Quick & Healthy Pumpkin Soup

Yes I have been a lazy mofo, started a new job and haven't posted anything in a while LOL....

Easy pumpkin soup that nearly anyone can make. Perfect for a cold night with some crusty sliced bread. Fresh, delicious and healthy, really can't go wrong with this classic!

Ingredients:

• Whole Pumpkin, about 1kg will do
• 1x White Onion
• 1x Cups of Chicken Stock
• 1/2 Cup of Dry Cooking Wine
• Tablespoon of Oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Some cream to serve (optional)

Method:
Roughly cube up the pumpkin and the onions as it will be blitz up later anyways. Add oil to pan, drop in onions and cook till translucent then add in the pumpkin. Add in stock, wine and simmer on low heat till the pumpkin softens up and thickens up. This should take a total of 15~20 minutes depending on the heat setting. I used a gas stove so it is a tad quicker. Once done, remove from heat and blitz it up using a stick bender or a normal bender. Don't over do it or else you will end up having baby food. Just give a quick light whiz and you should be fine. Serve with crusty bread in a deep plate and add a touch of cream for that kick!

Serves: 6~8, depending on serving size
Time: 30 minutes
Cost: < $10

Japan: My Favourite Ramen Place in Akihabara

My favourite Ramen shop in Japan! I know it's unrelated to my blog, but I was just thinking about it today at work and I had to share it!

Super tasty Ramen, nice and thick and boy the broth is the best I have ever had! I'll try to find photos of it and post it up tonight!

View Larger Map

Spaghetti with Pork & Beef Meatballs



Cold and windy nights are always great tied in with some hearty food! This dish best served with some wine too! Probably not the healthiest dish ever, but it is not as bad as you think it is!

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti or Fettuccine (whatever is in the pantry will do)
• 5x Fresh Tomatoes
• 4x Pieces of Sun-dried Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 1x Jar of Pasta Sauce (yes I was lazy, I usually would make it from scratch)
• 1/2 of Red Wine (some cheap stuff will do)
• 250 grams of Pork Mince
• 250 grams of Beef Mince
• 1x Cup of Bread Crumbs (I used whole grain ones)
• 2x Eggs
• 1/2 Cup of Chopped Salami (Anything with good flavour will do)
• 1/4 Cup of Grate Cheese(s) (I just grated anything I found in the fridge, NFI what they were)
• 1/4 Cup of Parmesan Cheese (Optional)
• 1x Tablespoon of Mix Herbs
• 1x Teaspoon of Parsley (Fresh is better)
• 1x Teaspoon of Oregano (Fresh is better)
• 10x Garlic cloves, chopped up finely (Adjust to liking, I like HEAPS!)
• 1x Pinch of Salt and Pepper
• 1x Teaspoon of Chilli Flakes
• 2x Table spoon of Olive Oil

Method:

Combine all the non pasta sauce ingredients, i.e. everything excluding the pasta, pasta sauce, tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, wine and save like 5x cloves of chopped garlic for the sauce.

Mix the load with your hands or with a wooden spoon if you fancy. Once ingredients are all mixed thoroughly, roll into gold sized balls. Heat up a decent sized non-stick pan and fried all the meatballs, making sure they do not stick together. There's no need to cook them thoroughly, so remove once brown. Now add in the rest of the garlic, fried with the meatball oil/residue till brown, add in tomatoes, add in wine, pasta sauce and then simmer with the meatballs placed back in. Simmer until thicken to liking, flavour with some pepper and some salt and more herbs.

 

You guys all know how to cook pasta, no need for instructions :)

Serves: 6?

Time: ~1 hour (rolling up balls are boring)

Cost: $25 (provided you go to a butcher not a supermarket!)

Pho - Vietnamese Beef Soup with Rice Noodles

A nice and tasty dish best served when it is freezing. I often crave this at least once a week no matter where I am, or what I am doing. This meant I just had to learn how to make it, so with some researching and speaking to my aunty it turned out to be quite easy, although quite time consuming and best made a day before serving.

A quick fact, this dish is Vietnam's most famous which is ironic because the country is blistering hot!

Ingredients:

(Soup)

• 5kgs of beef bones (I used Ox tails and shoulder bones)
• 1x piece of tripe (optional, but I like to keep it authentic)
• 250 grams of tendon (optional, but I like to keep it authentic)
• 1kgs of Beef Balls
• 1kg flank (make sure it has nice fatty bits in it)
• 2x Pho satchels (contains: star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, other shit)
• 2x roasted onions
• 1x whole ginger root, squashed
• 1/2 cup of fish sauce
• 2x table spoons of sugar

 (To Serve)

• Rice Noodles, preferably fresh, not the dried shit you find in your supermarket, FRESH people!
• Hoisin Sauce, a fermented bean sauce used as a dipping sauce
• Hot Sriracha Chilli Sauce, a really hot chilli sauce, fantastic mixed with the hoisin
• Slice beef scotch fillet
• Fresh bean sprouts
• Thinly sliced onions
• Chopped Corriander
• Chopped Shallots, scallions as you Americaaaannns call them :)
• Asian basil
• Asian sawtooth basil
• Lemon or Lime

Method:

Soup: Launch all the bones, onions, ginger, pho satchels into around 8 litres of water and bring to a hard boil for around 15 minutes. Scoop off the layer of fat, then reduce heat and simmer for at least 5 hours to maximise taste. After the simmer period, scoop off the fat once again. Now add in the 1kg flank (whole), beef balls, tripe, and tendon, cook for around 45 minutes with the heat on medium. Once done, remove the tripe, tendon, flank making sure the tripe and tendon are soft. Begin to flavour the soup with fish sauce, and sugar. You will find out that the soup itself it quite tasty after adding the fish sauce, add sugar to balance out the flavour. You might find that adding some salt to it as well will make it taste better along with the fish sauce.

Once the soup is complete, and you're ready to serve. Slice up the flank, around 5mm thick, chop up the tendon into nice bite size chunks, and as for the tripe into strips.

To serve, layer the bowl first with rice noodles (makes sure you nuke them so they're hot), layered with bean sprouts, thinly sliced onions, shallots, basil, sawtooth basil, then the tendons, beef balls, flank and lastly the raw thinly sliced scotch fillet. Bring the soup to a boil and pour on top, this will cook the raw beef. Serve with some lemon squeezed over and with the hoisin and the hot chilli dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Serves: 10+

Time: ~ 6+ hours

Cost: $60

Spiced Chicken with Prosciutto Skewers



Quick and easy, especially after work when you're tired and lazy. I came up with this idea when I was strolling through Coles during my lunch break.

Ingredients:

• 1x Chicken Breast (half it they're huge)
• 4x Slices of Prosciutto cut into strips
• 1x Tablespoon of Paprika
• 1x Tablespoon of Mild Curry Powder
• 1/4x Teaspoon of Cumin Powder
• 2x Tablespoons of Dry White Wine
• Pinch of Salt & Pepper
• Mixed Salad
• 1x Cucumber
• Garlic Flakes
• Chilli Flakes
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Chopped Prosciutto
• Tzatziki Sauce

Method:

Chicken Skewers: Cube up the chicken breast into nice bite sized chucks. Place into bowl and mix with paprika, curry powder, cumin, wine, oil, salt and pepper and leave it to sit in the fridge for around 1 hour (great time to duck off to the gym). Remove from fridge and place onto skewers with prociutto, i.e. for every piece of chicken there should be one piece of prociutto. Heat up the grill or BBQ and cook until nice and golden/crisp.

Salad: Add into a bowl the mixed salad, chop up prosciutto into small pieces, add some salt & pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic flakes, chilli flakes and mix thoroughly. Once nicely mixed, add in chopped cucumber.

Once chicken skewers are cooked, serve with warm pita bread, tzatziki sauce. Fantastic!

Serves: 2 with Pita Bread and Salad

Time: ~25 minutes

Cost: $15

Rare Sliced Beef Rump with Garlic, Sesame and Dark Soy

 

 

 

Simple lazy dish I knocked up after work mid week. It's healthy enough once you combine it with some veggies and eaten with whole grain rice!

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of Beef Rump (the leaner the better for your health)
• 2x Garlic cloves, chopped up finely (dried garlic is fine too, just use 2 teaspoons)
• 1x Table spoon of Dark Soy sauce aka Kecap Sauce
• 1x Pinch of Salt and Pepper
• 1x Teaspoon of Chilli Flakes
• 1x Splash of White Wine
• 1x Table spoon of Olive Oil

Method:

Quite easy and quick, combine all ingredients together and leave to marinate for around 1 hour. Remove, heat up a non-stick pan and fry at maximum heat for around 2~3 minutes each side. Reduce heat to half and cook either side for another 2~3 minutes. Remove from heat, plate it and wrap it up with foil. Leave to sweat.

Plate up rice and chop up some fresh veggies. Slice beef into 4mm strips, layer onto dish and drizzle with sauce.

Serves: 2 with rice

Time: ~20 minutes

Cost: $15 (provided you go to a butcher not a supermarket!)

I'm still alive :)

Been a while since I've posted, but 2011 is here and hopefully my cooking will be back on track. Fast food, take away, dining, 2.5 weeks of ramen doesn't do good on the flab!

Stay tuned, lets see what I can whip up this week!