So how wonderful is this- in an inspired moment of culinary puissance and homesickness, my husband forayed into the kitchen and whipped up what must be the best tasting cabbage soup this girl's ever had... He seared some pork shoulder with garlic, chopped up a whole garden of cabbage, carrots, onions, & potatoes, and cooked the whole darn thing with chicken broth and water. We let it simmer happily for almost 5 hours after which the house smelled like a cross between a hug and a warm blanket (does that make sense at all??)- all comfy and heartening... Just before we served it for dinner today, we added some rice vermicelli which just brought everything together into a hearty, deliriously delicious meal...
Jude's grandma used to make this soup for him all the time and there's just something about soups like these that always remind us of home. Between slurpfuls of it for dinner, we wondered what else it is that we miss from home that we now have to try making on our own. We've conquered Char Siew (Chinese roast pork), Nasi Lemak (coconut rice), curry puffs, Beef Rendang, and Hokkien Mee... We were thinking of popiah (veggie wraps/ rolls), but since there's no way we can get a hold of those handmade popiah skins, what's the point? (we momentarily contemplated making our own, and then looked at each other and went- "Yeah right, who are we kidding??...")
Oh well, we'll see what else we can conjure up. In the meantime, I can't wait till tomorrow when I have another go at the leftover soup (it's going to taste even better of course...). That's it ladies, if there's one piece of advice I have, make sure your husbands makes good soup!
9 comments:
Hey, that looks really good. I know exactly how you feel when it comes to food. I have done pho, chcken porridge and home made paus,though the recipe for the paus was from Jamie Oliver's cookbook.
hey duc,
i got so excited at the prospect of making paus, i went searching for the jamie oliver recipe! but it only appeared in reviews of his book so i think i'm going go the bookstore to steal a look... :)
What? No recipe! Roughly, how many carrots, onions? Size of cabbage? What about spices? I always find white pepper a great je ne ce qua(?) to soup. Please tell me: I like hugs and blankets, too!
Also, I don't know what popiah skins are, but maybe Zingerman's can order them for you?
do you mean "sine qua non"? as in indispensable and absolutely necessary? yeah, jude loves white pepper in his soups too!...
so the recipe- it's really about which veggies you like the taste of more, then you can add them accordingly. for the one that jude made, i think this is what he put in:
- a pound and a half of pork shoulder (with bone and cut into large pieces)
- a couple cloves of garlic (smashed)
- half a head of cabbage (chopped)
- half pound of carrots (chopped)
- one large onion (roughly sliced)
- two potatoes (peeled and cubed)
- two portions of dried rice vermicelli (you can get these at asian supermarkets and they're packed in little portions for you)
- chicken broth
- salt and pepper to taste
1) fry the garlic in some oil till fragrant. sear the pork till brown on all sides
2) add all the veggies and stir to distribute evenly.
3) add enough chicken stock to barely cover the ingredients (the veggies will release liquid of their own so you don't want to add too much chicken stock at a go. you can always add more later)
4) let that boil vigorously for about 20 minutes.
5) turn it down to a simmer for as long as you can. season with salt and pepper to taste. we had it on the stove for almost 5 hours!...
6) an hour before you want to serve the soup, soak the rice vermicelli in water for about 30 minutes. add the rehydrated vermicelli to the soup (it should be warming on the stove at this point) and cook for another 30 minutes. the vermicelli wil absorb some of the soup so you might want to add more broth and re-season before you serve just in case.
we had it as is, but i suppose you could also serve it with some crusty bread on the side. i must warn you though, the rice vermicelli does make it rather hearty!
i know it's more of a winter food than a summer one, but since we've been having these freaky thunderstorms and rains here in ann arbor, this soup was perfect!
man if i was away from singapore, i'd really miss a good CHICKEN RICE
OMG nik, you are SO right! ok, now i'm inspired... :)
Yay! a recipe.
This is all this cooked in the same pot right?
I guess you could leave out the vermicelli and have the bread on the side for a lunchtime soup....
chicken rice is sooooooo easy to make! I vary my recipe according to this: http://www.recipezaar.com/1750
Post a Comment