Destressing Pumpkin Soup

When you're buried six feet under in a pile of book-rubble thanks to the oh-so-exciting end of semester exams, you often find yourself sprouting creative ideas (aka. procrastination) from all orifices on your body.

The brainchild of my uber-ultra-uhhh-productivity is this super destressing pumpkin soup! Why destressing? Because it takes about half a brain to make. Even Amus* could make it. It also makes you feel productive -- you are technically doing something useful...just perhaps not studying.

For those who are living in Sydney, let's ignore for a minute the amount of sun we've been getting in the past few days and rewind back about a week or two or so.

Rain. Remember that kids? Yes. Well this soup is perfect for those days...and books, if you must.

I didn't originally plan on posting about this soup, but my test guinea pig decided that it was safe enough to share with the world and encouraged me to post it.

So here it is folks!

* Chicago reference, in case you're giving me the eyebrow

Destressing Pumpkin Soup
Serves: 3

To buy:
1/2 Butternut Pumpkin
4 cups Chicken Stock (always have more on standby, though)
1/2 tbsp Dried Parsley
1 onion, roughly sliced
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Cream (optional)

To cook:

1. Cut pumpkin into 2cm cubes. Roughly.
2. Add oil to a deep pot and saute onions until transparent
3. Add pumpkin and gently stir around to initiate cooking process
4. Add stock and bring to boil. Put on lid and bring down to simmer
5. Sprinkle dried parsley. Season with salt and pepper
   
6. Simmer for about 20-30mins until pumpkins are soft enough to break with a fork.
7. Blend content either with handheld mixer, or in batches** in a blender.
8. Return to low heat and stir around content until even.
9. Add cream if desired
10. Serve with buttered toast/soldiers/whatever you fancy.
    

** If you're using a blender, make sure you leave the middle opening slightly ajar so that the lid of the jug does not fly off (i.e. to have the blender exploding on you). It gets messy. I'm pretty sure you don't want that happening.

Cheers.

King Mushroom and Shallot Omelette

Why? Because Sunday's are just much more fun when you wake up to an awesome breakfast.

And also because I just had to get away from the pile of uni work that I'm buried under at the moment. You may have noticed the shortage of posts this month, but it's because it's that time in the semester where all your tests, quizzes and assignment come together and give you one helluva SHAZAMM!

Putting that aside...

Much to my delight, as I rummaged through my almost empty fridge, I found a packet of the most scrumpdiddlyumptious babies in the world. KING MUSHROOMS!

These beasts kick all other mushrooms in the backside anyday. They're meaty, flavoursome and definitely not for the faint-hearted. Field mushrooms ain't got a thang on these thugs.

Oh and mum, if you're reading this. WE'RE STARVING over here! Our fridge is empty.

We call these Chicken Drumstick Mushrooms in Mandarin. Funnily enough, I do see the resemblance. Uncanny isn't it?

Start with one of these and just slice in half, and then some. You don't want them too thin or you'll lose the meaty texture of the mushrooms once they start sweating in the pan.

If you feel like more, feel free to slice up another one. The world is your oyster.

You'll also need about half a sprig of spring onion, finely diced.

Can you tell I've been practising with my camera?


You'll also need about 40g of grated tasty cheese. I simply julienned my COON slices - it won't make a difference because you'll be needing to melt the cheese later anyway.

I also use light cheese...just in case you wanted to turn me into the Heart Foundation for some serious lessons on how to not kill myself with what I eat.


Freshly grated parmesan will also help. 1/4 cup.

And no, it most definitely must be fresh. Ah-a-a-, no buts.

Whisk 3 eggs up. 4 if you feel like something quite cafe-sized, but promise me you'll share. 4 eggs in a day just isn't healthy. Neither is 2, but it's still better than 4. Less is more.

Melt some butter in a shallow frying pan. Feel free to use olive oil, but personally I always use butter with mushrooms as they provide a nicer colour and flavour.

Oh, and a grill-proof/ovenproof frying pan would be ideal. We'll be needing the grill later.

Throw in your sliced mushrooms and a sprinkle of salt.


Toss the mushrooms around until they a golden brown. These ones don't sweat all that much compared to the likes of button and field mushrooms, but you still need to sweat them in the pan properly before adding the egg.

Once mushrooms are done, turn the heat right down to low and pour in the egg. Go make yourself a cup of coffee or something while you give it a minute or two to just set on the bottom.

Sprinkle the tasty and parmesan cheeses. You may want to start the grill on about 250°C .

The cheese will begin melting, but it won't colour. Once the egg looks like its started to cook on the top, sprinkle the spring onions over the top of the omelette.


Next, pop the entire pan into the grill.

Once upon a time (say, when I was still in primary school), I remember the grill and oven used to be separate compartments underneath the stove. I also remember that when you used the oven, you had to remember to close the door (seemed kinda silly if you didn't), but when you used the grilling device, you had to leave the door open.

So when our new oven arrived post-renovation, I flicked through the instruction manual hoping to find instructions on what you should do with the oven door when you switch to the grilling element on the combined grill/oven system.

The manual gave me nothing. Zero, zilch, nothing.

It wasn't until my trip to the Blue Mountains that AL finally enlightened me that we are to leave the door ajar even on the combined system. Seems kind of dangerous doesn't it?

Oh well, so that's pretty much the way I've been doing things since. It makes better photography anyway. This post with the picture of marinated vegies grilling is still one of my favourites all time.

Pull the pan out once the cheese is golden brown on top. It would have puffed up quite a bit, but will sit back down before you manage to find your coffee.

Give us a moment as we admire the mushroom poking out of the omelette.

Finally, serve with a slice of buttered toast and a mug of (soy) coffee. Sundays just couldn't start in a better fashion could it?


King Mushroom and Shallot Omelette
Serves 2

Buy:
40g Cheddar/Tasty cheese, grated
1/2 Spring onion, finely diced
1~2 King Mushrooms, sliced thickly
3 Eggs, beaten
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Butter, for frying
Salt, to taste

Make:

1. Melt butter in an ovenproof/grillproof frying pan
2. Brown mushrooms in pan until golden brown
3. Turn the heat to low, and gently pour in beaten eggs. Do not stir and allow to cook for a minute
   
4. Sprinkle cheese over the top then allow it to melt into the eggs
5. Turn grill to 250°C
6. Once the top of the eggs look like it is starting to set, sprinkle spring onions over the top
7. Place pan underneath the grill and allow cheese to brown
8. Remove from grill and transfer to plate
9. Serve with buttered toast
   

Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Risotto

I have this strange love for zucchinis. Part of me loves them because they look deceptively like cucumbers but are in fact quite different from them - almost prankster-like and cheeky. Wikipedia tells me that they're the swollen ovaries of the female zucchini flower. What the?

Anyway, while I would have been perfectly happy smacking my face in a bowl of zucchini and parmesan risotto, JL was visiting for lunch which meant that he probably would have cried on the sight of my almost rabbit-food-like-food. That's when my bags of frozen seafood came in handy.

So here it is folks, my Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Mussel, Prawn Risotto. And Parmesan, of course.

You'll need about six mussels, more if you like them lots. You'll also need about a tonne of peeled prawns. A tonne here means about 100g. In retrospect I think 100g of prawn shells on top would have been excellent. You'll see why.

You'll also need 1/2 an onion, 1 clove of garlic...

and 2 zucchinis, grated.

Saute the mussel and half of the prawns (or prawn shells if you have them) with a little garlic and olive oil until they change colour. Don't overcook anything (including the garlic) or you'll be kicking yourself.

Pour contents into a small pot and pour about 1L of chicken stock in. Add salt to taste and bring to boil. Proceed to simmer the stock for at least 30 minutes (you may need to add more stock).

The stock should change colour. If you had prawn shells you'd soon realise that this stock is like the big-O in a pot. Seafood stock is totally full of wins.

Once you are happy with the stock, proceed with the risotto.

Saute 1/2 onion. I burnt mine because I got distracted by my temper. Don't make the same mistake - it's just not worth it.

Once the onions are transparent, add 3 cups of arborio rice and continue sauteing. Sauteing? Sautaying? Guh. I have no idea.

Then one ladle at a time, add the prawn and mussel stock into the rice, stirring gently to allow the rice to absorb all the liquid before adding the next ladle. Proceed until the grains are almost fully saturated and won't soak up any more liquid.

Add grated zucchini to the pot and let it cook slightly.

Give it a good stir so that it doesn't catch on the bottom. Just be gentle though.

Pour the remaining seafood stock into the pan and let it simmer with the lid on. Make sure you have a pot of chicken stock additionally on the side bubbling away. Risotto needs lots of liquid. If the rice dries out, add another ladle of liquid into the pan.

Once the rice is almost done, (taste test is the key) add the seafood contents of the stock into the pan. These should be quite tender.

In a separate pan, saute remaining prawns until coloured.

Throw into pan and cook until rice is tender. Once done, turn off the heat and add a cup of freshly grated parmesan.

Then just serve with a little cracked pepper.


Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Risotto
Serves 3

Buy:
2 Zucchinis, grated
3 cups Arborio Rice
100g Green Prawns
100g Prawn Shells (if you have them)
6 Mussels
1/2 Onion, finely diced
1 Garlic, minced
1L Chicken Stock (to use for Seafood Stock)
1L Chicken Stock, extra
1 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Cracked Pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

Make:

1. Saute mussels, half of the prawns, prawn shells in a pan with a little garlic and oil until colour changes
2. Tip contents into a pot and pour 1L of chicken stock. Add salt and bring to boil then simmer for 30minutes
3. In a saute pan, saute onions until transparent
4. Add rice and coat thoroughly with oil and cook slightly
5. One ladle at a time, add seafood stock and allow rice to fully absorb liquid before adding another ladle
6. Once fully saturated, pour remaining seafood stock into pan and bring to simmer
7. Stir in zucchini and allow to cook briefly while stirring
   
8. Put lid back on and simmer. Add extra stock slowly as risotto thickens and expands
9. When rice is almost cooked, add contents of stock (minus shells if you added them) into the pan, continue to simmer with lid on while adding stock
10. In a separate pan, saute remaining prawns until cooked
11. Add prawn into risotto and cook until rice is no longer has a rock centre
12. Add freshly grated parmesan and serve with cracked pepper
    

Pork Egg Rolls in Broth

I'm going to warn you now. This is one helluva time-consuming recipe, but highly suited to being made in large amounts for dinner parties and the likes of that.

I recently visited Shanghai Nights in Ashfield and tried their egg wontons. It was scrump-diddly-umptious to say the least, and it wasn't long before I was dying to do my own little rendition of it.

Let's just cut to the chase shall we?

First you'll need to crack about a half dozen eggs.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of chicken powder. This is the only flavouring that will go into the eggs, so make sure you do it. If you're wary about using chicken powder then by all means use salt or light soy sauce, except the latter will change the colour of the wrappers from a bright yellow to a dull browny colour.

Next give the eggs a quick whisk.

Add a teaspoon of corn flour to the mix. This will stop the egg wrappers from breaking up when you're trying to fold them into shape. Whisk and make sure you break up the lumps of corn flour.

Next add a tablespoon of water. I don't know why. My instinct told me to.

In a hot pan, proceed to pour the mixture in as you would when you make pancakes. Essentially this part is just like making crepes, except the batter is much thinner and prone to breakage. In other words, be gentle when you flip!

When the wrappers are cooked, drain them well on paper towels, making sure you lay a piece of paper towel between each layer so they don't cook each other and then mold themselves into one another. I hate how eggs like to cuddle themselves.

Once you've finished the mixture, leave the wrappers aside to cool while you make the stuffing. I made about 6, only because I wanted the rolls to be quite large. Feel free to go miniature.

You'll need about 200~250 pork mince. And a food processor.

Look. If you don't have a food processor then you're just going to have to buy one. Or chop the stuff up manually, but you won't get the same elastickkkkkky texture to the stuffing - or as Asians would describe it - the Q factor.

Nah I'm just kidding. Manually chopping is fine.

You'll need about a cup of diced Green (or as the bag tells me, King) prawns. Whether it's Green or not doesn't really matter. Just don't use stuff that's too mushy.

A cup of bamboo shoots.

A cup of black fungus. (Yes I know I rehydrated about a tonne. Just fridge the leftovers)

And a small knob of ginger. It's in the picture somewhere. Add about a teaspoon of chicken powder, 3~4 tablespoons of light soy for steaming (Lee Kum Kee), or just plain light soy.

Best to add 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil as well.

Put the lid onto the food processor and give it a good whizz.

Once all the components come together, crack an egg into the mixture.

Proceed to whizz it some more until the egg is combined with everything else. You might need to give it a little scrape on the side once in a while.

Once it is done, grab the cooled egg wrappers and proceed to spoon a little of the stuffing onto the centre in a log shape. Don't overfill or the wrappers will burst.
Wrap it up as you would with a spring roll, then place the roll onto a plate ready for steaming.

Rinse and repeat until all egg wrappers are used up. The remaining stuffing can be rolled into balls and steamed as meatballs or used as Wonton stuffing.

Place the plate in a steamer (or a wok with a metal stand placed in the centre like mine) and steam for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of your rolls. You'll also need to drain the liquid that gathers in the plate after steaming.

Once the rolls are done, boil about 250mL of chicken stock (Campbell's Real Stock is fine) with 4 tablespoons of oyster sauce. Stir vigorously to combine. In a separate bowl combine a cup of water with a tablespoon of corn starch and stir until corn starch is suspended in water. Pour into the chicken broth and let the mixture thicken. Stir well so no lumps form.

Garnish plate with steamed bok choy/choy sum/anything you fancy. Pour broth over everything and serve.


Pork Egg Rolls in Broth
Makes 6 Egg Rolls

Buy:
Egg wrappers

• 6 Eggs, lightly whisked
  
• 1/2 tsp Chicken Powder
• 1 tblsp Water
• 1 tsp Corn Starch
• Oil for frying

Stuffing

• 200g Pork Mince
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Bamboo Shoots
• 1 cup Black Fungus
• 1 cup Green Prawns, diced
• 1 knob of Ginger
• 3~4 tblsp Light Soy for Steaming/Plain Light Soy
• 1/2 tblsp Sesame Oil

Broth

• 250mL Chicken Stock
• 4 tblsp Oyster Sauce
• 1 cup Water
• 1 tblsp Corn Starch

Steamed Bok choy to garnish

Make:

1. Whisk eggs with chicken powder
2. Add corn starch and water and whisk until well combined
3. In a pan, slowly pour mixture to fry as you would with crepes
4. Remove from pan and drain well on paper towel. Repeat until all mixture is used up
5. Set wrappers aside and cool
6. In a food processor, add all stuffing ingredients except egg and whizz until combined.
7. Add egg and whizz until mixed thoroughly
   
8. Take one egg wrapper and place on flat surface. Spoon enough stuffing mixture onto the centre so that it creates a small log shape. Leave enough space on the edges for folding.
9. Fold in the sides of the wrappers, and place wrapped roll onto plate with the opening on the bottom.
10. Repeat until all wrappers are used up.
11. Place plate in steamer for 20 minutes and once cooked, remove plate from steamer and drain all liquid in plate. Place steamed bok choy on side of plate
    
12. In a wok or pan, cook stock with oyster sauce
13. In a separate bowl, combine water with corn starch until corn starch is evenly suspended
14. Pour corn starch mix into wok and bring to boil
15. Once the broth has thickened, pour over egg rolls and bok choy
16. Serve with rice