Chicken Pasta Soup Recipe

25 September 201915 February 2020 ~ The Author

A friend of mine makes this lovely chicken pasta soup and posts it online for others to salivate on. It always looks so irresistibly good, so I decided it was time to cook some at home too. After all, a nice bowl of delicious soup fresh from the stove is always good to have these cold winter nights.

Because this soup has meat, veggies and pasta in it, you can eat it by itself and it’s a complete meal. The first few times I made this, I cooked a lot. But as is common with pasta dishes, it’s always not so great anymore if you try to reheat it for the next meal. The pasta is already soggy or bloated, and the soup has mostly disappeared. So, recently, I came up with an idea on how to enjoy this dish for more than 1 mealtime, without compromising the pasta.

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CHICKEN PASTA SOUP

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chicken fillet, skin removed and cut to cubes
8 cups of water
Dash of salt
4 tablespoons butter
1 brown onion, minced
6 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
1 large carrot, diced
3 stalks celery, minced
1 cup ham, chopped
1 chicken cube
Boiling water
1 ½ cups chopped cabbage (optional)

225g elbow macaroni (can be substituted with any similar pasta)
1½ cup thick cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Grated/shredded cheese (optional topping)

PROCEDURE:

Heat water in a pot. Add chicken and salt. Let boil until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, melt butter in a separate pan. Sauté onion and garlic until they are cooked, then add carrot, celery and cabbage. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot once cooked, but let the pot remain on the stove. Cook pasta in the same water and pot for 10 minutes.

Quickly shred cooked chicken into strips. Add chicken, ham and chicken cube into the pan with the veggies. Cook for 2 minutes.

When the pasta is almost cooked, carefully add the veggie-chicken mixture into the pot containing the pasta. Stir well.

Add cream, salt and pepper into the soup. Cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to get the pasta overcooked. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with grated cheese on top.

It’s best to eat this soup in one sitting, otherwise the pasta will absorb the soup and become bloated and dry by the next meal time.

However, if you are time or energy poor (as many of us are) and wish to prepare this soup for two meals, but don’t want to compromise the quality of the cooked pasta, prepare the dish as is, BUT cook only half of the pasta required. Then, add only half of the veggie-chicken mixture and cream to the cooking pasta, reserving the other half for the next meal.

For the next meal, boil the remaining pasta, then add the reserved half of the veggie-chicken mixture when the pasta is almost cooked. Add the remaining cream and season according to taste.

Lemon Slice Recipe

18 September 201915 February 2020 ~ The Author

Someone once said “When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade.”

LEMON SLICE

Ingredients:
(For the bottom layer)
150 g salt-reduced butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 Tbsp cornflour
1 1/3 cup plain flour
Icing sugar

(For the top layer)
4 eggs
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup lemon juice

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 160 deg C.

Prepare the bottom layer by melting butter in a bowl. Add sugar and vanilla and mix well. Sift the flours on the mixture, then stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Set aside.

Line pan with baking paper. Transfer the bottom layer mixture to the pan. Spread it evenly and press to compact. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the top layer by whisking eggs, flour and sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice and continue whisking.

Pour the top layer mixture over the cooked bottom layer. Bake for 20 more minutes and let it cool in the pan. Dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.

Leche Flan Recipe

11 September 201915 February 2020 ~ The Author

Spring has come to Australia, and the chooks have felt it. To celebrate the warmer-than-winter season, they decided to lay lots of eggs!

Well, in fact, a bit too much so I decided it was high time to make this:

Whoops! Nope, not just that.

What I really meant was this…

One of the Philippines’ most favorite desserts, this baby is a good way of disposing those chooks’ eggs properly. Since it was the last Sunday was the last of the month, we had the traditional ward luncheon at church after the services and for that, I decided to make Leche Flan to share with the folks.

It’s really not that hard to do. The last time I made this dessert was way back in 2009 or 2010, yet when I made one last weekend, it was still as easy as ABC.

INGREDIENTS

5 whole eggs
1 can condensed milk
water
3 Tbsp powdered milk
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 Tbsp raw sugar

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Fill half of a larger tray/pan with water and put that inside the oven for the water bath.

Beat eggs in a bowl. Add condensed milk, water and powdered milk. In other recipes, they use a can of evaporated milk. But because when I made this last Saturday evening, there was no evaporated milk at home, so I dissolved powdered milk in a can full of water (I used the emptied can of the condensed milk to measure) and used that as substitute. Add a teeny-weeny pinch of salt and a few drops of vanilla. Mix well by gently stirring, to avoid forming bubbles…although I think no matter how well I tried to mix it manually, you’d still come up with something like this:

Use a clean cheese cloth to strain the mixture. You can also use a fine wire strainer, like I did.

Straining will make your mixture, and thus, the flan, smoother.

Place sugar in a pan. You may add a bit of water to dissolve the sugar. Place the plan over low heat to caramelize the sugar, until it’s golden brown but not burnt.

Let the caramelized sugar rest for a while. Then pour into the pan the egg-milk mixture. Cover the pan with foil.

Now, use your oven mittens and very carefully place the pan of egg-milk mixture on the water bath inside the oven. Watch out that you don’t spill the water or the mixture or wet your mittens with the boiling water. Cook for 50 to 55 minutes, keeping the oven temperature at 180 degree Celsius.

Let the flan cool before turning it upside down on a plate to serve.

Harry Potter Themed Cakes

6 February 201620 February 2020 ~ The Author

Perhaps the TV station GO must have heard of hubby’s Harry Potter themed birthday celebration. Because a few weeks later, this station decided to show the Harry Potter films every Friday evening. On the first Friday evening, I was wearing the Gryffindor gray pullover sweater vest, Gryffindor scarf, and a witch’s hat, and munched on the remaining jelly beans and chocolate frogs while watching the movie. I’m not really a super fanatic of HP, but since I had all the props lying around, I thought I might as well have fun with them! Hahaha.

Speaking of Harry Potter, today I’m sharing with you some of the amazing Harry Potter themed cakes I came across while researching for hubby’s party weeks ago. I’m linking each photo and caption to their sources. They might come in handy in case you’re planning an HP party of your own, so here they go…

Photo credits: