Curry Elvis Cooks - Fusion Cuisine Recipes and Food Philosophy

Yesterday's post was a recipe for Wild Rice Gumbo, which was a variation of my Mushroom, Asparagus + Wild Rice Soup. One of the things that I like to do to change up my meals a bit is to take some ingredients I've already used recently and either replace or supplement them. In today's recipe, I'm supplementing and replacing, to end up with Chicken, Rotini and Wild Rice Soup. What I'm doing is not, of course, anything original. But what it does let me do is buy certain items in bulk and yet not get tired of them. I may be presenting the recipes to you in a short span of time, but if I recall correctly, I originally came up with these soup variations over one summer. Wild rice is not, of course, really a rice. But I love it's nutty taste and it's almost rice-like but more firm texture. It's worth a bit of extra money at the Farmers Market every once in a while. (Health food stores seem to charge significantly more for wild rice than Farmers Markets.)

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp of cooking oil
• 1-2 stalks of celery, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 carrot, small or medium dice
• 1 small onion, small dice
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
• 1 bay leaf, whole
• Roux: 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cans or 3 cups of chicken stock
• 3 cups of water
• 1 small boneless raw breast chicken, cut into thin strips, then halved.
• 5-7 button mushrooms - halved if small, quartered if large
• 2 cups wild rice, pre-cooked
• 2 cups of dried rotini
• Dash of Italian seasoning (or any dry mix of basil, oregano, sage, parsley)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Sprinkle of crushed red pepper flake [optional]
• Sesame oil - just a few drops. Sesame oil adds a wonderful subtle aroma the permeates the home and seems to induce hunger.

Preparation

• Heat cooking oil in a large stockpot on high, about 1 minute.
• Mirepoix:
• • Reduce heat to medium high.
  • Add mirepoix (celery, carrot, onion), garlic, bay leaf, and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a small non-stick saucepan, create a roux with the butter and flour: Melt the butter then stir in the flour until together they form a sort of buttery paste. Make sure the flour is incorporated into the butter or your soup will be lumpy. The roux will help thicken the soup.
• Remove the bay leaf from the stockpot, then add roux from the saucepan.
• Add chicken stock and water to pot. Add chicken slices and poach for 12-15 minutes.
• Add mushrooms and wild rice and cook for 10 minutes.
• At the same time as the above step, cook rotini in a separate pot of water as per the package instructions. However, leave the rotini slightly firmer than you would if you were eating them straight. Strain and add the rotini to the soup after the 10 minute period in the last step. If you find that there isn't enough liquid in the soup, feel free to add another cup of water and another 3-4 minutes of cooking time.
• Add Italian seasoning, salt and black pepper, red pepper flake, and sesame oil. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, then turn off heat and serve.

Presentation
Serve in individual soup bowls with a dollop of sour cream and with a stack of spicy tostadas or some corn chips. Ham and grilled cheese sandwiches also go great with this soup.

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://curryelviscooks.blogspot.com