This recipe is adapted from the February 2007 version of "Australian Table" magazine. I was reading that recipe and decided it needed some work. For starters, the only vegetables that it had were spring onions and corn, so I added some broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.
It also called for 1/3 of a cup of tasty cheese (Generic milk emulsion cheese) to thicken and flavour. Well, thought I, that's going to add extra fat (Or, for low fat 'cheese', who knows what), and taste odd with the blue. So I replaced it with Cornflour. I doubled the amount of Blue cheese, since I find that most popular recipes only really add it so people can go "Ooo, blue cheese!", eat it without noticing the flavour, then go back to avoid it because it smells odd.
I also added shredded BBQ chicken (Dear Americans: BBQ here refers to cooking in a rotissary oven, and since my store has replaced them, actually refers to a chicken that was bought from the supermarket pre-cooked in a steam/convection oven) for protien and to round out the meal.
Anyway, the recipe goes like this:
Ingredients
Hypothesis
That the recipe in the magazine was inadequate in terms of nutrition and flavour, and furthermore that my recipe-modding skillz are 1337. (Sorry, couldn't resist falling into "Science Practical" mode :P)
Method
Chop the spring onion finely. Add it, the milk, and the creamed corn into a saucepan. Take the frozen veggies, and add them until you think the density is right. I added enough to cover the surface, and then the same amount again.
Heat on medium low, stirring occasionally whilst you rend the flesh from the chicken's form. When the mixture is just too hot to stick your finger in, put the chicken in. Stir for 2 minutes or so.
Dissolve 2 heaped teaspoons of cornstarch in some cold water, pour into the soup. Stir until it's almost as thick as you want it, then stir in the blue cheese, which you've diced. Stir until it melts, dish out, and season with pepper if'n you like.
Observations
Unlike every other recipe in this magazine and basically every other reference known to modern man, this recipe only feeds two people.
The soup could have done with even more blue cheese, but probably only about 50g or so. It was also thicker then I wanted, but I added three teaspoons of cornstarch, so hopefully the reduction in cornstarch will make the thickness just right.
The vegies were fine, but the carrot tasted like I expected... Frozen carrot. Fresh might be OK, but I'd boil them before adding them.
Conclusion
My soup rules at tasty, quick pantry/freezer/supermarket cooking. As predicted, my additions are just about right, and the modifications have made the soup lower in fat, as well as highlighting the taste of the blue cheese and keeping the soup as creamy as I wanted. Quadlex Wins, Australian Table takes 42'000 Damage!
It also called for 1/3 of a cup of tasty cheese (Generic milk emulsion cheese) to thicken and flavour. Well, thought I, that's going to add extra fat (Or, for low fat 'cheese', who knows what), and taste odd with the blue. So I replaced it with Cornflour. I doubled the amount of Blue cheese, since I find that most popular recipes only really add it so people can go "Ooo, blue cheese!", eat it without noticing the flavour, then go back to avoid it because it smells odd.
I also added shredded BBQ chicken (Dear Americans: BBQ here refers to cooking in a rotissary oven, and since my store has replaced them, actually refers to a chicken that was bought from the supermarket pre-cooked in a steam/convection oven) for protien and to round out the meal.
Anyway, the recipe goes like this:
Ingredients
- 500mL of Milk (2 Metric Cups) (I used Physical, which is skim milk which is enrichened with skim milk powder, giving it a mouthfeel very close to full cream)
- 1 Spring Onion
- One 400g can of creamed sweet corn
- Some frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots
- 1/2 a regular (900g precooked weight) BBQ chicken
- 100g blue cheese
Hypothesis
That the recipe in the magazine was inadequate in terms of nutrition and flavour, and furthermore that my recipe-modding skillz are 1337. (Sorry, couldn't resist falling into "Science Practical" mode :P)
Method
Chop the spring onion finely. Add it, the milk, and the creamed corn into a saucepan. Take the frozen veggies, and add them until you think the density is right. I added enough to cover the surface, and then the same amount again.
Heat on medium low, stirring occasionally whilst you rend the flesh from the chicken's form. When the mixture is just too hot to stick your finger in, put the chicken in. Stir for 2 minutes or so.
Dissolve 2 heaped teaspoons of cornstarch in some cold water, pour into the soup. Stir until it's almost as thick as you want it, then stir in the blue cheese, which you've diced. Stir until it melts, dish out, and season with pepper if'n you like.
Observations
Unlike every other recipe in this magazine and basically every other reference known to modern man, this recipe only feeds two people.
The soup could have done with even more blue cheese, but probably only about 50g or so. It was also thicker then I wanted, but I added three teaspoons of cornstarch, so hopefully the reduction in cornstarch will make the thickness just right.
The vegies were fine, but the carrot tasted like I expected... Frozen carrot. Fresh might be OK, but I'd boil them before adding them.
Conclusion
My soup rules at tasty, quick pantry/freezer/supermarket cooking. As predicted, my additions are just about right, and the modifications have made the soup lower in fat, as well as highlighting the taste of the blue cheese and keeping the soup as creamy as I wanted. Quadlex Wins, Australian Table takes 42'000 Damage!
