March 16, 2023 Lunch -Salmon Sashimi, sushi Rice, and cucumber slices. Dinner - creamy winter Soup

March 16, 2023 Lunch -Salmon Sashimi, sushi Rice, and cucumber slices. Dinner - creamy winter Soup

I usually do not get excited about any of the many recipes sent to me on the internet but one caught my attention today because we had all the ingredients, more or less.

About

When the weather gets nippy and the wind starts to bite, you don't want some thin soup; how would that warm you up? No, it's time to pull out all the stops, which means the Creamy Winter Soup is the cold weather cure. This is, essentially, a pot pie in soup form: a creamy, thick broth with plenty of richness and poultry flavor, filled with juicy chicken and classic vegetables just eager to warm you to the core. Oh! And don't forget the tender potato gnocchi! That makes this hearty soup all the more satisfying and heart-warming! Creamy Winter Soup finds all the comfort of staying inside and watching the snow fall and serves it up to you in a bowl.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, divided
• 1 pound chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, shredded
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium chicken bouillon granules
• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
• 1 (16-ounce) package potato gnocchi
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped

Directions

Step 1 -

In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter.

Step 2 -

Add the chicken to the butter and cook until browned, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Step 3 -

Transfer the chicken to a plate and keep warm.

Step 4 -

In the same Dutch oven, add the onion, the carrot, the celery, and the garlic in the remaining butter until tender, about 5 minutes.

Step 5 -

Whisk the flour into the veggie mixture until blended, about 1 minute.

Step 6 -

Gradually stir in the milk, the cream, the bouillon, and the pepper.

Step 7 -

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes. Keep stirring to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom.

Step 8 -

Add the gnocchi and the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 3-4 minutes.

Step 9 -

Add the chicken back to the soup, then cover and simmer until the chicken is heated through and the gnocchi is tender, about 10 minutes. Don't let the soup boil.

Step 10 -

Serve.

I sent the recipe to Suzette and she agreed we should prepare it.  I had done the hard part yesterday, which was to cube the chicken.

Today when Suzette came home she brought the celery and a bunch of leeks in from the garage. We made several adjustments.  We used celery tops instead of spinach, leeks instead of onion, and the new lemon pasta instead of gnocchi. 

I sliced the leeks, and diced the celery and carrot, and minced the garlic.  Suzette first sautéed the chicken in butter and remove the chicken from the casserole and then sautéed the vegetable ingredients in the large enameled casserole. We then dusted the vegetables with a heaping T. of flour and cooked it for 2 minutes, then we added about 1 cup of broth and 3 1/2 cups of a mixture of milk, cream, and sour cream.

Finally, we added some of the lemon flavored macaroni we bought at Trader Joe’s yesterday and added more milk and cooked the macaroni in the soupN until it softened.

The result was wonderful and as it thickened it did taste exactly like the filling of a chicken pot pie.

We doused the thick soup with sherry and ate butternut toasted baguette with the dinner.

We drank the rest of the Vara Viura with dinner for a peasant complement.

Willy came by after we finished and ate two bowls of soup and three slices of toasted baguette.

The soup satisfied my craving for anything else to eat.

After dinner we watched a Netflix documentary on taking hallucinogens that was very clever and trippy.

I liked the lemon flavor of the pasta and the addition of Amontillado sherry to the soup.

For breakfast I ate granola, and milk, and blueberries and yogurt.

For lunch I sliced the rest of the salmon fillet and doused the rice we brought home from Tsai with about 1 T. each of rice vinegar and mirin to turn it into sushi rice and then heated the rice.

I.filled a dipping bowl with wasabi and soy and put slices of pickled ginger in another small bowl.

I made a cup of green tea and peeled and sliced 1/3 of a cucumber to eat with the salmon.

This was a fun day of food, made special by a pile of sashimi and a new recipe.

Bon Appetit