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'Janey' soup

This is something made by my mother-in-law and by no one else that I know of except those to whom she taught the recipe (me and my sister-in-law). It’s ambrosia and nectar combined, and a bit more time-consuming in preparation than ordinary chicken soup.

Ready

  • 1 chicken (whole or in pieces)
  • butter beans
  • dried haricot beans
  • barley
  • Hoobergritz
  • 1 onion
  • 1 stick of celery
  • 5 carrots
  • salt and pepper

Set

  • Large saucepan or pressure cooker

Go

  1. Boil chicken pieces as if you were making clear chicken soup.
  2. When you have skimmed whatever rubbish there is off the top of the liquid, add butter beans, dried haricot beans, barley and — wait for it — Hoobergritz.
  3. Amounts of these pulses dictate how thick the soup is. I use a tablespoonful of butter beans, the same for the haricot beans, one and a half tablespoons of barley and about one tablespoon of the coarse oats. You can adjust the quantities to suit your taste.
  4. Put into the pan one onion, a diced stick of celery and four or five grated carrots. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for as long as it takes.
  5. In a pressure cooker, about 40 minutes (low pressure), in a normal pan, a couple of hours.
  6. With the chicken pieces, you have a complete nutritious dinner.
Re: 'Janey' soup

I have to say that this is a fantastic recipe. I followed it to the letter (save for the hoobergritz, not even a facsimile of which I could find) and it turned out beautifully.

A couple of things worth mentioning. I was extremely diligent in removing the scum. I wanted the soup to be as clear as possible. Once I felt like the last of it had gone, I turned the heat down and never once let the soup come to a rolling boil. This is a trick I learned from the Chinese, who are obsessive with this technique in an effort to keep the soup from clouding.

I removed the chicken and laboriously stripped it of its meat, which I returned to the soup, shredded.

You are right… this is a wonderful, nutrituous dinner… a meal in itself. And marvellously healing.

Re: 'Janey' soup