Tom Yum Nam Khon

Our main course tonight is going to be a Thai-flavoured slow cooker beef, and I love Thai soups, so here it is.

I'd actually wanted to make tom kha gai, but after some researching, it turns out that that is chicken galangal soup, and I don't have galangal on hand. Nothing wrong with tom yum. I just love coconut milk.

This is completely bastardized, I'm sure. Tom yum nam khon is usually made with shrimp, but I'm mildly allergic. I'm also cheating and using tom yum paste.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tbs tom yum paste (I used cock brand, found in a jar at T&T)
1 can straw mushrooms (buttom mushrooms if you don't like straw)
1 green pepper, sliced
1 chicken breast, cut into strips or bite-sized pieces


Method:
In a pot, bring coconut milk, 1 can of water, and tom yum paste to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium, add in mushrooms, chicken and pepper and cook until chicken is done, and peppers are to your liking.
Serve alone or over rice.


Comments:
I LOVE THAI SOUPS!

This can be an easy main. Just add more chicken/protein and less water.

I was very pleasantly surprised that the paste really didn't need any embellishments. However, as with all mass manufactured foods, it had MSG, and preservatives. I tried to pick the one with the fewest, but still. You can expect a recipe from scratch in the future.


Verdict:
YUM! ^^

Oxtail and Root Vegetables Soup

After noticing that we have not made much by way of soup, a special trip to Chinatown was in order.

Will did most of the work for this one. Except for the potatoes, cuz he doesn't like peeling them.

Ingredients:
1 oxtail, cut into discs (let the butcher do it at the shop)
2 jumbo (and I mean JUMBO) carrots, cut into large chunks.
1 large daikon, cut into large chunks
2 onions, cut into wedges
2 lb potatoes, cut into large chunks


Method:
Throw everything into a large stock pot, add water, and bring to a boil.
Simmer for a few hours.
Season to taste.
Enjoy!


Comments:
We actually forgot to buy onions and emptied a mostly-full bottle of onion flakes into the pot. Worked quite well, but probably not the best in terms of health =P

I wasn't sure how much potatoes we used; I just finished what was left of a bag from before.

If you want a really pretty soup, boil the bones in a smaller pot, strain the stock through a sieve into the big pot, rinse the bones, put them into the big pot, then add the veggies and more water if needed and cook on low. Straining and rinsing will get rid of the foam and blood. Slow-cooking will prevent the potatoes from falling apart. As you can tell, we weren't so diligent =P


Verdict:
Yum! And only lasted 3 days. Oxtail's really tasty for soups!

Borscht - HK Style

With half a head of cabbage just sitting in my fridge, and cubed beef from the beef stew possibly in danger of freezer burn, it occured to me that borscht would be a great way of using it up. Hot soup during the winter sounds mighty good to me!

Since I had Russian borscht not too long ago, I went with this. (It's also cheaper)

Ingredients (fits 8qt pot):
2 onions, cut into 1" squares
4 tomatoes, diced
2lb beef bones
1lb beef
Maggi seasoning or soy sauce
2 russet potatoes, 1" cubes
half a head of cabbage, cut into 2" squares
1 small can tomato paste
salt
hot sauce
pepper


Method:
Marinate the beef with some Maggi.
In a pot, boil the bones in about 4L of water. Skim off the foam as it appears. When the foam formation has slowed, add beef. Continue to skim off fat and foam while it boils. Remove from heat when the foam formation slows considerably.
In a larger pot, sautee the onions and tomatoes until cooked. This is the soup pot.
Transfer the beef bones to the soup pot, taking care not to transfer cooked blood and crud.
Mix, so most of the bones are on the bottom of the pot.
Strain the beef broth into the soup pot.
Take the beef, rinse with water and cut into 1" cubes. Add to pot.
Add all other ingredients except for salt, hot sauce and pepper.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 2 hours.
Taste and season.


Comments:
The 2lbs of bones is a guesstimate. We had some leftover from when I made pho.

You could make the soup stock ahead of time.

You could cook the beef bones with all ingredients, but it'll look rather nasty. 

I put the bones back into the soup, but it's not necessary. I just don't think you can get all the flavour with just a quick 10-minute boil.

Some people like to rinse the bones before putting them into the soup pot. Entirely up to you. I don't do it because it means washing yet another bowl.

I season at the end because the cooking/simmering process often reduces the soup, and therefore increases the concentration of the seasonings.

Other veggies often seen in this are celery and carrots. I was so fixated on the amount of cabbage we had that I forgot about them.


Verdict:
Good, and much better the next day.

Watercress Soup

This is one of those soups that I'm sure everyone has had in one form or another. Soups are a huge part of the Chinese diet for its nutritional value. Watercress is 'cool'; apricot kernels help relieve coughs; the luo han guo helps to remove phlegm, while preventing dry throats and lungs, and has also been found to be an anti-oxidant. My mother also claims that luo han guo is good for getting rid of bad breath.

T&T has a soup package for this, but I find that it's not enough flavour, and the price tag puts me off.

More about the fruit at ChinatownConnection and The Chinese Soup Lady


Ingredients (fits an 8L pot):
2 lbs pork bones
1 small luo han guo 羅漢果 , halved
1 tbs apricot kernels 南北杏
1 jumbo carrot, thickly sliced
watercress 西洋菜


Method:
Fill the pot with enough water to cover the bones.
When the water comes to a boil, blanch the bones for 5 minutes.
Drain the water and rinse the bones with water. Quickly scrub the pot to remove residue.
Replace the bones into the pot.
Fill the pot to 3/4 full with water, add the luo han guo, apricot kernels and carrot.
Boil for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer for at least an hour.
Before serving, add the watercress and bring to a boil.
Add salt as needed.


Comments:
The 2lbs of bones is a guesstimate. We had bones on hand, so I just used it.

It is not necessary to blanch the bones, but it improves the taste and appearance of the soup by removing excess fat, blood and bone shards. Often, crud will float to the top of soups, and you'd want to skim it off. By parboiling, you end up with a clear-looking, clean-tasting soup. Some argue that you lose some of the pork flavour, so it's up to you.

I am not sure how long you need to boil the soup for, but too many raw apricot kernels is potentially toxic. It doesn't matter if you don't eat the kernels, but I do, in large quantities if it happens to be there.

If you're going to make a smaller batch of soup, consider using only half the luo han guo. It's quite sweet.

I didn't give a quantity for the watercress because we probably use a lot more than most people since both Will and I like to eat the choi.

I only filled the pot 3/4 full to mitigate the risk of the soup boiling over.


Verdict:
Pretty hard to screw up, so it definitely gets my stamp of approval.

Beef Stew

We had some beef that was suffering from freezer burn, and we didn't want to waste it. Coincidentally, beef was on sale, as were potatoes, so we decided to make this super easy dish that would last for days ^^

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs beef (our was a sirloin tip roast), 1" cubes
1 lb carrots, cut into 1" pieces
1 lb celery, cut into 1" pieces
1.5 lbs potatos, cut into 1" cubes
1 onion, cut into wedges
2 tbs Maggi seasoning
1 small can tomato paste
flour to thicken


Method:
Put the tomato paste into a 6-quart slow cooker. Use hot water to rinse out the can and pour the tomato juice into the cooker. Mix  so the consistency of the paste thins.
Marinade the beef in Maggi (similar to soy sauce) briefly.
Coat the beef in flour.
Throw all ingredients into the cooker.
Add water to about 2/3 up the pot. Mix well.
Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 10.
If it is still too thin, add more flour and stir.
Serve alone, with bread or rice.


Comments:
You don't have to coat the meat in flour. It just helps to thicken the stew.

It helps to have the meat covered in water to prevent drying. Our pot's lid doesn't fit properly, so we've had problems with stuff drying out. Otherwise, most recipes call for the pot only being half-filled with water.

Roast typically comes in quantities much greater than 1.5 lbs. We cut some of the remainder into cubes for another day, and the rest of it is going to be a pot roast some time in the future. The meat is currently frozen; we hope to fish it out of the freezer before freezer burn sets in.

If you don't use tomato paste and instead use beef buillon for flavour, it's like Campbell's Chunky soup, only with fresh ingredients and some MSG.


Verdict:
EASY! LOVE the slow cooker. One of the best presents I have asked for thus far, and believe me, I've gotten many fabulous presents over the years, courtesy of my awesome friends ^^