Asian-style Rice and Chicken Soup

The Japanese have Okai, the Chinese Congee, the Korean's Juk, the Filipino's Arroz Caldo, and the Vietnamese Chao Ga. The list goes on and on for the different versions that each different culture has of their own specially nuanced Asian-style Rice and Chicken Soup. The recipe I use to make Juk/Jook (the spelling and pronunciations for this soup vary), was given to me years ago by a Japanese-American friend, who told me it is her ultimate comfort food. I had the good fortune to be discussing this soup with her, while sitting amidst a group of friends, and their collective multi-cultural perspectives on this food was illuminating. Besides myself and my Japanese-American friend, there was a Japanese woman (married to a Norwegian), an American married to a Filipino man who's a prolific cook, a Korean who immigrated to the US as a schoolboy, and a Vietnamese man who immigrated as an adult. They all are very fond of different variations of this soup, and we discussed the similarities and differences of their different culture's, and each individual family's, versions of rice and chicken soup. This soup is just one of the many foods first introduced by our immigrants that was hybridized and adapted in American kitchens, and is now an integral part of the family favorites repertoire for many home cooks, like myself.



I often make this soup when one of us has a cold, and it was a lifesaver when each of my three kids were unable to chew for several days because of the torture resulting from orthodontic visits. Just as for my Japanese-American friend, this soup has become the ultimate comfort food for my youngest daughter. She's spending this weekend recovering from an oral surgery taking out all four of her wisdom teeth. Despite her horoscope earlier in the week declaring she would "start thinking about a weekend adventure," (needless to say) she's been less than thrilled by the whole experience. I made this soup for her to eat, once she could move beyond the broth, yogurt and applesauce foods stage.

Jook or Asian-style Rice and Chicken Soup

Put all the following in a pressure cooker:
1 c. sushi rice
7 c. water, or chicken or vegetable broth
2-3 green onions or 1/2 sliced yellow onion
1 carrot, whole
1 celery stalk, whole
5 cilantro stems
1 jalapeno, whole
1/2 c. sliced (or 5 whole, broken) dried shitake mushrooms (don't bother soaking them)
1 t. salt
1 inch ginger root, sliced or grated
1 can drained, sliced water chestnuts
1-2 chicken breasts, or leftover remnants of a roast chicken or duck
3 garlic cloves, whole

Bring to high pressure. Cook for 10 minutes, then quick-release pressure. Cool a bit, then remove carrot, celery, jalapeno, and onions and discard them. Remove the chicken breasts to a plate, remove and discard the bones, shred the meat and return to the soup.

Serve with any, or all, of the following condiments:
minced cilantro leaves
Black Bean Sauce
Garlic Black Bean Sauce
chili paste or Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
Hoisin Sauce
soy sauce
sesame oil



This is my youngest as a toddler (taking her guinea pig, Jake for a ride), and I can't help but see her as that tot now, with her face all puffy from surgery, recovering from the ordeal and feeling terrible. Even though she'll turn 18 this summer (and she is one of the most competent and independent teens imaginable), in my heart, a part of me will always see her as this tiny little girl.

Tamale Pie

Even by my standards, this is a rather lame photo. Please remember, looks aren't everything. The infamous Marion Cunningham wrote she always wanted to open a tamale shop called Holey Moley Tamales and serve this as the house specialty, seeing it as a rare example of more being better in a dish. I made this last night, and for the life of me, try as I might, I can't remember the first time I ever made this. I remember making it early on when we were just a young couple, I remember making it when I had 9 tots around the table in my home day care, and I remember it being devoured my a trio of teens and their friends, but I can't remember where I got the recipe (The Oregonian's FoodDay?). Tamale Pie is just something I've always made, and I will say, it is universally well received by all. It can easily be made vegetarian, or bare essentials style, or holey moley style, with anything you might want to add. It is a fabulous week night supper recipe: the-little-pan-that-can, bake until bubbly, satisfaction at its best.

Tamale Pie

Using a 6-quart pressure cooker, cook 1 1/2 c. pinto beans in 1 1/2 qts. water at high pressure for 30 minutes. Shut off heat and let pressure drop naturally (Or use two cans of black beans).

Oil or spray a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish, or an 8 inch square and a second dish for freezing unbaked -two for one bonus cooking! Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in a pot:

1 c. water

1 t. salt

1 c. yellow cornmeal

Add:

1 c. boiling water

Cook, stirring until thickened. Spoon into baking dish(es) and spread (or pat out) evenly to form a bottom crust. I sometimes also bake it all in a smaller 7 x 11 inch dish and form a side crust.

In skillet, cook 1-2 lbs ground beef (or pork sausage, or a mix of the two. Omit for vegetarian, or substitute shredded chicken or turkey)

Season with: 1 t. each cumin, chili powder (optional), garlic and salt

Add:

1/2 - 1 chopped onion or 1 large leek

1 pint home canned tomatoes, 15 oz can tomato and/or 8 oz can tomato sauce, or 1 c. salsa

Optional additions I didn't use:

4 oz. mild green chili peppers (or minced fresh or frozen jalapeno)

1 bell pepper, diced

1-2 stalks celery, diced

Add to skillet, or layer separately:

Well drained beans

15 oz. can or 1 pint home canned (or 1 1/2 c. defrosted frozen) corn

Cover cornmeal crust with this filling or layer components. For this one, I cooked and seasoned the ground beef, then simply layered it with the beans, some sliced leeks and blopped on some salsa. I could only find a shy 1/2 c. in the fridge and no tomatoes in the cupboard and it was still great. This is an extremely flexible casserole that can't go wrong -my favorite kind!

Top with:

1-2 c. grated cheddar cheese

15 oz. can sliced black olives

Bake until bubbly, 20 to 60 minutes. Serve with ketchup, sour cream -and pickled jalapenos!

Corn Harvest

In the animated movie The Lion King (which I have seen, or at least listened to, probably 5 million times, I kid you not) the importance of the The Great Circle of Life on the African Savannah is explained in a Disneyfied way. No less important than The Great Circle of Life, here with our garden and farm animals, we also have The Great Circle of Poo. It works something like this: We raise a garden and farm animals. Besides their pasture, winter hay, and grains, we also feed the animals little tidbits (weeds, trimmings, over mature produce, etc.) from the garden. Once or twice a year, we then haul their accumulated manure from the barn and chicken house, pile and compost it, then haul and spread it over the beds to mulch and fertilize the garden. I should add that this hauling is all uphill, which is just about as much fun as it sounds.



Uphill or not, it takes about five years for the soil to build up. We are now at year seven of manure hauling and growing vegetables here, and it's as if there is some sort of plant growth hormone or steroid in our garden soil. Our corn was planted in the spring, despite the wet weather (practically a monsoon actually), and it ripened during our extended season of mild weather.



I know in places outside the Pacific Northwest, many count on an annual bumper crops of corn and indeed, our nation (and increasingly the world) economically counts on it. We don't, and so this harvest is a big deal for us. I was so pleased to can 14 pints of corn, plus have that much more, and then some, to freeze, both on the cob and cut off.



It's not so bad if the cobs have been blanched first for freezing, but cutting fresh corn off the cob for canning splatters it everywhere. You should only use pint jars to can corn and then process them in a pressure cooker for almost an hour (without going outside to the garden or barn). Despite all this, it is very satisfying to know we will have our very own corn to eat this winter.

And the circle continues: the chickens get to peck at the bits left on the cut cobs and Paris, the hulking ram beast, gets to root around in the corn silk and husks. The flock all enjoyed eating the husks, though it's more of a novelty than a seriously nutritious food for them. Perhaps not as bad as say, Cheetos, but still...I'm sure it's not a particularly fantastic feed.

And now, I need to go work at hauling the manure out of the barn for next year's gardening. My son, who recently moved out on his own, has done this chore for me the past couple of years. I have to admit I've had it pretty easy lately, but now it's again back to being my responsibility. I've come to realize spinning, knitting and cooking do not get one in shape for barn cleaning. On the other hand, cleaning a barn out using a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow, with the manure pile UPHILL from the barn, gets one in shape for just about anything.

Food Everywhere

So much food -growing food, raising food, cooking food and, don't forget, eating food- happens at our house. A few days ago my daughter was ranting, "I've been gone for two days and I get up in the morning and come downstairs and into the kitchen. There is a pan of Congo Bar Cookies half gone, pasta (with a Picchi Pacchi sauce), a loaf of homemade bread and fresh jam, and a piece of pie -ONLY ONE PIECE. Who eats an entire pie in two days? Oh, and stuff to make burgers, don't forget. I mean WHO lives this way!?!" I think she mostly was just amazed noticing how much food we cook and eat but I almost felt I was suppose to apologize. I make no apologies though and I feel I am so fortunate to have the time to cook, the best of foods to cook with, and people who (mostly) appreciate it -my husband runs almost 7 miles a day and my son is doing hard physical labor for 10+ hour shifts.

Today I was thinking about which food to talk to you about: making s'mores and grilled teriyaki salmon steaks in our fire pit last night, making blackberry jam this morning with blackberries I picked yesterday, cooking the 'variety meats' of recent farm butcherings, making Chinese plum sauce with my son yesterday, the cinnamon rolls I was planning to make and/or the soup I was just now putting together. Most of my family had just left for the day (Bumbershoot Music Festival), which might have meant no-cooking-dinner-tonight, but last time I jumped to that (erroneous) conclusion, they all returned home late with, "I'm STARVING. What's there to eat?" and my "I just had a bowl of popcorn for dinner" reply was NOT the answer anyone was hoping for. Therefore, a freshly baked loaf of bread and soup, waiting on the stove for whoever and whenever, came to my mind as the perfect answer.

Soup made in my pressure cooker, using meaty stock from the freezer, dried beans and barley, with lots of garden vegetables added, would be perfect. It would have been perfect too, except for my going to the garden to get the vegetables and leaving the beans and stock on high in the pressure cooker. Throughout my childhood, my grandmother repeatedly told the story of how she had been called outside to help with a cow emergency while canning vegetables in her huge pressure cooker. She returned to find her entire stove had been smashed in from the force of the exploding pressure cooker. You would think such a story, ingrained in someone practically from birth, would keep them from making the same mistake. You, of course would be mistaken. Luckily, my little Presto pressure cooker has a new-fangled (an improvement from Granny's time) safety valve that pops out. Not so luckily, it shoots the contents through the (relatively small) safety valve hole under GREAT PRESSURE which makes a rather spectacular mess. My (unharmed) 17-year old was nearby and quickly changed from terrified to disgusted, "Is this, like, meat juice in my hair?" I spent the next few hours cleaning the kitchen of its meat juice. I also added more stock to the pressure cooker (the unspewed contents were fine) along with the vegetables from my ill-timed garden trip -and continued my soup making. Now that I'm exhausted and ready for something to eat, soup IS perfect.