I looked around for a recipe of chicken noodle soup and came across this recipe.
AND LOVE IT!
For two:
1 whole chicken
2 large knobs of ginger, sliced length ways
6 spring onions, 4 top and tailed and 2 top and tailed and finely sliced
1 clove of garlic
A handful of fresh mint
A shot of light soy sauce
10 star anise
A tablespoon of black peppercorns
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 onions, peeled and quartered
2 egg whites and 50mls water together in a bowl with a little salt
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
A couple of drizzles of toasted sesame oil
Skinny rice noodles, made up as per the pack instructions and cooled ready for use
Sea salt flakes
A clean tea towel
Method:
- Start by removing the breasts of
the chicken from the carcass - you do this by slicing down the top bone
either side and cutting the breasts away. Discard the skin and set the
breasts aside
- Now remove the chicken legs and
place the carcass and legs into a deep saucepan with the celery, onion,
carrot, half the ginger, star anise and black peppercorns
- Cover with enough cold water to
cover the lot and put it on the hob on a medium heat. Simmer uncovered
for 3 hours then turn the heat off and leave it to cool a little
- Whilst its simmering you can make
the meatballs (I made 20 smallish balls from the mixture). Into a food
processor combine the other half of the ginger, garlic, 4 whole spring
onions, sesame oil and a scrunch of salt and blitz until they form a
paste, add the chicken breasts and blitz again until its all finely
minced and the ingredients are all combined. Then using your hands
simply make up the small meatballs and then place on a plate into the
fridge to firm up
- Remove the chicken legs and pick
off any meat from the carcass and set them aside - you don't need this
chicken meat for the recipe but it tastes delicious and you can use it
in something else another day
- Strain the liquor through a fine mesh sieve and discard all the vegetables and bits
- Add the soy sauce to the pot and b
ring the strained liquor to the boil, once boiling take it off the heat
and stir in the egg whites, stir through and leave for a minute, then
strain again through a fine mesh sieve - the egg helps collect loads of
the impurities
- To make the liquor super clear and
clarified, you can now either use a special muslin sieve, or you can
fashion one out of a clean tea towel and an extra pair of hands. Take a
clean saucepan and hold the tea towel to the top of it, forming a well
in which to pour the liquid into, then do this gradually, whilst holding
onto the tea towel to keep it suspended. Pour all the liquid through it
and the towel will catch all the nasties and leave you with a saucepan
of clear and clarified stock
- Pop the liquid onto simmer gently
and add enough cold water to the pot to give you enough liquor for two
of you to eat (depends on how much it reduced before really so this isnt
exact)
- Now whilst the pan is on a medium
heat, pop your chicken meatballs into the pan. Once they're done you'll
find they float to the top - this takes around 6-7 minutes. As the
meatballs start to float more impurities will come to the surface - you
simply need to skim these off with a ladle
- Place the rice noodles into the pan to heat through along with the spring onion and shredded meat
- Ladle into bowls, eat, and feel good
