Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

Butternut squash is just da bomb. Together with some leftover carrot and a few pieces of sundried tomatoes for extra oomph, it's a perfect lazy day dinner.

Serves 2 for a meal and 4 for an appetiser.

• 1/2 a butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 2 carrots, peeled and cubed
• 4 small red onions, sliced
• 3 sundried tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon of thyme
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 1/4 cup cream
• Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a pot over medium heat and saute onions till soft and translucent. Add squash and carrots and mix well. Add the stock, and top up with water if needed to cover everything. Throw in the sundried tomatoes, thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer until the vegetables are tender.

When the vegetables are tender, season with salt to taste, and add the cream. Pour the whole lot into a blender and whizz until you get a smooth creamy soup.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

So much for healthy eating. An interstitial on Food Network came on last night about Taiwanese Beef Noodles and a bulb went off in my head.

OK, it may be a stretch but it's kind of healthy. I didn't add too much oil and it's a soup nonetheless. I'll keep deluding myself into thinking this is healthy. Ohm ohm ohmmm....

Serves 2:

• 300g beef brisket, cut into cubes
• 1 tablespoon chilli bean paste
• 3 shallots finely sliced
• 1 knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 spring onion, cut into half
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 whole peppercorns
• 3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 large bowls of water
• Light soy sauce to taste
• 2 servings narrow kway teow

In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat. Sear beef cubes till browned and set aside.

In the remaining oil, saute ginger, anise, whole peppercorns and cinnamon stick till fragrant, then add shallots and continue sauteing until soft and translucent. Add the bean paste and saute, then pour in the water, followed by rice wine, dark soy sauce and stock cube. Throw in the spring onions and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 3 hours until beef is soft and tender.

When soup stock is ready, season with light soy sauce to taste, strain and set the beef aside. Parboil the kway teow in boiling water until tender and drain. Place noodles in a bowl, add meat and ladle soup over.

Crab Bisque

Once again, leftovers from crab waldorf salad, so naturally, it's crab bisque.

It's a little randomly thrown together from what I have in the fridge, but it tastes good!

Serves 2:

• 300ml chicken stock
• 300g crab meat
• 4 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
• 1/2 leek, thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped thyme
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Freshly ground black pepper and salt

If your crabmeat is raw, poach it in the simmering chicken stock for a few minutes till cooked. Drain the crabmeat and set aside the stock.

In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Saute the shallots till soft and translucent, then add the leeks and saute for a couple of minutes till cooked through. Add the stock back to the pot and add the wine, thyme, 200g of crabmeat and the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Pour everything into a blender and blend till smooth. To serve, place 50g of crabmeat into the bottom of a soup bowl, then ladle soup over and garnish with a sprig of thyme.

Rosy Borscht

Man... I've been putting this off for ages and the beets and parsnips in the fridge are almost qualifying for senior citizen benefits.

This version is more vegetable based, with only the beef or chicken stock providing the meat factor. However, if you prefer a meatier soup, start by simmering a slab of stewing beef in the stock. When nice and tender, shred fine and set aside. Then follow the recipe below, making sure that the vegetables are finely diced and sliced. Skip the blending and add the beef strips at the end for a chunky meat and veggie soup.

Serves 2 for a meal and 4 as an appetizer:

• 500ml beef or chicken broth
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 beetroot, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 parsnip, diced
• 1 potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup red cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Sour cream
• Freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Saute the onions and garlic till soft and translucent.

Add beets, carrots, parsnip, potato and bay leaf and mix well.

Add the beef stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 50 minutes to an hour until vegetables are tender.

Add the cabbage, leek, dill and vinegar and continue to simmer for another 10 - 15 minutes till cooked through. Season with freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaf and pour the contents of the pot into a food processor and blend till thick and smooth. If you prefer a chunky soup, skip the blending and serve as is.

Dot with a glob of sour cream for some flavour and contrast and serve hot.

More for the last meal:

• Buttermilk pancakes
• Perfect scrambled eggs
• Saffron-scented pumpkin and apple soup
• Panfried foie gras with a balsamic raspberry reduction
• Crabmeat pasta in a creamy tomato sauce
  
• Shrimp paella
• Triple chocolate cake
  
• Lemon meringue pie

Saffon-Scented Pumpkin and Apple Soup

Seeing how the weather has been lately, hot soup on a cold day in front of the TV sure sounds like a plan to me.

That said, it's freakin' hard to get skin off a pumpkin. Vegetable peelers are too wimpy, you'll need to wield a big-ass knife for the job. I haven't figured out an easier way to do it, except to bake or boil the whole damn thing then scoop out the soft flesh afterwards. But that requires more pots and pans and hence more wash up, so I'm sticking with the big-ass knife and some elbow grease.

For this recipe, I've added some red apple for a hint of sweetness. And because I have such a shitload of saffron, I'm going to pimp this out with a ton of the stuff.

Serves 4 (meal) or 6 (appetizer):

• 600g pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 red apple, peeled and diced
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped (can be replaced with 1 tablespoon roasted garlic paste)
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in 3 tablespoons hot water for 30 minutes
• 1/2 cup cream
• Freshly ground salt and black pepper

In a large soup pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Saute onion and garlic till fragrant and translucent, then add the pumpkin and apple and mix well.

Add the chicken stock, saffron water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup to a boil, then simmer on low heat for 1 hour until the pumpkin is cooked through and tender.

Add the cream and mix well, then pour the entire contents of the pot into a blender and hit frappe! You should get a fine texture and creamy consistency. Ladle into bowls and top off with a little swirl of cream for a pretty finish.

More for the last meal:

• Buttermilk pancakes
• Perfect scrambled eggs
• Rosy borscht
• Panfried foie gras with a balsamic raspberry reduction
• Crabmeat pasta in a creamy tomato sauce
  
• Shrimp paella
• Triple chocolate cake
  
• Lemon meringue pie

Prawn and Pork Rib Noodle Soup

It's all about the stock baby! Or in more colloquial terms, "Hae Mee baby!"

Simmer for hours and hours and hours and you'll get a rich, thick, cloudy broth of porky prawny goodness.

The aromatic herbs give the broth a deep character, and the garnishings complete the dish with a spicy and fragrant kick.

It's a bit of a bitch to prepare, so save this for weekends. Be warned, the soup will need to simmer for about 5 - 6 hours, so start in the morning for dinner.

This will essentially be my Friday project, so I'm hoping GBF, Miss Z, Mr DB, Miss A and Mr P will enjoy my toiling over a hot stove. Well, not quite, more like watching TV and golfing as I let the slow cooker do it's job.

Serves 4

• 24 prawns
• 500g pork ribs
• 200g of lean pork
• 80g ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 star anise
• 5 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1.2 litres water
• 300g yellow noodles
• 300g bee hoon (rice vermicelli)
• 50g kang kong, blanched
• 50g beansprouts, blanched
• 2 fishcakes, sliced
• Fried shallots
• Sliced fresh red chillies
• Chilli powder

Remove heads from prawns and shell, keeping the tails on. Reserve them for the stock. Make a deep slit along the top of the prawns and remove the black vein. Set aside in fridge.

In a large pot, heat the oil over high heat. Chuck in star anise, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and five-spice powder and sizzle till fragrant. You may want to use the pot lid as a shield, those spices have a tendency to crackle and pop something real bad.

Add pork ribs and lean pork and sear, then add prawn head and shells. Add the ikan bilis and garlic and sprinkle over the brown sugar. Fry for a further 5 minutes, then add water.

Bring to a boil, then turn down heat until the broth is gently simmering. At this point, you can also transfer to a slow cooker. Let simmer for 5 - 6 hours until the pork ribs are falling apart tender.

Remove the meat and strain the broth to remove the herbs, spices, prawn shells and other grimy bits. Skim off the scum from the surface as well.

Return the pork ribs to the broth. Slice and set aside the lean pork.

To assemble the dish, cook the yellow noodles and vermicelli in boiling water, drain and place in bowl. Add some beansprouts, kang kong, fishcake slices and lean pork slices.

Boil raw prawns in hot broth till just cooked and arrange 6 prawns in each bowl. Add a few pieces of pork ribs and ladle hot broth over the entire majestic scrummilicious damn thing.

Garnish with heaps of fried shallots, sliced red chiilies and a dash of chilli powder.

What can I say? I'm in prawny porky heaven.

Other items on the Childhood Comforts menu:

• Mee Swa Soup 
• Nonya Kaya

Mee Swa Soup

Variants of this dish was probably ubiquitous at anyone's childhood dinner table. It's a basic pork broth, with chunks of meat, vegetables and noodles. The home-cooked version of instant noodles, or a low-fi mee hoon kueh.

I haven't eaten this in nearly 15 years, and the inexplicable craving demands I must have it NOW.

Serves 2

• 200g minced pork
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons chinese rice wine
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soya sauce
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 10 shallots, finely sliced
• 3 bowls of water (this will reduce to 2 bowls, so use whatever bowls you'll be using to serve)
• 6 prawns, shelled and cleaned (I bought them, but forgot to add them. They're still in my fridge. Damnit!)
• 4 dried chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft and sliced (Left them out because I forgot to buy them)
• 2 bunches chye sim, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 4 small or 2 large bundles of mee swa
• 2 eggs

Season the minced pork with the sesame oil, wine, soya sauces, oyster sauce and garlic. Leave to marinate in fridge for an hour.

Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a wok on high heat and fry the shallots till golden brown and crisp. Set aside and leave oil in the wok.

A little note on fried shallots. They go from uncooked to burnt really fast. So, when you see them getting light brown, take them off the heat. They will continue cooking till golden brown in a more controlled manner, and gives you time to scoop them out without burning. If you're using them immediately, drain on paper towels. Otherwise, store them in airtight containers with the oil.

Sear the seasoned minced pork, breaking up into small lumps. Once cooked, pour over the water and add mushrooms. Bring to boil and then turn down the heat and let simmer for an hour.

When ready to eat, add chye sim and boil till just tender. Spoon the meat and veg into serving bowls, leaving the soup in the wok.

Slip in the mee swa and cook for a 2 minutes, then ladle into bowls. Mee swa cooks really fast, so watch it carefully. It's better to serve it slightly undercooked as the heat will continue to cook it.

At this point, the soup will be thicker, so add a bit more water if needed. Turn the stock up to a boil and crack in the eggs and add prawns. When the eggs are lightly poached, scoop into bowls and arrange prawns on top. Ladle the remaining soup to finish off.

And finally, the piece de resistance... Top with a generous mound of fried shallots, some tang chye and enjoy.

I want my mummy...

Other items on the Childhood Comforts menu:

• Prawn and Pork Rib Noodle Soup 
• Nonya Kaya