ABC Soup

You may wonder... How did this soup got its name. What ingredient represents A, B or even C? My mum calls it ABC soup; my mum-in-law calls the same name too. Hmmm, I guess maybe because it is really, really easy to prepare and it is just as simple as ABC ^_^

Firstly, cut up some carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and an onion (heehee the words rhyme!). If you have Chinese cabbage in your fridge, you can chop some up too! The Chinese cabbage adds sweetness in the flavoring. 

Before that, boil a pot of water with some chicken or pork. Preferably parts with bones such as drumsticks, thighs, ribs or the porky's legs. Once done with the chopping, put all the veggies into the pot. Let it boil for about 20 minutes and turn down the heat to let it simmer for another 30/40 minutes. You can add in a chicken cube for seasoning, or salt / soy sauce is fine as well.

And that's it! Your soup is ready to serve and be eaten! XD

Have a great Thursday and weekend will be here sooner than you think. ^_^

Tata!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Alrightie, time to try out some western recipes : )

We have decided to give this recipe a go because we were watching one of those cooking shows from the Internet and thought, 'Wow, doesn't seem too complicated for a mushroom soup, isn't it?' And so, mushroom soup we decided to try. LOL!

First, we diced up the mushrooms. We bought some chestnuts and some buttons for our simple soup. According to the recipe, you can use ceps and/or porcini as it gives a fuller flavor in the soup. Dice some onions as well. Once the dicing is completed, fry the onion and mushroom with a knob of butter! Mmm... very fragrant!

Remember to fry the mushroom until it is completely brown. I think about 5 minutes or more. Otherwise, you will get 'half cooked' taste mushroom which not many people like the funky taste, especially me - NO LIKES! When the mushrooms are ready, pour in your chicken stock into the mixture and let it simmer away! Oh yes! Herbs! You'll need some thyme (I think) for your soup. For me, I have a bottle of mix herbs so I just pour some in lah! : P

After 15 minutes of simmering, pour in some crème fraîche a.k.a. fresh cream. I would strongly recommend that you slowly scoop dollops by dollops to mix into your soup... Otherwise, your soup would taste very rich. And the final step - ready to serve!

The soup supposed to look a little more on the brown color side... hehe. For this dish, there were a couple of mishaps in the kitchen : ( First, I accidentally put in too much butter. Therefore, if you look closely at the photo above, you'll notice there's a lot yellow droplets. Secondly, I didn't fry my mushrooms long enough and so, it tasted a bit raw, in which I didn't like the taste of it. Thirdly, I put too much of cream!!! Aaarghh!!! I got a little bit over zealous when pouring the cream. Hence, I recommend the 'dollops by dollops' method.

With all these mishaps happened, the soup still tasted quite OK although it was rich with the cream. However, with a little tweak for the next round, I'm sure that it would turn out just fine and tasty!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Never knew it was so easy to make. First attempt was yums! But will need to go easy on the cream the next time though... hehe'


And there you have it... my first attempt of the Cream of Mushroom Soup : P

Till then, keep nomming!

'Ken Tiao Pan'

I always tell myself that I must learn how to cook and prepare dishes that I like to eat. Why? Morbid as you might say about me, I'm worried that some day there is no chance of eating the 'famous assam laksa at Jalan XXX', famous this and yummy that at XYZ restaurant. Hence, I made a simple goal to myself - to learn to prepare dishes that I like to eat ^^. So far, I've learnt a couple of dishes and this time, in the spirit of Chinese New Year, I thought of learning to make one of my favourite recipes - pan mee.

'Ken Tiao Pan' is similar as pan mee, the only difference is the shape. Instead of rolling through the noodle maker machine, it is torn by hand. I learnt this recipe from my Mother-in-law and thought of giving it a go for our dinner tonight : )

First, I prepared the dough. As this was my attempt at kneading a dough, I was quite scared of ruining my dough. But TheLoyalFan told me not to worry as it is just a matter of balancing out the ingredients. Hehehe, not only TheLoyalFan is my food tester, he's kinda my advisor too!
The ingredients were simple - plain flour, eggs, salt and water. After kneading the dough and getting the right texture, the dough was completed and it was covered with a damp cloth and rested for half and hour.

Then I made the condiments a.k.a. 'liew' (hehehehe). I debone some drumsticks and for this, I learnt from a Youtube video uploaded by an American Chinese. Once the drumsticks were chopped into smaller pieces, I fried it in a pan together with some sliced mushrooms and mook yee. Then added some water to make gravy and season it to be slightly saltier than normal tasting. I also made an ikan bilis soup by frying ikan bilis and poured fish stock to boil together. Thereafter, I've added in lettuce since there is no 'pucuk manis' in Manchester.

This noodle can be eaten either the dried version or the soup version.

The outcome? Both versions were really good. Although I had a panic attack while kneading the dough, I think this dish can be prepared by anyone who loves pan mee. I tried to make the sauce abit thicker... but made a mistake by putting the flour directly into the sauce. The correct way is to dilute the flour in water then pour into the dish. LOL!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Perfect food for a cosy reunion dinner. Completely satisfying...YUM!'

I'm glad that this was accomplished - one favourite dish done and many more to go. Woohoo!!!

That's all for now. Wishing you a wondeful Chinese New Year and enjoy those sunny days, cookies and all goodies that are only available during the Lunar New Year. Till then, je vous souhaite une bonne journée. Au revoir! (I wish you a good day ahead. Goodbye!)

Minestrone Soup

I have always wanted to cook up this dish as it is always sold either in tinned version or at fancy restaurants. After looking at the recipe a couple of days back, I thought of giving it a go!

First, prepare vegetable stock in a pot and pour tinned chopped tomatoes and bring to boil. Then, put in spaghetti that has been broken into shorter lengths and let it simmer for a while. Lastly, pour in frozen mixed vegetables, pesto and season it with salt, sugar and pepper - DONE!
Basically, this dish is like a super simple equation:

Minestrone Soup = (Stock + chopped Tomatoes) + Veggies + Spaghetti

*felt abit like a mad scientist... hence, the urge of writing this equation : P*

Garnish the soup with a bit of grated cheese and it is ready to serve.

There were some modifications done for this dish. Well, it was partly my fault because I was having so much fun with the 'agak agak' measurements; I accidentally prepared too much water for the soup and had to add more veggies and spaghetti. Then I didn't have vegetable stock so I used chicken stock instead. According to the recipe, pesto was supposed to add onto the soup as a garnish but I ended up boiling together.
The outcome of the dinner? Well, an ultra contented pair which had 3 servings each and a bowl saved up for my lunch tomorrow... yummy!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Warms your body and makes you all fonzi & fuzzy... and sleepy too (snuggles under the duvet)'

Alrightie folks, I think I need to go to the toilet now : S

Have a great week ahead guys!