Noodle soup with fish balls

Noodle soups are so comforting, especially on a cold winter's night. Though it's not actually that cold outside today, I felt like having a familiar meal, something that would remind me of home. Slurping the lovely light yellow strands of noodles; I felt nice and warm inside. This was also a very quick and healthy dinner!

Colourful bowl of noodle soup! The tofu piece was from a previous meal :)

                           
The fish balls were purchased from Chinatown, and were frozen. I did not defrost them; I just put them straight into the boiling soup. You could substitute the fish balls for fish cake, or cooked shredded chicken. Both would work equally well.

Closer shot of the dish before garnishing with the chilli slices

Noodle soup with fish balls
(Serves 2)


3 pieces of dried egg noodles
2 eggs, beaten and seasoned with some pepper and light soya sauce
300 grams of fish balls (or however many you would prefer)
Some bean sprouts
1 cube of chicken stock
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 medium sized chillies, sliced
Some lemon juice
2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
About 3 tablespoons of vegetable/sunflower oil
About 1-1.5 liters of boiling water
1 packet of beansprouts (about 200 grammes)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Fry the sliced red onions in 1 tablespoon of oil till soft in a hot wok/pot. Once cooked, set aside.
• In the same wok, add the remaining oil and the garlic pieces. Once it turns slightly brown, add in the beaten eggs. Let the eggs cook for about 1 minute, and break it up into relatively large pieces before it gets cooked entirely.
• Add the boiling water, once the eggs are cooked, the chicken stock cube and the dark soya sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add the fish balls, and bring the soup to a boil.
• In a separate pot, cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. It shouldn't take too long to cook, it should be done within 5 minutes. Drain, and set aside.
• Once the fish balls are almost done (this should take about 3-5 minutes), add the beansprouts. We don't want the bean sprouts to be over cooked, so 1-2 minutes of cooking them should be more than enough.
• To serve, divide the noodles into two portions in two bowls. Ladle the soup into the bowls, and garnish with the fried onions. I usually serve dishes like this with sliced chillies, in some soya sauce and lemon juice. 

Noodle soup with chillies

Roasted peppers and apetina cheese salad

I had one sweet pointed red pepper that needed to be used up I wanted to eat a relatively light meal, with no meat, as I felt like I've been having too much meat recently. This is a warm salad, and very easy to make. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

Roasted sweet pepper and apetina cheese salad

(Serves 2 as a side dish, or 1 as a main meal)

1 sweet pointed pepper (This was the one I purchased. If you're using regular peppers, you will need 2 or 3 for this dish)

2 red onions, finely sliced

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped

50-80 gs of spinach (I used frozen spinach, defrosted)

About 100g of apetina cheese (Goat's cheese, or any firm cheese will do.)

1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar

Some rocket to garnish

Salt and pepper to season

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Fry the garlic till almost brown, and add the red onions. Pan fry the onions on medium heat until soft, this will take about 10 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar, and fry for another 3-4 minutes until caramelised. Cook on medium heat, as we don't want the onions to burn.When done, leave aside.
• Assemble the ingredients: First, add the onions at the bottom of the roasting pan. I used a shallow roasting pan, and put some foil to ease cleaning later.
• Then, add the spinach, followed by the apetina cheese, cut in small cubes. 
• Finally, add the red peppers.
• Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, then grill for another 5 minutes. The cheese should be slightly gooey, but still maintain its shape.
• Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Apetina was quite salty, so be careful with the salt. Garnish with the rocket.

Because I loved it so much, here's another picture of the salad!

Hotel Chocolat: Pistachio Praline

I failed. I have done so well really. Each time I go to a Hotel Chocolate store, I have managed to resist the temptation. Each time I would go in, stand in front of the shelf, contemplate, and then leave. But nope, not this time. This time, I went it, took it and went straight to the counter to pay. I think I was in the store for less than 5 minutes.

I love pistachio, all things pistachio. And this is one of my favourite chocolates! I love the creamy pistachio paste in it; it was so nutty and scrumptious! The filling was quite generous as well. I enjoyed every little bite (not many!) of this tiny treat :)

Disclaimer: This entry was not a sponsored post, and is entirely based on my personal tastebuds.  I have not received any monetary or non-monetary payment to write this post.

Ricotta stuffed mushrooms, sweet peppers and roast chicken

I had some ricotta in the fridge that I needed to use up. Hence on my trip to Tesco, I purchased some large flat mushrooms and some sweet pointed red peppers. I've never cooked stuffed mushrooms before or even had the dish! It was a success! I should have tried this way earlier, I have definitely missed out.

Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms
(Serves 2 as a side dish, or 1 as a main meal)


150g of ricotta
1 green chilli (Adjust according to how spicy you would like it to be)
Some grated cheddar
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
Juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon of dried sage
Salt and pepper to season

• Clean the mushrooms; I rinsed mine lightly, and wiped them dry.
• Mix the ricotta and the rest of the ingredients (except cheddar) until well combined. Season well, as ricotta can be quite bland.
• Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture, and add some grated cheddar at the top.
• Cook in a fan assisted oven ( 180 degrees) for about 10-15 minutes. Then put them under the grill until they're crispy and golden brown.

I also stuffed a sweet pointed pepper with the mixture. In this case, I added some spinach as well (just some frozen spinach, defrosted using a microwave oven). The pepper needed a bit longer to cook. The sweetness of the roasted pepper complemented the ricotta very well.

Checking out the insides of the stuffed mushroom

I reckon, adding some roasted garlic, or sauteed red onion to the dish will add even more flavour. There are so many ways to jazz up this dish, the options are endless! 

I has the mushroom with some roasted chicken, marinated in jerk sauce. I added some red onions at the bottom of the roasting pan, and squeezed some lemon juice. Yums! If you have the chance to marinate it overnight, the flavours will be more intense; absolutely yummy :) 

Glistening! I couldn't wait to tuck in when I was taking this photograph!

Tomyam Chicken stir fry

This was one of those dishes where you cook as you go along! I wanted to use up my peppers in the fridge, and I had some chicken thighs ( which I have marinated with soya sauce, sweet chilli and a little 5 spice powder) in the fridge. The addition of tom yam paste towards the end of the cooking process spiced things up. It was good :)

Tomyam chicken stir fry

(serves 2)

4 medium sized chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces ( I had mine marinated overnight with 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce, 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce and 1 teaspoon of five spice powder)

2 peppers, sliced

1 red onion, sliced

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of tomyam paste (You can purchase this at any asian supermarket. The larger Tescos sell it as well)

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1 teaspoon of sugar

soya sauce and pepper to taste

• Heat some oil in the pan, any oil that is not strongly flavoured will do. I find that olive oil doesn't work well for Asian cooking.
• Add the onions, and cook till almost soft. Then add the garlic and fry till almost golden brown. I do this as adding the garlic first will make it burn too quickly in the hot pan.
• Then add the chicken. Leave it for about 3-4 minutes, until it turns a lovely brown colour.
• Add the peppers, and fry for another 3 minutes.
• Add the oyster sauce, tomyam paste and the rest of the seasoning. Stir fry for another couple of minutes.
• Add some water ( 2-3 tablespoons will be plenty), put the lid on, and let the dish cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Serve!

I had the chicken with some steamed white rice, and some stir fried kale. It was a simple meal, and it had the lovely home-cooked feel to it. The peppers were soft and sweet, and the chicken thighs were moist and tender. Yums!

Apple crumble cake

I baked! Yay! I found the whole baking process very comforting, and very soothing. Okay, I guess creaming butter and sugar may not sound like the perfect way to de-stress, but I found it relaxing. I think everyone should give it a try!

Mmmm... 

Unfortunately I didn't have any vanilla extract, or cinnamon to give the cake the wow factor. However when it was warm out of the oven, with some vanilla ice cream, it was perfect. So comforting. The crumble at the top was crusty and slightly on the crunchy side. I was picking the small pieces off the top of the cake. Love crunchy stuff.

All ready for the oven

I got the recipe from a food blog, I googled apple crumble cake and selected the "Images" view. I clicked on a picture (It turned out to be from this amazing blog which I am starting to read), and hey presto, the recipe sounded very simple and indeed it was very easy to follow! My crumble didn't turn out as glorious as on the blog, that's probably because I didn't read it carefully enough, and didn't do a lot of the last step. I added some demerara sugar in the crumble for the added crunch. I reckon adding some chopped nuts in the crumble would be yummy as well. I didn't use Granny Smiths, instead I used some apples I got from Tesco that says "Cooking apples". I think they were braeburn, though it was green (I always thought braeburn was pink/red-dish. I guess they were really unripe!). It turned out good as well.

It turned to be quite a big cake, I made two batches of the recipe, as one batch barely covered the base of the cake tin. I guess I was too ambitious! Half of the cake is finished though, I'm glad D is around to help me eat it :)

Pancake with apples

Breakfast today! I have to admit: I didn't make the pancake myself. I saw a pack of pancakes on offer yesterday at Tesco's. So I decided to indulge myself this morning.

I served the warmed pancake with some apples that I fried in Flora cuisine, some brown sugar and some lemon juice. I also had some creme fraiche and strawberry slices by the side.

So pretty on a plate!

Blondies

Some nights ago, I felt like having some cake. It didn't have to be a proper cake, just anything that's warm, moist and comforting. I looked though the fridge and the cupboard: I really didn't have many ingredients for baking. (Note to self: stock up next time!)

I recalled there was a recipe for a brown sugar version of a brownie, and googled it. Hurrah, I had all the ingredients needed! I haven't baked blondies before, and being a person not very keen on measurements, I never really got into baking (though I love all things baked!). I added some peanut butter and chopped chocolate pieces. When this came out of the oven, it was so lovely, and moist! Really hit the spot :)

I ate the rest over the next few days; with tea, and my favourite way: with sliced strawberries and creme fraiche. Yums :)

Salmon hash

The initial intention was to make the salmon burger dish that I saw on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on youtube. The salmon patty had ginger, coriander and soya sauce among other ingredients, and it looked so delicious! So today at lunch, I attempted to do this myself. Unfortunately it didn't really turn out like a patty, as it fell apart in the pan, hence I decided to call it hash instead! The flavours were there, unfortunately, the presentation wasn't that great. It was lovely though, I had it with some boiled sweet potatoes and steamed kale. A balanced meal I think!

The ingredients I used to make the hash are:

(serves 2)
2 salmon fillets, roughly chopped
Ginger, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
coriander, about 2-3 sprigs
1 egg
some mayo (yes!)
2 tablespoons of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of sugar
Generous dash of paper
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes

I seasoned the kale with some lemon juice and salt. I find kale quite rich in flavour, rather buttery. A dash of lemon juice brought some lightness to the vege, and made it yummier in my opinion!

English muffin and poached eggs

Today I was more enthusiastic about breakfast. I bought some english muffins from Tesco yesterday evening. To make it a little more exciting, I fried some red onion with mushrooms.The muffin was toasted ( I spread some Flora cuisine before that), then piled the muffin with the fried onion and mushroom, and put the poached egg at the top. It was more substantial than I thought, I'm still feeling quite full despite having it about 2 hours ago.

ignore the shadow on the right, I'm still learning how to take good pictures

Looking back, I think it would have tasted better with some sweet chilli sauce. Oh well, that's for the next time :)

Caramelised red onion, spinach and goat's cheese tart

I love pastry. Especially puff pastry.I absolutely adore the layers of crispy goodness, even though it sometimes is quite hard to eat, because of the crumbs going everywhere! But it is well worth the trouble ;p I got the idea of combining red onion and goat's cheese from watching Come Dine with Me. I've seen so many episodes where guests would serve a red onion and goat's cheese tart for starters. In this case, I added some spinach as well.

I am unfortunately not very good at measurements, it really depends on taste! Here for the filling, I've used about 2 medium sized red onion fried till soft on medium heat. I added one clove of garlic and fried a bit more. Then I added about two cap-fuls of red wine vinegar, and about 1 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Add the spinach, season with salt, and voila, job done! I did add a bit of nutmeg, but I found the taste a bit too overpowering.  Put the cooked onion+spinach on the half cooked pastry (that was in the over for about 15 minutes, at 180 degrees), top with some goat's cheese, and cook for another 10 minutes until golden brown.

I reckon this will be good for a lunch box, or a light supper! I have leftovers, so will see how it tastes like served cold :)