Bacon, Leek and Potato Soup

Apologies dear food-blog followers for my slackness of posting.  It has been an incredibly hard year personally, and I kind of lost my mojo for a while there.  I have been busy with uni and other stressors, but I'm back to experimenting now!  I have another chicken and lentil recipe I'm going to try soon too, so keep an eye out for that!

Anyway, down to business.  We visited my mum's family last week, and my grandfather is a farmer by trade, who now lives in town.  This means he has a prolific vege garden, as he can't quite give up the land work!  He thus gave us a bag of leeks he'd grown, and I needed to do something with them.  

Insert genius idea here for leek and potato soup (which my parents incidentally also ate last night from the restaurant whose catering business I work for...).  I wanted to add in bacon too because we have some in the freezer and I love bacon (who doesn't!)... and here is the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp paprika
200g bacon
2 large leeks, white/light green parts, sliced thinly and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
4 cups chicken stock, plus 2 cups water
2 medium potatoes, diced small
pepper and salt
1/2 cup cream
1 & 1/2 cups frozen peas (don't worry about thawing them)
1 tsp onion salt

METHOD

• Cook bacon in a large pan, until beginning to brown, then remove bacon onto a plate lined with a paper towel
•  Add 1 tbsp oil to pan, and toss in leeks and garlic
• Cover and cook until soft (around 5 min)
• Add stock plus water, potatoes, onion salt, salt and pepper to taste
• Cover and bring to a boil over high heat
• Lower heat and simmer until potatoes are cooked, (around 10 min)
• (optional step) Puree half the soup in blender (leave out centre piece to allow steam to escape) then combine back in the pan
• Mash the soup gently (which I did because blending was a pain in the butt)
• Add cream and bring to a simmer
• Add peas and cook through, around 3 min
• Add bacon back in and serve

This was actually so easy to make!  It only took half an hour to cook (not counting prep).  The most time consuming part was cutting up the leek!!  And it turned out super delicious, so I'm really happy with it.  The peas and bacon just made it extra amazing!!!

Of course, you can alter it to make it vegetarian, just use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, and no bacon! :)   

We had it with grainy bread and butter.  A good meal on a cold spring night (YES it's the second day of spring already!  CRAZY!)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/potato-leek-soup-with-bacon-recipe/index.html

Modified Minestrone

We won a hamper thing in a raffle, and in it were some things my family doesn't ordinarily keep in our pantry... including a can of pink salmon, and some cannelini beans.  I used up the pink salmon by mixing it with cream cheese and spreading it on crackers, which was nice for the first few mouthfuls but then go too creamy and sickly for me.

But the beans stumped me.  I didn't know what to do with them.  Then I saw Rachael Ray put them in a soup.  And I was like "hey, minestrone!"  So following Jamie Olivers basic minestrone recipe, I kind of altered it to include the random ingredients in our pantry.

Unfortunately I was slack on this one and didn't take photos (because I didn't intend to write about it really) so you'll just have to use your imagination... picture a tomatoey soup with lots of bits in it including potato, beans and pasta.... om nom nom...

INGREDIENTS
1 x400g can whole or chopped tomatoes
1 x400g can rinsed cannelini beans
4 cups chicken stock
diced ham (around 200g)
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 capsicum (bell pepper), diced
1 potato, diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup small pasta
1 small tsp crushed garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp onion salt (if you have it)
1 tbsp BBQ sauce
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (more or less depending on your tolerance)
1/2 cup grated cheese (ideally parmesan, but I didn't have any, so used Edam & Tasty - just as yum!)

sliced fresh bread to mop up soupyness

METHOD

• Heat pan with oil, and add ham, onion, garlic, carrot, capsicum, bay leaf and oregano
• Cook until veges are soft
• Add everything else except the pasta
• Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes
• 10 minutes before serving, add in the pasta
• Test the pasta to make sure it's cooked before serving, and taste constantly to adjust seasoning
• If the soup is too thick after the pasta is cooked, it can be thinned out with some more stock, or water
• Serve immediately with fresh bread

Seriously, I know it seems like a lot of ingredients, but it's so delicious, and really quite easy because most things all go in together.  Was delicious on a cold autumn night! :)

Crustless Quiche

Thought I'd better get a recipe in before October is over!  Gotta have at least one entry per month! ;) No, actually this month has been insane with uni work, haven't had time to try anything new (much) or write about it.

But now I'm on study leave, which gives me a little flexibility to do stuff like this, so here is today's lunch! 

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup self raising flour

Before being cooked

salt and pepper

1/2 cup cheese (grated)
1 fried onion
Ham or cooked bacon
Veges - I used grated carrot and seasonal asparagus

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Whisk eggs, milk, flour and seasoning together
• Add everything else to the mix
• Spread in a silicone quiche/flan dish (silicone makes it so much easier to remove at the end)
• Bake for 45 mins, until gold on top and puffed up
• Let sit for a couple of minutes (to make it even easier to remove from silicone)
• Cut up and serve hot, or cold, with relish and sour cream (optional, but delicious)

So this was a super easy recipe to make, and my mum loved it.  I'm not a super egg fan myself (as I probably said when I wrote about the crustless broccoli quiches I made back when I began this blog!) but it was pretty nice.  Would be great for lunches too.

Shout out to Jeremy, one of my best friends, who I've known since we were 7.  This was his recipe/idea.


Recipe Inspiration: http://www.grownups.co.nz/read/lifestyle/food_and_wine/crustless-quiche-recipie

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Ordinarily, when Sweet & Sour Chicken is on the menu, it's a la jar, or a la can.  A long time ago I found a recipe for Sweet & Sour Chicken made from scratch, and got the can of pineapple ready to make it, since it's one of my favourites!  I went through a phase of wanting to try and make from scratch that which we normally make from a ready made sauce.

However, the can of pineapple sat in the pantry unused until now.  Due to lack of time and motivation to make it.  Jars and cans are just way faster and easier right??  Laziness.

Well actually, in spite of all the steps, this recipe is really easy!!  And do you want to know a bonus??  ALL the other ingredients are ones that are usually in the pantry!  Super convenient.  Apart from the pineapple... obviously not something we ordinarily have. ;)

INGREDIENTS
450g boneless skinless chicken breast
1 egg white
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cornflour

1 400g can crushed pineapple (save the juice!)
1/4 cup juice from crushed pineapple
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce (aka ketchup)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp and 1 tsp cooking oil

2 small-medium onions (cut into chunks)
1 carrot (cut into small sticks)
1 tsp crushed ginger (or 1 tsp fresh grated)

METHOD

• Combine chicken with egg white, 1/4 tsp salt, and cornflour
• Stir to coat chicken evenly
• Let sit for 15 mins at room temp, or up to overnight in fridge
• Whisk together pineapple juice, vinegar, tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, and brown sugar
• Heat large frying pan over high heat
• Pour 1 tbsp oil into pan and swirl to coat
• Make sure the pan is very hot, and then put the chicken in in one layer to fry untouched for 1 min
• Flip and fry other side the same for 1 min.  Chicken should still be pink-ish in the middle
• Put chicken to the side on a clean plate
• Turn heat to medium
• Add remaining oil, and add the ginger, onion and carrots
• Cook 5 mins or until soft
• Add pineapple chunks and the sauce mixture
• Turn the heat to high until the sauce simmers
• Add the chicken back in when it does
• Cook until the chicken is cooked through.
• Taste the sauce and add some more brown sugar if you like
• Don't forget to season with salt, and if you feel like something is missing, toss in some sweet chilli sauce!

Well.  I thought it smelled a bit weird.  But OH MY GOODNESS does it taste amazing!!!!!!!!!!! The excessive use of exclamation marks is definitely justified.  Seriously the BEST Sweet & Sour Chicken sauce I've ever had.  Even better than bought ones!!!  I'm not even kidding.  We will never buy ready made jar/can sauces for it again.  And SO easy!!

A few adjustments I made were adding some Sweet Chilli Sauce, and about 1/4 cup water to just water down the sauce a little bit.  Also, the original recipe called for 2 capsicums as the vegetables (not onions and carrot) but we didn't have any of them so I improvised and it was still amazing.  I think in future, if we have capsicum, I will definitely use only one small onion, carrot, and capsicum.  A good balance of veges!!  Oh, and I also chucked in some peas towards the end.  Gotta have some green hehe :)

Another thing is that the step with the egg and cornflour on the chicken... seems like a bit of a waste of time and a bit messy.  Not sure what it's supposed to achieve so will skip it next time, but still pre-cook the chicken.   :)

Recipe Inspiration: www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sweet_and_sour_chicken/

Curried Lentil Soup

Ok so I've been slack since being back at university and haven't had much of a chance to try my recipes, but I did manage to make this one a few weeks ago!  I just haven't had time to sit down and write about it until now!!  Plus I'm a procrastinator haha.  Took my time.

Anyway, I have a thing with lentils at the moment.  Curry and lentils, just so satisfying.  Love it.  I wanted to try this soup, and we'd had a leek in the fridge to use for a wee while (something we don't normally have in our vege drawer) so I made this on a Monday (I don't have class on a Monday, so I'm able to cook because I'm home!) for meat-less Monday!

INGREDIENT

4 cups water

2 chicken stock cubes

2 medium potatoes

1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz.)

1 & 1/2 tbsp tomato paste

2 medium/large carrots

1 large onion

1 big leek

1 cup dried lentil

2 garlic cloves

4 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

dried thyme

pepper

salt

METHOD

 

• Wash and finely mince the leek (cut into quarters lengthwise, fan the leaves apart and run under water to clean)
• Peel and finely mince carrots and onions.  Grate the garlic cloves. 
• Heat 2 tbsp oil and cook onions and carrots for about 5 mins
• Meanwhile you've got 5 min to peel and mince the potatoes
• Once the onions are 'sweating', add the leek and garlic and cook for 3 more minutes
• Add 4 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, and 1 & 1/2 tbsp tomato paste, and cook for 1 more minute
• Add the cubed potatoes, lentils, diced tomatoes, water, chicken stock cubes, a good pinch of salt and pepper, and some dried thyme to taste.
• Stir well and bring to the boil
• Simmer over low heat for 45 minutes until lentils and vegetables are well done
• Check the seasoning, and serve!

This soup was delicious and warm and comforting.  Loved it!  Served it with roti, and it was just like being back in Malaysia.  Will definitely be making this one again!!!! :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/curried-lentil-soup

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Lentil Dahl

I stumbled across this recipe yesterday, just as I was thinking "oh man, I've got a bag of baby spinach in the fridge that needs using ASAP, and a kumara (sweet potato) that I've been meaning to make chips out of"... combine this with the lentils I bought for another recipe I'm going to try soon, and this recipe is a winner! :)  

It was super quick and easy to make too.  I made double the original recipe so that it would serve 4, and ate it with rice for a nice, wholesome dinner which happened to coincide with Meatless Monday!  What I've written below is the double recipe - just halve it if you want enough for two :)

INGREDIENTS

200g lentils

900mL vegetable stock (although I used chicken because we'd run out)

2 onions, finely diced

4 tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp powdered chilli

1 large sweet potato, cut into chunks

2 handfuls baby spinach, rinsed & shredded

baby peas

rice, to serve with

METHOD

• Put all the ingredients except the sweet potato, peas and spinach in a pan
• Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 mins 
• Add the sweet potato and cook until tender (test with a fork if unsure), another 10-12 mins
• Stir in the spinach and peas, and cook for a minute until wilted
• Serve with rice

This was a good, warm dinner, very filling!    Will be perfect on a cold winter night, for those miserable nights where you get home, but can't be bothered defrosting meat and then thinking up something to do with it! :P  The kumara provided a lovely sweetness, and the peas gave a nice fresh contrast to the other flavours.  Yum! :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/96608/sweet-potato-spinach-and-lentil-dahl

"Honey" Pork & Vegetable Stir-Fry w Noodles

We had a tonne of fresh veges that needed using, including mung beans and an almost ridiculous amount of broccoli (if you read this blog a lot, you'll know about my love of this vegetable, seriously can't get enough!) - this led me to the decision that dinner would be a stir fry of some variation.

So with type-of-dinner sorted, I set about finding a stir fry sauce I could make from scratch, because I'm too scared to make it up completely yet.  Google, my dear friend.  Found a recipe for "Honey Pork Noodle Stir-Fry".  Sounded interesting, and we had all the listed ingredients, so away I went! :)  However, I did think before I started cooking, that having peanut butter in the ingredients list would make it more satay flavoured than honey, but I was willing to try.  (I was right by the way!)

INGREDIENTS

300g pork (diced)

3 packets of chicken 2 minute noodles (I like Maggi, but you can use whatever)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 cup chicken stock (I used 2 of the noodle flavour sachets mixed with 3/4 cup hot water - just as good!  And it means you're only left with 1 flavour sachet to wonder what to do with!)

assorted vegetables

- carrots

- capsicum (yellow and red)

- onion

- mung beans

- butter beans

- cabbage

- broccoli

METHOD

• Heat sesame oil, and add the onion, garlic and ginger, cooking until tender
• Add the pork and brown
• Add the soy sauce, honey, chilli sauce, peanut butter and stock (the stock can make it a little runny but meh, just simmer until it thickens haha!)
• Toss in the vegetables, and mix well - I tend to add the veges that are take longest to cook first, like capsicum and carrots, adding the cabbage, and broccoli almost last
• Add in 1 uncooked packet of 2 minute noodles (minus the flavour sachet obviously)
• While that simmers, cook the remaining 2 packets of noodles in the microwave
• Serve the stir fry veges on a bed of the unflavoured 2 minute noodles

I thought this was going to be a bit disastrous because when I added the stock, the sauce it made was super runny, and to me, stir-frys are not really supposed to be swimming in soupy stuff.  I tasted the sauce, and it was yum (although very much resembling satay sauce... not honey!) so I figured it would at least taste nice, if not being the normal stir-fry.  

As for adding the noodles to the mixture as well as serving it on noodles; well heck.  I LOVE 2 minute noodles.  I can't lie to you.  They were a staple of my childhood after school snack diet haha.  They're awesome.  So I'm glad they went so well with this stir-fry, as I didn't fancy rice again (having eaten it for lunch!).

Now that I've tried this, I'm going to be a little more game next time to try my own version.  :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/recipes/2006/january/honey-pork-noodle-stir-fry

[SlowCooker] Chickpea Curry

When I first heard of the grain "quinoa" (said keen-wah), I knew I wanted to try it - something different from rice, something unusual.  So then I set about finding something to serve with the quinoa that would complement it nicely.  

As I was looking for recipes including quinoa, this one for an Indian chickpea curry in the slow cooker caught my eye.  I know we've had a can of chickpeas in our pantry for ages, I have no idea why Mum bought it - we never normally eat chickpeas, and the hummus we eat is always premade.  I did have to buy another can of chickpeas so I'd have enough to make this curry, but that was no big deal.  

The other thing is, I'm lazy.  Like really lazy.  There's no way you'd get me farting around rinsing, soaking and cooking dried chickpeas.  Seriously, you have to do this like a day in advance.  I'm not THAT organised!  Therefore, I love canned chickpeas.  Much easier.  Rinse, drain, chuck it in.  BAM.

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp oil

Chickpeas, drained and ready to cook!

1 onion, diced (I used 2)

2 cloves garlic (or ~ 2 tsp crushed garlic)

1 inch ginger, peeled & grated (or 1 tsp crushed ginger)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander (I left this out cos Mum hates it)

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

3 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2x 15oz cans)

2 cups water

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried chilli powder (not in the original recipe, but I felt it needed a little kick)

1/2 tsp garam masala

finely diced capsicum

finely diced carrot

diced potatoes (pre-boiled - I had some leftover potatoes that I threw in - yum!)

frozen peas

METHOD

Ready to cook.

• Rinse and drain chickpeas thoroughly before using
• Saute oil, onions, ginger and garlic for 5 mins in a small frypan
• Put this onion mixture and all other ingredients (except garam masala and peas) in crockpot
• The liquid should be just to the top of the beans; if not, add water as necessary, and also during cooking if needed
• Cook on LOW for 6 hours, stirring once during cook time
• Before serving, add garam masala, stir well, and add frozen peas 3 minutes before serving
• Serve with rice, or quinoa!

Just before serving, add peas for a dash of green!

Can't even see the quinoa underneath!

Who said you need meat for a complete meal?! :)  We had it served over quinoa, but I think it would be better over rice because it was quite saucy.  Will definitely be one to make again, maybe with more vegetables too.  The original recipe didn't call for extra vegetables, but I added some because I thought it was a bit bland and boring otherwise.  :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/crockpot-chickpea-curry.php

Creamy Spinach and Parmesan Dip

When I was 14, we lived in Malaysia, and we had some Australian friends there, whose mum had a specialty dish of spinach dip inside a loaf of bread.  It was the most amazing dip ever.  She brought it to all the BBQs and events, and we all ate it many, many times.  Ever since, I've been enamoured with the idea of spinach dip, and I've kept an eye out for recipes.  

With my recent desire to do more in the kitchen, and then stumbling across a really EASY recipe for spinach dip, I thought I'd give it a go.  This recipe is not served in a loaf of bread however, nor is it served hot (like some other variations).  But I think you can forgive these things for the simplicity of the recipe, and how amazing it tastes.

I must confess, I didn't exactly follow the recipe (I never do, I'm not too OCD about having exact quantities - it's more fun to not be too strict haha) because we don't (and never, ever do!) have scallions.  I don't even know what they are really.  Like some sort of spring onion?  I'm not sure, but anyway, I just replaced scallions in the original recipe with finely diced red onion, and it's beautiful.  You wouldn't know it wasn't supposed to be there.  ;)  The other bonus, is that this recipe is the lightest version I could find, so you won't even feel guilty eating it!  WIN!

Makes about 2 cups of dip.

INGREDIENTS

10oz frozen, chopped spinach (thawed, and excess liquid squeezed out) [10oz = about 1 & 1/4 cup]

1/2 cup light sour cream

5 tbsp light mayonnaise

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 a red onion, finely diced

fresh pepper, to taste (I didn't use any to be honest haha)

METHOD

• Microwave the frozen spinach to thaw (about 1 min - don't cook it) and drain, squeezing out as much liquid as possible (best way I found was in a sieve, with my bare hands - good stress relief!)
• Combine all the ingredients together in a medium bowl, mix well.  DONE!

Pre-spinach being added

Can be made one day in advance and stored in the refrigerator.  The original recipe says to remove from the fridge 30min before serving, but I like it cold straight from the fridge.  Up to you!   It's amazing with water crackers, or bread sticks.

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/12/creamy-parmesan-spinach-dip.html

Coconut, Chilli & Lime Pork Sitr-Fry

Ok so this isn't really a recipe, but more just a blog post about what I cooked for dinner tonight.  I had some diced pork, and I had no idea how I was going to cook it.  Then I remembered I had some "Watties Wok Creations" stir-fry sauce sachets.  Yes, the stir-fry sauce was a ready-made packet one.  But I added extra garlic (because garlic is the best) and extra chilli sauce for more kick.

I wanted to rave about vegetables, which is the reason I chose to cook a stir-fry.  I'm on a fresh fruit and vegetable kick at the moment.  I can't seem to get enough.  So in my stir-fry, I had two onions, a carrot chopped into sticks, thin slivers of capsicum (aka bell peppers), mung beans, butter beans, broccoli, and peas.  Out of all of those, only the peas and butter beans came from the freezer.  So much crunch.  So many good vegetables.  So fresh.  Ahhhhhh!

I served it on basmati rice (which I have discovered is much nicer if you rinse the rice before you cook it) cooked with the absorption method.  It's such an easy way to cook rice.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup uncooked rice

drizzle of oil

1 tsp salt

1 & 3/4 cup water

METHOD

• Put rice in a saucepan and drizzle oil over (about 1 tbsp)
• Shake the pot to cover all the rice with oil, and sprinkle salt over
• Add water, cover and put on stove top
• Bring to a boil
• When bubbling, stir with a spoon (to stop rice sticking to the bottom of the pan), replace the lid, and turn the heat off
• LEAVE IT!  DON'T TAKE THE LID OFF, and ignore it for about half an hour
• When ready to serve rice, remove lid and fluff with a fork

Easy peasy!  But I cannot stress enough, that you just leave the rice alone once you turn off the heat.  Gas cooking is amazing for this, as the heat stops immediately.  And don't remove the lid!!!!!!  That's how it cooks.  :)  Rice always turns out perfectly for me with this method.  No need for a special rice cooker appliance (always makes me laugh when people buy those)!