Recipes from Helle

Well I’m getting to be a slacker on here but to be honest, some of the stuff I cook just doesn’t rate explanation. However, this stuff’s good. Chicken soup is really the cure for what ails you and in case you hadn’t noticed, I do like me some chicken. Its generally the only meat in our house (with the exception of ground turkey. Thats healthy of you, you say, but in reality, its cheaper, and I know my husband will eat it whereas beef and pork are iffy with him. He rarely likes ham, pork chops, steak, or any of the other man meats. He doesn’t even eat bone in chicken so you can imagine the challenge I face in grocery shopping with him. Me: Try it you might like it. Him: (little kid squeal) NO! I don’t like it! Now he’s not always like this, but he knows what he likes and getting him to try something he’s not sure of is often more trouble than its worth. So thats why you’ll see so many chicken recipes from me. However soon I’m going to have a surprise for you all that will make this blog a bit more diverse.

Now for the matter at hand. I like home made noodles in my chicken soup and its just about the only way picky (my husband) will eat it. Like I said, he knows what he likes. So after you get the soup on, I’ll give you the recipe for those and some basic instructions.

Chicken soup

• 2-3 chicken breasts, boned and skinned
• 2-3 carrots, peeled, and cut into coins
• 2 stalks of celery chopped
• 1 med onion chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth (homemade or otherwise)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, but great if you’ve got a cold for clearing out your sinuses)
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 tsp or 1 cube chicken bullion
• Salt and pepper to taste

Okay so put the chicken in a large stock pot along with the bullion and about a 1/2 cup of water, cover it, and cook on med high till its done all the way through. Remove from the pan, add the veggies, chicken broth, and seasonings. Cut the chicken into bite size chunks and dump it back in the pot. Cover the pot again and let it cook over a medium low temp. In the meantime get ready to make those noodles if you’re ambitious. They’re better than store bought any day.

For this recipe you’ll make just a small batch of noodles, but they’re also great in larger numbers for making spaghetti or fettucine alfredo because they really grab the sauce.

Noodles

• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour

Yeah its really that easy. More noodles? the ratio is the same. 1 egg for each cup of flour.

So put the flour in a medium mixing bowl, make a little hollow well in the center and crack the egg in. Mix with a fork going in circles to gently pull the flour into the egg. I usually get frustrated half way through and just dig in and mix it all by hand, but try to get as much flour mixed with the egg before your resort to this. Once you’ve got as much of the flour mixed into the egg as is going to combine, knead the dough a few times and flip the bowl over onto your working surface. (I use parchment paper because it holds up a bit better than wax paper and makes clean up easier) Let the dough rest for about 20 minutes. Trust me on this and don’t skip it. I mean it! Anyway once its done with its nap haul out your rolling pin. If you’re really lucky you might have a pasta machine to roll this stuff out, but if you do then you probably don’t need my help from here and altho I do have one, I’m going to tell you how to do this without one.

Divide your dough in half to make it slightly more manageable. Roll it as thin as you can get it (I usually can get about 1/4 of an inch before I start swearing at it) and cut it into strips. Set these aside flat because if you ball them up then you will have noodle balls in your soup- they stick really easily. Repeat with the rest of the dough and again- you probably don’t want dough balls or you wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of rolling it out so make sure the noodles are laid out flat.

Return to your soup and raise the temp so its got a nice rolling boil going for it. Add the noodles a few at a time and watch as they fill the pan quickly. They cook quick because they’re fresh- about 3 minutes is all it takes. Once you’ve added all the noodles and they’re all floaty you’re ready to eat.

I serve this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches for a really nice hearty lunch or dinner that the guys can’t complain about, but I also eat it myself as is because by the time you wade through all those noodles and veggies you’re going to have plenty to eat. As weird as this may sound, I often add a bit of cottage cheese to my individual serving as a way to cool it down more quickly but also to add a little bit of creaminess. No one else around here will try it, but for my brothers and I its how we grew up eating soup so I thought I’d throw that out there.

Happy eating guys