Asian Chicken Noodle Broth by Jamie Oliver

This soup of Jamie Oliver is fantastic. I cannot recommend more his book "The Ministry of Food" in which he teaches people to cook from scratch. So good. If you only have one cooking book, have this one. If you master that book, you are a great cook already.

Back to the recipe. Simple. The key ingredient to have is "5 chinese spice", very popular and not hard to find.  

INGREDIENTS:

Broth: 

-2 litres of chicken stock. 

-A piece of ginger.

-Serrano peppers for spiciness (optional).

-2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

-1 lime.

-sesame seeds and some toasted nuts (optional)

---------

-500 grams of chicken.

-300 grams of noodles.

-2 bock choy or a handful of mangetouts.

STEPS:

1. Cut chicken in stripes and coat them well with 5 chinese spice, like in the photo. Now sautee them in medium fire until golden (be careful to not burn the spices, have medium fire). Once ready set it apart.

2. Cook which ever noodles you want separately. You can add them too in the broth and cook them there, but I like to do it separately because the broth them is more clear.

3. Get the broth going separately. Put the chicken stock,  2 litres of water, and the ginger together, bring it to a boil.

4. Once it boils, add the green beans for 2 minutes. 

5. After 2 minutes in which the green beans have softened but are still very crunchy, add noodles and chicken, bring it to boil again and immediately turn off fire.

6. Now finally add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and stir. 

7. The finally touch is: squeeze in each bowl the lime, half lime for each bowl and sprinkle sesame seeds. The sesame seeds are optional but the lime is not optional, it makes it 5 times better.

Voila. C'est magnifique. 

    

Great Chicken Broth

 Okay, so this broth is very good. Liquid gold, the author calls it. Here is the recipe. I'm very impressed at this lady Marion. Her recipes are winners. 

My only variation of her recipe is adding a celery stick to the equation. Obviously her recipe is for more volume, more soup. 

INGREDIENTS:

-2 litres of water 
-1 free range chicken skeleton
-1 clove of garlic smashed.
-1 green onion.

-1 celery stalk (my addition)

-1-2 bay leaves (my addition)

-3 slices of ginger.
-some peppercorns.
-1 teaspoons of salt.

-1 prawn (optional at the end)

STEPS:

1. First of all, you are much better off watching the video she has in her recipe. It is a great video. But anyway, basically you need to put all the ingredients above in a pot, bring it all to a boil and then let it simmer for 1 hour or so. 

Just remember to smash a little with the blade of the knife the ingredients: the peppercorn, the garlic, the green onion so the flavours come out in the water easier.

2. After that I let it cool off and basically I let it all sit down in the stove for 1 day (obviously when it is cold, NOT in summer). The flavours get richer the longer you let it sit there. Then I put the whole thing in the fridge and the grease after some hours comes up to the surface.

3. After that, or even after 2 days, I throw in the trash everything that's in the pan and put the broth through a fine sieve.

4. And voila! there you have your great broth. Season it maybe with more salt if you want.

Pics: Singapore, the country of fines.

 

Pork ribs and Corn soup

 A wonderful chinese classic that most chinese kids grow up eating. I  can't remember where I saw this soup, thus, I will not have a link and this is my version, but I have made it several times and it has very warm and comforting flavour, bony but sweet. We are back from Australia, where I have gotten lots of inspiration for new recipes. I needed that.

Anyway, I made this one today and was inspired to write it down because it turned out very well.

INGREDIENTS:
-2 litres of water.

.300 grams of pork ribs.

-2 corn cobs.

-some garlic.

-a few green onions stalls.

-1 parsnip in slices.

-some white pepper.

-some black pepper.

-1 tsp of salt.

STEPS:

1. Place some garlic in big pot and sautee.

2. Now add the ribs and brown them a bit for a few minutes.

3. Now add the 2 litres of water and the corn and bring it all to a boil.

4. Now add the salt, the pepper, and add the green onions that you have diced up previously.

5. Bring it all to a boil again quickly and then simmer in low heat.  Slowly you will be getting a great great broth, this is the trick of chinese soups, slowly you stew the bones.

6. You can then remove the ribs and corn and cut it all up to make it all more convenient to eat. I basically cut off the corn kernels and get the meat off the ribs.

So nice! perfect for winter this recipe is. 

Peruvian Lamb Soup

I had 3 lamb chops the other left. When I did not know what to do with them. I googled: lamb soup, and all these recipes came up from Latin America. They seemed so easy! So I gave it a try and I did not regret it....so good and no stock!!!!!!!!!! this is the video that I kinda followed. 

INGREDIENTS:

-1'3 litres of water 

-4 or 5 chops of lamb.

-3 celery sticks.

-2 big potatoes.

-1 small white onion.

-2 cloves of garlic.

-1 tsp of salt.

-some pepper.

-1 carrot.

-3-4 slices of 

-some oregano.

-a good bunch of cilantro and some lime to garnish.

-optional: brussels sprouts.

STEPS:

1. So easy. If the chops are already fried and cooked, then great, if not fry them in the pot a little so they brown from both sides. Now set apart.

2. Dice up the onion and garlic and sautee in the pot with the grease of the lamb. Stir a bit.

3. Now add the lamb chops back, let it all cook a little together in the pot for a few minutes.

4. Now add the celery and the carrot and cook all together.

5. Now add the water, the salt, the pepper, the oregano and the 2 big potatoes in cubes and bring it to a boil.

6. Once it boils, bring down the fire and simmer for 30 minutes. The potatoes will make the broth thicker, but at this point you can also add 2 handfuls of rice. Yum! 

7. Now try and add more salt if needed. Also pick up the chops and get the meat out and cut up in small pieces and back to the pot. All the flavour of the bones will be in the soup now. 

8. Now garnish with cilantro and lime. 

So good! Next time I will add brussels sprouts too cause I think it goes great with lamb.

White Bean Soup with Bacon

"If I had a restaurant, I would include this soup in the menu". 

And that was the declaration I pronounced after the first taste of this amazing soup. And it is great because I have been meaning to include more legums into our diet...Do you know that you are supposed to eat 3 times a week legums: lentils, beans or chickpeas??? I definitely do not do that, but I think I should at least try do it once or twice per week. Well, this recipe will do that for you, also it is not hard (perhaps the khale part, although you can also skip). This recipe is an adaption of Smitten Kitchen's version, which includes even more yummy touches here and there, but to me this soup was already real fantastic with all the fancy touches. 

The game changer of this recipe was: bacon. 

INGREDIENTS:
-600 grams of potatoes. 
-200 grams of smoked bacon.
-1,5 litres of water.

-500 grams of soft white beans.

-1 big garlic clove 

-1/2 onion.

-salt and pepper

-some khale leaves (optional)

STEPS:

1. Fry up the bacon in slices in a pot and set aside.

2. In the same pot, don't scrub it!!! sautee the onion and garlic until traslucent.

3. Now fill up with water and add the potatoes that you have previously diced (no need to peel just clean them well).

4. Bring to a boil and simmer everything until potatoes soften. 

5. Now add the beans and bring again to boil.

6. Now turn it down and puree with hand blender, it will be thick but also beautifully coloured.

6. Now let it cool and season with salt and pepper (or you can also add some vegetable stock with no water.

7. Now add bacon on top, and also you can add some crispy khale on top (which is so good but takes some work).

8. The way you do khale crispy is simple: wash it, dry it and coat well with olive oil and salt and place in oven for about 15 minutes....watch it! cause it can burn fast.

So so good you all, a great way to eat beans. Taste amazing. This one is a keeper for fall. This picture is in the highlands in Scotland.

Corn Chowder

The world of soups will never stop to surprise me. Just when you think you have seen it all, there is another soup to leave you flabbergasted. This soup was a bit like this. An American classic but hey, not common in Europe. So easy and so so good.  So comforting. Tried it and I thought: how is it possible it's taken me 41 years to cook this recipe?

INGREDIENTS:

-450 grams of canned corn. 

-1 and 1/2 cups of water.

-1 and 1/2 cup of milk.

-1/2 onion.

-3 small potatoes.

-2 cloves of garlic.

-1 chicken stock.

STEPS:

1. Sautee diced onion and diced garlic for 4 minutes.

2. Add the diced potatoes and sautee.

3. Now add all the corn with the water from the cans. Stir for 5 minutes.

4- Now add the water and the milk, and stock and bring to a boil.

5. Now bring fire down and let it simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft.

6. Now scoop out about 8 tablespoons of the corn and place in bowl.

7. Now puree the rest with a hand blender.

8. Bring it to a boil and add the corn and serve.

I will definitely be making this soup next winter. The wonderful thing about this soup is that you can make it more brothy, more creamy, more cheesy, more bacony, more paprikay, whatever you fancy.

Gingered Carrot Soup

I did not know one could make carrot soup, I mean: carrot soup/food for babies, okay, but for adults???

Well it turns out you can and it is actually amazing. I found these recipes that are pretty simple and pretty mind blowing with very few ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

-10 medium carrots.

-1/2 onion.

-2 cloves of garlic. 

-3 slices of 1 cm sliced ginger.

-1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

-1/2 chicken stock cube.

-one litre of water.

-olive oil, salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Peel the carrots, cut in half and place in foil paper and place in oven for an hour at 200 degrees top and bottom. Drizzle them with olive oil and salt. Include the garlic cloves in the oven.

2. Roast them until they are tender and brown or charred. The sugars come out and caramelize. 

3. Now prepare in a pot the onion and ginger. Dice onion and ginger and cook for 5-10 minutes until it is all soft.

4. Now add the carrots and garlic cloves, that are mushy at this point. Of course take the tops of the carrots off and the skin of garlic cloves.

5. Now add a litre of water and a cup and the chicken stock cube. I added half but I am sure you can do a whole one.

6. Bring it to a boil and puree. It is soooooo good. It is a great flavour of ginger, carrots, the charred ingredients, a little garlicky...you can add a tablespoon of sugar and also a tiny bit of cream.

So so good. I mean roasting carrots it's not the most simple method I understand, but it is worth the effort. The main actor of this soup is the ginger with the carrots, not the garlic, therefore you need to add more ginger than garlic!

Borsch

This year I made for the first time Borsch, the famous purple soup from Ukraine, Russia, Hungary and Poland. It is a soup like no other because the color is so crazy insane rich, but the flavor too! a big wow. My recipe comes from my jewish book so I am not sure how I can copyright it. Sorry!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 kg of fresh beet.
-Salt and pepper.
-1 quick squirt of a lemon.

-1 leek.

-1 carrot.

-1 stick of celery.

-1 turnip.

-1 onion.

-1 clove of garlic.

-2 cubes of meat stock.

-2 litres of water.

-salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. For this recipe you need to basically have 2 pots going and then mix them. So first we will start with the beet soup. Peel the beet and cut in pieces and place it in a big pot with 1 litre of cold water, salt and pepper. 

2. Bring it to a boil and then reduce fire and let it simmer for 30 mins. Let the vapor come out so it is more reduced. 

3. Now let it cool and then puree it with a hand mixer.

4. On the other pot prepare the meat stock. Now you can do this stock with meat, but honestly that just about too much for me! So I used stock, so sorry. So cut up the leek, the carrot, the celery, the onion, the garlic and the turnip and 1 litre of water.

5. When the vegetables are soften after 20-30 minutes turn off fire and liquify them with a hand mixer.

6. Now mix the 2 soups together and add boiled eggs cut in half if you want. 

It is so good, what a unique flavour. Be really careful though to not stain your clothes.

       

Dill & Lemon Chicken Soup

 This soup was really really really good. This combo of lemon and dill with chicken and rice is a winner I tell you. I found it at Baker by nature in Instagram and did it right away. It doesn't call for weird ingredients but you can substitute the fresh dill for dry.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 litre of chicken stock.

-1 or 2 carrot.

-1/2 onion.

-2 sticks of celery.

-1'5 cup of rice.

-1 chicken breast or chicken leftovers.

-1/2 lemon juice.

-1 cup of white rice already cooked.

-1/4 tspoon of garlic powder.

-1/4 tspoon of onion powder.
-1 stalk of green onion.

-some cilantro (optional).

-1/2 teaspoon of dill or a bunch of fresh dill.

STEPS:

1. Dice up celery, carrot and onion and sautee until it softens for 10 minutes.
2. Now add the chicken stock and the onion powder and garlic powder, and the green onions. let it cook for 1o minutes and bring to boil for a second.

3. Now reduce and add shredded chicken, cooked rice and add all herbs: the cilantro, the dill, and squeeze the lemon. Let it all come together for 5 minutes and serve!

It's so good this soup. I think it is also because the stock was actually made with real chicken and you just cannot beat that.

Tomato Soup

I have been so fed of my own soups lately. I needed a new one, and I remembered this one from A Cup of Jo and Kenton was impressed. Not hard, just needs a lot of garnish at the end.

INGREDIENTS:

-600 grams of canned tomatoes. 

-2 tablespoons of butter.

-4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste, or tomate frito.

-half an onion.

-2 garlic cloves.

-2-3 teaspoons of sugar.

-1 teaspoon of thyme.

-1 teaspoon of italian herbs.

-some cream.

-salt and pepper.

STEPS:

1. Melt the butter and sautee in it the onions and garlic in saucepan.

2. Now add the thyme and the tomato paste until it caramelizes a little.

3. Now add the tomatoes can, with the juice and break the tomatoes a bit.

4. Now add 4 cups of water or 1 litre, or slightly less and bring it to a boil.

5. Now reduce the soup a little, bring it down to a simmer and let the water evaporate a little, like 20 minutes.

6. Now puree it with a hand mixer.

7. Now add the cream, I added like 30 ml, and it improves the consistency a lot.

8. Now add the sugar, otherwise it is too acidic.

9. Now add your spices until you feel satisfied. I added salt, pepper, italian spices, more thyme and finally another dab of tomato pasto. 

10. If you serve it with parmesano cheese on top, your world will rock.

Aguadito de Pollo or Cilantro Chicken Soup

A wonderful soup from Peru with lots and lots of cilantro. SO GOOD. Also you don't totally need chicken, you can just do it with chicken stock. But better with chicken yes. I tried it in a Peruvian restaurant and life was never the same...

 INGREDIENTS:

-3 slices of jalapeño peppers. 
-1/2 onion.

-1 or 2 small cloves of garlic.

-a good bunch of cilantro.

-2 liters of chicken stock.

-4 chicken thighs.

-some oregano.

-some black pepper.

-1 piece of ginger sliced in 3 parts.

-some cumin.

-1 big potato.

-1 cup of rice.

-4 celery sticks.

-1 cup of peas.

-2 sliced carrots.

-1/2 teaspoon of aji molido.

STEPS:

1. Dice up onion and garlic and saute with oil. Now add the 3 slices of jalapeños. 

2. Set apart and add the bunch of cilantro to a long cup in which you can liquify it with the hand mixer with a tiny bit of water. Liquify it, it will look like a green paste. Set apart. 

3. Now prepare the chicken. In the same pot you were doing the onion and garlic now fry your chicken with some oregano. Make it golden and add oregano to it and a tiny bit of salt. Cook till brown.

4. Now add the chicken stock, the cumin, the aji molido, the carrots, the celery cut in slices, the aji molido, the potato cut in cubes and the rice and bring to a boil. When it boils turn heat down. 

5. In the meantime get the chicken out and when it cools off, shred the meat with a fork and knife and put back in pot. Add the frozen peas here too.

 6. Now add the green cilantro paste you created to the soup, automatically it will turn green. 

7. After 5 minutes of all mixing together it should be done! Try the potato and rice to make sure it is all soft.

8. Now garnish with cilantro and you will knock the ball out of the park!!!!!!!!!!

Photo of Gran Canaria which will make you feel like you are in Latin America.