Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

Finally, a recipe that is a "keeper"!! It is sure obvious when a good recipe comes along, and this one is it. It is a bit complicated, which is surprising considering it is supposed to be from the simple Shakers. I didn't have Vermouth, so I used some leftover white wine I keep in the fridge for recipes. I didn't slice the celery too thinly, and left some of the leaves in the mix. I am so happy with this recipe, but I will have to work on how to make it even smaller. I halved the recipe and got 4 good-sized bowls of soup. Also, I would love to have a bit more chicken in the soup. I cut the chicken up in large chunks, and I think I would make them smaller next time so I could get noodles, celery, and chicken all in one spoonful. The recipe says to add the wine mixture and chicken, and then to heat up to serving heat. Well, the soup was already boiling, so all I did was stir it in and turn off the heat!! It was quite warm when I sat down to eat it. I heated up some of those sourdough brown and serve rolls to eat with this soup, and the tastes worked well together.

Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup

1 c. chicken broth
12 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. dry vermouth
1/4 c. butter
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz. wide egg noodles
1 c. thinly sliced celery
1 1/2 c. water
3/4 c. flour
2 c. cooked chicken, diced
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. finely chopped fresh parsley

1. Combine 1 cup broth, vermouth, and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Continue to boil 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup and has a syrupy consistency. Stir in cream. Set aside.
2. Bring remaining broth to a boil in a Dutch oven. Add noodles and celery. Cook until noodles are just tender.
3. Combine water and flour in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir into broth mixture. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in reserved cream mixture and add chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Heat just to serving temperature, do not boil. Sprinkle with parsley. Garnish as desired. Makes 8-15 servings.

Corn Chowder

I had some leftover canned corn from the last recipe I tried, so I looked for a recipe in my files that would use it up. Being unemployed, I really understand the need for thriftiness. This is a recipe that was originally from the Watkins company, I think they did spices back in the 1940s.

I halved the recipe, which was good because this was the exact amount that fit in my retro chrome blender. I blended this only for a little bit on low so it didn't overflow the blender container, this also enabled the potatoes and corn to still be a but chunky. I also used some heavy cream plus the leftover chicken broth from my last recipe instead of milk. This old recipe called for the milk to be scalded, which was done to kill bacteria and change the nature of the milk. Now we pasteurize milk, so I just heated it through. Be careful not to let it boil over or burn while heating. Two potatoes ended up being 2 cups diced. Because I like the onion flavor, but don't like to eat the actual onions, I think the next time I make this I will grate the onion and mix with the butter before I melt it. Half of the recipe made 3 servings. Since the soup bowl looked naked, I garnished the soup with a sprig of rosemary for the picture!!

P.S. How funny, I just re-read this recipe and it never says to use a blender!! I wonder if the word "blend" was meant to mean stir all ingredients together ...

Update: I made this recipe again and it wasn't as good. I don't know if it was due to the fact that I substituted some canned "new potatoes" instead of using regular potatoes. Or, if it was due to the fact that I quartered the onions and added more butter while I cooked them, straining them out when I added the butter to the soup. The seasoning was off, I had to add more salt and pepper.

Corn Chowder

2 c. canned corn
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 pint diced raw peeled potatoes
2 T butter
1/4 t. salt
2 pints milk, scald
1 cup boiling water
pepper
celery salt

1. Cook onion in one half of butter to light brown and drain.
2. Boil potatoes until tender and drain.
3. Blend all ingredients, add seasoning to taste.
4. If a thicker soup is desired, blend 2 tablespoons of flour with a little bit of cold milk and stir into soup 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.