A movie? Yup
Popcorn? Yup
Fire in the fireplace? Yup
Comfy couch with a nice blanket? Yup
A snuggle buddy? Yup
Curled up snuggle puppy next to you? Yup
and...wait for it...wait for it....COMFORT FOOD! And what is one of the best ones around during this time? Homemade Chicken Soup (HCS). Yippie-Kai-Yea! Ah, yea, and that's not Hawaiian slang :)
So here we go. Just this past week I was in the mood for some Homemade Chicken Soup, mainly because I was starting to feel a 'bit under the weather' as they say. So I mentioned it to my wife, Dawn, and she was immediately jonesing for some HCS too. I opted for rice instead of noodles or dumplings, as I think it tastes better and is better for you too. So she mentioned that we had a bag of real backwoods, Minnesota Wild Rice that her father had given to her. It was the real 'good stuffs' brah! Da kine you cook separately for one long time...No can jus tro dem in da soup or in da Zojirushi rice cooker, brah. This rice is the real deal ~~ earthy stuffs!
So that was the start. I've never cooked real back-woodsy wild rice so I needed to learn that first and foremost. Pretty easy once you realize that you can easily overcook it, the water you add will NOT all be absorbed by the rice like regular white or brown rice is, and it should be done separately, so timing is essential for the rice AND for incorporation with the rest of the soup ingredients. More on that later.
Out went the e-mail invite to my MIL and she was in. Pressure's on and I'm committed now, baby! She would be here by 6 and Dawn would be home too. We would have the soup and a nice spinach salad, watch a movie (Dolphin Tale) and have a little popcorn for dessert. Ya, know, little pizza and learn about Cuba. Opps, Spicoli digression from Fast Times.
Ah, yeah, that all never really happened as planned. Shop for ingredients, rice to cook, chicken stock to make, salad to prepare, vegetables to chop, and soup to make. All the times added up and it was about 5:40 PM when Dawn called to check in on how everything was going and I said, "Ah, yeah, soup's not happening tonight." I was totally out of sorts and was just to the point to making the roux when I realized there were 2 more hours after that for the soup to simmer and soak up all the flavors of everything. Like the saying goes, "No soup for you!" Crap!
So what happened? Dawn called her mom, who was already on the way and had her stop off at Whole Foods and buy some pre-made soup. They both came home to me still putting everything together. We all pitched in and finished it together before sitting down to our movie and Whole Foods soup.
What SHOULD it have looked like? This...
We finally finished cooking our wild rice HCS by movie's end and sent mom with a take-away tub for later. The next night Dawn and I had the finished product and it was absolutely wonderful. Awesome chicken flavor, nice mix of spices, and the creaminess was nice. The almonds were a great addition too with the crunch and smooth, subtle almond flavor. And, of course, the wild rice? It rocked! It's so different from regular white or brown rice. Even better than the wild rice that we have prepared from store bought boxes, etc. This authentic Minnesota wild rice was flavorful, didn't soak up the liquid, and held its shape.
So what did I learn. Wild rice preparation. Timing is everything when cooking, even when you think you have it down. And your MIL will still love you even though you invited her over for a homemade dinner and ended up having her stop and buy it herself...pre-made! HA!
So here's the recipe...
Enjoy and please let me know how it worked for you or if you did things differently. Just add a comment below and we all can learn and try it with different ingredients.
Mahalo for cooking with Captain Bobby Mitchel
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