Chicken, Leek and Tomato Soup

This was made a few weeks back and I had forgotten about it until I went through the photos in my phone. No, I didn't use a camera for my photos. Nearly all the photos of the dishes that I cooked were taken by my phone's camera, and thus, the non-professional look and poor lighting. But I do try to make them presentable.

Anyway, I was looking for something light for dinner that day and the husband was feeling abit under the weather, so I thought of soup, and some toasted small buns to go along.

Chicken, Leek and Tomato Soup (recipe from : Quick Short Chicken Recipes)
4 servings

Ingredients :

- 60g butter
- 3 leeks, thinly sliced
- 3 chicken breast fillets
- 3 cups (750ml) chicken stock
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 425g can crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon soft brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
- chopped basil, extra, to garnish

Directions :

1) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the leek and cook for 2 minutes without browning.

2) Halve the chicken breast fillets lengthways and thinly slice them. Increase the heat, add the chicken to the saucepan and cook for 3 minutes, or until the chicken is browned.

3) Add the stock, garlic, tomato, sugar and basil. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5-6 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Season and garnish with extra fresh basil. Serve with crusty bread.

One Pot

This kind of one pot dish is not only simple to cook, but also allows you the flexibility to add whatever you like into it. There is also less washing up to do, and is one complete meal when served with rice. Do refer to the original recipe for more ideas for ingredients if you are cooking for more than 2 persons.

One Pot (recipe adapted from here)
2 servings

Ingredients :

- 1 tube silken tofu
- 1 pack of Shimeji mushroom
- 1 broccoli
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 4 mini fishcakes, cut into 3 pieces each
- 8 grey prawns, shelled and deviened
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can chicken broth (~240ml)
- fried shallots, as garnish

Directions :

1) Marinate prawns with salt and pepper. Set aside for 10 mins.

2) Cut away the bottom part of the mushrooms and separate them. Blanch in hot water for a few minutes til they turned slightly soft. Drain and set aside.

3) Blanch broccoli and carrot in some oil with hot boiling water. Drain and set aside separately.

4) Heat up some oil in a claypot. Saute garlic til fragrant.

5) Add in carrots and stir-fry for a few minutes. Then add in the fishcakes and stir-fry for a few seconds.

6) Add in the chicken broth, and braise at medium heat for about 5 minutes. After that, give the soup a taste to see if salt needs to be added. (I didn't add any seasonings coz the canned chicken broth is already salty enough.)

7) Add in prawns, and simmer till they just turned pink. Add in the mushrooms, broccoli and tofu. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, garnish with fried shallots and serve hot.

Chicken and mushroom wontons

This recipe is taken from Marie Claire : Easy, which I had made the shrimp wontons from it previously too. There was also no noodles this time round because I managed to come up with about 36 wontons and we had it with some carrots and cabbage boiled in chicken stock. The chicken wontons were not too bad overall though we were a bit stuffed at the end. However, I much prefer the taste of the shrimp wontons. Maybe because there was a sweetness of the shrimps or maybe it was because I used chicken cubes in water instead of chicken stock, which might have caused the difference too.

Chicken and mushroom wontons (recipe from : Marie Claire : Easy)

Ingredients :

- 4 dried shittake mushrooms

- 1 cup ground chicken

- 4 tablespoons finely chopped bamboo shoots (I didn't add this coz there was none for sale at NTUC)

- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce

- 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

- 1 pack square wonton wrappers

Directions :

1. Soak the shittake mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, squeeze out any excess moisture and cut off the tough stalks. Finely chop the mushrooms and put them into a bowl with the chicken, bamboo shoots, soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil. Gently stir to combine the filling ingredients.

2. Put a wonton wrapper on a clean work surface and put a heaping teaspoon of the filling into the centre. Moisten the edges and draw all in together. Pinch to form little bags.

3. Put the wontons onto a steamer to steam for 15 minutes.

Note : I didn't steam them but drop them to cook in boiling chicken stock.

Creamy Chicken & Zucchini Soup

Maybe it's the age factor, or maybe it's the horror image of seeing the needle on the weighing machine going up, up, up, there are times when I simply didn't have much appetite for dinner.

So, this is where all my recipes for soups come in handy. Most of them are easy to make, and soups seem to be healthier too. Ok, maybe minus the cream and butter and other fattening ingredients. But whatever it is, some soups are still much better than any high carb or high fat meals.

This is my first time trying a creamy soup, and it tasted just all right, though we felt that it was a bit too buttery. A few dash of black pepper solved the problem. However, we didn't managed to finish it, because after a while, it became kind of too "heavy",most likely due to the combination of the cream and butter.

Creamy Chicken & Zucchini Soup
(adapted from Quick Short Chicken Recipes)

4 servings

Ingredients :

- 20g butter
- 3 chicken breast fillets, thinly sliced
- 800g zucchini, grated
- 1 onion, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour
- 750ml (3 cups) chicken stock
- 250ml (1 cup) cream

Direction :

1) Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the chicken and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, or until the chicken changes colour.

2) Add the zucchini, onion and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

3) Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the stock, bring to the boil, stirring until it boils and thickens slightly. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute.

4) Stir in the cream and cook for 2 more minutes. Season and serve.

Shrimp Wontons

Recently bought a cookbook on offer from Popular bookstore. It was going at $9.90 for members, compared to the original price of $19.90. As I was reading through it, I was happy to see that most of the ingredients for the dishes can be bought quite easily. I started off with the shrimp wontons recipe, as I have been wanting to make wontons for some time.

Looking at my first attempt at making wontons all by myself, I am glad to say that they didn't turn out too bad. Though wrapping 26 wontons is quite tiring, it was quite an enjoyable process, except maybe for the slight crick on my shoulder after that. Heh.

I was planning to have the wonton with noodles and some vegetables. But seeing the amount that I had come up with, I decided to forgo the noodles and just have 13 wontons each with vegetables. Haha. And maybe because I haven't been cooking for some time, I decided to make the chicken stock (recipe below) myself too, instead of buying a can off the shelf.

Anyway, like I mentioned, I managed to come up with 26 wontons with only half of the stated amount of ingredients (I used 14 medium-sized shrimps) from the recipe. I'm not sure if the author uses bigger pieces of wrappers, or uses smaller shrimps. Just make sure that there are enough wrappers at hand if following the actual amount in the recipe.

Steamed Shrimp Wontons

24 servings

Ingredients :

- 2 egg whites

- 1 cup ground shrimp meat

- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

- 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice

- 1/2 cup finely sliced scallions (spring onions)

- 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

- 24 square wonton wrappers

Directions :

1) Lightly whisk the egg whites in a large bowl. Add the ground shrimp meat, sea salt, five-spice powder, scallions, and ginger. Stir to combine.

2) Put a heaping teaspoon of the filling mixture into the centre of the wonton wrapper and then seal the edges by moistening them with water, then bring the four corners together.

3) Put the wontons into a bamboo steamer basket lined with oiled waxed paper. Set the basket over a large saucepan of boiling water and steam for 10-12 minutes.

Note : Instead of steaming, I cook my wontons by dropping about 10 at a time into a pot of boiling chicken stock. Cook them for about 3-4 minutes, or until they float to the surface and you can see the pink of the shrimp. Then add in the vegetables, and let the stock reach a slow boil and it's done!

Homemade Chicken Stock

I didn't copy this specifically from anywhere. Instead, I searched through the Internet and YouTube and came up with somewhat I thought was the simplest chicken stock recipe, with a little snatch here and there. And I'm real happy to say that I was glad how the stock turned out, except that you have to add your own salt to taste later with whatever you are planning to cook it with.



Homemade Chicken Stock

Ingredients :

- I large onion, cut into chunks
- 2 stalks of celery (with the leaves), cut into thirds
- 2 carrots, unpeeled and cut into thirds
- about 550g of chicken bones, with any excess fats removed
- cool tap water

Directions :

1) Put all the ingredients into a large pot and filled it with cold tap water until everything is just under the water.

2) Bring to a boil at medium temperature. Clear away any froth that floats up to the surface after the stock boils.

3) Bring to a low temperature and simmer half-covered for another 2 - 3 hours. Remove excess fats if needed.

4) Let the stock cool for a few minutes before removing all the pieces of chicken bones and vegetables. Strain the stock through a strainer and discard the rest of the ingredients.

Note :
- If you are plan to make the extra stock for future use, be sure to store the unused stock in small quantities (about 3-4 cups).

- If you refrigerate the stock, it can last about 1 week. If you want to keep the stock for a longer time, freezing it can last up till 3 months.

(disclaimer : there is no guarantee about the storage period coz I just pass on what I have learnt online)

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup

Had been "eyeing" this recipe for quite some time, and I finally managed to give it a try tonight. Looking back at my blog entries, it had been quite a while since I last cook. Since it's already the school holidays, I hope I'll have more time to try out the other few recipes that I've bookmarked.

Anyway, back to the soup. I almost didn't want to continue with it coz I was tearing like crazy while cutting up the big onion. I was only cutting up one half before my eyes started to sting, and I hadn't begun chopping it yet! But having bought all the ingredients and missing lunch, I just had to endure. It was almost as bad as being in a temple full of the smoke from the joss sticks and it all gets into your eyes. So, the onion ended up in cubes instead of being chopped as stated. (that's why you can see chunks of it from the picture)

One thing to note, as you would likely read from the reviews of the others from the original recipe, is that the onions need to be cooked much longer than 3 minutes to soften it. Also, if you prefer smooth and creamy soup to which you can swallow instead of having to chew, you can take an extra step to blend it in a food processor before serving.

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup
4 servings

Ingredients :

- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree (do your conversion here)
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 cups fresh spinach, torn
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions :

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Stir in milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato puree and sugar. Mix well, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh, yes. Once again, the selected recipe has the word "easy" in it. And this time is accompanied with another of my favourite recipe word "quick". So, I wasted no time in planning to cook this dish on this evening, since the original plan of cooking for the family was cancelled due to busy schedules of 3 out of the 7 members.

Anyway, I made a few changes to the original recipe. Instead of only using 1/3 cups of onions, celery and carrots, I used almost 1 cup for each of them. And following the reviews of others from the website, I sauteed the vegetables in minced garlic before adding the stock and uncooked chicken. As you can also see from the picture, I had used macaroni instead of noodles. And I also cooked the macaroni separately before adding into the pot of cooked vegetables to simmer.

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup (from : allrecipes)

4 servings

Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons butter
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/3 cup chopped celery
- 3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (you can do your conversion here)
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable broth
- 5 ounces chopped cooked chicken breast
- 1 cup egg noodles
- 2/3 cup sliced carrots
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook onion and celery in butter until just tender, 5 minutes. Pour in chicken and vegetable broths and stir in chicken, noodles, carrots, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes before serving.

Broccoli Soup with Parmesan toasts

A book all on soups, and they are the considered quite easy to make, and could be taken as any normal meal. Yup, 500 soups are a damn freaking lot, and I'm one lazy bum. So, if you see me posting about 50 soups recipes from the book, it's already a super-duper gigantic feat to me, which I don't think will ever happen. Maybe I should set the "target" to just 20 soups. Haha.

So, the first "chosen one" from the book is broccoli soup. Healthy, and with easy-to-find ingredients, and of course, simple instructions to follow. There is also the part about the bread that you can make to go with the soup.

Well, pardon the newspapers at the bottom of the dishes. My kitchen doesn't have any proper and nice area for a more professional-looking photo. But generally, that was how everything turned out to look like in the end. However, the soup turned out a little too watery, which I think may be due to too much chicken stock coz I kind of got "lost" when adding the stock. Heh. But it was still drinkable, and looks quite professional eh?

Oh, and credit goes to the husband for helping me to do the blending, and toasting of the breads. And, be careful when blending as the dish is very hot and take care to put your hand over the cover of the blender, or else all the hot soup will be spilling over the place.

Broccoli soup with Parmesan toasts

For the soup

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons plain flour
- 750 ml vegetable or chicken stock
- 450 g broccoli, cut into small florets
- 350 ml milk
- salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions :

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook gently for about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the stock. Add the broccoli, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes, until broccoli is tender.

3. Process the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth, then return to the saucepan.

4. Stir in the milk, and salt and pepper to taste, and heat through.

For the toasts

Ingredients:
- 25 g butter, at room temperature
- 50 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 8 slices baguette
- 25 g Parmesan, cut into shavings

Directions:

1. Beat the butter with the Parmesan.

2. Grill the baguette on one side, then turn and spread the butter.

3. Top with Parmesan shavings, grill until golden and bubbling, and serve with the soup.

Minestrone Soup

Since it's a public holiday today, decided to do a little cooking. Came across a minestrone soup recipe and gave it a try. Not much cooking needed, but a lot of preparations were required. I used potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes and cauliflower. There is no actual need to follow the exact ingredients of the recipe as this minestrone is all vegetables. So can basically add what you like into it. Like I said, preparation time was long as all the vegetables need to be cut into cubes. Took me about 1 hour or so to complete everything and leave the soup to boil and simmer for another hour.

Anyway, it so happened that Chris and BT came by this afternoon for a mahjong session, so luckily the recipe is for 6, and we had the soup for dinner, together with some toasted focaccia bread, and some of Chris' mum's very delicious fried noodles.

Will try this again, with some more other vegetables. It will make a simple and healthy meal. Can cook a big pot to keep for the next day too.

Minestrone Soup (from : allrecipes)

6 servings

Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons margarine
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup chopped carrots
- 1 (19 ounce) can cannellini beans
- 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups cubed potatoes
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup elbow macaroni
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Melt butter or margarine in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and carrots; saute for a few minutes.

2. Add beans, cabbage, tomatoes, tomato paste, potato, stock, garlic, parsley, and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for approximately 1 hour until vegetables are barely tender.

3. Add pasta, and simmer for 30 minutes more. Correct seasoning, and serve hot with grated cheese.