What I had for dinner:

Chicken Soup

29 Sep 1995 13:39:19 -0400

Yes, I had a cold, but this was purely coincidental. This chicken soup started when I found lemongrass at my local vegetable market (the lemongrass in my living room does not grow fast enough for my rate of consumption!) I remembered that I had some frozen chicken bits and pieces, and it was just a matter of improvising around that.

I first browned together some chicken scraps cut very small, some bones, one medium onion chopped coarsely, 9 green jalapeños (split), and an inch of ginger cut in slices. I then added 1 tbsp of rosemary, 3 stalks of lemongrass (hammered to a pulp), and one head of garlic (bruised with a mallet), and cooked that for a minute. I then added a pint of homebrewed amber ale and a pint of water, some peppercorn and annatto seeds, and cooked in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cut the outer leaves of a large head of escarole into 2 inch pieces and sautéed them in a wok until the stalks were soft. The escarole was set aside and a piece of chicken breast was cut into thin slices and sautéed until well browned.

When the broth was ready, it was strained through a fine sieve and added to the cooked escarole and chicken, salted to taste, and served with toasted whole-wheat bread.

I still have a cold, but maybe it would have been worse ...