Sup Brenebon // Red Kidney Bean Soup

It's getting cold here in Brighton. So husband and I longed for hot soup. I know we still have a can of red kidney bean in the cupboard and I ran out of ideas of what to do with it. So again I browse through Mindy Jordan's food blog and found this recipe that I add this and that to it. If Mindy happens to look at my blog, I want her to know she has been my inspiration for food blogging.
Anyway, I had an awful headache when making this dish but it magically disappear after having this soup with steaming hot white rice... hmmmmm....

Source : Mindy Jordan

Ingredients:
250 gr beef meat - cut 
2 cups red kidney beans
1 onion - thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic - crushed
1 tbsp butter
a bunch of Flat leaf parsley

Fresh ground nutmeg
Water
Salt, pepper, sugar to season

Directions:
1. Make a beef broth by cooking the meat
2. Boil the kidney beans until soft but not too soft. Drained well and add to the beef broth
3. In a separate frying pan, cook the onion and garlic until fragrant then add to the soup, season well. Cook again for a while. Serve warm with rice or bread


I add 1 tbsp of butter and a bunch of parsley to it and taste pretty nice.

Spagetti Carbonara

Here's my second shot for spaghetti carbonara. This time I use whole wheat spaghetti. Simon, my hubby doesn't really like the whole wheat spaghetti taste. But it was delicious. I got the simple recipe at ASDA, the supermarket, website. It was pretty good. It is creamy but I am not very satisfied with it.

Source : ASDA

Ingredients

• 450g Whole wheat spaghetti
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 150g crispy Bacon strips, crushed
• 2 eggs
• 142ml pot double cream
• 50g grated Parmesan cheese, with extra to serve
• Flat-leaf parsley leaves, to garnish 

Direction:

 

1 Cook spaghetti according to pack instructions. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until they start to soften.

2. Place the eggs in a bowl and beat gently with a fork. Beat in the cream and Parmesan, and season with black pepper.

3. Add the egg mixture to onions, garlic and bacon. Cook over a gentle heat until bubly. Put in the crushed crispy bacon strips. Season with pepper


4. Drain the spagetti and serve immediately pouring the sauce on top with a sprinkling of parsley, extra Parmesan and crushed bacon on top.


The recipe actually says to cook the sauce together with the boiled spagetti but I like to have it separate so I can control how much I wanted. Also I can save the rest of the sauce for later.

Bubur Kacang Hijau // Indonesian Mung Bean Porridge

It was Autumn 2008, last year in Hartford. I have just arrived in US and doing my best to cope with the cold weather. I have bought some mung bean and my friend Rev. Jacky Manuputty, fellow Ambonesse studying in the same institution, had given me gula merah or Indonesian palm sugar. I wanted to make sure I do it right so I search for a fool-proof the recipe. I found this following from Mindy Jordan's Foodie Blog. It has been my inspiration ever since.

Source: Mindy Jordan

Ingredients:
350 gr Mung Bean - washed then soaked in water overnight, drained well before boiling
4 cm ginger - crushed
Palm sugar - grated
Salt
Water
Condensed Milk


Directions:
Boil the Mung beans for about 15-20 minutes
Add crushed ginger and cook again until the Mung beans are cracked
Add the palm sugar and salt, combine well. Serve warm or cold

Add condense milk if you like. Some people prefer coconut milk but I like the condensed milk or Susu Kental Manis. 


The picture of the Mung bean is taken on Rev. Jacky's floor when we enjoy the Mung bean together in a cold autumn day.
 

Simple Chicken Soup // Sup Ayam Mudah

Serve 4

Cooking time : 30 min - 45 min

Ingredient:
2 pieces Chicken - any part will do, I use Upper Thigh
4 med Potatoes- Cut to cubes
4 Med Carrot - chopped
1 Celery Stalk - chopped
1/2 c. corn
1 med onion - finely chopped
3 cloves garlic - crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
Parsley finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Direction:
Make the broth by boiling the chicken with salt, 2 crushed garlic and pepper for 10 - 15 minutes.
(You may shred the chiken or cut it in cubes or just leave it whole which ever you like.)

Add potatoes, carrot and celeery to the broth - cover and cook for 10 min

In a separate skillet, heat the olive oil and saute the onion and 1 crushed garlic until tender and fragrant.
Add to the soup together with the corn.

Let it cook until potatoes and carrot are tender. Sprinkle chopped parsley upon serving.

Some would also like to add fried onion as topping.

Enjoy the soup with rice or bread or just soup with itself. In our case, my husband and I enjoy having it with French bread spread with garlic butter.

Indian Cauliflower Curry Stew

Indian Cauliflower Curry Stew

Source: Good Housekeeping Magazine, Jan 2009

Cooking time : 30 – 45 min

Serve : 4

Ingredient:

1 tbsp Olive Oil

3 Med Carrots – Chopped

1 Onion

1 tbsp Peeled and crushed fresh ginger

1 tbsp Curry Powder

Salt

2 c. Vegetable broth

1 med head cauliflower – cut into florets

 2 cans garbanzo beans – rinsed, drained and soaked over night

½ c. loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves – chopped

¼ c. low fat yogurt plus additional for serving   

Rice – I used Basmati

Direction:

In 6 quart Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high until hot. Add carrots and onion and cook for 10 – 12 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned and tender – stir frequently

Meanwhile, cook the rice as label directs or in what ever way you know and enjoy.

Stir ginger, curry and salt into carrot mix – cook for 3 min – stir occasionally

Add broth, cauliflower, garbanzo beans – cover and cook on medium for 15 min until cauliflower is tender.

To serve, stir chopped cilantro and yogurt into the stew. Spoon rice into serving plates and topped with stew. Put additional yogurt to dollop on top if you like.

Snappy Chili // Chili cepat

My memory of Chili dish would be my mother’s homemade chilly. We used to be responsible to run a gruest house for SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistic) in Ambon, Indonesia. It was so long ago that I almost forgot the taste. During my study in US, I came across 3 variations of simple chilly recipes that I love so much I had to cut it out from the magazine. Finally, I put it to the test for my husband and I, 8 months after I stumble upon it. Only this time we are in England… How the recipe travel. I combined and changed some ingredient according to what I think will suit our tongue and Ta Da!!!! Hubby said it taste much better than one of the famous restaurant in our town… lol... What a great husband.

So here’s my twisted version of Snappy Chili adapted from Woman’s Day Magazine, April 2009 by Donna Meadow

Serve : 4

Cooking time : 30 min

Ingredient:

12 oz    ground beef

1 can    Red Kidney Bean - rinsed

1 cup    diced bell pepper

1          chopped onion

1 tsp     dried basil

1 tsp     salt

1 tsp     ground black pepper

1 can    Tomato Pure – I used Diced Tomato in can – or tomato paste will do

2 tsp     Olive oil

Direction:

Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Dunk the Onion until fragrant.

Add in ground beef and bell pepper – cook over medium high heat for 5 minutes, breaking up chunks of meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat is browned.

Add the tomato puree, oregano, salt and ground black pepper – bring to a simmer.

Cover and cook for 5 min – stirring occasionally until the pepper are tender.

Stir in the red kidney beans and heat through.

Serve over rice (the way I like it) or over bread (the way hubby like it) with fresh garden leaf salad on the side.

Very Simple Chicken Porridge (Indonesian Style) // Bubur Ayam Gampang

Serve: 2

Ingredient:
2 pieces       Chicken Upper thigh
1 cup           Rice (any kind of rice available. I used Basmati Rice)

2 Cloves      Garlic - crushed
1 small         Onion
2 stalk         Spring Onion
1 tbsp          Butter - or you can just use oil
1 tsp            Ground Black Pepper

400ml          water
Salt as desired

Indonesian Sweet Soy sauce as desired

Direction:
Make the Chicken Stock:
Boil chicken. Add garlic, salt and pepper. Let it boiled for a while.
When the Chicken is cooked enough take it out from the stock to make topping

Rice Poridge:
Wash the rice and put it in the chicken stock (after the chicken pieces are out from the pan)
Let it boiled away. Feel free to add water when you want more watery rice.
Noting can go wrong in making rice porridge (except if you burn it)

While the porridge is boiling in the pan, we will make the topping

Make the topping :
Shred the cooked chicken pieces - or diced it -
(Don't throw the chicken bones. Put them back in the pan to boil with the porridge.)
Put the butter in a frying pan and sizzle onion.
Put the Shred chicken pieces and keep turning it until it browned.
Put the Sweet Soy Sauce as desired as well as the salt and pepper.

When Serving put the topping and sprinkle some spring onion.
Also fav toppings are Shrimp Crackers, fried onion and thinly sliced omlette