A chicken in every pot - Asta's Soup

As you may have noticed, we lost our little pal of nearly 20 years, our Jack Russell Terrier, Asta, today. Chicken soup seemed to be required for dinner. Something to soothe both body and soul - if there can be anything to really ease the loss of a beloved pet. When it’s a spunky and irrasible Jack Russell Terrier, well … it’s even harder.

I dedicate this awesome chicken and whole grain soup to Asta.

 

I’m putting the new Cuisinart electronic pressure cooker through its paces still. Wow. It’s simply wonderful. As you might have seen, the day before yesterday I cooked some wheat berries and brown rice - simply in water with some of the Herbamare salt alternative seasoning. Yum. That went into the fridge awaiting a homemade chicken broth.

It’s soooo easy. You take four chicken backs - $2.77 from Whole Foods - celery ribs (about 4, chopped up big), a big handful of baby carrots (about 6 to 8, saving the rest for the actual soup), 3 to 4 Bay Leaves, a small onion cut up roughly, a turnip out of the fridge - chopped, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, sage and rosemary. A healthy cupfull or a bit more of white wine and then about 8 cups of cold water. I put in a heaping teaspoon of Herbamare and a large pinch or two of ground pepper.

Set on High Pressure for 45 minutes. Walk away and do other stuff. Come back and release the pressure, then separate all the solids from the liquid. Strain the liquid to remove the last bits.

I have one of those gadgets that separate stock from fat, so I ran the chicken stock through that twice to remove as much of the much beloved ‘schmaltz’ as possible. Sorry, Suggie, but my arteries love me for it.

Then I picked the chicken backs clean of meat, discarding the fat, skin and bones. Sigh, no little white ‘Asta disasta’ to feed the juicy bits too. I reserved the chicken in another bowl.

Discard all the solids that went into making the stock.

Get the rest of your baby carrots, celery, garlic, onions, shallots, turnips, potatos … whatever you’ve got handy in that veggie drawer. Oh, and another couple Bay Leaves. I keep a bag of whole Bay Leaves in the freezer, since I use A LOT of them.  Put all that into the pressure cooker, add the stock only. Process on High Pressure for 10 minutes. Release pressure. Open.

Add the chicken meat, and then I added about 2 cups each of the cooked wheat berries and brown rice. You might want to add a bit of extra wine here. Depends on how much you’ve been drinking.

Put pressure cooker on High Pressure setting, put the lid back on and lock into place. Set the timer for 10 minutes. When done, release pressure and voila! Serve.

 

Mr. Maven had three huge bowls full. Yup. He liked it that much.

Knowing how Ms. Asta loved sweet carrots -right out the garden when she was a mere pup -  I think she would’ve like it too.

This soup is very economical - probably costing less than $6.00 with the meat, whole grains and veggies. It’s incredibly healthy - with me controlling the amount of sodium. And it will feed us for one dinner and a couple of lunches.

-maven

Healthy whole grains get better, faster in the Cuisinart pressure cooker!

Cooking and living the whole grain life - here at high altitude (4,412 ft) in Reno - can be something of a challenge. One option is to have one of the fuzzy logic rice cookers, which Maven has used for years. But, as good as it is, it’s damn slow. Brown rice takes freaking forever. It’s not something you want to do at the last minute for unexpected company.

Enter the Cuisinart CPC-600 6-quart electric pressure cooker. This is what lucky foodies and cooks will find under the Christmas tree this year!

I’m running this baby through it’s paces here at Kitchen Maven - what I do for you, my readers! And, today I did whole wheat berries and brown rice.

Oh, baby. Fast. Simple. And incredible.

I had to practically force myself to put the damn spoon down! Put the finished grains into the fridge for later use. Waaaaa. But they were so yummy! Just toothsome enough, not really al dente actually. Tender but whole. Not mush. They both could’ve got right into some outstanding soups with sauteed veggies and meat (unless you’re vegan, of course).

The wheat berries took the longest - 33 minutes ( I added 3 minutes for the altitude), with a 10 minute Natural Pressure Release. In other words, you don’t quickly release the pressure by turning the valve. Just let it cool down naturally. Since I was actually busy doing my exercise for the day, I let them simmer for probably 20 minutes until I could take them out and photograph them.

I used one cup of rinsed wheat berries to 3-1/2 cups of water, with 1-1/2 teapoons of the Herbamare seasoning salt, and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Incredible. When done, I kept uh, tasting. Just a bit more.

The same results with brown rice. Only the brown rice took 13 minutes. The book said 10, but again, this is Reno. I used the same High Pressure and the slow Natural Pressure Release method.

Now, I realize they are more ‘soupy’ than a rice cooker would do them. But it’s a simple matter to drain off the excess liquid (shame, since it’s soooo flavorful) and use either grain in a pilaf side dish or such. But the sheer speed makes these grains so accessible for a weeknight supper that it’s well worth an extra step. With a bit of practice, I think I can pair down the amount of water.

On my next experiment, I think I’ll saute (on the saute setting of the wonderful Cuisinart) some onion in grapeseed oil, with some Juliet Mae Garam Masala Indian spice, then add the brown rice, with a chicken or vegetable broth.

Oh, gosh. That sounds great.

At any rate, this pressure cooker makes healthy, inexpensive whole grains completely accessible to the modern, time crunched home cook. I got this Cuisinart Pressure Cooker online at Amazon for well under $100, with no shipping charges. Now that’s real economy.

-maven