Satisfied Cravings: Favorite recipes from cookbooks I've reviewed.
Chicken and Peanut Soup*
Yields 6 to 8 servings
| Cut a 3-pound chicken into 8 pieces and brown slowly in a skillet with 2 or 3 tablespoons peanut or other light vegetable oil. Place browned chicken in a soup pot. Add to the skillet and saute until golden 1 chopped medium onion, 1 diced large carrot, and 1 minced garlic clove. Transfer to soup pot and add 3 chopped fresh or canned tomatoes with their juice, 2 thin slices of peeled fresh ginger,1 small hot red chili pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, and 8 to 10 lightly crushed black peppercorns. Cover the chicken with about 8 cups water or chicken broth. Simmer gently but steadily, partially covered, for about 45 minutes until chicken is completely tender, replenishing water as needed. Remove the chicken and trim the meat from the skin and bones, pulling or cutting the meat into spoon-size pieces. Strain soup and return it to the pot with the chicken meat. With a wire whisk, beat 1 cup unsweetened peanut butter and 2 tablespoons tomato paste into the soup until smoothly blended. Simmer for 10 minutes and adjust seasonings, thickening with more peanut butter if necessary. Top each serving with roasted, chopped peanuts. |
| *This is the cruel and unusual way every recipe in the book is laid out: in one annoying, monolithic paragraph. - MWF |
| (I only simmered it for 1/2 hour and didn't strain out the vegetables. I used less peanut butter; I only wanted it to be a subtle presence. -MWF) |
