Sunday, August 1, 2010

Garlic soup

I learnt this dead easy garlic soup recipe when I posed the question at work: "what dish can I make with stale bread?". My friend from the Basque country suggested garlic soup, and it was by far the best sounding option. In fact, it sounded so tasty that I wanted to rush home immediately to make it. However, when I did get home I discovered that all my stale bread had been thrown away by my zealous flatmate in a kitchen clearout. It feels, therefore, like an eternity until I finally got the chance to make garlic soup (this time I hid the stale bread away in the back of the cupboard, not wanting to risk any further disappointment). The recipe down there makes about 4 portions, give or take, you know how I am with measurements


Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
5-6 cloves of garlic
Stale crusty bread - I had 4 small rolls
2 tsp paprika
1 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper


First, you make stock from the chicken thighs - I boiled them in a saucepan of water for about 2 hours. Take the chicken out and allow to cool so that you can handle it easily, without burning your fingers. Pull the meat off the bones. Discard the skin and keep the tasty bits. Tear the bread into chunks, or just cut it if it is too hard. Fry the garlic and bread chunks in a small amount of olive oil, until brown, and for the last couple of minutes, add the paprika. Finally, add the bread mixture and the chicken bits back into the broth. Flavour with salt and pepper, and squeeze in the lemon juice. The last bit was my own addition, as I felt that the soup needed something else, and the lemon cut nicely through the other flavours. You may want to use a little bit less lemon, as I like things pretty zingy