Cock-a-Leekie Soup
Topic: Soup
Cock-a-leekie soup is a traditional Scottish soup dish of leeks, potatoes, and chicken stock. I encountered this recipe few months ago while I was browsing for an international cuisines, at first I did not able to get what the name implies and it sounds very interesting to me but when I read all the ingredients, there I knew that it was simply made of leeks and chicken stock! Lol  So last night I made my own version of cock-a-leekie soup. Originally, the recipe calls for leeks, chicken, barley, potatoes and raisins, etc. but I did not follow it all, for me as long as it has leeks and chicken stock then that’s it! I used carrots instead of potatoes because I am not a big fan of it when it added to any soup base dish. I also add milk to have more delectable taste.


Ingredients:
700 g chicken, sliced into small portions or chopped
5 leeks, cut into 2 inches length
1/4 tsp. tumeric powder
1 onions, sliced thinly
3 tbsp. crushed ginger
? tsp. coriander powder
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 can 170 g evaporated milk
? tsp. sugar
7 cups water or more
1 large carrot, sliced
Black pepper powder
1 chicken broth cube
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Combine tumeric powder and chicken, mix well.
2. In a cooking pot, combine water, onion and ginger, bring to a boil. Add chicken and cook for 20 minutes with low heat, then add white part of leeks, cook for 10 minutes.
3. Take out the chicken from the soup, discard the bones and skin then return to the pot.
4. Add the green part of the leeks, coriander powder, tomato paste, sugar, black pepper powder and broth cube. Simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add carrots and milk, season with salt and pepper. Cook until the carrots are done. Serve.

Tuna Corn Soup
Topic: Soup
Here's another version of corn soup.

Ingredients:
1 small can, tuna flakes in oil
1 can 8.25 oz cream-style corn
4 cups fish broth/water
1 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp. water
1 egg, beaten
1 small size onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ginger powder
2 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat butter in a pan, saute garlic and onion, then add tuna, stir.
2. Add broth/water, corn, ginger powder, fish sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Add in the cornstarch mixture, stir.
4. Continue cooking, uncovered for 3 minutes.
5. Stir the beaten egg into soup. Reduce heat and stir for 1-2 minutes, season with salt and pepper.
6. Off the heat and transfer to a soup bowl.

See also Chicken Corn Soup

Sotanghon Soup
Topic: Soup
This soup was product of being desperate-for-what-to-cook last night. My husband said he want some soup for our sohoor meal as a side dish for the chicken and the fishes I fried, I didn't know what to cook since its almost time for meal already, so I have to think fastly, I want to make Chicken Corn Soup but I must have to thaw the chicken first, so that's not a solution. Fortunately, I saw few shrimps in the fridge, so that was easy to thaw, then an idea came to mind, this is what I made:

Ingredients:
1 cup shrimps,shelled and deviened leaving the tails on
100 g sotanghon noodles
1 small carrot, julienned
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 cup mushroom
1 onion, minced
1 tomato, quartered
1 thumb-sized ginger, crushed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp. butter, melted
4 cups broth/water
2 tbsp fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste
chopped green onions for garnish

Directions:
1. Heat butter in a pot, saute garlic and onions, thed add ginger and tomatoes.
2. Stir in the shrimps, add broth, then season woth salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Add carrots, mushrooms, celery and fish sauce. Simmer until the vegetables are done.
4. Add sotanghon noodles, cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, garsnish and serve while hot.

Real Cream of Chicken & Asparagus Soup
Topic: Soup
Cream of asparagus, my father’s favorite cream soup and he usually bought ready to cook soup powder ever since he tried it. I never tried cooking fresh asparagus cream soup before, whenever we had fresh one, I will cook it different way, not a soup base. We still had some fresh asparagus left in the fridge from the Shrimp and Vegetables Guisado that I cooked before so an idea came to my mind to make it into a cream soup. I also add chicken slices, with bones to enhance the flavor.

Ingredients:
300 g chicken, sliced
10 pcs. fresh asparagus, cut into 2 inches length
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
? cup milk
? cup all purpose cream
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
? tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 tsp. black pepper powder
3 tbsp. melted butter
1/3 cup grated quick melting cheese
1 egg, beaten
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Heat butter in a pot, stir fry the chicken until lightly brown, stir in the garlic, then onions. Stir until the onions become transparent in color.
2. Add broth, coriander, sugar, salt and black pepper powder. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is done, add more water if desired.
3. Add the asparagus, cook until the asparagus are almost done.
4. Add milk, cream and cheese, stir and let it boil. Stir in the beaten egg and cook until the egg is done.

Serve hot.

Besugo Fish Soup
Topic: Soup
Besugo is very common in Philippines and it is one of our favorite fish, my father always bought it whenever he saw it in the fish market and asked my mother to cook it immediately while it was still very fresh. We usually broiled it or boiled it with some vegetables. It has a very delicious soup.

When we went to the fish market last week, my husband saw a few of it and he did not hesitate to buy it even the price was 3x more than its price in the Philippines. It is not common here in Kuwait, we rarely saw it in the market and if there were some, then only very few of it.

I know there will be many variations to cook it but I always cook it this way:

Ingredients:
500 g Besugo fish, scaled and cleaned
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium ripe tomato, quartered
1 thumb-size ginger, crushed
2 bay leaves
3 cups water
1 tbsp. fish sauce (optional)
2 stalks green onions, cut into 2 inches length (separate white part)
vegetables of your choice (pechay, chayote, zucchini, lettuce, etc.)
1/4 tumeric powder (optional)
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Combine water, onion, tomato, ginger and bay leaves in a pot. Put over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Sprinkle tumeric powder to the fishes. (optional)
3. Add the fishes, white part of green onions and fish sauce to the boiling mixture. Reduce heat, simmer until the fish is done, season with salt.
4. Take out the fishes from the soup and transfer to a dish.
5. Add the vegetables of your choice to the soup and cook until the vegetbales are done.
6. Turn off heat and add the green onions. Add the soup mixture to the fish very gently, the fish is very fragile that time. Serve.