Chicken-Pumpkin-Curry Soup

If you were following my tweets yesterday, you already know some of what I was doing. Since my experimentation succeeded, here is a rough guide to making Chicken-Pumpkin-Curry Soup.

I had the rough idea for this recipe in my head, thinking the three flavors would go well together. Plus we had them and I do need to get some of these pumpkins used. So I went googling on recipes for reassurance, but I didn't like parts of anything I found. So I just made it up as I went along. Note that I had this cooking much of the day, but I will include some tips for shortcuts along the way.

Making the Base Stock

I wanted chicken pieces for the soup and a good flavorful base, so my first step was actually to cook a "stock" that I strained. You can skip this step and use premade stock or bullion cubes dissolved in water and add leftover chicken pieces or browned cut-up chicken breasts or whatever works for you in the end step.

Rough ingredients (vary to suit your preferences and supplies):

• two whole chicken legs with backs--skin on and bones in (or more if feeding a crowd)
• black and white peppercorns
• sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage, and curry
• several blades (or whatever they're called) of fresh chives
• a couple handfuls of pumpkin guts (strings and seeds)
• greens off a leek
• salt
• water to cover

Throw it all in a pot and let it cook on low heat until the meat is falling off the bone. Strain it, putting the liquid aside for later.

Once cool enough to handle, pick the meat off the bone and break into small chunks. Save for adding to the soup later.

Prepping the Pumpkin

The recipes I found reading online either used canned pumpkin or baked the pumpkin in halves and made puree that way. Part of my goal with making this soup was to use one of the fresh pumpkins, so canned or my ready-made puree weren't ideal for this round. I certainly didn't want to waste my energy or electricity on the puree process when I planned to have a soup pot simmering on the gas all day (sure wish we had a wood stove I could do this on).

What I did instead was to cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the stringy guts and seeds. A couple handfuls of that went straight into the stock pot already started.

Then DH helped me out and we cut the pumpkin into huge chunks that were easy to handle. We peeled the tough skin off with potato peelers then cut into smaller chunks that would fit in the soup pot better. We put these aside in a clean dishpan for when I needed them later. Shortly before putting them into the pot, I put water into the dishpan to rinse them off.

Making the Pumpkin-Curry Base Soup

If you are like me and using a fresh pumpkin, you may end up with far more of this than you need for your meal. It is easier to freeze and store at the end of this stage instead of once the final soup is assembled (takes up less space).

Ingredients

• Curry powder (how  much depends on your taste, the curry's strength, and how much pumpkin you have)
• A couple onions chopped or sliced coarsely
• A little butter, margarine, or oil for starting the onions and curry
• Garlic
• Pumpkin prepared as above (or puree or canned if you haven't the fresh to use up or are lazy)
• The base stock prepared as above or the alternative ready-made stock or bullion (how much depends on how much pumpkin you have and how wet you want your soup... it is easier to add more later than to cook it off, but more will help the pumpkin cook faster)
• A few apples, peeled and cored (I used six small ones but it was a lot of pumpkin)
• Some carrots, peeled (they help with the color if your pumpkin is a little pale and add more nutrients. could be skipped)

1. Make sure you start with a pot large enough for all the stuff you plan to put into it.
2. Melt the butter or margarine or heat the oil in the bottom of the pot.
3. Throw in the onions and let soften a little.
4. Add the garlic.
5. Put in the curry powder, stirring and watching the heat to avoid burning. Doing this with the curry powder releases the flavor. You can add more later, but it won't be as good if it hasn't had this step.
6. Pour in a little of the stock to keep the paste from burning.
7. Throw in some of the pumpkin chunks and stir them around in the paste. Not sure how important this step is, but it's what I did.
8. Add the stock and the rest of the pumpkin chunks. Do not worry if the stock doesn't cover all the pumpkin. I would worry more if it did ebcause it would be awfully wet. Mine was maybe halfway up initially and had to cook it down for a while.
9. If there is room in the pot (there wasn't for me), add the carrots and apples.
10. Cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally. Add left out ingredients, if any, when the pumpkin has collapsed enough for it to fit.
11. When everything has softened enough to stir easily and be somewhat mushable with your spoon, consider the moisture amount. If it is really wet, you might want to remove the lid and let it cook down for a while. It will splatter less and be less likely to burn if you cook down before completing the next step.
12. Blend everything until creamy. I used my staff blender directly in the pot. I did have to take it off the stove because my cord wasn't long enough. If you aren't lucky enough to have one of these heat-tolerant pot-safe blender sticks, you'll need to transfer it to a regular blender or food processor or mash by hand and have chunky soup.

Note that I ended up with something like 8 liters of soup base. But I did use a whole pumpkin of a very meaty type.

Assembling the Final Soup

• Pumpkin-Curry base soup
• A can or so of coconut milk or a creamy alternative like cream or soy-cream substitute. Coconut milk is really a great choice because the flavor complements the rest of the soup well
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Your chunks of chicken resulting from the first step or a time-saving alternative

Take enough of your soup base for the number of people you want to feed. Heat slowly and mix in the coconut milk. If you have any issues with the creaminess, you may want to blend again, but that wasn't necessary for me. The coconut milk mixed in fine once it was heated up.

When satisfied no blending will be needed, add the chicken. (Not that blending the chicken would really hurt anything.. just seems odd to me)

Season to taste.

Vegan or Vegetarian Alternative

Obviously you won't want to use chicken and chicken stock if preparing for vegans or vegetarians. The alternative is quite simple. Use a vegetable stock base instead of chicken stock--either vegetarian bullion or a homemade stock. It would also be an option to just skip to the pumpkin stage and just use a little water and add more other vegetables for flavor, such as celery, leeks, parsnips, or whatever you want. Those vegetables would then just be blended along with the pumpkin to give the final creamy result.

The soup will be delicious even without chunks of chicken or something in it. We add that because DH is a very hardworking man and it helps him feel fuller. You could use chunks of tofu or something if you wanted.

Serving Suggestions

As you probably noticed from the picture, I served with a spoonful of sour cream on each portion and bits of fresh chives. We had some coarse bread on the side.

Although I liked the combination of the soup with sour cream, DH did not. Some whipped cream (NOT sweetened or with vanilla in it!) would be another choice if you like the looks but not the flavor.

Of course you can also just serve it plain, with or without the bread.

Vær's'god (sorta means "Enjoy the meal" in this context although the literal is "be so good")

Photographic Garden Update

I took a lot of pictures earlier this week to update my viewers on the status of our garden. Because of the quantity I ended up with, I am not going to include them all here. Instead, check them out on my flickr, which includes descriptive blurbs.

You should be able to find 27 of them!

Making Mint Jelly: Parts Two and Three

I first posted about making mint jelly in the end of June. Obviously I'm a bit behind updating the situation.

We took one liter of the mint juice and followed the directions on the package pectin. That mixed the powdered pectin into a little bit of sugar. And then that was stirred into the cold juice in the pot. Once it was boiling, we added the rest of the kilo of sugar. Then we simmered as directed.

We cleaned jars out with boiling water and preservative stuff that I don't know how to translate. Basically we were following the package directions. We also added some green food coloring in the hopes of making our jelly more green.

We poured everything into the jars and let sit overnight.

It didn't gel.

So while I was still asleep, DH poured all of it back in the pot. He then added another package of pectin. And repeated the cleaning procedure.

That time it set. Unfortunately it is kind of brownish in color. I think it is because the mint that we use often has a reddish tint.

DH hasn't tasted it yet. I hope it is edible, because I'm making more.

This time I am using apples for at least part of the pectin. Our apple tree bloomed very heavily this year and started a number of small fruits. However, the strong winds this week have blown a number of them off the tree. I started collecting the other day and finished this morning. So although small apples are washed in the pot along with a lot of mint.

My reading says that the less ripe fruits have more pectin. Seeing as these are very far from ripe, I expect to get a lot out of them. So I added water to cover the mint and apples. Once it is boiled to falling apart, I will strain it and the juice straining system that DH borrowed from his parents. We used it the other day for the currants that I picked.

The point of this is to say that if you want to do it without fruit, use twice the required amount of pectin.

I will let you know how a version with apples goes.

Making Mint Jelly: Part One

This is the first time that we are trying this, and we haven't even finished yet, so don't try to follow this recipe until I posted a final part that says it actually worked.

We have tons of mint in our garden. One day DH asked curiously, "Can we make mint jelly?"

I said I didn't know, but we started hitting the recipe books. We found one recipe in Chile that called for cooking a large quantity of green apples then adding mint flavoring. That wasn't quite what we wanted, so I set to work online. The recipes that I found fit into two classes, using apples as a base and using purchased pectin. After discussion with his mother and some look in the stores, we decided to try the second method.

So I started the first phase today. I collected lots and lots of mint. No, I didn't measure it. It was probably five or six large handfuls of very tall mint stocks. I used one of those slightly curved, two-handled knives to chop the mint. I put that in a pot with about 2 L of water.

I let it simmer for couple hours. When DH got home from work, we brought up to a boil, then turn it off. Then he put it down in the workshop to cool.

The packets of pectin called for 1 L of cold juice each. To that they add a kilo of sugar. So I need to strain my liquid and get it cool.

Figuring out the best way to strain it took some experimentation. I decided to use wine bottles with screw on lids for storing the juice until we feel like making the jelly (hopefully this weekend). What I did was use a large spoon with holes in it to remove the majority of the mint pieces. I lost some liquid that way, but mint is cheap and water is not that expensive. I put a coffee filter into a funnel in the top of the wine bottle. Then I ladled in the liquid, trying not to get too much leaves with. When I got to the bottom, I just scraped all of it into the filter.

The result of this effort is probably close to 2 L of mint-flavored water. It took me three filters, but the first one was part of my experimentation process. DH took the bucket of mint pieces that I took out the other spoon outside to the compost.

Now, we let it cool and see what happens.

Dealing with Dried Herbs

Once the herbs we cut for drying have dried, we have to do something with. We can't have them hanging around until we need them--they'd lose their flavor and get dusty. Also we need the space where they are hanging for drying more.

We have already processed two big batches of mint--two different types. I also just finished a big batch of tarragon. For some things, like the red mint I use for tea, I leave even the coarse stems in. For others, I remove them. It depends on how easy they get cut up and how they taste. The green mint stems are more "grassy" in taste, so I take those out. I am not even sure yet if the flavor of the dried green mint is pleasant. I also still don't know what kind it is. I will have to take pictures one of these days so mom can try to figure it out for us.

We want our herbs chopped up. The easiest way we have found to do this is to break them up into the chopper than came with our Braun staff blender. It works great for dry herbs, but we do need to shake it while it chops to get all of it cut up. If any stems came into the chopper and were too coarse, it is easy to pick them out.

I have learned that it is best to work on a clean, dry area when breaking the herbs up into the chopper. A lot of it will fall all over the place and if you work on a clean, dry spot, you can just brush that into the chopper. I have also learned that I should only do this on days when the vacuum is out for me or DH is around to deal with cleanup. I manage to drop flakes and bits onto the floor. I managed today to clean it up with dustpan and brush, but getting up and down was very painful for me.

Once it is chopped up, I pour it into a clean, dry glass. If it isn't chopping easily, it probably isn't dry enough. I had that problem with some of the mint I did. Label the glass because all this chopped up stuff looks pretty similar and it is annoying to have to sniff them all to figure out what you are dealing with.

Then we put the glass on top of the furnace open for a few days. That gives the last moisture a chance to escape. Then we put the lid on and leave it there, but check the lid for any signs of moisture. All that hard work will be wasted if we seal it up with moisture still in it!

The next one I need to process is called "Løvstikke" in Danish. Scientific name Levisticum officinale. This would be "lovage" in English as far as I can find out. It is related to celery. We use it mainly for improving the flavor of older potatoes when boiling. We have a big bunch of it hanging to dry in the window in the hallway and it seems to be about dry enough.

An Adventure in Herb Use

Yesterday we had a little adventure in using one of the herbs in our garden. DH only knows the Danish word for it, which is Malurt. He seems to recall it being used in sauces and schnapps. So last night when he was making dinner -- you don't even want to know what this dish is called -- it seemed to need something and I suggested he try a little of that. We've taken some of it up to his mother at one point and she used a little bit in goulash and it tasted fine. DH went out and got three sprigs of it and put that into the meal.

Taste testing in a few moments after revealed an extremely nasty aftertaste. He made excessive attempts to get rid of the taste. He made it somewhat edible but not very appetizing. Obviously, it was my fault for suggesting this herb. In any case, we managed to eat one portion of it each.

Because of this dramatic failure, we decided we better look up this herb and find out what it was and what we're supposed to use it for. It isn't in our herb book, so I tried online. It turns out that the English word for is wormwood, primarily because it has been found effective in eliminating internal parasites. So I guess DH and I don't need worry about having worms.

It isn't recommended for use in food other than schnapps. It is also the herbs that was used to make absinthe.

The Danish word is actually a variant of a word meaning moth plant. People used to put bunches of it in cabinets to keep the moths away. As some of you already know, we have a moth problem. The kind of moths that get into food. DH won some kind of bird seed a few years ago from work and it brought a moth infestation in the house. Before we realized it, it had infested the dog food. At this point, the dog food and at least the majority of our human food is stored in jars and plastic containers to try to prevent moth infestation. However we still have moths in the house and no idea what they are living in. Sometimes I find them in the laundry detergent. But anyway, we now have several bunches of this herb hanging in the house in the hopes that it will keep the moths away.

We also read that people used to put in their beds to keep the fleas and lice away. So now we have pieces of it in the girls beds. They don't have fleas, but do occasionally get ticks. This will also help prevent a flea problem from developing.

We are considering whether we could dry it and use it as an extra dewormer for the horses and dogs. I did get the girls to eat two bits of the fresh herb last night and they got all the leftover dinner.

My reading also suggested making an extract of it and using that to wash dogs and other animals. So we think we might try that to see if it can help prevent ticks. It would be a whole lot cheaper than frontline. Even if it only extends how long a frontline treatment works. We are also wondering if that might help with the lice problem that the horses get every spring and fall. We have already had to use a chemical treatment on Queenie, because she was scratching so much from the lice. The ponies have more problems than the other horses because they have such thick manes and heavy winter coats. It is impossible to eliminate the lice completely, so I think deer must bring them back every year.

So that was yesterday's adventure in using our herbs. In future, we'll be doing more research into herbs before we use them.

Garden Pictures

I promised Mom pictures of the garden and thought the rest of you might enjoy them too.

We recently got a picnic table. With the gorgeous weather, we've been trying to eat outside. I can't stay sat long, but we both enjoy the fresh air. This picture was taken after we finished dinner. DH is training with the girls while I take pictures. Please excuse the white showing through the yellow on the walls. It is time to "whitewash" (only with yellow) the house so I have been scraping off the loose stuff. This is the kitchen (back) door.


The peonies are blooming. At least I think they are peonies. They don't have the ant infestation I am used to from Mom's peonies. The Danish name for them translates to "farmer's roses" or something like that.


Don't know what this one is. The flowers remind me a little of a snowball bush, but much smaller. Also DH swears it is a TREE. Ours just isn't very big yet.


These flowers come from some kind of bulb. We've actually been clearing a lot of them and other bulbs out of the flower bed to make room for herbs, but I thought I'd take a picture anyway.


This one is up in the stone bed behind the garden. When I first moved here, I'd pretty much gotten control over this bed, but with my inactivity of the past two years, it is more weeds and grass than things that belong there. We did clear a few spots this weekend and put in mounds of horse manure and planted pumpkins (the American Halloween ones)


This is looking from the stone bed out over the garden to the house. The small pins in the lower left corner are marking where pumpkin and squash have been planted. The net to the right is for the peas to support themselves on. Then you can see the entire flower bed, some of the girl's fence, the clothesline, and the picnic table.


This is the other half of the garden. Again the green net for peas. Four rows of potatoes that are doing well. The stuff closest to me is the rhubarb. We've got 3 times already this year and it is pretty much due for another cutting. The red section of building is the garage. You can see the trailer garage and the black storage shed to the right.


A plant I don't know what is. DH says it is some kind of medicinal herb, but it isn't in his herb book, so I don't know what to use and how. Anyone know? We've been using parts of the bed behind it as a compost pile for rhubarb leaves, etc.


This is the mint I use for tea and stuff. The one we think is peppermint.



I hope you enjoyed those! Feel free to post any questions you have or requests for better pictures of anything.

My 30-to-5 Rule, Herbs, and Other Babble

I think I've worked out a way that I can manage to be productive and still take care of my physical condition. That's what I call my 30-to-5 rule. Basically it means I need about three minutes of rest for every five minutes that I do something. I realize this is probably the opposite of what most people need, but it seems to be working for me. Of course, sometimes I need more than 30 minutes of rest, but at least it is the basic idea of how to cope.

We have really dry weather right now. It's sunny and there is a slight breeze and the air is really dry. So it is just perfect weather for drying herbs. We already dried and put away two large batches of the peppermint that I mostly use for tea. We found a really good and easy way of doing it. We use one of those lingerie bags for delicates in the laundry. That way don't have to worry about how long the stems are and try to tie them into bundles. Instead I just cut them at whatever length they are, shove them in a bag, and then rotate the bag a lot. Right now my bag is filled with the other kind of mint that we have. I am not sure what kind it is. But it looks more like mom's tea mint than the peppermint does. The one I am identifying as peppermint has a very definite reddish tint to both the leaves and the stems. This one has very green leaves and green stems, except the corners of its square stem appeared to have a reddish thread in them.

We have two other herbs drying right now. Those are done by that tie the stems into a bunch method. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are called in English. Instead I will give you their scientific names. The one is called Artemisia dracunculus. The other is Levisticum officinale. The latter we use a lot because it helps make old potatoes taste better.

We are using a lot of mint at the moment. Most days I am making tea on fresh mint. We were reading in DH's herb book about the values of lavender, so today we added a sprig of lavender to my tea as well. It was quite good in my opinion. I also added a sprig of mint to the bottle of cold water DH keeps in the fridge. Makes it just a little bit fresher.

In other news, my back is still improving. Or at least it was. As soon as I wrote that, Shawnee had a little accident on the floor. Her first in ages. I got her outside to finish then cleaned up. But when she came back in, she is so upset and sorry about the accident that she was glued to my feet. I turned around to go get myself a glass of water and tripped over her. I think I need my ice pack again.

I had planned to write more, but hurt too much now to do so.

Overdue Update

Sorry for the extended delay updating this blog. Because it's been so long, I am not going to tell you about the rest of my visit from the Germans. Nor am I going to tell you about DH's military reunion weekend after. You're also going to have to live without the news of my weekend spent lying on my stomach after a gardening-induced backache (two weekends ago). Even though it was really fun, I'm not going to give you a big blurb on the trip to the race track with our friends down the road that have trotting horses. Only Edith would care about 20 chapters of her book that I edited. You also don't need to hear about ride this past Thursday that resulted in the current backache. No, I didn't fall off and no she didn't jump all over the place. It probably just aggravated the backache from the previous week. The weekend spent lying on the floor with my feet up on the sofa is also not very exciting. How much do you really need to know about Monday's trip to the chiropractor?

Instead I'm just going to tell you about today and not worry about all that other stuff.

Despite the continued backache, I am managing to be somewhat productive. Regular icing seems to be helping. So if I've done most of the dishes and spent a short visit with Queenie and Hopi in the pasture. The girls are managing to behave and Shawnee has not become a cliché again, like she did yesterday by chewing on my slipper.

Our garden is definitely coming along. The potatoes are growing like mad. DH planted six rows of peas. The rhubarb is overdue for its third cutting. I have to see about doing that tomorrow so we can take it to his parents after my chiropractor appointment. The giant pumpkins and regular zucchini have been moved out to the garden. The weird yellow squash thingy has come up despite our expectations to the contrary (I overwatered the dirt). The regular American aren't pumpkins are also about ready to be set outside. Today I found another empty meat tray, so I was able to start the thyme seeds that I just bought. For mom, who actually cares about this stuff and might be able to give me more information about them, it is Thymus vulgaris. The thyme I used to have died from the winter. We are hoping that we can start creating a ground cover in our flower bed with herbs. So anyone can recommend species that we appreciate it. So far, we are trying with the mint that we have and then this thyme.

We're having calzone for dinner tonight. I hope will be a right because we are using store-bought dough. It's shortening up the process a lot because I'm not up to more now. It will have fresh tomatoes, fresh oregano, ham strips, and grated cheese. Probably also other spices. Maybe a jar of mushrooms, if I feel like it.

Other than that I mostly just playing my silly horse game.

Gorgeous Weather

I managed to get up earlier today that I had been all week. I think it helped that DH brought me painkiller before he left for work. I am doing a good bit better. I am even managing to get around without crutches today.

I had planned to take it pretty easy today and mostly just play my game and do dishes. The gorgeous weather got the better of me though so I ended up doing little bit outside. The girls have been in and out of the fence all day because they love the sun.

DH planted potatoes yesterday, I think he said he set 53 of them. With the way the weather is, he will probably plant more today. He is worried that they'll come up too fast and be hit by frost, so he is covering them with a tarp after planting.

I decided to work on my herbs little bit. I promised my mother-in-law that I would try to make some plants for her. It's probably too early, but I did try a few pieces. We keep a collapsing stool hanging out in the carport so I took that so I could sit down. DH has contained most of the herbs in large pipes that has also raised their level a bit above ground.

The oregano is the only one that isn't contained yet. I can see this just starting to come up and I cleared away the old mint and other things from last year there were covering the area. I should be able to split off a small piece for her without problem.

The estragon is just starting out the bottoms. I cleared away all last year's dead stems and seeds. I try to loosen seeds up and shake them over the area in hopes that someone would come. It also should not be problem to get some of those for my mother-in-law.

There's no signs of life in the thyme and it's not looking very good. I cut that hard back and we'll just have to hope it comes.

The sage is not looking good either. I cut back the parts that really felt dead and I'll just have to see if something comes. I will also watch for to go on sale somewhere because I am afraid I will have to replace it.

There is definitely life in the curry. I cut away the deadest parts. I cut a few of the stems that had life in them and stuck them deep in the ground. If I am lucky, those will turn into plants. I left the rest uncut, so I can try again later.

My rosemary is definitely thriving. Only a little bit looked dead and I cut that away. Like with the curry, I cut a few pieces and try to set them in the ground. Let's cross our fingers that some grow.

The one chive is definitely coming in well. The other looks like it might be starting. It had gone to seed last year, so I cut away those stems.

That work was more than enough for my hip. Everything I cut away, I immediately put into a big basket, so it easier to throw out into the compost. I left my stool out because I hope to go out while DH is working the garden after he gets home.

When I came in, I decided to turn off the furnace and heat pump. I now have windows open in a few different rooms and the door open when the girls were in the fence. I also watered the plants. We really need the fresh air, so it just feels great to have it aired out.

We're just having porridge for dinner so I don't make anything in preparation. We're going to have what translates to one or porridge, which is barley based. Last night DH took a bag of my homemade applesauce out of the freezer that we will have with it. It is normally eaten with applesauce and syrup. We probably should have made this when my parents were here, because I bet my dad love it. He likes applesauce and he likes syrup so I bet he'd love the chance to eat them together. The porridge itself would be classified as a carrier product.