Comforting Noodle Soup

This next recipe is a family favourite. It reminds me of home, my parents' home that is. The best place to get the ingredients is the market or ethnic/Asian stores (read: if you want cheap ingredients forget about fancy supermarkets and go to the market or Asian stores).

This is not one of the shortest recipes, but it's very easy and doesn't require a lot of cooking skills. 
 

Ingredients:

-  2 big onions

-  2 garlic gloves

-  3 tomatoes

-  500 gr or a bit more of minced lamb (you can use beef if you prefer, but lamb meat is juicier)

-  fresh coriander

-  ginger root

-  spring onion

-  fried onion/shallot (available in ethnic/Asian shops. In the Netherlands available in most supermarkets ("gebakken uitjes"))

-   friend garlic (also available in ethnic/Asian shops, come in a plastic jar)

-  sweet soya sauce

-  salty light soya sauce (do not use the dark soya sauce)

-  salt and pepper

-  rice noodles

-  cucumber or bean sprout

-  ground tumeric

-  ground cumin

-  chilli oil (comes ready made in a jar in Asian shops if you don't want to make   it yourself)

-  lemonjuice or lime juice

The fun part:

The stock:

Chop op the onion finely and 2 garlic gloves. Stir fry the onion and the garlic in oil on a medium fire in a big pot suitable for the soup. Add a tea spoon of cumin and tumeric and a table spoon of the minced meat. Add 1,5 liter of water and one chopped tomatoe. Then add 2 slices of ginger root and some salt and pepper. Please make sure you do not add too much salt. Lower the fire and put a lit on the pot so the soup can simmer away for at least an hour.

The meat:

While the soup simmers away, chop the onion and garlic glove. Stir fry this in a frying pan in a little bit of oil. Add the rest of the minced lamb and some salt and pepper. Then add the chopped up tomatoes. Make sure the fire is on medium. Stir fry the meat until it's cooked and until all the water has evaporated (the water comes from the tomatoe and meat, don't worry about this). Vegetarians that eat fish can replace the meat with shrimps. Vegetarians that do not eat fish either can skip this part and add fresh white tofu in the soup instead of a table spoon of minced meat.

The noodles:

Rice noodles do not need very long to cook. Boil some water and add the rice noodles. Follow the instructions on the package of rice noodles. In general it only takes 5 minutes to cook the rice noodles, but follow the instructions and check by tasting the noodles to ensure you don't overcook the rice noodles. Once the rice noodles is cooked take them out of the boiling water and immediately put them in cold water. Leave the noodles to the side until you're ready to serve the noodle soup. 

Preparing the garnish:

Chop up the spring onion and coriander. Chop up the ginger root finely. Cut the lemon in slices.

Preparing the actual bowl of noodle soup:

When the soup has simmered for over an hour you can reheat the meat on a low fire. In the meantime rinse the noodles in hot water (quickly rinse the noodles so they don't actually cook again. You do not want the noodles to become too soft and pulpy).

Put the noodles in a bowl. Add the chopped up coriander, spring onion and ginger. Add a little bit of salty soya sauce and sweet soya sauce. Sprinkle some lemon juice over it and add the chilli oil, friend onion and garlic.

Add the soup and meat to the noodles with garnish and then top it up with finely sliced cucumber or bean sprouts. Mix it all together and add some lemon juice, salt or sweet and salty soya sauce according to your own taste.

I personally like my noodle soup hot, spicy and a bit acidy so I like to add a generous amount of chilli oil and lemon juice. The secret is to find the perfect balance of salty, sweet, hot and sour flavours.

Voila! Enjoy!!!

xxx 

Caramelised Pear with Roquefort Salad

Some couples are just odd, or at least they appear to be an odd combination. Either one half of the lovely couple is liked or neither of them are liked.


One might react the same to Caramelised Pear and Roquefort. You might neither like Pear nor Roquefort, or you may just like one of the two ingredients.


I would nevertheless like to invite you to try this recipe. It's one of my personal favourite recipes and to my delight a dish that even my boyfriend enjoys even though he doesn't like Pear (or so he believes).


Ingredients:
- Salad leaves (any lettuce apart from iceberg lettuce)
- Roquefort cheese
- Parma ham
- Pear
- Butter
- Sugar
- Oliver oil
- Lemon juice
- Oregano
- Water




The fun part:
If you are on a tight budget, you might have to buy your lettuce separately and wash and drain them before "tossing" them on a large deep plate or salad bowl that is somewhat flat and not too deep. If you are not on a tight budget or you can't be bothered to wash and dry the lettuce, then use the mixed leaves from a bag that have already been washed. I believe each bag contains between 150 gr or 250 gr of salad leaves.


Peel the Pears (1 or 2) and cut them in quarters, taking out the middle part. Put the peeled Pears in a pan with butter on a low fire. Put a tea spoon of sugar over the Pears and add a little bit of water, just to cover half of the Pears. Leave this until the Pears turn all soft and the water has evaporated and the sugar caramelised. Then turn the Pears around and a little bit of water, this time less than the first time. If you like the Pears to be a bit harder, then don't leave them in the pan too long. If you like them soft and caramelised, leave them in a bit longer.

While you wait for the Pears (please don't leave the kitchen as you don't want to burn the Pears and waste all this yumminess), please add in a separate bowl, as much olive oil as you want to the bowl or for those who want exact measures, 5 or 6 table spoons. Then add half the amount of lemon juice (so if you have used 5 table spoons of olive oil, you add 2,5 table spoons of lemon juice). Mix it around. Please add a pinch of oregano, not too much as oregano is quite strong. (Again for those you like exact measures, no need to roll your eyes or panic, half a table spoon of oregano will do). Poor this mixture over the leaves.

When the Pears are done you put them on top of the salad leaves as if you're decorating a cake and add shredded Parma ham (as much as you like) and Roquefort cheese (as much as you like). This combination, which may appear to be somewhat odd, is a fantastic mixture of salty and sweet. For those who think salads are for stickinsects and are not filling at all, please try this dish. Even a big eater like me is very satisfied after a plate of this yumminess.

Voila! Enjoy!
xxx