Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

It was cold and I wanted to make soup. Specifically, chicken and wild rice soup. I had never made it before, so I turned to teh innernets for a recipe. For whatever reason, everything I found had cream or milk in it. Why? Not everything needs to be corrupted by dairy (lactose intolerant here), so I made up my own recipe. I had wanted to use fresh thyme, but there was none to be found on our trip to the grocery store, and I didn't want to waste time and gas running around to find it. Instead, I picked up a jar of Litehouse Freeze Dried Poulty Herb Blend, which includes onions, sage, marjoram, spring onions, garlic, and rosemary in addition to thyme. (I realize I could use dried thyme, but I honestly hate the flavor.) The additional herbs made the soup smell like stuffing, and it tasted amazing.

Let me know if you try it. 

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4" chunks

3 celery stalks, sliced

1 lb sliced button or cremini mushrooms 

Kosher salt

1 cup raw wild rice blend (I used Lundberg's Gourmet Wild Rice Blend)

6 cups chicken broth 

1 Tablespoon Litehouse Freeze Dried Poultry Herb Blend

Rotisserie chicken, as much or as little as you like, shredded

Chopped parsley

Add the olive oil to your favorite multi-quart soup pot and heat over medium heat. Add the vegetables and a pinch of kosher salt and cook, stirring once in a while, until the veg are starting to soften. Turn up the heat and add the rice, stirring to coat with oil and mingle with the vegetables. Toast for a minute or two until you can smell it, then add the chicken broth and poultry seasoning and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until the rice is tender, about 45 minutes. 

Just before serving, stir in the chicken. Taste for seasoning and add salt and fresh ground black pepper. Sprinkle parsley on top of each bowl.

Serves 4.

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Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Creamy Chorizo, Chicken, and Corn Chowder

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on February 17, 2014.

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Nothing hits the spot on a frigid winter day like a bowl of soup. Especially a hearty soup made with a bunch of stuff that I usually keep on hand: frozen chicken thighs, chicken, and corn; canned tomatoes and chipotles; and chicken stock. A loaf of freshly baked bread is the perfect accompaniment.

If you don't have chicken, chunks of beef stew meat would work well, just cook the soup longer to ensure the meat is tender, adding additional stock if necessary.

Creamy Chorizo, Chicken, and Corn Chowder

2 links Mexican chorizo
1 cup chopped onion
salt
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 chipotle en adobe, plus 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes and their juice
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 large red potato, peeled and diced
1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half
honey (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Remove chorizo from casing and place in a 3-quart pot along with the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onion is translucent and the sausage has browned and broken into small pieces. (There should be more than enough oil in the sausage to cook the onion without burning; if you have some weird super lean chorizo, add a dribble of oil.)

Stir in the chicken and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer translucent. Add the chipotle, tomatoes, stock, and corn. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer soup for 45-60 minutes, until chicken is very tender. Add potato and cook an additional 10-15 minutes, until potato is done to your liking.

Pour in the half and half and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add a bit of honey if you think the soup needs some sweetness (I did) and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 2-4

Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Food Market's Private Kitchen

The Food Market used to have a pretty sweet employee lounge in the basement of their Hampden location, complete with a couch and big screen TV, but when the demands of their catering business required a prep kitchen, the lounge was the logical place to use. Once transformed into a place to cook, this new kitchen was sometimes idle between catering gigs. Chef Chad Gauss decided to add some decorative elements to turn the utilitarian cooking space into something resembling a Hampden basement and opened it up to special group dinners known as the Private Kitchen.

Seating up to 12 people, the Private Kitchen can be reserved for special events such as business meetings or sports viewing parties. There are three options for your dining pleasure: a monthly five-course chef's dinner; a-la-carte, with selections from the regular menu; and a "slay the menu" option where the guests leave their dining experience to the chef's discretion. The Minx and I were invited, along with other members of the media, to experience the five course chef's dinner option.

Pretzels with beer sauce

We started off with some familiar Food Market snacks: soft pretzels with beer sauce, and fried pickles. Those pretzels provide all the flavor you would expect from a soft pretzel, but are lighter and more buttery tasting. They're so good, they don't even really need the beer cheese dip, but eat it anyway. And somehow that combination of juicy dill pickle and crispy fried batter works so well, especially when combined with bleu cheese and hot sauce, flavors reminiscent of buffalo wings.

Fried Pickles

The first official course of the evening was modestly called Chicken Broth. The broth was indeed a clean and intensely chickeny-tasting chicken stock with a faint whiff of truffle oil. The broth became soup when poured over a bowl of items including roasted, finely diced mirepoix, freshly made farfalle, both raw and fried prosciutto, and an asiago cream. The combination of flavors and textures are incredibly fun to play around with.

Chicken Broth

The next course featured a pear poached in red wine and stuffed with goat cheese. The red wine was enhanced with clove, shallot, thyme, and other elements to further flavor the pear, which sat atop a raspberry emulsion, arugula, and spiced pecans. Again, the balance of flavors and textures was spot on, with crisp and spicy pear and pecan, creamy goat cheese, and fruity emulsion.

Poached Pear Stuffed with Goat Cheese

The seafood course featured a thick chunk of seared wild rockfish decorated with lemony lump crab meat and micro greens. The skin of the fish was perfectly crisp and the two types of aquatic protein provided an interesting juxtaposition of flavors and textures.

Rockfish with Lump Crab Meat

Our entree was charred lamb with salt-roasted baby potatoes, porcini cream, horseradish mustard, and strips of shaved portobello mushroom. The mustard provided a burst of sinus-clearing heat, balancing the hearty cream and potatoes. The medium rare lamb was succulent and tender, and I was not ashamed to grab both chops by the bone to wrestle them for every morsel of meat.

Charred Lamb

Dessert was a deconstructed s'more. A house-made graham cracker was decorated with swirls of rich chocolate pot de creme (sans pot) and toasted marshmallow. A hickory foam served to recreate the illusion of a s'more cooked over a wood fire. It's advisable to not taste the hickory foam on its own as the flavor was a bit harsh, but taken with the rest of the elements, there is a vague smokiness that completes the effect of the campfire treat. The Minx and I are not fans of traditional s'mores, but when each element is made from scratch with this level of care, the effect is quite satisfying.

S'mores

Along with some incredible food, the cozy atmosphere of the basement kitchen and the ability to watch your meal being prepared in front of you creates an enjoyable dining experience. It's rare when you get to watch chefs of this caliber at work in such close quarters. The whole evening is a bit like having a terrific dinner party--if your host happens to be an award-winning chef.

You can have this same meal (or one like it) at the Food Market Private Kitchen on March 26th, 2016. Tickets are $80 per person, and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. For more details and to buy tickets, go to http://www.thefoodmarketbaltimore.com/ and click the "Private Kitchen" link at the top of the page, then scroll down.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Creamy Chorizo, Chicken, and Corn Chowder

Nothing hits the spot on a frigid winter day like a bowl of soup. Especially a hearty soup made with a bunch of stuff that I usually keep on hand: frozen chicken thighs, chicken, and corn; canned tomatoes and chipotles; and chicken stock. A loaf of freshly baked bread is the perfect accompaniment.

If you don't have chicken, chunks of beef stew meat would work well, just cook the soup longer to ensure the meat is tender, adding additional stock if necessary.

Creamy Chorizo, Chicken, and Corn Chowder

2 links Mexican chorizo
1 cup chopped onion
salt
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 chipotle en adobe, plus 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes and their juice
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 large red potato, peeled and diced
1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half
honey (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Remove chorizo from casing and place in a 3-quart pot along with the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onion is translucent and the sausage has browned and broken into small pieces. (There should be more than enough oil in the sausage to cook the onion without burning; if you have some weird super lean chorizo, add a dribble of oil.)

Stir in the chicken and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer translucent. Add the chipotle, tomatoes, stock, and corn. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer soup for 45-60 minutes, until chicken is very tender. Add potato and cook an additional 10-15 minutes, until potato is done to your liking.

Pour in the half and half and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add a bit of honey if you think the soup needs some sweetness (I did) and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 2-4



Posted on Minxeats.com.