Tomato Soup

Yes, soup, again... But hey, it's almost winter and soup goes with winter!! Besides, once you've tasted this soup - and all the other on Rischlicious - you'll love soup, too!!
I never liked tomato soup. I think it's because I only ever tasted shop bought stuff and it was way too thick and rich for my taste. And my dad added stuff, like Worcestershire Sauce and pepper... I love my dad, but how he could eat that, only he knows!! Since home made food and especially if it is made from scratch, do taste much different that the shops, I decided to give it a go. And I was deliciously surprised...

Preparation Time: 10min
Cooking time: 5hours +
Difficulty Level: Very Easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients
2kg very ripe tomatoes
1liter boiling water
1 cube of chicken stock
2 bay leaves
10 whole black pepper corns
1tbs parsley
4 spring onions, chopped
4tbs sugar
1 onion, chopped
1tbs oil
1/2 cup cream

Method
Quarter the tomatoes and remove the hard piece where the stem was attached. Place in a pot. 

Dissolve the chicken stock cube in the boiling water and add to the tomatoes. Add the bay leaves, pepper corns, sugar, parsley and spring onion.  

 Cook for 2-3 hours, with closed lid, until the tomatoes are soft and you can easily remove the skin. Remove all the skins and the bay leaves. Pour into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour back into the pot. Heat up the oil and fry the onion until it is well browned and just starting to blacken. Add to the tomato soup. 

Now add the cream, mix well and cook on low heat for another hour or so, with closed lid. If you want it thicker, remove the lid and cook until it has reduced to your liking. This soup can and should sit for a while, for all the flavours to develop. You can serve immediately, or let it rest and just heat it up later. 

Serve with parmesan and fresh bread.

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Creamy Chicken Soup

I never thought I would be able to make my own soup - let alone experiment with various types of soup!! Yet, it is so easy and so much fun. The flavour combinations is limitless and you can tweak and change it to suit your craving. I also like to make my soup from scratch. For me, it just tastes better.

Preparation Time; 5 hours
Cooking time: 2 hours
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 6 easy

Ingredients

7x pieces chicken (preferably with lots of bone)
1liter water
2 Bay Leaves
2 Star Anise
10 Whole Black Pepper Corns
2tbs fat/margarine
1 onion, chopped
250g mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
1cup cream
1cup water
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
pinch freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cook the chicken, water, bay leaves, star anise and pepper corns together. 

Slow cooker is best, for about 4 hours. 

Remove the chicken meat from the bones and shred finely with 2 forks. Set aside. Melt the fat in a large pot and fry the onion, spring onion and mushrooms until just browning. 

Pour the chicken stock into a onion pot, through a sieve. Throw away the bay leaves and stuff. On low heat, cook the soup. 

Add the cream, nutmeg and black pepper. Depending on how fluid you like your soup, you can add another cup of water. Let it simmer for about an hour on low heat. You can serve immediately, you let it sit to warm up for later.

Serve with fresh home made bread and enjoy!!

  

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch 

Plain Chicken Foldovers

I really love making my own things. Which is why I have started to make my own mayonnaise, cheese spread and jams. I also make my own pasta now!! And, keeping in the spirit, with this recipe I also made my own wraps!!

This is delicious and suits lunch or dinner, for a picnic, for school, for work... and you can modify it any way you want to. You can add lettuce, and tomato, and cheese... or peppers and feta... 

Ingredients

8 chicken pieces
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
10 +- black pepper corns
water
Wraps
1/2 cup tangy Mayo
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch freshly ground nutmeg
2tbs tomato sauce
Basil Pesto

Method

Place the chicken pieces, cloves, bay leaves, star anise and peppercorns in a pot. Add some water. About 2 cups. Cover and cook. Check regularly that it doesn't burn, but be careful not to add too much water or you will dilute the beautiful flavours. 

Cook until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the heat and drain any excess water. Hopefully you didn't have any!! Remove skins and bones. Finely "thread" the chicken meat with 2 forks. 

Add the cayenne pepper, nutmeg, mayo and tomato sauce and mix well. 

Spread the wraps with Basil Pesto. Sprinkle over some cheese. Scoop the chicken mixture onto the wraps and fold it: first the bottom up, then left over and then right over. 

And serve!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Chicken Fettuccine a la Creme

The name sounds exotic and delicious - and it is!! Although much easier than it sounds. It is a combination between Chicken a la King and Fettuccine Al Fredo, and it is soft and creamy and just perfect. Do try this at home!!

Preparation Time: 20min
Cooking time: 3 hours
Difficulty Level: Very easy
Serves: 6

Ingredients

4 pieces of chicken breast or thigh
2 star anise
2 bay leaves
1/2t freshly ground black pepper
1/2t salt
1/4cup red wine vinegar
water
2tbs butter
1 onion, chopped
1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
250ml cream
25g grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup peas
500g Fettuccine

Method

Place the chicken pieces, star anise, bay leaves, pepper, salt and red wine vinegar in a pot. 

  
 Add some water, I would recommend starting off with half a cup. You need to check as the chicken cooks, if the water is still enough so that the chicken doesn't burn. Not only does this cooking cook the chicken and flavour it, it makes a little stock that will be added to the dish later (and it is super delicious as a chicken stock!!) This needs to cook for about 2 hours until the chicken is cooked through. You don't want a watery stock, so try not to add too much water without burning the chicken of course. If you did add too much water, you can just cook it down until you have about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of stock. 

Melt the butter and fry the onion and the mushrooms until lightly browned. 

Remove from heat and add the cream and parmesan. 

Mix. Place back on heat to thoroughly melt and combine the cream and parmesan, but don't let it cook down too much. Remove from heat. 

Now, my husband knows me so well!! He bought me a wonderful Pasta Maker for Christmas. Not just the machine the rolls it out, this one mixes the dough and then gives you what you want: spaghetti, macaroni, fettuccine... So I made my own pasta for this dish, and it was about 500g of uncooked, shop fettuccine. 

If you can, I would highly recommend getting your own pasta machine. Home made pasta is much more filling than shop bought pasta and just tastes better!! Cook the Fettuccine in salted water until al dente. Add the peas (I used from frozen) and cook till done.

Remove the skin from the chicken pieces and remove the meat from the bones. Cut the chicken meat into strips and add to the mushroom mixture. 

Reheat if necessary. Mix the mushroom mixture with the chicken and the fettuccine together.

And Serve!! 

Goes very well with a glass of light white wine...

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Chicken Pie with Apple

I have another chicken pie recipe, but that one is classified... hiehie... However, I wanted to try another way of making chicken pie, an easier way, less ingredients, etc. This is what resulted - and although the taste is pretty amazing, I am not entirely happy with the recipe and will have to revisit this one, with a couple of amendments. For now, though, this is it. The apple came as inspiration, and it does add quite an interesting sweetness. 

Preparation time: 20min
Cooking/baking time: 6 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
Serves: 8

Ingredients

5 chicken pieces (white meat)
200ml water
1tbs soya sauce
1cup sago
250ml cream
1 star anise
2 bay leaves
pinch freshly ground nutmeg
2tbs mayonnaise
salt & pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 tin (200g) mushrooms/ half punnet sliced mushrooms
1 apple, grated
2tbs butter
1 roll puff pastry

Method

Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Add the water, soya sauce, star anise, bay leaves and nutmeg. Cook for about 5 hours, until very tender. 

The more tender it is, the easier it is to remove the bones. Once cooked, strain the liquid into a separate bowl, 


and remove the bones (and skin, if you're so inclined). Mince the meat finely by using two forks and pulling the meat apart. 

Add the sago to the liquid and let it sit until most of the sago is see-through. 

Melt the butter in a pan, fry the onion, apple and mushrooms until starting to brown.

Add to the chicken meat. Add salt (sparingly) and pepper to taste. 

Whisk the cream and mayonnaise together and add to the sago mixture. 

Add the meat to the sago mixture and mix well. Lightly roll out the puff pastry. Scoop the mixture into an oven dish, 

and cover with the puff pastry. Brush with eggwash or milk. 

Bake in the oven at 160degrees C for 30min to an hour, until the pastry is nicely browned. 

Dish up, with a fresh garden salad, or the famous Strawberry salad.  

Enjoy!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

Stew-Pie

Sunday Lunch... always the kicker!! What to make? It is somewhat of a tradition to eat a decent Sunday lunch, to the point of completely stuffing yourself, and then falling down somewhere for that well-deserved Sunday afternoon "nap"... mostly just waiting for the food to settle and a little space to open up in the very stretched stomach for that sought after Sunday Dessert... 
Well, I decided on a stew thing. With dumplings. So it's almost a pie, too... It's so delicious, you won't care what it is called - as long as you can make it again!!

Preparation time: 30min
Cooking & Baking time: 100min
Difficulty Level: Easy
Serves: 5

Ingredients

500g stew meat / goulash
2l water
1 cube beef stock
1tbs balsamic vinegar
3tbs soya sauce
potatoes - 1 per person
small pickle onions - 2 per person
8 whole cloves
3 bay leaves

Method

Put the meat in a pot - preferably one that is oven proof as well, again I used my cast iron pot.

Dissolve the beef stock in 1 litre of the water and add to the meat. Add the vinegar and soya sauce. Cover and cook for about 40min.

Add the other litre of water, the cloves, bay leaves, potatoes and onions.

 Cover and cook for another 30min.

Make the dumpling dough*, scoop over the meat. 

Cook covered in the oven at 160degrees C for about 30min, until the dough is done.

Serve and enjoy!!

I made cauliflower and broccolli with cheese and cream to go with the dish. It wasn't even necessary for rice!! The meal was filling, delicious - and healthy! Of course, for the low carb version: don't add the dumpling dough. But if your family loves it (like mine), make it, just don't dish the dough up for you.

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch

* Find the Dumpling Dough recipe on this blog.

Burnt Pumpkin Soup

This was one of those sundays... I had no idea what to make for our lunch/dinner. I wasn't in the mood for chicken and we don't really have "sunday meat" like a roast. We had the potato bake in the week, so that was taken... And then I remembered my Burnt Pumpkin Soup!! This is a simple recipe, but a lot of work. It takes about 4 hours. Depending of course, on how much you rest inbetween. 

Ingredients- Chicken Stock

7 soup pieces of chicken (mostly bones and skin)
2 litres water
2 star anise
3 bay leaves
25 black peppercorns (about)

Method

Put everything in a pot, put on the lid, and cook for an hour. If it too watery, cook for another 30 minutes.

Once cooked, strain over a bowl, to remove the chicken pieces, peppercorns, anise and bay leaves. Remove any usable meat you can from the bones and put it back in the pot. The water you strained is your chicken stock.

Ingredients - Pumpkin

3 medium butternuts, quartered

1/4t fine cinnamon

2 onions, chopped

100g butter

grated nutmeg

3tbs sugar

coarse salt

500ml cream

Method

Place the butternut on a baking pan, sprinkle with salt. Bake in the oven at 160degrees C for an hour. After an hour, add a little water to the base and bake for another half hour. Put on medium grill for 10 minutes.

Melt the butter in the pot with the little chicken pieces you could salvage off the bones. Add the onion and fry. Add the sugar and cinnamon, let it melt and remove from heat. Scoop out the butternut into the pot. Add the chicken stock, nutmeg and cream. 

Let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend it in a blender until smooth. 

The bread next to the pot, is my Baking Powder Bread. It will be in my next post. Goes lovely with this soup!!

Serve it up, and enjoy! 

This is enough for at least 6 people. It is very rich and filling and delicious!!

Yours in oil and veggies

Risch