Roasted Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

There's nothing more comforting than a hot, steamy bowl of homemade soup on cold, wintery days. We have our tried and true family favourites but it is always fun trying new soups. Quite often we will find one we like enough to add to our family favourite recipes. So it was with the roasted chicken and wild rice soup.

Roasted Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

The weather has turned colder here. We've had wet snow flurries but no accumulation yet. Friday night we made roasted chicken and wild rice soup. This is another great recipe from our soon to be daughter-in-law. Like all recipes, I made a few modifications. The end result was a rich, creamy soup with a lovely flavour. I think turkey could easily be substituted for the chicken for an equally tasty soup. This one is a definite keeper!

Roasted Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

3 c cooked organic long grain and wild rice mix
1 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ c chopped red onion
1 c chopped celery
1 c carrot coins
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 c sliced mushrooms
¼ c unbleached flour
1 ½ tsp Herbs de Provence
2 c water
2 tbsp dry Sherry*
2 L homemade chicken stock
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
3 c roasted skinless chicken cut into small pieces
3 drops Natural Hickory Liquid Smoke**

Cook rice in rice cooker and set aside. Prepare vegetables. Heat oil in stock pot over medium heat. Stir in onion, celery, carrots, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté about 5 minutes until onion is tender. Stir the flour and Herbs de Province into the onion mixture. Cook for one minute, stirring frequently. Add water, sherry, broth and evaporated milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until slightly thing. Stir in cooked rice and chicken. Cook for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

* I used Bright's Classic Cream Canadian Sherry. This is a smooth "round" sherry that has been matured in small casks.
** Go easy with the liquid smoke as it can be overpowering if you add too much so it is best to add one drop at a time, stir and taste before adding more. Repeat until you get the desired effect.

Raisin Bread

I make a lot of yeast breads and while all are enjoyed, raisin bread has to be one of my husband's favourites. I've modified most of my yeast bread recipes to be able to make the dough using the KitchenAid^® stand mixer. I find I am getting better results using the stand mixer for all breads. I'm also getting better results because I finally chucked all of my Baker's Secret bakeware and replaced it with Wilton. I honestly got tired of the Baker's Secret non-stick coating flaking off and then having to replace it under normal use. The Wilton bakeware is non-stick but is quite heavy but more important it results in a lovely loaf of bread. Metal loaf pans give better results than silicone loaf pans so do use metal when baking bread.

Raisin Bread

Raisin bread smells heavenly baking, making your mouth water before it is taken from the oven. It is the perfect breakfast and snacking bread. It also makes wonderful toast. Raisin bread really almost falls under the category of comfort foods. We like raisin bread nice and warm with a little butter or cream cheese. A loaf never last long and is one of the first to be requested especially during the colder months. Life is good curled up on the couch, munching on raisin bread while the snow creates a blanket on the ground!

Raisin Bread

1 ⅔ c milk
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp organic sugar
1 ½ tsp sea salt
⅓ c raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
4 ¼ c unbleached flour
1 ½ tsp instant yeast

Place the dry ingredients except raisins in the stand mixer bowl. Mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds. Add butter to the bowl and mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds. Continue mixing while slowly adding milk. The dough should clean the sides of the bowl. If not add just a little extra flour until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 3 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Reduce speed to 1 and slowly add in raisins until well mixed. Turn off mixer and remove dough hook. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until double. Punch down and form into a loaf. Place in loaf pan and let rise until double. Bake at 205ºC (400ºF) until golden brown and loaf sound hollow when thumped with the back of a spoon. Turn the loaf out onto a baking rack to cool.

Pressure Canning & Pressure Cooking - Pork

After a very busy weekend, yesterday was a catch-up day for preserving. Once I decided on how I was going to use the food, things progressed somewhat smoothly with the exception of a glitch for dinner. I started with two sweet potatoes, four acorn squash, one rutabaga, one pumpkin, two lb lean ground beef, about a 4 lb ham, 4 chicken thighs with backs attached and about 10 lb of apples. The goal was to get as much processed and use some for dinner.

Unfortunately all did not go according to plan but a good portion got done but the rest will get done shortly so all is well. I managed to process the squash and half the rutabaga for freezing in individual serving sizes. The rest of the rutabaga went for dinner. The ground beef was used for a canning test batch of meatloaf while the ham was canned along with the resulting stock.



Pressure Canners & Cookers

I've talked quit a bit about pressure canning yet have mentioned little about pressure cooking. There is some confusion over pressure canners and pressure cookers. To qualify as a pressure canner according to the USDA there must be a holding capacity (different than total volume) of 4 - 1 quart jars with the ability to adjust the pressure to 5, 10 or 15 lb pressure. So, a pressure canner can be used as a pressure cooker but not all pressure cookers can be used as pressure canners.

I have two pressure cookers (1, 3) that can be used for pressure cooking only. One is a Jasi 6 qt (1) and the other a Fagor 4 qt (3). The Jasi is a first generation, rocker control model whereas the Fagor is a second generation, regulator in the handle model. I find both easy to use but the Fagor is quieter. My two pressure canners (2, 4) are huge beasts. One is an older All American 21 quart (2) and the other a Mirro 22 qt (4). When it comes to pressure canners the quarts stated is total volume not the number of actual jars you can process. At full capacity for either the total number of quart jars that can be processed is 7. With stacking they can process 36 - 250 ml (half pints), 26 - 500 ml (pints) standard or 20 - 500 ml (pints) wide mouth jars. During the busiest canning season, the canners run at full capacity but the rest of the year at half capacity or less.

All pressure canners and cookers with the exception of the All American require gaskets. Weighted gauges (4) do not need to be checked if using for canning but dial gauges (2) do. Gaskets need to be replaced as well for either so be sure to check the availability of replacement parts. With proper care, pressure cookers and canners will give you years of dependable service. Both will save you time and money so are a worthwhile investment.

Canned Meatloaf, Ham & Stock

I belong to a few preserving groups as well as running my own group. There has been some discussion on canning meatloaf so I decided to try it using the 2 lb of ground beef. I canned 3 - 500 ml jars of meatloaf (5) using my normal recipe along with 2 - 500 ml jars of ham (6) and 5 - 500 ml jars of ham stock (7).

Method (meatloaf): The meatloaf was mixed then packed raw into hot, sterilized 500 ml wide mouth jars leaving 1 - inch head space. Wipe the rim. Adjust the two piece caps. Process 75 minutes at 10 lb pressure.

The canned ham once again came out nice looking in the jars but I was not pleased with the look of the meatloaf. This is one reason why test batches are beneficial when preserving foods. When in doubt and before committing a large amount of food to any preserving project, always do a test batch! Test batches allow you to troubleshoot as well as taste the finished product before committing. As far as the meatloaf goes, I haven't opened a jar yet. It definitely will be considered as a convenience food on my pantry shelves. There is little that can be done about the looks in the jar so as long as it tastes good it will be on the pantry shelves. Aesthetics is likely one reason commercial food processors tend to favour tin cans since the consumer is much more likely to buy the product if it doesn't look unappealing.

Pork Chops with Vegetables

A pressure cooker saves both time and money. It is one piece of kitchen equipment that I highly recommend. Unlike other quick cook methods, you can have a nice meal on the table from start to finish within 30 minutes. Unlike slow cookers or microwave ovens, you can brown the meat giving it not only flavour but visual appeal. One of the best online resources for pressure cooker recipes is Miss Vickie's Pressure Cooker Recipes, a site dedicated only to pressure cooking.

I had decided on pressure canning the chicken for dinner but fate stepped in the way. The chicken that was purchased Saturday was off! So I did a quick adjustment using 1 - inch thick pork chops and continued with the meal plan. I paired the meat with rutabaga, onion, potatoes, carrots and corn. When pressure cooking a liquid is needed. For this meal I used 1 c water and 1 c apple juice. I thickened the liquid with a corn starch slurry for serving. This meal from start to finish took 5 minutes for the pressure cooker to come to pressure, 15 minutes cooking and less than 10 minutes prep time so qualifies for an under 30 minute meal. If you want to save the time at the dinner hour, prep the vegetables earlier in the day. Either way you do it, you will quickly appreciate the value of a pressure cooker.

Method:

Brown the pork chops in a little olive oil in the pressure cooker bottom, lid off. Prepare the vegetables. Choose vegetables with similar cooking times. Chop the vegetables and pour over the meat. Pour in at least 1 1/2 c of desired liquid. Shut the lid and bring to pressure. Reduce heat to where pressure can be maintained. Cook at pressure 15 minutes. Depressurize using quick method. Serve.

So if you don't have a pressure cooker or are debating whether you need one, get yourself down to the nearest store and pick one up. If you have one sitting on the shelf collecting dust, get it out. These are the ultimate time savers! I think they are better than slow cookers or microwave ovens too.

Grilled Ham Steaks

We are awaiting our half pig. The meat itself is ready but the cured meat won't be ready until near the end of this week. Ham is a favourite meat here and a frugal meat choice so when I had the chance to pick up four ham steaks for $14 at Sam's Club I did. My intentions was to have enough for one steak each and one extra. It didn't quite work out that way but with ham it was still a win-win outcome!

On the Grill

One of the ham steaks was cut into cubes and canned giving two 500 ml jars of ready to use ham for the pantry. The remaining three steaks were grilled. The largest one was enough for three. One was cubed and frozen and the remaining steak was used for snacking and wraps. The end result was enough ham for 12 plus generous servings making this a rather frugal choice of meat.

Grilling ham steaks couldn't be easier. Heat the grill. Grill the steaks about 3 minutes per side. Sauce can be brushed on each side then lightly caramelized if desired. I didn't use any sauce for these steaks.

Plated

Meals need not be fancy or expensive to be good. All you need is good, old fashioned, down home cooking.The basics of this are meat, potato and vegetable. If you want to dress it up a bit, add a tossed salad and simple desert. So it was with this meal. I served the grilled ham steak with oven baked potatoes and mashed rutabagas along with a simple tossed salad. It was a simple meal but very good!