I know that if I served chicken soup with prunes floating in it, they’d say ** “why the Hell did you put prunes in here?”** It would either be seen as (a) something weird I “invented” like my beef stroganoff pie, or (b) a pre-existing recipe I deliberately looked up for its weirdness. Either way, sometimes there’s a fine line between a culinary challenge and a politeness challenge, and I don’t want to make either of those issues preoccupy their minds to the detriment of their tastebud’s sensations.
But I know that there’s a good reason someone once put prunes in chicken soup: it tasted good. What if I used that flavor addition, but kept it my little secret? Would it still be cock-a-leekie?
If you put too much in it would be arse-a-leakie.
Actually, I wonder if that’s true. Prunes – which I like – don’t have that effect on me.
Well, I guess I could counter that with a selection of cheeses.
Not too expensive, but still it might effect a costive living increase.
Why do you want to put prunes in chicken soup in the first place? Prune juice is the most vile thing I’ve ever been made to drink and has a very strong taste, so I’m not sure what place it has in soup. It might just be me, but IMHO the juice has a much stronger taste than prunes do themselves (prunes aren’t great, but aren’t vile either). Less is more, if you insist on putting it in the soup.
If you wanted to stick with a more savory flavor profile instead of the sweetness that prunes would add, you might want to add some Asian pickled plums (Umeboshi). It might be an interesting addition and you could call it Pacific Rim Cock a Leekie.
Interestingly, it seems a traditional cold cure in Japan is rice porridge with Umeboshi, just like Mom’s Chicken soup. Add them to Cock a leekie and you might have a Double Strong, Super Healthy, Ultra Happy soup.