Wonton Noodle Soup

Wonton noodle soup - my favourite and especially one of my partner's favourite meals.  We always tend to go out for wonton noodle soup during this cold weather because I cannot make it!  Well actually too LAZY to whip something like this up when you can buy a bowl for under $10.

On the weekend I challenged myself and cooked wonton noodle soup for the first time.   The filling is somewhat like the fried dumplings I usually make (mixture of chicken and pork) but this time I added juicy banana prawns (bought these at woolworths for about $12 for a kg - on sale).  It adds a nice texture to it when cut up real chunky!  I do not like ordering a wonton soup when I find only mince pork in it!   A soup wonton should use the egg wrap (yellow skin wrap) cause it doesn't break when cooked.   The broth I make is simple chicken stock and shitake mushrooms with some seasonings and lots of ginger.  It takes about an hour.... I know I am lazy I can't wait for hours to make a broth.  The greens I use is just bok choy and for the dipping sauce I usually make is the ginger chilli soy sauce to go with the meal. 

All these things that you need I reckon you could all get from an Asian supermarket!  It is a lot of processing but it is so satisfying that you put all the hard work into (and know what you put in it) what you made.  If you are cooking for people I think you should get them to help out making the wontons.  Makes life easier.

I usually make a lot of wontons so the ingredients below may not be accurate to serve an accurate amount of people.  If you have any mince mixture left over freeze it and make wontons later if you need them.  Or you can make more wontons and freeze it (make sure freeze the wontons seperately when layered because it will stick and clump together).

Soup Broth
- 1kg chicken bones
- 3/4 cup of shredded shiitake mushrooms  (rehydrate with water as packet instructions)
- 2 litres of water
- ginger chopped
- garlic whole 
- 1 star anise (optional)
- few cloves (optional)
- salt and pepper
- dash of soy sauce
- dash of sesame oil

Wontons

Filling
- 150grams of pork mince
- 150grams of chicken mince
- 200grams of any kind of prawns peeled and diced into small pieces
- 1tbs of light soy sauce
- 2tbs of oyster sauce
- dash of seasme oil
- 1tbs of rice wine vinegar
- 1 ginger peeled and minced
- 2 cloves of garlic peeled and minced
- strands of green onion chopped
- 1 cup of chinese cabbage chopped (optional)
- 1 cup of water chestnut chopped (optional)
- 1 packet of square or round shaped egg wonton wrappers (we use half)
- water
- 1 packet of egg noodles (would serve 4 people)
- 1 bunch of bok choy roughly cut into 20cm pieces.

Method:

Soup broth: Put all ingredients together in a large pot and simmer for 1 hour.  Season to taste.

Wontons:  For the wontons add everything in a big mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.   Add the meats and prawns in first, then the condiments and seasoning.  The mixture should be sticky.

How to wrap your wontons.  Look at this video - it shows the most easiest way to fold.  Keep wrapping until you have enough to serve how many people you want. I like to fold mine in the tortellini way using just under a teaspoon of filling.  My partner attempted to wrap one (guess which one it is lol).

Wonton soup: What I like to do is transfer enough soup into a smaller pot from the original pot and cook the wontons.   This is because then you won't have broken wraps that might fall of the wonton in the soup and this way you have more fresh soup when needed. You can freeze the stock and freeze left over wontons.

• Cook egg noodles as per packet instructions.  I used fresh fried noodles so all I had to do was immerse the noodles into boiling water and swirl it around for 1 minute or less otherwise it will go mushy.  Divide the noodles into separate bowls.
• Set aside about 8 (or more) wontons per person.  Freeze left overs.
• Boil about 3 litres (or less) of the soup broth into another pot.
• When the broth comes to a rolling boil add the wontons and cook uncovered and when it floats, the wontons are ready but do check for its readiness by cutting a wonton in half.   It takes about 3 minutes to cook and this all depends how much filling you put inside the wontons.   Make sure have all fillings equally to cook properly and at the same time.  Add the bok choy and heat through for 2 minutes.  

With the divided bowls, ladle soup and bok choy over the noodles and add about 8 wontons in each bowl.  Serve immediately!

Chicken and Vegetable Soup (asian styles)

Yesterday I had a long day cleaning up the house and gardening and the last thing I wanted to do was cook up a nice meal at 5.30pm. I walk over to the fridge, open it and look up down, middle, left and right and I see nothing but dips, creams, salad dressings, lemons, potatoes and carrots. What do I cook with potatoes and carrots???? I couldn't just simply eat it alone. I am not a vegetarian and surely vegetarian food tastes nice but I am so bad at flavouring vegetables sometimes. I really need meat. Oh yeah ....I see some fresh chicken wings mum has given me (she buys heapss!!). So what do I make with these three awesome ingredients? CHICKEN & VEGETABLE soup of course but my style......asian styles lol *cause of the fish sauce :D*. I have no celery....but that's okay ...I am not making some traditional soup.

The recipe is pretty simple.....it's just one pot! Ready in under an hour! It's pretty healthy. No fat at all. I put the soup in the fridge last night and when I checked it in the morning there was no fat layer left behind.

For a medium sized pot of chicken and vegetable soup you will need:

- 10 chicken wings
- 4L water
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 2 carrots chopped in chunks
- 2 potatoes chopped in chucks (quarters)
- 1 to 2 cups of pasta
- pepper and salt to taste
- glug of fish sauce
- fresh herbs to garnish

• Firstly in a large pot add 3 to 4L of water. Add cloves of peeled garlic (don't chop). Boil on high.
• While the water is boiling, wash your chicken wings, chop up carrots and pototoes
• When the water is boiled add the chicken wings. Boil until the chicken is nice and tender and cooked. To check just scoop one out and cut through. If you see the skin is still pinky red and bloody..it's not ready yet. Don't over cook it otherwise it will taste dry.
• When your chicken is done, remove it immediately from the pot and run it under cold water in a large bowl. This will help it to stop cooking. Cut or tear into strips. Set aside.
  
• While the pot is still boiling add vegetables for 15 to 20 minutes.
  
• When the vegetables are halfway cooked add in your pasta.
• Add salt and pepper and a glug of fish sauce. It helps to bring the flavour out. Taste accordingly.
• Ladle pasta and broth over bowls and garnish with herbs. Add soy sauce if you want the soup to be more salty.

*** you don't need to eat this with pasta. Jasmine rice will do .....even tastes better!

I enjoyed it. It might be bland but that is all I had in the fridge :).

Have a good day

Vietnamese Chicken Congee

Congee is a rice porridge and comfort food (usually eaten for breakfast) is commonly eaten in Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Burma and India just to name a few. It is also called Poor Man's Food or Sick Man's Food is because you only require about 6 parts water and 1 part of rice and may be eaten when one is sick since it is easy on the digestive system.

Each Asian country has its own variations when cooking rice porridge. Congee made in different countries use different type of rice with different amounts of water resulting in a thicker or looser type of congee consistency. Popular flavourings consist of salt and pepper, garlic or ginger, fish sauce and pickled stuff. In Vietnam, rice porridge is simply called cháo cooked with sometimes pandan leaves, garlic and sometimes ginger. The popular kind of cháo in Vietnamese culture is when they add pig or duck's vital organs such as heart and liver. I just prefer cháo cooked just cooked chicken. In China, they like their congee with salted duck egg, one century duck egg, tofu and other fermented foods.

My mum and dad used to make chicken congee when I was sick and it did make me feel a lot better and recovered. And if it was the main meal of the day mum would add special types of food into it like the chicken/pork organs and to give it more of a bulk and colour mum would add in mung beans.

Today I will be showing you how to make my version of Chicken Congee or Chicken Rice Porridge

Vietnamese Chicken Congee

Ingredients:

For the broth/stock

• 2 to 3L water (i added 4 because i like my congee loose)
  
• 1/2 kg of chicken pieces (thighs/drum sticks etc)
  
• 1 piece of ginger peeled and cut into thin strips
  
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
  

For the Congee

• 1 cup of jasmine rice (rinse and drain well)
  
• fish sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes (optional)

• shallots
• fried onion
• fish sauce or soy sauce
• pickled stuff
  
• mint, thai basil leaves (any herbs)
  

Directions

Firstly in a big stock pot, put the garlic and ginger in a 4 litres of cold water and boil and them let simmer. Add the chicken to cook for about 20 minutes or under cooked through. Check it but taking one chicken out and cut through with a knife. When it's cooked remove the chicken. I like to put cold water over the chicken to stop the cooking process because you do not want to chicken to dry. Leave to cool and shred meat and off the bones and leave aside. Put the stock onto medium high.

The next step is to rinse and drain the rice. Then add the rice into the stock and cook until rice is broken. This will take 2 hours to cook. Add 3 to 4 squirts of fish sauce (depending on you), salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the congee into soup bowls and top with the shredded chicken, herbs, shallots, pickled stuff and the fried onions. You can add an additional squirt of fish sauce if you like :).

That's my version of congee. Hope you enjoy! Maybe next time I will make century duck egg with congee :).

Pork Broth with Soft Rice Noodles

*adapted from Luke Nguyen's Vietnam's Hieu tieu suong heo recipe

Hey guys! How was your weekend? Mine was so busy :). I feel like such a house wife these days lol. My dream hehe.

I watched Luke Nguyen's Vietnam instead of the re-run of Glee last Thursday night. One recipe that really got me watching was his "Hieu tieu Suong Heo" which is just Pork Rib Broth with Soft Noodles. Sounds bland but it's so so so yummy. I know it was really hot on the weekend but I made it anyway. All ingredients you can get at any Asian Markets ...my favourite is Inala lol and then my second favourite are Sunnybank asian grocers.

I did not use pork ribs and the squid (cause i know it will stink the house lols) instead I just used pork bones (with the marrow mmmm) and pork shins.

Yum yum yum

Pork Broth with Soft Rice Noodles
serves around 6

You will need:

Broth

• 5 liters of water
• 1 kg pork bones with marrows and some not
• 1/2 kg of pork shin (chop in large chunks)
• 2 tbs salt
• 4 tbs sugar
• 6 tbs fish sauce (or more if you like salty)
• 2 tbs whole black pepper
• 1 tbs finely diced garlic (in this case I used 6 cloves minced)
• 1/2 red onion chopped

Noodles

• 2kg soft fresh noodles

Condiments

• garlic chives
• mint
• bean sprouts
  
• shallots
• fried onions
• lemon or lime
  
• chilli and fish sauce (as the main sauce)

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl incorporate pork bones, pork shins (cut into large chunks), 1tbs salt, 2 tbs sugar, 3 tbs fish sauce, chopped red onions, minced garlic. Marinate for 2 to 3 hours. Or you can marinate over night for a deeper flavour.

Next in a large stock pot, add the marinated pork mix, pepper and then add in the 5L of water.

Bring the pot to boil, skin off impurities for 10 minutes and so. Keep an eye on it until the broth is clear. Reduce heat to low simmer and place on lid. Cook for 2 hours. Still keep an eye on it for anymore impurities that come to surface. Add the remaining fish sauce, salt and sugar. And importantly, taste if the broth is salty enough for you. For me, I did not add anymore salt/fish sauce cause it was already nice and salty for me. Depending on your tongue hey lol.

In another large stock pot, bring to boil water and blanch each portion of noodles for 10 secs and drain.

Take out pieces of the shin meat and cut in bit sized pieces and then add to each bowl and then cover with the hot pork broth.

Then to each bowl add bean sprouts, chives, mint, fried onion, chilli and squeeze lime or lemon on top. Make fish sauce and chilli for dipping the meat.

If the stock is bland still I recommend you to add chili fish sauce into it or just ad a bit of hoi sin into it. Sounds like pho now lol. I like the blandness....it's more healthy that way I guess lols.

Ann's Vege Noodle Soup

A few months ago I brought my very own Vegetable Noodle Soup to work. I thought it looked quite bland but hey it tasted really really good! The corn, mushrooms, cauliflower and the carrots I only used in the soup tasted really sweet and warm to the tongue. When I finished heating the soup with the noodles one colleague of mine goes "Oh that looks so simple but it looks so good! No wonder why you are so skinny!!!". I looked over what she was having - it was a microwavable Aussie meat pie. And I thought "that is why you are a bit fat? lol". She asked "How did you make it?". I said "Um just chucked the spare veges I had all in with water with a pinch of salt and pepper". That is how easy and simple it is and so healthy for you cause there is no fat or oils!


What you will need:

• 2L - 3L of water
  
• 1 cob of corn
  
• 1 carrot chopped thinly however you like (the thinner the quicker it will cook)
• 1 cup of cauliflower chopped in quarters
• 1 cup of mushrooms sliced
• 4 pieces of rice stick noodles cooked and drained
  

Method:

1. First have a pot of boiling water (2 litres to 3 litres depending how much soup or broth you want).
2. With the corn, shuck it and then under running water remove as much of the silk. then break or cut into half. When the water is boiled put the corn in gently. It will take about 10 minutes plus to cook depending how soft you want your corn to be. I like my corn soft.
3. Then take the corn out with tongs or chopsticks. Be careful because it's really hot! Place it on a plate
   
4. Now place the carrot and cauliflower into the corn broth and then the mushrooms. Add the salt and pepper. Taste it accordingly to how you want it. For me about half a teaspoon of salt is enough. Cook for about 10 minutes.
5. While the vegetables are cooking - cook the noodles in boiling water until soft and then drain well. Place them in individual bowls.
6. Then with the cooked corn cut the kernels off the sides and place it with the vegetables.
7. Finally the vegetable soup should be ready! All you have to do now is ladle the soup and vegetables over the noodle bowls
   
8. Enjoy!