Curtis's Pumpkin Soup et al

The two big supermarkets here publish a free monthly recipe book using products they sell. I don't always pick it up but this month Coles had slow cooker recipes and a chorizo, pumpkin and white bean recipe by an Aussie chef named Curtis Stone.

My adaptation

1/3 cup chopped chorizo...and seriously any tasty meat or mushroom etc will work(sage leaves?)

large chopped onion and carrot

5-ish cups of chopped pumpkin

3 chopped garlic cloves

drained can of white beans

1/2 cup cream or sour cream

salt and pepper

saute the meat and remove from pan

saute onion and carrot, then garlic and pumpkin

add 1/3 cup of beans

cover with water or chicken stock

cook until tender, blend and season well

add the cream and the rest of the beans and heat through

To serve sprinkle with the fried chorizo or mushrooms

Bon appetite 

We bought a Sunbeam Pie Maker recently and have been enjoying some delicious home-made pies, simple make a thick 'stew' or pie filling and the pies cook in under 15 minutes without having the big oven on for ages.
My two elder grandson are flat-sharing these days...I packed up a couple of hot meals for them...no-one starves on my watch...I spent a whole $10 at the op-shop on 2 Pyrex dishes/platters, the big pasta bowl you can just see here and 4 kitchen utensils. These pies are a chicken, potato and corn mix...

These meat and tatie pies were my all time favourite as a child in Lancaster and Morecambe, I had no idea they were a local treat...I thought the whole world must love them nearly as much as me! Elizabeth and David were most appreciative lol

Lancashire Meat and Potato Pies

I finished little Darcie's cardigans, the second one looks a bit lop-sided unfortunately...I hope she is too busy running around for (m)any people to notice! Those wooden buttons come from Spotlight and at $2 for 6 are very good value...she will love the little hearts...

Off now to drop Joe at the podiatrist's and take Dad to the shops
No rest for the wicked!
Love,
Sue

Pho Soup with Meatballs

When Joe was in Canada in May, fare-welling Priss he enjoyed this Vietnamese soup on several occasions and wanted to make it from scratch when he got home. We looked on-line at various recipes and came up with this blend that he says is better than restaurant quality. It looks rather time consuming but the main ingredient is the stock and by using a crock-pot we can leave it to cook itself.

The seasonings...no need to peel anything as you strain the stock once it's cooked...

Stock
Now this is where you can use the cheapest meatiest 'bones' you can buy...they need some meat left on them to add to the soup bowl. We have used oxtail this time but we saw some lovely meaty bones this week that would have worked well. It looks a long list of spices but once you have them you should have enough to make several pots of stock. I make it in a large slow cooker/crock-pot but it can be done on the stove-top too....just toss everything in as you will be straining it once cooked.
This amount makes a very rich stock that can be diluted to taste:

800gms or so of beef bones/oxtails
large brown onion, unpeeled and roughly chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and roughly chopped
golf ball sized piece of fresh ginger also unpeeled and roughly chopped
4"/10cm stick of cinnamon
4 whole star anise
6 each of cloves and whole cardamon pods
20 black peppercorns
1/4 cup fish sauce
2t sugar
1t salt

Cover with warm water so that everything is well sub-merged and cook for around 8 hrs.
NB Let it cool somewhat before straining/sieving the stock...we didn't the first time and Joe badly burned his hand in the hot fat. The raw oxtail bones...

We use a sieve to strain the stock...purists may use cheese-cloth but it's really not necessary...press the onion etc to get all the juice out...

If you have time let it sit in the fridge so that the fat comes to the top...you can remove it more easily then. This jug holds 1200mls which is enough for 4-6 bowls of soup...taste it first though as it may be too strong for your liking, dilute it with boiling water...

 Take the beef off the bones and set aside... reserved beef...

Meatballs
 Now these are an optional extra...you will have cooked beef from the bones and thinly sliced steak so it's up to you whether you 'need' them or not...

500gms minced pork
1 beaten egg
2 slices of white bread processed into crumbs
3T fish sauce
1 level teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice

Mix thoroughly and shape into 28 walnut sized balls
I prefer to steam mine but they could be gently fried or baked
I use 4 of these, halved per bowl of soup and freeze the rest, cooked, for future soups.

The Soup

for each bowl

1x 220 gm pack 'Wok ready' thin rice noodles, Asian section of supermarkets, we use Kan-Tong brand
1 cup of bean sprouts
50-60 gms of very thinly sliced steak, this cooks in the hot broth
2T the cooked beef off the bones
thinly sliced onion and or spring onion
to serve...
lime or lemon juice
thinly sliced chilli, optional
handful of coriander leaves or better still Vietnamese mint if you can get it
Sriracha chilli sauce and Hoisin sauce served on the side in small dishes, the noodles are dunked into one sauce and then the other for authenticity (these are a 'gotta') :D

I re-heat the stock in a sauce-pan then add in the following order...

meatballs
noodles
cooked beef from bones
onions

Pour into large soup dish, top with raw sliced steak and serve with the beansprouts, sauces, fresh herbs and lime juice etc and a large napkin!

This makes enough for Joe to have 4 very large bowls(must confess it's not my cup of tea)so I freeze the remaining stock in 3 containers to use one by one.

I hope this takes out some of the mystery behind this popular dish, once the stock is cooked it all comes together very quickly.

ăn tốt Vietnamese for 'eat well'

this is the soup Joe enjoyed one night in Montreal...

Cooler Days and Warm Dinners

This is warm and thrifty soup born of the need to use up all the celery stalks we have left after feeding Twitch Rabbit the leaves lol

It could be cooked in the 

slow cooker/crockpot 6-7 hours, 4 cups of stock
pressure cooker 7 minutes, 3 cups of stock
stove-top 1 hour, 3-4 cups of stock

a whole bunch of celery, sliced
2-3 large potatoes, chopped or sliced
1 white onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3-4 cups of chicken stock
half a cup of cream or sour cream

Usual way, fry off onions, celery then garlic
Add potato and stock, season well.
Cook as above
Blend or puree the soup and stir in cream

Serve with croutons/grated cheese/fried crispy bacon

We've also had a thick minestrone soup this week as well as lots of chicken based meals all from one half of a rather chubby free range chicken that was slow-cooked with lemon juice and peri peri sauce. I want to make my own sauce for the next time and will try this recipe. I love the look of the Chickpea recipe too!

Filling, delicious and nutritious.
Have a great weekend every-one
Love from Sue

A Fridge Scrape Soup

Cold day, vegies and leftovers to use up and a fridge that needs a good clean...perfect for fridge scrape soup...I love this name and the freedom it allows, the thrift of using up all the those bits and pieces so there is no waste in the kitchen.

I'll start with gently frying onion, carrots and celery and then add some fresh garlic. What's next? That half a zucchini, those elderly potatoes, soft tomatoes, bits of broccoli, cabbage, the silverbeet that Twitch won't eat, the left-over mushy peas than need longer cooking and that scrap of corned beef from earlier in the week. Quick look in freezer and there's that bag of butter beans from goodness knows when...they can go in near the end! Give everything a good stir round in the oil and then cover with hot water from the kettle, plenty of salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce or your favourite spice/herb blends. Cook gently until the vegies are tender and clean the fridge now lol
Then you can eat and enjoy your soup!

Do you make soups at home, are you game to try a fridge scrape soup this weekend?

This blogger made several different versions which may inspire you!

Thrifty, warming and delicious.

Enjoy your weekend,
Sue
xx

PS I didn't know it was Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day when I started cooking this morning, he is such an inspiration to us all

Rose's Spicy Soup Recipe

Our lovely Rose at the Down to Earth forums posted this gorgeous soup recipe last week...I only used about a litre of stock and made a very thick soup or stew ....it was so good I gobbled up two thirds of it and Joe was lucky to get a taste. This recipe is definitely a "keeper"~

You'll need to saute

a chopped onion
4 crushed garlic cloves
a heaped t of chopped ginger

Stir in
 2 t paprika
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t chilli flakes

Add
300 gms chopped pumpkin
2 chopped celery sticks
2/3 cup of red lentils
1 can of chick peas or 1 1/4 cups if you have cooked ones on hand
1 can of chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper
3 cups each of stock and water(use slightly less for a thicker soup but don't let the lentils "catch" as they swell)

Simmer for around 30 minutes or just 5 minutes if you are using a pressure cooker.
It was really nice served with a dollop of plain yoghurt.

There are major improvements going on at Elizabeth's house this week, lots of decluttering, repainting and new furniture and floor coverings too. Can't wait to see the end results!

Off to the washing line, so glad it's sunny!
Love from Sue
xx

Tuscan Style White Bean Soup

We eat tons of minestrone, thick with various vegetables, macaroni and red kidney beans and grated cheese on top. I got a lovely "Slow Cooking Around The Mediterranean" recipe book from the library this week and liked the look of this simpler white bean soup.
However after reading the instructions.....slow cook the beans for 4 hours after boiling them for 10 minutes after soaking them overnight it was put into 'the too-hard basket' and I winged it with the aid of my trusty pressure cooker.....here's my version...

Beans
I left my 1 1/4 cups of haricot,white or navy beans soaking overnight in cold water and then changed the water this morning. They took 4-5 minutes to cook once at high pressure and I let the pot cool down on it's own while I cooked the rest of the ingredients. This made enough beans for 2 meals so I froze half of them. They would take about an hour to cook in an ordinary saucepan or you could use a drained and rinsed tin of white beans instead.

Soup Base
For 4 medium serves you'll need....

a chopped onion
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
1 t sugar
3 bay leaves
2 cups of chicken or vegie stock
salt and pepper
chopped parsley
a few shredded spinach/silverbeet leaves~optional

Lightly fry the chopped onion until clear and then add the garlic for a few minutes
Fry off the tomato paste then stir in the rest of these ingredients, (not the beans or parsley yet though)
After about 45 minutes the soup should be ready for the beans and parsley so add these now and cook another 10 minutes, try to avoid over-cooking the beans at this stage.

We had toasted French stick and butter with ours and it was really lovely.

Check out the pressure cooking times chart on the right of my blog, I refer to it regularly.

In the words of the immortal Johnny Cash "It looks like we're gonna be blessed with a little more rain" from this song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZD7eoHZT8

Stay dry and warm,
Love from Sue
xx