in my studio

Posts Tagged With 'soup'

May
05
2014

pumpkin soup

Its been very cold lately in Melbourne and its not even winter yet! Particularly in the past week, it has been raining everyday so my husband has been asking for winter comfort food-pumpkin soup! He absolutely loves pumpkin and especially that we’ve grown our own pumpkin this season, he was very excited almost like a little kid receiving a present, lol!

This is a very simple and easy recipe, but according to my husband, superbly tasty!

RECIPE FOR PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
400g pumpkin, peeled roughly cut into cubes
1/2 tsp cummin
1/2 cup thickened cream
2 cups stock (or I use a homemade chicken stock paste and use 2tsp)
2 cups water (add more water if you’re using a stock paste)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.Heat butter and saute garlic.
2. Add the pumpkin pieces, cummin, stock and water.
3. Cover with a lid and bring it to a boil. Then let simmer for 20minutes.
4. Using a handheld stick blender, blend all the ingredients thoroughly in the pot. If you’re using a blender, wait a couple of hours until all the ingredients have cooled down before putting it in your blender.
5. Once blended, add salt, pepper and thickened cream and let simmer again for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot with some bread on the side!

No comments
Category: halal, in my kitchen, soups, vegetarian

Mar
25
2014

carrot soup

When my dad brought out his carrot soup over the weekend when we had dinner at their place, I thought I wasn’t going to like this. I was wrong! I loved it. I think its the suttle spices that are sauteed that make it so flavourful. So I decided to make this for dinner tonight, the perfect entree to our ‘vegetarian dinner night’. Dinner was spinach & ricotta lasagne which is another favourite of mine.

RECIPE FOR CARROT SOUP
Recipe from my dad
Serves: 4 entree bowls

Ingredients
1/2 medium size onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
400g carrot, roughly chopped (about 5-6 carrots)
1 tsp cummin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
3-4 cups liquid stock (I use homemade veg stock)
salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Saute onions and garlic in some oil until soften but not burned.
2. Add in spices then saute until aromatic for about a minute or two.
3. Put in the chopped carrots and stock then cover, bring to a boil.
4. Put stove on low, seasoning well with salt and pepper. Leave to cook for another 15minutes
5. Turn off stove and leave to cool for an hour. Once cooled, blend mixture in a blender.
6. Return soup to saucepan and bring to a boil. Serve hot with some bread.

1 lovely comment
Category: entree, halal, in my kitchen, soups, vegetarian

Dec
03
2011

chicken soup and on being sick!

chicken soup

Please accept my apologies for the lack of post over the last couple of weeks, I have been sick, terribly sick- that the thought of food and consuming it, makes it even worst! Hence why I have not updated this blog. But at least I can have some hearty winter soup eventhough its summer here! So if you’ve got a few soup recipes up your sleeves, kindly do share them with me. I’m always on the lookout for more recipes!

RECIPE FOR CHICKEN SOUP WITH CABBAGE
Adapted from my stepmum

Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, cut into small pieces
50g dried rice vermicelli
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped spring onions (to garnish)
3 tbsp fried shallots (to garnish)
2 eggs
1/4 cabbage, shredded thinly
salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Bring to a boil the chicken breast pieces in a pot of chicken stock.

2. Add in the cabbage, vermicelli and simmer for 45 minutes.

3. Crack the eggs but do not stir. Leave for 5 minutes before seasoning it with salt and pepper and the other garnishes.

4. Serve immediately while hot.

2 lovely comments
Category: chicken, entree, halal, in my kitchen, soups

Oct
25
2011

chicken and prawn noodle soup

chicken noodle soup

The day before yesterday I got sunburned under the scorching sun at our local Sunday market. It almost hit 30 degrees. Then within a flick of a swith, that all changed. Wave goodbye sun and hello rain! From 30 down to 11, SubhanAllah. So yesterday I had to wear 3 layers of clothing because it was freezing. But why am I acting all surprised? I’ve been living here for the past 10 years. That’s Melbourne! So if you ever want to experience 4 seasons in a day, book your next flight down here!

chicken noodle soup

This is what we usually have on a chilly day. Soup. Chicken noodle soup. A hot bowl of this in your hands on a couch with the family is what I call comfort food. And don’t forget the blanket of course.

chicken noodle soup

Yes I know I’ve been making a lot of easy dishes lately. I don’t exactly want to scare you off Malaysian cooking. Buy hey, if you’re an adventurous cook, why not try my chicken rendang recipe here. You can also make it with beef but let me warn you, be prepared to stay in the kitchen for up to 4 hours! For now, here is the recipe for this amazingly yummy and easy soup.

RECIPE FOR CHICKEN AND PRAWN NOODLE SOUP WITH ASIAN GREENS

Serves: 3
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, quartered into chunks (this will then be shredded to serve)
1/2 kilo chicken neck/bones/carcass (this is only to make stock, will be thrown out)
12 prawns
2 cloves garlic
500g hokkien noodles (egg noodles)
1 bunch of Asian greens, Bok Choy or Choy Sum
2 cup vegetable stock (or 1 veg bullion)
3 cups water (or enough to cover chicken)
3 boiled eggs, halved
10 tofu puffs
1 packet of fish cake, sliced
Handful of bean sprouts
Handful of spring onions, sliced (for garnishing)
3 tsp fried shallots (for garnishing)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 birds eye chilli, cut
Salt and pepper, to taste

To make chicken broth:

1. Marinate the prawns with garlic and set aside.

2. In a stock pot, boil water with the chicken neck/bones along with the chicken breast chunks and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Remove excess chicken foam floating on the surface. Then leave to simmer for 40 minutes covered.

3. In a pan, sautee the marinated garlic prawns until evenly cooked through. Set aside.

4. Blanched noodles in warm water for a couple of minutes and strain. Set aside

5. Throw away chicken neck/bones as well as the 2 garlic cloves from the stock pot and remove the chicken breast pieces to a chopping board. Back to the stock pot; season with salt and pepper and add the cooked prawn pieces and asian greens. Give it a quick stir.

6. Turn off the stove but lid on.

7. In the mean time, slice the chicken breasts into thin long strips and divide them as well as the noodles, tofu puffs, fish cake slices, boiled eggs, bean sprouts, spring onions and fried shallots between 3 bowls.

8. Pour the hot soup and serve immediately. While pouring the soup, divide the poached eggs and prawns evenly between bowls. (Optional: Serve with chilli soy sauce.)

To make chilli soy sauce:

1. In a small serving bowl, combine soy sauce, chilli and sesame oil.

My tip for a tastier soup is to put one teaspoon of fried shallots in the pot just towards the end. It’ll be soggy, but boy, I tell ya…it adds a hint of shalloty flavour that simply bursts in your mouth!

Click ‘Read More’ to print the recipe and leave a comment.

4 lovely comments
Category: chicken, in my kitchen, noodles, soups

Sep
15
2011

chicken curry laksa

I love noodles. I could eat them everyday. Stir fried or soup based noodles. Both are Yum! Curry laksa is one of my all time favourite meal. Whenever I dine out in a Malaysian restaurant, this is what I’d order. There were times where I have been so dissapointed and times where I’d go back again just to eat laksa. My family knows I’m a crazy laksa girl. Sometimes they would stop me from ordering it and tell me to try something else. I should write a post about these laksa joints, where to get yummy laksa and where not to order not-so-yummy laksa.

In Malaysia, there are so many kinds of laksa. Curry laksa (uses curry powder), Asam Laksa (uses fish), Johor Laksa (uses fish too but very dense and has coconut milk) and so on. Just do a google search and you’ll find heaps of variants. My sister made laksa using this recipe and I loved it. So I tried it at home for some lovely guests we had coming from Sydney and they loved it too. Once you try this recipe (from scratch) you’ll never want to buy the laksa paste at the supermarket again. This tastes no where near that bottled stuff.

RECIPE FOR MALAYSIAN CHICKEN CURRY LAKSA
Adapted from Almost Bourdain, with slight modifications

Serves: 6
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 50 mins

Ingredients

For the paste:
20 Asian shallots
10 cloves garlic
10 dried chillies, soaked in warm water for 30mins
3 tsp toasted belacan
3 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in warm water for 5 mins
6 candlenuts (buah keras)

Other ingredients:
2-3 tbsp curry powder (I used Baba’s Meat)
1 kg egg noodles (hokkien noodles), blanched
24 shelled prawns, deveined
2 chicken thigh fillet, cooked and sliced
2 big bunch of choy sum, cut
3 stalks lemon grass, bruised
1 sprig curry leaves
3 cups chicken stock
1 can coconut cream (use coconut milk for a lighter version)
200 g tofu puffs, halved
300 g bean sprouts, blanched and tail removed
3 hard boiled eggs, halved
1 packet fried fish cakes, sliced thinly
5 tbsp oil
salt to taste
Fried shallots, for garnishing
Spring onions, for garnishing

Method

1. To make the paste: Mix all ingredients and pound into a paste using a blender.

2. Heat up oil in a medium sized pot, and stir the prawns for 5 mins until cooked evenly. Remove prawns and set aside.

3. Saute the blended paste, lemon grass and curry leaves until the oil separates and is fragrant. This should take about 7 – 10 mins.

3. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes.

5. Add the coconut cream/milk and bring to a boil again, stirring constantly to prevent it from curdling.

6. Turn of the stove and add tofu puffs, fish cake, choy sum and some salt to taste then give it a final stir to coat all the ingredients.

To serve: Divide noodles into individual bowls. Pour the hot curry laksa evenly ontop of the noodles into each bowl and then spread the prawns, chicken, eggs and the garnishes. Serve immediately.