Green Jackfruit and Tamarind Soup

I cooked this soup a month or so ago but I went on a break from the blog at the time. I got the recipe, Sinampalukang Langka (green jackfruit in tamarind broth) from Yummy online magazine. I thought at first the ingredients are a bit unusual but I'll eat any sour soup flavored with fish sauce. I like its uncomplicated flavors and will make it again for sure.

Fresh green jackfruit is not available here in the US. I buy the Thai canned ones whenever there is a need for it. If it's available, use the fresh ones. Green jackfruit is a good ingredient for vegan recipes because of its texture and ability to absorb seasonings.

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The Daring Cooks: Stock, Soup, Consommé

Filipino pig tail sour soup

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook's September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”.  We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

The recipes are here.

I've never made consommé before but thanks to Peta and this month's challenge, I now have and enjoyed the process. Preparation of consommé is not complicated but there are several steps [including making the stock which is part of the challenge], not to mention lots of kitchen towels for straining the stock. I used the egg white method for both the chicken and beef consommé. I can't believe my eyes when the cloudy stock became clear. Consommé has to be adequately seasoned though because it loses some of the flavor when clarified.

from chicken stock to consommé 


chicken feet and necks for the chicken consomme,
 roasted beef bones with meat and vegetables for beef consomme,
countless numbers of kitchen towels for straining stock 

We were also asked to prepare bread or crackers to go with our soups. I baked a brioche filled with sauteed chopped baby rainbow Swiss chard, garlic, and onion, and grated Parmesan cheese to go with a simple beef consommé and cubed savory egg custard. 

Savory Egg Custard

3 eggs, well beaten

¾ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup chicken stock

½ teaspoon finely minced scallion, white part only

• Mix all ingredients and pour into a lightly greased 6 x 4 inch pan. Place on a steamer and steam over boiling water for 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, transfer into a chopping board; cut into half-inch cubes.

For the Filipino pig tail sour soup, I added some beef stock to the strained pig tail stock. I used tamarind paste to sour the soup and added my favorite vegetables. We usually eat this soup on top of a bowl of hot steamed rice with extra fish extract on the side. 

Pig Tail Sinigang Soup

stock

2½ pounds pig tails, cut into 6 inch sections

1 onion, quartered.

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1 carrot, cut into 3 pieces

2 celery ribs with leaves, cut into 3 pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorn

1 tablespoon sea salt

water

soup

3 cups strained pig tail stock

1½ cups prepared beef stock

¼ cup tamarind past

1 tablespoon fish extract

1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

3 large tomatoes, quartered

2 Asian eggplants, cut into 2-inch pieces

1 small daikon, sliced

2 cups of water spinach leaves

2 medium-hot green finger chiles

• Stock: In a sheet pan, mix ingredients except water, and roast in a 400°F oven until pig tails and vegetables are golden brown. Transfer into a large pot, add water topping 2 inches; bring to a boil, turn heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer until tails are tender. Remove tails to a large plate and leave until cool enough to handle. Cut into 2-inch pieces. Strain the broth, discard vegetables, and reserve 3 cups of the stock. 
• Soup: Return the pig tails and stock to the pot, add the beef stock, tamarind paste, tomatoes, and fish extract. Taste the soup and add salt if needed. Let come to a boil, add vegetables, and boil until tender. Serve while hot.

Cannellini Bean Soup With Kale

Kale is my latest green leaf vegetable "flavor of the month". The dark green leaves are very good simply steamed and served with flaked sea salt and drizzled with lemon juice. They are also excellent baked into crispy chips, and of course added to soups. Kale not only tastes great, it's also very nutritious.

Bean soup with kale is the perfect comfort food during the cold months. It has been very cold the past 2 weeks; we had 6-inch snow 2 Fridays ago which took almost two weeks to melt completely. Where is this so-called global warming when you need it because we have 20°F nights for weeks now, our heater is working overtime and it's not even officially winter yet. It's okay though because I love the cold months, giving me a reason to cook and enjoy soups.

Cannellini Bean Soup With Kale
8 ounces dry cannellini beans
1 ounce pancetta or unsmoked thick sliced bacon, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 whole unpeeled garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 sprig each fresh rosemary and thyme
2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
2 cups coarsely chopped de-ribbed kale
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped

• Clean the beans and soak overnight in cold water.
• The next day, preheat oven to 250°F. Rinse the beans, drain, and set aside.
• In a Dutch oven, heat the oil and saute pancetta until golden brown. Add the chicken broth, water, garlic, bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, and beans. Bring to a gentle boil, cover, transfer into the oven, and bake for 1½ hours. Remove from oven, uncover and gently stir in the salt, then add the tomatoes and kale. Cover and continue to bake for another half to one hour or until the beans are tender. Discard garlic, bay leaf, rosemary, and thyme.
• Transfer into a serving bowl, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil if desired.

Prawn Sinigang

It's definitely fall already. The past few days have been cold and windy that I started bringing my plants inside the house. First to come in are the calamansi tree which has hundreds of tiny fruits growing right now, and the Spanish pimiento which I want to try to continue growing indoors. We've had several consecutive 40°F nights and my tomato plants are now starting to die. The plants still have plenty of unripe fruits, some I already made into green tomato jam which is yummy, btw.

Thinking of ways to use the green tomatoes aside from frying them, sinigang (soup) came to mind. Yes, since green tomatoes are a little bit more acidic than the ripe ones, they are definitely perfect as additional souring agent for sinigang. I used a packet of frozen young tamarind leaves and together with some vegetables from my garden I made prawn sinigang, very yummy.

homegrown vegetables: tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, sitaw

Prawn Sinigang

4 cups rice water or water
souring agent such as fresh tamarind, young tamarind leaves, or kamias
4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 green tomatoes, cut into wedges
yardlong beans, cut into 1½-inch pieces
2 small Asian eggplants, sliced
1 cup edamame or lima beans
2 green medium-hot peppers (siling haba)
2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
½ pound prawns

• Place water and souring agent in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to medium, cover, and let boil for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except prawns. Simmer, covered, for 3 to 5 minutes or until eggplants are soft.
• Add the prawns and cook uncovered until they turn pink or red and completely cooked. Transfer into a serving container and serve immediately with steamed rice and fish sauce.

Soup

kabocha soup

It's been chilly the past 3 weeks which means time to enjoy plenty of delicious soup for dinner. I have made Matzoh Ball, Kabocha Squash, Chicken Tinola, and Hot & Sour, the recipes I am sharing except for the Matzoh Balls because I prepared it straight out of a box. The soup is really good, we all loved it. I bought some matzoh crackers and will make the balls and soup from scratch and will write about it soon.

Kabocha Squash Soup
1 tablespoon butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium shallot, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
3 cups peeled and cubed kabocha
2 to 3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
grated orange zest, optional
crème fraîche* or sour cream

• In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add garlic, shallot, and ginger. Stir fry until shallot has softened, making sure the mixture does not get brown. Add the kabocha, water, salt, and orange zest, if using. Increase the heat to medium high and let come to a boil. Cover the pan, decrease heat to medium and simmer until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.
• Turn the heat off. Puree the soup in the pan using a stick blender. Or transfer into a blender and puree.
• Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche.

*To make crème fraîche at home: in a clean jar, combine 2 T buttermilk and 1 cup heavy cream, both at room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and leave on the kitchen counter for 24 hours or until thick. Refrigerate immediately. Will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Hot And Sour Soup

This Chinese soup is one of our all-time favorites. It takes very little time to prepare and enjoy. The soup usually has a cup of julienned lean pork which I omitted.

2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup sliced shiitake or baby portabella
½ cup julienned bamboo shoots
¼ teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with ¼ C water
1 cup diced firm silken tofu
1 large egg, beaten
sesame seed oil
snipped scallions

• In a medium saucepan, heat the stock, soy sauce, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the vinegar, cornstarch mixture, tofu, and pepper flakes. Boil gently while stirring until the soup becomes clear (cornstarch is completely cooked). Turn the heat off and stir in the beaten egg and a few drops of sesame seed oil. Transfer into a soup tureen.
• To serve: Sprinkle individual bowls with scallion and sesame oil.

Chicken Tinola

I don't have the exact measurements for this Filipino chicken soup and did not follow any recipes. I made it from what I remember it should have and taste like. My mother's tinola had young capsicum leaves added for color and extra nutrition. I used green beans because that's what I had available when I prepared the soup.

1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
4 cups water
2 tablespoons peeled and sliced fresh ginger
6 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 tablespoon fish extract
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorn
1 small green papaya, peeled and cubed
green leafy vegetable such as baby bokchoy or horseradish tree leaves

• In a large pot, heat water and chicken and let come to a boil. Skim off the foam and discard, then add ginger, scallions, fish extract, salt, and whole peppercorns. Cover pot and let boil over medium heat for 40 minutes. Add the green papaya, boil for another 5 minutes. Add the green leaf vegetable and cook for another 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Mushroom And Wild Rice Soup

Finally, it feels a teensy bit like fall. Usually by this time of the year I would be making soup at least twice a week but since the first day of autumn the temperature started rising and stayed at a summer-like 80°F until today. Actually it still isn't as cold as it should be but I'm in the mood for mushroom soup and because I have a container of assorted dried mushrooms: morel, porcini, Brazilian caps, ivory portabella, shiitake, oyster. I adapted the recipe on the container using vegetable broth and added fresh baby criminis and cooked wild rice. The wild rice is a wonderful addition because of its chewy texture not to mention it's good for you.

Mushroom And Wild Rice Soup

2 cups re-hydrated mixed wild mushrooms (cut big ones into bite size pieces)
2 cups fresh baby crimini
2 cups cooked wild rice
¼ cupbutter
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves, sliced
1/3 cup flour
½ cup dry sherry
6 cups vegetable broth
salt to taste
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, add oil, onion and garlic and saute until onions are soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until all the moisture is mostly gone. Add the flour and stirring often, cook for 5-7 minutes until the flour looks and smells lightly toasted. Add sherry and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in vegetable broth and salt. Let come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add rice, heavy cream, and thyme and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with crusty bread or garlic bread sticks. Or top spaghetti noodles with this thick soup, it's incredibly delicious.

Misua With Patola Soup (Extra Thin Flour Noodles with Green Loofah)

You would think it is strange to eat loofah, that thing you use for exfoliating while in the shower but it's true, patola is loofah in its green form before it's dried to make into loofah and it is edible and yummy. Most Asians I think eat this vegetable. When I was a child in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, I used to see them growing on my neighbor's fence which they gave away to anybody who asked, for free.

Yesterday I went to the grocery for the sole purpose of getting celery root for soup but then I saw this really fresh young patola. I had to see if the grocery has very thin flour noodles we Filipinos call misua (Singaporeans call them meesua) and was so glad they have them. I looked for the recipe in my Filipino cookbooks and I was annoyed that not one among my 6 cookbooks has it. My Singaporean/Malaysian cookbook has almost the same recipe as the Pinoy's, they also use patola which they call ketola. I didn't put seafood and chicken, we had the soup with boiled eggs, just like the way my mother prepared it.

For the soup, saute 2 chopped garlic and 1 sliced onion, add 5 C chicken broth and 1 T patis (fish extract) and bring to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes then add sliced patola, cook for 2 minutes, add 3 bundles noodles, cut in half, and cook for 2 minutes, do not overcook. Adjust seasoning with salt or fish extract. Top with sliced boiled eggs (I like my eggs boiled for only 5 minutes).

Santa Fe Bean Chowder

I found a package of dry bean soup mix in the pantry. I didn't buy it nor notice it being there before. The package says it makes 3/4 gallon (12 cups), who makes almost a gallon of soup? I don't have a large family and we eat very little like birds (I can only have 1 cup in one sitting), we don't live in a ranch and therefore do not have ranch hands to feed but the mix has to be cooked all at once because the ingredients can't be halved (they're sort of layered inside the package). I cooked the soup anyway, following the directions on the package minus the chicken. I added more garlic and onions than the recipe asked for and used an ageing yellow pepper in place of red. The soup is very good, my only complaint is the spice package does not specify what spices are in it, which I believe are annatto powder, paprika, and a little cayenne. The ingredients on the package: pinto beans, green and red bell peppers, corn, garlic, onion, and cilantro.

The recipe on the package
1 each red and green bell pepper, diced
1 can sweet corn with liquid
1 16-oz can diced tomatoes with liquid
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 pound boneless chicken, diced and sauted until cooked
½ cup white wine
salt and pepper to taste
water, if necessary

• Heat all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and slow simmer for 3 hours. Add water if needed after 2 hours. Serve with corn tortilla chips or saltines and shredded cheese. This dry mix actually made 1¼ gallons (20 cups) of chowder/soup that we are drowning in right now.

Dumpling Soup

One of the food items I don't bother to make are dumplings, pot stickers, gyoza, wonton, etc because they are readily available at the grocery stores with a large variety of fillings. The ones I regularly buy are the Korean vegetable gyoza that have soy protein (TVP) included with the veggies. I love them because they can be steamed, fried or added to chicken broth for soup. I added some shredded baby bokchoy for color and more vegetables.

I also got these very tiny, about ½ inch Chinese pearl rice balls that look like the Filipino bilo-bilo (sweet rice balls) but are filled with ground black sesame seeds and sugar, very similar to our mache or buchi (mochi?). They are also boiled in water like the palitaw, you know they are done when they start floating on the surface. They are so good.