The Hebrew Buckaroo

On Saturday morning, I got the call. It was the culinary equivalent of the bat signal from the old Batman show. Our friends and neighbors Allison and Adam had just brought their newborn daughter home from the hospital the day before. I told Adam I was planning to cook on Sunday and asked if they'd like me to bring them some sustenance. The answer was an emphatic YES! "Any special requests?", I asked. Adam replied, "Well, if you're feeling ambitious, Allison proclaims "Challah".  This looked like a job for The Hebrew Buckaroo!

Yes, I know its ridiculous, but in that moment, I kind of felt like a super hero and my challah was a secret weapon used to fight the effects of physical and psychological hunger. But why stop there, I thought, if I'm buying into this whole super hero thing, I might as well go for broke. Nothing is more nourishing, comforting or welcomed than a pot of homemade chicken soup and it just so happens that my chicken soup has super, or should I say "souper" powers. When I asked Adam if he preferred noodles or matzoh balls, you can guess what the answer was. With a plan in hand, I set off to the grocery store. The only thing missing was my cape and mask.

I've posted both of these recipes before and made hundreds of pots of chicken soup and dozens of challahs, You'll find recipes, step by step instructions and some interesting writing here:

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

HOMEMADE CHALLAH

When I got up Sunday morning, I was feeling especially powerful. About half way through my first cup of coffee, the super powers kicked in and I headed to my laboratory, eh, I mean kitchen, to begin making the soup of justice.

Since it proofs twice before being shaped, I started with the challah. I emptied a package of rapid rise yeast into a large mixing bowl, squeezed in about a tablespoon of honey and poured in half a cup of warm water to activate the yeast. While the yeast's super powers sprang to life, I moved on to the next step and put a stick of butter, half a cup of sugar and a cup of whole milk in a small saucepan over medium low heat, just to allow the butter to melt. It only takes about 5 minutes for the yeast to activate and once it was frothy, I cracked the eggs in and whisked them up a bit before stirring in the warm milk mixture. Its important that the milk is no warmer than about 100 degrees or it will kill the yeast. With all the wet ingredients combined, I added 3 cups of bread flour and started mixing. The recipe calls for 6 1/2 cups of flour, but I find 6 cups to be enough for a soft, fluffy and delightful dough. I like to mix the flour in one cup at a time until it comes together into a ball, at which point I turn it out onto my surface and start kneading. If the dough is too sticky, I just knead in more flour a handful at a time until the dough is pliable and easy to knead. After about 10 minutes of vigorous kneading, the dough was perfect and I dropped it into a greased container for its first rise of 90 minutes.

With the challah on the rise, I turned my attention to the soup. I keep a large ziplock bag in the freezer that I use to store a variety of soup fixins. When I roast a whole chicken or turkey, the bones go into the soup bag. Celery tops, old carrots and even yellow onion skins go into the soup bag. It usually contains chicken backs, necks and wingtips, veggie trimmings and even parsley or dill stems. There are a ton of nutrients and lots of flavor in what most people would toss in the garbage. In my house, it becomes soup. My soup bag was full and I added everything to my largest stock pot along with a whole 4 lb chicken, a smoked turkey wing, a couple bay leaves, a handful of parsley and dill from my garden and several garlic cloves. I added one can of chicken broth and filled the pot with cold water until the chicken was just submerged. I put the lid on the pot and turned the heat to medium low for a whole day of simmering.

The rest of my Sunday was spent finishing this good deed, deflating the challah dough and setting it in a warm place for its second rise, removing the whole chicken from the pot once it was cooked through and letting it cool so I could remove the meat and return the bones to the soup pot and getting the matzoh ball mixture ready and in the fridge to set up. It was a day of cooking filled with care, heart and spirit. My broth was rich and golden, the matzoh balls fluffy and tender and the challah was picture perfect. It was all still piping hot when we arrived at Allison and Adam's house with our special delivery. We met the newborn Sasha Alexandra and visited with our friends for a while before leaving them to their matzoh ball soup and warm challah, which turns out is Allison's favorite meal. The Hebrew Buckaroo saved the day.

So, when the evil grip of illness sneaks in or when dastardly hunger strikes, when the devastating creep of winter threatens to cast its evil shadow over all the world or when the low rumble of empty bellies cry out for nourishment, The Hebrew Buckaroo will be there with the soup of justice.

Chicken Soup

It’s no secret that good, old fashioned chicken soup makes you feel better when you're under the weather. Those "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books confirmed what we Jews have known instinctively all our life, that chicken soup is the elixir of life. This knowledge is part of our collective unconscious. It might be the single greatest culinary contribution of all time made by the Jewish culture. If it wasn't such a waste of excellent food, I'd consider bathing in chicken soup.

A friend of mine once experienced pretty extraordinary results from eating my chicken soup and she thinks I should bottle the stuff and sell it as a dietary supplement. Not only did it help her recover from a severe ear and sinus infection, but it vastly improved her state of mind.  All the research agrees that chicken soup seems to surpass other home remedies in helping to heal a variety of maladies, most notably symptoms of colds and flu.  Chicken soup inhibits white blood cells that trigger the inflammatory response, which causes sore throats and the production of mucus. It turns out that chicken also contains an amino acid called cysteine that is released in the soup making process. This amino acid helps thin congestion in the lungs, aiding in the healing process.

However, it also turns out that all the other ingredients in chicken soup add to the powerful healing qualities of this most ubiquitous cure-all. Onions and garlic contain sulfur compounds that have anti-inflammatory effects. Parsnips, which are an excellent ingredient in chicken stock, are a good source of vitamin C and vitamin E, which boost the immune system. Carrots, a standard ingredient in chicken soup, are known far and wide as the best source of beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A, helping to fight off infections. Imagine vitamin A is the body armor for white blood cells as they go to war against bacteria and viruses. Celery, also a standard chicken soup ingredient, is high in magnesium and iron that acts as food for our blood cells. Celery also helps relax our muscles and is good for all lung conditions, including asthma and bronchitis. Parsley could be called a miracle herb because it has volatile oils and flavonoids that qualify it as a "chemo protective" food, which means it can neutralize particular types of carcinogens, like benzo pyrenes from cigarette and charcoal grill smoke. Even sea salt and pepper have healing qualities. No wonder my friend was miraculously cured when she ate my chicken soup! Who knew?

CHICKEN SOUP
6 lbs of chicken/smoked turkey on the bone
1 large yellow onion
2 carrots
4 ribs celery (with leaves)
1 parsnip
5 or 6 garlic cloves
1 handful each of fresh parsley and dill (about 15 sprigs of parsley and 3 sprigs of dill)
20 peppercorns
Salt to taste
1 can chicken broth

I have made oceans of chicken soup over the years. It might be the very first dish I learned how to cook properly. I have tried hundreds of variations and here is my tried and true method for making the best chicken soup, a soup that promises to cure what ails you. I like to use a whole chicken and a smoked turkey wing or leg for my broth. Smoked turkey is bursting with flavor and it makes the soup rich and delicious. You need to have chicken on the bone as the bones are what flavor the soup, give it the body it needs and add tons of nutrients. You'll need about 6 lbs. of chicken and smoked turkey to make a good pot of soup, which is a 4 or 5 lb chicken and one smoked turkey wing or leg. For the veggies, this is a great way to use up odds and ends in your fridge. If you have some old carrots or celery, they are perfect for soup. Since they will boil for two hours, the veggies are giving up all their flavor to the soup and will not really be good for eating once they are cooked to death. Also, make sure you use fresh herbs. Dried herbs won't stand up to the long cooking time and will kill the fresh flavor of the finished soup

I never peel any of the veggies when making chicken soup. The celery leaves have great flavor and most of the time I just cut the tops of a whole bunch of celery and use that in the soup. The yellow onion skin adds to the deep golden color of the soup and since you won't be eating the veggies anyway, no need to peel them. Cut your veggies into large chunks, get the biggest pot you have, put a little vegetable oil in the bottom and turn the heat to medium high. Drop all the veggie in and let them cook in the bottom of the pot until they begin to brown.  Turn them over a few times as they take on some color in the pot. Then add the chicken and turkey. I like to take the skin off my chicken as it adds more fat than necessary.  Brown the chicken with the vegetables briefly, then toss in the pepper corns and a couple of bunches of parsley and dill. Finally, its time to add the liquid and this is where you may accuse me of cheating. I use one can of chicken broth just to get a jump start on the flavor. Believe it or not, this one can of broth along with the water will add enough flavor so you don't have to cook your soup away to nothing. If you just use water, chances are your soup will be a little weak and you'll have to keep boiling it down until you get a good strong flavor. Add the can of broth and add enough water just so it comes just over the top of the soup ingredients. Bring the soup to a boil, then turn the heat down, cover the pot and let the whole thing simmer for an hour. After an hour, remove the meat from the chicken, return the bones to the pot, leave the cover off and cook for another hour.  Strain the broth through a fine strainer and now you've got excellent homemade chicken stock. By this time, the vegetables will be mush and will have imparted all their deliciousness to the broth, so just toss them. I usually add fresh carrot slices for my final soup preparation. Once your stock is strained, add salt and adjust the seasoning as you like it. If you find it’s a little weak, boil it down until you get the strength you like. You can either use the chicken meat in your final soup or make chicken salad out if it. You can freeze the stock or just add noodles, veggies or even make matzo balls for a truly traditional dinner.

Once I had an ingrown toenail and I tried soaking my foot in chicken soup. Would you believe it worked? Okay, I lied; I would never defile the elixir of life by sticking my dirty foot in it. But something tells me this soup could heal even the most unlikely ailments.