Sophie Dahl's Roasted Tomato Soup w/ Thyme

Recently i started a free trial with Quickflix – an online DVD rental company and one of the DVD i rented was Sophie Dahl's cooking show, which sadly ended only after one season. I really like watching her cook and her voice and demeanour is so calm and relaxing.

Anyway, i decided to try one of her recipe which looks so simple and delicious. and it really is simple! and delicious! and just nice, i used the springs of thyme in my herb garden.

If you know me, i don't like tomatoes and i don't eat tomatoes, but i do like drinking tomato juice. weird. but yah. but i really want to eat more tomatoes. so when i saw Sophie make this roasted tomato soup i decided i should try it! and so should you!

Ingredients (Serves 4-5)

2kg plum ripe roma tomatoes, halved
1 garlic bulb, halved horizontally
2 large red/brown onions, quartered
few springs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp caster sugar
salt & pepper
a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
a few drops of balsamic vinegar
dried herbs
(optional) veg stock
(optional) cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Place tomatoes, garlic, onions & thyme in a large roasting dish and season well with salt, pepper, dried herbs and sugar. Drizzle in the oil and mix well.

Place the roasting dish into the oven for 45-60 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool slightly.

Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of its skin and remove the springs of thyme.

After roasting, the tomatoes release a lot of sweet juices.

Blend in a food processor. Or else, just place the tomatoes, onions, garlic and the juices in a large saucepan and use a hand blender, it takes a little while longer but it still works really well.

The consistency was perfect for me. but in case you find it too thick, you could always add a little stock or cream.

Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar – it definitely ups the flavour.

-> So simple. So delicious!

To go with this for dinner, i baked 2 loaves of bread and fry up a few country chicken sausages.

And with the leftovers, i placed them into container and froze it for future dinners!

YUM YUM YUM!

Minestrone Soup (Pressure Cooker)

Minestrone soup is one of our favourites and i have not cooked it in.. 2 1/2 years!

So i decided one day.. late in the evening that i wanted to make this, since my supply of veggies just got delivered. and if anyone is interested, i order my veggies from Fruit N Vegie Direct. 

So i chopped up all the veggies i had and tada!

Veggie Goodness in a bowl!

Ingredients

*You can really use what veggies you have on hand, these were roughly what i used

350g Green Beans
2 carrots
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
2 desiree potatoes
2 stalks of celery
4 slice of bacon (optional)
1 spicy chorizo (optional)
1 can of diced tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Mixed dried herbs
3 bay leaves
4 cups water
Some white button mushrooms
Fresh corn kernels (frozen would do just fine too)
Chicken stock paste (optional)

Directions

Chop up your veggies into pieces. Not too big and not too small (in case they get too soft and mushy)

Leave the skins of the potatoes on for extra nutrients and they don't really make a difference anyway.

Bacon, if you like them. They melt into the sauce and you can't really bite into a piece of bacon. They're mainly there for flavour.

One spicy chorizo that we bought from the Eveleigh Markets at Redfern. These really made the soup spicy. i was even contemplating putting 2 of these. One of definitely enough. If you don't want it spicy, just use normal chorizos then.

In the pressure cooker, i use the saute function and fry off my bacon first, to render the fats. Then i add the chorizo in as well. When they get nice and brown, i added my onions to caramelize. When my onions are about done, add in your garlic. Fry fry fry..

Then i add in all my other veggies (i added the mushroom and corn kernels last). Give them a good mix around.

Add 4 cups of water. I gave it a good squeeze of my chicken stock paste (just to add some more flavour), add a can of diced tomatoes.

Stir them all together and you get the above picture.

Looks yummy enough already!

Then i cover the lid and cooked it under medium pressure for 30 minutes.

Watched tv for 30 minutes.

Came back, released the steam manually – takes around 2 minutes.

Open the lid and this is what you get!

 
The veggies have all cooked down and the fats rendered.

At this point, we tried the soup. It was peppery all right! But it's a flavour you get used it and it ain't that bad. but i found it slightly thin, so i added around 3 tbsp of tomato paste.

It definitely upped the tomato-y flavour and made the soup thicker.

I changed the settings to saute and let the soup boil down a little as well.

All it takes now for a complete meal is some pasta!

Any type you like, macaroni or broken spaghetti are all fine! Something you can eat with a spoon.

  

Yum Yum Yum. Perfect for a cold winter night. Warm and spicy. Healthy too!

*By the way, this can totally be cooked on the stove-top. Just follow the same steps and cook it partially covered until the potatoes and carrots are soft. It will take longer but be just as delicious!

Kimchi Instant Noodles…Dinner

Merry Christmas!

I cooked dinner the day before yesterday using my Kimchi – which i still have quite a lot leftover.

I didn’t make the Sujebi as it is a little time consuming. So… i made it with instant noodles instead.

 
This is really simple to make.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

1/4 part Kimchi
1tsp powdered dashi
1 small pack silky tofu
2 eggs, scrambled
Enough water
Salt, soy sauce

Directions

Boil water.

Add powdered dashi.

Add sliced kimchi.

Add salt/soy sauce to taste.

Add tofu, roughly sliced.

Add 2 cakes of instant noodles.

When nearly done, add the scrambled eggs. Or if you prefer, a whole egg.

Eat!

 
Also also….. I just made a very simple dinner yesterday. I was considering what to eat, when God sent me a sign. HAHA.. I opened the freezer. and a pack of Chorizos dropped out and into my hands. Hehe.. so Chorizo it is!

 
Simple pasta of oil, garlic and chorizos. It really doesn’t need much oil as chorizo itself has and will give out a lot of oil.

and and and.. i deep fried stuffs in the fridge.

There was a lot more. But we couldn’t stop eating.

I fried the chips before but wasn’t in love with it. But amazingly, i loved it this time around!

I am so going to buy this brand again. It’s Bird’s Eye Beer Battered Chips.

Those are not chicken nuggets you see.. those are prawn nuggets which are quite tasty, but Fish doesn’t like it.

There were potato gems too.. but i don’t like it.. so Fish popped all before i even noticed.

I also cooked Herbal Chicken soup. Don’t ask me for a list of ingredients. Haha.. I buy ingredients.. around 10.. from what i know and heard of. and just add a few of everything into the soup with water and a breast on the bone. Boil it forever in the rice cooker. *The important thing to remember is to not add salt! Add salt into the serving bowl and then the soup. Don’t cook with the salt. The salt would cause the chicken meat to become tough.

okokok…

Tonight is Christmas Eve.. and we’re having a special dinner.

I’ve ordered turkey and risotto balls from an online store and they’re now defrosting.

I’m also roasting potatoes which i’ve just chopped up and mixed with EVOO, salt, pepper and rosemary.

I'll definitely post pictures of our dinner tonight!

Also.. also.. i’ve made Pineapple Tarts! and i’m quite proud of it! Will share in due time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Christmas Eve Dinner!

This post may come a little late..but the dinner was really good!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fish helped cook the dinner as well and so you see 7 sets of everything. I was really quite proud of my soup. Pumpkin Soup! I used a mix of 2 recipes.

We also made pumpkin balls and had sashimi - salmon, swordfish and kingfish. Fish also cooked a dish of rice with eggplant and bacon.

We went to NTUC to buy ingredients and boy is it a disappointment. I couldn't find anything that was necessary for the rice dish that Fish cooked. Originally, it was made using salami and good sausages. However, all we could find at NTUC was bacon and disappointing sausages so the dish didn't turn out as good as expected. It's ok! We will attempt to make this again with better quality ingredients!

I had the pumpkin recipe in my old blog which i have pasted below.

Ingredients
1. 600g Pumpkin or 900g Potato
2. 200g Chicken meat – add pepper, 1/2tbsp salt, 1/2tbsp mirin and sake
3. 1 onion or more if you like
4. 2 eggs
5. Plain flour
6. Rising Flour
6. Bread Crumbs

Seasoning
1. 2tsp salt
2. 3tbsp Potato Starch/Cornflour
3. Pepper

Directions
1. Cut the pumpkin into pieces, steam for 10 mins till soft, smash into paste while adding 3tbsp of potato flour.

2. Slice marinated chicken meat and onion into cubes.

3. Heat wok with some oil, fragrant the onion, add in chicken meat, and stir fry until cooked.

4. Mix pumpkin paste, onion, cooked chicken meat and seasoning in a bowl evenly.

5. Roll into balls. Coat with a layer of plain flour+rising flour (in equal quantities), beat egg solution and a layer of breadcrumbs.

 

6. Deep fry till golden brown then drain well and serve with some tonkatsu sauce. - or, with Fish, its wholegrain mustard(tangy) and Japanese Mayonnaise.

The recipe for pumpkin soup may be a little vague cause i didn't really measure everything properly. =)

Ingredients
1. Around 600gm Pumpkin
2. 1.5 litres of water - i used veg stock but i think water will suffice
3. 200gm streaky bacon
4. 1 onion
5. 150ml whipping cream - any cream
6. Herbs, salt and pepper

Directions
1. Get rid of the skin of the pumpkin and slice into cubes - or whatever shapes you like.

2. Bake in the oven at 190 degrees for as long as necessary till the pumpkin is soft. I added extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. While baking, fry the bacon and onions together. (Smells really good!)

4. In a pot, add water, the fried bacon and onions, herbs, salt and pepper and the roasted pumpkin together. Place the extra oil from the roasting pan, that really helps to give the colour of the soup as well.

5. Cook till it boils and then simmer it for around 30 minutes.

6. After 30 mins or so, the pumpkin should all be mushed up and breaking up. The soup would look really really pretty and golden colour.

7. Using a blender, blend the soup into a nice creamy soup.

8. Looks really good eh? Taste really good too!

N.B I used veg stock but i realised that the soup is made quite flavourful with the bacon and onions so it is quite possible that water on its own is quite enough.

9. After blending, although cream was not really necessary because the soup is quite creamy already, the cream adds a milky flavour to the soup which i really like and it lightens the colour. Fish added loads of herbs too. Italian seasoning goes very well with pumpkin soup.

Hope some of you try out these recipes! Guaranteed to satisfy!