Hot & Sour Soup with Vermicelli

Hot and sour soup

These days, I try to stock up on lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves when I shop at the oriental store, making sure I never run out of them. Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves freeze well so it is great to have them at hand as it is a staple in most south-east asian food. Lemongrass itself has multiple benefits. This natural ingredient has anti-cancer properties, high in anti-oxidant which also helps prevent cancer, reduces cholesterol, helps rid of cold and fever, and many more benefits. The juice of lemongrass is also used as insect repellent. I know this because each time I visit Tropical Spice Garden in Penang, the staff there would have us spray lemongrass juice on our bare legs and arms. There are lots of mosquitoes hidden between those tropical bushes so to prevent from leaving the garden with dozens of mosquito bites, bare with the smell and spray them all over you if you are going anywhere near a tropical forest or garden. It does help you enjoy the beautiful surroundings than to be annoyed being bitten by those tiny evil creatures.

HOW TO MAKE LEMONGRASS TEA:

Boil about 4 stalks of lemongrass in a pot of water. Make sure you bruise and split them in halves so the lemongrass will infuse a lot faster. I have not measured nor timed this process so depending on how strong you would like the tea to be, add water accordingly. Let it boil and simmer for about an hour. Once ready, pour into teacups and serve with honey or sugar.





HOT & SOUR SOUP WITH VERMICELLI RECIPE
serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 3 stalk lemon grass (bruised)


• 5 kaffir lime leaves


• 2-3 bird's eye chilli


• 15g shallots


• 5 cloves garlic (peeled & bruised)


• 2 inch ginger (peeled & sliced)


• 2 stalks celery


• 2 large carrots


• 2 large tomato (cut into wedges)


• 250g mixed seafood (prawn, squid, mussels)


• 1 litre boiled water


• 1 chicken bouillon cube


• 2 large lime (juice only)


• 1 1/2 tbs palm sugar


• Salt & ground white pepper to taste


• Coriander (as garnish)

• Vermicelli

1. Heat the pot with some oil and partially cook the seafood. Remove from pot and set aside.


2. Saute the onions, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, chillies and ginger in the same pot until fragrant.


3. Add in water and let boil for a few minutes, turn the heat down to let the lemongrass flavour infuse into the soup.


4. The celery, carrots and tomato is then added into the pot, together with the bouillon cube.


5. Let the soup simmer on medium to low heat fora bout an hour and until vegetables are soft.


6. While waiting for the soup to be ready, cook the vermicelli in hot water for 1 minute and drain.


7. Divide the drained vermicelli in separate bowls.


8. Squeeze some lime juice into the soup. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.


9. Tip the seafood into the hot soup to heat them up.


10. Ladle soup over the noodles and garnish with coriander. You can add a few slices of red chilli if you like, just to give some colour and contrast.

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Beef Pot Roast

Supermarket has always been my go to place for meat in London. That is because I have not seen any decent butcher near where I live, at least I used to. Recently, I found one. And this was the first time I bought any form of meat so early in the morning!! It was actually very pleasant being at my local butcher, Mr. Bull. It feels more personal chatting and buying meat there than at a supermarket.

Beef joint for pot roast, TICK!!

On the very same day in the afternoon, after an enjoyable rendezvous of breakfast, museum, lunch and shopping with Nz, we ended our day at Whole Foods! It was like heaven. Food Heaven! There was almost everything there. There were vegetables I have never seen before, or knew about; like black mooli, a dozen species of squash, even yellow beans!! This is definitely how two girls have fun. Shop for food!! We had similar fun doing that in Spain and obviously it did not stop there. Was there just for fresh bread but we ended up with an over flowing basket.

Bread to serve with pot roast, TICK!!

Now after a happy day of shopping, the work begins in the kitchen.., kind of. Beef pot roast must sound like something that is really difficult to make or a dish that requires lots of attention. It is actually the opposite. The most attention needed was to buy good ingredients. The rest is up to the slow cooker. Well, I have not told you this, but I bought a new toy, the Tefal 8-in-1 cooker. What I love about this new gadget is that there is an in built timer.

All the fun effort put into making this almost no sweat 'Beef Pot Roast' is to welcome back my sweetheart from his partial holiday / partial medical leave where dental treatment is a lot more affordable. Yes, poor thing had to go through a root canal surgery and I have seen his swollen face the day after the dentist visit. Not very pleasant. So I think he needed some comfort food that is delicious yet easily edible. Nothing that will hurt him chewing.

Delicious melt in your mouth pot roast, TICK!! Mission accomplished!

BEEF POT ROAST RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef joint
• 3 tbs olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbs flour
• 2 cubes beef bouillon
• 300ml hot water
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce

• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cloves unpeeled smoked garlic (prick with a knife)
• 1 red onion (sliced)
• 3 celery (an inch)
• 4 carrots (wedged)
• 1 tbs cranberry sauce
• 1/2 tbs of butter

• Bread (*The baker at Whole Foods recommended 'Beer Bread' to match with this dish. You can use any bread you like, of course.

Method:

1. Melt the beef bouillon cubes in hot water and set aside.
2. Heat the pot with olive oil. While waiting for the pot to heat up, season the beef with salt, pepper and flour.
3. Brown beef on hot pot. When both sides of beef are brown, transfer it into the slow cooker bowl.
4. With the pot that you have browned the beef, add the wine and worcestershire sauce into the pot to deglaze.
5. Let the alcohol evaporate and stir in about a cup of beef stock to combine into a smooth sauce. Make sure you stir out any lumps.
6. Now pour the liquid from the pot into the slow cooker bowl where the beef was resting, and the rest of the beef stock into the slow cooker along with the garlic, celery and carrot.
7. Caramelise the onions on a separate pan and tip them in to the slow cooker.
8. Let the beef braise in its own juice in the slow cooker for about 6 hours or until beef falls off easily and vegetables are soft.
9. When it is almost ready, melt that tiny knob of butter and stir in cranberry sauce to give it that extra flavour.
10. Serve in a bowl with some bread on the side.

Tips:

• While beef is browning, try not to toss it around as it will not brown well.

You may also like:

• Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
• Beef Stew

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Date Night In : Beef Stew

Valentine's Day has always been quite controversial. There is a legend behind this day but some think that it is a day created so businesses could benefit from selling cards, buying gifts, flowers, restaurants hiking up prices just because it is a day of romance and everything else that is related to February 14th.

Personally, I think it is not necessary to go out on expensive dinner dates on this very night just cause everything is twice the price, restaurants are packed, most places would have a set menu to make their life easier so there is limited choice, and then there is higher expectations cause it is suppose to be this perfect night spent with your loved ones. All these are unnecessary. What is most important is that loved ones are nice and caring towards each other throughout. The most romantic in my opinion is the little everyday details. It could be the morning or I'm home kiss, even making dinner for him/her, helping out with laundry and cleaning, or waking up with that amazing breakfast with juice and hot chocolate or tea waiting for you. All that daily details aside, what makes a girl happiest are surprises at the most unexpected moments.

Since M and I won't be celebrating Valentine's Day on the day itself, we had a date night in on Saturday. It was a perfect evening with great meal home cooked with love, good wine and the best company. It was simple but lovely.

MENU for DATE NIGHT IN

~ no starter ~

~ beef stew with puff pastry ~

~ chocolate thyme cake with orange cream ~

Beef Stew with heart shaped Puff Pastry sprinkled with herbs

The beef stew was initially planned to be served with rice or potato puree but I thought of giving it some texture so chose puff pastry instead. It makes it sort of like a dismantled beef pie; less rustic with heart shaped puffs.

BEEF STEW RECIPE

adapted from SmallKitchCara's entry on Food52
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 700g stewing beef, cut into 2-3 inch cubes
• Salt & pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil

• 1 anchovy
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 leek, sliced thinly
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery, diced
• 150g white mushrooms, quartered
• 70g tomato paste
• 60ml red wine vinegar
• 120ml red wine
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 150ml water
• 1 can chopped tomatoes

• 2 small bay leaves
• 2 sprigs thyme (I used scented thyme)
• 10g dark chocolate
• Handful chopped parsley

Scented Thyme

Chopped ingredients

Methods:

1. Brown the beef that has been seasoned with salt and pepper in high heat. Remove to plate
2. Fry the bacon then the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes until softened.
3. Stir in anchovies and tomato paste, melt it and distribute.
4. Add in the beef and its juices, vinegar, wine and chopped tomatoes.
5. Add the beef bouillon that has been melted in 150ml of water into the pot. Then put the bay leaves and thyme in and bring it to boil.
6. Let it simmer for about 3 hours then stir in the dark chocolate and let it cook for another 30 minutes.
7. Cool to room temperature. Have it to sit for a few hours until ready to serve.
8. Heat it for about 3o minutes and garnish with chopped parsley.

The lovely multi-sized heart shaped puffs with the simple but delicious beef stew

Please click here for Chocolate Cake recipe.

You may also like:

• Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
• Beef Pot Roast

Continue