create'Janey' soup
Submitted by sheila on 31 July 2006 - 10:50pm.
tags: soup | chicken soup
This is something made by my mother-in-law and by no one else that I know of except those to whom she taught the recipe (me and my sister-in-law). It’s ambrosia and nectar combined, and a bit more time-consuming in preparation than ordinary chicken soup.
Ready
- 1 chicken (whole or in pieces)
- butter beans
- dried haricot beans
- barley
- Hoobergritz
- 1 onion
- 1 stick of celery
- 5 carrots
- salt and pepper
Set
- Large saucepan or pressure cooker
Go
- Boil chicken pieces as if you were making clear chicken soup.
- When you have skimmed whatever rubbish there is off the top of the liquid, add butter beans, dried haricot beans, barley and — wait for it — Hoobergritz.
- Amounts of these pulses dictate how thick the soup is. I use a tablespoonful of butter beans, the same for the haricot beans, one and a half tablespoons of barley and about one tablespoon of the coarse oats. You can adjust the quantities to suit your taste.
- Put into the pan one onion, a diced stick of celery and four or five grated carrots. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for as long as it takes.
- In a pressure cooker, about 40 minutes (low pressure), in a normal pan, a couple of hours.
- With the chicken pieces, you have a complete nutritious dinner.
I have to say that this is a fantastic recipe. I followed it to the letter (save for the hoobergritz, not even a facsimile of which I could find) and it turned out beautifully.
A couple of things worth mentioning. I was extremely diligent in removing the scum. I wanted the soup to be as clear as possible. Once I felt like the last of it had gone, I turned the heat down and never once let the soup come to a rolling boil. This is a trick I learned from the Chinese, who are obsessive with this technique in an effort to keep the soup from clouding.
I removed the chicken and laboriously stripped it of its meat, which I returned to the soup, shredded.
You are right… this is a wonderful, nutrituous dinner… a meal in itself. And marvellously healing.