Tag Archives: Soup

Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

An easy, healthy, hearty soup with extra oomph.

leek and potato soup

It’s only been in the past year or so that I’ve discovered leeks. Before that, I would use it if it was called for in a recipe, like the cioppino hot pot recipe, but otherwise, I did not know how to cook with it. But this past year, I visited the farmer’s market a lot more and tried to experiment a little bit more with unfamiliar ingredients.

Whenever I would see leeks on sale at the market, I would normally buy some and treat them like onions in several of my dishes, putting them in my quiches, soups or even in my stir-fries. But really, this humble soup is one of the most wonderful ways to showcase leeks.

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Chinese Winter Melon Soup Recipe

Dong gua tang (Chinese Winter Melon Soup) is a light yet satisfying soup for cold Winter nights.

Winter Melon Soup
Did you know that we can grow winter melon squash here in Malaysia?
I saw it growing at a friend’s house here in Kuching. She told me that actually, winter melon grows quite wild here. Her vine had started at one end of her fence, given her about 6 fruit and then looked like it was about to die. But then new green shoots continued to come out and now half her fence has dying brown leaves while the other half has new leaves with another 5-6 fruit hanging from vine. Astounding!

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How to Make Miso Soup From Scratch

What Japanese meal would be complete without miso soup? Sure, you could make it from prepackaged stock but it’s more fun to do it from scratch!

Miso Soup From Scratch

miso soup from scratch

Updated 3 Dec 2009
Originally posted 10 March 2007

My son loves miso soup almost as much as he loves Mac and Cheese. Whenever we are at a Japanese restaurant, it’s so easy to feed him. Get him a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice. He would take that bowl of rice and proceed to dunk it all into the bowl of miso soup, treating it almost like rice soup! Then, in less than 10 minutes, he would’ve slurped up the whole bowl and many times, would ask us to get him another one. We always watched in bemusement because it’s so simple and so cheap (compared to our love for sushi which costs a gazillion times more!) to make. Happily I’ve learned to recreate miso soup at home for him.

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Basic Dashi and Second Dashi

Dashi is a simple broth that is a very important component to a lot of Japanese foods. The Japanese use dashi as a base for miso soups, noodle soups and as a liquid in many simmering braises.

Making Dashi

making dashi

We’ve been living in Kuching for a little over 3 months now. We’re settling in all right, getting to know the place and people. But we haven’t had a big party of guests over to our house yet, like we used to do almost weekly back in San Jose. We really wanted to invite our friend Paul (who welcomed us on our first day to Kuching) and his family over for a meal.

Annie mulled over the different menu options and eventually decided on a Japanese menu. Of course, there would have to be miso soup. She also wanted to do niku-jaga (meat and potatoes) dish. Both dishes call for dashi as part or most of the ingredients list.

The base of making dashi is the use of kombu/konbu (a dried piece of kelp seaweed) which is placed in cold water then heated to almost a boil. The other ingredient is katsuobushi (bonito flakes) which is added after taking the kombu out. These days, you can get handy instant dashis that you just add to water. But there is nothing like making your own dashi from scratch. And they are not very hard to make at all.

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