftover turkey or chicken I thought I would post my favourite chicken soup recipe which one can easily substitute turkey for chicken. I created this recipe while me and one of the tribe were horrendously ill with the flu. We had a great deal of trouble keeping food down and both of us suffered from a distinct lack of appetite. Realizing that recovery also depends on supplying the body with appropriate liquid and fuel I created a poultry based soup which was light enough for delicate stomachs but delivers the maximum nutritional punch. It has been a long-time favourite. I often dress it up with noodles or dumplings when I am feeling needy but decadent.

14 cups of water
2 cups of home made stock
2 cups of shredded carrots
1 ½ cups of chopped celery
2 cups of shredded potato
2 medium onion finely chopped
3 large green onions thinly sliced
1 ½ tablespoons of Garlic in Oil
I ½ – 2 cups of chopped chicken or turkey
1 ½ tablespoons of Basil
Pepper to taste (I use about 1 ½ tablespoons)
Extra Fine Egg noodles – optional

I usually make my own stalk either by bowling down vegetables and chicken or if I am in a pinch I use powdered chicken stock. If you are using homemade stock add about I normally add a little saffron (1 – 2 tablespoons) to give the soup its traditional rich golden colour. If you buy powdered chicken stock – follow the directions as to powder and water ratio only and use as much as needed for 16 cups of water.

Start by using cold water/stock and add all the ingredients in a large stock pot (without the egg noodles). Stir well and let sit for minimum of a half hour in the fridge. I realize if you are using store bought chicken stock it will say to add to boiling water – ignore this for now – the act of slow cooking later will fully dissolve the powder stock. Do not use chicken bullion cubes, in fact, never use any kind of bullion cubes. The bullion cubes are so high in sodium that it will destroy or seriously impede the natural flavours and ingredients of any soup or sauce. This time out in the fridge will give the base time to fully absorb the essence of the green onions which will seriously enhance the flavour of your broth. I haven’t added any salt to this recipe as my homemade stock has all the salt necessary, and if you are using powdered stock, there is more than enough salt already in the powdered stock. Trust me on this – your heart will thank me one day.

This deceptively easy soup takes approximately 15 minutes max of preparation time but it does require a food processor using the shredding blade for the potato and carrot as well as the chopping blade for the onions. A food processor is an essential modern key kitchen tool and as necessary as a decent knife in the kitchen. Food processors do not have to be unduly expensive. I bought my Moulinex food processor with all parts, instruction manual in the original box for $4.99 at Goodwill. I suspect it was a wedding present which was never used – their shame, my good fortune.

Remove the pot from the refrigerator and stir well again. Cover and bring the soup to a boil (approximately 7-10 minutes). Skim off any fat or scum that rises to the top, reduce heat and cover pot to simmer for at least two and a half hours. Periodically check your soup and remove any scum you missed the first time. Two things to keep in mind before you add the egg noodles.

While this soup looks very thin it is deceptively thick. For 16 cups of water I would not add more than approximately 1 and ½ cups of extra fine egg noodles, and a pinch of salt. If this is more soup than can easily be consumed in one meal, I suggest you scoop out however many bowls needed per meal into another pot. Add a pinch of salt and bring it to a boil, add egg noodles ( four large bowls – add approximately ½ of a cup of egg noodles) and cook for approximately 8-10 minutes more. Freeze the balance of the noodles-less soup for later use.

And since I am in a giving mood here is my no-fuss recipe for homemade stock.

I discovered through a rather informal chat at the office that a great number of modern women (or men) haven’t the slightest clue as to how to make an cook’s essential base for soups, rices, sauces, stir-frys meat and veggie dishes. The bullion cubes with their ridiculously high sodium counts should be banned by Health Canada and the canned stock is beyond bland besides being ridiculously priced. Homemade stock has to be one of the most no-fuss basics as well as being absurdly easy.

4 – 5 Pounds Raw Chicken Bones
2 Medium Carrots, peeled and cut into 2″ pieces
1 Celery Stalk, cut into 2″ pieces, leaves removed
1 Large Yellow Onion, peeled and quartered
1 Green Onion
1 Large Leek
3 Cloves Garlic, peeled
1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns – un-crushed
1 Small Bunch Parsley (with stems), washed
1 Large Bay Leaf
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

The stock recipe works with well with beef or lamb bones and probably would work just as easily for pork bones but for obvious reasons I never use pork – let alone pork bones.

I often buy whole chickens to cut up and I toss the unnecessary bones and back into a freezer bag until I have enough bones (approximately one whole chicken equals 1 lbs of bones). If you buy whole frying chickens you will have significant savings rather than buying chicken pieces individually wrapped. When I have the time and enough bones in the freezer I begin the process of making stock.

Use either a pasta pot or a large pot with a metal strainer insert. Wash all vegetables and parsley well. Cut the carrots, leek, and celery stalk into large chunks. There is no need to peel or trim off the ends – this is stock – not soup but do peel and quarter the onion. Place the metal cooking strainer inside the pot and toss in the vegetables with the parsley (no need to remove the parsley stems) and then add the frozen chicken bones. Cover with the un-crushed black peppercorns, garlic, bay leaf and kosher salt. If you cannot find kosher salt substitute with sea salt but leave the iodized salt on the shelf. The bones should be the last in the pot.

Cover the mixture with cold water to about 1 ½ to 2 inches above the bones and vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil without covering the pot, skim off the scum, and let simmer uncovered for approximately three hours or until you get a nice rich chicken colour. DO NOT COVER OR ADD WATER TO THE STOCK but periodically you will have to skim off the foam during the simmer process.

Once done, strain vegetable and bone mixture from stock and toss. Place the stock in the fridge. If a layer of fat forms don’t disturb it until your ready to use – this fat acts to keep the flavour from evaporating in your fridge and is easily removed once it has congeled on top. Stock will last about a week in the fridge but you can freeze it in multiple containers to be defrosted and used at a later date for soups or even rices.

I want to talk about the necessity of good quality stainless steel pots. For years, I cooked deliciously meals on whatever pots were cheap and on sale. Consequently, I actually wore out six complete sets of pots in less than 8 years. I really thought the hype of about quality stainless steal pots was simply hype. Now you can cook wonderful meals on cheap pots but it takes a lot more work and a great deal more finesse. You need to know how your pots interact with heat and change your methods to suit your pots. Gravies, white sauces or rice needed extreme care or they get get gluey or burned easily on the bottom.

Now my mother, on one of her periodic visits watched my kitchen aerobics during a kitchen mishap with pot and leaking through a tiny whole while on the burner. She decided what I needed more than anything else was a decent set of real stainless steel pots and bought me a wonderful set of a high quality Italian 18/10 stainless steel pots on sale for half-price…but it still cost her over $300 dollars. That was over 4 years ago and the pots still look brand new.

The difference is frankly amazing. The pots and lids don’t warp through repeated heatings and I cannot remember the last time anything started to glue up or crusted on the bottom. Flavour is completely locked in and clean up is a breeze. Learn from my mistakes and buy yourself a set of decent stainless steel pots for your all-purpose cooking – even if you can only afford one piece at a time its well worth the investment.

Anyone who knows me knows I am not much for breakfast and once the tribe started sleeping in till all hours of the day I figured my days of being slaved to their breakfasts were over. From here on in – it was up to them to make themselves something to eat. I would keep the fixings for a variety of different breakfasts but kitchen labour was strictly their own.

Now that the Last Amazon has come home from university I wanted to do something nice for them. I love having my children all under one roof and under foot. I thought nothing could be better than waking up and smelling comfort food so yesterday I made fresh potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream. I tried out a baked rather than fired version. Enough said; except there’s no point in ruining a perfectly good fried comfort food by baking it.

This morning I decided to repeat my adventures in breakfasts and decided on muffins because I have a real surplus of whole wheat flour that I need to start using up. All I had to do was figure out what kind of muffins as all the fruit had been eaten up in the last week but I did find carrots. I didn’t have a recipe for carrot muffins and I suppose I could have looked one up on the internet but what kind of a cook would I be if I needed to up every thing on the net before I cooked? My house smells absolutely wonderful with cinnamon and nutmeg. And the muffins – well Isaiah Sender was the first to succumb to the smell and rise. He’s eaten three so far with no end in sight. Since I made up the recipe on the fly I should add this caveat — I started out with 1 ½ cups of yogurt and found it needed more and my nutmeg is freshly ground.

2 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons of baking powder
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of nutmeg
4 eggs
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 ½ cups of shredded carrots
¼ cup of oil
2 cups of vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt well. Set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs till frothy. Then add the oil, brown sugar and maple syrup and stir well. Gradually add in the yogurt, mix and then the shredded carrots. Mix well. Then very gently add in liquid mixture to the flour mixture. You do not want to over mix the flour mixture but if you find its a little dry – add a touch of yogurt into the mix – about a tablespoon at a time. Place in greased muffin pans (I prefer to spray my tins) and cook for approximately 15-17 minutes or until a knife comes out smooth. I put batter 2/3rd of the muffin tin with batter and found I had 18 muffins.

If you want to improve on this recipe try adding about ½ cup of coarsely crushed pecan nuts to eggs/sugar mixture.

I woke in pain this morning at 2:30am. The pain is probably the result of the dental surgery which was performed Monday. Since I knew it would be a good 20 minutes before the painkillers kicked in I decided to make more challah as we were down to our last loaf. Besides, what else can one do at 2:30am?

I had brought a few kilos of whole wheat flour and I was feeling experimental and since my grandmother’s recipe advertises itself as the ‘Lubavitcher No Fail Challah‘; why not test the limits and make it with whole wheat flour. Now I did remember reading an issue with baking with whole wheat flour is the lack of rise and the potential density of the bread. To compensate I mixed 4 cups of regular white all-purpose flour to 8 cups of whole wheat.

Those suckers rose, and kept rising. In fact, the kitchen was in danger of being taken over by the rising dough. I just popped the first two loaves in the oven and I have discovered two things. The whole wheat takes longer to bake, and it needs at least three swipes with the egg wash – approximately one go every 15 minutes.

The bread did come out soft and flaky but I am not sure I am entirely satisfied with the result. I will hold off final judgement until the boys get up and hear what they have to say. I think I will try the ‘nutri-flour’ next time which advertises itself to be a very finely ground whole wheat flour which looks like unbleached white flour. Any one have any experience baking with this new kind of flour – please send me any tips or suggestions.

I have carried around my grandmother’s recipe for challah bread for years and never attempted it. It is so old that it might possibly be written on goatskin and she’s titled it the Lubavitcher Never Fail Challah. The thing is I don’t remember her every baking bread. She could wipe up a pie crust for meat pies or pizza dough but that’s as far as I can recall her venturing into baking.

She was a wonderful cook and usually only had to taste something once to figure out what the ingredients were and knew instinctively not only how to cook it but how to improve on the recipe. I am a fairly decent cook and while I have some of her aptitude I have yet to come close to venturing into her league.

I had a few brief forays into baking with mix to muddling results. I can make decent biscuits and divine cornbread but my biggest disaster were always went I took a chance on following a yeast bread recipe. I wrote off baking as just one of those things which one should never mix together – me and yeast.

I am not sure what made me finally take another chance on yeast bread recipes but I find it increasingly difficult to buy challah bread in the downtown core. Every other kind of bread but challah. I suppose its just fallen out of fashion with the flavour of the downtown east side. My son works at a bakery goods deli at the St. Lawrence market but the challah has usually sold out long before he arrives at work from school. I could travel to buy it but I don’t have an extra two hours to spare to just buy a few loaves of challah every week.

Anyway, I decided I would dig out my grandmother’s recipe and give it a chance. Call it a miracle but it worked – even if I did have to look up how to make an eyewash….like I said I don’t have much experience other than bad when it comes to yeast breads. It wasn’t as hard as I thought and the beauty of the situation was that the boys gorged themselves with fresh challah and honey and didn’t want more than a ‘light’ supper for dinner.

So for benefit of the Last Amazon, I thought I would share the Lubavitcher Never Fail Challah for all those other souls who just never mixed well with yeast. The original recipe called for 1 and ½ cups of honey which I substituted with sugar as I was low on honey. This week I will use the honey as my only criticism as I preferred the bread to be just a touch sweeter.

3 packages of yeast
3 1/2 cups of warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 ½ cups of honey
13 cups of flour
6 Eggs slightly beaten
1 cup of Oil (I used regular olive oil)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, salt and slowly mix in half the flour. In another bowl add oil than add one egg at a time and beat well. Slowly stir in oil and egg mixture. Slowly add the rest of the flour. When the dough begins to pull away from the bowl remove it to kneed on a floured for approximately 10 minutes. Lightly oil your bowl and cover to rise for at least 1 hour somewhere warm.
Repeat the kneading process for another 10 minutes, cover and let rise until dough has doubled in a lightly oiled bowl. Repeat this process for at least another turn. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the dough. Now according to my grandmother’s instructions it should make two loaves but I found it made 3 extremely large loaves. So large in fact that I could easily have divided the dough into six loaves. I can do the six string braid but its too hard a process to explain without visual aids so I suggest you divide your loaves into either 3 or 6 portions. Take one portion and divide into three. Roll the out each piece so you have three strings of equal length, start in the middle braid together, tuck in the ends under and repeat the process from the other side.

Now brush an eye wash (1 egg beaten with a ¼ cup of water) over the top of the braided dough. Place on a flat cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and then pull out bread and quickly brush with egg wash again. Bake for approximately for another 15 minutes or until the bread rings hollow when you knock on it.

Yes, some things still remain the same. After weeks of reading Palestinians threatening to ignite a third intifada the rioting continues at the Temple Mount.

And since I have spent two miserable days with a raging cold and two nothing-pleases-teenage-boys, I thought I earned a little comfort food. The beauty of this recipe is the relative short preparation time and the no fuss cooking delivers the maximum amount of comfort. Yes, I am speaking of the humble potato kugel. There are so many variations of this recipe but I thought I would post the basic recipe and you can allow your imagination be your guide.

I should warn you that without a food processor this recipe is a nightmare of labour to perform. Not being my grandmother, I refused to be chained to the kitchen and wouldn’t contemplate making it without a food processor. If you don’t have one I suggest you start stalking out Goodwill or any second-hand store which also sells small appliances. I picked my food processor at Goodwill for $4.99 in the original Moulinex box with all the instructions and parts. It gave the appearance of minimum use. I suspect it was probably a wedding or anniversary present which was never or rarely used until donated. Or you could go out and spend hundreds of dollars. Your choice.

Basic Potato Kugel
8 medium potatoes, 2 onions, 6 eggs, ½ cup of oil, 4 heaping Tablespoons of flour, one teaspoon of both each of black pepper and kosher salt. Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit (200° Celcius).

Chop the two onions and place chopped onions in a full size colander. Peel the potatoes and use a large the large size grating attachment to the food processor. Grate the potatoes.

One of the tricks of this recipe is that the potatoes need to be well drained of liquid so add the shredded potatoes to the onions in the colander to drain. Mix the potato and onions well. My grandmother always swore the onions not only add flavour but keep the potatoes from turning brown. I did have a friend who claimed her potatoes still went slightly brown, which I suppose can happen, if your potatoes are a touch old. You can get around this by putting a slightly tarnished silver spoon in the mix. I am sure there is a logical chemical reason why this works but I haven’t a clue as to what the science behind it. All I know is that it works. I usually let the mix sit for about 15 minutes and pack it down periodically to help get the fluid out.

Once most of the liquid has drained get a large boil and mix the eggs, oil, salt and pepper together. Stir well by hand. Then add the flour and whisk until it is fully mixed. Give the onions and potatoes a final squeeze and gradually add to egg mixture a little at a time. Stir well and place into a large well greased casserole dish or dutch oven. Cook uncovered at 400° Fahrenheit (200° Celcius) for at least an hour or until brown on top and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve with a side of sour cream and/or apple sauce. I suppose you could go North American redneck and serve with ketchup, but really now; is there anything which beats sour cream?
Now some of the variations. I usually replace the flour with ground matzvo meal. Flour works well but I like the texture the matzvo meal gives to the kugel. The matzo flour seems to up the comfort factor by at least 10 and I usually grate about a ½ cup of carrots and zucchini to add to the potato onion mixture. I like the added touch of colour the carrots and zucchini give. Depending what I am serving with the kugel I will add about a ½ cup of medium old cheddar cheese to the kugel about 5 minutes before it is done for extra richness. Either way don’t forget the sour cream and apple sauce.

And the other great thing about kugel is that it tastes even more divine when eaten as leftovers.

Today, we are packing up my daughter, The Last Amazon, and moving her out of town and back to her university. This year, she is officially 18 and on her own. Last year, her Nana made the supreme sacrifice and moved out of province in order to be the LA’s room-mate. It worked for both of them but the Last Amazon put her foot down and wants to spread her wings a little which is all well and good for Kiki Zipporah but Nana is a tad lonely in the last homey house on the road before you ever the deep woods….

The last two weeks I have been rather intense as I have been trying to teach her how to make appealing, and yet, fully satisfy meals on the cheap as well as learning all the little tricks which make up the basics of cooking. My daughter will not eat Kraft dinner and absolutely despises tuna fish. Peanut butter sandwiches will do in a pinch but who can live on peanut butter alone? So the traditional ’student’ fare just won’t suffice. Besides with a little knowledge and a little forward planning one can eat not only very cheap but be well nourished.

I was really lucky because I learned to cook from two grandmothers. The basics of French cooking from my great-grandmother and everything else from my grandmother from how to take a cheap cut of meat and make it melt in your mouth to which herbs and spices go with this or that meat and/or sauce and why. Since I am leaving the boys at noon I had to make something to tide them over for the day and I choose one of their favourites from the last two weeks of menus. I don’t have a name for this chicken and wine stew, and there are probably a million similar recipes, but this is the one I taught my daughter and the one which drives the boys crazy with anticipation from the smell alone.

Now because I didn’t learn to cook from a book or recipe I have a hard time trying to be exact about measurements. Mostly I do things from ‘eye’ and ‘taste’ which is why I can cook from 5 to 50 without breaking a sweat. Generally, I have a hard time following recipes because I am always thinking what would ingredient would work better than is listed with the recipe so feel free to switch around this veggies dish to suit one’s taste.
Chicken, I used boneless breasts because they were on sale but this recipe can be done with any chicken from a cut up fryer to to leg quarters. Whatever works best in the budget should rule. Baby red potatoes (with the skin on), carrots, sliced turnips, green, red and pearl onions garlic, basil, canned diced tomatoes, red cooking wine, flour, butter chicken stock, salt and pepper.

Now the fast rule with using wine in cooking should be 1/2 cup of wine for every two cups of water and one tablespoon of stock for every 2 cups of water (don’t include wine in the water-stock tally). In my case, I used four chicken breasts, and 4 cups of water with 1 cup of wine.

Usually for chicken or fish the wine preference is for a white wine but be daring and use a red. I prefer to use a strong red wine when cooking with reds…like a good Merlot, Pinot Noir to a Marsala. I used a Rubino Marsala and this dish actually takes it charm from the flavour of the root vegetables (potatoes and turnips) slowly cooking in a strong red wine based stock. Marsala has a strong sodium base which is why I add no salt to the actual stew stock base.

Let’s start with the stock. I used four cups of water and 1 cup of marsala red wine. 2 tablespoons of chicken stock, 1 teaspoon of basil and one heaping teaspoon of minced garlic. Now I cheat and have been using minced garlic in oil rather than fresh garlic. Mostly because a great deal of the garlic I have bought in recent years has been somewhat off by the time I bought it. You can tell if garlic is off but the bite. If there is a brittle sharp sour flavour – the garlic is old. The advantage of garlic in oil is that the freshness is literally locked in until you open the jar. Garlic in oil will typically only last one month after the jar has been opened and refrigerated.

To this, I added two green onions finely chopped, a half a cup of diced tomatoes (drained), 10 baby red potatoes sliced in half with the skin one. Two cups of baby carrots, peeled and sliced in half, about 1 cup of turnip, peeled, and sliced finely and then quartered.

You will need to use mix half a cup of flour with pinch of salt and pepper and then cover a small plate, bowl or small plastic bag with flour mixture. Wash your chicken under cold water and take a half of lemon or lime and literally rub it liberally all over chicken. Set aside for a moment

Slice the tip and bottom of your pearl onions, peel only the flaky part. I used 10 pearl onions. Set aside. Then use a frying pan and use about a quarter cup of butter, yes butter and not margarine. Ask yourself this; can margarine really be safe for human consumption when it can sit in your fridge for 6 to 9 months or longer and not go ‘bad’? Heat the butter at a medium setting until it is not only melted but slightly bubbly. Dip the chicken in the flour mixture and cover well. Transfer to chicken to your frying pan. Arrange your pearl onions in your frying pan around your chicken. Don’t be afraid to really brown the bottoms of your onions but don’t let them burn. Don’t hesitate to remove your onions from the pan and add to your stock even if the chicken is not ready yet. Cook the chicken from approximately 5-8 minutes on each side. Only turn the chicken once. You don’t want the chicken to cook completely in the frying pan and the slow cooking in the oven or crock pot will finish the cooking process.

Add the onions and stir your pot well. Then gently place the chicken on top. Cook in a covered dish in the oven for at least 2 hours at 350 degrees or 4-6 hours in your crock pot. Due to the different temperature settings for crock pots I can’t give you a better a better guess than that. The sauce should have thickened to a little less than gravy consistency and the root vegetables should be soft. Watch your pot and add a little water if needed.

Eat alone with a baguette and for leftovers – add over rice or even egg noodles to keep it from being boring until its gone.