Chicken Soup with Rice

If there's one thing I hate, it's getting sick. Being sick feels like being benched--like you're missing out on everything, losing precious days of your life to feeling weak and gross and all-around shitty. But if there's one positive thing about it, it's all the homemade chicken soup and tea you get to slurp down all day long. My mom used to make the best chicken soup from scratch whenever I came down with a cold, but now that we live about 3,000 miles apart, I've had to make do with my own (still very delicious) abbreviated version. Because really, who has the energy to stand at a stove for hours when they're sick? Not I.

I made this chicken soup with rice at the beginning of the week when I could tell I was coming down with the same cold almost everyone in my office had been suffering from. It takes just about an hour and a half and requires almost no elbow grease--just chop up a few veggies, throw them into a big pot with an organic chicken and some water, and let it simmer. All that's left to do in the end is shred the chicken and put it back in the broth. Simple, easy, perfect for a sick day. It was so easy, in fact, that I decided to add a little bit of fun to the soup by frying up bits of the reserved chicken skins for a garnish (inspiration from the amazing matzo ball soup at Prune). I mean, let's face it, chicken soup, as nourishing as it is, can get a little boring by the third or fourth bowl, and when you've been stuck in your apartment watching My So-Called Life on Netflix for the 100th time, you've got to get your kicks in somehow. xo


Chicken Soup with Rice
Ingredients:
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 large celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) chicken
1 cup long-grain brown rice
1/3 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, plus a few more for garnish
3 teaspoons salt
3 quarts water
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Combine onion, celery, carrots, chicken, rice, parsley, and salt in a 6-quart pot. Add water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer, skimming off fat as needed, for 1 hour.

Transfer chicken to a colander. When cool enough to handle, remove meat; reserve skin and discard bones. Coarsely shred chicken and return to soup. Add 2 teaspoons salt and pepper to taste and reheat if necessary. 

Optional: Chop the reserved chicken skin into small pieces. Heat a few tablespoons of canola oil in a small nonstick pan until shimmering. Drop a small handful of chicken skins into the hot oil and fry for a few minutes until crisp and golden brown. Garnish each bowl of soup with a few pieces. Yum. 

Birthday Seaweed Soup

It's Korean food week around here, guys. I recently picked up Marja Vongerichten's (that would be the wife of Jean-Georges Vongerichten) new cookbook on Korean cuisine, The Kimchi Chronicles, and now I'm hooked. I grew up eating the stuff (my Korean mother is the best home cook), but I've never really had a go of it on my own. This seaweed soup is something that Koreans traditionally serve on birthday mornings to ring in another year of good health, and making it brought back tons of good memories for me.

Not only is it really delicious, it's also a seriously effective diet elixir--all that's in it is a few slices of browned brisket, lots of healthy seaweed, and what will seem like an abnormally large amount of garlic (also, very good for you). Yum. xo

Birthday Seaweed Soup
From The Kimchi Chronicles, by Marja Vongerichten
Ingredients:
2 large handfuls of dried seaweed, such as wakame
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1/3 pound beef brisket, thinly sliced
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons fish sauce or dashida

Directions:
Soak the seaweed in cold water to cover for 10 minutes, drain well, and coarsely chop.

Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil in a large, heavy pot over high heat. Add the brisket and season with salt and pepper. Cook, sitrring now and then, until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and seaweed and stir to combine. Add cold water to cover, bring to a boil, and skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Add the fish sauce (or dashida) and cook at a rolling boil until the seaweed is quite soft and the broth has taken on lots of flavor, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Turkey Chili

In Honolulu, where I grew up, there's a chain of restaurants called Zippy's that my friends and I frequented quite often. High-brow it wasn't, but it was a few notches above fast food and a lot of them were open 24/7, which came in handy for those late night meals to soak up the alcohol you weren't supposed to be drinking (sorry, mom!). They were known around the island for having the best beef chili served with a side of sticky white rice, which was my order of choice. It was so popular that they started shipping it everywhere in frozen packets, mainly, I suspect, for all the college students that had landed in the "mainland" and missed their chili fix like I did.

Even to this day, chili is one of my favorite comfort foods, and this recipe for a healthier version, made with turkey, is one of the best I've made. It comes from Alice's Tea Cup, a charming restaurant in Manhattan and is said to have a "cult following" among their clientele. Make a big batch of it this weekend--it's perfect hurricane food. The leftovers will taste even better after a day or two. xo

Turkey Chili
Adapted from Alice's Tea Cup
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 pounds ground turkey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup finely chopped carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion (about 1 small onion)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery (about 1 large stalk celery)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
4 cups unseasoned tomato sauce (I used organic Muir Glen brand)
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes (from one 14-ounce can)
1 15.5-ounce can black beans
1 15.5-ounce can navy beans
1 15.5-ounce can kidney beans
2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions:
Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground turkey and saute until it is lightly browned but not burned, about 5-7 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and set the turkey aside.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven, and saute the carrots, onions, celery, and garlic until softened, about 8-10 minutes (be careful not to burn them).

Add the tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes, bring to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Add all the beans to the pot and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add the turkey and cook for 20 minutes. Add the chili powder, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Corn Chowder

By the time August rolls around, it just feels wrong not to have sweet summer corn integrated into as many meals as possible. The season for it is rapidly winding down to a close, and before we know it, we'll be waiting eagerly for the chance to indulge again, so take part while you can, friends. One of my absolute favorite ways to prepare corn is simmering it in a failproof combo of cream and bacon and potatoes until it transforms into a sumptuous, silky chowder with just the right amount of heft. This recipe is about as simple as it gets, and incredibly delicious. Make it a priority to whip it up before month's end--it's the perfect way to celebrate summer's dwindling days. Recipe down below. All pictures by Mark Iantosca. xo

Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
4 to 6 ears of fresh corn
1/2 cup bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup half and half or heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped parsley (optional)

Directions:
Shuck corn, and use a paring knife to strip kernels into a bowl. Put cobs in a pot with 4 cups water; bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer while you continue.

Put bacon in a saucepan, and turn heat to medium-high. Cook over medium heat until it renders some of it's fat, about 4 minutes. Add onion and potatoes, along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion softens, about 5 minutes.

After corncobs have cooked at least 10 minutes, strain liquid into onion-potato mixture; bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. When potatoes are tender, add corn kernels and milk, and heat through. Taste, and adjust seasonings. Garnish with the parsley, and serve.

Best Miso Soup

Miso soup is just one of those mysterious things that I would never think to try making on my own; it's dark cloudiness, the silky sheets of seaweed floating around, the sometimes-present bits of tofu--it all just seems so shrouded in exotic culinary secrecy. That's why it came as such an utter surprise that the little bowl of soup you see in the picture above is not only the best miso soup I've ever had, it's also one of the easiest soups I've ever made. The bonus? Miso is one of the ultimate super foods, full of live enzymes that are great for digestion--it's basically like yogurt without the dairy. It's also great for the immune system, protects against radiation, it's high in proteins, vitamins, and minerals, and it keeps the body "happy and balanced," to quote Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Life. Talk about the complete package. I would eat this stuff every day if I could.

However, think twice before you start gorging on takeout containers from your local Japanese restaurant. The stuff you get at restaurants is often extra salty, made with fish stock, and loaded with MSG. Way better to make it at home and really reap all the benefits, no? For the recipe below, you can either use white miso for a lighter version, or barley miso for a deeper flavor. Barley miso has more health benefits so I went with that one and it was absolutely delicious. Try it out--I promise it's easier than you think. xo

Best Miso Soup
From My Father's Daughter, by Gwyneth Paltrow
Ingredients:
6 cups water (filtered is best)
1 cup dried bonito flakes
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 4-inch piece dried wakame seawee
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons miso paste
2 cups watercress leaves, washed (optional)

Directions:
Heat the water in a small soup pot and when bubbles form around the edges, add the bonito. Turn the heat down and simmer for 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let the broth sit for 5 minutes. Strain the broth into a clean pot, discarding the bonito. Add the shiitakes and wakame to the broth and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Remove the wakame and the mushrooms. Discard the thick stems from the mushrooms, thinly slice the caps, and slip them back into the soup. Chop the wakame into small pieces, discarding any thick piece of stems, and return to the pot.

In a small bowl, combine the miso paste with a bit of broth and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture back into the post and let the soup simmer for a few minutes, being careful not to let it boil. If you're using it, add the watercress at the last minute just to wilt it, and serve.