Soup | Ayesha Jamal

Hello Bloggy friends! 🙂 FIRST OF ALL IS A HUGE REQUEST: I made my FACEBOOK, page today, I’d love it if you all could just push the follow button over there:) The smiley face is to make up for my ah…absence on the social scene. Look, before you reach drastic conclusions ( Examples: My getting abducted and being taken to Mars by aliens, My turning into a gypsy and going on a world travel on foot, My becoming a cave woman who eats wild rats for dinner, My going to jungles of Africa to join red Indians…..endless list here), I gotta explain my absence dear dudes and dudettes. After freedom(basically taking one year away from my studies) after A’levels, I’ve finally embarked upon my graduate program. I guess I got a little busy and then I also had weight loss goals, which required time and VIGILANCE( yeah , i hate CAPS too). Anyhow I’ve returned, and I’ve returned for good (Like they say in the movies). However, I’m not going to have a strict posting schedule. I’m going to post whenever I have time away from studies and….. exercise and other stuff (wow, my exercising is unbelievable even to myself). I’m also going to post about things other than ‘food’. I’ll also try to post healthy food recipes as well. Phew, there, I’m done. P.s I also managed to get a flat tummy (yes FLAT!! I’m so happy about that). Today I’m posting this super yummy recipe that I sort of created in my ‘soup’ endeavors last month and enjoyed it ever since! 🙂

Ingredients:( 6 large serving bowls)
For Gravy:
3+ 2 tomatoes
1 large onion diced
250 gms boneless chicken cut into small cubes
1 large (or 2 small) capsicum chopped roughly into large pieces
1/2 cup green peas
6 large green chilies cut into half
1 large carrot chopped into small pieces
4 tbsp cup soy sauce
3 tbsp white vinegar
4 tbsp chili sauce
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste
1 1/2 tbsp powdered black pepper
1 tsp red chili powder
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup cornflour dissolved into half a cup water.

Rice/Pasta:
You can boil rice/pasta separately. For these proportions I boiled 2 cups of white rice and 2 cups of pasta.

Instructions:

Dice the first 2 tomatoes
Take the other 3 and boil them. Then sieve them with the help of a spoon to get the juice.
In a large saucepan, put chicken, all the spices,salt,vegetables and oil into 10 cups of water. Set it to simmer on low heat. Cook for atleast 30 minutes to get all the vegetables cooked, and for the soup to get infused with flavor.
Then add the soy sauce,chili sauce,worcestershire sauce and vinegar.
Now switch to high heat and get the soup to boiling point. Now stir the dissolved cornflour into the soup, this will cause the soup to thicken.

The soup is good on it’s own, but for a more fulfilling diet I’d suggest you pour it on hot boiled rice or freshly boiled pasta….and Bon appetit! 🙂

What do I want? I want a real winter. A real winter with real snow. A lot of you guys might be questioning yourself, “Is she mad?”. Don’t judge me, hear me out. Unlike most of you, I live in a place which has summer for ten WHOLE months. The last two months are fake winters,that is winters without snow. I think wintery-winters are lovely. And its not just the snow. Its the warm blankets, hot food,coffee,chocolate,nuts,soup,gossip and laziness that attracts me. I’m attracted to cold mist and cold hands. Glad to have a break from the moisture and sweat that marks the other months. Maybe I should consider myself lucky that we often end up with the best of both seasons. Even the summer heat is never smoldering, its just there too much of the time. Does that mean we don’t have spring and autumn? Probably,since I never spotted the difference. Either it’s cold or it’s warm. It was cold yesterday, I could feel the winter on my nose. The best way to feel winter on your nose it to touch it. The feeling is like porcelain left in the fridge for a while. I wonder if it can crack as well if I pinch it. My sister told me to try it out! Obviously I did not 😛 Anyway. I made hot n’ sour soup for the two of us yesterday. We love this soup. Its the “sssss soup”. All you can do after eating it is stutter and gasp, from the hot and spicy-ness of it! And its super easy, super delicious,super everything good!

Ingredients (Serves 4)

8-10 green chili(finely chopped)
1/2 cabbage(finely chopped)
2 tbsp red chili sauce
1/3 cup tomato ketchup
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp white vinegar
salt to taste
1 tsp white (or black) pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp red chili powder
6 cup chicken stock
1/6 of spaghetti packet boiled (we just need a few noodles based on how much you want in your soup)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 egg whisked
1 1/2 cup shredded chicken

How to go about it

In a pan stir fry shredded chicken in 2 tbsp oil. Just fry for a minute or two. Take out and set aside.
In a pan add finely chopped green chili and cabbage. Saute for a while in some vegetable oil.
Add chili sauce, soy sauce,salt,pepper,red chili powder,brown sugar,chicken stock,ketchup.
Add boiled noodles and stir.
Let the soup simmer.
Add fried chicken to the pan.
Dissolve cornflour in 2 tbsp water and pour into the soup. This is to thicken it slightly.
Pour egg over soup in THREADS and not lumps. You can use a piping bag/Plastic bag with tiny hole/spoon for this.Be careful.
Let the soup simmer for a while before serving.