Broccolli Broth

~1l homemade chicken stock 
3 medium onions 
500g broccoli, dice the stems
small carrot finely diced
1 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf 
3 small garlic cloves
4 tablespoons butter? ~2cm off de end of de block
2 dessertspoons flour
some milk
Freshly ground black pepper and salt

Instructions

Chop the onions and defrost the chicken stock.
Put a large saucepan on a medium heat saute the onion and garlic.
Add the chicken broth, the onions, carrot, broccoli, bay leaf, thyme and garlic cloves. Season well. Bring the mixture to a boil then let it simmer for ten minutes. I let it roll for about 5mins to break stuff up.
Made a roux for the laugh. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour while stirring continuously. Add the milk in small portions while mixing it carefully until smooth.
Mix the broccoli soup slowly with the milky liquid.

Done. Nice and chunky broccoli broth

N.B. This didn't keep well in either the fridge or freezer. Eat immediately!

Thai Whole Chicken Soup

Here's one that I'd been gathering ingredients for for a while but didn't know what I was making.

1) boiled a small whole chicken in about 2 litres of chicken stock with shallots and garlic for 1.25hrs.
Sieved the resulting broth and scooped some oil off the top. separated the meat from the bones and garbage and put back with sieved liquid. discarded everything else.

2) added 2 lrge lemongrass stalks, 4 kaffir leaves, 2 chilis, and a large piece of grated galangal, brought to boil then turned down and added 4 tbsp fish sauce, 1 can coconut milk, and a bunch of sugar snap peas.
turned down some more and added the juice of half a lime, and some sugar and cayenne pepper to taste.
garnished with coriander and basil leaves.
served with wholegrain noodles.

-----------------------------
take 2.
didn't put the chicken meat straight back in as it got too shredded from being boiled about. left it to last step when adding lime juice.
didn't use store bought coconut milk, used my own homemade coconut milk, much more delicate and not overwhelming at all, also a bit more coconuty taste.
consequently needed less fish sauce and no cayenne pepper, but added 3 dried chillis and a whole lime.

Surf and Turf Soup

got a litre of chicken stock hot in pot.

5 shallots, 1 inch ginger, 4 garlics, 2 lemongrass all finely chopped and woked for a minute.
thin sliced beef into chunks and added to wok for a few minutes.

added wok contents to stock <-this was a mistake, meant to add next section to pot first before bringing back to boil.

added can of coconut milk, baby corn, sugar snap pods, and frozen sweetcorn to the stock. brought back to boil.

left simmer for a few minutes, then added 2 tbsp each of soy and fish sauce, tsp demerera sugar,
and finally some frozen shrimp and juice of 1 lime and left for a minute before turning into a bowl.

decided to serve with brown and white basmati on the side. probly better with noodles in the soup, but getting a bit sick of noodle soup. [edit: just been eating as soup, now have a freezer full of rice portions]


pretty good soup! a little on the chunky side maybe.