Back when I was a child in Bruce County, my high school philosophy teacher kept a poster on his wall reminding his young students that the universe was and always would be “extravagantly unperturbed by their discomfort.”
Never do these words ring truer to me than while I wait for a bus that never comes in the bleak chill of an Ottawa evening. You know that kind of cold, the kind that makes nostrils freeze and suck up into your face whenever you try to breathe. It’s a bad time. It can be hard to feed yourself right when you’re barely thawed out enough to study for your midterms.
But we can do better, Students of Carleton! We need not eat instant noodles and dump shots of whiskey into our Tim Hortons coffee. To paraphrase existentialist philosopher Albert Camus, in the depth of winter you can find within you an invincible Irish coffee and some excellent soup. Just follow these recipes.
The chicken soup is a traditional recipe and can be easily modified how you like it, and this recipe for Irish Coffee comes from the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog, a New York City bar which takes its name from a 19th century street gang.
Carol Fortin’s Chicken Noodle Soup of Love
Ingredients
chicken broth — 900 mL
chopped carrots — 1 cup
chopped celery — 1 cup
chopped green onions — ½ cup
2 large chicken breasts
vegtable oil — 2 tablespoons
Bechtle soup noodles or noodles of your choice — 2 cups
BBQ chicken spice or chicken seasoning of your choice
Chicken prep:
1) Chop the chicken up into bite sized pieces
2) Pour the vegtable oil and chicken in the frying pan and turn the burner up to medium heat. Season chicken as desired.
3) Fry for 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.
Soup prep:
Tip: It might seem like a lot of noodles and such but use it all. Many a chicken noodle soup has failed because it’s simply too sparse and watery to be nourishing.
1) Put broth, carrots, and celery in pot at medium high for 1 hour. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2) Add chicken once cooked.
3) 10 minutes before serving, add noodles and onions.
Dead Rabbit Irish coffee
1.5 oz Whiskey
1.5 oz Demara syrup (.75 Demara Sugar, .75 water)
4 oz coffee
½ cup heavy cream, whipped
a pinch of nutmeg
Demara Syrup prep
Tip: A true Dead Rabbit Irish coffee would use Clontarf Irish Whiskey.
1) Go out to your local bulk barn and get yourself a little bag of Demara sugar.
2) Put approximately .75 oz of Demara sugar in a small frying pan with .75 oz of water.
3) Turn the burner up to medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves into the water.
Make the syrup while the coffee is brewing. Pour the cream into a small bowl and mix vigorously or use an electric mixer until it is whipped.
Pour the Demara syrup and hot coffee into a mug and stir. Use a spoon to place as much cream as desired on top of the drink. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Tip: if you are the sort of person who doesn’t like mixing caffeine and alcohol, just use decaf!
