Hot and Sour Soup

It's been a while since I posted a new recipe and I've been promising this one to people left, right and centre. It is delicious, filling, full of nutrition, cheap, very easy to cook and only 2.5 WW points a portion! It is a good supper-in-a-bowl.

This recipe comes from a really badly organised Weight Watchers cookbook called "Menu Plan Eat Enjoy". I can't over-emphasise how badly indexed this book is; each page contains a full day's menu of dishes/recipes, but only the headline recipe is indexed.

Hot and Sour Soup

Ingredients

1.2 litres/2 pints chicken stock (I used 600ml of strong stock made from the Christmas turkey together with 600ml of boiling water)
350g/12oz skinless boneless chicken breasts sliced thinly (I used a 250g bag of cooked turkey chunks which I froze at Christmas)
75g/3oz shitake mushrooms (I used normal mushrooms, adding a small amount of dried shitake which I soaked for 10 minutes first)
I large red chilli, deseeded and chopped (or use a heaped teaspoon of lazy chilli)
1 red or yellow pepper, deseeded and diced
150g/5oz pak choi cut into quarters then separated into leaves
100g/3.5oz dried egg noodles
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine (or sherry)
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons light soy sauce (I used regular soy sauce since that's what I have)
20 grinds of pepper, preferably white

Method

1. If using dried shitake mushrooms: place in a bowl, cover with hot water and allow to soak for 10 minutes.
   
2. In a large saucepan, bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the chicken (or diced turkey if using). Bring back to the boil and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms, chilli and red/yellow pepper. Bring back to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes.
   
4. Break the noodles into smaller sections and stir into the saucepan together with the remaining ingredients. Grind over pepper. Simmer for a further 3-5 minutes or until everything is cooked.
5. Divide evenly between four deep bowls (the hardest part).
   

Yum!

- Pam

Chicken Stew with Cobbles

Dinner last night was a rolled turkey leg roast, which should have resulted in plenty of leftovers. (What can I say? We didn't have lunch!!!) Amongst the options for the leftovers was a cooked meat version of this stew, which I invented one day when I wanted a stew with dumplings but not the calories. So I decided to put a cobbler top on instead.

Then I decided to cook it all in the crockpot and, amazingly, it worked! I’ve put an oven-cooking method at the end. For a cooked meat version, follow the oven version and skip the first hour in the oven. Use 300g cooked chicken or turkey.

Weight watchers points-wise, the stew costs 3 points, the cobbles another 2.5 each. The stew serves 4, whilst the dough makes 8 cobbles.

This is one of the few recipes I cook which uses margarine. Normally, I can’t stand the stuff but when you cook kosher, there are times you have to use it.

Ingredients

500g/1lb cubed chicken breast
200ml/1 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoons corn flour
1 chicken stock cube
1 large onion roughly chopped (or use 1-2 large leeks sliced)
150g mushrooms sliced
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tablespoon tomato puree
4 carrots chunked

For the cobbles

50g/2oz margarine or butter cut into small cubes
175g/6oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
10 grinds of black pepper

Crockpot Method

1) Rub the margarine into the flour, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the herbs and the black pepper. Add sufficient water to make a firm dough. Form dough into a roll and cut into 8 equal slices. Set aside whilst you prepare the stew.
2) In a jug, combine the corn flour with the white wine. Make up to 400ml with water.
3) Layer all the other ingredients into the crock pot, starting with the meat and ending with the mushrooms and onion. Level off the ingredients.
4) Pour over wine mixture. Position the cobbles evenly around the stew. Cover and cook slowly for 10 hours.
5) Serve with a green vegetable.

Oven method

1) Preheat oven to 180 C/gas mark 4/350 F.
2) In a jug, combine the corn flour with the white wine. Make up to 400ml with water.
3) Combine all the other stew ingredients into a flame proof/oven proof casserole dish. Pour over wine mixture. Position the pot over a medium flame; bring the stew up to simmering point, stirring occasionally.
4) When the stew is simmering, cover the dish and place in the oven for an hour.
5) In the meantime, make the cobbles. Rub the margarine into the flour, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the herbs and the black pepper. Add sufficient water to make a firm dough. Form dough into a roll and cut into 8 equal slices.
6) After an hour, remove the stew from the oven and give it a good stir. Add additional liquid if necessary (use boiling water). Position the cobbles on top of the stew and return it, uncovered, to the oven.
7) Cook for another 30-45 minutes, until the cobbles have browned, and serve.

- Pam

PS: Cobblers are so called because the scone topping resembles cobble stones in a road way.