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8Soup to soothe the soulBy Addie BroylesAustinAmerican-StatesmanChicken soup won’t cureCOVID-19, but it might easeyour sniffles.After so many months ofpandemic life, we’re gettingbetter at making ourselves feelas good as we can, even withthe coronavirus knocking at thedoor. (Or maybe even comingright in the house.)January is usually a timewhen we’re brimming withexcitement for the year ahead,but with COVID-19 hitting itspredicted peaks just as we experienceour annual cedar feverseason, many of us are diggingdeep for extra comfort andnourishment.Thanks to the vaccine — andcountless “Chicken Soup for theSoul”-worthy stories of kindnessthat have come out of the past10 months — many of us arestill finding some hopefulness aswe look toward the year ahead.Maybe a few new chicken souprecipes will fuel some of thatfeel-betterness, too.For the best chicken soup,start with the whole bird andsimmer gently.———CHICKEN PARMESANSOUP WITH CRUMBLEDCROUTONSWhen you need a quick, easymeal and don’t want to dealwith a pile of dishes, this soupfits the bill perfectly. It takesless than 30 minutes to prepare,from start to finish, and it alltakes place in one pot. Dry pastais simmered right along with theother ingredients and cooks upperfectly al dente. Crumbled,store-bought croutons sprinkledon top add great flavor and textureand drive home the chickenParmesan theme. This is a wonderfulno-fuss, busy-day meal.— Valerie Brunmeier2 tablespoons olive oil1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinlesschicken breast, cut intobite-size pieces1/2 cup diced onion1/2 teaspoon salt, plus moreto tasteFreshly ground black pepper,to taste2 teaspoons minced garlic3 tablespoons tomato paste1/2 teaspoon red pepperflakes1 (14.5-ounce) can fireroasteddiced tomatoes,undrained6 cups low-sodium chickenbroth (I like Better ThanBouillon)8 ounces dry short pasta (fusilli,penne and elbow macaroniall make good choices)1/2 cup finely gratedParmesan cheese, plus more forgarnish1/4 cup chopped fresh Italianparsley1 cup shredded mozzarellacheese1 cup cheese and garlic-flavoredcroutons, lightly crushedPour the olive oil into a largepot or Dutch oven and place itover medium heat. When theoil is hot, add the chicken andonion. Season the mixture withsalt and pepper, and sauté untilthe chicken is cooked throughand the onion is tender, about5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlicand cook for an additional 1 to2 minutes, until fragrant. Addthe tomato paste and red pepperflakes and stir to combine well.Add the diced tomatoes, brothand dry pasta.Bring the mixture to a boilover medium-high heat, thenreduce the heat to low andsimmer, covered, until thepasta is al dente, about 8 to 10minutes.Remove the pot from theheat, then stir in the Parmesancheese and parsley and seasonwith additional salt and pepper.Garnish individual servingswith the mozzarella cheese,crushed croutons and a littleParmesan cheese. Serves 6.— From “The FoolproofFamily Slow Cooker andOther One-Pot Solutions” byValerie Brunmeier (Page StreetTaiwan Boy Earns Academic High Honorsat Northfield Mount HermonSheng Chun (Angus) Chang achieved Academic HighHonors has been named to the Head of School’s Listfor work completed during the fall 2020 term atNorthfield Mount Hermon. A recipient of AcademicHigh Honors has earned a GPA of 3.67 or above, withno grade less than A-.Angus, 15, a sophomore, is a member of the varsityswim and golf team at NMH. Angus, who comes fromTaiwan, is the son of Mao Sung Chang and Hsiang JuWang of Lynnfield.Northfield Mount Hermon is a coeducational boardingand day school for students ingrades 9–12 and a postgraduateyear. Founded in 1879, NMHengages the intellect, compassion,and talents of its students, empoweringthem to act with humanityand purpose. NMH currently enrolls655 students from 31 states and 53countries.WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 FEBRUARY 4, 2021Publishing, $21.99)CHICKEN SOUP WITHBOK CHOY AND GINGERWe got the idea for thislight, clean-tasting yet aromaticchicken soup from classicChinese poached chicken,sometimes referred to as “whitecooked”chicken. The additionof baby bok choy, simmeredin the broth until the stems aretender, gives the soup verdantcolor and turns it into a meal ina bowl. The bok choy, scallionsand cilantro are added at the endof cooking, so prep these ingredientswhile the chicken cooks.Fragrant steamed jasmine ricewould be a welcome accompaniment,either spooned directlyinto the bowl or offered on theside.Don’t use cooking sherryfor this recipe; it usually hasadded sodium and little, if any,actual sherry flavor. And don’tuse boneless, skinless chickenfor this soup. Bones give thebroth body as well as flavor. -Christopher Kimball1 tablespoon grapeseed orother neutral oil1 (4-inch) piece fresh ginger(about 3 ounces), peeled and cutinto 4 pieces5 medium garlic cloves,smashed and peeled1/2 cup dry sherry2 teaspoons whitepeppercornsKosher salt2 pounds bone-in, skin-onchicken thighs, skin removed1 pound baby bok choy,trimmed and cut crosswise into½-inch pieces4 scallions, thinly sliced1 cup chopped fresh cilantro2 tablespoons unseasonedrice vinegarKosher salt and ground whitepepperChile oil or toasted sesameoil, to serveOn a 6-quart Instant Pot, selectMore/High Sauté. Add theoil and heat until shimmering.Add the ginger and garlic andcook, stirring, until fragrant,about 30 seconds. Pour in thesherry and bring to a boil. Stirin 6 cups water, the peppercornsand 2 teaspoons salt. Add thechicken thighs, arranging themin an even layer.To cook in a pressure cooker:Press Cancel, lock the lid inplace and move the pressurevalve to Sealing. Select PressureCook or Manual; make sure thepressure level is set to High. Setthe cooking time for 20 minutes.When pressure cookingis complete, let the pressurereduce naturally for 15 minutes,then release the remainingsteam by moving the pressurevalve to Venting. Press Cancel,then carefully open the pot.To cook using the slowcookersetting: With the pot stillon More/High Sauté, bring themixture to a boil. Press Cancel,lock the lid in place and movethe pressure valve to Venting.Select Slow Cook and set thetemperature to Less/Low. Set thecooking time for 5 to 6 hours; thechicken is done when a skewerinserted into a piece meets noresistance. Press Cancel, thencarefully open the pot.To finish: Using a slottedspoon, transfer the chicken toa plate and set aside to coolslightly. Meanwhile, pour thebroth through a fine-meshstrainer set over a large bowl;discard the solids in the strainer.Let the broth settle for about5 minutes, then, using a largespoon, skim off and discardthe fat from the surface. Returnthe broth to the pot. Removeand discard any bones from thechicken and shred or chop themeat into bite-size pieces.Select Normal/MediumSauté and bring the broth to asimmer. Stir in the bok choyand cook, stirring occasionally,until the stems are tender, about3 minutes. Stir in the chicken,scallions, cilantro and vinegar.Taste and season with salt andground white pepper. Servedrizzled with chile oil or sesameoil. Serves 6.— From “Milk StreetFast and Slow: Instant PotCooking at the Speed YouNeed” by Christopher Kimball(Voracious, $30)CHICKEN POT PIESOUP WITH PUFF PASTRYCROUTONSRoasted chicken breasts andstock provide the foundation forthis beyond-comforting dish.It’s all the richness of savory potpie in soup form, created by thequeen herself. You may alreadyhave most of the ingredients inthis recipe — which is featuredin Ina Garten’s new pandemic-minded“Modern ComfortFood” (Clarkson Potter; $35)— though you may need topick up the sherry and fresh tarragon.Oh, and the PepperidgeFarm frozen puff pastry to makethose darling croutons.A few notes: First, wet leekswill steam, rather than sauté,Garten says. So chop the whiteand light green parts, wash themwell in a bowl of water and thenspin them dry in a salad spinner.Wondra, if you’re unfamiliarwith it, is basically an instantflour. It’s precooked, dried andso finely ground, it’s often usedto thicken sauces and graviesbecause it dissolves so easily,without clumping. You’ll findit in a bright blue can on thesupermarket flour aisle. If youdon’t have Wondra on hand,mix a similar amount of all-purposeflour with a little wateror stock, and add the resultingpaste to the broth to thicken it.And the key to using puffpastry is to keep it very colduntil it goes into the hot oven.Defrost frozen puff pastry overnightin the refrigerator, thenroll it, cut it and bake it just beforeserving.— Jessica Yadegaran, TheMercury News3 chicken breasts, skin-on,bone-in (2 1/2 to 3 pounds total)Good olive oilKosher salt and freshlyground black pepper6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsaltedbutter5 cups chopped leeks, whiteand light green parts (3 leeks)4 cups chopped fennel, topsand cores removed (2 bulbs)3 cups (1/2-inch) dicedscrubbed carrots (5 medium)1 tablespoon minced garlic (3cloves)1 tablespoon chopped freshtarragon leaves1/4 cup Wondra flour3/4 cup cream sherry, divideduse7 cups good chicken stock,preferably homemade1 (2-by-3-inch) piece ofItalian Parmesan rind10-ounce package frozenpeas1 cup frozen whole pearlonions1/4 cup minced fresh parsleyHeat your oven to 350degrees.
FEBRUARY 4, 2021WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 9When will you feel safe to travel?Five epidemiologists share hopes, fears, data, guessBY CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDSLOS ANGELES TIMESLOS ANGELES — How doyou measure the risks of pandemictravel, and when will thetime be right to go again?We asked five infectiousdisease experts, including onewho hadn’t left home in fourdays, one who has taken twoMexican vacations since Marchand one who recently awakenedfrom a COVID-19/Disneylandnightmare.The first thing we mustdo, they agreed, is stay closeto home for at least severalmore months, get vaccinated,and watch virus transmissionand ICU numbers closely.Putting down the pandemic inCalifornia and elsewhere, theysaid, will depend on how faithfullywe use masks, keep ourdistance and wash our hands— habits that will remain vitalas authorities strive to vaccinate300 million or more Americansby summer.“I will never get on an airplaneagain without a mask,”said Dr. Kimberly Shriner, aninfectious disease specialistat Huntington Hospital inPasadena.“Now is not the time to betraveling. For leisure or business,”said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, aprofessor of infectious diseasesat McGovern Medical School atUTHealth in Houston.If you fly now, said Dr.Krutika Kuppalli in Charleston,South Carolina, “you can almostguarantee that there are going tobe people on the airplane withyou who have COVID.”These experts all are waryof new variants of the virus.None is flying now. Three havespent recent months within 120miles of their home, as authoritiesurge all Californians to do.(That advisory remains in place,despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’sloosening of many restrictionson Jan. 25.) But their perspectivesvary:The numbers he watchesOstrosky, born in MexicoCity, has a lot of family there.So when his grandmother diedrecently, he thought aboutmaking the trip south. Mexicois one of the few countriesAmericans can visit without amandated quarantine.But after much talk, he stayedput in the U.S. because of thepandemic. Before he resumestravel, he said, he’ll ask severalquestions.What’s the positivity rate? “Iwould avoid traveling to anyplace that has a positivity rateover 5 percent,” he said. Abovethat, “you dramatically increaseyour chances of exposure.”California’s seven-day averagepositivity rate — the number ofCOVID-19 tests that yield positiveresults — was 12.4 percenton Jan. 27.How full and how capable arethe hospitals? Scores of U.S.hospitals are at surge capacity,with shortages of ICU beds.Because most county governmentsreport COVID-19 informationdaily, Ostrosky said,“it’s actually pretty easy” tofind data. As for capability, anyhospital with a Level 1 traumacenter (the most comprehensivetrauma care) would satisfy him,Ostrosky said. The AmericanCollege of Surgeons maintainsa database.Does this destination requiretesting to enter or leave? Manytravelers might hope for that,but “I just don’t want to getstuck somewhere,” Ostroskysaid. “People can test positivefor a long period of timewithout being infectious.”This is now a factor in anyflight to the U.S., including returninground-trip flights. Asof Jan. 26, the U.S. Centers forDisease Control and Preventionrequires all air travelers to showa recent negative COVID-19test result before they can boardany flight heading to the U.S.What haunts a doctor’sdreams?Shriner, who also is a tropicaldisease specialist and director ofthe Pasadena Travel Medicineclinic, has been vacationing inEurope for years and has spentmore than 20 years making regularvisits to a medical projectin Tanzania.But at Huntington Hospital,ever since the holidays, “we’rejust absolutely getting hammeredwith cases of people whotraveled,” she said.Outside the hospital, Shrinerhas done some driving aroundCalifornia but hasn’t flownsince March. Like her colleagues,she believes thatdriving (especially if you bringfood and avoid public toilets)is safer than flying and muchsafer than cruise ships (most ofwhich are idle now).Like Ostrosky, she wants tosee a positivity rate of 5% orless at her departure point andat her destination. For data, sherecommends the Johns HopkinsUniversity CoronavirusResource Center.Shriner likes the idea of airlinesand destinations requiringnegative test results or vaccination.Whether or not those arerequired, Shriner said, peopleshould get vaccinated, wait atleast four weeks (to allow resistanceto strengthen), and considertheir age and immunityhistory before making travelplans.In darker moments, she said,she worries that “this could justgo on for another year or twoPHOTO | LOS ANGELES TIMESHow do you measure the risks of pandemic travel, and whenwill the time be right to go again? Five experts weigh in.if people don’t widely acceptthe vaccine.” She also shareda recent nightmare: She wason the Pirates of the Caribbeanride at Disneyland (which remainsclosed) surrounded byunmasked strangers.On the brighter side, she’shopeful that travel might be safeas soon as late summer or earlyfall. “But it is all dependent onhuman behavior,” Shriner said,“and we know how unreliablethat is!”What keeps Dr. KuppallihomeKuppalli moved in Augustfrom the San Francisco BayArea to Charleston, where sheis an assistant professor in thedivision of infectious diseasesat the Medical University ofSouth Carolina. She grew up inthe Bay Area and had plannedto visit her parents there thismonth.Then the numbers surged. “Idecided not to travel,” she saidin mid-January. “I haven’t leftmy house in the last four days.”To assess risk, “you can’tlook at one particular piece ofinformation,” she said. “Youhave to look at the entire thing.... I totally get that this is hardfor everybody. But this is notthe time to travel. We all needto be thinking not just aboutourselves, but everybody.”Escaping the purple tierBefore Dr. Nancy Binkinbecame a professor at theWertheim School of PublicHealth and Human LongevityScience at UC San Diego, shelived for 12 years in Italy, doingepidemiology training for theItalian National Institute ofHealth.So when that country’s fatalitiessoared in the early weeksof the pandemic, followed byescalating U.S. numbers, “it putfear into me,” Binkin said. “Ihave not been out of San DiegoCounty since March.”One pandemic number shewatches closely is the adjustedcase rate. That count measuresthe seven-day average of dailynew cases per 100,000 people(jails and prisons excluded).Any number above seven per100,000 puts a county in thestate’s most dangerous category,the purple tier. On Jan. 27,California’s statewide rate was71.6 per 100,000. Before shetravels, Binkin wants to see thatnumber below seven.When it comes to flying, sheworries about jet cabins and tinybathrooms, but perhaps evenmore, she worries about thelines of people and gatheringpoints at airports, she said.“Would I feel comfortablegoing down to Mexico? No,”she said. “I wouldn’t.”About that second trip toMexico...Dr. W. David Hardy, formerdirector of Cedars-SinaiMedical Center’s infectious diseasesdivision and adjunct clinicalprofessor at USC’s KeckSchool of Medicine, has mixedfeelings.He’s angry about “rampantdisregard for science” and inconsistentmessaging underthe Trump administration. ButHardy sees great hope in thevaccines.When he was treating HIVpatients during the grimmestyears of the 1980s, Hardy recalled,there was no such causefor encouragement.“To have a vaccine [that prevents]90-95 percent of peoplefrom getting sick is amazing,”Snow RemovalandTree RemovalandDog WasteRemovalHardy said. He suggests that thevaccines are “going to be thefinal answer,” especially if thevaccines thwart transmissionof the virus as well as blocksymptoms.Yet “the metrics for measuringtransmission are ever changeable,and it may be difficultplanning travel based on those,”he said. “They are going to befluctuating for a while. I wouldsay from six months to a year.”Since March, Hardy said, hehas scrubbed trips to Europe,North Africa and Hawaii. Butin September, after California’sfirst surge had passed, Hardyand his partner flew to LosCabos, in Baja California,Mexico, for a vacation. It wentwell. So in December Hardyand his partner flew again, thistime to Cancún and Playa delCarmen on Mexico’s east coast,where they found “the localpeople there were using masksreligiously.”The other visitors? Not somuch.“I would say 50-60 percent ofthe tourists were completely ignoringthe mask requirements.”Most of them wereAmericans, Hardy said, and hebegan asking people to put ontheir masks — or if they had nomask, “to step away from whereI was standing.”“The whole experience was“confusing and disconcerting,”he said. “When I got home frommy second trip to Mexico, Iturned to my partner and said,‘This is not a good time totravel.’ … People are not adheringto what they should beadhering to.”In some respects, Hardy said,that behavior reminds him ofthe 1980s when HIV was new.Then as now, he said, “until oneof your friends, family or workassociates dies of this disease,you still look at it as a sort ofdistant thing that doesn’t affectyou.”Low RatesCall • 781-718-2364$1.98Senior Citizens’ PricePAYLESS OILAll Cities and TownsNo Minimum. Senior & Veteran Discounts.877-688-7667Price subject to change
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