Chicken Tinola

Anyone knows what is Tinola, this dish is so popular because of the abundance of sayote in the Philippines. Here in Taiwan you can find sayote in most food stall vegetable markets. This is basically chicken pot soup recipe comes from my childhood and every family home has its own version. It contains meat and vegetable and the aromatic fragrant, concentrated flavor of ginger, all cooked together in one savory dish and perfect for a cooler day or cold evening.
Ingredients:
½ kilo free range chicken, any chicken available
100g ginger, peel and sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 pcs sayote-chayote or green papaya
2 tbsp grapeseed oil or veg. oil
1 chicken cube
1.2 liter of water
fish sauce
salt and pepper
a dash of msg
Preparation:

1. To start, in a 26cm cast iron stock pot, heat oil and saute garlic, ginger and stir until lightly brown. Then add the pepper and stir for a few second then pour in 2 tbsp (fish sauce) patis. 

2. When all saute ingredients aroma comes out, add the chicken and stir until  the chicken turn slightly cook.

3. Then add more fish sauce for about 3 tbsp, stir occasionally, letting the chicken absorb the fish sauce.

4. Drop the chicken cube and stir for a few minutes.

5. Pour the water into the pot, cover and simmer for 20 minutes on medium heat. Because I'm using cast iron cookware it doesn't take longer to boil and simmer the chicken soup.

6. While the broth is simmering with the chicken. Peel off skin, cut in half and remove seed then cut in large diagonally pieces or chop the sayote you’d like in your soup. For optional; You can chop your sayote before you start cooking.

7. Skim off excess oil floating on top. (optional) Since it was free range chicken I keep that chicken oil on my soup for extra flavor. Add sayote and continue to simmer for an additional 5 minutes or until sayote softens but not overcooked. Season with salt and I add more coarsely ground pepper and a dash of msg. You can add some vegetable leaves if you like.

8. When its cooked, turn off the heat and serve hot over rice. I loved to serve this delicious chicken soup with  calamansi and  fish sauce mixture to dip in the meat and sayote.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients:
3 large yellow onion, shredded
8 cups beef stock
2 cups red wine burgundy
2 tbsp olive oil
shredded cheese
loaf French bread
3 bay leaves
dash of thyme
dash of nutmeg powder
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:

1. Remove skin from onion, rinse well and shred. Heat the large heavy based sauce pan, saute the oil and onion and stir until browned.

2. Add flour and stir until well mixed. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

3. Pour the stock and wine, add bay leaves and thyme. Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low cook until the sweet flavor of onion is released and onion is soft. Remove from heat and discard the bay leaves.

4. Ladle the soup into the oven proof soup bowl. Slice the bread sprinkle each slice with shredded cheese, use cover top onion soup. Bake in heat element at 200°C until the cheese bubbles and richly golden.

5. And serve immediately.

Minestrone Soup

Comfort food and healthy Italian soup.
Ingredients:

1 cup dried kidney beans

40g lard

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 large onion, chopped coarsely

2 cups chopped celery

2 bacon or pancetta, sliced or cube

1(180g)  organic-meadow carrot, cut into cubes

2 large whole potatoes, peeled

6 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely

2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley and sage

1½ tbsp dried or fresh basil

300g cabbage, shredded

2 zucchini, sliced

1 cup macaroni

2½ litre chicken stock

salt and pepper

grated parmesan cheese

Methods:

1. Before cooking this soup, put the dried beans in a large bowl, cover with water (cold) and soak overnight. Drain and rinse under cold water. Melt the lard in a large saucepan, saute onion, garlic, parsley, sage and bacon in low heat and cook for 10 minutes until the onion is soft.

2. Add the celery, carrot, tomatoes and stir in the tomato paste.

 3. Add the beans and basil, season with salt and plenty of ground pepper.

4. Add the stock and potatoes, cover and simmer or bring slowly to the boil for 2 hours, stirring once or twice.

5. If the potatoes haven't broke up. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon (or whatever tool you prefer for) on the side of the pan.

 6. Add the pasta to the soup.

7. Follow by zucchini and cabbage, you can add shelled peas if you like. Simmer until pasta is al dente and the cabbage and zucchini it stays lightly crisp and not over cooked.

 8. Finally serve with grated parmesan cheese and a dollop of pesto sauce or basil leaves or sprinkle with olive oil, if desired.

Schi (Russian Soup)

Quick preparation for Schi, it doesn't takes and wait for 2 days to cooked and having this delicious Russian soup. Schi  it taste much better after overnight on the fridge just allows the flavors to blend .

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound beef sliced
2 pieces of beef cubes
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
1.5 liter of water
3 bay leaves
1 small or halves of medium size of cabbage, chopped
1 medium size of potato, chopped
5 medium size of fresh red tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
salt and crush of black pepper

Preparation:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and butter in casserole. Sauteed onion, carrots, potato and tomatoes. Add bay leaves and stir; add the water and beef cubes and bring to a boil.
2.  Add the beef and cook  until beef are soft. Add cabbage and cook another 30 minutes or until cabbage is translucent. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and a dash of msg if you want.
3. Serve hot with tossed bread.