The winter weather is starting to get to me. I hate this time of year, cloudy days, icy sidewalks, flu season, by January I'm craving summer! Now don't get me wrong I love skiing and snowboarding and sledding and skating but I've always felt that winter should only happen in the mountains (yes I'm a BC girl). It's so hard to find inspiration and passion for food when there are no fresh local ingredients or farmers markets.
Okay now that I'm done whining about the cold weather let's talk about food, in particular soup. Soup is one of those all season foods, you can make soup out of almost anything you can even make cold refreshing soups in the summer (aaahhhh summer) but there just isn't anything like a thick and hearty chicken soup with dumplings in the dead cold of a Canadian winter. This recipe is just like momma use to make and it absolutely reeks of home and nostalgia. Plus it has bacon and let's face it life just doesn't get much better than bacon ;)
RECIPES
CHICKEN STOCK
1 whole chicken
3 large carrots
4 stalks celery
1 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, peeled
10 whole peppercorns
4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1/4 bunch fresh parsley
water
Place all ingredients in a large pot and add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. Simmer for 3 hours and add cold water as needed. Remove from heat and let cool.
Remove chicken from pot and place on a tray, using a strainer pour stock into a separate container.
* use the rest of the stock ingredients to make a puree for a sauce or soup thickener
CHICKEN STEW
Remove chicken meat from bones, rough dice meat and set aside
1TBSP veg oil
500GR bacon ( I like double smoked bacon for this)
2 large carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 med onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 CUP white wine (or 1/4 CUP white wine vinegar)
chicken stock
3 TBSP fresh thyme
2 TBSP fresh sage
1 TBSP fresh parsley
1-2 TBSP sea salt
1 TBSP black pepper
Heat pot to med heat add chopped bacon and cook until crisp *(alternative is to place bacon in 400 degree oven and cook until crisp, flip as needed) add diced carrots, celery, onion and garlic and saute. Add wine (or vinegar) cook for 2 min and add stock. Add herbs, salt (more or less according to your preference) and pepper and cook for 30 min. add water as needed.
DUMPLINGS
2 CUP flour
4 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP sea salt
1 CUP milk
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in milk. Spoon batter into boiling stew and cover with lid for 10 min. Turn off.
*over mixing will cause your dumplings to be tough or chewy instead of light and fluffy
Chicken Stew w/ Dumplings is ready to SERVE!!!
