In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
I consider Hot & Sour Soup a stuffy nose remedy. Like wasabi, it instantly opens the flood gates, and for a heavenly 10 minutes after drinking this soup, you can breathe, through both nostrils if you’re lucky.
As a holiday gift, I’m giving you the recipe for one of my all time favorite things to eat in the winter: Fish Head Soup. I asked my mom to teach me how to make it the other day. Unfortunately, that means some of the measurements are not exact. I did my best to catch things and measure them before my mom threw it in, but sometimes I failed. Use this as a guideline, then taste, and adjust to preference.
Traditionally, Fish Head Soup is made with a fish head, but they messed up at the supermarket. My mom asked them to cut the fish in half and instead of cutting it in half cross-wise, they cut it length-wise. You can make it either way.
Lon doesn’t really like cauliflower so I tried to make a not so cauliflower-like dish. It ended up being a yummy curry soup and Lon liked it. Yay! It tastes creamy without any dairy and has very little fat.
2 cubes chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
8 red potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
*you can also use russet potatoes, red potatoes just happened to be what I had
1. Dissolve the bouillon cubes in 3 cups of boiling water. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a 3 1/2 quart pot.
3. Add the onions and saute for 2 minutes on medium heat.
4. Add cauliflower and saute for another 2 minutes.
5. Add chicken bouillon liquid and potatoes. Bring to a boil.
6. Add curry powder and turmeric and return to medium heat.
7. Continue cooking, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Puree in a blender until very smooth. You will need to do it in two batches.
9. Serve or store.
This weather is ridiculous for mid-April. I still find myself avoiding errands and missing several gym classes. Instead of the usual spring salads and sidewalk cafe lunches, I’m sitting at home thinking about soup and since it’s raining, I’m not willing to go buy any ingredients.
Regretfully, I did not write anything down while I was making this soup since I was just throwing stuff from my fridge in, but it came out tasting very good, looking very attractive (due to the bright purples, reds, and oranges), and actually being very healthy.
This is an estimated recipe:
Place first 5 ingredients in a 3 1/2 Quart pot. Cook on high until it boils. Add red cabbage and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the canned diced tomato and water (if needed). Sprinkle with dried oregano and black pepper and simmer for another 15 minutes. Simple huh?
While I was drinking the soup, I marveled at how pretty it was and how full of vitamins and antioxidants it is (beta-carotene, Vitamin A, lycopene, and more). If you’re interested in the specific health benefits of the major ingredients, here are some links:
