Brown Rice Soup

So today? Definitely caught the cooking bug. I snuck into the community garden and picked some chives and basil--did you know basil grows on TREES?! I didn't. Well, it might be a tree-like shrub, I'm unsure at this juncture. Also, I picked a baggie of blackberries.....Should figure out something delicious to do with them that's not "drown in sugar" or tarts. XP Sick of making tarts. Another pastry, perhaps?

But back to tonight! I was suddenly in a soup mood, so I asked my mommy what kind of soup had chives in it (member? I picked them!). She suggested wild rice and gave me some vague instructions(this all through texting). SO! I attempted to make some wild rice soup......using brown rice.....and making ingredients up. I'm glad I had a few vegetables in the fridge. I should buy some more this Saturday at the market, perhaps.

Cooking word I learned today:
Roux--Wikipedia describes it as a base for a kind of French sauce, a mix of fat and butter. Apparently, if you let the soup boil, it can "break." I assume that makes it less of a thickening agent.

I cooked up the brown rice. Interesting thing, I'm horrible at cooking brown rice, but I found these directions that said to mix 1 c. rice to 1.5 c. water, bring to a boil, then put the lid on and simmer. After 20 mins, uncover it and let it sit. It actually worked pretty well! I was worried because there seemed to still be a lot of liquid left when I got to the "turn off the heat and let it sit" part. But ta-da!

I pan-fried the chicken, cut it into bits (I do this in the pan while it's cooking. Keeps me occupied 'cause otherwise I get bored), and set it aside. I made up chicken broth from bouillon cubes and chopped things up. I'm out of butter, so I used delicious bacon grease (that is delicious) to saute some onion, carrots, garlic, and celery. Then I mixed in the flour to soak up the extra grease (the roux!). This took a lot of stirring. Then I added in the chicken broth, brought it to a simmer and kept it there as I added the rice, chicken, a dash or three of dry mustard, and my chives(!!!!). I mixed it up CAREFULLY. My frying pan was very, very full. Then let it simmer for 25 mins, then added some milk. Now it's simmering for another 20 minutes.

It had developed a kind of crust on the top and the bottom, so I stirred it up when I mixed in the milk. It tasted very much of onions and salt before and after adding the milk it tastes more creamy and less chicken-brothy. Maybe next time I'll try it without. However, it was almost too salty before the milk. Using bacon grease and having three vegetables from the onion family probably didn't help. Maybe use butter next time, or less milk. I think bacon bits in it would be amazing. I'll see how it turns out. Oh! I should make bread to go with it!