Potato and celery soup

Adapted from here. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2998693/creamy-celery-and-potato-soup
Instead of a pure vegetarian soup or the use of chicken stock, I finished up my leftover beef stock and it was splendid!

Ingredients
3 rashes of bacon, finely chopped
6 to 7 celery sticks, chopped
1 sweet potato, cubed
4 potatoes (or carrots as preferred)
½ onion, chopped
750ml beef stock
2 - 3 bay leafs
2 tbsp barley
½ cup milk, full cream (don't use skim or it may split)
1 tbsp olive oil (or butter)

Method
1) Saute the bacon in about 1 tbsp of olive oil until slightly brown and fat has rendered. Add the onions and continue to saute until transparent.
2) Add the chopped celery and saute until slightly softened, followed by the potatoes and briefly fry.
3) Pour in the beef stock, and add the bay leafs and barley.
4) Set to slow cook for anything between ½ hour (until the potatoes are soft) to 2 hours (potatoes disintegrate) according to your liking.
5) Turn off the slow cooker and pour in the milk. Stir to combine.
6) If desired, remove a portion of the soup and veg, and blend the rest with a stick blender. Add back the removed ved. (I didn't do this as I like chunky soups)
6) Serve hot with crusty bread, but I like it cold (after a night in the fridge) in summer.

Ham and bean soup (slow cooker)

We were invited to Christmas Eve dinner and were fortunate enough to take away some leftover ham. I'd been eating this ham for days and other than having it as a cheese toastie, didn't know what else to do with it. I could of course make fried rice, but I'm not a fan of wok cooking especially in this heat. So here is inspiration that I obtained from various food bloggers - obviously it's a common sentiment! Unfortunately though, these food bloggers are all in the Northern Hemisphere where it's really cold now, so a warm soup sounds like a good idea. I decided to slow cook this up but serve it cold. Although the blogger claimed to have cooked up the soup in 15 minutes, I spent an hour and the carrots, celery and potatoes were cooked and still had a bite but were not meltingly soft. I decided to slow cook for an extra hour and it was perfect!

Sources
(1) Ham and potato soup https://cafedelites.com/ham-potato-soup/ (uses a roux base)
(2) Ham and bean soup https://cafedelites.com/ham-bean-soup/ (clear soup)

Ingredients
4 medium carrots, diced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1 red onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, diced
2 to 3 bay leafs
1 tsp black pepper corns, crushed
1 can of beans
1 litre of chicken stock
200g ham, diced

Method
1) Saute the soffritto (i.e. onion, carrots, celery) until fragrant in a bit of oil. Add in the potato and ham and briefly saute.
2) Pour in the chicken stock, and add the bay leaf and pepper corns. Bring to a boil and skim off the scum.
3) Slow cook for 1 to 2 hours until the vegs have softened to your liking.
4) Serve hot or keep in the fridge overnight and serve cold the next day.

Slow cooker Coq Au Vin

I have always wanted to cook with red wine but the few times that I've tried it with beef didn't taste so great. Eventually I found out that I had been missing a key step - I need to boil off the alcohol otherwise it leaves a bitter taste! Decided to re-try coq au vin which surprisingly, pairs chicken with red wine. I'd always been taught that red wine goes with red meats and white wine goes with white meats but I guess chicken is poultry which is 'neutral'.

Here's a great writeup of Julia Child (the doyen of American cooking) with her interpretation of the recipe and it works quite well!

https://leitesculinaria.com/5399/recipes-julia-child-coq-au-vin.html

I've tweaked it for our tastes so I cannot claim this to be either authentic Julia Childs or French. Original recipe includes tomato paste, thyme, and bacon which I didn't have on hand.

Ingredients
1.2 kg of chicken drumsticks
3 bay leaves
2 glasses of red wine
1l of chicken stock
1 tbsp onion chutney
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 large carrots, peeled and cubed

Method
1) Marinate the chicken in the red wine for at least 4 hours or best, overnight.
2) Drain the chicken. In the slow cooker pot, brown the chicken drumsticks.
3) Add the onion chutney and bay leaves. Pour back the red wine marinade. Bring to a boil so that the red wine evaporates.
4) Add in the chicken stock and ensure that the chicken is immersed. Add the potatoes and carrots.
5) Slow cook for 6 to 8 hours. Let it rest for ½ hour in the residual heat before serving. If you wish, add a tbsp of flour to thicken the sauce at the end.
6) Goes best with buttered bread or buttered brioche to mop up the juices.

Lamb osso bucco with pumpkin

I have never seen or known that lamb had osso bucco too but then I saw it at the supermarket ladt week.

Ingredients
500 to 600g lamb osso bucco
2 to 3 cups of water
2 tbsp onion chopped onion
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp rosemary leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp worchester sauce
½ pumpkin, cubed
2 medium potatoes, cubed

Methods

1) Brown the osso bucco on all sides. Add the onions, ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant.

2) Add all the herbs and sauces, and the water. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum. Turn down and simmer for 3 hours. The water should just cover the meat.

3) In the 4th hour, add the pumpkin and potatoed. Top up with water is required.

4) Serve with crust bread or over rice.

Slow cooked Chu hou beef briskit and daikon

Adapted from here. http://themeatmen.sg/braised-beef-brisket-with-daikon/ Really good.

Ingredients
500g beef briskit, cubed
3 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
3 bay leaves
1 tsp black pepper corns
2 tbsp chu hou paste
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp five spice powder
3 cloves
1 star anise
1 sweet potato cubed
1 daikon cubed
2 cups water

Method
1) Coat the beef in the corn starch. In a pot, brown the beef. Remove.
2) Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger. Return the beef to the pot.
3) Add everything else other than the sweet potato and daikon.
4) Bring to a boil and skim off any scum. Cover and simmer for 3 to 5 hours on low. (My pot retains heat, so I only need to bring it to a boil every ½ hr to 45 mins and switch off the flame to conserve gas). Give it a stir and add more water if required. Continue to skim the scum and oil.
5) In the 5th hour, add the sweet potato. In the 6th hour, add the daikon.

Slow cooker chu hou oxtail stew

I'm in love with chu hou sauce and I love oxtail. So what happens in winter? Sheer bliss. This is a slightly sweet and sour version. All cooked in slow cooker with staggered timing. I ended up eating the beef then saving the oxtail overnight, removing the oil and cooking for a further 3 hours for that dinner.

Ingredients 

1 oxtail chopped

500g chuck beef, cubed 

3 tbsp chu hou sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soya

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

2 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp light sauce

2 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp HP sauce

1 tbsp Lea Perrins sauce

2 Oxo beef cubes 

8 cups water

2 potatoes, cubed

2 carrots, cubed

1 sweet potato, cubed

Method

1) Marinate the beef in the 1 tbsp light soya and wine for at least 3 hours.

2) Put the oxtail, water and sauces in a slow cooker. Cook for 3 hours. Skim oil and scum along the way.

3) Add the beef. Top up with water just enough to cover if necessary.

4) Cook for another 2 hours and add the vegs then cook for a further hour.

Slow cooked beef brisket and daikon in chu hou sauce

Recipe adapted from here: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2008/08/stewed-beef-brisket-in-chu-hou-sauce.html

It's my first time using chu hou sauce and I must say I like it! It's the distinctly HK taste I've been looking for. Although I didnt expect it to be so salty, I need to put a bit less next time.

Ingredients (after adjustment for salt content)

750g beef brisket

1 tbsp chinese cooking wine

1 tbsp light soya

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp chu hou sauce

1 daikon, cubed

½ tbsp ginger

3 star anise

2 tsp corn starch

Method

1) Marinate the beef in wine, light soya sauce, and oyster sauce for at least an hour.

2) In a slow cooker, use the sear function to fry the chu hou sauce and ginger. Add the beef and briefly fry.

3) Slow cook for 1 to 1.5 hours till brisket is soft. Make a slurry with the corn starch and add.

4) Serve with rice.

Chinese oso bucco

I've heard a lot about this cut of meat. Very Italian and I had no idea how to cook it so have put off buying it till now. Even as it lay in my freezer, i still put it off because of the electricity needed to slow cook it. But as it turns our, it wasn't so bad. Downside is that it only serves 2, more pieces and I'm sure my cooking time and hence my electricity bill increases too! Woolies where I bought it from helpfully provided a Chinese inspired recipe but since I was out of hoisin, I had to improvise.

Ingredients
3 pieces osso bucco
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce (i used linghams because I find sweet chilli sauce too watery, but this made my stew rather spicy)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
Grind of black pepper
1 tsp crushed ginger
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 small onion, chopped
3 potatoes, cubed
3 carrots, cubed
3 handfuls of barley
Approx 300ml water

Method
1) Brown the osso bucco in a bit of oil. When sufficiently browned, add the onion, garlic and ginger. If using a slow cooker, transfer to the cooker. Water should just cover everything but not submerge it.
2) Put in all the remaining ingredients. When it comes to a boil, skim off any scum.
3) Periodically stir and skim. Total cooking time is 2 hours on the slow cooker.
4) Serve garnished with cut chilli, on a bed of jasmine rice.

5 spice Oxtail stew

I used to eat this quite often as a child. It was always delicious, and one of the best memories of childhood. I don't know the exact childhood recipe, but there is still a little glamour involved in eating  oxtail stew compared to eating plain boring beef stew, and this is the best beef-ish stew I've had in ages!

Ingredients
1kg oxtail (ensure at least one medium sized bone for each person)
250g stewing beef, cubed (there really isn't much meat on the ox tails after removing the bones)
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppers
1 tbsp Szechuan peppers
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp 5 spice
3 star anise
3 cloves
3 sticks of cinnamon
1 l water
1 can stout (about 475ml)
1 cup flour
½ big onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
8 sticks of celery (sliced)
4 medium carrots (chopped into big cubes)
2 big potatoes or 2 medium ones (chopped into big cubes)
3 tbsp light soya sauce or salt to taste

Method
1) Using a freezer bag, pour in the oxtail, beef and flour and shake to coat.
2) Shake off the excess flour and sauté the beef pieces in a little oil in a screaming hot pan. Don't crowd the pan to ensure that the beef is nicely browned. Put the browned meat in a stewing pot. I prefer to use a slow cooker but it can also cook at a low heat (130 deg C) in the oven.
3) Sauté the onions slowly till caramelised, then add in the ginger and garlic and briefly sauté. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Place in the stewpot. Sauté the vegetables briefly till slightly softened. Pour into the stewpot.
4) Place all the herbs and spices, except the salt, into a stock bag and place it in the pot with the ginger and garlic.
5) Pour in the stout and top up with water to cover everything. Once the liquid comes to a boil, skim off the scum. Leave it it to cook for 6 hours. Periodically open to skim off the scum and oil.
6) 1 hour before it's ready, add the soya sauce. Adding it too early will cause the meat to stop tenderizing.
7) At the end, check for seasoning and serve with rice or crusty bread. If you can wait a day, leaving the stew to steep overnight will let the flavours develop.