Lemongrass Orchards

This soup was originally inspired by my favorite soup of all times served at a small Thai restaurant in Coral Gables, Florida (Bangkok Bangkok).


I often made this soup for my best friend after coming back from the university. It is super cheap to make because most ingredients are in my cabinet. Most grocery stores sell raw shrimp about $7 per pound. Just make sure you buy them already peeled and deveined, because doing it yourself is time consuming and only saves you a buck. Not worth the savings, trust me. Generally, two people can eat for about $4 each if all other ingredients are on hand.


Ingredients:
1/2 pound of raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
4 cups of water
1 shrimp bouillon cube

lemongrass (1/2 teaspoon if dry or slice about an inch if fresh) This stuff is powerful, so add slowly and taste often.

2 thai chili
1 clove garlic, (minced)
a bunch of green onion (chop up, but discard the dark tips because they tend to leave a bitter taste)

1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon of Hunt's tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, put olive oil
2. add chopped green onions and garlic to olive oil until the garlic begins to brown
3. add tomato sauce and slowly add water
4. bring to a boil
5. add thai chili, lemongrass, shrimp bouillon cube
6. when bouillon completely dissolved, add shrimp and mushrooms
7. add salt and pepper to taste
8. squeeze lemon juice to taste

I personally hate that the smell of onion lingers all day long (not good for public relations). But if it's your thing, add an extra small white or yellow onion in addition to the green onion. Even better, chop up and add a leak!

Please note that the measurement of spices (lemongrass and thai chili) I use are based on my personal preferences. If you like the bitter flavor of lemongrass (hence it's name), add more. If you cannot handle spicy, then PLEASE PLEASE do not add two chilis!

Oh, and if you prefer the base to be vegetable rather than shrimp, use vegetable bouillon instead of shrimp bouillon.

Asian Tofu and Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 package of SAIFUN bean threads (Brand Dynasty)

3 cans of organic vegetable stock
1 small carrot chopped
1 small white onion chopped
1 thai chili pepper
1 package of Nasoya Organic cubed tofu

The original recipes contains pork (of course) but I replaced this with organic super firm tofu.


1. Bring stock to a boil and toss everything in.

Literally.

Easy recipe, but I honestly did not like the texture of the beans after they softened. They were a bit....

Wormy?

Not firm enough for my taste.

The good thing was that 1/4 of a pack of noodles go a reallllly long way. It have me three servings. Since the I do not throw food away, I dealt with the wormy texture of the noodles for two other meals.

I made it too spicy even for my own taste. So, I tossed in some sour cream.

I didn't hate the soup, but I didn't like it either. I will retry the same recipe with other noodles next time because I think it was a poor choice of noodles.

Butternut Bumpkin

I dont remember how I fell in love with Butternut squash in the first place? I am not a fan of squash, but the awkward shape and soft butter color of the squash tickled my curiousity.

Servings for 2
Ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash (cut down the middle)
2 potatoes (peeled and diced)
2 cups vegetable stock
1 spring of fresh organic rosemary (chopped)
a small bunch of chives (chopped)
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
a pinch of ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 small yellow onion diced

1. Cut squash in half, poke the skin a few times with a fork, and put in a waterbath pan and into the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. This softens the stubborn squash and makes it easier for you to peel it before putting it into the broth. (Don't try to peel and chop it while hard. It's dangerous and you lose a lot of the actual squash).

2. In a separate pan, steam (or boil) potatoes until soft.
3. While potatoes and squash are cooking, put 3 cups of vegetable broth in saucepan.
4. Add onions, rosemary, ginger and garlic to broth.
5. When potatoes are ready and a fork easily runs through it, add them to the broth and let simmer.
6. When the squash has softened, carefully take out of oven, peel off the skin, and cube the squash before putting into the soup.


7. Add chives, salt and pepper to taste.
8. allow the soup to sit in medium heat for about 10 minutes.

9. allow soup to cool down a bit before transfering all contents into the blender. Very hot liquids need ventilation and can lead to a nasty eruption of boiling liquid. (It happened to me while making tomato soup and boiling tomatoe soup splashed all over the kitchen wall and onto my hair and clothes. Luckily, my face was spared!).

Lesson learned.

Pot O' Potatoes

I know it's Spring, but I just had to post my favorite potato soup recipe! Potato soup is so simple, so WHY my potato soup? Because I stopped at Fair Farm Oaks in Indiana off 856 North on the way to Chicago and ended up buying like 7 different kinds of gourmet cheeses.


When I returned from my trip, I had no food in the kitchen except A LOT of potatoes. I always have tons of potatoes. Mainly because they never go bad. I mean, they start growing roots (!) before going bad. And I always buy the really large bags.

So, I had 7 gourmet cheeses, water, and lots of potatoes. So, potato soup it was!


Ingredients
4 cups water
1 vegetable buillon cube
2 peeled and cubed Idaho potatoes
1/2 large carrot cubed
6-8 snow-white miniature
mushrooms cut down the middle
1/2 Spanish onion diced
1/4 red pepper diced
1 red thai chili pepper (dry)
salt to taste pepper to taste
1/4 cup cream
1/3 cup of havarti habanero cheese (shredded)--can be substituted with any white spiced cheese.
1/3 cup of sweet swiss cheese (shredded)
1 dollop of sour cream (optional if you feel soup is too spicy)

Directions
1. In a sauce pan, bring water to boil.
2. Add chicken buillion cube.
3. Add diced potatoes and carrots. Leave on high heat for 6-8 minutes or until you can easily pinch the carrots or potatoes with a fork or knife.
4. Add mushrooms, onion, red pepper, and thai chili. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Allow to sit on medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until potatoes and carrots have softened.
6. Add cream (if you don't have cream on hand, substitute with 1/2 cup milk and 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour. If you choose the latter, keep in mind that you need to mix flour well with the milk before pouring into the soup to prevent flour clumps from forming in your soup).
7. Let soup simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Add 3/4th of the Havarti Habanero & the Sweet Swiss cheese to soup. Stir well until the cheese has completely melted and blended with the soup.
9. Do a final taste check and add salt and pepper if needed.
10. Pour into a soup bowl and sprinkle the remainder of the shredded cheeses over the soup.

Delicious with a crusty bread: sour dough or italian baguette.
(If soup is too spicy, add a dollop of sour cream).

Spanish Rice and Shrimp Stew

When I first tried On the Border's Chicken Tortilla soup, it was the first time I tried rice inside soup. So, this recipe is inspired by OTB's soup, but I wanted to make it more refreshing for the Spring rather than heavy/spicy as was OTB's version.

Servings: about 3 (add more water for more servings)
1/4 lemon
1 small white onion
1/2 green pepper

3 springs of cilantro
1 thai chili
1 cup of organic vegetable stock

about 2 cups of water
1/2 can of Hunt's tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1/3 lb of shrimps (peeled and deveined)
shredded mild cheddar/monterey jack cheese
Rice and Vermicelli rice mix (Giant Eagle brand)


1. In a saucepan, brown 1/2 cup of rice/vermicelli mix with margarine or olive oil.
2. Add tomato sauce and allow to heat.
3. Add 2 cups of water and allow rice/vermicelli to soften.
4. While rice is softening, add chopped green peppers, thai chili and onion.
5. Once rice absorbs most of the water, add cup of vegetable stock and allow to boil.
6. Add shrimp and chopped cilantro.
7. Add lemon juice to soup.
8. Top with cheese.



Soup is really great for dinner. The rice makes it rich enough to be a full meal. The lemon, cilantro and shrimp really complement one another. Personally, I like my soups spicy, so I would add a second thai chili, but I wonder if it would clash with the lemon and cilantro flavors? Also, I went overboard with the amount of cheese I added to my bowl. If I had it in the fridge, I would totally have used freshly grated Fair Farm Oaks' Habanero Havarti cheese, but that would mean driving 3 hours through Indiana...no thanks.