Soup!

This has actually been a pretty mild winter so far.  However, this last week has been COLD. Like, "single-digits-but-below-zero-with-the-wind-chill" cold.  When this happens, I can't think of anything better than hunkering down in my apartment; watching DVDs or old shows, and making a nice, hearty pot of soup.

Evening #1:
I made the stock out of the remains of a roast chicken and a mirepoix.  The hubby learned all about mirepoix (meer-PWAH) in culinary school, and it consists of 50% chopped onion, 25% chopped carrots and 25% chopped celery.  Since I used a large soup pot, that amounted to 4 small yellow onions, 4 small carrots and 2 large stalks of celery. I also used about one tbsp minced garlic and one tsp each of kosher salt, black pepper, parsley and sage.

After tossing all of the vegetables, spices and bones into the pot, I filled it almost to the top (I left about 3" to prevent boil-over) and put it on the stove to cook.  It took almost 2 hours to come to a boil, as the big burner on my stove is broken and I had to use a small burner.  Thankfully I wasn't in a hurry.

Once it started boiling I reduced the heat just enough to bring it down from a rolling boil to a good simmer.  After that, I pretty much ignored it.  I watched some shows, poked around on the internet, took a shower.  I stirred it occasionally, and when the water level had boiled down considerably (almost half way) I added about 4 more cups of water.  After another couple of hours, and a few more inches, I added about 2 more cups of water and tossed it in the fridge for the night, bones, mushy vegetables and all.  All in all, I think it boiled for about eight hours.

Note- you can skip all this, if you don't happen to have a chicken carcass handy, or just don't feel like going through all that.  Buy a few large 32oz cartons of chicken stock and that should do.  It won't be the same of course, but it will serve.


Evening #2:
I bought:

• 2 cans cannellini beans
• 1 bag of frozen spinach (should have used fresh, in retrospect)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 boil-in-bag of brown rice
• 1 bag of frozen corn
• some nice, crusty portuguese rolls

I also had a leftover chicken breast thawing in the fridge, as the chicken carcass was a little picked over.

I took the pot of broth and sludge out of the fridge, and strained it with a fine wire mesh strainer into another, smaller pot.  I sifted through the remains and picked out the good meat, and tossed that in as well.  I put it on the stove to boil, to condense it a little more.  After about a half hour of boiling, I added the beans, corn, tomatoes and two more carrots- chopped into 1/2" sections, then about 15 minutes later, a cup of the partially thawed spinach.  After another 15 mins or so, I added the rice.  I preheated my oven to 350, and arranged the rolls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  While the oven was warming up, I cut the chicken into 3/4" pieces, and tossed them into the soup.  After 10 minutes, I put the rolls into the oven, just to warm them for a little while.  The chicken only took about 10 minutes to cook- I added it last so it wouldn't get too dry.  Check the broth-- is it too intense?  Add a little water.  Is it too bland? Add a bouillon cube or two (I always have them on hand for flavor emergencies, but beware; they're packed with huge amounts of sodium).

Turn the soup off and let it cool a little while the rolls are warming.  Pull out the rolls and serve them with warm butter.  The soup turned out to be hearty and delicious.  Even better on day two when I had it for lunch!  What do I call it?  I suppose it's sort of a chicken florentine-minestrone hybrid.  Who cares, as long as it's good, right? :)