Sweet Potato Soup with Homemade Herb Butter Toasts

With the lowest temperature around 4c to 7c this week, it would be nice to snuggle in and enjoying a warm bowl of soup. This soup is similar to pumpkin soup. I had it in a French restaurant where the owner came from the Bresse region. The whole place is decorated with chicken that Bresse is famous for.  I like the flavour of the sweet potato with the addition of cream served with herb butter toasts. This could be a light meal for my vegetarian day or a nice entree to serve before the main meal.

Sweet Potato Soup with Homemade Herb Butter Toasts

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

4 medium washed potatoes

1/4 of a small onion

2 cups water

1/4 cup light cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Italian parsley to sprinkle

For the herb butter

250g butter, softened

4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Method:

Mix the butter with the parsley till combined. Lay a piece of glad wrap onto the kitchen bench and add the butter mixture on top. Roll the butter mixture into a sausage shape and tighten the ends. Fridge until harden and slice into discs. Left over can be frozen until ready to be used.

Peel the potatoes and cut into chucks. Boil the potatoes and onion with 2 cups water until cooked. Leave cool a little.

Reserve half of the water. Blend the soup till smooth and return to the pan. Add the reserve  water bit by bit and add the cream to the soup until it has a smooth consistency. Seasoned with 

        salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with herb butter toasts.

 Cut 1/2 of the french stick into 3 cm thick, Place 1/2 of the butter disc on each bread. Place them

        into a hot grill until golden. (It shouldn't take too long to grill, so don't leave your grill)

Enjoy!

Hokkien Prawn Noodle Soup with Homemade Egg Noodles

I always love noodle soup especially in winter and I would drink all the soup from the bowl. I love noodle soup from different Asian countries. As I grow up in Hong Kong, prawn wonton noodles soup is my most favourite soup. Then it would be Japanese ramen, Vietnamese pho, Thai Tom Yum seafood noodles soup.... After marrying my Malaysian husband, I discover more delicious noodles soup such as laksa, curry noodles, Ipoh chicken noodles soup to name a few and this Hokkien prawn noodles soup.

My mother-in-law gave me some of the Hokkine noodle paste from her last visit and I make it with some homemade noodles. It's a bit messy to make noodles but it's fun and rewarding. This noodles always goes well with Japanese Tonkasu ramen recipe.

Stay warm and happy cooking!

Hokkien Prawn Noodle Soup with Homemade Egg Noodles
(serve 2)

Ingredients:

For the soup:
1/2 pack 250g LN Little Nyonya Hokkien prawn noodle paste
6 cups water or chicken stock
1 chicken fillet cut into pieces
6 prawns, shelled
salt and pepper to taste

For the noodles:
1 1/2 cups bread flour or oo flour
3 egg yolks
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon oil

To serve:
1 cup cooked rice vermicelli noodles
1 Boiled egg, boiled for 3 minutes
bean sprouts
Kung Kong (a type of Chinese veg that has a straw looking stem) or Chinese Chives

Method:

1. Mix the flour and salt into a bowl, make a well in middle and add the eggs and yolk and oil. Knead till smooth, add a little water if it is still too dry. Fridge 10-15 minutes.
2. Set up the pasta machine at the widest setting at 2nd setting. Divide the dough into half. Roll the dough over into thin pastry. Dust with flour to prevent sticking. Repeat with the other dough.
3. Use an angel hair cutter to cut the pastry into noodles. toss in more flour.
4. Boil noodles to al dente and refresh into cold water and drain well. 
5. Place the egg noodles and rice vermicelli noodles into 2 large noodle bowls.
6. Add water to a saucepan and 1/2 packet of the noodle paste and let it boil. Add the chicken pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook the prawns, bean sprouts and kung kong in the soup and use a ladle to put them onto the noodles. Pour hot soup over and garnish with half a boiled egg for each bowl. Enjoy!

Note: There is enough left over noodles to make 2 more serves or you can use it for stir fry noodles for another meal.

Leek and Potato Soup with Prosciutto

It must be crazy to dream of soup when it is 37c in the last month of spring.

I made this soup a few months ago when the weather was a lot cooler. My daughter and I both sharing the love of smoothies, juicing and soup. I got inspired by her after her trip back from France where she first tried prosciutto at her France family. She told me the "raw meat" was very nice so we went to the supermarket and got some "raw meat" under her description. Apparently you don't need to cook prosciutto but I prefer my meat cooked so I lightly pan-fried it to have a bit of a crisp.

Enjoy!

Leek and Potato Soup with Prosciutto
(serve 4)

Ingredients:

4 Carisma Low GI potatoes from Coles, about 700g
1 leek, white part only
water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup evaporated milk or cream
1/2 teaspoon vegetable stock powder
2 thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into pieces
Salt & pepper
Method:

1. Peel and cut potatoes into chucks. Cover the saucepan with enough water and boil the potatoes till cooked.  Leave cool a little.
2. Finely cut the leek into small pieces.  Heat a little oil in a frypan and saute the leek till soft.
3. Reserve some of the water from the potatoes. Blend the potatoes with water and leek into a blender till smooth.  I did that in 2 batches.
4. Return the soup into the pan, heat gently and add the milk, evaporated milk, stock powder. Add the reserved water bit by bit until you get a nice smooth consistency. Seasoned with salt and pepper.
5. Topped the soup with panfried prosciutto or serve with croutons.

Roasted Capsicum and Pumpkin Soup

After having a warm autumn, winter finally comes. I learnt about this soup from my son's friend, his mother was a very good cook and I enjoyed this soup a lot. The aroma of the garlic and the sweetness of the roasted capsicum enhance the flavour of this soup, making it a perfect winter warmer.  Pumpkin soup is one of the most versatile kind of soup, I have done a Thai style pumpkin soup before and now I've added this soup to my favourite soup list.

Pumpkin soup also has a very special meaning to me. During my course of chemo, my neighbour cooked me a big pot of pumpkin soup as a nice gesture of helping. From her Italian background, she put parsley into her soup and I would never forget how tasty her soup was.

I really think pumpkin can bring magic!


Roasted Capsicum and Pumpkin Soup
(serve 4)

800g pumpkin
2 medium potatoes
1/2 small onion
1 red capsicum
1 garlic gloves, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
water

Method:

1. Peel potatoes, chop pumpkin and onion into chucks.  Place enough water to cover the vegetable in a saucepan and cook until vegetable are cooked. Leave to cool.
2. Meanwhile, cut capsicum into half.  With the cut size facing down, sprinkle oil and garlic.  Bake in a moderate oven until the skin are wrinkled, about 20 minutes. If the garlic burns, spoon it under the capsicum. 
3. Place the capsicum into a zip bag and let cool.  When it is cooled, peel off the skin from the capsicum and chop into chuck.
4. Pour the vegetable into a blender, reserve the water.  Blend all ingredients until smooth.
5. Return the puree into a saucepan and heat up the soup.  Add enough reserved water till you have a nice consistency.  Seasoned with salt and pepper.

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup

There is no other time I would eat pumpkin so often except in winter!  I bake it with vegetable in roast, putting it as topping for pizza or as a filling for tart...and my favourite is pumpkin soup!  There are many recipes for different pumpkin soup putting in bacon, curry or turmeric powder, adding sweet potato etc.  And this Thai Style is my new favourite.  I had this recipe last year from a magazine and finally got the chance to make it.  The coconut milk makes such a difference and I love the spice from the curry paste.  The original recipe require blending pesto with coriander roots, lemon zest and juice but I have omitted this process by adding coriander powder instead.  That's the way to do it when you don't want to get out to the garden on a cold night to pick up the coriander root!

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup
(serve 2-4)

1 cereal bowl of cut pumpkin
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp Thai red curry paste (put less if you don't want it too spicy)
1 cup water
1/2 cup lite coconut milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
coriander to garnish

Method:

1. Heat a little oil in the saucepan, saute onion and stir for a minute.  Add ginger, coriander powder and curry paste, stir through.  
2. Add in pumpkin and water, reduce heat and let it simmer till pumpkin is cooked.  Cool slightly.
3. Blend the pumpkin mixture till smooth in a blender.  Return to pan and add coconut milk and lemon juice then warm through.  Seasoned with salt and garnish with coriander leaves.  

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Winter finally arrived! My kids love tin soup as it is very convenience to heat up some soup for a quick meal.  It is actually not that hard to make homemade soup such as pumpkin soup and pea and ham soup as you can make a big pot and freeze the leftover for later for those who have a busy life.  Broccoli is my kids favourite vegetable and it has lots of nutrient from the little trees.  This soup is great for all ages from toddlers to growing kids and elder people.  And if you brought too much broccoli and the florets starts to turn yellow, this is best ideas to use up the vegetable into soup!  I also learned from a Low GI cookbook that baby potatoes are low GI and I have been using baby washed baby potatoes for my cooking ever since.

Cream of Broccoli Soup
(serve 2-4)

1 small broccoli
3-4 small washed baby potatoes
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon of grated cheese
1 tablespoon evaporated milk
1/2 cup or more milk
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Peel potatoes and cut into small pieces.  Cover with 1 cup water with a little salt and boil until potatoes are cooked.
2. Cut the florets from the broccoli, put the broccoli and onion with the potatoes when the potatoes started to soften and cook till both vegetable are well cooked.  Reserve 1/2 of the water and blend the vegetable into the blender till thick and smooth.
3. Return the vegetable mixture into the pan, add the onion, 1/2 cup milk and the remaining reserved water to thinning the soup.  Add a bit more of milk and water if needed.
4. Let the soup simmer for a few minutes, add the cheese and evaporated milk to enhance the flavour and seasoned with salt and pepper. Garnish with chives if you wish.

Kimchi Soup

I got all the ingredients to make Kimchi after visiting the Chinatown over the Easter holiday.  When I went to uni, I used to live with some Japanese and Korean students.  There was no blogging on those days so the best way to know the other culture was to live with the foreign people.  Once a month, we would gather together to make Kimchi and then we would share the food to take home.  One day we would be having Japanese, then Korean and Chinese on the other day.  Although the food we were having was very simple and inexpensive dishes, we enjoy them a lot.

The weather is getting cool and I feel like having some spicy soup so I end up using the Kimchi to make soup.  It has brought back a few of the old memories....

Kimchi Soup
(serve 2-4)

3 cups water
Kimchi (store brought or homemade)
tofu, diced
1 sachet of stock paste

Method:
Add water to the pan and let it boils, cut up the Kimchi a little and put into the water.  Turn down the heat and add in the tofu and stock paste.  Let it simmer for a few minute and to develop the taste.  Season with salt and serve hot.

Corn Chowder, Sun-dried Tomato & Cashews Dip

After having a few hot days, the weather has cooled down and my daughter asks me to make her some soup.  It is only about 20 celsius with a bit of rain and wind but she puts on her tracksuit and keep complaining how COLD it is!  After all these Christmas party food, we need something light like this to help cleansing our system. 

When I went to one of the Christmas party, one of the mum brought in some homemade dip. She had been very generous telling me what she put in.  So I went home and tried to be a copy cat.  She said the dip could also be a salad dressing by adding some lemon juice to it.

The post man knocks on our door and I receive two Christmas parcels the other day, not to mention the greeting cards I have received.  I have to get myself writing some Christmas cards, getting the shopping done, etc. as Christmas is not far away.  I have got a whole turkey and a leg of ham for our Christmas lunch.  I haven't cooked anything that BIG before, and they both need the oven.  I may have to get up early to get these done so they'll be ready on time.  Let's hope there is no kitchen disaster on Christmas Day as there is no take-away open!

Corn Chowder
(serve 4)

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
3 small new potatoes, peeled and chopped
kernels from 2 ears of sweet corn
peas (optional)
4 cups water
1 cup low-fat milk
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Pan fried onion with a little of oil in the saucepan.  Add the potatoes and carrot and continue to fry for a minute.  Add the water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the kernels and milk to the saucepan and continue to simmer until potatoes are cooked.  Transfer the soup to the food processor or blender and process until smooth. 
3. Return the soup to the saucepan, add some peas, season with salt and pepper.  If it's not thick and smooth enough, you can thicken it with a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a tablespoon of water.

Sun-dried Tomato & Cashews Dip


1/2 cup salted cashews
1/2 capsicum, roughly chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
lemon juice
salt to taste
olive oil

Blend the cashews with capsicum, tomatoes and olive oil (I use the oil from the bottle of the tomatoes) until smooth, add in some lemon juice and salt.  Serve with crackers.

Thanks for visiting and supporting my blog. 

Wishing you a 


Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!

Steam Boat

Having steam boat in winter is the best thing to keep you warm and entertain with family and friends.  You need a portable gas stove, a pot with your choice of soup base, different kinds of seafood, fish balls, meat, tofu, vegetables and noodles.  Then every thing is cooked at the table, nice and hot straight from the pot to your mouth with every one crowding at the table, standing or sitting.  In Hong Kong, there are restaurants specially cater for steam boat.  When I was a kid, we only had this in winter.  Nowadays people are having it all year round with the air conditioning on during summer.  You can see how much Chinese love steam boat.

My kids love this as they can cook whatever they want for themselves.  I have used two soup bases, laksa and miso this time to suit my family's taste.  For me, it's the best food to have in winter.  What's your winter favourite?

Chicken, Leek and Pearl Barley Soup

As the seafood chowder is my daughter's new favourite, this chicken and pearl barley soup is my son's new favourite.  I like to throw in pearl barley when I make veggie soup, my son tells me that he likes pearl barley in the soup.  Well, I am surprised as he does not tell me he likes chocolate or chips! (maybe he doesn't like chocolate and chips but he LOVEs them)  So I make up this soup with the hope to use leek and pearl barley to create a new family favourite and I'm pleased that I have done that.  This recipe can easily change to a vegetarian soup by omitting the chicken and add in some celery or zucchini.  It's hearty and rich in fibre.  

My post of Egg, Spinach & Tomato tart has been chosen as the daily menu at Petitchef.  It's great!

I am submitting this post to participate ANU's Healthy Kitchen www.anuzhealthykitchen.blogspot.com special theme for July "Healthy Fibre & Protein Rich".  Join the fun cooking some wholesome food if you wish.

Chicken, Leek and Pearl Barley Soup


Ingredients:
2 chicken fillets, cut into small pieces
2 tomato, cut into chucks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
2 button mushroom, sliced
1 leek, cut into small pieces
1 cup pearl barley
2 heap tablespoons tomato paste
3 litres stock made from chicken bone

Method:

1. Make the stock with bone.  
2. Pan fried the leek with a little oil.  Then add the rest of the vegetable into the soup pot and let it simmer for 40 minutes or until the barley is soft.  The soup should thicken by then, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Seafood Chowder

My cousin-in-law just come back from their 3 weeks US tour.  Besides taking the photos of the magnificent view of America, they had also capture some photos of the unique American food.  One of it is the photo of calm chowder from the wharf in San Francisco.  Coming from a family that enjoy seafood, I would love to have a taste of that one day if I have the chance to travel to the US.  (hope I don't have to wait too long)

I have had  seafood chowder in restaurants but I'm not a big fan of fish (I like sashimi though)  so I have never try cooking it at home just in case it turns out too fishy and nobody would eat it.  Then this recipe of seafood chowder comes to my door from the free weekly magazine featuring our local chef's recipe.  The recipe only call for few ingredients and the technique is quite simple.  I would expect it to have cream or cheese to enrich the soup.  But the use of butter and flour making the roux already create a lovely bowl of creamy soup which is not too heavy.  Or is it rather the white wine doing the magic to bring everything together?  My daughter says this is her new favourite soup and I'm so please to find a good recipe right at my door.

I didn't have a good sleep last night as my daughter kept message me about her bus trip to Sydney.  Telling me how bumpy the road was, where she was and how far to to go Sydney.... This is her first time going away for so long but I'm sure she'll have fun visiting Sydney, playing at the snow field at minus degree and learning more about the country at Canberra with her school camp.

Have you have a look my hand made craft page yet?    


Seafood Chowder
(serve1-2)

120g fresh seafood marinara
(white fish, salmon, squid, prawns and mussels)
1 tablespoon carrot, finely chopped
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon peas
1/4 teaspoon chopped parsley (the seafood marinara I have already marinate with some parsley)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup stock

Roux:
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons plain flour

Method:

1. For the roux, melt the butter in a pan, add flour and stir then gradually add milk to create a bechamel sauce.  Set aside.
2. Combine the wine and stock in another pan, add in carrot and onion and let it boils until the stock reduced by 1/3.  Add into the bechamel sauce and stir.
3. Add seafood and peas to the mix, let it simmer for about 3 minutes or the seafood is just cooked.  Seasoned with salt and pepper.  Squeeze in some lemon juice just before serving if needed and serve with croutons. 

Borscht Soup Hong Kong Style (羅宋湯) and my 1st year of blogging

When my daughter was a little toddler, this was her favourite soup.  It is a tomato based soup with tender meat and a variety of vegetables which does not only feed the little kids well, it is also a winter warmer.  My daughter is now a teenager and she much prefer to have meat boneless but tomato is still her favourite food.  She would praise for me if I make her something with tomato for dinner.  This soup is popular in Hong Kong's cafe and western restaurant that beef bone and beef brisket are used.  I prefer to use ox tails as it has the meat and bone in one.  You can substitute it with chicken, pork or bacon bones as well.  The original Eastern Europe borscht soup is made from beet and the tomato based style is influenced by the Italian.

Time has gone fast and my blog will be a year old at the end of July.  I only manage to blog regularly since March this year.  Now I have a collection of over 80 recipes that I'd love to cook not only once but  more often in the future.  I would also like to thanks for my followers and people who has commented and visited my blog.  I have visitors come to check up my Hong Kong baked pork chops and rice and baked Portuguese chicken daily and I hope these recipes work well at your kitchen.  It's greatly appreciated and I've learned so much from you!

I plan to go back to work after a year long break to regain my health and well-being.  There are a lot of things I'd like to achieve and I hope I can still blog regularly in the future.  I have not had enough fun working with pastry yet.  I'm going to make tart and soup in July.  It is actually very nice working with pastry in winter as the butter is so hard and you don't need to put the pastry into the fridge back and forth to harden it.

Have a great day 4th July to my American friends!

Hong Kong Style Borscht Soup

Ingredients:
500g or 4-5 pieces of ox tails, trim off excess fat
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large tomato, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1/4 drumhead cabbage, chopped
2 heap tablespoons tomato paste
1 thin slice of ginger
3 litres water

Method:

1. Boil the ox tails with hot water for half a minute.  Drain.
2. Pour water into the soup pot, add the ox tails and all the vegetables.  Let it boils for 20 minutes, add the tomato paste and reduce the heat to low.  Let the soup simmer for about 2 hour or until the meat is tender.  Seasoned with salt.  (If you are using bacon bones, there is no need to add salt)

Tips: If you don''t want to the veggies overcook, you can simmer the ox tails with water for 1 hour before adding vegetable and tomato paste, then continue to simmer for another hour until the meat is tender.

Note: You can replace oxtail with chicken, substitute ginger with bayleaf.

羅宋湯

材料：

牛尾 500克 或 4-5 塊，去肥

紅蘿蔔2條

西芹2條

番茄3個

洋蔥1個

馬鈴薯1個

椰菜1/4個

蕃茄膏2大湯匙

薑1片

水3公升

用法：

1. 牛尾飛水。其餘蔬菜切大粒。
2. 把牛尾和菜放入湯煲，加水。大火煲20分鐘，轉慢火加2湯匙番茄膏，再2煲小時或至牛尾軟化。加鹽便成。

Tips:如不想蔬菜煲太久流失營養，可以慢火煲牛尾和水1小時，然後才加蔬菜再煲1小時。

   

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup

For being a carnivore, red lentil sounds like the food from Mars to me.  One day at soccer training, we have been chatting about dinner and one of the soccer mum says she is having red lentil bolognese.  I don't have much cooking ideas for red lentil besides making patties or soup.  Later, I look at my dusty vegetarian cookbook trying to find a recipe of it.  This sweet potato and red lentil soup is similar to pumpkin soup but filled with the goodness of protein due to the lentil.  It is nice to have a warm thick soup to fill up the tummy on a cold day or if you are like me, love soup for all seasons, this soup should warm your soul.

Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup
(serve 4)


Ingredients:
2 teaspoons oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
1 cup red lentils
6 cups water
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

Methods:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add onion and spices stir for a few minutes until it is soft.  Add the potato, lentils and water last and bring it to boil.  Then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes or until the potato is soft and the lentil is dissolved.
2. Blend the soup mixture with a handhold soup mixer until smooth or blend it in the food processor in several batches.  Add more water if needed and season it with salt and pepper.  Reheat it before serving.

This recipe is adopted and modified from the cookbook Vegetarian Cooking published by The Australian Women's Weekly.

Vegetables Soup

The weather in September is quite unpredictable.  It could be sunny and warm one day then it could be cool and windy the next day.  The rain keeps the garden growing very well.  My pansies are all smiling at me in the flower pots.  Even though the weather is getting warm, I still feel like having soup to keep me warm and to increase the fluid intake.  The western style soup is very different to the Asian's.  It is thick and chunky that can be serve as a meal whereas the Asian soup is usually very thin.  The first time I tasted the vegetable soup was at my friend's cafe many years ago.  It was located in a country tourist area where you could look over the farm view from the dinning area.  It made you feel very natural and relax by having something so simple and nice.  After a few trial and error, I create this recipe as my best vegetable soup.  I can fool my kids to eat the vegetables that they don't like.

3 Litres of water
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1/2 red capsicum, chopped
1/4 sugar loaf cabbage, chopped
kernels cut from a cob of corn
1/2 cup soup mix (red lentil, yellow spilt peas, green peas and barley)
1/4 cup brown rice
chives for garnish
bread rolls to serve

Method:

1. Wash and rinse the soup mix and the brown rice.
2. Boil water in a large saucepan.  Add the soup mix and brown rice.  Then add in the rest of the vegetables and boil for about 1 hour 30 minutes in moderate and slow heat.  Use the back of the soup laddle to mess some the chuck of the vegetables to get a thicker soup.  Garnish with chives and serve with bread rolls.  

Note: The left over soup may be a bit thick, simply add in some water to thinning it during reheat.