It was really this sunny towards the end of October as I typed this. Coming from Singapore where sunny days are quite a given, over here in Germany as soon as the sun shows itself, people literally go on a mad scramble "to go outside!", "go for a walk!", "go for a bike tour!", "go fly a kite!","do a bit of gardening! (aka let me take out my motorised lawn mower, electric saw for the hedges and other noisy gardening equipment) or anything that requires someone to be outside (except car washing on a sunny Sunday coz that's a strict no no for whatever reason that I have come to accept coz when in Rome...yadayada). But actually, I am about to admit that I have caught that bug too. So though I was actually down with the sniffles, a phlegmy cough and a headache on a sunny Sunday, I actually did want to go out and be outside and do one of things on the list above on this sunny October Sunday. But luckily my husband knocked some sense into my head, gave me a mug of Inner Peace tea, put on my fave TV show on the laptop and brought the kids out for some kiddy fun at a railway station carnival, telling me to rest.
But stubborn me looked out of the window and felt such a guilty feeling for being indoors, that I sneaked out with my cuppa and the laptop, sat on the sunny balcony and started to write this blog instead. And so, now I am at peace with myself, and am....outside :-)
Did help that I had this for lunch though. And on days such as this, I am thankful that I am a chicken bone hoarder. Yes, I hoard all the chicken bones after making roast chicken and when I have enough (about the whole chicken), I toss them into a pot, add a liter of water along with slices of carrots, onions, cloves of garlic, inches of ginger and boil the heck out of them to make my own chicken stock. Which is handy when I want to make chicken soup like this. Or simply use a premade one if that is what is easier.
Chicken dumpling soup to soothe the sniffles.
The soup stock
Chicken bones from 1 chicken carcass
2 or more carrots if you like it sweeter
2 onions
5 cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger, chopped roughly
Salt and pepper to taste
All ingredients are based on approximation you see, and there is literally no right or wrong. I do add in a stick of cinnamon and cloves and a few star anises if I want to go the Asian route or a add in a "bouquet garni" if I want a French flair. But most of the time, I use the basic stock recipe so I can adjust for whatever dishes I want to cook later.
So once the soup stock is done, I taste for seasoning and add more chopped carrots and a handful of chopped button mushrooms. And the soup is done!
The Chicken Dumplings (taken from recipe for Bouillon de poulet avec des quenelles de volailles from The Little Paris Kitchen Cookbook)
200g raw chicken breast cut into cubes
100g white bread with crusts trimmed off, also cubed
100g single cream or whipping cream
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon salt
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of nutmeg
I put all ingredients in a food processor and whizz them until the mixture is finely minced. Then using 2 tablespoons, I scoop a tablespoonful of minced chicken and form it into a roughly oval shape. Then I drop it into the boiling soup. Repeat this until all dumplings (quenelles) are shaped into oval forms and dropped into the soup. Cooked dumplings rise to the surface. That's when you know your heartening, soothing broth is ready!
Grab a big bowl and pour yourself a few ladlefuls of chicken dumplings, carrots and mushroom. Scatter chopped parsley or chopped spring onions and fried onions if you feel like it, get a big spoon to slurp all this goodness. And feel better! :-)
