Friday, January 18, 2008

A New Recipe with a Dash Update


It's 11 F (-11 C) today and light snow is just starting to fall. Oh look, can you see Dash? He's peeking over the fence to see who's coming out to impose on his day and he's not even wearing his blankie. His mama (the big white girl) is letting him nurse now, after two weeks of spitting him off and generally treating him like an annoying stranger after his illness. I don't know if there's any milk left for him to have, but I don't think it matters. He's done so much better than either the vet or I expected, although he's really small and the weight gain is painfully slow. The gray baby is a full two months younger than he is and has had a growth spurt over Christmas. She makes him look like a squirt.

I just have to post a new recipe that I tried out. I found it in a book called "Soup and Bread", by Crescent Dragonwagon. I thought the author's name was a little strange, but the book is marvelous. With it being the frozen days of winter here, I was glad to find a book dedicated to two of my favorite types of winter foods and without a lot of the odd ingredients that are so fashionable, expensive and hard to find like kombu, daikon, kuzu, mahimahi, seitan, among many others--I don't even know what most of these are and doubt that my family would eat them even if I did. This book offers pure home cooking with some healthy and flavorful twists and I just love it.

My current favorite is called Supreme of Chicken and Olive Soup. I had never heard of putting olives in soup before and it sounded intriguing so I took the chance of my family refusing to eat a bite of it and wasting all the good ingredients. Results? Everyone loved it and it's now on our favorite list. I served it with hot baking powder biscuits and cold green salad.

So here is it is for your consideration and use. Enjoy!

Supreme of Chicken and Olive Soup Eureka

4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
1 c. dry white wine
4 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1 rib celery diced
5 tbsp flour
1/2 c. peas
1 1/2 c. milk or half and half
1/2 c. cooked rice
1/4 c. pitted olives cut into fat rounds
1/4 c. pimento stuffed green olives, sliced into fat rounds
3 c. chunked cooked chicken
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. In a soup pot, combine the chicken stock and wine and boil. Turn down heat and simmer.
2. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until slightly softened. Add the carrot and and celery and saute, stirring, another 5 or 6 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the veg with flour and lower heat. Cook 2 minutes while stirring in the flour. Gradually stir in some of the stock mixture and then whisk in the thickened pan contents to the remainder of the stock. Simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Add milk to soup. Add the peas along with the olives, rice, and chicken. Heat through and season to taste.

Pretty simple and basic--mostly just a home made cream of chicken soup. I used 2% milk and left out the peas (because my oldest son won't touch them) and added nearly three times the amount of olives. I also boiled the chicken and used the stock from that rather than purchasing actual chicken stock. Good luck and I hope you like this as much as we did.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adorable pictures, thanks for sharing those.

Crystal xx

Kathleen said...

I enjoyed reading Crescent Dragonwagon about 10 years ago. I read a book she wrote years ago - a childrens book - and she seemed to be very creative. Apparently creative in the area of cooking as well as children's literature.

I'm wondering why an illness when the animal is young would have such a dramatic effect on him. It didn't seem that he was ill for a very extended period of time. Why is it such a life-changer for alpacas? Is it because it's not apparent that they're ill until they're VERY ill?

Chris Stovell said...

Gald to hear that Dash is on the mend. Your soup recipe sound interesting - will have to give it a go.

Debra in France said...

Hi, I visited the Alpaca Nation site to look at wool, but got confused (not difficult for me!). What is the difference between fibre and yarn? Which one you you just pick up and start knitting with?

Wooly Works said...

Debra, the difference between fiber and yarn is that fiber is usually unprocessed wool, flax, cotton, silk, mohair, or anything produced by an animal or plant that is used to create yarn, string, thread or felt. Yarn is basically string made from fiber, regardless of the combination of fibers. This is what you pick up and knit with. We produce mohair and alpaca, but there are lots of other types. I'll post some pictures of the differences and some information as well. Glad to have questions like that. It keeps me sharp. Have a great day and keep Breezy in line!

Breezy said...

Hi thanks for visiting me I'm afraid Debra has no chance of keeping me in line! I love the pics of your animals and I am so jealous of your skills. Plus a great soup recipe. I'll be back

Debra in France said...

Thank you for that. I loved the Alpaca Nation site, I found it very interesting. It really makes me want to brush up my knitting skills (basic) and try different yearns. Thank you:-)