Chicken or Pork Congee Soup... Yeeum!

I've been promising to put our recipe for this delicious soup up, for ages. Picture to follow, sorry. Have to make some first.

 

To make the soup, firstly you need to make our Amazing Chicken Stock:

• Skin a chicken (cook skin for the Magpies if you want), more than fill with cold water.
• Add: chopped or shredded or grated: onion (brown with skin) / carrot / good hunk of ginger / celery / garlic / whatever.
• Teaspoon-ish: turmeric / mango powder / fenugreek seeds. 1 cinnamon stick / few green cardamom / coupla black cardamom / few cloves / maybe some curry powder.
• The husband adds a tablespoon of soy sauce and a bit of fish sauce but I don't. I've not done the taste test to see if it shows up.
• When your concoction begins to boil, turn to a good simmer for exactly 25 minutes.
• Remove chicken and de-bone as soon as it's cool enough.
• Return bones and simmer for between 1 and 4 hours depending on the book you've read on the topic. We usually let it go for at least two.
• Eat the most delicious chicken you'll have tasted in a long while, with a bit of soy, in sandwiches / salads / stir fry's etc.

Strain after the further time and decant to use for the soup and for all of your cooking. We do this every week, so our cooking has that extra flavour from the start. The magpies see me at the bus stop and fly off to our house because they know the hubby will be up for their breakfast.

 

Congee Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely cut
• about 300g of minced pork
• 2 litres of your stock
• 2-3 inches of grated ginger (a good amount)
• 1 small chilli, 1/2 if it's hot
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3/4 cup rice
• 2 dessertspoons white sugar
• 2 leaves of sage
• lemon or lime juice
• spring onions

Method:

• Saute onions until brown
• add ginger and garlic and brown
• add mince and mash about until browned and separated
• add everything else and stir in for half a minute
• add stock lastly, stir to get the goody's off the bottom

Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with half a lemon or lime squeezed on top, and some spring onions. 

 

 

    

Anne's Macaroons. Yeeum!

Almond Macaroons

 

Makes 20

2½ cups of whole almonds (plus 20 extra to decorate)

1 cup (160g/5½ oz) icing sugar

1 tspn Baking Powder

½ tspn ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, separated.

Finely grated zest of ½ lemon

Preheat oven to 180°C(360°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place almonds in a food processor and process until finely ground. 
Combine the almonds, icing sugar, baking powder and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.  Add the egg yolk and lemon zest and rub together with your fingers to create a crumb line texture.  

Whip egg whites to form stiff peaks .  add the almond mixture and fold in gently to combine.

Shape the mixture into 20 even-sized balls.  Arrange the macaroons roughly 2 cm (3/4in) apart on the tray, press an almond in the centre of each and flatten slightly. 
Bake for 15 mins or until golden brown.  Leave to cool on the tray for 10 mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Try not to eat them all by yourself as soon as they come out of the oven!

Chris' Dutch version of German Bean Soup

Well, I said I would post the recipe of the Dutch version of German Bean soup so here it is.

Just remember, I'm a woman, and women don't always go exactly by the recipe. Where it says 3 litres water, I just fill up my saucepan...and...yep, that looks about right. It could be 2 1/2 or then again maybe 3 1/2 litres. It's the same with the veges. Be inventive.

Ingredients:

about 3 litres water
500g white beans, washed and soaked- e.g haricot beans. [as long as they're white, what does it matter. I've used kidney or borlotti beans before too]
2 bay leaves
2 good sized carrots
1 large leek
1 bunch spring onions
finely chopped parsley
1 large cabbage leaf
1 rook worst [available from most supermarkets]
1 smoked hock [available from most supermarkets]
salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg
1 tbs oil

Method

Wash the hock and place in the saucpan with the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about  2 1/2 hours [depends on the size of the hock]

While this is simmering away, prepare all the veges. You know, chop them up and all that, that is... the carrots, the leeks and the spring onions. Just wash the cabbage  leaf [as a whole] and keep it separate for now.
Make sure you thoroughly wash the chopped leeks a couple of times as there seems to be a lot of dirt between the leaves. I use all the leek right up to about 2 cms from the end, but you might have to take an extra outside leaf off. I strip off the outside leaf and split down the middle, then chop into 1/2 cm pieces.
About one hour into the cooking time of the hock, add the soaked and drained beans to the pot. Bring back to the boil and continue simmering.
Heat the oil in another pan and gently fry the carrots for 10 minutes. 
At 1 1/2  hours into the cooking time add all the veges, including the whole cabbage leaf. Bring back to the boil and continue simmering. Remove the cabbage leaf after 15 mins. 

About 20 mins before the end of your cooking time add the rook worst. Try not to boil too hard as this will split the rook worst and you will lose your flavour.

After your 2 1/2 hours cooking time, remove the the hock and the rook worst. Let them cool for about 10 mins. You can remove the bay leaves as well. Test the beans to ensure they are cooked and then you can turn the stove off  too.

Remove the skin and fat from the hock and take all the meat off the bone, chop into smallish pieces and return to the soup. Do the same with the rook worst.

Lovely on a cold, wet day with chunky bread and butter or whatever you like best with your soup.

Eet smakelijk
Bon appetit
Enjoy

 

Next Get Together, Sat June 1st

Our next (and second only) get together is coming up. Please come along, whether to join in the rugging or to have a look and see if you might like to try this fun and interesting craft.

The meet will be held in Warrandyte, Victoria.

 Email victorianrugmakers@gmail.com for more information.

I'll be making the famous (in my family)....

 Molly Longstaff's Ginger Cake:

1 small cup butter (100g)

3/4 cup sugar

2 large tablespoons Golden Syrup

1 egg

2 cups sifted Plain Flour with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 dessertspoon ground ginger

1 cup milk with 1 teaspoon carb. soda

A few raisins, dates, preserved ginger and whatever you feel . I usually add walnuts or pecan nuts too. Small amount of crushed cardamon seeds is nice too too. Not too much though, it's strong.

Method:

Cream butter and sugar. Add Golden Syrup, then egg, milk and flour.

Bake at 180 degrees for approx. 1 hour.

YeeeUm!

I promised to make it last time, but things got out of hand... this time, no excuses!