Since
it’s been cold and snowing here this week, I decided to dig back to my
Midwestern roots for an old-fashioned recipe.
My
Aunt Eva in Nebraska
always makes these hearty noodles and serves them in a rich chicken broth-based
soup. The result is similar to a chicken and dumpling recipe probably heralding
back to our German roots on the farm.
My
aunt shared this recipe with me years ago, and it’s followed me every time I’ve
moved from NYC to
Washington D.C. to Baltimore and now to Istanbul. I think everyone needs one of these
family recipes that you can pull out whenever you want a taste of home.
While
I was cooking the soup, I took
a photo on my cell phone to tease my husband with his upcoming dinner at home. I’m
not sure if it was the snow or the soup that made him come home early that night!
This
recipe is definitely a crowd pleaser and one that will warm you up when it’s
cold outside.
Afiyet olsun!
Perfect comfort food - homemade noodles and chicken soup! |
Homemade Noodles
Serves 6-8 people.
5
Tablespoons cold water
2 cups all-purpose
flour
2 ea. Large
eggs
2 tsp. sunflower
or vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon salt
In
a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together. I used a hand blender for part
of it. Then, knead the dough together by hand for a couple minutes, until you
have a smooth ball of dough. If the dough seems dry, add a splash of water. If
the dough seems too wet, add a little flour.
Wrap
the dough in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for one hour. (While
the dough is resting, work on the soup ingredients.)
Divide
the dough in half. Liberally dust your counter with flour. Using a rolling pin,
roll out the dough fairly thin.
Using
a pizza cutter, cut the dough into thin strips to make your noodles. Mine were
about ½-inch wide by 2-3-inches in length.
Make
sure your soup is up to a rolling boil at this point and drop in the noodles a
few at a time. If you drop in the noodles too fast, they can clump up together.
Continue
rolling out the rest of the dough the same way and drop into the soup as well.
The
noodles will need to cook for 15-20 minutes in the soup.
Note:
If you have leftovers, you will need to add more chicken stock or water to the
soup. The noodles really absorb any liquid once left to sit for awhile.
Chicken Soup
Base
Ingredients:
2 T. sunflower
or vegetable oil
3-4 ea. Carrots,
peeled and diced small
2 ea. Medium
onions, diced small
2 cups celery
or leeks, diced small (I had a lot of celery to use up.)
1 ea. large
potato, diced small
2 ea. Chicken
breasts, chopped small
1-2 teaspoons dried
thyme
4-5 ea. bay
leaves
To
taste salt and
pepper
2.5
quarts chicken stock or water (If you use water, drop in 2-3
chicken flavored bouillon cubes.)
In
a large stockpot over medium-high heat, add the oil. When hot, add the carrots,
onions and celery or leeks. Saute’ for a couple minutes until the vegetables
are soft.
Then
add the potatoes and chicken. While stirring, cook the ingredients for a few
minutes.
Add
the spices and cover everything with the chicken stock or water. Add lid. Bring
soup up to a rolling boil before you drop in the noodles.
8 comments:
Chicken soup on the stove makes every one hurry home, regardless of culture. Perfect for an icy day
yum! looks a lot like my chicken and dumplings that i got from dear beverly! i cherish that recipe even more now that she is gone. snow for you and 70 degrees here.
Seems that many of us have done noodles this week. It's the kind of comfort food you crave when it's cold. Here in OR, I served a beef pot roast with csipetke, an easy Hungarian noodle that is a cross between a noodle and a dumpling. I used to make the more labor intensive spaetzle until I discovered csipetke. They are also great in soup, just like your noodles. Question: do Turks have a version of this type of soup with dumplings? If so, it is sure to have some kind of pepper or cumin in it :) I also made tarhana this week; it is so simple and was great with aci biber (paste) and and sautéed onions.
@BacktoBodrum, true true!
@Joyce, That's sweet! It's definitely good to have those cherished recipes.
@Manya, I looked up the csipetke noodles and they look very similar to German spaetzle. Similar regions, I guess.
Here's a good recipe for Turkish homemade noodles called erişte. I haven't played with them yet, but here you go.
Köy Eriştesi/Village Egg Noodles with Sage, Walnuts and White Cheese
Great recipe - definitely going to try this F x
@Francesca, Hope you enjoy my aunt's recipe! Thanks for stopping by!
You can't beat a good hearty chicken soup in wintery weather - not that winter ever really arrived in Fethiye this year but we like to pretend. Looks lovely, this soup. :)
@Julia, Yes, indeed! In fact, I may need to make this soup this weekend. Coldest day yet here in Warsaw at -15C. Yikes!
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