Guriltai Shul - Mongolian Noodle Soup

How do you find inspiration for your meals?  For me, it comes in all shapes and forms.  The most obvious is just that ridiculous, intense and burning desire (usually for dumplings or pies in my case) but hanging around waiting for that to strike can often be frustrating.  The second is just dragging out all the recipe books in the house and poring over them until you find something that looks appetising, but even this isn't easy as often I feel overwhelmed by choice (and some of my favourite recipe books don't have pictures in them, which makes casual browsing harder and more annoying - note to everyone reading this - if somewhere down the line, you get the opportunity to publish a cook book -MAKE SURE IT HAS PICTURES IN IT...)

SO I have to resort to other means of dragging culinary inspiration out from that hole where it lives.  I've tried getting involved with Crazy blogging schemes (The Olympic Food Challenge was by far the best and most interesting - I still dine out on the Duck Tongues story), I've tried making things based on what turned up in our veg box, but now after 185 posts and nearly 100 soups, its getting that much harder.  So I came up with another plan - simply get people to shout out random countries at me on twitter and I'd do some research on the interwebs and make a soup from that country.  Simple, eh?

Well.... The first country out of the metaphorical hat (Like a normal hat but with a nice feather on the side, I'm given to understand) was Mongolia.  Mongolia, like a lot of those huge countries that used to be part of Russia but are now just high scoring word in Scrabble (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kreplachinstan* I'm looking at you) Mongolian cuisine is pretty basic stuff - mainly just meat (lamb or mutton for choice, but I'm reliably informed (well, informed, anyway) that they also eat Marmot) with perhaps a few vegetables thrown in for good measure.  If you do go looking for Mongolian recipes, keep in mind that 'Mongolian' has also been used as a catch-all phrase to denote 'Exotic', as in Mongolian Beef, which has never even been near a Mongol, or his horde...

So this soup is pretty much just throw a few ingredients in a pot, cook for a bit and serve.  I had to change this recipe to add stock rather than just water, or it would have been rather bland, I fear.  Also, if you can't be bothered making the noodles, I think that dried or fresh pre-bought pasta would suffice pretty well...

Also, if you would like to help my culinary muse, feel free to add countries for me to investigate, in the comments section below.  Cheers!

* One of these countries isn't real, see if you can guess which one...

Ingredients
250g Lamb or Mutton
2 Carrots
1 Large Onion
1 Turnip
300g Plain Flour
1.5l Stock
Salt and Pepper

1.  Prepare the noodles (or Tasalsan Guril if you will) by mixing the flour with 200ml of water to form a dough, then let it rest for 15 minutes in the fridge, wrapped in cling-film

2.  Using a pasta maker, roll the dough into thin strips like fettuccine or tagliatelle and cut into short lengths.  Set aside again

3.  Cut the meat into small, thin strips.  Peel and slice the onion, carrot and turnip

4.  In a wok or frying pan, stir-fry the meat until browned, then remove from the oil.

5.  Add the onion to the wok and stir-fry until they are soft and starting to colour.  Then add the carrot and turnip and cook those until they start to soften too.

6.  Put the meat and vegetables into a soup pan with 1.5l of stock and cook for 40-45 minutes.

7.  Add the noodles 10 minutes before serving and allow to cook in the soup.  Taste and adjust seasoning before serving.  Enjoy!

Pho - Vietnamese Noodle Soup

 So I'm trying to get in the summery mood.  Now there are vegetables planted in the garden which will hopefully be ready to turn into soup later in the year, and that fiery ball has returned to the skies, it's a bit easier to think that there might be a summer after all.  (Please don't remind me of this statement when it rains from now until September...)

I realised that pretty much all the soups I have blogged recently have been pretty heavy, comfort food type recipes. This is probably for two reasons - one is that it's been sooooo cooooold, and the second is that I think the big warm blanket of creamy warmth is the reason I love soup so much (Please note, don't try to make an actual blanket out of soup) but there are lots of other soups out there which are fresh and light and summery.

Like this one.  Pho is from Vietnam and I imagine it's the sort of thing that you can buy from vendors at the side of the road, like Blade Runner with sunshine (possibly) and it's a very light, fragrant soup that would work well as a starter or as a snack on a warm day...

Ingredients

For the broth
3 Carrots
1 Onion
1tbsp Ginger
1tbsp Soy Sauce
1tsp Coriander Seeds
4 Cloves
2 Bay Leaves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Star Anise

Rice Noodles
Broccoli
Bok Choi
Fresh Coriander 
Lime

Method.
1.  Dry roast the coriander, star anise, cloves and cinnamon.  Place them in your soup pan over a low heat and cook until they start to release their aromas

2.  Roughly chop the carrot and onion.  Place them in a pan with the dry roasted spices, ginger, soy sauce and bay leaves, as well as 1.2l of water.  Bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

3.  Remove from the heat and let cool.  Strain out all the bits and return to the pan

4.  Cook the rice noodles according to the packaging.

5.  Cut the broccoli into florets, slice the bok choi.  Steam them for 5 minutes, until they are soft

6.  Put some noodles in each soup bowl, then cover in the broth, and then top with the steamed vegetables and some fresh coriander and slices of fresh lime to garnish.  Enjoy!

Thai Noodle Soup With Fishballs

I haven't made any of the huge range of Thai soups since I almost killed myself with a huge spicy overdose of chili when making a Tom Yum soup.  Now I'm a fan of spicy foods, and have a pretty high tolerance for chili, but even I had a hard time eating that soup, due to a couple of rogue, extra hot chili peppers that made their way into my shopping basket.

However, I didn't have that problem with this recipe, which was suggested to me by another lovely Postcrossing pal, who is from Thailand and listed this as amongst her favourite soups.  A few of the recipes that I found for this soup had ingredients in that I couldn't find at my local supermarket (Chinese Celery, coriander root) so I've had to approximate with some of the ingredients, but I think what I ended up with was rather special - if you like your soups a bit more spicy, you could aways add some more chili somewhere in the mix, and I'm sure it will be just as good, but I decide to play safe this time...

Also, after stumbling across the website of a soup company somewhere in Scotland, I've been experimenting this week with a tip that they recommend for getting the best out of any soup - that is, making it the day before and leaving it in the fridge to mature overnight which increases the depth of the flavours, or so they claim.  Now obviously, with this soup, a lot of the ingredients (fish balls and noodles etc) need to be added just before serving, but I did prepare the base of the soup the day before, and blow me down, but it seemed to be a lot more flavoursome than I was expecting.  I may experiment further and report back my findings...

Ingredients
1.2l Chicken Stock
2tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
2tsp Grated Ginger
2tsp Light Brown Sugar
1tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Star Anise
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Small Mooli
Juice and zest of 1 Lime
4tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce
3tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter
300g White Fish, Skinned and boneless
Handful of Fresh Coriander
Rice Noodles 

Method.
 1.  Heat the stock in a soup pan, then add the soy sauce, ginger, sugar, anise and fish sauce.  Simmer and then add the thinly sliced mooli.  Let the soup cook for 15 minutes and then remove from the heat.

2.  Prepare the fish balls.  In a food mixer, put the fish. coriander, garlic, zest of 1 lime and a little salt.  Blend the ingredients together and then make small balls with it, about 2cm round - there should be enough for about 12 fish balls

3.  In a bowl, mix the lime juice, sweet chili sauce and peanut butter into a smooth paste.

4.  Prepare the rice noodles as per the instructions on the packet.

5.  Reheat the soup, bringing to a simmer and then add the fish balls.  Cook gently for about 10 minutes, until everything is reheated properly and the fish is cooked.

6.  Place some noodles in each bowl, then pout over some of the lime and chili paste.  Place some fish balls on top of that, then pour the soup around.  Garnish with fresh coriander and thinly sliced spring onions.  Enjoy!

 

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Snow!  Snow!  Oh blimey, you would think that the world was ending after a few hours of the white stuff on Saturday night!  I remember in ye olde times when it snowed and everyone would help each other clear drive ways and push stuck cars, but now it just seems to bring out the more petty aspects of people - moaning about the lack of grit for the roads, chuntering (good word eh?) about how to get to the shops etc.

Maybe it's just me getting old, but I really wish more people would enjoy the snow - it really does bring out the child in me - snow ball fights, sledging, staring drunkenly at orange sodium street lamps in the dark, watching huge white flakes drifting silently to the ground.  Who cares if you can't get in to work.  SNOW DAY!

At least my cold disappeared in time for me to enjoy Snowmageddon 2012, and allow me to go for a lovely walk along the frozen canal, before returning home to a lovely roast chicken.  And me being me, I couldn't let any single tiny bit of the chicken go to waste, so into the slow cooker went the flesh-stripped carcass to cook overnight for stock.

That meant that I woke up to a house that smelled delightfully of chicken, but also that I had lots of lovely stock for soup, as well as left-over chicken to use up.  So I decided to make a spicy chicken noodle soup.  I even experimented with clarifying the stock, by mixing 2 whisked eggwhites, 100ml of cold water and some chopped chicken into the cold stock, then slowly bringing it to the simmer, not stirring it until all the egg white floated to the top, bringing with it all the impurities from the stock, then I skimmed this off and was left with a rich golden stock.  I thend to water this down a bit before using it ina soup - about half and half, or the taste can be a bit too strong for my liking, but you can always play around with it

Anyway, with no more digressions, Thai Chicken Noodle Soup...

Ingredients
1.2l Chicken Stock
1 Red Chili
1 Green Chili
2tbsp Fish Sauce
Juice of 1 Lime
60g Roasted Peanuts
150g Broccoli Florets
200ml Coconut Milk
100g Thin Egg Noodles
Oriental Spinach Leaves
Fresh Coriander

Method
1. Heat the stock in a large pan, slowly bringing it to a simmer

2. Add the fish sauce, lime juice.  De seed and finely chop the chilies and add them.

3. If you are using uncooked chicken breast, cut it into bite sized strips and add it to the soup, if you are using left-overs, add them now as well.

4. Crush the peanuts in a pestle and mortar and add them to the soup, as well as the broccoli florets.

5. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around 10 minutes

6. In another pan, heat some water and cook the egg noodles as directed on the packaging.

7. Before serving, add the coconut milk to the soup and adjust seasoning to taste

8.  Add the shredded spinach leaves (or you could use spring onions) to the soup

9.  Put a serving of the egg noodles in each bowl, then top off with soup

10 Garnish with a few fresh coriander leaves

Chicken Noodle Soup

I have had an exciting culinary weekend during which I ate Wildebeest and Ostrich burgers, biltong and dim sum, so when I got back I thought I would try something vaguely oriental - inspired as I was by the dim sum (and my almost successful attempts at using chopsticks - the steamed pork buns almost all made it from steamer to mouth without a stop on the floor in-between), and also by the desire to eat something that wasn't too heavy, after all the rich food I had consumed over the last few days

So here is my attempt at chicken noodle soup