A Secret Recipe Club Gem!
I have been participating in the Secret Recipe Club for just over four years now, and through this unique recipe swap and exchange, I have met some wonderful people, many of whom I’m pleased to count as good friends now; so, when I was sent this month’s “secret” blog, I was thrilled to be allocated to someone I met four years ago, someone whom I admire and respect very much……..and someone whose blog I know well…….yes, this month, I was assigned to my old (not as in age) friend Sally from Bewitching Kitchen. Hello Sally – here I am making something from Bewitching Kitchen again. Now, Sally comes from Sao Paulo in Brazil, although she has lived all over the world, including Paris, California and now Manhattan in Kansas. A fitness fanatic, golfer, runner and cook, her vibrant blog is brimming with the most amazing and tempting recipes, and I was stuck on her recipe index page all evening trying to decide what to make……..here’s just a few recipes that I’ve bookmarked:
Baked Ricotta with Goat Cheese
Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Chorizo, Spinach & Manchego Stuffed Mushrooms
Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Apricot Glaze
Lebanese Baked Kibee
Chili Cashew Chicken Noodles
Asian-Glazed Pork Shoulder
Chicken in Peanut Mole Sauce
POLLO EN MOLE DE CACAHUATE – Chicken in Peanut Mole Sauce Image: Bewitching Kitchen
But, in the end I decided to make something Brazilian, from Sally’s Brazilian recipe collection, being as Sally comes from Brazil and how I love International cuisine, it seemed very apt. I loved the look of all of them, but I kept coming back to the same recipe over and over again, Sally’s recipe for Canja de Galinha (Chicken & Rice Soup)…….simple though it may be, it reminded me of a soup I used to enjoy when I lived in Cyprus, called Mercimek çorbası in Turkish and Fakes Xithati in Greek, it’s a lentil and rice soup that I absolutely love. So, when I saw Sally’s version of Jewish Penicillin aka chicken and noodle soup, and with a howling gale raging outside, Canja de Galinha was the recipe I decided to make.
The soup was duly made, and photographed, as you can see, and we BOTH loved the addition of fresh ginger and salty soy sauce to the soup base. I have shared Sally’s recipe below, with JUST a couple of tweaks and in metric for the benefit of my European, Australian, New Zealand, South African and Canadian readers…..I didn’t have any celery when I made the soup, but decided to add lots of fresh parsley as Sally says is traditional in a proper “Canja”. The soup was warming, restorative and quite a filling meal……..we needed no bread or anything else to eat until well into the evening. “Obrigada” Sally! PS: DO you see I managed to find some Brazilian flags too?
Canja de galinha (European Portuguese: [kɐ̃ʒɐ ðɨ ɣɐˈlĩɲɐ], Brazilian Portuguese: [kɐ̃ʒɐ dʒi gɐˈɫĩjɐ], literally “chicken congee”), or simply canja, is a popular chicken soup of Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and Brazilian cuisine. The Portuguese term galinha literally means “hen”, but became the generic name for the species, much like chicken in English.
CANJA DE GALINHA
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)
INGREDIENTS:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
115ml soy sauce
3 slices of ginger (1/4 inch thick), slightly crushed
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
1 shallot, peeled and minced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
salt and pepper
1,500ml chicken stock
8 new waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
350g cooked white rice
Juice of half a lemon
chopped fresh parsley
METHOD:
1. Poach the chicken breasts: in a saucepan, bring to a gentle boil the soy sauce, ginger pieces, and
enough water to just cover the meat. Once the water starts to boil, immediately turn off the heat,
cover the pan, and let it sit for 20 minutes. Lift the chicken breasts from the liquid, and once
they are cool enough to handle, shred the meat using two forks or your fingers. Reserve.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy pan, sauté the shallots until barely soft, don’t let them get golden. Add
the carrots, season with salt and pepper, cook for about 5 minutes over medium-low
heat, stirring every now and then.
3. Add the chicken stock and the potatoes, cover the pan
and simmer until the potatoes are beginning to get tender.
4. Add the cooked rice and the chicken, cover the pan again and simmer everything together for 10 minutes over a medium-low heat.
5. Add the lemon juice, adjust seasoning, and serve with lots of chopped fresh parsley.
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