Roast Sweet Potato Soup

This autumn has been much cooler than previous year. I find I am already pulling out the woollen jumpers from the wardrobe in May. When the weather turns cold, I love to add soups to my repertoire to warm the body and soul. I have my usual soup recipes - roast pumpkin, chicken and corn, mushroom, minestrone, chicken and vegetable, beef and vegetable - but have never ventured from those.

Today, I made this roast sweet potato soup for dinner to accompany the free-form pork and apple pie (recipe by Matt Moran from June 2012's Masterchef Magazine). The method is similar to the roast pumpkin soup, except for the maple syrup that is drizzled together with the the olive oil.

I made my own chicken stock using a piece of chicken breast with 1 onion and 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns plus water into a stockpot and boil for about 1 hour.

Once the stock is ready and the roast vegetables are cool, I use a stick blender to process all ingredients together until a smooth texture. Season with salt and cracked black pepper then serve with a drizzle of cream on top.

Here's the free-form pork and apple pie. I like the free-form. No pie tin required.

Wan Tan Soup

One of Caitlin's comfort food is a bowl of wan tan soup. I agree with her too... nothing satisfies and warms the belly like the little parcels of minced pork, prawn, chestnuts, carrots, mushrooms and spring onions swimming in home-made chicken stock.

Fresh Lotus Root Soup

When I first came to Australia, it was impossible to buy fresh lotus root (leng gau). To make the soup, I had to use the frozen ones from the Asian grocery stores. In recent years, the Asian grocery stores sell the fresh lotus roots and also burdock (another root vegetable good for soup).

I bought a small piece today to boil soup with red dates and pork shin.

 

Hearty Chicken, Pasta and Vegetable Soup

I have been fighting a nasty flu for the last two weeks. It's horrible, being sick with blocked sinuses, metallic taste in the mouth, 'dead' tastebuds that cannot taste anything at all. I made this hearty soup to warm up the soul. I made a big batch and had leftovers for lunch.

Stock
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 brown onion, cut into large chunks
1 carrot, cut into 3 cm pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into 3cm pieces
2 bay leaves
2 pieces of chicken breast fillets
1.5 litres of water

1. Heat the oil in a medium size stockpot. Place the onion, carrot, celery and bay leaves into the pot and sweat the vegetables for 5 minutes stirring often.
2. Add the chicken breast fillets into the pot and cover with water at room temperature.
3. Bring the soup to a low simmer and cook gently for 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Skim and discard any fat that rises to the top of the liquid.
4. Remove the chicken and set aside to cool. Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve and discard the vegetables. 

Soup
1 tsp olive oil
1 carrot, cut into 3mm thick discs
2 celery stalks, cut into 3mm thick slices
1/2 leek (white part only), cut into 1/2cm pieces
1 corn cob, remove kernels
a small handful of green beans, cut into 3mm length
100gm small spiral pasta, cooked
chopped parsley to garnish

1. Heat the same pot to a low-medium heat and add the olive oil. Follow with the leek, carrots, celery, corn kernels and green bans. Sweat the vegetables for about 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the stock and bring to a simmer, then pour in the cooked pasta and cook for further 5 minutes.
3. Shred the chicken (should be cool now). (Note: I didn't use all the chicken, only 1/4 piece, but you can use as much as you like).
4. Return the shredded chicken to the pot. Season with salt and pepper then continue to cook for another 5 minutes. 
5. Remove from heat and garnish with the chopped parsley. 
6. Ladle into bowls and serve.
   

Roast Pumpkin Soup

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend in Sydney, but we have no plans to go anywhere. The weather is cold, windy, gloomy and wet. Great weather for sleeping in under the doona/quilt, 'veging' in front of the telly - all indoor activities where it's warm and cosy. It's also the right weather for warm comforting food like soups.

1/2 butternut pumpkin, cut into pieces
2 medium sized brown onions, cut into wedges
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed with skin on
sprig of rosemary
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
chicken breast
2 cups water


Heat oven to 160C. Place the pumpkin, onions, garlic and rosemary on a baking tray that is lined with baking paper. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt and fresh ground black pepper over them. Toss together to ensure the vegetables are coat in oil.

Place the tray into the oven to roast vegetables for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Leave aside to cool.

In a medium size stock pot, bring the water to boil and then place the chicken breast in to make the stock. Bring to boil and lower the heat; leave the stock to simmer for about 45mins to 1 hour.
Remove the meat.

Add in the roasted pumpkin, onions, garlic and rosemary into the stock. Using a handheld blender, blitz the vegies until all mashed together. Season the soup to taste.

Serve with a bread roll.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

In winter we love to have soups to accompany our meals, good to warm the body.

Ingredients
1 piece of chicken breast fillet
4 cups of water
425gm can creamed corn
1 corn cob, remove kernels from cob
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
spring onions (scallions), sliced thinly for garnish

1. Place chicken breast fillet and water into a medium saucepan or stockpot to make the chicken stock. Boil on low heat for about 1 hour.
2. Remove the chicken meat from stock and leave to cool. Shred into pieces when cool.
3. Add creamed corn and corn kernels to the soup, increase heat to medium.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. When soup is boiling, slowly add the beaten egg, stirring as you go to create egg threads.
6. Garnish with scallions.
   
7. Serve hot.
   

Fish n Chips and Beef n Vegie Soup

My husband cooked Fish and Chips for dinner last night. He bought some flathead fillets from the Sydney Fish Market the previous weekend. Flathead fillets are one of my favourite fishes to eat. The flesh is thick, white meat and sweet. This fish is only available during summer here in Sydney. The fish is ugly to look at, but taste great. Chris used beer to make the batter. I'll have to ask him for the recipe. I have to say his version of fish and chips taste so much better than the ones you buy.


Ingredients:
Rump steak - cubed
Carrot
Celery
Tomato
Ginger - small knob, sliced

1. Place all the above ingredients into a stockpot of water.
2. Leave on high heat until soup is boiling.
3. Lower the heat and simmer for a couple of hours.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve hot.
   

I made some Beef and Vegie soup to go with the Fish n Chips. Winter is coming, and I wanted the children to have extra protection against the flu and colds that inevitably arrive with the colder temperature.

Chinese Soups for Winter

It's winter time in Australia. Temperatures have been cool in Sydney dropping to 8 degrees Celsius and tops of 15 to 17 during the day. Because the heater is always turned on now and the cool weather, I like to make Chinese soups to go with our dinner. A soup that the girls really like is Corn and Carrot Soup (the corn can also be substituted with nashi pears or apples).

My girls love this kind of soup and the oldest will always have seconds.



Ingredients:
2 cobs of corn (cut into small pieces) or Nashi Pears or Apples (cut into quarters)
1 large carrot (cut into small pieces)
Red dates
A piece of chicken breast or pork loin
Water (about 6 rice bowls)
Salt

1. Add water into a stock pot and put to boil. When water is boiling, add in the meat followed by the carrots, corn (or nashi pears or apples) and red dates.
2. Boil on high flame then lower the flame to simmer the soup. Add salt to taste. Leave soup to simmer.
3. It will take about 2 to 3 hours for the soup to slowly boil.
4. When ready, turn off flame and serve.

Serves 4.