My Faux Pho - Vietnamese Chicken Meatball & Noodle Soup

There's nothing like a delicious soup to warm the cockles of one's heart on a cold, wintry day. Pour in the garlic and ginger and you have an immunity-boosting bowl of goodness - as is the case with this fabulous version of Vietnam's much-loved pho (from Real Living Magazine).

My family can't get enough of this soup - so much so that I have to make double the recipe in order to satisfy their hunger pangs. Whilst not a gluten free recipe per se, you can swap the noodles for gluten-free ones and do the same with the stock. The rest is all natural goodness - you seriously can't go wrong. Unless of course you are a vegetarian - chicken mince balls probably don't rate too highly on your list of must have food. But that's ok because the chicken can be replaced with tofu if you so desire. 

There are a lot of ingredients but rest assured, you will be making this again so the ingredients won't sit in your pantry without ever getting used again.

So let's get stuck into it - I dare you not to like this one....

Ingredients

1 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 long red chilli, sliced finely (- my kids aren't into chilli so I add it in later)
1 bunch coriander, stems and leaves separated, both finely chopped
3 tsp finely grated ginger
4 cups chicken stock (you can get gluten-free stock)
3 cups water
2 star anise
1 tbsp finely grated palm sugar
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
500g chicken mince
4 spring onions, chopped
Ground white pepper and salt
125g vermicelli noodles or udon noodles
1 bunch choy sum, gai larn or pak choy, cut into 10cm lengths - I use baby spinach leaves...easier to eat and delicious
125g bean sprouts
Handful mint leaves/ coriander or thai basil, to serve

The 'How to'

Heat oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, chilli, coriander stems and 2 tsp ginger and cook for 2 mins until fragrant. The aroma is just divine - I'd go as far as saying hypnotic. Add the stock, water, star anise, palm sugar, soy sauce and 1 tbsp fish sauce. Bring to a simmer to infuse flavours. I let it simmer for approximately 2 hours to ensure the herbs and spices completely release their goodness into the broth but if you are pressed for time, 30 minutes should do it.

The meatballs

Place the chicken mince, 2 spring onions, handful of chopped coriander leaves, white pepper, salt, remaining ginger and fish sauce into mixing bowl and stir well to combine. Really get int here with your hands and get all the ingredients evenly spread throughout the mince. Divide and roll mixture into 20 or so little balls. 

Back to the soup

Increase heat to high, drop meatballs into the soup and cook for 3 mins until almost cooked. Add the noodles and green vegetables, then cook for a further 2 mins until noodles and vegies are tender and meatballs are fully cooked. As I mentioned above, I use baby spinach so I pop that in at the end just as I am about to serve so it doesn't wilt too much.

And that's it! It's ready to go once you have topped it with the bean sprouts, herbs and remaining spring onions. 

Let me at it.

Roast Lamb and Couscous/ Quinoa Salad on Pita Bread

I cooked my first roast when I was well into my 30s. I come from a South American background and grew up on asados (the most insanely delicious bbqs in existance) and stews. As a kid, I used to listen to school friends talk about their Sunday roasts and I would turn green with envy (I would also get very envious as I watched them open their lunchboxes and pull out their devon and tomato sauce sandwiches. We didn't do devon.)

It wasn't until I moved in with my then boyfriend-now-husband that I managed to build up the courage to try baking a roast. It seriously turned me into a nervous wreck - was it burning/ cooked/ still moving/ edible? It was all in all a very unpleasant experience. 

But I have matured (in more ways than one - and not always like a fine wine, unfortunately) and I have moved on to successfully baking roasts. Here's a recipe I found in a House and Garden magazine. It's a great one for a weekend lunch - fresh, light and healthy. Obviously not one for my vegetarian friends but I promise to start sharing some meat-free meal ideas soon. Enjoy!

Serves : quite a few
Cooking time: a long time - about 4-ish hours (maths was never my forte)


Ingredients

Couscous or quinoa (for a gluten-free option)

1kg lamb shoulder, boned, rolled and tied
5 tomatoes - can be cored roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
8 small round pita breads
2 cucumbers - I find that lebanese ones are sweeter and less bitter
2/3 cup (100g) black olives
200g fetta cheese, crumbled
1 red onion, finely sliced 2 tbsp fresh oregano
1/2 cup (or more) finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup (125ml) extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp good-quality red wine vinegar

How to:

Lamb

Preheat oven to 200C (180C if fan forced). Place lamb on a roasting tray and season well with salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes on a roasting tray and season with salt and pepper. Cook lamb and tomatoes at the same time but remember to remove the tomatoes after about 15 minutes unless you like the taste of charcoal - my family were almost subjected to burnt tomatoes. Almost.

Continue roasting the lamb for another 30 minutes. Remove lamb, wrap the entire tray tightly with foil and return to oven. Make sure you reduce the oven temperature to 150C (130C fan) - let it roast for another two hours. Apparently, by this stage, you will be able to push your finger through the meat. And burn it to shreds no doubt. I just stuck a knife in it. When ready , remove from oven and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes. Pull/ cut lamb into bite-size pieces. Yum.

Salad

Prepare a cup of couscous or quinoa as per packet instructions. Chop up the cucumber and mix with couscous/ quinoa, fetta, olives, sliced red onions, oregano and parsley. You can choose to throw in the lamb at this point or serve it separately. Drizzle with oil and vinegar and Bob's your uncle (or Jose in my case).

Serve with pita bread and watch everyone have fun as they make a complete mess of themselves. Provecho!

Italian Sausage & Bean Stew

Winter food is great, isn't it? I love it - the hearty, slow-cooked stews, the delicious soups and crispy roasts are the reason I love the cooler weather. That and the fact that chunky jumpers and big coats can hide my over-indulgence in the aforementioned delicacies.

I made a decision to try and get as many legumes into our diet as possible this winter. Not an easy task considering my daughters are convinced that the sole purpose of legumes are to give you wind and hence, they aren't interested. 

But  I have started to turn them...slowly but surely. I've worked out it's all about the flavours accompanying them. In today's recipe, the tomatoes and sausages steal the beans' thunder - which is a perfect disguise for the little balls of goodness as far as my girls are concerned. 

I found this recipe in the August 2010 edition of Australian Good Food. It's quick and easy and full of winter goodness. My girls love it - which is saying a lot. Hope you do too.


Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
320g of Italian style sausages (other types of sausages work well - the Italian are just more flavorsome)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic gloves chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
2 x 400g cans cherry tomatoes
2 x 400g cans of borlotti beans (cannellini beans, butter beans and chickpeas work just as well)
200g green beans, trimmed and halved

The fun bit

1. Squeeze the sausage meat from the casings and roll into walnut-sized meatballs. 
2. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on high. Pop the meatballs into the pan and brown them all over. Remove from pan and keep warm.
3. Reduce the heat to medium - add the garlic, onion, chilli flakes and fennel seeds and cook for approximately 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Throw in the tomatoes and two cups of water and bring to the boil. Pop in the borlotti beans and meatballs and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green beans and cook for another 5 minutes or until meatballs are fully cooked. 

Lovely served with crusty bread. I serve it with brown rice - the girls love it and the rice absorbs the sauce beautifully.