Minestrone Soup

A long overdue post. What can I say? It's been a real, hectic month since the start of the fasting month earlier. Before anything else, Selamat Hari Raya/Eid Mubarak to all of you. I was out and about, shopping, travelling, and visiting relatives that I've missed out on food blogging. What a shame! Hoping to be more active!!

I love soups, and Minestrone is one of them - lots of flavour in it, the colourful mix of vegetables are just healthy, delicious, flavourful. Purely goodness! For years I've been searching on how to make this soup, it's not until recently I started to finally buy the ingredients and successfully made it to the kitchen :-)

Not as difficult as I thought it would be. The best part is, I can keep the soup in small portions in the freezer, and eat it any time I want later on, so this way, I cook extra, and makes my working life more manageable.

I used a variety of veges, those available in the local market. I believe most veges, and the more you add can make a much tastier minestrone soup :-)

:: Minestrone Soup ::
1 can peeled tomatoes
1 fresh red tomato
1/2 can chickpeas
1 medium zucchini
1 carrot
1 stick celery
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup water
1 cup beef or chicken stock (I used some beef to make my own stock)
1/2 cup macaroni pasta
1 teaspoon Italian herbs
2 bay leave (optional)
salt & pepper to taste

Chop the vegetables (medium-fine) and place aside. Bring to boil the water and add peeled tomatoes, garlic and onion. Add in beef stock and then add all the chopped vegetables and herbs in. Cook over medium-low heat for about 30mins to an hour, until soup thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then, add the macaroni and turn the heat off when pasta is cooked. I like the soup thick, to really get the chunky vegetables in my mouth. Add some more water if you like a more watery texture.

Garnish with some grated parmesan cheese... and serve warm. Great as an appetiser, for a light dinner, and especially on cold days!

I would have added a little cabbage and spinach, that would make it more tasty... but anyways, the soup tasted really good and healthy. I'd make it more often from now on, as it can be frozen for weeks and yet still taste good after reheating it. And if you prefer it without beef/chicken stock, good enough, it still is Minestrone. :-)

Rosemary & Lemon Baked Chicken

When I went over to my bestfriends' house for dinner a couple of weeks back, she made for us roasted chicken for dinner. There was, roasted chicken, buttered broccoli and salads for dinner. "Sorry the presentation is not very nice.." She told me. I told her it's okay, it's the food that matters - if it's good, who cares about presentation unless you're publishing your food in a book?!

It looked simple, but it tasted really good. So I started to ask what she put in there. And so butter, lemon, rosemary came up in our conversation. Hmm, this sounds good and I really want to try and make this soon.

Back in Penang, after a week or so, I shopped for the ingredients and although I did not get the chicken as a whole like she did, I proceeded to dress the chicken... I used fresh rosemary because it really brings out the flavours and it smells so good... that you would'nt want to use dried rosemary. It's available in Tesco/Giant/Cold Storage for a small price, really.

I also browsed the internet and came accross a similar recipe of Roast Chicken from Jamie Oliver - and both my friend and I agreed that he (we mean his cooking) inspires our cooking in many ways. Cheers to Jamie for a lovely roast chicken that we can now make on our own!

As my little oven is too small to fit a large piece of whole chicken, I chose to buy chicken quarters instead. Works well for me... technically is a oven baked chicken, but surely tastes the same like roasted chicken... So I'm going to call it 'roasted' despite the method used is 'baking'....

:: Rosemary & Lemon Roasted Chicken ::
For 2

2 chicken quarters (thigh/drumstick part)
1/2 lemon, cut into 2 pieces
2 bay leaves
4 stalks fresh rosemary
1 large onion, quartered
3 garlic, smashed
1 potato, quartered
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped to big chunks
1 celery, roughly chopped to big chunks
6 stalks asparagus
6 medium white button mushrooms
2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon whole black peppers
Salt & pepper

Marinate the chicken with salt & pepper and butter, completely covering the chicken. Do the same for the potatoes, carrots and celery. Clean the asparagus and mushrooms, marinate with some butter and place aside (to cook it later).

In a roasting tray (or a baking tray) lay the potatoes, carrots, celery. Place the lemon, bay leave, garlic and onions closely which will be closely beneath the chicken pieces, alongwith the fresh rosemary. So now, you will have a tray full of veges and the fresh rosemary. Place the chicken on top of this and sprinkle black peppers.

Preheat the oven (moderate-high temp) and bake the chicken for about 30 minutes, checking at intervals to ensure the chicken is baking constantly. The juice from chicken and lemon will start to accumulate in the tray, and this is lovely to just pour some over the chicken so the skin won't over burn.

After about 25 minutes, place the asparagus and mushrooms in the tray and cook for another 10 minutes. The skin would be golden brown and now, it's ready to be served!

Make some garlic bread or fry some french fries.. and serve with the chicken. The rosemary and lemon is really a good combination and it tasted very nice. The juice adds as a sauce for the chicken too. Asparagus and mushrooms just adds that extra vegetable dish, without having you to cook them separately, and thats why I throw them in with the chicken... they stay crunchy and fresh at the same time.

Roasting the whole chicken would be nice too, but the way I did it in my small oven work well for me too. Now, need F to go buy me that nice big oven we saw so I can cook for the entire family!

Middle Eastern Chicken and Rice

To be honest, this tastes like Indian Briyani. However, this is a recipe given by Sue who in turn got it from one of her Libyan students. No matter what it's called - briyani, pillaf, kapsa, or even just "chicken rice" - it is a beautifully flavoured dish. You may like to check out some of the Middle Eastern Cuisine I found useful here. For now, I shall name it 'Middle Eastern Chicken Rice'. It works for me rather than 'Bakpukka' which Sue told me what it is...

Middle Eastern rice recipes are very rich in flavour. With onions, garlic, apricots, saffron, dates, almonds, cilantro, parsley, tomatoes - any mix of these and they go well with lamb, beef or chicken. I could have added some lemon rinds but, did not had any, maybe next time.

Give me flavoured rice anytime over just plain white rice, really. I strongly feel that rice is meant to be flavoured, and not just cooked alone...

:: Middle Eastern Chicken and Rice ::
Serves 4

2 large chicken breast fillet, sliced (or 1/2 chicken, cut to desired size)
2 cups Basmati rice, soaked in water & rinse
3 tablespoon Planta margerine (or butter/olive oil)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
Mix of 4 spices (cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cardamon)
2 garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
a small handful of fresh parsley, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tablespoon chicken curry powder (I used Adabi's)
1 teaspoon red chili powder
3 tablespoon tomato puree
1 cup of mixed sliced almonds and yellow raisins
salt to taste

Marinate the chicken with salt and turmeric. Fry them with the 4 spices in the planta/butter/olive oil until aromatic. Add chopped onion, garlic, tomato, parsley and bay leaf, stirring until frangrant.

Add the curry powder, chili powder and tomato puree and stir. Then add some water (about 2 cups or according to your rice instructions) and a little salt, and bring to boil.

Add rice, almonds and raisins and let the rice cook.

I just love the taste of this rice so much. It would taste great if we put a little bit of apricot jam or lemon rind as well. This Middle Eastern Chicken Rice tastes very similar to Indian Briyani, possibly due to the call of curry powder in the recipe. Similar to Briyani, this dish goes perfectly well with Cucumber Salad, Raita, and Chicken Curry.

Buttered Mushrooms

Lately I've been falling in love with butter - its rich milky aroma, the creamy, melting texture and the wonderful taste of butter either on its own, with a dinner bun, or in cooking. t so happens that I have a lot of fresh button mushrooms in my refrigerator, and well, what better way to enjoy fresh mushrooms? Here's a simple recipe of buttered mushrooms for you.

To note, I added some carrots and celery (trying to clear the fridge). I would have just left the mushrooms alone to mingle with the butter :-)

:: Buttered Mushrooms Stir Fry ::
10 button bushrooms, halved
1/3 carrot, sliced (optional)
1/3 celery, sliced (optional)
1 tablespoon of butter
a dash of salt & pepper

Heat up some butter in a pan, and add the carrots and celery. Fry for 2 minutes and add in mushrooms, stirring for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste, and serve warm.

Chicken Curry using Yogurt & Tomato Puree

What a bliss it is to be away from work, and having time to cook anything at my own sweet time?! There's so many I want to try, and this time it is a special flavoured rice that Sue (my sister) introduced to me. I'll post that one up soon. It tastes very similar to Indian Briyani - only it is Arabic. To accompany the flavoured rice, I also made some Cucumber Salad, and Chicken Curry.

To some, curries are very spicy - and it really depends on how the curry powder was prepared. In the olden days, people would buy curry powder according to their specific mixture at the curry powder shop. Well, we rarely see those shops around anymore. At least in my place. The curry powders are now pre-mixed and sold in small and medium packets everywhere - to name a few popular brands in Asia such as Babas, Alagappa and Adabi. Milder (and more instant versions) of curry powder would come under Maggi, Masterfoods and etc.

Normally I would use Babas or Alagappa, but somehow decided to try Adabi's - one of the more popular brand of curry powders and spices in Malaysia. And to make my chicken curry, I add some fresh herbs and spices to sweeten up the deal.

Curry powders aside, did you know that a cup (240gm) of fresh santan (coconut milk) contains 552 calories as compared to a cup (245gm) of fresh yogurt with only 137 calories? And one cup of yogurt contains 47% calcium as compared to only 4% for a cup of santan? Though santan has that sweet, smooth taste, I'd prefer to substitute santan with yogurt whenever possible. You may get a slightly different taste (yogurt is sour) but the health benefits compensates well.

:: Chicken Curry using tomato puree and yogurt ::

Prepare in advance onion, garlic & ginger paste:
10 shallots
5 garlic
1 inch ginger
1/2 cup water
Roughly chop these ingredients and blend them into a paste. You can make more and store it in small plastic containers in the freezer for future use - very convenient.

Half a chicken, cut to 8 or more pieces
1 packet Adabi chicken curry powder (mix with 1/2 cup warm water to form a paste)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 medium potato, quartered
1 tomato, quartered
1 carrot, chopped
Spice mix (1 cinnamon, 1 star anise, 4 cardamons, 5 cloves)
1 red onion, quartered
2 garlic, smashed
1 fresh pandan leaf
Some fresh curry leaves
2 tablesppon of the above onion, garlic & ginger paste
1 teaspoon salt & sugar to taste

Heat up a medium pot with oil and fry the spice mix until crackling. Throw in onion, garlic, pandan and curry leaves. Stir until aromatic and add in the onion, garlic & ginger paste.

Add in the curry paste and stir over low heat until the oil comes up, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree. Add in chicken and add 1 cup water, when chicken is cooked halfway, throw in potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Then add in yogurt, salt & sugar. Stir well and taste.

Serve with rice or warm bread.