Kitchen Wench's Nostalgia event: Mum's chicken soup

Enjoying Kitchen Wench's Melbourne cooking blog the other day, I noticed that she is running a Nostalgia recipe round-up: recipes that evoke memories of our youth, our past, our memories or ourselves. I feel that I just have to take part...

My recipe comes from when I was in primary school: chicken soup was my absolute favourite food in the whole world. We lived in Papua New Guinea then, and I would request chicken soup for every birthday. (Later, I graduated to steamboat, but that's another story!) Mum would often put noodles in the soup, or serve it with hot buttered toast. We would eat it in our outdoor dining room, the bugs bashing themselves against the flyscreen to get in, the crickets and frogs creating a tropical symphony, the humidity making us stick to the bench. The soup was so hot it would burn my mouth, but I remember Mum's chicken soup being the best dinner in the world, and it always tasted so delicious because I knew she had made it with love, just for me.

• Onion, roughly chopped
• Garlic cloves, peeled but whole
• Chicken pieces (bones in)
• 1 carrot, broken
• Few celery sticks, broken
• Salt
• Whole peppercorns
• Butter or vegetable oil
• Bay leaf, parsley or other herbs

Saute the chicken pieces in the fat in a huge stockpot over medium heat. When they are reasonably browned all over, pour water in to cover the chicken and fill about three quarters of the pot. Add all the other ingredients and bring it to the boil. Turn the heat right down, move it to the smallest burner and simmer uncovered for two to three hours, or until it's a rich golden colour, is reduced by about a third and is full of flavour. Strain it through a fine sieve or a cloth, and pick out all the chicken meat from the sieve. Put the meat back into the soup. If you like, you can refrigerate it overnight and then skim off the solid fat before serving. The flavour will be more developed this way, too. Otherwise, just serve in deep bowls with either some Chinese egg noodles and soy sauce, or a pile of hot buttered multigrain toast fingers. Thanks, Mum.