Homemade Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Its been a while, but here's a new recipe, last night I felt like being a little creative, and I'd been thinking about noodle soup since I smelt the sweet smell of my co-workers Pho soup at lunch yesterday, so I thought I'd make some of my own.

This is very simple and very quick to make, firstly I sliced the chicken, pepper sweet and mange tout beans into thin slices, in a large pan I heated the groundnut oil, once this started to smoke I added the chopped ingredients to the oil and gently stirred for a minute, then added the Thai 7 spice and cooked for a further few minutes, until you can see the chicken starting to cook and brown.

Having dissolved the vegetable stock pot in the hot water, this was then added to the pan, and turned down to a simmer level, the noodles were then added, I only had thin wheat noodles so I used these, but I have used rice noodles before, as well as the chopped and de-seeded chilli for extra heat and flavor and some black pepper to taste, this was then left to simmer for 15-20mins on the low heat.

Near to the end of cooking when the chicken looks like its completely cooked and the mixture is simmering away, add the light Soya sauce to taste.

This can then to eaten straightaway or you can turned off the heat, allow this too cool, reheat and eat another day.

                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: April 2014

x1 Chicken Breast
x1 Portion of Rice or Thin Wheat Noodles
x1 Red Pepper Sweet
A Hand Full of Mange Tout Beans
x1 Medium/Large Mild Chilli
x2/3 tsps Thai 7 Spice
x1 Vegetable Stock Pot
500ml Hot Water
x1 tbsp Groundnut Oil
Black Pepper
Light Soya Sauce

Weekend Harvest - Sept 2012

Early September last year, I was very busy on the balcony, harvesting a few of my crops and storing them away. Firstly the two varieties of the Chilies we had been growing were ready to pick, the 'Inferno Chilli' which have stayed green for a while and don't seem to want to turn red, were picked and then the red 'Hot Chilies', which are a cute small size.

Also picked were the last of the Peppers (sweet), which have grown a lot better this year and a lot bigger than the previous, they seem to have really enjoyed this year on the balcony.

The two Chilli varieties were washed placed in a bag, labeled and put in the freezer for later use and the Peppers (sweet) were also washed, but put in the fridge instead for instant use, they tasted great in a stir fry later that week.

Cheating Peppers (Sweet)

Not sure what's been going on this year, it might be the weird weather we've been having here, but I've tried to sow a couple of batches of Pepper (sweet) since February and I've had no luck, so much so, that I decided to give up a couple of weeks ago and buy a couple from my local garden center.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

These have been doing great over the last week or so, and are happily sitting on the south-east windowsill growing away.

Linguine & Chargrilled Veg in a Passata Sauce

1 Pepper (sweet)
1 Courgette - sliced with a potato peeler
1 tbsp of Chili Oil
1 Jar of Roasted Passata Sauce (see Recipe)
1 Large handful of Linguine Pasta
Salt & Pepper to season

Heat a griddle and add the Chili Oil, cut the pepper into large slices and grate the Courgette lengthways, to create large slices. Add these to the oil once smoking and cook till they are tender and brown. Remove and place to kitchen towel to drain excess oil and leave to cool.

I've used Linguine pasta, but any pasta will do. Place the pasta into a pot of salty water and cook as directed, for the Linguine I tend to snap this in half, as I don't like the pasta too long. Once cooked drain and run through cold water.

Add the Roasted Passata Sauce to a large pan and heat slowly over a medium heat, after a few minutes and when the sauce beings to bubble, add the Courgettes and Peppers (sweet) which can cut into smaller pieces, to the sauce, warm for a few minutes and then add the pasta, season with salt and pepper as required. Once everything is boiling away and heated through, pour into a large bowl and enjoy.

As a side dish, why not try my Homemade Chili and Garlic Bread:

Slices of French bread
Butter
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Chili
Dried or Fresh chopped Mixed Herbs
Salt & Pepper to season

This is very simple to make and you can make as much or as little as you like, mix the butter, garlic, chili and mixed herbs together to make a paste, then season as required and then spread onto the French bread, which has been cut into circular slices. Place on a baking tray and cook in the oven until brown.

Another great recipe for the Cook Book.

The First Sow Of The Year

Over the recent snowy weekend, I started to sow my first batch of seeds of the year, which I always start at this time of the year (mid February). Having already sorted through all the seeds I've managed to collect, earlier in the month, I then got to prepping for this years vegetable sowing.

                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: February 2012

Tools
6cm Pots
Compost (peat free)
Spoon
Watering Can
Newspaper
Label Sticks / Pen
Seed Trays

As I only have a small balcony, seed sowing for me, usually happens on my dinning room table, which is covered with newspaper. Having selected the types of vegetables I wanted to grow (see picture & list below), I would have normally sown these into my propagator, into individual pods, but this year I have decided to sow the seeds into small 6cm pots, as I have a lot of different vegetables I'd like to sow.

I filled each pot with peat free compost, leaving a 1.5cm gap from the top, watered them and then added 5-7 seeds to each separate pot, making sure I added a label stick so I knew what was in each pot. A small layer of compost was then laid on top of the seeds and these were then placed into a seed tray. After all the seeds were sown, and they had been carefully placed in seed trays and then placed on a south-east facing windowsill, around 2cms of water was added to the trays, and has been carefully topped up when needed.

                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: February 2012

Vegetable Seeds
Tomatoes (x3 varieties) - Moneymaker / Gardeners Delight and Roma VF (Plum)
Chilies (x5 varieties) - Thai Dragon / Inferno / Tabasco / Pepper (Hot) Hotscotch and Pepper Cayenne
Peppers (sweet)
Parsnip Duchess F1
Brussels Sprout Evesham Special
Sweet Pea (Old Spice Mixed)
Aubergines Black Beauty Organic

Herb Seeds
Chives
Basil Sweet Genovese
Dill

I haven't covered these with any form of lid, as I'd like to see how they do without this, and as they are in the sunniest part of the flat, over a radiator, I'm sure it won't harm them. In fact, its now been a week since these have been sown and I already have Sprout and Sweet Pea seedlings appearing.

                                                                    Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: February 2012

The herb seeds were sown into re-useable herb pots, which my boyfriend bought last year. The pots were put through the dishwasher, before being used again. As with the vegetable seeds these were also filled with peat free compost, watered, seeds added and then filled with more compost, and then watered again.

                                                       Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: February

Now everything is happily sitting on the windowsill and I just have to wait for even more little seedlings to appear over the coming weeks and the sun to come out.

Chili & Pepper (Sweet) - Mystery Seeds?

It seems though I thought I'd be doing a great thing by saving my Chili and Pepper (sweet) seeds, it has been pointed out me to that these may not be exactly true to type, when it comes to sowing them. Some very good advice from a fellow UK Veg Garderners gardener has let me know that as a rule of thumb, different varieties of Chilies and Peppers (sweet) should either be planted at least four miles apart or they should be grown under insect proof nets, for the plants to produce seeds true to type.

I've planted my 'so called' Chili and Pepper (sweet) seeds under their original names but it seems, I may actually end up with very different varieties such as 'Thai Tabasco' or 'Inferno Dragon' and maybe even a not so cool Pepper (sweet).

I'm very excited about this, as I had no idea about the possibility of it happening, but everything is now planted and all's I have to do is just wait and see.

Collecting Chili & Pepper Seeds

In a bid to save on buying seeds or new plants, this year I've tried to save some seeds from a few plants I've grown. I've specifically planned to save those from my different Chili varieties and Pepper (Sweet) plants:

Thai Dragon Chili Seeds
Tabasco Seeds
Inferno Seeds
Pepper (sweet) Seeds

Saving these was very easy, for the Pepper (Sweet) when going to cooking these; I saved as many seeds as possible from inside the Pepper, placed them in a small open bowl, left them in a light but not sunny area and waited for them to dry out naturally. The same was done for the Chilies, but I did allow some of the Chilies to dry out naturally before de-seeding.

Drying out took a few days to a week, and they should stay the same natural light colour as they were inside the vegetable, I have done this before and by mistake placed in direct sun, to which the seeds burned and turned a dark brown colour, not good. Also, it is handy to label the bowls, I forgot to do this and ended up having to lick a seed to see if it was a Pepper or Chili seed, turned out to be Chili and it was very hot.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: January 2012

I now have a lot of seeds collected and some will be sown for this year, which I should hopefully to doing very soon. For the rest, I've decided to create a little seed collection gift pack, which I'll be sending out to a few family members and friends, and hope they have fun growing them this year along with me.

Prep for the 2012 Balcony

One of my first planned jobs for the 2012 balcony garden, which I've been doing over the last two weeks, has been to create a list of all the seeds I've been collecting. These have either been bought or have come free in garden magazines.

I've collated them all into a handy excel growing chart (this does look better in excel), along with the last year of sowing, best sowing and planning out months and when to harvest, see chart below:

Hopefully the chart is going to come in very handy, when I start sowing seeds for the New Year and also in planning what I can grow over the months ahead. I'm hoping I can keep a steady supply of vegetables growing this year, as last year I only tended to sow a few things at the beginning of the year and then not a lot after that, until the Autumn / Winter months started.

Prep will soon start on sowing Aubergines, Peppers (sweet), Chili Peppers (Thai Dragon / Tabasco / Inferno), Sweet Peas and Tomatoes, once I've had a quick trip to the local garden centre for new compost and maybe a few more Leeks, though I already have a few overwintering at the moment, there may be room for a few more.

The Big Winter Clean Up

The Big Winter clean up has been going on for a few weeks now; I've just about stripped the balcony of all the plants I have been growing. My handy new Secateurs and Pruning Knife have been put to some good use, during this time.

The first to go was the Baby Sweetcorn stalks; these did get pulled out as soon as the Sweetcorn was picked. Moneymaker and Gardeners Delight Tomato plants, which were starting to look a bit on the dead side, along with the Courgette plants were next, I only ever got one Courgette in the end, but next year I'll hopefully get a better crop. After that went the Aubergine plants, now they did flower a lot but much to my disappointment, no much else, like the Courgettes I will have another go next year.

                                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: Oct 2011

Other things done during the clean up included, repotting the Strawberry Runners which are now snug in the Mini Greenhouse and also potting up the Serrano Chili plant and Pepper (sweet) plant that I had in a shared tub hanging over the balcony, hopefully once it gets colder I can take these indoors and try to keep these for next year. The Pepper (Sweet) plants still have peppers on, which are just starting to turn red.

And last but not least the Mini Greenhouse has also gone up and it's now outside, not only does it contain the potted Strawberry Runners, but I've also potted up some Cabbage and Carrot seeds. The whole place has had a bit of a clean and alls I have to do now is cover up the Strawberry hanging baskets and a few of the other plants with fleece and we are ready for the snow, that’s if we get any this winter.

Eating Peppers (Sweet)

When I got home last night, I started to prepare for dinner, thinking I'd cook a nice Stir-fry and I suddenly realised I had no Peppers (Sweet). Then I remembered the two Peppers that have been growing away on the balcony and I popped outside with a knife, chopped them off the Pepper plant and headed inside to clean and cook them.

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2011


The Peppers (Sweet) I used were Californian Wonder free from the Garden Kitchen magazine, when picked they were around the size of tennis balls and tasted delicious in the Stir-fry.

Outdoor Peppers

Normally I'd grow my Peppers indoors on a sunny windowsill, along with the Chilies, but they don't seem to really produce a lot of Peppers, so this year I decided to plant them outdoors. As like most things these plants started life as seeds. They were planted in the propagator in early February like all the others and left to germinate.

                                                                     Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2011

Once they got to a good handling size, they were potted into small pots and left to grow to around 10-12cms on a sunny south-east facing windowsill and watered regularly. These were then hardened off, during the day outside and brought in during the night chills, during March / April.

Peppers I've always found are easy to grow just like Chilies and as like, over the many years I have grown these, they grew very quickly again this year. The three Pepper plants have been outside now since mid April, when they were repotted into their larger final pots. These contained multi-purpose compost and water crystals and have been watered at least once a day and feed every 10-14 days, once flowers appeared.

                                                                      Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: August 2011 
Due to the restriction of their pots they have grown to no more than around 30cm and have been flowering for some time now. Along with the flowers I also have at least six Peppers growing, on two of the plants, which are almost the size of golf balls and are a luscious deep green colour.