Basic Spicy Korean Soup

Korean soups are addictive. Kenton and I have them all the time. They are whoah so spicy dang satisfying! My korean friend Crystal gave me her gochujang  which is the paste you need to make it and I've realized it isn't hard at all to make them. 

Looking into Marion's blog, the queen of Asian soups, I found this recipe that gave me the basis of what I am going to post now. I made it last night after an insane day of work and it was so satisfying. Kenton approved too. So before I forget what I made and how, I wrote it down here:

 INGREDIENTS
-Some olive oil.
-Some garlic.
-Some ginger.

-Some piece of chicken sliced.

-One shallot sliced.

-One tablespoon of gochujang. 

-One teaspoon of red curry paste.

-One tablespoon of soy sauce.

-1 litre of chicken stock

-Some chow mein noodles.

-Some napa cabbagge sliced.

-Some mushrooms.

STEPS:

1. In hot oil sautee garlic and ginger diced. Yum! smells so good!

2. Now add the shallot sliced.

2. Now add the sliced chicken or any piece of chicken, or turkey you may have, cooked or uncooked.

3. Now add the gujojan and coat it all. So sticky!

4. Now add the red curry paste, and mix well.

5. Now pour the  chicken stock (I use 1 litre of water and add half of a chicken stock cube).

6. Now bring to boil and then add noodles and nappa cabbage right here and then lower it.

7. Add the tablespoon of soy sauce.

7. Let it come together for 10 minutes and serve.

So so good. Pics: Singapore. People in Asia eat looking at the their phones 24/7.

Old-School Butter Cake

 Courtney Adamo always has great recipes to share. Here is one more from her blog.   and she shares it as a birthday cake. Okay I need to differ here. This is not a birthday cake I think. Let me warn you that this cake has a ton of sugar and butter. It tastes real buttery, like Auntie Mildred (Tía Mildred) type of cakes, old-school type. It is not a light cake, it's a heavy one.

But with that said, this recipe is just so fun because it makes you feel like you are making a true cake, and old-fashioned cake, the way butter cakes you should just be. And it actually is an old Australian recipe as she explains in her blog, that it has come from someone called Nanny Luff and the recipe was shared by her grand-daughter. 

So anyway, this recipe comes I'd like to think, from the origins of Australia, perhaps on the slopes of New South Wales, like Kenton's Nan. Here it is:

INGREDIENTS:
-3 cups of flour (360 grs) 

-6 teaspoons of baking powder.

-1 cup of butter (240 grams)

-2 cups of sugar (400 grams)

-4 eggs.

-1 cup of milk. (235 ml)

STEPS: 

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

2. Cream with a hand-mixer the sugar and the butter. The hand-mixer is the tool of this recipe.

3. Now add one egg, and beat, and another, and beat, etc. until you do the 4 eggs.

4. Now add half the flour (with the baking powder already combined!) and beat with hand-mixer. 

5. Now add half of the milk and mix.

6. Now add the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk and combine.

7. Grease and flour a container. I used a medium pot, and add mix.

8. Stick to oven for about 1 hour. It will rise a bit.

9. Now for decoration you can add anything. Courtney says she mixes 1 cup of caster sugar, with a few drops of milk and one fruit grated, and then pours it over. I made mine with kiwi and it was real fun.

Okay, I am not sure at all, I will make this cake again I have to be honest. It has way too much butter for me, nothing less and nothing more than 1/4 of a kilo! But it is a good recipe.  And look at that!! that is one good-looking babe! 

And that is a Australian house from the 50s, where we spent Christmas, across Kent's grandma and her mission.