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.

Sausage and Pasta

As I've mentioned before, it will be expected to see repeated ingredients from a previous dish as I can't vary the amount to be bought to suit to just the two of us. So, here it is again, the last Polish sausage from dinner previously. I adapted this from a real simple recipe, and the difference is that, the original calls for beer, but mine has chicken stock instead. Coz the husband and I are not beer persons. However, I might still give the beer version a try some time.

Sausage and Pasta (adapted from here)

1 serving

Ingredients :

- sphagetti for one

- 1 Polish sausage, sliced

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

- about 1/3 cup of chicken stock

- pepper to taste

- red pepper flakes (optional)

- dried parsley for garnish

Directions :

1) Heat up some olive oil in a pan. Saute the onion for a few seconds. Then add in the garlic and sausage to saute for about 3-4 minutes.

2) Add pepper and red pepper flakes (if using) to taste.

3) Add the chicken stock, cover, and let the liquid reduce to a little less than half on high heat. You can cook the pasta while the sauce is reducing.

(Note : I didn't add any salt because the chicken stock and the sausage provided enough saltiness for me, however, you can always adjust it according to your taste after you add in the chicken stock)

4) Serve the sausage and onion over the pasta. Make sure you get the sauce over everything. Enjoy!

Sausage and Mushroom Sphagetti

When it comes to cooking, I like to have a bit of time to plan ahead. Time to think of what to cook, time to look through my recipes collection slowly and see which is the one that will catch my attention that day. But once in a while, dinner plans will pop up at the last minute and I just had to come up with something fast. And so, here is my quick and easy sausage and mushroom sphagetti :

Sausage and Mushroom Sphagetti

2 servings

Ingredients :

- sphagetti for two

- 2 Polish sausages, sliced (I bought 3 Polish sausages for $5.50 from Cold Storage)

- 1 pack (~125g) white mushrooms, sliced

- 4 cloves of garlic, minced (coz the husband likes a lot of garlic in his food)

- half a bottle of pasta sauce (from the 397g kind, can adjust according to your preference for the sauciness)

- handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped

- black pepper

- grated Parmesan cheese

Directions :

1) Cook sphagetti according to the package instructions. 

2) Meanwhile, heat up some olive oil in pan and stir-fry the sausages till the oil is released. Dish out the sausages and set aside, leaving the oil in the pan.

3) Add in the mushroom and garlic, and fry till the mushroom is almost cooked. Add in the cooked sausages and fry for a few seconds.

4) Add in the pasta sauce and basil, and stir to combine all the ingredients together, until the sauce has been heated up.

5) Turn off the heat and add in the cooked spaghetti to the sauce, or vice versa. Season with black pepper and your desired amount of Parmesan cheese. Serve.

Auntie Tips (21)

Tip 1 :
Don't throw away clothes with sweat stains just yet. You can get rid of the stains by dissolving three aspirin tablets in a large bowl filled with water, and then soaking the shirt or top in the mixture for one hour. Launder as usual.

Tip 2 :
To clean a thermos, just pour a tablespoon of salt and some ice cubes into the flask. Close and swirl so that the salt and ice cubes lightly scour the bottom and inside of the flask. Rinse thoroughly before use.

Tip 3 :
To remove dirt from your favourite leather bag and make it almost as good as new, just rub the surface with medicated oil.

Tip 4 :
So your fridge becomes sparkling white and smells minty fresh, apply toothpaste on the inside and scrub with a sponge, brush or rag. Wipe with a cloth to dry.

Tip 5 :
It can be irritating to walk and move when your dress is clingingg to you due to static. To solve this, just pin a small safety pin onto the seam of your skirt or dress. The same thing goes for slacks that cling when you wear panty hose.

From : Women's Weekly - Nov 2008

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 Pasta

I've decided that I had enough of outside food, and so it's back to simple home-cooked pasta again. With the use of chicken broth in this recipe, I was worried that it might turned out to be kind of soupy.. which is weird for a pasta dish. However, my worry was pointless. The moment the pasta and the sauce were mixed together, the broth was soaked up nicely and the dish turned out to be quite flavourful.

Chicken Pasta (recipe from here)

Ingredients :

- 1 pound of linguine

- 1 pound of chicken breast (I used chicken fillets)

- olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- red pepper flakes (as much or as little as you like)
- salt
- juice of 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup (or more or less, depends on how much sauce you want) low sodium chicken broth
- handful chopped parsley (I used dried parsley flakes)
- handful grated parmesan cheese
 
Directions :
 
1) Start out by boiling the water for your pasta, as that always takes the longest for me. Cook your pasta according to the instructions on the box.

2) Cut up your chicken, and set aside. In a large skillet heat up enough olive oil to cover bottom of pan. Add in garlic and sautee until tender, this should take a few minutes. Add in salt (about a tsp. or so) and red pepper flakes and cook for a minute.

3) Add in chicken and cook through. Once chicken is pretty much cooked through, add in lemon juice, and quickly bring to a simmer. Next add in chicken broth, and bring to a simmer again, yet let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.

4) Once pasta is cooked, either add the chicken mixture to the pasta, or vice versa, depending on how large your pot is. Sprinkle in parsley and cheese, and mix together.

The Sound of Music

I was so so glad that my mother introduced us to this show, The Sound of Music, many years ago. Has it been 20 years already? Thinking back now, it was kind of strange how my younger sister and I, as kids, had the patience in the first place to sit through this very long (3 - 4 hours?) show. Maybe it was the songs that got to us then. But as I grew older, I realised that it was not only the songs that attracted me so much to this show, it was also the simple yet heartwarming storyline, the message of the importance of family, the relationships among the people.

Tiger Prawns Noodle Soup

Are you a rice or noodle person? I mean, do you have a special preference for one over the other? For me, I'm more of a noodle person. I eat almost any kind of noodles, no matter their shapes and sizes, from Chinese vermicelli to kway teow (flat rice noodles) to spaghetti. I can eat them most of the times without ever missing my rice. Maybe it is because there are so many different noodles, and so, even more ways to cook them that make them so appealing. And when it comes to cooking for one, noodles are so much easier to deal with than rice.

I didn't follow any specific recipe for this noodle soup, but did adapt some steps from here.

Tiger Prawns Noodle Soup
1 serving

Ingredients :

- 1 serving of noodles (I used the one from instant noodles, which is just the right serving for one)
- 5 tiger prawns, shelled and de-veined
- 2 fresh shittake mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small bunch of bok choy
- 1 can (14 oz. , which is about 396g) chicken stock
- 2 small shallots, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 small piece of ginger, sliced and cut into thin strips
- salt, to taste
- cooking oil
- a handful of chopped spring onions, for garnish (optional)
- a handful of fried shallots, for garnish (optional)

Directions :

1) Put a pot of water to boil and add in the instant noodles (without any seasonings). Cook the noodles for less than the normal time required and drain away the water. Put the noodles aside.

2) Heat up the chicken stock in a pot.

3) Meanwhile, heat up the cooking oil in the wok, and add the garlic, ginger and shallot and stir-fry for less than a minute, just to release their aromas.

4) Add the prawns, and stir-fry for less than a minute, then add the button mushrooms and stir-fry with the prawns for less than a minute. Lastly, add in the bok choy and stir-fry all together for less than a minute.

5) Slowly pour in the chicken stock into the wok. Stir to combine the ingredients and stock, and give it a taste at this point to see if salt needs to be added. Once done with the seasoning, pour everything over the noodles, add garnishes and serve immediately.

Auntie Tips (20)

Tip 1 :
If you have chopped more garlic than what your recipe requires, you can still keep the bunch and maintain their freshness. You can even add a little flavour too. Simply soak the pieces in olive oil inside a bottle and then keep in the fridge.

Tip 2 :
Cut out the bottom of a clean milk jug; turn it upside down and fill it with the plastic bags from grocery shopping. Punch holes on the sides of the jug, insert hooks and hang it in your pantry. To dispense the plastic bags, just pull through the mouth of the jug.

Tip 3 :
To prevent the mess kids might leave behind due to ice-cream dripping from the cone, simply stuff a piece of marshmallow at the botton of the cone to prevent this.

Tip 4 :
When you've purchased new bedsheets, use the plastic cover that comes with it to store your shoes or sandals. It will keep them clean and dust-free, plus you can easily organise them at a glance.

Tip 5 :
Lint and dust are more visible on dark wood furniture. Others may mop it up with a wet cloth, but here's another way to remove those specks : Get a long bottle or a rolled-up magazine, put cellophane tape around it sticky side up and roll it along the surface.

From : Women's Weekly - Jan 2008

Spicy Garlic Shrimp and Tomato Spaghetti

It's sometimes quite frustrating when it comes to buying ingredients for two, or even one. The quantities for most ingredients are pre-packed and limited in the supermarket. For example, I'm forced to buy a whole big bunch of packed parsley which most likely will last the 2 of us for the next 2 weeks, instead of just a handful which I only need to keep for a few days.

So, it's not much surprise that I had been cooking for the past 3 days. And even less surprising is that, all 3 were pasta dishes. I guess it can't be helped since the ingredients (cherry tomatoes, fresh parsley, sour cream) I bought were more suited for cooking pasta than anything else, or most likely, simpler for a lazy person like myself. ;p

However, I think I have reached my 'limit'. It's time to take a step back from pasta for a while. Let me look through my bookmarked recipes to see what else I can try next. :)

Spicy Garlic Shrimp and Tomato Spaghetti (recipe from : here)
4 servings

Ingredients :

• 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 pound spaghetti
• 1/2 pound shelled and deveined medium shrimp, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 pint small yellow pear or red grape tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced rosemary
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

Directions :

1) In a small skillet, cook the bread crumbs in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape the bread crumbs onto a plate.

2) In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until just barely al dente. Drain the spaghetti, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

3) Meanwhile, in a large, deep skillet, combine the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil with the shrimp, tomatoes, garlic, rosemary and crushed red pepper. Add the spaghetti and the reserved cooking water to the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Cook over moderately high heat, tossing the pasta and lightly crushing the tomatoes, until the sauce is slightly thickened and the shrimp are cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer the spaghetti to bowls, sprinkle the bread crumbs on top and serve.