Hello?? Where am I? What is this thing? A blog? What's a blog? Oh. That sounds neat. I'd like one of those. what? I have one? ME?!? Where?!? THIS ONE? Whaaaat? This is my blog? That's so weird. You must be mistaken. I don't have a --- wait! Do I? That does seem familiar. WAIT! I do! I do have a blog! Hello blog! It's been forever! What have you been up to? Nothing? And it's all my fault? Because I haven't posted anything? Hmm. I guess you do have a point there. Sorry about that. Oh, come on! Don't be angry! I'm sorry for ignoring you! I won't do it again! Can't we just move forward? We can? Thanks, blog. I've missed you too. I really am sorry. I promise to make up for it. Right now. With the best soup ever.
So, once upon a time, I was in college. I say "once upon a time" because I still go to the gym at said college and, judging by the appearance of the co-eds around me, they are very young which would make me sort of, um, vaguely, relatively, old-ish. Regardless, my beloved co-blogger Beth & I met there at Loyola College (now Loyola University Maryland. Another subject for another day. Don't get me started.) and I have many, many fond memories of my time there. From what I recall. Pieces are hazy. But I think it was great.
A really great thing about Loyola was the housing. Most of it was re-purposed apartment buildings that had been built for real people, then purchased by Loyola and used as student housing which meant that there were very few traditional dorms. It was pretty sweet. Other kids were totally jealous. We had kitchens. We had in-room bathrooms. We had living rooms. The trade-off? We had LOTS of roommates. At first, there were 5 of us in my room, and later 4. So, that's more than one roommate. By up to 400% more. I think. I wasn't a math major.
Regardless, as any of you who has maybe lived with one 19-year old girl can attest, 4 or 5 of us in one room was sometimes a lot. And I don't think I was super good at it. My intentions were good, but it was almost like my intuition regarding my own species was somehow sort of off, like the cow that gets confused and wanders away from the heard only to get caught in a barbed wire fence. It was sometimes wonderful, and sometimes a struggle but ya know what? When I look back on it, I remember a lot of good stuff, and I'm still friends with all of those girls that I ever lived with and that makes me happy. They all have good lives and GORGEOUS kids and they're happy, too. And we're all still in touch. Except this girl Brenda who lived with us briefly who had a really weird relationship with her brother and wore a lot of overalls. I don't know what happened to her. But for the rest of us, I wish we could see each other more.
My roommate Toni was my direct roommate our Freshman year. That meant we shared a bedroom in a larger apartment.There was a lot of really good stuff about living with Toni. She is very funny. She is neat as a pin, which just made me feel bad that she had to live with me. She has an excellent wardrobe and always let me borrow her sweaters. She would occasionally pluck my eyebrows for me. She believed that when things went bad, it was probably best to go to the mall. But Toni's family also owns the best pizza place in Wildwood, NJ - Sam's Pizza - and whenever she went home she brought back a BIG stack of pies for us. AWESOME. Although, being a seasonal business, Sam's would close for a big chunk of the school year. And you would think it would be sad. And it was. BUT! When there was no pizza, Toni used to bring back her mom's chicken soup. Ro's (her mom's name is Ro) Super Soup. Or was it 'Soup'er Soup? Dunno. Never asked her to spell it. Don't care. It was so delicious, so comfy. It was traditional chicken & rice soup, with carrots & onions and chicken (duh). And you wouldn't have thought it would be remarkable, but it was. It sooo was. It was SUPER thick with shredded chicken and rice and it literally warmed your soul. And we would heat it, and eat some, and then heat it again the next day (or later the same day), and eat some more. And it just kept getting thicker and better.
Now, I wasn't the culinarian that you see before you now back at Loyola. I was just starting to dabble. And I think it was probably years before I really started to think about Ro's soup and how to recreate it. But I'm having a soup moment right now, so I decided this was the year to figure it out. 'Cause I don't live with or near Toni anymore, or Ro for that matter, and my babies need this soup! So, I set off on the soup making, and I made my own stock from a whole cut-up chicken. And then I pulled all the meat so it was perfectly shredded like Ro's. And I chopped carrots and onions. And I simmered. And I added rice. And I seasoned. And I tasted. And it was not right. Thin, brothy, blah. And I simmered. And I seasoned. And I put it to bed for the night to let the flavors marry. And I did it all again the next day. And it still sucked. And then I got desperate and added some saffron that co-blogger Beth left at my house months ago which I swore I would never use because she left it acidentally and saffrom threads are EXPENSIVE. But Ro's soup was definitely a beautiful yellow shade and I had to. (So sorry Beth! I swear I will replace it!) But the soup was still just soup, not Souper.
And then fate intervened. My daughters, specifically, intervened. It was their dinnertime and they were fussy and cranky and difficult and I forgot about my soup. I left it simmering away. And we got through dinner, and I got the little one bathed (she is slippery like an eel, that one!) and then I realized my soup was boiling. Boiling! And probably ruined. Probably stuck to the bottom of the pot and burnt. Probably awful.
Or, perhaps, perfection. It was thick, hearty, yellow, soothing, comforting, delicious, better-than-it-should-be perfection. In a word, Souper. I'm going to share it with you because it is the sort of thing that might help us all towards happiness and world peace. But I'm gonna preface with apologies to Ro, 'cause I'm sure this isn't her way or the right way, but it filled the hole in my world left when I graduated and got circumstantially cut-off from the real deal. Now, if I can only get Sam's to deliver to Baltimore, we'll be all set.
Souper Soup
For Stock:
Ingredients:
1 Whole Chicken, cut into about 6 or 8 pieces
1 whole large - or two small - onions, skin on, quartered
2 carrots, cut into several large pieces
2 celery stalks, cut into several large pieces
2 bay leaves
12 - 20 whole peppercorns
1 T. Kosher salt
Enough water to cover completely, at least 10 cups
Instructions:
Place chicken, vegetables & seasoniongs in a large stockpot and add water to completely cover all ingredients. Cover stockpot and simmer for at least three hours. Remove from heat, cool slightly and remove chicken. Set chicken aside to cool (I retained my carrots, chopped them and added them to my soup later, too). Strain stock into another large pot, cover and refrigerate overnight. Discard remaining vegetables. The next day, remove chicken skin and bones and chop or shred further if necessary, and remove any fat from surface of stock. Continue with soup recipe as below.
For Soup:
Ingredients:
2 T. olive oil
2 medium or large onions, chopped, not too finely
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into thick coins
1o cups chicken stock (as above)
3 -4 cups chicken, shredded (from stock recipe as above)
2 cups uncooked rice (I used brown)
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 T. fresh thyme, stems carefully removed
1 - 2 tsp saffron threads
Salt and pepper, to taste
optional: 1 1/2 c. sliced mushrooms, sauteed in olive oil
Instructions:
Warm 2 T. of olive oil in a large stockpot. Add onions and carrots and sautee lightly until onions are just barely softened. Add chicken stock, chicken and rice, bay leaves & thyme. Stir. Simmer soup, covered, for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Add saffron (and mushrooms, if desired...they weren't in Ro's soup as I recall), and season with salt and pepper, remembering that you can always add more, but you can't take it out. Turn up the heat just a bit to acheive a gentle boil and leave the pot uncovered, stirring regularly until the soup starts to reduce and thicken to your liking. When soup has reached the consistency you desire, serve it in big bowls with good crusty bread. Enjoy!
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