Soup #13....Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

I'm not sure why but for some reason I was really looking forward to this soup.  Maybe because I like spicy so I was hoping for some kick! I love, Chinese, Thai and Japanese food (I so miss Village Wok, Sawatdee and Benihana in Minnesota. Ahhh....Great food.  There's something about Benihana when you go to other states that's just not the same.  The food is pretty similar, but the sauces and the atmosphere....just not the same as in Minnesota.  It's almost worth making a trip back just for these few restaurants.

So that's part of what inspired this recipe I guess, which was really easy.  And when I say easy....All you had to do was throw everything in a pot and simmer.  You cant get any easier than that.  What I realized after making this soup; I'm not a fan of shiitake mushrooms.  I will probably NEVER use them again and if a recipe calls for them...I'm making substitutions.  I'll stick with my portabella mushrooms thank you very much.

So I rate this recipe about a 7 out of a ten.  It was a little more than average.  Hubby and Daughter thought it was great, while I thought it was just ok.  It's not one that I'd be in a rush to make again.  I did a spicy slaw salad which I though was a pretty good combination.  Me and the Daughter liked it, although the recipe called for just a little too much mayonaise..I used this:

 I really like this mayo and it tastes like the real thing to me.  Hubby is NOT a mayo person and he didn't care for the slaw salad only because he felt there was TOO much Mayo in it...which it was.  The recipe called for a cup and I'd probably use about a half instead next time.  Otherwise I thought it was pretty tasty and about as simple to prepare as the soup. I don't have a lot of pictures because all the ingredients were just thrown in together, so here's what I've got:

Finished meal...had to throw in vegi potstickers (store bought)

Finished soup....looks good right?

Spicy Slaw

So there you have it.  The recipe that I was SOOO looking forward to that I was a little disappointed in.  I haven't had Chinese food from a restaurant in several years.  I'm thinking I need to go sample this recipe from an authentic restaurant and then do a comparison.  Not sure if my taste buds are a little off or not.  lol  So that's it.  Come back tomorrow to see what I'll be serving.  

Peace and Blessings all!!!!

and we round out the week with......

Chiang Mai Noodle Soup is what I chose to cook along with a Chinese Chicken Salad.  I've been literally waiting all week to cook this particular soup.  I'm a big fan of Thai food and I was certain that this would be full of flavor and it would be one that I would be a fan of.  Well....I was right.  It had a very distinct flavor and was amazingly good.

I considered using a different noodle instead of the egg noodles that the recipe called for but chose to stick with the recipe....somewhat.  Since I absolutely hated the texture of the vegan chicken in the chicken noodle soup I chose not to use it like the recipe suggests.  I opted for vegan meat crumbles instead because I wanted to have some type of texture in the soup and to make it a little more filling.  Daughter didn't care for the soup...I was SO surprised.  Hubby liked it but said that the flavor was a little sweet which wasn't really appealing to him, but he really liked it overall and said that he would like to have it again.  Part of the way I judge how good meals are is by  whether or not it's something the family would get excited about having again...Silly huh?

Oh and don't let me forget the salad.  It came from the salad book I blogged about several weeks back.  I was a little skeptical...again with the chicken texture, but I stuck to the recipe on this one, using vegan chicken of course.  I seasoned the chicken lightly and stir fried it in olive oil and then tossed it in the salad.  It was so good.  I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  I'm glad I chose this one because, to me, it complimented the soup perfectly.

boiling the coconut milk so that it separates

coconut milk with remaining ingredient combined

garnish for the soup

Chinese Chicken Salad

Finished Meal

Close up of soup.  Delicious!!!

So folks...there you have it.  A perfect end to an almost perfect week.  Glad I saved this one for today.  I'll most likely be back tomorrow with a new soup since we have NO leftovers.  I was kind of looking forward to a break this weekend but it doesn't appear I'll get one.  Oh well.  Wishing everyone a fun filled enjoyable weekend.  

Peace and Blessings!!!

Day 8 Soup....Curried Salmon

Curried Salmon Soup and Roasted Red Pepper Salad was tonights dinner.  And before anyone even says anything.....Yes, it was a soup with salmon yesterday; I know...I know!!!   I contemplated for some time whether or not to do Salmon 2 days in a row and because the recipe sounded so yummy, I couldn't resist.  My taste buds weren't quite satisfied with last nights dinner and I was really wanting salmon so I chose to give it a try again...only with a different soup of course.  lol   This one was a definite a winner.  

I'm not going to go into how complicated or easy it was...because I think my idea of easy differs from others, but I will say that this recipe called for about 10 ingredients all of which were pretty inexpensive.  I think it took maybe a little over and hour to prepare the entire meal.  I should probably start timing myself to give accurate prep and cook times.  I will say that though that next time I would probably actually prefer it without the salmon mixed in with the soup.  I could do it on the side or even not at all.  It was still very delicious and a meal that I'm sure I'll make for my family often. Everyone loved it so you know it's going to be added to our regular family menu....not that we really have a menu, but if we did.....

So for the ingredients....( the ones I can actually remember off the top of my head because I'm too exhausted to move from my bed right now)  Salmon, onions, butter, red curry paste, white cooking wine, coconut cream, soy milk, parsley, water, diced potatoes, salt and pepper.  Actually I think that may have been all of them.  See, pretty simple right?  The salad was easy...just roasted peppers, garlic, parsley, chopped carrots, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce and I think that's it.  The dressing for this salad actually reminded me of this salad that I made awhile back.  It was very similar.  

So...enough talking typing already...here's pictures of tonights dinner:

Prepared salmon for soup 

Diced potatoes

onions sauteed in butter with curry sauce added

Soup mixture simmering with potatoes

Finished Meal

Closer Look at Soup

Peppers for the salad

Ok, so again I'm apologizing for Blogger, I don't know what's going on with this thing.  When I've tried adding pictures the past few days it's been doing all sorts of crazy things.  My pictures just move where ever they want and so does my text.  I'm not trying to stay up all night trying to figure this out so you all are stuck with it as is....  

So there you have it tonights dinner.  Come back to check out what's cooking tomorrow.  I'm actually pretty excited about tomorrows soup and can't wait to see how it turns out.  *Crossing fingers*

Peace and Blessings All!!!!!