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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Blankets, Birds and Love

So I like photography, especially shooting in macro...you can make anything look halfway interesting with macro. I also have to admit, I like my room. So here are pieces of my room, close up. :)















Mandy's Monday Night Soups

Well, I FAIL as a faithful Monday night soup maker and blogger. The last two Monday's I've made NADA. But I did make another soup the previous week that I haven't blogged about yet, so here goes. (Hopefully everything will be back on track next Monday.)

Soup du jour this time...THAI CHICKEN SOUP.

In my opinion, this was one good soup. Ten times better than the one before. It was made even better because one of the girls in my small group, Luda, came over and helped me make it. In fact, she did a lot of the bruntwork...the slicing and dicing, which is not my favorite.

I was a tad concerned for awhile because we couldn't find a few ingredients in the store...so we substituted. But the substitutions turned out fine. And who knows? Maybe they made it taste better! :) Instead of creamed coconut, we used coconut milk and reduced the amount of chicken stock. We also used medium sized egg noodles and broke them up instead of using thread egg noodles. And finally, we couldn't find dry, unsweetened shredded coconut, so we just used sweetened. I actually think the sweetened coconut went well with the soup, especially since it was just a topping.

Without further delay, here are some pictures. I'm actually going to include the recipe this time. :)

Here's the picture from the book:

And how ours turned out:

I think I actually liked the look of ours better! :O

In the pot:

Set up (I tried to give it an Indian flair, although the placemats are from Zimbabwe...courtesy of Dany and Thomas):

And finally, the willing guinea pigs...Mom and Luda. Em joined in later.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (6 oz each) chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp hot chili powder
1/2 cup creamed coconut [or coconut milk!]
3 3/4 cups hot chicken stock [I think I reduced It to 3 1/2 because of the coconut milk]
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice [we used lime]
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter [yum! Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE pb???]
1 cup thread egg noodles, broken into small pieces [medium sized work great!]
1 tbsp chopped spring onions (scallions)
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
Salt and ground black pepper
Desiccated (dry unsweetened shredded) coconut [seriously folks, I think sweetened is better!] and finely chopped fresh red chili [remember to wear gloves! We used plastic bags to cover our hands], to garnish

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the garlic for 1 minute until lightly golden. Add the chicken and spices. Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Crumble the creamed coconut into the hot chicken stock and stir until dissolved. [Or just pour in the coconut milk.] Pour the liquid onto the chicken breast and add the lemon or lime juice, peanut butter and egg noodles.

3. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the spring onions and fresh coriander, season well with salt and ground black pepper and cook gently for a further 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, heat the desiccated coconut and chili in a small frying pan for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently , until the coconut is lightly browned.

5. Pour the soup into bowls and serve sprinkled with coconut and chili.


Recipe is from The Complete Book of 400 Soups by Anne Sheasby.

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