Home Made Soup and Bread

Yesterday I made the perfect Sunday meal. I found both of the recipes on the blog of the wonderful Alicia Paulson, called Posie Gets Cozy.

Curried Cream of Chicken Soup

4 tablespoons butter
2 yellow onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons yellow curry powder
5 cups chicken stock
1 handful of parsley, chopped
1/2 cup long-grain brown rice
1 cup (or so) of shredded chicken
1 cup of frozen peas
1 cup half-and-half

Melt the butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, carrots, and curry powder and cook over low heat, covered, until vegetables are tender. Add the stock, parsley, and rice. Bring soup to a boil, reduce heat, and cover; simmer until rice is thoroughly cooked, about 30 minutes. Pour the soup through a strainer and be sure to save the stock. Put the solids back into the soup pot, add 1 cup of the stock, and puree everything together with a hand-blender. (If you don't have one you can run it all through the food processor in batches.) Add the remaining stock to the puree along with the shredded chicken and peas and heat everything through. Add half-and-half, heat through again, and season with salt and pepper.

I did not puree the soup. We ate it chunky. It was so good. We also have a great store, Market of Choice, where you can buy spices in the bulk section, so I was able to just get the small amount of curry powder I needed without buying a whole container. The soup was great for lunch and it was really yummy with the bread below dipped in it.

Ann's No-Knead Bread

Combine and set aside:
2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. salt
2 pkgs. dry yeast (1/4 oz. each)

Heat until warm:
1 c. water
1 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil

Have on hand:
1 egg
2 to 2 1/2 c. flour
butter

Mix egg with liquids, then stir all into flour mixture. Blend at lowest speed on mixer, then blend on medium for 3 minutes. By hand stir in another 2 to 2 1/2 c. flour. Cover, let rise 50 minutes until light and doubled in size. Stir down. Spoon into greased 6" x 9" loaf pan. (If your pan has short sides you might want to split it up and put it in two smaller pans; it rises quite a bit.) Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. Brush top with butter.

I used half unbleached all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Either way, it was great.

Happy eating!