Almond Soup

For the soup of our dinner party, I took refuge in the south, the next section of the cookbook. There remain several soup recipes in the New England Section. However, nearly all of them contain shellfish. And, as mentioned before, my husband can't eat shellfish. I finagled the clams in the stuffing by dividing the stuffing in two parts, one with clams and one without. The stuffing without clams got stuffed into the fish and the stuffing with clams was passed to the non shellfish allergic. I figured it was kind of crummy to have not one, but two dishes that the poor man couldn't eat in his own house. So, almond soup.
This is a fast and easy recipe that can be completed in less than an hour. One needs a food processor or blender. The recipe gives the option of mashing the cooked chicken breast together with the almonds with a wooden spoon. As if!!! Use a food processor. It was well received at our dinner party. As far as grating the almonds go, I bought slivered almonds and ran them through the food processor with the chicken.

Almond Soup

1 large whole chicken breast
2 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 rib celery
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup blanched almonds, finely grated (see food processor)
1 cup heavy cream

1. Place the chicken breast in a skillet with the broth, bay leaf, celery , salt and pepper.
2. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer fifteen minutes. Remove chicken from the bone and mash together with the almonds with a wooden spoon or in an electric blender. Mix in two tablespoons of the cream.
3. Strain the chicken broth and add gradually while stirring to the chicken-almond mixture. Bring to a boil and add the remaining cream. Reheat but do not boil.
Makes four large servings or six smallish ones.