Magnifique French Onion Soup

It wasn't until college that I started to enjoy and freely choose to order french onion soup. First of all, I don't generally like onions and only like cooked onions - but cooked for a long period of time until they become soft and sweet.  Also, when given the option between creamy tomato basil soup, chicken and dumplings or french onion soup, the latter always seems to receive the short end of the stick. But, really, who can pass up tomato basil soup?

As for why I tried to make this soup for the first time, I'm not entirely sure. First of all, it's summer. In Houston. It's hot. Ridicously hot. The thought of hot soup isn't really that appealing.  However, I think I had one of those random cravings that if you don't have it or anything similar, you will continue to think about it until you satisfy it. Well, there's nothing similar to french onion soup! 

This soup was easy and didn't require any extra trips to the store since these are basic pantry items, a big score! It does take some time - roughly 45 minutes but it's not continuous cooking time.  For a good chunk of the time, it's leaving the soup to simmer or the onions to slowly cook down.

French Onion Soup

Recipe adapted from here

3 large yellow onions, sliced

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

2 bay leaves
1 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup sherry

1 cup white wine

5 cups beef stock

Salt
White pepper
Parmesan cheese, grated

2 slices of toast

1. Clean your onions, ridding of the exterior skin. To slice them, I cut them in half and then slice into strips. 

2. In a pot large enough to hold the stock, add your butter except 1/4 tbsp and when it's halfway melted, add your onions. Let this cook on medium heat for a good 20-30 minutes until they get sparkley and dark brown. The heat is important here. If you have it too high, your onions will cook too quickly and mine tend to burn without getting to that soft, clear, carmelize-y state.

3.  Starting to look good!  Add in the bay leaves.

3. Next, add in the sherry. Sherry has a very distinct flavor. If you do not like it, cut back on the amount and you can add either more wine or beef broth.  Scrap the pan to get all the bits off the bottom.

4. Next, add in the cornstarch and give it a good mix so that the onions are coated well. 

5. Now, add in the wine and beef stock. Give it a taste, then add in salt and pepper as you see fit. White pepper works really well for this recipe.  Turn up the heat until it boils and let it boil for 5 minutes.

6. Turn up the heat until it boils and let it boil for 5 minutes. Then turn the heat back down to a simmer and let it sit for a good 15 minutes. Add in that last bit of butter to let it melt. Again, taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

7. Turn on your broiler to low.  Put the number of ramekins you'd like to serve in a larger pan - so that it doesn't get your oven dirty if it overflows.  Pour ladels of soup into each leaving just a little bit at the top to fit your bread and cheese. 

8. I used normal white bread and tore them into pieces to loosely cover the top.  Add grated parmesan cheese on top. I'm sure you can use any type - french bread for a crisper topping.  I put them under the broiler on low for 3-5 minutes. Make sure you watch so that the chees doesn't burn.  Be careful taking this out. I served the ramekin on another plate so not to burn any fingers. Enjoy!

Restaurant Review: Korean Noodle House

When the weather dips and you're bring out the scarfs and jackets for the 30-40 degree weather, nothing sounds better than a hot bowl of soup.  Even better, what about hot soup with noodles?  Korean Noodle House is a cute little house, literally a house, with two of the main rooms filled with simple tables and chairs.  They serve a variety of Korean appetizers, hot noodles, cold noodles and hot rice dishes.  If you're wanting bugolgi or any type of korean bbq, this is not the place. 

They provide that perfect bowl of warm goodness - where you can feel that warm broth go through your body.  Hollah!  I've only been maybe three times and to say how good this place is for that hot soup kick/need, my dad brought this place up and wanted to go.  However, I bet it's  probably due to this cute, small container of fresh, homemade kimchi they give to every table.  Needless to say, all that kimchi was gone by the end of the meal and even some of that kimchi sauce was spooned into our noodle dish.

Appetizers are typical. You can get the korean seafood pancake but they also offer these korean noodle-ish dish (picture below). My first time to try these at this restaurant and I'm a fan. It's mixed in this slightly spicy sauce with onions, green onions and they are delicious.  I would say it's a Korean version of gnocchi. See why I'm a fan? My mom even mentioned that she'd be happy with this appetizer for her main dish. Ha! 

We've tried a variety of the hot noodle soups.  Below is the seafood hot noodle and you definitely get that seafood broth.  It's good, but could use a little kick of salt or hot sauce.  I had the beef and dumpling noodle soup (very top picture), which was absolutely fantastic. The broth...oh, the broth. So GOOD.  The actual beef pieces were a little tough and overcooked and the dumplings were fairly good.  Beware, if you take this home for leftover because the bowl is just so darn big, the noodle and dumplings will absorb all of the broth.  Either separate it as soon as you get home or you'll have simple noodles and no soup at 10 p.m. when you have your midnight snack.

Overall, I give this place a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Service is friendly and good. They don't refill your drink as much but with the noodle soup, sometimes you don't need it. Definitely a must for a cold day.

Home Comfort: Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Wow, so sorry for the lack of posts in over a month.  Had a very busy month and found I barely cooked full meals, which meant I had boiled dumplings, heated totinos pizzas or mac and cheese. 

Back to this post.  I had started this post a while ago and never had time to finish it. It's hot in Texas so the thought of soup isn't incredibly appealing but after reading Pioneer Woman's post of one of her favorite recipes, cauliflower soup, I was willing to reconsider.  Granted, I made this dish about a  month ago when we did not have the 100 degree weather.... I love cauliflower but not in soup - my go to recipe for cauliflower is to simply roast it in the oven with garlic, olive oil and S&P.  This soup was hearty - definitely not healthy with the cream - and a nice change from the roasted veggies.  Hooray for cream! 

As for the recipe, I changed it quite a bit.  Cut down on the butter significantly and omitted the entire step for the roux.  I just added the cream directly into the pot with the stock.  And, I added a lot more veggies and cut down the milk and stock.  I added in some additional herbs and omitted the parsley.  Also, I have to admit that this makes a ton of soup (even after I cut down on the stock) and while I hate throwing away left-overs, I found it hard to eat night after night. After the third night of having some for lunch or dinner each day, I just had to say, no more!

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Adapted from Pioneer Woman

2 tbspn butter

1 onion, chopped

3 medium sized carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 cauliflower head, cut into small bunches

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup cream

Pinch of dried thyme

Pinch of dried oregano

3 bay leaves

1. In a large pot, melt the butter and add the onions until they become transparent on medium heat.  Add the carrots and celery.  I let it cook for a good 5 minutes.  I add in the garlic here and let it quickly cook until you can slightly smell it. 

2. Next, add in the cauliflower - don't worry, your pot will be overwhelmed but they will cook down. Cook for 15 minutes covered on low heat.

3. Bring up the heat again and pour in the chicken stock and cream.  Let it boil and then reduce to low heat again.  Add in the dried oregano, thyme and bay leaves.  Let it simmer and thicken for about 15-20 minutes.  Taste and add S&P as necessary - or more dried herbs as needed. 

Pork Sinigang alla Chef Alcaraz

When I started my new job, I spent a few days in Dallas where my newly married sister and bro-in-law also lived.  They were awesome and fed me dinner those few days - what a treat! :)  On the first night, they took me to the awesome restaurant, Abacus (review here), where they had truffled risotto. ...  Sorry, distracted remembering how plate licking good it was. 

On the second night, Eric made his famous pork sinigang, a classic Phillipino sour soup, which I have never had!  He showed me the steps and also gave me a couple packets of the flavoring - Mama Sita Sour Tamarmind Mix - so I could also make it myself.  It's a tumeric based soup, which if you don't like that sour flavor, you probably don't want to try.  This is served with plain white rice and Eric also adds a little bit of soy sauce.  Hilda and I like it a tad more soupy. 

What is great is that you can add in any type of veggies into this dish. Bok choy, chinese cabbage, asian white carrot, anything!  Since time is needed to simmer and tenderize the pork, I'd recommend making this dish on the weekend.  

Or!  You can make this in the slow cooker!  In the morning, put everything in the pot - pork, water, tomatoes, shallots and mix - and let it cook all day while you're at work.  When you come home, done!!!  If you want to add veggies, you can add them when you get home so they don't get too mushy from 8 hours of slow cooking.  Add and turn the slow cooker to high and let it cook for 20 minutes.  How easy is that?  Easy.

Pork Sinigang Soup alla Chef Alcaraz

Serves 4

1/2 pack of Mama Sita tamarmind mix (go to any asian store and they will have some type)

1 rack of pork ribs

2 roma tomatoes sliced

2 shallots sliced

1. Clean and cut up the pork ribs into invidual ribs. Put in a big large pot with 5 cups of water.  On low heat, let it simmer for roughly 45 minutes to tenderize the meat.  Don't try to cheat because when you actually eat this, you'll love how the pork just falls off the rib with your fork. Can you say happy? 

2. Add in the shallots and the tomatoes.  Turn the heat up to medium and let it cook a little more.  Here, you can add in those additonal veggies I mentioned - white carrots, bok choy, whatever you have in your fridge. Let this cook until those veggies are cooked. 

3. Then add in 1/2 pack of the seasoning.  You can add 1/3 first and taste, then add more if you like.  I like a very strong sour flavor so I tend to put 1/2 to 3/4 of the packet.  

4. Serve in a bowl with a scoop of white rice. Pour some delicious soup over and add two ribs and veggies.  Done!  So good!  With a fork and spoon is the best way to eat this in my opinion - if you didn't cheat on the tenderizing, the pork will fall off with your fork and you can pile a scoop of rice, soup and a piece of pork on your spoon for one delicious bite.   

Tom Kha Soup

I love that my huge family has a huge appreciation for food. For my sister's wedding in November - which was absolutely beautiful - we were in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at an all inclusive resort. That means ALL YOU CAN EAT. Let me say that again - AYCE. For the Hung family, that's pretty much perfect. Ha! Not only did we always get together to eat - from larger servings that what should be allowed to snacking on plantain chips every time we were at the pool to having far more than the three meals per day - we took pictures of all the food consumed. I will share those shortly.

We also don't take no for an answer when trying to make you eat something that is just so good but you think you are too full. Really, you are never too full. Each night after eating dinner, we take a quick peak at the night buffet by the beach to see what they were serving that night. I anxiously waited for the delicious nutella cake each night while my cousin went for the main course. One night when we claimed we were absolutely beyond stuffed (actually, this is the same comment we made after every meal...sigh), she saw a mushroom risotto that was just too appetizing to pass up. I heard her say, wow, they have risotto, it looks so good, I think I may get a spoonful. When she came back to our table - that spoonful turned into a large bowl that she undoubtly forced all of us to eat. Damn her!

I digress....talking about food and family pretty much go hand in hand. Anyways, we talk about food as much as we eat. Cousin Nat told me she had a perfect recipe for Tom Kha Soup, which has multiple ingredients I've never heard of or knew where to get. When she shared the recipe, I thought galgangal looks like ginger, perfect, I'll substitute! Ha, then I read and researched a little more to find that you really can't do since there is no other ingredient with galgangal flavor and Tom Kha actually means boiled Galgangal. One of Ross' frequent restaurants in the Heights is Asia Market - half Thai restaurant and grocery store - and they had fresh lemongrass, kaffir (lime) leaves and galgangal. Perfect!

The only thing I would do is cut down on the amount of fish sauce. Start with only a tablespoon and taste test before you add more.

Tom Kha Soup

Need 1 big pot and serves roughly 4-5 people depending how many bowls you eat yourself!

2 cups chicken breast (2 chicken breast)

1 cup tofu cut into small cubes

2 cups chicken stock (1 can)

9 oz can coconut milk

1 cup straw mushroom

3 lemon grass (you want the bottom white part about 6 inces only and cut into 2 inch segments)

8 slices of galgangal (sliced fairly thin)

4 kaffir lime leaves (rip off hard part and then tear each in half to help extract some of the oils)

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice

Lightly chopped cilantro (if you want, not absolutely necessary)

1. Take the lemon grass segments and with the back of your knife or something hard, quickly hack the lemongrass to extract the flavor.

2. In a big pot, boil the chicken stock. Once boiling, add the lemongrass, galgangal slices, lime leaves and sugar. Let it cook on medium heat for roughly 10 minutes.

3. Then add the coconut milk and add only one tablespoon of fish sauce. Take a quick taste and if you want more saltiness, add more fish sauce one tablespoon at a time. Put heat to low so soup simmers. If you want to add some red/green chillies here, it adds a little kick.

4. Next, turn up the heat to medium high and add the mushroom and chicken. Once chicken turns light - 5 minutes - turn off the heat and add the tofu. Add the lemon/lime juice and some sprigs of fresh cilantro on top to complete the dish. Deeee-lish!