Wine

Some are cheaper, none are over $30.

Chicken, Avocado, and Chickpea Soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5 liters/ 2 1/2 pints/ 6 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 fresh chili, seeded and thinly sliced
• 2 skinless,boneless chicken breast fillets
• 1 avocado
• 4 spring onions (green onions)
• 14 oz can chickpeas
• black pepper

We don't like this soup spicy so we left out the chili all together. We also added in more chicken than is called for; this may be because we tend to use organic chicken, which is smaller. I use 1 cup of the juice from the can of chickpeas and substitute it with one cup of the chicken stock.

1. Pour the chicken stock into a large pan and add the chili (or if just the stock if you don't use the chili). Bring to a boil, add the whole chicken breast fillets, then lower the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and lift out the chicken breasts with a slotted spoon. Leave to cool a little.
3. Once it has cooled, shred the chicken into small pieces using two forks, then set aside.
4. Cut the avocado in half, remove the skin and stone (pit), then slice the flesh into about 3/4 inch pieces.
5. Add the avocado to the stock, with the onion and chickpeas.
6. Return the chicken to the pan, and season to taste. Heat gently, then serve immediately.

I wish I had better pictures, but I take most of them with my camera phone.

 

Cajun Crab Soup

Prep time is about 15 minutes and cook time about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped (we only used a half)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups clam juice (or seafood stock)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (10 oz) package frozen white corn
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 pound lump crabmeat, drained
• 4 green onions, chopped

Okay, I cannot stand clams. End of story. Ick. The original recipe actually calls for using clam juice but we substituted a  fish-only, seafood stock. Instead of adding in salt,  we just used normal butter. I would recommend adding in the cayenne pepper slowly, we didn't use as much as was called for. We found a canned real lump crabmeat (Chicken of the Sea) and used one 6oz can of that and 2 (6oz) cans of another canned crab that was more of a shredded meat. Next time we make this, we plan to add in one potato.

Oh, and a quick side note. Guys, make sure you rinse the onions under water really well first...they may have bugs jammed into the stalks and yeah, "its just a little protein", but it is gross. 

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is tender. Whisk in flour, and cook 2 minutes. Stir in clam juice and chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Mix in corn, and season with salt, white pepper, thyme, and cayenne. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Stir in cream, crab meat, and green onions. Heat through, but do not boil once the cream has been added.

 Crabmeat

All the wet ingredients except the cream.
























March 10th: made another batch, so here are pictures of that one--

First Post

Someone suggested that I should start a blog of the food that my boyfriend and I make. I realized it was probably a good idea and so here we are.