Chicken and Stars Soup

 

I can remember when I was a little girl that you used to be able to buy a soup at the grocery store called Chicken With Stars Soup.   We did not get a lot of store bought soups when I was a girl.  My mother could make a delicious and much tastier soup from almost anything, so bought soup in our house was a real rarity.    

 

 A roast dinner of any kind on a Sunday usually meant that sometime during the week we would be having a nice big pot of homemade soup, and we all looked forward to it with great pleasure  . . .  if we had had ham, it would be ham and pea soup, turkey . . . turkey soup.    

 

Beef meant a nice pot of Beef and vegetable soup.   A roast chicken always something like chicken and vegetable or chicken noodle or chicken with rice.   We never did have chicken with stars though . . . but I always wished that we would.       

 

I spied some Stellini Pasta (tiny star shaped pasta)  in the shops the other day and picked it up.  I thought it was about time I fulfilled my wish and made myself a pot of Chicken with Stars Soup.  After all I am 58 years old now and I'm not getting any younger!  Sometimes you have to feed your inner child!   

 

It's not that difficult to make a homemade pot of soup.  It requires very little effort and the rewards are bountiful.   It tastes so much better than anything that comes from a tin.  I am afraid that after you taste this, you will be spoilt from ever wanting to have tinned chicken soup again!    

 

Of course when it was done it was just begging for some type of pretty garnish and so I baked some star shaped garlic croutons to float on the top.  They dressed it up just nicely.  I was a happy girl and Todd was a happy boy.  You can never go wrong with a tasty pot of homemade soup.  

 

*Chicken With Stars Soup*
Serves 4-6

Printable Recipe

This is a very simple and easy soup to make.  I often use the carcass from a roast chicken to make this, saving some chicken from the roast to use as wl.   As I always cut up chickens myself to use in other recipes, I usually always have bags of chicken backs and necks in the freezer as well, which are very good when used in this soup!   Its amazing what you can do with a few bones and some vegetables!

1 spent chicken carcass (if there is not a lot of meat left on the carcass you can add a few chicken wings or a leg)
1 bay leaf
1 sprig thyme
1 carrot, unpeeled and cut in half
1 stalk of celery
Handful of celery leaves
1 onion, unpeeled, cut in half, root end removed
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper

To finish:
1 carrot peeled and grated
¼ of a swede peeled and grated (rutabaga)

1/2 mug full of Stelline Pasta (star shaped pasta, about 1/2 cup, or more as desired)

Put your chicken carcass in a pot and cover with boiling water. Add the bay leaf, thyme, carrot, celery, celery leaves, onion and salt and pepper. Bring back to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours. Strain broth into a clean pot. Discard vegetables and pick off as much meat as you can from off of the bones. Cut into small chunks. Bring broth to a boil and reduce somewhat. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If it is not very strong you can add a TBS or two of Marigold vegetable stock powder, but it really shouldn‘t be necessary.)

Add the grated vegetables and the Stelline pasta.  Bring to the boil and then reduce to low and simmer for about 15 minutes until cooked. Add the diced chicken meat. Heat through and then ladle into hot bowls. Serve with some nice crusty bread or rolls.  

Note:  I like to make star shaped croutons for a garnish sometimes.  Just cut your desired bread into star shapes with a sharp cutter, Toss with some herbs and olive oil.  (I like to use parsley, garlic, salt, pepper)  Then toast in a hot oven for 5 to 8 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

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Bread Soup

(My Easy Bread)

One of the consequences of there only being two of us in this house and eating most of the time is the fact that we have a difficult time using up a loaf of bread before it goes stale.   I really like good bread and a good loaf of bread can be somewhat expensive, so I don't like for any of it to go to waste.  It only makes sense to have a few things up your sleeves that you can do with it . . . like bread pudding and such.   I hate waste, don't you?



This is a cookery book I have had for a while, by Tamasin Day-Lewis. It's a jewel.  It's filled with lots of lovely recipes for dishes that are not only economical but also delicious.  Recipes such as this Bread Soup, which she admits to originally pinching from Anna Del Conte.



I love cooking and the beautiful chemistry that happens when you throw ingredients together.  Sometimes it is so amazing.  Who would ever think that with a few ingredients such as olive oil, stale bread, chicken stock, garlic, parsley, chilli flakes and some seasoning you could end up with a delicious soup???

 

And that is exactly what this is . . . a magically delicious soup!  Made from simple ingredients, put together in a simple manner.  Of course it stands to reason that if you are only going to be using a few ingredients, you will want them to be the best you have.  Use a good sturdy loaf of bread, a crusty country loaf, several days old.



A good chicken stock, well flavoured.  Homemade is good, but if you don't have that, a good quality store bought one works well also.



The best extra virgin olive oil your money can buy.  It matters.



Fresh parsley and  fresh garlic.    Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper.   A good cheese for grating.



Something very magical happens.   Trust me on this.  It's absolutely gorgeous!  A new favourite!  Simple.  Easy.  Delicious and Quick!

*Bread Soup*
Serves 4 
Printable Recipe

The most delicious soup from nothing but stock, bread crumbs and a bit of garlic, parsley and seasoning.  Oh, I do love recipes such as this which help to celebrate simple ingredients and methods in a most delicious way.  I believe in Italy this is called Pancotto. You will want to use a good quality rustic styled bread loaf for this, preferably a couple of days old. 

4 thick slices of stale country style bread, good quality, crusts removed

5 TBS EXTRA virgin olive oil (not the cheap every day use one)

1/2 tsp dried crushed chilies

3 dloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

a small handful of finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, about 2 TBS

1 1/2 litres of hot chicken stock (a scant 6 1/2 cups)

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

freshly grated Pecorino cheese to serve

Crumble your bread into  bits and then blitz them in a food processor for a couple of seconds, until you get a coarse crumb.  Heat the olive oil, dried chilies, garlic and parsley in a heavy bottomed saucepan.  Saute for about 30 seconds until you can smell the garlic.  Tip in the bread and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bread begins to turn golden brown.  Add the hot stock.   Cover and simmer for half an hour. 

Taste the soup and adjust seasonings as necessary.   Serve ladled out into hot soup bowls with lashings of grated Pecorino cheese on top.

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