BOLD Recipe of the Week: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Image Courtesy of localfoods.about.com

Nothing makes you feel more warm and fuzzy on a cold winter day than a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup. But you don’t need to run out to grocery store and pick up that signature red and white Campbell’s can to enjoy this family favorite. You can make it right in your very own kitchen using fresh, locally-grown organic ingredients. Check out the recipe below, reprinted from localfoods.about.com, for chicken noodle soup prepared the BOLD way!

Ingredients:

·         8 cups chicken broth, divided

·         2 stalks celery, thinly sliced

·         1 leek, white and light green parts thinly sliced (NOTE: Clean leek thoroughly to avoid gritty soup)

·         1 carrot, diced

·         2 cups shredded chicken meat

·         8 ounces egg noodles

·         Salt to taste

Directions:

1.       In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, warm ¼ cup chicken broth. Add celery, leeks, and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add remaining broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, undisturbed, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

2.       Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook noodles until tender to the bite. Drain and set aside.

3.       Add chicken to soup and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Add cooked noodles and cook until head through, about 1 minute. Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

According to the web site, this recipe will make six ample servings of homemade chicken noodle soup. You can find celery, leeks, and carrots at any winter farmers’ market in the area. In addition, you can purchase organic chicken to use in this dish from Ferguson Family Farm, a farm located in Baltimore County that sells organic meat products to local residents and was recently spotlighted on this blog.

Do you have any BOLD recipes you would like to share with us? Just drop us a note in the “Comments” field and let us know your thoughts. You might even see your recipe featured on the blog! Also, please be sure to check out more winter recipes on localfoods.about.com, which features recipes for many winter-themed soups, entrees, desserts, and snacks that use locally-grown, organic foods as part of their ingredients.

BOLD Recipe of the Week: Chef Jamie Oliver's Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top

Image Courtesy of the Food Network

Preparing a meal using locally-grown, organic ingredients is not as tough as it may seem. To prove this, we at Be BOLD Baltimore! will be canvasing the Internet each week in search of the best recipes that feature locally-grown, organic ingredients and are also quick and easy to prepare. The recipe selected as the "BOLD Recipe of the Week" will be featured on this blog.

This week's "BOLD Recipe of the Week" is Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top and comes from Chef Jamie Oliver of the Food Network. The recipe was originally published in Chef Oliver's book Jamie at Home. It is reprinted below, as well as on the Food Network web site.

Ingredients:

• Muffins
• 14 ounces butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 2-1/4 cups light soft brown sugar
• 4 large free-range or organic eggs
• Sea salt
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
• 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
• Handful of walnuts, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Frosted Cream Topping
• 1 clementine, zested
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 heaping tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
• Lavender flowers or rose petals, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with paper cups.
2. Whiz the squash in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and whiz together until well beaten. you may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides with a rubber spatula. Try not to overdo it with the mixing -- you want to just combine everything and no more.
3. Fill the paper cups with the muffin mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Check to see whether they are cooked properly by sticking a wooden skewer or a knife right into one of the muffins -- if it comes out clean, they're done. If it's a bit sticky, pop them back into the oven for a little longer. Remove from the oven and leave the muffins to cool on a wire rack.
4. As soon as the muffins are in the oven, make your runny frosted topping. Place most of the clementine zest, all of the lemon zest and the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds and mix well. Taste and have a think about it -- adjust the amount of lemon juice or icing sugar to balance the sweet and sour. Put into the fridge until your muffins have cooled.down, then spoon the topping onto the muffins.
5. Serve on a lovely plate (on a cake stand if you're feeling elegant, or on a rustic slab if you're more of a hunter-gatherer type!), with the rest of the clementine zest sprinkled over. For an interesting flavor and look, a few dried lavender flowers or rose petals are fantastic. 

So, there you have it, our first "BOLD Recipe of the Week!" Many of the ingredients listed above, including the squash, eggs, and walnuts, can be purchased in-season at your local farmers' market. For those ingredients that cannot be purchased at the farmers' market, your local grocery store should carry an organic version.

Do you have any BOLD recipes you would like to share with us? Just drop us a note in the "Comments" field and let us know your thoughts. You might even see your recipe featured on the blog! Also, please be sure to check out the Food Network web site for many more delicious recipes, many of which can be prepared using locally-grown, organic versions of the ingredients listed.