A different kind of chicken noodle soup.

All right, let me tell you that there is nothing wrong AT ALL with the traditional chicken noodle soup.. at all. I love it and I had it the other day. Then why make it different? because I am a poor poor student who only has so much in her refrigerator, and I can’t let it go to waste just because I can’t use any of my ingredients to make a traditional dish.

If you asked me a year ago about soups, I would run away. That’s how much I hated soup. I don’t know why, but luckily, since then, I have tasted a fair amount of soups and realized that they are easy to make, often cheap and in many cases quite tasteful. In my opinion the most classic soup has to be chicken noodle soup, although I know a lot of people will beg to differ (onion soup, perhaps?) It is great when you’re feeling down, either mentally or physically. It’s great when you don’t.
In my new ‘empty-the-fridge’ version, there are no carrots or celery, instead I have spinach. I use onion slices as a big part of my soup. But I promise you that it will have a lot of flavour and fill you up!

Recipe:

Olive Oil
2 chicken breast filets (I used frozen ready-made, because I’m lazy)
2 small onions
2 tbsp curry
5 handful fresh spinach or the equal amount frozen
½ tsp powdered nutmeg
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 liter/34 oz. water
Salt & Pepper
Egg noodles

Directions:

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Pour olive oil in the pan, just enough to cover the surface. Add the chicken filets and brown the fillets about 5 minutes on each side. Remove the fillets from pan.

2. Cut the 2 onions in slices and heat up a separate pan on medium heat. Add 1 tsp olive oil and the fresh, washed spinach. Add the nutmeg and stir untill the spinach has wilted. Put aside. (If you use frozen spinach, just thaw in a casserole with some water over low heat)

3. In a medium sized pot, pour in olive oil to cover the surface and warm at medium heat. Add the sliced onions and stir from time to time. After 3 minutes add the curry powder and mix well with the onions. Turn down heat to low and let sit about 5-10 minutes untill the onions are soft. Stir now and then.

4. In a casserole add water and put in the chicken bouillon. Turn on heat to medium. The cubes will dissolve in about 10 minutes

5. While the chicken bouillon cubes are dissolving, pull the chicken apart in small chunks

6. Add chicken and spinach to onions and stir well.

7. Add the chicken bouillon water and make the soup come to a boil. Simmer for about 2 minutes.

8. Add the noodles and let cook as said on the package directions. Add salt and pepper if needed.

9. Serve with bread (optional) and eat.

Delicious and creamy Lemon Curd

I have craved something sweet and homemade for the last few days, so yesterday I suggested to my boyfriend that we made scones. I absolutely looove scones; the texture, the sweet salty taste and the lightness of them. But what to put on them? Butter is a bit too obvious I thought, plus for weeks I had been thinking about this lovely british dessert spread, lemon curd. It is often used on toast and scones, and can also be very lovely as filling for cakes.
The first time I tried homemade lemon curd, I was 14 years old, and my mother had a recipe for homemade meringue with lemon curd and whipped cream. YUM! I must remember to get that recipe from my mother as soon as possible!

So I decided to make… yes you guessed it… lemon curd.
It is absolutely doable by anyone who has basic knowledge of how to cook. It is quick and the result you will get is very rewarding.

Recipe:

Grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1½ lemon
225g sugar/2  ¼ cup sugar
1 medium-sized egg
1 egg yolk
125g butter/4.4 ounce butter cut in cubes

Directions:

1. First make sure that every ingredient has room temperature, so it might be a good idea to take out eggs and butter 1 hour before hand.

2. Whisk egg (plus the extra egg yolk), sugar and lemon zest together in a casserole, just untill it’s all mixed together.

3. Turn on the heat to medium and add the butter. Whisk constantly for the next 15 minutes, and make sure that the mixture does not boil, otherwise it will curdle. Bring heat down, if it starts to simmer.
The mixture should in this period become thicker.

4. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice. Whisk untill mixed well.

5. Put in a jar, and do not worry if you think it is a bit too thin, it will become thicker and settle when you put it in the refrigerator and it will be ideal to use after 5 hours.

Keep refrigerated and it will keep for a week.

Next I will show you my recipe for scones, that you can enjoy with your lemon curd on.

YUMMY.

Chili lime scallops.

Yay, this is my first post on this blog. So I want to start with a recipe that is one of my favourites, and although it mostly is a summer dish, I like it all year around because of the sweet caramelized garlic, the spicy chili and the fresh taste of really good scallops. I used small scallops in this recipe, but you can also buy bigger ones, and cut them in halves. I like them small and in bite size, simply because I like a dish, you can eat with just a fork.

When buying scallops: Frozen scallops works just fine, but you need to thaw them ALL the way, otherwise the water in them will stay inside of them, and then when they hit the frying pan, all the water still left in them, will make your scallops boil and not fry. Therefore it is important that you remove all excess water from the scallops with some paper towels.
That also goes for the ones bought at your local fish shop. I would definitely recommend buying the fresh ones, as they look better, and will not break as easily as the frozen ones, and of course the fresher they are, the better they taste.

Serves 2-4

Recipe:

About 15 big scallops or 20-30 small scallops
Enough butter to cover the frying pan
1-2 garlic gloves
1 teaspoon full of finely chopped ginger
1 red chili freed from seeds and finely chopped
3-5 spring onions in thin slices
Zest from 1 lime
1 red chili, freed from seeds and finely chopped
Lime juice

Egg noodles
Melted butter

Directions:

1. Clean the scallops and pat them dry with paper towels.

2. Melt the butter in a heated frying pan (I guess you can use oil as well, but butter can caramelize as oil can’t, and that is the taste I am going for). Make sure the butter is really hot, and a little brown, but not too much!

3. Add crushed garlic, chopped ginger and stir from time to time. The garlic and ginger should be brown, but NOT black and burned.

4. Add chili and spring onions and stir fry about 1 minute

5. Add scallops to the very hot frying pan (make sure it isn’t to crowded as the scallops then wont fry as they should do.) Stir fry 4-5 minutes turning the scallops a few times (this especially goes when using small ones, they should be turned more often). It is crucial that you don’t over cook them, as they will feel like eating rubber. The texture should be nice and tender.

6. Turn down the heat till medium and add  lime zest and lime juice (as little or much as you like) to the frying pan. If you like, you can put in some extra chopped chili for a more spicy flavour.

Serve with good quality egg noodles that’s tossed with melted butter.

ENJOY and dive in :)

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