Monday, March 15, 2010

Jewish Penicillin


15 days after the end of February, also known as March 15, the Ides of March, or spring allergy season in Mississippi. It's beautiful, but I started coughing and wheezing and being generally pitiful.

Mama used to make chicken soup for me when I got sick. After church yesterday I decided to make some for myself with some extra love.

In a large pot I placed a whole chicken, parsley, a sliced lemon, sliced shallots, carrots, celery, salt, crushed garlic, basil and black peppercorns. I let this simmer together for about 2.5 hours. I saved the broth and added 2 bags of frozen vegetables and the meat from the chicken. Into the soup I added a teaspoon of curry, more salt and pepper, more basil and chopped parsley. I let this simmer for another hour and added frozen dumplins and a cup of cream. This cooked for another 40 minutes or so.

My mama made homemade sho' nuff real buttermilk cornbread and my daddy ate 3 bowls. I'm not exactly sure if it cured me, but I promise I feel much better. I'm pretty sure this was 1 matzo ball short of being the perfect Jewish Penicillin.

2 comments:

mwd said...

that just looks awesome.

Gerald Fnord said...

Four (or so) hints for matzoh ball soup:

1.) Buy matzoh meal, not the matzoh ball mix. Fresher might be to get some matzoh and grind it.

2.) Use chicken fat, rendered with onions if possible. (Cracklings---'grigneh' in Yiddish---are great additions to the dumplings.)

3.) Follow the directions on a matzoh meal package exactly---don't worry that it seems too liquid.

4.) Cook it in salty water---saltier than you'd like to drink, but just a little---in a _large_ pot.