Tom Yum Soup

This recipe is based on the Tom Yum Soup that you get at the Thai restaurant at home in Timaru, Sukhothai.  It's perfect for dinner with a bowl of rice, especially when the weather's cooling down.  I'm not going to lie, but it has been said it's worth writing home about!

There isn't a hard and fast recipe for this, you can add or remove things as you please really but the way I usually make it goes a little something like this...

• 3 tablespoons of Tom Yum paste
• 1.5 cups of water
• 1 can of coconut milk
• cabbage (about a 1/6 or so), chopped into 2cm square chunks
• 1-2 carrots, sliced on an angle
• mushrooms (about 10), sliced
• prawns or chicken breast, diced
• sugar, about a tablespoon
• fish sauce, to taste
• Spring onions, finely sliced on an angle
• Coriander, chopped
• Bean sprouts

Heat the water and coconut milk.  When it comes to the boil, add the Tom Yum paste and mix until it's dissolved.  If I'm using chicken I'll add this and let it cook for a few minutes before I add the cabbage and carrots.  If I'm using prawns I'll add the cabbage and carrots first and let them cook for a couple of minutes first, then adding the prawns.  Soon after add the mushrooms and allow all to cook.  It doesn't take long. 

Once it's cooked, turn off the heat and sprinkle in the sugar and fish sauce to taste.  The sugar tends to take the chilli edge of it.  I sometimes add most of the bean sprouts to soften them a little.  Put the soup in  a bowl, top with spring onion, bean sprouts and coriander and serve with a bowl of rice.  Yum!

Tom Yum (without the garnishes!)

Roast Pumpkin and Smoked Garlic Soup

After buying a pumpkin and smoked garlic at the market last weekend, I thought I'd better do something with it this weekend.  I couldn't find a recipe to make a stuffed pumpkin that I fancied, nor did I have the energy or imagination to come up with something this weekend.  Instead I decided to make a soup, generally using this recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/16899/roast+pumpkin+garlic+soup. 

I used about 8 cloves of smoked garlic, that I kept unpeeled and then removed the skin once roasted.  I didn't have any cumin, so I used cajun seasoning (that has cumin in it).  I think I had less pumpkin than that shown in the recipe, so when I was blitzing it in the blender I left out about 1.5 cups of the liquid from cooking.  I didn't reserve any of the pumpkin to put in after blitzing the soup, I just blitzed it all.  To garnish, I swirled creamed cheese on top with basil pesto and frie onions (finely sliced) and basil leaves.

It was good.  A nice slightly spicyness from the cajun seasoning and you could definitely taste the smokyness of the garlic as opposed to using regular garlic. I served it with a super grainy, seedy mini loaf that I bought from Pandoro, a great Italian bakery.

I'm looking forward to more soups as the weather cools down, especially my favourite Curried Root Vegetable Soup.

Roast Pumpkin & Smoked Garlic Soup

La Cigale French Market

I've been in Auckland for about 5 months now, living in the city for about 2 months, but Saturday was the first time I have been to the French Market in Parnell.  I've heard about it a lot and operates on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so being just about 10-15 minute walk away I think I'll be going most weekends now that I've found it.  Although not a truly French Market and quite small compared to the likes of Borough Market, it was awesome.  I loved wandering around seeing all the fresh produce, a lot of it organic or spray-free.  There was fresh and smoked fish, smoked sausages, vanilla extract, a great Turkish houmus and olive stand and much more.  Next time I go I'm going to buy a delicious smoked garlic salt seasoning.

I bought a clove of smoked garlic at the fruit and vege area, as well as a small squash.  I'm thinking I can do something together with them...though not sure what.  Maybe soup, though I'd like to hollow the squash out and cook it filled with something.  There was lots of free samples about which is also a bonus, but I bought a ham off the bone roll with rocket, lime aioli and tomato relish and a boysenberry frozen yoghurt.  Both were very yummy.  I'll have to work my way around the rest of the places in the coming weeks and months...

La Cigale French Market, Parnell

Fruit and veges at the French Market

Many flavours of houmus

Delicious freshly-made boysenberry frozen yoghurt

Three-Star Pie

Life got in the way of my challenge of a new recipe a week.  Back on track though and on Sunday I made a chicken and mushroom pie.  It's from the Speight's Southern Man Cookbook.  Speight's is a mainstream New Zealand brewery from Dunedin.  It's famous and known for being the hard-working, rugged man's beer.  In 1999, the first Speight's Ale House opened, and they serve great food - hearty, wholesome, perfect for everyone.  Highlights are the Chicken Parcels, Vege Filo Parcels, their lamb shanks and Blue n' Gold (fist and chips) and many more for that matter.

This pie was pretty easy to make and has a really yummy flavour without being too rich or heavy.  I had my 2nd serve for tea tonight and have to say I think it tasted better than when I had it straight from the oven.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 500g skinless chicken breast, cut into 2cm chunks (I used half breast, half thigh meat)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 25g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped or 2 small leeks, white part only, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 125g mushrooms, sliced
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup cream (I used cream cheese as I had it in the fridge already)
• 1 teaspoon wholeseed mustard (I used about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh herbs, tarragon is good (I used basil, sage and pizza thyme)
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (I didn't have any)
• 4 sheets pre-rolled puff pastry (I used a 400g block)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten, for glaze (I used one and it was enough)

Method:
Put flour, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix.  Add chicken and toss well.  Heat oil and butter in a large fry pan over a moderate to high heat.  Shake excess flour off the chicken and cook in batches until golden and sealed (not cooked all the way through).  Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.

Place the onion or leeks and garlic in the frying pan and cook gently until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.  Add wine and boil for 1 minute then add the stock and cream and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat, add chicken, mustard and herbs and set aside to cool. 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Cut pastry to line bases and tops of 4 x 10-11cm pie tins (I used one 24cm pie dish).  Spoon the filling into pastry cases.  Brush edges of pastry with egg glaze.  Place tops on the pies and seal with a fork or crimp with your thumb.  Brush tops with egg glaze.  Make 2-3 slits with a sharp knife in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape.

Place pies in the preheated oven and cook for 35 minutes or until golden.  (I could have cooked my pie for about 5-10 minutes longer as the base isn't quite cooked enough - probably as it's pyrex so thicker surface than pie tins).

The cooled filling in the pastry base

 

Cooked pie - the filling thickened when cooled slightly



Salty Caramel and Chocolate Christmas Crackers

Recipe from Dish Magazine (Dec 2010/Jan 2011)

• 100g (3.5 oz) plain salted crackers, such as Salada
• 225g (1 cup) butter
• 150g (3/4 cup) soft brown sugar
• 200g plain dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 60g (1/2 cup) pistachios, chopped
• 60g (1/2 cup) dried cranberries, chopped

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.  Line a 22cm x 33cm shallow baking tray with baking paper.  Place the crackers  in the base of the tray without overlapping, so they cover the base, breaking them to fit if required. 

Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring well, until it bubbles and is combined.  Remove from the hear and pour immediately over the crackers as evenly as possible.  Place in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until bubbling all over and the caramel is starting to darken.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle the chocolate over evenly, then return to the oven for a further minute or until the chocolate has just melted enough to spread.  Using a spatula or palette knife spread the chocolate evenly so it is smooth on the surface.

Sprinkle over the pistachio nuts and cranberries and leave until the chocolate is just set before cutting into pieces.  The crackers can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

Challenge Accepted

I was given the challenge to start a new blog at the end of last year - a food blog.  I can think of numerous excuses as to why it's only just beginning now, in February, but at least it's underway.  Initially I was thinking it'd be about cooking and the meals I make.  But even though I love cooking, I don't make anything too exciting that often, so I decided to broaden my theme...

Having recently moved to Auckland, I think it'll be a fun way to document life in generally.  Yes, the food I cook, but also restaurants or places I eat at, the places I see and visit, experiences I have and things that make me happy or make me laugh.  Basically anything that takes my fancy - related to the theme of cook. eat. live.laugh. Not being a highly decisive person most of the time, this broad spectrum suits me well!

As a related sub-challenge, I might try and make something new, ambitious and creative once a week - food-wise.  I've completed this challenge this week.  Recipe to come, but at work today we had a 'Bake Day'.  I made a Salt Caramel Chocolate Cracker (that may not be the correct name).  I much prefer cooking to baking, but I saw this great recipe in the Dec-Jan Dish magazine and when at a friend's recently someone had made it for her. It turned out alright - a few things could be improved on, but generally it was a hit so blog challenge week one - done.