Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking Wonder what the poor folks are eatin' tonight?

In Chinese tradition, I make a turkey and rice soup we call "Juk". I cover the turkey carcass with water, and add salt. Then we skim the "scum" off the top. I then add celery, soy sauce, bok choy, carrot and onion to the pot with white pepper and cilantro. This makes an excellent stock. Then I pull out the bones and add rice. I like a thick Juk, but my brother in law likes a traditional broth-like soup. If you want the thicker soup use uncooked rice. For the broth-like soup, ad in already cooked rice and just heat to boiling.

But for now-I have to let Mr. Scoutgal cook what he is able to. Tonight, it's spaghetti.

Thanks. I do- more or less- the same thing that you do. Sometime I add rice, and sometimes I use noodles. It depends upon my guests. Personally, I like wide egg noodles. Take it easy. Pneumonia is nothing to toy with. We really don't live that long. Take it easy for a while.

Beats having a bowl of Cap'n Crunch for dinner. (Don't let Mr. Scoutgal has too much free-rein - you just might end up with a bowl of cold cereal for dinner. )

When I make soup, I put the entire uncooked bird into the stock pot, along with carrots, cerely, onions and simmer it for about 3.5 hours. I pull the bird out, skin it, and retain the meat.

I then add noodles, or puree the cooked veggies and broth with a puree stick/wand and turn it into chicken and dumplings. If I do that, I add more raw carrots and raw celery, s & p, and cook for another hour and make then make the dumplings (Bisquick + parsley) the last 20 mins.

I mound the chicken in-between two dumplings, arrange the carrots and celery sticks on top of the chicken, pour the broth over the entire meal, and viola, chicky dumps.

Rick, I think you're makng a couple of small mistakes. First, skin the chicken before putting it in the stockpot. There's a lot of fat in the skin that will need to be removed later and it doesn't add anything to the flavor. I also prefer to cut the bird up so that the bones are able to better flavor the stock.
Second, when you remove the chicken from the stockpot, set it aside to cool and drain before de-boning and strain the stock. There is no earthly reason to leave those mushy cooked out vegetables in your soupstock. Mash them and feed them to the dog, he'll really appreciate it.
Once the stock has been strained out add fresh vegetables cut to 1/4 inch dice along with noodles, rice or barley, bring it back to the boil until they are tender. Add in the meat and serve or...
Use your immersion blender to puree the second batch of vegetables which should be sufficiently tender within a half hour. At this point I usually add some heavy cream and a dash of sherry to finish the soup.
Chicken and dumplings of course want a larger dice and I thicken the stock with a roux for those. Do you do drop dumplings or rolled dumplings?

I drop the dumplings.

I thought the fat from the skin is what flavors the stock. Yes, I skim the fat off when the stock cools.

You may be right, and far be it from me to suggest that anyone ever remove fat from a recipe.
I just made rouladen which contained a pound and a half of bacon and I never drained an ounce of the fat off.

I love me some Bisquick drop dumplings. I was raised on 'em.

You gotta add fresh chopped parsley to the dumpling batter. Yum!