Chicken noodle soup... in a manner of speaking

Yesterday I was laid up in bed with a really nasty cold and I was craving some sort of chicken soup. Being too ill to slave over the stove for hours, I decided to forgo homemade soup in favor of something less labor intensive. That is, until I remembered a simple greek soup that I ate at my friend Sarah's house once. It's a greek soup called Avgolemono and it's almost as easy to make as opening a can of Progresso. It's also perfect to soothe a cold... hot, citrusy, and fills you up without being heavy.

Avgolemono is one of those recipes that changes wildly from hand to hand. Some recipes call for more of a stew-like consistency and include chunks of meat and mediterranean vegetables. Others are simple and more broth-like. After reading a few, I came up with one of my own that was perfect for my purposes.

Jebby's sick day Avgolemono

You will need:
4 cups chicken stock.
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Zest of 1/2 a lemon, cut off in one-inch strips
1/2 cup uncooked orzo pasta
1 large egg
Sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Directions:
Bring chicken stock to a low boil with the strips of lemon zest, the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Once the stock has barely begun to boil, fish out the zest, add the orzo and cook 10 minutes, or five minutes less than the directions on your package recommend. While the orzo cooks, beat the egg vigorously in a medium-sized bowl until there is no visible seperation between white and yolk. When the time is up, slowly incorporate a ladle-full of the hot broth into the beaten egg with your whisk. This will temper the egg and keep it from curdling when it meets the hotter temperature of the stock. Once the entire ladle of broth has been whisked into the egg, slowly pour the egg/broth mixture into the pot with the stock, stirring well. Cook five more minutes (or until the orzo is tender), stirring occasionally.

Makes 2 servings

Kickin' it up a notch

Diet food is bland. No matter how much companies try to spice up their low-fat offerings, they fall short on flavor without fail. It's not as difficult to make a flavorful and nutritious low-fat dinner, but lunch has far fewer options. The last time I went on a serious diet I gave in to eating dull turkey sandwiches on high fiber whole-wheat bread with light mayo for lunch every day. This time around, I wanted some better options. Let's face it: light mayo tastes like crap. Here is an experiment in covering up the assy flavor of light mayo that turned out particularly well. You will want to eat this every day.

Jebby's Curry Chicken Crack Salad

You will need:
One cooked chicken breast, chopped or shredded (alternately, you can use canned chicken)
Two generous tablespoons light mayonnaise
Curry powder (I used Spice Island's for convenience but you can make your own!)
Two tablespoons finely chopped apple, skin on
A tablespoon each of raisins (I like golden!) and dried cranberries
One teaspoon freshly grated ginger
One scallion, sliced on the bias
Two slices of whole wheat bread or a whole wheat wrap

In a large bowl, add the dried and fresh fruit and the scallion to the chopped chicken and toss.

In a smaller bowl, combine the mayonnaise with the grated ginger and enough curry powder to suit your taste. I used a very generous tablespoon. Mix until no spots of virgin mayo can be found, and add to the chicken mixture, stirring until all chicken is coated.

Put a few tablespoons of the chicken mixture on toasted whole wheat bread or a wrap. I also like a leaf of red romaine lettuce and some wafer thin apple slices on mine.

And there you have it!

Braised raspberry-chipotle pork loin and orzo salad

I love winter more than any other season, especially the making and eating of wintry food - breads, hearty soups and stews, and all incarnations of starchy yams and squashes. Occasionally though, during the cold months when I've been eating heavy wintry food day after day, my mouth waters for something reminiscent of the warm summer days when it's too balmy to eat anything but spicy meats and light, fresh salads. With this in mind, I decided to braise pork loin chops in a sweat-inducing raspberry chipotle sauce I picked up from Costco and put together an almost effervescent cold orzo salad.


I started out with a whole pork loin (partially frozen to facillitate cutting) and cut it into 1/2 inch slices. Hazel helped.


Next, I seared the meat well on both sides. This has two purposes: it seals in the juiciness of the meat, and it creates "fonds," which are the brown caramelized bits of meat left in the pan. Fonds create a special flavor when mixed with liquid. I mixed about a cup of the raspberry chipotle sauce with a cup of water and poured in the pan, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen and incorporate the fonds. I then added the pork chops back to the liquid and turned the burner down to a low simmer.


Once the meat was taken care of, I gathered the ingredients for the salad: two cups of orzo (cooked and cooled), four tablespoons of olive oil, two tomatoes (chopped coarsely), the zest and juice of one lemon, and 1/4 cup of mint chiffonade. To create a chiffonade, or thin ribbons, you stack leaves of mint (or basil, or whatever other leafy herb you are using) and roll them up tightly. You then slice the roll crosswise thinly, creating perfect slivers.


After all the dirty work:

I then added all these ingredients together with the cooled orzo, including the lemon juice and olive oil. This picture is pre-stirring.


After stirring, the salad went into the refrigerator for 30 minutes while the meat finished its braise.


The finished product: sweet, spicy, fork tender pork and a fresh, summery salad.