January 25, 2019
Dear Everyone:
You know you see too much daytime news on television when you glance at
the screen in passing and think, “Hey!
Jim Acosta got his hair cut.”
My trusty computer popped up with a reminder last week that it was about
time to take my car in for routine maintenance.
Normally, this would take place every 7500 miles; but since I
don’t drive that much anymore, it’s a better idea to do it every six
months. Thus, I made an
appointment for this Thursday.
It occurred to me that, since I would be “housebound” for most of the
day, I could spend my time concocting a large vat of Chicken
Bisque for
the freezer. When I
mentioned the plan to “Jeannie”, she heartily concurred, especially
since it didn’t require any effort on her part and might result in a few
bags in her freezer.
Consequently, I went to the grocery store on Wednesday to pick up the
needed supplies. The recipe,
which has been in the family for several decades, called for a
quarter-cup of cooked chicken meat.
I picked up a couple four-pound bags of breast filets.
Also, I figured if four carrots were good, six would be better.
As for celery, the recipe stipulated four stalks.
Well, you can’t buy just four stalks of celery.
You have to buy the whole head.
Might as well use them all, right?
Then I had to find two onions.
The store had a large (!) display of “jumbo” onions, each about
the size of a small
volleyball.
This seemed a bit much even for me.
Instead, I selected two “large” onions, somewhat equivalent to a
couple of softballs.
Back in his first incarnation as Governor of California,
Jerry Brown
attempted to popularize the expression:
“Less is more.”
Obviously, he was wrong.
Yesterday, I dropped my car off at the dealership and took a ride home
in their “Courtesy Shuttle”, which coincidentally advertises their
“small” Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), complete with all the
bells-and-whistles.
Once home, I got started on cooking a whole lot of chicken.
Fortunately, I have several very large pots.
As soon as the chicken was cooked and cooled, I cut it all into
small, bite-size chunks, about two gallons worth.
Put them in the fridge.
Then I went to work on the vegetables.
Washed the carrots and celery and cut them into big pieces.
Popped them all into the pot.
Went to work on the onions.
Helpful Hint: Place
onions in the refrigerator overnight.
That way, when you start slicing or cutting them up, they don’t
make your eyes water.
By this time, I had a very large pot that was really,
really full of vegetables.
Covered them with water and set the whole thing to heat up to
boiling. Then turned the
heat down and stirred whenever I happened to think about it.
In the meantime, I also cut a large
green bell pepper into very small
bits and drained a jar of
pimentos.
Put them in the fridge as well.
Know what happens to onions after they’ve been simmering for two to
three hours? They turn into
a kind of hot slush. The
recipe read, “Strain off eight cups of broth.”
It wasn’t kidding. I
had to actually use a strainer to separate the onion mush from the
broth. By this time, I had
almost eight cups of very rich vegetable broth.
Also, by this time, the “advisor” at the dealership called to say that
my car was finished and the shuttle driver would contact me soon.
A few minutes later, the driver called to say he would be at my
place to drive me to my car in about fifteen minutes.
Everything was coming together.
I poured the broth into a container and put it in the
refrigerator.
This morning I completed the job.
Poured the broth into my biggest pot and added chicken
bouillon.
While that came to a boil, I prepared something called a “butter
roux”. This meant placing a
half-pound, or two sticks, of butter in the
microwave to melt.
I find that using a large, four-cup glass measuring cup is very
useful for this.
Once the butter was melted, I slowly added a cup of flour.
A wire whisk was very helpful here.
The broth needed to reach a rolling boil before I gingerly added
the butter roux, which made the soup turn creamy and thick.
After that, it was just a matter of dumping the peppers and pimentos in
and giving it a good stir.
Followed by nearly eight pounds of cooked chicken.
I let everything simmer together long enough to blend all the
flavors.
Then I half-filled the sink with cold water and placed the very large,
very hot pot into the sink to cool.
When it was cool enough, I transferred it to the refrigerator
while I ran some errands.
This afternoon, I filled eleven freezer bags with single-servings of
Chicken Bisque. The result
for each serving:
$4.02 total cost
949 mg sodium
1.45 tablespoons butter
And that will keep me, and “Jeannie”, in quick meals for many weeks.
Love, as always,
Pete
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