I bought a can of pureed pumpkin from the grocery store recently to make Pumpkin Cake but then, I had a craving for some kind of curried pumpkin soup and decided to forgo the idea of making a pumpkin cake. I can just head to the store to get another can of pumpkin or perhaps try to use the squash my neighbor gave me and tweak the pumpkin cake recipe instead!

Anyway, armed with a can of pumpkin puree and a hungry tummy....I whipped up some spiced pumpkin soup. Of course fresh garlic and onion would taste better but I used garlic and onion powder instead as I did not want to make a big mess in the kitchen, and use my kitchen blender to puree my soup.  I used some (no salt/sodium) chicken broth in the soup but if you want to make the soup vegetarian friendly, use vegetable broth/stock. For this recipe, I used a Jamaican style curry powder and added some ground cumin. I'm sure any style (mild?) of curry powder will work with this recipe as well.


CURRIED PUMPKIN SOUP
*Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 1 15 Oz Can Pumpkin
• 1-1/2 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
• 1-1/2 Tsp Curry Powder
• 1-1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tsp Onion Powder
• 1-1/3 Cup Chicken Broth 
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk
• 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream (Plus more, if desired)
• Salt (Season to taste)
• Ground black pepper (Optional, season to taste)

I was in the mood for baked eggs a couple days ago after I saw a recipe from a cookbook I bought from Williams Sonoma. I made a couple changes to the recipe including adding more eggs coz I used a pretty huge ramekin. Those extra eggs was probably one of the mistake of the day, as it took longer to bake. I got impatient (mistake number 2) and hungry (since Hubby's simple 3 eggs sunny side up was already done), and decided to pull the eggs out of the oven. The eggs were quite uncooked overall, so I decided to stick them in the microwave (mistake number 3). I forgot how long I stuck it in for (probably a couple seconds), but it was a couple second too long for the fragile eggs. My baked eggs were very over done. I was anticipating luscious runny yolks, and was left staring at overly done yolks and a extremely messy looking ramekin. The baked eggs were still good..... but it was not what I had anticipated good. I ate it all up anyway as I liked the different elements I pulled together.


With this runny yolk craving that I've been having, I decided to make bake eggs again. Learning from the mistakes I made a few days ago, I scaled down a little by using 2 eggs instead of one, waited patiently and let the oven work it's magic. This time, I got delicious runny eggs and absolute satisfaction. The baked eggs was delicious! As I don't have bread at home, I decided to reheat a frozen roti canai/roti prata and dip my "roti" into the runny yolk, catching pieces of spinach and sausages in between dips. Mmmm..... this combination is pretty awesome!!! I paired my lunch with a Vietnamese Ice Coffee and for a couple seconds, it felt like I was transported to somewhere exotic and not my living room. You could certainly pair with with some toast, baguettes or whatever bread you have!

Here's the recipe for baked eggs, adapted from Georgeann Brennan's Brunch cookbook with my changes.


FRENCH BAKED EGGS WITH SPINACH AND SAUSAGE RECIPE
*Serves 2

Ingredients

• 4 Large Eggs
• 1 Fresh Bratwurst (or fresh sausage of choice), casing removed
• 2 Cups Fresh (Young) Spinach Leaves, Packed
• 2 Tsp Heavy Cream
• 1 Tsp Oil
• 1-1/2 Tsp Butter
• Ground Black Pepper

Ever since the husband tasted Samgyetang in Korea a couple years ago, he fell in love with this hot nutritious soup. According to the husband, Koreans will drink this soup in the summer to replace the nutrients lost.  He talks about it constantly and is always tempted to order it at Korean restaurants whenever he sees it on the menu. However, due to many other delicious Korean dishes on the menu.. he never really got a chance to order them. He decided to look up the recipe and hey why not make it at home. The recipe seems easy enough and we can get all the ingredients at the local Korean grocery stores. We've made this soup a couple times, and the last after we move to Thousand Oaks. As we happen to have a stash of fresh ginseng in the fridge from our recent Asian grocery store raid and with the inlaws in town... it was a perfect time to make this dish and for the inlaws to taste their son's favorite dish. All we needed to get was cornish hen from the grocery store which was just around the corner. This dish was "In-Law" approved! =)

Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of the best Malaysian comfort food, and most ingredients are easily obtainable in the US. Hainanese Chicken Rice is very popular in Malaysian and Singapore and it is usually served with some cucumber, soy sauce, chili sauce and complimentary soup. To make it your own, it's pretty easy although there are many optional parts to make up the delicious comfort food.

Since the husband chose to have Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner 2 days ago, I've decided it's the perfect time to note down the ingredients, method and all of how I make my Hainanese Chicken Rice.  I usually like to use chicken thigh instead of whole chicken, but in this recipe I'll be using chicken legs (thigh + drumsticks) as that was what I had in the freezer. I usually make the fragrant/flavored rice in a rice cooker, so if you do not have one.. it's ok.. you'll just need to adjust your cooking method a little. I don't have the instructions for cooking rice in a regular pot, as I'm pretty bad at it. =( I believe there are 2 ways to prepare the chicken; by steaming it or by boiling it. I've always cooked mine the latter.

I make chicken rice (via boiling method) very often but I've never written down the recipe and exact measurements. However, due to some requests for the recipe lately, I know that I needed to put everything down on paper...and after posting a picture of the HCR on Facebook and getting an overwhelming response of "likes" and comments, I was glad I took the time to write the ingredients and steps on paper that day. My friends have requested for the recipe and I have to say I had a success story when my friend was very thrilled with the way her HCR turned out based on my over the Facebook rough instructions. I can't take all the credit as she did the cooking and made the adjustments... I just told her what to do and what to use!

The Hainanese Chicken Rice in Malaysia does not come with the ginger garlic/scallion sauce.  I first fell in love with this sauce when I ate a steamed chicken from a Chinese restaurant in Chicago. This sauce is quite commonly served with steamed chicken in Asian restaurants. So, I now always make this dipping sauce every time I make Hainanese Chicken Rice and the husband loves it! For a guy who likes spicy food, he prefers the ginger garlic sauce over chili sauce when he eats his chicken rice. As for the chili dipping sauce, I've always just gotten them from the store; most bottled chili sauce (typically from Indonesia/Malaysia or Thailand) works for me.

Here's the lengthy instruction to make some Hainanese Chicken Rice. The list will look tremendously long and tedious, but it's really not that bad...and will be oh-so-worth it once you sit down and enjoy your meal. Here's the recipe!

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE RECIPE
*Serves 3-4

Part (A) - Hainanese Chicken 
Ingredients

• 6-8 Chicken Thighs
• 2-3 Inch Ginger, Sliced
• 10 Cup Water
• 1-1/2 Tsp Salt
• Ice Water Bath

A couple weeks ago, I invited some of my Thousand Oaks friends over for some afternoon tea. Afternoon tea (according to wikipedia) is a snack eaten between 3-5pm and originated from England. Finger food like savory sandwiches and tasty desserts are served along with tea of course.

I've had afternoon tea twice in the US, but they don't compare to the ones my friends have had in Asia or other parts of the world. The spread of the afternoon tea and the trays of glorious food that was served was mouth watering and oh so tempting. So, I wanted to create that experience at my home. I baked/made a couple different items and bought a yummy petit four cake sampler from Trader Joe's to put together a spread of afternoon tea for 5 people. Here's what was served at tea; homemade Cranberry Orange Scones (recipe at the end of this post), Egg Salad Profiteroles, Salmon Cucumber Sandwich, Jam Thumbprint Cookies, Strawberry Cream Profiteroles, Trader Joe's petit four selection, Nokdujeon (Korean Savory Mung Bean Pancake) by my friend, some fresh fruits and of course tea!


How can I serve afternoon tea without scones?? So, I made some scones the day of the afternoon tea to make sure I serve the freshest batch of homemade scones to serve to my friends. As I was unable to find clotted cream/devonshire cream, I just served scones with some jam. I googled for a scone recipe and decided to go with one I found on all recipes and was utterly pleased with the results . Here's the recipe for some yummy Cranberry Orange Scones adapted from all recipes with just a minor tweak.


CRANBERRY ORANGE SCONES RECIPE
Ingredients

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 8 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, Frozen
• 1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries
• 1 Tsp Grated Orange Zest
• 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
• 1 Tsp Vanila
• 2 Large Egg 

I saw this yummy Italian Wedding Soup recipe from my Ina Garten cook book and I’ve been wanting to attempt it for the longest time but never did until one snowy day. This was also sort of semi spontaneous as I only thought of making the soup while shopping for some groceries a day before the big snow storm (we were greeted by more than 19” of fresh powdery snow!!) Having to just know the key ingredients; ground meat, sausage, spinach, pasta and chicken stock, I guessed my way through the rest of the ingredients!
I’ve never tried Italian Wedding Soups before though I’ve seen it plentiful on menus. Most of the time, the meatballs are beef and if you know me well enough, I can get very picky when it comes to beef. I never knew what were the origins of the Italian Wedding Soup either. My best guess was it might be a soup served often at an Italian Wedding? After some Googling and yes the help of Wikipedia, I found out that it’s just a soup that consist of vegetables and meat and it’s very common in Italian restaurants in US. I guess, I was totally wrong about this being a typical soup being served at a Italian wedding! Extracted from Wikipedia, “The term "wedding soup" is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata ("married soup"), which is a reference to the fact that green vegetables and meat go well together. Some form of minestra maritata was long popular in Toledo, Spain before pasta became an affordable commodity to most Spaniards, though the modern wedding soup is quite a bit lighter than the old Spanish form, which contained a large variety of meat, rather than just the meatballs of modern Italian-American versions”
Long story short, I modified and came up with my version of Italian Wedding soup very much inspired by Ina Garten. Her Italian Wedding Soup recipe can be found HERE. This soup is a perfect for lunch (or dinner) during one of those cold wintery days!

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP RECIPE
Ingredients:
Part A (Meatballs)

• 3 Hot/Spicy (Fresh) Italian Sausage (about 9 oz), Squeeze the meat from the casing
• 6 oz ground pork
• 1/4 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
• 1 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Parsley
• 2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Cilantro
• 1 Tbsp Milk
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Pinch of salt
• 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper

Part B (Soup)

• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 2 Stalk Celery, Finely Chopped (About 1 Cup)
• 2 Medium Onion, Finely Chopped (About 1 Cup)
• 3-4 Cloves Garlic, Finely Chopped
• 1 Cup Macaroni Elbows
• 10 Cups Chicken Stock
• 6 - 8 Oz Spinach
• Black Pepper
• Salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix Part A (meatballs), place the ground pork, sausage, bread crumbs, parsley, cilantro, Parmesan cheese, milk, egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, measure about 1tsp of meatballs, roll them and drop them onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 80 x 1 tsp size meatballs).  Bake for 20 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

In the meantime, prepare part B (soup). In a pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1-2 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook until the spinach is just wilted. Serve immediately.
June’s comments: Feel free to omit the cilantro if you’re not a big fan of it. I love cilantro very much and try to include them in my meals whenever possible! This recipe serves 4-6.


Simply June 

It was a snowy Sunday. The New England area was experiencing a snow storm. Hubby and I decided to stay in for the most part of Sunday to chill and work on another wood working project! =) Soup was definitely in my mind. It was a great comfort food on such a beautiful yet cold and gloomy day!

Hubby and I love French Onion Soup, yet this is something we’ve always had only in restaurants. I’ve never attempted to make it myself till that snowy Sunday! After googling for some inspirations and ideas…I got busy! A large bowl French Onion Soup each was the perfect simple lunch for us to keep warm! 

Here’s my recipe for an easy French Onion Soup. I use store bought beef and chicken stock hence saving me a bunch of time and effort in preparing the stock. If you have homemade stock in hand, I bet those would be better!! I also use store bought Texas Garlic Toast. These toast are thicker and would be able to sustain better when I place them in the soup. These toast are also precut and comes in a box of 8 pieces for about $2 from your local grocery store! Garlic toast gives the toast an extra garlicky flavor. You could also use Cheese Toast, or any of your favorite thick cut toasts!!

EASY FRENCH ONION SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 to 4 Cups Sliced Yellow Onion (About 2 Large Onions)
• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1/4 Tsp Dried Thyme
• 2 Clove Garlic, Minced
• 2 Tsp Sugar
• 4 Cups Beef Stock*
• 2 Pcs Texas Garlic Toast
• 1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese
• 1 Tsp Chopped Parsley (Optional)
• Salt & Pepper

*   I use 3 Cups of Beef Stock and 1 Cup of Chicken Stock.                                                             

Method:

Preheat oven at 400F and let garlic toast bake until they are toasty, and brown.

Melt 3 tbsp butter in a pot over medium high heat. Once butter has melted, add bay leaves, dried thyme and onion. Cook onion until soft, then add mince garlic. Continue to stir fry onion and garlic until onion start to brown a little. Add sugar and let onion brown a little more/caramelized but not burnt! Once all onion has soften and nicely browned, add beef/chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Let soup simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Pour hot soup into 2 bowls (oven proof and will fit about 2 cups of soup). Quickly place the toasted garlic toast on top of the soup and then top it with cheese. Cover the toast with cheese and feel free to sprinkle some into the soup.    

Place the bowls onto a pan and into the oven and set it to the broiler (heat coming from top) function. Let cheese melt, become bubbly and slightly brown before removing the bowls from the oven. Sprinkle with some optional parsley and serve immediately keeping in mind, SOUP IS HOT!! Don’t burn our tongue!! =)

June’s Comments: I made the soup as an entree size serving. If you want to make this a smaller appetizer serving, cut the toasted bread into half and prepare 4 small bowls (large enough for at least 1 cup of soup).

I had friends over for dinner the past weekend and hubby was in charge of making the main course!  Yes, he cooks (whenever he’s given the chance!)!! I decided to make a soup as a precursor to hubby’s main course of Chicken Chop! '

It has been raining the whole day and soup was definitely great pick-me-up during such a gloomy day. I’ve always made cream based soup but this time, I decided to make a clear and healthier soup! Vegetable Soup! Hearty Vegetable Soup! It was easy to make (despite the many cutting/chopping!) and my guests commented that it was yummy! Yay! =)

SIMPLE VEGETABLE SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 3 Cloves Minced Garlic
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 Cup Chopped Onions
• 1 Cup Diced Potatoes
• 1 Cup Sliced,Celery (1/2” thick)
• 1 Cup Sliced Carrots (Halved and cut 1/2” thick)
• 1-1/2 Cups Sliced Zucchini (Halved and cut 1/2” Thick)
• 2 Cups Sliced Squashed (Halved and cut 1/2” thick)
• 3/4 Cup Diced Tomatoes
• 1/4 Cup Diced Red Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Chopped Parsley
• 4 Cups Vegetable Broth (or Chicken Broth)
• 4 Cups Water
• 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 Tsp Black Pepper
• Salt, To Taste

Method:

In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Once oil is hot, add garlic, onion, bay leaves, a pinch of salt, black pepper and cook until onion has soften. Then add potatoes, celery, carrots, zucchini, squash, and red pepper. Stir vegetables occasionally and cook for about 10 minutes.

Add vegetable broth and water and let soup boil. Then add 1 tbsp parsley and diced tomatoes and let soup simmer over medium low heat for about 1-1/2 hour. Season soup with more salt if needed and sprinkle in remaining chopped parsley before serving. This should serve about 4 people.

June’s notes: I had some leftovers and the soup taste so much flavorful the next day! =). If you want to make this soup more filling, feel free to boil some short pasta (i.e. macaroni elbow) in the soup.

Hubby and I love New England Clam Chowder and have been trying to make Chowder since hubby’s Valentine dinner attempt. We’ve been using more affordable clams without sacrificing the flavor too much. Fresh clams are surprisingly pretty costly at about $5 per pound and with the thick heavy shells, you probably end up with 1/4 lb or less of actual clam meat! And you really really need lots of clam meat to make clam chowder yummy and hearty! For a soup to feed 4, you would need about 3-5 lbs of clams! Unless the clams are in season and are super duper cheap, we will definitely stick to more affordable alternative! After several trials with different kind of clams (as well as different potatoes), we thought that canned chopped clams (6 cans @ $5.99 from Costco) were quite a good substitute. Hubby and I would love to try frozen clams next time and see what yummy chowder we can make out of it! The recipe we’ve been using is based on Kim’s Country Clam Chowder. And we’ve made changes to her recipe according to our preference! We added more cooking wine (cheap @ $2 per bottle) than the recipe asked for. Hubby teased that I should start a food blog with food recipes with lotsa liquor and wine used in cooking..since we do love alcohol in our dishes! And no, we’re not alcoholics!! =P. Here’s our version of the New England Clam Chowder…. won’t bother renaming it as I’m not that creative in making new names! =p

 

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

Ingredients:

• 4 Strips Hickory Smoked Bacon,
• 2-3/4 Cup Red Skin Potatoes, Skin On & Diced Into 1/2 Inch Cubes
• 1 Cup Yellow Onion, Chopped
• 3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
• 3/4 Cup Celery, Diced
• 3 x 6.5 Oz Cans Snow’s Chopped Clams In Clam Juice
• 1/2 Cup Clam Juice
• 1 Cup Dry White Cooking Wine
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 Tsp Dried Thyme
• Salt (**Optional)
• 1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tbsp Butter, Room Temperature
• 1/2 Tsp Chopped Parsley
• Oyster Crackers

Method:

In a large pot, fry bacon strips until crisp (no oil needed). Remove bacon from pot, drain on paper towel and leave bacon grease in pot. Add potatoes to pan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add celery, onion and garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Strain canned chopped clams and set clam juice aside. There should be about 1-1/2 cups of clam juice from the canned clams. Give the clams a rough chop. Add chopped clams, clam juice and white wine. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender. Stir in thyme and pepper.

Reduce heat to low and gradually add milk, then heavy cream, stirring frequently until chowder begins to thicken slightly. Season soup with salt if needed. In a separate bowl, combine butter and flour until smooth then add tiny dollops of it into the soup to thicken the soup a little more. If you like your soup very thick, repeat the butter and flour mixture until you get the consistency you like. Remember to let the soup cook for a minute or two before adding more flour mixture.

Ladle soup into individual bowls and top with crumbled crispy bacon as well as pieces of oyster crackers. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve this piping hot! If you have a warm crusty bread….that would be awesome! This serves 4-5 people!

June’s Notes: I would not recommend the use of Baby Clams… the texture is just not right!! You should be able to find chopped clams and clam juice at the aisle where they sell canned tunas.

PS: I was the sous chef last night, helping hubby cutting and prepping the ingredients for the chowder. Hubby was the “executive chef” for this pot of chowdah!

Soft Rye bread was on sale at the local grocer for $1 (usually $2.99) as it was a new product/brand, so I got a loaf of it. I decided to make it a sandwich and soup night; something simple yesterday since today we’ll be having a little party to celebrate Brady’s one week celebration in our household! A few close buddies will be over and I’ll be making various food.=) Pictures will definitely follow!Anyway, back to my sandwich and soup story…..The soup on the other hand is dedicated to my brother who a few days ago had requested for the creamy mushroom soup recipe I served on X’mas Eve! Instead of telling him estimates of this and that (well I did tell him actually and it sorta overwhelmed him =P), I decided to measure everything out and share it here! =) Mom is definitely proud of her baby boy who now can even make Tiramisu!!!

The Egg Cheese Melt was constructed from 3 pieces of rye toasted with some butter. A cheese melt on one layer and the second layer a spread of egg salad with cucumber slices complete my Egg Cheese Melt! YUMS!

CREAMY MUSHROOM SOUP RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 Cups Mushroom, sliced
• 1 Cup Potatoes, diced (I used red skin potato, peeled)
• 1 Cup Yellow Onion, chopped
• 3 Clove Garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp Butter,
• 1 Cup Chicken Broth
• 1/2- 3/4 Cup Milk (**adjust accordingly)
• 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1 Tsp Parsley Flake (about 1-2 Tbsp if using fresh chopped parsley)
• 1/4 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/4 Tsp Onion Powder
• Salt & Pepper

Method:

In a pot, melt butter and sauté onion and garlic till fragrant over medium high heat. Then add in mushroom, potatoes, parsley, onion powder and garlic powder. Continue to sauté for about 2 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, cover pot and let it cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Remove pot from heat and let the soup cool for about 1 hour before putting it in a blender. When soup has cooled down significantly, puree it in the food processor. If you find it hard to puree it, a little milk will help. Then pour it back into the original pot and continue to cook it over medium low heat. Add cream as well as remaining milk till you get the consistency you like. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with some fresh crusty bread!. This serves 2!

If you want a soup with more texture, feel free to chop up about 1/4 cup of mushroom, sauté it in some butter and add it in just before before you add cream and milk.