Top Blog Recipes

13 Apr 2014

PALEO BOWL OF SOUL RESTORING GOODNESS

This is one of my top ten favourites a bowl of abundance full of honest goodness, hot, sour and sumptuous to boot!  This is a soul restoring meal, which leaves you with a glowing sense of well being.  Your body knows you love it when you eat this chicken broth. I have this for breakfast, lunch or dinner there is no rules to this dish, as it depends on which continent you are in if its breakfast or a dinner meal.  This chicken broth has clinically been proven to be 25% as effective as penicillin.


INGREDIENTS
(serves 4 with lots of left over poached chicken for other meals)

THE STOCK 
1 organic chicken
2 carrots peeled and halved
1 leek halved
2 sticks celery halved
10 black peppercorns
pinch of sea salt
1 habanero chilli (optional)

THE TOM YUM STYLE BROTH
4 tsp tom yum paste
2 tsp tamarind paste
3 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp Harrissa
3" ginger grated
2 cloves garlic grated
1 tsp honey (optional)
1 lime juiced
1 stalk lemongrass bashed
1 bunch asparagus
100g watercress
100g spinach
1 pepper diced
1 chili sliced
200g raw cold water prawns
1 small bunch coriander roughly torn

This is a two stage cook, you can cook the chicken days in advance and enjoy the poached meat for other meals before making this tom yum style broth.  I am always poaching a chicken at some point in the week so this dish came about from the leftover poached chicken stock, in fact this is such an old historic dish in South East Asia it is as normal  to this as our fish and chips to us!  I know what I would rather eat!  

In a large saucepan or pressure cooker place your chicken, carrots, leeks, celery, habanero, peppercorns and salt, fill the pan up as much as you can with water and bring to a gentle simmer, you don't want to rush this stock, so a just rolling simmer is perfect, you can cook this quicker on a higher heat, but it will not give you clarity in the stock.  Cook for approx 2hrs and then take off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in the stock, this is important as the chicken will re-absorb some of it's own stock, making the meat extra soft and juicy, once cooled remove the chicken and strain and reserve the stock, taste for seasoning and add some salt and pepper if needed, sometimes I do add some organic chicken stock to give a meatier flavour if I have used too much water.

Now the chicken has cooled, pick off all the meat, I like to tub up the meat, the legs go for my husband, the breast and other meat for this and other meals and any jelly style bits go in a loaf tin with the fat and skin that I set in the fridge for the dogs.  In all one chicken feeds my family for a three meals each and my two dogs a Great Dane and Cocker Spaniel for two days, (see piri piri chicken blog).

Now for the fun quick easy part, place your stock (3 ladles per portion, this recipe is for 12 ladles of stock, 4 people), in a deep sauce pan and add the tom yum, tamarind, turmeric, fish sauce, harrisa, ginger, garlic, lime juice, bashed stick of lemongrass and optional honey, I don't add this but if you wanted more of a sweet and sour tang do. 

Bring to a gently simmer, add the chopped asparagus and two minutes later the fresh prawns, don't boil, simmer, cook for 3 minutes, now this is super fast bit, so meanwhile in this three minute window get everything ready to go, I place my bowls on the work top and layer them with some of the cold cooked chicken, the watercress, spinach, peppers and sliced chilies, then when ready to serve just ladle over the stock with the prawns, asparagus and gorgeous tom yum style aromatic harissa broth, finish off with a sprinkle off coriander.  This is the best ever outstanding gorgeous meal :-)

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