dinnerlastnight

Tom yum noodle soup

Soup can be such a great meal - made with lots of vegetables, good meat and a nice tasty broth. Soup is especially good when you have been having weather like we have been having here in Sydney. However, being early September we know there are only a couple of weeks until we have warm weather.

This soup is made up of all the good things above and is tangy and spicy. Although it is a store bought paste that makes up the broth it is very good quality. You can also whip this one up in 15 minutes too.

Ingredients: good quality tom yum ghoon paste, chicken breast, chinese spinach, small mushrooms, flat rice noodles (from any asian store), chicken stock spring onion and coriander.

Preparation:

Roughly chop the chinese spinach, spring onion and coriander. Cut the mushrooms into quarters. Slice the chicken into short strips. Heat a wok with a little peanut oil and fry the chicken until cooked through.

The flat rice noodles will most probably come as a tight roll or a number of rolls. Cut the rolls so that you get little rolls of about 1-2cms. Put these into a microwave vegetable steamer and cook for one minute while the chicken cooks. This will heat the noodles enough to separate in the hot soup.

Once the chicken is cooked through, add about a tablespoon of the tom yum paste to the wok and fry. Stir to coat the chicken, add the spinach until it starts to wilt. Add preboiled chicken stock to cover the chicken. Check taste and add more water if too strong or more paste if too weak. In a couple of deep bowls place some of the noodles on the bottom and pour over a couple of ladels of soup. Top with coriander, spring onion and mushrooms.

dinnerlastnight: 7/10

Soy chilli chicken wings

I think I must be having a culinary trip down University lane. This is another meal that Ratna used to make - I used to love digging into these fiery sticky chicken wings trying to eat faster than the chilli could burn - once you stopped eating your mouth would be burning.

I bought these wings a few weeks back and had them kept in the freezer. These aren't the healthiest wings as you need to shallow fry them and the oil can spit a bit. Anyway it is all worthwhile.

Ingredients you will need are: a heap of chicken wings, soy sauce, sugar, lots of fresh birds eye chilli, oil (peanut or similar).

Preparation:

The chicken wings need to be cut into three parts - the double bone part, the mini drumstick and the wing tip. This can be done by cutting into the joint and separating. The wing tip can be thrown out as it is just skin. Make cuts into and through the meat on the bones. This is to lessen the cooking time and to make sure the wings cook though.

In a wok, add a couple of centimetres of oil and heat until very hot. Fry the chicken in batches until cooked through and golden brown. Place each batch on a few sheets of kitchen paper towels. Pour the oil into a heat proof dish and set aside until cool. This can be then put in the fridge and used again.

Reheat the wok, add a good amount of soy sauce (about a 1/2 to 1 cup I would say but it use your best judgement) and simmer. When hot add in a couple of tablespoons of white sugar. This should slowly thicken the soy sauce. Keep adding a little sugar until it is thick but still runny.

Add the fried chicken to the wok and toss to coat in the sauce. Add chopped chilli and toss again. Serve immediately with lots of steamed rice and vegetable.

dinnerlastnight rating: 9/10