Chicken and Corn Soup

 

One advantage of keeping frozen chicken broth or stock in the freezer is that I can have tasty satisfying soups anytime.

Chicken and corn soup is one of those comfort foods that my kids and I love.

Ingredients:
1-2 cups cooked chicken bits
2 quarts (4 cups) chicken broth
1 (11-oz) can sweet corn kernels, drained
2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water (or broth)
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water
salt and pepper to taste
spring onions (optional)

Instructions:
Boil corn in broth until done. Add chicken bits and let boil. Stir in cornstarch mixture in slow stream until soup is slightly thickened. Remove from heat then pour the beaten egg slowly while stirring. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with spring onions to serve.

Chicken Sotanghon Soup with Ampalaya (Bittermelon)

Another comfort food for me is the chicken sotanghon soup with thin slices of bittermelon. It is a "manang" thing. I don't know of anyone else who likes this, but I do remember this as being introduced to my by my Nanay (just like I love tinolang manok with ampalaya and sweet corn that she also introduced to us, I like this sotanghon soup with ampalaya).

As usual, I just need chicken stock and meat for this, basically. I soak the sotanghon noodles first in hot water for about 5 minutes while I reheat the stock with meat. I seldom have ampalaya, so this is something I make only when I have these ingredients. And I am the only one who likes it in this family. My sons have not developed the taste for ampalaya (they tried, but did not like it). I let the ampalaya slices sit with salt sprinkled on them for about 5 minutes then rinse with cold water and pressed to remove the bitter juices. Then when sotanghon is almost cooked I add the ampalaya and let cook for about a minute or two, sprinkle with ground basil, and enjoy my bowl of soup.

Chicken Mami Noodle Soup

From chicken mami noodle soup

One of my favorite comfort foods is the chicken mami noodle soup. When I was still in the Philippines working, I would usually stop by the nearest mami house (usually owned by a Chinese) and get myself a bowl of chicken mami noodles. My usual toppings would be spring onion and lots of ground pepper. Optional add-ons would be sliced hard-boiled eggs, or crummbled chicharon (like in lugaw). This type of mami I prefer over the instant mami (like Lucky Me).

My sons are in love with the instant ramen noodles. I have "trained" them to be self-sufficient when preparing their breakfast before going to school. And this is their favorite breakfast. However, they are not as imaginative as I used to be when I was a child. They do not have add-ons and toppings, making it mainly a carb-laden breakfast. I have taught them to do what I do to prepare the one in the photo above; that is, after I prepare the chicken stock and have separated the meat from the bones. I may add leftover fish/squid balls, if any.

I don't have an exact recipe for this. Amount depends on how much you want to add. Basically, the ingredients are chicken stock, chicken meat (refrigerated less than 2 weeks, from bony parts of chicken that I boiled to make chicken stock) and other add-ons as desired, noodles, salt and pepper, and spring onions.

I usually bring out from the freezer a 2-cup frozen chicken stock, microwave for 2 minutes, then add the noodles and chicken meat and microwave for another 2 minutes. I then top with spring onion and sprinkle as needed with salt and pepper....Ahhh...tastes like home. Indeed a comfort food for me. My kids love it, but only if I was the one who prepared it. They never make it if they have to prepare it.

As a side note, such soups as this (wonton, mami, etc.) are perceived by my husband as "washings of dirty socks." Sarap batukan...

Chicken Tinola with Corn, Cukes, and Pepper Greens

I cooked this last summer, when everyday I had cukes and corn more than I could use

From tinola corn cukes

(and when you have had sliced fresh cukes and corn for like a week already, you get tired of having them again and again).

So, I was going to cook this tinola, and was thinking, "I wish I had sayote or papaya." The papaya I could buy from hannaford here was too yellow/ripe for the purpose (I ended up eating that uncooked - manibalang was better for eating than the fully ripe, in my opinion). I combined with corn and bell pepper leaves from our garden (I chose only the youngest good-sized leaves; the more mature leaves are too strong). I was not disappointed with the result. My sons and I loved it.


Of course, the real main ingredients for tinola (aside from chicken meat) are:
green papaya/malunggay or
chayote (sayote)/dahon ng sili (fresh pepper leaves)

I cooked the breasts, thighs and legs separately as adobo. I made this for the soup and veggies.

My final ingredients for this dish:
Chicken, cut up into serving pieces
2 tbsp oil (or you can use the skin to render oil)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
thumb-size ginger, sliced
water enough to cover meat and veggies
1-2 cukes, cut in chunks
1 cup sweet corn kernel
1-2 handfuls of pepper greens
salt and pepper to taste

On medium high heat, sautee garlic and ginger until browned and fragrant. Add chicken pieces and sautee until browned. Sprinkle some salt, cover and lower heat to cook for 10 minutes. Take cover off, add water and turn on high to boil. Add cukes and corn and cook for another 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Turn off heat and stir in pepper greens until wilted.

Chicken Zucchini Egg Drop Soup

I still had several chicken backs to make into chicken broth/stock and shredded chicken. Then my MIL gave me 12 zucchini on the day that we expected to have our first real frost (I gave 4 to my friend Ana and 4 to Vengie). This soup is another (healthy) way to make use of all these ingredients that I had, especially with the weather becoming quite chilly. All kids love this, including my fussy stepd, who first liked the crab soup that I previously served, and now looks at all such egg-drop-py soups as one and the same, so she and my boys always gobble it up.

Do not be overwhelmed by the amount of zucchini here. Shredded zucchini blends well with the soup that you (or the kids) will hardly notice its presence.

INGREDIENTS:
2 quarts chicken stock/broth (see how I make this here)
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded chicken meat
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
1 egg, lightly beaten

PROCEDURE: (Easy!)
Boil broth/stock with the chicken meat. Add shredded zucchini and wait for the soup to come to boil again. Stir in cornstarch-water gradually until desired consistency, then add the beaten egg in a slow stream while stirring. Serve hot!

Lobster Soup

It's lobster time again!

I brought home some leftover "bodies" of lobsters (which I would think were heads instead of bodies, but that's how they referred to it, or did I hear them right?).

We recently had my hubby's fave aunt/uncle and their daughter/son and families, who came over for the funeral of their oldest relative, Great Grandma Gower who died at age 100 despite her love for sweets and deep fried goodies, plus her daredevil driving.

Since Maine is qutie popular for its lobsters, the visitors naturally wanted a dinner with lobsters.

I took home four "bodies" and patiently gathered shreds of meat, along with their eggs (which Filipinos really love! My sons did not, though). Then, I boiled the shells with garlic, bay leaf, peppercorn and salt for about 2 hours to have stock. I strained this.

Next, i boiled the lobster shreds (about 2 cups along with the eggs) in the stock, made a water-cornstarch mixture for thickening, then beat an egg to be added a la egg drop soup. I adjusted the taste with salt and pepper.

My sons loved this! Younger son, who is more fussy than older son, said,"Ma, these eggs taste good in soup!"

I ate mine with saltine crackers.

Hubby never liked lobsters, though. He would always settle for the scallops instead.