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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Salmon and Mango Salsa Stack

There was a fat juicy mango sitting in the fridge for the past days, waiting to be eaten. I was just going to criss-cross cut each half, push the cubes out by flipping the skin inside out and devour the juicy sweet meaty flesh, cube by cube off the skin when I sit home and relax, not think about anything but chill on a Friday night.





Instead of just simply enjoying my beloved fruit on its own, she was very carefully prepared to be married with smoked salmon. I came across the 'scallop with gingered mango-tomato salsa' post on DorieGreenspan’s blog and thought I could spread this idea over to salmon. When I surfed further, I found Health Burst’s site on Salmon stack and  thought it looks stunning and delicious.  So I made my version of salmon stack and initiate my attempt to carefully stack the ingredients in the food ring. It looks really impressive. And it looks like it came straight out of a restaurant kitchen!

So easy and no cooking involved! Brilliantly simple.

My similar version of Healthy Burst's Salmon stack.

SALMON AND MANGO SALSA STACK RECIPE
adapted from the Healthy Burst
Makes 1 stack

Ingredients:

• 60g smoked salmon
• ½ avocado (sliced)

Mango Salsa

• 1 mango (1cm cube)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• ¼ cucumber (cubed)
• ¼ red onion (finely chopped)
• ½ chilli; deseeded (finely chopped)
• ½ lime
• Small bunch of mint (chopped)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Lime Chilli Mayonnaise

• ½ lime
• ¼ chilli
• 1 tbs japanese mayonnaise

Method:

1.  Prepare the lime chilli mayonnaise first. 
2.  Stir the mayonnaise with juice of half a lime and finely chopped chilli. Put aside for later.
3.  Prepare the mango salsa by mixing the ingredients together. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
4.  Place a the cylindrical food ring on the plate you are serving with.
5.  Layer it with the salmon then avocado. Push them down slightly to make sure they are compact.
6.00Top it up with the mango salsa and make sure they are well packed so they keep in shape and will not fall off when the ring is lifted out.
7.  Lift the ring when ready to serve and spoon some of the mayonnaise mix on to the salmon stack.

All ingredients well packed and supported by the ring

Tips:

• I would try make the mayonnaise with a pinch of chilli powder or curry powder the next time.

You may also like:

Halloumi Fig & Pomegranate Salad

Salmon Ceviche

Watermelon & Goat’s Cheese

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Seafood Stick Tortilla Cup

There must a time when you are left with too many tortilla wraps and not sure what to do with it. Well, I have found a way to use them! Instead of the usual tortilla chips, make them into little tortilla cups instead! You can always fill the cups with whatever filling you fancy. The recipe below is for fillings made with seafood stick. I know it is processed food and will not be very healthy but that was what I had in the fridge as my backup food and it's tasty. So when you are out of ingredients and have too many tortilla wraps, this could be a lovely option. Seafood stick is also handy for a quick addition into Tom Yum Soup or anything for that matter. Get creative!

Below is a step by step compilation of images and further down are the ingredients and methods.

Quarter the tortilla wraps and push each quarter into ramekins or muffin tray, whichever you have handy. Make sure the edges are pushed through but be careful not to break it.

Once all the ramekins or muffin tray is filled with tortilla wrap, fill each of them with some shallots and bake.

Fill the crispy tortilla cups with the mixed fillings and top with basil leaves.

Recipe: Seafood Stick Tortilla Cup

Ingredients:

• 2 tortilla wrap


• 2 shallots (sliced)


• 1 ripe avocado (sliced)


• 1/2 long sweet pepper (chopped)


• 200g seafood stick


• 4 tbs mayonnaise


• 10 basil leaves (tear)


• juice of 1 small lime


• sea salt & black pepper to taste


• extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.


2. Cut the tortilla wraps into quarters. Push each quarter into the ramekins / muffin tray.


3. Slice the shallots and place them in the tortilla cups.


4. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until tortilla cups are brown and crispy.


5. When the tortilla cups are ready, leave it to cool.


6. While waiting for the cups to bake, fork or tear the seafood sticks into long strips. You can also cut them with a knife, whichever way you prefer.


7. Mix the seafood stick strips, chopped peppers, basil leaves, lime juice and mayonnaise in a bowl and mix well.


8. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil then season with salt and pepper to taste. Give it a quick stir.


9. Slice the avocados and arrange them in the tortilla cups. Top it up with a generous amount of the crab stick mix.


10. Decorate it with basil leaves and they are ready to serve.

Note:

1. You can substitute the seafood stick with crab meat, tuna, pieces of chicken or even minced pork. Be creative, cooking is suppose to be fun.


2. This is also a quick and pretty party food.

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