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I believe that salt is to food, what food is to life. In right proportions, it can heighten the taste of what you eat..and in the wrong - destroy! Even the most delicious sweets come added with some salt...to taste!

As for me, I've never enjoyed cooking. And as contrary to my owning a food-blog as it may sound, I always think about daily, routine cooking as a chore. But my tryst with the pots and pans began when I got a kitchen all to myself...I began experimenting and exploring new worlds in my own home. Some outcomes were excellent and some plain disasters. Then sprouted the need to keep track of all those good ones...and hence this blog!

Here, I share those experiments that pleased more than one palate!




March 6, 2010

Hearty Spinach and Chicken Soup

Winters are a time when you want to cuddle up with a loved one over a cuppa hot chocolate and get cozy watching your favorite TV show. And that is such a classic cliched statement, I know...I know.

Ah! That rhymed

But, just when the ever-plummeting mercury makes us lazy, all the viruses that make us ill happen to work over-time. Talk about bad luck. Cough, cough...sneeze sneeze! Ugh, even typing it makes me feel sick. Yet, some things are inevitable - and illness happens. And, when nothing seems to satisfy your taste-buds, a soup makes up for it all! What's better than a bowl of hearty spinach and chicken soup when the tissue box seems to be your best friend? Yeah, yeah this one is a wee bit too hearty and can be very filling. But hey, haven't you heard the phrase - 'Feed the cold, starve the fever'?

Oh, and there is another reason you might want to make this slurpy dish. If you are among the people who cannot stop yourself from ordering sweet-corn-anything soups when you dine out, then this is something you will love, too. Try it once and you will stop going ga-ga over the restaurant soups!
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Ingredients
1 Boneless, skinless Chicken Breast - Washed and cut into about 4 large chunks
2 Cups of Spinach - Washed and julienned
1/2 Cup Corn Kernels - cooked until soft
1 tbsp - Chopped Onion (You can use green onions too)
1 tbsp - Chopped tomato
1 tsp - Garlic paste
2 tsp Corn flour
1/2 tsp Chillie powder
1/2 tsp Coriander powder
Water
Oil
And, of course, some salt to taste!

Method
- In a large non-stick saucepan, pour about 1 tsp of oil and turn on the flame
- Once the oil is warm, add the chopped onion and stir
- Add the garlic paste and fry further
- Add chicken breast chunks and fry for about a minute
- Toss in the coriander powder and sprinkle some salt and stir
- Pour water, just enough to cover the chunks
- Close and allow to the chicken to cook fully (Keep and eye on this. You might need to add more water if the chicken absorbs it all)
- Once the chicken is fully cooked, turn off the flame and carefully (yup, its hot!)pull out the chicken chunks onto your work area
- Shred the cooked chicken chunks and toss them back into your saucepan (Take care while doing this since there will be a lot of inherent heat in the chicken chunks. You could wait a couple of minutes and then shred the chicken, so that it will have cooled a bit to make it more 'handle-able')
- Turn the flame back on and add the tomatoes and chillie powder and stir well for about one minute
- Toss in the julienned spinach and stir until it wilts
- Add the shredded chicken, corn kernels and salt and stir
- Pour water (about 2 cups) and allow to boil for 2 minutes
- immer for another 2 minutes
- In another bowl, mix the corn flour with water to make a thin paste and pour it into the soup and stir
- Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally
- Serve hot with bread sticks

SERVES 2

NOTEWORTHY NOTES
a) You can add cooked pasta to this to make it more wholesome
b) Veggies only further enhance the taste of this preparation. Go ahead, and toss some in!

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