Under The Weather

It has been one of them days. I woke up at 02:30 this morning and was at work around 03:00, back in bed by 07:00 with a splitting headache and upset stomach, feeling pretty weak. Got back out of bed around 11:00, puttered around a little, still not feeling 100%. Took the laundry and dropped it off, then went to the mess hall for some fixins. Have you noticed that, even though everyone swears by chicken soup when you are feeling down, we all have our own special comfort foods that magically make us feel better? Mine is soup, but not just any soup, I like hot spicy make you sweat buckets soup. I of course have a certain recipe that I prefer (Korean) but when in a pinch and the right ingredients aren't to be found, you do what you must.

This is how I made my soup;

I went to the mess hall and using a large  "take out box" I rounded up the following;

2 hamburgers, 1 polish sausage
2 cups of stewed tomatoes
1/2 sliced onion
3 sliced jalepenos
2 sliced carrots
big handful of bak choi, and I have big hands.
2 medium baked potatoes.

Once back in my room, I fired up my rice cooker, which I primarily use for a soup and noodle cooker, added a drizzle of sesame oil, splash of dark soy sauce, 2 Tbs of ground red pepper and the onions. Let that simmer for a few minutes and then dumped in everything else except the potatoes. Added a couple or three cups of water and began the wait. Since all the ingredients that require cooking had been pre-cooked, it was a short wait, maybe 15 minutes. I chopped up the potatoes and added them, l letit simmer a little more and dug in. I already feel better.

I already had a large bowl of it.

This is the real recipe I would have followed if I had been home.

Super Chicken Soup

Ingredients;

Ø  2 ½ lbs of chicken pieces with the skin on.  I prefer thighs.

Ø  ¼ cup of vegetable or olive oil

Ø  1/4 cup of sesame oil. Asian store or Wal-mart

Ø  Salt to taste

Ø  Black pepper to taste

Ø  1 cup of ground red pepper.  Asian store, not pepper flakes. You could probably use cayenne.

Ø  4 large potatoes cubed

Ø  1 Large Asian radish cut in half length-wise and then sliced into 1/4 “  pieces.

Ø  1 Large Onion sliced in half, end-to-end, then sliced into strips.

Ø  2 or 3 cloves of garlic crushed. You can substitute with powder, but why would you.

Heat ¼ cup of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet and add the crushed garlic, add the chicken skin side down then place a large pot of water on top of it to hold the chicken down in the frying pan. You don’t need to check the chicken, or bread it. Cook the chicken like this for 10 minutes on medium high heat. Turn the chicken and then replace that pot of water on top of it. Cook for another 5 minutes.

* This method of frying chicken is called “Chicken Under a Brick” I guess because you could use a clean brick instead of a pot of water. Works well for regular fried chicken also. Notice you use much less oil?

While the chicken is cooking get your next pot on the stove, large enough to hold all the other ingredients and some water.

Heat the soup pot and put in the sesame oil. When the oil is hot add the onion and cook on low stirring occasionally till the onion begins turning transparent. Add the red pepper and stir constantly for a couple of minutes. When your arm gets tired, add a cup of water and cook on med-high to get the flavor of the pepper and oil mixed.

Chicken should be done. Add it to the soup pot. Don’t be bashful add those scrapings off the skillet to.

Add all the other vegetables and water to cover by at least 1 inch.

Cook over medium heat until potatoes and radish are fork tender, salt and pepper to taste.

Yummy.

Ok here is the deal about this recipe. The two ingredients that really set it off are the chicken cooked this way and the sesame oil.

All the other ingredients can be left out or exchanged with other vegetables that you like. I really recommend fresh vegetables for this recipe. The frozen or canned stuff just doesn’t cut it.

Frozen or fresh corn on the cob is great here, just cut into 1 ½ inch sections

If you have them add a really big handful of fresh spinach or other leafy greens just a couple of minutes before the soup is done.

If you don’t like the heat of the peppers, don’t use them or just use a couple tablespoons of cayenne instead.

Don’t slurp, use a napkin, and yes you can drink out of the bowl.

Rusty’s Kitchen

As a side note, this recipe is also great when made with shredded beef instead of chicken. I always feel better after eating any hot (spicy) soup.