Something warm for the winter

Its been a reasonably mild winter here in London this year even though we had a brief spell of unusually cold weather right before Christmas. Thankfully, I missed the worst of it as I headed back East for a 2 week break in the tropics. Still, since I'm accustomed to heat and humidity, the mild winters here can still feel bitingly cold to me. As such, there's nothing I like better than to warm up with a hearty bowl of steaming, hot soup.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that late last year I discovered the wonders of using pumpkin in baked goods. This year, I'm continuing to find that pumpkin is amazingly versatile as demonstrated by this Thai-inspired pumpkin soup that I made for dinner last night.

For dinner, I served it with some crusty pieces of toast as an appetizer but I find that by tossing a few pieces of chicken in, it can even be a meal in itself, as it was for my lunch today!

Thai style pumpkin soup with coriander pesto
From delicious.

2 bunches fresh coriander, roots trimmed
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
80ml olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 heaped tbsp thai red curry paste
1 kg pumpkin, peeled, cut into small cubes
500ml vegetable stock
400ml canned light coconut milk
thinly sliced red chilli, to garnish

To make the coriander pesto, whiz the coriander, lemon zest, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor. Slowly add 60 ml of the oil to make a sauce consistency, adding a little warm water if necessary, then season to taste.

Heat the remaining oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and stir for 1 minute. Add the ginger and curry paste and stir for 1 minute.

Add the pumpkin and stock, bring to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes until pumpkin is cooked. Cool slightly, then blend until smooth. Return to the pan, add the coconut milk and season, then warm through.

To serve, pour the soup into bowls and swirl in a spoonful of pesto. Garnish with the onion, chilli and reserved coriander leaves.

Serves 6

Sesame noodles

In my continuing  quest for healthy recipes, I've been surfing some of our favourite recipe sites for low calorie meals. At the delicious. magazine website (UK version), I came across this recipe for Asian style noodles that not only sounded delicious and also came in at a measly 289 kcals per serving! 

I made it for dinner this week and it was a hit with both M and myself. Whoever said healthy food has to taste bad?

French bean, mangetout, prawn and sesame noodles

From delicious.

15g sesame seeds

200g French beans

200g mangetout

125g dried medium egg noodles

400g cooked and peeled prawns

1 medium-hot red chilli, deseeded and chopped

For the dressing

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sunflower oil

1/4 tsp caster sugar

Heat a dry frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the sesame seeds and stir for 3-4 minutes, until lightly toasted. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, top and tail the French beans and cut them in half lengthways. Cut the mangetout in half lengthways, too. Drop the beans into the pan and cook for 3 minutes, until just tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and refresh under cold water. Add the mangetout and cook for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, then drain and refresh as before.

Add the noodles to the pan and cook for 4 minutes or until just al dente. Drain and set aside to cool.

Mix the beans, mangetout, noodles, prawns, most of the sesame seeds and the chilli together in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss together well. Sprinkle wit the rest of the sesame seeds just before serving.

Serves 4

Spa cuisine

Its my first real food post of the new year and like many people around the world, one of my new year's resolutions is to eat healthier. In general, I think I eat pretty well but I have a big weakness - sweets of all kinds - and this year, I'm trying to be more moderate about it. This year, I have added incentive to be good, at least until May, because our big day is coming up! Yup, our wedding is about 4 months away. Yikes!

Towards this end, one of goals is to cook a little more and bake a little less. As such, you may find the recipes that I post here veering more towards food than desserts. To start off the new year on a healthy note, I found a recipe from Bill Granger that is reminiscent to me of spa cuisine. You know the kind. Typically found on menus of cafes in spas, they are usually dishes that are fairly simple where the main ingredient is allowed to shine through without being smothered by heavy sauces and the like.

Today's recipe features pork as the main ingredient which is seasoned only with sea salt and black pepper but whose flavour is enhanced by a mango salsa topping. Despite the simplicity of ingredients, I thought it tasted great. The added bonus was that dinner was on the table in 25 minutes tops. I served mine with a side of french beans and mangetout and a small portion of wild rice, but I'm sure it'll be equally good with a green salad or mashed potatoes.

Pork medallions with mango salsa

Adapted from Bills Food 

2 pork medallions

1 tbsp oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

pineapple salsa

1 cup chopped fresh mango

1/2 fresh red chilli, seeded and finely died

1 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp fish sauce 

Brush the pork with oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.

Heat a large frying pan over a high heat for 2 minutes until very hot. Sear the pork for 1 minute on each side, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 4 to 5 minutes longer on each side, or until cooked through and golden.

Remove the pork from the pan and leave it to rest for 2 minutes. 

For the mango salsa, stir all the salsa ingredients together in a bowl to combine. Serve the pork with mango salsa, rice and greens.

Serves 2

I'm back!

After two weeks in Asia, I'm finally back to London. My trip back home was amazing and despite the fact that I returned to a flat with no heat and hot water (boiler is on the fritz) and my bags didn't make it back with me (connecting in CDG is a nightmare), I'm still feeling the glow from a wonderful vacation.

Santa was extremely generous this Christmas and I received many, many food-related presents that will in some way or another be used on this blog. My favourite present hands-down came from M who surprised me with my very own MacBook! Readers of my blog may recall that sometime towards the early life of the blog, I managed to destroy my previous computer when I tripped over the wire and sent it crashing to the floor. Since then, I've been blogging from M's computer (a MacBook as well) and although I've always been a PC user, I quickly fell in love with the Apple's speed of booting up and its stability. Not once have I ever seen the blue screen of death on an Apple, a sight that was becoming all too common on my IBM laptop. My new MacBook is sleek and black and best of all, it comes with a magnetic power cord that automatically detaches when pressure is applied so no worries about this baby ever crashing to the floor! Needless to say, I am now blogging on my very own MacBook. Gone are the days of having to fight over the computer.

My sexy new Macbook

Other presents that I received, in no particular order are:

• An Oneida cupcake carrier (Thanks to J and S)

Oneida cupcake carrier

• A lovely cast iron pancake / blini pan (Courtesy of A and H)
• An egg timer (Thanks again to H)
• A foldable chopping board which eliminates spillage (from M)
• A heart shaped oven mitt (yet again from M)
• Cool, zebra-patterned muffin cases (also from M)
• A nifty, electronic kitchen timer (M is really spoiling me...)

Clockwise from top left: Pancake pan, chopping board, kitchen timer, muffin cases, oven mitt and egg timer

• A Le Creuset set consisting of 4 ramekins, a baking dish, a round cocotte and an oval cocotte

Le Creuset set

• A 9" springform pan
• Assorted silicone bakeware

Silicone bakeware and springform pan

Okay, the last 3 items were really things I bought myself but since they were bought during the holiday season, I consider them presents to myself. I can think of so many things that I can make with the different gifts I've received from souffles to cheesecakes to potato blinis to delicious cupcakes. I can't wait! 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and I'll be back soon with my first food post of 2008.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

After 11 months of being in London, I'm finally back in sunny Singapore for a well-earned (I think) Christmas and New Year's break. Even though its not a white christmas - i mean its sunny and 30 degrees celsius out - I'm spending it with my folks and that's what's its all about, isn't it? I'll probably be absent from my blog the next two weeks so here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I promise to be back in the new year with more cooking and baking adventures! Till then, eat well!