Chicken stew with parsley dumplings

The weather in Calgary is cloudy again today, and cold. At this late date in April, I think we may just as well skip spring altogether and head from winter right into summer. The only good thing about the unseasonably cool temperatures, as far as I’m concerned, is that I can continue to cook comfort food. Admittedly, I’m beginning to tire of meals centred around onions and root vegetables but since it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing too many local veggies in markets any time soon, I’ll have to content myself with soups and stews until our salad days arrive once again.

One of my favourite in-between season comfort foods is chicken stew with dumplings. It’s not quite as heavy as beef stew but still hearty enough to fight off the chills a cold, wet spring evening can bring. The aroma of chicken and dumplings bubbling gently on the stove takes me right back to my grandmother’s kitchen. (My grandma just turned 95, by the way, and she's a super senior still cooking chicken stew and going stong! I like to think it's all about the comfort food she eats!)

Dumplings are also one of those throw-back-to-another-era-supposedly-bad-for-you treats you don’t make every day. (but please see reference to grandma, above, for proof they can't be all that bad for you!). After such a long winter here in western Canada, we deserve a bit of pampering, especially at mealtime. So, bring on the Dutch oven, I say, and make the best of the lingering low temperatures.

Chicken Stew with Parsley Dumplings

For the stew:
3-4 chicken breasts
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 celery stalks, sliced thickly
2 carrots, roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
2-3 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
½ tsp each salt and pepper
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup frozen peas
3 Tbsp flour
¼ - ½ cup heavy cream

For the dumplings:
Cheat and use Bisquick mix. Follow the directions on the package for preparing the dumpling mixture and add 2 Tbsp of chopped fresh parsley at the end of the process.

Preparation:

Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks. In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat, cook celery, carrots, onion and garlic until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent garlic from burning. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper to the Dutch oven. Add ½ cup of water (you’ll have to eyeball this). Bring to a boil. Add chicken, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add potatoes, re-cover and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes. Mix flour with 1/3 cup water and whisk into stew. Add cream (optional). Leave the stew on simmer.

Prepare the dumpling mixture and then, using a large spoon, drop the dumpling batter by spoonfuls into the simmering stew (you should get 5 -6 dumplings). Cover the stew and cook according to Bisquick directions, or until dumplings are plump. Resist the urge to keep lifting the lid of the Dutch oven at least for the first 10 minutes the dumplings are cooking! Serve immediately, and remember to discard the bay leaves.

Quick Faux Pho

My friend Gayle is an industrious blogger who astonishes me with her ability to produce thoughtful, well-written posts – often with amazing photos – on a regular basis. Check out her blog and you won’t be disappointed.

While Gayle’s blog looks plump and well-nourished, this blog, in comparison, is starving. Sometimes, my inability to nourish it amazes me. I was feeding it well last year while self-employed but now that I’ve gone back to work full time, gastronomicalmeesh.blogspot.com is suffering pitifully from neglect. I feel so guilty. It’s a bit like having an electronic goat tied up out back that requires constant grazing. I'm just waiting for the e-police to fine me for cruelty to a web-based communications tool, and foster my blog out to some kind, food-loving computer geeks!

If brought before a blog judge, I’ll have no excuses. Just sheer laziness. And lately, I’ve been guilty of that in the kitchen, too. Last weekend, I was craving a big bowl of steaming noodle soup to chase away the chill of a late winter’s day but was too lazy to really put the necessary effort into digging out all my exotic Asian ingredients. Instead, I decided to whip up a quick dish of what I like to call Quick Faux Pho. It’s the sluggish cook’s take on a classic Vietnamese soup. There’s nothing quite like a big, hearty bowl of Pho to warm you from the inside out. This recipe, adapted from Chatelaine magazine, takes almost no time to make. It’s a great way to use up leftovers and odds and ends in the fridge, and sounds a lot like quid pro quo when you say it fast. I don’t know why this makes me giggle – but it does. I’m hoping my energy to blog returns soon. Until then, I’ll share this recipe with other neglectful cooks and bloggers.

Quick Faux Pho for One

1 ½ cups of chicken or vegetable broth
½ cinnamon stick
½ tsp grated ginger
1 small star anise
¼ tsp sugar
¼ tsp hot chili sauce
1 clove minced garlic
½ cup chopped cooked chicken or ½ cup cubed firm tofu
1 cup sliced mushrooms (shiitake are best but cremini work, too) sliced.
Thin rice vermicelli noodles (in a pinch, spaghetti will work, too)
1 green onion, sliced on the diagonal
Handful of fresh mint or basil, roughly chopped
Juice from ½ a lime
Bean sprouts (optional)

In a large saucepan, bring broth, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, sugar, chili sauce and garlic to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 5-7 minutes. Remove and discard cinnamon and anise.

While broth is simmering, add some vegetable oil to a frying pan. Add mushrooms (and tofu if using) and cook, stirring often, until tofu is golden at the edges, about 5 minutes. Add broth, and chicken if using. Bring to a boil. Stir in noodles and boil gently until noodles are tender. Stir in onions and mint. Serve immediately topped with bean sprouts. Squeeze lime over top.

This cheese stands alone

The remote and picturesque hamlets along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, east of Quebec City, are steeped in the lore of early Canada but no story captures the imagination quite like the tale of Hercules of Charlevoix. Legend has it that Jean-Baptiste Grenon was so strong, he resisted being hanged by General Wolfe’s troops through sheer brute force. In frustration, they finally gave up and let him go, earning him a place in the history books and the nickname Hercules.

Grenon’s feat of daring and strength continues to be celebrated in a regional cheese named after him. Produced by the Labbé family in the quaint village of Baie-St-Paul using milk from a small herd of 30 Jersey cows, Hercule de Charlevoix is not strong in taste. Aged for 18 months, it has a mild, creamy but complex flavour, with hints of nut and lemon, and a silky texture. It is like a European mountain cheese in style and could easily hold its own to a Gruyère or Comté. This cheese stands up well to ham in a sandwich and matches well against mustard on crusty bread. It would pair nicely with pears and honey, too but to really evoke the spirit of Jean-Baptiste, I recommend eating this unique Canadian cheese alone.