Far East Inspired Soup

Hello everyone! I must apologize that I have missed a couple of posts, not because of anything other than laziness. I thought I had ‘banked’ enough to last me through the weekend but I hadn’t so my blog remained inactive over the weekend. Our wonderful friends Paul and T paid us a visit, arriving on Friday and going back home on Monday. We had a great time, did lots of fun stuff (yes, I’ll blog about that soon) and ate and drank excessively! Now we are recovering until next time!

I’m inspired by many of the blogs I follow, if not for the recipe, but perhaps an ingredient or even a plating, but I know when an inspiration hits me over the stuffed-up head and it resonates throughout the day with a burning desire (no, not THAT!). Kelly over at Inspired Edibles presented this soup at the beginning of the year and it stuck in my head like that song (sorry about that, peeps) and I knew I had to make it, or something like it. I adore the Asian flavours in a soup, add some rice noodles and I’m in Seventh Heaven. It turned out that I didn’t have some of the ingredients for Kelly’s soup, so I had to improvise, but let me tell you it was YUM. That’s Y. U. M. It was like a lemongrass, sweet and sour, vegetable soup, all of the things that make you happy. That’s right, the epitome of Happy Food.

Sweet, sour, tangy, delicious

Asian Inspired Soup

Serves 1  in a large bowl (ingredients are just rough, you can use your own taste to determine your version)

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp Sesame oil and a splash of canola oil
• 140 g mushrooms (about 3/4 cup), quartered
• 100 g shrimps and scallops (3 large shrimp and 1 scallop), cleaned and sliced down the middle
• 60 g onions, sliced finely (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 tsp coriander
• 10 g garlic, roughly chopped (2-3 cloves)
• 10 g fresh ginger, roughly chopped (about 2-3 tablespoons)
• 10 g lemongrass, roughly chopped (about 2-3 tables spoons)
• 5 g Galangal
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
• 3 Kaffir lime leaves
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 roma tomato, quartered
• handful of rice noodles

Garnish:

• 1/4 cup finely sliced green onion
• pepper flakes

Directions:

1. Heat the water in your kettle until boiling. Pour over the rice noodles and allow to sit until they are totally reconstituted, 10-15 minutes. Do not over soak, you want a bit of a bite to it.
2. In a large soup pan, heat the two oils until hot but not smoky (the sesame oil has a very low smoke point). Add the onions and stir until slightly translucent. Add the shrimp and scallop and cook lightly. Turn the heat down to a simmer and add the mushrooms. Sprinkle the coriander on the shrimp and onions and stir quickly until aromatic.
3. Combine the garlic, ginger, lemongrass and galangal in an infuser (mine is like this) and put it into the soup pan. Add all of the stock and water and add the lime juice, fish sauce, and hoisin saucekafir leaves, galangal, fish sauce, lime juice, and hoisin sauce. Stir well.
4. Bring to a very light boil and allow to simmer for about 5-6 minutes (be careful so your shrimp and scallop don’t over cook). Add the tomatoes but don’t overcook, just heat them up.
5. Put one third of the cold noodles into a large decorative white bowl. Add ladle-fulls of the soup and garnish with the green onion and pepper flakes. Enjoy.

Cooks tips:

• Store your fresh ginger knobs in the freezer in a resealable container; grate on a fine micro-plane grater when required, you need not peel it! Keeps indefinitely.
• I usually buy a large quantity of lemongrass and chop them finely in my food processor, and then I freeze them in a reusable container. I can usually break off what I need.
• If you are taking the left overs to work, I recommend storing the cooked noodles in a separate container to the soup so that they don’t absorb any more liquid. When you reheat the soup, do so to just before boiling (so the chicken doesn’t cook further) and that way when you put the chilled noodles in, they will cool it down to a palatable level.
• Fish sauce is used in thai cooking instead of salt.
• To save time, I have sometimes used Rosa’s Lime Cordial instead of lime juice, but you have to remember NOT to add the hoisin sauce as that is also sweet.

Still tastes the same, just in sheeps clothing

Read Full Post »

Gluten Free and Vegetarian Quinoa Mushroom Risotto

I would have never thought that eating vegetarian would leave me so satisfied. And I don’t have the afternoon snackie feeling either. I’ve done well, down 3lbs this week…but I’ve also been working out like a fiend. 16km each day on my bike on Tuesday and Wednesday, and working out cardio and weights everyday this week (don’t worry, I mix up the muscle groups that I work on!). But I am tired…not quite 25 anymore (who am I kidding, I’m not even 35 anymore!!!).

The foods we have prepared are tasty but I must admit it is a bit of a challenge when you have to find recipes each day to cook (kinda like learning to cook again!). I came up with the Quinoa Mushroom Risotto because I was in the mood for a risotto and I didn’t want the carbs that rice has (and I’m still not eating meat during the week). I also came up with a great idea on how to achieve the creaminess that Arborio rice brings to the table, without adding cream or butter!

Pull up a chair and enjoy.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red and white Quinoa uncooked
• 545 g variety of mushrooms
• 3 small shallots, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp roasted garlic purée (see note below)
• 3 tbsp navy bean paste (see note below)
• 100 mL water
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In a cast iron pan, toast the quinoa until they begin to pop, remove immediately. Cook as per directions on package.
2. In cast iron dutch oven, give a good squirt of cooking spray and heat. Add the Shallots and cook gently, adding a bit of water if the oil dries up. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft.
3. Mix the roasted garlic purée with the navy bean paste, adding enough water to make a thick sauce (like a roux). Pour it into the mushroom mixture and stir well.
4. Add the cooked Quinoi, thyme and soy sauce to the mushrooms and stir until everything is coated with the garlic bean purée.
5. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Quinoa is a super food, but you still shouldn't wear a cape if you eat it.

Notes:

Roasted garlic purée

Take a head of garlic and roast with olive oil and sea salt in the oven until soft (I usually do it in a ramekin, not foil). Pop the cloves out into an immersion blender jar and purée until smooth. Add vegetable stock or water to make the consistency you need. I usually roast a bunch and freeze in special ice cub trays — pop out into a zip lock bag and return to freezer (don’t do it in your regular ice cub tray, otherwise your gin and tonic will taste garlic-y!)

Navy bean purée

Cook dried navy beans until soft. Purée with an immersion blender until you have a very smooth paste adding only as much water as the blender needs to continue the purée. Store in a glass container in the fridge and use as needed. I have used this paste as a roux for many things.

Read Full Post »

Sizzling Mushrooms, an easy, interactive hors d’œuveres

HAPPY ST PATRICK’s DAY. I have NOTHING green for you, other than this, hope you enjoy it.

I had my hair appointment this week. I book it as early as I can in the afternoon, without having to leave work early. I got 6pm. I had a couple of things done (I won’t divulge my secrets !) and although I do love my stylist, Jordan, he does have the gift of the gab. A simple cut can take over an hour. I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth, and then some. I wish they served wine, just saying. The appointment this week would be at least two hours long. Good old JT figured I’d be starving by then, so he whipped up an old favourite for cocktails (yes, we had cocktails before my appointment even though it was Thursday. We had time for cocktails but not for dinner. So, what of it?). This recipe is quite forgiving so the quantities are not exact. I urge you to try it to your taste. It is one yummy combo, that’s for sure!

We had this appetizer quite a few years ago, in a place that no longer exists; we up’d the anti, of course!

Sizzling Mushrooms

Serves 2-4

Careful, they are called sizzling for a reason

Ingredients:

• 4-5 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced coarsely (we had white ones that needed to be used, but forest or wild would be incredible as well)
• 1 tsp butter
• 1/4 cup finely sliced onions
• 1 clove garlic finely minced
• 1/4 cup crumbled sheeps milk feta
• 2 tbsp cognac
• a few slices of French stick, or crackers

Delicious lightly buttery shrooms, sweet onion, tangy garlic and sheeps milk feta...oh wait, there is a splash of cognac in that too!

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a cast iron pan (cast is best as it holds the heat longer, after all, it is called SIZZLING!)
2. Add the onions and sauté until slightly translucent, add the mushrooms and sauté until they have a bit of colour. Add the garlic and sauté just until you can smell its delicious aroma.
3. Pour the cognac in all at once, you may flambé at this point or not.
4. Sprinkle the feta into the mushrooms and give it a stir. You can add a bit of Thyme into it at this point, we didn’t, we forgot (having got into the martinis already !)
5. Serve immediately with Vodka Martinis (I don’t care if you shake or stir, just do it!).

Read Full Post »

Wild Mushroom Velouté

This velouté was part of the 5 course dinner we served to an old friend and his fiancée. He had suffered a heart attack about a month earlier, so I wanted to make sure the dinner was super healthy. No saturated fats, few carbs, not too filling, but really satisfying. The mushroom velouté is a creamed mushroom sauce that I poured over the roast loin of pork. It was earthy, flavourful and simply delicious. But warning, you really must love the earthy taste of mushrooms, this really has it.

Makes about 2 cups of thick gravy or 3 cups of thinner gravy. The photo is a velouté I made about a year ago, and used it as a creamed soup instead. Very tasty, either way.

An alternate use for the mushroom velouté

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of finely chopped shallots
• 2 cups roughly chopped cremini mushrooms
• 1/2 cup finely shredded celeriac
• 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• 2 cups mushroom ‘stock’
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• about 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup of dehydrated wild mushrooms
• non stick spray
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp lemon thyme

Directions:

1. The night before you make the sauce, reconstitute the dehydrated wild mushrooms in 2 cups of water. When they have fully softened, strain the liquid through a coffee filter, reserve liquid. Wash the re-hydrated mushrooms well, getting all the sand out. Set aside
2. In a hot skillet, spray a good squirt of non stick spray.
3. Sauté the shallots until translucent. Add all of the creminis, the celeriac and the garlic. Sauté until soft. Add a bit of the mushroom stock and the Dijon mustard, stir well to incorporate.
4. Separate the ugly, tiny, really mushy bits of the rehydrated mushrooms and set aside. Of the lovely re-hydrated mushrooms, slice those that are a little too big to eat, remember, this is a chunky sauce.
5. Cool slightly, pour contents into your immersion blender jar and add all of the mushroom stock, ugly little bits of the re-hydrated mushrooms and purée until smooth. Add the vegetable stock to achieve the consistency you desire.
6. Now add all of the lovely, sliced re-hydrated wild mushrooms and stir well. Salt to taste. Stir in the lemon thyme just before serving.

Read Full Post »