It’s the Glasgow Fair! As a kid, growing up in the East Coast, I remember only too well the hoards of holiday makers from the West who descended on our small fishing town of Port Seton during the Glasgow Fair.
Come rain or shine, the beaches were packed from morning till night and our cafes and chip shops did a roaring trade. We started at 7 in the morning and didn’t lock up until 12 at night once the pubs had emptied and the revellers had staggered home with a poke of chips…’salt and sauce!’ Those were the days!
When the weather broke and the summer storms blew in, my mother, Gertrude Di Ciacca, made huge pots of soup to serve with a roll and butter to keep them warm. All home made, tasty and nutritious.
This was my favourite, very delicious and much classier than opening a tin!
CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP
Ingredients:
500 ml Chicken Stock made with 1 breast or 4 thighs/ legs free range chicken, 2 sticks celery, stalks of parsley
500 ml full fat milk
1 fresh bay leaf
1 shallot
30g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
Sea salt and ground white pepper
2 tablespoons thick cream
Flat leaf parsley finely chopped
Method:
First, make the chicken stock by simmering the chicken in 500ml water with the celery and parsley stalks for an hour or so.
Season with sea salt and set aside.
To make the soup:
Place the milk, bay leaf and shallot in a saucepan, bring to a slow simmer.
Take off the heat and set aside to let the flavours infuse.
Make a classic bechamel sauce.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour.
Stir on a low heat with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball.
Cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes to cook the flour, turning it with the spoon and taking care not to let it burn.
Now strain half of the infused milk into the saucepan and stir the mixture until you get a smooth white sauce. Don’t worry if there are lumps at the start. These will disappear as the mix heats up.
Once the mix is smooth add the rest of the strained milk.
Bring back to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.
Season.
Now, strain the cooled chicken stock into the mixture and heat everything again to simmering, stirring to make the soup.
You can do all this in a blender.
Check seasoning and serve with pieces of the cooked chicken, a swirl of cream and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here