Pork Rib Potato Carrot Celery Corn and Tomato Soup

Pork Rib Potato Carrot Celery Corn and Tomato Soup

Mum really liked cooking this Pork Rib Potato Carrot Celery Corn and Tomato Soup for us when we were kids. Sometimes she used chicken instead of pork, but either way the soup turned out sweet and tasty and we would spoon it generously over our rice. I have to ask her some day if it was as I've remembered her telling us, that she learnt how to make this soup when she was a demonstrator for Hagemeyer-National Panasonic back in the 1970s.

I've not eaten it for a long time, for when you use the same ingredients (minus the meat and corn and eventually adding other vegetables like cabbage or leek) in a French family, you always end up mixing up everything with a hand mixer and eating the soup as a soupe aux légumes.

But I thought quite a bit about it some time back and felt like having it again. So I made some when Hub was away and fed the kids and myself with it as part of dinner for a few evenings. Part of it (soup only) also went into making rice porridge. It was a nice trip back to the past for me.

Pork Rib Potato Carrot Celery Corn and Tomato Soup :

1 kg pork ribs

1 potato (cubed largely)

2 carrots (cubed largely)

2 stalks celery (peeled and quartered)

1 stalk corn (chopped into 3)

6 cherry tomatoes

water

salt and pepper to taste

fresh coriander leaves to garnish with

Bring half a pot of water to the boil and add in the ribs. Bring to the boil again then let it simmer for 5 minutes. Drain the water, rinse the ribs under running water and fill the pot with water again.

When the water comes to the boil, return the ribs to the pot, add in the corn, cover and simmer for 35 minutes.

Add in the potatoes, carrots and celery. Cover the pot and simmer again for another 30 minutes.

15 minutes before serving add in the cherry tomatoes. Remove the skin from the tomatoes when you can do so easily.

Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Daikon and Pork Bone Soup

Daikon and Pork Bone Soup

A typical Chinese household enjoys a nourishing soup and 3-4 dishes for dinner most evenings. In our half-Chinese household, where the European half prefers his soups mushy and thick (like when he was a baby), the thin Chinese nourishing soup doesn't make much of an appearance. Except for the Bak Kut Teh which Hub for some reason loves.

Hub has been travelling quite a lot recently, with a new project starting in Guangzhou and meetings to attend in Europe and elsewhere. In fact he left for Korea on Sunday afternoon and promptly texted me a few hours later to say that he had left his wallet at home. How he expected to pay for his hotel rooms, taxis, rental cars, food etc over 5 days and in 3 different countries across the continents I have no idea.

In his absence I felt the need to affirm my Cantonese roots and started boiling soups a few nights in a row. Lotus root and pork ribs with red and honey dates, herbal chicken...and my current favourite : Daikon (White Radish) and Pork Bone.

If I had to be frank it probably started when I saw them selling this gigantic pork bone in the supermarket. It looked like the ones you see all the time in The Flintstones. I just had to buy it and since it had no meat on it it had to go into making soup.

I've also been pretty envious of those Japanese ladies seen hugging a nice white daikon root, somehow it spells domesticity, simplicity and a lot of smell in the kitchen once you decide to boil it.

You see one end of the big bone in the picture

But the result was worth the farty smell. Daikon and pork bone make a sweet and tasty soup. It also acts as a sort of laxative so if you believe the Chinese, do not take any vitamins or medication with it. Not something you'll want to consume more than once or twice weekly. Though if you've made a big pot like me (the bone was gigantic as was the daikon), you may end up using it as a stock base for everything else you'll cook in the week, including a curry.

Chinese soups are best consumed immediately but since I wanted to remove the fat in it I waited till the next day.

Daikon and Pork Bone Soup :

big pork bone (can also use pork ribs, of course)

one daikon (sliced into large pieces)

carrot (optional)

water

salt to taste

Bring half a pot of water to boil and place the pork bone in it for blanching.

Bring the water to boil again. It will become quite dirty with scum. Drain the water and rinse the pork bone under a running tap. Clean out the pot if necessary.

Bring a fuller pot of water to boil this time and return the bone to the pot. When it starts to boil again, add the daikon and carrots. Cover and boil on low-medium heat for at least an hour. I usually let it simmer after the first hour for a few hours more.

Add salt to taste before serving.

Cream of Porcini (Crème aux Cèpes)

Cream of Porcini

Lunched with a Chinese friend AD yesterday and she told me about a friend of hers who seemed to be really good at fortune telling. The girl has apparently predicted extra-marital relationships, divorces, pregnancies, illnesses etc with uncanny accuracy.

I am not a particularly superstitious person, but I do not rule out supernatural/metaphysical or illogical occurrences in life. Just for fun I passed AD my birth date and this morning she called to inform me of her friend's initial calculations.

We have never met, but the girl knew a few things about me that she normally shouldn't know. She even made a few quick predictions which involved my marriage and a loved one's health. They were a little cryptic, but not without foundation.

I was reading a biography of Sun Yaoting the last eunuch of China recently and there was a passage in the book that described a prediction in an old Taoist almanac about his life : "Enough food and clothing. Without wife or children." Another of his eunuch friends told him that he shared the same prediction. Sad...

Just for fun I went on the Net and worked out the (western) astrological birth charts for my family, even checked out the compatibility predictions for me and Hub and for me and an ex boyfriend. It was amazing what they said about us, I couldn't have put it better into words myself. I did one for my little sister too and one funny bit was the prediction that she would have a big family and of course she's at this moment waiting for her 4th baby to pop out.

All the above had nothing to do with the Cream of Porcini soup that I made this afternoon, but I did spend quite a bit of time contemplating about life and destiny while making it. How much of our life is destined (e.g. decided by the position of the planets at the time/moment of our birth) and how much of it is made by our own will and actions? Should I be happy with the way my life has turned out, or should I work at making it a more interesting and useful one? Am I really destined to finish my days as a boring housewife?

The soup turned out well, a success with Hub and Baby Girl. There is nothing like eating according to the seasons and while the Chinese porcini lacks the intense aroma and taste of its French and Italian relatives, it makes up (a little) for it with is firm texture. I cheated with dried Italian porcini for the soup stock, so let's just close one eye and get on with life.

Cream of Porcini (feeds 2) :

3-4 dried porcini

120ml white wine

25g salted butter

2-3 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped)

1 leek (sliced)

2 large fresh porcini (cleaned and roughly sliced)

fresh thyme

2 tbsp plain flour (for thickening)*

600ml chicken stock

cream

black pepper to taste

In a small saucepan gently heat up the white wine and add the dried porcini. Do not let the wine boil or it'll evaporate. Remove from the fire and allow the porcini to infuse/soften in the hot wine for at least 15 minutes. Remove the porcini from the wine, chop it finely and set aside. Reserve the wine.

Melt the butter in a soup pot and fry the garlic and leek till fragrant. Add the fresh porcini and thyme and cook till soft.

Stir in the flour followed by the porcini-infused wine (like making a béchamel). Then stir in the chicken stock (try to remove the lumps), cover the pot and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the stalk of thyme and mix the soup till it's smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, drizzle some cream over it and serve with the reserved dried porcini. (Or if you prefer it, cook the dried porcini in the soup and mix everything up together.)

*The flour can be replaced by a small potato to help thicken the soup.

Mulligatawny Soup

Mulligatawny Soup

Most people lose weight for the summer. Not only did we (as in Hub, Baby Girl and myself) not shed any kilos, we actually put pile them on merrily. Now that we have moved into the autumn, we realise that we are FAT big time, even pregnant with the kids I've never weighed this much.

Seriously it wasn't my fault : that we are not living in the heart of the city where I could walk to shops (you wouldn't want to take the metro in Shanghai, it actually crashes from time to time - not that I have any public transportation within a 2km radius of my compound); that we had to leave Italy and have so many farewell lunches and dinners; that we had to arrive in Shanghai and eat out every day in the first few months; that we should have guests almost every month and end up eating lunch in restaurants all the time; that I love to eat.

Still, we look horrendously fat. I had to go all the way to London to shop for clothes last week because there is no way I can fit into Chinese sizes. Even H&M carries mainly EU 32/34 here. You could imagine my joy when I was at Coast, FCUK, Monsoon...on the British Isle and found that they carried UK size 16s. Not that I'm happy about wearing UK size 16. But I couldn't possibly keep wearing my XL Club Med bermudas and X-sized T-shirt when there's no way I can keep pretending that I'm on my way to the beach with us being so much into the Fall.

I had to buy 2 LV bags (on behalf of the Chinese girl servicing our villa) at the Champs Elysées the other day and was the only person in Birkenstocks, bermudas and T-shirt in the super expensive boutique. And the nearest beach is like a few hours away by TGV so I wondered what they wondered when they saw me. Luckily I diverted the salesman from my person to concentrate on my past - because I threw names around and the former Sciences Po classmate I mentioned happened to be the guy's former manager (what a bloody small world) and of course he wanted to know more about what she was like when we were at school together...

But it was great spending another person's money chez LV since we are too poor to afford any such branded bags ourselves, though I was a little nervous as I walked through the Gare du Nord with the bags to take my train, having read an article about pickpocketing gypsies in Paris Match not too long ago.

So Hub said we should have soup for dinner. Carrot and coriander Soup, bak kut teh, leek and potato soup, pho, chicken soup, dhal soup, tom yum soup, tomato soup, hot and sour soup, won ton soup...I've done them all. Then he asked for Mulligatawny Soup which much as I adore is a waste of good deboned leg of lamb that I usually buy every week. Then I noticed that Madhur Jaffrey has a recipe that doesn't call for the use of bone (thank you, chicken stock) which would also give me a chance to check out how well-stocked my Indian neighbour (from New Delhi) is seeing that I do not have besan (chickpea) flour.

I managed to borrow a few tablespoons of said flour this morning as we waited for the school bus. Also met her husband as he was eating his breakfast. He works for Pepsi.

No, he didn't offer me free Pepsi. And we have not lost any weight even after eating all those soups.

Mulligatawny Soup (loosely adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's An Invitation to Indian Cooking) :

3 tbsp vegetable oil

8 cloves garlic

2-cm piece fresh ginger

600g boneless leg of lamb (fat removed and cut into small cubes)

1 tsp ajwain seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp salt

1 fresh green or red chilli (sliced)

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1,5l chicken broth

2 tbsp lentils

2 tbsp besan (chickpea) flour

juice of 1 lemon

fresh coriander leaves

fried shallots

cooked basmati rice

Heat the oil in a soup pot and brown the lamb cubes in it. Remove and set aside.

Pound the ginger and garlic into a paste. You can see bits of garlic in my soup as I didn't have the patience to pound it into a fine paste.

Fry the ginger-garlic paste in the oil till fragrant. Add in the fresh chilli, ajwain seeds, pepper, salt and ground spices.

Return the lamb to the pot, add the lentils and cover with chicken broth. Cover the pot and simmer on low heat for at least an hour or till the lamb is melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Leave to cool and keep the pot in the fridge for a few hours so as to be able to remove the fat easily.

Heat up the soup. Dilute the besan flour in a bowl of water and stir into the hot soup.

Stir in the lemon juice and serve hot with (2 tbsp of) rice, fresh coriander leaves and fried shallots.

Really nice day to be eating this soup as it has been raining non-stop since this morning.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Carrot and Coriander Soup

It is not easy making the children eat vegetables. I have to resort to hiding them in soups and for that European-style soups where normally everything is mashed up serve the purpose.

I was invited to lunch at a Singaporean girl's place the other day and she made this carrot soup that was very nice. There was a slightly acidic bite to it which had been achieved with the use of orange juice and red wine vinegar and once home I decided to make my own version which has since become very popular with the family. I like my soup rather spicy so omit the dried chilli if you do not like yours so.

Carrot and Coriander Soup :

500g carrots

500g potatoes

1 medium onion

olive oil

2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 dried chilli

a bunch of fresh coriander leaves

salt and pepper to taste

1,5l water

0,5l orange juice

red wine vinegar to taste

Peel carrots, potatoes and onion and chop them roughly into pieces.

Heat some olive oil in a big soup pot and fry the onions and cumin seeds till fragrant. Add the potatoes followed by the carrots and coat them with the oil.

Crush the dried chilli and add to the vegetables. Salt and pepper to taste. Add in the fresh coriander.

I like to start out by covering the vegetables with 2 glasses of hot water. Once everything starts to boil, pour in the rest of the water (room temperature), cover the pot and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer the soup for at least 30 minutes.

About 10 minutes before serving, pour in the orange juice. Simmer.

Mix everything with a hand mixer till smooth. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning (e.g. salt and pepper), add red wine vinegar to taste. Serve hot with some cream and a few slices of crusty bread.

Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup

Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup

I've made this soup often enough this winter but never got round to having a photo of it taken. It's either too dark out there, or Hub gobbled it down before I could say "What ze..?" and finally I was too busy yesterday trying to carry out my cookery lesson without major incident that I hadn't thought of taking any photos.

But there are always leftovers. And they sometimes taste even better reheated.

With the move so near, I really have no time to make elaborate meals so everything has to be quick and easy. This week I've made Vegetable Couscous with Grilled Merguez Sausages, Steak and Fried Potatoes, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala (with leftover Tandoori Chicken) and Ikan Assam Pedas (needed to liquidate ginger flowers). And in between, I would make this Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup as Hub loves it, I have frozen shrimps and it's a fast dish to prepare.

Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup :

2 tbsp peanut oil

1 onion (sliced)

2 lemongrass stalks (bashed and sliced)

1 large piece galangal (sliced)

1 large garlic clove (chopped)

4-6 kaffir lime leaves (shredded)

2 tbsp red curry paste

500ml hot chicken stock

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 bird's eye chillies

salt and pepper to taste

400ml coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon

250g raw prawns

a few fresh mushrooms of some sort

a few fresh tomatoes (quartered)

a few fresh pineapple slices

fresh coriander and basil leaves for garnishing

Heat oil in a soup pot and fry the onions, lemongrass, galangal and garlic till fragrant.

Add the lime leaves and the curry paste. Fry till the oil seeps out of the paste then pour in the hot stock.

Add fish sauce and chillies, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes to let the savours infuse.

Add the coconut milk and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.

A few minutes before serving, add the mushrooms, tomatoes and pineapple slices (if using them) followed by the prawns.

Garnish with the fresh herbs and serve hot. I sometimes add glass noodles to the soup make a more complete meal.

Tuscan-style Porcini/Cèpe Soup

Tuscan-style Porcini Soup

Our last group lunch in Tuscany took place in a nice little restaurant Osteria di Porta al Cassero in Montalcino. We were really surprised to discover such a simple and nice restaurant in a touristic little place. The menu was limited in choice but whatever they served you was hearty, rustic and delicious. Everything was homemade including the hand rolled pasta of the region - the pici/pinci.

I loved the pici all'aglione (garlic tomato sauce) served in the Osteria, but its Tuscan-style Porcini Soup was the best. I promised myself that I'd make it at home and since I had a rather large fresh porcini leftover from last week, I did just that this afternoon for lunch.

I cannot claim to have reproduced the same soup, but for a first try, it wasn't bad. It will need a bit more figuring out, but on this try it was onion-meet-garlic-meet-porcini soup more or less.

Tuscan-style Porcini Soup (serves 1) :

1 medium-large fresh porcini mushroom (cubed)

2 dried porcini mushrooms (soaked for at least 20 minutes in hot water)

2 large garlic cloves (bashed and minced)

1 small onion (chopped)

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp rosso di montalcino or aged porto

1 small bay leaf (torn)

1 beef stock cube

500ml hot water

1-2 tsp concentrated tomato paste (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

2 dried bird's eye chillies

toasted country bread rubbed with fresh garlic

grated pecorino cheese (optional)

In a small pot, sweat the onions on low heat in the olive oil.

Add the minced garlic. When they are fragrant, add the cubed porcini mushrooms.

Pour in the red wine, add the bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour in the soaked dried mushrooms together with its water.

Pour in the hot water and add the stock cube.

Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it hot with slices of garlicked toasted country bread (I used white bread as I've nothing else in the pantry) and grated pecorino cheese. This is very typical of Tuscan soups, making a liaison between bread and soup.

Osteria di Porta al Cassero

via Ricasoli 32,

Montalcino.

Tel : 057 784 7196

Herbal Chicken Soup

Herbal Chicken Soup

I was thinking of Selena. We were in the same class in Primary school (P2 or 3) and I still remember her head full of tight curls and her tendancy to walk with her tummy up, like a pregnant little girl. She had marked me where curls are concerned. Told me that hers came from twirling them tightly with a pencil all the time, and I believed her - for at least 2 decades.

I could never look at any head with short tight curls without thinking of Selena. And wondering if they too got their curls from twirling them tightly with a pencil all the time. When I finally had to accept that most curls like that had to be natural, I was already a woman in my late 20s with recurring nostalgic dreams about little girls from my past.

Actually Selena probably was the "pregnant" little girl with dark skin and a straight bob, while X (couldn't remember her name, but could vaguely see her face) was another classmate with the short tight curls, but somehow in my memories today they often roll into one and the same person...If you were from Balestier Girls' School (Singapore) in the late-1970s/early-1980s when Ms Han (always dressed in a cheongsam) was the Principal, drop me a note. I started out in Primary 1B and was then in 2A, 3A, 4A...BGS was also my mother's alma mater, if I am not mistaken.

I searched Facebook today and found the Primary school that I was transferred to in 1983 when Balestier Girls was demolished. There was a discussion thread started by someone from the pioneer batch and I probably knew her. Funny enough, she also knew 2 of my former colleagues from MND. She mentioned a boy whom I also knew and I realised that he went to junior college with one of my cousins. What a small world...

Ah...nostalgia. Anyway, to celebrate Alonso's/Ferrari's win at the Singapore Grand Prix, I've decided to make Herbal Chicken Soup and Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner. Now we're on track for at least the Driver's Title, it's always nice to have hope again.

Herbal Chicken Soup is delicious and at the same time nourishing. Chinese soups contain herbs balancing yin and yang properties and are meant to help you improve your health e.g. aid digestion, absorption of nutrients, improve the heart, aid blood circulation, improve sleep, reduce irritability...

qizi, dangshen, yuzhu, huaishan, beiqi, danggui...

Used judiciously, for example by adding dried fruit for sweetness, they even add a pleasant taste to your soup and can become quite addictive with time. My European husband and children love it and were wondering why I didn't make these soups more often. I didn't want to feed them too much tonics, lest they become too healthy. :-)

White-boiled chicken

I have bought a few packets of Chinese herbs when I was in Singapore last year and use them sparingly to make the occasional herbal chicken soup. Basically one could boil the chicken with the herbs (I put them in 2 large teabag filters) in a few bowls of water for 2 hours till you get a reduced, rather dark and dense soup; or one could add alot of water and get a lighter, more subtle soup. I dislike eating very boiled chicken so I basically cook my chicken in the herbal soup the way I would when making Hainanese chicken rice, remove the meat from the chicken and then return the carcass to the soup to be boiled for another 2 hours.

Chopped up and brushed with soy sauce and sesame oil

I served the soup with rice (boiled in chicken stock, garlic and pandan leaves) and the chicken. Hub caught Babinette in the kitchen at 10 in the evening trying to finish the meat on the carcass (from the soup), which goes to show how much she had enjoyed her dinner.

French Garlic Soup (Soupe à l'Ail)

French Garlic Soup

Many years ago I've blogged about my cream of garlic soup and if you were with me then, you would know that I love garlic and that I live through periods when I eat alot of it (no, our house is not haunted as far as I know, and I'm not trying to keep Hub away). Coming back from France with my precious horde of pink garlic from Toulouse and from the Dordogne, I have been thinking about how I could do them justice and it seemed like time to make French Garlic Soup again.

This time however I roasted my garlic in the oven before making it into a soup. In the past 2 years, I have found pleasure in slicing whole heads of garlic into 2 whenever I could and roasting them in the oven this way saves one the need to peel them one clove at a time.

We had the soup for dinner and accompanied it with an Omelette aux Girolles. In the Dordogne, they used to serve a Tourin à l'Ail to newly-weds the morning after the wedding. To help keep them apart for a few hours?

Soupe à l'Ail (serves 4) :

4 large whole heads of Pink Garlic (sliced into 2)

Enough Olive oil/Duck fat to layer the bottom of a baking dish

1.2 litres of Chicken stock

Fresh Thyme, Bay leaf, Sage

1 small Potato (sliced into small cubes)

3 Tbsp Flour

1 Tbsp Red wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

200ml Milk

1 Egg Yolk (optional)

Fresh Parsley for garnishing

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Basically you will need one whole head of garlic for each person that you'll be feeding. Slice them across the cloves and place them cut-side down in a baking dish that has been thinly layered with olive oil. Actually, I've added duck fat to the olive oil - inspired by the Dordogne version of the soup. Bake for about an hour. They will become soft and the side touching the oil will be roasted. When you lift up the garlic, the garlic pieces will normally just fall out. No need for any peeling.

That one half-head was a bit over-roasted

At the same time boil the cubes of potato in the chicken stock together with the fresh herbs till they are cooked. Fish out the potato and set aside the stock.

Add the cooked potatoes to the cooked garlic in the baking dish, together with the flour, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix everything together and mash into a purée.

Bring the chicken stock to a gentle boil and add the garlic purée. Stir to mix well, add the milk and simmer for about 20 minutes to make sure that the flour is cooked.

One can mix the soup to make sure that it's smooth, or you could just have it the way it is (like me). I like it when there are still bits of roasted garlic in my soup.

You can add some cooked pasta to the soup or eat it with toasted or fried garlic croutons.

For a thicker soup, you may also beat an egg yolk and stir it in.

I love this soup, but there is no way that I can eat it all the time. It's too strong...

Gazpacho

Gazpacho with Garlic Croutons

I was reliving Andalucia during this lunch with a bit of Gazpacho for everyone en amuse-bouche. We used to make it very often when we were living in Jaén and just last week MIL called me from France asking me for the recipe. I am therefore dedicating this post to my dear MIL. Who incidentally would be arriving in a few days for a month-long stay.

The gazpacho is a cold raw vegetable soup that is widely eaten during the Summer months in Spain (especially in the South). It may have Arab and/or Roman origins and is similar to Ajoblanco or white garlic soup, another cold vegetable soup popular in Andalucia.

Stale bread is usually incorporated into the soup, but I prefer to serve mine with garlic croutons and eventually some diced tomatoes with a dash of olive oil and sherry vinegar on top. When trying to serve a more "modern" meal, I sometimes serve the soup in drinking glasses topped with an avocado or some other green purée like basil or parsley.

Gazpacho :

400g of good-quality tinned Tomatoes

400g fresh Cherry or Plum Tomatoes (scalded and skins removed)

2 Cucumbers (peeled and de-seeded if desired)

2 Red Peppers (de-seeded)

1 Red Onion

1-2 Garlic cloves

100ml Olive Oil

100ml Sherry or Balsamic Vinegar

1 African Bird's eye Chilli

A few fresh Basil leaves

Salt and Pepper to taste

Garlic croutons for garnishing

Basically you process everything into a soup. The consistency is up to you. If you do not want too much foam in your soup you may want to pound your vegetables in a mortar instead.

Chill at least for a few hours before serving. I usually prepare it the night before so as to allow the flavours to marry.

Garnish with garlic croutons and diced tomatoes, avocado and/or peppers etc if so desired.

Ham and Pea Soup

Ham and Pea Soup

I've been staring at my can of leftover peas from the Yangzhou Fried Rice and wondering what I could do with it. Nobody likes peas. They always pick them out and set them aside. I do not know why I even bother to use peas in my fried rice and other dishes. Because they are supposed to be healthy and pretty?

Then the thought of making a Ham and Pea Soup struck me. And I'm glad I made it because it was surprisingly yummy. I had it all to myself for lunch today, but will definitely try to trick the kids into eating those peas this way soon.

Kids are all at school learning how to breakdance. Those lessons were a success, they loved them. The breakdancing expert looked like your very nice boy next door - hard to imagine him being the "bad boy" breakdancer. :-)

Ham and Pea Soup (for 1) :

1 Tbsp Butter

Half of an Onion (sliced)

1 Garlic clove (sliced)

100g thick Picnic Ham or good quality Luncheon Meat

1 small Potato (cubed)

200g Green Peas

Enough hot water or chicken stock to cover

Salt and Pepper to taste

A few sprigs of Fresh Parsley (optional)

Cream (optional)

Melt the butter in a small pot and fry the onions, garlic, ham and potatoes till lightly browned.

Pour enough hot water or chicken stock to cover the ham and potatoes. Boil till the potatoes are cooked.

Add the peas and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

If you wish, add some fresh parsley, it gives an interesting taste to the soup.

Mix everything into a smooth soup. Add some cream if you wish.

Spinach Soup (Soupe aux Epinards)

Spinach Soup

To continue with this week's soup trip, I have decided to make Spinach Soup for this evening's dinner. The wind is howling outside (cleaning lady told me that she would be really afraid if I weren't here with her this morning) and it's 0°C. A hot soup would indeed do to warm us up. And green is a beautiful colour that we've been waiting for. This Spring that wouldn't come.

Spinach Soup (serves 4) :

Olive Oil or Butter

1 medium Onion

2-3 Garlic cloves

1 large Potato

500g fresh Spinach (washed, drained and roughly chopped)

600ml Vegetable or Meat broth

300ml Milk

2-3 Parsley stalks

Salt and pepper to taste

A pinch of ground Nutmeg

Lemon juice and Cream for garnishing

Heat up the fat in a big pot and fry the chopped onion, garlic and potato.

Pour in the broth and cook till the potatoes are soft.

Pour in the milk and stir to mix well. Bring to a gentle boil.

Add the nutmeg and chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, add the spinach leaves. They cook quickly, so stay put. The minute they have wilted, remove the pot from the heat and mix the soup - if you want to keep the soup nice and green.

Serve hot with a bit of lemon juice and cream. Hub loved it.

It is snowing now. I must say that the weather here can be really weird. One day it was 25°C and sunny and the next day it was snowing. Anyway, for ski lovers, this is good news. The family is already planning another ski trip this Saturday - but it'll be without me as my left knee is hurting where I've twisted it when I got stuck in the snow last Saturday.

Tomato and Basil Soup

Tomato and Basil Soup

In anticipation of Saturday's Gala, Hub said that we should only eat soup this week. If only he knew that I've been invited to lunch at P's sometime this week and that she has kindly lined up Dosas and Chicken Curry that I have no intention of missing since she would be leaving Italy in less than 2 months.

Still, one must please one's Hub especially one as sweet as mine. So I made him a nice Tomato and Basil Soup for dinner.

Tomato and Basil Soup (serves 4) :

Olive Oil

1 (red) Onion

3-4 Garlic cloves

1 Celery stalk

1 Potato

A handful of fresh Basil leaves

300g fresh ripe Tomatoes

500ml Hot water

1 can (400ml) chopped Tomatoes

1 cube Vegetable bouillon (optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Bay leaf

Cream and grated cheese for garnishing

Slice the onion, garlic, celery and potato. Heat up some olive oil in a pot and fry them till fragrant. Add the basil leaves.

Slice the tomatoes into halves. Add them to the olive oil.

Pour in the hot water, cover the pot and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Remove the cover and peel the tomatoes. It shouldn't be too difficult (I use tongs or chopsticks) when they are in haves and have been scalded.

Add the vegetable stock cube and the can of chopped tomatoes. Plus the bay leaf, salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for another 20-30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and mix the soup till it's smooth. Serve hot with cream and grated cheese, or chill and serve cold in vodka glasses with some chopped fresh basil leaves and a filet of olive oil on top.

This soup is also one of the children's favourites. A good way to make them consume their vegetables.

Fish Soup (Soupe de Poissons)

Soupe de Poissons

It is not true that French Onion Soup is my favourite European soup once I start thinking about it. I love French Fish Soup too, not just the famous Bouillabaisse, but also the humble everyday Soupe de Poissons.

Out of my 3 kids, only the Teenager is a true connoisseur when it comes to seafood. Before he was even 3, he had his first taste of raw oysters and he has loved them since. I remember making sure that he had his Hep A jabs when he was a toddler because he loved prawns even then. And needless to say, he likes fish soup too.

The French do not waste food. You usually make a Soupe de Poissons with leftover (but fresh) fish bones and heads. Just for the stock - don't worry. And you can also add anchovy filets, red fish, monkfish, cod, prawns, mussles etc into the stock and then mix everything into a soup before you serve it. And you usually serve it with a rouille (garlic mayonnaise with mashed potatoes), croutons and grated cheese.

I made a simple fish soup for my lunch this afternoon. Ate it with home-made rye bread (toasted and rubbed with garlic) and grated emmenthal cheese.

Soupe de Poissons (serves 1-2 persons) :

Olive Oil

1-2 Onions (sliced)

3-4 Garlic cloves (chopped)

300g Codfish filets

1 tin of Sardines

6-8 cherry Tomatoes (chopped)

2 Tbsp concentrated Tomato paste

120ml White or rosé wine

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

400-500ml Fish or seafood stock

1 Bay leaf

2 Tbsp Parsley (chopped)

Half a Celery

1 Tsp dried Thyme or fennel or basilic or rosemary

1 Tsp ground Chilli

Salt and Pepper to taste

Some bechamel to thicken the soup (optional)

Brown the onions and garlic in some olive oil. Add the codfish filets to grill in the aromatic oil.

Add the sardines, fresh tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix well.

Stir in the vinegar and wine. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

Add the herbs, celery and ground chilli followed by the seafood broth.

Cover the pot and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes. It should not be too watery.

Season with salt and pepper.

Remove the bay leaf and mix the soup with a handmixer. Serve hot with crème fraîche, garlic croutons, grated cheese and a rouille if desired.

French Onion Soup (Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée)

Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

I love French Onion Soup. It is probably my favourite European soup. And MIL has once shared her special recipe with me. It is from her region (Aveyron) where they alternate layers of caramelised onions and cantal cheese, but today I will just blog about the more common method of making this soup.

I like to make it a day in advance. This way, it is better and it would also be possible to remove any fat from the soup.

French Onion Soup :

1 Kg Onions (around 5-6 medium to large ones)

3 Tbsp Butter + 1 Tbsp Olive oil

3 Garlic cloves

1 Bay leaf

Half a Celery stalk

2 sprigs of Thyme

3 Tbsp chopped Parsley

1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar or Balsamic vinegar

200ml Red wine

200ml White wine

1 Tsp Salt

Pepper to taste

750ml Beef broth

750ml Chicken broth

Grated hard cheese e.g. Emmenthal, cheddar, cantal, gruyère

Baguette (stale is OK) or pain de campagne or Puff pastry

The key to a successful French Onion Soup lies in how you sweat your onions. In the past, they usually let the onions sweat it out for more than 2 hours to get them caramelised in their own sugar.

Peel and slice the onions and garlic. Put them in a heavy-bottom pot like Le Creuset or Staub, together with the butter (cut in pieces) and olive oil. Turn on the heat and cook the onions uncovered for the first 20 minutes, stirring from time to time.

They should start to turn brown. Cover the pot and cook for another 20 minutes. Also stirring from time to time. It doesn't matter if the bottom of the pot is a little burnt.

The onions should be beautifully brown by now. Add the vinegar and herbs and mix well. I like to cook this soup in layers as I feel that it helps bring out the flavours better.

Pour in the red and white wine, cover the pot and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Add salt and pepper, then the beef and chicken broth. Cover and simmer for at least another hour.

Getting ready to go into the oven

To serve the soup, heat up the oven to 190°C. Pour the soup in an oven-proof dish (preferably individual) and place a few thick slices of the bread in it. Stale bread is good because it doesn't soak up the soup immediately and turn too soggy. Top with grated cheese and then bake in the oven (upper shelf) till the cheese has melted.

With Puff pastry

Since the Teenager loves his soup with puff pastry, I covered his with a puff pastry disc and baked it for 20 minutes in the same oven - but on the lower shelf. Yummy! This soup is always best when you make it yourself.

Poule au Pot

Poule au Pot under Puff Pastry

I often have dreams in which I had time tables to respect. I have left school a long time ago now, but the fear of missing a class, of being late for one or of not wanting to attend it because the subject is boring or difficult - still haunts me. On a few occasions, it was Advanced Maths or Geography and in my dreams I would have somehow skipped the lessons and then it would be time to sit for the exams. I would wake up in a sweat and only when I remembered that i) I had aced all my exams from PSLE to the A Levels and have gone to University; ii) I have never done Advanced Maths; iii) I held the Geography book prize having topped the whole school in the subject - then did I heave a sigh of relief and go back to sleep. But the sensation would still have been horrible and I would wake up later wondering how one could read into that.

Last night I dreamt that I went to an Ivy League University on a scholarship to do my post-Grad. And that I had time tables to respect that I didn't (of course). I woke up with a fright, needless to say. I suspect that I somehow regret not having gone the more traditional path for a Singaporean - that is to study in the UK, USA or Australia instead of in France. But then I probably wouldn't have met dear Hub, would I?

The Babies have just come out of their stomach flu so we will be having just soups, grilled meats and rice for a few days. Last evening I made a Herbal Ginseng Chicken Soup with Grilled Moroccan-style Chicken Breasts. The Teenager enjoyed his dinner very much - which was ironic since I made it specially for the Babies. He was the one who enjoyed his lunch the most today too - moral of the story, I should just cook for the boy like he's having stomach flu everyday.

Hot Dog and Cheddar Rolls

For lunch today, we had Poule au Pot and Hot Dog and Cheddar Rolls. Poule au pot literally means hen in a pot. So you buy a hen from your butcher and make your soup with it. I served the soup in porcelain ramequins and covered them with puff pastry discs. They then went into a hot 180°C oven for 20 minutes.

Poule au Pot

Poule au Pot :

1 Hen

200g Cooked Ham (in a thick block)

1 Onion pricked with 5-6 whole Cloves

2 Celery stalks

2 Carrots

2 Potatoes

1 Turnip

Half of a Leek

A quarter of a Cabbage

2 Bay leaves

Parsley

1 Garlic clove

1 Rosemary or Thyme stalk

Wheat Vermicelli

Salt and Pepper to taste

If you are going to serve your Poule au Pot like a Pot au Feu and eventually with a bechamel and mushroom sauce, keep the vegetables in large chunks. But served in ramequins like I did, I prefer to have them cut into bite-size cubes.

Wash and pat dry the hen. Salt it generously inside and out. I stuff it with the garlic, cooked ham, bay leaves and herbs with the idea that the ham will keep its taste and texture better this way. But it's just a feeling.

Put a pot of water (enough to cover the hen) to boil and put in the hen and the clove-pricked onion. Lower the heat and simmer till the hen is cooked and the soup runs clear. At this point, you would usually add the vegetables and then continue cooking till the meat falls off the bone. Since my vegetables are in small pieces, I decided to wait a little longer. Simmer till the stock is reduced by quite a bit.

About 20 minutes before serving, I added the vegetables to the soup followed by the vermicelli. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the soup with the vegetables, the ham (cut into small cubes) and if you wish, the meat from the hen. Or keep the meat to be eaten cold with a bechamel and mushroom sauce, I find that it is better that way.

Cooled soup in ramequins

Let the soup cool before covering with the puff pastry so as not to melt it before it is being baked. I do not know which I actually like better - the soup or the puff pastry. :-)