A ONCE-OFF CHICKEN SOUP (CHESTNUT STUFFING PART 3)

A humble and rustic chicken soup. There by the grace of a few chestnuts we stumbled upon.                                   Mans

“They (soups) tend to be an omnium gatherum of what’s to hand and you must be in a pretty bad way if you have not the materials for some kind of soup”

                                                                                    Martin Versfeld – 'Food for thought'

The chestnut stuffing might be long gone, but the stripped skeletal vessel that once flavored and contained it is still parking off in my fridge. It’s ready for its ‘swan song’ or should I say its ‘chicken song’. Together with the saved appendage bones, it'll flavor todays lunch.

Isn't that pretty?                                                                                      Mans

Never throw your Parmigiano rinds away. They're perfect for soups.  Mans

I’m talking about soup, a humble and rustic soup. A soup that’ll take care of those neglected leftovers in the fridge. The type of soup that a peasant family might gather around. One that’ll leave you feeling virtuous, when all that's left is a bowl of sucked and chewed bone debris: a clear conscience that nothing has gone to waste and a satisfied belly.

'That'll do.'                                                               Mans

I’m not going to give you a recipe, because there is no recipe. Soups like these should be informal, and anyway I can’t really remember what went into this one. All I know is that if you've got bones, onion, carrots, celery and a few herbs, you are well on the way.

“When I say that the soup-pot is a good place for scraps and left-overs, I do not mean to equate it with the dirt-bin. A soup requires some sense of composition. A cook is fairly judged by his soup.”

                                                                                       Martin Versfeld – 'Food for thought'