Easy Peasy Egg Drop Soup

My daughter had her tonsils and adenoids removed about 2 weeks ago. One of the foods on the 'list' was Chinese Egg Drop Soup.  Now I remember my mother making me something similar when we were younger.  But we called it Stracciatella Soup.  Loosely translated Stracciatella means torn or shredded. The threads of cooked egg in the soup are reminiscent of 'torn or shredded' rags.  My mom made it using Campbells Chicken Soup.. remember the ones with the tiny cut up noodles? She would just scramble an egg in it as it boiled - now that is SUPER easy!

This recipe also served double duty since I took part in another cooking challenge.  Christina from the blog "Tales from the Mad Men Kitchen" was looking for people to take part in her Chinese take out challenge.

Anyway, I made this for my daughter in hopes she would eat something to help her feel better. I didn't make it using any thickeners like corn starch.  I made it just like my mom did but using homemade broth.

• 4 cups of chicken broth (I usually make my own broth then freeze it into smaller portions.  You can also use store bought chicken broth or make some using water and a bouillon cube)
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 cup pastina or cut up spaghetti (optional)

1. Bring the broth to a low boil
2. Pour in 1 scrambled egg SLOWLY!  You can also use a fork to drop in threads of egg. DO NOT STIR
3. Once you've poured the egg in wait about a minute then remove from heat - you can give it one good stir
4. You don't want to over-stir 

There..how easy is that?  Tasty!!!

Nonna's Chicken Soup

My mom's chicken soup is the best...hands down!  But...it takes a while...like a few hours.  I can't tell you what warm memories this chicken soup brings back.  My mom has one of those huge white enamel stock pots and would make enough to freeze for future use. I've only made her chicken soup one time before and as with almost everything my mom makes - I still can't make it quite like hers. But this time..I got it!

Again, a few steps and some time involved here...but as with good home-cooking, the result is fabulous!

1 Whole Chicken
1 Large tomato or 2 smaller tomato's, cut in half
2 celery stalks, sliced in thirds
2 whole carrots, cleaned and sliced in half
1 medium onion, quartered
1/4 lemon
Parsley
1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
Bay Leaf
Salt
Pepper

Chicken Preparation

• Trim excess fat from chicken (usually trim near the open cavity)
• If your chicken has the innards in the cavity - remove them
• In a bowl, rinse your chicken off
• Now, my mom will usually let it sit in little water with lemon in it - she has this thing about lemon removing the 'poultry' taste from it...she does this regardless of how she cooks her chicken it always gets a 'lemon' bath prior to cooking
• Rinse of your chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put it in a stock pot
• Cover chicken entirely with water and add about 2 cups more
• Soup should remain on medium low heat - AT ALL TIMES
• Do not add anything to your pot at this time - just the chicken
• Simmer your chicken, you will start to notice a foam collecting at the top, my mother called this 'scumazza' or foam

• You will periodically skim this off - whatever this is, you don't want it in your soup
• Once you notice almost no more 'scumazza' you can start adding your vegetables

Soup Preparation

• Add all remaining ingredients to the pot including a little extra salt and pepper
• Simmer for at least an hour, closer to 2 would be ideal!! 
• This is what your pot should look like:

• The chicken should be coming off the bone at this point
• You can now start to remove any floating pieces of skin plus the skin that is on the chicken will come off very easy at this point - it's not that bad, really it isn't  :-)

Serving Your Soup

• Place a colander over a separate stove top pan on medium heat
• Add your chicken broth into the pan, the colander will catch all the vegetables
• Add enough broth to serve you, your family, your friends, etc
• When broth comes to a boil, add your pasta - ditalini, broken spaghetti, orzo, etc..
• My mom served the chicken and vegetables in a separate bowl along side with the soup - this way you could add however much chicken and/or vegetables you wanted to into your soup

I hope I didn't make this more involved than it really is..because although it may seem like it's complicated - it's not.  If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be happy to help!

I served this another one of my mom's other favorites - her seasoned bread which I will write about later!

Nonna's Pastina

As a child my mother used to make us the most delightful, yet SUPER easy pastina.   You ask 50 different people how they make their pastina, and you'll get about 50 different answers.  If I could I would bottle my mom's up and sell it - not that it's THAT amazing..but to me and my kids it is.  When we go visit nonna, my kids will ask for pastina and of course I always make sure she makes enough for me too.  I make her recipe at home...but it never comes out quite like nonna's.

• 5 cups of water
• 1 Large tomato or 2 smaller tomatoes such as plum tomato
• 1/2 Sweet onion
• 1/2 Celery stalk
• Small handful of parsley
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Pastina
• Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. In a small sauce pan add all the ingredients except pastina and parmesan cheese
2. Bring the ingredients to a boil
3. Let boil for at least 25 minutes - all the vegetables should be cooked through and falling apart (I've let it go for almost 45 minutes once...it can't hurt it)
4. Remove vegetables from sauce pan and add about 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup pastina (I had a little more pastina since my kids love the pastina)
5. Cook pastina for about 5 minutes and remove from heat
6. Serve with a little grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top