Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Winter is definitely here and I suddenly have an absolutely BRUTAL flu. The best medicine for this is by far the old chicken soup! And better yet, its very easy to add some noodles to it. Now you have a bowl full of delicious chicken broth, yummy noodles, nutritious veggies, and of course CHICKEN.

Ingredients (serves 2 people):

300g chicken thigh fillet - diced into bite size pieces

1 brown onion - finely chopped

2 carrots - peeled and chopped into bite size pieces

1 celery stick - diced into bite size pieces

4 garlic cloves - finely chopped

3 tbs fresh parsley stems - finely chopped 

8 cups of water

1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Salt to taste

1 tbs of vegetable cooking oil

1 bay leaf

100g egg noodles

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves - coarsely chopped (for garnishing)

Place the cooking oil into a large sauce pan on medium heat. Wait for the oil to heat up and add the onions and the garlic. Saute for about 4 minutes. Now add the chicken, carrots, parsley stems, black peppercorns, bay leaf, and water. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to low. Cover with lid and leave to cook for about 40 minutes.

After the 40 minutes add the noodles and the celery. Cook for a further 3 minutes, add salt to taste, and serve immediately while it's still piping hot. Garnish with parsley leaves. Be careful not to burn your tongue; too late for me.

Keep warm this winter with this great meal which is sure to help kick the crap out of your flu.

Tasty Beef Curry Recipe

My pantry suddenly had a whole bunch of spices so I thought it's time to make some curry.

Ingredients (serves 3 people):

2 whole potatoes

1 whole carrot

1&1/2 inch piece of peeled ginger

2 bay leaves

2 brown onions 

5 cloves of garlic

2 400g canned tomatoes

3 tbs cooking oil

2 & 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 & 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp chilli powder (adjust how hot your like it)

2 tsp of sweet paprika

3 & 1/2 tsp coriander powder

2 & 1/2 tsp Garam Masala

4 tbs fresh coriander leaves

3 cups of water

500g casserole beef

Salt to taste

Cracked black pepper to taste

Step 1 - Prepare the ingredients

Trim the fat of the beef, cut it into bite size cubes, and set aside. Finely dice up the onion, ginger, garlic, and set aside. Chop the carrots and the potatoes into bite size chunks and set aside.

Step 2 - Brown the meat

Pour some cooking oil into a large frying pan on medium heat. Once the pan has heated up, place the onions, the garlic and the ginger into it. Stir fry for about 2 minutes. Next add the ground cumin, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, paprika and stir fry for about 1 minute until the spices become fragrant. Next add the beef cube pieces and stir fry for about 2 minutes until the meat has turned a nice brown colour. Now jump to Step 3.

Step 3 - Prepare the curry sauce

Place the canned tomatoes, bay leaves, and 3 cups of water into the frying pan with the beef. Add the potatoes and the carrot pieces. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to low. Leave the the mixture to simmer for 2 to 3 hours until the mixture has reduced to a thick curry.

Step 4 - Final touches

Once the curry mixture has reduced like in the picture above, try to taste and add salt and cracked black pepper to suit your liking. Now mix in the Garam Masala, cover the pan with a lid and leave to sit on low heat for about 3 minutes to allow for the spice to infuse. Serve with some white rice and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

After your make this recipe you will never want to make a curry made from run of the mill curry powder. This is simply delicious. 

Quick and Easy Caesar Salad from Left Over Roast Chicken

This recipe is perfect for left over roast chicken. It takes less than 15 minutes to make and is pretty damn tasty. 

Ingredients (enough for 2 people):
120g of your favourite salad leaves
1/4 roast chicken - shredded
6 tbs mayonnaise
2 slices of bread - toasted
3 cloves of garlic - crushed
2 tsp of lemon juice
1/2 tbs of Dijon mustard
1 tbs of grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbs of white wine vinegar
3 tbs olive oil
Cracked black pepper

Method:

Cut the crust of the toasted bread slices and discard. Cut the remainder of the toasted bread into bite size cubes and place into a large bowl. Into the same bowl place the salad leaves and the roast chicken pieces.

For the dressing place the mayonnaise, garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and white wine vinegar into a food processor. Grind everything until it turns into a smooth, milky looking dressing. Have a taste and add more of any of the above ingredients to suit your liking. 

Add the dressing to the salad bowl and mix together with the chicken and toasted bread cubes until everything is evenly distributed. Finish off with a drizzle of olive oil, a few twists of cracked black pepper, and serve.

Thai Laksa with Prawns Recipe

I decided yesterday to make Thai Laksa from scratch. Normally I would buy the Laksa and simply add coconut milk and some water but it always felt like I was cheating the recipe.

The following is a list of ingredients which will easily feed two people.

Ingredients for the Paste:

1/2 brown onion - finely chopped

3 cm ginger - finely chopped

1 cloves of garlic - finely chopped

1 stalk of lemon grass - white segment only - sliced

3 fresh chillies

2 macadamia nuts - crushed

1/2 tbs of shrimp paste

3 leaves of fresh mint

1/2 tsp turmeric 

1/2 tsp ground coriander 

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tbs of vegetable oil

Ingredients for Laksa Soup:

1/4 brown onion - finely chopped

5 cm ginger - finely chopped

150g bean sprouts

1 tsp of vegetable oil

1 lemongrass stalk

200 g fresh prawns

600 ml chicken stock 

2 tbs fish sauce

1 tbs sugar

3 cups of baby spinach leaves

200ml coconut milk

2 limes

150 g of rice or egg noodles

Step 1 - Cook the rice noodles

Prepare a pot of boiling water and throw in the noodles. Cook the noodles for about two minutes or however long it's recommended on the package. Pour out the hot water and rinse the noodles under cold water. Pour out the cold water and set the noodles aside.

Step 2 - Make the Laksa Paste

Take the ingredients listed under Paste Ingredients and one by one grind them in a mortar with a heavy pestle. If you don't have one like me you can use a food processor. Grind everything until it turns into a thick paste. If you feel it is getting too dry add more vegetable oil. 

Step 3 - Create the Laksa

Pour in the vegetable oil into a frying pan on medium heat. Add the onion and ginger. Fry for about 2 minutes and add the prawns. Fry the prawns until they're almost cooked. Now add the chicken stock, coconut milk, lemon grass, fish sauce, and sugar. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to low. Add the spinach and the bean sprouts. Cook for about 1 minute and squeeze in two limes. 

Step 4 - Serve!

Place the noodles we prepared earlier into a large bowl. Pour the Laksa on top. Garnish with some coriander leaves and lime wedges.

The Best Gourmet Burger

Today I had an insane craving for a delicious burger. I stumbled on this recipe on the web. It takes a bit of time and patience but trust me it is well worth it as it turned out tasting just amazing!

Ingredients - enough to create 6 burgers:

1kg beef mince
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried chili flakes
1 egg
1/2 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of grated nutmeg
2 tbs olive oil
12 bread buns, toasted
150g hummus
1 cup baby cos leaves or any type of lettuce
1 tomato, sliced
1 red capsicum, sliced
1 tbs cracked black pepper
1 tsp salt
Mayonnaise or  aioli

Step 1 - Roast the Capsicum

Slice up the red capsicum. Preheat an oven to 170degC with the grill on. Place the capsicum into the oven. Leave it to roast for about 15 minutes until the edges begin to turn charcoal.

Step 2 - Make the Burger Patties

Chop up the onion into small pieces. Now place the chopped up onion, beef mince, chili flakes, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, egg, and the breadcrumbs into a large bowl. Mix everything together until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Don't be afraid to use your hands to do this.

Now use your hands to shape the patties. Make sure thickness is no more than an inch. Otherwise they will take forever to cook through. It helps to poke some holes in the patties as well as this will help them to cook faster.

Step 3 - Cook the patties

Preheat a frying pan on medium heat with a dash of olive oil. Place the patties into the pan. Fry each patty for 5-10 minutes on each side.

Step 4 - Make the burgers

Spread the hummus on each bun. Now combine the bread buns, the baby cos leaves, the mayonnaise, the patty, slice of tomato, and the roasted capsicum. By this stage your mouth will be watering. And that's it! You've created a monster. Enjoy this fantastic burger. 

Sun Dried Tomatoes and Mushroom Pesto Pasta

I saw Giada De Laurentiis prepare this on Food TV once and decided to give it ago. It is a super easy dish that only takes a few simple steps and tastes fantastic. In the ingredients photo you'll see that I used garlic paste instead of fresh garlic. This is simply because this is all the corner store had. Always use fresh garlic, it just has a much better flavor.

You will need the following ingredients
(serves 2):

3 cloves of garlic
150g of sun dried tomatoes
200g white button mushrooms
250g pasta (any type)
1 cup fresh basil
Olive oil
Kalamata olives (optional)
Salt (to taste)
Cracked black pepper (to taste)


Step 1
First cook the pasta. Once it is done rinse with cold water and set aside.

Step 2

Chop up the olives into slices and set aside. These are optional. I find that the olives give a nice bitterness, which complements the pesto.

Step 3
Dice up the mushrooms. Drizzle some olive oil into a frying pan on medium heat and fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes.

Step 4

Take about 1/3 of the mushrooms that you just fried up and place them into a food processor. The remainder of the mushrooms we will put into the pasta later. Next place the sun dried tomatoes, the garlic, and the basil leaves into the food processor as well. Add a tbs of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and plenty of cracked black peeper. Grind everything into a paste. Have a taste and add more salt and pepper if required. 

Step 5

Fry the paste for about 2 minutes in a frying pan on medium heat. Now add the pasta and the olives you prepared earlier, and the remainder of the mushrooms. Mix everything together until the pesto is evenly distributed. Serve on a nice plate with some basil leaves for decoration and enjoy. 

Lamb Skewers and Eggplant Dish

This is a fantastic recipe I tried out just yesterday. My partner saw this on Food TV and gave me the recipe. It was 8pm here in Melbourne and I was definitely keen for some lamb skewers. You just can't go wrong.

The best thing about this recipe is it does not take very long, the ingredients are easy to find and are not too expensive. The most expensive item will no doubt be the lamb. The cherry tomatoes will vary in price depending if they are in season or not, but you don't need to buy that many anyway. I bought a 400g pack for $3.50.

Ingredients - serves 2 people
1 Eggplant
200-300g lamb pieces suitable for grilling
250g of cherry tomatoes
2 brown onions
White vinegar
Olive oil
1 bird's eye chilli
200g natural yogurt (bland flavour)
Cumin
Salt
Cracked pepper
Wooden skewers

Step 1

Chop up the lamb into bite size pieces and place into a bowl. Do not throw away the fat because this gives off fantastic flavour. When grilled to perfection even the fat pieces taste fantastic. Dice up the chili and add to the bowl. Add about 4 tbs. of olive oil and about 2 tbs. of vinegar. Now add some salt and cracked pepper and mix everything together.

Now take a skewer, slide a piece of the marinaded lamb on followed by a cherry tomato and again followed by lamb. Repeat this process until you get something like in the photo below. Drizzle some olive oil top of the tomatoes. 

Ideally you would put the skewers on a barbecue but if you are like me and don't have one or simply because setting one up inside an apartment is not the best idea, an oven will do just fine. Preheat your oven to 160degC with the grill on. Once it has heated up place the skewers on an oven grid not too close to the grill (otherwise you'll burn the meat too quickly). Slide the grid into the oven and place an oven tray underneath the grid so that the lamb fat does not drip to the bottom of the oven.

Step 2
While the lamb skewers are roasting slice up the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick circle pieces.

Next finely chop the onions and set aside.

Add some cooking oil (or olive oil) to a frying pan on medium heat and add the eggplant pieces. Add a pinch of salt and cracked pepper. After frying for about 3 minutes flip the eggplant pieces, and fry for another 3 minutes. Set the eggplant aside.

Next add the chopped up onion to the pan, and a dash more cooking oil. Reduce the pan heat to low and add about 1-2 tsp. of cumin. Saute for about 5 - 10 minutes. Add more cooking oil if you feel the onions are getting too dry. 

Step 3

Place the sauteed onions on top of the fried eggplant slices and add a layer of yogurt on top. Add salt and pepper to taste. By this time the skewers should be ready. Take the skewers out and serve with the eggplant dish as in the picture below and dig in. You'll find that the eggplant dish complements the lamb skewers perfectly.