Chicken Macaroni Soup... for the Soul

2nd daughter is down with fever and I decided to make some soup to whet her appetite. Don't feel like having rice as well, hence, the macaroni. Hubby hates pasta but he'll agree to the soup...So I'm safe...

Ingredients

1 packet of macaroni - cooked to al dente
1 whole chicken - cut into 12 pcs, skinned of excess fat
4 medium potatoes - peeled and cubed
4 carrots - peeled and cubed
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 cloves
salt
pepper

Soup Base (to be blended)

3 onions
4 cloves of garlic
an inch of ginger
2 pcs of knorr/maggi chicken cubes
6 tbsp of soto spice mix

mix the above with a little water to form a thick paste

Garnishing

fried shallots
spring onions (chopped)
chinese parsley (chopped)

method :
Heat abt 1/2 cup of oil. Thrown in cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves. Stir for a few secs and then add in soup base paste. Saute till fragrant and cooked. Stir in the chicken, potatoes and carrots. Add sufficent water to cover and make sure it's a little dilute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer till chicken is cooked and tender.

To serve, place macaroni in a bowl. Pour over soup with chicken pieces and sprinkle with a garnishing of fried shallots and chopped greens....and THAT....is comfort food for the sick...

Orange Vanillin Tang Yuan

Closely related to the traditional chinese dessert of glutinous rice balls in sweet fragrant soup. U can choose to fill the balls with red bean paste but its ok to leave it blank as it is as the soup base is already sweet. The balls will be chewy and this will be the contrast texture against the smooth syrup.

Balls

300g orange vanillin glutinous rice flour
1 cup of water

mix together in a bowl with your hands and knead until it's pliable enough to work it into a dough. If it's too dry and crumbly, wet yr hands a little at a time until u get a workable texture. If it's too wet, add a little bit more glutinous rice flour. Shape into little small balls and set aside.

(if u can't find orange vanillin glutinous rice flour, just mix 300g glutinous rice flour, 2 tsp vanillin powder, 1/2 tsp orange zest and add 1/2 tsp of orange essence to the 1 cup of water)



Boil enough water in a pot. Drop the raw balls into the rapidly boiling water and let it cook approx 10 mins. The balls will float to the surface when it's cooked. Scoop out and dunk into cold water. This is to prevent them from sticking to one another. U will notice it will sink when placed into the cold water. This is normal.

Sweet Soup

Meanwhile, throw the water away from the pot and boil another 8 cups of water with 4 or 5 cups of sugar plus a few knots of pandan (screwpine) leaves. Adjust the sweetness according to yr preference. Add 3 slices of fresh ginger, which is optional. Omit if u don't like it. Drop the balls into the sweet soup and let them simmer for abt 5 mins b4 turning off the heat.
Serve.

Banana Demerera Muffins

Made these for breakfast today as I was feeling too lazy to scout for something and I also need to recycle my last remaining 4 bananas on the countertop.
The sprinkling of demerera sugar on top gives a crusty topping as u bite into, but, if u don't have it, ordinary white or brown sugar will do. Serve with yr favourite milk or hot beverage.

Dry Ingredients

3 cups of plain flour
2 cups castor sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
combine the above in a big bowl.


Wet Ingredients

3 eggs
1 cup of veg. oil
4 mashed ripe bananas
1/2 tsp lemon juice/orange juice
2 tbsp vanilla extract
combine the above in a bowl.

some demerera/white/brown sugar for sprinkling

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Mix thoroughly and scoop into muffin tins lined with paper cases. Fill 3/4 full. Sprinkle the top generously with demerera sugar. Bake in a preheated 180d oven for abt 20 - 25 mins.
Cool on wire rack.

Multi-Fried Chicken with Oregano Potatoes

Made these for dinner the other night when I suddenly don't feel like having rice. Had drumsticks and wings..

Ingredients

Chicken thighs (make slashes on thick areas) and wings

Marinade :

3 tbsp of tumeric powder
1/4 cup of hot chilli sauce
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tbsp of ginger powder
1 tbsp of garlic powder
1 tbsp of ground cumin
1 tbsp of ground coriander
2 tbsp of light golden syrup
salt to taste
1/4 cup of water

combine the above and marinate the chicken well, preferably a few hours. Chill to avoid contamination.
Deep fry in hot oil with medium heat till cooked. U may also fry the other parts of the chicken with a box-ready frying mix.

Oregano Potatoes

some potatoes - cut into chunks, deep fry in hot oil. Drain on absorbent kitchen paper and while still hot, sprinkle with a little salt and some dried oregano. Mix thoroughly.

To serve, add blanched broccoli and carrots as sides.

Christmas Cupcakes

These are for Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Film & Media. (Hubby's Dept). A Christmas party. A chocolate moist cake with vanilla crusting buttercream. I personally loved the little christmas sugar cookies in the shapes of christmas trees, snowboys, stars and angels. Hubby's colleagues were very warm and welcoming. I was a little late (I think) delivering them and hubby was a little busy. Still, everything went well and now, my youngest girl is still munching on the extra christmas cookies that I made...

Kiddies Cupcakes

Made these for a celebrationa at Lela's house..

Aidiladha Cupcakes

hi all...and a belated eid adha..

made the above for hubby's side and brought it on the day itself..snapped up by nephews and nieces and naughty Haikel (nephew) decided to rearrange the letters to make a joke on Dali (another nephew)..and the whole gang laughed as it meant something else...*smile*...
(haikel - if u are reading this, u know what u did!) ..*spanking u on the butt*

best part?...father-in-law didn't know how to unfold the souffle cups and so, decided to dig it up using a - butter knife!..*cute*