Fish Chowder

So, had to come up with ideas to use up all that broth from cooking the stewing hen. Chowder time! The recipe varies depending on what we have on hand when we have broth and frozen fish at the same time, so this is really just a guideline of what happened this time, lol.

Fish Chowder


serves 6

5 cups chicken broth
400g frozen white fish, thawed (we had cod this time)
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 13oz can of fresh corn, drained
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and carrot and cook until onion is clear.
Add the stock and potatoes and bring to a boil.
Boil the potatoes until almost tender, about 6 minutes.
Add the fish and corn and wait for it to boil again.
Stir in the milk and season with salt and pepper.
Heat until just bubbling.
Serve plain, or with bacon bits or grated cheese or slices of fresh bread,

Enjoy!

Chicken Stew

Gotta love big cooking days. Something about dancing around the kitchen and accomplishing so much just makes you feel relaxed and down to earth.

So mom picked up a stewing hen for an experiment and we turned it into broth yesterday. It's not a bad broth either since the hen somehow has more chicken flavour for being so much older than normal fresh chicken. The only fun thing about the stewing hen was that we wanted to see if we could save the meat, so we had to boil it around 4 hours for the meat to fall off the bones. We ended up with a butt-load of meat though, more than we were expecting from all the internet info about how the hens are scrawny. Only problem is, the meat isn't so hot when it's not in a broth or a liquid of some sort. Therefore, chicken stew!

Chicken Stew


serves 6

150g bacon
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can 796mL diced tomatoes, with juices
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar (to counteract the super sourness of canned tomatoes)
pinch hot pepper flakes
3 cups cooked chicken, diced
1/3 can water (rinse out the leftover juices in the can)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add 1 Tbsp oil and the bacon and fry until crispy.
Stir in the rest of the oil and the onion and saute until clear and soft.
Add the garlic and hot pepper flakes and fry about 1-2 minutes, until the garlic starts to turn golden.
Mix in the tomatoes, oregano, sugar and water.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.
Simmer at least 30 minutes to infuse flavours, or until desired consistency.
Serve hot over noodles, or with bread or biscuits.

An interesting and yummy new (for me anyways) way to eat chicken.

Enjoy!

Purist Beef Stew and Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

Another lazy day, but there's nothing wrong with that. With winter back again, a beef stew seemed like a good idea to warm the soul. And we're eating through the freezer again, so there was some thawed puff pastry in the fridge. I was thinking of something to do with apples, but mom wants to be in charge of those, since she thinks they're skeazy, so I went with a straight-up cinnamon sugar thing.

Purist Beef Stew


serves 3

2 lb eye of round beef, chunked
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 packet onion soup powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups water

Put a large pot over medium heat and add the oil.
Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add the onion soup powder, flour and pepper and mix until everything looks wet.
Add the sherry and cook off the alcohol smell, about 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the water gradually until all the lumps are gone.
Turn down to really low and add the beef chunks.
Even though the meat is sticking out of the liquid, DON'T add more water, since the meat will give off its own.
Simmer about 2 hours, until meat is soft, stirring occasionally. If it starts to boil, just turn it off for a while and let it sit on the stove.

Serve immediately or fridge and reheat the next day (it's always better the next day if you can plan it that way)

If you couldn't tell, I nicknamed it "purist" since it only has beef and onions, none of this potato, carrot, pea and what-not stuff you find in canned stew, lol.

Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

makes 24 mini pretzels

1/2 package puff pastry (about 227g), thawed

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Sprinkle a little of the sugar on a clean work surface and put the puff pastry on it.

Roll it out to a 10 inch by 12 inch rectangle.

Brush the butter over the whole area of dough.

Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over the dough.

Semi-tightly roll the dough to the middle from both sides, to make a pretzel-shaped log.

Cut into 24 even pieces and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake about 8 minutes and then flip the pastries and bake another 5 minutes, or until brown on both sides. Careful, it can burn quite easily.

Serve warm or cooled. both make a yummy, sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Matzo Ball Soup

So, been craving this for awhile now, and finally got around to making it since we had a jug of homemade broth in the fridge. Recipes aren't all that common on the internet, but I found a few and compared them. This is the amalgamation of my findings and what I ended up doing.

Matzo Balls 


makes 9 big ones


3 Tbsp good schmaltz (can use oil if you don't have any around, might want to add spices if going for oil though)
2 eggs, beaten
1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed semi-fine (food processor is awesome for it)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
3 Tbsp water (or chicken stock if you have enough or skipped schmaltz)

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the schmaltz (or oil).
Sprinkle the cracker crumbs, ginger and salt (and spices) and then stir.
Add the water (or stock) and stir to just mix.
Cover and fridge for 20 minutes.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. (Make sure it's quite big, since the balls poof!)
Reduce to a light boil and add the balls. Cover and cook 20-30 minutes or until desired doneness.

To serve, simmer 5 minutes in the broth or soup you're eating with them.

A big serving of soup. To my homemade broth, I added chopped onions, carrots, mushrooms and chicken breasts. It was yummy!

Good eats!