Pea-Leek Soup

Since it's still officially winter I thought I could add another soup recipe here! :D Today it's a pea and leek soup! I got inspired looking at some soup recipes and adapted to how I make soup myself. 

So here we go!

Ingredients: (for 4-6 servings)

• 4 leeks
• 10 spring onions (less or more is fine too)
• 4 cups of frozen green peas
• 4 cups of water 
• Chicken broth/bouillon (one cube or 3-4 spoons if in powder)
• 4 cups of milk
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Cut the leeks and spring onion into small to medium pieces 
2. In a pot, add the leeks and spring onion with 2 cups of water and cook on high heat (You can also use some vegetable oil to cook them but to make it extra healthy, we will just poach them in water :))
3. When the vegetables start getting cooked, add the remaining 2 cups of water. 
4. Cut the bouillon cube into small pieces and add it to the pot and mix well. 
5. Add 2 cups of milk and add the frozen peas. Let it cook a bit.
6. At this point you can add some salt and pepper to taste. 
7. Use the hand blender to create the soup. Make sure it becomes all liquid-y (this can take some time especially if you are a perfectionist. But don't worry not more than 8 minutes :P)
8. Add the remaining of the milk (you can also keep it this way, depends how thick you want it to be). And then it's done! :D

I really like this recipe, it's very tasty! And it's so easy to make (soup in general are really simple as long as you have to hand blender ;))As usual, have a nice salad on the side with some chicken, turkey or ham and you will have a healthy meal!

Vichyssoise Soup

Finally, a soup post for cold days! I personally love soup since it makes you feel so warm inside and it's sooo comforting somehow :3 Anyways, today I will be writing on vichyssoise soup, basically a leak-potato soup!To be honest, I'm not really sure where this soup is from but what I know is that I found this recipe from a Japanese cook book my parents have. So here it is, in English :P

Vichyssoise soup in traditional Breton bowl

Ingredients (4 nomsters):

• 2-4 leaks (depending on the size of the leaks)
• 1/2 or 1 onion (depending on the size)
• 4 small potatoes or 2 big ones
• Chicken broth (1 cube or 3 teaspoons) in 2 cups of water
•  4 cups of milk
• Salt/pepper
• Nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup liquid cream

Preparation:

1. Cut the leaks into small pieces and the onion into stripes. If the potatoes are small you just have to peel them and throw them in the pan. If you have big potatoes just cut them into medium pieces. 
2. In a pot, heat a little bit of oil. Add the leak and onion. When they are starting to be cooked, add the potatoes with the chicken broth. Add salt and pepper and let it slowly cook.
3. When the potatoes are cooked (I usually poke them with a knife) add half of the milk and use the mixer. Make sure to get all the potatoes! 
4. When your soup looks like a soup, add the rest of the milk. 
5. At this point you can also add the liquid cream but I always skip this step to make the recipe healthier. And even without it, it's just as nice :)
6. You can add some nutmeg on top but this step is optional.

Usually, this soup is eaten cold but having it hot on cold winter days is also very nice :D This soup is very tasty and healthy and a perfect dinner would be the soup and a salad. It's very light and refreshing for maybe the day after a heavy meal? 

Oroshi Nattou Soba

Oroshi nattou soba made by my dad! :3

Soba is a type of japanese noodle that is made of buckwheat flour. The noodle is brownish and you can eat it cold and hot! Soba is a dish typically munched during new years, to be able to live long and young. At home, we just eat them whenever we want (I know such rebels right?) and when my dad makes soba, this is how we usually eat them (see picture below)! My dad grates daikon radish (the white puree type thing), sprinkle some spring onion, some sea weed and wasabi. You add the soba tsuyu (the dipping sauce) and you munch away. It's so refreshing, it's perfect for summer days!

He had told me about putting nattou (fermented soya beans) on soba and I have been drooling over the idea for some time... I think many westerners don't like nattou since it has a very strong smell (rather ssshtinkyyyy for some :P) and it's all sticky and all. In any case, I love it so I was super keen to try. This recipe is pretty easy. The main problem would be the ingredients that can be rather difficult to find in Europe like nattou and daikon radish. The latter can easily be found in asian grocery store I think (at least in London and Netherlands). Nattou is trickier... I find it in London in a Japanese store called Atariya. Apparently, you can also make it yourself but haven't tried that yet :P Japanese grocery stores are scarce in Europe and are also expensive... Soba is also yummy without it so no worries :D Just adding spring onion, sea weed and wasabi already makes it delicious! For the soba tsuyu I managed to find it in Asian grocery store so should be manageable... 

Anyways, here are the directions for oroshi nattou soba! 

Ingredients (for 2 munchers):

• 400g Soba noodles 
• Soba tsuyu 
• 2 packs of nattou (one for each person)
• 1/3 of daikon radish
• couple of spring onions
• sea weed

Preparation:

1. Boil the water for the soba.
2. In the meantime, cut the spring onion (in small bits).
3. Grate the daikon, it will become like puree. Its very refreshing and a bit spicy? (you will need a little tool for that)
4. In a bowl, add the nattou and the little sauce. Mix it well until its all gooey and stickyyyy.  
5. Cook the soba (check the time on the packaging. Usually soba noodles cook very fast so be careful not to over cook!). When they are done, drain them and use cold water to cool them down.
6. Drain them well and place them into a bowl. Add some soba tsuyu, enough so half of it is immersed in it (some tsuyu needs to be diluted in water so read the etiquette beforehand!). Add the grated daikon raddish, the nattou, and finally sprinkle on the spring onion and sea weed! 

Dekiagari~ Enjoy! :)

Hiyashi Carbonara

First time I made it! :)

You love carbonara? You love asian food? This may be the perfect recipe for you! I saw this recipe, hiyashi carbonara (冷やしカルボナーラ which means cold carbonara) in a Japanese magazine in a clinic for Japanese people in London. When I first read it I thought it was so clever! I adapted it a bit (combined it with how my mum makes her carbonara, my own carbonara recipe and the one in the magazine). If you love carbonara but have issues with the high calories of the original recipe, try making this one! Instead of using spaghetti, you use somen which are very thin Japanese noodles made of wheat flour that are usually served cold. For the sauce, use milk instead of cream! This dish is the perfect way to eat carbonara without feeling guilty or like a fat shit! Yey! AND if it's summer and it's too hot to eat carbonara (said no one ever?) this cold version will be perfect for you! Double YEY!

Second time I made this dish :3

Changed the presentation a bit :P

Ingredients (for 2-3 munchers):

• 400g Somen
• 1 Onion
• 100g Bacon/pancetta
• 2-3 spoons of mashed garlic
• 2 cups of Milk (you can also use liquid cream but makes the dish pretty heavy ><)
• Wasabi (optional)
• 3 Egg yolks
• Sake
• Cheese (emmental/gouda or any other cheese)
• Spring onion
• Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil water for the somen while you prepare the sauce
2. Cut the onion into strips and cook them with a little bit of oil. When they start to soften, add the sake. Cover with a lid for 8min. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Lift the lid and let the liquid evaporate. When they are cooked, set aside and let them cool a bit. 
3. In another pan, fry the bacon (I don't put any oil in it since bacon already has PUULENTY) until crispy. Set aside so it cools down.   
4. In a bowl, add 3 egg yolks, wasabi and mashed garlic. Mix well with a fork until combined. 
5. Add the milk and cheese and mix some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Cut the spring onion as small as possible and put into a bowl. 
7. When the somen are done, rinse them with cold water. Drain them well, place them on a plate, put the onion on top, the bacon and add the sauce. Sprinkle the spring onion as decoration! 

Although I love carbonara, I do think it is pretty heavy. By changing some ingredients to somen and milk, it makes the dish a lot lighter and still very tasty! To reduce even more fat I used smoked ham (it has less fat than bacon). I do think bacon is good for this recipe (even though I'm not such a fan) as it gives extra flavour to the sauce. Make sure you add enough salt to the sauce (it's just milk so it doesn't have that much taste). I also used 2 different types of cheeses for the second time I made it (grated emmental and some powdered nameless hard cheese?) but parmesan would also definitely be yummy :D

If you are not a fan of wasabi you can skip that step but I personally love wasabi so I like to put enough so I am able to taste it hehe. You can also add the onion and bacon to the sauce but make sure they cooled down a bit because otherwise it will cook the egg yolk in the sauce and it will become clumpy.

Enjoy!