Chinese Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

No trip to a Chinese restaurant is complete in my book without Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup. I've tried many recipes over the years, poaching the chicken in water, poaching in stock, all creamed corn, a mix of corn, a whole egg or just egg white. The first time I tried converting my recipe for the TM5 it was a hit. No more poaching and shredding chicken while trying not to burn my fingers..that's ok with me. 

3 chicken thigh fillets, cut into strips
1/2 level teaspoon ground ginger
1 onion, peeled and quartered
20 grams olive oil
420g can creamed corn
315g corn kernels, fresh (from 2 cobs) or tinned
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 heaped tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate
600g water
2 level tablespoons cornflour
2 level tablespoons water
2 egg whites
1 spring onion, green part only, sliced, to serve

Add onion to Thermomix bowl, chop 3 seconds / speed 7.
Add ginger and oil, sauté 2 minutes / 100 deg / speed 1.
Add corn, water, sesame oil, stock paste and sliced chicken. Cook 15 minutes / 100 deg / reverse, speed 1.
In the last 2 minutes of cooking add mixed cornflour and water through the lid. Then add the egg whites.
Serve topped with spring onion.

Tip
You can pour the egg whites on to the lid with the MC on and let it slowly drip through.
Serve in small bowls with Chinese spoons for an authentic experience.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup recipe on Recipe Community website

Sunshine Kebabs - Underwood

We were on the other side of town and after a light breakfast. I wouldn't normally try a kebab shop for breakfast but Sunshine Kebabs was large and inviting and we noticed a photo of a delicious looking plate filled with meat, cheeses, olives, eggs, spreads, tomato and cucumber slices. 

With a generous serve of warm fresh turkish bread on the side it was plenty for two people to share.

Big Turkish Breakfast $15.50

Read Kristen M.'s review of Sunshine Kebabs on Yelp

Putia Pure Food - Banyo

I had high hopes for Putia and at first glance it's a lovely cafe with a great menu and gorgeous courtyard, but it was let down by hard poached eggs...those words should never be uttered in the same sentence.

Our orders were taken and the coffees arrived promptly but we had to ask for sugar as there was none on the table and none offered. It was the same story with salt and pepper, they would benefit from setting the tables first up to save repeated requests for the basics.

Gympie bacon with poached eggs, relish and wilted greens

We ordered the Gympie bacon with poached eggs, relish and wilted greens and asked for soft poached eggs. Unfortunately, we were served hard poached eggs, and I mean hard dry pale yolks like a hard-boiled egg. Very disappointed... When we mentioned this to our waitress there was no offer to cook the eggs again but they did offer to bring free drinks. The juice they brought was nice but it couldn't satisfy my craving for runny yolks..

This is not a runny poached egg

Overall the rest of the food was really nice. If they could cook eggs I would happily rate them higher but there is no excuse for hard poached eggs coming out of a professional kitchen. With no offer to cook them again I can only comment on what I received and will be steering clear of Putia from now on.

Update: I reviewed this business on Yelp and Urbanspoon and the manager replied on Urbanspoon which I respect as it shows that they are serious about connecting with diners and addressing any issues. Unfortunately, it appears that his staff lied to him and advised him that they had offered to replace the eggs but as I'd almost finished them it was too late. But I hadn't even taken a bite out of my breakfast when I spoke to the waitress and there was no offer of replacing my eggs. Only an offer of a drink. It's such a shame that the staff are lying to their manager as this doesn't help solve minor kitchen and service issues that are easily fixable.

Read Kristen M.'s review of Putia Pure Food on Yelp

My new toy, the TM5

In November my fiancé surprised me with a Thermomix for my 40th birthday. So now I have a lovely TM5 on my benchtop and have been trying out all sorts of recipes to get used to all of the features.

I had never been to a demo or seen a Thermomix in action before apart from on Masterchef. I found that I was a wiz at making soups and steaming in the varoma but everything else was going to take a bit of practice. What better time to resurrect this blog and keep track of my progress...

Panama Jacks - Bracken Ridge

We've been to Panama Jacks at Bracken Ridge Tavern twice since we discovered it so close to home. It's the perfect place for a Friday night out or an easy midweek meal. All of the staff are lovely and very helpful.

The Steak & Rib Combo ($36.90) is enormous with a Cape Grim rib fillet, a half rack of ribs, chunky chips, coleslaw, chargrilled corn cob & onion rings. We ordered two and used the Entertainment Book to get one free but it beat us both and we brought home most of the ribs to enjoy the next day.

On our second visit, we ordered the garlic bread, chicken parmy and a chicken snitty with gravy. The chicken serving sizes are much more realistic, i.e. the parmy isn't the size of your head like some of my fav bars back in Melbourne..

If you are after dessert you can head next door to PhoPanama JacksPanama Jacksenix or to the Gloria Jeans inside Panama Jacks for coffee & desserts.

Tips:
Grab a bucket of Coronas for $20 and get a free hat.
Join the BRT Rewards Club to get great discounts, rewards and specials. It's free and you will receive a $10 food voucher for your next visit - you can't beat that.

Enormous Steak & Rib Combo

What's in season - July

Eating with the seasons means great value for money and better tasting fruit & veg. Here's what's in season this month:

Fruit

• Avocados
• Custard apples
• Fuji apples
• Grapefruit
• Kiwifruit
• Lemons
• Limes
• Mandarins
• Nashi
• Navel oranges
• Pineapple
• Pink lady apples
• Pomegranates
• Quinces
• Red delicious apples
• Rhubarb

Vegetables

• Beetroot
• Broccoli
• Broccolini
• Brown onions
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chinese greens
• Dutch carrots
• English spinach
• Fennel
• Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Kumara or sweet potatoes
• Leeks
• Olives
• Parsnips
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Silverbeet
• Spinach
• Witlof

Source: Taste.com.au - July 2009

Market Street Cafe

Whenever we have a hankering for a chicken schnitty roll for lunch we head to the Market Street Cafe...and today I realised that we may have been doing this a bit too often as the lovely lady behind the counter started rattling off our preferences (avo on one side, mayo on the other, lettuce, cheese and tomato on one but not the other - she did well to remember all that!)

There are tables outside and also plenty of seating downstairs (including couches) and they are happy to bring your order to your table when it's freshly made.

Market Street Cafe
30 Market St
Brisbane Queensland 4000

AJ Vietnamese Noodle House - Brisbane CBD

I first heard about this place on The Nutrition Guru and the Chef's blog last year and couldn't believe it was just up the road from work and I'd never noticed it. I hightailed it up Charlotte St and was lucky enough to get a table. I got the Beef Noodle Soup and was hooked.

I've been back loads of times and have tried the Special Noodle Soup (be prepared for some less than common ingredients in this one!), Spring Rolls, Hainam Chicken Rice, Rice Vermicelli Salad with Grilled Chicken (delicious) and today I had the Combination Noodle Soup. Every dish has been excellent and great value for money.

There are about 10 tables inside and it's often full but tables turn over pretty quickly and they also do takeaway. There are often throngs of people waiting on the street for a table or takeaway because it is definitely worth the wait..

It's cash only so make sure you have cold hard cash and a healthy appetite.

On my next visit I'm going to try the BBQ Pork Wonton Noodle Soup, is two visits in two days an addiction??

Combination Noodle Soup

 Hainam Chicken Rice

 Rice Vermicelli Salad with Grilled Chicken

AJ Vietnamese Noodle House

70 Charlotte St
Brisbane Queensland 4000

Arrivederci Pizzeria - Milton

Monday Madness at Arriverderci is well worth a visit - 25cm pizzas for $12 and $5 tap beers.

We won tickets for the Broncos v Tigers game and decided to grab a quick pizza for dinner beforehand. We didn't have a booking but we were greeted warmly and seated, given water and menus and they explained the Monday Madness deal. You can't go past $12 for a 25cm pizza so we grabbed a Pizza alla Diavola (Tomato, cheese, salami, olives, mushrooms, chilli & tobasco) and Forza Roma (Tomato, cheese, salami, Italian sausage, ham & bacon) as well as a couple of beers.

Both pizzas were delicious. The italian sausage on the Forza Roma was lovely with a hint of fennel? They also have 50cm and 1m pizzas which looked awesome. Perfect for a group to share.

Forza Roma

Pizza alla Diavola

Arrivederci Pizzeria 

1 Park Rd
Milton Queensland 4064

Read Kristen M.'s review of Arrivederci Pizza Al Metro on Yelp

Siam Dragon

We had a voucher for all you can eat Thai at Siam Dragon and decided on a hump day date night. We had planned to have light lunches to make sure we could make the most of the feast which lay before us...hmmm, best laid plans often go astray...a colleague won 10 free Guzman y Gomez burritos and after being crazy busy I finally got to eat one for my lunch at about 2:30. Needless to say I was not very hungry when we arrived for dinner at 6pm.

We were greeted, seated and watered and the waitress explained what our voucher entitled us to..one entree each, one soup or salad each and anything from the curries, stir fries, noodles and rice menus. Not a bad deal.

Siam Dragon wont be getting any points for the decor or views, with bright green painted walls and a view of the Sandgate Rd intersection, but they are in a handy spot opposite Nundah Village and walking distance from the station.

We chose the Chicken Satay and Curry Puffs to start. The satay sticks were well cooked and the satay sauce was just right, not too rich. The curry puffs were a little oily but still quite nice. Next we both decided on Tom Kha Gai. I'm a big fan of the more traditional white version so the red soup we were served was not what I was expecting/craving. For my taste there was too much tomato (four large tomato wedges in a smallish bowl) but it was still tasty and spicy enough to clear the sinuses!

For mains we ordered Gai Pad Med Ma-muang (Chicken with cashews) and a Beef Penang Curry with a side of Jasmine Rice. The stir fry was quite nice, not too much sauce and plenty of cashews but the curry was definitely my favourite. It was a delicious creamy curry with thin slices of tender beef with plenty of green beans & red capsicum. Unfortunately we were so full by that stage and could only finish about half and when we asked if we would take the leftovers home they refused...even though the couple at the next table had just been given a take away container for theirs..maybe it's because we had a voucher deal??

Update: We were pretty happy with the meal but we both felt a bit unwell afterwards and today...who can say if it was definitely the meal or a coincidence but I might give Siam Dragon a miss next time I'm craving Thai.

Siam Dragon

1154 Sandgate Rd
Nundah Queensland 4012