Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
1,000 Jewish Recipes (171 page)
CHICKEN SOUPS
In many Yemenite families the midday meal during the week often revolves around a big pot of golden, aromatic chicken soup. This is a flavorful, whole-meal soup that I like to prepare often. Potatoes are traditional but I add plenty of other vegetables according to the season: carrots and zucchini all year, yellow crookneck squash and green beans in summer, green peas in spring, butternut squash and sometimes mushrooms in the winter. Serve it Yemenite style, with fresh pita bread and the spicy Yemenite chutney called
zehug
on the side.
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2
to 3 pounds chicken pieces, fat and skin removed
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
5 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 large onion, whole or sliced
6 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch lengths
4 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
About 2 quarts water
6 medium boiling potatoes
6 medium zucchini, halved and cut into 1-inch slices
1.
Put chicken in a large stew pan or pot. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin, and turmeric. Add onion, carrots, garlic, and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat, skimming foam occasionally 1 hour.
2.
Peel potatoes, if desired. Halve them, add to soup, and simmer 20 minutes. Add zucchini and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Skim off fat. (If making soup ahead, refrigerate, then skim off fat.) Adjust seasoning; season generously with pepper. Remove chicken, discard skin, cut meat from bones, discard bones, and return meat to soup. Serve soup in fairly shallow bowls with chicken and vegetables.
Use homemade chicken stock or broth for the best flavor in this aromatic, gently spiced soup. If you make it ahead, add a little water when reheating it, as it thickens over time.
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 quart chicken stock or broth
3 cups water
1 rib celery, cut into thin crosswise strips
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4
teaspoon ground turmeric
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2
cup long-grain rice
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3
cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Heat oil in a large, heavy stew pan. Add onions and sauté over medium heat about 7 minutes or until golden. Add tomatoes and sauté lightly. Add stock, water, celery, and turmeric and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, skimming fat occasionally. Add rice. Stir once, cover and cook over low heat 15 minutes or until rice is tender. Add cilantro. Taste soup; season generously with pepper. Serve hot.
Since some people prefer their chicken soup with noodles, while others like matzo balls, one solution is to serve both. Then you really have the best of both worlds. You can prepare the soup and matzo balls ahead and reheat them when you need them.
2 pounds chicken pieces
10 cups cold water
1 whole onion, peeled
2 ribs celery, including leafy tops
1 small leek, cleaned and left whole
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
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2
pound carrots, sliced
My Mother's Matzo Balls
or
Extra-Light Matzo Balls
1 cup very fine noodles (soup noodles)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or Italian parsley
1.
Combine chicken, water, onion, celery, leek, bay leaf, and a pinch of salt in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Skim thoroughly. Partially cover and simmer 1
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2
hours, skimming occasionally. Add carrots and simmer about 15 minutes or until tender. Skim off excess fat. Add pepper. Refrigerate soup. Thoroughly skim fat from soup.
2.
Prepare matzo balls. Then, skim fat again from soup. Discard onion, celery, bay leaf and leek. Reheat to a simmer. Cover and keep hot.
3.
Cook noodles in a large pan of boiling salted water about 7 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.
4.
Add dill to soup. For each serving, remove 2 or 3 matzo balls from their cooking liquid with a slotted spoon, add them to soup bowls and ladle hot soup over them. Add noodles and a few carrot slices to each bowl. Serve hot.
This is the traditional chicken soup made by Jews from Yemen. Its wonderful golden color and aroma come from the popular Yemenite spice blend known simply as "soup spice," a mixture of ground cumin seeds, turmeric, and plenty of black pepper. Some cooks add sliced summer squash or whole potatoes to the soup, while others prefer to cook the chicken without vegetables.
Usually the soup is served in shallow bowls with pieces of chicken and some potatoes or rice. My mother-in-law often cooks rice in a separate pan as pilaf, using some of the chicken soup as the cooking liquid. This results in wonderfully flavorful rice!
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2
pounds chicken pieces
5 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
7 cups boiling water
1 large onion, peeled
1 large tomato
3 zucchini or other summer squash, cut into thick slices (optional)
1.
Put chicken in a large, heavy stew pan or Dutch oven. Sprinkle with cumin, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Heat over low heat about 7 minutes, turning pieces occasionally, so they are coated with spices.
2.
Add water, onion, and tomato to stew pan. Bring to a boil. Skim foam from surface. Cover and cook over low heat 1
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2
hours. Add zucchini, if using, and cook 30 minutes or until soup is well flavored and zucchini is very tender. Skim excess fat. Discard onion and tomato. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot, in shallow bowls.
This economical soup needs only a small amount of chicken and is convenient when you need only a few servings. It does not have the intense flavor of broth made with a whole bird but is practical to make when you are preparing a main course of roasted or braised chicken and you don't need to cook another whole chicken.
10 to 12 ounces chicken legs or thighs
1 medium onion, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into thin slices
2 ribs celery, sliced, with leafy tops
3 sprigs fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
About 6 cups water
1 cup very fine noodles (soup noodles)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
1.
Remove skin from chicken, if desired. Put chicken in a saucepan and add onion, carrot, celery, cilantro sprigs, bay leaf, and salt. Add 6 cups water or enough to generously cover. Bring to a boil. Skim foam. Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until just tender. Remove chicken and reserve for other uses.
2.
Continue simmering soup 15 minutes or until it is well flavored. Discard celery tops, cilantro, and bay leaf. Refrigerate soup. Thoroughly skim fat from soup.
3.
Cook noodles in a large pan of boiling salted water about 7 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.
4.
Reheat soup before serving. Serve soup with a few carrot and celery slices and chicken strips, if using. Add noodles to each bowl of hot soup and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
Flavored with garlic, chiles, cumin, turmeric, and cilantro, this is the kind of soup that Jews from Middle Eastern countries prepare for hearty winter meals.
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2
cups dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), about 10 ounces