Cooking under pressure

Being a prolific cook, my mother didn't believe that a meal was complete without soup. She made soup nearly every day of her married life, and her secret weapon was a pressure cooker. She dutifully hoisted that ugly but powerful thing onto the stove and cooked soup in abundance.

Her old-fashioned pressure cooker made our kitchen a somewhat uncomfortable and noisy place, as it sounded not unlike a steam engine's piston, and it always fogged up the windows.

All the same, my mother's chicken soup was unquestionably a big hit in our family. She brought home a fat chicken from the weekly farmer's market, threw it in the pot with some water and a bouquet garni which consisted of a brightly-colored carrot, a piece of flavorful celeriac, a gleaming green leek, a crunchy parsley root and half of a sweet onion all tied together with kitchen string. She cooked it in a remarkably short time and the result was a clear and aromatic broth tinged golden and boasting with tons of flavor. She served it in white soup bowls adorned with little pink flowers, and it was full of tiny al dente star-shaped pasta, shredded tender breast meat and a sprinkling of finely chopped, fragrant chives.

As for me, I am scared of pressure cookers. In high school home economics one year, I managed to have the cooker spew all its contents on the school kitchen ceiling. I learned early on that it takes certain finesse if you don't want to damage your home while cooking.

So I make my chicken soup in a stock pot instead. It may take a little longer, but it's just as delicious and my kitchen is calm and happy when the pot is simmering quietly on a low flame on my stove. Maybe one day I will take on a pressure cooker again, but for now, the only sound you hear in my kitchen is coming from someone noisily slurping up a flavorful chicken soup.

Photo by Annika Patel

Chicken Soup

For 4

Fill a large pot with 4 quarts filtered water, salt lightly and add the following:

2 organic free-range chicken breasts

2 organic free-range chicken wings

1 leek, cleaned, removing top 1/3

1 onion, unpeeled, cut in half

1 carrot, scrubbed

1 parsnip, peeled

Stems only of 1 bunch parsley

6 whole peppercorns

8 oz fine egg noodles

1/2 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped

Bring first eight ingredients to a boil, all the while skimming the white foam from the top until broth is clear. Simmer gently for about 1 hour or until breast meat is tender and shreds easily. Pour through a fine strainer and discard the vegetables and peppercorns. Season the broth with additional salt if desired and maybe a few drops of soy sauce. Remove the meat from the wings and shred the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Add the meat and the cooked pasta to the hot broth. Serve in bowls with chopped chives sprinkled on top.