Spicy Noodle Soup

One of us had man flu tonight. So, I decided a spicy, warming noodle soup would be both restorative and cleansing. This is a recipe I turn to often, I got the idea when tsting recipes for a book.

Simply heat up some stock (about 600ml for 2) and by stock I mean bouillon powder dissolved in water until just boiling, then switch off. Meanwhile, chop lots of garlic, ginger and chilli finely and throw it into the stock, leaving it to infuse whilst you get on with the rest. If you have coriander, try chopping the stalks as finely as possible and adding to the broth now, I also add a drizzle of sesame oil. This create a delicious broth full of flavour, the perfect base for most things. Try it with or without noodles, I like to cook the noodles in the broth itself, although it's often a tight squeeze, as the take on the flavour and the starch thickens the soup slightly.

Next onto the vegetables. Use whatever you have, sliced mushrooms, carrots cut into matchsticks, shredded greens, diced courgettes, baby sweetcorn, green beans. Bring the stock back to the boil and add a couple of noodle nests, poke them around in the broth until softened and throw in the veggies. Stir as best you can, cover and leave to steam for 5 or so mins until the noodles are soft and the vegetables cooked. Finish with a drop of soy, stir well, scatter over coriander if you have it and eat. The noodles and vegetables take on the flavours of the spicy aromatic broth and you're left with a comforting, healthy dinner in next to no time. Read more...

Peanut Noodle Salad

My weekends are for cooking and while I tend to rely heavily on leftovers for lunch, I like to make some kind of salad to stash in the fridge during the week for snacking or for lunch when we've been over zealous and eaten every last scrap of dinner.

Something robust that will survive a few days in the fridge is in order - couscous, or rice usually. I've also recently re-discovered the joys of this simple brown rice salad dressed in thick and syrupy ginger soy dressing with lots of cashews, if you're not a fan of brown rice, this will turn you. So, this weekend I tried another gem from Nigella, Sesame Noodle Salad - noodles dressed in salty and sweet satay sauce with plenty of crunchy veg. This is very much open to interpretation, use whatever you have - red cabbage, carrot, cucumber, radish, spinach, mushrooms. I like to add a handful of chopped peanuts to the mix for extra crunch and some extra garlic and chilli. Just make sure you keep the ratio of sauce to noodles, you need enough sauce to coat everything well. Read more...

Dan Dan Noodles

During my visit home, while rooting through my mum's cookbook collection; I found Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang. I knew my mum wouldn't use this book, she rarely uses a recipe for anything and so, I managed to commandeer it for myself.

I'm not a fan of the cookery shows myself, a bit too smug and she annoyingly overuses the words fragrant and delicious. But the book has some lovely photos (if not enough) and the recipes are certainly a gentle, healthy introduction to authentic Chinese cooking.

This recipe caught my eye, mostly due to the picture but also as it's unlike anything I've cooked before. Luckily, there's a chinese supermarket in Brixton, so off we went (after a delicious trip to Franco Manca) and purchased vast bottles of chinese ingredients and sauces for next to nothing.


She suggested using beef mince, I think pork is more authentic, but I actually used veggie mince which worked fine; there are so many other flavours going on that you don't notice.

The results went down well, apparently 'one of the best things I've cooked'. I have to say that this was down to me tweaking the recipe somewhat. Apparently the broth for the noodles was supposed to be a mix of tahini, sesame oil and balsamic vinegar (or Chinkiang black rice vinegar), but when I combined these in a saucepan as instructed, it looked a little like gone off milk... Out went that idea and I simply cooked the noodles in vegetable stock with a drop of sesame oil, the starch in the noodles helps to thicken the broth. I used plenty of chilli to make this a cleansing, warming soup and added some radish for crunch. You can add whatver vegetables are to hand really, add mushrooms to the mince, some beansprouts, shredded spinach or cabbage could go into the broth or matchsticked carrots.

Ingredients

Serves 4

750ml vegetable stock
2tsp sesame oil
400g noodles
1 small bunch radishes, sliced
2tbsp sunflower oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1tbsp grated ginger
1 chilli, finely chopped
250g mince
1tbsp Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
100g gherkins, finely chopped
To serve:
1 small bunch spring onions, finely sliced
1 small bunch coriander, chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
soy sauce to taste.

• Heat the vegetable stock until boiling, add the sesame oil and noodles. stir to untangle and cook gently until soft. Stir in the radishes.
• Meanwhile heat a wok or large frying with the oil until smoking. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and fry for a few minutes. Add the mince and stir until well browned. Pour over the rice wine and allow it to buble away. Stir in the gherkins and take off the heat.
• To serve, spoon some noodles into a bowl with a ladleful of broth, top with the mince, spring onions, coriander and as much chilli as you dare.

Read more...

Vegetable Laksa

In my university days of cooking for 5 people in a 'kitchen' that consisted of a Baby Belling, a sink and fridge to do all my prep on; this was always a special treat. We got it from our culinary bible of the time - Cranks, a revelation of vegetarian cooking and not a bean chilli in sight.

I've since tweaked it a little and cut down the long of ingredients to make it something I might be able to rustle up from ingredients at home. Of course, the authenticity leaves a lot to be desired. But, what you do get is noodles cooked in an aromatic coconut milk broth, spicy with chilli and sour from lime, topped with chickpeas, stir fried vegetables and lots of coriander. A comforting and soothing bowl.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 tin coconut milk
3 cloves, garlic
1 red chilli
3cm piece of ginger
1 small bunch coriander
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 litre vegetable stock
400g egg noodles
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp sunflower oil
spalsh soy sauce
200g carrots, peeled, halved and sliced
250g mushrooms (shitake work best)
2 heads pak choi, sliced
1-2 limes

• Either blitz in a blender or finely chop the garlic, chilli, ginger and stalks of the coriander. Add to a large saucepan with the coconut milk, stock and fish sauce. Bring to the boil and take off the heat.
• Add the noodles, stir to untangle and leave to soften in the heat with the chickpeas. Add some lime juice to taste, until you have a nice sour contrast.
• In the meantime, heat a large wok and the sunflower oil, stir fry the mushrooms, carrots and pak choi for 5 or so mins until cooked through, finish with a splash of soy sauce.
• To serve, heat the noodles and broth until piping hot. Spoon a nest of noodles into a shallow soup bowl and top with some of the vegetables, ladle over a generous amount of the aromatic, coconut broth and top with a lime wedge and lots of coriander.

Read more...

Throw it in Spicy Soup

This is one for using up any vegetables languishing in the bottom of the fridge. Save them from the compost and make soup! Now that the weather is turning, its the perfect time for a warm bowl of comforting soup. Soup is possibly the easiest thing to make with the least output for maximum pleasure. What's better that a steaming bowl of homemade soup?

Now, most soups require time, not that they're difficult, you just need to leave a pan to putter away on a stove top for a while, ideally eating it the next day once the flavours have developed. Don't get me wrong, this is fabulous for cooking in advance so that you can come home to dinner already made, or freeze portions ahead, for that, try these recipes.

This soup is all about knocking up a batch in 20mins flat and having endless variations, when you can't think what to make to make for dinner, but you want to feel like you're eating something 'homemade'.

This is barely a recipe, simply fry a tablespoon or two, depending on how hot you like it of thai curry paste in a large pan until the heady fragrance are released. now throw in your vegetables, whatever you've got, think stir fry, you want everything sliced or finely chopped. Give them a stir until they start to catch. Now add a can of coconut milk, fill the empty can with water and add this too, maybe a little bouillon powder too to boost flavours. Let this simmer happily for 5mins or so. To bulk it out, add a couple of nests of noodles, perhaps adding some extra water, make you stir well and untangle them as they soften.

Try chickpeas, noodles, tofu, shredded roast chicken, sweetcorn, carrot, mushrooms, greens, chunks of salmon, bean sprouts... the list goes on. then you get to garnish, a squeeze of lime, a flutter of coriander leaves, sliced spring onions.... Read more...

Noodle Soup

This is one of those spicy, warming, comforting soups you can get in noodle bars that inevitably get slurped all over your front. It is actually an incredibly fast and easy recipe and you end up with a wonderfully tasty soup. I make this a variation on salad, you can pack it full of vegetables and the delicious broth not only makes everything taste good, it fills you up too. You can have it with or without noodles, I find its easier to cook the noodles separately and then ladle the soup over otherwise everything gets all tangled up.

Ingredients

Serves 2
500g Selection of vegetables cut into equal sized pieces (e.g. mushroom slices, carrot and courgette batons, pak choy, finely sliced)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 chillis, finely chopped
1tbsp grated ginger
1tbsp miso paste
600ml vegetable stock
200g cooked noodles
Coriander to serve

Fry the vegetables for a minute or two in a little oil. Meanwhile dissolve the miso paste in the stock and pour over the vegetables. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and add the garlic, ginger and chilli, simmer for a few mins until the flavours have infused. Allow to cool a little and pour over the waiting noodles, sprinkle with coriander. Simple as that! Read more...