REAL TRANSYLVANIAN CHICKEN SOUP
The Sunday Soup in our house with home made dumplings.
Call it “Jewish Penicillin”, or balsam for your soul but
nothing can beat a real home-made chicken soup.
I could be in bed with a cold, half dead and still get up to make my
famous chicken soup. There are millions
of recipes, every culture does it in their own way but what I am giving you
here is the closest you ever come to heaven.
I guarantee it!
INGREDIENTS:
- Get one whole chicken, the fatter the better. If you can ask for an older chick (age matters), you’ve got yourself a winner. J As the old Hungarian saying says: “The old chick and a young carrot make the best chicken soup”.
- 1 bunch of young carrots (4-5 carrots aprox.) peeled and cut in length.
- 1 bunch of parsley roots (4-5 if small in a bunch, 3 if they come bigger) peeled and cut in length. If the parsley roots come with the parsley leaves, just cut them off, wash them and fold them in a paper towel, place it in a Ziploc bag, refrigerate it for further use. The moisture will hold the leaves fresh for much longer. You can use it to garnish just about anything, or just add it to soups and main courses for presentation.
- NO PARSNIPS in my soup! It will give a sweet taste to the soup…not good!
- 1 medium size celery root cleaned, and cut in 1 inch pieces. NOT CELERY LEAVES or STICKS! Do the same if roots come with leaves as you did with the parsley leaves.
- 1 medium size onion sliced in 4 quarters
- ½ of a long Italian green pepper with seeds and core inside
- Vegeta, sea-salt or regular salt, about 3 teaspoonfuls
- Black peppercorns , about 1 spoonful
- A pinch of paprika (keeps the soup clear)
- 1 clove of garlic
Put a 9-10 quart bowl with water, the whole chicken (cut up,
of course), the quartered onion, ½ green pepper, salt, peppercorns, paprika to
boil. Do not fill up the whole pot with
water. Always leave a 2 inch space for later when you add the vegetables. Cover it and let it cook until the chicken is
almost tender. Try to poke the leg or
thigh with a fork. If there’s slight
resistance, you may add all your cleaned and cut up veggies: the parsley roots,
celery roots and carrots. Cover it with
a slight opening for steam and let your kitchen fill with the aroma of heaven.
When the veggies test tender (about 1 hour) you can shut off the flames and let
the masterpiece rest for 15-20 minutes.
Now you can strain the soup, and keep the meats and veggies in 2
separate containers.
You will get the golden broth and now you can dress it up at
your delight. If you would like to boil
some egg noodles in the mean time or venture into making my Mommy’s Sunday
dumplings, go ahead. I personally like
to keep the broth clear until I serve it.
Vegetables and noodles tend to soak up or alter the flavor. Starches from noodles change the consistency
of the soup. Carrots especially if kept inside the soup will make the soup go
sour much faster. You don’t want
anything to spoil the miraculous product of perfection. :)
When you add the noodles, or dumplings to the plate, cut up
some carrots or veggies or you can ad a few chicken pieces, some fresh parsley
and or scallion greens chopped up for garnish, get out a hottie jalapeno (if
you dare), close your eyes and listen to the angels sing.
If you would like the ultimate challenge and impress your
guests to unprecedented heights, try my Mommy’s home made dumplings. That’s what she served us on major Holidays
and Sundays. We call it GALUSKA, but you can call it dumpling, it’s still cute.
MOMMY’S HOME MADE GALUSKA (DUMPLING)
So, who is your dumpling? Your son, your daughter, your
hubby, boyfriend, puppy or kitten? You
know as well as I do, that you have to take special care of your dumpling,
spoil it, and take your time with it.
That’s the lesson I learned from my Mommy. Oh, yes, and about making the
successful dumpling. It requires time,
patience and constant supervision. Your
hard work will pay off with the cutest and naughtiest as well as the tastiest
additions for your miracle soup.
INGREDIENTS:
- 7-8 tablespoons of “Farina” Cream of wheat cereal
- Olive oil 3-4 tablespoons
- 2 eggs
- salt (1 teaspoon)
Mix the ingredients in a mixer or Magic Bullet, add more
olive oil if too dry, but it should be just a little bit runny not too
liquidy. Now let it rest, don’t touch
it, just cover it up and leave it alone for 20-30 minutes.
In the mean time boil some salty water about 2 inches of
water in a wide pot. Remember, you need
space when those little suckers start growing. J When the water is boiling, you can take a
teaspoon (for medium size dumplings, shown above) or a tablespoon (for gigantic
dumplings) and scoop out a nice round dumpling size from the mixture that
should be very thick right now into the boiling water. One by one scoop and let
it float. The flame should be at medium high.
Now comes the
cuddling part. Take a full cup of very
cold water and keep it by your side.
Your cuties might be turning on their own but help them out. Every 5-6 minutes you will pour a few drops
of cold water on each dumpling or use a tablespoon. After you turn them, 5 minutes later, you
will repeat the cold shower on the poor souls.
And so on and so on until they grew so much that they want to jump out
of the pot. The process has to be slow and turning it often with the cold water
drops on them makes them cook and relax, cook and relax so the inside gets done
to perfection. In about 45 minutes you
can sacrifice a dumpling and stab it in the middle. It won’t bleed, don’t worry! That’s another dish from Transylvania.
J
If the inside looks white and fluffy, it’s done! If it’s yellow or brownish,
you still have some turning and cooling to do.
Told you it’s time, patience, care and love J
but the end results are fantastic! Now
you can add those cuties to your chicken soup, stick a good looking carrot in
there, garnish it with some scallion greens and parsley chopped up and take a
bow!
Here’s another version of my famous medicine with
spiral egg noodles, cut up veggies and chicken meat. We’ll call it the weekday soup.:)
EGESZSEGEDRE! BON
APPETITE!
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