Soup

As the weather has been turning cooler (and I bought a new blender!), I've been in the mood for making soup! The great thing about soups is that you can throw just about anything in the pot and it still tastes great!

The first soup is a tomato and carrot soup.

Ingredients 
About 1kg of tomatoes (any kind will do), roughly chopped
2-3 carrots, sliced
1-2 onions, chopped
About 1tsp of minced garlic or 3-5 cloves, finely chopped
Seasoning (I added salt & pepper, a veggie stock cube, mixed Italian herbs and a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce)

Gently fry the onion and garlic in oil until the onion is translucent. Throw in the carrots and continue cooking for about 5 minutes, then add .tomatoes and seasoning. Simmer until the carrots are soft and throw into the blender for about a minute. Serve with the best bread you can find with plenty of butter. 


The second soup is a Carrot, Potato and Smoked Bacon Soup. I found a packet of smoked bacon in Homeplus the other day and just had to find a way to use it. This soup is absolutely delicious! You can make it without the bacon, but I think it definitely adds to the flavour. I made a huge pan of soup intending to freeze some of it, but it's nearly all gone!

Ingredients
3 large carrots, sliced
3 large potatoes, cubed
2 sweet potatoes, cubed
2 onions, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic or 3-4 cloves, chopped
Seasoning (I used the same seasonings as in the first recipe)
About 6 rashers of smoked bacon (optional)

Fry the bacon until crispy and set aside.
Gently fry the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add carrots and potatoes and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Then add about a pint of water (you can adjust the amount of water depending on how thick you want your soup to be) and your seasonings. When the carrots and potatoes are soft, throw the lot in the blender for a minute or two and return to the saucepan. Add the bacon and serve with buttered bread.

Did you notice the new "tiles" behind my hob? When I moved into my flat, the area behind the hob was stained yellow and despite scrubbing with bleach, it would not shift (yes, my entire kitchen is white, including the sink! Who thought that was a good idea??) I spotted some kitchen stickers in Daiso and decided to hide the stain. It looks really good (as long as you don't look too closely at the air bubbles! I think I'll have to try and redo it this weekend)!

Cider

Cider fans will be happy to know that you can now buy bottles of apple and pear cider at Santa's Bar in Gungdong for 7,000won a bottle. My favourite is the apple cider, it tastes similar to scrumpy. I thought the pear cider was a little bland, I prefer the sweet, but tart flavour of Scandinavian pear ciders.

Bacalau and Chickpea Salad

Sadly, I can't take the credit for this one! My friend, Giselle is Portugese-South African and whipped up a Portugese fish pie and chickpea salad.

The fish pie is made with cod fillets (from the frozen food section at Costco) and sliced potato. The dressing for the chickpeas was made from lemon vinegar, olive oil and chopped herbs.

Veggie Coconut Curry

I'm trying to make an effort to eat more fruit and vegetables, so whipped up a quick curry when I got home the other night.


Ingredients (vary amounts to suit)
Onions, chopped
Garlic, finely chopped
Courgettes, pumpkin, aubergine (or any veg really!), sliced
Curry powder
Can of coconut milk


Fry the onion and garlic, add the veg and stir fry for a few minutes. Add curry powder and stir fry for another couple of minutes, then add the coconut milk and simmer gently for 15 minutes or so. Serve with rice (and wine, of course!)