GINGKO NUT CHICKEN SOUP

Pour kicap (soy sauce) into the milk to turn it into soy milk to feed  it to the chicken that plays with onions and rolls in rolled oats.

Which translates to :

Kicap (soy sauce)
Milk
Soy milk
Chicken
Onion
Rolled oats

That was my grocery list memorized according to Kevin Trudeau's mega memorizng method that I learnt years ago when I thought I still had one (a memory).

It took me a good 3 minutes of hard concentration to come up with that useful utter nonsense. It's hard work.

Which translates to :

I have very little willing memory.

So when Terri of Hunger hunger had so generously given me some gingko nuts when we met on her way home from China I thought they would make lovely plugs for all those holes that my brain has been complaining about.

I have made the soup three times since. It is simply chicken broth cooked with some ginger, any kind of vegetable, some tofu and of course the memory enhancing gingko nuts. A simple, light and healthy soup with a slight bitter undertone from the gingko nuts. All in all quite lovely. And I have finished the batch of nuts that Terri had given me.

When I first began cracking the shell, ejecting the nutmeat, blanching the nutmeat in hot boiling water to ease the skinning of the thin brown skin, splitting the nuts length wise to remove the bitter young shoot within, I found it more fiddly then I had expected. But I was determined to make it.

Eventually, as the following batch of nuts sat and waited their turn over the next few days, ejecting and peeling them became much easier. Terri had also told me that it was not necessary to rid it of the bitter shoot within. But being rather bitter intolerant I thought it would be better if I did.

The gingko nuts were very tender when cooked. They were rather creamy and soft and rather bland with a slight bitter edge to it.

The soup was very easy to make. I have adapted it from a recipe for a lovely clear chicken soup with leeks from a Vogue Travel and Entertainment magazine.

Please note that the gingko nut is toxic if eaten raw. It must be cooked.

The recipe................ serves about 4

1 medium free range chicken (kampung chicken), whole
3 slices ginger
leeks, white part trimmed to 1 cm lengths and green part just cut roughly, washed and rinsed well

1 large onion, peeled
1 small carrot

1 cake tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
10 -12 gingko nuts, shell cracked, brown skin peeled and bitter shoot removed, if preferred

Place whole chicken into a pot large enough for it. Cover with water. Put in the ginger, whole onion, and washed green part of the leeks and a carrot.


Bring to a boil and then simmer for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add salt. Remove scum, the green leeks, carrot and onion.

You have basically made a chicken broth.

Remove the chicken, drain well and keep it aside on a board.


Add tofu, the chopped white part of the leeks, prepared gingko nuts and bring the broth to a boil and then simmer very gently for about 10 to 15 minutes. 


Meanwhile, the chicken may be deboned and the meat removed in shreds or it may be cut up into its parts with a pair of kitchen scissors at the leg joints, wing joints and the breasts cut into 2 or 3 parts with a knife. Arrange in serving bowls and pour the soup over the chicken to serve, dividing the tofu, leeks and gingko nuts between the individual bowls.


Serve hot. Food for the brain.

PRAWN AND FISHBALL RICE VERMICELLI SOUP

Nothing like a good wholesome chicken stock to make a good soup with. So with 3 chicken carcasses that I roasted in the oven until they browned, 1 large onion, 1 head of garlic, a carrot and 2 celery stalks cut into chunks, some water and a large pot I came up with about 5 cups of lovely golden clear broth that was full of flavour.

Then I made this simple noodle soup the next day.


I might also mention that I made the fish balls too but since I avoided using lye water as one of the ingredients, because lye water is toxic, my fish balls, although full of flavour, were lacking in the bounce department. But it didn't matter to me as long as everything was homemade and safe. And good.


Making up the soup the next day was a breeze because there cannot be anything easier than making a clear noodle soup. It is simple, pure and refreshing yet so full of flavour.


The recipe...............for 2 or 3 persons.

Enough rice vermicelli for 2 or 3 people, soaked in just boiled water until softened and drained in a colander. Keep aside.

2 garlic cloves
2 spring onions, white part sliced
3 cups of good chicken stock, preferably homemade
6 or 7 large prawns
10 or 12 fishballs
some bak choy, washed and seperated
2 T cooking oil
a dash of soy sauce
salt and pepper

Heat up the oil in a medium pot. Saute the garlic and spring onions until fragrant and soft. Add the prawns and fish balls and stir to cook through. It will probably take about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in hot stock and bring the soup to a boil and then simmer . Add the bak choy and simmer only until the bak choy is a lovely bright green. Taste for seasoning and adjust if neccesary. Done.

Serve : Put a serving of the rice noodles in individual bowls and por the hot soup over it to cover the noodles. Top with prawns and fish balls and a few stalks of bak choy in each bowl.

CREAMY MUSHROOM SOUP

I can't quite decide whether I am a cheerful pessimist or a melancholy optimist.

That is how I feel when I make mushroom soup. When satisfaction does not come immediately to my eyes and must be sought by pondering, when the good of the food does not strike me as I'm cooking it or when I'm done cooking it, I think I am a melancholy optimist.


But when I taste a spoonful and it wows me, and I know I have to make it appeal to our sense of sight as well, so that judgment will be reserved, so that our immediate instinct would be to scoop a little to our lips inspite of it being such a drab and dull looking soup. Then, I think, I am a cheerful pessimist.


So perhaps I am both. Both a pessimist and an optimist when I make mushroom soup. Let's face it...it looks so dull and quite unappetizing. But tastes so good. So I'll make it and then I'll plate it in the most opposite manner. Simply because they need each other. Balance after all is key. Wouldn't you agree? ;)


The recipe.............................for 4 - 6 persons.

I did not measure the liquid amounts exactly but a creamy mushroom soup is so easy that if you find it too thin add a little more flour or if you find it too thick add a little more stock. But it should be nice and creamy.


I used a mixture of olive oil and butter because the little door to my conscience inside of my head was opening and closing, opening and closing and it finally opened up completely and I felt this rush of guilt about using too much butter with the heavy cream. Sigh.


1/4 cup olive oil
2 T butter

3 cups slice shitake mushrooms or a mixture of shitake and portabello/buttons
2 shallots ,chopped
4 T plain flour
3 cups chicken broth or stock or a stock cube dissolved in water ( I used stock that I made myself)
1 1/4 cups double cream
salt and pepper
some chopped chives (western chives)

Warm the olive oil and melt the butter in a pan. When just hot enough add the shallots and mushrooms and saute until soft.

Add in the flour and stir in. It will become a thickish mixture. Add in the 3 cups of stock or broth.Stir well. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat. Add the cream and stir on low heat. Do not allow to boil. Add salt and pepper and some chopped chives for flavour.

The mixture will be slightly on the thin side.

Take out half the mixture with a ladle and pour into a blender and swish until the mushrooms are one with the liquid. Pour teh blended soup back into the pot and stir to recombine. You should have a nice creamier soup.

Garnish. Plate optimistically. Serve.