Tag Archives: soup

Curry Miso Mulligatawny Soup

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curry miso mulligatawny soup

curry miso mulligatawny soup

as part of a japan themed dinner for my friends, was contemplating adding a soup.  miso soup didn’t quite make it there. i made ok cream of mushrooms & cream of potato soup. the best soup i made was the basque seafood soup. it was very good if tedious boiling prawn shells for 2-3hrs. anyway they didn’t quite fit the theme.

so i was working on the miso theme with the seafood, and came up with a curry miso. i googled & found a few curry miso recipe & also looked at mulligatawny (an indian soup i love) recipe, and finally put together my own seafood curry miso mulligatawny soup. & very pleasing to say, it came out wonderful! 🙂

curry miso mulligatawny soup

curry miso mulligatawny soup

for the soup, i chopped 2 shallots and had ready 3 cloves minced garlic, sliced 1 yellow onion & diced 1 large carrot. as i did not have ready stock, i needed the onion & carrot to flavour the soup base. was deciding whether to add potatoes which would add both sweetness & bulk, but decided to add rice later for bulk & mulligatawny texture so drop the potato.

with 2 tablespoon olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat, i fried the shallots & minced garlic, added curry leaves & 2 teaspoon curry powder, and added the sliced onion & carrots & coated them with the curry powder & quickly added water. i also added 1/2 teaspoon tumeric for the added colour. i mixed in 2 tablespoon of miso paste & 1 teaspoon of sugar & let the saucepan content boiled over low heat for 1 hr, adding water as required, to get the vegetable sweetness into the soup.  decided to sieve the soup rather then blend the content (may try blending next time). i then added 1/4 cup rice & boiled for 20 more minutes. i added a little salt & found the right taste i liked.

for the seafood, i had 10 large frozen shelled mussels from QB Food, 1 large squid (removed red skin & cross-sliced the squid), and 5 large prawns. i heat 20g butter on a flat non-stick skillet on high heat, and added the prawns, and seared them on all sides. then i added the squid & stir-fried until the squid curled up. i turned heat to low & remove the nicely flavoured prawns & squid so they were not overcooked. i then added the mussels & stir-fried for very short time & then added some soup, simmered & quickly removed the mussels. these were then put aside till serving.  i de-glazed the skillet & returned the content to the saucepan.

(for this time, i did not add flour or heavy cream or coconut milk but may experiment with those next time).

when ready to serve, put the prawn, squid & mussels in each bowl & added the boiling soup over them. voila! 🙂 & bon appetit!

c.h.e.f. andy

Ingredients:

soup base

  • 2 shallots chopped
  • 3 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 yellow onion slice
  • 1 large carrot diced
  • 2 tsp curry powder
  • 1 stalk curry leaves (20)
  • 2 tbsp miso paste
  • 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/4cup rice

seafood

  • 1 large squid (remove skin & cross-cut)
  • 10 mussels
  • 8 large prawns (de-veined)

Directions:

  1. for the soup – chop 2 shallots, 3 cloves minced garlic, slice 1 yellow onion & dice 1 large carrot. fry shallots & minced garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan & add curry leaves & 2 teaspoon curry powder. add the sliced onions & carrots & coat them with curry powder & quickly add water. add 1/2 teaspoon tumeric for colour.  mix in 2 tablespoon of miso paste & 1 teaspoon of sugar & let the saucepan content boiled over low heat for 1 hr, adding water as required, to get the vegetable sweetness into the soup.  sieve the soup. add 1/4 cup rice & boiled for 20 more minutes. add a little salt to taste.
  2. for the seafood – lightly season the prawn & squid (separately) with salt & pepper.  heat 20g butter on a flat non-stick skillet on high heat. add the prawns, and sear them on all sides. then add the squid & stir-fry until the squid curled up. turn heat to low & remove the nicely flavoured prawns & squid so they are not overcooked. add the mussels & stir-fry for very short time & then add some soup, simmered & quickly removed the mussels. put aside.  deglaze skillet (with the soup) & return content to the saucepan.
  3. when ready to serve, put the prawn, squid & mussels in each bowl & added the boiling soup over them.
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Cream of Cauliflower Soup

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cream of cauliflower soup

having tasted some early successes in my creamy mushroom soup venture, I thought since I am already down the path of using the blender (which I had thus far mostly avoided to do) why not trail further and try other soups. after all whether it is blending mushrooms or blending potatoes, leeks, cauliflowers etc, it cannot be too far off. and so far my faith has been rewarded. 🙂

my next venture is this beautiful cream of cauliflower soup recipe, again from none other than Chef John of Foodwishes.com. I am falling in love with this guy.

I first sweated the celery & yellow onions for 5-6minutes in a soup pot with some olive oil over medium heat until the onions turned translucent. Then I cut the cauliflowers in small pieces, threw in a potato that has been peeled and quartered, then threw in the cauliflowers. I then added 5 cups of vegetable stock & 5 cups of water enough to cover the cauliflowers, bring to boil & turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. That’s when the potatoes were “smashable” – it would collapse when you pushed it against the wall of the pot. I let  the soup cooled down & then blended in batches and pureed to a smooth velvety texture. I then added sea salt to taste, and the soup was basically done. I added the heavy cream when I heated up the soup again just before serving. 🙂

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bacon tip gremolata

for the bacon gremolata, I followed Chef John’s concoction – first frying cut bacon to crisp, then added fresh bread & toasted it in the bacon fat on low heat until golden & crisp  to make breadcrumbs. I then added lemon zest and mixed them as in above picture.

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cream of cauliflower soup

I then served the soup with the bacon topping & few drops of truffle oil. My wife & daughter both liked this soup. I must say the bacon gremolata made quite some difference – the saltiness of the bacon & the crisp texture went very well with the soup and fragrance of the truffle oil. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 a cauliflower (about 400g)
  • 2 ribs celery chopped
  • 1/2 yellow onion chopped
  • 1 potato peeled & quartered
  • 5 cups of vegetable stock
  • 5 cups water
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream

for the bacon gremolata:

  • 2 streaky bacon cut to small pieces
  • 1 slice of fresh bread to make 30g of breadcrumbs
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley (I did not use in the above photos)

Directions:

  1. Cook the soup – sweat the celery & yellow onions for 5-6minutes in a soup pot with some olive oil over medium heat until the onions turn translucent. cut the cauliflowers in small pieces, throw in a potato that has been peeled and quartered, then throw in the cauliflowers. add 5 cups of vegetable stock & 5 cups of water enough to cover the vegetables, bring to boil & turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. when potatoes are “smashable” – it will collapse when you push it against the wall of the pot – cool down & then blend soup in batches in a blender and puree to a smooth velvety texture. add sea salt to taste, and soup is basically done. add heavy cream after heating up again just before serving.
  2. Prepare the bacon gremolata – fry bacon to crisp. add fresh bread & toast in the bacon fat on low heat until golden & crisp  to make breadcrumbs. remove & cool. add lemon zest to bacon tips & breadcrumbs and mix them.
  3. add the bacon topping & few drops of truffle oil when serving the soup

Basque Seafood Soup

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basque seafood soup

basque seafood soup

This a very enjoyable, intense, tasty soup!

I had it at La Cicala with my son in Aug2012, and thought I would do this. I looked up the internet and found this basque seafood soup recipe.

My family use a fair amount of prawns mostly in pasta & some Chinese dishes, and used to discard the shells & heads. For this dish, I save the heads & shells and boil them for 3 hours. You could blend the shells & liquids in a blender in batches, but it required much effort and at the time I was not yet using blender much, so I just passed the liquids through a sieve & pushed hard, and then disposed the boiled heads and shells. That provided the prawn stock for the bisque. I learned then you needed shellfish or crustaceans to give the bisque that depth of flavour & intensity. 🙂

basque seafood soup

basque seafood soup

I next prepared the vegetable base. I sautéed the leeks, onion and carrot for 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently. I turned to high heat and added the prawn stock, and then added brandy (it might flame as the saucepan was very hot). I then added white wine & diced tomatoes, just 1 teaspoon of tumeric for colour. I then turned to low heat & let the soup simmered for 40minutes to bring out the vegetable base sweetness. Then I add chicken or vegetable stock and add sea salt to taste.

Before serving I added the prawns and squids to poach them, and lastly the mussels for just about 3minutes. I then take out the prawns, squids, mussels and distributed them to individual bowls before topping them up with soup, and serve.

c.h.e.f. andy

Ingredients:

  • heads & shells from 1 kg small or medium prawns – serves 8
  • 2 leeks chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 1 yellow onions chopped
  • 1/4 cup brandy
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
  • 1 large tomato diced
  • 1 tsp tumeric
  • sea salt to taste
  • 8 medium prawns (or 16 small prawns) – about 300g
  • 1 large squid skin removed cut into rings (about 16 rings) or into large curls with cross-cuts (8 pieces)
  • 8 large shelled mussels or 16 small ones

Directions:

  1. Prepare prawn stock for the bisque – boil the heads and shells for 3 hours. blend the shells & liquids in a blender in batches OR pass the liquids through a sieve & push hard, and then dispose the boiled heads and shells.
  2. Prepare vegetable base for soup – sauté the leeks, onion and carrot for 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently.  turn to high heat and add the prawn stock, and then add brandy (it might flame as the saucepan is very hot).  add white wine & diced tomatoes, &  tumeric for colour. turn to low heat & let the soup simmer for 40minutes to bring out the vegetable base sweetness. add chicken or vegetable stock (if required) and add sea salt to taste.
  3. Before serving, add the prawns and squids to poach them, and lastly the shelled mussels for just 3minutes. take out the prawns, squids, mussels and distribute to individual bowls before topping them up with soup. Serve.

 

Creamy Mushroom Soup

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creamy mushroom soup

creamy mushroom soup

soup. auntie  Bes, my Filipino help who has been with us for 24 years, makes very good Chinese soup. They could be pork ribs with peanuts or lotus root soup, chicken bones & feet with old cucumbers or carrots or watercress or even green papaya, largely in the vein of Cantonese 例汤 – soup of the day. auntie Bes doesn’t do soup using pork (she only used pork ribs) though this is also common with Chinese soups and these days we don’t use much of Chinese ham (京华火腿) though in the early days when I travel to Beijing & Shanghai more, I did cart some of these back for soup. when I started doing homecooked dinners for friends, if I were doing dishes like braised duck, curry chicken and kakuni (Japaense braised belly pork), auntie Bes’ soup was a perfect fit. But then I also started doing western dinners, and soon afterwards after several visits to and enjoyable meals at La Cicala Spanish Gastrobar, I learned to cook a Basque seafood bisque, using prawn shells with white wine & brandy to create the bisque, with leek, yellow onions & carrots to add vegetable sweetness to the soup. It was quite successful & I used it for several of my homecooked dinners. But that was the only soup I knew how to cook, that is until yesterday. I had another 8-course lunch for 9pax yesterday so I thought I would test out another soup, and I kind of thought mushroom soup would be the most common, easiest to do and acceptable to most. So who do I turn to? you guess it right – Foodwishes.com Chef John’s creamy mushroom soup recipe. It went really well at first try, and all my friends enjoyed the soup very much.

caramelising 3 different mushrooms + leek + yellow onions

caramelising 3 different mushrooms + leek + yellow onions

I bought 250g of cut brown button mushrooms, 200g of oyster mushrooms & 150g of shimeji mushrooms from Sheng Shiong. I added a teasppon of salt & caramelised them in a soup pot according to the video instructions, then added the diced yellow onions & leek. I cooked them further & then fished out a few caramelised mushrooms as toppings for the soup later. I then added the flour and stirred them to thicken a little. Image Next I added the white wine, reduced and then added the chicken stock (made in a crockpot with chicken bones). I then put it on an induction cooker & put to the lowest at 100W & let it cooked for 1.5hrs. I let the soup cooled down, and then blended it in a blender in small batches. Then I brought it to boil in the pot, turned to low fire and added 2 tablespoon of heavy cream and mixed in the soup, and added sea salt & pepper to taste. To serve, I added a dash of extra virgin olive oil & placed couple caramelised mushrooms I reserved earlier as toppings. c.h.e.f andy Ingredients:

  • 600g mushrooms (button mushrooms or with other combinations) – served 8
  • 1/2 large yellow onion diced
  • 1 leek diced
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 5 cups of chicken stock
  • 1 tsp salt (to sweat the mushrooms)
  • 2-3 tbsp heavy cream
  • sea salt & coarse black pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. slice the button mushrooms, and diced the yellow onion & leek.
  2. caramelise the mushrooms in a soup pot with 1 teaspoon salt in high then medium heat. add the yellow onion and leek & cook until they soften. take out some caramelised mushrooms for toppings if you like. add a tablespoon of flour to thicken. add 1 cup of white wine and reduce, and add 3 cups of chicken stock. bring to boil & then turn fire to low & cook for 1.5hrs. let the soup cool or add more cold chicken stock or water, then blend it in a blender in batches. bring the blended soup to boil adding stock or water as necessary to taste according to your own preference. turn fire to low and add 2 tablespoon of heavy cream and mix well. serve with dash of extra virgin olive oil & caramelised mushroom toppings.