Cream Of Pumpkin Soup

Cream Of Pumpkin Soup

Now, I am so tempted to lick my computer screen to have my cream of pumpkin soup!

This photo has been in my files since a long time ago and being anything but swamped with Mommy duties now, I will be able to share the recipe for this delightfully sumptious soup right now.

Okay let’s do this:

You will need about a quarter portion of a medium-sized pumpkin or from a big squash.

1 carton of all-purpose cream

1 chicken cube

1 onion, minced

1/4 cup butter

1/8 tsp cumin powder

1/2 cup croutons

salt and pepper to taste

Peel pumpkin and chop coarsely, about 1 inch thick and wide (although honestly, it doesn’t matter! It’ll get mashed later!). Put in boiling water. Cook until tender. Drain off from excess water.

In a soup pan, saute tenderized pumpkin in butter and onion. Add chicken cube. Add about 2 cups of water. Bring to a quick boil.

In a food processor, puree the pumpkin mixture. Blend very well.

Bring back the processed pumpkin mixture back to the soup pan and simmer in medium heat. Slowly stir in cream and cumin powder. Continue simmering until soup is creamy. Season with salt and pepper.

Top with croutons

*Note: You may add fresh milk to adjust texture or soup consistency. Be sure to just quickly heat the soup when there’s milk. Overheating or rapid boiling will cause the milk to curdle.

Final note:

Purists, please don’t crucify me for loosely interchanging pumpkin and squash every now and then. They belong to the same specie but are two varieties that differ in size and color. Whatever you use, it will taste almost perfectly the same!

Molo Soup

Hot, hot, hot!

Literally and figuratively, molo soup is HOT!

The warm, comforting and soothing effect of this soup are enough reasons to make this a staple in your kitchen menu. The solid combination of chicken, pork dumplings and the garlicky flavor of the broth just make a perfect soup.

Especially lately that it has been raining, molo soup should be the excellent comfort food with a wet weather at the backdrop.

Molo soup

For the pork dumpling:

1/2 kilo ground pork

1 onion, minced

1 egg

4 tbsps flour

salt and pepper to taste

molo wrappers

For the chicken broth:

1 pc chicken thigh/legs

salt and pepper to taste

1 onion, quartered

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1/4 cup deveined shrimps, chopped

1 medium onion, sliced

1 head of garlic, minced

2 tbsps patis (fish sauce)

1/2 cup dahon ng sibuyas (green spring onions)

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To make the broth, season chicken with salt and pepper. In a pot, cover with water and add onion. Cook until chicken is tender and cooked. Shred chicken and set aside. Meantime, keep stock for later use.

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The pork dumplings are made by seasoning the ground pork with salt and pepper and adding onion, egg and flour. Mix well and wrap in molo wrappers. Set aside.

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In another pot, saute onion, garlic, chicken and shrimps. Season with patis. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling, drop dumplings and cook for ten to fifteen minutes. Top with dahon ng sibuyas (green spring onions). Serve hot.

Cream Of Chicken Soup

Nothing beats sipping a warm bowl of soup that was made from the heart. No offense meant to canned soup lovers, but soups made from scraps and scratch are the ones that genuinely rock. Why,  the homemade soup’s edge lies in the fact that it’s healthier, none of the ‘can’ taste and you know a hundred percent what went with the soup when it was cooked.

Okay, this soup (again) was a proud product of a makeover from a leftover (nice rhyme!). The previous evening saw me baking some lemon pepper chicken and had some leftover. Not that it wasn’t good enough to be devoured in one sitting (Ha, defensive me!) but that, Jake and I had quite a big bingeing spree shortly before dinner that left us full til the next day!

Anyway, frankly, I don’t like the idea of reheating  leftover baked chicken for my meals. The overnight period usually leaves the skin stiff, rubbery, greasy and all. The flesh too firm and totally juiceless. But the good news is– I love doing a makeover of baked chicken. First step is to chunk the meat and sometimes the skin, then stir-fry coating  it with a favorite sauce– either bbq or charsiu sauce. Either way would land in between two slices of bread! Sarap!

Today was different, my leftover surprise was made up of these chicken chunks, celery stalks and cream. Cream of chicken soup— now, are you hungry?

Cream of chicken soup

3/4 cup left over chicken (baked, boiled or even fried!), cubed

1 box all purpose cream

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1 medium-sized onion, finely minced

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup quickmelting cheese (optional)

4 cups of water or whole milk

1 chicken cube

2 tbsps flour diluted in 1/2 cup water

Saute chicken, onion and celery in butter.

Add cream and cheese. Bring to mild simmer until mixture becomes thick. Add water or milk .  Add flour mixture. Let it simmer and continue stirring until desired consistency is achieved. You may actually adjust consistency (to thin the soup) by adding whole milk or water until you reach your desired consistency. Serve hot.

Hearty Chicken Sopas

Marty, my 3-year old uber cute nephew, spent the day at home playing with my Sam. Our place was literally fully charged, alive and brightened up by this little boy’s presence that Sam almost never let him go.

As if possesed by the same positive energy, I suddenly found myself cooking away in the kitchen  with chicken sopas in the lead role for today’s menu. This dish had the perfect triumvirate of what kids usually look for in their choice of  food– chicken, pasta and soup! Okay, the cream or milk is the welcome bonus.

I just love sipping this soup whether on a rainy or in hot, humid weather. The yumminess is simply timeless, universal and makes you go for seconds.

1/2 kilo thigh fillet

3 pcs small-sized chicken soup pack

1/2 kilo macaroni shells (elbow or salad)

2 large onions, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, cut into strips

3 tbsps patis (fish sauce)

1 box all purpose cream

3 pcs celery sticks, chopped

1 small head of cabbage, choped (optional)

oil

salt and pepper to taste

Season chicken parts with salt and pepper. In a cooking pot, boil chicken along with 1 quartered onion. Bring to a boil until chicken becomes tender. Once cooked, drain and shred the chicken thighs . Meantime, remove and shred chicken meat from the soup pack pieces. Save the stock.

Meantime, in a separate cooking pot, saute garlic and onion. Add celery, carrots and shredded chicken (do not include the bones this time). Season with patis. Add chicken stock. Pour macaroni shells. You may add about 1/2 liter (or more) of water if stock is not enough to cover the mixture. Cook until macaroni becomes al dente  in texture. NEVER overcook the macaroni shells. Add all purpose cream and cabbage. Adjust taste by seasoning with salt and pepper or dropping a piece of chicken cube. Serve hot.

Cooking On TV 3 (US Girls, Studio 23)

I left ABS-CBN today feeling totally awesome. Taping went great and was very excited cooking before the cameras again. Angel Aquino was the nicest and most grounded celebrity I’ve met recently.

Here goes some snippets of the taping to be aired sometime this week on Studio 23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dampa Forever!

My sister turned a year wiser very recently and decided to mark her natal day by grabbing some great eats made up of baked oysters, crabs, shrimps, etc.

Dampa was to be her ‘party place’. Fantastic!

Dampa destinations have flourished around the metro in the last few years that it made sensation. If my memory serves me right, these dampa places have been around as early as in the 80’s and Roxas boulevard (then Dewey boulevard) has been the original hub since it all began and grew big time.

The concept of dampa or sometimes referred to as a paluto eatery, is that you go to a particular resto (in our case, we went to ChaCha at Julia Vargas Avenue), and will have the option to either personally scour for fresh eats (meat, vegetables or seafoods) at a nearby palengke or ask the restaurant runners to do it for you.

They then cook what has been freshly bought. Next, you are handed a menu that contains plenty of options as to how you want your food cooked  (ihaw, sigang, kilaw, etc). Ahhh, it’s the coolest.

And, FRESH is the operative word here.  I can’t overemphasize how satiating it is to  eat at these dampa places that serve everything fresh and great. Yeah, nothing beats eating anything F-R-E-S-H!

Now, I’m hungry again. Anyway, here goes what we had:

The ‘hot front act’ dish was made of halaan soup with onion leeks.

My family is a crab-loving family. These crabs got amputated in the first ten seconds that it landed on our table!

These shrimps were dipped in a special sauce by the resto. Sweet, nutty and malinamnam, the sauce was a hit.

Baked oyters in garlic and cheese.

Grilled tuna belly. Fat, juicy and smoky, I love this!

Baked scallops. A must-try!

Meet my FOODIE mom, Baby. My nephew, Marty, and my daughter, Sam.

My celebrant-sister, Tina and her hubby, Oliver.

My sis-in-law, Michelle with my brother, Jerome and their son, Marty.

The family!

My husband, Jake.

And me looking very, very stuffed by this time!

Calandracas!

CALANDRACAS was certainly one of the greatest flagship dishes of my childhood. Growing up, my lola served calandracas to us quite often when our family gathered in her house for the usual Sunday lunch. Ahh, her food was fabulously gratifying! Simple home food that rocked til the very end!

My lola dished out the most unforgettable tinumis, the best torta and her gastronomic rendition of the classic pochero. I sorely miss her. The scent of her hand-me-down food just plesantly haunts me. Yeah, I miss her…

Today, I swung by my mom’s place and had lunch there. She had lola’s Calandracas. Beef cubes slow cooked and blended in with chorizos, pasta and cabbage. 

Warm, hearty and filling, this  dish was  packed with all the beefy goodness that spells  YUM-O (font 94! Haha!). Truly, one ‘hot’ heirloom from my lola!

To do, it you will need:

1/2 kilo beef brisket or kenchie

about two cups macaroni or penne pasta

4 medium-sized potatoes. quartered

1 can chorizo de bilbao (or 2 sticks), sliced horizontally

1 small head of cabbage, cut into four parts

2 large onions, quartered

3/4 cup chickpeas or garbanzos, drained

salt and pepper to taste

water

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1. Season Beef with salt and pepper. Add onions. Cover with water. Cook until tender.

2. Mix in potatoes, chorizos, chickpeas and pasta. Cook until potatoes and pasta are tender. Add in the cabbage. Serve hot.