* receipe adapted from Heston Blumenthal's "at Home"
Ingredients (serves 4 to 6 persons):
For the mushroom powder:
10g dried shitake mushrooms
10g dried porcini mushrooms
For the Soup:
1.5kg Chicken stock **
160g unsalted butter
2 onions - finely sliced
1 small potato - soften then cut into small cubes
2 leeks - white part only, finely sliced
800g buttom mushrooms, finely sliced
50g dry white vermouth (optional)
80g whipping cream
40g milk
** For Vegetarian version, replace chicken stock with vegetable stock
How to Make:
1. Mushroom Powder: you can make this one day ahead. Preheat oven to 150'C . Roast the dried mushrooms on a baking tray for 5 min. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Blitz them in a spice grinder or food processor until very fine. Keep in airtight container until ready to use.
** if you want to clean the dried mushrooms with water before roasting, i will suggest you to allow a long enough time for them to dry up again before roasting.
2. Make your stock one day ahead: Boil old chicken (without skin) together with carrots, celery, onion for 3-4 hours. Drain soup to a pot and after cool down, chill in fridge. On the day you make the soup, take it out from the fridge and remove the fat that will be gathered at the top layer. Reheat the soup.
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan and sweat onion and potato without letting them color (approx 10min).
4. Add leeks and mushrooms and cook until they soften (around 15 min)
5. Turn the heat to high and add the vermouth. Allow it to redice until almost all the liquid has disappeared.
6. Pour the mushroom mixture to the chicken stock (which was already boiled), then add the milk and cream. Bring to boil again and reduce toa simmer. Cook for another 10 min.
7. Remove from heat and blitz in blender in several batches until completely smooth.
8. After each batch, sieve the blended mixture to a clean pot.
9. Season with salt and pepper. With a hand blender, aerate the soup for 60 sec to make it lighter or frothy.
10. Ladle the soup to bowls and sprinkle with the mushroom powder on top before serving.
Enjoy!!
* receipe adapted from Janet Hornby's "What to Cook and How to Cook it"
Ingredients:
500g boneless chicken thighs (around 5-6pc) - cut into cubes and season them with salt and pepper and a little bit of cornflour
150g chorizo (or 1 piece) - sliced
1 onion - sliced
2 garlic cloves - sliced
1 red pepper - sliced
1tsp ground cinnamon
2tsp paprika
1tsp thyme
3 tbsp dry white wine
1 can tomato - chopped with its sauce
1 can chick peas - drain water in can
200ml chicken stock
handful pf parsley or basil (whichever you prefer)
How to make:
1. Heat some olive oil on pan and add chorizo until the red oil has been released. Remove chorizo to a bowl for later use.
2. Fried chicken in the same pan until done and remove to bowl for later use.
3. Add some more olive oil to the pan and stir fried the onion, garlic and red pepper until softened. Keep stirring.
4. Splash in the wine until all evaporated, then add the tomatoes and stock and let it simmer for around 15 min until the sauce has thickened.
5. Add the chicken, chorizo and chick peas back to the pan, then the cinnamon and paprika and simmer for around 5-10min.
6. Check seasoning and add sea salt and black pepper to your tasting. Lastly, break the basil or parsley leaves by your hand and add to pot and remove all to a serving casserole pot or dish. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve piping hot!
Enjoy! Best serve with pasta and bread!
* receipe adapted from Michael Roux's "Eggs"
Ingredients (for serving 6-8 portions)
500ml milk
500ml whipping cream
1 vanilla pod - slice in the midway and scrape all seeds for later use
150g caster sugar
200g egg yolks (about 10)
70g demerara sugar
How to make:
1. Preheat oven to 120'C.
2. Make the custard by heating the milk, the cream with the vanilla pods and the seeds and 90g caster sugar. Once boil, turn off the fire and let the vanilla pod kept immersed at the milk for a while more.
3. Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar (60g) lightly.
4. Remove vanilla pod from the milk and pour the milk mixture to the eggs and keep whisking lightly until all combined.
5. Ladle the mixture into gratin dishes and place on a baking tray and cook in oven for 30 mins or until just set. (if you notice bubbles from the mixture, remember to remove them with a sieve before spooning them to the gratin dishes.
6. Leave the custard to cool down before chilling them at fridge.
7. Upon serving, take them out from fridge, sprinkle demerara sugar on top and brown it with a torch until golden brown and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
