Spicy Noodle Soup

Last weekend when I was doing a bit of study I got an awful craving for something hot and spicy. I couldn't get warm so thought a bit of chilli heat might do the trick.  This was literally a 5-minute wonder.

1 nest medium egg noodles, broken up

Chicken stock, made with cube or if you're fantastic your own homemade
2 scallions, including the green tops, chopped roughly
Small clove of garlic, finely crushed
Quarter of a Red or yellow pepper, sliced finely
Pinch of chilli flakes
Teaspoon of Thai red curry paste
Handful of peas



Gently fry off the scallions and garlic until soft for a minute or so.  Then add the hot chicken stock and let it come to the boil.  Once boiling throw in the rest of the ingredients, reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble gently for 4mins. Slurp immediately.  You could also add shredded cooked chicken or prawns to this for a more substantial meal.

ROASTED PEPPER SOUP

Serves 4

• Halve 6 peppers (a combination of red, yellow or orange but not green), remove seeds & stalks, then cut each half into 6.
• Cut a medium sized red onion into 8 wedges.
• Use either 10 cherry tomatoes, left whole, or quarter 4 normal sized tomatoes.
• Use 1 garlic clove but leave it whole, just remove the outer papery skin.
• Throw the whole lot into a roasting tray.
• Drizzle with some olive oil, about 2tbsp. Or if you want to be healthy sprinkle with 1tbsp of water or spray on some Light spray oil.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Sprinkle on dried or fresh herbs of choice.
• If you like a bit of heat, sprinkle on some chilli flakes or roughly chop up a red chilli and add to the mix.
• Give the whole lot a good stir.
• Roast in a preheated over at 180C/fan 160C for 30-40mins until the peppers are slightly charred and the other veg are soft.
• Remember to give the mix a stir every 10mins or so in order that it doesn't stick or burn. If it looks like its burning cover with tin foil for the remainder of the cooking time.
• In the meantime, make up approx 1 litre of stock with 2 chicken or veg stock cubes. Don't use beef cubes. If you've got it, and even better, use your own homemade stock.
• Bring to a gentle simmer.
• Once the veg are done, add them to the stock and blitz the whole lot in a food processor or with a hand blender.
• Return to the saucepan, check if it needs more salt and pepper. Then serve.
• This is nice with a crusty roll or even garlic bread.
• And better still, if you leave out the olive oil its calorie free so you can eat as much of it as you like!!

Thoughts are turning to Christmas

Only 10 days to big celebration and there's been a change of plans this year, Mammy Chops is joining us. My ma was going on about spending the day alone and we decided to invite her being the nice people we are! Anyway, now its got me thinking what will I cook? Being an elderly lady of 79 its not everything she can eat. So the recipe testing has started. Tonight I decided to try a carrot soup. I finely chopped garlic clove, 3 medium sized carrots, an onion, a small potato, good pinch of ground coriander and plenty of seasoning. I gently fried them off in oil and real butter until the onion was soft and translucent. Then added approx a litre of stock with a big splash of orange juice, you need to cover the veg completely. I let that bubble away gently for around three quarters of an hour, then blitzed it up with my hand held! It should be a nice smooth soup and you know what, it turned out quite nice, if I say so myself. So it looks like a runner for Christmas day.

There might be a few additions on the day itself - I was thinking finely chopped crispy chorizo sprinkled on, or finely chopped red chilli, red pepper & spring onion as a garnish. For the Mammy it'll be plain soup with some warm bread.

Now onto the dessert.....